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UK Rebuild Thread

NML

Well-Known Member
So I've been wanting to try something for a while, and since we've been under-performing this year, I've started sending off pieces in order to start our rebuild. I wanted to make a thread to track our progress. There's a few bullet points of what I'm attempting to do:

1) triple the baseline for player development. I've always subscribed to the idea of doubling the baseline and everything past that has diminishing returns. For this rebuild, I'll triple and see what happens

2) max scouting budget, with a heavy focus on amateur and international. The latter is particularly important for finding IFAs as well as the shadow realm. When I had it maxed before, it produced this generated IFA and this and this shadow realm MLIFA.

3) asset collection and avoidance of burdens. Basically, a focus on having as many "assets" - which could be picks, prospects, or cash - that I can use to improve the team and avoiding any bad contracts. While Felix Alvarado won an MVP with me and carried us to two WS, and one win (flags fly forever), his contract and immediately dying after was a huge burden for me. I can't/won't do that again.

4) a universal approach throughout the minors. Below, I'm going to discuss my team strategy, but more importantly than that, we are taking that throughout every level of development. I'm not sure whether or not this will make a difference on player dev, but I do think it will lead to more success, which does affect dev. This will require me to manually control all four levels. Which is a ton of work, but I hope will help with immersion.

5) a organization wide strategy. Everyone who pays attention to my team knows I love defense. This approach is very simple and not really different from anything I've done in the majors, but instead I'll apply it to every level, as well as asset collection. I've had a bad habit of drafting/acquiring multiple trog bats despite hating them in the majors. This is, obviously, a waste of assets. For example, one offseason, my first round draft pick AND my top IFA were future DHs - combined, I believe they played 100 games for me before being released. Granted, they didn't develop like I hoped, but this is still an issue.

6) I'm also debating bringing back the GIMMICK pitching staff. On the fence. I don't think it has the same success that you would see IRL, but it is a cheaper approach - since the highest paid/most sought after players are starters, and you would need less (3 or 4) and they would likely stay cheap for you (when they go 1-10 every year). Meanwhile, you'd have one or two relievers with 20 wins who you could cycle through as they get expensive. Still considering this though, maybe @ZackMills will give his opinion on whether or not it worked (he does have two WS's)

My basic action plan at the moment

a) sell off every asset I have that doesn't currently fit. See ya Muli, Amore, and Ramirez (Brett did fit but was an expiring deal and I'd rather have the pick). Still lots more and I'm happy to get fleeced if you'll send me picks or prospects.

b) a complete overhaul of the minors. I probably need to wait until the off-season for this, less I have 12 players on my AA squad. But I'll start doing this slowly over the season and then go 100% once the playoffs get here.

c) resetting all budgets. Happens this off-season, should have plenty of room with all the selling I'm doing + a general year where we have a ton of space/TOs.

d) a draft board. I've already acquired a handful of picks this draft and if we are going to have any success with this approach, I need to take the draft more seriously.

I should say, this isn't a complete tank. Other than maybe this year, I hope to stay relatively competitive since bottoming out can kill a budget. I never do well tanking and prefer to stay interested in the season.

Nothing here is ground breaking. But I've felt a bit disconnected from my team over the past couple of seasons and hope this will help with immersion. Having a thread should help with that.
 

NML

Well-Known Member
Here's our first round of trades:

UK sends:
Arnel Muli, DH, WBL (cover $4m of salary)
Giorgio Amore, RP, WBL

Moscow sends:
2067 2nd round pick
2067 4th round pick
2068 4th round pick
2069 3rd round pick
2070 3rd round pick

This is basically my ideal type of trade, even though I'm probably getting fleeced. Muli will almost definitely turn it around, and probably have about 3 WARs the rest of the way. Amore is going to be good, IMO, especially since Moscow can sign him long term for nothing. That will be a great deal for a servicable starter. But this package of picks is a great way to add players that fit what we want to do. 2nd rounders should be starters, while 3rd and 4th's should either fill out a roster or be AAAA guys - which we hope to develop into capable players. Getting five is a nice haul for what we want to do.

UK sends:
Juan Ramirez, RP, WBL

Miami sends:
AJ Gorman, CF, AAA

Ramirez was great for me and on a decent deal compared to what other top relievers have been getting in FA. He's only 31 and a groundball pitcher, which I'm chasing, but I'd rather have the money and Gorman. Gorman is an interesting player - he's an elite fielder at center field (80 rating) with great speed and a bat that looks serviceable. He had signs of being decent last year, but was worse than terrible at the start of the year for Miami. He's only 22 and if he turns it around - with even a below average bat - he'll fit in well. He may also be a bust.

UK sends:
Mason Brett, OF, WBL

Kabul sends:
2068 3rd rounder

Brett was a bargain signing for me: 3 years at $1.5m per. An amazing value for putting up 6 WARs in his first two years. He's on pace for another great season, but he's an expiring deal and I wanted to move Youp to LF. So I probably undersold him here, but I was debating dropping him from the line-up anyways as we move to the future, and the one-year delayed 3rd rounder is a nice piece.


In moving three players who either didn't fit in our future plans or were going to expiring before we start to go back up, we acquired six picks, though none are particularly high - the Moscow 2nd will be the 31st overall. Still, this is a great first step for our depth. Already in negotiations on a couple other players, so hopefully more to come soon.
 

doh

THANK YOU Dermott McHeshi
Interesting stuff... I think selling everyone off for whatever you can get (and saving that salary) is highly underrated.

I'm very interested in how increasing scouting and devo budgets will work. I've tried that out a bit with mixed results. But I'm not sure if auto IFA will be really better. But it's worth a try (also could get some nice Indy players from pro FA).

I'd add in MLFA in your plan. You could get some useful players with MLFA you could end up flipping for something down the line.

I also think if you can find some great values in FA, it's worth it to maybe win 1-2 more games then flip them vs. totally bottom out for the 1-1 and have your budget go to hell. Just my opinion but I think winning 10 or so extra games and getting $8-10m more in budget is worth more than the difference between 2nd overall pick vs. 5th overall pick in that you'll get more IFA money.
 
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Orlando

Well-Known Member
Utopia Moderator
I have done 1&2 for extended periods of time with mixed results. I think it is a lot of luck.

I am interested in your definition of assets though. If you are only drafting players that fit your profile instead of BPA are they really assets?
 

Yankee151

Hot Girl Summer
If you pick high enough BPA and best fit are usually one in the same (Monfre Braves, Pepe Castro)

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 

Wolfman21

Well-Known Member
I have done 1&2 for extended periods of time with mixed results. I think it is a lot of luck.

I am interested in your definition of assets though. If you are only drafting players that fit your profile instead of BPA are they really assets?

Ive had scouting maxed since the beginning of time. I havent had a ifa find worth shit since felix perez about 20 seasons ago
 

NML

Well-Known Member
Orlando said:
I am interested in your definition of assets though. If you are only drafting players that fit your profile instead of BPA are they really assets?

Well what I've found is that the mid tier players (aka not elite) have no value for trade. So, yeah, first round you probably want to stick to BPA. After that, people really won't trade for those players.
 

NML

Well-Known Member
if you're not constantly building, you're doing it wrong

So I did fall into this trap a bit. I've really spent no resources on my farm the past five years or so while I've been trying to compete.

So even though I've been a top half team for a decade or so, my farm is destroyed. You really have to do both and can't spend all ur resources trying to add a couple wins
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Top half team for a decade or so? Grade inflation?

2057 - 6th
2058 - 7th
2059 - 5th
2060 - 5th
2061 - 3rd (FLAGS FLY FOREVER FUUUUUUUU)
2062 - 4th
2063 - 5th
2064 - 5th
2065 - 4th
2066 - 6th
2067 - 6th or lower

Average Rank = 5/9 BOTTOM HALF TECHNICALLY (MORE LIKE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE TEAM FOR A DECADE OR SO)
 
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NML

Well-Known Member
From 2059 to now, I've never finished lower than 5th (with one tie there). Classify that as whatever tickles ur weird fancy
 

NML

Well-Known Member
Week one of the rebuild was a success! We went 3-4, but that includes a sweep at Halifax (they have six home losses all year). Even still, 3-4 is better than we had been playing, despite trading away a bunch of my better players.

In addition, our minors went a combined 7-2 (it was AS week for them) after being overhauled. The timing was actually great, as with only a few games I was okay running 20 players on a team before adding in FAs to round out the squads.

I'm planning on doing a video tonight just outlining what I'm doing/looking through the minors. That shit always help me with immersion.


I did have one more trade to look at, as well:

UK sends:
Alejandro Castro, SP, WBL

Cairo sends:
2067 1st round pick
2068 1st round pick
Conditional 2068 pick*

* - 2nd round if Cairo makes WS, 3rd if they make the playoffs, 4th if they miss the playoffs

Castro could very well be a GOAT, but he didn't fit with what I wanted to do and I think those assets are better served as picks. Love snagging two firsts, even though they are going to be relatively late. Always enjoy doing conditional picks too - I'm now a Tuts fan for the rest of the year! I think this will end up being a win-win for both teams.

Still have a ton of pieces I'd be willing to move, but my entire line-up sans Dagger will be back next season, and outside of catcher, the defensive ratings are 80, 80, 70, 80, 80, 70.

As another point, if anyone has a young, defensive catcher - even AAAA quality - I'd be interested.
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
I was looking around for catchers last year and there really isn't a lot of defensive talent out there, even with AAAA bats. I know OSA ratings are BS, but my AAA Catcher is the #1 catcher prospect in the league and he's only 60 defense with a AAA bat.

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_5262.html


@OU11 's dude is prolly the actual best defense prospect I see

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_11730.html

Best overall C prospect is Wooly's, of course. I'm not sure how far @Wooly shoves the golden horseshoe up his ass to have guys pop like this, but don't worry guys, Minor league shenanigans have no effect on Dev! Wooly is just lucky OVER AND OVER AND OVER again.

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_3739.html
 
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TonyGin&Juice

Sucking off Lawn Guy Land hobos.
I was looking around for catchers last year and there really isn't a lot of defensive talent out there, even with AAAA bats. I know OSA ratings are BS, but my AAA Catcher is the #1 catcher prospect in the league and he's only 60 defense with a AAA bat.

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_5262.html


@OU11 's dude is prolly the actual best defense prospect I see

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_11730.html

Best overall C prospect is Wooly's, of course. I'm not sure how far @Wooly shoves the golden horseshoe up his ass to have guys pop like this, but don't worry guys, Minor league shenanigans have no effect on Dev! Wooly is just lucky OVER AND OVER AND OVER again.

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_3739.html

If minor league shenanigans didn't have an impact on DEV minor league players wouldn't have moods.
 

NML

Well-Known Member
I was looking around for catchers last year and there really isn't a lot of defensive talent out there, even with AAAA bats. I know OSA ratings are BS, but my AAA Catcher is the #1 catcher prospect in the league and he's only 60 defense with a AAA bat.

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_5262.html


@OU11 's dude is prolly the actual best defense prospect I see

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_11730.html

Best overall C prospect is Wooly's, of course. I'm not sure how far @Wooly shoves the golden horseshoe up his ass to have guys pop like this, but don't worry guys, Minor league shenanigans have no effect on Dev! Wooly is just lucky OVER AND OVER AND OVER again.

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_3739.html
I very rarely see guys with higher than 70 Catcher Rating and/or 75 Ability.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but ZR is a normalized stat? So if no one has a 70 rating, then a 60/65 rating is ++. I'm not sure on that, though...

But yeah, this dude is 60 rated and solid defensively. My scout hates him doe. I don't think I ever see catchers with ZR's above 2
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Isam Nazih had ZRs around 5 several years. Mostly I look at the RTO% for the Arm. Ability is going to have an impact on both fielding/blocking and framing. Therefore it will impact the fielding stats (ZR, Errors, PBs) as well as having an impact on all of your pitchers due to the way strikes/balls are called. I thought CERA used to be available on the website defensive stats, but I don't see it now. Look in game for that doe.

http://utopia.allsimbaseball9.com/game/lgreports/players/player_6899.html
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
I did a little research back in the day, and at the time it seemed that an elite ability catcher (70+) effectively accounted for about 5 points to stuff/control for the team's pitchers compared to a bad catcher (50 or lower ability), so there is an impact but it isn't all that huge. At the end of this year, I'll compare one of the best Ability catchers with a good sample size to one of the worst and see how the pitching staff as a whole is impacted compared to their predicted K/BB%
 

Orlando

Well-Known Member
Utopia Moderator
Traditional defense is just such a minor part of a catchers role. Preventing SB, framing and blocking pitches are probably most important, so looking at PB, CS% and CERA is about all we have.
 

osick87

Well-Known Member
Community Liaison
I thought CERA was basically a BS stat?
In real life it is because the amount of impact the catcher really has in if a run gets scored is pretty small.

In this game it probably means more.
 
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TonyGin&Juice

Sucking off Lawn Guy Land hobos.
You just have to have multiple C prospects to go along with ur CF prospects. I have yet to not produce a stud C but I always have two or three in the system at a time. Look at that guy @Travis7401 got from me that's turned into the new Douglas Tagg.
 

fignuts

See You Next Wednesday
Wth is the high-pitched scratching noise in the bg?
Nvmd. My high ass may have figured it out...

giphy.gif
 

NML

Well-Known Member
Fuck I rambled for 30 minutes. That was fun though.

Like I said in the video, I want to do more videos about prospects, so if you'd like to see one about ur farm, let me know.
 

Wolfman21

Well-Known Member
go for it, do the bulls

prolly not as exciting as a couple others, but im always interested in hearing about my team through others eyes
 
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