September 1-7 2001 Sim Recap

American League Player of the Week Winner:

CF Carlos Beltran: .552 AVG. 1 HR 14 RBI

Honorable Mention:

Moises Alou: .467 BA 3 HR 12 R 10 RBI

Teams that are hot:

Kansas City Royals 6-1, including a 4 game sweep against the garbage Tigers. It's not that they swept them but the manner in which they swept them, outscoring them 60-15 in the 4 game set. Player of the Week Carlos Beltran went 10/19 for the series with 6 runs and 9 RBI.

The Baltimore Orioles made up as much ground in one sim as one can ever hope for when chasing someone for the division lead. They were able to make up 3 games in the standings to the division leading Boston Red Sox spearheaded by winning the last two games against Boston with one game remaining on the first day of the next sim. The Orioles are right back in the race.

Teams that are not: Boston Red Sox

There are your usual culprits. Shit teams like the Rockies, Padres and Tigers will be amongst the worst in every sim, but there's one team that's on the verge of choking away its division lead after a 2-5 sim that saw the Orioles shave 3 games off their lead. The Boston Red Sox are struggling right now and could ill afford to have another sim like the one they just had or they will probably see the division lead completely evaporate. The reason they've been so good was the incredible hot streak Pedro was on before losing his last two starts and if he doesn't keep performing at the same ridiculous level I don't see the Red Sox holding off the Orioles.


National League Player of the Week Winner:

RF Vladimir Guerrero: .417 AVG. 4 HR 14 RBI

Honorable Mention:

Orlando Merced: .619 AVG 1 HR 5 RBI 7 R

Teams that are hot:

The NL East, seems like you have to go 5-2 on a sim to sim basis just to avoid losing ground and that was the case this past sim also. The Marlins, Braves, and Expos combined to go 16-5 for a win percentage of .762, pretty sick. It's unfortunate all three are in the same division

Teams that are not:

The Houston Astros have a pretty good record, but they are still pretty disappointing considering the fact they are 17 games back in a division that was considered a two horse race. I'm not going to be too hard on them because they have a solid record, but they are currently on a 4 game losing streak that capped off a below .500 sim. The Houston Astros are basically already mathematically eliminated from a postseason berth, which is unfortunate and it looks like they might continue to tail off.



Notable Good PD's
Jason Kubel +2 (3.5*): Increases talent in Strikeouts and Walks
Sidney Rivas +2 (3.5*): Increases his talent in hitting for average and avoiding Strikeouts
Grady Sizemore +2 (4.5*): Increases his talent in taking walks and avoiding Strikeouts

Impact: There were some other nice pd's around the league, but I'm only pointing out the important ones here. Jason Kubel greatly improved his plate discipline this sim and went from basically a scrub to a hitter with above average talents if D2A decides to TIA him at some point. A TIA to either his hits or homeruns can make him a potential stud in the long run and he's still only 18. Clutch little PD for the Tigers.

Sidney Rivas also received a +2 PD but his was probably better considering he actually improved his ability to hit. He's much older though so if he's going to have someone invest in him, it better happen soon. A TIA to homers can make him an all star maybe at some point. I don't think a .280 average with 25 or so home runs is out of the question for Rivas in the future if someone puts that TIA into his homers.

Finally, and most importantly, is the improvement of Grady Sizemore. With this last PD, I envision Sizemore becoming one of the best leadoff men in the league as he is good at pretty much everything except power. The Cardinals still have a TIA to use on him and I would recommend you utilize that TIA to increase his ability to hit for average. Hitters are scarce in this league so anytime you can get a hitter to go from good to great, it's a big W.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notable Bad PD's
Carl Pavano -1: Talent in avoiding Walks drop
Orlando Merced -2: Talent in avoiding strikeouts and hitting for average drops.

ImpactCarl Pavano's bad PD doesn't seem like a big deal or anything and chances are it will probably get reversed, but I feel it is important for front line starters to have at least one brilliant category and Pavano had it in arguably the most important rating. If/When Oakland decides to reverse it, Pavano will be at risk of suffering further pd's that are more debilitating. It's always a little scary when you have to reverse a pd to a player that's so young.

Some of you might be thinking, "LOL, Orlando Merced?". He's old, has no potential and doesn't have amazing ratings to begin with, who cares right? Wrong, dude is a pretty big part of what the Giants are doing as he has helped pick up some of the production lost with the injury of Gary Sheffield. He'd be in the top 10 in average, OPS and OBP if eligible so it will be interesting to see how he performs from this point forward.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Records Last 7 Days

Team W-L Win%
T1. Florida Marlins 6-1 (.857)
T1. Kansas City Royals 6-1 (.857)
T3. Baltimore Orioles 5-2 (.714)
T3. Atlanta Braves 5-2 (.714)
T3. Montreal Expos 5-2 (.714)
T3. Chicago Cubs 5-2 (.714)
T3. San Francisco Giants 5-2 (.714)
T8. Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 (.571)
T8. New York Yankees 4-3 (.571)
T8. Chicago White Sox 4-3 (.571)
T8. Cleveland Indians 4-3 (.571)
T8. Minnesota Twins 4-3 (.571)
T8. Oakland A's 4-3 (.571)
T8. Texas Rangers 4-3 (.571)
T8. Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 (.571)
T8. New York Mets 4-3 (.571)
T8. St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 (.571)
T18. Anaheim Angels 3-4 (.429)
T18. Houston Astros 3-4 (.429)
T18. Pittsburgh Pirates 3-4 (.429)
T18. Seattle Mariners 3-4 (.429)
T22. Boston Red Sox 2-5 (.286)
T22. Milwaukee Brewers 2-5 (.286)
T22. Los Angeles Dodgers 2-5 (.286)
T25. Detroit Tigers 1-6 (.143)
T25. Cincinnati Reds 1-6 (.143)
T25. Colorado Rockies 1-6 (.143)
T25. San Diego Padres 1-6 (.143)

Other things of Note:

It seems like the whole article at this point has been dedicated to the Royals, but they just had some amazing results. In back to back games they scored 43 runs and combined for 48 hits. I doubt that has been matched by anyone so far this season. Some of the stats from that 2 game stretch are:

-Royals hit .516 for the 2 games.
-Tigers had an ERA of 23.625
-Royals were held scoreless for 7 of the 16 innings. Royals averaged 2.69 runs per inning and 4.78 in innings they did score.
-Tigers held their own and hit .301 in the 2-game stretch.


Upcoming Match-ups to Watch:
Montreal Expos vs. San Francisco Giants 9/9-9/11

Game 1: Kevin Rogers (10-10, 3.91) vs. Gil Meche (10-13, 5.15)
Game 2: Kirk Reuter (17-10, 3.18) vs. Eric Milton (12-8, 2.52)
Game 3: Bartolo Colon (16-7, 3.52) vs. Hideo Nomo (12-6, 2.98)

Importance: This series will probably determine the Expos' fate from this point forward as they are barely within striking distance of a wild card berth and the Giants are the first team they play that sim. Both teams are evenly matched and hold identical records so this 3-game set will be a fun one to watch. I expect the Giants to get the better of the matchup against Meche and to split the last two games.

Prediction: Giants win Series 2-1

Orioles vs. White Sox 9/12-9/13

Game 1: James Baldwin (8-14, 5.99) vs. Donovan Osborne (17-12, 3.72)
Game 2: Alex Fernandez (16-12, 3.15) vs. Todd Stottlemyer (18-9, 2.77)

Importance: The Orioles are in the drivers seat for the wild card but are within striking distance of the Red Sox while the White Sox try all but clinch their division in this upcoming sim. Luckily for the Orioles, they face one of the worst pitchers in the league in James Baldwin (I bet he wishes he didn't trade Randy Johnson now) and have the slight advantage in the game 2 matchup as well. Orioles should win game 1 easily and I believe they'll win game 2 as they are just the better team.

Prediction: Orioles sweep the 2-game series

Bonus Bonehead move of the week
San Francisco releasing Moises Alou via waivers to the Baltimore Orioles
-Seems like all he needed was a change of scenery, his stats this past sim are as follows:

.467 BA 3 HR 12 R 10 RBI in 7 games since being acquired from the Giants.

This could end up being a huge pickup as Moises Alou's ratings indicate he's been underperforming all season. If he can play up to his ratings from this point forward, this might be an absolute steal.

Bonus Rant/Thoughts:



What. The. Fuck. was this? The White Sox had arguably the best team in the American League after the acquisition of Randy Johnson and immediately eliminated themselves from World Series contention when they traded him for peanuts to Florida. Yes, Randy Johnson is old, but he's still a fucking ace? What a dumbass decision. You traded Randy Johnson for less than a TIA? lmao. Stupid shit for real. The reason i bring this up is because when i looked for upcoming matchups to watch, I seen that James Baldwin was scheduled to start against the Orioles. You cannot be serious. Having Randy Johnson there instead would be a huge boost because you literally got no replacement or talent in return. He basically got dumped for a two trade frenzy reward. Stupid Shit. One comment in the trade thread basically sums up the whole thing.