World Series Baseball 2K3 - Strategy Guide (Page 02)
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Opposing: Depending on who the starting pitcher is this game can go a variety of ways. R. Halladay will give you a hard time as will some of the other decent starters. The bullpen is not stunning and if the starter comes out early there is a good chance you will score some runs off the 50 and 60 rated relievers before the late innings when you will go against C. Politte and K. Escobar. When pitching against the Blue Jays you have to only worry about two power threats, C. Delgado and J. Phelps. When going against the top of the order they are deadly, if Sh. Stewart gets on he can steal and get into scoring position, E. Hinske has good contact and then V. Wells comes up, another fast player, then you go against their power threat. The Blue Jay bench is not good so they will not do a lot of pinch-hitting. ------------------------------------------------------------------- B. National League ----------------------------------------------------------------------- a. D-Backs Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 89 Pitching: 96 Hitting: 83 Minors: 77 Average: 93 Power: 73 Speed: 77 Defense: 82 Advice: The Diamondbacks starting pitching is amazing with two 100 rated players, Ra. Johnson and C. Schilling. Their bullpen is not great but they do have one good middle reliever, one good set up man, and an excellent closer, B.H. Kim. Another reliever in the 70s ratings with stamina rating in the 70s will help out this team. The main problems lye in the lineup, I suggest exchanging shortstop A. Cintron for second baseman C. Baerga who is in the minors, no other minors really present themselves to be promoted. The D-Backs need a better catcher, C. Moeller and R. Barajas have no strengths, pick up D. Fletcher from free agency for a good improvement on your current catchers but you may wish to trade for a great catcher who can help strenghten your lineup. Some good catchers to try and get are Pirates catcher J. Kendall who has great contact speed, and defense, Blue Jays J. Phelps who has great power, good contact but lacks speed and defense but given a few seasons he will improve greatly. The rest of the lineup is solid but one more power hitter will improve it. T. Womack has spectacular speed and makes the perfect leadoff man, the rest of the team with the exception of the catchers have good contact. L. Gonzalez is the only player with any power and another guy with some power put in the number 5 slot could make pitchers forced to throw Gonzalez some strikes. Opposing: There is not much you can do while Schilling and Johnson are pitching but the rest of the pitchers don't pose much of a threat. You need to score runs in the later innings when the bullpen is pitching but before their closer comes in. The good thing is they won't be scoring many runs either, only one power hitter to watch out for, they will score base hits and speed on the bases. A good amount of the players are lefties so pitch with some right handers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- b. Rockies Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 75 Pitching: 62 Hitting: 89 Minors: 82 Average: 93 Power: 85 Speed: 87 Defense: 91 Advice: A good offense can only get you so far... The Rockies need a much better pitching staff to be one of the top teams in the National League West standings. They have a good enough lineup that you don't need to waste money on fixing but the little bit you have should be used for a couple more starters. Your minors won't provide you with any starters but you can bring up a couple middle relievers, D. Miceli and R. Garces. The other minors are not really needed. You may want to go after one amazing starter and higher an inexpensive but still good free agent starter. There is a long list of starters to go after but finding a good can be hard. One excellent deal I found was for the Athletics T. Hudson a 85 rated starter with B+ potential. I realized a lot of teams were willing to depart a good mid 80 rated starter for an outfielder. The Athletics were willing to accept Pr. Wilson a 77 rated center fielder or G. Kapler a 72 rated right fielder plus around 40 budget points. The Yankees were willing to part with a lot of their starters for Kapler and a few budget points. I suggest trying some of these deals out and getting at least two new starting pitchers in your rotation to replace D. Stark and A. Cook. Opposing: The Rockies can tear right through your pitchers if you're not careful. It will take some good pitching to settle down their firey offense. You should be able to easily score some runs against their pitching, their bullpen is a lot better than their starters so scoring early helps. All of their pitchers except for D. Neagle throw right handed, pop in some lefties to make it a high scoring game. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- c. Dodgers Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 86 Pitching: 90 Hitting: 83 Minors: 81 Average: 89 Power: 77 Speed: 90 Defense: 86 Advice: This team is well rounded and has no major flaws. The pitching is solid and only one change is needed, P. Borbon should be released and G. Mota should be brought up, the problem is this will cost you 6 Budget Points but Mota is 33 points better! There are a lot of good minor league players on this team, M. Kinkade, T. Shumpert, R. Coomer, you will need to decide what kind of lineup and bench you want but all three of these guys can be brought up and will perform better then most of the other guys currently on the bench. You can also use them to trade for another player perhaps another shortstop. The free agency has no shortstops better then A. Cora, unless you want to put a second baseman there. Since the Dodgers have a lot of extra bench players and good minors you can get a really good shortstop with them. WARNING- Before reading the following paragraph please note that you are cheating the computer out of a deal here and this is viewed as a "cheap move" by some people but is helpful to your team, do not continue reading this paragraph if you don't want to do a cheap deal but think you may be tempted once you know. I will not say the player's name incase someone who does not want to know sees it by accident. I found one very stupid thing about trading; the computer will accept just about any player for a shortstop on the Braves. He has a 78 rating, B+ potential at the age of 24 and a 99 rated arm and 99 rated speed. If you wish to kind of cheat the computer in this deal instead of releasing P. Borbon trade him for this shortstop, I do not suggest doing this however because it is not really fair. Opposing: The Dodgers are one team you do not want to have to play too often. They have good starters and an excellent late inning bullpen to completely shut you down. Their middle relief is average and that is really your only opportunity. They have a solid lineup that will get a lot of base hits and steal a lot of bases. Be careful when pitching to Sh. Green and F. McGriff, especially when your pitcher is right handed; the smallest mistake will send the ball into the stands. A catcher with a good arm will help keep the runners at bay. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- d. Padres Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 78 Pitching: 74 Hitting: 83 Minors: 79 Average: 93 Power: 75 Speed: 68 Defense: 84 Advice: Baseball's father team will win a good amount of games but has little chance of making it to the playoffs in its division. If that's what you want to do I suggest playing on a slightly easier difficulty. The pitching is average, a few good starters and a good later inning bullpen help round out the bad early bullpen. Bring up the minor leaguer C. Condrey to replace K. Walker, Condrey is a great improvement over the long reliever who should not even be called a long reliever with his bad stamina rating. Exchange Mi. Rivera for G. Bennett a better hitting back up catcher. There are still holes in your bullpen but you need to get new players instead of bringing up the 60 rated relievers from the minors. There are a few mid 70 rated pitchers in free agency that do not cost much, you have a good budget too and you may want to get a big name player with it. I suggest getting rid of K. Jarvis and getting a really good starter. You can also get free agent C. Finley to take over Ol. Perez's starting spot. There are a few good trades out there, one would not cost you any budget points but you will lose M. Loretta your second baseman. You can trade him for the Athletics T. Hudson. They will also trade for a few of your other guys if you throw in around 35 to 40 budget points. You can also make some trades with the Yankees staff who has seven starting pitchers and doesn't mind unloading one. Experiment with these teams, A. Pettitte would be a very nice addition to the Padres, and if you were able to get both him and Hudson your team will really improve. You need to make some changes in your lineup to so you may not want to spend everything on your pitching. The Padres really could use a big name third baseman, especially one who can hit a good amount of homeruns. The Angel's T. Glaus is a good power hitting third baseman, trade S. Burroughs, B. Trammell and about 40 budget points for him. You can also throw in a catcher to reduce the budget points by about 20. Opposing: It won't take a lot to beat this team but don't just let your starting lineup rest. The starters are average and you can score well against this mostly right-handed throwing pitching staff with some left-handed batters. They have a great closer and a good set up man but score early and you might not even see them. This team won't hit many homeruns against you and their bottom half of the lineup won't get many hits, the first 4 hitters can give you trouble. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- e. Giants Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 90 Pitching: 86 Hitting: 95 Minors: 75 Average: 93 Power: 97 Speed: 84 Defense: 88 Advice: There really are not any good moves to make in the minors, first baseman D. Minor has good power but you would need to release one of your other first baseman or send down someone from a different position. While the rotation has no real star, it has a few good players. You can change the fifth starter R. Jensen by signing a good free agent. The bullpen can also be upgraded, another 70 rated middle reliever will help strengthen it. R. Nen is an amazing closer and is set up well by Fe. Rodriguez. The lineup is solid, its weak point is first baseman J.T. Snow, I suggest keeping him even if he is not a good hitter, he is one of the best defensive first baseman and will save you a lot of errors. This team has only one real power threat, B. Bonds. The rest of the team can still knock the ball out of the park once in a while and this can even be more dangerous than a team who has a few good power hitters and the rest of the team only contact hitters. This team does not need many changes, while they may not just slide into the playoffs they are definitely a contender, even in their hard division. Opposing: This is one of the toughest teams to face, they will give you fits! They don't have any starting aces but they are all pretty good. You won't score a ton of runs in this game but you can score better in the middle innings, when the starters are weaker and their average middle relievers pitch. The last couple of innings will be very hard to score in. The whole team can knock the ball into the stands but you may want to walk Bonds if a base is open. The last few hitters in the lineup won't get many hits. A good pitcher who does not give up a lot of homeruns will work well against this team. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- f. Cubs Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 88 Pitching: 86 Hitting: 91 Minors: 77 Average: 89 Power: 93 Speed: 74 Defense: 75 Advice: While the central division has a lot of teams, 6, the Cubs are one of the better ones. Their main competition will be with the Cardinals and the Astros. There are a few good changes that can really help the Cubs win more games. Two of the minor league starting pitchers should be brought up, M. Sirotka and Ju. Cruz. Both have the ability to pitch for your team and replace the two 60 rated starters in the rotation, but this will only make your rotation average. You can use some of your starters to trade for an ace to really lead your team. The problem is you have a very low budget unless you hire some awful coaches, which I do NOT recommend. One good deal to work on is for the Astros starter, W. Miller. By trading away M. Clement and a few back up players and a few budget points. This is very helpful to you, as you will win more games with a great pitcher like Miller and the Astros will lose more. Your rotation should be better now with Miller, K. Wood, M. Sirotka, M. Prior, Ju. Cruz. You won't have much else to use for getting other players but your bullpen is solid, and most of the lineup is too. Opposing: The Cubs have a few good pitchers that can keep your runs low but their offense is just above average. S. Sosa is the only major power threat but M. Alou, M. Bellhorn, and H. Choi can carry one of your mistakes into the stands. The first three hitters, C. Patterson, M. Grudzielanek, and Sosa have above average speed but the rest of the lineup is pretty slow. A good offense is needed to defeat this team. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- g. Reds Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 79 Pitching: 74 Hitting: 85 Minors: 75 Average: 79 Power: 89 Speed: 74 Defense: 83 Advice: This team needs major work and may not be able to make it to the playoffs on a high difficulty. First off, send J. Larue, G. Dawkins, and R. Taylor down to the minors and bring up R. Mateo, R. Jennings, and C. Miller. This makes your bench much better and won't cost you anything. But you should focus more on your below average pitching staff. I suggest signing free agent starting pitcher C. Finley to replace C. Reitsma. Pa. Wilson is not that great and you might also want to exchange him for a mid 70s rated free agent. Even more work on the pitching staff needs to be done, you can gain some good middle relievers from free agency and conserve budget points. The team should be improved well and you will still have a good amount of money. If you choose to do this you may want to buy the best coaches you can get also invest in some young players by getting a good minor league manager and a good scout to find foreign talent. Opposing: The team is pretty average, none of the starters will really shut you down and the bullpen won't be able to do much until their great closer, S. Williamson, comes in. This club has a few good power hitters to watch out for like, R. Branyan, A. Dunn, and K. Griffey Jr. The team's best hitters bat lefty so pitch with some left handed pitchers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- h. Astros Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 89 Pitching: 86 Hitting: 93 Minors: 76 Average: 95 Power: 91 Speed: 88 Defense: 87 Advice: The Astros are easily a contender for the playoffs. The pitching rotation starts off great with R. Oswalt and W. Miller but the last three are upper 60 rated pitchers. The bullpen ends perfectly with O. Dotel setting up B. Wagner but the middle and long relief suffers. Bring up a couple minors to strengthen the pitching, C. Hernandez and J. Sanchez. Send down K. Saarloos and P. Munro. You can get some free agents to help upgrade your pitching if you want to spend the budget points. I do recommend getting C. Finley to replace T. Redding and J. Manzanillo to replace B. Puffer as a middle reliever. Your bullpen will be much better now and so will your rotation. The Astros lineup is stacked with some great players. The 3,4, and 5 hitters will reek havoc on opposing pitchers. The rest of the lineup has good speed and contact and is supported by a great bench, two great pinch runners are B. Hunter and J. Vizcaino. This team is built well and the lineup does not need much change. Opposing: This team can kill you when Oswalt or Miller start but the other starters are not too big a threat. Your best opportunity to score is when the bullpen comes in. Before Dotel and Wagner end the game you can a lot of good chances to score against the below averages relievers. It is very difficult to pitch against this team, the top half of the lineup is very dangerous and in the later innings the bottom part of the lineup can be substituted for a good pinch hitter. The Astros also have nice speed so put in a good arm rated catcher if you have one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- i. Brewers Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 68 Pitching: 62 Hitting: 75 Minors: 72 Average: 81 Power: 69 Speed: 83 Defense: 86 Advice: The is not much room for the Brewers in the central division and if you want to go to the playoffs look at a different team or play on a easy difficulty. W. Franklin should be brought up from the minors and R. Quevedo should be sent down. Also exchange left fielders S. Podsednik and B. Clark. T. Ritchie can not help you win games and you should sign free agenst starter C. Finley. You don't have to release Ritchie because it will cost some budget points, instead send down a low rated player that you don't need. Set up your rotation like this, Finley, B. Sheets, G. Rusch, N. Neuguebauer, and W. Franklin. Head back to free agency and pick up some relievers who can get the job done. Get J. Manzanillo and M. Rice. Rice has the stamina to be a long reliever. The lineup has some major holes that should be filled too. You have two options, switch J. Vander Wal to the right field position and take out A. Sanchez and put J. Hammonds in center field, or leave Vander Wal on the bench. This team is positioned badly, both players should be able to play but you will need to choose one to be an off the bench player or you can alternate days were Vander Wal starts and days were Sanchez starts. This team could use a better third baseman and a better catcher but there are so many holes in this club it is unlikely everything will be fixed. This team may become better in a few seasons if you find some foreign talent and have a good minor league system, get some good coaches for these jobs. Opposing: This team can surprise you, don't just let your starters take a day off and have your bench play the game because the Brewers can have some good games. They have a few ok starters but none are much more than above average. The bullpen suffers without a star and their closer can not always shut the door. The lineup has some good players, R. Sexson is the only power threat you will face but E. Young and Sanchez have good contact and excellent speed. An above average pitcher and offense can take this team down easily. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- j. Pirates Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 79 Pitching: 74 Hitting: 85 Minors: 79 Average: 87 Power: 85 Speed: 82 Defense: 85 Advice: The Pirates are in a big division and with the teams like the Cardinals, Astros and Cubs it's hard for the Pirates to see any daylight in the playoffs. Go into the minors and send down A. Nunez and bring up T. Alvarez. Alvarez is a great player that you can play in left field or at shortstop. Your not really going to want to play him in left with B. Giles on your team but Alvarez is a good improvement over J. Wilson. Your defense will go down but hitting and speed will go up. Put M. Stairs on the bench and place C. Wilson in right. There is no room for K. Young, use him as one of your pinch hitters. The rotation is above average but there are no real aces. You can take out J. Suppan and get a better starter but keep in mind you should also work on your bullpen. You might want to get some free agents, you can get C. Finley to start and J. Manzanillo and M. Rice for your relief. Still this team even with these changes won't be too great, you can focus on youth and wait a few seasons or sim through them. To do this, get a good minors manager and scout. You can get foreign talent and also look for some good young free agents and look to trade some of your current team away for other players with great potential. Go to the trade screen and sort out (press R3) the potential stat and you can make deals for young players with great potential. Opposing: The Pirates may surprise you out there so be prepared. Bat with a lot of left handed batter because all except one of the Pirates pitch righty, S. Sauerbeck. Their pitching staff is average but has a good late inning finish. The lineup has one big threat, B. Giles. He will make most right-handed pitchers crumble. The rest of the hitters are average put the later part of the lineup has a little bit of pop. This team is easy if your offense has a few good hitting lefties and your pitcher doesn't have a really low prevent home run rating. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- k. Cardinals Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 86 Pitching: 82 Hitting: 91 Minors: 81 Average: 95 Power: 87 Speed: 79 Defense: 91 Advice: There are a few simple changes needed to make this team just about perfect. First, go to the minors and send down J. Simontacchi and G. Stephenson and bring up C. Carpenter and R. Ankiel, you will need to release Stephenson or a different player. Make your rotation, M. Morris, W. Williams, Ankiel, Carpenter, B. Tomko. Go back to your minors to bring up G. Molina but you will have to release a player, my suggestion is to release J. Hamilton. Hamilton will cause more trouble than good and only costs two budget points to release. You really don't need a long reliever, however if you feel you really want one I suggest picking up middle reliever M. Rice who has a 98 rated stamina. Your positional players are all outstanding with the exception of M. Matheny. I would still keep Matheny for two reasons, one, he is an exceptional defensive catcher and two, you don't want to waste your budget points. This team is built solid and with these minor changes it will become near unstoppable. Opposing: If you are looking for a win against this team you need quite a few things. The first is your best pitcher on the mound. Also put in a good defensive catcher if you have one because this team has speed. The middle of the order is a threat for the long ball so don't leave anything over the plate to J. Edmonds or A. Pujols. Put in your lefties to face most of those right-handed pitchers. A great offense is needed to score against this staff especially the last couple of innings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- l. Braves Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 87 Pitching: 86 Hitting: 89 Minors: 78 Average: 87 Power: 91 Speed: 79 Defense: 82 Advice: The first thing you want to do is bring up your minor league starting pitcher J. Bong and send down J. Marquis. Now make Bong your 5th starter. Now you have a choice to bring up Ju. Franco who is a better backup 1st baseman than M. Franco but M. Franco would have to be released. Now you have a lot of options, you can get a new third baseman, move down C. Jones to third base and get a new left fielder, or you can keep your third baseman. V. Castilla is not very productive at the plate but has good defense. I would suggest moving C. Jones there and using Castilla as a backup. There are not any free agent third basemen who have higher than a 70 rating so getting a left fielder is easier. I would pickup D. Justice, bring him up from the minors and send down C. Aldridge. Adjust your lineup and also take out M. Giles and put in M. DeRosa. Back to your pitching, the bullpen could use some work. Pickup free agents, M. Rice, your new long reliever, and J. Manzanillo. Bring them up and send down K. Gryboski and C. Haney. Opposing: This is a hard team to beat if you don't have a good pitcher. G. Maddux will shut your team down, and R. Ortiz and P. Byrd will prevent you from scoring a lot of runs. Their bullpen is mediocre except for there amazing closer, J. Smoltz. The 6th, 7th, and 8th innings will be your best opportunity. This team will produce a lot of run, the middle part of the lineup has three 70+ HR hitters, C. Jones, G. Sheffield, and A. Jones. R. Furcal has tremendous speed, 100, and he will steal frequently. It is a good idea to throw a pitchout on the first pitch to the next batter if it's a steal situation. Get some runs in the later innings and you will do fine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- p. Phillies Scouting Report: (Ratings are from Franchise mode with automatically selected coaches, depending on who your coach is ratings can change by one or more points) Overall: 88 Pitching: 84 Hitting: 93 Minors: 78 Average: 97 Power: 89 Speed: 78 Defense: 82 Advice: The Phillies rotation well structured and only one change is needed. Bring up Bu. Smith from the minors and send down B. Duckworth. You can leave J. Roa in the minors so if one of your starters is injured he can fill in. Roa is not a better pitcher than B. Myers or Smith. The rotation is strong as K. Millwood, V. Padilla, R. Wolf, Myers, and Smith. The Phillies long reliever is solid and the closer J. Mesa is good. The middle part of the bullpen is where this team needs work. The low budget won't help either. While picking up a few mid 70 rated free agents is always an option I would try and trade an extra starter and some relievers for a great MR or SU man. Scan through other teams players until you find a low costing mid 80 guy you like. I will give you some good trades. For Cardinals M Crudale, 84 rating, trade Duckworth, J. Hancock and T. Adams. You get a great SU man to replace a bad one and only lose a couple of starters you won't use and about 7 BP's. For Marlins' SU man T. Spooneybarger you can trade the same guys and about 3 BP's. Experiment with these trades with other low to mid 80 rated players, you may want one that's young if you plan on playing future seasons. Once you have one go to free agency and pick up two MR like J. Manzanillo and M. Rice and bring them up from the minors and send down C. Silva and N. Punto. Your pitching is fine now. If you want you can pick up another outfielder for the bench because J. Michaels isn't going to do much for you. Opposing: The Phillies can be a hard team especially if you're facing against one of their first three starters. There isn't much strategy you can use against their pitchers, they have lefties and righties. When your pitching against this offense don't be afraid to walk J. Thome, the next batter P. Burrell only has a 75 HR rating. There are now other HR threats on this team. Rollins will probably try to steal and there isn't much you can do unless you throw a pitchout. Their offense is pretty average just don't make many mistake pitches to Thome. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The rest of the National League East is coming in the next version ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Tips Coming in a latter version... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ATTENTION: You can no longer e-mail me at danmurph321@aol.com because I no longer have AOL. I may be getting it again so I will keep you posted for the time being you can not contact me with questions and if you have requested something from me I can't email you. I know some of you asked for specific teams from the NL East that were not done yet but I put out a couple now to satisfy some people. I know the Mets is another popular one and I will do that one next. Thank you for reading my first FAQ, it will be continuously updated with new information through the next versions. A latter version will contain strategies for hitting, pitching, stealing and managing. I am terribly sorry for the delay for the second version but my laptop I was creating everything on broke and I only had it saved on there.
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