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 Post subject: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:57 pm 
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Posts: 1232
Location: Charlotte, NC
Favorite Team: Red Sox
Console '07: Nintendo Wii
Console '08: Nintendo Wii
Favorite Japanese title: Don't Own
In the original MLB Power Pros, I played as the Pirrsburgh Pirates - a relatively weak team that I controlled into a dominating WS champion.

This time around, I searched for the weakest team overall; the Pirates had some good arms, and sluggers in Bay, Nady, and LaRoche. Sure enough, the Royals were 28th in pitching and 29th in offense - perfect. I wanted to fight for every win, and try my hardest just to lose - like in real life.

The starting team is names that I'm mostly not familiar with. Here is what I know:

SP
Gil Meche - older, big contract, but a stable arm
Brian Bannister - ok, I have heard of him
Zack Greinke - the young, emerging Ace

RP
Ramon Martinez - I only know him because of his trade to the Red Sox
Joakim Soria - the phenom closer. Good stuff.

DH - Billy Butler - I've heard of him as a decent hitter, that's all
2B/3B Esteban German - I traded for him in my fictional expansion dynasty - good hitter.
SS Tony Pena - I only heard of him because of his father, and his relief pitching appearance (why is this not in his stats?)
C Miguel Olivo - never knew he left the Marlins. Some power, right?
OF Jose Guillen - I know him from controversy with the Angels, havnig some power, but mainly eating up $36 mil.
2B Mark Grudzielanik - decently known travelling 2B.

Given the weak rating of the team, and the fact that I didn't know most of their players, I figured this would be a good team for me to learn about, and a humbling experience.

How shocked was I, then, when the first two games were huge routs, usually in the vein of 20-3 victories?

Between Butler and German, I was hitting everything, everywhere, out of the park. I couldn't hit at all with Teahen or Grduzielanik, but DeJesus, Guillen, Callaspo, Gload...homers everywhere.

I turned up the difficulty, and set pitches to not show until the pitch is in air - that worked in 2007 to make the game much better. I then put the AI's batting difficulty up to the next level. Still, the next game I hit 2 big homers, but then narrowly avoided collapse in an 8-7 victory.

Grudzielanik I quickly found to be useless to me:
1) despite how well the Royals hit, he was doing worse than Teahen; I couldn't even hit over the Mendoza Line with him
2) his salary was huge (8000), and he was a FA at the end of the year.

I looked at the Red Sox first (the team I know best), and quickly shipped Grudzielanik to Boston for Sean Casey and Bryan Corey. This nets me another bullpen arm (which is good, because Hochever is terrible) and an awesome 1B/DH power threat. Hopefully I can resign Casey so he doesn't retire; perhaps I can ship out Guillen and move Butler back to the OF.

So now, between Gload, Teahen, Butler, Gordon and Casey, I have 5 players for 3 positions (1B, 3B, DH). My next step will be examining them, seeing who has the highest salary for the least worth (and quickest expiration of contract), and shipping them out for some young cheap talent. If anyone has suggestions of who to get or who to ship out, let me know.

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maccrash21 wrote:
a lot of classical music is completely sterile cut-and-pasted Sweet Lines with 0 emotional heft.

Expansion Mode Challenge!
2008 Real-Life players from Success Mode - Please assist if you have the time!!
Older/dead logs:
Let the Fielders pitch! New log
MLB Life Mode log - OF Ryan Evert, Athletics
Honolulu Heroes Season Log - real-life players join a scrub team! Find out how they do in the AL West!


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:06 pm 
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Favorite Team: Red Sox
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Welcome to log club, and its Ramon Ramirez instead of Martinez.
I know some people see editing as cheating but before you start, you should give Grienke B or A stamina instead of his E stamina


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:08 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:21 pm
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Location: Baseball Heaven
Favorite Team: Phillies
Console '07: Nintendo Wii
Console '08: Nintendo Wii
I've played as the Royals before; they're actually a pretty well balanced team. My first thing was to get rid of Meche's big contract. Then, I needed to find a good 3B to fill the 3B hole (Alex Gordon just isn't enough right now). After that, I just tried to thin out the contracts by trading expensive players for less expensive ones, and I ended up winning the World Series.

As for your team, I would try trading Gload for a decent third baseman. Then try Meche for Lincecum (Giants) or Rich Hill (Cubs) or something like that. Teahen could be traded for Luke Scott (Orioles), a solid young LF with speed. Butler can DH, or you might be able to pull off a Butler-for-James Loney steal. You also might want to get a better SS. The rest of the team will be fine.

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My Success Mode Players
Who (1B)
Terminator (CL)
ZackAttack (3B)
Panda (LF)
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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:13 pm 
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Favorite Team: Red Sox
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Oh ya and in your second year, you should make the trades like in real life, like Nunez for Jacobs, and ramirez for crisp and sign free agents bloomquist and farnsworth in the offseason


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:24 pm 
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Favorite Team: Red Sox
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Ya the Royals are pretty we-rounded compard to some other teams
But if you want a real hard challenge, then pick the nationals, they have no real ace in their rotation, and their only good batters are Johnson and Zimmerman


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:29 pm 
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Favorite Team: Phillies
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the best challenge is with an expansion team. But I am in first place already in the first year. The reason? I make steal after steal at the trading desks. Man, I have to limit myself!

Yeah, but anyway, the key to winning is not practice (as the secretary says) but trading.

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The solution to all problems is to exit and reload :)

My Success Mode Players
Who (1B)
Terminator (CL)
ZackAttack (3B)
Panda (LF)
Newt (2B)


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:43 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 2:58 pm
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Location: VA
Favorite Team: Giants
Console '07: Nintendo Wii
Console '08: Nintendo Wii
Favorite Japanese title: (DS) Nettou! Powerful Koushien
amen to that!
my whole outfield was traded away by the end of the first month in my log.
also, i traded away my starting SS and 1B.

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"I accept that other people have different preferences. Even when those preferences include facial tattoos and stretch pants constructed from sufficient material to shelter a small village. And their livestock. Some men enjoy dancing with other men without their tops on while others prefer the company of a woman two KFC family buckets away from upsetting the planet's rotational axis."
-David Thorne


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:04 pm 
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Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:18 pm
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Location: Charlotte, NC
Favorite Team: Red Sox
Console '07: Nintendo Wii
Console '08: Nintendo Wii
Favorite Japanese title: Don't Own
Thanks guys. I don't want to trade Meche - he's not that expensive, he's here for a few years, and I need strong starters with good stamina.

I'm looking to be realistic about this - I'll trade guys making a lot, or guys whose contracts are soon to expire (perferably both), but I'm not going to totally revamp my team. I like that the game waits a few days to approve a trade, and that the trade deadline stops things - makes it more realistic. I'll probably cut it at 4 or 5 trades for the whole season, but we'll see about my bullpen first.

I may look to move Teahen or Guillen, but other than that my fielders are set. For SPs, I'll try to pick up a middle SP prospect - not Lincecum. in the 2007 game my Pirates picked up Zack Miner, and my expansion team picked up some flamethrowing kid from AAA...Mathieson I think it was. I want someone like that - not a top-of-the-league guy, just a middle guy who I can use well. There are some FA's I can pick up like Kyle Snyder that could do the job, so we'll see.

Honestly, I dunno why the AI would accept Grudz for Casey and Corey, but that doesn't seem like too big of a rip off. And now I'm stuck with less speed, and more DH material, so I can't say it was a total win for me. :)

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maccrash21 wrote:
a lot of classical music is completely sterile cut-and-pasted Sweet Lines with 0 emotional heft.

Expansion Mode Challenge!
2008 Real-Life players from Success Mode - Please assist if you have the time!!
Older/dead logs:
Let the Fielders pitch! New log
MLB Life Mode log - OF Ryan Evert, Athletics
Honolulu Heroes Season Log - real-life players join a scrub team! Find out how they do in the AL West!


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:14 am 
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Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:18 pm
Posts: 1232
Location: Charlotte, NC
Favorite Team: Red Sox
Console '07: Nintendo Wii
Console '08: Nintendo Wii
Favorite Japanese title: Don't Own
Okay - so I switched my hitting to 'Best Try', instead of the lock-on 2 or whatever it was on. I also moved the pitch to Set Display, like I said above, so that I don't see the pitch until it's coming at me.

I swear, this year's must be easier, because my last two games were 19-3 and 15-2 wins. More homers, from everyone - Casey, Gordon, 2 from DeJesus. Incredible.

I had a trade lined up with the Padres to send Brett Tomko there, in exchange for Justin Germano (starter) and Heath Bell (high-speed reliever, tons of off-speed pitches). Both are cheap and locked up for years...Tomko has only 1 season as is making 3000. I have no idea why the AI would agree to such a deal, but it got 3 stars.

Then, Tomko starts my game, and suffers elbow pain when I try to pitch him through the 4th. so he's out for 14 days, and the trade is delayed. Sigh.

So I had to sign Hideo Nomo from the FA list, and he started my next game. Easy win.

So after that I set the batting to Normal instead of Best Try...let's home that eliminates my multi-homer, epic win games - if I don't stop scoring over 15 runs I'm going to go back to 2007 MLBPP.

As a note to myself, I need to rename the Greats on the Royals:
Miller KCR P Ron Mahay
Molina KCR 1B Ryan Shealy
Jimenez KCR P Kyle Davies
Cordero KCR P Ryan Braun
Is there any way to do that once you've started season mode? Or should I just restart at this point?

Also, quick note on Meche: WOW he is expensive! 10800 salary, ouch, easily the highest on the team. If I can pull off the Padres trade and maybe another one or two, I might ship him off.

_________________
maccrash21 wrote:
a lot of classical music is completely sterile cut-and-pasted Sweet Lines with 0 emotional heft.

Expansion Mode Challenge!
2008 Real-Life players from Success Mode - Please assist if you have the time!!
Older/dead logs:
Let the Fielders pitch! New log
MLB Life Mode log - OF Ryan Evert, Athletics
Honolulu Heroes Season Log - real-life players join a scrub team! Find out how they do in the AL West!


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:00 am 
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Favorite Team: Red Sox
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Wow that Heath bell and germano trade would be great
It depends on a few thing if you want to start over, if your record is like 20-7, then you might want to start over since the royals aren't that dominant but if you are make sure tivedit Greinke and Meche to better stats.
But I'm not saying you should start over, it's your decision


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:09 am 
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Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:18 pm
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Location: Charlotte, NC
Favorite Team: Red Sox
Console '07: Nintendo Wii
Console '08: Nintendo Wii
Favorite Japanese title: Don't Own
Definitely on Greinke, and maybe on another starter - Bale or Tomko - to give them stamina to make it to the 4th inning, maybe.

But why edit Meche? What does he need improved - his control, stamina, and pitches are all really good.

_________________
maccrash21 wrote:
a lot of classical music is completely sterile cut-and-pasted Sweet Lines with 0 emotional heft.

Expansion Mode Challenge!
2008 Real-Life players from Success Mode - Please assist if you have the time!!
Older/dead logs:
Let the Fielders pitch! New log
MLB Life Mode log - OF Ryan Evert, Athletics
Honolulu Heroes Season Log - real-life players join a scrub team! Find out how they do in the AL West!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:35 am 
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Favorite Team: Red Sox
Console '07: Nintendo Wii
Console '08: Wii and DS
Meche always has like 6.50 ERA if you don't get rid of his red abilities. Just get rid of those bad abilities, his stamina and control are fine


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 Post subject: Re: 2008 Kansas City Royals Franchise Log
PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:00 am 
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Favorite Team: Red Sox
Console '07: Nintendo Wii
Console '08: Wii and DS
I'm bumping this up to say happy birthday to Alloutwar


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