MLB 11 The Show "Franchise/Season" Progress Thread

[cardsfan2222]

I lost 2 of 3 to the Angels, as my offense has become stagnant. Scoring 1 run a game isn't going to win too many games.

Karstens faced off against Mathis and the Rangers. Mathis was 0-6 with a 7.75 ERA, with no quality starts in 13 starts, yet somehow is still in the rotation for Texas. He pitched well for 3 innings, but I managed to score 4 in the 4th thanks to a Michael Young error. Young redeemed himself by making 3 diving plays to rob me of hits, but the 4 runs were enough for a 4-1 win. Karstens continues to pitch well, allowing 1 run on 4 hits in 7 innings against a Texas team that leads the majors with 102 home runs.

I claimed RP Justin Souza off outright waivers from the A's. He has good stats from AAA, and will fill out the bullpen in Memphis for now. If Hochevar continues to struggle, he might get a shot to take his spot as long reliever.

[Cowswin]

I'm new to OS, but this looks like a cool place to post threads. Anyway, I'm currently 14-10 in my Yankees franchise. Got swept by both Boston and Chicago (AL) and are the only teams I haven't beaten yet.

I am just curious what you all do for minor league games? My tendency is usually to play all April games just so I can get a feel for all the pitching and hitting tendencies and styles in case I need injury replacements or call-ups. Then I sim the minor league games for the rest of the season.

It's slow going, as I am still only at the end of April in my franchise, but that's what works for me. I'm just interested in hearing how everyone else manages their minor league teams.

[cardsleadtheway]

Good luck with Souza. He hasn't made my team still, but he has been in a few minor league all star games. I might have to give him a try though. Hawksworth has turned out to be the worst pitcher in my bull pen. He pitches well for me, but in sim games he always gives up a run or two. His era is somewhere north of 7 right now in the middle of May. I had to send Breslow down to bring up a backup IF, but I can't bring him up to replace Hawksworth because I need a righty in the pen and Hawksworth is the best option right now. I am going to have to stick with him a little longer to see if he figures out the change in leagues. Maybe SOuza will be the guy. Let me know how he works for you.

In the middle of May and I can't seem to get Pena and Dunn really going. Everyone else is fine. Pena does have 7 dingers, but he is batting .202 in the 3 spot. Dunn in the clean up is batting around .270 with only 3 homers on the season. Carter is leading the team with 8 and batting 5th. I could move stuff around, but I don't want to freak out and mess with a championship lineup. How long should I wait before blowing up the lineup, especially when we are still in first?

Yankees offered me a trade. Josh Hamilton for Suzuki and 2B Eric Sogard. It is a hell of a deal, but way too costly. Hamilton is making something like $17 mil. Plus the Yankees are over budget (the trade screen showed a negative $1.5 mil) and I like them suffering. I am hoping the have to shed some of their best players in order to get under budget.

The first trade of the season just happened and it wasn't a good one for us. The Red Sox sent Youklis to the Angels for two pitching prospects. Youk, who I can't stand in real life and kills me on the game, was not playing due to Agon and LaPorta at first as well as Beltre at 3rd. Now Youk will get more playing time with the Angels and I will have to face him a ton more. Plus the Red Sox add more pitching prospects to help them in the future.

[cardsfan2222]

You seem to be having the same problem I had with Dunn. He's not that valuable if he's hitting .270 with no power. I tend to use mostly the same lineups whether it's working or not, so I'm not the one to ask when to blow it up. I should mess with mine some to get it going.

Hawksworth has been simming pretty well for me. My problem is that he usually can't pitch past the 6th, so I have to use more of the bullpen with him. That was a bigger problem when I had the black hole in the 5th starting spot. Now that Karstens is pitching well there, I'm hoping it will take some pressure off my bullpen, and keep them from blowing games late.

[cardsleadtheway]

Maybe that is my problem with Hawksworth, as he never comes into the game until at least the 6th. I have him as a reliever in my franchise. He could never make the rotation with the talent I have in starters, so I need him to be at least good in the bull pen. I also have Ross there, who has been fantastic, but the CPU tends to use Hawksworth more in sim games. All in all, the bull pen is really strong, I just need Hawksworth to be the guy I can rely on when we have a big lead to get me through a couple of innings at most. Not to be anything remarkable. It should be fine.

Yeah this is the first time where Dunn isn't hitting home runs. Hopefully it is just a fluke or a slow start. Same with Pena. The pop up screen is always telling me to bat Pena lower or sit him and/or Dunn against lefties, but I usually ignore it. I have faith he will come around.

[duke776]

In my Athletics franchise I now stand at 31-31 on the year 4 GB of the Angels.

My top pitching prospect made his major league debut against the Blue Jays. He did well, pitching 7 innings allowing just 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 6. He didn't do as well in his next start, allowing 4 runs in 5 innings striking out 5. I don't know how long I can stick with him though, he struggles with control so I'm not sure how long it is until he pays for it. With that said I don't really have many options.

I've decided to wait on acquiring a pitcher and wait til more teams become sellers because the only guy who I could go after right now is Mark Buehrle but he has a $10.7MM salary and I only have $13MM available in my budget and I was looking to get two pitchers for the stretch run (and maybe a bat if I have the money/prospects left over). One guy I am seriously looking at is Felix Hernandez. I am really really hoping the Mariners fall out of the race, because he will be a free agent and command a huge contract. I would definitely have to give up a lot, most likely two A potential pitchers (both close to big league ready) and an A potential CF who would already be starting for a lot of teams. As much as it would suck to lose those guys, if I could get a true ace and dominant guy like Felix I'd have to go for it. It'd be very expensive to re-sign him though so I'd definitely have to factor that in.

[cardsleadtheway]

Why do you need two more pitchers for your A's team? If anything, you should have an abundance of pitching, both in the rotation and in the pen. What am I missing here?

[duke776]

Quote: Originally Posted by cardsleadtheway

Why do you need two more pitchers for your A's team? If anything, you should have an abundance of pitching, both in the rotation and in the pen. What am I missing here?

Ah sorry, I forgot to mention I am playing the 09 version on ps2, and am currently in year 3 of franchise (2011 season). They didn't have Anderson or Cahill in the game, and Braden and Gio were not all that good. Gio has a 5.31 ERA currently (although he's only started 4 or 5 games) and I parted ways with Braden after his constant struggles.

So I really had to re-construct my rotation since there wasn't much talent. Currently have Bronson Arroyo (it's almost a guarantee he has a good/great start then a terrible one), Ian Snell (started off terrible but has been good in his last 5 or 6 starts), Bartolo Colon (nice signing, he's done pretty good so far ~3.5 ERA), Gio Gonzalez (like I said, has 5.31 ERA and not that good), and Royce Arthur (pitching prospect I just called up, has control issues but above average stuff).

[phenom1990]

Hey I have a question about the effect of the order of a pitching rotation. Does where I place a guy in the pitching rotation affect his morale or performance? Lets say that due to breaks in the schedule, I can pitch my number one starter (Halladay) and skip my number 5 pitcher start (Joe Blanton). If I move Halladay to the number 5 spot in the rotation and adjust the rest of my rotation since I skipped Blanton start.

Will Halladay be mad that he is technically in the 5th spot even though it was just one of his starts up a day. I hope what I am saying makes sense.

[cardsleadtheway]

Ah cool. I had to part ways with Braden as well. Cahill too for that matter. I even traded away Anderson, but that was because his cost and the great deal I got rather than his performance. Braden was ok, but he is very hard to pitch with, as he should be. And right now in my franchise (10), the market is flooded with pitching, so I can easily pick up someone as a replacement from the free agent roles like, coincidentally enough, Braden.

I forgot to mention that struggling Kyle Drabek got injured and is on the 15 day DL. I had to call up Krol, who I haven't pitched well with at all, but was killing it in AAA. I might have to just let the sim gods use him and see how it goes. Drabek better hope it does not go well, as he is the worst of my 5 so far. Fauntino de los Santos is the big surprise thus far. He has already had 3 8 inning appearances, only one by me, and the lowest ERA on the team. Overall, he is rated the lowest of my SP in the majors or AAA, with a few AA rated higher. I like surprises like that.