MLB The Show 18 Franchise Discussion Thread

[cubbies1744]

Game 2 of the 3 game opening series will feature two lefties in Dallas Keuchel and Jarlin Garcia. The 2019 Chicago Cubs look to build upon there opening day win and look to get off to a hot start in a very stacked division where any mistakes could cost a team the division.

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[cubbies1744]

Game 2 is in the books and it was a lopsided offensive explosion:
The game started out looking to be perhaps another pitchers duel with Dallas Keuchel retiring the first 3 batters he faced. Then in the bottom half Garcia retired almora and rizzo and that's about when the wheels came off as Bryant ripped a single and then Harper drives a gapper for an rbi double, next batter Contreras takes the first pitch he sees deep for a two run shot.
The marlins would get one back in the next inning as Keuchel retired the first two batters before Lewis Brinson takes him deep. The marlins would go on to score one more run the rest of the game on another solo shot.
Dallas Keuchel would work 7.0 strong innings giving up 4 hits and striking out 9.
The Cubs would hit a total of 4 home runs which includes marwin Gonzalez first hit as a cub. The Cubs are thankful they decided to pursue the utility man this past offseason after the retiring of utility man extraordinar Ben Zobrist.
The Cubs are in a great position to lock up and opening series sweep with the offense awaking. Game three will feature Luis Severino vs Adam Conley, after the series finale the Cubs will stay at home to take on their arch rivals the St. Louis cardinals in a quick two game set.

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[Itsma806]

Number999, something similar happened in my franchise. The Twins ended up signing Harper and the Nationals picked up Brian Dozier in the same kinda swap of star players.

Monchado ended up resigning with Baltimore

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[countryboy]

We couldn't pull of the sweep of the Marlins as we lost 11-3 in the series finale. Alex Reyes got lit up as he gave up 9 runs over 1 1/3 innings. We were not able to recover.

Thankfully the Reds lost to the Cubs so we remain 3 1/2 games back as do the Cubs. We are heading to Wrigley for a 4 game set with the Cubs.

While other trades are taking place around the league (nothing blockbuster in recent days) we are holding firm with what we have. Trevor Rosenthal came off the DL but he'll be in Memphis for a few days to a week as we see if he can't find his old self and become a dominant pitcher out of the pen.

[tcsox11]

Swept the Blue Jays in Toronto. Pomeranz was underwhelming again in the series finale but the bullpen and offense bailed him out. With the win, we are 4.5 games ahead of the Yankees as we begin a series with the Rays.

Some bad news from this game: Xander Bogaerts and Hanley Ramirez both had to leave the game vs the Blue Jays due to injury. Bogaerts (back strain) is day to day while Ramirez (calf strain) was placed on the 10 day DL after the game and will miss 1-2 weeks.

[KBLover]

Marlins are proceeding through May still riding a good wave to start the season.

The team has expanded its lead over the Nats to 7 1/2 games and the pitching is trying to settle in now. There's still some hiccups and "wish he was better" moments, but it could be much worse.

The offense is coming along nicely. Seeing Sam Javeri break out of his early slump to peek over .300 is a very welcome sight indeed. The Marlins really wanted to see his OBP skills come back online before starting to feel good about the lineup. While the team was scoring runs, it was coming from other players who were too hot.

That said, the Marlins might have to decide what they want to do with Bo Winter. His defense is becoming a real liability in left field. He misplayed a ball hit by the opposing pitcher into a triple. He completely whiffed on a liner right at him and he was positioned to catch. He's had mental lapses and poor routes. It's clear that side of his game is dropping rapidly.

Unlike Chris Davis, when the Marlins rode his bat until he was 40, Winter has no experience at first base, and even if he did, Ortega would be a tough guy to sit or option to AAA because of the potential in his bat.

It's hard to imagine the Marlins dealing Winter. He just hit his 348th career HR, all of them with the Marlins, and he's a fan favorite for his confident attitude and fierce competitiveness at the plate.

It just might be as hard to imagine Winter is a major league caliber left fielder. And that's where the Marlins are going to have to make a choice. Not helping matter is the fact that Prince Jimenez is ready to go and at the majors working as a pinch hitter.

"We'll see how it goes, " the Marlins manager spoke, "Winter's bat is a big part of the lineup and it's still strong. The defense I think will get back on track. He might have more of these down moments than we're used to, but I think we can let this go. We're winning and he's contributing and a leader in the clubhouse. Hard to do anything to upset that."

[Sumodeads]

Yankees take 2 out of 3 @ Detroit. Our record improves to 12-4. We had great pitching performances by Sonny Gray and Sevvy(4-0, 0.82 ERA) in games 1 and 3 and we won those two games by a combined score of 10-3. The middle game we lost a tough one in 14 innings 4-3, our offense just couldn't get it done. We hit 5 HR in the series, 2 by Judge who now has 8 on the year and 3 by Greg Bird who is getting hot and now has 6 HR and pushed his BA over .300.

Yanks come back home to start a 10 game homestand with 2 vs the Miami, followed by 4 game sets vs Toronto and Minnesota.

[HozAndMoose]

End of May - 2023

The team has been pretty consistent over the first 2 months. We went 15-13 in April followed by 16-13 in May. 31-26 overall. 1 game back of the Tigers for the division lead and half a game back of the A's for the 2nd WC spot. We are 13-13 in the division, 16-13 at home and 15-13 on the road. The Rangers have the best record in the AL at 33-25. The Rockies are the best in the NL at 34-22. White Sox are the worst in the AL at 18-38. Nationals and Braves worst in the NL at 23-33.

The offense has been pretty AVG so far. Maybe slightly below. We are hitting .257/.326/.413 (19th, 19th, 21st). We have scored 242 runs (15th), hit 100 Doubles (5th), 5 Triples (3 way tie for last), and 68 HR (12th). With 196 Walks (10th) and 476 Strikeouts (17th). We have stolen 44 bases (8th) and a 72% success rate (5th).

Stats

Spoiler

• Jorge Soler - .258/.345/.387, 6 HR, 22 RBI
• Jorge Bonifacio - .239/.314/.383, 7 HR, 19 RBI
• Nick Pratto - .256/.314/.468, 11 HR, 37 RBI
• Myles Evans - .259/.340/.360, 3 HR, 12 RBI
• Jim Albrecht - .255/.293/.368, 4 HR, 17 RBI
• Hunter Dozier - .231/.307/.357, 5 HR, 23 RBI
• Salvador Perez - .283/.330/.508, 10 HR, 33 RBI
• Raul Mondesi - .235/.291/.370, 5 HR, 14 RBI
• Ryan O'Hearn - .245/. 327/.442, 7 HR, 16 RBI
• Lorenzo Cain - .301/.379/.612, 7 HR, 22 RBI
  
  
• Chesny Young - .326/.398/.424, 1 HR, 11 RBI
• Cheslor Cuthbert - .340/.441/.540, 2 HR, 10 RBI
• Meibrys Viloria - .167/.222/.214, 2 RBI

No one putting up amazing numbers. Cain has been great against LHP so far. Hitting .385 with 4 HR. Has 3 HR against RHP but the AVG is way down at .216. Quite a few of our guys seem to have that big difference. Soler is hitting .287 against RHP but only .167 against LHP. Dozier is hitting .300 against LHP. Only .205 against RHP. Myles Evans is hitting .333 against LHP and .232 against RHP. He got off to another slow start but has been good lately. Went 4 for 5 in his last game. Nick Pratto got off to a great start. Hit a walkoff HR in the first game of the season. Had a week with 6 HR and was hitting .266 with 8 HR at the end of April. Things were a bit different in May. His AVG dropped all the way down to .234 and hit only 3 HR all month. Salvy has been pretty consistent all year. Power was missing a bit the first month. Hit 6 HR in May. 3 of them in our last game. Starting to run out of patience with Mondesi. That 4 year deal is looking really bad. He has been better than his numbers as of late but overall its just not good. Send him down. Trade him. Idk what to do at this point. Cheslor Cuthbert is gonna start playing against RHP while Dozier sits.

The pitching has been a big part of our success so far. We have a 3.66 ERA (7th), 3 Shutouts (17th), 67 HR HR Allowed (20th), 155 Walks Allowed (3rd) and 454 Strikeouts (20th).

Stats

Spoiler

Jake Junis - 3-3, 3.61 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 48 SO in 72.1 IP
Aaron Nola - 5-2, 4.12 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 69 SO in 74.1 IP
Nolan Watson - 3.79 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 46 SO in 61.2 IP
Jesse Hahn - 5-1, 2.37 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 49 SO in 57 IP
Scott Blewett - 2-3, 4.60 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 55 SO in 58.2 IP
Foster Griffin - 4-3, 3.71 ERA, 1.48 wHIP, 47 SO in 53.1 IP

Kyle Zimmer - 1.65 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 27 SO in 32.3 IP
Jose Torres - 1.73 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 20 SO in 26 IP
Jake Jewell - 4.37 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, 20 SO in 22.2 IP
Emilio Pagan - 6.45 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 24 SO in 22.1 IP
Angel Diaz - 17 SV, 3.72 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 26 SO in 19.1 IP
Kelvin Herrera - 6.19 ERA, 1.56 WHIP, 17 SO in 16 IP

Jesse Hahn has been fantastic this season. Got hurt in his first start after throwing an inning. Missed his next start and has been great since coming back. Scott Blewett struggled a bit and lost his spot in the rotation. He had a 4.67 ERA after 7 starts. Foster Griffin took his spot. Has a 4.14 ERA in 4 starts since. Aaron Nola has struggled a bit in his last couple starts. Gave up 6 runs in 4 IP yesterday.

Zimmer and Torres have been fantastic in the pen. Everyone else not so much. Pagan and Herrera have been absolute trash. Seems like they give up a run every time they come out. Diaz has blown a couple saves and Jake Jewell hasnt been able to find his success from last year. May need to make some moves to sure up the pen around the AS break. Got a couple guys in the minors who might be able to come up and help.

2023 Draft

Spoiler

This draft could go down as the best in team history. 3-4 of our first 5 picks could end up being all stars.

1st - Marshall Haubrich, 18, Catcher - His glove is his best tool. If he doesnt succeed it will be because he never quite figures things out with the bat. I think he can come up in 4-5 years and hit .250 with 15 or so HR. But he will have to work for sure.

CB-A - Manuel Barrios, 22, 2B - He will probably end up being a primary DH. His glove is not good but his bat is pretty much MLB ready. Could come up today and probably hit .275 with 15-20 HR. And could steal about 20 bases.

2nd -Robinson Williams, 22, SS - Mondesi better watch out. His bat is pretty much the same as Barrios. Maybe a little less AVG. Could probably hit .260 or so this year. But his power is a bit better. 20 HR should be easy. And he can defend. He may not be quick enough to stick at SS. But he can absolutely play 2nd and Albrecht could move to short.

3rd - Chester Starr, 22, LF - Needs to work on his fielding. Will probably never be more than an AVG defender at best. But his bat has 30+ HRs in it and he can move well on the bases.

4th - Johnnie Roper, 20, SP - Could be a solid #2 or 3 in a few years. Great at not giving up HR. Not so great at giving guys free bases. Hits the low to mid 90's and throws a 4SFB, Sinker, Slider and Change.

After them its some trash. In the 5th we took 22 year old LF Ken Bunch. And in the 6th we took 22 year old 1B Rick Varner. Both are to old and took weak with the bat to even sign.

Haubrich wont be up for awhile. 4 years at the earliest. Barrios and Williams could both be up around the 2nd half of next year. Starr and Roper will take 2-3 years. Star just need to work on his defense with it looking like DH wont be open for awhile. And Roper needs to get a little better with his command.

Schedule

Spoiler

39 games left before the AS break. 17 games at home and 22 on the road. Only 8 games against teams under .500. I like where we are right now. Think we should stay above .500 for sure and could take a WC spot here in the next couple days.

Quick update. Jesse Hahn has back to back complete game shutouts against the A's. Gave up 3 hits and 2 walks in 18 innings. Also went 8 innings against the Reds. No runs on 3 hits and 1 walk.