Virtual Baseball Season/Franchise Updates

[Ted]

Continuing the old thread from SGN

[Ted]

I'll explain later, but I restarted my MLB 2k9 Mariners franchise.  I was 70 games into the second season, but went backwards and restarted from the off-season and am now 10-14 in season 2.


I’m a little over a month into the second season of my MLB 2k9 Mariners franchise and I’m truly beset by nagging injuries. First, my fifth starter, Jarrod Washburn tears his achilles during a game and goes on the sixty day DL. His expected return is one hundred and three days. He missed a significant part of last season and if I remember correctly he had a achilles problems then too. This isn’t the end of the world, but a few games later I get hit with a double. Jose Lopez (2B) gets hit by a pitch and immediately leaves the game with back spasms. Adrian Beltre (3B) later injures his shoulder running into the railing going after a foul behind third base. Both of them are expected out for nine days and I leave them on the roster. I move Hank Blalock (acquired in the off season) from first to third and start Brian LaHair at first. Yuniesky Betancourt will get a few starts and replace Lopez at second. During a 4-3 loss at Oakland, Ronny Cedeno (SS) sprains his wrist sliding into second trying to break up a double play. That forced me to make a call to Tacoma and I chose to pull Branyan back up to MLB level and take over at first, moving LaHair to second and Betancourt to short.  Beltre and Lopez are due back in three more games so hopefully this hodge-podge infield can get the job done for a series.

[Ted]

The Mariners lost a tough game 3-2 in 18 innings to the New York Yankees. Lots of two out hits on both sides, but pitching was strong when it counted and the Yankees finally broke through on a Damon single, Jeter sacrifice, and Texiera single to finally put the fans out of their misery. The CPU dropped two of the final three games and Seattle falls to 13-19 on the season.  Hosting Detroit for three next.

[K_Mosley]

Hey Ted,

I take it you're playing one game of each series in your franchise?  I might try that sometime...

Kevin

[Ted]

Kevin,

Yes, I play the first game of each series.  That allows me to see all of my pitchers during the course of a season, to allow the stat engine to mitigate some of the unrealistic stats that might occur if I played all of the games, and finally to be able to get through a whole season in a reasonable amount of time.  It comes out to about 50 games played or so by me.

[Ted]

Following our 3-2 loss to New York (and dropping three of four games there) we took one of three from Detroit and closed out our short road trip at 2-5.  We returned home and dropped two of three to New York and three straight to Anaheim.  We then swept visiting San Diego in inter-league play before traveling to Tampa Bay and sweeping them.  A six game winning streak brings a seriously struggling 16-25 Mariners to within three games of .500 at 22-25.

I think our hitters are performing fine even though they aren't as hot as last year.  It's our bullpen that is killing us, specifically middle relief.  I feel Percival and Cordero can be relied upon, but the rest of the pen is very shaky and most all are journeymen that really belong in AAA to be called up when injuries strike.  The pickings are slim as there is nothing better on the free agent market right now.  I turned off trading for the entire league (more on that in future posts) so trading for someone isn't even an option anymore.

Adding to the bullpen problems are a couple of question marks in the starting rotation.  Garrett Olson replaced Washburn after his achilles injury and like the middle relievers he is a journeyman/AAA player that is now being asked to step up.  He hasn't for the most part, but I'm hopeful he can at least give us a chance at winning games if he has run support.  The other question mark is Eric Bedard.  He was injured last year and came back late in the season (I'll have to check my old notes) and had been a great #2.  His rating was an 81.  It's still an 81, but I noticed his fastball had decline a point from 77 to 76, not a big deal really.  What worries me is he had an 82 curveball and now he has a 64 curveball.  It is a little suspicious because his other two pitches are rated a 64 as well.  I don't know if it is a game glitch or corruption or if his curveball really did deteriorate that much after his injury recovery.  I only wonder because his overall rating didn't decline as a result.  It's cool either way, and I hope it is something that the game does to injured players, i.e. causing sharp declines that threaten their careers, but he's on a five year contract now and I can see him moving way down the rotation because he is getting hammered now, especially in simmed games.

[Ted]

I was able to beat KC 8-2 on the strength of Brandon Morrows 5 2/3 inning start.  He struck out seven, walked two, and gave up two earned runs before Vargas came in to relieve him and held down the final 3 1/3 innings.  Wladimir Balentien hit his fifth home run of the season and made an outstanding diving catch in the outfield.  Ronny Cedeno also contributed with three excellent defensive plays.

The CPU split the final two games and the Mariners climb to second in the AL west with a 24-26 record.  We travel to Anaheim next.

[Ted]

A quality start by Felix Hernandez and timely relief by Troy Percival led the Mariners to a 6-4 victory over the Angels in Anaheim.  Seattle shot out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning off a two run Griffey Jr. HR.  They were later able to add four more runs and take a 6-2 lead into the eighth inning before Hernandez faltered and gave up three straight hits after Balentien committed an error on a sharp line drive to left field.  Percival came in with no outs and men on first and second and shut down the Angels in the eight and ninth, allowing no hits or walks, and securing the win.  Percival was awarded the Pepsi Clutch Performer for the game.

The CPU split the remaining two games with Anaheim and our record improves to 26-27 as we head home to host Texas next.

[Ted]

Chris Davis hit a two run blast in the top of the tenth inning in Seattle to power the Texas Rangers over the Seattle Mariners 3-1.

The Mariners were unable to mount any offense despite jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Starter Dustin McGowan pitched a solid five and a third innings before leaving the game with a cramping hamstring and being relieved by Ryan Rowland-Smith. Rowland-Smith was excellent in three innings of work, allowing no runs and striking out four with one walk allowed. Chad Cordero mopped up the ninth inning and then struck out Ian Kinsler to start the tenth. Michael Young walked and Josh Hamilton hit into a fielder’s choice. With two outs and Hamilton on first Cordero allowed a fastball to drift up into the zone and Davis blasted the 2-0 pitch over the right-centerfield fence. Cordero finished off the final out and during the Mariner’s half of the inning Ichiro struck out, LaHair lined out to second, Beltre singled to left, and Griffey struck out to end the game.

The CPU swept the next three games against the Rangers and the Mariner’s record climbs to 29-28 climbing above .500 for the first time since April 26th.  Seattle takes over first place in the AL West, holding a statistical lead over Anaheim which holds a 30-30 record.  The Mariner’s host the Baltimore Orioles in a three game series before traveling to San Diego to start interleague play.

[Ted]

Brendan Morrow struck out nine batters and walked three in a solid six and two thirds innings work and helping his team defeat the Baltimore Orioles 3-1 before thirty seven thousand fans at Safeco Field.  The twenty-five year old Morrow improved his record to  4-2 in his 12th start of the season.  Vargas came in to relieve Morrow, holding the Orioles scoreless, and Percival earned this save.  Morrow was later named the Pepsi Clutch Performer for the game.  The Mariners improve to 31-29 and hold a one and a half game lead over Oakland in the AL West.

Seattle's third starter, Morrow has been the Mariners most dominant pitcher so far this season.  In 76.2 innings of work he has amassed 82 K's while giving up 74 hits and 34 walks.  His ERA stands at 4.04.  Opponents are hitting .239 against him.



Brendan Morrow shown throwing a strike three fastball to Brian Roberts in the top of the first inning for the first of his 9 K's of the night.

[Mike_S]

Finally got around to some High Heat last night, hope to get back into it.

Split two games with the Yankees, losing the first 8-4 and winning the second 6-3.

We're in first place early in 2012, but the division is a logjam.  Nonetheless, we have a good hitting team (for once), so we'll see if we can make a run.


BTW, my 4-and-a-half-year-old is 6 games into a season in Backyard Sports Football '09 also on PS2.  He's playing a game almost every night, and is 4-2 so far (a few games didn't save due to glitches in the game).  Amazing to see how into it he is!! :-)

[Mike_S]

Beat the Yankees again in a 2-1 duel, but followed it up with 3 blowout losses in a row at Toronto to drop out of first place.

Then last night had a great game at Texas -- led 2-0 most of the game, scored 2 in the 9th to make it 4-0 and felt safe, only to see Texas hit back-to-back homers in the last of the ninth to make it 4-3 with 1 out.  With 1 on and 2 out Colby Lewis picked up his sixth save by striking out Chipper Jones to preserve the 4-3 win.

We're now 10-9, tied with Toronto for first place in the jumbled East.  Almost halfway through the 2012 season.

[Mike_S]

5th starter John Garland kept Texas in check for 5 innings, but the bullpen blew up and Texas exploded for a 7-2 win.

Hot-and-cold "Ace" Bobby Crouch was then on fire at the Yankees., throwing 8 scoreless innings.  We made 3 baserunning errors after not making any in a year, we probably could have had 2 or 3 more runs, but it didn't hurt us and we won easily 5-2.

We're now 11-10, 1 game back of Toronto in the East, approaching the halfway mark of the season.

Though we are a pretty good defensive team, I recently realized that a large percentage of our fielding errors were being made by our good-hitting 2nd baseman Joe Thurston.  I also noticed Rafael Furcal was unsigned and available, so I picked him up as a late-inning defensive replacement.  Well, Furcal was so much better in the field that he's been our starting 2nd baseman the last four or five games, with Thurston moving to DH.  Suddenly our pitching seems much better, as his range and hands are both better than with Thurston, it seems to save at least 1 or 2 hits a game and minimizes the erros.  It's funny how little things like this can really be a big difference!

[Ted]

Defense is so underrated.  It takes pressure off your pitchers AND your hitters.

[Mike_S]

Beat the Yanks 5-2 again for a rare 2-game sweep! 

Then played two against Tampa Bay who are a good-hitting team. Jose Loftus pitched for us.  Background on Loftus: In 2008 and midway through 2009, he was one of the top pitchers in the NL.  We dealt a lot of talent for him mid-way through the 2009 season, and he was awesome.  In 2010, he was our #1 starter and one of the best in the league, 6-1 with a 2.66 ERA.  Midway through 2011, despite being only 30, he suddenly seemed to show signs of "getting old".  He started striking out fewer batters, walking a LOT more, and giving up an alarming number of HRs.  Despite an OK start to the season, he finished 3-5 with a 6.00 ERA.  This season it has gotten worse, and coming into this game he was 0-4 with an ERA over 8.  So this game was his last chance to stay in the rotation.

He got TB out 1-2-3 in the first inning, but then proceeded to give up 5 runs without getting out of the third inning.  Tampa was awesome, and they walloped us 16-5 in a game that didn't seem as close as the score.

Pete Whiteside, one of our top pitchers this year, pitched the second game.  In the third a two-out error led to three unearned runs.  Then in the fourth they got a big HR and we were down 6-0.  At that point I started thinking that Tampa was the top team in the East and that they would soon be running away with the division.  Suddenly, we started hitting and got into their bullpen, and I immediately realized why TB will not likely actually be running away with the division.  We came all the way back to take a 7-6 lead.  Barry Zito came in late for them and couldn't find the plate, our bullpen stranded a ton of their runners, and we ended up getting a big win, 10-6.

We're now 13-11, tied with Toronto for first place in the muddled East (only the Yanks seem to be fading a little).  We're halfway through the season.  Our hitting is awesome (2nd in the league in BA and around that in the other categories), but our pitching is up-and-down (in the bottom third in the league in most categories).

Despite sadness, I then moved Jose Loftus to Florida for one of their top pitching prospects, who I'll immediately give a shot in the rotation.  We're almost at the trading deadline, and we're legitimately in contention, so we had to do something to bolster our chances.  I also released Doug Davis who was a fantastic stop-gap starter and occasional reliever for us in 2010 and partially in 2011.  I replaced him with one of our top pitching prospects.

Hopefully our two new pitchers will give us a boost.  We'll see.