I finally have gotten back to playing more games after doing considerable roster creation work for MLB The Show 20 (MLBTS 20). Constructing these classic teams is almost as much fun as playing the game, but it gets very tedious so I am glad that this grunt work is in the rearview mirror. Now, I can actually now enjoy the fruits of my labor. I have always maintained that my rosters are community efforts, and we have a very vibrant and talented crew that works on creating players (CAPs) and assembling classic season or specialty rosters. I have acknowledged these fine folks on our Facebook Classic Rosters Group and on my thread over on Operation Sports for their contributions to my rosters.
I've tried to be a bit creative with my classic teams to work around one of the annoying limitations on MLBTS 20. This pet peeve of mine has been the inability to create custom leagues by eliminating some of the team slots. Currently, I have assembled 157 classic teams from the past. These teams range from 1940 to 2008. Another stumbling block I faced was trying to avoid duplicating players. When perusing many great teams from a specific decade, it is almost impossible to include all the great teams in one league due to the fact that certain players made an impact with more than one franchise like Pedro Martinez in the 90's with the Expos and then with the Red Sox.
To address these issues above, I decided to employ a divisional era concept in order to get full use of all my classic teams. By keeping teams from the same era in the same division, you are sort of creating 6 mini-leagues as divisional teams play each other 19 times. It also creates competitive balance as you don't have teams from the 1940s playing teams from the 1990s too often as the more current teams, more often than not, tend to be stronger. Having the uniform creation feature available in the franchise mode in MLBTS 20 was huge, and this allowed me to swap out team slots. I "relocated" a number of teams by creating uniforms which allowed me to get some interesting divisional combinations while keeping the teams within the same decade, for the most part. You'll also notice by my list of teams in the roster in the graphic above that I skipped decades at 20-year intervals as this franchise contains teams from the 40/50s, 70s, and 90s. Again, this was to avoid player duplication as having back-to-back decades in the same roster set became problematic. An example here is Pete Rose. "Charlie Hustle" was a key member of the Big Red Machine in the 70s and then helped the Phillies win a title in 1980. There is no way you couldn't leave him off either franchise. For some bench players, I had to make a decision between teams, so I usually went first by who they started the season with as my first rule. I also considered the impact made with a certain club or sometimes I tried to leave them on the team that may have won a World Series.
So now that I laid out my methodology for these sets, it's time to give you a brief recap of how the season has gone so far now that it is two-thirds completed. Below are the standings with a summary of notable teams and players. I chose to commandeer the 1978 Red Sox in this franchise while occasionally playing other games that offered interesting matchups or scenarios with regards to the standings. I have been keeping my eye on the 1941 Red Sox but from a distance as I haven't played many games with them. Now that they are in first place, I'll start to divide my attention as the '78 edition has a comfy 6.5 game lead at this point. As I mentioned earlier, the teams from earlier eras can have a disadvantage as you can see with the AL Central. Pitching just isn't as strong and that is reflected in the runs against column below. However, these teams aren't always the weak sister as the 40s/50s team in the NL Central seem to be holding their own a bit better and would benefit by teams not employing the DH.
The '78 Red Sox are 9-3 since the All-Star Break and 8-2 in their last ten as the schedule moves to the end of July. Consequently, they have padded their lead in the AL East as the '78 Brewers have fallen on tough times going 2-8 in their last ten. Milwaukee and Boston have been trading ownership of the division throughout the season, but now, the Sawx are stretching things out at the right time. The Red Sox have been monsters on the road going 40-16 with the '98 Yankees having a slightly better mark at 41-13. Both seem to be on a post-season collision course, and home-field seems like a non-factor.
The starting pitching corps has been guided by the dynamic duo of Dennis Eckersley and Mike Torrez. Both chuckers made the all-star team for the American League with Eck sporting a 14-4 mark and a 2.60 ERA. He has 132 strikeouts while only allowing 38 free passes. Not to be outdone, Torrez has been every bit as good if not better going 13-2, and he is among the ERA leaders with a fabulous 1.72. One of the highlights of this campaign has been Torrez's perfect game which can be found in the highlights section. Jim Wright has been an unsung hero on the staff fashioning an 11-6 record with a 2.91 ERA.
Boston has the second-best team batting average in the majors (.283) trailing only the AL West '96 Indians (.296). The Sawx have four players batting .300 or above: Fred Lynn (.333/.391./.561), Jim Rice (.300/.344/.565), Carlton Fisk (.309/.383/.465), and Jerry Remy (.300/.361/.405). The "Gold Dust Twins" pack the offensive punch with Rice leading the team in homers (27) and second in RBI (78) and hits (130). Lynn leads the team in RBI (83) and hits (132). He is second in homers (19).
The '41 Red Sox have also found their groove post-All-Star Break going 10-2 and are currently 9-1 in their last ten. This edition doesn't have the pitching wealth as their '78 brethren as only ace Tex Hughson has an ERA under three (10-6 2.71). Lefty Grove and Mickey Harris have performed yeoman's service registering 10 and 12 quality starts respectively, but both men have losing records with Grove at 8-11 and Harris the author of a 6-8 mark.
Offensively, two lifelong pals are providing the thump. Ted Williams (29 HR, 88 RBI, .303) and Bobby Doerr (21 HR, 68 RBI, .301) spearhead the attack with support from Joe Cronin (11 HR, 56 RBI, .322) and Jimmie Foxx (12 HR 46 RBI, .274). Williams always referred to Doerr as the "Silent Captain", and Doerr lived to the ripe old age of 99, becoming the oldest living Hall of Famer ever. Sometimes, the teams that I have assembled have a special achievement tied into my thinking. Of course, the year 1941 was the season of the last .400 hitter as Williams went down in baseball lore getting 6 hits in 8 trips to the plate in a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics to end the campaign at .406.
The '98 Yankees were once leading the AL West by a bundle, but the slugging '96 Indians are beginning to close the gap. New York has the third-best hitter in the league as Bernie Williams checks in at .342, trailing the Indians' Brian Giles (.354) and Manny Ramirez (.345), and he leads the league in slugging (.639). Williams is also tenth in homers launching 25 into the seats to date and is tied for eleventh in ribbies (79). He also sits in third place tie in OBP (.430) with Albert Belle of the Indians. In a reoccurring theme, two other Indians players that are in first and second place in this category are Brian Giles (.443) and Manny Ramirez (.437). Tino Martinez (19 HR, 73 RBI.308/.377/.508) and captain Derek Jeter (15 HR, 68 RBI .294/.349/.469) have predominately assisted in run production for the Bombers, and there is plenty more thump in the lineup as Paul O'Neill and Darryl Strawberry have belted 19 and 20 home runs respectively. On the bump, Hideki Irabu and David Wells are in the top seven in wins as Irabu has 13 and Wells 11 for the Yankees. Staff ace Andy Pettitte is 10-6 and his 3.18 ERA is tenth best overall.
In the National League East, the '77 Dodgers are running away with the division. Early NL MVP candidate Reggie Smith is carrying the Dodgers at the plate batting .337 which is good for the third-best mark in the Senior Circuit. He leads the league in home runs (38), RBI (100), and slugging percentage (.711). Teammates Dusty Baker and Ron Cey rank in the top ten in RBI with 73 apiece, and Cey and Steve Garvey are second on the Dodgers in homers with 20 each. Dodgers' hurlers Rick Rhoden and Don Sutton have 11 wins each to their credit, and Sutton sits fifth overall in ERA (2.57).
The NL Central is a two-horse race with the '42 Cardinals currently enjoying a 4 game lead. Stan "The Man" Musial is doing his thing with a .341 batting average second only to Chicago rival Phil Cavarretta who is atop the National League list at .346. Musial has also hit 13 bombs and drove in 58 runs. Pitching is the name of the game in St. Louis with Mort Cooper wielding a 12-4 record and a 2.85 ERA with 18 quality outings. Ernie White (2.73) and Bill Lohrman (3.66) both have 7 wins to their credit and both have 15 quality starts. On the subject of pitching, the '45 Cubs' ace Ray Prim is second in the league in ERA (1.94) and wins (14).
In the NL West, the '90 Pirates own the best record in baseball. The '98 Astros are having a very good season and are still an astounding 13.5 behind Pittsburgh. Pirates reliever Bob Patterson is having a season for the ages. He has registered a minuscule ERA of 0.78 in 45 games and has notched 38 saves. Pen middle relief mates Stan Belinda and Bob Kipper have combined for a 13-5 record, but it doesn't end there. The starting rotation features three of the best in baseball. Zane Smith (13-4), John Smiley (11-3), and Bob Walk (11-4) have been formidable, and all rank in the top 6 in the league in wins. Smith (2.29) has the fourth-best ERA in the league and Walk is the twelfth best here (2.85).
Barry Bonds (24 HR, 77 RBI, .291/.385/.584), Sid Bream (20 HR, 69 RBI, .304/.391/.523), Bobby Bonilla (20 HR, 84 RBI, .297/.351/.518), and Andy Van Slyke ( 18 HR, 54 RBI, .313/.401/.513) have been the run producers. Bonds is fourth overall in slugging and is in a fourth-place tie in RBI. Bonilla is second only to the aforementioned Reggie Smith of the Dodgers in RBI. Table setter Wally Backman is batting a sizzling .336 which is fourth-best overall, and the Pirates have the fourth-best team batting average in the majors (.281). Pittsburgh also has the second-best OBP (.361).
The '98 Astros have a healthy lead in the wildcard race thanks to the "Killer Bees": Sean Berry (18 HR 69 RBI .313/.372/.553), Craig Biggio (18 HR 69 RBI .293/.378/.503), Jeff Bagwell (19 HR 69 RBI .287/.382/.523) and Derek Bell (12 HR 76 RBI .258/.322/.432). Sean Bergman (12-2, 3.32) has been the ace of the pitching staff, and Shane Reynolds (9-5) leads the league in ERA (1.63) and is sixth in punchouts (121). Randy Johnson is third overall in strikeouts with 137.
No comments:
Post a Comment