New to The Show and Baseball in general, Franchise tips?

[quehouston]

Whats up fellas. Im very new to The Show, and relatively new to the sport of baseball. But i've decided to expand my horizon from basketball and football. I bought The Show a couple days ago and I've already decided its the best overall sports game on the market. Hands down. I played a few games to get comfortable with the controls, and then I hopped right into the Franchise mode....

...I was in way over my head.

Me, not really being into baseball, really have no idea as to what goes on behind the scenes as far as lineup changes, pitching rotations, or any of that free-form jazz. I see that there are settings that allow me to put all of these settings on Automatic, but me being the "Dynasty Nerd" that I've always been in other sports games, find that to be a waste of time. Ive logged HOURS upon HOURS into other dynasties, and I want to do the same with The Show, I just dont know where to start.

So I guess my question is, what do i need to being doing in my Franchise mode besides just playing the games? What franchise strategies and tactics can you guys give a man that is new to the sport of baseball?

[eyeamg0dly]

Quote: Originally Posted by quehouston

Whats up fellas. Im very new to The Show, and relatively new to the sport of baseball. But i've decided to expand my horizon from basketball and football. I bought The Show a couple days ago and I've already decided its the best overall sports game on the market. Hands down. I played a few games to get comfortable with the controls, and then I hopped right into the Franchise mode.... ...I was in way over my head. Me, not really being into baseball, really have no idea as to what goes on behind the scenes as far as lineup changes, pitching rotations, or any of that free-form jazz. I see that there are settings that allow me to put all of these settings on Automatic, but me being the "Dynasty Nerd" that I've always been in other sports games, find that to be a waste of time. Ive logged HOURS upon HOURS into other dynasties, and I want to do the same with The Show, I just dont know where to start. So I guess my question is, what do i need to being doing in my Franchise mode besides just playing the games? What franchise strategies and tactics can you guys give a man that is new to the sport of baseball?

thats pretty general, what specifically do you have questions about? dont be afraid to ask, there is alot of people here willing to help.

there is alot to take in. i would recommending simming a few seasons of franchise to get the hang of managing the club outside of actually playing games. you will make mistakes so save often or just use it as a learning experience. your first offseason is going to be very difficult if you are this new to the game and sport in general.

once again ask questions, everyone here is very helpful.

[Heroesandvillains]

Read this:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...ilebasic?pli=1

It's the Franchise Bible.

[quehouston]

Quote: Originally Posted by Heroesandvillains

Read this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...ilebasic?pli=1 It's the Franchise Bible.

You are an American hero.

[rymflaherty]

Funny thing for me was I thought I was a baseball fan and knew quite a bit about baseball.....Then I played The Show 09' and started a Dynasty.
Quickly realized I knew little lol.

Those definitions located in the game are your friend.....So you can learn about arbitration, service time, etc.

A couple "tips" - To call a player up he has to be on your 40 man roster.
But if you put a guy on your 40 man roster your basically beginning a 3 year window where you can move him up and down, after that he's going to have to be on your roster or you risk losing him. So what I'm basically saying is if you have a 19 year old that is nowhere close to the majors, no rush to put him on the 40-man.

Also something I misinterpreted before playing the game (and noticed others have as well) are the player "options".
Remember one option essentially equals one year.
If a player is moved down during the year or after ST that uses his "option", but it used for the year. You can then move him up and down as much as you need throughout the year and it still counts as that one option.

FA - Basically does not exist for your players until they have reached 6 years of service time. Until that point they are under your control, either at a discounted salary or through arbitration......so that's why you see a lot of 1/1 contracts, and those guys again are under your control, so they can't just leave......only if you decide you don't want them.


And my biggest tip - In the Off-Season.....SAVE FREQUENTLY.
Seriously save before every key date listed and double-check to make sure you did everything or that nothing wonky happened once you moved past the day......At this point I have a grasp on what I'm doing and I still make sure this is the case....You don't want to move up a day and realize you missed the lat date to offer the one-year deals and realize half your roster is now FA's and begin the off-season again.

Good Luck and have fun.

[pokerplaya]

Quote: Originally Posted by rymflaherty

Funny thing for me was I thought I was a baseball fan and knew quite a bit about baseball.....Then I played The Show 09' and started a Dynasty. Quickly realized I knew little lol. Those definitions located in the game are your friend.....So you can learn about arbitration, service time, etc. A couple "tips" - To call a player up he has to be on your 40 man roster. But if you put a guy on your 40 man roster your basically beginning a 3 year window where you can move him up and down, after that he's going to have to be on your roster or you risk losing him. So what I'm basically saying is if you have a 19 year old that is nowhere close to the majors, no rush to put him on the 40-man. Also something I misinterpreted before playing the game (and noticed others have as well) are the player "options". Remember one option essentially equals one year. If a player is moved down during the year or after ST that uses his "option", but it used for the year. You can then move him up and down as much as you need throughout the year and it still counts as that one option. FA - Basically does not exist for your players until they have reached 6 years of service time. Until that point they are under your control, either at a discounted salary or through arbitration......so that's why you see a lot of 1/1 contracts, and those guys again are under your control, so they can't just leave......only if you decide you don't want them. And my biggest tip - In the Off-Season.....SAVE FREQUENTLY. Seriously save before every key date listed and double-check to make sure you did everything or that nothing wonky happened once you moved past the day......At this point I have a grasp on what I'm doing and I still make sure this is the case....You don't want to move up a day and realize you missed the lat date to offer the one-year deals and realize half your roster is now FA's and begin the off-season again. Good Luck and have fun.

The quoted post above is pure gold for an "amateur" franchiser on some of the trickier parts of baseball transactions, which are no doubt different than other sports. Kudos for an excellent post.

EDIT: It goes without saying that the Franchise Bible that Heroes linked you to is exactly that as well. Now, its just asking questions on the forums for anything that confuses you! Best of luck!

[pokerplaya]

Here's just a couple quick tips I wanted to add after rescanning the original post.

Lineups and Changes

Unless you are playing with fatigue off, you WILL have to deal with the impacts of fatigue on your position players. Everyone is different, but seeing as how my main franchise is an AL team (Detroit), I choose to carry an extra pitcher and one less hitter to make up my 25 than I would if I were a NL club. I carry 13 hitters usually, and 12 pitchers. Here's what I recommend, obviously you have your starting 8 position players and a DH, so with 4 bench spots, I carry:

· Backup Catcher
· Backup Middle Infielder
· Backup Corner Infielder
· Backup Outfielder

Because this game does such a good job of covering almost all positional eligibilities, you will have flexibility here in a lot of cases... especially as more of a new franchiser, this will often be what you are comfortable doing in play.

I have seen a lot of other players type that they feel this game DOES reward intelligent switches at the end of games for better defensive replacements, swinging righty/lefty matchups and the like, so it really depends on what type of manager you are going to be. If you are a guy who doesn't mind only using 6 guys in the bullpen (and have your situational pitching covered still) maybe you carry an extra hitter.

I can't give you any kind of magic formula for resting your players, but I have seen a lot suggest that your bench players be able to play multiple positions (have a guy who can play all three outfield positions on your bench for example) and then work out your own rest regimen. I also think that the guide Heroes gave you does an excellent job of explaining training so I'll stop this tip here.

ROTATION AND BULLPEN

In general, your starting rotation is five guys, and they will rotate every five games. Obviously, in real life you will hear of guys going on "short rest" in important situations and it can absolutely be done in The Show. You could also have extra days of rest and your #1 guy is ready a rotation spot early. You do have latitude to make some important managerial decisions here, but I would just remind that baseball more than any other sport is a marathon and not a sprint, and an important game in June is still a game in June. I play with Detroit again, and I play every single pitch of every single game -- and I doubt I will skip too many of my #5 starters starts, and its not just because he's promising lefty rookie Drew Smyly.

I'll again use the example of my bullpen. I carry the thirteen hitters as stated, so I have twelve pitching spots. Five starters, seven relievers. This is how I structure my bullpen, and then I will explain example situations for each pitcher.

- 1 Long Reliever - A. Wilk (L)
- 3 Middle Relievers - A. Alberquerque (R), P. Coke (L), J. Benoit (R)
- 2 Setup Men - D. Schlereth (L), O. Dotel (R)
- 1 Closer - J. Valverde (R)

Now, I'm lucky in that my long reliever is a lefty, but I think most people would be fine with two lefties in their bullpen. My long reliever has the stamina to be used as a spot starter, he is actually going to be a starter down the road, either here in the Tigers organization or elsewhere.

I use Schlereth as a "setup man" but really, he's just my high-leverage situation lefty. In a perfect world, I'm great with my bullpen giving me six good innings, and then throwing Schlereth, Dotel, OR Benoit out there for an inning each in the 7th and 8th, depending on the matchups. Benoit would probably still be considered the setup man on the real Tigers this year, but he has definitely been more erratic this year than last. He was very shaky to start my franchise (12 games in) and Dotel has been lights out, so he has been getting the late inning hold work. Obviously, I just want to bridge from my starter to Jose Valverde...as in OSFM Rosters (Operation Sports Full Minors, which is what everyone will recommend to you for the best francise experience) the Tigers Closing Pitchers rank third in MLB, so most of the time if I can use that bullpen to get it to Papa Grande (Valverde) its a win.

=====

Anyways, I know that wound up being a long post, but when I saw you saying that you were newer to the management side of baseball games, and saw lineups and rotations, I figured I'd try to lend a hand. If you check out that guide and this and have any more specific questions, I am more than happy to lend a hand.

[Based Doc]

Definitely stick with this game even if you get frustrated at times. I was a very casual baseball fan before I started playing The Show. Never played it IRL except in gym in HS (lol). But once you start learning how to play, you learn the game of baseball really well. You also understand a bit more what it feels like to get that double play with bases loaded and 1 out. Besides crushing a grandslam, I don't think there's any better feeling.