OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

The Angels save is still going - heading into 2041.

The team just finished it's 23rd consecutive playoff season, winning the World Series.

The Angels' pitching might be in flux. Mukai is gone to retirement. Mavity will likely join him sooner than later. Hatakeyama is now 36 as well.

Other than McGlauflin, who's still looking like a monster power arm as he heads to his 6th major league season and his prime years, the Angels have not developed another high-end starting pitcher. Closest arm to that is Masayuki Nojima, signed during the international FA period. He's currently in AAA and control is among his question marks.

The bullpen is even scarier and might be the first unit to crack.

So far, the Angels offense has been held up by their top of the order phenoms, Maeda, the insane walk-taking CF, and Misato, the extra-bases machine at SS.

Misato was picked up from the Dodgers for four current talents, including a pitcher the Angels could use right now. Misato stole headlines but the Dodgers got several pieces. The trade was made three years ago when the Dodgers were in 4th. They were the Angels' opponents in the World Series last season.

Moulin is still the manager and still doing his thing offensively. It might be paying off more than ever with the team maybe shifting to an offensive, though throwback, style with the hyper-aggression on the bases.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Haven't posted in a while and probably won't do anything formulaic in this regard anymore considering how little traffic this subforum gets, but I've started playing this game again pretty strenuously. To update the cliffhanger from my last post, my Carolina Knights won 99 games in 2019 and advanced to the NLCS only to get swept in 4 games by the Cardinals. It was a painful series that culminated with a Marcell Ozuna walkoff 2-run homer in Game 4 for a 10-9 STL victory. The Cardinals went on to lose to the Indians in the 2019 World Series.

The offseason was pretty interesting as I allowed franchise cornerstone 1B Jose Abreu to walk, where he signed with Cleveland for 5/72.5 and I got a compensatory pick. Abreu went .287/35/100 for me in 2019. To fill his role, I struck a deal with the Detroit Tigers to get a heavily subsidized 37-year-old Miguel Cabrera. To get an idea of just how subsidized, I am paying Cabrera about $5M annually through 2024 (and I also collected catching prospect Jake Rogers in the deal). Miggy is playing ok, .241/.341/.425 with 10 HR 37 RBI in 62 games, and recorded his 3000th hit for me on May 22nd, 2020.

I figure to cut bait in the same manner as Abreu with Yangervis Solarte and James Paxton after the 2020 season, even though they are 2 of my best players. Solarte is batting .282/16/45 in 61 games so far in 2020. After a subpar 2019 season, Paxton is 3-5 with a 3.69 ERA/9.1 K9/2.9 BB9/0.2 HR9 (on pace for 8.5 WAR).

I've signed a few players to team-friendly extensions, with Mike Clevinger, Michael Brantley, and Max Kepler all making $6M/yr for the foreseeable future. Clevinger is in line to perhaps start the ASG this year with his 8-1 record and 2.08 ERA. He got me my first 'throw a Maddux' achievement with a 91-pitch shutout of the Mets. Brantley has been spending a good amount of time on the DL, but has been pretty effective when healthy (that OOTP be realistic tho). Kepler is having another fantastic season (.291, .420 OBP, 8 HR, 31 RBI in 49 games) and might be an NL All-Star for the 3rd straight year.

One of the things I always try to do is build my bullpen into a juggernaut. Which naturally led me to acquire Craig Kimbrel in an offseason trade with the Red Sox. Of course to add him into the mix with Zach Britton, whom I had signed to a 2-year contract the year before. Unfortunately, Britton tore his rotator cuff a few appearances into 2020. So it's all the better that I had a stable of Jake Diekman, Justin Wilson, Joe Jimenez, Daniel Hudson, and Juan Zamora (an OOTP-generated IFA with outstanding stats) also in said bullpen.

Team is 43-20 and just did the June 4th draft. We've been rolling through the National League so far. Five games up on the Braves and things are going well.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

A shorter update this time.

Currently in mid-September in 2020 of my Carolina Knights expansion franchise. That 5-game NL East lead over the Braves mentioned at the end of my previous post has turned into a 7-game deficit. The Braves have played godly baseball of late. They went 17-8 in June, 17-12 in July, 21-7 in August (including a 3-game sweep of yours truly), and are 9-3 in September. That's 64-30. My team has been muddling along, still without a losing month, nowhere near as hot as that. After going 21-8 in May, the Knights are 51-43 since. Even so, I still have a 9-game lead for the 1st wild card spot with only 12 games to play.

I did make a mistake in negotiating with my impending FA James Paxton. His asking price had been in the $16-18M range for a 5-year deal and I had negotiated down to $14-15M but I wanted a 3/4 year deal rather than 5/6. The 31-year-old wouldn't budge on that and then he had the audacity to go and have a fantastic season. When I got back around to negotiating, he was asking for about $30-32M AAV. Welp. It was nice having you on the team for 2 years anyway, James Paxton.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Finished season 3 with a 97-65 record. Coming down to the final 10 days of the season, I actually had a chance to catch the Braves for 1st in the NL East as they decided to lose 7 games in a row. Ended up closing the gap to 4 games with 4 to play (the final 3 being head to head), but they broke their losing streak to maintain the 4-game lead. Made the final series academic. And ended up sweeping me again to make it more painful.

Had to play in the Wild Card game, and beat the Mets in an 11-inning thriller at Roy Hobbs Field (my ballpark). Michael Brantley delivered a walkoff single to win 5-4 and advance the club to the NLDS against the 107-win Dodgers. The Dodgers got even for me bouncing them in the NLDS last year and we ended up losing 3 games to 1 despite Walker Buehler (who has developed into the best SP in the NL) being on the DL. In retrospect, not having ace James Paxton ready to go for game 1 (and potentially get 2 starts) was a mistake. Not bullpening another game against their lefty-heavy lineup was probably another mistake. Cody Bellinger, who homered 67 times during the regular season, did it twice more in the NLDS. Gonna have to watch to see if he ends up challenging the HR record (both season and career).

Just getting into the offseason now and was a bit surprised to see that my 1B Miguel Cabrera decided to retire. He was just 37 and under contract until 2024 with the Tigers paying 85% of it, but apparently a 30-HR season with 102 RBI wasn't enough to convince Miggy that he's still got it. He should still be a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame. Frees up another $5M to play with in the offseason too.

[TheLastOlympian07]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

just caught up on this, was a great thread, too bad it died out in the end but I mean it is close to OOTP 20 so it's understandable

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

2041 is in the books.

The Angels won 105 games, lead by a still-solid staff and an old-school style offense of baserunning and driving the gaps.

The team lead baseball in batting average and OBP, and were 2nd in the MLB in runs despite being 15th in HR.

This in stark contrast to the #1 run-scoring team, the Yankees, who relied on prolific power to go with their own stellar on-base percentage.

Most experts had the Yankees and Angels as the favorites.

Then the Tigers happened. Detroit's "okay-but-not-great" pitching staff stormed through the Bronx and Anaheim and shut down the top two offenses in baseball. This propelled them to the World Series where the Dodgers, making a repeat appearance, where thwart 4-2 in by the Tigers.

"Sometimes you get hot and you just start believing you can conquer the world out there. Then sometimes, you actually do, " Tigers starting pitcher Nate Cagnon commented.

The Angels will have to regroup and hope for another opportunity in 2042.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

In the 2042 Offseason, the league finally chose to expand by two teams.

The Vancouver Devils will play in the NL West while the Portland Avatars join the AL West.

Both teams might be pretty competitive out of the gate. Based on last year's WAR accumulated, the Avatars picked up 42 WAR out of the expansion draft while the Devils netted 39 WAR.

The Angels and Brewers lost the most players to expansion, but the top WAR losses from a single player came from the Marlins, who lost SP Jonah Vaughn and his 4.4 WAR.

Other notable players selected include SP Omari Poydras (Dodgers, 4.2 WAR), SP Ayden Pauldo (Mets, 3.6 WAR), and LF Juan Zelaya (Rockies, 3.5 WAR)

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Is the expansion a league evolution thing or did you decide to add 2 teams?

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Is the expansion a league evolution thing or did you decide to add 2 teams?

Evolution - I'm hands off.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Mike Trout was officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on his first ballot with 98.9% of the vote.

Kris Bryant, another 45-year-old who was still productive, also made the cut in his first ballot with 89.7% of the vote.

Carlos Correa picked up enough ballots in his 2nd attempt with 83% of the vote.

Finally, Mookie Betts sneaks in on his 8th ballot with 76% of the vote.

Joey Gallo continues to be on track for having one of the highest career home run totals to not make it to Cooperstown. He raked 601 home runs but his struggled to reach even double-digit vote totals. Granted, his horribly low batting average is likely the reason why.

Another interesting player in jeopardy of missing out is Cody Bellinger. He played just 12 seasons but piled in 485 HR and a career OPS of .855. He led the league in HR five times, including hitting 63 HR in 2022. The OPS is higher than Kris Bryant's.

The league is still looking for its first unanimous Hall selection.

The Twins' Alex Kirilloff, at times the most feared hitter in baseball, and Jeremiah Estrada, a very good pitcher who played with horrific Cubs offenses, remain the only two players in the Hall of Fame who debuted after 2019.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

2042 Angels

For the first time in a while, the Angels experienced some significant change to its roster. Also, for the first time in a while, the Angels are predicted to lose the division. The team is expected to win "only" 96 games, five less than the Mariners. Overall, the offensive explosion in the AL is also expected to abate while the NL continues to remind fans of the dead-ball era.

As expected, the expansion teams are expected to at least be respectable. In fact, the Portland Avatars are projected to be in the middle of the dogfight for the 2nd AL Wild Card, coming in at 83 wins. This is one game less than the Blue Jays, who are projected as second Wild Card, with 84 wins. The Vancouver Devils are expected to have a tougher time of things. They are projected for the second lowest win percentage in the NL with 72 wins. The Reds are at the bottom with 69 projected wins.

No team in the league is expected to have below a .420 win percentage. That would be the first time in a while there were no truly awful clubs.

In addition to players lost to the expansion draft, the team parted ways with P Min-huei Khang, 3B Tohru Hirano, and P Tim Mavity. There were some reports that Shojiro Hatakeyama would also depart after the team couldn't sign him before free agents filed. However, the former posted-NPB player re-signed with the Angels during the Winter Meetings.

The result is a lineup that is very much different. Maeda, Mistato, Guardado, and Amarante return and they should be solid as usual with Maeda and Misato expected to drive the attack. However, the rest of the lineup is filled with question marks and/or players there for their gloves and not the bats. Ishida moves across the diamond to third base, a position he hasn't played since the low minors to make room for Luis Chapa, a somewhat surprising hitter that developed power rapidly last season, according to team scouts.

Ishida has been questionable, and mildly disappointing, since his call-up last season while Chapa is completely unknown. Harada has been around in the minors for a while and one thing he's known for is the cannon attached to his left shoulder. This will likely cement him in right field unless he is just embarrassing at the plate, which is not out of the question. Sullivan and Gastellum are pure-defense players, Gastellum being picked up after letting Prado get taken in the draft after his difficulty handling knuckleballs really came through during the playoffs.

On the mound, significant changes across the board leave a lot of questions to answer. McGlauflin is still looking like a stud despite a down season last year. He will head the rotation once more. Hatakeyama's return brings back his ever-steady, innings-consuming play that generally always gives the Angels a chance to win with Micciche falling into the same category.

Saiki was acquired in a trade at the deadline last season and will get his first full year with the Angels. He posted a 3.88 ERA for the team last season. Kano was a spring training invite and he dominated all spring long to win the 5th starter job. His slider-screwball combination combined with his sidearm angle baffled hitters. Scouts think he's raw, but got the upside to be a very solid pitcher. He will be watched closely as he struggled in his first taste of the high minors, posting a 4.52 ERA for AA-Mobile last season.

Kano beat out Masayuki Nojima, another high-rated prospect who was expected to take the 5th starter slot. He will be back in AAA between Kano and the return of Nomura.

The bullpen is all new faces except for the back end. Ben Vaughn has jumped from set-up to closer like it was nothing and he remains the closer (and highly sought after in trade offers). Everyone else will have something to prove, including Nomura, who returns from shoulder surgery. The team will see if the flamethrowing lefty can still show life on his pitches as he works in long relief.

The Angels farm system checks in at 3rd in the league despite having no top-10 talents. Kano is the team's top prospect, ranking 12th, with Nojima behind him at 21st. Behind those two, the team has a bevy of decent-but-not-great prospects populating the ranks between 48th and 179th.

"Angels have a deep but not stellar farm these days. That can be an advantage, however. That is why we have their system so highly rated, " an analyst from Baseball America commented.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Mike Trout was officially inducted into the Hall of Fame on his first ballot with 98.9% of the vote.

Kris Bryant, another 45-year-old who was still productive, also made the cut in his first ballot with 89.7% of the vote.

Carlos Correa picked up enough ballots in his 2nd attempt with 83% of the vote.

Finally, Mookie Betts sneaks in on his 8th ballot with 76% of the vote.

Joey Gallo continues to be on track for having one of the highest career home run totals to not make it to Cooperstown. He raked 601 home runs but his struggled to reach even double-digit vote totals. Granted, his horribly low batting average is likely the reason why.

Another interesting player in jeopardy of missing out is Cody Bellinger. He played just 12 seasons but piled in 485 HR and a career OPS of .855. He led the league in HR five times, including hitting 63 HR in 2022. The OPS is higher than Kris Bryant's.

The league is still looking for its first unanimous Hall selection.

The Twins' Alex Kirilloff, at times the most feared hitter in baseball, and Jeremiah Estrada, a very good pitcher who played with horrific Cubs offenses, remain the only two players in the Hall of Fame who debuted after 2019.

Cody Bellinger is always a monster in my saves. And the Twins always trade Alex Kirilloff.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Cody Bellinger is always a monster in my saves. And the Twins always trade Alex Kirilloff.

Yeah and this was one of the few times SS Royce Lewis didn't turn into a monster. He ended up fringe-to-average this time and flamed out fast once he hit 30.


Bellinger had a rather sharp drop off here - I tried to see why, thinking maybe an injury, but no he just dropped off and fell down from there.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress




The Angels in 2042 met expectations, winning 94 games. What didn't happen as BNN expected was the Mariners winning 100 games. Instead, they won just 87 games, but did make the playoffs as second Wild Card. The Angels won the fewest games of the AL division leaders.

Also not coming true was the Avatars threatening for the postseason. Instead, it was the other expansion squad, the Devils, that nearly stole a playoff berth. The Devils won 90 games and finished just three games out of the NL West leading Giants and also just missed the second Wild Card, finishing two games behind the Marlins.

For the Angels, the problem was the offense, and this was not entirely unexpected. The team was supposed to be driven by great seasons from Maede, Misato, and Guardado. Instead, the team got "just really good" seasons.

"It might be a bit of a wake-up call that if we don't get super seasons from those three, we might struggle on offense, " manager Andy Moulin commented, "I'm not really sure why it worked out that way that they weren't their usual selves, but it was an issue."

On the plus side, Hisakazu Ishida took a few more steps forward at the plate, especially once the Chapa experiment ended (in failure) and Ishida moved back to first base. Ishida hit 27 HR, nothing eye-popping, but it's a marked improvement over his rookie campaign.

The pitching was as expected. McGlauflin led the way once again and also led the league in K's and FIP and was second in ERA. Micciche, Hatakeyama, and Saiki were all steady and stable with Kano showing positive signs down the stretch.


In the playoffs, the Angels dominated the ALDS with a 3-0 sweep of the 100-win Yankees. In fact, all the Divisional Series ended in sweeps with the Twins, Phillies, and Brewers winning.

The Angels kept it rolling with a sweep of the ALCS, and then overran the Phillies 4-1 to claim the World Series.

The starting pitching completely dominated, especially McGlauflin. The Angels ace posted a 0.91 ERA in 29 2/3 innings, striking out 39 batters.

Offensively, Maede and Misato looked more like their usual selves. Maede ripped 8 doubles and had a .470 OBP while Misato also had 8 doubles and batted .367.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Hall of Fame fans across baseball will have a field day with this year's lone inductee to the Hall in 2043.

P Devin McPhearson was elected on his first ballot with only 79% of the vote.

Devin had a hot start to his career, ripping off saves and looking like a fearsome reliever for years to come. In his seven years under team control, he picked up 219 saves. He walked away from this gig in the 2030 offseason.

In the next few years that followed, this would prove to be a mistake. He was, basically, a capable journeyman reliever that had a hard time finding work as a closer. From 2031 to 2033, he picked up just 36 saves, total, before resuming work as a full-time closer in 2034, his final year with the Cubs, that netted him 50 saves.

He would leave for free agency again and pick up just 6 saves with the Royals and then 40 saves the next year. From there, he fell off a cliff and ended up retiring the next season back with the Phillies. One notable fact is that he has been on the injured list for exactly 11 days in his 14-year career.

McPhearson's election looks even more dubious as this is the year that Cody Bellanger and his 485 HR and .855 OPS fall off the ballot along with Corey Seager and his career .300 AVG and .863 OPS also drop off. Pete Wortham and his .929 career OPS also failed to make the cut though this is just his second ballot.

"I don't know what voters had against Bellanger and Seager. Yet mediocre candidates like Syndergaard get support and they actually put this McPhearson in. I really, really, don't understand what my fellow voters were looking at, " one voter commented, "I'd rather see Joey Gallo get in, at least he was very, very good at something. How many people have ever hit 600 home runs? The answer is 18, and Gallo is number 18. Only Sosa is not in the Hall among retired players in that group and we know why he isn't."

"If Blaze Jordan doesn't get in, I give up. I say close the Hall, do away with naming any more inductees, because it doesn't serve it's purpose anymore, " the voter continued.

Blaze Jordan retired last season with 2,668 hits, 661 HR, and an .871 OPS but never had a gigantic season in his 18 major league seasons.