Another Starter Down
Well, here’s the game that I think may have put my First Timer League on the shelf for the time being. It was a real gut punch. Not because I lost another game that was close but because I lost another starting pitcher.
Four games into the season and I have 2 starting pitchers on the Injured List for at least 10 days, one of which for at least 5 weeks.
Sure this is a simulation and it is something that can obviously happen during a season but this is my first time playing the game.
To equate it to a similarly complex game, it’d be like watching a bunch of barbarians show up at my first city, two turns after I settle it, when all I’ve got to defend myself is a single warrior in Civilization. It’s just not a good situation at any time, much less when you are just starting to try to learn the game.
In any case it has me on the fence on whether I want to continue, start over, play a new game and come back later, or cry.
I’m pretty sure the crying thing is off the board right away since this is just a game. If it were the real MLB season and this happened to my Angels, yeah, I might cry a little.
We’ll see about the other 3 options.
Ok, so here are the starting lineups for the game and I noticed one thing right off the bat. My starter – Dylan Bundy – was not starting the game.
Huh?
I guess the simulation thought it was best to go with an opener for game 4 of the season. I was skeptical but kept with it to see what would happen.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of openers but I can kinda understand the idea that pitchers these days tend not to perform so well once they’ve gone through the lineup twice. I’m not sure if it’s the scouting, the technology, or what, but starters rarely last through the third time facing a lineup.
The OOTP simulation decided having Jacob Barnes open the game was a great idea, so I went with it.
Well, I was up first and I was pleased to see my team get out in front. David Fletcher lead off with a nice home run off Jose Urquidy. 1–0 and things were just getting started, I was happy.
That was all we got, but it was plenty for the first inning.
So the first thing that bothers me about my opener is he gave up an lead off walk.
Hmm – I thought the idea of an opener is to go all out and really punch out those first few batters you face so the game can get started on the right foot.
Nope, Barnes threw 4 pitches to Kyle Turner and walked him.
FOUR pitches!
Altuve buts him over and SOMEHOW manages to beat out the throw so now I’ve got runners on First and Second with no outs. My opener strategy is really paying off after 5 pitches!
Tucker steals third but Altuve is out trying to nab second.
With one out, Bregman smacks a soft liner to left and Tucker scores… 1–1.
Barnes gets out of the inning without surrendering another run but needless to say, the opener strategy didn’t work out too well.
So I bring in Bundy who gets through the 2nd inning fine but in the 3rd, he gives up a 2-out home run to Bregman. This Houston lineup is sure stacked.
In any case, Bundy gets out of the inning and we’re down 2–1.
In the top of the 4th, Trout and Rendon hit back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners and Pujols singles in Trout to tie up the game.
Houston comes up in the bottom of the 4th and Bundy strikes out Springer. Brantly grounds out to Simmons and Correa flies out to Trout. But on that last pitch to Correa, Bundy feels a twinge. Gotta take him outta the game to have him examined. Bundy threw just 48 pitches in 3 innings and now he’s out for who knows how long.
Well, it turns out he’s gone for 5 weeks with an oblique strain.
The rest of the game was a nail biter as my bullpen held the game even for 3 innings.
I tried a couple of hit-and-runs when people got on base and they worked pretty well. I tried substitutions for base runners and batters, but I could not generate another run.
Finally, in the bottom of the 8th, Stubbs smacked a 2-run home run off Buttrey to give Houston a 2-run lead and eventually a 4–2 victory.
It was a good game. I enjoyed it even though my team lost, but I feel it was a learning experience with trying out hit-and-run, substitutions, and warming up pitchers.
What was not good was that this was the second game outta 4 in which I lost a starting pitcher. I was already trying to figure out how I was going to cope with the loss of Teheran but now I am down another starter.
I don’t know. Maybe I’ll wait till Monday to make a decision on what to do, but I am still pretty frustrated about the whole thing.
I’m starting to lean towards starting up another season and letting this one sit on the shelf for a while. I figure I can come back after I’ve learned a bit more about how to work the minor league system and scouting reports. Maybe I can figure out trading and pitching potential as well so I can make some good moves for the team.
In any case, I feel like this season and this first game just really got incredibly difficult and I’d rather not jump in to the deep end so quickly.
Ramble 2020.02.25 | Another Starter Down