2019 & Beyond (OOTP 20)

I decided to finally do the new Live Feed option for Out of the Park Baseball 20, with up-to-the-date rosters. I should say that I gave it a go after some glitches, and so far it seems to be working properly.

The only thing is that OOTP had the wild card games not done, so I had to simulate them, and the results came up differently with the Milwaukee Brewers defeating the Washington Nationals.

The Tampa Bay Rays would go on to lose their series against the Houston Astros, while the New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins (again, poor Minnesota), 3-2. The Los Angeles Dodgers made sure that Milwaukee didn't keep screwing up reality, by sweeping them 3-0. The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Atlanta Braves, 3-1, which I can see happening with the way both Jack Flaherty and Dakato Hudson have been pitching this second half.

In the League Championship Series, Astros swept the Yankees on the A.L. side, while the Dodgers were challenged by St. Louis, but would come out triumphant, 4-2, in the National League.

The Houston Astros would go on to win their 2nd World Series in 3 years, defeating the Dodgers in a quick series, 4-1. I have Houston over Dodgers in 6 games.

The reality of the situation is that the Washington Nationals did win their wild card against Milwaukee, came back and defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers & Houston Astros. OOTP 20 almost got their overall company simulation of the Astros over Nationals, but the computer doesn't take in strange things like an all-road victories World Series, LOL!

Well, lucky for you, I will share my alternate future with you.

2019 Off-Season News

• Adam Wainwright (STL) who has been out of action since October 11th with shoulder inflammation is heading to the injured list & will be out for 7 months of action.

• Zack Greinke (HOU) will be out for 4 months, suffering from arthritic elbow. 

• Curtis Granderson announced his retirement. 

• The Detroit Tigers fired manager Ron Gardenhire. An anonymous team source told BNN, "The Tigers have been a rudderless ship for awhile now. Ron didn't seem fully focused on the job, seemed distracted. Something was going on there. We need a guy to step in and really take charge."

Early Transactions

• The White Sox traded 1B-Jose Abreu to the Nationals, along with minor league LHP-Hector Acosta, in exchange for four minor leaguers in RHP-Sterling Sharp, LHP-Seth Romero, 3B-Gilbert Lara & C-Jakson Reetz. 

• The Dodgers traded OF/SS-Chris Taylor to Tampa Bay in exchange for 2B-Brandon Lowe and minor league 1B-Russ Olive.

• Sounding pretty true to form -- The Tigers traded SP-Michael Fulmer and prospect SP-Alex Faedo to the Astros in exchange for two minor league catchers in Jaime Ritchie and Cesar Salazar. 

• The Mariners traded RP-Arodys Vizcaino to the Nationals in exchange for three minor leaguers: RHP-Jake Irvin, RHP-Chandler Day & 3B-Omar Meregildo. 

• The Giants trade 'Kung Fu Panda' Pablo Sandoval to the Blue Jays in exchange for minor league RHP Jon Harris and minor league 2B Kevin Smith.

• The White Sox traded SP-Reynaldo Lopez to the Angels in exchange for SP-Jaime Barria.

• The Indians acquired CF-Franchy Cordero from the Padres in exchange for minor league 2B- Aaron Bracho and minor league C-Brandon Benavente.

• The Reds traded C-Curt Casali to the Angels in exchange for CF-Brian Goodwin.

• The Reds also acquired minor leaguers 2B-Ricardo De La Torre & 2B-Travis Blankenhorn from the Twins, in exchange for RP-Kevin Shackelford.

• Maybe Shay is right, the "Tankers" (Tigers) trade SP-Daniel Norris to the Giants in exchange for OF-Austin Slater and minor league C-Braden Frankfort... because you know, you can never have enough minor league catchers.

• The Yankees acquire SS-Aledmys Diaz from the Astros, in exchange for backup catcher Austin Romine and $80,000 in cash.

Award Winners

• OF-Yordan Alvarez (HOU) wins the A.L. Rookie of the Year Award, while 1B-Pete Alonso wins the N.L. Rookie of the Year Award.

• Justin Verlander (HOU) won the A.L. Cy Young Award over teammate Gerrit Cole, while Jacob deGrom (NYM) also wins his 2nd Cy Young, by winning the award in the N.L.

• The Houston sweep continues with Alex Bregman named the A.L. Most Valuable Player.

• The Brewers' Christian Yelich wins back-to-back N.L. MVP Awards, becoming the 1st N.L. player to win back-to-back awards since Albert Pujols did it with the Cardinals ten years ago.

Early Home Run Paces (1978 A.L. Replay)

We all love playing season replays or team replays or single-player replays, so with that we are quite aware that through APBA, especially early in a season, we can see some alarming home run rates, and other players under-performing as well.

Below is a list of the players that are playing above pace & below pace...

I posted an APBA post recently on the APBA Facebook Group on how in one of the games, Boston elected to pitch around Doug DeCinces by intentionally walking him, and facing Lee May instead. I also mentioned in that same post that DeCinces was currently tied with Oakland's Gary Alexander for the team lead in home runs with 11....That of course, got some heads turning.

The reality of the situation, is that in real life Alexander actually had a great April as well in 1978, even gracing the cover of The Sporting News. Once May came he slowed down, and he's doing the same in my 1978 A.L. Replay. Alexander had 11 HR in the month of April for my replay, but has been quiet since, while his batting average has gone down, while the strikeouts has picked up. Alexander currently leads the A.L. in whiffs at the plate, with 40 in only 100 at-bats!

Another thing that may have caught your eye on the charts above is Cleveland's backup rookie catcher Ron Hassey with 3 home runs, when he only hit 2 HR through 25 games & 74 at-bats. He has only played 4 games & 15 at-bats, but has had luck on his side in the early going, with a 2 home run game against the Seattle Mariners on May 9th. I put 18 with an asterisk in the 'On Pace' column, but obviously he will not hit anything near that, but another HR or maybe two, could happen since the ungodly HR rolls came early for him.

Oakland's Alexander is not the only Athletic enjoying some early success, his teammate Dave Revering has already hit 6 HR, while on pace for 34 HR. Also Gary Thomasson (not shown above on chart) is batting .405 (32-for-79) through 21 games played, with 3 HR & 14 RBI; Thomasson has already over-exceeded his real-life 31 hits with Oakland through 47 games & 154 at-bats (Thomasson will be traded June 15th to the Yankees).

A few Boston stars made the under-performing side of the above chart, in Carlton Fisk & Dwight Evans, while Kansas City's Darrell Porter has done nothing but struggle, with only one dinger, while batting .161 with an OPS barely over .500 early in the season.

Stranger Things

This post was originally supposed to be titled "Called It!", but as the World Series played out, it went from a strange series to even stranger by series end.

For all my readers, it may come as no secret that my favorite player in the game of baseball is Houston starting pitcher Justin Verlander. My favorite hitter in the game happens to be Jose Altuve. It was amazing to watch these two get put together in 2017 on their way to a World Series title.

So it should come as no surprise who I am rooting for to win the World Series in 2019.

I have been very vocal in who I want to win the World Series, and why not? Verlander is my favorite player, and I want the very best for him, and I want to see more of his great pitching in 2019 -- So rooting for him is a no-brainer.

I have been confident all year that they would end up representing the American League with a shot at their 2nd World Title in 3 seasons. I was confident that they would beat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, I knew they would win, and I knew once again (like 2017) that it would be a dog fight.

So when they went down 2-0, I was hearing it from casual fans and haters, that the Astros were done, toast! I'm not going to lie, I felt a little sick to my stomach looking at the 0-2 deficit. This is a team that had been hitting poorly in the postseason, slumping, especially with runners in scoring position. So there was plenty of reason for most baseball fans to say that it was over....

but not me...

Here is a picture of my Facebook post, in the early morning hours of the Astros facing an 0-2 deficit...

My facebook post in early hours, just after Houston being in the series hole, 0-2.

... and for awhile, especially after the Astros won all three in Washington, outscoring them 19-3, I momentarily looked like a genius. I have made great predictions in the past, and just had so much faith in this Astros team that they would pull it off. 

This series has been strange on so many levels, I knew Houston could answer back, it was a matter of time, they have been overall lousy at the plate, and even worse with runners in scoring position... but they were bound to wake up. 

Now defeating Washington, 19-3 over three games?! I would never have expected that, and to be fair most of those runs probably came off the bullpen as the games slipped out of reach, because all those games were fairly close early on & even later.

So when the Astros knotted it up, I posted this meme I made (It only took 2 seconds to make, nothing special) ...

That was in response to what I was hearing after Game 2, but then they evened the series up. 

After Game 5, I couldn't believe all of the whining over the strike zone. It went both ways, although you would never have guessed that with all the Nats fans and Astros haters in full force. 

Here is the thing, I personally don't care for the square on my TV screen, let the umpires ump, it is never going to go to electronic home plate umpires -- so keep dreaming. I am with Mark DeRosa, a former hitter I might add, mentioned "You want the game to go faster, expand the strike zone." That's a good point, although I say let's also start the postseason games no later than 6-6:30 pm E.T. -- like the Super Bowl...

Just saying, you wonder why football is winning & why an entire generation not growing up with your sport. That would definitely be a start in the right direction...

but back to the strike zone, people were making a big deal that Gerrit Cole was benefiting more than Joe Ross from the strike zone. In a lot of ways, he was, because that's what the great, experienced veterans do, they adjust, they keep making the right pitch later, even if they don't get it earlier. Cole's nasty stuff will be harder to call, while Ross' stuff is plain in comparison. 

Another example, although he pitched it down main street is Mark Langston. The San Diego Padres' Langston pitched a ball down the middle to Tino Martinez in the 1998 World Series, and it wasn't called a strike (it definitely should have, but it wasn't), Langston still has a chance to make the adjustment, has a chance to make the right pitch, but then Tino clobbered it to right, and the rest is history.

There is winners such as Gerrit Cole, and then there are losers like Mark Langston. The difference between a winner & loser, is making the right pitch, and the timely pitch. Joe Ross put on a good face, knew he wasn't the first choice going out to the mound that day (due to Max Scherzer being scratched from the start), his fans gave him the support he needed....

but he was at a huge mismatch from the start, he was up against Cole. The sad truth is that you could add Joe's brother Tyson to the equation, and you might, might have a decent starting pitcher... I know that's harsh, but just trying to make people understand how much Ross was in over his head, and to be honest I thought he did as great as job as he possibly could.

Cole put Houston up 3-2, but his number would not be called again.

I also want to be on record that balls and strikes have never decided a series. Miscalls at first base (Jorge Orta safe at first, 1985)? Definitely. First basemen physically pulling off baserunners (Kent Hrbek & Ron Gant)? Sure... and managers pulling pitchers (Matt Williams pulling Jordan Zimmermann) too early? Well, of course! Back in the day, I blamed an expanded strike zone for Livan Hernandez as the sole reason for the Braves' demise in 1997... but truth be told, the Braves had other opportunities to finish the Marlins.

Like Ryan Zimmerman mentioned after the game, "Lance (Barksdale) didn't cost us the game", mentioning that Cole defeated them. 

Luckily, for the Nationals & their fans, they didn't dwell on Game 5 and powered forward.

When they won Game 6, I will admit my confidence in the Astros winning it, actually was at a postseason low. I had a feeling that they missed their chance, and Game 7 would play out the same way....

Early runs, then nothing, and late-game heroics. 

It was the same broken record the Astros have been playing all postseason long. It was odd, if Houston was able to play their game, they would be the World Champs today, but many of their hitters were cold. Jose Altuve completely disappeared, Alex Bregman was taking way too many pitches, being too selective & Carlos Correa was feast or famine.

When the Nationals won Game 6, it was the 6th time that the road team won during the series, before that, it never happened before in the major sports leagues. So for me, who was rooting for Houston, thought that the laws of averages certainly had to balance out...

In this series? Nothing has been normal about it.

Game 7 was bizarre in its own right. I think heading into the game, people believed that Max Scherzer will certainly out-pitch Zack Greinke... but Greinke came in dealing, which to be honest, I sensed he was starting to do better as the postseason moved on, he did have a good outing in New York against the Yankees and that Yankees' aura.

But the shocker came when A.J. Hinch took Zack out for Will Harris, who Hinch said prior to the game that Harris was probably looking at a night off, that Harris was beyond tired. Plus not to mention, Cole was available in the pen. Now I hope in the long run, that Houston fans don't blame Harris, he was having an excellent postseason prior to Game 6, and the Astros may not have got past the Yankees if it were not for some solid timely outs by Harris himself. But a long delay in Game 6 over the controversial Trea Turner interference play and over-usage would be his downfall.

Some people might say, well Greinke did give up a home run, to cut the game down from 2-0 to 2-1, but the overall reaction and the gut feeling I had was Greinke made a simple mistake and was very likely going to get out of it. He had 68 pitches or something like that? Had a couple single digit innings in pitch counts?! Who does that? I don't think Cole or Verlander recorded an inning that series with less than 10 pitches (maybe I'm wrong).

Anthony Rendon, a Houston native, who grew up loving the Astros -- not to mention local college hero, leading Rice to a College World Series championship, would be one of the daggers to Houston's chance at declaring themselves a dynasty. The other was Howie Kendrick, when that ball hit the right field pole, I knew at that moment the whole entire game was over... it mind as well have been a walk-off, you could literally hear the heartbreaks of millions of Houston fans. 

Strasburg was solid in Game 6 & series, earning MVP honors.

Stephen Strasburg becomes the 3rd pitcher to win 5 games in a single postseason, while the city of Washington got to celebrate their first world title in 95 years. Montreal Expos' faithful fans get to finally celebrate in their own strange way, but with this series, strange is the new norm, and now for the first time and possibly the only time (or at least in our foreseeable future, because we'll all be dead), a road team has now won all 7 road games.

After this series, I am not sure if stranger things can happen.

Scherzer & Sanchez finally get a ring after falling short in together in Detroit.

First Home Series of the 2019 UAL Season for T.C.

The Fighting Tigers' Jose Altuve (left) and Marwin Gonzalez (right).

The Traverse City Fighting Tigers host their first opponent of the new 2019 UAL Season. The team is coming off a 102-win season in 2018, but are preparing for a long season in 2019. Traverse City will face the Port Huron Prowlers (renamed, formerly the Michigan Jack Hammers).

On the exception of two months, UAL owners play 15 home games per month, while they give instructions to the other owners for their 15 road games. The other two months, December and March (I believe) we play 10 home, 10 road.

So here is the home series between the two ballclubs...

Game 1

On the mound:
Port Huron: Daniel Norris (Grade D-Y)
Traverse City: Jon Gray (Grade C-YZ)

The first 4 innings went scoreless with a pitcher's duel breaking out. Jon Gray struck out the side during the top of the 4th, striking out Javier Baez, Giancarlo Stanton & Renato Nunez.

Top of the 5th - Another shutout inning by Gray, while striking out his 6th batter.

Bottom of the 5th - Traverse City's Marwin Gonzalez leads off with a double off Norris. Kelby Tomlinson breaks the silence, by scoring the game's 1st run, a RBI single, making it 1-0. Lewis Brinson hits into a fielder's choice for out number two. Jean Segura hits a single to right, advancing Brinson to third. Jose Altuve comes up big with RBI double, while Buster Posey followed with an RBI single (to drive in Altuve). A 4-run inning by the Fighting Tigers.

Top of the 6th - The Prowlers' Trea Turner hits a single, then steals second. Baez drives in Turner for the Prowlers' 1st run of the game; Baez steals second. Stanton strikes out, while Nunez draws a two-out walk, but Eric Hosmer leaves the two runners stranded as he strikes out.

The Fighting Tigers' Gray would go on to pitch 8 strong innings, allowing 8 hits, while only allowing 1 run & 1 walk -- striking out 11 Prowlers in the process. Ken Giles comes in for the save, while Traverse City wins its home opener.


Game 2

On the mound:
Port Huron: Eric Lauer (Grade C)
Traverse City: Jack Flaherty (Grade B-X)

Both starting pitchers got the distance, with both pitchers only allowing 1 hit each through 5 innings. By the end of this game, Lauer would advance from a Grade C to Grade A, while Flaherty advanced from a Grade B-X to Grade A-X.

Top of the 9th - Pablo Sandoval leads the inning off with a home run, Mallex Smith would later hit a two-out single, setting up Trea Turner's RBI double.

The two runs would prove to be the winner for the Prowlers, while Eric Lauer was nearly untouchable, finishing the game with a one-hit shutout, allowing no walks, while striking out 6 -- if it were not for Gerardo Parra's double with one out in the 5th, Lauer would have pitched a perfect game.

Flaherty recorded 10 strikeouts in his complete game loss, allowing 7 hits, 2 runs & 3 walks.

Lauer pitches a gem, allowing only 1 base runner the entire game.

Game 3

On the mound:
Port Huron: Antonio Senzatela (Grade C)
Traverse City: Rich Hill (Grade C-XZ - Advanced to Grade A-XZ)

Apparently, the Fighting Tigers were saving all the hits for Game 3 of the series. Port Huron's pitchers had no answers for the Tigers, as they got blasted for 17 runs & 24 hits!

The biggest surprise bat came from the Tigers' Gorkys Hernandez, who batted a perfect 5-for-5, with 2 singles, 2 doubles & a Grand Slam, which led to 6 RBI; Hernandez also scored 3 runs.

Meanwhile Port Huron would only be able to muster up 3 hits against Hill, while Hill shut them out, allowing 2 walks, while logging 13 strikeouts.

The Prowlers' starter Senzatela allowed 12 hits & 8 runs through 5 innings, while his relief, Justin Anderson was worse, allowing 12 hits & 9 runs in only 3 innings. Anderson allowed the Grand Slam to Hernandez.

Big night for Gorkys: 5-5 with Grand Slam & 6 RBI.

Game 4

On the mound:
Port Huron: Michael Fulmer (Grade D - Advanced to Grade B)
Traverse City: Jeff Samardzija (Grade D-W)

After a 3-2 Port Huron lead after the 2nd inning, with both teams already recording 11 hits combined, it appeared that the game was going to become an offensive onslaught, but then the pitching took over. Fulmer would go on to pitch 6 shutout innings following the 2nd inning, while Jeff Samardzija was not as lucky.

Giancarlo Stanton would hit a 5th inning solo HR off Samardzija to make it a 4-2 Prowlers lead. Samardzija would find himself in trouble in the 7th inning, T.C. goes to the pen for reliever Dan Otero, who allows a two-run double to Javier Baez to give Port Huron a comfortable, 6-2 lead.

Fulmer would allow his 3rd run in the 9th, off a RBI single by Kelby Tomlinson, his 4th hit & 2nd RBI of the game. Fulmer finished with a complete game victory, while collecting 5 K and allowing 10 hits & 2 walks; 6 of his 12 hits came in the first 2 innings.

Pablo Sandoval's 2nd inning home run makes it 2 HR for the season, while Baez had 2 doubles & 3 RBI.

Series even 2-2.


Game 5

On the mound:
Port Huron: Daniel Norris (Grade D-Y)
Traverse City: Josh Tomlin (Grade D-Z)

Top of the 1st - Traverse City's first baseman Justin Bour hits his 1st HR of the season.

Top of the 4th - Pablo Sandoval hits a two-run double, followed by RBI double by Jason Heyward & RBI triple by Mallex Smith.

Top of the 6th - Trea Turner adds RBI single, giving the Prowlers a 5-1 lead. Turner had 3 hits for the day, including a 8th inning triple, which led to another run.

Bottom of the 8th - Traverse City trims the lead down to 2 runs, trailing 6-4, thanks to Ehire Adrianza's two-run homer off of Daniel Norris, which ended his night.

Sandoval & Heyward add RBI singles in the 9th off of Austin Gomber to give Port Huron extra insurance & ultimately the victory, 8-4.

Port Huron wins the series, 3-2.

It may not have been pretty, but Norris earns the victory, allowing 9 hits, 4 earned runs & 4 walks, through 7.1 innings. T.C's Tomlin was credited with the loss, allowing 10 hits, 4 earned runs & 3 walks through 7 innings. Alex Colome earned the 1.2 inning save, striking out 2 batters, while allowing only 1 hit.

Panda Sighting: Pablo helps Port Huron win their series, 3-2.

Rewriting History

Influenced by two books that I own in 'Leveling the Field' and '100 Years of Baseball', I decided to once again turn to Out of the Park Baseball 20 to help me with this quick sim.

I will still be using real transactions and real lineups & rotations for this, but with a twist...

I am going with the division setup that was presented in G.Scott Thomas' 'Leveling the Field', which means there will be American League Championship Series and National League Championship Series taking place, which could bring a different result for the final team standing in each season. Although these teams will be playing mostly like they did in each season, there may be a surprise team from time to time shake things up.

I also put heavy emphasis on this simulation that the players stats rely heavily on the season that is represented, meaning that Babe Ruth in 1921 should hit close to 60 home runs like in real life. I usually do the three-year period, with these projects, where the player plays like they were playing in that three-year window. I may still do that in another separate project. I will also do a separate project in future that will break the color line early, watching Negro Leaguers getting a chance earlier on... but once again that's a future project.

I know what you are thinking, "What a nerd!"....
Yeah...
Sure, I'll take that.

The early division formats will be as follows...

• A.L. East: Boston (A), New York (A), Philadelphia (A) & Washington.
• A.L. West: Chicago (A), Cleveland, Detroit & St. Louis (A).
• N.L. East: Boston (N), Brooklyn, New York (N), Philadelphia (N).
• N.L. West: Chicago (N), Cincinnati, Pittsburgh & St. Louis (N).

These division formats will stay until the Boston Braves move to Milwaukee in 1953, which the Braves will move to the N.L. West, while the Pittsburgh Pirates move to the N.L. East Division.

The St. Louis Browns will move and become the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, while staying in the A.L. West. The Orioles will switch divisions in 1955, as the Philadelphia Athletics move to Kansas City, and the A.L. West. 

The biggest relocated teams would be the Brooklyn Dodgers & the San Francisco Giants, of course in 1958. With these relocations, both the Dodgers & Giants will move to the N.L. West, while the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Braves move to the N.L. East. The Braves who moved back to the N.L. East, must feel the most bounced around of the whole entire bunch.

Then of course comes 1961... but we'll stop right there for now. I believe you all got the point.

I of course will be noting these division moves once again, while the project plays out.

I have already did sims from 1901-1920, it's very interesting the results that have already come in, with a couple Cindarella teams sprinkled in. I can't wait to start sharing these results in good time.