Through Thick and Thin

[RaychelSnr]

Erik Westfall chimes in today with a take on individual underdog stories in franchise mode. Be sure to give the article a look and chime in with your own stories!

"Year in and year out, most of us buy our sports titles and immediately jump into online play or a play now game, something to get us to the action on the field. Once that primeval instinct is satisfied, we move on to the game’s franchise mode which is where the real fun begins."

[RaychelSnr]

My own story is from my NCAA Football 07 Mississippi State Dynasty on the 360. After randomly naming my rosters, I had a 6'2" Scrambling Quarterback by the name of Vince Bell that split time with my other quarterback for the first year. He was a 76 overall and the pocket passer was an 80, so it was a smart move to do that. However, Bell was a sophomore and the pocket passer was a senior. Needless to say after the first year Bell had progressed to 84 overall due to a successful campaign and offseason. By the time he was a Senior, Bell looked more like Vince Young as he was a 92 overall, had a 90 speed rating and an incredible amount of throw power and more than adequate accuracy. I almost won my first Heisman with the guy, which is something I still have yet to do in NCAA which is a huge suprise to me to this day. So my backup QB became a Vince Young clone after 3 years, it was amazing and a digital player that I will not soon forget.

[distauma]

In Baseball Mogul 2009 I have a Yankees franchise and in its second year after missing the playoffs in 2008, I picked up Ryan Spilborghs in a trade with Colorado. It was more of a change of scenery trade for a young prospect with a bad attitude that I traded away and in return received Spilborghs with an 84 rating and minimal production in his short profession career.

In that year he played 100 games for me and batted over .300 with 13 Homers and 56 RBIs, earning his way into the 2 hole. I play a lot of pitch by pitch mode and he would always appear to come through with clutch hits with guys in scoring position. In the playoffs he had a bunch of hits and had a monster home run in game 5 of the ALDS off of Livan Hernandez of the Twins. Now I make it a point to grab him up at the start of every one of my franchises just because I enjoy developing him into a star.

[uraz3r0]

Madden '04 and '05, Anthony Thomas on the Bears. I wanted him to do well so badly. I would always use the mini-camps on him.

[Computalover]

This article made me recall a 2 star player im my maryland dynasty on ncaa 08. My dynasty was in 2015 or something like that and i won the national championship that previous year. I was getting all the 4 and 5 star players, but with recruitiing assist on (yeah i didnt realize it was on, lol) i kept getting this 2 star ATH. he wasnt big but lawd was he fast. att's like 99 speed 97 agil and 95 acc. I had no interrest because i had players on my roster that exceeded that but hell, week after week he was always interested highly. no biggie.. i offered him a scholarship and BAM! he took it without a moment hesitation (he was my first signing that season) .

Well to make a long story short, this guy was my go to jack of all trades. when i was short on a DB, i changed him to one.. and although his atts were not outrageous, he was a solid player. He played all DB positions well and his speed made the return game shine. I always scouted the lower echelon ranks for diamonds in the ruff, but this guy was truly an ATH. he didnt have many picks, but he was always right at the ball. and could really tackle better than my 2 5 star starters!!

i dont know why i gave him a scholarship, but im glad i did. and now he's toasting me in my madden franchise on the 2018 Browns against my ravens!! damn!! lol!

[SHO]

I had a few of them.

NBA - Dorell Wright and Dee Brown.
MLB - Lastings Milledge
NFL - Tony Banks

[Hooe]

Quite a few guys:

Madden 2001 / 2002: Jason Tucker, WR. He was rated horribly (OVR 68 or something), but he played like a (virtual) man-possessed and progressed enough to be my #1 wide receiver at one point.

Madden 2002 - 05: Quincy Carter, QB: I would make it a point to sign Quincy Carter if I didn't have him, because he was the only player I could play QB with on Madden up until 06. I honestly stunk with any other player under center, be it Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Cade McNown, or whoever was available.

NBA Live: Tyronn Lue, G. For whatever reason, I was awesome with Tyronn Lue in NBA Live. I could drop 30+ on an opponent with him regularly.

NBA 2K: Josh Howard, G/F: Especially in NBA2K7, where he had an incredibly easy shooting form to learn. For me he was unstoppable.

[BlyGilmore]

Re: Through Thick and Thin

A few guys come to mind from my old Madden PC leagues.

One was Charlie Batch. He wasn't incredible rated (maybe 80 overall) but was pretty easy to trade for, had a decent arm and also had the ability to break the pocket and scramble if needed. In the old BMFL I actually made it to the NFC Championship game with Batch at the helm (I lost to Kobra now of VG Sports fame in Overtime).

In Madden 2002 there was the tandem of Corey Moore and Ian Gold. Both were low rated outside linebackers that had ridiculous speed.

[KingV2k3]

Re: Through Thick and Thin

Patrick Ramsey of the 'Skins was my favorite 'overacheiver' during the Spurrier years while playing Madden 'chises...

Last year, it was Trent Edwards on the Bills...always fun to develop and progress a rookie QB in that game...

In the 2k series, for some reason Antoine Walker of the Celtics always outperformed his IRL counterpart...he was always a dominant inside / outside guy for me...

Currently, in my MLB 08 The Show, 'Nats chise, Elijah Dukes is looking like he has that magic 'progression dust' that these games seem to sprinkle on some players...

I've found that the trick in 'chise is to know when to pull the guy who's got the higher OVR, but isn't performing, in favor of a lower rated player that the game just seems to favor...

Fun thread...good topic...

[CFav]

Re: Through Thick and Thin

Rajon Rondo...NBA 2k7 & NBA 2K8....

I love point gaurd play, and w/ the C's being my team, I wanted to develop a young point. I had a choice last year between Rajon and Bassy Telfair...so I went w/ Rajon, who's ratings were pretty bad (specially w/ shooting..it made it tough to score) and in 2K7 I was able to build him up to an all star in my 2nd year of franchise w/ a 94 overall rating (end of the second year rating)...as far as 2K8 goes, his ratings were a point (overall) worse than Gabe Pruitt's who was this years 2nd round pick...again, it took me to the end of my second season and I had him up to around a 93 overall rating and he was almost unstoppable when driving the lane...

[Cletus]

Re: Through Thick and Thin

In one of my madden 07 franchises, I drafted Jeff Rowe (78 ovr). In 3 years he progressed to a 90, and led my team to a superbowl win. This was all simmed, as well. I've never had a qb progress like that for me.

[MassNole]

Re: Through Thick and Thin

Mine is more of a two game success story than anything else. The game was NCAA Football 2003 in my FSU dynasty mode. I needed a backup QB for some depth, I always like to carry three, just in case. I found a 3* Juco QB who could fit that role nicely. He was solid enough, somewhere in the mid-70's overall, certainly nothing special.

I was playing Tennessee in my second year, the week before Chris Rix had been injured in an ACC game. I believe this left me with Adrian McPherson at QB and sure enough when I am down by 14 in the third quarter McPherson goes down and this raw, inexperienced Juco kid enters the game and eventually lead me back and I ended up winning by 10 (I had a pick six with about :03 left). The next week Chris Rix was healthy and took his job back.

Two years later I am playing a game at Notre Dame. I still have the same QB (he came in as a Juco Sophomore and ended up redshirting when he didn't play an entire year) as a third stringer. This time he is behind Adrian McPherson (or was it Fabian Walker, I don't remember) and a 5* recruit. McPherson got off to a rough start throwing a couple of picks and getting us in an early hole before getting injured. I brought in the 5* backup and he just played awful and by the half I was down by 21. I say what the hell, you did it once, can you do it again? First drive we score a TD to cut it to 14, which was then followed up by another pick six and its down to 7. From there we trade scores and then I tie it up on a punt return for a TD. My defense held the next drive and I got the ball back with around a minute left, and sure enough my backup turns into John Elway and leads us down the field in South Bend and destroys Notre Dame's upset dreams.

This time I let him start the next week and that ended poorly for him and I yanked him after a half and went with the 5* freshman who never looked back.

I can't remember the kids name other than it was like Matt Mc(something), maybe McCauley. He only played in about 5 games in his three years in Tallahassee, but he delivered two of my best comebacks ever, one in Knoxville, the other in South Bend. Talk about becoming a cult legend on campus.

[theaub]

Re: Through Thick and Thin

Heh...in my New York Vipers dynasty, I recruited a guy named Obadiah Perkins, a three-star MLB. He was legit.

Career Stats:
Tackles: 359
Tackles for Loss: 75
Sacks: 29
Interceptions: 16
Forced Fumbles: 9
Fumble Recoveries: 9
TD: 5

Freshman AA, 2-time first team AA, 2-time second team AA, 4-time first team all-Big East. Complete beast.