Toronto Blue Jays 2009: Post MLB Stats Wipe

spider_monkey_b · 08-04-2009, 12:16 PM

****I was inspired by the dynasties of Ryan and Taves with their respective Jays and Nats dynasties and thought I'd give one a shot of my own. I'm quite sure, however, that my reports will lack the photos that some are using. I did make 3 slight changes in the editor to Aaron Hill, Travis Snider, and Ricky Romero before starting. The changes were pretty minor, just small bumps in a couple of attribute points to make the players more closely match their RL counterparts. Hill was projected to hit 13 HR in the editor but he has displayed the past couple of seasons that he is capable of 25. Snider was listed as the 42nd best prospect in OTP, but Baseball America has him listed as #6, and Ricky Romero is a strong ROY candidate this season so I just bumped his current ratings up to meet his potential. ****

AI Trade Settings:
Frequency: Low
Difficulty: Hard
Preference: Neutral

I messed around for hours with different combinations of AI trade settings to see which would present the biggest challenge while maintaining realism and I decided on the above settings.

Now let's begin...

Robert James was still having difficulty processing the information he had just received. He had only been appointed General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays a mere 6 hours earlier and it all just seemed like too much to absorb. There hadn't even had time to meet with his staff yet or pour over his roster when the news hit him like a Billy Koch fastball. He glanced up once more to make sure he wasn't imagining things. He wasn't. The words were still splashed across his tv screen:

MLB STATS WIPE

Commishioner Bud Selig had announced that prior to the 2009 season starting the entire history of the MLB would be "officially" deleted. No more Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan, or Barry Bonds. His reason? "Tainted and Irrelevant" were the words Selig used, by which he meant that the record books were tained with the rampant steroid use of recent years and that most of the old records were unattainable by today's standards.

James was snapped out of his stupor by a shrill cry. It took him a moment to locate the source, and when he did he picked up his telephone receiver and put it to his ear.

- Robert James here.
- Hi, Mr. James. I'm DR Marty Bumps from Atlanta. I have some good news.

James had never heard of a Doctor Marty Bumps before, let alone one from Atlanta bearing good news, but he decided to bite.

- Go on Marty.
- Well, as you know, Dustin McGowan and Shaun Marcum came to see me today for a second opinion on their injuries.

The truth was, James didn't know.

- Yes, I know that Dr. Bumps.
- Well whatever doctor first examined these boys must have been a real quack! Both of the lads are nearly completely healed and will be ready to go by Opening Day.
- Wow...that is good news!
- I thought you might like it.
- Listen, call me anytime you have some more good news will you?
- I will...and um...Mr. James...
- Yes?
- Good Luck.

James placed the receiver on its hook and sat slowly back in his chair. A smirk began to slowly creep across his face as if the thought was just occurring to him for the first time, and he found himself whispering the words before he even knew what they were, "The Toronto Blue Jays. I'm GM of the Toronto Blue Jays!" The brief moment of euphoria lasted all but about 3 seconds when a second thought eclipsed the first. There was an awful lot of work to do to restore this team to a contender with the ability of knocking off the Yankees and Red Sox. With that realization James took out a pencil and notepad and began scribbling out his war plan. At first the words scattered across the page seemed like nothing more than a ripple of a dream. Little did he know that by tomorrow afternoon that ripple would turn into a tidal wave of reality.

****I decided to wipe the history because one of the most entertaining parts of a league, to me at least, is the tracking of history and records. Unfortunately, most of the MLB records are completely unbreakable because the game was played so differently when they were achieved. At first I just wanted to erase the record books, but keep the players career stats, but could not see a way to do that. In the end, an entire wipe is probably for the better because now my records will be completely generated by OTP. I hope you peeps enjoyed the read****

spider_monkey_b · 08-04-2009, 01:15 PM

Robert James was a busy man during his first 24 hours as Jays GM. Here are a list of his transactions:

- Robert Brown was fired as Scouting Director and Chris Dempsey was hired to take his place. Dempsey brings 16 years of experience and is one of the most highly regarded scouts in the world.

- Brian Butterfield was fired as Bench Coach, Cito Gaston was demoted to bench coach, and Juan Sanchez was hired as the new Jays manager.

James also made 3 trades to secure young talent to build the team around:

Deal 1: Toronto sends C J.P. Arencibia (AAA), SP Scott Richmond, SP David Purcey, C Michael Barrett, SS Justin Jackson (A), and C Bartolo Jeroman (AA) to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for C Matt Wieters and SP Bradley Bergesen (AAA).

James gave up a lot to get Wieters but felt that it was important for the team to secure a franchise player. Wieters will begin the season as the team's starting catcher while Bergesen will become the 5th starter, a position he may not be ready to handle.

Deal 2: Toronto sends SP Brian Tallet, RF/3B Jose Bautista, 2B Scott Campbell (AAA), and SP Brett Cecil (AAA) to the Oakland A's for SP Michael Ynoa (Rookie League), and SP Vincent Mazzaro (AAA).

Tallet and Purcey will both immediately jump into Oakland's rotation and Bautista will provide depth at 3B. Ynoa is one of the most highly regarded pitching prospects in the game, but at 17 years old he is volatile. If he doesn't pan out, this trade will be marked as a disaster.

Deal 3: Toronto sends SP Jesse Litsch, MR Casey Janssen, 1B Kevin Millar, and SP Davis Romero (AA) to the Texas Rangers in exchange for SS Elvis Andrus and MR Pedro Strop.

James also made a few FA signings:

CF Jim Edmonds was signed for 1 year at 1.4 million. He will bat vs righties.

2 More OF's, Alexis Gomez and Brady Clark were signed to minor league contracts and will provide depth in case of injury. C Guillermo Quiroz was also signed to a minor league deal.

TavesSoul · 08-06-2009, 03:29 PM

Good start, Spider. I look forward to reading more about how this works out. I like the idea of wiping the history so you can track your OTP history. Should make for a good read. Clearly, your Jays will be built around some young stars. Hopefully it works out.

ryan008 · 08-06-2009, 03:43 PM

I am liking the Weiters deal. In my game he is one of the best offensive catchers in the league! Mind you Arencibia is right up there as well....mind you with the Yankees now!

Good luck and I will definately be following

spider_monkey_b · 08-07-2009, 03:10 AM

The Blue Jays had a horrible start to the 2009 season going 2-10 in their first 12 games. It seemed as if the team really suffered from trading away Purcey, Tallet and Litsch, all of whom had strong April showings for their respective teams while Marcum, McGowan and Bergesen struggled in the Jays rotation.

However, after a 2-10 start that looked like the season from hell was well underway, the Jays finished April on an 8-4 run to bring their April record to 11-14.

April's Hot Players:
Brandon League: 10.2 IP, .154 AVG, 0.00 ERA
Travis Snider: .315 AVG, 7 HR, 22 RBI
B.J. Ryan: 8.1 IP, .111 AVG, 0.00 ERA

April's Cold Players:
Ricky Romero: 0-4, 23 IP, .368 AVG, 9.00 ERA
Aaron Hill: .205 AVG, 3 HR, 8 RBI
Dustin Mcgowan: 1-4, 20.1 IP, .333 AVG, 8.85 ERA

Key Injuries: SS Marco Scutoro injured on April 11th, Out 4 weeks with a torn hamstring.

Scutaro's injury allowed budding star Elvis Andrus to make his debut with the big club. In 18 games, Andrus hit .263 with 9 runs scored and 2 stolen bases. Manager Juan Sanchez had Andrus hitting leadoff.

***I decided to go all natural and just act as the GM for this dynasty...meaning I will leave all lineups and pitching rotations up to my manager. I give him the players, and he uses them. ****

Here's hoping we can continue playing well in May.

spider_monkey_b · 08-07-2009, 09:36 PM

I'm probably not going to continue this dynasty. After playing out the first month last night I just can't seem to get into the Jays as I'd hoped, which is strange because the Jays are my team.

I think the problem is when you try to manage your own team you know the players too well and somehow it gets into your head and really bugs you when they don't perform as you think they should either too good or too poor. Those trades I made also aren't very realistic...6 for 2 deals and stuff and I'm huge on maintaining realism.

So, I'm going to be starting fresh as GM of a struggling franchise, but I'm having trouble deciding who. I actually just started an online league using MLB 2009 rosters as the Nationals and I'm having a blast trying to rebuild them in an online setting. I don't think I could use the Nats offline though because then I'd constantly be comparing my offline team to my online team and that would probably ruin some of the enjoyment. Also, Taves has a nice Nats dynasty going and I kinda want to be unique.

I'm leaning towards choosing a struggling NL team just because I see so much of the AL being a Jays fan. I figure after excluding the Nats, the worst teams/situations are the Marlins, Pirates, and Padres.

Once I decide I plan on playing only the "GM role" for added realism and difficulty, and I'll likely end up watching many of my games play out.

Any suggestions on which team I should pick to restart with?

NYY #23 · 08-07-2009, 09:49 PM

I like the idea of wiping out the stats, because records and things are one of my favorite things. I vote for the Pirates. Good luck with whatever you chose though.

spider_monkey_b · 08-07-2009, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYY #23

I like the idea of wiping out the stats, because records and things are one of my favorite things. I vote for the Pirates. Good luck with whatever you chose though.

Yeah, I just looked through the 3 teams, Marlins, Padres, Pirates. All 3 have the lowest budgets in the MLB with the Marlins being the worst. However, Florida has Ramirez and quite a few young SP's so they are actually in an okay situation. The Padres have Peavy and Gonzalez and have made the playoffs a couple times in recent years.

The Pirates, however, are brutal. They really don't have a single player as a cornerstone for their franchise, they havn't won a world series in 30 years or so, and what's even worse....they have had a losing record in every single season for the past 16 years. That's just hard to comprehend. So...it looks like the Pirates will be the biggest challenge so I'm leaning towards them. Haha...to make matters worse they have an extra team to face in their division. Poor Bucos

NYY #23 · 08-07-2009, 10:08 PM

They definitely are brutal. The Marlins do have a good young core, and the Padres at least have a couple of good trade chips with Peavy and Gonazalez. The Pirates are a mess, but they do have a deep history, and won championships. Someone should turn them around.

Of course, for another type of challenge the Astros have one of the worst minor league systems in baseball, but have a decent sized market. I think they'd be a challenge to rebuild as well.

08-04-2009, 12:16 PM	#1
spider_monkey_b Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 282	Toronto Blue Jays 2009: Post MLB Stats Wipe **I was inspired by the dynasties of Ryan and Taves with their respective Jays and Nats dynasties and thought I'd give one a shot of my own. I'm quite sure, however, that my reports will lack the photos that some are using. I did make 3 slight changes in the editor to Aaron Hill, Travis Snider, and Ricky Romero before starting. The changes were pretty minor, just small bumps in a couple of attribute points to make the players more closely match their RL counterparts. Hill was projected to hit 13 HR in the editor but he has displayed the past couple of seasons that he is capable of 25. Snider was listed as the 42nd best prospect in OTP, but Baseball America has him listed as #6, and Ricky Romero is a strong ROY candidate this season so I just bumped his current ratings up to meet his potential. AI Trade Settings: Frequency: Low Difficulty: Hard Preference: Neutral I messed around for hours with different combinations of AI trade settings to see which would present the biggest challenge while maintaining realism and I decided on the above settings. Now let's begin... Robert James was still having difficulty processing the information he had just received. He had only been appointed General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays a mere 6 hours earlier and it all just seemed like too much to absorb. There hadn't even had time to meet with his staff yet or pour over his roster when the news hit him like a Billy Koch fastball. He glanced up once more to make sure he wasn't imagining things. He wasn't. The words were still splashed across his tv screen: MLB STATS WIPE Commishioner Bud Selig had announced that prior to the 2009 season starting the entire history of the MLB would be "officially" deleted. No more Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan, or Barry Bonds. His reason? "Tainted and Irrelevant" were the words Selig used, by which he meant that the record books were tained with the rampant steroid use of recent years and that most of the old records were unattainable by today's standards. James was snapped out of his stupor by a shrill cry. It took him a moment to locate the source, and when he did he picked up his telephone receiver and put it to his ear. - Robert James here. - Hi, Mr. James. I'm DR Marty Bumps from Atlanta. I have some good news. James had never heard of a Doctor Marty Bumps before, let alone one from Atlanta bearing good news, but he decided to bite. - Go on Marty. - Well, as you know, Dustin McGowan and Shaun Marcum came to see me today for a second opinion on their injuries. The truth was, James didn't know. - Yes, I know that Dr. Bumps. - Well whatever doctor first examined these boys must have been a real quack! Both of the lads are nearly completely healed and will be ready to go by Opening Day. - Wow...that is good news! - I thought you might like it. - Listen, call me anytime you have some more good news will you? - I will...and um...Mr. James... - Yes? - Good Luck. James placed the receiver on its hook and sat slowly back in his chair. A smirk began to slowly creep across his face as if the thought was just occurring to him for the first time, and he found himself whispering the words before he even knew what they were, "The Toronto Blue Jays. I'm GM of the Toronto Blue Jays!" The brief moment of euphoria lasted all but about 3 seconds when a second thought eclipsed the first. There was an awful lot of work to do to restore this team to a contender with the ability of knocking off the Yankees and Red Sox. With that realization James took out a pencil and notepad and began scribbling out his war plan. At first the words scattered across the page seemed like nothing more than a ripple of a dream. Little did he know that by tomorrow afternoon that ripple would turn into a tidal wave of reality. I decided to wipe the history because one of the most entertaining parts of a league, to me at least, is the tracking of history and records. Unfortunately, most of the MLB records are completely unbreakable because the game was played so differently when they were achieved. At first I just wanted to erase the record books, but keep the players career stats, but could not see a way to do that. In the end, an entire wipe is probably for the better because now my records will be completely generated by OTP. I hope you peeps enjoyed the read**

08-04-2009, 01:15 PM	#2
spider_monkey_b Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 282	Robert James was a busy man during his first 24 hours as Jays GM. Here are a list of his transactions: - Robert Brown was fired as Scouting Director and Chris Dempsey was hired to take his place. Dempsey brings 16 years of experience and is one of the most highly regarded scouts in the world. - Brian Butterfield was fired as Bench Coach, Cito Gaston was demoted to bench coach, and Juan Sanchez was hired as the new Jays manager. James also made 3 trades to secure young talent to build the team around: Deal 1: Toronto sends C J.P. Arencibia (AAA), SP Scott Richmond, SP David Purcey, C Michael Barrett, SS Justin Jackson (A), and C Bartolo Jeroman (AA) to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for C Matt Wieters and SP Bradley Bergesen (AAA). James gave up a lot to get Wieters but felt that it was important for the team to secure a franchise player. Wieters will begin the season as the team's starting catcher while Bergesen will become the 5th starter, a position he may not be ready to handle. Deal 2: Toronto sends SP Brian Tallet, RF/3B Jose Bautista, 2B Scott Campbell (AAA), and SP Brett Cecil (AAA) to the Oakland A's for SP Michael Ynoa (Rookie League), and SP Vincent Mazzaro (AAA). Tallet and Purcey will both immediately jump into Oakland's rotation and Bautista will provide depth at 3B. Ynoa is one of the most highly regarded pitching prospects in the game, but at 17 years old he is volatile. If he doesn't pan out, this trade will be marked as a disaster. Deal 3: Toronto sends SP Jesse Litsch, MR Casey Janssen, 1B Kevin Millar, and SP Davis Romero (AA) to the Texas Rangers in exchange for SS Elvis Andrus and MR Pedro Strop. James also made a few FA signings: CF Jim Edmonds was signed for 1 year at 1.4 million. He will bat vs righties. 2 More OF's, Alexis Gomez and Brady Clark were signed to minor league contracts and will provide depth in case of injury. C Guillermo Quiroz was also signed to a minor league deal.

08-06-2009, 03:29 PM	#3
TavesSoul Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 168	Good start, Spider. I look forward to reading more about how this works out. I like the idea of wiping the history so you can track your OTP history. Should make for a good read. Clearly, your Jays will be built around some young stars. Hopefully it works out.

08-06-2009, 03:43 PM	#4
ryan008 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: St. Catharines, Ontario Posts: 2,365	I am liking the Weiters deal. In my game he is one of the best offensive catchers in the league! Mind you Arencibia is right up there as well....mind you with the Yankees now! Good luck and I will definately be following

08-07-2009, 03:10 AM	#5
spider_monkey_b Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 282	The Blue Jays had a horrible start to the 2009 season going 2-10 in their first 12 games. It seemed as if the team really suffered from trading away Purcey, Tallet and Litsch, all of whom had strong April showings for their respective teams while Marcum, McGowan and Bergesen struggled in the Jays rotation. However, after a 2-10 start that looked like the season from hell was well underway, the Jays finished April on an 8-4 run to bring their April record to 11-14. April's Hot Players: Brandon League: 10.2 IP, .154 AVG, 0.00 ERA Travis Snider: .315 AVG, 7 HR, 22 RBI B.J. Ryan: 8.1 IP, .111 AVG, 0.00 ERA April's Cold Players: Ricky Romero: 0-4, 23 IP, .368 AVG, 9.00 ERA Aaron Hill: .205 AVG, 3 HR, 8 RBI Dustin Mcgowan: 1-4, 20.1 IP, .333 AVG, 8.85 ERA Key Injuries: SS Marco Scutoro injured on April 11th, Out 4 weeks with a torn hamstring. Scutaro's injury allowed budding star Elvis Andrus to make his debut with the big club. In 18 games, Andrus hit .263 with 9 runs scored and 2 stolen bases. Manager Juan Sanchez had Andrus hitting leadoff. *I decided to go all natural and just act as the GM for this dynasty...meaning I will leave all lineups and pitching rotations up to my manager. I give him the players, and he uses them. ** Here's hoping we can continue playing well in May.

08-07-2009, 09:36 PM	#6
spider_monkey_b Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 282	I'm probably not going to continue this dynasty. After playing out the first month last night I just can't seem to get into the Jays as I'd hoped, which is strange because the Jays are my team. I think the problem is when you try to manage your own team you know the players too well and somehow it gets into your head and really bugs you when they don't perform as you think they should either too good or too poor. Those trades I made also aren't very realistic...6 for 2 deals and stuff and I'm huge on maintaining realism. So, I'm going to be starting fresh as GM of a struggling franchise, but I'm having trouble deciding who. I actually just started an online league using MLB 2009 rosters as the Nationals and I'm having a blast trying to rebuild them in an online setting. I don't think I could use the Nats offline though because then I'd constantly be comparing my offline team to my online team and that would probably ruin some of the enjoyment. Also, Taves has a nice Nats dynasty going and I kinda want to be unique. I'm leaning towards choosing a struggling NL team just because I see so much of the AL being a Jays fan. I figure after excluding the Nats, the worst teams/situations are the Marlins, Pirates, and Padres. Once I decide I plan on playing only the "GM role" for added realism and difficulty, and I'll likely end up watching many of my games play out. Any suggestions on which team I should pick to restart with?

08-07-2009, 09:49 PM	#7
NYY #23 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 13,112	I like the idea of wiping out the stats, because records and things are one of my favorite things. I vote for the Pirates. Good luck with whatever you chose though.

08-07-2009, 10:08 PM	#9
NYY #23 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 13,112	They definitely are brutal. The Marlins do have a good young core, and the Padres at least have a couple of good trade chips with Peavy and Gonazalez. The Pirates are a mess, but they do have a deep history, and won championships. Someone should turn them around. Of course, for another type of challenge the Astros have one of the worst minor league systems in baseball, but have a decent sized market. I think they'd be a challenge to rebuild as well.