jonthefon Posted March 17, 2008 Author Share Posted March 17, 2008 Spring Training, Game 19 Texas Rangers versus Oakland Athletics GAME PREVIEW: I messed up the boxscores when uploading them to MVPMods, so the boxscore is actually labelled G22. It's a seven-inning game-a lot of the remaining ones I actually play will be 7, with some 9-inning games without extra innings. Anyway, Vazquez, Murphy and Laird all playing the game, with Kameron Loe getting the start. I'd really like to have Bradley now, so he'll be playing soon rather than till Opening Day. The A's rest a few players: Crosby, Ellis, etc. Of course Chavez is still dead. Justin Duschscheirer (whatever) starting. Lineups: David Murphy, LF Ian Kinsler, 2B Josh Hamilton, CF Hank Blalock, 3B Ben Broussard, DH Jason Botts, 1B Marlon Byrd, RF Gerald Laird, C Ramon Vazquez, SS Travis Buck, RF Daric Barton, 1B Jack Hannahan, 3B Emil Brown, LF Jack Cust, DH JJ Furmaniak, SS Chris Denorfia, CF Kurt Suzuki, C Donnie Murphy, 2B GAME RECAP: I load the bases in the bottom of the first, but Botts grounds out to end the threat. With Loe, I serve up a bad breaking ball to Cust, who's 80/70ish against righties and he makes no mistake. Over the next few innings, I get more and more frustrated. Duchscherer is throwing light heat mixed with some off-speed pitches, and although I'm taking good pitch counts and reading the ball well, I just can't score. Top of the fourth, Emil Brown steps up and gets a knee-high fastball which he hits into the left-field seats. Cust follows it up with his second homer, and three solo shots has me down 3-0. I set about chipping away in the bottom of the inning. Botts and Byrd lead off with singles, and then with one out, Vazquez singles to score Botts. Kinsler steps up with two outs and rolls a pitch past third scoring Byrd to narrow the gap to 3-2 with runners on the corners. The new pitcher, Calero, pitches to Hamilton. On a 2-2 count, he throws him a curveball somewhere on the corner, and is called a strikeout. Washington is furious, and gets ejected again. Rally over. With Thomas Diamond pitching, Suzuki and Murphy singles, bringing up Buck. He lines one to right field, as Suzuki goes for home...he's not that quick. Byrd's throw is straight and Suzuki is tagged out. No more runs till the top of the seventh, where the game breaks open thanks to my dodgy keyboard. Since I can't call cut-off men, twice the A's baserunners get home on throws to second for a 5-2 lead to seal it off. Huston Street saves the game on a strikeout by Kinsler, and two deep flyballs by Blalock and Broussard. Boxscore Grading and Player of the Game: Hitting: B-I found the offence, just couldn't drive them in. Pitching: B--It wasn't the worse performance, but I did send two weaker pitchers on the mound. Player of the Game: Jack Cust-3/3, 2R, 2B, 2HR, 2RBI-Nice slugging...didn't give him good pitches and it cost me. Rangers Player of the Game: Ian Kinsler-2/4, 3B, RBI Game 20, managed Rangers 8, Mariners 1 Boxscore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonthefon Posted March 29, 2008 Author Share Posted March 29, 2008 Spring Training, Game 21 Texas Rangers versus Oakland Athletics GAME PREVIEW: Fiddling around with the lineup again, with Byrd leading off, Botts at left, Vazquez, Gold and Laird all playing. John Rheinecker the lefty gets the start. The A's play a similar experimental lineup with Brown leading off, Barton dropping to the bottom and Cust not playing in favour of Dan Johnson. Ace Joe Blanton starting proceedings. Lineups: Marlon Byrd, RF Ryan Roberts, 2B Hank Blalock, 3B Jason Botts, LF Josh Hamilton, CF Ramon Vazquez, SS Nate Gold, 1B Gerald Laird, C David Murphy, DH Emil Brown, LF Mark Ellis, 2B Travis Buck, RF Dan Johnson, DH Bobby Crosby, SS Jack Hannahan, 3B Justin Knoedler, C Ryan Sweeney, CF Daric Barton, 1B GAME RECAP: Nobody outside of Laird gets on-base in the first three innings for either side. I get going in the fourth though, when Blalock walks, Botts doubles in and Hamilton pulls a single to score Botts. Gold drives Hamilton in for a 3-0 lead. Meanwhile, Rheinecker is looking good. His stuff is really useful for me, especially against the Oakland lefties where the slider is unhittable. I follow it up in the next inning, hitting six singles to score four more runs and chase Blanton from the game with 73 pitches over 4.1 innings. Hamilton continues to hit well, getting his second and third RBIs off this single. When Hamilton hits a two-RBI single next inning to make it 9-0, things suddenly turn to Rheinecker going for the perfect game. Knoedler hits a rare bad pitch to lead off the bottom of the sixth... Sweet grab by Byrd and the perfect game is still intact. But Dan Johnson rolls a single past the shortstop to break it up. But Rheinecker holds for a complete-game three-hitter, and I cruise to an easy win. Grading and Player of the Game: Hitting: A-Got men on base, worked 143 pitches and scored them. A nice performance. Pitching: A+-Possibly the best pitching performance I've had on All-Star. Player of the Game: John Rheinecker-9IP, CG, 3H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2K-Max dominance. He'll make the rotation unless Gabbard pitches better. Game 22, managed Diamondbacks 2, Rangers 0 Boxscore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonthefon Posted April 2, 2008 Author Share Posted April 2, 2008 As it turned out, my harddrive reformatted has cost me a whole bunch of screenies from the last few games. So spring is over, I'm waiting for MVP 08 to come out. For now, I'll write an analysis of spring and projected opening day depth charts. SPRING OVERVIEW The Rangers have shown flashes of brilliance and flashes of futility in a quirky set of preseason ballgames. 3:31pm CST on Sunday, March 30, 2008 The Rangers open tomorrow at Safeco Field in Seattle against Erik Bedard, and will be hoping that they bring their Dr. Jekyll rather than their Mr. Hyde. It's been a spring of wild inconsistencies: from 14-run outbursts to hopeless shutouts. Nearly every player has had their poor runs with a few exceptions. But overall, management took enough out of the whole experience to be hopeful that 2008 would be a year where they could get out of the AL West basement. "We just need to find our best baseball 80, 90% of the time. Our lineup is solid, our staff is solid, our bullpen is solid. I think we can get up there." manager Ron Washington told reporters after the team's final game, an easy win against AA team Frisco. Ian Kinsler, Hank Blalock, Josh Hamilton and Ben Broussard all recovered from early spring hitting yips to post solid averages. Catalanotto was impressive leading off, David Murphy earned a spot as the fourth outfielder and Jason Botts provided a stunning spring, with consistent hitting and great defence at first, giving him the spot over Broussard, who will be the team's DH. Milton Bradley came back from his freak injury to post a couple of good performances at right-field, and should start there on Opening Day. Jason Jennings and Vicente Padilla impressed with a few solid starts each. Kevin Millwood looked untroubled in his pitching, while John Rheinecker and Kason Gabbard dueled for the final spot and will slot in as fifth and spot starter respectively. Kazuo Fukumori struggled mightily, but Washington attributes that to him not quite adjusting to American hitters and not finding the shootball which made him so difficult in Japan. Eddie Guardado was typically durable until a fractured leg ended his spring, Scott Feldman surprised with his movement off his sidearm pitches and fireballers Jamey Wright and Frank Francisco held their controls. It is likely that Joaquin Benoit and CJ Wilson will be employed as "platoon closers", according to possible lineups they would face. And so turning to the opener against the Mariners. It is likely that David Murphy will get the opening day start at left field over Catalanotto. Marlon Byrd may play center field over Josh Hamilton, but Washington said that Hamilton "deserved his spot to start opening day, lefty or not". Kevin Millwood will be ready on the hill for the Rangers, who once again look to keep Ichiro Suzuki from getting on-base with a series of solid hitters coming up behind him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonthefon Posted April 8, 2008 Author Share Posted April 8, 2008 A little sneak preview: Crappy photoshop skills right there, but working on it. Should've used layers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonthefon Posted May 6, 2008 Author Share Posted May 6, 2008 Hmm, thinking of the following alternative solution until MVP 08 comes out: Upload my ridiculously-stacked Dodgers fantasy dynasty (picking 15th, I had a side which consists of Reyes, Uggla, Guillen, A-Rod, Byrnes, Pence, Hamilton, Bard plus several top prospects including Bruce, Ellsbury, Longoria and Brandon Wood in AAA, a solid bench with Melky Cabrera, Juan Pierre and two power PH), a young pitching staff with Felix Hernandez, Verlander, Lilly, Buchholz, Gabbard and a couple of solid long relievers and a four-headed bullpen of Lyon, Kerry Wood, Zumaya and Lidge). Of course, the only problem I have already played halfway through the season and am about 16 games ahead of the D'backs...so at best it would be like "Pennant Fever" mode from MLB 2K5. Only it would follow the same format as my current Rangers one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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