OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Yet Another OOTP6 Dynasty, Year 2: One Flew Over the Pale Hose

cknox0723 · 05-29-2005, 11:52 PM

Jon Rauch is not a control artist, and his strikeout rate is below average. His fastball is slower than the fastest setting at the batting cages, and his curveball drifts no more than a snowflake as it falls to the ground on yet another winter day in New Jersey. The change of pace is a nice pitch to have in the arsenal regardless, and a slider is a nice in-between setting. But the utility of all of those offerings is amplified greatly when they're coming from a pitcher who stands nearly seven feet tall. Because of his height, Jon Rauch is a major league pitcher.

While a lot of things can work in the favor of a man swinging a big hunk of wood, having a couple feet in between your arms and legs ain't one of 'em. So Rauch's strikeout while at bat in the third inning isn't such a surprise, and his repeat performance leading off the fifth scarcely affects me. Little things like the pitcher striking out tend to be forgotten when this pitcher's faced the minimum over the last three innings, and even moreso when the euphoria of Shea Hillenbrand's game-tying fourth-inning single is still fresh in the mind.

But when Rauch calls the trainer out to the mound after two fly outs in the Cleveland half of that fifth inning, I'm suddenly left thinking about the weak cuts he had taken at the plate a half-inning earlier. As he's removed from the game with a nasty blister on his pitching hand, I'm wondering if we'd be heading on to the sixth if I'd never unchecked the 'Use designated hitter' box. It's easy to lose yourself in hypotheticals, perhaps easiest of all when pondering baseball, a sport defined by the slightest of angles and quickest blinks of the eye. As much predictive weight as the hypothetical may hold, as intellectually stimulating as it may be, it's too easy to forget that there are always reasons for what could have been not having been.

But who gives a sh*t about what could have been when you're rolling unimpeded towards victory? We can do no wrong today. The spherical baton gets passed on from one Pale Hose reliever to another, and Calero, Gallo, and Otsuka all have that perfect touch. Soft, warm, strong -- that touch. Then the bats follow.

Magglio Ordonez leads off the sixth with a long home run to left to give us our first lead of the ballgame. Three batters later, Shea Hillenbrand lines a single over the second base bag. Raul Gonzalez darts from that bag to third and on home, and it's 3-1. Maybe Hillenbrand really is an "RBI Machine."

In the top of the seventh, an Aneudi Cuevas double followed by three walks brings home a fourth run. We put the game out of reach in the ninth with a flurry of hits off of David Riske. Five in total, including the second double off the bat of "The Element", Raul Gonzalez. The most well-timed knock of the bunch is a single to left-center by Frank Thomas that plates two, after a double steal some seconds earlier had put Olivo and Ordonez in scoring position. Aki Otsuka and then P.J. Bevis gets knocked around some in the ninth, but after allowing a double and a long fly out, Bevis recovers to end the game in brilliant fashion, with strikeouts of middle infielders Durham and Berroa.

It shouldn't make any sense that marginal players like Hillenbrand and Gonzalez can play the hero against a World Championship club, or that Rauch and a cast of thousands can best the new Guidry and a Proven Closer (TM) in David Riske. But look deep enough, and you start to understand how it happened, if not necessarily why. By all rights, this should have been yet another meaningless 7-2 loss, but for some reason, we spun the wheel today and...ticka-ticka-ticka...hit the jackpot. For one day, we were able to have our cake -- and eat it, too. Who cares that we'll wake up tomorrow with a stomachache?

CHW 7 CLE 4

WP: K. Calero (1-0)
LP: C. Lee (0-1)

Game Ball Goes To... This win proved there is a divine being in this universe...in the form of Siddhartha Gautama. Magglio "Buddha" Ordonez walked in the first inning. He singled and came around to score in the fourth. The sixth inning began with his long home run to left. Mercifully, he was intentionally walked in the seventh. The next batter was Cliff Lee's last -- he walked Frank Thomas to force in our fourth run. Maggs added a single to left-center in the three-run ninth inning. For as much as we needed so many different things to come together to win a ballgame, it's an awfully big help when your number three hitter gets on base five times in five tries.

05-29-2005, 11:52 PM	#394
cknox0723 All Star Starter Join Date: May 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 1,957	kingdom come Jon Rauch is not a control artist, and his strikeout rate is below average. His fastball is slower than the fastest setting at the batting cages, and his curveball drifts no more than a snowflake as it falls to the ground on yet another winter day in New Jersey. The change of pace is a nice pitch to have in the arsenal regardless, and a slider is a nice in-between setting. But the utility of all of those offerings is amplified greatly when they're coming from a pitcher who stands nearly seven feet tall. Because of his height, Jon Rauch is a major league pitcher. While a lot of things can work in the favor of a man swinging a big hunk of wood, having a couple feet in between your arms and legs ain't one of 'em. So Rauch's strikeout while at bat in the third inning isn't such a surprise, and his repeat performance leading off the fifth scarcely affects me. Little things like the pitcher striking out tend to be forgotten when this pitcher's faced the minimum over the last three innings, and even moreso when the euphoria of Shea Hillenbrand's game-tying fourth-inning single is still fresh in the mind. But when Rauch calls the trainer out to the mound after two fly outs in the Cleveland half of that fifth inning, I'm suddenly left thinking about the weak cuts he had taken at the plate a half-inning earlier. As he's removed from the game with a nasty blister on his pitching hand, I'm wondering if we'd be heading on to the sixth if I'd never unchecked the 'Use designated hitter' box. It's easy to lose yourself in hypotheticals, perhaps easiest of all when pondering baseball, a sport defined by the slightest of angles and quickest blinks of the eye. As much predictive weight as the hypothetical may hold, as intellectually stimulating as it may be, it's too easy to forget that there are always reasons for what could have been not having been. But who gives a sht about what could have been when you're rolling unimpeded towards victory? We can do no wrong today. The spherical baton gets passed on from one Pale Hose* reliever to another, and Calero, Gallo, and Otsuka all have that perfect touch. Soft, warm, strong -- that touch. Then the bats follow. Magglio Ordonez leads off the sixth with a long home run to left to give us our first lead of the ballgame. Three batters later, Shea Hillenbrand lines a single over the second base bag. Raul Gonzalez darts from that bag to third and on home, and it's 3-1. Maybe Hillenbrand really is an "RBI Machine." In the top of the seventh, an Aneudi Cuevas double followed by three walks brings home a fourth run. We put the game out of reach in the ninth with a flurry of hits off of David Riske. Five in total, including the second double off the bat of "The Element", Raul Gonzalez. The most well-timed knock of the bunch is a single to left-center by Frank Thomas that plates two, after a double steal some seconds earlier had put Olivo and Ordonez in scoring position. Aki Otsuka and then P.J. Bevis gets knocked around some in the ninth, but after allowing a double and a long fly out, Bevis recovers to end the game in brilliant fashion, with strikeouts of middle infielders Durham and Berroa. It shouldn't make any sense that marginal players like Hillenbrand and Gonzalez can play the hero against a World Championship club, or that Rauch and a cast of thousands can best the new Guidry and a Proven Closer (TM) in David Riske. But look deep enough, and you start to understand how it happened, if not necessarily why. By all rights, this should have been yet another meaningless 7-2 loss, but for some reason, we spun the wheel today and...ticka-ticka-ticka...hit the jackpot. For one day, we were able to have our cake -- and eat it, too. Who cares that we'll wake up tomorrow with a stomachache? CHW 7 CLE 4 WP: K. Calero (1-0) LP: C. Lee (0-1) Game Ball Goes To... This win proved there is a divine being in this universe...in the form of Siddhartha Gautama. Magglio "Buddha" Ordonez walked in the first inning. He singled and came around to score in the fourth. The sixth inning began with his long home run to left. Mercifully, he was intentionally walked in the seventh. The next batter was Cliff Lee's last -- he walked Frank Thomas to force in our fourth run. Maggs added a single to left-center in the three-run ninth inning. For as much as we needed so many different things to come together to win a ballgame, it's an awfully big help when your number three hitter gets on base five times in five tries.