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TedSGN View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote TedSGN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Virtual Baseball Season/Franchise Updates
    Posted: 06-10-2009 at 7:06pm
Great stuff, Mike.

My season is still sitting there when I'm ready to continue.  UFC has all my attention right now.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Mike_S Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-11-2009 at 3:21pm
OK, had to work late last night and didn't have dinner 'til midnight, but just HAD to do the offseason stuff (stayed up almost all night trying to find the best deals) and here are the results:

Damian Jackson, Wil Cordero, and Juan Pierre retired.  Pierre was turning 30 this season and is coming off of a good year, his is the first retirement so far in my career mode that has surprised me.

Eli Marrero was released.  We signed Preston Wilson as a backup outfielder/possible DH.

We sent Tim Hudson and a top outfield prospect to SL for Shawn Chacon.  Chacon is 30, and was 6-3 with a 3.39 ERA last season.  I love Hudson but he's really been digressing as he ages in High Heat.  I had hoped to be able to turn those two players into two pitchers, but couldn't get two quality starters so I took a flier that Chacon may be a legitimate #2 starter for us.

We moved Tim Spooneybarger, Eric Milton, and a decent catching prospect to Florida for Ben Sheets.  Neither of the pitchers were making our ML roster, but Sheets hasn't been able to crack Florida's awesome rotation for 2 seasons so we'll see how it goes.  Regardless, he hopefully should at least be better than the plethora of #5 starters we had this season.

We traded Jeff Zimmerman, Michael Tejera, and a good 2B prospect to Cincinnati for a fictional Pitcher named Fred Good who's an up-and-coming lefthander (2-1, 2.21 as a starter and long-reliever in limited experience).  Neither Zimmerman nor Tejera figured to play major roles for us this season.

So the pitching staff for the opening day roster shapes up as follows:

Rotation: Mark Mulder (L), Shawn Chacon, Ben Sheets, Nick Neugebauer, and Brad Penny.
Long Relief: Stan Sheridan, Marc Glenn, and Fred Good (L) (all fictional, but all top prospects)
LOOGY: Bruce Chen (L)
Set Up: Steve Karsay, Eddie Guardado (L)
Closer: Colby Lewis

Hopefully this will be a big improvement on last season, but it'll mostly depend on consistency for the rotation and long relievers.

Our lineup is the same as last season, save for DH where fictional rookie Sandy Cox will get the first look, and Preston Wilson a possibility.  Two top prospects will get back-up roles at C and 1B.

Ready to start 2008!!  Probably play some games this weekend...


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Post Options Post Options   Quote Derek Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-16-2009 at 9:57am
My Yanks are now 8-6 in the Show.  I've finally realized that unlike many other baseball games in the past, (include previous entries in this series) I cannot play this game while I'm riding the exercise bike.  The little bit of concentration and precisie control that I lose from that distraction is generally more than enough to cause me to lose a ballgame.
 
Jeter has come up amazingly clutch in the last few games after a dismal first few games where he had the lowest avg in my lineup.  I'm starting to LOVE it when it's CC's turn on the mound, as most of my other starters (Joba and Pettitte in particular) force me to endure tough battling/high pitchcount struggles that really make me weary.  CC's got the stuff and the Stamina to allow me some 'let's just see what you got' innings, and that is very, very refreshing.
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Mike_S Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-26-2009 at 3:50pm
OK, so here's the long-overdue High Heat Red Sox Career Mode update in case any of you care...

Per the last post, the pitching staff for 2008:

Rotation: Mark Mulder (L), Shawn Chacon, Ben Sheets, Nick Neugebauer, and Brad Penny.
Long Relief: Stan Sheridan, Marc Glenn, and Fred Good (L) (all fictional, but all top prospects)
LOOGY: Bruce Chen (L)
Set Up: Steve Karsay, Eddie Guardado (L)
Closer: Colby Lewis

The results early on were distressing:

Great: Nobody
Good: Lewis, Sheridan
OK: Chacon, Guardado
Bad: Mulder, Karsay
Absolutely Horrible: Everybody else.

Our hitting was actually pretty good, and almost every game was fairly close, but the awful pitching staff led us to a ridiculous 1-15 record.  We probably should have won 5 or 6 games, but our starters had poor endurance and our bullpen pretty much blew games time and again.  We lost big leads, we lost games on HRs on the last batter of the game, we lost games on errors in the 8th or 9th innings followed by big hits, we lost games on walks. We were 0-7 in 1-run games, and we got blown out early from time to time; we pretty much we lost in any way you can think of that the pitching could screw up.  I think our team ERA at that point was about 5.75.  When people used to complain of imaginary "Comeback Code" in High Heat, this was the stuff they were talking about. :-)

So I blew things up and tried to start playing in "plan for future" mode.  I cut a bunch of veterans, I tried out a lot of minor leaguers in different roles, and I made a few small trades.  Some things worked, others did not.

But then a funny thing happened -- We started pitching FANTASTIC and started winning a lot more games!!  We're up to 10-22, which is 9-7 since I started overhauling -- and currently are on a FIVE GAME WIN STREAK, including 2 wins each over division rivals Tampa Bay and New York.  We're only 3 games away from being in 4th place, which was unthinkinkable when we were 1-15.

Our new rotation:
   Stan Sheridan: Our top pick in the 2005-2006 draft has come into his own and currently leads the league in ERA at 1.88.
   Stan Kelly: Our top pick in the 2006-2007 draft is awesome, his ERA is around 3.00, and he has been almost as strong as Sheridan!
   Lafayette Pierce: A lower pick who's been in AAA for a while, he's so-far so-good with an ERA in the 3.70 range.
    Mulder: Getting older, losing control, effectiveness, and endurance.  Sometimes still wriggles out of trouble and has a good game, a decent #4 or #5 starter, but not what he was.
   Chacon: Pretty good, not great, but inconsistent.  Great for a #4 or #5 starter.

Our new bullpen:
   Neugebauer, Sheets, and Karsay are long-relief/mop-up
   Guardado, Scott Stewart, and Carlos Silva are pretty solid set-up
   Lewis is strong at closer.   

...and our season-long team ERA is down to about 4.60 right now, and falling!

Our offense has been fine.  Carl Crawford and Cristian Guzman are hitting and provide the speed, and Sean Casey and Aubrey Huff provide decent power. and clutch hits.  Casey is in the top 10 in the league in RBIs, and Huff is close.  Plus we just brought up Larry Henderson, the top position player taken in the 2007-2008 draft, and he's been doing well at 3B through a few games (4 for his first 8 AB or something like that).

The most amazing thing about it is how much fun it's been to see the transformation, and how optimistic I am for the future.  Sheridan and Kelly are not yet 25, and they've been pitching awesome.  It feels like they could anchor our staff for at least 3 seasons.  It feels like with the appropriate additions, we will contend legitimately in 2 seasons -- and may even have a chance next season if things break right. 

OK, things will probably start spinning badly again now that I've posted this, but we'll see.  Will update by off-season time.

Anyone else still playing their seasons ?


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Post Options Post Options   Quote TedSGN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-26-2009 at 4:06pm
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Post Options Post Options   Quote JasonSGN Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-26-2009 at 5:59pm
Great stuff Mike. I'm about to start a season with MLB 2K9 which may turn out to be my favorite Xbox 360 game of all time.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Slumberland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-02-2009 at 11:42am
I like reading Mike's updates and want to give something similar a spin in The Show.  Did a fantasy draft with the Pirates and am going to run 29-game seasons and see how far I get.  I want to do off-season stuff and see different stadiums and whatnot, because a full 162-game slog with the murky conditions for success that this game has is not that fun.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Mike_S Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-02-2009 at 4:00pm
Good luck with your "Show" season.  My biggest complaint with that game is how long it takes to play a whole game.  I struggle with High Heat games that take 25 minutes, I wish we could crank the game pace even faster so they would take about 10. :-)

Anyway, my 2008 season came to a close, we finished 19-29, 9 Games Back of Toronto in the East.  This seems about my average record, pretty bad, but considering we were 1-15 it feels like we were really coming on strong.

I went through the off-season stuff last night and just couldn't make any trades.  Nobody I wanted was available for what I wanted to consider giving up.   So I decided to hold my players for now and try to make trades later in the season as makes sense.

All I could do was try to strengthen my bullpen by picking up a few guys who were let go following 2008: Joe Mays, Scott Williamson, and Scot Shields.  I have tried to get Mays and Williamson via trade previously, so I am happy to get them without sacrificing anything. Shields has beaten me as TB's closer a number of times, I'm just happy he's off of a divisional rival, hopefully he has enough left to contribute in a set-up role.

2009 will depend on our young starting pitchers coming through plus our bullpen being more consistent.  We'll see how it goes...

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Post Options Post Options   Quote Slumberland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-02-2009 at 7:47pm
After cataclysmic labor disputes shut down the 2008 season with the Phillies just one game away from World Series victory, the APBA (Abbreviated Professional Baseball Assocation) rose from the ashes in 2009 with a strictly enforced salary cap that put small markets back in the hunt for glory and a shortened season that placed higher importance upon each game.  Due to previously undiscovered loopholes in copyright law, the new league was able to capitalize on the equity of existing franchises and recreate the former MLB's franchises down to the last pinstripe, ensuring continuity and peace of mind for every baseball city, though not as far as personnel was concerned.  No, the great revenue sharing diaspora of 2009 shook the formerly held precepts of baseball business to their very core, with the new monetary framework forcing metropolitan-minded athletes to wonder if there might be beachfront property in Kansas City after all...

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates!

2B David Eckstein
CF Mike Cameron
3B Evan Longoria
1B Prince Fielder
DH Ryan Zimmerman
RF Jay Bruce
LF Gary Sheffield
C Geovony Soto
SS Troy Tulowitski

Bench:
C Brian Schneider
RF Wily Mo Pena
LF Endy Chavez
CF Brett Gardner

Starters:
Tim Lincecum
Scott Kazmir
Randy Johnson
Andy Pettitte
Mike Pelfrey

Pen:
Phil Hughes
Scott Schoeneweis
Sean Green
Randy Flores
Russ Springer
Damaso Marte
Dan Wheeler

Game 1 (Pirates vs. Indians... the APBA took the rather unorthodox tack of starting the Pirates' season with interleague play on the road) promised to be a pitcher's duel and did not disappoint, with Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay matching zeroes for five innings until the Pirates managed to push across a run on a sacrifice grounder.  Lincecum remained strong through eight, prompting manager Seth Berkowitz to send him out for the ninth despite a pitch count over the century mark.  Lincecum's magical day soon soured as he let up a leadoff double to Lastings Milledge, followed by an RBI single from Edgar Renteria to left (despite an excellent throw home from Sheffield).  A revolving door of pitchers kept the game tied to send it into extra innings, where after after two singles, Troy Tulowitski singled home Jay Bruce, with Phil Hughes locking down the save in the ninth.

PIRATES 2 8 0
INDIANS 1 7 0

W: Dan Wheeler (1-0)
L: Kevin Cameron (0-1)
S: Phil Hughes (1)
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Slumberland Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-04-2009 at 9:19am
2-2 so far, with another 2-1 victory in game two, followed up by 9-4 and 8-3 losses.  Those losses both featured multi-run 5th innings for the CPU where it felt like nothing I did (managed pitchers according to confidence, made 'good' pitches if the meter means anything) could stem the tide.  Sound familiar Web?
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