Franchise House Rules

[KingMike]

What are some of the house rules you adhere to during a franchise?

I was thinking of implementing a random number generator in the drafting process to reflect "busts" and the real world difficulty of baseball scouting.

Ie: top pitcher taken randomly generate potential between 75 and 95. Remaining first round pitchers 70-90) 2nd rounder pitchers (60-85), 3rd (50-80) etc or something along those lines. Still trying to figure out what to do with position players as it seems offensive stats often fall off a cliff a few seasons into franchises.

I also always slightly "overpay" when trading with the CPU, they often under value prospects.

Curious what some of you are doing? As with NCAA football, house rules seem to increase the difficulty and enjoyment.

[KBLover]

Re: Franchise House Rules

Since I hardly ever get injuries in played games, I'll randomly injure players on my team couple weeks or so. I only include major league roster players and guys who actually played (higher chance to grab starters/guys I actually use). If a game event occurs that should have an injury chance (like a line drive to the face or a fastball to the wrist) but the player had his shield up (i.e. no injury in the game), I'll take that guy and randomly injure him and do it until the injury makes sense (if he got hit in the wrist, no back injury, etc).

If I actually DO get an injury to my team and it's a non-DL injury (day-to-day or out for a week, etc), I'll randomly regenerate that injury. Last time I did that, I ended Jose Fernandez's season...

Henderson Alvarez has been on the DL twice this season from this and four times in the last two seasons (RNG hates him). Chris Davis found favor with the RNG and his day-to-day injury got re-rolled into another day-to-day injury. Same with Carlos Gonzalez.

For your busts idea, I might would wait a year. Let the kid get into their organization, get a look at him, then maybe he turns out to be a bust.

Heck, maybe just randomly move some potentials around maybe twice a year.

Thinking about it gave me an idea that I should have a chance for a ratings drop after an injury. Jose Fernandez is going to hate me lol.

[KingMike]

Re: Franchise House Rules

I like the idea of injury based rating drops, dependant upon severity and what the injury is. Either affecting throwing velocity, speed etc.

[PadreFan84]

Re: Franchise House Rules

Since I hardly ever get injuries in played games, I'll randomly injure players on my team couple weeks or so. I only include major league roster players and guys who actually played (higher chance to grab starters/guys I actually use). If a game event occurs that should have an injury chance (like a line drive to the face or a fastball to the wrist) but the player had his shield up (i.e. no injury in the game), I'll take that guy and randomly injure him and do it until the injury makes sense (if he got hit in the wrist, no back injury, etc).

If I actually DO get an injury to my team and it's a non-DL injury (day-to-day or out for a week, etc), I'll randomly regenerate that injury. Last time I did that, I ended Jose Fernandez's season...

Henderson Alvarez has been on the DL twice this season from this and four times in the last two seasons (RNG hates him). Chris Davis found favor with the RNG and his day-to-day injury got re-rolled into another day-to-day injury. Same with Carlos Gonzalez.

For your busts idea, I might would wait a year. Let the kid get into their organization, get a look at him, then maybe he turns out to be a bust.

Heck, maybe just randomly move some potentials around maybe twice a year.

Thinking about it gave me an idea that I should have a chance for a ratings drop after an injury. Jose Fernandez is going to hate me lol.

How do you decide who and to what severity? I have noticed the lack of injuries in played games as well.


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[KingMike]

Re: Franchise House Rules

How do you decide who and to what severity? I have noticed the lack of injuries in played games as well.


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Could setup a similar setup to the one i used in ncaa, either monthly or biweekly, randomly generate numbers until a jersey number hits, and then generate severity based on a chart in correlation to the random generator. I also had guys being suspended on failed drug tests and off field infractions.

Here is what mattynokes created for ncaa, could be modified for the show.

Suspensions

Step 1

Infraction or None?
1 = Infraction
2 = None
3 = None
4 = Infraction
5 = None

Step 2

Team Rules, Academics, or NCAA Rules?
1 = Team Rules
2 = Academics
3 = NCAA Rules

Academic suspension rolls are only valid before Week 1 and Bowl Week (simulating summer semester and end of fall semester). If #2 is rolled any other week, they are considered “None”.

Players with 80+ AWR are exempt from Team Rule violations and players with 90+ AWR are also exempt from Academic violations.

Step 3

Team Rules
1 = 1 Game
2 = 2 Games
3 = 3 Games
4 = 1st Quarter
5 = 5 Games

Academics
If Week 1 = Regular Season + Conf Championship
If Bowl Week = Bowl Game

NCAA Rules
1 = 1 Game
2 = 2 Games
3 = 3 Games
4 = 5 Games
5 = 1 Game
6 = 2 Games
7 = Season

Step 4

Enter -5 to 105 in random number generator to figure out which player is in violation. If unused number turns up, keep rolling until used number is rolled. Even if the player is injured or redshirting, they will be suspended. -5 and 105 are used so jersey numbers 1 and 99 are not the extreme ends of the number roll.

Step 5 (Academics Only)
A player must be cleared to return from an academics suspension. He will have as many tries as there are semesters left before the next football season starts. i.e. if he’s suspended for the bowl game, he would have spring and summer semester to become eligible once again. If the player fails to return, he is to be cut in the off-season (if he’s suspended for the regular season, he would have 3 chances to return).

Player Returns?
1 = Yes
2 = No

Injuries – Rolled after every game, only for OL/DL

Step 1

Injury or None?
1 = None
2 = Injury
3 = None

Step 2

Injury Length
1 = 1 Week
2 = 2-3 Weeks
3 = 4-5 Weeks
4 = 6+ Weeks (Max of Season Ending)
5 = 1 Week
6 = 2-3 Week
7 = 4-5 Week
8 = Season Ending
9 = 1 Week

Step 3

Enter -5 to 105 in random number generator to figure out which player is in violation. If unused number turns up, keep rolling until used number is rolled. If the player is redshirted, he cannot be injured. If the player is already injured, it will add-on to his existing injury. -5 and 105 are used so jersey numbers 1 and 99 are not the extreme ends of the number roll.

Step 4

Player Returns?
1 = Yes
2 = No

i.e. #3 is rolled

The player will be injured a minimum of three games. Then a roll will determine if he returns or not before the fourth or fifth game. After he is injured five games, he is set to return without needing a roll to clear him.

[BrianU]

Re: Franchise House Rules

This is more a mix of franchise and gameplay house rules, but I like to limit the ways I can take advantage of the controls in sports games to try to make it a more even playing field human vs CPU.

Every month of franchise I look at my player's stats and that determine who I use directional hitting, contact swing, and power swing with.

---

Post-pitch delivery Directional Hitting
(AVG) Above average 0.270+

Contact swings
(OBP) Above average 0.340+

Power swings
(ISO) Above average 0.170+

----

So for example I will only use contact swings with players in my franchise who have a .340 OBP or higher. You can do this two ways, either based on a players real life stats or his The Show franchise mode stats. It adds another wrinkle of realism for me.

The "Post-pitch delivery Directional Hitting" is using the direction hitting while the pitch is coming to the plate and mid-flight pushing the right analog stick towards where the ball is pitched and hitting it. i.e. going with the pitch. I believe this gives you a little boost to contact, I limit it to my high AVG guys because I feel it would be too easy to exploit if you master it. If you want to get really nerdy about it you can break it down further and limit yourself based on the hitters BAA lefty/righty splits, but I know not everyone is as depraved as me.

For the start of the season I load up Fangraphs and look at my teams batting stats from last year to determine who gets what ability. Then after the first month I use the in-game current season stats.

With that said I will use direction hitting for every player if I am sitting on a pitch. But I limit myself in that once I pick a "zone" before the pitch is thrown, up and in, down and away, outside, etc... I have to keep it there the entire pitch. Unless I am batting with one of those +270 avg guys.

I also do not use direction hitting as situational hitting tool. This is a GREAT article with data to back up the fact that MLB players do not have the ability to place the ball where they want to hit it. This guys for hit and runs, sac flys, etc... http://grantland.com/features/mlb-20...ing-the-shift/

[NEOPARADIGM]

Re: Franchise House Rules

I like to alternate bat color, glove color, & high socks based on performance if that counts. Nothing too specific, just if someone has a particularly bad day or week, I'll change up something about how he looks. Plays to the whole "superstition in baseball" thing and also keeps things a little fresh. I recommend it.

[Fours]

Re: Franchise House Rules

I play with a lot of house rules, but I just exploited the CPU in an evil way..

It was the trading deadline during the season where Bryce Harper would hit 6 years service and was a FA, I had 30M in the bank and a hole in RF, so I traded big contracts to the Nats at the deadline to make sure there was no way they could re-sign him..

It worked, and while I'm enjoying my new beast in RF, it all feels very dirty.

But my house rules are:

Each team gets assigned at least 1 Tommy John UCL injury per season, along with -4 in all ratings to offset the fact that they progress while injured. I pick the player by feel, preference to younger pitchers.

All incoming rookie pitchers get their potential decreased, and for I flip speed and Stealing for speed guys since so many have 90 stealing with 50 speed.

I'll only make a trade if the players I'm sending fill a hole, or make sense in some way for the other team. If trading for a mlb ready prospect, I'll over pay to compensate for the CPU not valuing them enough.

I use my 5th starter even when there's days off, since the CPU never shortens the rotation with off days.

That's all I can think of, but I'm sure there's more..

[Potatoes002]

Re: Franchise House Rules

Since there is a severe lack of user injuries, every now and then I'll increase the injury slider to max for one game so it influences one of my guys to get hurt.

[cts50]

Re: Franchise House Rules

I also do not use direction hitting as situational hitting tool. This is a GREAT article with data to back up the fact that MLB players do not have the ability to place the ball where they want to hit it. This guys for hit and runs, sac flys, etc... http://grantland.com/features/mlb-20...ing-the-shift/

That isnt necessarily true.

That is tailored to a situation where a team is shifting the defense.

The pitcher is going to work inside and avoid giving the batter a pitch he can take oppo when he knows his defense is shifted. That is part of the shift and why it is so effective.

When you are trying to hit directionally, you need to look for the correct pitch to hit. An inside fastball is going to be tough to slap the other way. Or a changeup on the outside corner is going to be tough to pull with any authority.

You need to understand game situations and pitch locations hen trying to hit directionally.

[KBLover]

Re: Franchise House Rules

How do you decide who and to what severity? I have noticed the lack of injuries in played games as well.

First I note if anyone got a "dangerous" event. Like crashing into the wall, collisions, getting beaned, getting hit hard with a batted ball, etc.

If any of those happen, I'll note the player and where it got him and randomly (using a RNG app or random.org or some dice if you're old school )

Otherwise, I know who I put in and such, so any of those guys are up for being hurt. I do a random roll against my 25-man roster. Whoever it lands on, and if he played that day, he gets an injury.

From there, I roll 3 numbers. That's how many "spaces" I move on the injury list. Where it stops, that's what gets hurt.

I do this every two weeks or so.

At one point, I couldn't do it because "I had too many injuries" (I just...I don't know). So that lucky guy got spared.

[KBLover]

Re: Franchise House Rules

So for example I will only use contact swings with players in my franchise who have a .340 OBP or higher. You can do this two ways, either based on a players real life stats or his The Show franchise mode stats. It adds another wrinkle of realism for me.

The "Post-pitch delivery Directional Hitting" is using the direction hitting while the pitch is coming to the plate and mid-flight pushing the right analog stick towards where the ball is pitched and hitting it. i.e. going with the pitch. I believe this gives you a little boost to contact, I limit it to my high AVG guys because I feel it would be too easy to exploit if you master it. If you want to get really nerdy about it you can break it down further and limit yourself based on the hitters BAA lefty/righty splits, but I know not everyone is as depraved as me.

For the start of the season I load up Fangraphs and look at my teams batting stats from last year to determine who gets what ability. Then after the first month I use the in-game current season stats.

Interesting approach with the swing types. I might have to adopt some variation on that, especially now that more fictionals are arriving to the majors in year 4 of franchise (and more will come of course) and they obviously won't have scouting reports or fangraphs profiles.

For the real life players, I use fangraphs and/or the spray charts. For example, Chris Davis hits a ton of fly balls, and his hit chart (in the game) is showing 60% pull (I don't think I pull it THAT much with him, but whatever...). So that's either up and left aiming, or up and I'm swinging early to trying to pull.

Yelich is the opposite, like 60% grounders. So it's pretty much down, down, down with him.

[BrianU]

Re: Franchise House Rules

That isnt necessarily true.

That is tailored to a situation where a team is shifting the defense.

The pitcher is going to work inside and avoid giving the batter a pitch he can take oppo when he knows his defense is shifted. That is part of the shift and why it is so effective.

When you are trying to hit directionally, you need to look for the correct pitch to hit. An inside fastball is going to be tough to slap the other way. Or a changeup on the outside corner is going to be tough to pull with any authority.

You need to understand game situations and pitch locations hen trying to hit directionally.

It's in the same article but it is separate topics, nothing to do with the shift. The statistics back it up. When a man is on 3rd base with 0 outs MLB batters average the same amount of fly balls as if there are 2 outs. That has nothing to do with the shift. Directional hitting is a gimmick if used to place the ball to certain areas of the field. Going with the pitch is the proper way to use it but I am sure many people hold the stick up and try to 'will' a fly ball in a man on 3rd 1-2 outs situation and that is silly.

EDIT: I understand your point that pitchers pitch different in situations. Throwing pitches lower in the zone if a man is on 3rd with less than 2 outs. But I still say you are missing my point, that using directional hitting before the pitch holding a direction and hoping to hit a ball that way is wrong. If a ball is thrown above the belt and you see that it's coming then press the analog stick up that is the right way.

[KBLover]

Re: Franchise House Rules

The pitcher is going to work inside and avoid giving the batter a pitch he can take oppo when he knows his defense is shifted. That is part of the shift and why it is so effective.

Except in The Show, hitters can go opposite field whenever.

Happens a lot when my team is shifted. I throw inside, they swing late, push it to where the 3B would be standing for an easy double.

The shift in The Show is more like gambling than trying to use tendencies against the hitter because the hitter doesn't hit to his spray charts and/or the spray charts don't abstract a hitter's mechanics/approach.

Hitters don't seem to have a speed they are looking to hit. Otherwise, I'd like to know what they were looking for when they were "late" on an inside curve coming in at 73 MPH when that's the slowest pitch the pitcher has...

So I can go the other way with Chris Davis just as much as a slap hitter like Solano. If big sluggers could do that in real life, the shift would be dead.

[Grinder12000]

Re: Franchise House Rules

I never make more then a few trades during the year - deal with what you have even if it sucks.

I also have a temperature variable with sliders backed up with MLB temp stats. Warm = bigger numbers hitting.

Temp
<40

CPU Solid Hits - 6
CPU Power - 4

40 to 49
CPU Solid Hits - 6
CPU Power - 5

50-59
CPU Solid Hits - 7
CPU Power - 5

60-69
CPU Solid Hits - 7
CPU Power - 6

70-79
CPU Solid Hits - 8
CPU Power - 6

80-89
CPU Solid Hits - 8
CPU Power - 7

>89
CPU Solid Hits - 9
CPU Power - 7