Hi, fellow baseball nerds! I have seen a lot of franchise recaps posted on this subreddit and so I thought I would try my hand at one. I am going to do an Atlanta Braves franchise month-by-month, but I'll try my best not to flood the posts. If I find myself going quicker than I plan to, I will go year-by-year.

Anyway, some initial thoughts and remarks on the franchise:

• I am playing in Challenge Mode, so some settings are locked.

• I will be using MLB only, no international leagues.

• Simming every game, no matter what, even playoffs.

• GM only, so won't be messing w/lineups day-to-day.

• Settings are default unless noted below.

• Aging speed for pitchers and hitters taken from 1.000 to .750 — on the recommendation of some here.

• Challenge Mode sets trade difficulty at hard and preference at neutral.

• Changed postseason roster eligibility to 40-man to reflect MLB rules.

• Changed influence of popularity on All-Star voting to none.

• Turned automatic evolution on, so it may get a bit nutty.

• Team control settings are as follows: I will control active roster moves, major league transactions, trades, drafting, international FA, team personnel. AI will control lineups, pitching staff, budgets, all minor league transactions/staffs.

OK, the boring stuff is out of the way, so let's talk about the Braves. At first glance, a few things jump out to me. One, they have the best farm system in baseball. Two, they have one of the worst contracts in baseball in LF Matt Kemp (3 years, $54M still owed). Team needs are: Frontline SP, long-term 3B, closer, long-term C.

April 2017

OK, let's get started! To start each season in this series, I will list a few key pieces of information.

Owner goals: Stay close to .500 and reach the playoffs in the next 5 years. Sounds reasonable.

Payroll: $120M, 17th in MLB.

Top 100 prospects: SS Dansby Swanson (5), RF Ronald Acuna (15), SP Ian Anderson (21), SP Sean Newcomb (24), SS Ozzie Albies (40), SP Bryse Wilson (46), SP Kolby Allard (72).

Rotation: Julio Teheran, Jaime Garcia, Mike Foltynewicz, R.A. Dickey, Josh Collmenter.

Lineup: RF Acuna, CF Ender Inciarte, LF Kemp, 1B Freddie Freeman, C Tyler Flowers, SS Swanson, 3B Rio Ruiz, 2B Brandon Phillips.

$$ for FA: NONE

$$ for extensions: $5.8M

The month and season got off to a pretty good start, with Atlanta winning five of the first seven games. Unfortunately, we would go just 7-10 the rest of the way, finishing the month at 12-12 (.500). That puts us third in the NL East, 7 1/2 games back, and 3 games back in the wildcard race.

No major transactions in the first month of the season, just trying to get a feel for the team, really. At the deadline I will probably look to move some of the pricey veterans — Kemp, RF Nick Markakis, RP Bartolo Colon, Garcia, etc. — just to give us some wiggle room financially next offseason. But, we will have to see where we are at that time.

RP Arodys Vizcaino went on the 10-day DL with a strained ab, but that was the only notable injury this month.

The team struggled from the plate, as we are 13th in the NL in runs scored after April. Luckily, the staff picked up some of the slack — we're 4th in runs allowed.

A big part of the offensive struggles were due to a rough debut from Acuna. He hit just .156/.204/.278 in 98 plate appearances in his first month in the majors. On the other hand, his backup, RF Nick Markakis, hit .364/.462/.636 in just 26 plate appearances. Manager Brian Snitker may want to make a lineup change there if things don't sort themselves out, but I appreciate his patience with the young stud.

On the mound, No. 1 starter Teheran went 3-1 with a 1.72 ERA in the first month, leading the staff as an ace should. There will eventually be some debate about whether we should trade Teheran, but his contract is so team-friendly I would lean toward keeping him during our contention window.

In other MLB news (thanks to u/