MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

[RSL]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

Well, I decided to actually check the lineup and it seems that backing me up in LF is another rookie, and I actually rate higher than him. I guess I just landed in a lucky situation!

I'm doing okay in my first month, though they are giving me pretty hard goals to accomplish. I fear failing and getting sent to the bench. Time will tell!

[mgoblue]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

I'm still in the bullpen my 2nd season. My AAA coach made me sit the pine for 3 games when I asked to be made a starter, saying I needed to be more consistent. Ugh. I'm slowly improving my guy, eventually I'll be good enough to start (I hope).

[N51_rob]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

So I have a bit of a pickle right now.

I got traded to the Orioles organization and kicked some tail for the last 150 at bats of the season in AAA, hitting .330 with 10 SB and really turning a corner. I took over the starting job and ended up earning myself an invite to spring training.

Did well in the spring (.275 - 5 SB) and got a spot on the big league roster.

Good news - got a hit in my first at-bat in the bigs against some rookie pitcher for the Rangers.

Bad news - i'm basically a pinch runner that starts once every 7 to 10 days. Through the first month I only got 39 training points and i'm just not good enough to hit well in limited apperances.

The pickle is I'm in currently the number one SS in the organization. They're starting some 3B with one year left on his deal right now ahead of me at SS. So I'm in a position that if I can get sent down, play out the year as the starter in AAA, I'd be able to step into the starting position next season at 22.

So do I wait it out and risk riding the pine all year? Do I try and force a trade and possible end up in a bad situation? Or end up moving to be a pinch runner some place else?

I would say wait it out. You are "paying your dues" right now. But I also understand the urge to play everyday. Camden Yards is a bit of a hitters park which would help your numbers if you can put the ball into the gaps. Before requesting a trade check the block and see what teams need a SS, before you end up on the National's or a team like that.

[wildthing2022000]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

I'm doing a second one as a 1B and got on the Twins. I'm ranked 2/4 out of 1Bs on the team, that means I'm going to be either on the bench or starting in AAA as long as I'm decent or will I get sent to AA no matter what?

[Dogslax41]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

In my experiences, AA no matter what. You will however get the call up to AAA much quicker than normal.

[braun4mvp]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

Yeah i feel you pretty much always get put in AA to start but you will probably end up in AAA faster than normal.
As for me i'm still stuck in the bullpen and i was just given some crazy goals to complete. I'm in long relief and they want me to give up 4 or less hits in the next 4 series. How am i supposed to do that?

[jmik58]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

Yeah i feel you pretty much always get put in AA to start but you will probably end up in AAA faster than normal.
As for me i'm still stuck in the bullpen and i was just given some crazy goals to complete. I'm in long relief and they want me to give up 4 or less hits in the next 4 series. How am i supposed to do that?

Walk them. Walk them ALL.

[N51_rob]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

Yeah i feel you pretty much always get put in AA to start but you will probably end up in AAA faster than normal.
As for me i'm still stuck in the bullpen and i was just given some crazy goals to complete. I'm in long relief and they want me to give up 4 or less hits in the next 4 series. How am i supposed to do that?

Yeah that is a little silly, but what are your other goals are they more reasonable?

[mgoblue]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

Yeah i feel you pretty much always get put in AA to start but you will probably end up in AAA faster than normal.
As for me i'm still stuck in the bullpen and i was just given some crazy goals to complete. I'm in long relief and they want me to give up 4 or less hits in the next 4 series. How am i supposed to do that?

I always get hosed in the "give up less than X hits" goals...I've just given up on them. It's fine with me, I know I'm a more aggressive pitcher, along with being young it's pretty impossible to give up less than that number.

[meep316]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

I just got called up to AAA after a revamp in my approach at the plate.

First off, let me just say that I don't really have a problem hitting with major leaguers, but in RTTS I wasn't very good at all. I played 3 of them in '08, and got out of AA once, and it was only because of injury. I've been doing better in '09, and here's a little backstory of my play, and how I got out of a slump really quick. The actual strategy is in bold, but if you want to know how you might compare against me skill-wise, you should read the whole thing.

Okay, I was in AA in the Pirates organization, and we made the playoffs. I had started out the year god ****ing awful, I was batting like .101 with 1 home run and 5 RBI's and 50 strikeouts 2 months in. I then picked it up a bit after the All Star break and ended up finishing the regular season at .225 with 5 homers and 32 RBI's. I still had a strikeout problem though, I ended with 102 of them.

So in the playoffs, the promise of exponentiated attribute points made my weiner hard, so I was trying to kill everything, and I was of course failing. I got pissed off and went into the cage to reinvent my swing, just like I would in real life if I was in a slump. It worked. I spent about an hour in BP, faced about 240 pitches and here's what I came up with:


Mind you, I use the "offset" batting view, and I play with the strikezone and guess pitch off because they just distract me even further. Okay, so what I decided to do was instead of focusing on the strikezone (an imaginary one, because I play with the visual aid off), what I would do is focus on just outside the strikezone on the outer half of the plate, because that is where I really chase most bad pitches. Righty/righty low and outside sliders would get me every time.

I would LOOK for balls outside the zone. Instead of anticipating hittable pitches, I pretended like the count was 0-2 everytime, and that the pitcher was likely to throw me junk. Now, out of my peripheral vision, I can much better react to a ball pitched IN THE ZONE, and decide to swing on it, as opposed to looking in the zone and deciding to hold up on a pitch OUSIDE THE ZONE.

If you're having trouble chasing inside stuff, look to the inside and anticipate the inside pitch, same with high/low pitches. But with high and low, you shouldn't be looking directly high/low or at anything in particular, just an area so that you can keep all of your options open and react to all kinds of pitches.

At first I was late on the fast stuff, but after getting used to it I was able to almost instantly recognize offspeed from speed.

For me, this just worked wonders. I was looking at the crap, and when a good pitch came I would hammer it. I struck out in my first AB, but then hit one of the farthest homeruns I've ever hit in RTTS in my next AB. Over the course of the rest of the playoffs, I racked up somewhere around 500 attribute points. I was just knocking the cover off the ball. I made pitchers PAY for hanging sliders or curves, when before I would ALWAYS be way out in front of them. Fast forward to next season, 3 weeks into the season I was batting .314, had 5 homers and 17 RBI's. I was called up to AAA after my first advancement period because I was hitting so well and had met all my goals. It felt so good too, because the only other time I was called up to AAA was in '08 and it was because of injury. I then sucked it up and just retired to do my dynasty because I was so frustrated.

I know that was a long read, but I really felt like I found alot of success with this strategy and it was worth posting about.

[braun4mvp]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

So i finally made it into the starting rotation, due to an injury, but i'll take it. I got to make 4 starts until the season ended. I forgot to write down my stats but i ended up 10-1 with a 3.11 ERA. I had like 50 some strikeouts to 15 walks. my WHIP was about 1.24. My starts went pretty good. Here's a picture of my final start of the season, which happened to be my best.

And N51_rob to answer your question about the other goals along with the 4 hits or less one, no they were not reasonable. It was 4 hits or less, 2 or less earned runs, and hold opposing batters to .280 or less. My goals as a starter are much easier to accomplish though.
Here's the picture of my best start.

[Darkleaf]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

After being drafted by the Reds and a pretty good ST I started my first year in the bullpen but I asked to be put in the rotation and was put in the #5 spot. I pitched really good even though my record didn't show it at 7-6 but my ERA was 2.13. I was put on the trade block around June-July and I just started tanking at the same time and they took me off.

My second last start of 09 in July



70 days and my first season gone..


My Next year I miss ST and end up in AAA. After starting 4 games and not doing too badly I was taken out of the rotation.Little did I know I would be buried in the BP for the entire season after completing my goals and begging for a shot I got nothing.
I even resorted to asking for a trade but they wouldnt budge. I spent the season in LR or MR depending on how they felt like torturing me.
I saw a lot of blow out games but my team is a great hitting team and came back in a lot of games getting me a quite a few wins.


With my RFB I own the inside!


I really wish I had spent the season in AA as an All-Star instead of AAA as a Mop up blow out specialist. I am kind of afraid of possibly going to the Majors because my RFB is all I really have..My Cutter and Sinker are pathetic.

[N51_rob]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

That is still a pretty damn good year out of the pen Darkleaf.

I'll have to post another update to my RTTS blog when I get home, but my team and I have gotten hot. I have 1 start left, we are 3 games out of the wild card with 4 to play. I'm 14-6 with 2.90 ERA in the middle of a 9 game winning streak. I've become the AAA staff Ace. Things are going swimmingly. I hope that I get a call-up in September. Either way I would think that I would be assured a spot on the 40 man for spring training. I'm the 5th best pitcher in the organization as it stand now. I think that if I get an invite to spring training I will add a 5th pitch with all the points I save till the last week. (read: cutter)

[deucepoppi17]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

Has anybody else seen a huge amount of MLB stars in AAA? I'm in 2011 and I swear each AAA team has 3-4 superstars on the team. Last night I faced Soriano, DLee and Soto....and when i check the MLB roster they have mostly Rookies on their roster.

[guitarchitect7]

Re: MLB 09 "Road To The Show" thread

Not much has changed since my last update. Signed a new contract like explained and just went through ST. I'm still the #5 SP for the Mets going into my 4th season.

Control is still an issue of mine and something I'm still working on. I bet I would be better suited for AAA to help refine my tools, but I'm not going to complain.

Regarding negotiating. I have everytime and have always come out higher than what was offered. I may not be able to adjust the contract length so much, but the amount has always been adjusted.

I have one question. I'll get a message that I need to look down to my 3rd base coach to get signs. How the heck do you do that? I try batter's view but it won't go that far over.