RWBL: The St. Louis Cardinals [Archive] - Front Office Football Central

GoldenEagle

02-24-2004, 08:09 PM

Real World Baseball League: St. Louis Cardinals

Introduction

I have recently taken over the St. Louis Cardinals in the Real World Baseball League (which from here out will be referred to as the RWBL). The league is in its eleventh season. The team ’owners’ consist mainly of FOFCers but it does have some outsiders as well.

The league began using real rosters with real players. Since then, as one can imagine, an influx of computer generated players have been added into the game. However, there are still some players around from the original rosters.

The Cardinals are overachievers so far this season, with a 31-29 record and sitting eight games behind Pittsburgh and Chicago in third place. When I took over the team, it was 9-16 and struggling. I have made some changes which I will outline in the following posts.

I don’t think the talent is really there this season. We have a decent pitching staff and a pretty good bullpen, but we can not hit the broad side of a barn. When we field the ball in the infield we look like the Ned Funk All-Stars. However, defensively in the outfield is pretty good.

Our minor league system is currently rated 7th. I think it is highlighted by Alvaro “The Steamboat” Ortiz (more on him later). I think the emphasis has been placed on way too much pitching drafting in the past and I will have to turn that around in the future.

The fun of multiplayer leagues in OOTP is playing against actual human competition. It is a blast. It blows away the single player experience. Someone once said (and I can not remember who) that farting was a better experience that playing single player in OOTP. I agree with that now that I am playing in my first serious competitive OOTP league .

I do not know when I will have the Cardinals contending. The NL Central is a pretty tough division, according to the so called experts. Pittsburgh has a very young and talented team and Chicago will also be around for a few years.

Next up I will hit the highlights of the general league history. Hopefully some of the other RWBL members will check in and help me out in that area….

GoldenEagle

02-24-2004, 09:48 PM

League History in Brief

The league started in 2002 with as I said, real players and real teams. This year, the Atlanta Braves battled the New York Yankees and won the Series 4 games to 3. The NL MVP award winner was Albert Pujos (formerly of the Cardinals) won the NL MVP, while Jason Giambi of the Yankees took home the AL award. The NL Cy Young was one by Greg Maddox and Pedro Martinez took home the AL Cy Young with a 22-1 record. The Rookie of the Year awards went to Wilson Betemit of Tampa Bay and Josh Beckett of Florida. The best record in baseball went to Boston with a 117-45 record. The Cardinals won the NL Central this season with a 99-63 record but were eliminated in the first round by Arizona.

In 2003, the Chicago Cubs, playing as the wild card, won the World Series by beating the Yankees 4 games to 1. Hey, I never said it was realistic. The NL MVP was Luis Gonzalez and the AL award went to Alex Rodriguez. Cy Youngs went to Josh Beckett of the Marlins and Pedro Martinez won his second straight, respectively. The Rookie of the Year was Xavier Nady of the Blue Jays and Hee Seop Choi of the Cubs. The best record in baseball was the New York Yankees with a 106-56 mark. Your St. Louis Cardinals again made the playoffs with a 101-61 record but were eliminated by the Cubs in the NLCS in seven games.

The Cubs won their second straight Series in 2004 when they were victorious over the Rangers in five games. The AL MVP winner was again Alex Rodriguez and the NL MVP was Sammy Sosa. Pedro won his third straight AL Cy Young award and Brett Myers of the Phillies won the NL award. The Rookie of the Year awards went to Adrian Gonzalez of the Tigers and Fabian Rasch of the Padres. The best record went to Phillies with a 111-51 record. The Cardinals began their slide into mediocrity this season as they finished 71-91.

In 2005, The Giants captured the title when they beat the Rangers 4 games to 2 in the World Series. The awards for MVP went to Alex Rodriguez of the Rangers and Todd Helton of the Rockies. The Cy Young awards went to Josch Beckett of the Marlins and Ryan Anderson of the Mariners. Detroit had its second straight Rookie of the Year when Preston Larrison it and Adam Wairight captured it in the AL. Texas has the best record in baseball when with 109 wins and 53 losses. St. Louis finished a respectable second with a 85-77 mark.

In 2006, the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series over the Houston Astros, 4 games to two. The NL MVP was Ryan Klescko and the AL MVP was Xavier Nady of the Blue Jays. The Cy Young awards were awarded to Byung Hum Kim of the Mets and Ryan Anderson of the Mariners. The AL Rookie of the year was pitcher JD Martin of the Indians and the NL award went to P William Karlson of the Pirates. The Rangers had the best record in baseball with 110 wins and 52 losses. St. Louis finished dead last with a 73-89 record.

The year of 2007 witnessed the Cubs win their third title with a 4 games to 1 series win over the Yankees. The AL MVP again went to Alex Rodriguez of the Rangers and the NL Award went to Carlos Delgada of the Phillies. The NL Cy Young went to Juan Cruz of the Dodgers and the AL was won by the ageless Pedro Martinez. The AL ROY went to Alex Acosta of the Royals and NL ROY was Sam Hessner of the Expos. The best record in baseball went to the Cubs with 109-53 record. The Cardinals has a dismal record of 54-108.

In 2008, the Red Sox ended the curse in fashion and swept the Reds in the World Series. The NL MVP was Todd Helton of the Rockies and the AL MVP was Xavier Nady of the Blue Jays. The American League Cy Young again went to Pedro Martinez and the NL award went to Clint Nageotte of the Reds. The ROYs went to P Kelvin Pastrana of the Angles and P Richard Vigna of the Pirates. The Blue Jays has the best record in baseball when they finished 101-61. The Cardinals were 80-82.

The 2009 season saw the Giants win another title, this time over the Indians. The NL MVP was Adam Dunn and Earl Lindsey of the Angles took home the AL hardware. The Cy Young awards went Josh Beckett and Javier Vasquez of the Blue Jays. The ROYs went to P Alfonso Tenorio of the Orioles and P John Cain of the Padres. The Cubs had the best record in baseball with an overall win/loss of 111-51. The Cardinals finished 72-90.

The 2010 season was the year of the Phillies when they beat the Angels in five games to win the World Series. The NL MVP was Tobias Paez of the Cubs and the AL MVP Adrian Gonzalez of the Yankees. The Cy Young awards went to JD Martin of the Indians and Joe Torres of the Padres. The ROYs were 2B Francisco Nunez of the Tigers and CF Timothy Hickerson of the Rockies. Pittsburgh and Cleveland tied for the best record in baseball, both with 108 wins. The Cardinals had a 78-84 mark.

The Phillies again won the championship in 2011 when they swept the New York Yankees. The NL MVP was Michael Cuddyer of the Phillies and the AL award was won by Earl Lindsey of the Angels. The Cy Young award went to William Karlson of the Pirates and Dylan Kelly of the Blue Jays. The respective ROYS awards went to Curtis Briegar of the Cubs and Neil Kepner of the Twins. Philadelphia had the best record in baseball with a 112-50 mark. Our beloved Cardinals went 60-102.

Maybe some of the other owners can clue us in on previous transactions of the league, particularly relating to the Cardinals. I have no idea in this area.

Next up, I will look over my current roster….