Watch Baseball Evolve - My MLB Journal

[MaCrawford]

Intro

One of my favourite things with OOTP is the ability to sim into the future. I really enjoy seeing how baseball evolves and who become the stars and Hall of Famers and World Champions as the baseball world advances.

This is my journal charting the history of my MLB starting at the beginning of the 2016 season (yes, the Cubs haven't won yet!)

I'm not going to be too detailed, but instead give an overview of each season, so that you can see how things went. I'm going for more of a journalistic approach than a storytelling one with this journal.

Without further ado, let's begin!

2016 Season

World Series: Washington Nationals 4 - 2 Toronto Blue Jays

The Nationals (92-70) beat the Blue Jays to win their first World Championship and shock the world. They got to the World Series after besting the heavily favoured Los Angeles Dodgers (103-59) in a hotly contested NLCS 4-3, with Clayton Kershaw losing in the final game. Thus adding to the mythos surrounding him not being a postseason pitcher.

Awards:

AL MVP - Mike Trout (his 2nd MVP)
NL MVP - Giancarlo Stanton (hitting 52 homers)
AL Cy Young - Sonny Gray
NL Cy Young - Clayton Kershaw (his 4th Cy Young and also he got the Triple Crown this year)
AL Rookie - Nomar Mazara
NL Rookie - Corey Seager
AL Manager - A.J. Hinch
NL Manager - Dusty Baker

Milestones:

Gio Gonzalez threw a no-hitter playing with the Rays against the Tigers.

Hall of Fame:

Manny Ramirez became a first ballot Hall of Famer, entering with 93.2% of the vote. Kind of surprising given his PED history, but certainly deserving. Jeff Bagwell gained ground with 73.6% and should gain entry eventually. Vladimir Guerrero entered his first year with a strong showing of 66.8%.

Meanwhile, Tim Raines (54.1%) fell off the ballot after his 10th year passed.

Next year: Chipper Jones, Jim Thome and Andrew Jones join the ballot!

How 2016 differed from reality

The Chicago Cubs didn’t win the World Series!

Alex Rodriguez didn’t retire. He actually had a pretty good year, hit 24 homeruns and is still chasing Barry Bonds for the all-time homerun lead.

Carlos Beltran, Bartolo Colon and CC Sabathia all had really bad years and retired.

[MaCrawford]

2017 Season

World Series: Houston Astros 4 - 3 Los Angeles Dodgers

Just a year after the Nationals shocked the world by winning their first ever World Championship, the Astros pulled off the same trick to win their first ever World Series! The last game was a blitz for Astros, but it was a great World Series with lots of close games.

Continuing his heartbreaking run of postseason bad luck, Clayton Kershaw got injured in his last start and missed the entire playoff run, after going 21-3 with a 2.13 ERA in the regular season.

In a press conference after the loss to the Astros, Kershaw declared that he would lead his Dodgers to the World Series next year and win it all!

Ichiro Suzuki finally called it quits on his legendary career, finishing short of 3000 hits with 2965.

Awards:

AL MVP - Carlos Correa
NL MVP - Clayton Kershaw (arguably his best year ever)
AL Cy Young - Alex Cobb
NL Cy Young - Clayton Kershaw (his 5th Cy Young and narrowly misses out on another Triple Crown as Syndergaard had four more strikeouts)
AL Rookie - Matt Chapman
NL Rookie - Alex Verdugo
AL Manager - John Farrell
NL Manager - Dick Scott

With his 5th Cy Young and 2nd MVP Award, Kershaw has cemented himself as one of the all-time great pitchers the game has ever seen.

Milestones:

There were two no hitters this season. Tyler P. Wilson, pitching for the Orioles threw a no hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays. Then, just two days later, Matt Barnes threw one for the Boston Red Sox against the Los Angeles Angels.

In other milestones, Adrian Beltre got his 3000th hit. And David Ortiz (still playing!) and Miguel Cabrera joined the 2500 hit club. Meanwhile, Felix Hernandez struck out his 2500 batter.

Also, this season Alex Rodriguez passed Babe Ruth for 3rd on the all-time homeruns leaderboard. He finished the season on 729 and still active.

Hall of Fame:

As expected, Chipper Jones became a first ballot Hall of Fame, entering the Hall of Fame with 88.6% of the vote.

Jim Those narrowly missed becoming a first ballot-er himself. He entered the voting cycle with 72.2%, just off the 75% needed of induction.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens both gained a fair bit of % this year, whilst Jeff Bagel, Vladimir Guerrero and Curt Schilling all fell back a bit.

Jorge Posada gets surprisingly little support and drops of the ballot in just his 2nd year.

Next year: Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Todd Helton and Roy Halladay all debut!

[MaCrawford]

2018 Season

World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers 4 - 2 Texas Rangers

Well, he did it. After declaring last season, after getting injured just before the playoffs, that he would win it all with the Dodgers next he; he did! This journal has become kind of the Clayton Kershaw show, but he’s on such a good run and is just dominating.

Last year, with the MVP and Cy Young Award double win (for an unprecedented second time), he solidified himself as in the conversation for one of the all-time great pitchers. With this World Championship, he’s now clearly in the conversation as one of the all-time great superstars of the game.

Especially thrilling was Kershaw’s part in taking out their nemesis Chicago Cubs in the NLCS. The Dodgers overcame an incredibly strong team and one of the strongest rotations around, as the Cubs now have Stephen Strasburg in their team, along with Jake Arrieta and the still very effective Jon Lester.

After the Nationals and the Astros had run the World Series in the last two years, the Rangers were trying to be the third team in consecutive years to win a World Championship for the first time.

David Ortiz, Jonathan Papelbon, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Cain and Omar Infante all called it a day at the end of this season.

Awards:

AL MVP - Nomar Mazara (follows up his 2016 Rookie of the Year)
NL MVP - Clayton Kershaw (holy moly!)
AL Cy Young - Michael Fulmer
NL Cy Young - Clayton Kershaw (his 6th)
AL Rookie - Casey Gillaspie
NL Rookie - Cody Bellinger
AL Manager - Jeff Banister
NL Manager - Dave Roberts

What more is there to say about Clayton Kershaw? Is 6th Cy Young Award is a record in the National League and the second most all-time behind Roger Clemens. He’s now won the MVP/Cy Young double THREE times! They may as well just name an award after him!

Milestones:

There were three no hitters this season. Lucas Sims threw one for the Braves against the Chicago Cubs. Lance Lynn pitched one for the Dodgers against the Pirates. Then, Stephen Strasburg threw a Perfect Game against the Mets, striking out 12.

Jake Peavy and Clayton Kershaw both reached the 2500 strikeout club.

Hall of Fame:

This year, both Mariano Rivera and Jim Those are Hall of Fame found! Rivera, a first ballot HoF-er, received 89% of the vote and Thome (in his second year of eligibility, got 80.2%

Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds gained ground again, as it seems PED aspirations are further and further in the past for voters.

It was also something of a HoF purge, as much debated about candidates Edgar Martinez and Fred McGriff dropped off after their 10th year. Surprisingly a number of others dropped off the ballot in their early years on the cycle - Andruw Jones, Roy Oswalt, Jeff Kent, Scott Rolen, Billy Wagner, Johan Santana and Jamie Moyer were big names among 15 drop-offs this year.

Next year: Derek Jeter (should to be a first ballot Hall of Famer), Jason Giambi and Cliff Lee are among the names. With a weak 2019 class (aside from Jeter), it will give other longtime hold-outs a chance to get into the Hall.

2019 Season

World Series: Houston Astros 4 - 2 Miami Marlins

In a first-time ever in the World Series match, the Astros took on the Marlins, but the Astros ran away with it thanks in large part to Series MVP Kyle Tucker. He also ended up winning the AL Rookie of the Year as well. Great start to his career!

The strong Astros team, led by Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve, win their second World Championship in three years.

Alex Rodriguez officially retired at the start of the season, finishing in 3rd place on the all-time homeruns leaderboard with 730.

Awards:

AL MVP - Bryce Harper (his 2nd MVP, and becomes just the second player ever to win the award in both leagues. Frank Robinson was the other)
NL MVP - Nolan Arenado
AL Cy Young - Patrick Corbin
NL Cy Young - Tyson Ross
AL Rookie - Kyle Tucker
NL Rookie - Telmito Agustin
AL Manager - Joe Maddon
NL Manager - A.J. Hinch

Milestones:

There were three no hitters again this season. Gio Gonzalez threw his second career no hitter. Also, Austin Brice and Francis Martes pitched them.

Prince Fielder joined the 400 homerun club.

Cole Hamels got his 2500th strikeout.

Miguel Cabrera gets his1500th run scored.

Hall of Fame:

This was a crazy year for the Hall of Fame. We thought Derek Jeter might be entering Cooperstown alone, due to it being a weak entry-class this year. However, due to a rule change by the National Baseball Hall of Fame (expanding the number of ballet spots from 10 to 15), Jeter is joined by a number of other longtime holdouts on the ballet.

Jeter enters with a 94.2% first time entry.

Following him in are Roger Clemens (88%), Curt Schilling (82.5%), Jeff Bagwell (79.4%), Vladimir Guerrero (79.1%), Barry Bonds (79.1%) and Ivan Rodriguez (76.3%). This years total of 7 inductions makes it the largest class since the Hall of Fame was created. Jeter won’t be lonely when he enters!

Another big change in the Hall of Fame voting system is that the rules were reversed so that players now remain on the ballot for 15 years again rather than 10 years. It was recently changed from 15 years to 10 years, but the committee decided that that doesn’t give adequate time to appropriate assess a player.

Dropping off this year without much discussion were Josh Beckett, Adam Dunn, Johnny Damon and Lance Berkman.

Next year: another weak class that features Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Torii Hunter debuting, among others.

2020 Season

World Series: Texas Rangers 4 - 2 Los Angeles Dodgers

In a year where three clubs won 100+ games, it was fitting that two 100+ game winners would collide in the World Series. The Texas Rangers (103-59) slugged it out with the Los Angeles Dodgers (100-62).

This marks the third time in my game world where a team who previously hasn’t won a World Championships wins it all.The Rangers follow the Nationals and the Astros to achieve that honor. In five game years, 3 first-time winner teams have emerged, with the Astros winning it twice!

It makes you wonder who’s going to win the World Series next year - maybe the Padres for the first year ever!?

The Dodgers continue to build a franchise out west. They’ve now appeared in 3 of the past 4 World Series.

Awards:

AL MVP - Bryce Harper (2nd year in a row and 3rd MVP in total)
NL MVP - Kris Bryant (first MVP award for the man they call ‘The Franchise.’
AL Cy Young - Gerrit Cole
NL Cy Young - Clayton Kershaw
AL Rookie - Chris Sanchez
NL Rookie - Junior Severino
AL Manager - Jeff Banister
NL Manager - Dave Roberts (his 2nd)

The big news here is Kershaw’s record-tying 7th Cy Young award. He wins his 7th after a blockbuster trade sent him to the New York Mets, after a year spent in Colorado. The longtime Dodger now aims to build a franchise in New York.

Milestones:

Miguel Cabrera is again in the news for big records. This year he hit his 500th homerun and his 3000th hit.

Clayton Kershaw gets his 200th win, as does Justin Verlander. Kershaw also gets to 3000 strikeouts, whilst Zach Greinke gets to 2500.

Bryce Harper joins elite company, as he gets the hitting Triple Crown this year! He hit .378 with 47 homeruns and 154 RBIs! He’s going to be a force for many years to come!

There were three more no hitters this one: for Julio Teheran, Jayson Aquino and Martin Perez.

Hall of Fame:

After a record 7 players were inducted last year, just one sole name will grace Cooperstown when he enters next year. That name is Mike Mussina.

The longtime Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees pitcher finally gets the recognition he deserves. He entered with 84.8% of the vote.

Mussina’s longtime teammate Andy Pettitte gained ground again in his 3rd year with 68.5% of the vote. And Todd Helton wasn’t far behind with 64.8%.

Next year: a pretty strong class next year, featuring Ichiro Suzuki, Carlos Beltran, CC Sabathia and Ryan Howard.

2021 Season

World Series: Houston Astros 4 - 1 Atlanta Braves

This young Astros team has built a franchise! Great team of young players building a franchise For instance, star pitcher Francis Martes has won 3 World Championships and he’s only 25! He sports a great 8-2 record with a 1.09 ERA in the postseason.

This is the Astros 3 World Championship in the last 5 years.

It’s hard not to respect this young side full of superstars like Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve, Martes, Daz Cameron, Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Jason Martin, as well as the best closer in the world right now, Ken Giles. What a team! What a franchise!

Happenings around the MLB World:

Two name teams emerged this year, as Indianapolis Arrows came to the American League Central and the San Antonio Stallions joined the National League West. Both teams had tough time and ended the season at the bottom of their respective divisions.

In a huge blockbuster signing, the Texas Rangers, after winning the World Series, signed superstar Mike Trout. This means the Rangers now have Mike Trout and Bryce Harper playing on the same team - two of the best players of their Eras playing together in their primes.

With Nomar Mazara also in the team, that’s an outfield that features 6 MVP awards between them (and counting!) Rougned Odor rounds out the team of superstars!

Milestones:

The Brewers’ Corey Ray hit for the Triple Crown this year.

Giancarlo Stanton joins the 400 homerun club.

Carlos Martinez and Nate Karns threw no hitters this year.

Hall of Fame:

Ichiro Suzuki, as expected, gets into the Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot. Joining him are Good Helton and Carlos Beltran (also a first ballot Hall of Fame).

Ichiro got 82.4% of the vote, Helton 77.9% and Beltran 75.9%

Andy Pettitte, Roy Halladay and Gary Sheffield all gained big this year and look like strong potentials for eventually Hall inclusion.

Next year: weak field next year featuring Jimmy Rollins and James Shields.