jacksonianmarch

07 the show vs 06 the show or the other version? As for the differences in the show, they are impressive. First of all the layout is a bit better on the eyes. They incorporated a throw meter so you dont make throws from the CF wall with Juan Pierre on a fly to homeplate. The harder you throw, the less accurate you are. They included a hitters zone which essentially gives you a movable circle which shows how much plate coverage your hitter can get. The circle is bigger for the better hitters. Now when you guess a pitch and a location, the location lights up and with the better hitters, a larger area lights up. Therefore, no more pitches exactly what you are looking for, exactly where you wanted them getting past the pitch guess. You get to see the zone your are choosing. They added a ton of new stances and now you dont have to cycle through each one. They created it so you have to choose a stance to see what it looks like, so creations are easier. Same goes for windups. Hell, Jon Lester has his own windup. 40 pages worth of hitting stances and 20 worth of windups with 15 on each page. They added pitches, something I always love. Matsuzaka has a gyroball, but nobody else can throw it. The gyro is a 94mph slider like pitch that essentially starts on the hands of a RH batter and breaks off the outside part of the plate. They added a running fastball that has very strong screwball like movement as opposed to the slight cut a 2 seamer had. They also added a sweeping curve and a 12-6 curve to the repertoire. I havent seen those yet, but will soon. And the players have a cleaner look to them. I heard they fixed some of the glitch of balls clipping through players and robbing HRs that are way out of the park, but I have only played one game. This brings me to the downside. The contracts are all f***ed up and they have no top prospects like MVP gave in their final version. I created the top 100 and am currently in the process of making an entire yankees minor league system consisting of their best prospects from the DSL levels all the way up to AAA.

can we change the date of the draft. No way I'll be making it on the 14th. Can we do it closer to april during the week some time.

btw, for anyone who wishes to create a top 100 or so and create a realistic minor league system for their team, a good site for stats is http://www.thebaseballcube.com . Also, to create an accurate repertoire, check BA, scout.com or rotoworld for pitchers so you can accurately create their velocity and secondary pitches. It will take about 5 hours to do the entire list.

can we move the draft. I wont be near a CPU at that time. The following week would be perfect

and MVP 05 or 04 to this day is the only game that expanded its rosters to 40 at Sept 1. I always thought that was neat. The one catch was that the game was much more prone to freeze after Sept 1, but I got through it.

the contracts still suck. I have a long and a short way of fixing it. First, you must set your franchise to force trades when starting it up. It may also be beneficial to have the CPU ignore salary cap (not for you mind you). The long way is to play out your first season however you want. Then, at the end of the season, you get the option to renegotiate contracts. So you renegotiate with everyone on your team to get the proper length. Then you force trade for everyone in the league and just make sure the length is appropriate so they come available when they are supposed to. The shorter way is to just track every player at the end of the season that hits the FA wire and put them back on their team. You will have to do this for your first season regardless because you cannot renegotiate with any player from another team whose contract is expiring.

you never could edit them out of franchise mode. I am in the process of putting the top 125 or so prospects into the game and making sure I nab players with A's for potential. That is what I'd call this game, potential. I like the catcher calling the game idea. I love the confidence meters changing depending on which pitch you are relying on. The circle showing you the range of your batter gives you a much better idea of where your guy can hit and when you guess a pitch, it shows you the amount of red space the guess covers. And the gyro is nearly totally unhittable. It comes in at 94 and moves more than any slider in the game. So, I took "Tate Biek" and changed him to Betances and created another Matsuzaka. I want the gyroball, it is totally insane.

Beckett will never be a journeyman. But is he an elite player or is he a back end of the rotation kind of guy? That is the question to be answered.

I guess that is one of the downsides to playing in a baseball factory like florida. Sounds like he throws the ball pretty well though. Nice line to start his HS career, huh.

Wang is throwing gas and Johnny D leads off ST with a tater. Goddamn it is good to have baseball back!

as for letting him walk, if he was a FA this offseason, he could have gotten 3-4 yrs 30-45 mil, easy. Even if he blows this yr, he could still make nearly 13 mil.

I may be in the minority on this, but if you have a kid like Lester sitting in the wings, with Buchholz potentially ready for next yr too, then you better have a hoss sitting in front of them. The Schilling that ended the season was not a hoss. And his trends are poor. He got hit around last yr something fierce and ending the yr with a .310+ BAA post AS break is not a way to do it. Granted, I have doubted Schilling before and he has proven me wrong, but if I were the sox, I'd wait till mid season. Schill will gladly take a one yr extension over AS weekend should he earn it. But this certainly sounds exactly like what the sox did with Pedro, Damon, Nomar, etc. They are planning on his departure. This wont end well, I can see it. Schilling should have a frickin bronze statue made of him in copley square, but instead he may be shamed out of boston like the rest.

If Durant, Green and Pierce are all on one court, how many balls do they get to play with? You need that presence in the middle. The C's are soft in the middle and get exploited something fierce. Durant will be the impact player first, but Oden is a manchild. Oden has a Dwight Howard type ceiling, and I think he will reach it. If the C's have the shot, you take Oden, hands down. 7 foot athletic big men are hard to come by.

if it is going to turn into TJ surgery, it should do so soon so he can get on the road to recovery.

sanchez is day to day with elbow inflammation, but no tear.

because the majority of your swing in hitting is generated by your wrists. Pitchers use their entire core to deliver a pitch. And they do so 150 or so times a game and 35-50 times a bullpen.

the yankees hold an option for 2008

he wasnt 370. He was still very thin in the pictures.

http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/redSox/?p=847 called it a cramp, but they will be extra cautious with him.

hahaha. It doesnt sound serious. It isnt as serious as it would be for a pitcher. But they say 1-2 weeks, but they will be cautious and he may not be ready by the time the season starts.

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/blog/2007/02/more_medical_updates.html Looks like Abreu strained an oblique and will miss a week or two. This could possibly keep him out of the first week or so of the season if it persists. Humberto Sanchez, the top flight minor league pitcher the yankees got from detroit will have an MRI after experiencing forearm pain for the second bullpen in a row. Pavano has a bone bruise on his foot and is expected to be put on light duty for a little while.

you'll make excuses for anyone wont you?

I am only going off what was said about Hampton. Hampton had a nice sinking fastball that stayed flat in Colorado. That and his curve was flattened too. But I see your point.

the rockies would probably love to give up hitting for any pitcher. Thing is, right now Pavano would be a salary dump. By May, Pavano may actually be a useful commodity or he could be on the trash heap again.

Just a few things. Today there is an article on Helton being bandied about again. Word is the Rockies are dying to get Helton's contract off the books so they can deal for Pavano believe it or not. But getting Pavano would be another mistake in a long line of Rockies pitching miscues. Pavano is a 2 seamer/sinker kind of guy and with that thin air, balls dont sink as much. He will set a record for HRs given up. Not to mention, he might develop more injuries at higher elevation. But take him, I beg of you.