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

cknox0723 · 02-07-2006, 01:13 PM

For a moment, or a day, at least, all eyes that would be on the Pale Hose (or at least mine) are on first-place Minnesota and third-place Cleveland, because they're duking it out in the frigid north while we're travelling to even more frigid Toronto. It's a win-win situation for us even though we're not playing, because a Cleveland loss puts us a full game ahead of them, and a Minnesota loss puts us into a tie into first place in the division. Right-hander Ben Sheets is on the mound for the first-place club, shooting for double-digit victories, already having won more games than he had in all 35 of his 2006 starts, and Jake "The Fiddler" Dittler, the 24 year old with the sweeping curve and dancing changeup, is on the mound for Cleveland. Sheets gets into trouble right from the start when leadoff man Alex Escobar reaches on a throwing error by second baseman "Jayback" Bartlett, and consecutive singles by #3 hitter "Odysseus" Gerut and cleanup man Ben Broussard put the first run of the game on the board. Shortstop Angel Berroa plates both of those guys with a hard-hit liner down the left field line, and Cleveland still has that 3-0 edge after one full inning is in the books.

But innocuous singles by former Pale Hoseman Brad Fullmer and backup catcher Rob Bowen lead to big trouble in the home half of the second, as right fielder Eric Byrnes, an offseason pickup from Oakland, comes through as he has so many times in this still-young season, booming a bleacher blast to right to knot the game up at three. Dittler comes completely unglued in the next frame, giving up a pair of looping, run-scoring singles to weak hitters in second baseman Bartlett and catcher Bowen to give Minnesota a 5-3 lead. The hated Tribe get one back in the next half-inning, though, keyed by Angel Berroa's leadoff triple into the right field corner, and sticking with their moundsman Dittler pays off as he coasts through the next three frames, facing just one batter over the minimum. Ben "Pillows and Sheets" takes a nap after six as well, giving way to hard-throwing right-hander Scott Linebrink. He retires the first batter he faces, another former Pale Hoser in hot cornerman Joe Crede, but pinch-hitter Shaun Larkin scalds a single to right and the pinch-runner for him, starting center fielder Corey Patterson, steals second base. It would have all been for nothing if Alex Escobar's rabbit ball to short had been the third out, but it was only the second, and a successive single over second base off the bat of catcher Josh Bard ties the game up at five. Then outstanding right fielder Jody Gerut comes through as he did so many times last season, whacking a heavy fastball down into the right field corner to bring his backstop all the way around and give Cleveland a 6-5 lead. Late-inning leads haven't meant much for an Indians team that's blown so many in the last year and a half, and when soft-tossing righty Brian Meadows whips up a seventh-inning sandwich of singles and strikeouts, but with the wrong meat, Tribe fans can only curse the fact that they didn't sign a flame-throwing man like Seattle closer Octavio Dotel when they had the chance prior to last season. But former Pale Hose first baseman Brad Fullmer makes me grin by striking out just as he did some 55 times last year, and light-hitting middle infielder Jay Bartlett can't get the clutch Luis Sojo tag, bouncing a harmless grounder over to third base to be gobbled up by Joe F. Crede. Rafael Betancourt, one of the few half-decent relievers on the Tribe club, finishes off the eighth with no harm done, and a Joe Crede double to lead off the top of the ninth leads to an insurance run that Proven Closer (TM) Dave Riske doesn't even really need, as he faces three batters in the bottom of the ninth, striking out Lew Ford for out number one and then retiring Corey Koskie on a bouncer to first that goes 3 to 6 and back to 3 to eliminate both speedy shortstop Alex Cintron, who had led off the inning by slashing a single to right, and Koskie himself. The rally-killer lives up to its name in so many ways, snuffing out the Twins' status as a first-place club and moving the red-hot Tribe, winners of five in a row, just a half-game out of first, creating a logjam that had previously only been seen in the National League's Eastern and Western divisions. In the former, Florida and Atlanta have reigned supreme much of the season, but the Mets are finally starting to justify much of the hype thrown at their high-priced club, and the three clubs are within half a game of each other. And in the latter, Colorado's oft-mentioned early season pitching success has slowed a bit, as they have seen much of the good work by journeymen starting pitchers Aaron Cook (6-4, 2.64; 6-10, 4.67 last year) and Brian Anderson (8-3, 2.79 after an 11-6, 4.00 season) negated by a bullpen that has had trouble getting to Proven Closer (TM) Billy Wagner and has seen the 35 year old show his age anyway (38 saves, 1.32 ERA in 2006; 16 saves but a 5.40 ERA this year, and 10 HR allowed in 42 IP). This has opened the door for all of the mediocre California clubs in the division, which have also benefited from strong pitching. To wit, one of them, Los Angeles, just defeated the NL Central-leading Cubs, one to nil, in one of those games where the line score says it all:

Code:

TEAM	1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9	R   H   E
CHC	0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0	0   4   0
LA	1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0	1   0   0

No joke. Ace North Sider Kerry Wood, an 18-game winner last season, made just his eighth start of the season in this one after a torn tricep in early April shut him down for much of May and early June. And the rust was still showing, as he plunked leadoff man Mike Cameron on the game's third pitch. Cameron stole second and a slightly frazzled Wood walked hacktastic shortstop Cristian Guzman. First baseman Shawn Green, not quite the powerful hitter he was in the late 90's, but still carrying that sterling reputation, was pitched to carefully and drew a free pass to load the bases. Cleanup man and left fielder Cliff Floyd walked to force in a run and the little white pill was poised to bleed blue runs. But right fielder Gabe "Shanya Punim/The Good Face" Kapler flew into a 7-5 double play (so says the game log) and third baseman Antonio Perez was no match for the high-nineties flames. Inning over... one run, no hits, no errors. Score: Los Angeles 1, Chicago (N) 0. It could have been 1-0 on the flip side, because third baseman Rob Mackowiak had led off the ballgame with a double into the right field corner, and North Side second sacker Brendan Harris had drawn a walk. But then the Cubs hit the same speed bumps they have hit most of this season -- center fielder Andruw Jones, whose reputation perhaps supercedes his status as #3 hitter, struck out swinging, left fielder Jason Bay (.241) bounced to short, and catcher Dave Ross (.250) did the same. Jones' .238 batting average is not so far off from his .241 mark in 2006, and the same for Ross, who is still a productive backstop considering his 20 HR power (and he has even seen a hike in his walk rate this year, having drawn 35 already after 43 BB last season). But Jay Bay hit a monster .360 last season in leading the North Siders to a league-best 97 wins and eventual league championship. You expect a little decline; that is why the Cubs shelled out the big bucks for former Minnesota southpaw Barry Zito this offseason. Their rotation is unbeatable when fully healthy, and as their near league-leading runs allowed total suggests, even when they are dealing with a few injuries like the one Wood suffered, they are still pretty damned good. But 34 year old league-average shortstop is the team's leading hitter at .274, and even though the club has as much power as a utility company, they have still struggled to score runs. Such was the case in this ballgame, as their best chance against Dodger right-hander Jeff Weaver was in the first frame, and they came up empty. They moved a runner past first base just twice the rest of the way; in the fifth, 16 HR man Rob Mackowiak struck out to leave Alex Gonzalez at second after he had walked and moved up on his pitcher's sacrifice, and in the ninth, Chad Bradford relieved Weaver after he ran out of gas and allowed two-out singles to catcher Ross and first baseman Richie Sexson, and he struck out pinch-hitter Todd Walker on four pitches to end it. The Dodgers put exactly two men on base after the first, both on lonely walks. It didn't matter.

Sure, the Cubs are a million games up in the moribund NL Central and they started backups at first, second, and right field in this game, but what a blow to the ego to watch your pitcher throw a no-hitter...in a loss. But how wonderful and wacky it is to a start a day looking straight ahead and straight ahead only and end up doing an about-face because there's something more interesting on the other side of the river. It just proves that if your eyes are solely focused on one thing, you're going to end up missing out on something else.

02-07-2006, 01:13 PM	#675
cknox0723 All Star Starter Join Date: May 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 1,957	eye aye aye i i i For a moment, or a day, at least, all eyes that would be on the Pale Hose (or at least mine) are on first-place Minnesota and third-place Cleveland, because they're duking it out in the frigid north while we're travelling to even more frigid Toronto. It's a win-win situation for us even though we're not playing, because a Cleveland loss puts us a full game ahead of them, and a Minnesota loss puts us into a tie into first place in the division. Right-hander Ben Sheets is on the mound for the first-place club, shooting for double-digit victories, already having won more games than he had in all 35 of his 2006 starts, and Jake "The Fiddler" Dittler, the 24 year old with the sweeping curve and dancing changeup, is on the mound for Cleveland. Sheets gets into trouble right from the start when leadoff man Alex Escobar reaches on a throwing error by second baseman "Jayback" Bartlett, and consecutive singles by #3 hitter "Odysseus" Gerut and cleanup man Ben Broussard put the first run of the game on the board. Shortstop Angel Berroa plates both of those guys with a hard-hit liner down the left field line, and Cleveland still has that 3-0 edge after one full inning is in the books. But innocuous singles by former Pale Hoseman Brad Fullmer and backup catcher Rob Bowen lead to big trouble in the home half of the second, as right fielder Eric Byrnes, an offseason pickup from Oakland, comes through as he has so many times in this still-young season, booming a bleacher blast to right to knot the game up at three. Dittler comes completely unglued in the next frame, giving up a pair of looping, run-scoring singles to weak hitters in second baseman Bartlett and catcher Bowen to give Minnesota a 5-3 lead. The hated Tribe get one back in the next half-inning, though, keyed by Angel Berroa's leadoff triple into the right field corner, and sticking with their moundsman Dittler pays off as he coasts through the next three frames, facing just one batter over the minimum. Ben "Pillows and Sheets" takes a nap after six as well, giving way to hard-throwing right-hander Scott Linebrink. He retires the first batter he faces, another former Pale Hoser in hot cornerman Joe Crede, but pinch-hitter Shaun Larkin scalds a single to right and the pinch-runner for him, starting center fielder Corey Patterson, steals second base. It would have all been for nothing if Alex Escobar's rabbit ball to short had been the third out, but it was only the second, and a successive single over second base off the bat of catcher Josh Bard ties the game up at five. Then outstanding right fielder Jody Gerut comes through as he did so many times last season, whacking a heavy fastball down into the right field corner to bring his backstop all the way around and give Cleveland a 6-5 lead. Late-inning leads haven't meant much for an Indians team that's blown so many in the last year and a half, and when soft-tossing righty Brian Meadows whips up a seventh-inning sandwich of singles and strikeouts, but with the wrong meat, Tribe fans can only curse the fact that they didn't sign a flame-throwing man like Seattle closer Octavio Dotel when they had the chance prior to last season. But former Pale Hose first baseman Brad Fullmer makes me grin by striking out just as he did some 55 times last year, and light-hitting middle infielder Jay Bartlett can't get the clutch Luis Sojo tag, bouncing a harmless grounder over to third base to be gobbled up by Joe F. Crede. Rafael Betancourt, one of the few half-decent relievers on the Tribe club, finishes off the eighth with no harm done, and a Joe Crede double to lead off the top of the ninth leads to an insurance run that Proven Closer (TM) Dave Riske doesn't even really need, as he faces three batters in the bottom of the ninth, striking out Lew Ford for out number one and then retiring Corey Koskie on a bouncer to first that goes 3 to 6 and back to 3 to eliminate both speedy shortstop Alex Cintron, who had led off the inning by slashing a single to right, and Koskie himself. The rally-killer lives up to its name in so many ways, snuffing out the Twins' status as a first-place club and moving the red-hot Tribe, winners of five in a row, just a half-game out of first, creating a logjam that had previously only been seen in the National League's Eastern and Western divisions. In the former, Florida and Atlanta have reigned supreme much of the season, but the Mets are finally starting to justify much of the hype thrown at their high-priced club, and the three clubs are within half a game of each other. And in the latter, Colorado's oft-mentioned early season pitching success has slowed a bit, as they have seen much of the good work by journeymen starting pitchers Aaron Cook (6-4, 2.64; 6-10, 4.67 last year) and Brian Anderson (8-3, 2.79 after an 11-6, 4.00 season) negated by a bullpen that has had trouble getting to Proven Closer (TM) Billy Wagner and has seen the 35 year old show his age anyway (38 saves, 1.32 ERA in 2006; 16 saves but a 5.40 ERA this year, and 10 HR allowed in 42 IP). This has opened the door for all of the mediocre California clubs in the division, which have also benefited from strong pitching. To wit, one of them, Los Angeles, just defeated the NL Central-leading Cubs, one to nil, in one of those games where the line score says it all: Code: TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E CHC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 LA 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 No joke. Ace North Sider Kerry Wood, an 18-game winner last season, made just his eighth start of the season in this one after a torn tricep in early April shut him down for much of May and early June. And the rust was still showing, as he plunked leadoff man Mike Cameron on the game's third pitch. Cameron stole second and a slightly frazzled Wood walked hacktastic shortstop Cristian Guzman. First baseman Shawn Green, not quite the powerful hitter he was in the late 90's, but still carrying that sterling reputation, was pitched to carefully and drew a free pass to load the bases. Cleanup man and left fielder Cliff Floyd walked to force in a run and the little white pill was poised to bleed blue runs. But right fielder Gabe "Shanya Punim/The Good Face" Kapler flew into a 7-5 double play (so says the game log) and third baseman Antonio Perez was no match for the high-nineties flames. Inning over... one run, no hits, no errors. Score: Los Angeles 1, Chicago (N) 0. It could have been 1-0 on the flip side, because third baseman Rob Mackowiak had led off the ballgame with a double into the right field corner, and North Side second sacker Brendan Harris had drawn a walk. But then the Cubs hit the same speed bumps they have hit most of this season -- center fielder Andruw Jones, whose reputation perhaps supercedes his status as #3 hitter, struck out swinging, left fielder Jason Bay (.241) bounced to short, and catcher Dave Ross (.250) did the same. Jones' .238 batting average is not so far off from his .241 mark in 2006, and the same for Ross, who is still a productive backstop considering his 20 HR power (and he has even seen a hike in his walk rate this year, having drawn 35 already after 43 BB last season). But Jay Bay hit a monster .360 last season in leading the North Siders to a league-best 97 wins and eventual league championship. You expect a little decline; that is why the Cubs shelled out the big bucks for former Minnesota southpaw Barry Zito this offseason. Their rotation is unbeatable when fully healthy, and as their near league-leading runs allowed total suggests, even when they are dealing with a few injuries like the one Wood suffered, they are still pretty damned good. But 34 year old league-average shortstop is the team's leading hitter at .274, and even though the club has as much power as a utility company, they have still struggled to score runs. Such was the case in this ballgame, as their best chance against Dodger right-hander Jeff Weaver was in the first frame, and they came up empty. They moved a runner past first base just twice the rest of the way; in the fifth, 16 HR man Rob Mackowiak struck out to leave Alex Gonzalez at second after he had walked and moved up on his pitcher's sacrifice, and in the ninth, Chad Bradford relieved Weaver after he ran out of gas and allowed two-out singles to catcher Ross and first baseman Richie Sexson, and he struck out pinch-hitter Todd Walker on four pitches to end it. The Dodgers put exactly two men on base after the first, both on lonely walks. It didn't matter. Sure, the Cubs are a million games up in the moribund NL Central and they started backups at first, second, and right field in this game, but what a blow to the ego to watch your pitcher throw a no-hitter...in a loss. But how wonderful and wacky it is to a start a day looking straight ahead and straight ahead only and end up doing an about-face because there's something more interesting on the other side of the river. It just proves that if your eyes are solely focused on one thing, you're going to end up missing out on something else.