MLB The Show - General Discussion

[Meacon Keaton]

2 minutes ago, The Chiksrara Special said:

I should try it that way. Before they let you carry over data to the next game I never even cared about the minors but I'll probably play this same franchise for the rest of my life now  

I’m actually jealous you can keep a single game going that long. I want to have a long running one, but I always want to play as the Yankees, but I get bored with them because they’re already one of the best teams. So then I pick a Cincinnati or Miami and I just want to play as the Yankees again.  

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

1 minute ago, Meacon said:

I’m actually jealous you can keep a single game going that long. I want to have a long running one, but I always want to play as the Yankees, but I get bored with them because they’re already one of the best teams. So then I pick a Cincinnati or Miami and I just want to play as the Yankees again.  

Do a fantasy draft with the Yankees and intentionally only draft old guys. Then you can try and re-build them. 

[Meacon Keaton]

4 minutes ago, Ms. Canadian Destroyer said:

Do a fantasy draft with the Yankees and intentionally only draft old guys. Then you can try and re-build them. 

This is why I love you. 

I just have to figure out how to guarantee I still get Judge.  

[Gabriel]

23 minutes ago, Meacon said:

This is why I love you. 

I just have to figure out how to guarantee I still get Judge.  

Start a Fantasy Draft and take him with your first pick. If he gets taken before it gets to you, then restart the Fantasy Draft and try again.

OR, turn on 30 team control and draft for all of the teams to ensure that you get the pick that you want.

[Your Mom]

I have 4 guys with deals ending this season and it says they all expect 31 million per year. Should I try and trade one? Theres no way I can afford that right?

[Gabriel]

1 minute ago, The Chiksrara Special said:

I have 4 guys with deals ending this season and it says they all expect 31 million per year. Should I try and trade one? Theres no way I can afford that right?

That really depends. If they are Contract Renewable or Arbitration Eligible players, you have some wiggle room. They may want $31 million a year, but guys who are Renewable can be renewed for a one year deal at a cost of their current salary + 10%. They won't necessarily be the happiest about it, but it gives you extra time to clear out salary.

Arbitration eligible players can ask for big dollars, but at the end of the day, you can set an arbitration rate for a one year deal that you think is fair, they will do the same thing, and a judge will rule on which side is most correct and that's what your player will make. Typically, if they're on something like a $4 million a year deal, I'll bump it up to $4.4 when I offer arbitration. Though, if they performed exceptionally well, I might go a bit higher.

Both ways only secure the player for an extra year for you, but they're very good ways to give yourself some time to clear out salary. Especially because you'll know what their asking price was on a new deal and how far away you are from being able to afford it. So you'll be able to make moves that clear up that space you need, or cut ties with players you don't think are worth what you'd have to give up to sign long-term.

Now... if all four guys you have a straight up Free Agents, you'll have to look at your budget to see how much money you're making per week, because you can gauge how much you'll have to work with in the off-season that way. Franchise budgets do get pretty big, but I'd bet that you won't be able to afford four guys making $30+ a year.

When I have to move out a really good player because of financial constraints, what I'll do is take a look at what positions they're playing and see if there is someone else on my roster who is ready to take over for any of them. If there is, it makes the decision on who to let go a lot easier, and typically I'll spend a good fifteen to thirty minutes going through the other rosters to see what the best possible return is. If I have guys ready to step in, I'll move out a big contract for high potential players with decent stats at positions where I have a need for prospects.

When there isn't someone ready to step up, I'll take a look around the other rosters and see if I can't swing a deal where I send my major leaguer to another team in exchange for an MLB player and a prospect or two.

For instance, in my Jays franchise, I just recently traded away Luiz Gohara, who had won the Cy Young twice for me, and won 20 games three times. It was a tough call to make, but he was making $20 million a year, had a couple of years left, his stats were degrading and he had the highest ERA on my starting staff. It seemed like the writing was on the wall that he was on the downslope of his career. I had two other guys in my starting rotation who expected to be the ace, and one of my long-relievers was a starter with a good ERA, WHIP and K/BB ratio. I didn't have anyone in the minors that I wanted to bring up to fill his spot in the bullpen, but I just so happened to check up on a New York Mets team that was leading their division, but with five starting pitchers with abysmal ERA's. They had the best bullpen in the league at the time though, and I managed to send Gohara and his $20 million per year to New York in exchange for reliever Andrew Hurd, who led all their pitchers in ERA and was only making $2 or $3 million, plus two A level infield prospects with contact over 60 and power over 70. Neither one of those prospects is even 23 yet, so if I can develop their fielding skills better, that's a hell of a deal.

Of course, checking in on Gohara, and his ERA went from something like 5.32 with me, down to the high 3's by the end of the season. Hurd killed it for me though, and now I have more room in the off-season to sign my star short-stop to a big money deal, and should still have enough left over to re-sign everybody I want to keep. Worst case scenario is that I'm a little bit light on funds and can't get everybody signed, but in that event, I usually just start trading away guys making the most money who didn't play on my Jays team the previous year in exchange for cheap prospects.

It's very rare that I run into an off-season situation where I can't afford to keep someone that I want, because I tend to make those decisions well ahead of time and make the corresponding moves necessary to ensure that I don't have to worry about other bidders on my players.

I'm over a decade into my MLB 18 franchise, and I've only lost one player to another team during free agency, and it wasn't even like I didn't offer him a boat load of cash... I just think that I didn't offer enough of a boat load of cash to make the offer more enticing than going to a team where he was guaranteed to be the star player... while I had two prospects just underneath him on the depth chart that were basically ready to go, and only being kept in the minors because I still had the other guy. And that's how I lost Randall Grichuk.

[Toe]

In my White Sox game, I have one player - Gerritt Cole - making big money. After Cole and his $30 million per season, my next highest is Marcell Ozuna at $12, then Wellington Castillo at $6. Although this upcoming off-season will require big paydays for Yoan Moncada (RFA) and almost my entire pitching staff (UFA).

[Your Mom]

Thinking of trading Lindor for Corey Seager. Lindor is on the last year of his deal and is expecting big money while Seager is locked up for 3 seasons at about 7 million per. Lindor is a little better by the numbers but Seager would be a huge savings after this season. Or I keep Lindor and potentially let him go getting nothing for him

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

$7M is super good for Seager.

One of the thing that annoys me is the morale related to salary, especially if they signed the contract. I get if the guy is unhappy before he hits free agency but if the guy agreed to a cheap deal, he shouldn't be mad that he's making less than he wants. 

The other morale thing they need to change is that a guy isn't considered a "star" if you bat him 2nd in the lineup. He has to be batting 1st, 3rd or 4th. 

[Toe]

10 minutes ago, Ms. Canadian Destroyer said:

$7M is super good for Seager.

One of the thing that annoys me is the morale related to salary, especially if they signed the contract. I get if the guy is unhappy before he hits free agency but if the guy agreed to a cheap deal, he shouldn't be mad that he's making less than he wants. 

The other morale thing they need to change is that a guy isn't considered a "star" if you bat him 2nd in the lineup. He has to be batting 1st, 3rd or 4th. 

That bugs me so much, since I want my best overall hitter in the #2 spot. 

[Meacon Keaton]

Yeah, Aaron Judge bats second IRL and if he’s not the star I’m not sure who is.

Also I didn’t realize that was how the game mechanic worked so thanks for that tidbit.

[Gabriel]

Yeah, guys who want to be used as a "Star" in your lineup need to be hitting 1st, 3rd of 4th in all four of your lineups. You can have your cleanup hitter against righties be your lead off hitter against lefties, but for them to be satisfied that they are used as a star, they need to be set in one of those three spots on all four lineups.

I think they should change it though so that all four top spots in the lineup count for that... or better yet, that the human player can designate three spots in the batting order as where the star players play... so if you'd prefer to have your stars hitting 2, 3, 4... you can do that... and often, I find that's what I would prefer, as typically my star guys aren't speed demons on the base paths, but I always have at least one or two Everyday or Platoon players who can swipe bags at ridiculous rates.

 

EDIT: Also, a quick note for Franchise players. One way to game the system a bit, is that in February, remaining free agents will sign for anything. If you want to play cheaply, you can fill out your 90 man roster by signing a bunch of guys to contracts at 30k a year. Personally, after I finish off the bulk of my off-season stuff, I'll take a look at organizational needs in the minors and fill out my 90 man with guys who weren't signed. I look at it like some of the "prove yourself" contracts that guys take deep into the off-season or after the year starts.

I don't think I've ever signed more than 10 guys in a season that way, and I limit myself in regards to talent levels. I won't just snag the best remaining players. Instead, I typically will sign only guys who have played previously for my organization and didn't get a new contract.

It's a great way to get some cheap veterans to play on your farm teams, and it's also nice for depth at the MLB level, as when I have injuries, I'll usually have a cheap veteran in the minors ready to come up for a shot before I make the decision to make a trade or promote a prospect. I never sign these guys for more than one year though. One year, 30K contract. I actually snagged Brandon Nimmo that way with the intention of him playing at AAA until I needed to use him as a trade chip or call him up because of injuries... then he had a killer year for me and my right fielder on the Jays was in decline, so I moved my regular fielder in a trade with the intention of re-signing Nimmo, only to find out that I had to pay Nimmo almost twice what the other guy was making because he ended up hitting over .300 in about half a season at the major league level on that "prove yourself" contract.

Edited June 25, 2019 by Gabriel

[Toe]

Yeah, I don't have a prototypical lead-off hitter in my line-up, so I have Tim Anderson in the spot against the left (9th vs. RHP), and then Bradley Zimmer leading off against the right (9th vs. LHP). So if I had three stars on my team, that wouldn't work.

Luckily, you can negotiate with players for status. I was able to get Ozuna to sign for me over another team by promising him star status, and now he's in the 3rd spot everyday. 

[The Buscher]

How big is the in-season price drop for this game usually?  Seems Target knocked $10 off the price but not sure if it'll go lower in a week just because of the All Star break.

[Meacon Keaton]

I’m fairly certain it drops to half price at the break.

[Your Mom]

Isn't it half price? I know that's what I'm waiting for

[Toe]

I'm in the World Series with my White Sox against the LA Dodgers. Game 1 was a nail biter - both Gerrit Cole and Clayton Kershaw pitched shutouts, but the game ended up going to extras where in the 13th, a bloop single, a stolen base, and another single gave the Dodgers a 1-0 series lead.

[The Buscher]

On 03/07/2019 at 10:14, The Chiksrara Special said:

Isn't it half price? I know that's what I'm waiting for

Seems Best Buy has it down to $40 now

[Your Mom]

7 minutes ago, Trent Buschetta said:

Seems Best Buy has it down to $40 now

I believe that's how much it is digitally right now too if that's something you're into. I'm waiting to see if it goes down though

[The Buscher]

I’m mildly tempted as I have a Best Buy gift card to burn anyways.  That said since I mostly play franchise (always find myself giving up on RTTS, too irritating) and they’ve barely touched that mode in favor of focusing on online play.

Then again it’s not like I have this huge laundry list of games coming out later this year that I want.