Power Pros Forum

Honestly, I think you could just use Cheese as a strict pinch runner, but it's your decision.

EDIT: I have a new player. It's an 3-E-E-B-C-D-C 1B/3B. I'll post him on the forum when I get the chance.

Maybe one of your guys, Joakim Mercado? He's not way overpowered except for the speed, which is managable.

This guy might make a fairly realistic closer.

Dish's created players are probably pretty good for your team, just find one that is good.

Thanks - but Mercado's already on the other team in this season mode, the Chargers.

F. Hernandez looks okay power wise (low speed for a closer), but those blue abilities will be way too much I fear. Besides, I don't need pitchers, except maybe a FA or two like Clemens/Fossum/Colon.

I looked through the password exchange pretty intently, but couldn't find a backup OF'er or IF'er that fit my needs, unfortunately. I'll prolly end up making the two guys myself.

Honolulu Catchers!

The Honolulu Heroes have been given three solid options at catcher, in case injury occurs - and their depth is the envy of many other teams.

#1 Catcher: Felipe Butron
A switch hitter from Venezuela, Butron clearly bring the best bat, hitting over .300 in the Latin leagues. He's not a power hitter, but can be a singles/doubles guy far down the order. Even better, though, is his fielding - Butron is already a solid MLB defender behind the plate, and has a slightly above-average arm. His biggest weakness is speed, which he has none of. Butron figures to get the bulk of playing time for the expansion Heroes this season.

Backup: Matt Brewer
Another switch-hitter! Picked out of Oklahoma State, Matt Brewer is also a solid defensive catcher, a rough equivalent to Butron with some minor differences. His bat hasn't quite matured to that level, but he does display more power, making the slap hits less likely and the long drives more frequent. Brewer is a solid backup at the MLB level, and will most likely be paired with Traber or McRae in the rotation.

AAA: Doug Weibl
A reserve for now, Weibl's lefty bat could use plenty of seasoning. He was, however, the independent leagues' most promising defensive catcher, and jumped at the chance to join AAA. Weibl makes a few plays that Brewer would miss, and nails more attempted base stealers, but isn't anywhere near a threat at the plate. His speed, also, ranks around the bottom in the league, even behind Butron. For now he is a callup or defensive specialist only.

Next Update: Infielders!

Infielders!

1B: Julio Ventana
Peurto Rican slugger Julio Ventana will get the nod at 1B. A poor fielder, Ventana also struggles to make consistent contact, but when he does, doubles and even more are common.

2B: Kenichi Ota
This japanese import was more than happy to try out his luck in Hawaii. Ota is a solid defender, but truly manages to trouble the opposition with his bat, slapping basehits all over the shallow outfield. He promises to be a good #2 hitter.

SS: Jose Oliveros
Oliveros is a pisces, and you can tell be how he varies - sometimes a gold glover, other times making errors on routine plays. Oliveros has some decent skills with the bat, but will likely stay near the bottom of the order.

3B: Sean Mattison
This free-swinging righty has the most raw power of anyone on the club. However, teams have shied away from giving him playing time, due to his sub-par defense, and his propensity for the strikeout. Mattison will be the starting 3B for the Heroes, and will get a chance to showcase his bat.

Utility: Owen Burke
This utility 3B/2B/LF has done a little bit of everything throughout his college career. Second is his preferred position - where he will backup Ota as needed - but in a pinch he can play third or left. Defensive substitutions and pinch-running will be the bulk of Burke's playing time, unless he manages to outperform a starter.

Corners: Travis Wayne
A switch-hitting corner infielder, Wayne packs a little bit of power from both sides of the plate. Not a defensive star at all, his best role may be as a pinch-hitter, or backup 3B/1B as needed.

Backup SS: Cesar Suarez
A decent-fielding backup SS, if needed. Could be assigned to Triple-A for playing time.

Up Next: Final installment - Outfielders!
Most outfielders, with the exception of Burke above, and possibly Joakim Mercado, will be FA signings. This will include custom guys like Barry Bonds and Bernie Williams - but will also include guys like David Newhan, and any other Free Agent OF'er the game starts as available.

Major League Baseball has announced that several free agents have agreed to terms to join the Honolulu expansion team.

Roger Clemens- SP
Barry Bonds - LF/DH
Bernie Williams - OF
David Newhan - OF
Tomas Perez - IF
Dan Johnson - 1B

An invitation has been sent to lefty Bruce Chen, but he has not yet signed with anyone.

Perez and Johnson are sent to AAA. Bonds, Williams, and Newhan are placed in the opening day starting lineup.

Also - I will be using the advice given earlier, and utilizing my player Joakim Mercado as an outfielder, since all he has is speed.

Opening Day lineup:



Roger Clemens was slotted to possibly start Opening Day, but will yield to the young ace Osorio.

The Heroes take on the Seattle Mariners to start 2008 with a 2-game set! Results soon.

Note: Games will be played with hitting on 'Normal', pitching on 'Expert', and all features set to Manual except BaseRunning, which will be semi-auto. Hopefully this will give me a mix - realistic results where I get shelled, but I get a fighting chance with some duys with E/D contact and my MLBPP expertise.

Hooray! Go Mercado and Bonds!

Reserved: First Week! Still gathering details, will update later in the week.

Game 1: Seattle @ Honolulu - Rodrigo Osorio vs. Felix Hernandez
Osorio got the start over Clemens - and boy, did he live up to his Ace stuff. Of course, the Mariners are dealing with a desperately poor offense, with Jose Vidro and Richie Sexson long past their primes. The Heroes worked Hernandez for a few hits. Heroes win

Game 2: Seattle @ Honolulu - Roger Clemens vs. Erik Bedard
Clemens has to gut through this performance, but comes out on top as the offense comes alive. Heroes win

Game 3: Texas at Honolulu - Doug McRae vs.
1B Julio Ventana hit a huge bomb to power the offense, but McRae was surprisingly effective with his knuckler. He tied up the slumping Texas bats all day. Heroes win

Game 4: Texas at Honolulu - Han Song vs. Kason Gabbard
Song starts out shakey, giving up a run in the first, but then settles into a nice groove, going 7 strong. Gabbard gets tons of groundouts from the weak Honolulu bats, but they break out for a 3-run rally in the 4th. Heroes win 3-1.

Game 5: Texas at Honolulu - Roberto Delucchi vs. Sidney Ponson
Delucchi, the weak spot in our rotation (since Traber is in AAA) somehow put up the best start of the staff. Holding the Rangers near hitless, only reaching second once, Delucchi rolled while the offense came to life. Bernie Williams hit a 3-run shot to center, and the Heroes win 6-0.

Sub-plots:
Bernie Williams and Barry Bonds are both enjoying their playing time, hitting over .300 each with a homer.

3B Sean Mattison, after 4 games with 1 hit and an error, has been demoted to AAA in favor of Tomas Perez. Travis Wayne will get a few starts at third to show his stuff (but promptly errors in his first game).

LF David Newhan has been less than impressive in LF, both in defensive range, and with the bat (hitting .200). The Heroes may experiment with Owen Burke in left, or by putting Bonds in the field for another DH in Dan Johnson.

5-game winning streak! This truly has proven that the AL West is a pretty weak division, if a group of scrubs that couldn't make most MLB rosters starts the season with two sweeps! There are some rumblings about this team already - what was expected to be a pushover for other teams to pad stats, is ending up an early Cinderella story!

Gameplay notes:

Due to the 5-game winning streak, and how easy it is to get hits with E/F contact, and strike guys out with 86mph fastballs, I am upping the difficulty. First setting to change is CPU Batting, which will go from Normal to Expert. We may bump that up again, or bumpb up Pitching, if I am still winning a ton of games easily.

You doing agents? I want Clemens and Bonds if you are.

hmm sounds like an interesting log, I'll need to catch up at some point, theres a lot to have to take in

Note: I pumped up the difficulty a bit, setting CPU batting up so I stop dominating them so much. May tinker some more depending - I want this to be realistic, maybe a .500 season, not a 100-win season with scrubs.

__________________________________

A few more games pass, as the Heroes took on the Mariners yet again, before heading a bit south to Oakland. The Mariners punish us pretty severly the first two games, with seemingly poor bats like Sexson and Wilkerson hitting quite a few bombs into the stands.

Roger Clemens started the final game against the Mariners, successfully holding Ichiro off the basepaths. Bonds cleared the fences with his 4th homer of the season to provide the offense.

For the opener against the Athletics, the team went with the hot hand - which happened to be Obradovich. The crafty lefty threw well in his first major-league start, silencing the Athletics bats while Dan Johnson's monster shot created a 4-0 lead. The A's shot back, bringing the game within 1 at 4-3, but reliever Moss came in to get the necessary outs and finish out a 5-3 save.


______________
Reporters are confused by the rotation changes, and the presence of so many spot-starters. After the start by Obradovich, they pepper the manager with questions on the rotation.

Rptr 1: "When will we see a stable rotation? Currently the guys that went out - and largely won - the first week of the season are being sat, and other guys like Obradovich and Chen are mentioned as starters. What gives?"

Mngr: "The Heroes are a brand new team, with a whole host of unproven players. We really like the top of our rotation, with Clemens and Osorio. After that, we may play matchups or the hot hand, depending on the situation. We have the opportunity to fit in 5 or 6 guys, see what they bring to the table. No major league team uses the same 5 starters all season - so give us a while to work things out."

Rptr 2: "With Obradovich's performance today, where he struck out 8 batters, will he be considered for a rotation spot once things shake out?"

Mngr: "Jorn was on today - that was some impressive work. But the other guys - Delucchi, Song, and McRae - all did well in their games too. Around mid-May we'll have our roles more defined. That's all for today!"

___________

Well, FYI, I took this team to the world series and won...in the first season. I can't pitch well, but I'd win a lot of games 12-11 or 15-7 and such. It ended up with Bonds smacking 70-something homers and having like 200 RBI. Bernie Williams had 90 steals.

I found that by using those juiced players - Bonds, Williams, the created Russell Branyan, and Clemens - it just isn't a challenge. Even the Gio Gonzalez we created is way too good. Add to that the exploits (so easy to steal, so easy to catch base stealers, so easy to get the AI to screw up a run-down, so easy to take 2nd when the AI throws home), and even with my terrible fielding reactions and bad dives, I'd still win 110+ games.

I'm starting my second season (yes, it took me years to play 162 games of this plus playoffs), and I'll pump up the batting difficulty again.

In the ALCS I had to face my OTHER created, dominant team, the Charlotte Chargers, who actually won a game (but the system shorted out and I lost that save, then swept them). They were a tough bunch, wow. After that, the WS versus the Mets was a cakewalk.

This game holds up, 5-6 years later. Great, great game. Terrible AI glitches they should've caught in QA, but otherwise a good time.

May I ask what the difficulty was/is now?

Fielding is manual
Pitching control expert
Sweet spot cursor is normal (hardest I guess??)
CPU batting is expert
Everything else on the CPU side is normal.

Is there any other difficulty to adjust?

I've always thought hitting is easier than pitching in this game, so I'd bump all defensive/pitching oriented CPU levels up to All-Star at least.