MLB 14: The Show

[Toe]

In my first season, I had Javier Baez called up and platooning with Darwin Barney. Then, with 90 games to go, he went down for the rest of the season.

I've always seen tons of injuries in franchise, so I usually turn the slider down a notch or two.

[Your Mom]

I turned the injury sliders up one notch. We'll see what happens I guess

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Do you have to turn injuries on in Franchise? I haven't had a single person injured yet and I was just wondering if I was lucky or if they weren't even on

You can have injuries turned off. And if you want it to be a realistic amount when on, you need to up the Injury Frequency slider.

When I was playing a Franchise where I was playing almost every game, I found I had very few injuries. I think my back-up infielder went down for the season and then a pitcher miss about 2-3 weeks.

I find injuries are far more common when you sim lots of games. I ended up losing a starting pitcher, my third baseman for the entire season, 2/3 of my outfield and about two injuries that lasted 2-3 weeks.

[Meacon Keaton]

Yeah, if you sim the injuries pile up. But if you play every game, you have to boost up the slider a bit. Out of all the games I've played on '14, I've seen only one in-game injury. And that was because I slid into first base headfirst for fun.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Yeah, I think I've only gotten one in-game injury and it was on a slide to second.

Had my pitcher get taken out of the game when he got hit in the head by a pitch.

[Toe]

I've had my opening day starter leave the game after one pitch. TWICE.

[Your Mom]

It's just odd because I get balls lined off the pitcher like all the time and I always get "Oh that looked bad! We're going to see if he can stay in the game. Well it looks like he's going to tough it out and stay on the mound!"

Like all the time!

[Meacon Keaton]

You have tougher players than Toe.

[Toe]

I've only seen pitchers leave the game after getting hit twice, and both times it was after taking a line drive to the head.

Actually, in the game I just played, I had Ryan Madson come into the game in the 10th inning. Threw two strikes, then had to leave with a concussion despite not getting hit!

[Meacon Keaton]

Bwahaha what the hell.

I was talking to my buddy tonight. I mentioned our discussion on the lack of injuries and he said he is like Toe. He'll get injuries that are just bizarre. He had Kershaw in a franchise, and when his catcher went to throw out a guy stealing second, it hit Kershaw in his pitching shoulder and he lost him for the season due to a broken arm.

[Toe]

Just played at Fenway. Even if I'm simming to the end of the season, I'll always stop to play a game there. On the PS4, it looks awesome and I love any ballpark that plays different and looks different. One big reason l usually don't play as the Jays is because Rogers Centre is so bland.

One game after the All-Star break and I am 56-40, and tied for tops of the NL Central with the Cardinals. I went through a month and a half of .500 baseball as a bunch of guys went down with short term injuries. Cool to see Javier Baez as the NL starter at second in his first season as a starter.

I doubt I'll make any changes to the team this season. I like my lineup and bench, although I have a lack of speed. I already added to the bullpen, adding a few guys from the Marlins (I can't recall the names at the moment) for a guy I drafted that was 70 overall but had C potential.

As far as my starting pitching goes, I'm set. Shelby Miller is 90 overall now, and I just pitched a Maddux (complete game shutout under 100 pitches) with him at Fenway. Marco Gonzales is 88 overall and has been fantastic. Only Jose Quintana has been blah, and I don't really enjoy pitching with him for some reason.

[Toe]

Well, that came together quick. Decided to play a game since I have had some trouble sleeping tonight.

Traded my first round pick, a B potential 22 year old left fielder, to Washington for Jordan Zimmerman and Ross Detwiler.

[Toe]

Zimmerman allows 2 in his debut (because I was up by 12 and pitching to the score...), then I sim forward 2 weeks and my Cubs crush it. We regained the lead in the NL East and are 3 games up on the Cardinals with a week to go to the deadline.

My only remaining piece that I'm willing to deal is Jorge Soler, who is blocked by Myers and Arcia. However, he doesn't seem to have much value despite being an A level potential player. I'll probably keep him and then in the offseason, if Adam Eaton doesn't re-sign with me, I'll move Soler for a centre fielder.

[Meacon Keaton]

I'm in the ALDS in my online franchise.

The guy with Oakland, who I'm suppose to be playing, has put our series off for about a week. Finally caught him online and we got game one done.

Game was scoreless going into the sixth when he hit a two-run bomb with Wil Myers.

I put one run on the board in the bottom half thanks to three straight singles from my 7-8-9 of Ackley, Junior Lake, and Carlos Correa.

7th inning was three up and three down for each of us, but in the bottom of the eighth I broke te game open with a three run homer from John Jay. Giancarlo Stanton added an RBI double later in the inning.

Jesse Crain shut him down, 1-2-3, to pick up the save and give us a 1-0 series lead.

Now to wait another week to play game two.

[Toe]

How does the online franchise work anyways? Do you both go ahead a week at a time like in NHL?

[Meacon Keaton]

Depends on who the commissioner is.

In our franchise, we have an open schedule. You can play any amount of games you want from April-June. We give each other about a month (real time) to get through that. After June 30th, we don't allow any more trading. Then we do another real life month where you can play any games you want from July-September.

Then we have our playoffs and that takes however long it does if there are user-vs-user match-ups.

It should be said that we've only actually gone a whole month once. Usually every is ready to move on after two weeks or so.

[Toe]

I just finished year two with the Cubs. A horrible August saw us only win 5 games and we finished 89-73, 3 games back the Cardinals and a whopping 11 back of the Wild Card.

Something weird happened though...the Rockies put Car-Go on waivers. I'm assuming it had something to do with his contract, but holy shit. I claimed him and got a 97 rated fielder for nothing.

[Paton]

Generally, what are some tips for improving patience and being able to judge the ball? Is a lot of it hit and miss or is there strategy involved?

[Toe]

Once you've seen enough pitches, you just get it. Some pitchers are easier to see then others too.

[Meacon Keaton]

Take the Ted Williams approach and don't swing until you at least have one strike.