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Franchise: Detroit V. St.louis 2009


CircleChange11

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I normally pick struggling franchises to play with ... intrigued by the challenge of developing them to respectability. Often that prevents me from using my Redbirds. But, with 2k9, I'm looking at one season play. Albert is just fun to hit with. He has a small strike zone, and hits everything ... usually hard. It was even "worse" in 2k8 when each player's "batters eye" was based on ratings, and Albert's "batters eye" took up the whole strikezone. Note: I don;t use batters eye in 2k9.

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The game against Hamels was a blast. It was one of those games where whoever makes the first mistake ... loses. Thankfully, PHL made the mistake.

St. Louis has yet to lose or split back to back series ... or win consecutive series.

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Detroit looks to be combing back (slightly) from their 4-11 streak, the 2-0 sweep over MIN was their 1st series win of the season.

Verlander (1-5) finally got in the win column, and I would not be surprised if he ended up something like 16-8. He's pitched pretty well in most games, but the offense is inconsistent. Ordonez is all or nothing, he either gets 2 hits or none, Cabrera has been the only consistently good hitter, and I have to get Grandy going. When he gets on, he often scores. He just ain;t getting on that much.

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Man, that is awesome about Zavada. Him being a fellow Illinoian, I'll be keeping an eye on his career. :yahoo:

* Love the Pujols cover. I see Albert is doing what Albert does best.... Hit the cover off the ball. :)

*Just saw the updates. Love those templates and format. Good stuff man. Good summaries too.

Did you see him knock out the "I" in the Big MacLand sign against my Cubbies the other day?

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Whew! I finally got all caught up on the updates, and that's good because I'm itching to getback to making some concept uniforms. StL plays PIT and I've got some good ideas for the Pirates based off of a concept logo I found on the net. Lkewise, DET plays CWS and I've got some ideas on how to mesh the concept unis presented for MVP with the classis "Sox Softball Unis" to create something so ugly, that it's actually interesting.

I'll also make another set of DET concept unis, and adjust some of the Cards uis. The "trim" on the Cards uni is supposed to be "The Arch", and I need to lower it off of the neckline in order to be recognizable.

UMachines gave me some great instructions on how to edit the green/bump files, but I not savvy enough to do it, so the unis, for the most part, will not have the 'raised texture' for the jersey scripts.

Standings, team stats, and performance points to come up here in a minute.

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Man, that is awesome about Zavada. Him being a fellow Illinoian, I'll be keeping an eye on his career. :yahoo:

Yeah, man. This kid is one of those guys you like as soon as you meet him. Needless to say, sporting his "Rollie Fingers" moustache in his MLB debut lets you know just how much of a goofy lefty he is. Today he told us that he sat by Mark Grace on the flight from MIami to Oakland, and Clay is a big Cub fan, so that was awesome for him. He told us that Scott Schoenweiss is as great of a guy as everyone is saying, and he says that Jon Garland is flat out cool, and has taken "Z" under his wing. Clay said that the club indicated to him that he has a good chance to stay in the bigs this year.

I coached another kid for 3 years, Brooks Martin, who had a strong junior season at Central Missourri that vwas drafted by Florida after HS, that will be drafted again, but he wants to return for his senior year to graduate. He's another goofy dude that's just fun to be around, and doesn't take himself seroiusly. He throws 89-92 consistently with a killer slider and sinker. If he had played at a bigger school (read: Chicagoland), he'd be starting for someone in the Big 10. That's just how it goes.

Here's Brooksie ...

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87K's in 76 IP

He's one of those guys that will be even better as a pro because they'll make more contact, meaning he won;t have to throw some many pitches (lots of takes and swings & misses) to get outs, and the defense will be better behind him. They fell one game short from going to the D2 college world series. He came in to see me today, and like I said he's just a fun kid to be around. THe first thing he talked about was going fishing. Sounds good to me, although I usually catch more beers than fish ... actually all I catch is beers.

* Love the Pujols cover. I see Albert is doing what Albert does best.... Hit the cover off the ball. :)

The problem with Albert on this game is that the only strikes he sees are low and away, so even though he has 7 HRs, he has 11 doubles. Troy Glaus, on the other hand gets pitches to hit all the time, but just sucks. Barden or Freese are going to get more ABs, as I look to dump Glaus for some more middle relief.

Did you see him knock out the "I" in the Big MacLand sign against my Cubbies the other day?

Yeah. He is just unbelievable, even though it's cliche to say it. What he has done in his career is ridiculous. Without a drug-aided Bonds, ALbert might have 5 MVPs already (<-- Seriously). Actually his streak of seasons, closely mimics Stan Musials streak of .300-30-100 seasons. It's kinda weird, actually. The only thing he can do that h pretty much hasn;t already done is either hit .400 or finish the season with more HRs than Ks. I don;t think he'll ever be a 50HR guy, because he hits too many line drives, and goes the opposite way often, rather than going for the long ball and striking out ... but that's what sets him apart from the Ryan Howards of the world.

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Detroit v. St. Louis Stat Updates (through 9 Series)

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Finally, both teams are moving in the right direction as far as performance points goes ... wins tend do that for ya.

THe slider stats show the pros/cons of the game.

The sim stats are pretty darn close, considering ~30 combined games.

The play stats are also pretty good ~30 combined games. Obviously, we're not going to get 6.6 walks per game, unless that is your total focus ... and it stll might not hapen. That's why I don;t mind the extra singles ... because in terms of WHIP, they count the same as walks, and the hits are "too far fetched".

I have started using the "left stick" to push up for increased homers when the situation calls for it ... power hitter with men on, average hitter with multiple runners, or 2-outs an decent power guy at plate. I limit myself to ONE "left stick up" swing per at bat (only if the situation calls for it), and the slider setting for the influence i 30 ... so it's not a real big "influence". It works against me more than it works for me (more fly outs than HRs).

I did the same thing for MVP, but on MVP the "push up" swing far more often results in HRs than it does on 2k9 with Darkspace sliders.

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Detroit's Stats Through 9 Series Played ...

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Treanor is going to get more playing time. I think I may move Grandy and Polanco (1 and 2) down to the bottom of the lineup and move Larish and Guillen to the top. I need more guys on base for Mags and Cabs.

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St.Louis's Stats Through 9 Series Played ...

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Thurston and Barden are going to get some more time, and Schumaker is gonna get some more time in the OF if Anky doesn't get it going. Ankiel leads the world in ground outs to 2nd base ... and with hitting behind Pujols and Ludwick, he's leaving a lot of runners on base (that explains why he's on pace for ~100RBI with a .200 BA). Yadi might fit nicely in that 5-spot because he's getting quite a few singles. Rasmus may move to lead-off followed by Dunc, Pujols, and Ludwick.

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Yeah.

It's funny b/c I think folks think he is Hispanic, due to the way he looks with the stache and his last name. He's not.

I've been reading the diamondbacks forum and somebody put a picture up of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Dep) and Clay, and they look like brothers. Hilarious.

If he's still up in June and JUly (he should be), me and the guy I coached HS/JH with (Clay's coach) are gonna go see him for 3 games in KC in JUne and 3 games in StL in JUly (my birthday weekend no less).

The pic of Clay bunting (and a few baseballs) in the article will be signed by him and hanging in my office. His girlfriend's mom is a teacher at the school that I am a principal in, and she flew out on Monday. We hear from him daily. It's pretty exciting.

FWIW, my new avatar is my pride and joy, my 8yo beast playing SS.

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Zavada pitched the 9th v. ATL and struck out the side.

He had a talk with PC Mel Stottlemeyer about Clay not shaking the catcher off and throwing his best pitches in "must have an out" situation. Seems Clay was hesitant, as a rookie, in shaking off veteran catchers. He made the change in this game, and was dominant.

so far ... 5 APP 4.0 IP 2H 0BB 6K

He seems to be duplicating, pretty much his minor league performance at the ML level.

The only downer so far is that one of those hits cleared the bases when he came in with the sacks juiced and 1 out.

He's got some pretty nasty stuff, which is kinda impressive since he really just started working a curve a cutter, during this past winter.

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I've got Stl v. MIL & Det v. Oak to get to the 'quarter pole' (~40g, 1/4 of the season), and then I'll do a major updates, including:

[1] team performace points

[2] standings (full league)

[3] Player stats

[4] League Leaders

[5] All-Star Leaders

[6] MVP Frontrunners

[7] Cy Candidates

[8] Prospect Cal-Ups (all 30 teams)

[9] Pics of all custom jerseys (6 per team; ~12 teams done)

This is a busy week: graduation, 2 retirement dinners, 2 TBall games, 2 Cub League Games, 1 IHSA sectional game, and a golf outing. It all ends Friday. Fri-day. Friiiiiiiiii-daaaaaaaay. Friday.

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I've got Stl v. MIL & Det v. Oak to get to the 'quarter pole' (~40g, 1/4 of the season), and then I'll do a major updates, including:

[1] team performace points

[2] standings (full league)

[3] Player stats

[4] League Leaders

[5] All-Star Leaders

[6] MVP Frontrunners

[7] Cy Candidates

[8] Prospect Cal-Ups (all 30 teams)

[9] Pics of all custom jerseys (6 per team; ~12 teams done)

This is a busy week: graduation, 2 retirement dinners, 2 TBall games, 2 Cub League Games, 1 IHSA sectional game, and a golf outing. It all ends Friday. Fri-day. Friiiiiiiiii-daaaaaaaay. Friday.

Love what you're doing here CC. Those uniforms look great.

I hear ya about being busy. That hit me a few weeks ago. Didn't know if I was going or coming sometimes.

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