Virtual Baseball Season/Franchise Updates

[Ted]

AAA Playoff Game 1 Tacoma Raniers (73-71) @ Nashville Sounds (84-60)

Luke French v Cedric Bowers

Both had seen some time with their MLB clubs this season with Bowers doing a stint in AA as well. Bowers is not a true starter so I figured we would get into their pen early. Bowers ended up going 4 innings and gave up three hits and one earned run while striking out two.

French worked his way out of jams in the first and second inning without giving up a run and then was solid through 6 innings, only allowing 5 total hits and 0 runs.  He was pulled in the bottom of the sixth for a pinch hitter.

Tacoma scattered a handful of hits before scoring their first run on a two singles and a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning and following up with another one in the seventh when the leadoff hitter recent draft pick Darren Aybar walked and then scored on a triple hit by Mike Wilson. 

Dan Cortes came in for relief in the top of the seventh and immediately gave up a single and then walked the next hitter for a two on no out situation.  He was rattled and a mound visit by the manager settled him.  The next hitter hit into a double-play and then Cortes struck out the last hitter.  In the eighth he struck out the leadoff man and then got the next two to ground out.

Tacoma threatened in the ninth, but nothing came of it and recent draft pick Rickey Hellickson came in to close it out.  He struck out the first two batters, gave up a single and then struck out the final batter to end the game.

Tacoma hitter scored 2 runs on 7 hits and committed no errors while striking out 6 times and walking 3.

Nashvilled hitters scored 0 runs on 8 hits and committed no errros while striking out 5 times and walking 2.

[Mike_S]

Cool plan, hope you can stick with it.

I'm surprised a team started a non-true-starter for game 1 of the playoffs ?!?

[Ted]

Probably a glitch with 2k's game.  To clarify, Bowers has 60 stamina so he is a long or middle long reliever stamina wise.  His sheet shows he is good for 78 pitches on the high side.  He might have been their best option as a 65 overall pitcher which is a lower end journeyman in this game.

[Mike_S]

Started the critical 6-game road trip tonight.

First game was at Texas who are an amazing hitting team and among the top AL teams.  It was a ridiculous game and not-at-all intense, as the ball was flying all over the place for both teams.  JD Drew hit a 2-out grand slam to break it open 8-4 in the 4th, then later added a 2-run double. We won 11-8, sweeping Texas for the year 3 games to 0.

The next game was at Oakland who were now 1 game up on Texas in the West.  It was a Matt Moore vs. Gary Bowman pitching rematch from the game we lost 1-0 a week ago.  Moore, our fifth starter, again exceeded expectations and pitched well.  It was 1-1 after 2 innings and stayed that way until Oakland got 2 more in the 6th.  But Bowman was awesome again holding us to 4 hits, and the A's took it 4-1.

The next game was also at Oakland.  Bobby Crouch gave up 2 early runs but battled hard and we stayed in it.  We threatened a ton, but just couldn't score.  The game was very intense as it stayed 2-0; three times we hit into inning-ending double plays, and once Cristian Guzman got gunned down at home trying to score on what could have been a sac fly.  Finally Oakland got 2 more in the 7th to break it open, and they went on to win it 6-3.  With the win the A's have swept us for the season, 3 games to 0.

We now move on to arguably the most important series I've had in the entire franchise, a 3-game set at Toronto.  Currently Toronto is first in the East, and we're fourth, but we're only 2.5 GB as all five teams are close to each other.  John Brogna, our ace, is set for game 2, but the Jays have their top 2 starters scheduled in the first two games.  Per stats, their hitting overall is only a little better than ours, and with less power, and their pitching overall is much worse; their 17-13 record seems much better than they deserve based on stats, but they do have a great closer with 11 saves (which leads the AL).

Meanwhile we're also only 3 GB in a tight Wild Card race.

Of our final 17 games, we only face 2 teams with good records; 5 games against the Blue Jays, and 3 against the Indians (who lead the Central division).  The other 9 games are all against bottom-dwellars and struggling teams.  We also do not face any other Eastern Division teams except for the Jays.

Winning at least two out of three would be great, and winning at least one seems a requirement to legitimately stay in the 2013 race.

[Mike_S]

Played a ton today including the key series in Toronto, and it was so frustrating.

First game was their #1 starter (Gabe White) against Kyle Lohse making his second start.  It was intense and awesome through 5 innings, with both teams scoreless on 2 hits.  In the 6th, Lohse gave up a single and walk with 1 out.  Then came the key play of the game -- a routine fly to left that my usually-reliable LF Gary Cox mishandled.  A double and single later it was 4-0, Lohse was gone, and it was over.  We lost 7-2.

Second game was wild.  Their #2 starter, Brad Shea, against our Ace, John Brogna (5-0 coming in).  In the top of the first we manufactured a run to take the early lead, but ended the inning with a runner thrown out at home trying to be aggressive.  Brogna was not sharp, and in the last of the 1st their cleanup hitter hit a fly-ball that somehow drifted into the seats for a 2-run homer, and we were down 2-1.  Brogna was not himself, getting in trouble every inning through the 4th, loading the bases twice; but somehow some way he kept stranding the runners,  and he kept it 2-1.  In the 5th we finally put together two hits and it was 1st and 3rd  with no outs, but we followed with 2 strikeouts and a pop fly and still trailed.  All of a sudden both starters were dominant.  Not much happened offensively the rest of the game, and it ended 2-1.  I couldn't believe that score held up the whole way, especially with Brogna pitching pretty poorly, and I was really disappointed in another punchless offensive game (6 hits, 1 run, only really 2 innings where we were close to scoring).

Desperately needing a win in the final game of the series, usually-consistent starter Pete Whiteside gave up 4 hits in the last of the 1st, the last of which was a 3-run bomb and we were down 4-0, depressed, and nearly out.  Completely unexpectedly he then settled down and only gave up 1 more hit through 7 innings which kept it within striking distance, but our offense was still doing nothing.  We eeked out 1 run early, but didn't get another 'til the 9th.  The Jays pitching was fantastic again, as it had been through the series, and they completed the sweep with a 4-2 win.

Our pitching was actually pretty solid through all three games, but our hitting was absolutely horrible.  Few hits, and little power.  Not enough baserunners to make something happen with speed.  No home runs at all for the series.

We then went home to start a 6-game homestand in dire need of some wins to have any hopes of the playoffs.  Matt Moore, our 5th starter, promptly couldn't get out of the 1st inning against Anaheim and the game was all-but-over at 6-0 before our first at bat.  We lost 10-3.

Then we had a ridiculous game against Detroit with our offensive FINALLY waking up.  We took an 8-5 lead late, but our bullpen broke down and they tied it up.  We thankfully put a rally together in the 10th inning and Bobby Brown (our CF) had a walk-off single to win it 9-8, ending our 6-game skid.

We're through 36 of 48 games for 2013 and down to 16-20.  We're 6 games back of Toronto in the East, 4.5 back in the Wild Card.  While we're still breathing, it feels like we need to rip off 4 or 5 wins in a row to have a real pulse.  We have enough pitching such that it seems possible, plus we're playing some of the weaker teams, but the hitting is going to have to come alive at this most critical time.

[Ted]

Oh man what a setback.  Good luck.

[Mike_S]

Well, we continued fading late in the season just like in 2012.  Our offense is nearly 100% dead right now.

Detroit beat us 7-2.  The White Sox beat us 6-2.  Then, in the must-sweep 2-game set with the Blue Jays, even an incredible 8-inning no-run pitching performance by Pete Whiteside was wasted as the Jays scratched out a run in the 9th then 2 in the 10th to beat us 3-1.  We finally eeked out a win in the final game of the series, 2-1.  That's 7 runs in the 4 games, after the horrible offensive output at Toronto last week.

We're now 17-23 and pretty much out of it with 8 games to go.  We were 13-11, I just can't believe how the offense fell apart over this stretch of games.  Toronto is now in command of the division, likely on their way to their second straight AL East title.

We're still in the top 3 or so in most pitching stats in the AL, but we're down to 12th or 13th in most hitting stats.  Beyond Larry Henderson, our all-star 3B, we only have a number of guys having average seasons plus a number having way-below-average years at the plate.  And our power, the saving grace for most of the year, has sagged against good pitching of late.  Worst of all, time feels like it's running out on our last remaining "original" player, Cristian Guzman, now 35 years old, who is hitting around .220 with no home runs for the year.

Hopefully we can turn it back around and at least make a run toward .500.  It's been a super-fun season, but the swoon sucks.

[Mike_S]

Well, 2013 is complete and it ended badly.  We went from 13-11 at the halfway point of the season to 18-30 at the end, 10GB of Toronto in the East.  It was a complete collapse, with some blowout losses, blown leads, and losses of many other varieties.  It's amazing to me, because it still feels like this team was so much better than most of the previous years' teams.

The team fell apart because of 4 main reasons:

- Our offense hit for a ton of power in the first half, not so much in the second.  Larry Henderson had 12 HRs at the halfway point and finished with 17 -- good enough to tie for 1st in the AL, but a huge dropoff from his amazing first half.  Gary Cox our LF had 4 mid-way through the season, and finished with 5.

- Our Ace, John Brogna, was 5-0 with a 2.02 ERA through 6 starts.  He finished 5-4 with a 3.29 ERA, which was still a good overall season (average AL ERA was about 4.50 remember), but it shows how bad he was in the second half compared to the first.

- Our older guys stopped performing.  The worst cases were in the bullpen.  Early in the year Colby Lewis had 5 saves; he finished with 5, and blew saves left and right down the stretch.  His long run as our closer is likely over.  Also, our last remaining original Red Sox, Cristian Guzman, hit .222 with 0 HRs, his worst stats by far in his 11 seasons with the team.  His amazing run as our starting shortstop is likely over as well.

- Schedule.  We had 11 games against teams that won divisions, and all were in the second half of the year.

Anyway, Toronto won the East for the second straight year, Cleveland took the AL for the second straight year, and Milwaukee took their first World Series.  An interesting side note is that Cleveland has now won 5 AL pennants in the 11 years I've played; they are the dominant AL dynasty -- so far.


I did some statistical analysis.  We were WAY below average at SS and DH, below average at LF and RF, and only above average at 3B (Larry Henderson, our best player).  Our pitching was pretty good, 6th in the AL in team ERA, but our bullpen was bad -- dead last in both saves and save percentage.

I hope to try to acquire some players during the off-season to plug these holes, but it's tough when you don't have a lot of depth or players you can give up.  On the plus side, we have a lot of promising pitching prospects coming up, so maybe we can do something with a few of them.  Also, most of our productive core players are in their mid-20s, so at least they're still improving (in theory).

[Mike_S]

Did the offseason last night.  HUGE overhaul of our roster, much more than usual, in an effort to get together a powerful nucleus that can compete for the playoffs and championships year-in and year-out.

Key areas to upgrade included DH, SS, and Closer/Bullpen.  We actually have a pretty strong AAA team, in particular with pitchers, so the strategy was to move prospects or older players where possible for under-utilized high-potential players on other teams.  And also to REALLY try to make our team young all around the roster.

Gone of note:
- Cristian Guzman, our starting shortstop for all 11 seasons so far.
- Colby Lewis, our closer for the last 6 seasons.
- JD Drew, our starting RF last season (he retired at age 37)
- Tony Lieberthal, starting 2B last year with lots of potential but average performance
- Kyle Lohse (older P), Chris Brantley (utility OF), John Bell (young SP/Long Reliever), Joe Thurston (long-time DH/2B/1B)

Arriving:
- Rich Gibson, 29YO DH; good hitter who couldn't start on Milwaukee due to poor defense and no DH in NL
- Jeff Wallace, top SS prospect from Houston
- Glen Bradley, good RP from Atlanta, will start our season as closer
- Marc Young, top RP prospect from Philadelphia
- Kevin Moore, P from Oakland who was in their bullpen since they have a strong rotation, but will start for us.
- 3 top prospects from our own farm system: CF Mike Appier, 2B Henry Cooper, and OF Pete White.

So we have newcomers in the lineup at 2B, SS, DH, and CF (Bobby Brown moves to RF from CF to replace Drew), plus two top new relievers and a new starter.

The newcomers position players have a lot of potential for hitting, but appear better than those they replaced at both speed and defense.  And the new bullpen guys have great potential.  We'll see how it goes, but it like it'll have a little different feel at least.


2014 then started great with two wins in Baltimore.  The first game was a 4-1 win behind John Brogna, where Larry Henderson and Bobby Brown homered, and Scot Shields (the elder statesman of our team by far at age 38) was solid as setup man, and Bradley picked up his first save.  Then we won again, 3-2.  Kevin Moore was awesome in his first start, and we appeared to have a 3-0 win well-in-hand.  40-year-old Shawn Green homered for the O's to make it 3-2, but then Marc Young set up and Bradley closed it again for his second save.

The defense has been fantastic at both 2B and SS, it has really helped out so far.  We didn't hit all that great, but at least we had power and speed to get a few runs home when we had the chances.

I soon realized I couldn't remember the last three-game road sweep we've had (we only play 5 3-game series per year and only 2/3 on the road so it's not THAT awful, but still pretty bad), and was hoping Pete Whiteside could make it happen.

This third game reminded me why I love High Heat so much.  It was an amazing game, just a super gaming experience.

The wind was blowing in, and it was an intense pitchers duel.  We led 1-0 most of the way, and Whiteside was fantastic.

Fast-forward to the top of the 8th inning.  Bobby Brown tripled with no outs (we almost NEVER triple BTW), but a pop-up and strikeout later, he was still only on third.  Following a walk, Henry Cooper (our new 2B) was up -- 2 on, 2 out.  Though Cooper has hit very well so far, the percentages called for a lefty and so newcomer Pete White was called to pinch hit for his first ML At-Bat.  He delivered a clutch 2-run triple, and it was 3-0 and felt like the game was in the bag.

Last of the 8th, a tiring Whiteside gives up a single and a walk and comes out.  Scot Shields gets two outs, but then walks a man and the bases are loaded.  The next batter (a long-time Sox-killer) crushed a Grand Slam, and the O's were up 4-3 and I was completely deflated.  It flat-out felt like the game "cheated" to win.  We have lost so many games with our bullpen lately, I was just shaking my head (and almost ready to throw the controller).

Top of the ninth.  With one out, an error got us a baserunner.  Then after another out, a walk made it first and second.  Larry Henderson on second, who is pretty slow.  Marty Slattery our first basemen got a clutch single -- there was going to be a possible play at the plate.  Henderson did the worst-possible-slide (which very rarely happens, but often results in an out) and it was a virtual tie between runner and ball -- SAFE and the game was tied!!  We couldn't convert another run, but at least we were alive.

The O's loaded the bases in the 9th with 2 outs, but Marc Young got a key strikeout to send it into extra innings.

10th inning.  Furcal on second with two outs, but Henderson up.  Another clutch single, and ANOTHER possible play at the plate.  Understand that there aren't many plays at the plate in these games, and when there are they're rarely super-close, it was amazing that there would be two in a row like this.  As Furcal was coming down the line I thought at first he'd be out by a mile, then thought he'd make it...and he ALSO did the worst possible slide, and it was AGAIN a virtual tie between runner and ball -- OUT!  I couldn't believe the call.

The O's then proceeded to get 2 men on in the 10th, but strand them.

Our offense went dead after that, and Bobby Crouch (now in our bullpen relieved).  The O's proceeded to get 2 men on again in the 11th or 12th, but both times Crouch got the key outs and they couldn't get the winning run home.

In the 13th they got first and second again with one out.  Crouch then got a strikeout, but the next guy delivered a hit.  We relayed it home, but he did a better slide and was just barely safe.  The O's had won it 5-4, but it was an absolute classic and we played very well.

So we're 2-1, tied for first in the early 2014 AL East standings.

On to Tampa Bay for the next three games, they're also 2-1...

[Jason]

I've said this before, but I'm absolutely amazed (and a little jealous ) at the amount of fun you're getting from this game. You are playing the Xbox version, right? I'd love to find one game that I could dive so deeply into and stick with for such a long time.

[Mike_S]

Yes, I'm playing the XBox version.  It's better than the PS2 version in that the frame rate is better, and there are some weird glitches that were fixed by the time XB shipped.  The PC version may be even better, because you can customize more stuff, it's just way easier for me to play on XB downstairs on our TV.

There are a ton of reasons why I find myself able to stick with this as opposed to most EA or other sports games (that are mostly 1-game-and-done for me).  I am hoping that someday I can help make some more sports games that exploit these core philosophical differences.

There are a few other very very very old sports games I've had similar experiences with, but they're super-duper-dated graphically at this point (and all DOS games).  MISL Soccer by SportTime is one (don't even ask, but just so far ahead of its time in terms of how franchise played out), the old TV Sports Basketball is another, and the best of all was the Bethesda Softworks Wayne Gretzky Hockey series.  Speedball 2 is pretty good as well, I had this on GBA and PC and later on PS1.  And then also Cyberball/arcade for a multi-player game.  I have no idea how old you guys are, but if you're old enough, or into SUPER-retro stuff, I hope you got/get to check these out at one time or another...

But yes, I'm amazed at how fresh and different games and players feel even after 500-ish games of the franchise and probably 1500+ games overall...

[Ted]

Wayne Gretzky Hockey (Amiga) was THE game that got me into sports games and also introduced me to the real sport of hockey.

[Mike_S]

Got in a few games over the long weekend.

Was swept in a horrible 3-game performance in Tampa Bay.  Steve Hickey our 2nd-year lefty pitched great in the opener, and left in the 7th in a 1-1 tie, but a grand slam off of Scot Shields blew it open and we lost 5-1.  Then in the second game we got killed and went down 7-3; we slowly but surely battled back against the poor Rays bullpen, but fell short 7-6.  Even John Brogna couldn't stop the bleeding, leaving down 3-1 in the 7th of game 3, and a 3-run homer against our pen gave them an easy 6-1 victory.

Then on to KC for a 2-game set.  Newly-obtained Kevin Moore had his second great start in a row, and we broke the losing streak with a hard-fought 4-1 win.  Then Pete Whiteside had nothing in the second game, and the Royals won it 6-2.

We're now 3-5, going to the Home Opener.  We have 7 games against Tampa, Chicago, and the Yanks, all of whom are 6-2 right now, so it's going to be a very tough stretch.  Our starting pitching has generally been very good, our bullpen mostly good but a little spotty, but our hitting has been extremely poor.

[Mike_S]

Split two games with Tampa last night.  Steve Hickey dominated in a 3-hit complete game and we won the opener 6-1.  Then Matt Moore got crushed in the second game, giving up 5 runs in the first two innings.  Bobby Crouch was superb in relief and we slowly kept creeping back into it, but Tampa hit a HR in the 9th to ice it and we lost 7-5.

We sent Moore back to AAA after his second consecutive horrible start, and moved prospect Earl Herrell up into our 5th starter slot.

Two more tough series coming up against top AL teams in the White Sox and Yankees.

[Mike_S]

Two games against the White Sox last night.

Won the first, 4-2, behind a great pitching performance from John Brogna.  Lost the second, a tough 2-1 defeat despite a great performance from Kevin Moore.

Still just below .500, third straight series against a top team comes next against the Yankees.  Our pitching is great and we feel close...