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theenglishman posted:I've been working on my own franchise, but one thing I can't quite understand mechanically is how the bullpen works. I don't seem to be able to get relief pitchers and closers to "warm up" (this seems to be done automatically) but how does the game compensate for a pitcher running into a bad start and needing to be pulled? You don't need to warm up your pen. The relievers come in warm, with whatever mojo/fatigue they had from the game prior. What kind of compensation are you meaning? A starter pulled early will have less fatigue if they threw fewer pitches but their mojo will likely take a hit if they got blown up. Somehow I ended up turning the moose into bullpen beasts, and am now 3-4 in my current season because I suck at pitching. Giving up 12+ hits a game is nerve wracking even if I normally score 6+ runs a game.
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May 31, 2020 23:35
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Pitching is a lot harder in this one than is was in 2 because of the way they reprogrammed the batter's eye and pattern recognition. The biggest difference is that in Super Mega Baseball 2 you are basically conditioned to throw strikes exclusively, I think I had like 3 walks in the entire time I played that game. 3 creates much more realistic stat lines by punishing you for staying exclusively in the strike zone or for using the same sequence on each batter., which a lot of people seem to complain about but I really like. It's generally much tougher at any ego because of this but it makes those playoff outings where your second or third pitcher gives you 6 innings of 2 or fewer runs that much more exciting and intense. theenglishman posted:I've been working on my own franchise, but one thing I can't quite understand mechanically is how the bullpen works. I don't seem to be able to get relief pitchers and closers to "warm up" (this seems to be done automatically) but how does the game compensate for a pitcher running into a bad start and needing to be pulled? The compensation is in the size of the roster and pitching staff. We've seen it with the Freebooters so far in those first 4 games where nobody but Angel Verde got through more than 5 innings. That just isn't sustainable with just 3 relievers and a closer over more than 1 or 2 cycles through the rotation, they get exhausted and start pitching sloppy after just a few games. Real teams can manage this by having multiple long relief options or even putting position players on the mound in blowouts to preserve their valuable bullpen arms. In this game there is no such cushion so if your starters keep getting shelled early you basically have to restructure your pitching staff to compensate. In our case I think that may involve moving on from the closer position entirely to add a relief pitcher who can give us a bit more mileage. The nice thing about 3 that 2 didn't do is that we now have the freedom to build the pitching staff however we want, but the overall numbers are still limited. Edit: To clarify Super Mega Baseball rosters are 21 players, Major League rosters are 25 players until September when they expand to 40. The extra 4 make a big difference Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Jun 1, 2020 |
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Jun 1, 2020 00:33
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I haven't figured out how relief in SMB3 really works yet, compared to 2 starters last longer/recover faster while relievers last shorter/recover slower and the gap is enough that an early trip to the pen doesn't seem worth it unless things have really gone to hell. The AI seems to approach it differently too, in SMB2 starters would reliably come out in the 6th or 7th inning no matter what but in SMB3 I'm seeing the AI let a lot more starters comple blowouts or, if their bullpen is in deep trouble, prefer to get 20 pitches out of a tense starter than an exhausted reliever and extend their uselessness. A recent experience: In my franchise I took over a game where my starter was Tense/Strained and my closer was useless on 25% stamina (what did they do to her???? In 2 no matter what happened last game she'd be fresh.) My team held the title by run differential in the second-last game of the regular season and could afford to lose but not collapse, my dude got lit up for five runs early but I still needed him to soldier three times through the order before turning it over. Everyone was reasonably rested for the final game, which was nail-biting as the deficit crept closer and closer to the edge of the safety net, but they ultimately retained the title. It's too early to say if I like or dislike the changes but they're definitely a good first step for breaking open the four-starters-three-relievers-one-closer staff that was absolute in SMB2. Cuveball Sliders posted:Pitching is a lot harder in this one than is was in 2 because of the way they reprogrammed the batter's eye and pattern recognition. The biggest difference is that in Super Mega Baseball 2 you are basically conditioned to throw strikes exclusively, I think I had like 3 walks in the entire time I played that game. tomanton fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Jun 1, 2020 |
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Jun 1, 2020 01:07
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That nemesis game was a good game of baseball. New commentary style is really good! Feels like a good pace for commentary that matches with the faster pace of smb compared to real baseball. That was definitely the home broadcast crew based on the semi-disgusted reaction to walker runs striking out to end the 8th.
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Jun 1, 2020 18:19
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIN-xK6Aj_A Game starts at 5:00! Game 1 of a 2 game set against the Wild Pigs, we need to take these division games if we want to start making up ground towards a wild card spot. This was a great game and goes down to the last out. I'll be posting the rubber game tomorrow but I'd like to mention some interesting free agent moves we may be able to make soon or even right now if we don't mind reaching a bit. I do go over some of them in the video but here they are in more detail:   order of pitcher skills is velocity/junk/accuracy Ed Reid is a great starting pitcher and while 9 million may be a bit of a reach I do think other teams are going to snap him up if he drops much lower. 4 pitches, good movement and control, strangely a ton of power at the plate as well. He also has a forkball which is my favorite pitch in the game. With so many of our starters getting pulled early in games I think he could replace Kent Ratherwell to give us a little more length in that position. Normally I wouldn't advocate throwing away an SP/RP but Ratherwell isn't being used out of the bullpen and if we're just going to use him as a starter we may as well get someone who can throw more pitches. We could also replace Wisselle or Frequin and see if the game will move Ratherwell to the bullpen on its own. This would save us some money if it worked (I do have an AI vs AI test save if you want me to check it out). Edit: We could also take Winnie Noelle's first start at face value and replace her with Reid for the same price, but I'd like to give her another chance and in theory she's a slightly better pitcher. We could replace Lana Rhymes with Reid to make this starting rotation truly top-notch but that would be super expensive, almost 6 million more against the cap.   order of pitcher skills is velocity/junk/accuracy Nib Bermal (just look at that name) is a really good but expensive relief pitcher who may be our answer to Wisselle's struggles or Frequin's non-use. 4 pitches, left handed, specialist, I think he would punch way above his overall grade but he's also a bit overpriced right now. We could afford to reach and we would actually save money if we replaced Kay Frequin with him although that would keep us at 1 left handed arm (at least it would be one that saw some use). This is another player who will probably be signed in the nearish future, likely within the next 4 games.   Emery Doyle would be a money saving innings eater out of the bullpen. Another lefty with good velocity and junk as well as 4 pitches, I think he's a great value pick who would also hit above his overall grade (at least when watching games, he may not fare as well in the simulator). If we wait a couple games we may get him for under 4 million but the AI loves lefties with 4 pitches so he may be gone soonish too. I think he would slot into Ryder McPride's spot nicely. In fact if we replace McPride and Frequin with Bermal and Doyle right now we would save money and I think have a tougher, longer bullpen. Edit: Ugly mf'er too.   order of skills is power/contact/speed/fielding/arm Last player I want to consider right now is Cale Santana. He isn't a great bat but we need a short stop with range and glove skills and he has both of those in spades. I would like to replace Walker Runs with Santana ASAP and move Jackman to 2B where his defensive shortcomings will be less apparent. He is 39 though so I'd release him if we don't end up in the wild card race. Definitely a one year rental. For now I think our outfield is still pretty good but the lack of range and throw power in center concerns me, especially in deep parks like today. Fast teams are going to continue to run all over us if we can't get someone out there who can book it to the ball and cannon it in. Edit: To make comparing current salaries a bit easier here's our roster:  If I get 2 or more posters giving me the go ahead on any of these 4 moves I will make them before tomorrow's game, otherwise I will wait. Any no's will count against those 2 votes needed to go ahead. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Jun 2, 2020 |
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Jun 2, 2020 02:53
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In my custom franchise it was easy to see the problems that needed ironing out in a random-gen team, here it seems like you're playing Jenga with what might be a championship contender so who knows. It would be nice to find a way to get the game to use Ratherswell, stamina seems at a premium in this new system (I suspect the game not starting him means SP/RP stamina is less than an SP on two games' rest unless they're also hurt). Totally open to moving Wissele, that $10m can work harder for the team on a player not giving up 11.50 ERA. Frequin is overpaid but has been lights out in her few appearances and it would be nice to see how she does after strengthening earlier links in the chain. I'd like to see Ed Reed for Wissele (maybe this will nudge up Frequin's use too). Bernal is still overpriced. Doyle for McPride would be more pitches for less money, so that's a great deal. Santana just seems like another fossil but with less depth.
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Jun 2, 2020 08:21
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tomanton posted:I'd like to see Ed Reed for Wissele (maybe this will nudge up Frequin's use too). Bernal is still overpriced. Doyle for McPride would be more pitches for less money, so that's a great deal. Santana just seems like another fossil but with less depth. I agree with this. Also factoring in is the clear moment's pause and "oh boy" when you realise he's been put in the game. You don't even like him! There are cheaper innings eater options out there who hopefully won't come with 10+ ERA. Pretty much every time walker runs comes up to bat I start softly chanting men-do-za in my head. The wild pigs are always a frustrating team I've found. With power teams like nemesis and the sirloins you know that anything that gets hit is probably getting hit hard, but normally without too much speed to back it up. Sirloins have some, but nemesis are pretty slow. The wild pigs when I play them seem to go for power swings (for those who don't play the game you can time your swing for more power with reduced contact if you time it right, you can see the batters front foot lift a little when they're trying one) because their contact stat is so high. Combine that with somewhat okay power and normally decent speed and I've found I get beat up a lot when playing them. Getting beat up happens a lot in my games but even more so against the pigs.
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Jun 2, 2020 10:05
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ilmucche posted:I agree with this. Also factoring in is the clear moment's pause and "oh boy" when you realise he's been put in the game. You don't even like him! There are cheaper innings eater options out there who hopefully won't come with 10+ ERA. There's just something wrong with the Steamboat right now, he's supposed to be a dominant reliever in this game and we don't have time for him to get himself right if he's going to keep blowing late leads. I can think of two games so far he's given away entirely and probably a few more he's had a hand in us losing late. It's kinda shocking because I really thought going into this that Wissele was going to be a major piece of any playoff run we were going to make, with his stuff he should be one of the best mid-inning relievers in the league. I can't even blame his collapse on overuse because it began in game 2. So I'm going to take this as permission to release Wissele and sign Ed Reid today. There's currently just 1 go ahead on Doyle for McPride so I'll hold off on that move for now. We'll wait on Nib Bermal to see if the price comes down more and I'll keep my eye on the other free agents. In fact following the next game I think I'll do a deep dive on free agency, maybe you will all see someone I'm ignoring right now. I am also anticipating the AI will start using Ratherwell as a reliever once we have 4 starters and I think he'll be much better in that role. Edit: ilmucche posted:The wild pigs are always a frustrating team I've found. With power teams like nemesis and the sirloins you know that anything that gets hit is probably getting hit hard, but normally without too much speed to back it up. Sirloins have some, but nemesis are pretty slow. The wild pigs when I play them seem to go for power swings (for those who don't play the game you can time your swing for more power with reduced contact if you time it right, you can see the batters front foot lift a little when they're trying one) because their contact stat is so high. Combine that with somewhat okay power and normally decent speed and I've found I get beat up a lot when playing them. Getting beat up happens a lot in my games but even more so against the pigs. Definitely everything you said and the park has a lot to do with it too. I struggle in parks with a deep center field because most of my power hits go to straightaway center. The flipside of that is when your center fielder has low to middling speed it's so hard to cover such a huge area especially with how finicky fielding can be in this game. tomanton posted:In my custom franchise it was easy to see the problems that needed ironing out in a random-gen team, here it seems like you're playing Jenga with what might be a championship contender so who knows. It would be nice to find a way to get the game to use Ratherswell, stamina seems at a premium in this new system (I suspect the game not starting him means SP/RP stamina is less than an SP on two games' rest unless they're also hurt). When I got this game I thought I would be doing a custom franchise, I even had one planned with the Banditos but getting into the game the Standard teams are just so interesting. They're all theoretically balanced but I also notice Metalhead added these traps to some of them that create really interesting questions to unlock their full potential. The Freebooters have been way more fun than I expected. They're a pitching team but it's hard to be successful pitching when your defense is so bad, but the worst, slowest defenders are also some of the most productive bats. How do you mix and match what you have to stop bleeding runs on errors and exhausted pitching while still keeping a competitive lineup? Also the team may be built around pitching but as we've seen there are some huge question marks on this staff and in its current form it just isn't optimal over multiple games. I think the Ed Reed for Steamboat Wissele alone is going to be a huge weight off. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Jun 2, 2020 |
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Jun 2, 2020 14:56
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Cuveball Sliders posted:Definitely everything you said and the park has a lot to do with it too. I struggle in parks with a deep center field because most of my power hits go to straightaway center. The flipside of that is when your center fielder has low to middling speed it's so hard to cover such a huge area especially with how finicky fielding can be in this game. As cheap as it may sound I moved.my moose franchise to the tiger den. The short fence helps as I hit a lot to straightaway center and wanted a park to avoid having a team of warning track power. Sky-high 360ft and 380 ft laser home runs are fun! The small outfield helps keep line drives to no more than doubles against speed teams, and the moose outfield has some monstrous arms. Looking forward to seeing the next few games. There was some weird frame rate slowdown in the last game, any idea where that came from?
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Jun 2, 2020 23:19
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My desktop is about 7 years old this summer and chugs a bit with some of the larger stadiums, especially when it pans down the right or left field line. I've been fiddling with the graphics settings to try and minimize that but sometimes it pops up. If my job doesn't end up laying me off for next year I'm planning on doing some upgrades to the GPU and power supply. Sorry about that. Edit: Goddamn how did I miss that? I'll check the source video, maybe it happened when youtube encoded. Thanks for the heads up. My compy's old but it isn't that bad Edit edit: Yeah it's in the source video too, must have been the capture software. Super sorry about that guys, at least the audio's intact and it's just for that inning it looks like. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Jun 3, 2020 |
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Jun 2, 2020 23:48
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Guys I think we broke the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqgFfqIwzVs Apparently the game had a tough time handling us releasing Steamboat Wissele, as it refused to accept he was gone and decided to use Ed Reed in relief of Winnie Noelle. Spoiler warning we lost bad. He gave up 5 runs in a couple innings. For those that don't own the game, it applies a stat penalty through lowered mojo when you use pitchers outside their assigned roles. Ed Reed is a dedicated starter so using him in relief makes him "tense" which makes him suck a bit more than he should. Unfortunately this also means that he's likely to at least be tense for his first start, which I'm going to use that roster trick to make sure happens. I believe this is because he was signed in place of a reliever and the game didn't make the distinction in roles. Unfortunately there's no way to actually set rotation right now so I may have to do it manually until we're back in rhythm. Because of this I've decided to move Ed Reed's first start to two games from now, in Lana Rhymes place. I'm a little worried about the game deciding to use him again in relief but I think it will turn to someone else who's a bit more rested. Also hopefully that one game will be enough for him to recover from losing half his stamina but he'll definitely be at least tense from that terrible bullpen performance. I'm not upset about losing but like I said in the video it really sucks that this was our first look at him. We were going to lose that game anyway, Wes Yogurt was just unhittable. We do need to start thinking about making lineup changes now. I'm going to post a screenshot update hopefully tonight to go over some of our free agent options and the new development opportunities then once this rotation bug issue is sorted we'll start signing some players. 2-7 in a 48 game season isn't quite the end of the line but it's getting late early for the Freebooters in year 1. Edit: Figured out how to fix the issue. Tomorrow's game will have some roster finagling then hopefully we'll be back on track. Game needs a way to set rotations outside of games though. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Jun 3, 2020 |
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Jun 3, 2020 20:42
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I'll watch the video tomorrow but I've noticed that depending on how the lineup is arranged the computer will start RPs and use SPs from the bullpen. I think it pulls from the first 4 pitcher slots for starters regardless of position. In the playoffs I noticed that the computer roster read SP SP SP RP SP RP So game 4 was an RP starting. Could be a bug with SP/RP and where they get listed?
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Jun 3, 2020 22:42
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ilmucche posted:I'll watch the video tomorrow but I've noticed that depending on how the lineup is arranged the computer will start RPs and use SPs from the bullpen. I think it pulls from the first 4 pitcher slots for starters regardless of position. In the playoffs I noticed that the computer roster read I've never seen that but it's definitely possible, but it isn't just where they get listed (Reed is currently listed with the SP's but he isn't scheduled to start). What I'm seeing is there's a 4 man rotation and anyone not in it is considered part of the bullpen regardless of their role. Ratherwell was already set in the rotation and Reed didn't automatically take his spot. I did some testing with a backup league and this happens every time you replace an RP with an SP. The way to fix it is to set the new starter and play the game (or exit before the first pitch is thrown and sim/watch which is what we're going to do). The thing is that whoever you replace then goes into the bullpen rather than bumping everyone down a few spots, so we're going to have SP's relieving until we hit Ratherwell's start, and the unfortunate part is he just started a game so there are 2 to go before we get to him. Definitely puts our bullpen in a rough spot for now. Not sure if I want to power through the next two starts and just straight swap them, I think the simmer will be kinder to us than watching will in that case and even if he is used as a reliever his mojo may be closer to normal when we get to his start. I did report the issue via steam so hopefully they'll take it but I think there's a lot of other stuff they're working on right now. I'll try some other stuff but I think we're stuck till Ratherwell's start for now so I don't think we'll be voting on which games to watch for a bit. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Jun 4, 2020 |
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Jun 3, 2020 23:34
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That's a comprehensive win for the pigs, ouch. Tough to judge the batting in general when the team gets 3 hit like that. In lp unrelated posting, I love baseball but sometimes I also hate baseball.  edit: It's happening again. Not shown, the bases are loaded.  Last game of the season, thank goodness I'm already guaranteed at least wild card ilmucche fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Jun 4, 2020 |
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Jun 4, 2020 11:14
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Game 12 update! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqPt7ZwlAxE Game starts at 2:50! Ed Reed situation is fixed! Unfortunately it may have cost us 2 more losses. With Reed finally assuming his role as a starter (more an opener in this one due to low stamina) the Freebooters are hoping to finally get this offense rolling against Air Lovestone of the Heaters! Now that our pitching staff is set to rights can we finally pull one out? Screenshot update and free agent post will be up tonight or tomorrow! ilmucche posted:That's a comprehensive win for the pigs, ouch. Tough to judge the batting in general when the team gets 3 hit like that. Ewww, well at least you had the wildcard. Who was pitching?
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Jun 4, 2020 19:40
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Free Agency Deep Dive and state of the team after the first quarter of the season. So at this point we're 2-10. The bats are unbelievably cold, the pitching is ok as long as there aren't runners on base, and our slow, shoddy defense has cost us way too many runs. I don't want to say I told you so because a bunch of our issues I honestly didn't foresee (particularly that rotation bug), but I definitely did say this team is really terrible in the description back when we were picking them. All that said I don't think we're yet at the point of giving up on this season. We have 36 games to play and are still just 5 games down, which we could make up with a good run if we can get the right players in place for it. It's pretty clear right now that our lineup needs a serious shake up to get going and that's where I'd like to focus our efforts. Some of the free agents are still pretty pricey so we won't be making all our moves immediately but I would like an upward limit on what I can offer them as the price continues to drop. Actual terms of the voting will be at the end of the post. The other thing is we have a bunch of developmental money and should probably spend a bit. Any stat or trait gains are permanent so keep that in mind.  Here's our current roster with our current contracts.  Current economy, including cap space and development funds per game.  Click for big version! Here are our team stats through the first quarter of the season. Some notes: Pitching Take Ed Reed's stats with a grain of salt. All of those runs were either given up while he was misused as a reliever or when he was exhausted from being misused. Expect that ERA to come down into the 4's based on his opening performance. Winnie Noelle's stats have been significantly better since that opening day meltdown, but I don't think she'll ever play to her overall rating. Angel Verde has been by far our best and most consistent starting pitcher, but has given up a ton of hits so far. Eventually that average against is either going to come down or the ERA will start creeping up. The bullpen should be able to give us more consistency with Ratherswell now set up there, but I really just feel like Frequin just hasn't been what you would hope for with an S overall grade and 13.1 million. I'd rather have a B+ or A- overall reliever to actually get us into the 8th and 9th inning. It's telling that Frequin has yet to see a save opportunity in 5 appearences. Lineup Rocky Backstop has seen all of one at bat and has yet to see the field, basically a $2.5 million paperweight holding down his end of the bench. If we decide to tank the rest of the season he could still be valuable as a cheap backup but honestly Kenna Quorm is barely more expensive and almost the same age. Both are solid developmental prospects with Backstop being a far worse catcher with a far better bat. Not an immediate concern but we ought to decide which one we want going forward. Sub-Mendoza line players: Patience Evergreen, Walker Runs, Pomp Duchee, and Jermaine Raines have all been below the Mendoza line pretty much from the start (batting average under .200). Of them Evergreen and Runs have probably been the best in terms of timely hits and producing quality at bats. Duchee has shown some power at the plate but he's also been extremely streaky and when he gets out he doesn't seem to force the pitcher to throw a lot. Jermaine Raines just hasn't been at all effective at the plate but we don't have any other viable starting catchers on this roster. Gunns Jackman has been a producer offensively but he's also a liability at short stop. I would still like to find a defensive short stop and move Jackman to second. Landon Fare hasn't had a hit yet (in just 6 AB's to be fair). He's also just 22, super cheap, and one of our best infield defenders right now so I'd hate to release him but he isn't likely to be a major contributor this season. Defense Our big 3 in the outfield (Brickhouse, Stiffs, and Woodman) have all produced at the plate but the lack of speed in Center has been killing us. It may be worth bringing on a defensive CF and moving one of them to DH, and as much as I hate to say it Evergreen may be the one to release in order to make it happen. As I said we should look for a defensive short stop. First and Third have also been pretty unstable for us though defensively they really haven't been terrible. Duchee has actually struggled more than Badhop over this small sample size. Free Agent Position Players   Here are some players I find intriguing. If you happen to see any in that list I don't mention here please say something. We'll go by position in order of greatest need (obviously my opinion). Short Stop  Axton Khan may not be the Mongol we deserve, but he could be what we need at short. Superior to Jackman in just about every way, we actually could afford to move Walker Runs for Khan and move Jackman to second, but it would cost just about all our available cap space and we would have to downgrade elsewhere if we wanted to make any more moves. If we went Khan for Jackman straight up we would have right around 5 million left over. Also gives us a switch hitter which we need in this group.  We've already talked about Cale, he's just much cheaper now. Cale for Runs straight up would give us a superior defensive short stop, superior offense at second base, and cost less than 1 million in cap space. I know he's old but I think he could still have value as a rental if we want to try for a wild card spot. Catcher  Karson is the best (and most expensive) available starting catcher at the moment. Since Catcher has been our least productive position it may be worth it to spend heavily here even if he's likely to miss every fourth game or so for rest. 12 million is really steep, but this is a complete player at a position that is traditionally weak on offense.  Stephen Appleseed is a really underrated player by the game, sure he's slow but he's a dynamite starting catcher and a much better value than Karson Koch. May be worth waiting a game or two to see if the price comes down but we could definitely pick him up and have enough left over for another move or two.  I wouldn't sign him now but Placido Roy may be an option to replace Rocky Backstop and Kenna Quorm at backup catcher moving forward. One to keep an eye on for now. Second Base  Pheonix Cantu is the highest graded player on the board. Great power, good contact and speed, good fielding, and a switch hitter to boot. I wouldn't play him at short every day because of the limited arm but otherwise he's an absolute superstar. Also extremely expensive for obvious reasons.  Nick Pickles could provide us an everyday option at second base for Landon Fare to develop behind. My concerns, other than the cost, are that he has no secondary position and that great arm is almost wasted at second.  Sterling Underwood is definitely overpriced but is nearly as good offensively as Cantu. Even at second though that arm concerns me. Third Base  If we want to get an everyday starter at third I think Polebean is our best option and moving her for Duchee would only cost about 3 million against the cap. She's an excellent all around player with very good power and solid defense. Normally I would advocate waiting to see if the price drops a bit but we need to make a move if we want to turn the current situation around. Also plays shortstop.  Russel Davila is another potential option for an everyday starter, cheaper than Polebean but still overpriced. It's kind of a toss up between them as to which is better, Polebean offers speed but Davila's a switch hitter and is a million bucks cheaper. First Base  Jaden Anderson is cheap, young, left handed, and offers solid defensive stats. That arm is unfortunately wasted at first though. Once he falls below 5 million this may be a good move.  Great name. If the arm and fielding stats were reversed this would be the ideal first baseman in this game but unfortunately they aren't and he's going to be a liability in the field. If the price drops a lot lower he may be worth picking up as a DH though. Outfield  Antonio Dillon is an interesting player. He provides enough offense to not be a liability at the plate while that great speed and decent defense offers much needed range out there. Also would have the best arm in our outfield. I do love the left handed bat as well.  Hubbub Espinosa is a left handed bat with great speed and can play right or left field. A bit overpriced for the overall stats but I think we ought to keep an eye on him.  Buddy Pacheco is a great offensive player with limited defense. If his price falls to around 10 million I think he's worth a straight up trade for one of our big 3 outfielders but would be redundant if added to our current roster. So that should pretty much do it for position players available. They're still expensive enough that we can only make a couple moves and normally I would advocate waiting a bit longer but we need to make some changes to turn this season around if we're going to have a shot at the playoffs. Pitching  We are actually pretty set here and most of the immediate moves may in fact be to downgrade so we can make moves to improve the offense. Neverthless here are some of the most interesting options, both to downgrade or upgrade. As always if you see someone I didn't mention please speak up. Starting Pitching  Rufus is extremely interesting as a developmental prospect and could compete now. Left handed, just 22 years old with 4 good pitches and a positive trait. Would be a direct upgrade over Lana Rhymes or we could trade him for Reed if we think recent events have ruined him for good.  If we decide to sell we should go get Young and see if we can develop him into a competitive pitcher. Terrible velocity and junk stats but elite control, 5 great pitches, left handed, and still relatively young at 27. I think we could get him for around 2 million a year but he'd need some luck with random events and focused development on our part to end up being any good for next season. Relief Pitchers  Lol  Zeke for Frequin straight up would cost us some ERA, but Sardines could pitch in every situation and it would free up a lot of cash to use for offensive upgrades. It would cost one of our precious bullpen lefties though.  I mean, Zuri Savage. Zuri is super cheap for the stats and may develop into a decent reliever but unless we want to make big moves on offense I wouldn't necessarily make a move to get her now. I do think she's one of our first moves if we decide to give up on this season though.  Bringing up the rear here a couple games cheaper than when last we saw him, Emery Doyle remains one of the best values on the board and would provide an additional left handed arm in a bullpen that needs it, especially if we decide to move Kay Frequin. Moving Doyle for Frequin directly would balance our bullpen between right and left handers and free up 9.1 million in cap space.  Finally here's our upcoming schedule. I'm thinking I will show all of the next 6 games as they are all series in the division. 4 of them are at home so I'm hopeful we can regain a couple games if we can get our lineup right.  Current development opportunities. We have plenty of money right now and could go after one or two of these now. We could also save up for the time being until this team is more of a finished product. Development funds carry over season to season and all stat/trait gains are permanent.  Thread Vote and Debate Time 1. What moves should we make right now and why? 2. Pick up to 3 free agents you don't think we can afford just yet and give me an upward limit on how much I can offer them as the price comes down. 3. Which, if any, development opportunities should I take? Edit: Double copied from the text file. My bad. How embarrassing Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Jun 4, 2020 |
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Jun 4, 2020 21:54
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Short answer without having the time to go through every option yet but I think ditching the closer for a cheaper CP if not going to RP as you've mentioned is a priority. The pitching staff is getting exploded and with how many innings the RPs are going to have to eat having a shutdown closer isn't as important as trying to grab another RP that can hang out around 3-4 era if possible. It'll free up some money for offensive investment. Zuri if you're looking for the future, Doyle if it's a push. Possibly both down the line if I think the game hates evergreen, she's had some terrible statlines in my franchise mode as well. At 35 and $6.7m I think she's got to go, regardless of playoff push or rebuild mode. Baskette has middling stats, middling age and middling cost, is a switch hitter and has LHP boosts so can take over from her. It can be a few more dollars in another position if you replace her with a bargain bin player to free up cash. Cuveball Sliders posted:Ewww, well at least you had the wildcard. Who was pitching? Raul Strikes. Coming into this game he had a very respectable 5.6 ERA. "Respectable" will make sense in a minute.  But it was a massacre everywhere except for Rip Dingers and  Wait until you see my pitching numbers before you judge me for the insane batting statistics. Jacques O'Ften has a normal stat line as I picked him up for playoffs.  Yes, that's one starter below 7 ERA. And she got blown up game 1 of the playoffs. I think I might need to up my batting difficulty and drop my pitching.
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Jun 4, 2020 23:25
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I can't believe my move sent the team to hell!!!  Here are some more bright ideas.FIELDING: For a defensive CF I nominate Carson Rojas for Patience Evergreen. His secondary is IF/OF with the Utility trait and A+ defensive stats, for a savings of 1.5m you would be trading a bat for someone who instantly is the best defender on your team at any position. Cale Santana for Walker Runs is cool and good for the reasons you described, least of all the gentle hit on a more or less across the board upgrade. And it's only like +1m yeah. Rocky Backstop still sucks (that 17 arm will never develop throw out a runner at third, let alone second) but I don't see anyone cheap/bad/catcher enough to swap him, so even though Kenna Quorn is the better long-term prospect he's probably gotta stay for the time being, and his pinch-hit potential is okay. A better prospect may appear before the cool catchers come down in price. PITCHING: Rufus Houndstooth is everything I'd want in a prospect, his stats are weighted where it counts and K-Man sweetens the deal. I'd like to give Ed Reed (and his bat which is 4th-most powerful on his team for some reason) a chance, I'd replace him with Lana Rhymes who isn't getting any younger or better or left handed-er. It's +4.5m which isn't too bad. Doyle > Frequin seems like a great way to free up 9m to me. I'm not sure about Zuri Savage, that's a great team contract but her rookie stats seem the opposite of what you'd want for that limited pitch selection and who knows how many seasons it would take to iron that out. All these moves free up a net 4-ish million for any other ideas people have. Also all the development options on the left side of the screen are good and ones on the right side bad.
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Jun 5, 2020 01:26
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tomanton posted:
I was thinking about Sardines for Frequin originally to avoid too big a dropoff in quality but at this point I would rather have Doyle and the money. We'd get a cheap lefty and Doyle has a ton of future potential with that 4 pitch arsenal, plus I think he'll pitch well above his weight class. I do love Rufus Houndstooth for Lana Rhymes, Houndstooth would definitely help solidify our rotation and the Doyle move would help absorb some of the cost. The control issues and price are all that worry me about him, but I'll hold off until Rhymes next start in two games to see if he comes down into the 7's. That 4 million net would leave us around 12.5 million in cap space, enough to reach on one of those star players including Pheonix Cantu if we were willing to release Gunns Jackman (which, for the record, I'd be against). I really like Stephen Appleseed to replace Jermaine Raines who has been awful and doesn't have a great arm (have we thrown out a single runner yet?). I also think Russel Davila or Kelly Polebean are great options to replace Badhop Brown at third with a slight edge to Davila for being a switch-hitter (but Polebean would bring much needed speed to this lineup). If we make the Rojas and Santana moves we need to upgrade offensively in other areas because they are not likely to produce at the plate (especially Rojas, Santana's stats are pretty even with Walker Runs). By some quick calculations we could just barely pull all those moves off now but there would be almost no cap space left for development or further moves, so this would be an all or nothing gamble. We may want to do some of this in stages to bring the price down more but just remember at this point every loss digs us that much deeper. illmucche posted:I think the game hates evergreen, she's had some terrible statlines in my franchise mode as well. At 35 and $6.7m I think she's got to go, regardless of playoff push or rebuild mode. Baskette has middling stats, middling age and middling cost, is a switch hitter and has LHP boosts so can take over from her. It can be a few more dollars in another position if you replace her with a bargain bin player to free up cash. I would also like to replace Baskette, walk off heroics notwithstanding. The game seems to be using her as a defensive replacement but she isn't fast enough and her arm isn't good enough to be a significant upgrade over anyone currently out there and her bat isn't very good either. That said from a role playing perspective I worry about the message we'd be sending the team and the fans by firing our only player with a great offensive moment. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Jun 5, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 15:22
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ilmucche posted:
I kind of want to see where this goes. Mind posting about your postseason moose run? Edit: Just noticed Horse Cock Johnson, gave me a chuckle. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Jun 5, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 16:02
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I'm also playing this game, learning it as I go having never played a baseball game before. It's fun! And it's fun because all sorts of odd things happen. I played against the AI earlier today in Season mode (low ego though, don't judge me, this is my learning-to-play run) and slammed a homer down the line with my pitcher. Nice! Next at bat for my pitcher, I manage to time the swing perfectly and muscle the ball into deep straightaway centre field, where the centre fielder leaps ten feet into the air up the wall and pulls it back. I was so stunned I forgot to tag up from third. A few innings later, another hard line drive is heading to the exact same spot and the exact same centre fielder performs the exact same gravity-defying feat, and helpfully punches the ball over the fence for a homer, complete with Metal Gear alert sound. I'm enjoying the learning curve, especially having learned to power hit for homers, and will be upping the ego again soon. The devs have done a very nice job of putting the game together and giving the player both simple tools for hitting and pitching along with the risk-reward of the power button. Anyway, that's my story thanks for listening. As regards your franchise, I'd advise fixing the parts of the team most in need of repair and plan for the future. Over a short season, five games is a lot to make up. Therefore, I suggest: Catcher: Long-term, Appleseed would be the choice for me over Raines, backed up by Quorn. Appleseed has a few years in reserve over Raines and a better arm and lower salary than Koch. Shortstop/2B: Obviously, you'd want to bring in Khan but I think you need to keep Jackman's bat in the squad, so the mooted move of Santana for Runs might be better for team balance and finance for now and come back to the problem later. 3B: I'd want the best of the bunch to come in at 3rd because Badhop is terrible. Polebean looks like a very good everyday 3B, and is still at a good age. RP: bringing in Doyle for Frequin and 9 mill in cap space is logical and makes other moves possible. OF: Evergreen by name, but I think a younger body is needed in that position. As you note, it might be wise to wait for the salary demands to drop and then I'd favour Dillion over Pacheco.
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Jun 5, 2020 18:45
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Robert Deadford posted:I'm also playing this game, learning it as I go having never played a baseball game before. It's fun! And it's fun because all sorts of odd things happen. Welcome and great to have you! No judgement here, I've had the series for years and never broke out of the 50's in ego (did get into the 70's for pitching in 2 but pitching is far and above my favorite gameplay mechanic). The important thing to me is that you're enjoying the game and hopefully the LP as well! To be honest my view has always been if anyone judges me for the difficulty I play a singleplayer game on that says more about them than me, you know? I did post some tutorials in the OP including a guide I wrote over on reddit, it covers most of the game mechanics if you want to check that out for some pointers as you get started. The comments also cover a lot of information that I missed in the guide itself. Additionally don't hesitate to ask questions about anything you don't understand or need clarified here, or just post about your own seasons and experiences. The only thing I'd consider a hard and fast rule in this thread is no belittling anyone else. Guide is here if you're curious. Hope it helps you out! Current Consensus on Free Agent Moves Everyone seems to agree on the Doyle for Frequin trade. This will free up 9.1 million in cap space. Fire Patience Evergreen to sign Carson Rojas. This is a move I didn't see and will free up around 1 million additionally. Carson Rojas is a great defensive option but I'm a little concerned about those low offensive stats. Still, it'd be hard for him to hit worse than Evergreen. Rufus Houndstooth for Lana Rhymes will cost us about 4.7 million against the cap, hopefully less if he comes down in the next two games but it won't be much. He would be a direct upgrade and I believe this move would give us a rotation approaching elite. The only remaining move may eventually be to swap out Winnie Noelle for Zap Branigan or one of the other A rated starters if their prices ever drop below 10 million. If we can ever pull that off I think we'd have a claim at one of the best rotations in the league. Sign Cale Santana for Walker Runs. This move seems less controversial this time around with all the infield defensive struggles. The move would cost us less than a million against the cap and give us a major defensive boost, allowing Guns Jackman to play at second base. At this point we would still be around 13 million in cap space. Stephen Appleseed for Jermaine Raines would cost us just under 5 million of that. It would be a significant, direct upgrade at starting catcher and leave Kenna Quorm at backup. Backstop would still be on the roster as a pinch-hitting option (I wish the AI coach would use him, 1 AB in 12 games is kind of pathetic). Kelly Polebean for Walker Runs would cost another 4 million. Having thought about it I think Russel Davila is the better value move here and gives us a left handed bat that we desperately need, but we really can't go wrong with either one. This would leave us 4 million when all is said and done. One move I would consider changing there is signing Hubub Espinoza in left instead of Carson Rojas. This would cost about 3.8 million and use up almost all of our remaining cap, but he's far better offensively and just as fast. He doesn't have the glove talent or defensive versatility of Rojas though and I'm kinda leaning towards Rojas given their respective costs. Espinosa is definitely the all or nothing move. I'll leave discussion open until tomorrow then go forward with whatever the consensus is. Expect a double header update tomorrow that will include all of the above moves unless a new debate opens. Honestly even though we're making it in desperation I really like this plan, the only issue it doesn't address is first but there aren't really any good answers there anyway for the moment. If Duchee continues to struggle we should see some good options open up around midseason as teams start to fall behind and reduce payroll. On a role playing note I would like to hold on to Kache Baskette for now. As I mentioned in a prior post firing her would send a terrible message to the fans and the clubhouse. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Jun 5, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 20:25
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Ah yeah I was all in on keeping baskette for now, sorry I didn't say that well. I like the moves that are made there, hopefully they pay off as the season goes on and we can make playoffs.Robert Deadford posted:I'm also playing this game, learning it as I go having never played a baseball game before. It's fun! And it's fun because all sorts of odd things happen. The bold part is why I love baseball in general. each team plays 162 games a year (at least) meaning there are 2400+ games for things to happen. Cracking open the rulebook reveals insane edge cases for things you would think are impossible because they've just about all happened. Baseball is great.  The fact you're power hitting is cool, you'll work your way up the mojo scale. I've played since the first game and have never been able to learn power hitting! The better players online seem to be all over it, and it's definitely the way to go if you can master it. Cuveball Sliders posted:I kind of want to see where this goes. Mind posting about your postseason moose run? Definitely. I'll write something up tomorrow. Highlights from round 2 include my game crashing after a 3 run home run wiping it out in a game that I'm pretty sure I lost by 2 runs, but I'll check when I pick it back up. The mojo I'm at seems to be a bit too easy for batting as I can't hit 4F 96+/ CF2F 93+ but absolutely feast on breaking balls, especially curveballs. I regularly (and in my update you'll see) get blown up on pitching. Always happy for baseball chat in general and to talk about the game. How much detail to you want? I'm up 2-1 in the LCS hoping to make the SM series at the moment. It's been a lot of fun following along with the LP because I think the difference between playing and watching is very different. You obviously have to look at things very differently in terms of player skill characteristics. Purely simming a season wasn't even an idea that occured to me. How are you finding it compared to playing? Is purely simming something you'd done in smb3 outside of the LP?
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Jun 5, 2020 23:50
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Those moves all look good, though come what may I'd like to not go too much closer than 5m to the salary cap so development funds don't completely dry up. With this seeming to be the de facto SMB3 thread, I wouldn't mind good trip reports either. They could inform our choices!
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Jun 6, 2020 03:21
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ilmucche posted:
Whatever you feel like putting together, and this goes for anyone who wants to share about their own seasons. I really enjoy talking about the game and reading about how others play it, it may even give us some ideas for this franchise. To your other question I've honestly wanted to sim/watch a franchise as soon as I heard it was going to be an option, when the game was first announced in March (right after my work closed down actually). When I got the game I got super into my standard Sand Cats franchise and wound up winning a championship behind a 6 strikeout performance by Beebee Takabasei first, but I did end up doing some test leagues for this concept to try to figure out what was and wasn't possible, weirdly I won the championship first season with my Pheonix custom franchise and my Beewolves test run looks like it may end up in the wild card spot, so this performance by the Freebooters probably isn't typical if you want to give it a try. This is my first time doing it game by game and series by series like this but I really think our current results are due to the Freebooter's just kind of being terrible. I do think simming/watching likes this requires a very different skillset. You have to know how to time free agent moves to save the most money without losing the player, you have to be able to spot those diamond C and C+ players and like you said you have to not just be thinking about how you would play with them but how they'll actually perform. Playing short seasons like this adds the wrinkle of the above point that baseball is a game where anything can happen over a small enough sample (see our start with the Freebooters). Most importantly it requires the player to accept that they have absolutely no control over the outcome of the game beyond putting players on the field and the patience to let those players play to their stats. Being comfortable focusing on what you control and accepting what you can't is something that a lot of people have a hard time with, it's taken me about a decade of professional experience in some very wild settings to even reach the point I'm at now with it. This specific format of watching and simming games in small bunches probably works best as a let's play and I doubt I'd have the patience to do it on my own. As a let's play it becomes kind of a shared story with each game a new chapter and each player a character. I can't wait to see what these new guys will do, if we'll be able to turn this horrendous start around, or if we can't who do we end up keeping? To me a format like this where the games play themselves out hits the essence of rooting for sports, being mad at players who don't perform or thrilled when the defensive backup smacks a walk off homer to straightaway center field. The important thing is you're mad or excited for the players themselves instead of someone with a controller, whether or not they exist is irrelevant because to us they do. I'm rambling. I like the game, I like the sound of my voice. Actually I don't like the sound of my voice, I just like typing. I'd also like to add on a more personal note that doing something like this LP is very uncharacteristic, I'm not an outgoing person and the biggest challenge of setting this up was putting myself out there to be judged. In that sense it's almost been therapeutic in helping me get over myself, if that makes sense. There's still a ton to figure out and I'm still working on my commentary, screenshot organization, and even just basic franchise mechanics but it's been great and you guys have really helped make it great. One final thing I definitely want to say is thank you to everyone participating, watching, or reading along. I told myself when I started this that I'd keep it going as long as one person was interested in seeing the next game and continuing to get replies even through the bugs and the rough start to commentary and my own mistakes has been humbling as all hell. I appreciate all of you for helping me find my voice through these early updates. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Jun 6, 2020 |
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Jun 6, 2020 04:20
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I just wanted to say that I am loving this LP. In a time where sports are gone for time being, it is adding something for me to look forward to while I am either working or relaxing. Also, I ended up getting the game for the switch as it looks fun to play!
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Jun 6, 2020 15:37
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Had a bit of a technical issue and a bit of a me being bad at math issue with this last update. Technical issue is going to result in a few missing pitches in the bottom of the fifth inning against the Moose and it's because I ran out of disk space on my external drive while recording. The math issue is I was looking at Walker Runs salary when talking about replacing badhop at third. If we replace Badhop we won't have the money left to move Lana Rhymes for Rufus Houndstooth. Because of that I decided to wait on both moves until the end of the Moose series then I'll present the costs of both and we can go from there. I don't think either of them will be signed but fortunately if they are we have other options. Expect both videos against the Moose later today, the first one will have a bit of a transition though. Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Jun 6, 2020 |
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Jun 6, 2020 18:05
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBNxu8AT2ds The aforementioned technical issue happened in this one in the fifth inning. The other issue was that our AI coach didn't use the new players quite as we envisioned. Game starts at 11:00 (first ten minutes was free agency moves). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyx6BABVpjY Watch this video. Game starts at 5:30. So I took matters into my own hands and set the lineup myself. Until we have an easier lineup for the AI to manage I think I may do this for now, the infield makes way more sense with Jackman at second and Santana covering short, and I'd like to give Rojas at least one outfield start. Choice Time So I messed up our calculations by working off the wrong player's salary before. Right now we have about 12.7 million with 2 positions still to fill, all of our free agent targets are still in play.  Current roster and salaries We still need to upgrade offensively and there are 2 options we've already discussed at third to do it. Both have come down a little since we last looked at them.   Kelly Polebean and Russel Davila are still both really good options. Polebean is good offensively with very good speed and defense, while Davila has comparable offensive stats with worse (but still serviceable) speed and defense. I would like to get Davila at this point. Polebean is an excellent ballplayer but is yet another right handed hitter and costs almost 2 million more. Davila is a switch hitter with very good offensive stats, I think he could be a mainstay in this lineup even with mediocre speed.   Here are the players we could move for this. Douchey has the advantage of taking more money off the books and he has not hit as well as Brown so far (in fact he's well below the Mendoza line so far and hasn't shown much improvement). Brown is a backup level player and we would be moving him to backup. Moving Douchee would also free up the DH spot so we could utilize these defensive players more in the outfield.   The other move we wanted to make was Houndstooth for Rhymes, which I don't think we can do in a Badhop for Polebean deal. So here are our choices: 1. Davila for Brown then get Houndstooth: Leaves 3.6 million total cap space remaining. 2. Davila for Douchee then get Houndstooth: Would leave over 8 million in total cap space 3. Polebean for Brown then Houndstooth: 1.9 million left over. 4. Polebean for Douchee then Houndstooth: 6.5 million as our final cap space. Hoping to get at least game one of our series against the Blowfish posted tomorrow but I'm not sure I'll have the time, so voting/discussion will be open at least until then.
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Jun 6, 2020 22:01
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kag3man3 posted:I just wanted to say that I am loving this LP. In a time where sports are gone for time being, it is adding something for me to look forward to while I am either working or relaxing. Appreciate that and feel free to post about your first impressions and games!
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Jun 6, 2020 22:04
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My developing experience has been a custom team I named the Zeroes. THE STORY SO FAR:  Out of the box they were bad at a glance, worse on paper and disastrous on the field, you can imagine the defensive issues a team runs into with a top speed of 64, or a roster so shallow that nobody can play third except two planks who can't play anything else. The "bullpen beasts" had nice numbers but very limited pitch selections that were, uh, not kind to a first encounter with the improved batting AI. Suffice to say the team had more problems than a visit to the salary cap could fix and the teardown began. First I came for the bad contracts and the elderly but soon everyone was fair game. The first two seasons saw about a 66% turnover and never came close to the playoffs, which is saying something in a league where 16/30 teams make it. There were plenty of brutal blowouts and squandered developments, notably Dumpling "i'll keep you as a face of the franchise i guess" Ibarra who hung it up at 29. Still the team was about 30m clear of the salary cap and everyone slowly but surely developed. In the Zeroes' third season a generational talent came up in the draft and I knew I wanted him, but I didn't know the value of a contract and while I dithered he went elsewhere; when he reappeared on the market midway through the season I didn't repeat my mistake and scooped him. He was slumping (why the other team dealt him, I guess) but I could still justify his price as paying half to play for the Zeroes and half to not play for anyone else. The Zeroes got their first wild card on the back of a D+ starter who I hired for 0.9m as a joke and played out of his mind; I guess I also had to learn about sports curses, as I dealt him for an A- "upgrade" who lost the Zeroes' first playoff game and then, due to a teamwork breakdown on an infield dribbler, the deciding game 5. In the fourth season the Zeroes' prospects had come a long way from C- and I trusted them to sim the first 90% of the season (the franchise crossed .500 for the first time), only coming in to help win their first division title on negative run differential (  ). Mindful to not throw off the team's rhythm this time, I traded some bench warmers for power bats and vowed only to play if the Zeroes faced elimination. They swept the first round, and then the second, and then the conference finals.The Zeroes' cursed A- pitcher from last year was having an MVP postseason on the other side of the bracket, and for a bit there was a real chance her team could start her games 1 and 5 in a dark mirror grudgematch of a finals, but the best team in the conference (.750, +70 RD) overcame a rough start to the playoffs and crushed them, winning 6 postseason games in a row to the Zeroes' 9. By the time the Zeroes took game 1 in extra innings my non-baseball friends were on the edge of their seats, going from laughing at Rosalie Peppers' nervous batting face to cheering and yelling when she threw out a runner at home from center to keep game 2 alive in the bottom of the 11th. They tied the series 1-1 but the damage to their bullpen was done, which collapsed in game 3 and never recovered; with a magical 12-1 postseason the Zeroes finally kissed the rings. The season five team needed a few games to click, but then ran away with the division and are ready for the playoffs. Meet the Zeroes now:     You can see some of the fielders who have stuck with the team from day 1. Drew Aguilar has developed into a great leadoff batter (mostly), Rosalie Peppers honed her defense into a first-rate CF. Mateo Witness became an A+ player for a bit but the years haven't been kind, still he'll probably be useful on cleanup for as long as he feels like playing. For free agent signings the big man with the big price tag is Keaton Brown, who I have to keep manually putting into right field, I get he's the best LF in the league but we have no natural RF and his fielding penalty is a drop in the bucket of his talent. Catcher Odin South is the only Zero to ever pursue free agency, asking for... exactly the same amount the team was paying him, so I just took him back, his backup Maren Fowler is just as good but her 97 Contact switch bat is too useful at PH. Goldie Thomas has some sort of magical bat that breaks it open all the time constantly, she led the championship playoffs in homers. Elegance Colombo got into the starting lineup when the previous 3B hung it up at 32, she mostly solves the mystery of how many times can a player GIDP in a single game but either way I got her at C- and that contract can't be beat. New this year are Forest Greene, Carlisle McClain (useful off-brand versions of other teammates), Samuel Henson, Gunther Tinklethorpe, and Happy Hurst (surplus but have been competent when the starters need a day off). I'm pretty sure that the pitching staff hasn't changed in the two seasons following that first round playoff collapse. Zeroes vets Top Kramer, Santiago Copeland and Isreal Steward have greatly improved and earn a fraction of what they're worth now, which can also be said of Corbin Marquez and Alec Stuart and Hannah Grouse, who I wanted to replace this year but her contract is so team-friendly that the SP/RP prospect I coveted didn't even get to twice her salary before another team took him and she did fine anyways. Moses Shannon and Mariam Sierra are overpaid by my standards but good SP prospects are hard to come by and bad closers bleed wins like you wouldn't believe. At 20m under the salary cap I could afford some of the fat bats now on the market, but the team is clicking so well I kind of don't want to change a thing; while I dread the day Kramer asks for 25 million dollars, for now the Zeroes are finally in a good place and I hope their title defense is fun to watch.  e: helluva booters game 
tomanton fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Jun 7, 2020 |
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Jun 7, 2020 03:24
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Cuveball Sliders posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyx6BABVpjY That was a hell of a game! The longball is in fashion this season. I've also noticed that catchers have started dropping excessive numbers of pitches and a patch did drop recently. As for the player moves, I think option 4 is the one to take. Is Polebean's extra athleticism worth the extra $1.5 million? Maybe, but it can't hurt.
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Jun 7, 2020 11:09
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tomanton posted:THE STORY SO FAR: I love everything about this. Get what you mean when the team is clicking, sometimes it's better to go with a squad you know synergizes well even if you have to miss out on a top tier talent. Doubly so when you have to control them. What I really love about the franchise mode in this game is it's such a simple system that creates so much more depth. Anyway nice post. Robert Deadford posted:That was a hell of a game! The longball is in fashion this season. I've also noticed that catchers have started dropping excessive numbers of pitches and a patch did drop recently. Thanks man. Appleseed has definitely not gotten off to an auspicious start, he may have been pressing to try to live up to his contract. I'm going to bench him for a couple games to see if that helps clear his mind. Gameplay explanation for that is being rattled is a penalty to all stats and since defense was already kind of mediocre, when Appleseed got the mojo drops from his disastrous AB's it took his defense stats into the 20's or 30's. He didn't actually drop that many pitches but the ones he did lose were at very inopportune times. Sitting him for Quorm should help reset his stats and give us the chance to see Rojas in the outfield. I hope nobody minds if I start setting the lineup myself, I really didn't like the one the AI was trotting out there and we could see the difference in game 2 I think on both sides of the ball. Jackman seems much more comfortable at second where he doesn't have to cover as big a gap and Cale Santana has been a stud in his first 2 games. To the last point, having thought about it since we don't have a true leadoff hitter I think Polebean will fill that role nicely and the extra 1.5 million is worth it for that alone. She is one of the best athletes on the board and I think we'll need that against the Blowfish, plus it would give us an outstanding infield defense. The only reason I don't like the move is it would leave us with just 2 left handed bats in the lineup. Long term that may hurt us against right handed pitching. I'll keep my eye out for potential switch or left handed DH candidates for now. In other news I think I'm going to take a day off from updating to play some black flag and leave the debate open a bit longer and I'd like to pose an additional, LP related question. With the season now a quarter of the way through and our lineup mostly set, it's time to start the all star voting! Like all good all star votes this doesn't need to be entirely performance based, just go with your opinion and who you think is most popular. Also like all good all star votes there's no accountability so you can vote multiple times for multiple players, but all votes will be counted, so no saying "I want to change my vote." If you want to nullify it just vote twice for the other guy. Also because it's an all star vote when I say voting opens now, it isn't going to close for a while. Voting will remain open until game 40. Until then each update will end with a running tally of votes. This is going to be an absolute unfair clusterfuck of a system just like real all star voting. We'll be voting for just 3 categories in this first season. Eventually maybe someone can come up with clever names for the categories. Team MVP: Best Pitcher: Best Backup/Bench/Role Player: Here are some very flexible, basic rules for voting: To qualify for the third categroy the player can not have started more than a quarter of our total games, but again since this is opinion and honor system based I'm not going to be checking math on these. Obviously Oakley Stiffs wouldn't qualify for that category but would Quenna Quorm? Would a full time DH who never sees the field? Being a good commissioner I'm not going to clarify either of those questions so have at it and enjoy! You can vote as many times as you want but just one vote per category, per post. If you want to vote more than once it has to be a separate post. This is honor system and I think it makes sense since voting will be open for so long, but the rule is subject to change. What I'm hoping with this rule is that people won't save their votes since you can vote now, later, and in between. You can vote for the same player for multiple categories as long as they qualify for both categories. I will accept all votes except those who obviously don't qualify for a category, like Gunns Jackman as best pitcher. The third category can be a bit nebulous and honestly I'm fine with that.
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Jun 7, 2020 14:53
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Robert Deadford posted:That was a hell of a game! The longball is in fashion this season. I've also noticed that catchers have started dropping excessive numbers of pitches and a patch did drop recently. Yeah this, it helps that Polebean is eight years younger and could still improve a bit. TEAM MVP: Kache Baskette BEST PITCHER: Write-in vote for Jovita Pulo of the Crocodons BEST BACKUP: Badhop Brown
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Jun 7, 2020 18:16
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c1QHrZBbdU The squad is now set, we went out and spent big to try to reforge this team into a winner. We have 5.6 million in cap space remaining and that's money we'll be holding onto for development barring the potential for a major move. Can we get a win streak going off our big win against the Moose? Unfortunately we were never able to get our right hand dominant lineup any more diversity, in fact I think we dropped one lefty. That was the only thing I felt like we really missed on. I hope what we did will be enough to get us a shot at the wild card. Probably the most challenging thing about a run like this is identifying skillsets that will perform well in AI vs AI games. I know what kinds of pitchers and hitters I like to use and a lot of the players I've targeted have been along those lines, low accuracy with good junk and/or velocity and multiple good pitches. I'm finding that accuracy is a much more important skill for the AI than the player. I do think that even if we don't end up competing in season one we're learning a lot of lessons about how to build a winner. Edit: Damnit, hit post instead of preview. Video will be uploaded and processed shortly. Edit edit: Uploaded and processed now. I'll leave this here as a testament to my buffoonery Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Jun 8, 2020 |
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Jun 8, 2020 17:36
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tckManSXFbw Ed Reed in his first real start as a Freebooter, at last! This was a pretty fun game overall and one you should probably watch. With the Blowfish series done we can look forward to one more in division series against the Herbisaurs then a string of tough games starting on the road against the Buzzards. We'll go back to watching 1 game of each cycle through the rotation after the Herbisaurs series, I just wanted to do these all in a row because they were a crucial series of, well, series and we had just rebuilt our lineup and pitching staff. Overall the new players have looked really good other than Appleseed and Doyle who continue to struggle and these last 4 games have all been pretty exciting. I am thinking about putting Brown at DH and playing Brickhouse in Center against the Herbisaurs to get a little more offensive firepower. All that said we need to sweep the Herbisaurs and build some momentum to get back in the playoff conversation. These next few games are going to be crucial. Current All Star Votes: MVP: Kache Basket (2) Pitcher: Jovita Pulo (write in - 1) Best Bench Player: Badhop Brown (1) Also implementing a new All Star rule. The winner in each category at the end of the season cannot be released in the offseason and, if they leave for free agency, I have to make a serious effort to re-sign them. Serious effort is defined as offering at least 1.5 times their current salary. Edit: Guess who I ran into in my Sand Cats franchise! Cuveball Sliders fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Jun 9, 2020 |
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Jun 8, 2020 19:53
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Kashe Baskette is my vote for MVP. Just plugging along on a team well below .500 I also ran into the freebooters in my franchise game. oops no it was a couple regular season games. I did say I was going to write that up.. ilmucche fucked around with this message at 11:48 on Jun 9, 2020 |
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Jun 9, 2020 11:45
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We finally got a big win in our last road game against the Blowfish but we need to put together a streak if we want to get back in the playoff hunt. Can we keep the momentum going at home against the Herbisaurs with Winnie Noelle on the mound? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htlkR68f8aw Watch this game. Seriously, this was one of the best games of the series so far and probably held the highest stakes. We've played better since rebuilding the roster but so far it's basically been a .500 effort and we need to sweep the herbisaurs to start getting back into it. The season is going to be halfway done in just 8 games and we desperately need to make up ground.  We will still be seeing game 18 (likely tomorrow) after which there's a stretch of individual games. Pick two of the upcoming games you'd like to watch and the rest will be simulated. We'll also take another look at free agency and player development around the midway point, plus I'll start showing the rosters of teams currently leading the division and wild card.
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Jun 9, 2020 21:17
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I’m voting 22 and 23
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Jun 9, 2020 21:27
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I would like to see #20 to see Reed pitch agan and #24 away to the nemesis to watch some taters get mashed
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Jun 9, 2020 21:35
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22 for Crocodons, 24 to see if the new roster can write their own win against the first team we beat.
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Jun 10, 2020 00:15
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