Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

[AC]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

the Mets bullpen locked us down for the entire time they were in the game

... The METS bullpen shut you down? C'mon, son.

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

... The METS bullpen shut you down? C'mon, son.

This IS the 2013 Mets pen. They had Francisco to Parnell to Meija (sp.?) It was a legit pen in the game. Anyways...Carlos M'Fing Correa will be making a September appearance and playing at least 5 games at the big league level (5 that I'll be playing hopefully.) He's still on a tear and I can't ignore his ridiculous stats in the minors (.320 with 25 HR and 107 RBI)

[37]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

sorry...im lost...is this the baseball dynasty thread?

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

sorry...im lost...is this the baseball dynasty thread?

You better believe it! I've got a couple games to post up tomorrow. Not now since I'm sleepy and don't feel like it. But things are heating up in the divisional race as we head into September! Also, just played the Correa debut. He took the first pitch of his big league career and rode it deep to right field, and Heyward made a spectacular play on the ball to rob a HR. Dickhead...

[37]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

You better believe it! I've got a couple games to post up tomorrow. Not now since I'm sleepy and don't feel like it. But things are heating up in the divisional race as we head into September! Also, just played the Correa debut. He took the first pitch of his big league career and rode it deep to right field, and Heyward made a spectacular play on the ball to rob a HR. Dickhead...

i'll be following...nice change of pace to football once in a while

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Office of the Commissioner
August 28th, 2012



It had been just under a week since tragedy struck the baseball world. One of its own, Jeff Luhnow, had been killed in what appeared to be a paid assassination. Who would want to kill Luhnow? He was a family man with family values and his peers all loved him. It just didn't add up! They needed an outside investigator to check things out, but that would take time and Bud needed to act now. It didn't matter who killed Luhnow for now, it was time for action. The Astros were sitting pretty and could very well be going to the playoffs this season. They needed an owner, hell they needed a GM. The GM part would be easy, just appoint the young gun Gillespie to the role and move on.

But the owner...that would be tough. Bud had a serious dilemma on his hands. He could easily sell the team to the one man who's always wanted the Astros, but that man didn't deserve to own a team and as long as Bud was the commissioner of this league, he wouldn't. Who in the hell had the money to buy the team and would do it justice? That's when it hit him like a 1000 pound elephant. The answer to all the problems he'd been having were right in front of him. He was a Houston legend and surely would want to help out his former team. Hell maybe he even wants back into the game.

Janice! Get me Craig Biggio on the phone, I've got an offer he can't possibly refuse.

Hello?

Hey Craig...you undoubtedly heard about the Jeff thing. I'm not going to beat around the bush. I want you to buy the Astros, get me the money and I won't even offer it to the open market. Understand? We both know Cuban will swoop in if given the chance.

I'd be thrilled to buy the team, give me a little time to collect the funds and we'll be in business.

Craig hung up up the phone and immediately turned to his left and smiled.

Jeff, Brandon...we just got an offer to buy the Astros from Bud Selig. Looks like we've finally got a step up on them

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)



It's August 29th folks, which means the game after this one is September baseball! With the Stros holding a comfortable chance at the playoffs. I know, it sounds ridiculous but we've played amazing ball all season and its time people started to respect us! Onto the game today, the Cards aren't going anywhere this season but having said that...this matchup should be a good one. One of the best offenses in baseball against a pitching staff that holds a stake in the argument for best in baseball.

Today's matchup would pit Folty against Kyle "I Love Facing Houston" Lohse. Recall his starts against us earlier this season, where he allowed 1 run and no runs...now we won both games, but its incredibly frustrating to have a guy like Lohse constantly shutting us down. We're due to break out against him one of these times.

Well, let's go!


Below is the lineup STL is throwing at us, and I gotta say...Craig in the 3 hole scares me chitless. Just saying, dude can rake and now he's playing everyday...oh man.


And this game wasn't quite what we expected it to be, CJ comes through for us first with an RBI single



But we're gonna fast-forward now to the beginning of the 7th inning, but here's a recap of what you missed: Folty threw a ridiculous amount of pitches in a small amount of time (112 in 4 innings of work!) and Lohse pitched alright but gave up a ton of hits; sadly he got a lot of DP balls (3 of those suckers) to hold us down a bit.


Anyways, here's your final score in a wild game here in St. Louis. 8-6 we get the win as Jepsen comes on in and locks up the Cards late for his 21st save.


Now onto the most important part of this game: September call-ups on the horizon. The one everybody is probably the most curious about is Carlos Correa. The 19 year old has had an unbelievable season at AAA with a .320 average, 25 HR and 102 RBI. He is definitely getting a call and will probably be starting Spring with us next year. He'll get about 25-30 ABs down the stretch to rest Gonzalez and Johnson a bit and get his feet wet. Other notables getting a call will be Juan Abreu, Zach Phillips (a left-handed reliever who's sported a 1.23 ERA this season in AAA), Travis Buck, our old friend Mr. Paredes will come up, and of course Cosart will come up to pitch maybe 10-15 innings, maybe make a spot start and rest up our pen down the stretch.

Overall I want to win the division and we're up on Cincinnati right now. Anything less than a playoff birth will be unacceptable, but a division title is my expectation. Correa will make his debut in our next game, against the Atlanta Braves and former Astro Jed Lowrie.

[Frank is the Tank]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Like this dynasty! Following!

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

September...ahhh what a great month. Postseason baseball is on the horizon, dreams are crushed or realized, this is why we play the game. Having a lead in our division and being in the race isn't something that our squad is used to, hell last year we were about 20 games out at this point and really looking forward to next year as a better tomorrow. Nobody would have guessed it would be this much better though.


Today we face the Braves in the first game we highlight of September and this is no ordinary game, it is the major league debut of Carlos Correa...he'll play shortstop and hit 7th tonight. And starting the game for us is our man Bud Norris, Bud has been our ace all season and that hasn't changed since day one; he's been among the best in the league in pretty much every statistical category that doesn't involve W/L record. And he would definitely live up to that today, but more on that later. On to the game!


Fast-forward to the AB everybody is looking forward to. Bottom of the 2nd inning with 1 on and 1 out, Carlos Correa steps in to face Tommy Hanson. Correa works the count to 2-2 and then he swings


Sends a high drive to deep right field, back to the wall goes Heyward. Back to the track, to the wall...he goes up and he!


Makes the catch...you son of a bitch. Robbing Correa of a HR in his first AB, chithead!

Norris and Hanson locked up in a duel and both allowed 1 run over the first 8 innings and Carlos Correa tripled to go 1-4 in this game.


But at the end of the day, it was Juicin' Maxwell


He doubled in Altuve and CarGo to make it a 3-1 ball game and that's where it would remain.


What a win and a good way to debut for Correa. Also, Zach Phillips debuted for us today. He went an inning of scoreless relief, punching out Brian McCann and Jason Heyward back-to-back. He's got a filthy curveball and he could be a weapon down the stretch against lefties.

[Frank is the Tank]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Heyward = Heartless SOB

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Ok, here's the deal: I lost the screens and awesome content I had drawn up for the remainder of the regular season, so what I'm going to do is incredibly quickly sum up the games I had to show you and move on to the end of the season and playoff stuff.


Brewers vs Astros:

Back and forth game, goes 21 innings before Carlos Correa gets an RBI single to walk off the Astros 5-4

Cubs vs Astros:

Cubs actually get us, but we don't care since we clinched a postseason spot 3-2 Cubbies

Cincinnati Series:

We sweep Cinci and lock up the division in the final week of the season in a beanball game against our nemesis from LA.

LA vs Astros:

Jonathan Sanchez is beaned 2 times in his 2 ABs, we finally beat him 6-1 behind Folty.


Division standings, brackets, and all that stuff will be up at some point this weekend (I hope, I've got my first Quidditch tournament this week and I may be too busy to do updates if I can't crank some out today.)

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Award Winners

2013 MLB Award Winners
Award	Player	Pos	Team
AL Cy Young Award	Cole Hamels (17-6, 3.03, 249K)	SP	Detroit Tigers
NL Cy Young Award	Ian Kennedy (21-6, 2.30, 260K)	SP	Arizona Diamondbacks
AL Hank Aaron Award	Jacoby Ellsbury (.340, 23 HR, 102 RBI)	CF	Boston Red Sox
NL Hank Aaron Award	Ryan Braun (.315, 45 HR, 123 RBI)	LF	Milwaukee Brewers
AL Most Valuable Player	Miguel Cabrera (.290, 50 HR, 153 RBI)	3B	Detroit Tigers
NL Most Valuable Player	Ian Kennedy (21-6, 2.30, 260K)	SP	Arizona Diamondbacks
AL Rookie of the Year	Danny Hultzen (16-8, 3.49 ERA, 221K)	SP	Seattle Mariners
NL Rookie of the Year	Trevor Bauer (13-9, 3.44 ERA, 228K)	SP	Arizona Diamondbacks
AL Rolaids Relief Award	Scott Downs (52 saves, 2.42 ERA)	CP	Los Angeles Angels
NL Rolaids Relief Award	Kenley Jansen (49 saves, 2.55 ERA)	CP	Los Angeles Dodgers

2013 MLB Rawlings Gold Glove Award Winners
American League	Pos	National League
Matt Wieters (Baltimore)	C	Gabriel Lino (Philadelphia)
Adrian Gonzalez (Boston)	1B	Freddie Freeman (Atlanta)
Brian Roberts (Baltimore)	2B	Brandon Phillips (Cincinnati)
Scott Rolen (Cleveland)	3B	Placido Polanco (Los Angeles)
Yunel Escobar (Toronto)	SS	Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia)
Desmond Jennings (Tampa Bay)	OF	Carlos Gonzalez (Houston)
Yoneis Cespedes (Oakland)	OF	Michael Bourn (Atlanta)
Nick Markakis (Baltimore)	OF	Michael Stanton (Miami)
Dallas Braden (Oakland)	P	Bronson Arroyo (Cincinnati)

League Leaders

MLB League Leaders - Updated: Oct 4, 2013
Average		AVG	Doubles		2B
	1. Jacoby Ellsbury	.340		1. Michael Bourn	59
	2. Allen Craig (STL)	.318		2. Jacoby Ellsbury (BOS)	57
	3. Drew Stubbs (CIN)	.313		3. Ryan Braun (MIL)	50
	4. Chris Johnson (HOU)	.312		4. Carlos Gonzalez (HOU)	47
	5. Carlos Santana (CLE)	.311		5. Gaby Sanchez (MIA)	49
Triples		3B	Home Runs		HR
	1. Drew Stubbs	15		1. Miguel Cabrera	50
	2. Jacoby Ellsbury (BOS)	14		2. Ryan Braun (MIL)	45
	3. Michael Bourn (ATL)	13		3. Matt Kemp (LAD)	41
	4. Andrew McCutchen (PIT)	10		4. Albert Pujols (LAA)	40
	5. Matt Joyce (TB)	13		5. Billy Butler (KC)/ Joey Votto (CIN)	39
Runs Batted In		RBI	Runs		R
	1. Miguel Cabrera	153		1. Ryan Braun	121
	2. Matt Kemp (LAD)	129		2. Matt Kemp (LAD)	117
	3. Ryan Braun (MIL)	123		3. Miguel Cabrera (DET)	111
	4. Nelson Cruz (TEX)	112		4. Joey Votto (CIN)	108
	5. Jay Bruce (CIN)	112		5. Billy Butler (KC)/ Alex Gordon (KC)	106
Stolen Bases		SB	Walks		BB
	1. Michael Bourn	67		1. Joey Votto	96
	2. Dee Gordon (LAD)	66		2. Alex Gordon (KC)	94
	3. Ichiro Suzuki (TOR)	46		3. Chris Young (ARI)	93
	4. Jacoby Ellsbury (BOS)	46		4. Mark Reynolds (BAL)	92
	5. Brett Gardner (NYY)	40		5. David Wright (NYM)/ Carlos Santana (CLE)	91

MLB League Leaders - Updated: Oct 4, 2013
Wins		W	Losses		L
	1. Ian Kennedy	21		1. Jeremy Bonderman	5
	2. Mat Latos (CIN)	21		2. Randy Wolf (MIL)	5
	3. Tim Lincecum (SFG)	18		3. Bronson Arroyo (CIN)	5
	4. Cole Hamels (DET)	17		4. Jared Weaver (LAA)	5
	5. Jonathan Sanchez (LAD)	17		5. Cole Hamels (DET)	6
Earned Run Average		ERA	Strikeouts		K
	1. Ian Kennedy	2.30		1. Tim Lincecum	291
	2. Randy Wolf (MIL)	2.31		2. Michael Pineda (NYY)	268
	3. Bud Norris (HOU)	2.32		3. Ian Kennedy (ARI)	260
	4. Michael Pineda (NYY)	2.60		4. Yovani Gallardo (MIL)	258
	5. Jeff Locke (PIT)	2.78		5. Yu Darvish (TEX)	252
Innings Pitched		IP	Complete Games		CG
	1. Ian Kennedy	242.2		1. Ian Kennedy	9
	2. Mat Latos (CIN)	233.1		2. Mat Latos (CIN)	8
	3. Michael Pineda (NYY)	232.0		3. CC Sabathia (NYY)	7
	4. CC Sabathia (NYY)	227.0		4. Michael Pineda (NYY)	7
	5. Cole Hamels (DET)	226.0		5. Johnny Cueto (CIN)	6
Walks plus Hits per Innings Pitched		WHIP	Saves		SV
	1. Ian Kennedy	0.98		1. Scott Downs	52
	2. Josh Johnson (MIA)	1.05		2. Kenley Jansen (LAD)	49
	3. Michael Pineda (NYY)	1.10		3. JJ Putz (TB)	48
	4. Bud Norris (HOU)	1.10		4. Frank Francisco (NYM)	48
	5. Barry Zito (SFG)	1.10		5. Jose Valverde (DET)	47

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

MLB Standings - Updated: Oct 4, 2013
AL EAST	W	L	GB
Yankees	88	74	--
Rays	86	76	2.0
Blue Jays	83	79	5.0
Orioles	83	79	5.0
Red Sox	78	84	10.0
AL CENTRAL	W	L	GB
Tigers	95	67	--
Indians	81	81	14.0
White Sox	77	85	18.0
Royals	71	91	24.0
Twins	58	104	37.0
AL WEST	W	L	GB
Athletics	91	71	--
Angels	91	71	--
Rangers	78	84	13.0
Mariners	75	87	16.0
AL WILD CARD RACE	W	L	GB
Angels	91	71	--
Rays	86	76	5.0
Blue Jays	83	79	8.0
Orioles	83	79	8.0
NL EAST	W	L	GB
Nationals	86	76	--
Braves	83	79	3.0
Marlins	83	79	3.0
Mets	81	81	5.0
Phillies	72	90	14.0
NL CENTRAL	W	L	GB
Astros	100	62	--
Reds	98	64	2.0
Brewers	89	73	11.0
Cardinals	84	78	16.0
Pirates	73	89	27.0
Cubs	50	112	50.0
NL WEST	W	L	GB
Diamondbacks	98	64	--
Giants	87	75	11.0
Dodgers	86	76	12.0
Padres	65	97	33.0
Rockies	60	102	38.0
NL WILD CARD RACE	W	L	GB
Reds	98	64	--
Brewers	89	73	9.0
Giants	87	75	11.0
Dodgers	86	76	12.0

PLAYOFF BRACKET:

[Frank is the Tank]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Weaksauce for the Yankees only getting 88 wins... Diamond Backs pitching kicked some serious booty!

[TheNumber35]

Re: Holdin' Onto Hope Part 2: Cranes, Trains, and Auto-Explosions (The Show 12)

Weaksauce for the Yankees only getting 88 wins... Diamond Backs pitching kicked some serious booty!

The NL looks incredibly strong this year, three teams won 98+ games. And the Yankees had a lot of talent to replace with A-Rod, Jeter, and Mo retiring. Lucky for them they got Pineda and Sabathia finishing a ton of games for them. And the D-Backs scare me, hell Washington could easily bounce me this round with their pitching staff. Strasburg, Gio, Zimmermann...that's a hell of a 1-2-3 to matchup with. I'm thinking my playoff rotation looks like this:

1. Bud
2. Bonderman
3. Weiland
4. Clemens/Folty (I haven't quite made a decision on this spot yet)


I think my top 2 can matchup with anyone the way they've pitched this season...but the bottom half is where I'm a little worried. Luckily I had the #1 ranked bullpen in the NL in ERA and WHIP. Those guys are going to have a short leash this postseason since I don't have a ton of confidence in my offense against elite pitching.