OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

[bravo2208]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

That's one of the many reasons I LOVE this game. You can run an infinite number of simulations and get such a wide array of results. I've had saves where Freddie flamed out after 2-3 years of dominance and others where he keeps up his current pace for 10 more years. There's so much variability with the storylines, injuries, the draft, etc. Man I swear, if there was a football version of this (college or pro) I'd never play anything else.

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

I've decided to send Albies to AAA. I'd like to think there is something I could do to potentially help him rebound, but players flame out all of the time in real life.

[KSUowls]

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.

The people at Liberty Media would have a heart attack before we had a chance to tell him it was just a game if they saw your Atlanta payroll with that lineup lol

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

The people at Liberty Media would have a heart attack before we had a chance to tell him it was just a game if they saw your Atlanta payroll with that lineup lol

The Reds, Yankees, and Giants are all good organizations that are helping me pay for this lineup.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

I wanted Acuna in my save but he wanted so much money lol.

Albies didn't do anything in my save.

Vlad Jr is becoming insane if he can keep it going.

[canes21]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

Ozzie regressed down to a 30 now. Batting .180 in AAA after 3 or 4 weeks down there. I think he is a lost cause. Acuna and Freeman are both still batting over .350 and I am around 90 games in.

[tdawg3782]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

I've been playing OOTP for years and normally do more of a Commissioner thing where I follow certain players and just watch the evolution happen. It's fun but I do tend to get burned out after a certain point. This year I decided to actually control a team and run with it.


To be honest the level of depth that is involved with that is a bit overwhelming. So my practice run was to let most of the duties be handled by the CPU and I'd handle drafting and trying to promote my top talent at the right times. I ran with my Padres who have just an incredible wealth of minor league talent. It was my goal to build this team up through the system with a few FA and trades sprinkled in. But the ****ing CPU ruined this team in two seasons. Traded many top prospects away for **** and even traded Machado. Also they had a hard on for sighing RP in FA when I had plenty of system guys ready to come up. After 3 season I didn't even recognize the team anymore and had the 28th ranked minor league system.


Fast forward to my restart. The main thing I learned is the CPU is ****ing stupid lol. This time I would handle all trades, drafting, and FA signings at the MLB level. Everything else is auto managed. Again my goal was to build through the minor league system mostly, draft smart to keep the system at a high level, with a few FA and trades added in.


My first season went as expected. Finished 78-84. Not bad at all considering my team is so young. I traded Wil Myers for Bobby Bradley (1B) of the Celeveland Indians while paying 20% of Myers contract. This was basically to get a roster spot open and Myers had no future in my OF with Renfore, Reyes, Cordero, and Margot. Not to mention some players coming up in the system. But the Bradley trade is paying dividends in the 2021 season so far but more on that later.


Manny Machado went off and was worth every penny. Fernando Tatis Jr. won RotY. Franmil Reyes blasted 50 HRs. Eric Hosmer was very solid. Luis Urias played well for a rookie. While Hunter Renfroe struggled with Avg he did hit 35 HRs. This team can bomb that's for sure.



I had very good pitching out of my youngsters. My starter and bullpen ERA ranked in the top 6. Chris Paddock, Eric Lauer, Danelson Lamet, and Matt Strahm all did well while Trey Wingenter did well filling in for Kirby Yates who got injured for the season. All in all a very promising season.


(Will continue with a 2020 recap soon)

[bravo2208]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

I might have just caught a huge break. I offered Dansby Swanson a 6-year extension worth $64 million. The final two years were team options. He's had a good year (.270/.332/.464 with 11 homers, 50 RBI). He was really close to accepting when he fractured his wrist against the Nats. He is expected to miss 2-3 months and only time will tell if he'll be the same when he returns. Thankfully I still had time to withdraw the offer. I have the worst luck with injuries.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

Haven't been around these parts lately, but I'm playing the main game again after mostly focusing on PT. Due to patches & roster updates etc, I decided to set up my MLB expansion game all over again. It generally takes the better part of a week to get things how I want them (editing in contract options, inputting ballpark factors, re-aligning divisions and MiLB affiliates, adding artwork, expansion drafting etc). I'm just finishing that now.

I am controlling the Portland Timberjacks as before. Trying to do GM-only plus watching the games. My goal here is to see if I can hire a manager and assistant GM that I can trust to handle some things (lineups, pitching staff, and hiring of personnel)--I feel like putting another "layer" between me and the on-field results adds realism/randomness to the proceedings. Normally, I'm very much a "micromanage each detail" type of OOTP player so we'll see if/how long this set up lasts.

The Timberjacks are the newest member of the National League (NL West along with: D'Backs, Reds, Giants, Rockies, Padres, Dodgers, and Astros). The team will play home games at Riverfront Stadium (a creation of eriqjaffe that was originally designed for a team called the Portland Rogues). The park plays a bit pitcher-friendly (.977 AVG, .954 doubles, .946 triples, .938 homers) and the interesting thing is it'll play differently for lefty power hitters (1.006 homers LHB) and righty power hitters (.901 homers RHB).

I decided the other expansion team would be in Las Vegas--the Las Vegas Rollers. Usually I add the Expos as the other team, but I wanted to try another team without any history and see how it goes for them as I'm building up Portland. The Rollers will be in the new look AL West (Twins, Royals, White Sox, Mariners, Rangers, Angels, and A's).

Of course, much thanks to txranger and low for their uniform/ballcaps/jersey/logo designs. My Timberjacks are all txranger's stuff; the Rollers and MiLB affiliates are low's stuff. Those guys really help spice things up with their artwork.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

Finished up the expansion draft and signed a few low value free agents to make a viable 25-man roster. I am running with ghost players enabled to avoid the drudgery of signing 200 schmucks I care nothing about to fill in all the different MiLB levels.


The opening day MLB lineup (courtesy of skipper John Farrell):

1 - CF - Billy Hamilton
2 - RF - Melky Cabrera
3 - LF - Mike Tauchman
4 - 1B - Luke Voit (Voit was the #1 pick in the expansion draft)
5 - 3B - Brad Miller
6 - C - Tucker Barnhart
7 - 2B - Joe Panik
8 - SS - Adeiny Hechavarria
9 - P - Martin Perez


The starting rotation:

1 - Martin Perez
2 - Yonny Chirinos
3 - Tyler Mahle
4 - Alec Mills (Fo)
5 - Mark Hamburger


The bullpen includes Trevor Gott, Jake Diekman, Cam Bedrosian, Brian Schlitter, Luiz Gohara, Brett Anderson, and Andy Beltre.


The team payroll is a lofty $28.8M. We're predicted to win 68 games and finish last in the NL West. Watching Luke Voit hit dingers, trading relief pitchers, and loading up in the June draft seems to be the goal of the 2019 season here.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

2019 Season: Game 1 (I'm not recapping every game, just select ones)

Time to start thinking about setting that playoff roster, huh?

The Timberjacks recorded their first win in their first game in franchise history. Didn't take long. It was a 5-2 victory over the powerful, visiting LA Dodgers. As the answer to some obscure future trivia question, Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson hit the first homer in Riverfront Stadium history in front of 42,187 paying customers. Pederson went deep twice, both solo. On the Timberjacks side, the star was Joe Panik--he swatted a pair of solo homers. One each off of Walker Buehler and Kenley Jansen. The inner Giant in Panik is quite pleased. Luke Voit also homered for the Timberjacks. It was a good Opening Day start for lefty Martin Perez [7.1 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K] as he out-dueled Walker Buehler.

In other news, the Washington Nationals moved to [apparently] fill the vacancy left by Bryce Harper. They swung a deal for Wil Myers, sending the corpse of Howie Kendrick and unexciting prospect Osvaldo Abreu in return. With Myers' contract scheduled to quadruple to $22.5M per annum starting in 2020, with Kendrick being on an "expiring" contract, and with San Diego not poised to contend quite yet...this here is a win, win, win situation for the Padres here.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

2019 Season: Game 3

Is this what it's supposed to feel like as a first year expansion team? The 1st place Timberjacks completed the sweep of the Dodgers and are still unbeaten in franchise history.

After trailing for virtually the entire game, the Jacks scored 2 in the 8th inning and then got a game-tying solo HR from Melky Cabrera with 2 outs in the 9th inning. The game would go 13 innings before Portland pitcher Alec Mills laced a walk-off RBI single against Dodgers pitcher Tony Cingrani.

Timberjacks starting pitcher Tyler Mahle struggled through 103 pitches [5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 7 BB, 4 K] and gave up a 3-run homer to Max Muncy. Dodgers starting pitcher Julio Urias left in the 2nd inning with an injury.

The Timberjacks will probably end up losing a game at some point. Right?

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

The Foxes save is still a thing. Just finished the 2029 Postseason.

The Foxes got eliminated in the NLDS while their expansion siblings, the Raleigh Warriors, went virtually undefeated in the playoffs to capture the World Series.

Meanwhile, the Foxes are facing a familiar Montreal problem... money.

Despite being a quality franchise in most of their seasons, the Foxes are still a small-market franchise.

"Our former young plucky players are now looking for real big-league pay days and it's getting more difficult to fit everyone in, " GM Ander Lyle commented.

The Foxes had to let slugger Rafael Devers depart prior to the start of the 2029 season in order to lock up stud ace Mitch McIntyre. Devers and his 50 home runs went back to Fenway Park, taking some of the goodwill from the fans with him.

Which brings up the other issue...if the Foxes have to make a similar decision with their homegrown talent, more fans will likely feel dejected.


"These are kids that they heard about in our farm and now they made it and have captivated them with their great play and wild, fun-loving personalities. We want to keep them together for as long as possible, " Lyle spoke.

The Foxes took a step in that direction by locking up Juan Salas, whose productive, and incredibly aggressive, style at the plate has brought up comparisons to Vlad Guerrero. Salas signed a deal that could run up to 10 years, but has a player opt-out after seven.

Still, that leaves Bobby Witt, Jr. up in the air (player opt-out coming soon) and still the looming matters of Montero and Leto, part of the "Crazy Foxes" as the fans have come to call the players who really let their antics show.

Also of concern is the pitching staff. The Foxes have never been built around starting pitching, but it was even weaker that usual this past season. McIntyre was injured, which didn't help matters, and Lerma has blossomed with his "fastball trio" style, but beyond them were clearly below average performances by any metric.

Fixing the problem will come to the only two likely arms left in the farm. One of which was named the top prospect in the game, 18-year-old LHP Alvare Casteles. Alvare is a very hard-throwing lefty that keeps the ball down and gets hitters to roll over on his offspeed offerings. He's progressing well, and is on a fast track, but he's still just entered the high minors midseason.

The other arm is a product of the international scout team, Shigekazu Motano. He's been in a system a while and reached AAA late last season. He will likely get a long look this spring for a potential 2030 debut. He looks a lot like McIntyre, best pitch is his change up and best tool is projected to be his command.

Beyond them, there's not much pitching talent of note in the farm. The team's current farm rating is propped up by Casteles. Otherwise, it's no where near as crowded as it was in years prior.

"The Foxes are trying to find those finesse arms in the McIntyre/Glavine mold - lefties that love change-ups, pinpoint location, and can out-think the hitters, " one scout commented.

So far, the Foxes have had no sustained success, but seeking finesse in a power pitching meta might be the way to go. The market may not value them, unless and until they rise up to stud levels, potentially giving the Foxes a cheaper source of decent rotation arms.

Finding such sources of talent and revitalizing the farm will be high on the Foxes' priority list in the coming years.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

Two Posted Pitchers - Both
Sign on Same Day

Two NPB pitchers made the leap to the majors via the posting process this offseason and now both have MLB homes, signing with their teams on the same day - and on the same day MLB's free agents hit the street looking for new jobs of their own.

The Foxes landed one of those arms, which came as a shock to many, given how cash-strapped the team is expected to be. SP Shigeru Kikuchi will join the Foxes for the next seven years with a total contract of around $150 million, should Kikuchi exercise his option in the final year.

"We were shocked to be honest. I thought we'd get outbid for him but evidently not, " G.M. Ander Lyle commented.

Kikuchi is well-known in Japan for his hard-nosed, ultra competitive demeanor and he expects the same of his new American teammates.

"I work hard and compete hard, and I expect the same from my new clubhouse, " Kikuchi spoke via translator, "From talking with Mr. Lyle and some of the players during my visit, I was assured that's what I would find here."

There's some question if the "Crazy Foxes", the subset of players on the roster known as much for their antics as their performance, will rub Kikuchi the wrong way, but so far all seems to be well.

On the mound, Kikuchi features a slider and change-up as his best pitches, both capable of very nasty movement when at their best. Command can come and go, however, as a result.

Kikuchi's best season came in 2028, where he posted a 17-4 record with a 1.85 ERA and 221 strikeouts over 165 innings. He led the NPB in WAR among pitchers with a 5.2 mark last season, though he went just 8-13 with a 3.20 ERA.

The other NPB arm, closer Sueo Matsumoto, landed with the Dodgers. That contract is said to be in the area of $27 million for three seasons.

Matusmoto is noted for his ability to take positive charge of a clubhouse and unite a team. That's something the Dodgers front office has made an emphasis, especially with reports of a very polarized reaction to manager John Klely, who signed this season as the new skipper.

"The men have held it together and Matsumoto will help that cause once they get familiar with him. Mookie [Betts] already is ecstatic about Matsumoto's arrival and many of the other players have expressed hope about his influence, " G.M. Andrew Freidman spoke.

On the mound, Matsumoto is a southpaw slinger that can drop his arm angle almost to submarine levels when he wants more deception on his pitches. His cutter and slider feed on that arm angle and it helps the fade on his change-up as well, creating a very nasty combo. Given his style, his command is very strong.

Matsumoto led the NBP in saves four of the last five seasons. He's currently listed as a setup man in the Dodgers bullpen.

[KBLover]

Re: OOTP 20 Franchise Progress Thread

2030's Promising Draft Class
One of the Deepest Drafts May Be Coming

While no one ever knows for sure what a draftee will become or where in the draft the next star is lurking, there are several young hopefuls already burning up the scouting wires as the projected draft class is revealed.

"This is one of the strongest classes I've seen, " one scout commented, "This could be the kind of a draft a team could build on if they get lucky."


There are too many names to list but here's some catching the most press right now.


1B Juan Rodezno, 18 - It's not often you hear about a 18-year-old already projected to become a 50+ home run hitter, but that's the case here. Juan, standing 6' 2", already has a toned frame that scouts could see maturing rapidly when exposed to professional training routines. His bat slices through the hitting zone at eye-popping speeds, and that's translated into a lot of power with 28 of his 46 hits going for extra bases (11 home runs) over just 106 PA.

2B Juan Ventura, 21 - Juan has a lot of projectable habits and mechanics at the plate. Scouts could see him be a solid second baseman as well. This combination sounds good, but there are other scouts that think his stock is too high. "What's between his ears has held him back so far, and why would I think that changes?" one scout commented. The consensus is that Juan could still become a dangerous gap-to-gap hitter with some home run pop.

IF/OF Jeremy Blair, 17 - If there's one universally loved kid in this class, it's Blair. Everyone is in love with his sweet swing and can't believe they are looking at a high school hitter. "Quick hands, balanced stance, decisive swing, what's not to like, " commented one G.M. At such a young age, gaining strength with maturity is not out of the question, and he could also be a versatile fielder. Only blemish on him is he might be too eager to swing, but in light of all the other positives, it is unlikely that any team will shy away from Blair.

SP Jonathan Leffler, 18 - Top pitcher on the board is Leffler, a high-schooler that doesn't have the biggest fastball or the nastiest breaking ball, but he takes the ball, and has an advanced strategy on the mound. "He knows how to add and subtract, how to pace himself, has a simple and repeatable delivery, easy to project him to #2 with possibilities for more, " an NL scout spoke.

SP Kevin Strickland, 20 - Just behind Leffler on the board is Kevin Strickland. This young man has been described as a "closer in a starting pitcher's body". He features a power fastball and a hard splitter, both of them with velocity and movement. "There's some question as to if he'll stick as a starter. There are some that rate him lower as a result or pen him as more a closer or a high-innings, high-leverage reliever instead, but most think he's worth the risk to groom him as a starter, " a Baseball America writer noted. Strickland does have a third pitch, a change up, and that pitch, or any others he might pick up, will be watched closely by his organization.

OF Ryuzaburo Kondo, 18 - Kondo is making waves simply because of his backstory. It is not known how, or why, he left Japan as a 10-year-old, but Kondo became a naturalized American citizen and later enrolled in an American high school to play baseball and enter the draft for MLB instead of the NPB. On the diamond, he's expected to become a solid hitter, not standing out in any aspect, but also not having any real below-average tools, including speed and defense. There's even some murmurs of two-way ability lurking, though that may just be the rumor mill at work.

RP Juan Mendoza, 21 - Mendoza sports the highest velocity in the class, routinely hitting 102-103 MPH on the gun on his heater. Combined with his sidearm delivery and classic two-pitch arsenal, many scouts have him as a definitive closer, and a highly regarded relief prospect. The fastball already looks ready for the majors, it will be the slider that teams will want to see develop for a true one-two combo on the hill.

3B/SP Ben Gunnett, 18 - Unlike Kondo, it's known that Gunnett has two-way aspirations. He has his share of naysayers, but there are also teams, likely those in the lower half of the draft order, that are intrigued by the possibility. It's possible that Gunnett could just become a competent infielder, much like Seth Halvorsen or Luke Leto. If that's the case, third base should be attainable, given his strong throwing arm.