MLB The Show 25 Franchise Discussion

[Itsma806]

2025 Houston Astros 03/31-04/02

Overall Record:4-2 (2nd AL West/0.5 behind Seattle)

Game Results:

Game 1
Astros-4
Giants-2

Game 2
Astros-5
Giants-1

Game 3
Astros-6
Giants-4

Astros quadruple first week homerun totals to secure sweep

The Astros had won three straight dating back to their final game of their opening series with the Mets. That streak came via the 7-3 victory over the Mets, a 4-2 win versus San Fran in game one of their second series of 2025 and a 5-1 victory in the second versus the Giants.

Game three saw Framber Valdez make his second start of the year after losing his first. He again saw his team down early in the game after Mike Yastrzemski singled in a run in the first inning to give the Giants the 1-0 lead.

The Astros offense had trouble getting to the Giants starter, Logan Webb but were finally able to get on the board with a two rbi single by Brendan Rodgers in the fifth inning as the Astros took the 2-1 lead.

Webb was takin out in the 6th inning and the Astros after only having one homerun in the first five games, hit two in that inning off of reliever, Tristan Beck to at the time, take the lead, 4-2.

The Giants fought back however as they scored one more off of Valdez and another off of Josh Hader in the ninth to give him his first blown save and to tie the game at 4-4 entering the bottom of the ninth.

Then, Jose Altuve had his first signature moment of 2025 as with two outs and Chas Mccormick on first, Altuve took a Tyler Rogers slider into the Crawford boxes for his first homerun of 2025 and the walkoff 6-4 victory to give the Astros their first sweep of 2025.

Houston (4-2) will now hit the road for the first time in 2025 as they travel to Minnesota (4-2) to take on the Twins in a three game series with a game off in between games one and two.

[Cyrus09]

Quote: Originally Posted by franch1se

Through 10 games the NL West is a mess San Diego 5-5 Arizona 5-5 Colorado 3-6 LA 3-8 SF 2-7 Despite Jackson Merrill starting slow (0-15) he's since 13-24 and hitting .333 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. Jason Heyward has found the fountain of youth as he's hitting .371 with 2 HR and 7 RBI. .421 OBP and slugging .686 Manny Machado has been the catalyst on offense hitting .341 with 5 HR and 9 RBI. Luis Arraez continues to do nothing but hit as he's sitting at .340 himself. Now we need to get Fernando Tatis Jr going. He's hitting a low .227 with 3 HR.

It really looks like the game doesn't like the Dodgers this year. Every simulation I see they come out of the gates extreme slow.

Quote: Originally Posted by franch1se

what do you guys do with struggling stars? I'm 10-6 now after going on a bit of a run but I Have Tatis hitting .175 right now. Just can't hit with him. Can't really sit him because I don't have anyone else worth playing and he's still one of my best players. I do have 5 HR's with him but thats all I can seem to do, and to be honest most of his hits/HR have been when simmed. Move him down in the lineup? Give an extra day off?

I try it with off-days as well and if that doesn't work I change up the lineup a bit. Usually one or the other helps, even though I'm not sure if it wouldn't work if I let everything just play out. I mean, the season is long and a slump here and there should be natural.

[countryboy]

Cardinals bats no show in Phillies series

The Cardinals (7-8) dropped another series, this time at home to the Phillies. The Cardinals bats were non-existent in the series, although they somehow managed to win Saturday thanks to a single swing by Nolan Gorman, 3 run homerun, after Wynn and Donovan reached via walk and error. The Cardinals were able to win 3-2.

Friday and Sunday the Cardinals scored a total of 3 runs while the Phillies scored 11. The Cardinals bullpen was strong outside of Andre Pallante who gave up 6 runs combined in the series.

The Cardinals will remain home as they welcome the Astros to town for a 3 game series.

[H2UKNOW]

How do you guys run 30-team franchises? What are your settings and strategy to keep things realistic?

[D Tom]

Quote: Originally Posted by H2UKNOW

How do you guys run 30-team franchises? What are your settings and strategy to keep things realistic?

It's all in the details. Editing lineups and rotations to actually make sense. Adding a little bit of player input into the lineups (like Judge prefers batting second irl, but the game always puts him at 3rd). On top of that, it's good to make sure that realistic trades and free agent pickups happen. You will always see a young player who has A potential being listed by the CPU because it thinks that there's too many players in that position. Last year it was Jackson Holliday who was always on the block. That will not be entertained anytime soon irl.

Also the CPU never bolsters its lineup to account for injuries. Players may go down for multiple months, but the game just wants to call up a ~60 something rated player and keep it moving. Not very realistic for most franchises.

[kinsmen7]

Quote: Originally Posted by H2UKNOW

How do you guys run 30-team franchises? What are your settings and strategy to keep things realistic?

I have the CPU profile all set to auto, and for the most part, I let the rest of the league run on it's own.

The few things that I will tinker with throughout the year is if there are some ridiculous trades...like @D Tom mentioned, Jackson Holliday is ALWAYS on the block in '24 (I've seen some people post about him again in '25 which is wild), but if there are just some random trades, or a team is loading up for the playoff run, I'll let a lot slide.

Another thing that I'll touch once in a while is a CPU team's 40 man roster...If there's a real-life prospect that's called up and is playing well, I'll add him and/or do a little ratings adjustment. Progression/regression has never been *great* in this game, so I like to help out once in a while.

At the end of the day, I know it sounds a bit overwhelming for some when you talk about controlling all 30 teams, but I'd say I actually deal with another team once every 15-20 games...I don't really care how their lineups are set up, but I also want to make sure that most teams have 8 relievers in the pen.

[Flightwhite24]

Does anyone have a link to set up 30 team control? I struggle getting this set up every year. I’m ready to start my season now. Thanks


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[Cyrus09]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jeffrey Smith

Pink Gorilla high performer? Is this a you thing or is this something in the presentation package?

That is totally a me thing. I thought about picking a sponsor for that "segment" since that is a 2025 sports thing to do. Pink Gorilla Games is a very cool(from the looks of it) used game store in Seattle that is not just all about profit. Plus the owner is a very cool content creator AND a huge baseball fan. So that was a very fitting choice!

So, the journey continues...

The 2025 Seattle Mariners

Series Recap: Detroit Tigers
Game 1: W 4-1
Game 2: L 1-3
Game 3: L 1-4
The Pink Gorilla Games high performer of the series: Julio Rodriguez: 7 hits, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 stolen bases

The first game was a very strong one: Bryce Miller pitched 6 scoreless innings with 7 strikeouts and only 5 hits and 1 walk. Julio stole 2 bases and went 4/4, scoring 2 runs of the 4 for the Mariners.

The second game was a sign, to what could be the problem this season: The bench is very rough for Seattle. Tellez rotated in at 1st, Canzone in right field, Ryan Bliss played 2nd due to fatigue to the main guys and it couldn't go worse to start. In the first inning the Tigers got on base because Tellez first couldn't catch a throw out to first after a pitch in the dirt strikeout. The next play Canzone struggled with a fly ball near the wall and the Tigers scored from that.
On offense the Mariners just could not hit against Manning with only 5 hits in 6.1 innings and just 1 against the bullpen for the rest of the game. With so many replacements in the lineup it was tough to get anything going. The 4 bench players combined for 1 hit.

Game 3 you could call a schedule loss, because that was the Skubal start. He pitched 6 innings with 7 strikeouts and only allowed 2 hits all game. On the other end Riley Greene had a great day, scoring 2 HR of Gregory Santos and Shintaro Fujinami. The two had to go multiple innings because starter Luis Castillo had to leave the game in the first inning with a strained pec. He will miss at least 1 start for sure with that injury, maybe 2. That is a tough one as well, since the Mariners don't really have depth behind the 5 starters. Emerson Hancock will get a chance as the replacement.

It was a tough series, because it really showed the problems with the depth in a brutal fashion. It is okay to give up the DH spot from time to time, but if you need to replace at least one player for rest reasons the offense collapses.

Next up is a series at the Giants, another tough matchup for our offense. At least there is a rest day inbetween, so maybe not that many replacements necessary to start the series.