Will the Rangers ever win past July?

[boilermaker]

Will the Rangers ever win past July?
Will I ever score again, a kiss before I die?
-Funland, "Sparkloser"

So I'm chugging along with my OOTP 2006 season, playing as my beloved Texas Rangers with a Lahman database season from 2005, when it occured to me that to help enhance my experience and increase my attachment to this particular road to ruin, I should probably write out my trials and tribulations.

I'm not a particularly good, much less interesting writer. If anyone cares to follow along, that's a bonus to me. But the purpose of this thread is nothing more than journal-style attempt to maximize my attachment to this particular save game. If anything, Dargone's FM Adventure is a mild influence.

The rest of this post will be a quick description of the universe set up and I'll save a reply for "catching up" on the season I'm currently in (I'm 113 games in to year one).

I have full minors systems with multiple AAA, AA, A, etc. leagues, all real teams and such. Fictional minor league players, but there's a good splattering of real players up and down everyone's farm system. I have two American indy leagues, the Cuban league, and the Japanese league.

I don't like crazy amounts of roster movement, so I have a low trade setting.

Roster rules? I'm not too big on anything kooky here, either, so I've just disabled expanded/40-Man altogether and left the active roster at 25. To keep this even more unrealistic, I pushed my amateur draft to December since I prefer to worry about that after the season, not in the middle.

No revenue sharing, no salary cap.

[boilermaker]

To catch up, we're in the sweltering days of August....August 10th, to be exact, when life in Texas is simply taxing. Most the season, I've either been in first or flirting with first as the Angels have been pretty strong. At the end of this reply, I've attached the AL West and AL Wildcard standings.

Heck. I guess that's worth it's own reply. The team situation in the next...

[boilermaker]

THE ROTATION

I tried to catch up with the real life fortunes of the Rangers in terms of starting rotation and traded for Kevin Millwood and Adam Eaton. Both have been pretty good by the low standards we hold here in Arlington. Eaton is at 13-5, 105 k's, 46 walks, 3.97 ERA, .257 opp avg. Millwood is 9-9, 130 k's, 32 walks, 3.63 ERA, .258 opp avg.

Rounding things out, I kept Chris Young (I think I traded Kenny Rogers and some detritus for Eaton) who has struggled somewhat, but fits in at the third rotation spot. The big numbers that put a lump in my throat are a .281 opponent's average and a 1.33 WHIP.

Joaquin Benoit and Kameron Loe have been decent if unimpressive to round out the rotation. Loe is kind of wierd in that he has a winning record, but opp. avg is up to a staggering .311.

BULLPEN
The jewel of my bullpen has been, up to now, Doug Brocail, but he just tore a rotator cuff and had to go on the DL. His line is pretty stellar, but we'll have to do without him now. To replace him, I've called up a Triple-A lefty named Erasmo Ramirez who had a 1.87 ERA in 53 innings of work at Oklahoma. He has yet to take the mound in Arlington. The other relievers, in order from long to setup relief are Ryan Drese, Brian Shouse, Jim Dvorak, and Nick Regilio.

They've all been reasonably reliable so far. Shouse has the best ERA at 3.34. Drese at 4.69 is the worst. Opponents are batting .288 off of him while they're only getting .230 on Regilio.

The reliable Francisco Cordero is the closer and he has 17 saves so far, a 2.17 ERA, and an opp. avg. of .200. He's only blown 2 saves. I think the biggest concern from Coco might be his walks, with which he has 15 in 29 innings of play. Actually, I guess that's not so bad. The Angels' Francisco Rodriguez has 18. Bobby Jenks has 16.

ALL BATTERS

I feel pretty good about my non-pitching players. As you know, the 2005 Texas Rangers were a murderer's row. Choosing a lineup is pretty easy and randomness fails to disturb our productivity. I've toyed with the lineup extensively and just pretty much dig every possibility. LF David Delluci is on the DL with a serious injury, but he was doing pretty well. In 346 at bats, he had 22 HRs, 55 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, a VORP of 22.0, and a line of .260/.379/.494/.873.

The rest of the batters?

Here:

[boilermaker]

MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP

Overall, I'd have to say my minor league is just fan-flippin'-tastic. The biggest downside to it is that nobody is really ready for the big leagues just yet, but the depth of potential talent is absolutely rich. I think we're most stocked at the 1B position. With Mark Teixeira holding down first in Arlington, I smell trade bait.

The Oklahoma Redhawks are our Pacific Coast League AAA affiliate. The regular season for the PCL is already over and while the Redhawks missed the division, sitting only one game behind the Round Rock Express, they clinched the Wild Card with a 55-45 record. They would then sweep Round Rock 3-0 in the first round and now hold a 2-0 lead on the Omaha Royals. The name that sticks out on Oklahoma is LF Natanael Yoncis. Yoncis batted .305, had 29 stolen bases, and 11 home runs in 341 at bats. CL Jason Standridge had 22 saves in 25 opportunities and sick numbers otherwise.

Our Double-A Texas League affiliate is the Frisco RoughRiders. They aren't faring so well, sitting in dead last with a 43-67 record, 14 games out. They actually were stellar offensively, but their pitching was miserable. All in all, I think they were victimized by call ups and send downs. Generally the good A-level players moved up quickly to Oklahoma while the worst players somehow collected up in Frisco. We had three players with an OPS over .900 and six players with at least 10 stolen bases (actually 5 with 20+). Team ERA languishing at 6.06. There are only 10 games left to their miserable season.

We have two A-level teams. The Bakersfield Blaze in the California League finished 62-57, nine games out of first. Well, they still have one more game. Nothing particularly stands out and I moved players up and down at a high rate for Bakersfield. However, one CF Joe Gangoy, has 35 stolen bases and 19 HRs, with a goofy .258 avg, making him some sort of A-ball Alfonso Soriano in center. Second on the team for strikeouts, so we know what he's doing when he's at the plate.

The Clinton Lumberkings of the Midwest League are down to their last game of the season and are at 57-62: 9 games back. The Lumberkings seemed to have been upset by their offensive production which can only be described as "anemic". Their starting pitching was decent, but their real strength was in the bullpen who was second in the league with a 3.46 ERA. A lot of solid players started the season in Clinton and have since been dispersed upwards through the system. The biggest name I've been watching is RF Barry Burroughs, a 20 year old who was batting .333 after 180 at bats in Clinton. He actually IMPROVED at Double-A, putting up a monstrous .382/.437/.592/1.029 in Frisco with 10 jacks in 238 at bats. Of course, Frisco does play in the sanbox Texas League. His VORP in Clinton jumped from 14.2 to 32.1 in Frisco. He also made the All Star Team in both the Midwest and Texas Leagues in the same year.

My short league team is the Spokane Indians who, with 7 games left in the season, sit in first place with a 32-15 record. The Boise Hawks are chasing them 4 games back. My Rookie Arizona League Surprise Rangers had an ENORMOUS late season collapse. They were well ahead in first place but finished with a 36-26 record in third, six games back. They definately were victimized by mass call ups. Eight pitchers were called up in August when their collapse occured. Evidently they stock up big on the rookie ball with the fictional players because AFTER the call ups, Surprise has 21 pitchers on staff.

So that's where we are at on August 10, 2006 (.....with 2005 rosters).

[boilermaker]

I've decided to let the computer AI select my batting order for the time being and I like it. I like it alot. Alfonso Soriano, my typical lead off hitter, only has an OBP of .277 but he does have 24 dingers. So, the computer threw him in the fifth spot while CF Gary Gages with an OBP of .329 and has 8 stolen bases in extremely limited appearences is up top.

Today we're playing the Boston Red Sox and Curt Schilling, but this will be my lineup for AT LEAST the next week:

1 - CF Gary Gages
2 - SS Michael Young
3 - 1B Mark Teixeira
4 - 3B Hank Blalock
5 - 2B Alfonso Soriano
6 - RF Kevin Mench
7 - LF Gary Matthews
8 - C Rod Barajas
9 - DH Chad Allen

[boilermaker]

My first game since starting this was a pitcher's delight! Joaquin Benoit had a no hitter through five innings and then only gave up one. Jim Dvorak set up in the 8th and Coco shut it down in the 9th. And we needed that near perfect pitching as the final score was merely 1-0 us.

Mench and Soriano were 0-for-4 and Gages was 0-for-5.


edit: now at 63-51, 3 games back

[boilermaker]

A guy to watch out for, a middle reliever on the short season Spokane team, rightie Armando Quinchia. His numbers are decent and he made the Northwest League All Star team, so I throw him up to Clinton. His current Stuff/Movement/Control is 3-1-3 and his potential is 5-1-4. Maybe he can help shore up the Lumberkings next season. He has 15 endurance, maybe I can move him to the rotation?

[boilermaker]

Ryan Drese in spot start duty at Yankee Stadium and we're off to a half-way decent start:

[boilermaker]

That's baseball, folks:

[boilermaker]

Unbelievable. I guess this shows me for my hubrus:

[boilermaker]

I blew the next game with a lead after over-extending Kevin Millwood in true Dusty Baker fashion. Fortunately I pull back the third game to prevent the series sweep in the Bronx and this is fortunate as it preserves a half game lead over the Yankees in the Wild Card stretch.

My Triple-A Oklahoma affiliate is one win away from the Pacific Coast League Championship.

[boilermaker]

I sim forward to the 22nd of August. Evidently there was one more game in the Bronx and I blew that one, too.

We then take 2 of 3 in Cleveland (although the loss was 11-1) and 2 of 3 in Tampa Bay. In the meanwhile, LF David Dellucci, who we severely missed, is healthy and eligible to come off the DL, so I pull him off the shelf. MR Brian Shouse was injured but I refrain from putting him on the DL. He can tough it out!

We're at 68-56, 4 games behind the Angels and 1.5 back on the wild card from the Yankees.


If you're curious, Albert Pujols has dominated the batting leaderboards all year long, but it looks like Colorado's Todd Helton and Kansas City's Mike Sweeney are starting to get their ugly mugs on some of the stat lines at the top. Some presumably fictional player out of Houston, SS Young-so Li has 42 HRs to lead the Majors. Pujols already has 111 RBIs.

[MikeSlugga]

Good read so far.

Jeez, 42 homeruns and somthing like 38 games left!? How many does Teixeira have,
when you posted that picture he already had 36 under his belt, looks like nobody is
getting on base for him though, only 81 RBIs

[boilermaker]

Originally Posted by MikeSlugga

Good read so far.

Jeez, 42 homeruns and somthing like 38 games left!? How many does Teixeira have,
when you posted that picture he already had 36 under his belt, looks like nobody is
getting on base for him though, only 81 RBIs

Thanks!

Well, now, 129 games into the season, Tex is:

-3rd in slugging w/ .606 (Pujols leads with .659)
-5th in OPS w/ .981 (Pujols has 1.069)
-6th in runs created/27 outs with 8.43 (Todd Helton has 10.44)
-7th in hits with 155 (Mike Sweeney has 179)
-2nd in HRs with 41 (Y. Yi, haha, has 43)
-6th in runs scored with 94 (Pujols is up to 115)
-4th in isolated power with .299 (Pujols has .311)
-5th in extra base hits with 68 (Pujols has 77)
-2nd in total bases with 306 (Pujols has 333)



MINOR LEAGUES - WHO ARE THE CHAMPIONS?

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE
While up 3 games to 1, my Oklahoma Redhawks actually suffered a monumental choke and allowed the Omaha Royals to advance.

Omaha Royals defeat the Tacoma Rainiers 4 games to 1.

EASTERN LEAGUE
Portland Sea Dogs d. Akron Aeros, 4-1

SOUTHERN LEAGUE
Mississippi Braves sweep Chattanooga Lookouts

CALIFORNIA LEAGUE
Stockton Ports d. Lake Elsinore Storm, 4-2

FLORIDA STATE LEAGUE
Brevard County Manatees d. Jupiter Hammerheads, 4-3

MIDWEST LEAGUE
Southwest Michigan Devil Rays d. West Michigan Whitecaps, 4-2

SOUTH ATLANTIC LEAGUE
Asheville Tourists d. Savannah Sand Gnats, 4-2

NEW YORK-PENN LEAGUE
Brooklyn Cyclones d. Oneonta Tigers, 4-1

APPALACHIAN LEAGUE
Johnson City Cyclones d. Bluefield Orioles, 4-2

GULF COAST LEAGUE
Fort Meyers Red Sox d. Fort Meyers Twins, 4-2

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
Sioux City Explorers sweep Shreveport Sports

ATLANTIC LEAGUE
Somerset Patriots d. Road Warriors, 3-2

ARIZONA SUMMER LEAGUE
You know, so there was an even number of teams, I had to make one up. I used to invent a fictional soccer team for Championship Manager that I always inserted into the lower leagues called "Kendall's Killers" and so it just so happens that coincidentally I did the same here and they dominated. They were the only Summer League team I didn't affiliate with any Major League, the lone wolf of the ASL.

Kendall's Killers sweeps Mesa Cubs


STILL IN PROGRESS:
International League (AAA)
Carolina League (A)
Northwest League (Short)
Pioneer League (Rookie)
Cuban National League (Int.)
[league redacted] League (Int.)
Nigun League (Int.)



So, there we go, around the world in one reply.

[boilermaker]

Manager's log, 8-31-2006

We destroyed the White Sox. 6 home runs as a team. A no hitter for Chris Young through 4 innings before giving up a 6 run fifth. 16-9 the final score.

[boilermaker]

SEPTEMBER 7, 2006

Nice shutout effort against the Twins today. Adam Eaton went six shutout innings, although he did have 5 walks to 3 strikeouts. Minor league callup Erasmo Ramirez held for two innings before Coco shut the door.

Half game behind those dreaded Angels.

[boilermaker]

SEPTEMBER 7, 2006

Because I'm playing short one active player and the biggest problems appear to be bullpen endurance, I'm calling up a Triple-A pitcher. He's actually a starter, rightie Santos Nagilla. In Oklahoma, he was 8-7, 4.09 ERA, 141 k's, 62 walks, 1.34 WHIP, and .237 OAvg. He'll be working out of the bullpen in Arlington.

[boilermaker]

Oklahoma LF Nataneal Yoncis won the batting title for the Pacific Coast League....

[boilermaker]

SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

Looking at my possible free agents, I have:
P Adam Eaton (currently making $3 million)
2B Alfonso Soriano ($7 million)
Ut. Mark DeRosa ($350,000)
SS Michael Young ($9 million)

I've decided that of the four, Young must be retained. This year, he is batting .326/.360/.484/.844 with a VORP of 41.2. He has 16 home runs and 5 stolen bases.

Unfortunately, Young wants a king's ransom of $24 million. Fortunately, I have more than enough. I doubt I can upgrade over Young and the fact I can afford it means that's what I'm going to pitch to him. $24 million for three years.

[boilermaker]

SEPTEMBER 15, 2006 - KING IS KING

P John King of my short season affiliate, the Spokane Indians, has won the pitching award for the Northwest League. He went 7-0, 1.24 ERA, has 45 K's to 21 walks, a WHIP of 0.82, and had an opponents' average of .169.

For his efforts, I'm going to promote him to Frisco (AA) for next season....I'll keep a close eye on him for AAA duty.