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Re: How do you run your franchise?
I'm in my 4th season of my franchise now.
For the first 3 years, I played every game for the first few weeks. Just to sort of control how my team starts out of the gates. Then I'd sim a couple weeks to let my team's stats normalize a bit (to cool off whatever guy I've been hitting .400 with because I just do great with that guy... or to heat up whatever pitcher or hitter I've been absolutely sucking with because of their stance/delivery... or to let my hitters finally draw a decent numbers of walks, since I don't do much of that). Then I'd start simming every game except the ones against a team who is ahead of me for the division lead when I need to make up ground. Periodically I'd play a road series in a stadium I don't see very often. And periodically I'd play a series against a particularly good team (St. Louis has been challenging to play in recent years because they traded for Jose Reyes and David Wright in separate trades... so their lineup is a murderer's row with Reyes, Wright, Pujols, Holliday, and Rasmus). And periodically I'd play a series against a really awful team just to have fun going out of my way trying to post big stats (sometimes for bench guys to get them involved, and sometimes for starters who need a spark because they're having down years) against wimpy pitching. Then, down the stretch, I play every game if I'm locked in a race for the Wild Card or Division lead. As the season winds down, I play a few games to try and thaw out guys on cold streaks before the playoffs. And play a few games with my September call-ups to get familiar with any youngsters who I'm considering calling up next season. Then I play every playoff game (unless I build up a comfortable series lead, then I sim until/if it gets interesting again).
That involved a lot of simming. More than most, I'm sure. But, then, I'm more interested in building a team in the future, so I know I'm rushing to reach the point where my team features guys I actually drafted (so far, only 1 guy I drafted has made it... and, while he's useful enough now, his ceiling isn't high enough to get me that excited about him long-term). When my team is mostly full of my own pet projects who I handpicked in the draft and oversaw their development, I imagine I'll slow down and savor it more. Especially once I have a handful of homegrown kids who I've decided I'm going to keep around for their whole careers, so I can be apart of it as they accumulate stats over their careers.
In season 4, now, I played opening day. But since then I've only been playing when my #5 starter, who is a rookie, has his turn come around in the rotation. He's not my own hand-picked player, but since I let starters tim Hudson and Jair Jurrjens walk in free agency (Hudson, damn him, went to a team picking too low for me to get their 1st rounder... and Jurrjens signed with division rival Philly), I wanted to control the kid just so I am more in control of my own fate as I infuse the rotation with younger blood. In the early years, I mostly stuck with more established starting pitching, so I'm having fun just controlling the kid, Julio Teheran. And, interestingly, I'm killing with him. Much better than I've done in the past with my typical starting pitching, which has mostly been much better than this kid is right now. I think it's because I'm getting so used to timing his delivery since I'm just controlling 1 guy most of the time. Because now I'm struggling with everybody else I pitch with. I shut them down with Teheran, but then I'm flailing with my relievers. At this rate, I'll play 33-ish games in this season. Which will probably be a tiny bit less than I've usually played, but I'm still pretty engaged in it because I'm becoming so invested in this one pitcher who I'm controlling all the time.
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06-14-2011, 05:00 AM
