Mae's SF Giants Dynasty! (2020-2030+...)

[MaeNekoChan]

Hey everyone! I'm a huge Giants fangirl and wanted to share my awesome dynasty that I've been playing out since this summer. I took over as GM in the middle of the 2020 season (livestart). All ratings below are on the 20-80 scouting scale. Also I turned on DH for the NL for the entire playthrough as that's what I expected IRL and personally prefer. Disclaimer: I go into player editors from time to time to check player ratings/projections and compare them with scout values and actual performance, mostly due to mechanical interest, but also to see if my scouting conclusions are correct, sorry not sorry lol ^_^ Also sometimes I edit injury ratings for prospects cuz it's not fun seeing fragile 80 fv players I know I'm the worst, come at me

2020 (12-25, 5th, missed playoffs):

As we were sitting near last place at the time, I decided to just tank the season in order to secure the top pick in a pretty top-heavy 2021 draft class. I was successful in doing so, while also being able to give some prospects experience towards the end of the season.

Transactions:
Evan White: On day 1 I traded a package of minor prospects to acquire Evan White (and other minor prospects) from Seattle. His versatile defensive ability (GG at 1B ability, plus OF viability, even in CF) coupled with 60/50/50 offensive potential made him kind of a discount Cody Bellinger with all-star upside at his performance peak. His deal was long, but amazing value if he panned out. He would start all 37 games for me, putting up a .259/.311/.415 triple slash with 4 homeruns and a 94 OPS+. He started all of his games in LF, putting up a fairly disappointing -2.7 ZR, though I was training him at the position so that's expected. All of this was good for -.1 WAR which was definitely a bummer to see, but hopefully this would simply be his floor going forward.

Seth Beer, Daulton Varsho, Alek Thomas: This was my first HUGE trade and was an attempt to reinforce my average farm system with above-average prospects. I traded Hunter Pence for LF Seth Beer (50/65/55), C Daulton Varsho (60/55/50), CF Alvin Guzman, CF Alek Thomas (65/50/45), and took on the atrocious contract of LF Yasmany Thomas in order for it to go through. Losing Pence meant nothing to me as he was ultimately playing his final season and his veteran platoon role meant little to a tanking team. The Diamonbacks apparently went for a strange combination of win-now and pandemic salary dump with this trade. Beer is basically a left-handed platoon bat who doesn't have any good field positions, but can put up 30+ HRs at his peak with a middling .240-.250 average paired with an above-average walk rate. I see him as desperately needed power bat to serve as my DH in the near-future. Varsho is a strange case of catcher who can actually hit but fails both at framing & blocking and has disappointing arm strength for the position. But WHO CARES about that if your catcher is putting up a .270-.280 average with 20+ homers every year?? His eye projections would actually bump up to 55 by the end of the year, which meant I easily had a 10-20% above league average hitter penciled in for catching duty to push and compliment my top prospect Joey Bart. Finally, Alek Thomas is a guy with the potential to be a .300 hitter with probably average slugging and below average walk rates. Depending on his development, he projects as an average glove in CF with GG potential at LF worst case scenario. None of these guys are likely to be headed for the HoF in the future, but could all be all-star caliber talent if everything goes well.

Seth Beer would sit in AAA for the time being, as would Varsho (who put up .176/.222/.294 0 HR in 8 games in Arizona) and all the other younger prospects. This was definitely in the mold of Farhan Zaidi's IRL 2019 trade for Will Wilson and Zach Cozart, ie buying prospects for bad contracts, and would not be the last time I made such a move.

Gausman for Kieboom: This was my first semi-blockbuster trade, seeing me deal our 'ace' Kevin Gausman and minor prospects to the Nationals for top prospect 2B Carter Kieboom (65/55/50) and a few other pitching prospects, most notably 18yo SP Eddy Yean (55/50/50 94-96mph). Kieboom is somewhere between a 2B and 3B based on his athletic profile, with the ability to be an all-star caliber hitter at either position. He would start 30 games for us in 2020, slashing a really underwhelming .233/.310/.388, 4 HR, good for an 87 OPS+. He started all games at 2B and put up a fairly awful -1.3 ZR in 250 IP which somehow still lead to him earning 0.1 WAR. Definitely looking forward to better times here.

Dickerson for Keibert Ruiz: This was huge trade as well that saw me send lefty platoon slugger Alex Dickerson to the Dodgers (who apparently wanted a DH) in exchange for one of their many highly touted catcher prospects. Ruiz, like Varsho, is a catcher who excels at hitting while being fairly underwhelming defensively. His viability in the league begins and ends with his bat. He's an old-school type whose solid contact and ridiculously low strikeout rate as a switch hitter results in .300 averages, while his walk rate and power are average at best. A super fun player with all-star potential who is basically the polar opposite of Joey Bart (good defense with a higher power and strikeout approach). Now I have 4 big league-projected catchers (Bart, Ruiz, Varsho, and 2020 1st rounder Patrick Bailey) gearing up to replace Buster Posey in the coming seasons.

At age 21, Ruiz started 26 games for me at catcher, slashing .263/.314//368 with 3 HR, good for 0.1 WAR. Not exactly ROTY-type numbers, but definitely impressive for a catcher his age with only 9 games of AAA experience beforehand. Definitely one to watch going forward ^_^

Rogers for Jeter Downs: The AI apparently valued submariner Tyler Roger high enough to deal top 100 prospect 2B Jeter Downs to me straight up. My scout rated him fairly conservatively at 50/45/50 FV with solid defense at 2B. Nonetheless, given that an aging contact-only Donovan Solano is the best 2B in my organization aside from the newly-acquried Kieboom, he adds much-needed depth with an above average bat for 2B and trade potential in the future. He sat in AAA for the season.

Bleday and Diaz: The Marlins got ahead with their firesale of quality prospects RF JJ Bleday and 1B Lewin Diaz and others for my over-performing 1B Wilmer Flores. Both profile as above average bats (Bleday: 50/55/55, Diaz: 65/65/45) to further boost my future rosters.

Only Diaz would play in 2020, slashing an impressive .290/.365/.484 with 4 HR, good for an impressive rookie 127 OPS+ and 0.4 WAR in 24 games at DH. He's more contact oriented than Seth Beer with his more patient power approach; time will see who will be the better 1B/DH option.

Other Notable Acquisitions:
I made a few other trades selling off veterans for 45 value-type prospects, as well as some REALLY promising pitching prospects: SP Jonathan Hernandez (60/50/45 95-97) and SP Spencer Howard (65/50/50 96-98).

Hernandez put up okay numbers for a 23-year old rookie, with a 4.75 ERA in 41.2 innings, built on 1.1 HR/9, 3.9 BB/9, and 6.5 K/9. The K's are obviously poor, especially given his poor walk rate. He's credited with 0.3 WAR based on his 5.11 FIP on the year. Really not great stuff, but his scouting ratings suggest he could jump ahead with increased stuff and be a solid mid-rotation piece in the future.

Howard was somewhat of a disaster in 2020, putting up a 7.41 ERA in 34.0 IP, averaging a good 0.8 HR/9 with rather disappointing 4.5 BB/9, and 7.9 K/9 for a modern starter. Digging into the stats, his rWar (did you know OOTP logged rWar for pitchers? I didn't!) sits at -0.5, but his standard WAR (which I believe is based in game on fWar, meaning FIP is used instead of ERA) credits him with 0.4 postive WAR based on a 4.71 FIP, which was actually only 2% below average for the year. So despite his horrific results, his ability appears to be around league average for a starter, with clearly tons of room for improvement based on his scouted ratings. Definitely a dark horse for a future all-star


Summary: The 2020 season was a successful failure, with us securing the worst record in baseball and acquiring several players who could be viable, even strong, starters for us long-term. Looking forward to posting about offseason trades, signings, and a 2021 draft-class featuring future studs like Luke Leto, Jack Leiter, and Kumar Rocker at the top


Hope that was interesting. Let me know if you have any suggestions for future posts! I have tons of season to post about and it only gets more wild from here! --- Mae

[MaeNekoChan]

2020-2021 Offseason Part 1: So with the end of the season, I immediately set out to acquire some quality prospects to boost my team for the coming years. The goal isn't to just throw together a team that can have a competitive window for a year or two, but to have a full-blown dynasty to replace the Dodgers in the NL West. And boy did we start off well ...

Wander Franco Blockbuster: How could I resist the most exciting prospect in baseball? Per Fangraphs, Franco is "close to a perfect prospect, as he's plus at almost everything he tries." His 80 hit tool and 80 FV is reflected in game with 80/60/50 scouting potential. His only weakness is his merely good defensive range, meaning he's borderline for a SS role. His arm is great, which sets him up to surpass Matt Chapman as the best defensive 3B in MLB if his range (which I think was like 55 at the time??) forces him to move. I pulled this trade off by sending Bleday, red-hot Austin Slater, Kieboom, and some other prospects off, while taking on the bulky contract of a quickly deteriorating Kevin Kiermaier whose in game value isn't quite what it is IRL. Obviously it sucks to lose Bleday and Kieboom having just traded for them, but Franco has Trout-like WAR potential as a SS if he pans out, which dwarfs the opportunity cost of losing Bleday and Kieboom imo.

Franco quickly rose through AAA and would start 127 games for me in 2021, slashing .297/.349/.432 with 10 HRs and a 111 OPS+. He didn't exactly set the world on fire here, but these numbers are definitely really solid for a starting SS. His fielding also improved quickly and he put up REALLY solid numbers in the field, with +6.1 ZR at SS over his 127 games. Not gold glove numbers, but definitely better than other young studs like Tatis by comparison. His ratings jumped up fast, finishing the season at 75/45/45 and a much-improved 65 defense at SS by October 2021, all with room to grow.

Retrospective: Reporting in 2030, JJ Bleday would never return to my team and would go on to have a very respectable career in Tampa. He did not debut in the majors until 2023 at age 25, where he posted -0.4 WAR in 85 starts. However, he quickly rebounded with his peak season in 2024 where he would slash .330/.404/.582 with 33 HRs, good for an outstanding 161 OPS+. Coupled with -0.2 ZR in RF, he finished the year with 6.1 WAR, finishing second in American League MVP voting (I select winners myself to ensure the best person wins ) to eventual winner 2B Lucius Fox, who put up 6.6 WAR behind elite fielding and a 119 OPS+ in his rookie season with Cleveland. Anyways, Bleday never again made an All-Star team, though he did put up a couple more 4+ WAR seasons. In 2027, TB rewarded him with a 4yr/$74.2m extension, putting up 8.2 WAR in the three seasons since then. For his career he sits at 22.4 WAR and 196 HRs through 2030. Definitely not a HoF candidate at age 32, but a well-above average big leaguer for sure. Definitely could have used an MVP season from him, but in retrospect I 100% made the right trade. More on that later ...

Kieboom has followed a similar trajectory to Bleday, putting together several good seasons in Tampa with his peak also coming in 2024, where he slashed .292/.376/.509 with 28 HRs, good for a 135 OPS+. Paired with a +4.0 ZR at 3B, he finished with 5.3 WAR across 141 starts. He's had 3 other all-star caliber seasons by my estimation and has 29.2 career WAR at age 33. In 2029, after being selected as an all-star, he rejected a qualifying offer from the Rays, only to then sign a disastrous 1yr/$1.8m deal with Kansas City, likely due to bloated budgets around the league and having regressed to a 50 value player by the end of the season. Another player who has had a respectable career, but ultimately not somebody I really missed.

Anyways, that's all for now, more 2020-2021 offseason updates to come, some more exciting trades to discuss, and of course a recap of the season itself!

[MaeNekoChan]

Vlad Guerrero Jr. Blockbuster: Okay, I know, now this is just getting silly, right? It's been a long time since we had a real slugger in SF, in fact we haven't even had a 30 HR hitter since Barry Bonds! I've seen enough people bragging about their 800+ career HR Vladdy Jr. playthroughs to know I HAD to find a way to trade for him.

Sitting at an absurd 95/70/50 FV projection (I play with scouts estimating over the 80 limit), his only weakness is his well-documented fielding struggles. But look, we're about to vote in David Ortiz to the HoF in a year, so clearly you can get really quality players even if they have no positive future at any positions.

In order to pull of this trade, I sent Mike Yastrzemski (coming off his all-star-level 2020), Brandon Belt (with his huge 2020 numbers), and a few other average prospects to Toronto in exchange for Vladdy and the bloated contract of Tanner Roark, who just put up negative WAR during the 60-game season. Oof. I actually can't believe I was able to pull of this trade, especially since Vladdy in-game put up 140 OPS+ (vs 115 IRL) in 2020. Anyways, I'm not complaining.

Retrospective: I won't waste time with any of the other players, but Mike Yastrzemski (who I LOVE IRL, sorry Mike!) had a VERY respectable career after going to Toronto. Yaz would be selected to 3 straight all-star games from 2021-2023, plus another in 2028 at age 37, lest you thought players couldn't age gracefully in this game. Despite debuting at age 28, Yaz has 336 HRs to his credit and 26.1 career WAR. His best season by far though came in 2021, where he slashed .310/.387/.605 with 45 HRs and a 156 OPS+. He was actually a pretty bad fielder in RF with -5.6 ZR, resulting in 5.9 WAR over 157 starts and his second straight silver slugger award (he won his first with me in 2020 with only a 127 OPS+ apparently, totally forgot ). He signed a 5yr/$41.4m extension with Toronto in 2022, putting up 8.6 WAR over the 5 years. Since then he's bounced around on 1-year deals with the Yankees, St. Louis, before signing for 2yr/$23.2m with the Nats starting in 2029. He puts up at least 25-35 HRs every year, even when hitting below league average.

Anyways, Yaz has had really a fascinating career and frankly I didn't think the game would be able to simulate him like this. I definitely am sad he didn't get to stay on my team longer and wish him the world IRL But, I mean, come on, there's no way swapping him for Vladdy Jr.'s gonna disappoint, right?

[MaeNekoChan]

Jo Adell Trade: Now I decided, 'hey, let's go ahead and grab our CF of the future!' Adell debuted in 2020 and despite being a top prospect, his in-game performance was horrific with a 32 OPS+ in 15 starts. His FV at the time stood at 65/60/50 with 60 CF defense. Obviously a very good prospect at a key defensive position who could really round out my future core (with Franco at SS, Vlad at a corner/DH, Bart at C, Luciano at SS/3B/OF, etc).

I pulled off this trade by taking on Justin Upton's egregious contract and shipping a resurgent Brandon Crawford and solid prospect in SP Jake Irvin (acquired previously) to the Angels. I also squeezed OF D'Shawn Knowles out of LAA, who always seems to have moments where he at some point in the minor leagues projects to brilliance but eventually busts in my playthroughs. Might be a tough trade to replicate due to livestart ratings and performance, but Upton's contract really is bad enough to earn you a free good prospect if you play it right.

In 2021, Adell would start 95 games at age 22 for the Giants after getting some AAA time. However, his offensive improvement was marginal and definitely disappointing. He slashed a pedestrian .224/.279/.398 with 13 HRs and a 81 OPS+. His split time between LF and CF, with +0.5 in 47 starts in LF, -0.2 in 48 starts in CF. His WAR at season's end was 0.3

At this point I was definitely concerned about his performance and how the game was simulating him. Definitely thought that maybe there was something wonky under the hood that was causing him to play so poorly despite good potential and ratings that hit a fairly average 55/50/40 by season's end. Don't remember if I checked and/or found anything strange with him, but definitely was hoping for either a huge jump in his sophomore campaign, or perhaps a good opportunity to swap him for a player I'd have more luck with ...