MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

[SportsCenter23]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

So after a little break from this game I'm back and I decided to start a new chise since I felt like my last one was too unrealistic, and I wasn't happy with my sliders. Well I think I found some good ones this time and just played my 1st game of the season.

Playing as the Bo-Sox, in the 4th inning I managed to walk the bases loaded and the next at bat C.C hits Cameron for me to take the early 1-0 lead. Next at bat Lowell smacks one up the middle 2-0. Couple innings latter A-rod hits a triple to bring in Jeter and then Teixeria hits a double to bring in A-rod Score is 2-2. So we eventually end up in the bottom of the 11th when they bring in Joba and Youk hits a walk-off HR for the 1st win of the season.

I'll update some more once I play some more games. Even though I haven't played the game for awhile I still came here and read your guys updates. Reading them made me want to come back and start playing this game again.

[JBH3]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

After playing the Mets game that I updated in my last post. I decided to run through all-30 teams checking for any moves which could be made to improve the team i.e. calling up some players, making a few trades, etc.

First, I focused in on ATL: They're in solid contention for a wildcard spot, and have been swinging the bat and pitching pretty good; w/ exception to a few misnomers: Kenshin Kawakami has struggled as the 5th starter, Jair Jurrjens' ERA is in the low-7's as the teams #1 SP, Nate McClouth is hitting .223 as the leadoff man, and Melky Cabrera is hitting .200 as a starter.

Since Kawakami has struggled I moved him to the pen, sent a struggling reliever to AAA, and moved to sign John Smoltz for one last go round w/ the "contending" Braves ......

There would be a whole lot moves to make before bringing Smoltz on though. Because after editing ATLs contracts, they had only $3.5 million in avl funds, and Smoltz wanted $5.95 mil for one season.

First move I made was to ship Matt Diaz to the White Sox. Diaz had only a handful of AB's through about 46 games and was making $2mil. Chicago, 2 gms under .500, had a need for an OF'er w/ Andruw Jones on the D/L. White Sox sent 3 prospects, one a top100 pitcher who had been struggling in AAA, and ATL saved about $1.5mill.

Then I shipped Jojo Reyes to the Mets for a lefty reliever. Braves had a need for a lefty reliever, and the Mets had a 31 yr old in AAA making less than $300K. Braves shipped the 4yr/$1.80 mil contract of Jojo Reyes to NY to cut cost and fill need.

Next, sent McClouth down to AAA and released Melky Cabrera who was hitting .200 as the starting LF'er (Toronto ended up signing Melky). Plan on bringing McClouth back up after he shows some surge in AAA. Released Cabrera to save $$$, and make room for Jordan Schaefer (tearing it up in AAA).

The ATL OF will consist of Schaefer (LF), Gregor Blanco (CF), and Jayson Heyward (RF). Very young, but the vets weren't providing anything. Heywayrd has been solid too, and will likely win NLROY; and like I said, McClouth will likely get called back up in about a month. Eric Hinske was called up from AAA to become ATLs 4th OF'er, and Martin Prado, uber utility man, will play some spot duty in the OF and at 2B (or where ever).

After all this, I was able to I bring Smoltz on who becomes the 3rd starter. Shuffled around the rotation so that Hudson is #1, Hanson #2, Smoltz #3, Lowe #4, and Jurrjens #5. Well see if these moves pan out for ATL, and the addition of Smoltz solidifies their rotation...that is Jurrjens can get on track as the #5.

I then made some call up/send downs for other teams. Got as far as the Red Sox, and will finish optimizing rosters for the rest of the teams for the month of May tonight. For the BoSox I moved Clay Bucholz to AAA (ERA in the 8's), signed Jason Schimdt as a spot-starting long man, and called up Tim Wakefield who had lost his 5th starter spot to Bucholz but it's clear Clay cannnot yet make it at the pro-level.

[duke776]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

Duke - Sounds like you've had some good games recently, sweeping and being swept. The trade seems to be working out nicely.

I myself just got swept too, by Philadelphia, since my last update stated I would be playing as the Mets. Philly beat me 7-3 in gm1, I played gm2 as the Phillies w/ Roy Halladay starting and had a 1 hitter going into the 6th when the game froze. Ugh....So I simmed the game to keep it moving, and Philly won 8-3; Halladay pitched a CG.

Final game was a pitchers duel. My only run came off of a David Wright solo HR in the 1st, and I had 3 hits total in this one. Philly would tie it at 1-1 in the 2nd too, and it would stay that way until the 10th when Philly would get the go ahead off of Pedro Feliciano. Brad Lidge got the save, and the Mets were swept in 3 games being outscored 17-5.

Got in a gm tonight to start the next series, NYM @ MIL.

Doug Davis was dealing through 4 innings, but had gotten out of a bases loaded jam in the 2nd w/ no outs and was making too many pitches. It all caught up w/ him in the 5th as NYM would score 4 runs in the inning thanks to 2 Jose Reyes steals, stealing 2nd and 3rd, and Luis Castillo knocking in the game's 1st run w/ a single. Davis would walk David Wright for his 3rd walk issued, and Jason Bay made him pay w/ his NL-leading 14th HR, a 3-run shot.

I'd add 4 more runs, 3 in the 8th, one more in the 9th, and Mike Pelfrey ended up pitching his best game of the season in route to a 3-hit/10K shutout; his ERA is now 5.11 after the shutout.

Mets improved to 18-31 w/ the win, Brewers fall to 22-26 (4th in NL Cent.).

Johan up next and I hope to have the same amount of success as Pelfrey did...

Yeah, I've been having some good games. I'm actually on a 6 game winning streak after sweeping the brewers in 3 games, but I'm sure I'll lose at least one to the White Sox in this upcoming series.

Sucks to hear the game froze on you, haven't had that happen to me yet, keeping my fingers crossed. Especially when you're having a great game.

Nice to see you put it to Doug Davis, I hate facing the guy. Although I did just beat him and the Brew Crew on just two hits, 1-0.

So after a little break from this game I'm back and I decided to start a new chise since I felt like my last one was too unrealistic, and I wasn't happy with my sliders. Well I think I found some good ones this time and just played my 1st game of the season.

Playing as the Bo-Sox, in the 4th inning I managed to walk the bases loaded and the next at bat C.C hits Cameron for me to take the early 1-0 lead. Next at bat Lowell smacks one up the middle 2-0. Couple innings latter A-rod hits a triple to bring in Jeter and then Teixeria hits a double to bring in A-rod Score is 2-2. So we eventually end up in the bottom of the 11th when they bring in Joba and Youk hits a walk-off HR for the 1st win of the season.

I'll update some more once I play some more games. Even though I haven't played the game for awhile I still came here and read your guys updates. Reading them made me want to come back and start playing this game again.

Walk off homeruns are some of the most rewarding wins. Just feels great to win like that.

Also, I really enjoy reading others updates as well.

After playing the Mets game that I updated in my last post. I decided to run through all-30 teams checking for any moves which could be made to improve the team i.e. calling up some players, making a few trades, etc.

First, I focused in on ATL: They're in solid contention for a wildcard spot, and have been swinging the bat and pitching pretty good; w/ exception to a few misnomers: Kenshin Kawakami has struggled as the 5th starter, Jair Jurrjens' ERA is in the low-7's as the teams #1 SP, Nate McClouth is hitting .223 as the leadoff man, and Melky Cabrera is hitting .200 as a starter.

Since Kawakami has struggled I moved him to the pen, sent a struggling reliever to AAA, and moved to sign John Smoltz for one last go round w/ the "contending" Braves ......

There would be a whole lot moves to make before bringing Smoltz on though. Because after editing ATLs contracts, they had only $3.5 million in avl funds, and Smoltz wanted $5.95 mil for one season.

First move I made was to ship Matt Diaz to the White Sox. Diaz had only a handful of AB's through about 46 games and was making $2mil. Chicago, 2 gms under .500, had a need for an OF'er w/ Andruw Jones on the D/L. White Sox sent 3 prospects, one a top100 pitcher who had been struggling in AAA, and ATL saved about $1.5mill.

Then I shipped Jojo Reyes to the Mets for a lefty reliever. Braves had a need for a lefty reliever, and the Mets had a 31 yr old in AAA making less than $300K. Braves shipped the 4yr/$1.80 mil contract of Jojo Reyes to NY to cut cost and fill need.

Next, sent McClouth down to AAA and released Melky Cabrera who was hitting .200 as the starting LF'er (Toronto ended up signing Melky). Plan on bringing McClouth back up after he shows some surge in AAA. Released Cabrera to save $$$, and make room for Jordan Schaefer (tearing it up in AAA).

The ATL OF will consist of Schaefer (LF), Gregor Blanco (CF), and Jayson Heyward (RF). Very young, but the vets weren't providing anything. Heywayrd has been solid too, and will likely win NLROY; and like I said, McClouth will likely get called back up in about a month. Eric Hinske was called up from AAA to become ATLs 4th OF'er, and Martin Prado, uber utility man, will play some spot duty in the OF and at 2B (or where ever).

After all this, I was able to I bring Smoltz on who becomes the 3rd starter. Shuffled around the rotation so that Hudson is #1, Hanson #2, Smoltz #3, Lowe #4, and Jurrjens #5. Well see if these moves pan out for ATL, and the addition of Smoltz solidifies their rotation...that is Jurrjens can get on track as the #5.

I then made some call up/send downs for other teams. Got as far as the Red Sox, and will finish optimizing rosters for the rest of the teams for the month of May tonight. For the BoSox I moved Clay Bucholz to AAA (ERA in the 8's), signed Jason Schimdt as a spot-starting long man, and called up Tim Wakefield who had lost his 5th starter spot to Bucholz but it's clear Clay cannnot yet make it at the pro-level.

I do sort of wish I had chosen 30 team control because of what you did here. The cpu isn't the best at choosing the lineups by whose doing good/bad, or promoting players(I haven't seen one person promoted, and only demoted when they're singed mid season or when the draft happens).


I just finished the draft yesterday, and found something really great in it. The game spits out guys who can have their face edited, this is great because there were some prospects I never got around to adding into the game, or fixing some guys who have a terrible random face(like Tyler Colvin in the game). I'm going to have to pick players off of some teams rosters and give them to another team, but it shouldn't take all that long. And I'm only going to take the guys who are not high potential guys, so I'm not taking away some teams best prospects.

Also, the cardinals drafted Albert Pujols Jr. At least he's only an 82 potential, and not as good as the real one. And if the reproduced mlb'ers start causing freezes, then I just plan on editing all of them down to 0 in everything trading for them and trading them back(this should make the team send them down) lowering all their contracts to 1 year lowest amount and giving their potential, if good, to some other player who was drafted by that team. I don't think this will happen until they get called up, if they are just immediately placed on the mlb roster I don't think they'll freeze the game. I just faced the Mo Rivera clone last night who is on the brewers, and the game didn't freeze. So it won't be until one is called up I hope, and that might not be until september. I'm going to keep an eye on the transactions page though.

[leafsfan2008]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

Exactly what year in franchise mode do the reproduced MLBers begin showing up in the draft?

[goh]

Re: MLB 2K10 ********* Progress

2-0 with the Pirates so far.

Game 1 vs. Dodgers:

It was a thrashing of epic proporitions. 13-2 win for the Pirates. Kershaw only lasted 2.2 innings giving up 6 runs and 3 HRs. Troncoso took over lasting 2.1 innings and only giving up 1 run on a HR. Dingman replacing him turned out to be a failure as he gave up 6 runs in 1 inning.

Garrett Jones,Grady Sizemore,Ryan Doumit all went yard and rookie Pedro Alvarez upstaged them all doing it twice.

Josh Johnson got the win going 7,giving up 5 hits,2 runs and had 8 strikeouts.
Dan McCutchen (2 players named McCutchen...that can't happen much!) came in for the mop up role only allowing 1 hit and had 3 strikeouts.

Game 2 vs. Dodgers:

A much better outing for the Dodgers but they still lost despite out hitting 11-8.

Pirates jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. In the top of the 2nd the Dodgers had the bases loaded with 2 outs but couldn't cash in. It stayed like that until the top of the 5th where Billingsly managed to get a triple and was driven home. Alverez produces a 2 run homer in the bottom of the 6th to break the tie,up 3-1. Another score in the bottom of the 7th made it 4-1 and that was it.

Billingsly went 6 allowing 6 hits and 3 runs with 6 strikeouts.
Dingman did the rest allowing 2 hits and 1 run.

Zach (...joke to*** is censoring random words?) went 8 allowed 10 hits and the 1 run with 8 strikeouts.
Andrew Bailey makes the save allowing 1 hit (a Furcal triple) but no runs striking out the first 2 batters,then allowing the hit and then striking out the 4th hitter.

I went shortstop shopping afterwards due to Cedno's poor plate performance in both games but couldn't come up with anything. Could put Crosby in but that looks like a big fielding downgrade.

Game 3 vs. Dodgers

LA got MalOWNED and then some.
Despite some early trouble Maholm ended up with a 6 hit shutout with 16 strikeouts.
Walks,errors and Garrett Jones provided the offense.

In other news I don't know what I'm paying Brandon Phillips for,see what I can dig up for him.

[JBH3]

Re: MLB 2K10 ********* Progress

Won a 2-1 tilt as Mets @ MIL. NY's two runs came off of back to back HRs from Beltran and Mike Jacobs. Johan Santana was in some early jams allowing 2 hits in each of the first 3 innings, but limited damage and got the strikeout when needed. He'd settle down after allowing a run in the 3rd and pitch scoreless from the 3rd - 8th.

Johan Santana: 8IP 7H 1ER 1BB 5K and a win; improves to 4-6.

K-Rod was brought in to close it out in the 9th, and got Braun, Fielder, and Hart 1, 2, 3 - all strikeouts. K-Rod has some nasty stuff. By far the best closer to use in this game IMO. He's got 5 pitches all 80's or higher.

Mets Go for the sweep w/ John Maine taking the bump next, and then it's off to San Diego for a 3-gm series and back home to face the Marlins; Johan -vs- Josh Johnson should he a good one.

I'm thinking I may need to start playing some Devil Rays games too. They're a team that always interests me, has a lot of talent, and a competitive division. They've managed a better than .500 record w/ 2 ***s left in May, but have some SPs w/ some ugly numbers: Price ERA in 7's, Garza 5.54 ERA, Shields ERA in 6's; Wade Davis (3.48 ERA) and Jeff Niemann (4.02 ERA) are pitching really good though. I'm going to play 20 or so games as the Mets, and then start up w/ some Rays games; still pitching as Roy Halla*** for my Phillies (15 gms over .500) & still playing random O's games (10 gms over .500 - 2nd in AL East).

[goh]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

Game 4 @ Diamondbacks

Awful start and almost an awful end.

Tony Sipp (made him a starter + given screwball) gives up 2 in the bottom of the first on a walk and 2 hits.

It stayed 2-0 Diamondbacks until the top of the 6th where Grady Sizemore hit a double,reached 3rd on a wild pitch and was brought home on a squeeze play to cut the lead to 2-1.

In the top of the 8th Pedro Alverez ties it up at 2 with an opposite field solo shot. Heilman exits the game shortly after. The Dbacks manage a runner to 2nd in the bottom of the 8th after a hit and steal (still can't throw anyone out even with all their sliders at 0 and mine at 100 regarding such things,hope the patch comes soon) but he isn't cashed in.

In the top of the 9th I pinch hit for Sipp with Delwyn Young. Young gets a base hit off Pectol. McCutchen hits a double and Young scores all the way from first for a 3-2 lead. McCutchen couldn't be brought in and off to the bottom of the 9th.

Disaster almost strikes as I was pressing A to skip the batter walk up as I couldn't change my pitcher while the scene was taking place Young still in pitching manges to throw a fastball down the middle of the plate to Adam LaRoche. Luckily the ball hits Young bounces off him to Cedeno and LaRoche is thrown out at first. Baily comes in for the save and strikes out the next 2 batters.

Maholm's 16 strikeouts in the last game turned out to be a team record.

Good thing I won that game as the Reds,Brewers and Astros are all 3-1. Toughest division in the league so far.

[duke776]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

Exactly what year in franchise mode do the reproduced MLBers begin showing up in the draft?

The show up in the first draft, which is around June 12th. The thing is, the cpu doesn't really call up/send down guys so the freezing(if I'm correct in it being connected to the guys being called up) probably won't happen until september when the rosters expand.

[leafsfan2008]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

The show up in the first draft, which is around June 12th. The thing is, the cpu doesn't really call up/send down guys so the freezing(if I'm correct in it being connected to the guys being called up) probably won't happen until september when the rosters expand.

So how do I work around that issue then?

[duke776]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

So how do I work around that issue then?

Here's some good tips from Smonee.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...d-players.html

You're probably going to have to lower all the guys who freeze the game down to 0 and release them.

[bluengold34_OS]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

Game 34

Record 22-12

Current series

Marlins @ Cubs (me)

after losing 3 out of four to the D-Backs at home, then dropping the first game to the Pirates in PNC.......these Cubbies have turned it around. They ended up taking the final 2 in Pittsburgh, the walk into Cincy and sweep the Reds. Now they have stepped up to the plate again, and have taken the first 2 against the Marlins.

Angel Guzman and Carlos Marmol have been on fire out of the pen, and DLee had 5 rbi in the first 2nd game against the Marlins. In the first game, Soriano and Ramirez each hit 2 run big flies.

Team Leaders

Avg Ramirez .446 (its finally coming down, it was at .489)

Homeruns Soriano 9

Stolen Bases Theriot 6

RBI's Ramirez 27

Wins Wells 4

Saves Marmol 13

K's Zambrano 67

[duke776]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

Angel Guzman and Carlos Marmol have been on fire out of the pen.

Angel Guzman has been great for me too, but not so much with Marmol. Don't know what it is, but he always seems to give up hit after hit.

Since we're on the topic of bullpens, Jeff Gray has been a monster for me. I don't know how it's possible, but he has an 0.40 ERA. 1 ER in I think 23 innings, got out of a bases loaded jam(that Grabow got me into) last night against the white sox. I don't know if I really want to move him to the closer role because I'll lose a lot of scoreless innings from him by designating him basically a 9th inning only guy, and then have to rely on Marmol to provide some scoreless innings to keep us the lead. I think what I'll end up doing if Marmol continues his struggles is move Marmol to middle relief, Guzman to the closer position, and Gray to set up and use him in either 7th or 8th innings depending on who's due up.

Also I was browsing the free agent market after the draft looking for some possible bullpen help, and found Junichi Tazawa. Apparently the Red Sox released him to make room for one of their draftees. He's only a 70 potential and a 60 overall right now, but he really has some good pitches(only downfall is his control, I pitched with him and I actually can't spot each pitch perfectly). I'm thinking about promoting him and sending down either Esmilan Caridad or Jeff Samardzija because both of them often struggle.

[reyes the roof]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

I just finished a great game vs Florida. It was Santana vs Josh Johnson, so I anticipated a pitchers duel just like I had when the two faced off on opening day, but this ended up being a 14-11 slugfest that I won. They got off to a 1-0 lead, then I tied it a few innings later, only for them to put up back to back HRs. I came within a run, then Santana gave up a 2 run HR, then in the 6th they pulled Johnson and my offense exploded. I had a 12-6 lead in the 8th and my bullpen had a complete meltdown, giving up 5 runs to make it 12-11. Thanks to a 9th inning triple by Beltran which completed the cycle for him, I got 2 insurance runs and K-rod saved it for me.

I came into the game with Santana having an ERA of 1.03, and all I did was move the cpu power slider from 85 to 90 and he got shelled for 6 runs in 6 innings, allowing 4 HRs. I'm at May 15, and even though I sat out Beltran the entire month of April, he already has more RBIs than Jason Bay

[JBH3]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

Since I locked up a series win for the Mets, winning w/ Pelfrey and Santana in 2 games @ MIL, I decided to try my hand w/ James Shields and the Rays @ hm in TB vs the White Sox.

Buerhle was on the mound, and pitched an 9 K effort. He would pitch 7 innings of 1 run ball before getting pulled in the 8th, failing to record an out, and walking 2 batters.

Pat Burrell would make him pay, and got TB out to a 3-2 lead after he singled down the RF line scoring BJ Upton and Evan Longoria. I put too much trust in James Shields though and trotted him out for the 9th when I could've picked from the stacked TB bullpen and should have. Shields had only 1 K through 8 innings, but was inducing the groundball w/ that circle change of his.

Shields would allow a runner to reach, and Rafeal Soriano was immediately brought in for the save. However, he'd allow the tying run to score and then surrender the go-ahead run off a Paul Konerko single. I lost 4-3. CWS recorded 11 hits, an error, and Carlos Quentin added an RBI double. TB recorded 10 hits, an error, and no extra base hits. Rays hitters struck out a total of 12 times: Buehrle 9, Thornton 1, and Jenks 2.

Then...I played the next Roy Halladay start, and i FINALLY had another dominant outing w/ him after getting roughed up in my last 3 Halladay starts.

Roy pitched a complete game shutout on 98 pitches @ ATL allowing 7 hits, no walks, and striking out 8. He improved to 6-3, and has an ERA of 2.20/WHIP 1.05 and has 5 complete games in 11 starts.

The final score in this Phillies victory was 3-0. I got out to an early 2-0 lead after Shane Victorino singled in the first, and Tim Hudson walked Chase Utley. Hudson would walk Ryan Howard too in his first AB, but Werth would line out for the 2nd out of inning after having a prime opportunity to drive in some run...

So...In steps Ross Gload, starting in LF to give Raul Ibanez a rest. Hudson got behind in the count again, and would leave one over the middle. Gload reacted and hit a seeing-eye single up the middle scoring Victorino from 3rd and Utley from 2nd. However, Placido Polanco would end the inning on a ground out.

Score would stay 2-0 until Ryan Howard hit an opposite field solo-HR in the 5th, his 13th of the year, and the Phillies would win the first game of this 3-gm set in ATL. Hudson got chased out after 3 innings, and 70 some pitches; walking 4 and striking out 2. The loss was only his 3rd of the yr (6-3), and his ERA stands at 3.17.

[duke776]

Re: MLB 2K10 Franchise Progress

Game 1 vs. Brewers- It was a shutout for both sides up until the 6th inning. Mike Fontenot led it off with a single up the middle. Stole 2nd on the next pitch, and Ted Lilly sac bunted him to third. Ryan Theriot steps in, and grounds out to deep short but Fontenot scores. Still leading going into the bottom of the 9th. Carlos Gomez gets a single off Ted Lilly to lead off the inning. Lilly struck out Alcides Escobar for the first out. Ryan Braun steps in and I am sweating like crazy. I get him to ground one to short, Theriot throws it to second for one, on to first...safe. I wanted to argue it, but only because Fielder was up next. On the 3rd pitch, Fielder sends one high, deep, but out on the warning track. This game was the most rewarding win I've ever had, I had just two hits the whole game and won it 1-0. Ted Lilly threw a complete game shutout, giving up just 5 hits and striking out 7.

Game 2- Randy Well pitched a solid game, allowing just 3 runs in 7 innings striking out 6. Aramis Ramirez was a beast, going deep twice knocking in 5. Bottom 9 we're up 7-3 and I bring in Esmilan Caridad. He proceeds to give up 3 runs, but Angel Guzman comes in and shuts the door for the save. We won it 7-6.

Game 3- Tom Gorzelanny had his first bad outing of the year, allowing 6 runs through 5 and 2/3. Luckily we had two 5 run innings, and won it 13-7.

Game 1 vs the White Sox- Jake Peavy vs Carlos Zambrano, great game. Both pitchers were cruising through 6. Top 7th, Z gets two quick outs. Then a single and Mark Teahan is up. Takes Zambrano deep to give the Sox the 2 run lead. They would tack on another run later and win the game 3-0. Peavy gave up just 3 hits in 7 innings, striking out 8.

Game 2- Gil Meche's 2nd start as a Cub, not so good. 5 innings, 4 earned, 7 K's. Our bats were hot through, Soriano knocked in 3. We won it 7-4.

Game 3- I was hoping Ted Lilly's last outing would right him, but it did not. He went 5 giving up 8. David DeJesus had a nice game, knocking in 4 runs, 3 which came on a bases clearing triple. Lost it 9-7.

Game 1 vs Athletics- Randy Wells pitched great, going 8 allowing just 1 run. My 1-3 hitters had 8 RBI's on the game, and we won it 9-1.

Game 2- Gorzelanny had another bad outing, giving up 5 in 5. I did take the 7-5 lead in the 6th though. It was 7-6 going into the top of the 9th. I bring in Carlos Marmol to shut the door. He gives up a single and next comes up Cliff Pennington. Marmol proceeds to give up a homerun, and we lose the game 8-7.

Game 3- Carlos Zambrano pitched a nice game, giving up just 3 runs in 8 innings. Soto was a beast, finally getting over his power outage with two homeruns. We won it 7-3.

So now I stand at 38-28 just 3 games back of the 41-25 Cardinals. The Cardinals went on a 9 game losing streak, and I took advantage of it for the most part and that's how I'm just 3 games back now.

Soriano was struggling for a good part of the season early, but now has his average up to .267 with 13 HR's. I've moved him to the 6 hole and Marlon Byrd down to the 7th hole because he has been pretty bad recently.

I also removed Carlos Marmol from the closer position, and inserted Angel Guzman there making Jeff Gray my Set Up man. Marmol was 11-13 on save opprotunities, but that doesn't mean much because he has a 5.85 ERA. Every save was a rollercoaster, and he usually gave up runs. Guzman has a 2.81 ERA so far, and I feel much more confident with him as the closer. I thought about Farnsworth, because he has the overpowering stuff I like for the closer position, but he hasn't pitched enough to prove to me he's the man(although he's only let up 1 run in 5 innings so far).