Expansion team?

[DannoMack]

Let me preface this by saying I have a propensity for having dumb ideas and convincing myself that they're amazing, so feel free to burst my bubble and tell me this idea is dumb if it is, I won't be offended!

Anyway, ever since I played EA's NHL 2000 over a decade ago, where there was an option to expansion-draft the Atlanta Thrashers from a list of pre-determined unprotected NHL players, I have been a huge fan of the idea of expansion teams in sports video games. Unfortunately, that option is extremely rare in games.

Recently, a friend and I were messing around with a two-player Show '10 fantasy draft franchise using Knight's great rosters, and my buddy started drafting a team of the best prospects in baseball. In response, I decided to field a team made up only of guys over the age of 40. By the end of the fantasy draft, my youngest player was 38, and my highest-rated player was Trevor Hoffman.

Needless to say, my team did not do well that first season. Also, as one might imagine, most of my MLB roster retired in the off-season as well. Because of my poor season, signing free-agents appeared to be a lost cause, and so I decided to re-stock my major league roster through the rule 5 draft, which was similar to building an expansion franchise.

To the point: Has anyone here ever emptied their 25man roster and picked an entirely new squad through the rule 5 draft? Is there another way of creating an expansion franchise experience that I have not discovered? If I simmed a season, emptied my roster, and started over again with 40-man castoffs only, would anyone be interested in following updates on that franchise?

Feel free to tell me this idea is dumb and I am a nerd with too much time on my hands... haha, I won't be offended.

[DannoMack]

Re: Expansion team?

I am going ahead with this for my own benefit so I drafted myself a roster of wily vets (which I will post below). I chose the Orioles because the GM contract for them is 5 years and has very low difficulty franchise goals, so I won't get fired for fielding a team of geriatrics and then a team of Rule 5 castoffs, and I used the latest live rosters. If there's no interest in updates about this I won't annoy people by bumping this thread anymore after this.

Here is your 2010 Icepack All-Star team (ages appear after each player's name):

SP Brian Moeheler 38
SP Tim Wakefield 43
SP Pedro Martinez 38
SP Jamie Moyer 47
SP Paul Byrd 39

RP Takashi Saito 40
RP Darren Oliver 39
RP Arthur Rhodes 40
RP Darren Oliver 39
RP Alan Embree 40
RP David Weathers 40
RP Jose Contreras 38

CP Trevor Hoffman 42

C Jorge Posada 38
C Brad Ausmus 40

1B Jim Thome 39
1B Jason Giambi 39

2B Mark Grudzielanek 39

3B Melvin Mora 38

SS Omar Visquel 42
SS Craig Counsell 39

LF Gary Sheffield 41
LF Garret Anderson 37

CF Jim Edmonds 39

RF Ken Griffey Jr. 40
RF Matt Stairs 42

And some AAA guys for good measure:
RP Miguel Batista 39
RP Scot Schoenweiz 36
CP Armando Benitez 37
C Mike Redmond 38
C Henry Blanco 38
C Greg Zaun 38
2B Miguel Cairo 38
3B Geoff Blum 36

Thanks for reading!

[Dienerbird55]

Re: Expansion team?

I really have to try this idea. This sounds like fun, building up a dynasty from nothing. Great idea!

[DannoMack]

Re: Expansion team?

I really have to try this idea. This sounds like fun, building up a dynasty from nothing. Great idea!

If you do try, post updates, I'm interested in this stuff.

[DannoMack]

Re: Expansion team?

Alright, that one reply has bolstered my resolve that this is a good idea, so I will post another update. I just simmed the first season, made no adjustments to lineups or rotations except in the case of injuries (which were surprisingly rare considering the age of the club). I will be doing the expansion draft part another day. Until then, here are some stats for the Icepack All Stars season, or as we shall now call it "The Season That Never Was":


Note: Matt Stairs broke his ankle on opening day and was placed on 60-day DL. Utility man Geoff Blum was called up to replace him. Blum, at age 36, instantly became the youngest man on the Orioles. Everyone was looking over their shoulder wondering if this young hotshot from AAA was going to steal their jobs!

ALL STAR BREAK:
The club managed two all-stars. Jorge Posada (who had 15hr, 54rbi and a .308avg at the all-star break) was the American League's starting catcher, while Tim Wakefield (7-4, 3.43ERA, 64k at the break) made it as a pitcher. Both of these gentlemen kept up their stellar play for the remainder of the season, as you can see below.

END OF SEASON:
The team finished the season at 80-82, good enough for 3rd place in the AL East behind 1-Tor and 2-Nyy (Tor went on to lose the World Series to the Cardinals)

Awards:
Backup Left Fielder Garret Anderson won the 2010 Silver Slugger award despite only getting 476 at bats in 123 games-played.

SP Brian Moehler, backup C Brad Ausmus, 2B Mark Grudzielanek, SS Omar Visquel, CF Jim Edmonds all won gold gloves, but that should be taken with a grain of salt because in a tie it seems that gold gloves always to go to Baltimore for whatever reason.

SEASON STATS THAT NEVER WERE:
Pitchers (W-L, ERA, SOs, SVs)
SP Brian Moehler 12-8, 5.72, 82k
SP Pedro Martinez 8-13, 5.08, 124k
SP Tim Wakefield 15-5, 3.24, 106k
SP Jamie Moyer 4-15, 7.29, 72k
SP Paul Byrd 11-10, 5.64, 83k
RP Jose Contreras 5-3, 4.25, 79k
RP David Weathers 8-6, 3.24, 76k, 1sv
RP Arthur Rhodes 6-7, 3.22, 111k
RP Alan Embree 7-4, 3.38, 55k, 1sv
RP Takashi Saito 3-4, 3.26, 65k, 3sv
RP Darren Oliver 1-5, 3.94, 38k, 4sv
CP Trevor Hoffman 0-2, 4.50, 33k, 36sv

Hitters (BA, HR, RBI)
3B Melvin Mora .259, 14, 52
C Jorge Posada .312, 32, 98
LF Gary Sheffield .298, 25, 79
1B Jim Thome .251, 28, 85
CF Jim Edmonds .289, 34, 116
RF Ken Griffey Jr .288, 20, 78
RF Matt Stairs .275, 14, 39
2B Mark Grudz .273, 9, 64
SS Omar Visquel .248, 4, 51
C Brad Ausmus .229, 2, 15
1B Jason Giambi .221, 15, 46
SS Craig Counsell .262, 2, 22
LF Garret Anderson, .326, 15, 67 *SILVER SLUGGER*
UTIL Geoff Blum .246, 1, 19

After that season, the Following guys retired due to age from the club:
C Brad Ausmus, RP Miguel Batista, SP Paul Byrd, SS Craig Counsell, RP Alan Embree, 1B Jason Giambi, RF Ken Griffey Jr., 2B Mark Gruz, SP Jamie Moyer, RP Darren Oliver, C Jorge Posada, RP Arthur Rhodes, LF Gary Sheffield, 1B Jim Thome, SS Omar Visquel, SP Tim Wakefield

That's 15 of the 25 MLB players (Batista spent the year in AAA). The rest of my team (including Hoffman and Stairs, both 43yrs old now) stuck it out and did not retire, leaving ten men on my MLB roster. 9 of those men were free agents (Hoffman a Type A, Saito a type B), and I allowed them to walk with no arbitration offered. That left 1 man on my MLB roster, 41 yr old David Weathers, who had two years of his contract remaining. I released him, and then the remaining fantasy draft guys who spent last year in AAA. I also allowed Geoff Blum to walk away.

That's all for now til the Expansion Draft!

[Dienerbird55]

Re: Expansion team?

Are you going to touch Free Agency at all that first offseason?

[DannoMack]

Re: Expansion team?

Hmmm, no. I'm going to pick 25 guys in the rule-5 draft and those guys will be my opening day roster. I might pick up a few guys once the season starts to fill out my minor league spots, but I won't send down a single one of my rule-5 picks because I won't want to lose them.

After playing a full season with a team of rule-5ers though, I'll likely be very keen on making a run at a free agent or two, haha.

[dc634]

Re: Expansion team?

Hmmm, no. I'm going to pick 25 guys in the rule-5 draft and those guys will be my opening day roster. I might pick up a few guys once the season starts to fill out my minor league spots, but I won't send down a single one of my rule-5 picks because I won't want to lose them.

After playing a full season with a team of rule-5ers though, I'll likely be very keen on making a run at a free agent or two, haha.

I have to try this out...lol...Please keep me updated, it sounds fun...:wink:

And by the way, do you sim a lot of your games, or play them all??

Thanks

[DannoMack]

Re: Expansion team?

I have to try this out...lol...Please keep me updated, it sounds fun...:wink:

And by the way, do you sim a lot of your games, or play them all??

Thanks

Well I simmed that first season because it didn't realllllllly matter, but I'll be playing a fair amount of games with my expansion club, at least right off the bat. However, I will definitely sim a good chunk as well, because this experiment is about building a dynasty from an expansion state up, not so much about trying to grind out a mid-May win with a team of Rule 5ers.

I have completed the expansion draft, stay tuned for that!

[DannoMack]

Re: Expansion team?

In The Season That Never Was, I allowed the CPU to auto-draft my rookies for me, and then didn't sign them, because I wanted to start completely from scratch. One of those guys was an A-potential 1B prospect who would have stepped in as my best-rated hitter on this new club right away, so that will give you an indication of what I shall be working with this season. (however this fulfilled one of my contract goals of "draft an all-star potential player". Along with Jorge Posada being my "starter in an all star game" I am two goals down on my requirements in a season that never really happened)

Also, in order to make it more realistic, I decided to empty my entire system in the off-season, releasing every single person in the minors. It was funny to go to manage roster and have literally 0 players to manage. On the last day of the off-season, I filled my AAA and AA with the bare minimum of D and F potential free agents, so as to not give myself any sort of head-start of having a big prospect or tradeable asset down there.

##########EXPANSION DRAFT##########

About half-way through the draft, I realised that people might have been more interested in reading these updates if I'd done this with real rosters, so that they could see which players their real-life favourite teams discarded. If enough people want me to, I will scrap this season and do it all over again with real rosters (instead of fantasy draft), but once I get into this season I won't be scrapping it, so let me know quick.

I decided to only draft players who are real, and not take any of the fake minor leaguers generated in the rosters, again for maximum authenticity. Here is how it went:

Rd1: SP Francisco Liriano (LAA)
Rd2: CP Matt Lindstrom (STL)
Rd3: LF Gerardo Parra (OAK)
Rd4: SP Kyle Davies (ATL)
Rd5: CP Manuel Corpas (ARI)
Rd6: RF Clete Thomas (LAA)
Rd7: 1B Michael Aubrey (STL)
Rd8: SP Clayton Richard (CHC)
Rd9: SP Daniel McCutchen (BOS)
Rd10: CF Tony Gwynn Jr. (KC)
Rd11: C Raul Chavez (STL)
Rd12: 2B Jeff Baker (MIN)
Rd13: SS Diory Hernandez (COL)
Rd14: 3B Jose Bautista (SF)
Rd15: RP Scott Elbert (DET)
Rd16: RP Fabio Castro (CLE)
Rd17: SP Armando Gallaraga (LAD)
Rd18: RP Javier Lopez (CWS)
Rd19: CP Leo Nunez (NYY)
Rd20: SP Josh Towers (SEA)
Rd21: C George Kottaras (KC)
Rd22: LF Wladimir Balentien (NYY)
Rd23: LF Delwyn Young (PIT)
Rd24: 3B Alberto Calaspo (NYM)
Rd25: 2B Alexei Casilla (COL)

If I'd been thinking, I would have tried to make sure I only took one player from each orginisation, because a couple of teams lost more than one player. If I ever try to do this with a non-fantasy draft franchise I will make sure to only take one player from each organisation.

That left me with the following 25-man MLB roster:
SP Francisco Liriano
SP Kyle Davies
SP Clayton Richard
SP Daniel McCutchen
SP Armando Gallaraga
RP Manuel Corpas
RP Leo Nunez
RP Josh Towers
RP Javier Lopez
RP Scott Elbert
RP Fabio Castro
CP Matt Lindstrom

C Raul Chavez
C George Kottaras
1B Michael Aubrey
2B Jeff Baker
2B Alexei Casilla
SS Diory Hernandez
3B Jose Bautista
SS Alberto Calaspo

OF Gerardo Parra
OF Wladimir Balentien
OF Delwyn Young
OF Tony Gwynn Jr.
OF Clete Thomas

On opening day, I picked through the remaining free agents (so I would have someone with a smidgen of talent there to call up in case of injury) and added:

OF Jorge Padilla
OF Jason Repko
OF Justin Huber
2B Brooks Conrad
1B Chris Richard
C Chris Giminez

And put in waiver claims on the following to hopefully act as AAA bullpen co-aces:
RP Blaine Boyer (TOR)
RP Chris Sampson (FLA)

That's all for now!

[dc634]

Re: Expansion team?

In The Season That Never Was, I allowed the CPU to auto-draft my rookies for me, and then didn't sign them, because I wanted to start completely from scratch. One of those guys was an A-potential 1B prospect who would have stepped in as my best-rated hitter on this new club right away, so that will give you an indication of what I shall be working with this season. (however this fulfilled one of my contract goals of "draft an all-star potential player". Along with Jorge Posada being my "starter in an all star game" I am two goals down on my requirements in a season that never really happened)

Also, in order to make it more realistic, I decided to empty my entire system in the off-season, releasing every single person in the minors. It was funny to go to manage roster and have literally 0 players to manage. On the last day of the off-season, I filled my AAA and AA with the bare minimum of D and F potential free agents, so as to not give myself any sort of head-start of having a big prospect or tradeable asset down there.

##########EXPANSION DRAFT##########

About half-way through the draft, I realised that people might have been more interested in reading these updates if I'd done this with real rosters, so that they could see which players their real-life favourite teams discarded. If enough people want me to, I will scrap this season and do it all over again with real rosters (instead of fantasy draft), but once I get into this season I won't be scrapping it, so let me know quick.

I decided to only draft players who are real, and not take any of the fake minor leaguers generated in the rosters, again for maximum authenticity. Here is how it went:

Rd1: SP Francisco Liriano (LAA)
Rd2: CP Matt Lindstrom (STL)
Rd3: LF Gerardo Parra (OAK)
Rd4: SP Kyle Davies (ATL)
Rd5: CP Manuel Corpas (ARI)
Rd6: RF Clete Thomas (LAA)
Rd7: 1B Michael Aubrey (STL)
Rd8: SP Clayton Richard (CHC)
Rd9: SP Daniel McCutchen (BOS)
Rd10: CF Tony Gwynn Jr. (KC)
Rd11: C Raul Chavez (STL)
Rd12: 2B Jeff Baker (MIN)
Rd13: SS Diory Hernandez (COL)
Rd14: 3B Jose Bautista (SF)
Rd15: RP Scott Elbert (DET)
Rd16: RP Fabio Castro (CLE)
Rd17: SP Armando Gallaraga (LAD)
Rd18: RP Javier Lopez (CWS)
Rd19: CP Leo Nunez (NYY)
Rd20: SP Josh Towers (SEA)
Rd21: C George Kottaras (KC)
Rd22: LF Wladimir Balentien (NYY)
Rd23: LF Delwyn Young (PIT)
Rd24: 3B Alberto Calaspo (NYM)
Rd25: 2B Alexei Casilla (COL)

If I'd been thinking, I would have tried to make sure I only took one player from each orginisation, because a couple of teams lost more than one player. If I ever try to do this with a non-fantasy draft franchise I will make sure to only take one player from each organisation.

That left me with the following 25-man MLB roster:
SP Francisco Liriano
SP Kyle Davies
SP Clayton Richard
SP Daniel McCutchen
SP Armando Gallaraga
RP Manuel Corpas
RP Leo Nunez
RP Josh Towers
RP Javier Lopez
RP Scott Elbert
RP Fabio Castro
CP Matt Lindstrom

C Raul Chavez
C George Kottaras
1B Michael Aubrey
2B Jeff Baker
2B Alexei Casilla
SS Diory Hernandez
3B Jose Bautista
SS Alberto Calaspo

OF Gerardo Parra
OF Wladimir Balentien
OF Delwyn Young
OF Tony Gwynn Jr.
OF Clete Thomas

On opening day, I picked through the remaining free agents (so I would have someone with a smidgen of talent there to call up in case of injury) and added:

OF Jorge Padilla
OF Jason Repko
OF Justin Huber
2B Brooks Conrad
1B Chris Richard
C Chris Giminez

And put in waiver claims on the following to hopefully act as AAA bullpen co-aces:
RP Blaine Boyer (TOR)
RP Chris Sampson (FLA)

That's all for now!

Nice..my team after the draft looked like this:

SP:Jon Niese
SP:Brad Bergesen
SP: (Brain Fat/forgot who i picked)
SP: (Forgot again..lol)
SP:Clayton Richard
CP: Leo Nunez

1B:Kila Ka'aihue/Gaby Sanchez
2B: Callaspo/Luis Valbuena
3B: Juan Francisco
SS: Joaguin Arias
OF: Gerrardo Parra
OF: Matt Joyce
OF: Michael Brantley
C: Nick Hundley/John Hester

I forgot 2 of my starters already, and didnt include my relievers...But other than that that was my team at the end of my 1st rule draft..I have simmed 2 seasons with this team, and i didnt make any changes, except for some draft picks...I have like 2 A potential players on my team..its pretty funny...

[DannoMack]

Re: Expansion team?

Nice..my team after the draft looked like this:

SP:Jon Niese
SP:Brad Bergesen
SP: (Brain Fat/forgot who i picked)
SP: (Forgot again..lol)
SP:Clayton Richard
CP: Leo Nunez

1B:Kila Ka'aihue/Gaby Sanchez
2B: Callaspo/Luis Valbuena
3B: Juan Francisco
SS: Joaguin Arias
OF: Gerrardo Parra
OF: Matt Joyce
OF: Michael Brantley
C: Nick Hundley/John Hester

I forgot 2 of my starters already, and didnt include my relievers...But other than that that was my team at the end of my 1st rule draft..I have simmed 2 seasons with this team, and i didnt make any changes, except for some draft picks...I have like 2 A potential players on my team..its pretty funny...

Did you fantasy draft the first year, or start with real rosters?

[dc634]

Re: Expansion team?

Did you fantasy draft the first year, or start with real rosters?

I fantasy drafted, doing it the same way as you, just drafting all the old guys...Then cut the remaining ones after Season 1 with the oldies...Then did the rule 5 draft...

[DannoMack]

Re: Expansion team?

I fantasy drafted, doing it the same way as you, just drafting all the old guys...Then cut the remaining ones after Season 1 with the oldies...Then did the rule 5 draft...

I see! Drafting the older guys saves a lot of money and time because when they retire you don't owe them chunks of their contracts.

I played opening day with my squad today. It was rough. Having Jose Bautista as your big middle of the lineup bat is never a good thing. I wrote a little writeup (below) of the first game in franchise history. I won't be doing that for every game, as I won't be playing every game. I'll post monthly updates or something though, so people can see how a team of forgotten cast-offs can do when given a chance!

OPENING DAY
We opened the season at Camden Yards hosting last year's worst team in the majors, The Boston Red Sox. Things looked good at first, as our ace Francisco Liriano started things off with a strike-out and two fly-outs in the top of the inning, while in the bottom of the inning the team threatened with Delwyn Young and Jose Bautista getting the first two hits in franchise history, until Alberto Callaspo grounded into an IEDP.

Liriano got into some trouble in the 3rd, giving up 4 hits and a walk, and allowing two earned runs. In the bottom of the 4th, Jose Bautista reached and took 2nd on a throwing error, advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch, and then was scored on an RBI suicide squeeze by Alberto Callaspo for the first run in franchise history.

Other hilights:
-In the 5th inning, Alberto Callaspo achieved the first error in franchise history, throwing an easy ground ball out over the 1st baseman's head.
-Wladimir Balentein robbing a home run in the 6th inning
-Manny Parra getting the first and second SBs in franchise history
-Alberto Callaspo (who was standing at 2nd base) crossed the plate as the game-tying run when a wild pitch bounced into the dugout and he was somehow awarded home-plate

Final Score BOS: 5 , BAL: 2
L: Manny Corpas

Liriano's Line: ND, 6.2IP 6H 2ER 2BB 5SO

[Dienerbird55]

Re: Expansion team?

In The Season That Never Was, I allowed the CPU to auto-draft my rookies for me, and then didn't sign them, because I wanted to start completely from scratch. One of those guys was an A-potential 1B prospect who would have stepped in as my best-rated hitter on this new club right away, so that will give you an indication of what I shall be working with this season. (however this fulfilled one of my contract goals of "draft an all-star potential player".

I would have kept him. It's like when the Texans became a football team, they draft David Carr in the draft before their first season, and he went on to be their starter that year. I am going to try this in full when I get the chance to though.