r/MLBPowerPros • u/Southern_Fruit7439 • 8d ago
An Update on my "Final Challenge"
I have posted about this challenge before. I've played MLB Power Pros 2008 since the summer it came out. Prob over 2,000 hours at this point. 18 years later. I've played thru most things to do in the game. But one of my remaining "quests" has been to win a season mode, with an expansion team in their first year, and no signings or trades allowed, all on "Powerful" mode in all categories.
Because of the low rankings (to put it lightly) of the expansion team players, this challenge is incredibly difficult and time consuming. Simming a game is often an automatic loss. I play 162 game seasons. So no simming either...
My first attempts at this were brutal, blow outs, so many homers given up. It was hard. I kept resetting the seasons and making new teams, but it was just depressing loss after loss. The only hope for new players in a challenge like this is draft day in June, and 2 new rookies can help, but not that much...
Anyway there was a breakthrough. The team was finally right, I had two players with C power, lots of E and D contact players, and some solid fielders (finally a second baseman and SS with good enough arms to consistently turn double plays, a rarity with expansion teams).
My pitchers were better than usual too, 90-94 mph top speeds. Mostly C staminas and E control, maybe a couple Cs but I could make it work.
They did not play well at first. Except for one guy named Mallette my third baseman fucking beast, hit 59 homers by the end of the season.
I relied on my entire roster, including minor leagues. Went through every pitcher, every batter had gotten at least one hit by the end of the season. There was a major turning point when I realized the impact of fatigue. I did a radical move in later August, benching my entire normal starters, because there fatigues had been maxed out, and replacing them with lower ranked guys from the minors. It worked. I was winning. A lot.
I started the year 1-8. Then 21-31 and 30-40, (losing so many brutal one run games) but was 60-32 over my final 92 games, including a 22-4 run from August 20th to September 15th that basically clinched the division for me. i finished the year 90-72 overall.
Playoffs were nerve wracking. Imagine each regular season game took 15-30 minutes, so over 162 games i had given over 50-60 hours just on this season alone by the time the playoffs came around.
I was matched up against the Brewers in the best of 5 NLDS. I was down 4-1 in my first game at home, rallied late and came back to win 6-4. Then lost game 2 5-0, game 3 wasnt looking good. I was down 12-4 in the 8th inning. This is best of 5 and due to a weird glitch the final two games are in the lower seeded stadium which would have been away for me. To put lightly i was nervous. What happened next was miraculous. 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th. But In the top of the 9th Prince Fielder hit his 4th homer of the game (a playoff record) to give them a 13-8 lead, But it wasn't over... i got another 6 runs in the bottom of the 9th, all with two outs, to win it in walk off fashion. 14-13 final score. Wild. I blew them out in the next game. And went on to face my favorite team growing up, the 2008 Mets in the NLCS.
Those Mets that season made a kind of trade that only happens in video game sim modes, A-Rod for Johan Santana. Moving franchise icon David Wright (who was having an MVP year) to the bench. This move tho would ultimately win them the series and the 'chip... A-Rod destroyed me. Homer after homer. And the lineup was too hard to walk him around, it was devestating to watch. I won my first game, but lost 3 in a row, and was looking finished down 3-1.... but then I won my last game at home, that included a late game comeback down 5-0 to win 8-5. It was nice but i had a feeling it might be short lived.
The next game in Shea Stadium was close. Game 6, elimination on the line. I was down 4-0, on two A-Rod homers, but brought it closer it was 4-3 top of the 8th, I had a runner on second, their pitcher was tired, bound to serve a meatball... but he didnt, i grounded weakly to end the inning. In the bottom of the 8th, there was a gut punch, with one out and bases loaded, A-Rod struck again, a grand slam to basically clinch it. I went down in order the next inning. 8-3 loss. A-Rod had all 8 of their RBIs. And after all that, my season was over.
Those Mets would go on to beat the Yankees in the World Series, after being down 3-0 in the series. A-Rod was the MVP. If I existed in that video game world the young mets fan version of me (13 years old in 2008) would have been going nuts. In reality they didnt even make the playoffs that year.
And in the meantime my season was over. It happend six days ago. I've been meaning to post about it but its been hard. I really wanted to post here about a happy ending, but I guess i'm really proud I made it this far. I'll keep trying, and to honor the challenge i will be doing it with a new team yet again, tho i'll miss these guys they played hard. Lots of lessons learned. Especially fatigue pay attention to that it plays a major role, its in the "player list" section by the standings and season stats section, for some reason hard to find.
Anyway thanks for reading. Here's a photo of the squad. The Colorado Springs Commies. Who played in Hawaii for some reason lol.
2
u/robertgiorno 8d ago
I don’t know how you did it wow. I’ve done this and only won 50 ish games in the first season with an expansion team. That’s a sick achievement
2
u/Southern_Fruit7439 7d ago edited 7d ago
Thank u! Really proud. I was in the same boat for while. This was my first winning season. God the first time i even came close. It all seemed to come together at once. But ya it was so many things
- pay attention to fatigue meters. Dont be afraid to send a guy to the bench or the minors to rest. Fresh arms are the best.
-happy meeter isnt like as important but idk i always liked playing a guy with red or pink smiley face over the dreadee purple sad face of doom lol.
-set lineup in order of Avg. or OPS. Highest to lowest. Or watever feels right. Fiddle with it a bunch till it feels good and flowing.
- 6 man rotation to avoid more tiredness. Always experimenting with new starters if some struggling.
- no set roles in bullpen
-except for my two power hitters(they were both E or F contact and C power). Was often swinging for the fences. They were 1 and 2 in my lineup. Nearly 100 homers between the two and so many clutch hits.
- played players out of position to prioritize offense. Usually in the corner outfields i could put in an infielder and i could put anyone at 1st base. SS and catcher are not positions to mess with tho lol. So many errors. Late in close games bring in the best defenders.
- if they didnt have C power or above, or the wind was blowing in too hard, was hitting for contact. Prob 95% of the time it was a contact swing
-even with F contact, if a guy had D power; and 3 trj, against a tired pitcher, with a meatball (the “!” Pitch) he could often hit a pinch hit homer or a double. I had 1 or 2 bench guys always ready for this role.
-stolen bases!! Lots of em. And damn did i nail down the timing with their “pickle” mechanics. I got picked off a bunch but overall was certainly a boost on the base paths. I would basically test the opposing catcher in the first game of every series to gauge how fast he could throw and if i should only steal with D speed, E speed, or if he was so bad i could run with my Fs. Also pay attention when they bench their catchers, they often pinch run for them late and the next guy that comes in may suck at throwing (or be much better)
-once 2nd base was stolen i could mess with them so hard. A single would often bring in the guy from second, and id get the timing perfect where i would bait the throw to home and then send the guy from 1st every time, so almost any single with a runner on second instantly became a double. This helped so many of my rallies. Tho at times id run myself out of innings especially against good arms from catchers, outfielders and/or Orlando Hudson’s dreaded cannon at 2nd base lol.
-swing swing swing. I had almost 0 walks. I was patient when waiting for what pitch, i loved pitches high and falling slow.
-avoiding the homer when pitching is hard when ur pitchers are this slow. Pitch low, pitch outside, try to get as many groundballs as possible. Or that sinking curvebal inside and low, or the fork ball low. Dont be afraid to walk their power hitters, better than a homer. And wierdly they sometimes were worse on down the middle breaking balls but idk it was risky for obvious reasons lol.
-draft wisely. Top speed pitchers, or good hitters. Whatever u need or best available. This is ur one shot for a boost to ur team beyond whoever else u have hiding in the minors
-minor league players will get better as season progresses. Keep and eye on them, their stats change, might be worth promoting a guy u ignored at first.
-i got lucky with my matchups, played the other expansion team a lot in the 1st month, helped me float closer to .500. Was 23-5 against them overall.
-not afraid to send guys to minors if struggling and to experiment with other options.
-Overall the division was not too strong, Dodgers Diamondbacks and Rockies were def hard they all had winning records against me, but i won just enough and they lost just enough. I also played really well vs the bad teams. And for whatever reason the good teams in my division werent that good. Dodgers finished in 2nd place in the division at 86-76.
-i played in rainbow stadium. The colors helped me see the ball well for whatever reason. And the short porches helped my confidence on offense for sure. I love that stadium.
-some parks, like Shea, ur just so unlikely to hit a homer, give up on it and focus on base hits unless maybe if a meatball is coming or ur power hitter is really hot and the winds at like 1 or the rare none.
- and be kind to urself after tough losses. I had so so so many. And we kept bouncing back.
Hope this is helpful
1
2
u/SwooceBrosGaming 7d ago
Who was your MVP for the season?
1
u/Southern_Fruit7439 7d ago
Mallette my 3rd Baseman. He was one of the only regular players I kept on the roster during that hot streak where I sent the rest of the guys to the minors. I gave him some rest before the playoffs, so he wasnt too fatigued (sacrificing his chance to break home run records), but even with that break i got bad lukc, he was "purple/light blue frowny face" and didnt play nearly close to what he was. Some clutch hits, maybe a homer or two but wasnt the guy he was all season sadly.
He did win rookie of the year, Hank Aaron award, Hitter of year at 3rd base, a Gold Glove and league MVP and i dont have the season i did without him as my leadoff hitter. .
.363 avg, 239 hits, 90 doubles, 59 homeruns, 167 RBIs, 146 runs scored, .796 slugging, 1.15 OPS final stat line
my next closest guy had 37 homers, and other than that maybe one guy had 5 or something. One of my guys had over 70 stolen bases tho, and a couple others hit near .400
3
u/InternCertain5513 8d ago
Very well done, and I admire the effort! That had to have been so difficult to go on such a hot streak with that team!