OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

[notsobabybombers]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

I find this funny: I've improved by one win in the three regular seasons I've played so far.

2018-101 wins, lost in DS to Boston
2019-102 wins, won WS
2020-103 wins, will face Boston in DS

[N51_rob]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

So at the mid-summer classic and things have been fair better this year. 35-40 which isn't great but still have a chance to finish at or above .500. The AL East is just brutal...in the off-season the Blue Jays signed Harper and Charlie Blackmon, Yanks and Sox are still just monsters both tied for 1st at 49-26.

So in an effort to do something with my rotation I basically found cheap arms that had a track record and decided to see what would happen because it couldn't be worse than what happened last year. So I added Matt Harvey, Matt Moore and Jake Odorizzi, while none have been great they have done the job and are doing enough to allow my revamped offense have a chance. Problem now is my bull pen has gone awol. O'Day regressed before his injury was posting a 7.13 ERA in 24 innings. I took a chance on a highly rated closer Yin-Tou Lai out of Taiwan and it took him a while to get it going but just as he was finally getting it together boom Torn Flexor...

Lastly, while I am really enjoying the lineup I've got I feel like I'm gonna have to move either Bogarts or Schoop because they both want like $23 million a year next year and I don't have the budget for both (or even one at this point lol).

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

BNN's top prospect list came out...and...yeah...

One Marlin. Brinson came in at #45. So if we didn't trade Yelich, it would have been none. Just wow.

We entered trade talks with the Blue Jays. They are interested Dan Straily and Brad Ziegler. This is intriguing for us as it would free up salary. As such, we're trying to maximize the return, but we're trying not to push to hard so as not to scare away our potential trade partner.

In the end, we completed a deal after about 10 days of phone calls. We sent Straily and Ziegler along with prospect SP Trevor Richards and RP prospect Jeremy Ovalle. In return, we picked up a trio of prospects: LF Anthony Alford, 2B Logan Wormoth, and SP Maximo Castillo.

The deal saves us about $12 million in current money and both were pending free agents. Alford will start at CF so we can get a look at him. He seems to have what it takes for sure. Maybin probably won't be thrilled...but he might not be here next season anyway...

Alford is #50 on BNN's top prospects list. So there's that. Pundits seemed to like the trade for both teams, so maybe some PR gain there.

Chris O'Grady was called up from New Orleans to take the starting spot vacated by the trade.

In other news, ticket prices were lowered 20%. The early returns have been positive. While the attendance is still not what we want it to be, it has shown a marked improvement so far. Season ticket sales grew 27% while overall attendance is currently up 35%. Granted...it's Opening Week...but it's still encouraging...


April Overview

Ended April with a 10-18 record, last in the division. Brinson suffered our first major injury at the majors...out for about 5 weeks the docs are saying.

The pitching staff has really let the team down. Chris O'Grady has thrown the ball well since his call up - 3.27 ERA. Everyone else...not even close.

On top of that, Mattingly does not like Alford. Granted, Anthony is doing himself no favors with his hitting, but he also has gotten just 37 PAs. That's just not enough to evaluate anything...and that's with getting the start at right field (not center!) with Brinson down. Sure, he'll probably take to RF fine, but it's not his strength. He doesn't have the arm for one thing. If someone goes first-to-third, he won't get him from RF but might from CF...

On the plus side, Alcantara has moved up to AAA already after posting a 1.00 ERA at Jacksonville. His first start in New Orleans was also strong. Kind of feel like we're rushing him, but we'll see how he handles being challenged at AAA.

Now might be the time to shop Starlin Castro. He's batting .392 with 8 home runs. His contract is...not friendly...but maybe with this hot run he's on, he might draw at least passing interest from a win-now team that needs an infielder. That would be nice since getting out from Prado's ridiculous contract will be asking for a miracle.

Realmuto being shopped later is not out of the question. He's in arbitration so at least some team control left and Tomas Telis will likely be less expensive while doing decent enough. We'll see, though. Will depend on how the catcher prospects start looking come midseason.

[Peji911]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Loving it this year, as I always do. However, just a question on how everyone plays.

Do you play every pitch, AB, etc?

Do you sim game by game and only get in if you're losing?

Do you sim weekly, monthly, yearly?

There's so much to do!

Normally I try doing pitch by pitch and making every decision but it takes forever. Then I end up simming everything but lose interest. Not sure what to do.

[Perfect Zero]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Loving it this year, as I always do. However, just a question on how everyone plays.

Do you play every pitch, AB, etc?

Do you sim game by game and only get in if you're losing?

Do you sim weekly, monthly, yearly?

There's so much to do!

Normally I try doing pitch by pitch and making every decision but it takes forever. Then I end up simming everything but lose interest. Not sure what to do.

From my limited experence, I have played games with alternate pitchers. I will play opening day, then sim five days to play with the #2 pitcher, and so on. On games I do play, I play every at bat (it gives the game a Strat-o-Matic feel). I got through my '49 replay in a month doing that.

[Gosens6]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Loving it this year, as I always do. However, just a question on how everyone plays.

Do you play every pitch, AB, etc?

Do you sim game by game and only get in if you're losing?

Do you sim weekly, monthly, yearly?

There's so much to do!

Normally I try doing pitch by pitch and making every decision but it takes forever. Then I end up simming everything but lose interest. Not sure what to do.

What I do is sim day by day, making sure I check the box scores of all my games. If there's an interesting matchup like a big time pitchers duel, a recent call up, a milestone potentially happening, I will play that game.

Day by day simming allows me to still be immersed with my team and the MLB world.

[notsobabybombers]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Well, year 4 of my Yankees save was rough. It was the first season in which we failed to win 100 games. We regressed to 86 wins and missed the playoffs. I want more of a challenge, so I'm going to step away from this save for now. I'm going to start one with an rebuilding NL team TBD.

[N51_rob]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Well year 2 has come to an end and what a ride. My main goal was to finish .500. It really was a grind down the stretch. With all the projections that I was going to have even less money to operate in the 2020 season I decided at the trade deadline to go for the wins in hopes of driving enough interest to get a little more operating cash, so I went for it and didn't trade Xander Bogarts or Jonathan Schoop (although I probably should've). Mistakes were made....lol

On September 19th we stood at 79-75, and proceeded to lose 4 games in a row, two by one run in extra innings. So going into our last series we are 80-79 with three games against the Royals to finish the season. Machado blasts two HRs in the opener as in a 13-7 win and will finish no worse than .500 so goal accomplished. Drop game 2 5-11. Last game of the season Matt Harvey (who I signed to a small expention) closed out the season with a steller game, 8.0 ip 4h, 0r, 6k, 1bb in a 3-0 win to finish at 82-80.

Harvey finished the year 12-9 with a 4.93 ERA and was "the best" pitcher we had. Dylan Bundy bounced back from a disastrous 2018 (1-16 7.11 ERA) to finish a respectable 10-8 5.03. Offensively Machado was the leader of the club (.322/.366.577) 39 HR 149 RBI. Schoop played well in his walk year and will earn a nice pay day somewhere else (.290/.329/.535) 39 HR 105 RBI. Young catcher Chance Sisco had a break out year at the plate (.296/.358/.509) 21 HRs. Overall my team was 5th in the league with 254 HRs and thanks in large part to Billy Hamilton's 66 stolen bases 6th in the league with 92.

Anyways my reward for going for broke to please Peter Angelos and that winning record, my budget was cut $30 million to $100 million for the 2020 season so there is no hope of signing either Schoop or Bogarts, as I had hoped to keep one of them. But the core of the offense is still there in Machado, Pederson, Sisco and Mancini with some potential help coming from top prospect Ryan Mountcastle. Oh well if I had to do it all again I would defiantly shop one of the two for a haul knowing I need to cut budget.

Oh well had fun on to the off-season and year 3.

Edit: For those of you who hate that Barry Bonds is the single season HR king. Rest easy Giancarlo Stanton hit 75 HRs in 2019....

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Finally got some time to start my primary game. I took over as the GM for the Bravos. I am doing GM things only, no managing, will be watching a good amount of game pitch by pitch, have it set on a 20-80 scale in 5 point increments, changed the AI valuation to 40/30/20/10, and some other things.

Not much was done before the season opener. I hired a R-League manager who was previously a hitting coach. I'm already trying to be the smartest guy in the room, typical GM. I went to the Orioles GM and tried to see if he'd work with me for Schoop. The assistant GM was for working out a deal, but the main guy basically told me to buzz off, so nothing happened there. Minnesota came to me asking for Suzuki back, but I value him much more than I should since there is Tyler Flowers and no one else at catcher in this organization.

The season rolled around and our Opening Day game could be called a pitchers' duel, I'd call it an offensive offensive display, but one I was fortunate enough to come out on top of thanks to a Markakis walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th. 1 game down, on pace for 162 wins. So far we're not sucking completely so my owner can go to sleep happily for now.

[Mitchrapp]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

I play (will) every game, though only 1 game in so far, and will rotate between pitch by pitch and at bat.

Detroit 1-0 so far.. 2 in the 8th, 1 in the 10th (On a WP) vs Pittsburgh to win 3-2. First OOTP in years for me.

Edit: Btw, this game is awesome.

[N51_rob]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Picking up where I left off, with literally no money to sign a single free agent, but having an asinine demand of adding an all-star the offseason was a rather uneventful one. I did what I could by offering free agents late in free agency minor league deals and trying to shop Yin-Tou Lai and his $9.4 million salary, Darren O'Day and his $9 million. By the time I got an offer for Lai that was worth it there were no free agents that justified bailing on my investment in him. O'Day generates no interest so I am stuck with him because I can't really afford to release him and eat his salary. So one vet who did take a minor league deal was SP Julio Teheran partly because he was nursing a shoulder inflammation injury that at the time still had 8 weeks of recovery left.

None the less I still had holes in my rotation and lineup that I needed to fill. So for me it was the Rule 5 draft (I know, I know not the best talent) but I did my homework and drafted 2B Kevin Newman who to my surprise was able to change the attitudes of the guys in the locker room and was surprisingly know to some of the Baltimore fans. I also grabbed SP Tom Eshelman from the Phillies organization. That was it for my exciting moves this offseason. Hard to do much when you are handcuffed but I did what I could and the hope is that I will have the money to keep Joc Pederson this off-season although he is asking for a 9 year deal that averages $33 million a year....

So my starting roster this year shapes up like this: (with last years slash line and stats)
C Chance Cisco (.296/.358/.509) 21HR 51 RBI
1B Trey Mancini (.249/.298/.454) 33 HR 107 RBI
2B Kevin Newman (.318/.384/.407) 2 HR 41 RBI in AAA
3B Ryan Mountcastle (.328/.402/.537) 18 HR 54 RBI in AAA
SS Manny Machado (.322/.366/.577) 39 HR 149 RBI
LF Joc Pederson (.288/.415/.543) 33 HR 94 RBI
CF Billy Hamilton (.255/.306/.358) 66 Stolen Bases
RF Steven Souza Jr (.248/.316/.419) 23 HR 72 RBI
DH Anthony Santander (.254/.312/.399) 6 HR 37 RBI in 228 ABs

Rotation and Bullpen
R Kevin Gausman 9-10 5.49 ERA 169 ip
R Matt Harvey 12-9 4.93 175.1
R Dylan Bundy 10-8 5.03 150.1
R David Hess 9-9 3.82 160.1 (AAA)
R Tom Eshelman 1-7 3.94 102.1 (AAA)

R Mychal Givens 2-5 2 Saves 4.32 66.2 ip
R Miguel Castro 4-3 5.16 68.0
L Jason Gurka 5-3 3 Saves 5.68 77.2
L Richard Bleier 1-3 2 saves 6.89 47.0

L Jose Torres 1-1 11 Saves 7.04 15.1
R Yin-Tou Lai 1-3 9 Saves 4.71 21.0

R Ryan Meisinger 2-1 14 saves 3.05 44.1

We are predicted to finish 89-73 that would put us 5th again and 13 games out of first. It will be an interesting season, putting a lot of hope on younger guys coming through at the plate and hoping that the rotation can keep their heads above water as it looks to me like a down grade over what he had last year for sure. I think I have a really strong last three arms in the pen, problem will be two fold one getting a lead and two getting that lead from the starters to the last three arms...no telling how that will go.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

the hope is that I will have the money to keep Joc Pederson this off-season although he is asking for a 9 year deal that averages $33 million a year....

Yeah, so I'm glowingly positive about this game and how great basically everything about it is. But, I think some of the contract demands are a little/lot high.

I almost feel like using the commissioner mode/editor is the way to go if you feel particularly strongly about it being too high. It's possible to sign him to whatever he'll accept (you could also boost your budget temporarily in the editor to do this) then subtract what you consider a fair amount in the editor. I'd have a tough time seeing Yung Joc get more than $5-10MM AAV unless he had an historically great season and your AI evaluation settings are set heavily to stats. You could also turn AI evaluation to 100% ratings, re-scout, and then see if the contract demand changes any.

Also, just because the demand is $33MM AAV (although ridiculous) doesn't mean he won't accept a substantial hair cut.

[N51_rob]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

I agree with that, I've also seen players demands ebb and flow based on performance and in free agency the market. I jumped the gun signing Machado back in free agency signed him for 30 million per because I was first....Bryce Harper signed for an average of $27.4 million. I want to negotiate with Pederson and see where we are at for sure. I'd love to bring him back and have the money to get an couple of starters while the young promising arms round out their development. I actually have a couple guys that should be ready in a season or two.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

Yeah, so I'm glowingly positive about this game and how great basically everything about it is. But, I think some of the contract demands are a little/lot high.

Do you think shaving about 20% from most of the salary levels (in the financial rules settings) would keep things closer to real/reasonable for the top end?

[notsobabybombers]

Re: OOTP 19 Franchise Progress

I'm downloading the official game right now ( because I had been using the Beta version.) I decided to roll with the Reds. They've had 3 straight last place finishes and haven't topped 68 wins in that span. The offense has some upside but their pitching was abysmal last year.