Adventures in Fake Baseball

[seawolf17]

Actual guy behind us at a Ducks game a few years ago: "Hey, that Pete Rose Jr., there? That's Pete Rose's son."

[Edgy MD]

The season is over! Your season score this year is 53 out of 100. This is a very good score, Edward.

[seawolf17]

Just scored a 100 out of 100 despite losing the seventh game of the 2005 World Series tonight to a juggernaut Twins team that repeated as Series champs. I loaded the bases down by a run in the ninth, but Freddy Sanchez struck out to end the Series. Tony Saunders, who won Game 7 of the NLCS behind seven shutout innings, took a 2-0 lead into the seventh but fell apart and gave up five runs. We chipped back with homers from Wright in the seventh and Piazza in the eighth, but couldn't come all the way back.

[Edgy MD]

There I was feeling all big about mice elf.

[metsmarathon]

i'm about halfway through the 2013 season on the iootp 13 app.

i've got an interesting team, and have made a number of moves. i'm not sure if they're helped or hurt, but my team is, to my mind, underperforming.

i picked up carlos gomez and then flipped him to boston for jacoby ellsbury.
i picked up michael bourne for buck and hawkins, then flipped him for austin jackson, who i then flipped for jay bruce.
and i recently picked up yoenis cespedis for jordanny valdespin.

it seems that, ellsbury aside, when i grab a player, they wickedly underperform, then blossom after leaving my team. very frustrating.

also frustrating is david wright, who has 2 home runs (tejada has 3) almost 100 games into the season, and is batting 274/375/369.

my team is 44 & 60, despite a 434/440 RS/RA split.

i must be a godawful manager to have these guys so massively underperforming their pythagorean expectations...

[Edgy MD]

seawolf17 wrote: Just scored a 100 out of 100 despite losing the seventh game of the 2005 World Series tonight to a juggernaut Twins team that repeated as Series champs. I loaded the bases down by a run in the ninth, but Freddy Sanchez struck out to end the Series. Tony Saunders, who won Game 7 of the NLCS behind seven shutout innings, took a 2-0 lead into the seventh but fell apart and gave up five runs. We chipped back with homers from Wright in the seventh and Piazza in the eighth, but couldn't come all the way back.

Do you manage the team or just GM?

I've been managing the team in games. The team refers to me as the GM and Terry Collins as manager, but Collins just retired on me. I guess, even if I'm making the game calls, a manager is useful as a head coach, so I'm weighing whether to go outside the organization for help or promoting Backman.

Starting in 2012, my OotP universe didn't get the menu that the post-Madoff/post-Omar Mets were on an austerity kick. That terrible 1 out of 100 score was me trying to GM and manage on the real budget that the real Mets played under that year. For 2013 I worked under the generous budget the game gave me, but there was little left over after I signed Wright for a LTBB contract similar to the one he got in weal wife, and then Johan and his $25 million went down on opening day.

This year, after not picking up Johan, and with Duda/Davis/Tejada having developed and produced far beyond their real world parallels, I have beaucoup bucks to play with, Lincecum and Hamilton on the market. I have a real chance to excel, and look forward to going all Minaya on the market, crashing and burning, and ending up with another terrible score, and promising my wife I won't waste another second on the evil game.

[metsmarathon]

i'm both manager and gm.

i don't really know how best to get my guys to hit to their potential, as if anything i do has any impact on that.

i surmise that the iphone app has less control over some things than the full gmae does, but sometimes i really wish i had hte option to just say 'swing for the fences' or 'just make slappy contact, you jackass - there's a guy on third with one out. don't be a fucking hero."

[seawolf17]

Edgy MD wrote: Do you manage the team or just GM?

I do a little of both. I'll put together the team in the offseason, simulate through spring training, then play each game up until the draft on June 15. Once I'm confident I've got the team where I want it, I'll simulate for a while, stopping for major injuries and things, then I play most of September and the playoffs.

I'm about to start 2006 with this crew:
CF Beltran (FA after 2006, contract offer pending)
3B Wright
LF Floyd
C Piazza
1B Carlos Pena (FA after 2006, contract offer pending)
2B Freddy Sanchez
SS Reyes
RF Rocco Baldelli (Grady Sizemore will miss 2006 with a torn MCL)
Bench: Josh Bard C, Willie Harris, Aubrey Huff, Corey Patterson, Shinjo

SP:
Rick Ankiel (acquired in a 6-for-1 deal before the 2004 season, went 17-6 and 17-5 the last two years and has hit .333 with six home runs in those two seasons)
Joe Nathan
Tony Saunders
RA Dickey
Johan Santana (Yes, my #5. I called him up in 2003 and he went 5-3, 5.33 in 10 starts, then went 10-11, 5.01 in 29 starts in 2004, so I kept him in AAA for most of 2005. But Kerry Wood, who I signed to a big FA deal a few years back, hurt himself in Spring Training, so Johan gets another shot.)

My bullpen was a bunch of superstars for me last season, and : Jose Valverde (3.23), Octavio Dotel (3.64), TJ Tucker (2.89), Pedro Feliciano (4.57), Randy Choate (2.76), Nelson Cruz (2.13), and closer BK Kim (1.82, 43 saves). Cruz is also hurt, so Grant Roberts takes his place to start 2006.

[Edgy MD]

Should we propose doing a forum league?

[seawolf17]

Winner-take-all LDS game 5? Pedro says "not today, Cardinals."

[Edgy MD]

That didn't happen.

What season is that from?

OE: The best part may be "Ground Outs - Fly Outs: P Martinez 3 -1." His fielders had to make four outs all day.

[seawolf17]

That's why this is the 'adventures in fake baseball' thread, Edge.

1997. We needed an ace at the beginning of 1996, so I made a blockbuster: Reggie Jefferson (who I'd signed that offseason but wasn't playing -- but he's earned 5.5 WAR in the last two seasons for Montreal), Mark Clark (28-21, 3.40 ERA the last two seasons), Roberto Hernandez (who saved 14 games for the Expos in '96), and Alex Ochoa (who's settled into a nice fourth OF role for them) for Pedro and Cliff Floyd (who hit .212 last year, but became my starting LF in midseason '97 and finished with a .969 OPS in 340 AB).

[Edgy MD]

That's a great trade. No guarantee that Pedro becomes the Pedro he was with the Sox, but he sure looks like it.

I needed an ace too. I cut a load of salary and was chasing after Tim Lincecum. He had me up to $33.5 per annum million over seven years before I said "this is crazy." I signed Josh Johnson instead for $22 million per over four.

This game is an incredible time-waster. Yet, it might all be worth it for a 23-strikeout win-or-go-home playoff game.

Were you managing? Did you have to leave him in with an "exhausted" label?

[seawolf17]

Clark started the season 5-1, 3.48 in six starts for me in 1996, so I was definitely selling high. But he did have a 6.1 WAR for them this season, and signed a 6 yr/$33 M extension in August. (Pedro extended with us for 4/$17.5, though.)

I played the whole game. I was up 6-1 after seven and got the bullpen going just in case, but he just kept striking guys out, so I rode him the whole way. He struck out the side in the eighth and the ninth. He also lost Game 1, 3-2, despite pitching a complete game and striking out 14.

Crazy.

[Theoldmole]

I've been playing OOTP because it's the only game available for tablet, but not happy with it. I'm playing the 1948 season, and I had the trade function turned on, and suddenly the Cubs traded Hank Sauer to the Gisnts. So I turned it off, but now I can't make the trades that really got made during the course of the season.

But what really sealed it for me was yesterday when I was playing the Dodgers against the Porates, and PeeWee Reese led off the game with a home run, followed by PeeWee Reese who hit a home run. So now with nobody out in the top of the first, the Dodgers lead 2-0, and Reese is 2 for 2. Hardly seems worth continuing the season.

[Edgy MD]

I ran into a glitch like that two or three times in two or three seasons. Only way I've thought of to deal with it is to leave the game open and the computer unplugged and force it to crash without saving.

Still think we should do a forum league.

[Theoldmole]

I'd be up for it.

[Zvon]

Count me in. Fake baseball is right in line with fake baseball cards

[seawolf17]

My 1999 Mets got no-hit last night by Jamie Moyer (7 2/3, six walks) and Miguel Batista (1 1/3, two walks), then Bill Pulsipher, after pitching 8 2/3 scoreless himself, gave up a walkoff solo home run in the bottom of the ninth. Urg.

[Edgy MD]

So, my team was a juggernaut. Up by over a dozen games as September opens. I had my eye on some minor leaguers who could help me in October, so I made sure to call them up before September 1. When September 1 came around, I called up everybody on my roster who was healthy. I had a 38-man active roster. Why not?

A few days into September, I realize that almost all of my minor league teams had qualified for their post-season, but I had stripped them all of their best players through September promotions. So I sent a bunch of my callups back down until their minor league playoffs ended.

Now that I've called them back, I learn that none of them are eligible for the post-season. They're treated as guys as came up after September 1, even though they had originally come up earlier. Some of these players had been with me for months and were key parts! I now have only one eligible catcher!