Franchise Hero #3

[Magus978]

Only followed San Diego all the way to the end. Got my Gwynn, but now I don't believe I can be competitive in diamond without more of the FH3's, so I have a decision to make. Continue as is and hope to just survive every week, or sell off non-FH3 related cards and punt for awhile so I can catch up in terms of collecting and finishing.

[frankbama]

Originally Posted by daves

204 against righties

oops

[frankbama]

Originally Posted by daves

My entire team changed last night.

Me too. Hardest thing is trying to find the right ones in the right spots. I like the new Jackie but he doesn't play SS so I may just keep the original with Eddie Collins sliding into the starting 2b spot. SS is going to be tough. Arky hasn't lit it up for me lately anyway but it'd be nice to have a lefty to go with Cal or Boudreau.

Soooo many OF choices...

[Hertston]

Originally Posted by Magus978

Only followed San Diego all the way to the end. Got my Gwynn, but now I don't believe I can be competitive in diamond without more of the FH3's, so I have a decision to make. Continue as is and hope to just survive every week, or sell off non-FH3 related cards and punt for awhile so I can catch up in terms of collecting and finishing.

I know the feeling. I managed to get 13 of them beforehand and another couple completed with the proceeds from flogging off the diamond packs contents, but while I now have an outfield to die for I suspect I'm just going to get pitched to death.

[Magus978]

Originally Posted by Hertston

I know the feeling. I managed to get 13 of them beforehand and another couple completed with the proceeds from flogging off the diamond packs contents, but while I now have an outfield to die for I suspect I'm just going to get pitched to death.

I have a few sellable non-FH3 required assets (O'Rourke, Eppa, Maddux, Arky, Crawford, DiMaggio, Gagne, Pedro, Negro League Jackie, Gooden, Foxx, Dahlen, and Mauer), but I think even those combined will not be enough to complete enough to make me competitive. Plus the value of some of these guys has crashed badly and is bordering on "not even worth it" territory.

Plus I don't want to be forced to sell Maddux and Eppa just to try and complete other things & pretend to remain competitive.

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by daves

My entire team changed last night.

I’m right there with you. I had some time this morning to dig into the new cards a bit more. As of now only three pitchers remain from my previous staff (Maddux, Smoltz, and Rixey) and three position players survived (Mauer, Dahlen, and Vaughn). Of course my new team has lost five straight. You have to love the game!

[frankbama]

Originally Posted by professor ape

I’m right there with you. I had some time this morning to dig into the new cards a bit more. As of now only three pitchers remain from my previous staff (Maddux, Smoltz, and Rixey) and three position players survived (Mauer, Dahlen, and Vaughn). Of course my new team has lost five straight. You have to love the game!

Mauer was always terrible for me unfortunately and I sold him a while back. I like Orourke and want to keep him as he's still hitting though I'll see what he does today and tomorrow if my opponents have acquired some of the new guys. Maddux should still be good though Eppa's having a bad year for me so he's probably headed to the pen permanently. Rickey's been good but is also batting under 200 before last night so he might be headed out which sounds criminal to me!

Where are you using Vaughan?

Crap, just saw I'm facing Koufax in 3 minutes. Fun.

[stan-theman]

With so many good OF out there now how in the world do you decide which 3 or 4 to go with,Really got me stumped!!

[daves]

Originally Posted by Magus978

Only followed San Diego all the way to the end. Got my Gwynn, but now I don't believe I can be competitive in diamond without more of the FH3's, so I have a decision to make. Continue as is and hope to just survive every week, or sell off non-FH3 related cards and punt for awhile so I can catch up in terms of collecting and finishing.

This is why I kept up with the Collections this version. PT21 I did not do FOTF and it hurt me competitively to stay in Diamond. This version is the same as most Diamond and Perfect level teams have all FH3 players.

Time to enjoy Gold and below?

On a side note, FH3 was probably too BIG of a change.

[daves]

Originally Posted by professor ape

I’m right there with you. I had some time this morning to dig into the new cards a bit more. As of now only three pitchers remain from my previous staff (Maddux, Smoltz, and Rixey) and three position players survived (Mauer, Dahlen, and Vaughn). Of course my new team has lost five straight. You have to love the game!

Mauer?

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by daves

Mauer?

I’m shocked as well, but he has been consistently productive as my lefty catcher. He has a strong arm which seems to be a bigger deal than the difference in C Ability with the elite pitchers. I’m doing a Mauer/IRod platoon with Pudge taking some vR games as well so that they split about 50/50.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by daves

This is why I kept up with the Collections this version. PT21 I did not do FOTF and it hurt me competitively to stay in Diamond. This version is the same as most Diamond and Perfect level teams have all FH3 players.

Time to enjoy Gold and below?

On a side note, FH3 was probably too BIG of a change.

In 3 months time it may be doing all the missions won't even be enough to stay in diamond.

[daves]

Originally Posted by bailey

In 3 months time it may be doing all the missions won't even be enough to stay in diamond.

There are more impact players to come, like shoeless last year, but it shouldn't totally negate the additions made by FH3.

[Hertston]

Originally Posted by bailey

In 3 months time it may be doing all the missions won't even be enough to stay in diamond.

Two thirds of them wasn't enough to keep me in it now. Three of the guys in my division had all of them, so despite a brave fight by the lads the Bassets were pretty much doomed.

The biggest barrier now to everyone in diamond having them is everyone needing the same silver/gold cards in a few of the Selects missions, and the consequent ridiculous price inflation on them. Currently it would cost me over 500k I don't have to collect those I need to complete the last three of those missions (10 cards). It would be even more had I not actually pulled a couple for once.

[ncap99]

I think over the next few weeks having all the FH3 missions is going to be more or less the baseline for having an above .500 record at diamond. It already sort of is.

Most content releases, even major ones, leading up to FH3 would probably see 1-4 cards become part of the meta. Just looking at my roster 21 of the 26 players on my roster came from FH3. I imagine most teams are similar, give or take a few. Even the pre FH3 players who stuck around on my roster were fairly recent releases for the most part (Maddux, Rixey, Cliff Lee, Corbin Burnes, Arky Vaughan). I think with the exception of Maddux and possibly Rixey you could swap in FH3 players easily. My team pre FH3 was generally a mid 90s win team in diamond, making the playoffs most years. The same team that averaged 94 wins and made the playoffs every season the last 4 weeks for me would have been relegated and probably in the 70 win range this week.

I feel bad for people who were a few cards away from being a playoff team at diamond a week and a half ago, who are now looking at relegation back to gold because they still need many FH3 missions. I think we all realized FH3 was going to be massive just because of the buildup, but I don't know if anyone expected the rewards from it to make up 80% of rosters.

For the people like me who have been at diamond+ for months, it was a badly needed meta defining shake up. There are multiple options at nearly every position. The players are there to make whatever type of team build you want to try. We're back to tinkering with our teams a ton, and the game feels almost new again.

[professor ape]

Agreed that there are a lot of options for tinkering now. I missed the playoffs with 91 wins this week. I did some analysis from my league and changed up my lineup quite a bit to prep for the new week. I only had one change on the pitching side.

[ncap99]

Originally Posted by professor ape

Agreed that there are a lot of options for tinkering now. I missed the playoffs with 91 wins this week. I did some analysis from my league and changed up my lineup quite a bit to prep for the new week. I only had one change on the pitching side.

I won my division with 93 wins, which was the worst division leading total. That being said I think my division was fairly strong and we beat up on each other a bit. Every team in my division was running Tris Speaker which means full FH3.

I got bounced in the divisional round 3 games to 1, losing all 3 games by 2 runs or less. It is funny to see the scores in the playoffs now with all the great pitching, for my games it was 2-1, 4-2, 4-2, 3-1. In 3 of the 4 divisional series matchups neither team scored more than 4 runs in a game.

I tinkered quite a bit to try and inject as much right handed hitting as possible. Most teams are running mostly lefty starters regardless of cheese strats (Johnson, Spahn, Koufax for sure and still a lot of Rixey's). It is pretty tough to even platoon Brett, Speaker or Collins but I am giving Nap Lajoie a shot at every day first base duties and more ABs in general for Trout and FH3 Robinson.

After looking through the numbers I am starting to believe Gwynn is a trap card in general so I sent him down to the minors. It is a small sample size but looking at my league, if he doesn't hit about .320+ he really doesn't add that much. He'll get you some doubles but very few HRs, doesn't walk and his speed isn't enough to overcome the fact most every team is running Pudge. I remember reading somewhere that unless you can steal bases at an 80% success rate or better, your SB attempts actually harm your teams run production. I play with pretty conservative sliders with stolen bases and my Gwynn had the best ratio in the league at 71.4%. There were several teams he was caught more than he was successful.

I think with the contact baseline going through the roof with FH3, eye is becoming a stat that is really overlooked.

I'll probably finish 68-94 next year and get relegated but its worth a shot!

[Hertston]

Originally Posted by professor ape

Agreed that there are a lot of options for tinkering now. I missed the playoffs with 91 wins this week.

By no means unique last week - there were three guys in my division with over 90 wins. It could get tough, if entertaining, for a while in diamond as most of us who hadn't completed FH3 went down and, I suspect, many in gold who had come up.

[Hertston]

Originally Posted by ncap99

After looking through the numbers I am starting to believe Gwynn is a trap card in general so I sent him down to the minors.

I was a little sceptical looking at his stats, but Gwynn still ended up the best performer from the now twenty or so FH3 cards I acquired, although that only included one (Johnson) of the second tier.

[ncap99]

Originally Posted by Hertston

I was a little sceptical looking at his stats, but Gwynn still ended up the best performer from the now twenty or so FH3 cards I acquired, although that only included one (Johnson) of the second tier.

He definitely has the capability of a great year. I think 5 of the top 6 in BA in my league last season were Gwynn's. The problem is what I expect his average year to be - .285/.320/.400 type years with negative value attached to his running. I think part of it is that so many teams are running mostly lefty starters with Koufax, Johnson and Spahn and a lot use a 4th with Rixey. Even though Gwynn hits lefties well, he is still left handed which means the lefty pitchers just have better stats against him.