MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

[decga]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

Finished the first half of the season at 44-47, 5 1/2 games behind the Reds. We did take 2 out of 3 against the Blue Jays in Toronto, but lost the final game of the series on a walkoff homerun by Tony Sanchez. Harrison Bader hit a solo shot with 2 outs and 2 strikes off of Aroldis Chapman to tie the game in the top of the 9th. But Freeman's 3-2 fastball that was supposed to be on the hands of Sanchez, leaked out over the plate and he belted it to left for the win. While we obviously haven't played well in the first half of the season we are still within striking distance of both the Reds and the wildcard. We will definitely have to play better in the 2nd half, but I think that is possible as we are hitting better and our pitching is pretty solid, although the bullpen has been shaky at times, but we are working to improve it. Next up is the Futures Game followed by the MLB All-Star Game and then the AAA All-Star game before the second half of the season starts with 3 games at home against the Marlins.

Who's your rep in the Mid-Summer classic? Are you playing the MLB All Star game?

[countryboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by decga

Who's your rep in the Mid-Summer classic? Are you playing the MLB All Star game?

It will either be Michael Wacha or Matt Carpenter I'm thinking. Nobody else really up there.

Yes I play all the All-Star games.

[Rocket32]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bgmoneyt77

May be a dumb question but only curious, are you guys actually playing these games or simming them? Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

I simmed a bit but I’m a few days in to September and I’m going to start playing every single game from that point forwards, not just the rest of the season and postseason but in the franchise, except future Spring Training games. Won’t be playing Spring Training games until it gets some love from the devs in a future version of The Show.

[Sumodeads]

This weekend I did a restart to my New York Yankees franchise after all the patches and roster additions. This one I will be riding out and playing all 162+ playoffs and hopefully World Series!

I run my franchises with 12 pitchers and 13 pos players. I currently have Montgomery and Warren healthy with German and Cole in the minors. I have the Yankees current pos players active + Drury.

We just completed the first 3 series of the 2018 season and we have opened up HOT! All 3 series were vs divisional opponents, so it's a great start to the year for our club. Here's the results of each series:

@Toronto- Won 3 out of 4. Outscored them 35-11. We hit 14 HR. Sevvy pitched a CG with 1 ER and 11 Ks on opening day.

VS Tampa Bay- We swept 2 out of 2. Outscored them 7-1. We hit just 2 HR. CC pitched a CG shutout in the home opener.

VS Baltimore- We won 3 out of 4. Outscored them 20-11. We hit 9 HR. In game 4 of the series, tied at 2-2 with 2 outs in the bottom of the tenth Gleyber Torres hit a Walk off BOMB to Left Center on a hanging slider from Michael Gyvens.

We are in first place with the Rays in 2nd at 5-5. Toronto is in 3rd at 4-7. Boston has started slow at 3-6 in 4th and Baltimore is at the bottom at 3-8.

Our pitching has been off the charts so far and we have been BOMBING the ball with 25 HR through 10 games. Judge hit 3 HR on opening day but has only hit one since despite hitting the ball very well(.421 avg). Stanton started 2 for 14 with no HR or RBI and then game 4 at Toronto he was 3 for 5 with 3 HR and 9 RBIs including 2 GRAND SLAMS...a feat I cannot remember accomplishing in all my years of the SHOW. He now has 6 HR and 15 RBI. Sanchize, however has homered 8 times already and he sat one game out. I just seem to absolutely murder the ball with Gary. He's sporting a .400 avg and has knocked in 14 runs.

First series with Boston coming up as we head to Fenway for a 3 game weekday set after an off day!

[countryboy]

American League defeated the National League 4-2 in the All-Star game. As the NL we jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first as Strasburg was struggling to the tune of 32 pitches in the first inning. But in the 4th, my old friend Madison Bumgarner gave up a 2 run homerun to Mike Moustakas to tie the game and then the AL added another run to make it 3-2. Fast forward to the 7th where Eric Hosmer takes Oberholtzer deep to make it 4-2.

Our only representative was Dioner Navarro, the catcher I traded for. If it wasn't for him not sure who we would've had as our rep..

2nd half of the season coming up after the AAA All-Star game.

[mlblover15]

well, I got my winning streak all the way to 18 games until the Rays and just got very lucky and my offense was in hit into double play mode all game long. gave up a lead of home run to Malic Smith and that was all their pitcher needed to carry out the win over us and to snap our illustrious win streak.

However to end the month of may and our homestand we won the series finale and hopefully can carry a new win streak in June.

the Orioles are leading the AL East with a record of 36-22. they have aa 3.0 game lead over the Blue Jays.


The Cleveland Indians are leading the AL Central with a record of 32-23. they have a 6.0 game lead over the Kansas City Royals

The Oakland A's lead the AL West with a record of 42-15. the have an astonishing 13.5 game lead over the Seattle Mariners.

As of right now the Blue Jays and the Yankees are virtually tied for the AL Wild Card lead. The rays are just 3.0 games back.

The Washington Nationals are currently leading the NL East with a record of 30-27. they hold a slim 1.0 game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Chicago Cubs are standing atop the NL Central with a record of 38-17. they hold a commanding lead over second-place St. Louis with an 8.0 game lead.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are looking like the defending NL champs they are with a record of 42-14. the nearest of teams to them is the San Francisco Giants a distant 12.0 games back.

It is the Cardinals and the Giants respectively that hold down the top two Wild Card spots. The Milwaukee Brewers are just a half game back with the Phillies behind the at just one game back

I start June out with a quick five-game road trip to Kansas City )27-30) and then off to the hot south of Texas to take on the rangers.

we will see how hot I can get as the weather begins to heat up as well.

[bravesfan1984]

Quote: Originally Posted by decga

Since we both as a Braves fan. I do follow the alternate home uni (cream) during weekend series. As far as the road uni's I go back and forth. I like the alternate the best but a variety keeps it fresh.

In my Braves franchise I plan on wearing the 1972 throwbacks permanently since they are by far my favorite of all.

[HozAndMoose]

End of Season - 2022

An extremely disappointing season has come to an end. We finish with a record of 77-85. Last place in the division and 2nd to last in the AL. It looked like we had turned a corner at the start of September. After starting the month 9-2 we were 2 games under .500 at 71-73. But we quickly reverted back to being bums and finished the season going 6-12.

Standings

Spoiler

The offense was pretty consistent over the 2nd half. We finished the year hitting .253/.323/.405 (22nd, 23rd, 22nd). We had 666 Runs (17th), 265 Doubles (21st), 26 Triples (20th), 177 HR (17th), 98 SB (20th), .609 SB% (26th), 552 Walks (15th) and 1200 Strikeouts (2nd).

Stats

Spoiler

Mondesi took a major step back in basically every category. Easily his worst season since 2017. Its pretty clear he isnt gonna become the guy a lot of people hopped he would. But he can be a hell of a lot better than he was this. And we are tied to him for the next 3 years so hopefully we can turn it around.

Nick Pratto had the biggest turn around this season. 2nd in HRs and RBI and beat out Twins 1B Lewin Diaz for Rookie of the Year. Expecting him to be quite a bit better next year. Think he can hit closer to .275/.350/.500 with 30+ HR.

Jorge Bonifacio had his ups and downs. At times he looked like he found his old swing when he hit 38 HR. And then he would turn around and look like Modnesi for 2 weeks. Still holding out hope that he can get back to how good he was in 2019 and 2020.

Jorge Soler's contract looks like a bargain right now. Got his 5 year deal in the offseason and proceeded to have the best season of his career. Most Runs, HR and RBI. Highest OPS of his career and had career bests in BB% and K%. Also moved back to playing RF majority of the time and while not great he only had 4 errors in 1000+ innings. Easily our best hitter and with Salvy turning 32 next year he could end up being our best player overall.

Salvy slowed down a bit over the 2nd half. First time since 2018 he didn't hit 27 HR and the 21 was his lowest total in a full season since 2015. Finally committed an error as well. Played in 138 games. His most since 2016. Meibrys Viloria looked good this year so Salvy may start to get a few more days off next season.

Myles Evans finally started to figure things out over the last 5 weeks or so. On August 21st he was hitting .219. Raised that up to .245 and started to drive the ball more. He is gonna have to fight for a spot in ST next year. But we dont have many guys capable of playing CF and Bubba isnt much better with the bat so it wont be hard for him to win.

O'Hearn had that one good month before turning into his 2nd half version. Didnt hit for much power or AVG after the break. Still fairly good at getting on base but that was noticeably worse as well. He could be looking at lost playing time with Pratto hitting better and being the best option defensively at 1st.

Jim Albrecht and hitting coach Gary Inaba got things figured out over the 2nd half. Found some power in his swing and started taking more walks. I think this could be the last season he hits under .300 for a very long time. Only going to be 22 at the start of next season.

Hunter Dozier was a lot like Jorge Bonifacio. One week he would look great. The next we were ready to bench him. Ended up breaking his ankle causing him to miss the last month. He wasnt completely useless like he had been in the past. Just not as good as he was last season.

Cheslor Cuthbert should have gotten more ABs. I think if I had gave him time he could have figured things out. But thats hard to do when he is hitting under .220 for most of the season. Was pretty good when taking over for Dozier at 3rd to end the season. He has a player option for next season and id be surprised if he declined it. If he does we would probably just let him walk. Try and bring in another guy thats a little more versatile.

Chesny Young came over after we cut Whit Merrifield in early May. Can play all over the field and was a pretty good option at the plate for most of the year.

The pitching was not able to build on a strong end to the first half. ERA dropped back down to 4.15 (23rd), we had 8 Shutouts (24th), 733 Runs allowed (27th), 195 HR allowed (24th), 499 Walks allowed (6th) and 1211 strikeouts (26th).

Stats

Spoiler

Jesse Hahn had a higher WAR than last season (2.7 to 2.0). But his ERA was over half a run higher. He had less IP and more Walks. He was able to lower his HRs though. Needed him to be alot better than he was with Duffy failing to do much good at all.

Jake Junis was great over the 2nd half. 3.00 ERA with a 1.08 WHIP and 72 SO in 78 IP. Probably going to get the opening day start next year and hopefully he can pick up where he left off.

Zack Greinke was also much better over the 2nd half. 3.49 ERA over his last 80 innings and in our last game of the year. Possibly the last of his career. He went 9 innings. Gave up 1 run on 6 hits and struck out 8 to beat the Pirates. His 1 run really wasn't even his fault. Bonifacio dove for a ball in the OF and let it get past him.

Duffy on the other hand was absolute garbage. 6.31 ERA and a 1.72 WHIP over his last 61.1 IP. At this point I have zero expectations for him next year. May just throw him in the pen and ride it out. We have a club option on him for 2024 and I see no way we pick it up.

Nolan Watson was even better than his stats show. Had 1 bad start where he gave up 7 runs in 3 IP. Take that game away and he had a 3.14 ERA in 77.1 IP. Struggled to get through 6 innings a bit which is why he had just 5 Quality starts. Very impressed and should have a spot in the rotation to start next season.

The pen was pretty good overall. Torres and Pagan werent as good as they were when we traded for them last year but we have had much worse. Kelvin Herera had a much better season than he did in 2021. And after struggling early Angel Diaz ended up having a solid season as the closer. Kyle Zimmer somehow had negative WAR but he was a lot better than that I believe. And Jake Jewell was a nice surprise. Had a 6.17 ERA in 65 IP heading into this season. Overall the pen was good but he was really the only guy top exceed expectations.

Top Prospects

Spoiler

It was not a good season for a lot of guys down in the minors. M.J. Melendez had his worst season so far. Shelby Stone has yet to hit like we expected him to. Khalil Lee has great defense but his bat has yet to show up. Tommy Nielsen has the best potential in the organization but has yet to put it all together. Our deepest position SS couldn't hit if you combined all their talents. It wasn't all bad though. Wesley Wright and Edgar Gallegos look to be our future #1 and 2. Enrique Mendoza was our best hitter in the minors after missing 90% of last season. And Geraldo Aybar was possibly our best starter once he made it to AA. Not sure he can keep it up over a full season though.

Awards

Spoiler

League Leaders

Spoiler

Playoffs

Spoiler

AL Post Season MVP - Teoscar Hernandez (.357, 2 HR, 8 RBI)
NL Post Season MVP - Willson Contreras (.362, 4 HR, 12 RBI)
World Series MVP - Teoscar Hernandez (.429, 1 HR, 6 RBI)