Take Me To The Top: iOOTP14 Dynasty

[deandean1998]

I love NYY #23's Worst To First series. So I decided to try something very similar. How similar? There are 3 differences. One difference is that I'm not taking the worst teams over first. I'm going down a list. Another is that instead of switching teams, I make a whole new game. What time period? 2014 on, for every team. I honestly think that going through the same time period over and over is a bit more challenging, especially with the house rules I'm making myself follow.

The House Rules: Right at the opening of the game, I am allowed one Minor League and one Major League Signing.

I am allowed 2 trades during the season, unless if offered by the CPU. Offered by the CPU does not count. 3 trades tops in the offseason.

Offseason signings: every 2 years I am allowed a signing of over 15 million. Other than that, they must be 15 million or below.

Cannot resign someone for over 20 million. Anything below is fair game.

[deandean1998]

The first team I am trying is the Baltimore Orioles. They have a good rotation, headed by Ubaldo Jimenez and Chris Tillman. Their relief pitching, lead by Darren O'Day, needs some work.

The Full 25 Man Roster Sorted by Overall:

C Matt Wieters

SP Ubaldo Jimenez

1B Chris Davis

CF Adam Jones

LF Nelson Cruz

SS J.J. Hardy

MR Tommy Hunter

SP Chris Tillman

SP Josh Stintson

SP Wei-Yin Chen

MR Brian Matusz

MR Evan Meek

MR Ryan Webb

CL Darren O'Day

SP Bud Norris

2B Jonathon Schoop

MR Zach Britton

2B Steve HOFbardozzi (Lombardozzi)

LF Steve Pearce

3B Steve Flaherty

MR Miguel Gonzales

LF Delmon Young

SS Alexi Castilla

C Johnny Monell

For the two signings, I signed 1B Kendrys Morales to a 1 year 810k contract, and 42 year old Catcher Henry Blanco to a MILB deal. He is a great defensive catcher.

Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman, Manny Machado, and Johan Santana are all on the DL. Dylan and Kevin are SP, Johan a MR, and Machado a 3B. All can play major roles on the team. Johan is more of a question mark, as his skills have diminished with age/ injuries.

[rpriske]

Tom Waits - Straight To The Top (Vegas) - YouTube

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by deandean1998

I love NYY #23's Worst To First series. So I decided to try something very similar. How similar? There are 3 differences. One difference is that I'm not taking the worst teams over first. I'm going down a list. Another is that instead of switching teams, I make a whole new game. What time period? 2014 on, for every team. I honestly think that going through the same time period over and over is a bit more challenging, especially with the house rules I'm making myself follow.

The House Rules: Right at the opening of the game, I am allowed one Minor League and one Major League Signing.

I am allowed 2 trades during the season, unless if offered by the CPU. Offered by the CPU does not count. 3 trades tops in the offseason.

Offseason signings: every 2 years I am allowed a signing of over 15 million. Other than that, they must be 15 million or below.

Cannot resign someone for over 20 million. Anything below is fair game.

Good luck!

[deandean1998]

May/June update.

It's quite simple how to fix this offense. We need more contact/walk people. We need less J.J. Hardy type people. Speaking of J.J. His .220/.272/.394 slash is awful. His backup Jonathan Schoop, has been hitting marginally better. .224/.264/.422 is still bad. Nelson Cruz has been hitting .227/.284/.376 but has hit 8 HR's with 31 RBIs. 32 runs also help. Ironically, Morales is in the MILB while Blanco was in the MLB. But speaking of help, I needed some. So I made a small trade (1/2 that I can do during the season). Actually not too small, since it includes a pretty good prospect coming to us.



Satin will take 2nd, Flaherty will take Shortstop, Den Dekker will be the 4th outfielder, and Centeno will take the newly released Henry Blanco's spot as the backup catcher. Centeno is younger, and still a good defensive catcher. Also Centeno can hit better than .194 too.

Now pitching is hell. As you can see with the trade I made, I traded bats for bats, but I need pitching too. Stinson was awful, got sent down when Johan came off of the DL. Speaking of Johan, he got a nice 2 year 1.4 million extension. It's cheap, but as much as it will probably come back and become dead money, I think Johan's 3-2 3.04 ERA has been great. Especially compared to the rest of the rotation. They have been awful. Ubaldo has a 5.04 ERA. Next offseason, chances are I will chase either Brandon McCarthy or Justin Masterson.

We are 27-29 but 4 1/2 games out of first. With the batting help, I hope that we will be in second, and not hovering around .500 like we have been.

[deandean1998]

Trade Deadline Update:

Oh no. I did not expect this. I mean, I always kinda knew that the pitching would be a bit of a problem. But when your lowest ERA for a while, since Johan got hurt for a bit is in the 4.50 range, stuff ain't good. So I pulled a deal that will either help bolster a quick rebuild, because this team is 21 games out of first place. I traded for the probable AL Cy Young winner. Who could this MASTERful person be?



Why, just Justin Masterson. Now, chances are that he will not win now since he is on a bad ball club, BUT I also got LOOGY Mark R. And Bench bat 1B Jason Giambi (Morales got injured). I got rid of Stinson and Bud Norris, who had a 5.3 ERA. It was a steal, but it makes sense. Stinson and Norris have time to shake it out, shake it out. Masterson is on his final year. I quickly offered a 6 year 66 Million dollar offer, but negotiations have been slow.

Batting has been bad. I don't even want to say more. Davis is out for a month. It's been bad. Machado got injured for a month.


I forgot to say who I drafted, so I'll say my first two draft picks, since the others really don't pan.

1.13 1B Ken Smith: Seems like a great pick. 1B with plus plus power, plus contact, an great at avoiding K's. Alright at speed, alright at defense. No real downside.


2.13 CL Rob Gross: Plus plus Fastball, plus curve. Only two pitches though. Possibly the best Fastball in the game though. Projects to be a good closer.





End of the Year Update:

We kinda turned it around, having only 94 losses. Masterson got GIPPED at Most Outstanding Pitcher, going to Jered Weaver, who went 19-7 and 2.81 ERA. Masterson was 17-8 with a 2.31 ERA, leading the AL in pitching. He did sign a 6 year 13.5 mil per deal. I paid a bit more than I wanted to, but he has been lights out. I'm tempted to move him too. No matter what, Ubaldo is being traded. His 5+ ERA was awful.



Needs:

A nice end of the rotation piece. Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy, along with Masterson and Tillman create a great 1-4. Chen and Jimenez will be traded, probably for a LF. Speaking of LF, Cruz is going bye bye after this season. Did not hit well, didn't hit many dingers. Wasn't worth it.

A contact 1B. Morales was ineffective, and he was injury prone. I need a real 1B. More like a DH than anything. Satin was a flop. He got on base, but not enough.

An outfielder with contact abilities. Someone who doesn't strike out a lot.
Not Nelson Cruz.

Offseason update / awards / Roster next!

[deandean1998]

Christian Walker looks like a stud. We might not go for a 1B if nobody suits the build because of him.

[phillyboy19]

Originally Posted by deandean1998

May/June update.

It's quite simple how to fix this offense. We need more contact/walk people. We need less J.J. Hardy type people. Speaking of J.J. His .220/.272/.394 slash is awful. His backup Jonathan Schoop, has been hitting marginally better. .224/.264/.422 is still bad. Nelson Cruz has been hitting .227/.284/.376 but has hit 8 HR's with 31 RBIs. 32 runs also help. Ironically, Morales is in the MILB while Blanco was in the MLB. But speaking of help, I needed some. So I made a small trade (1/2 that I can do during the season). Actually not too small, since it includes a pretty good prospect coming to us.



Satin will take 2nd, Flaherty will take Shortstop, Den Dekker will be the 4th outfielder, and Centeno will take the newly released Henry Blanco's spot as the backup catcher. Centeno is younger, and still a good defensive catcher. Also Centeno can hit better than .194 too.

Now pitching is hell. As you can see with the trade I made, I traded bats for bats, but I need pitching too. Stinson was awful, got sent down when Johan came off of the DL. Speaking of Johan, he got a nice 2 year 1.4 million extension. It's cheap, but as much as it will probably come back and become dead money, I think Johan's 3-2 3.04 ERA has been great. Especially compared to the rest of the rotation. They have been awful. Ubaldo has a 5.04 ERA. Next offseason, chances are I will chase either Brandon McCarthy or Justin Masterson.

We are 27-29 but 4 1/2 games out of first. With the batting help, I hope that we will be in second, and not hovering around .500 like we have been.

tillman is a solid 3, 4, 5 it looks like you have 3 pitchers to stay him, chen, and johan. Plus Norris isn't horrible just not good either. I just saw the Masterson deal what a difference a video game can make in a season. BTW i know Norris had a better ERA then but Tillman is younger.

[deandean1998]

Originally Posted by phillyboy19

tillman is a solid 3, 4, 5 it looks like you have 3 pitchers to stay him, chen, and johan. Plus Norris isn't horrible just not good either trade cruz or morales for a 3 or 4.Sorry if you already did stuff like this already this is as far as i got.

I traded Norris and Stilman for Masterson Marc Rzyp. And Jason Giambi.

[phillyboy19]

Originally Posted by deandean1998

I traded Norris and Stilman for Masterson Marc Rzyp. And Jason Giambi.

Yeah i just edited that out oops anyway goodluck!!! I'm going to read this seems interesting since i also love worst to 1st.

[deandean1998]

Also after a 5-20 season, Brandon McCarthy will be signing with Baltimore, on a 2 year 2.5 mil per year deal.

Nobody else really showed what I needed. So I made Schoop the Shortstop, and Betts the 2B. This will make our middle infield strong.

The next thing needed is really only a reliever, which won't be too hard. I think promoting from within will help.

[deandean1998]

Right before the start of the season, I am allowed 2 signings. One major, and one minor. I needed a backup middle infielder, since Alexi's contract ran out. So, I signed a 40 year old Shortstop. Not Alex Gonzalez, but good guess. I signed Derek Jeter. For the minor, I signed some UDFA that will never amount to anything.

[deandean1998]

April Through June Update:

43-35 and in 1st Place in the AL East by 1/2 game.

Injuries have hurt, Markakis is out until the playoffs, Davis for two months, and Den Dekker for a couple weeks more.











As you can see, our bullpen has been awful. I made a trade that they offered to me, (so it doesn't count). Chances are I might trade at the deadline for more bullpen arms. The difficult thing is that to get top line talent, you need to get rid of top line talent, or top line prospects.

The Yankees and Rays are going to be thorns in our side, I imagine for a while.

[deandean1998]

Nevermind.

[deandean1998]

July/August Update:



















Other news: Chris Davis has signed a 3 year 27 million dollar deal.

Derek Jeter has signed a 2 year 1.2 million dollar deal.

Matt Weiters wants a 6 year 13.5 million dollar per year deal. I love what Matt is doing with us, but I do not trust him to keep it up.

I'm worried. We have gone through ups and downs. Gausman has struggled, but I think keeping faith in him will make him do better. He has talent, so I'm now worried.

[deandean1998]

September Update.

I also forgot to say who I drafted (again)

1.6



I was planning on him possibly being a good SS/ 2B, since Schoop has been injured before and his bat hasn't been too hot.

2.6



He has a plus plus Curve and a plus plus Fastball. Another 2 pitch guy, like Gross last year. Has a way to go though.

Now for the end of the season.

Thrilling. We totally blew the division. We ended a couple games back. BUT we did end up in a game. Orioles vs Mariners for the right to fight against the Angels to get in the playoffs. It could be worse, where in the NL, three teams are tied for the 2nd Wild Card spot.









The Orioles don't deserve to be in the playoffs. We were terrible, and we were lucky to even be close to it. No real bad injuries. Markakis should be back soon, Den Dekker is back.









I took a chance and started Bundy on the last day, since we needed either the Mariners or the Angels to lose. Mariners lost to the Athletics, so we were able to win. So now McCarthy, who has been alright, will be starting this game.

[deandean1998]

Seattle Game Update:








This game was won because of Brandon McCarthy, McCarthy was great when he pitched. Marc Rzep.(Not spelling that) came in. With one person out, and a person on second. He intentionally walked someone, then He induced a ground ball, but only got one. He then strikes out MIKE Napoli, but it turns out it was a dropped third strike, so the 2-2 game is now 3-2.

It was close, but we won 5-4.

[deandean1998]

Los Angeles Angels Game Update:

Dylan Bundy, who has been dynamite for us all year, got injured in the 4th inning. He hadn't even allowed a hit, and we were up 1-0. Soon, Justin Masterson came in for relief. He threw three great innings of relief, and all in all, while it came close, it never really was. Webb Struggled a bit, but other than that, it was all Baltimore.





On to Detroit!

[deandean1998]

Oh yeah, Dylan Bundy is Day-To-Day

[deandean1998]

Quick question to everyone before I continue. Do you like the format I am doing and how can I improve?