OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - KC Royals - An OOTP 25 Narrated Playthrough

Biggp07 · 07-15-2025, 12:13 PM

(March 18th – Day 12)

Our scout sent me some reports today on the draft targets I asked him to provide about a week ago, and there are some good reports in them. I've highlighted 5 of them.

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Name: cade_arrambide.jpg
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• 18-year-old Cade Arrambide is a big 6-foot-3, 210-pound catcher from Tomball, Texas. He has the flexibility and conditioning to play above-average defense. He should have a patient approach at the plate and will take a walk if he doesn't get a pitch he likes. He has the potential to display average power from the right side of the plate. With enough injuries, Arrambide might force his way into the lineup. His current ability is rated as a 20 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 45 out of 80.

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Name: jac_caglianone.jpg
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• Jac Caglianone is a 21-year-old first baseman who was born in Tampa, Florida. He has tremendous power potential. However, he is expected to be a below-average contact hitter and will need to work hard on his swing. Caglianone can be a second division starter at first base. His current ability is rated as a 25 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 55 out of 80.

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Name: braden_montgomery.jpg
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• 20-year-old Braden Montgomery is a big 6-foot-2, 220-pound right fielder from Madison, Mississippi. He has plus power potential. As he matures, he's expected to be a quality defensive right fielder. He is an average runner who can swipe a few bases because of his baseball IQ. Montgomery has potential to unleash his obvious talent both on the field and at the plate. His current ability is rated as a 25 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 55 out of 80.

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Name: karsten_sweum.jpg
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• 6' 2" high-schooler Karsten Sweum is an intimidating presence on the mound. At 18 years old, his four-pitch arsenal includes a curveball that will make good hitters miss, a slider with some depth, a decent changeup, and a decent fastball. He tends to nibble at the corners rather than going directly after hitters, driving up his walk totals. If Sweum is going to be more than an emergency starter, he'll need to iron out his control problems. His current ability is rated as a 20 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 45 out of 80.

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Name: will_taylor.jpg
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• Lean and athletic 21-year-old Will Taylor hails from Irmo, South Carolina. He is a great runner, using his speed to pick up an extra base when he can. He can make hard contact, which should translate to a .240 batting average. He grades out as an above-average center fielder defensively. Taylor is projected to fill an injury replacement or reserve role in the majors as a below-average center fielder. His current ability is rated as a 20 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 45 out of 80.

My thoughts on the draft this year come down to this: I'll be lucky to get even one of these guys with the slot being $4,500,000, and all of them will likely accept nothing less.

So...

I’ve budgeted $8MIL for the draft this year, which is about $1MIL more than I'm originally budgeted for. The OSA mock draft has us picking Braden Montgomery 6th and Cade Arrambide 9th (39th overall) in the first and supplemental rounds. The second round has us picking at #2 (41st overall) 1B Grant Hussey, third round #2 (77th overall) LF Ian Petrutz, fourth round #2 (107th overall) CF Will Taylor, and fifth round #2 (140th overall) SP Karsten Sweum. The 2 high schoolers are forecasted to be extremely hard to sign, but I’d like to get C Cade Arrambide if I can. He got the best qualities of the 2, so I’ll give him a chance. Jac Caglianone is a late first-round pick at 28 by Houston, though, so we've got a bit of early decision-making to do if we want to get him unless he's taken in the top five before us.

Of course, you always hope you can get all the top prospects in the draft, but that is just not feasible with our small market budget, so we’ll have to choose wisely and still take significant risks as they develop. I think these draft picks are solid and not going to change any now, but we’ll see as we get closer to draft day. It’s a flip of the coin at the end of the day.

I got word from the owner today via email that he’s putting us in a “Win Now” mode for the year,

although he “only” expects us to play .500 ball. I guess that's winning.

He did increase the budget a bit, or that came from him directly, I’m not sure but there’s a bit more money to play with before opening day so I’m going to put more into scouting and development today and get ready for our first series opener game against the Minnesota Twins in a week and a half. Scouting and development will be budgeted $15.5MIL each for the year. That leaves open about $9.5MIL in total cash, of which about $3.25 M is available in ready cash and the rest tagged for extensions. We’ll see how this all pans out soon and if I’ve budgeted appropriately. Season ticket sales have a projected increase of about 2.5% and a roughly 30+% increase projected across attendance and per-game revenue. Hopefully, that will stand at the end of the year.
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(March 20th, Day 14 – MLB Opening Day!)

So, it’s Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, but we are still a week away from our series opener against Minnesota on the 28th.

I had to get the budget finalized, though, and lineups, depth charts, and rotations were put out to the team officially today. I got a reminder from the owner that he expects us to stay close to an even record, but he presented it with a warm welcome and a wish for good luck. Let’s hope!

The Top 100 Prospects list was published today, and there’s some great talent there. About a 70-30 split between position and pitcher prospects. Paul Skenes in the Pittsburgh farm system is listed #1, and man, he looks like an incredibly talented starter.

He’s going to be an interesting one to follow. I’d love to have him in our system, but we’re not likely to get him without giving up a bunch more. Still, it’s worth dreaming about, right?

I’m going to give one deeper dive through the minor leagues to ensure we got our “top” prospects playing where we want them and that everyone gets an equal look as we progress through the first half of the season. If there are any minors that this additional look seems like they won’t pan out, I’ll decide to release them before going into any season with them. I want to keep our farm system developing only great potential and not wasting time on stagnation or pro service time limiters. I plan to make another deep dive review around the All-Star break, just before the draft and Rookie ball league start. This is when I’ll make promotion or release decisions only during the season. I hope the new coaches I put there will get them off to a good start, but that is TBD for now.

We ended up releasing the nearly 24-year-old C Emmanuel Pire, who has been in the Rookie leagues since 2019 and was only sent up to A ball for a short stint last year. He was terrible,

and so with his professional time heading over 5 years now, I thought we should move on from him. He was taking up valuable roster space for our targeted draft pick this year. And we are about a negative $2.7 M budget to start this season. Maybe I should have waited to put that additional $2-3 M into the development and scouting budgets.

But I’m committed now.

The opening day series is a 2 games series between the Dodgers and Padres.

07-15-2025, 12:13 PM	#6
Biggp07 Minors (Single A) Join Date: Sep 2024 Posts: 59	KC Royals - An OOTP 25 Narrated Playthrough - Week 2 Second Half (March 18th – Day 12) Our scout sent me some reports today on the draft targets I asked him to provide about a week ago, and there are some good reports in them. I've highlighted 5 of them. • 18-year-old Cade Arrambide is a big 6-foot-3, 210-pound catcher from Tomball, Texas. He has the flexibility and conditioning to play above-average defense. He should have a patient approach at the plate and will take a walk if he doesn't get a pitch he likes. He has the potential to display average power from the right side of the plate. With enough injuries, Arrambide might force his way into the lineup. His current ability is rated as a 20 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 45 out of 80. • Jac Caglianone is a 21-year-old first baseman who was born in Tampa, Florida. He has tremendous power potential. However, he is expected to be a below-average contact hitter and will need to work hard on his swing. Caglianone can be a second division starter at first base. His current ability is rated as a 25 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 55 out of 80. • 20-year-old Braden Montgomery is a big 6-foot-2, 220-pound right fielder from Madison, Mississippi. He has plus power potential. As he matures, he's expected to be a quality defensive right fielder. He is an average runner who can swipe a few bases because of his baseball IQ. Montgomery has potential to unleash his obvious talent both on the field and at the plate. His current ability is rated as a 25 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 55 out of 80. • 6' 2" high-schooler Karsten Sweum is an intimidating presence on the mound. At 18 years old, his four-pitch arsenal includes a curveball that will make good hitters miss, a slider with some depth, a decent changeup, and a decent fastball. He tends to nibble at the corners rather than going directly after hitters, driving up his walk totals. If Sweum is going to be more than an emergency starter, he'll need to iron out his control problems. His current ability is rated as a 20 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 45 out of 80. • Lean and athletic 21-year-old Will Taylor hails from Irmo, South Carolina. He is a great runner, using his speed to pick up an extra base when he can. He can make hard contact, which should translate to a .240 batting average. He grades out as an above-average center fielder defensively. Taylor is projected to fill an injury replacement or reserve role in the majors as a below-average center fielder. His current ability is rated as a 20 out of 80, relative to the MLB. His potential, again relative to the MLB, is 45 out of 80. My thoughts on the draft this year come down to this: I'll be lucky to get even one of these guys with the slot being $4,500,000, and all of them will likely accept nothing less. So... I’ve budgeted $8MIL for the draft this year, which is about $1MIL more than I'm originally budgeted for. The OSA mock draft has us picking Braden Montgomery 6th and Cade Arrambide 9th (39th overall) in the first and supplemental rounds. The second round has us picking at #2 (41st overall) 1B Grant Hussey, third round #2 (77th overall) LF Ian Petrutz, fourth round #2 (107th overall) CF Will Taylor, and fifth round #2 (140th overall) SP Karsten Sweum. The 2 high schoolers are forecasted to be extremely hard to sign, but I’d like to get C Cade Arrambide if I can. He got the best qualities of the 2, so I’ll give him a chance. Jac Caglianone is a late first-round pick at 28 by Houston, though, so we've got a bit of early decision-making to do if we want to get him unless he's taken in the top five before us. Of course, you always hope you can get all the top prospects in the draft, but that is just not feasible with our small market budget, so we’ll have to choose wisely and still take significant risks as they develop. I think these draft picks are solid and not going to change any now, but we’ll see as we get closer to draft day. It’s a flip of the coin at the end of the day. I got word from the owner today via email that he’s putting us in a “Win Now” mode for the year, although he “only” expects us to play .500 ball. I guess that's winning. He did increase the budget a bit, or that came from him directly, I’m not sure but there’s a bit more money to play with before opening day so I’m going to put more into scouting and development today and get ready for our first series opener game against the Minnesota Twins in a week and a half. Scouting and development will be budgeted $15.5MIL each for the year. That leaves open about $9.5MIL in total cash, of which about $3.25 M is available in ready cash and the rest tagged for extensions. We’ll see how this all pans out soon and if I’ve budgeted appropriately. Season ticket sales have a projected increase of about 2.5% and a roughly 30+% increase projected across attendance and per-game revenue. Hopefully, that will stand at the end of the year. __________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ (March 20th, Day 14 – MLB Opening Day!) So, it’s Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, but we are still a week away from our series opener against Minnesota on the 28th. I had to get the budget finalized, though, and lineups, depth charts, and rotations were put out to the team officially today. I got a reminder from the owner that he expects us to stay close to an even record, but he presented it with a warm welcome and a wish for good luck. Let’s hope! The Top 100 Prospects list was published today, and there’s some great talent there. About a 70-30 split between position and pitcher prospects. Paul Skenes in the Pittsburgh farm system is listed #1, and man, he looks like an incredibly talented starter. He’s going to be an interesting one to follow. I’d love to have him in our system, but we’re not likely to get him without giving up a bunch more. Still, it’s worth dreaming about, right? I’m going to give one deeper dive through the minor leagues to ensure we got our “top” prospects playing where we want them and that everyone gets an equal look as we progress through the first half of the season. If there are any minors that this additional look seems like they won’t pan out, I’ll decide to release them before going into any season with them. I want to keep our farm system developing only great potential and not wasting time on stagnation or pro service time limiters. I plan to make another deep dive review around the All-Star break, just before the draft and Rookie ball league start. This is when I’ll make promotion or release decisions only during the season. I hope the new coaches I put there will get them off to a good start, but that is TBD for now. We ended up releasing the nearly 24-year-old C Emmanuel Pire, who has been in the Rookie leagues since 2019 and was only sent up to A ball for a short stint last year. He was terrible, and so with his professional time heading over 5 years now, I thought we should move on from him. He was taking up valuable roster space for our targeted draft pick this year. And we are about a negative $2.7 M budget to start this season. Maybe I should have waited to put that additional $2-3 M into the development and scouting budgets. But I’m committed now. The opening day series is a 2 games series between the Dodgers and Padres.