OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

I'm not looking like a genius after the Wood trade. He made three starts for me, all quality starts, but he injured his shoulder this last one and is out at least 13 months. Acuna is also hurt and awaiting diagnosis. The injury bug is finally coming around. At least Donaldson just came back.


Acuna's injury was diagnosed. Hamstring injury, out 7+ weeks. I was able to get this transaction complete hope it works out while Acuna is gone.



He isn't playing too well this year, but I'm hoping he'll turn it on with a change of scenery. The Reds retained all 100% of his contract. I am surprised they made the move. I'm surprised at all of the trades I've made this season. I even went to make sure I had my trade difficulty turned up because I am having good luck this year getting transactions I want without going back and forth for two weeks in-game and having to give away something I really didn't. I guess I've gotten better or my scouts and the Reds scouts are not seeing players in equal lights haha.


I do have a question, if I want Austin Riley to rotate playing 3rd base and LF in the minors, is there a way to set it up to continuously rotate him on its own or is it something I have to manually change over and over?

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

I'm going to keep this thread alive myself!

I just saw in the league news that Gausman also had his season end due to injury so neither me or the Reds won that trade.

Markakis got a back injury and is out for 4 months so his season is over.

Tyler Flowers only has 2 weeks left before he is finally back.

In the 19 games Puig has been on my team he has been doing better than he was with the Reds, but I am hoping he gets even better. He's hitting .238 wth an on abse % of .290, he's slugging.429 with 4 homers, 2 doubles. He does have 19 RBI's in 19 games which is very nice and has also scored 9 times himself. If he can just hit .260 with some pop in his bat then I will be happy.


I've also managed to get Will Smith and Greg Holland in my bullpen. My bullpen is still playing poorly including those two. I am beginning to believed my bullpen is cursed and no amount of talent will fix it.

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

My team choked at the end of the year. From 98.2% chance of making the playoffs with 27 games to go to being knocked out on the last day of the year.



Stil, the owner was happy with the season, the budget went from $156m to $188. I'll gladly take that. He also set some new goals. Get the team better at the long ball, the chicks dig it. Go out and sign an all-star player. Who am I supposed to be able to go and get that is an all-star?

I ended up letting Brian McCann and Teheran walk. They just weren't cutting it. I was tired of Teheran's inconsistency. He was like the real guy, imagine that.

I also was able to resign Puig. He ended up doing what I wanted to once joinging my team. In 74 games he hit over .260, got 14 homers, and knocked in 60. That was needed with Acuna's injury not healing quickly and him only coming back the last week of the year plus Markakis missed the last 2.5 months of the year. Speaking of injuries, my pitching staff was dropping like flies the last 8 weeks of the year and that also killed my team's performance. Max Fried, Sobotka, Soroka, Pineda, Newcomb, Teheran, and a few others all missed at least 1-2 weeks in the final months. It was rough. Will Smith also tore his shoulder and missed the last month+ and will be out nearly half the upcoming year.

I had some surprises in the off-season. First, the Yankees shopped Aaron Judge around. There was my all-star. It was tough to pull the trigger, but I sent them Inciarte(who was great for me, .290 hitter and almost got a gold glove), Sonny Gray(who also tore it up for my club and finished as one of the better pitchers in all of baseball once joining my team), Dietrich(he was solid for me, but was not someone I wanted long-term), and then Camargo. Camargo was really hard to let go off, but they had to have him or there was no deal. Trust me, I tried to avoid giving him away. I pulled the trigger, got Judge on my team. The owner, the fans, even the players were all ecstatic. I then made sure to extend him and got him for an extra 3 years $16m, $17m, and $18m. I'll pay that for a guy of his caliber, especially with my new budget.

Later on, near Winter Meetings time, I received an email. The Giants wanted to know if I wanted Buster Posey. Yes I do, catcher is my worst position. Their demands weren't much, either. I gave up 3 SP prospects I wasn't too big on. Trey Riley, Beau Burrows, and Kyle Muller. My scout, who I probably trust too much, wasn't high on any of them. Burrows had the potential to be a 4 or 5 in the rotation, but I had plenty of young arms in the system. The Giants took those prospects, retained half of Posey's salary, and we made a deal. Good off-season already. Posey and Judge. This team is getting some star power.

To sum the rest of it up I was able to add Marcus Stroman to my rotation and I also go Deshields on the bench since I let Matt Joyce go. Culberson is still there as the elite bench player. He batted like .330 coming off of the bench and was great as a defensive sub. Sounds like the real guy, too. Overall I am happy with the moves I made. Posey and Judge are both things I did not expect, but that's baseball for you.

Coming into the new year I am predicted to win 90+ and win the division. There are some issues, though. Will Smith is still out for 6 months, Freeman is on the IL with back issues, and AJ Minter is being diagnosed. It isn't all pretty, but I do like what I have and feel that the team has improved on paper. Now the results need to follow.

Meet your 2020 Opening Day Braves.



EDIT: Through 8 games Aaron Judge has already accumulated 1.2 WAR. Sheesh. 5 homers and 10 RBI's in 8 games.

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

<div>I forgot to mention I was able to keep the trend of signing young Braves to cheap deals. Soroka is mine for another 4 years at less than $9 million a year. He's progressed to a 60/65 out of 80 player and his ceiling increased to a 75.</div><div><br></div><div>The World Series saw the Indians down the Cubs in 6. It was 3-0 at one point, but the Cubs made it somewhat of a series. The playoffs seemed boring. Through the first two rounds over half the series were sweeps and then the Cubs and Indians just walked into the World Series with sweeps. <br></div>

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

My team started this year so hot. 10-2, 1st in pretty much every offensive category. Then injuries happened and healthy players cooled off.



Freeman was batting under .230 50 games into the year. He has gotten hot. Puig had a 30 game hitting streak and was batting .330, but now it feels like he is on a 30 game streak without a hit. Posey cannot get in a groove. Judge is striking out just a little too much. Donaldson is not seeing the ball well at all. At least with Freeman he was just having a down year in terms over average on balls in play. That has started to rise back towards .350 where his career average is near and his average has shot back up. It does not help that I've seen Acuna, Albies, Swanson, Donaldson, Posey all miss at least a month due to injury. Half of those overlapped. Corbin Clouse, my best bullpen pitcher who was having an electric year and could have been in the Cy Young running is out for the year now. Greg Holland and AJ Minter are competing to see who can blow the most leads.

This team was supposed to be carried by the lineup. Acuna, Albies, Freemanb, Judge, Puig, Donaldson, Posey, and Swanson should have been a lineup, in my opinion at least, that was one of the best in the NL and the whole league, Everyone is batting below their career averages right now and my team is striking out way too much. The pitching staff was supposed to be the weak link, yet my starters have a 3.00 ERA 80 games into the year.



Somehow my team is still 45-35 despite not playing that well. The pitching staff has thrown 4 shutouts in the last 10 games and gave up 2 runs or less in 8 of those 10 games. They gave up 3 runs in the other 2 games. Yet my offense has struggled to do anything. To make it clear how bad my offense has been at times, they batted .203 as a team in the entire month of May. Yes, .203. If my hitters can turn it on then this team can easily win the division and make a run in the post-season. I'm starting to wonder if the offense will ever actually turn it on, though.

Also, after the draft I fired my scout and hired a new guy. My last scout wasn't bad at all it said, but I started to lose faith in him a bit. The new scout is highly regarded. There have been some eye opening differences in their player evaluations so far. If this guy is more accurate than my last scout then it explains some things and my organization will have taken a bit of a hit trusting the last guy. I do use low accuracy for scouting, so who knows how right either guy is, but I just din't feel the last guy was as accurate as his reputation said he could be. There were a lot of questionable evaluations that the new scout seems to be more in line with what I expected.

Overall, this year has been tough. The team is 45-35, 2nd in the division, 1st in the wildcard race, but it has been under-performing quite a bit. The pitching has been phenomenal, but the hitting has been comically bad at times. If my batters can get back to being themselves then all will be fine and my team should et 95+ wins. If not, then I'm gonna have an off-season full of tough decisions.

[TrustTheProcess]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

Do you manage all your games or simulate in chunks?

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

I only play as GM. I leave the managing to the manager. More often than not I watch the games in 3D. Sometimes pitch by pitch, sometimes at bat by at bat. And then I do sim games one day at a time here and there, but I probably "watch" 130+ in 3D. I say watch, but I mean it is running in the background while I do other work on the computer or am doing something else around the house, or even if I am out of the house for a bit.

EDIT: Now I am just simming more games right now as my team continues to struggle. Probably going to miss the playoffs, will be lucky at this rate to even finish above .500. Can't believe my team played as poorly as they did. Fired my hitting coach during the all-star break. nothing has gotten better. Snitker is going to be gone, probably before the end of the year, unless the team makes a magical run.

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

My team went from having a record of around 65-60 and playing some really poor ball to finishing the year 89-73. Still lost in the wild card game to the Nats who went on to win the WS over Tampa Bay in 7 games. I fired Snitker. Signed Girardi. Fired Seitzer the hitting coach. Did not make too many roster moves. DeShields is gone, replaced with Billy Hamilton. Half the cost, basically the same guy.

Last year my team had great pitching, poor offense. So far my starting pitching has been one of the best in the league again, my offense has improved, but my bullpen has regressed enough production-wise to counter any offensive improvement. My team started the year off 1-4, then got back to .500 and literally won one, lost one, and stayed .500 for a bit. They've since won 7 straight games, only giving up 10 runs in those 7 games. I am only 21-17, though.

I traded away Will Smith for Nick Markakis. Good to have him back. After Smith tore his UCL and missed all of last year he has regressed terribly and is not good. I had to retain most of his $13 million he was due this year to get Markakis, but my bullpen has been better since he departed. He refused to go to AAA so he was wasting space and I also needed a utility OF guy and Markakis isn't a bad one to have even at 37. He's still a 55 and has great contact and eye still.

Ozzie Albies has completely fallen off a cliff. After getting another all-star selection in my first season he fell off some last year and missed the game. This year he has been terrible and is only scouting as a 35 overall with 35 potential. OSA sees him as 40/40. I really hope he bounces back, but I don't have my fingers crossed. At least Acuna has continued to progress and has about reached his potential and is playing lights out to start this year.

[TrustTheProcess]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

Finally ended my first season with a World Series Championship!

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

I hope your Albies doesn't fall off of a cliff like mine. Mine progressed to being a 75 overall for me in 2020 according to my scout and OSA. Then coming into this year he has fallen to a 35 according to my scout, a 40 according to OSA. Am I just unlucky here? Anyone had a player drop like that and eventually bounce back or did they just end up staying bad? Really weird to see him bat .280 then .290 and make a couple all-star games then just drop to a 35 overall. Now he is batting .215. At least my team is playing out of their minds. They had a 13-13 April, fell to 15-17, now I sit here at 31-18 and 4 games up in the division. My pitching has given up 3 runs or less in 13 of the last 18 games. I've let Girardi have full control of the lineup and he's been playing Riley everyday at 3rd over Donaldson and he is finally playing up to his potential. Batting around .280 and has hit a few homers. Driven in near 20. He's been a big part of this turnaround as Donaldson was playing poorly, batting around .210. Riley wasn't doing so hot in limited time and didn't do too well last year either in limited time, but now that he is getting the start every day he seems to be hitting stride. I guess he needs a routine and consistency to play better. If I can somehow get Ozzie back then my team will be pretty good.

[bravo2208]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

The Indians are painfully close to becoming the 90s Bills of baseball in my save. They lost the World Series to the Dodgers 2 years in a row and just lost to the Braves 4 games to 1. Ouch!

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

How has your Ozzie been?

The Indians won the series in my first year. Failed to make it year 2. Just lost Kluber for the year in the first 6 weeks of year 3 so I don't see them making it again this year.

[bravo2208]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

Mine? I'm not using the Braves at the moment, but in most Braves save I've done Ozzie's been a monster. The whole team develops into a behemoth very quickly. I almost hate that it's so easy because I want to use them more.

Just a few examples of how my Braves saves turned out:





Oddly enough, the one time I won the World Series (not pictured) Ozzie only batted .247

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

I guess I've just had an unfortunate game haha. My Ozzie just fell off a cliff after that strained oblique in 2020.

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

Freeman and Acuna are just monsters. Ozzie, not so much.