Quote:
Originally Posted by xw668
I think A's is one of the most difficult team to rebuild in OOTP 18. But I often see guys like to rebuild Reds, Padres, or White Sox..etc.
Does anyone try to rebuild the A's? Tips?
Their budget is less than OOTP 17...a lot of challenges and fun to manage.
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I'm currently at Spring Training in the 4th season of my A's save. Year 1 lost 102 games, year two went 78-84, and year 3 went 87-75. Some tips, check the waiver wire. Don;t expect to win in year 1. Sell off all that you can. In free agency look for bargains. I was able to sign Michael Brantley for 2 years/6 million. At the start anyway, platoon, platoon, platoon. Try to shrewd in your trades. Know what you want to give up and what you want to hold onto. The A's have a surplus of pitching right now, if you decide that you don't want to compete until 2019 (like I did in my save) I would flip some SP's to try and load up on assets. I didn't move Gray and instead lost him to free agency because in year 3 we were 1 game out of the wildcard at the deadline, but if you are in 2019 and still not in a winning position, definitely flip him. I've been having a blast using the A's so far, it's a great challenge, definitely a different change of pace from using the Yankees that I used last game. Here are my lineups and pitching staff, but keep in mind that I'm in Spring Training, but the lineups and rotation are set to what they will be at Opening Day, assuming no injuries.
I do think my team last year was better, I am bit hesitant about how this team will do this season, my goal is to win the division this year. Also my rotation isn't in the correct order and I won't be using a 6 man rotation, that's just for Spring Training. As you can see the roster has definitely overturned in 4 years. Only 4 people in the lineup were there when I took over and only one pitcher I believe is still there from the start. A lot of moves, and all of these players except some bench players and relievers were acquired via trade or waiver wire pickups. The only big money I have given out is to my DH, an international guy but he's signed to a very team friendly contract. I am not paying Gurriel anything this season btw, as he got traded by the Astros and they retained 30% of his salary and when I picked him up from the White Sox they retained the rest of it, so I'm not paying him anything, definitely use the retain salary feature to your advantage as a small market/low budget team.
Hope this was of some value