In the midst of a what will be a down to the wire finish, Cleveland has come to terms with the New York Yankees on a massive trade that is seeing the Yankees make major sacrifices to bring in a potential World Series this year while parting ways with massive amounts of salary.
On the flipside, the Guardians have made tremendous progress in freeing up their budget as well as building a stable of young talent with a solid team that has shown signs of competing, but with a large hole in terms of power and some less than stellar bullpen outings that have cost them at least 10 wins this year.
Here are the trade details.
New York Receives:
SP, Shane Bieber
SP, Triston McKenzie
SP, Carlos Carrasco
CP, Emmanuel Clase
RP, James Karinchak
CF/IF, Tyler Freeman
Cleveland Receives:
RF, Giancarlo Stanton
IF, DJ Lemahieu
SP, Henry LaLane
CF, Spencer Jones
UT, Oswaldo Cabrera
SS/2B, Roderick Arias
EXPECTATIONS –
The Guardians are expected to move one of or both contracts of Stanton/LeMahieu to another team. It’s become apparent that a few teams wanted to take a flier on Stanton or LeMahieu but they didn’t want to do the Yankees any favors.
This move has made teams and fan bases around the MLB raise some eyebrows. Are the Guardians tanking? Did Cleveland’s GM just gut the Yankees through a bad trade for undervalued prospects?
Either way it goes, we now have two top teams shifting nearly a quarter of their starting lineups/top prospects. If New York wins the World Series will it be worth it? Are the Guardians giving up on 2024 while tied for first place?
With the draft coming up and the Guardians set to pick first overall, we have one hell of a fun second half of the season coming.
Cleveland has called up SP, Gavin Williams, SP, Xavion Curry as well as SP, Anthony Banda. They have also added Ben Joyce to the 40-Man Roster and Promoted him to be the new Closer with Jose Soriano.
OFs, Will Brennan and Tommy Pham have been sent to AAA.
*LeMahieu was traded to Miami for UT, Vidal Brujan
Now that we are over the starting point of the season, it’s time for an update. It’s June 8 and the Guardians (39-26) are in first place by 2 games over the Twins and followed closely by an upstart Royals team led by Seth Lugo (currently 11-0 with a 2.04 ERA), the clear front-runner for the Cy Young going into the summer.
The Guardians came out and set the world on fire in April with a 21-9 record. They were swept at home by Boston and then lost an away series against the Braves. Their next series was a another swept effort in Houston. and a butt kicking at home from the Tigers.
It hasn’t been all bad for the Guardians. Prior to the woodchipper that was May they won a series against the Yankees and swept the Red Sox (before the ensuing sweep in response the following week). The Guardians have not been overpowering at the plate, but as a team they are batting for average and currently in 5th place with a .269 average. While they have managed to hit 83 home runs and place 13th as a team, it’s obvious that their biggest weakness is power. However, it seemingly appears when they need it as we will cover shortly.
Grand Pham –
The signing of Tommy Pham on April 16 has been a much needed boost to the lineup. Pham has hit TWO game winning Grand Slams in extra innings. Both instances have been as a sub for Will Brennan against LHPs. While these clutch moments have been huge for the team, it is also showing their weakness in young power bats as well as a couple of holes against LHPs.
TRADE TALK
As the Guardians have moved into summer they are still competing and in first place. They made a couple of moves early in the season. One saw them bring in a prospect at Catcher in Jeferson Quero from Milwaukee in exchange or Myles Straw and Ramon Laureano. This was followed a few days later with Trades for more young talent.
The Cleveland Naylors? – The Guardians made a move with the Oakland A’s in a 3 for 1 deal. Myles Naylor, SS/3B was acquired for Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, and Kahlil Watson. Naylor is in AAA Columbus with hopes of competing for a spot in the lineup next year.
Adios Valera plus five more – CF, George Valera was sent with 1B, Joe Naranjo, Cade Smith, Estevan Florial, Juan Brito and C, Michael Berglund to the Cubs for CF, Kevin Alcantara and SS, Matt Shaw.
Power Relief – The Guardians acquired RPs Jose Soriano and Ben Joyce from the Angels for Tanner Burns, Adam Oller, and Scott Barlow.
The Big One – Cleveland has made in-roads with a few teams in a deal that would send Shane Bieber away for picks. The Guardians have made it clear that they will not send away their top pitcher for anything less than a top package of prospects. The highest bidder will get Bieber. The question is – how much will any team give for a struggling pitcher – even if it’s Bieber.
Scouting for the Draft –
The Guardians have been hard at work looking into numerous amateur players to select with the first pick in the coming draft. Their scouts have been taking a long look at OF, Bruno Nivar. Nivar is widely projected to be the top player with the most immediate upside in the draft. Nivar won the Golden Spike award in his junior season with Old Dominion as they made it to the College World Series and lost to eventual champions, Tennessee and their junior pitcher (and top ten prospect) Freddie Morales.
Other players the Cleveland scouts have been scouting include –
SP, Jason Waldron – A tall and lean pitcher that comes with a four pitch repertoire and at only 19, he has time to develop. He is still raw with a lot to be desired in his control problems as well as his stamina.
OF, Mariano Irizarry – The prospect that has climbed most draft boards this year started the season as a relative unknown, but the Ohio University standout has shown pop in his bat and a tremendous ability to steal bases as he has been 24/24 in that regard. His .325 average has shown potential, but against lesser talent, we don’t know how that could translate – who really does?
SP, James Walsh – The sophomore was an early top-15 candidate, but the scouts quickly made note of his strange dropoff in strikeouts this year. A lot of contact is being made and he has given up a lot of extra base hits early in the college season.
SP, Jack Thomson – The Indiana professor on the mound has some of the best junk we have seen. The question is whether this kid with the old-time mustache is the next Maddux or the next Joe Blow.
SS, Kevin Beck – Another young prospect out of Cal State CC. He opted out of the draft and is coming out of JUCO as one of the more curious prospects. He was initially the 5 ranked player overall, but has since fallen down the Guardians’ rankings all the way to 46.
SS, Doug Harris – Similarly, the 18 year old was raw but the talent was clear his junior year of HS at San Mateo Valley HS. The Guardians question whether he would be better off to opt out and go to at least Junior College.
OF, John Wallace – The youngster from Chicago has shot up from 5’7″ and 160 lbs to be 6’0″ and 185 his senior year. The 18 year old is raw, but showing potential. He was a Top-25o player last year, but that was as a small second baseman. He has shown signs of growth, and that is a good sign for a team that is looking 3-4 years down the line for OF help.
SS, Ralph Bender – Finally, we have the Georgia mystery man. Bender has shown up all over YouTube making plays as a SS and 3B with some 2B in there as well. The standout from Macon has comitted to Georgia as his next stop. While he is generally considered to be a risk to even draft, he will certainly be on a lot of radars going forward.
If you watched the SDS stream or caught it on YouTube after it was over, you might have missed the Franchise Mode discussion which happens for about 9 minutes.
Their focus is on Play Your Style which basically assumes that you aren’t going to play all 162 game and you will sim at some point. Fair enough – guilty as charged. This basically lets you set up and customize your critical moment opportunities. They continue to push the narrative that most fans want a faster experience. While I don’t mind the option, I believe the mode is suffering from something else entirely. I will get to that in a moment.
They also made some improvements to the amateur draft and implemented the Prospect Promotion Incentive (which is a fantastic addition to the – KUDOS TO SDS on this one!). I am still hoping that they track original draft teams in player cards and history of players with some narratives on transaction tracking.
The last addition is loading rosters with current injuries.
Starting with injuries vs starting on a custom date with proper injuries. The timing of an injury is as important (perhaps more important) than the injury itself.
If Ohtani gets tendinitis in late September in real life and I decide to start a new franchise mode from Opening Day with real injuries it will just mean that my season starts with him injured and plenty of time to recoup from potential losses. However, if he is hurt going into the playoffs that’s a different can of worms.
Madden and NBA 2K have the ability to start from specific dates. When will they be able to relate rosters and injuries to these dates? With baseball, I understand that the rosters are huge. We should have the ability as a community to create injured rosters with Franchise Start Dates.
Here are my suggestions going forward if SDS decides to jump into my little corner of the internet.
Trade Logic Fix Ideas
Commish Veto Setting – Users should have the option to approve or veto trades by the CPU. This would keep the CPU from making some of the more egregious trades like top prospects for middling veterans. If we were able to also edit these trades for fairness that would be helpful as well.
I would love to see AI developed to help the CPU learn where value lives and what makes certain trades fair (or perhaps more importantly, unfair) is the best way to do this.
As games are becoming more focused on being ‘always online’ one way to make this community driven is to have an option of submitting trades and trade scenarios for votes and selectable reasons for why it’s fair or not. A fair trade might not be as simple as equal overall ratings. If a team is in a pennant race and they need a relief pitcher, a new ace, or a power bat they’ve been missing, they might have to include a prized prospect to make that happen. Sometimes, that could be justified, other times it’s a non-starter.
A top prospect that struggles in the minors should lose value and see a decline in their effected ratings the longer they struggle. If a team wants to take a chance that they find the next Josh Hamilton (from top prospect to bust and back to all star – it was a great story at the time).
I just want more focus on the under the hood aspects of player and budget management. I doubt they have changed or updated any of the UI or visuals for contracts let alone any sort of budget fixes.
The game is coming out in the next few weeks. I plan on playing Franchise Mode almost exclusively as Diamond Dynasty is a grind-to-win/pay-to-win experience and RTTS continues to be boring.
MLB The Show desperately needs a few things to change and I fear that they will not have been touched this year (Trade Logic, Contracts, and CPU Trades).
You know… Basically, Franchise Mode itself. Franchise Modes need more imaginative developers and sadly – those don’t exist with the current corporate rules and efforts as ultimate teams continue to ruin sports gaming.
(It is my opinion that GMs in MLB The Show are weakly programmed compared to NBA 2K and in some cases, even compared to Madden)
RULE 1 –
Adopt a persona… IE – Treat Franchise Mode like an RPG where you are a character. Is your owner a buffoon like Roger Dorn on Major League 2? Is your owner a happy go lucky Cracker Jack prize geek like Bob Carson on Rookie of the Year? Is your owner George Steinbrenner-esque?
Trades – Two Types
1 – YOU ENTER THE TRADE TALKS MENU – You must set up the partner team’s offer first. You can then set up your offer. If the trade is not agreeable for the CPU, you can start the process over again ONCE. If it is declined you must wait until the next month to make a new offer. You can do this twice and then one final attempt at the trade deadline.
2 – THE CPU OFFERS YOU A TRADE – Simply put – you must accept or decline on face value. You cannot go into the trade talks menu and make a counter offer.
Free Agency and Contracts –
You can sign up to 3 Free Agents in your first spring training.
Subsequent seasons – Stick to your Owner and GM’s personality. Are you using a team with a huge budget? Go nuts like the Dodgers. Personally, I don’t find any aspect of that to be fun (in real life or in a video game).
Gameplay is simple – Play your game. Choose settings that give the game longevity for you. I have decided to use Timing for my batting as it allows the players to play more to their ratings in that way. I have also decided to use Quick Counts as they allow me to play through most games more quickly with added strategy.
Until the developers actually take time to make real effort for Franchise Mode, we will continue to need to make more rules to make the mode a good experience. Share your thoughts in the comments.
As we prepare to start early access for Madden 24, here are the draft class settings I created for my Franchise Mode. My goal with this being four (4) years of draft classes is that it replicates how we see draft classes IRL. This will give you the ability to create a draft strategy of sorts and should hopefully add to the longevity of your franchise mode.
I will be adding more Franchise Mode updates in the coming days.
Based on the notes released from EA I have decided to get an early jump on the new rules and settings based on what we have seen in new info and experienced in the past. These rules are meant primarily for those that play only against CPU. I have never had a good experience playing against other users for multitudes of reasons – so use what you want how you want.
PRE-SEASON
Settings –
Staff Talent Cost Modifier = SLOWEST – It is way too easy to get your coach up to 500+ Points once your team starts to get really competitive. For longevity and challenge, keep it on slowest.
Difficulty = I am convinced that All-Madden is a shade below cheating. That said, All Pro has a pretty steep decline in challenge once you’ve started playing the game for a while. Make your own choice, but don’t be afraid of losing games. Base Sliders to follow this post.
Trade Difficulty – Very Strong – If you want to make trades manually, it will cost you.
Draft Class Strength – For this I will be using a 6-sided die for each position. 1 = Very Weak, 2 = Weak, 3 = Normal, 4 = Strong, and 5 = Very Strong. A 6 is user choice.
Regression Rate = For this I am going to be less likely to make major changes at the start. The only changes I believe need to be looked at are Halfbacks at age 28, WRs at age 30, and TEs at age 31.
Free Agents – You can sign up to 5 players in your initial pre-season up to week 3. Week 4 Pre-Season you can sign up to 3 as that is the final cut week and some players will have been released.
Trades – You can make one trade in the pre-season, you get one chance to counter-offer if the trade is declined.
Home Field Advantage – Off
Free Agent Motivation Impact – Very High
ACTIONS AND BEHAVIORS
Trading Down – You can trade down once in the first two rounds and three times total.
Scouting – Regional Scouts must focus on different positions from other scouts. National Scouts can scout any position.
Big Board – You must draft according to your big board within the Top 5 Picks. This has changed in order to bring more challenge to drafting.
Sleeper Rule – You can choose any player up to one round before their projected position. This will keep you honest and give the CPU a chance to take these sleepers before you get the chance.
Draft Pick Limitations – NEW – You can only hold a limited amount of picks in each draft. The rules for your draft pick amounts are somewhat complicated, but they will make for a better experience.
Maximum of 10 picks in any draft
You can have two first round picks for up to two years in a row
If you end up with three first round picks during any draft you must trade one of them to a division opponent for their lowest pick in the next season’s draft. Before the draft you are free to move any of your three first rounders how you see fit (within the rules).
You cannot draft two QBs in two consecutive rounds
You cannot draft more than two QBs, HBs, or TEs in any draft
Free Agency and Re-Signing –
You can only sign two 90+ OVR free agent player per off-season.
You can sign one player outside of each of your schemes during free agency bidding (1 on Offense, 1 on Defense).
You can make ONE offer to any player on your teamwith 90+ OVR during the re-signing period while in regular season. If they turn down your offer they must be allowed to test free agency – the rule above still applies.
QB Specific – If you have two QBs with 80+ OVR you must allow one of them to test free agency when their contract expires. If both are on expiring deals you must choose one to attempt to re-sign. This will allow CPU teams to have access to quality QBs and drive realism.
STAGE 1 – 5 Offer Limit – (1) Two Players Rated 90+ (2) Three Players Rated 80-89 (3) Any Amount of Players Rated 79 and Under.
STAGE 2 – 10 Offer Limit (1) Two Players Rated 90+ (2) Five Players Rated 80-89 (3) Any Amount of Players Rated 79 and Under.
STAGE 3 – No Limit – (1) One Player Rated 90+, (2) No Limit on other offers as of right now. This could change depending on how the AI acts in the first two stages.
Initial All-Madden Slider Settings = (THESE WILL BE ADJUSTED ON AUGUST 16TH!!!)
Franchise Mode
All-Madden Difficulty
11 Minute Quarters
Accelerated Clock set to 15 seconds
Staff Talent Cost = Slowest
Progressive Fatigue = On
Practice Settings = Backups Only (Half Pads or Full Pads) – This is strategic in that it keeps your starters fresh with some practice XP, but allows your backups to get some training. I changed this to be Half or Full because I think getting XP to some of your sleeper picks that don’t get into the game is a big part of a lasting Franchise Mode.
Human Sliders
QB Acc – 50
Pass Block – 50
WR Catch – 50
Run Block – 50
Fumbles – 50
Pass Def Reaction – 50
Interceptions – 35
Pass Coverage – 50
Tackling – 50
CPU Sliders
QB Acc – 40
Pass Block – 49
WR Catch – 47
Run Block – 50
Fumbles – 50
Pass Def Reaction – 40
Interceptions – 38
Pass Coverage – 44
Tackling – 49
Special Teams
Set Punt Accuracy to 100 and Punt Power to 55 all others at 50
Game Options –
Injuries – 20
Fatigue – 60
Min Player Speed Thresh – 47 – This creates the slight gap for the super fast to matter and some slow LBs to get burned in some coverage, etc.
Some of the latest updates from EA regarding the updates and upgrades to Madden 24 Franchise have me excited. Some have me shrugging, but all in all – this actually looks like a positive step for once.
Training Camp and Mini Games – I remember playing the mini games back in Madden 2005. (Wow, I am old) That said, I see this being useful for training up your rookies and UDFAs. I personally feel that this should be limited to rookies for the most part as other players on your roster should earn XP in games (if at all).
Trade Assets and Future Picks – This is going to be nice to have but it will open a new can of worms. As most of us would agree, there is a premium put on picks when it comes to most teams. I am concerned, but having trade difficulty setting makes me hope that we can avoid fleecing AI teams of picks.
Staff Talent Cost Modifier – This is back and all I can say is I hope they have worked out the bug or removed the talent tree item that CPU Values Players above their Dev Rating. Effectively, it meant your practice squad was raided every week and basically ruined a major part of the back end of your experience.
Some things I LOVE – A setting to get rid of Home Field Advantage is awesome as I loathed the momentum system and the relatively unfair feel that some of the stadiums had in 23.
I also love the ability to determine regression as I believe running backs will need to change a bit as we see 28 year olds being flushed down the toilet. In the same breath, we can also increase RB talent in draft classes, which seems to follow along with what’s happening in real life.
I will watch the video again and take some more notes, but I think this is certainly a buy for me this year.
The young A’s have been the surprise of the 2023 season. However, with early success can come negativity in different ways. In the case of the A’s it has been some of the veterans raising a stink.
Fans near the bullpen overheard a conversation between ‘the old guys’ and decided to post it on TikTok. The post has gone viral as the discussion covered topics about other GM’s being stupid to take trades from Blackstone and how some of the attention being given to young rookies is insulting to those that have ‘earned’ it.
Blackstone was surprised that it was an issue at all.
“I thought veteran ballplayers would behave a bit more like you know, veterans.”
As most of this season has taught us, the A’s don’t care if anyone has a problem with how they do business on or off the field. Blackstone also makes it clear daily that he won’t have his hand forced one way or the other.
“I don’t really care if someone wants to complain as long as their play backs up what they claim and then we can look into making it right for them. What I have a problem with, is when players complain and play like garbage. That makes my decision easy, though – so I guess it’s not really a problem.” He continued with his discussion and pointed out one issue he noticed with his trades and how he is running the team in general. “I know we have made some big moves for young talent. Some people on forums have a problem with that because it isn’t realistic. It’s a good thing I operate on my own terms and don’t need to run things by some ‘experts’ in a forum, asked if he had anything to say to those critics he smiled and said “Yeah… F**k you!”. To make his final point, “If they think this is about fairness, ask how the Mets were able to make any sort of trade to get Steven Kwan for Brett Baty. They are $50 million over their budget and shouldn’t be able to make such a move, but the league let it happen. Did I complain? Nope. I am making my own moves and we will do what is allowed and what other teams agree to. That is business.”
The A’s are currently operating with an enormous budget of $82 million and it looks likely to grow as the team continues to part ways with anyone over the age of 25 or without any real developmental future.
“We have room in our organization for good ballplayers that have a future. If you have tools we can work with, we can make you into an asset.” said an unnamed coach during practice.
As it stands, Blackstone made more moves after the meeting.
Parting ways with Jhonkensy Noel and Ernie Clement along with speedy OF prospect Esteury Ruiz, the A’s grabbed Brett Baty away from the Guardians. With 3B continuing to be a defensive issue for the A’s (Ezra Guzman and Sherten Apostel have both had trouble holding down the hot corner) the hope is that Baty will be the long term answer. The problem? The A’s are starting to get long term answers halfway through a season that might cause a logjam very soon.
The answer to the TikTok video was clear as well when Blackburn was traded with Austin Beck and Cristian Pache to the Blue Jays for pitching prospect, Ricky Tiedemann. As the A’s started to thin out their recently full compliment of OF prospects they also ended the stolen bases contract they had to start the season. The kickstart to earn $10 million was accomplished and now they have entered into agreements for rotating sponsorships for wins, saves, double plays, home runs and strike outs.
*Note – Upon testing some of the trade logic, I am convinced that it doesn’t matter which rosters you use. Using the A’s I was able to part ways with veteran players and trade them in packages for some of the best prospects in baseball. More to come in my next post.
As I become more excited about baseball season and baseball in general (football and basketball are quickly dying on my interest list – what’s a hockey? – Just kidding) I am looking to try a few new things going into MLB 23 as a Franchise Mode player.
First – I will be using the stock rosters supplied by SDS. I have a suspicion that edited rosters are ruining already bad trade logic. On top of that, I also think the game itself will function better in the mode if I keep it in the parameters of the development decisions.
Second – My team choice this year will come down to a couple of aspects and the first is actually not salary, but stadium age/style. The next aspect will focus on recent/semi recent team performance – playoff appearances and overall vibes.
I plan on re-locating and possibly re-branding the team I choose this year. I also hope to find some time to do monthly updates with occasional player and prospect tracking and updates with my own unique twist on things (as is the nature of personal web pages).
My Top Teams For Franchise Mode This Year –
Los Angeles Angels – Stadium was built in 1966. Team has under-performed for years even with the biggest names in the game. This would be a complete overhaul as the team was briefly up for sale in 2022.
Oakland Athletics – Try to throw a rock on YouTube without hitting some clown doing their over-delivered franchise mode of rebuilding the A’s. The way I see it, this is a team that should either be moved and invested in or cut from the league. To build this team with any real simulation effort will take a lot of time… I am intrigued.
Pittsburgh Pirates – The team has a few pieces, but there’s no motion towards actually building a winning team. The stadium does not need rebuilt, so less work on that end. I think Oneil Cruz is the next huge superstar and it would be fun to build a team around him.
Cleveland Guardians – Haven’t won a World Series since 1948. Progressive field is starting to show its age and while they have major renovations planned, it won’t be in this iteration of The Show. Not to mention, this team has one of the lowest budgets in the game. The biggest aspect for me is that this is my favorite team as well.
Kansas City Royals – I am not a fan of anything about this team. Their colors are lame. The stadium is straight out of 1970’s poor fashion decisions – the fountains are stupid. The World Series banners look like they were made in someone’s garage. Oh, and the team is terrible. Sounds like a fun rebuild/rebrand, actually.
Tampa Bay Rays – The team outperforms the local fans. Somehow, they aren’t a bad team. Their stadium is utter trash and the fans are somehow worse in terms of attendance (as a Guardians fan, I know of what I speak). Tampa would be a team I select primarily as a rebrand with some tough decisions to make everywhere outside of Wander Franco.
Cincinnati Reds – One of the most pathetically bad ownership groups in sports. The stadium isn’t really old, but it doesn’t do much for me aesthetically. There are a couple pieces here to build around, but it would take a couple years to make it a team worthy of any excitement. Not bad for a franchise team, I won’t rebrand, but I might build a new stadium – bad for every fan in real life though.
I will be paying close attention to the changes they have made to scouting as it will most likely require a new update in my franchise mode house rules.
House rules will still be in effect as they have made the game a lot more fun for me. The biggest change for me this year involves using stock rosters – and that might end up changing more than I thought possible.
NoobTubeTV 