My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

Heartbreaking loss last night... I jump off to a 3-0 nothing lead. my rookie starter Greg Sweeney is pitching well, allowing hits, but staying out of trouble. I got a big break early on, when Miguel Tejada lead off with a double, I retired Edgar Renteria on a shallow popout to leftfield, and when Carlos Delgado stepped to the plate with his hot bat, I opted to give him a free pass. I throw my first pitchout, and Tejada takes off for third! He's easily picked off for out number 2, so I went ahead and pitched to Carlos, who, in turn, roped a double but was left stranded on 2nd. I tack on an insurance run to make it 4-0, only to have Sweeney pitch a bad inning and give up 3, and two innings later he gave up two more and was pulled. Leaving the mound with a 5-4 deficit. We go into the bottom of the 8th, same score, and they tack on an extra run. 6-4 Milwaukee.

I failed to convert on two excellent scoring opportunities. First was when Kendall doubled to lead off the bottom of the 8th. Next batter lined right up the middle to the 2nd baseman, standing like 2' from the bag, Kendall got doubled up, ending the threat. Giles smashed his league leading 9th homer in the bottom of the 8th with 2 down to get us back in the hunt. 6-5 Milwaukee.. second scoring opportunity came in the bottom of the 9th. Lead off with a hit, it looked like my speedy batter could get to 2nd, and instead was dead on arrival, in a call, I feel was a little too close. Actually there was three chances to tie, with 2 down in the bottom of the 9th, I pinch-hitted Ryan Ludwick for my pitcher and he roped a single, and promptly stole second... only to have it go for nothing when the next batter grounded out to second to end the game, giving Billy Wagner the save.

That concludes my 3-game set versus the Brew Crew.. where I lost my first series of the season.

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

I took at look at contracts last night and my budget, projected income and bank... I'm looking to be in good shape. My projected income is only at 348 or something, which is below the league average, but my payroll is only at 245, which is also below league average, and fortunately about proportionate to the income... I currently got 65 in the bank, which is about league average... Current discussion going on at the owner/GM table is if we are paying Ugueth Urbina too much money... currently he's sporting a 34 BP salary, however, he's only signed for this season, after this he goes FA. Should we neglect to renew his contract? Should we turn down making him any offers if he goes FA? Should we trade him at the deadline for a younger closer if, at that point, we are NOT in playoff contention? Uggy is getting paid about 65% of my bullpen's total payroll, yet he's only gotten one appearance this year. (Which he converted the SVO, btw)

The pitching coach, has made a note that we just unloaded a combined 59 BP's in contracts of Roy Halladay and Grant Roberts, and brought on a combined TWO BP's of contracts in Damian Moss and Spooney, plus they are under contract through next year. Plus Uggy can prolly see more action than JUST save opps.

I'm really torn on what to do with this guy, it's not his lack of performance, I can only remember maybe 3 SVO's he didn't convert last year, it's just my save opps are pretty infrequent, and he DOES make a nice chunk of BP...

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

I took at look at contracts last night and my budget, projected income and bank... I'm looking to be in good shape. My projected income is only at 348 or something, which is below the league average, but my payroll is only at 245, which is also below league average, and fortunately about proportionate to the income... I currently got 65 in the bank, which is about league average... Current discussion going on at the owner/GM table is if we are paying Ugueth Urbina too much money... currently he's sporting a 34 BP salary, however, he's only signed for this season, after this he goes FA. Should we neglect to renew his contract? Should we turn down making him any offers if he goes FA? Should we trade him at the deadline for a younger closer if, at that point, we are NOT in playoff contention? Uggy is getting paid about 65% of my bullpen's total payroll, yet he's only gotten one appearance this year. (Which he converted the SVO, btw)

The pitching coach, has made a note that we just unloaded a combined 59 BP's in contracts of Roy Halladay and Grant Roberts, and brought on a combined TWO BP's of contracts in Damian Moss and Spooney, plus they are under contract through next year. Plus Uggy can prolly see more action than JUST save opps.

I'm really torn on what to do with this guy, it's not his lack of performance, I can only remember maybe 3 SVO's he didn't convert last year, it's just my save opps are pretty infrequent, and he DOES make a nice chunk of BP...

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

I took at look at contracts last night and my budget, projected income and bank... I'm looking to be in good shape. My projected income is only at 348 or something, which is below the league average, but my payroll is only at 245, which is also below league average, and fortunately about proportionate to the income... I currently got 65 in the bank, which is about league average... Current discussion going on at the owner/GM table is if we are paying Ugueth Urbina too much money... currently he's sporting a 34 BP salary, however, he's only signed for this season, after this he goes FA. Should we neglect to renew his contract? Should we turn down making him any offers if he goes FA? Should we trade him at the deadline for a younger closer if, at that point, we are NOT in playoff contention? Uggy is getting paid about 65% of my bullpen's total payroll, yet he's only gotten one appearance this year. (Which he converted the SVO, btw)

The pitching coach, has made a note that we just unloaded a combined 59 BP's in contracts of Roy Halladay and Grant Roberts, and brought on a combined TWO BP's of contracts in Damian Moss and Spooney, plus they are under contract through next year. Plus Uggy can prolly see more action than JUST save opps.

I'm really torn on what to do with this guy, it's not his lack of performance, I can only remember maybe 3 SVO's he didn't convert last year, it's just my save opps are pretty infrequent, and he DOES make a nice chunk of BP...

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

After dropping 2 of 3 to the Cubbies, I had advanced on to play the Mets at Shea stadium.

Game 1 was Mark Prior vs. Andy Pettitte, Mets just off to an early 2 run lead, but I managed to squeek a run in, making it 2-1... few innings later, they get an add-on run, making it 3-1... I score another one, then the next inning I take the lead with a 2-run shot by Giles (who must've hit like 4-5 homers on this series). Prior pitched extremely well, striking out 11, giving up 4 runs, but only 2 of them were earned, thus lowering his ERA to very nice looking 2.65 on the season. He also got his second win, making him 2-0 thus far, with Urbina getting the save.

Next game was a scoring-fest... They were up 5-2 until the 4th inning when the scoring just went haywire... I scored a pair in the 4th, another in the 5th, and, count 'em, 9 in the 6th... capped off with a grand slam by All-Star candidate Eric Chavez. I removed Tim Hudson when he had a 16-8 lead, he had runners on, but I HAD to get him out of there, he just wasn't looking good, and hadn't been all game, if not for the big inning, he'd have prolly been pulled at this point. My bullpen started to falter, letting them get back into the game, after pecking away a couple runs in the 7th and 8th, they had runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out in the 9th and the score was up to 17-13.. I brought in Urbina after an abbreviate warm-up session, but he promptly K'ed the first guy, and induced a pop-up to end the game for his 3rd save of the season..

Third game was my rookie spot-start George Sweeney, he looked OK early on, but started to falter... luckily for him the bats came to the rescue, and we managed to scrape out a 7-5 win, Urbina getting his 4th save of the season and 3rd in three days...

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

After dropping 2 of 3 to the Cubbies, I had advanced on to play the Mets at Shea stadium.

Game 1 was Mark Prior vs. Andy Pettitte, Mets just off to an early 2 run lead, but I managed to squeek a run in, making it 2-1... few innings later, they get an add-on run, making it 3-1... I score another one, then the next inning I take the lead with a 2-run shot by Giles (who must've hit like 4-5 homers on this series). Prior pitched extremely well, striking out 11, giving up 4 runs, but only 2 of them were earned, thus lowering his ERA to very nice looking 2.65 on the season. He also got his second win, making him 2-0 thus far, with Urbina getting the save.

Next game was a scoring-fest... They were up 5-2 until the 4th inning when the scoring just went haywire... I scored a pair in the 4th, another in the 5th, and, count 'em, 9 in the 6th... capped off with a grand slam by All-Star candidate Eric Chavez. I removed Tim Hudson when he had a 16-8 lead, he had runners on, but I HAD to get him out of there, he just wasn't looking good, and hadn't been all game, if not for the big inning, he'd have prolly been pulled at this point. My bullpen started to falter, letting them get back into the game, after pecking away a couple runs in the 7th and 8th, they had runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out in the 9th and the score was up to 17-13.. I brought in Urbina after an abbreviate warm-up session, but he promptly K'ed the first guy, and induced a pop-up to end the game for his 3rd save of the season..

Third game was my rookie spot-start George Sweeney, he looked OK early on, but started to falter... luckily for him the bats came to the rescue, and we managed to scrape out a 7-5 win, Urbina getting his 4th save of the season and 3rd in three days...

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

After dropping 2 of 3 to the Cubbies, I had advanced on to play the Mets at Shea stadium.

Game 1 was Mark Prior vs. Andy Pettitte, Mets just off to an early 2 run lead, but I managed to squeek a run in, making it 2-1... few innings later, they get an add-on run, making it 3-1... I score another one, then the next inning I take the lead with a 2-run shot by Giles (who must've hit like 4-5 homers on this series). Prior pitched extremely well, striking out 11, giving up 4 runs, but only 2 of them were earned, thus lowering his ERA to very nice looking 2.65 on the season. He also got his second win, making him 2-0 thus far, with Urbina getting the save.

Next game was a scoring-fest... They were up 5-2 until the 4th inning when the scoring just went haywire... I scored a pair in the 4th, another in the 5th, and, count 'em, 9 in the 6th... capped off with a grand slam by All-Star candidate Eric Chavez. I removed Tim Hudson when he had a 16-8 lead, he had runners on, but I HAD to get him out of there, he just wasn't looking good, and hadn't been all game, if not for the big inning, he'd have prolly been pulled at this point. My bullpen started to falter, letting them get back into the game, after pecking away a couple runs in the 7th and 8th, they had runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out in the 9th and the score was up to 17-13.. I brought in Urbina after an abbreviate warm-up session, but he promptly K'ed the first guy, and induced a pop-up to end the game for his 3rd save of the season..

Third game was my rookie spot-start George Sweeney, he looked OK early on, but started to falter... luckily for him the bats came to the rescue, and we managed to scrape out a 7-5 win, Urbina getting his 4th save of the season and 3rd in three days...

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

Haven't had much time to post since I worked all weekend, played softball, and manged to crank out 5 games of WSB, I just figured I'd wait till today to post what I'd remember... lol

Lot of wheeling and dealing done, one blockbuster, and i'm NORMALLY not big on blockbusters, but when I was offered Randy Johnson, I had to go for it, even though I wasn't much on the high salary, I NEED to lower the team ERA. And badly! Before the trade I was sporting a team ERA (league worst) of over 8... I had traded and got Randy, but he was tired so I skipped his start, and bumped the rotation up one. After I lost 2 of 3 to the Cubbies I went and swept the Giants, in dominating fashion. Mainly because of excellent starting pitching, especially in the last two games with Randy and Prior having stellar games, allowing only 1 run apiece in their games.

I can't remember my EXCAT deals at this time, i'll just give you an updated roster.

C: Javy Lopez (Dealt Kendall straight-up mainly for the lower salary) Kendall was making 40, as opposed to Javy making 8

1B: I had dealt Hafner off in the Randy deal, but later on they had offered me Hafner back for an 84 rated relief pitcher, so I didn't hesitate on it..

2B: Thurston (This'll never change, he's the man... i'm CONSTANTLY getting offers on him)

SS: Womack and a couple prospects alternating, with womack spending most of the time sitting.

3B: Eric Chavez, I even signed him to a 4-year extention for 54 BP's.

LF: Giles
CF: Ludwick has been stepping up so he's been starting again...
RF: platoon of people, I just dealt Ibanez off in a salary issue, much like the case with Kendall and Cameron as well... mainly because of my RJ acquisition.

I'm got MANY good bats, and my pitching needs people that'll eat up solid innings, and Hudson and Halladay weren't cutting it..

my current start rotation is:

Randy Johnson
Mark Prior
Kip Wells
Aaron Sele
Shawn Chacon

Bullpen still needs work, but my closer has been solid as can be and has racked up 4 saves in a hurry!

After my sweep of SF, my record is 12-9 and am 3 games back of 1st place, I'm in third and Cincinnatti and St. Louis are tied for 1st.

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

Haven't had much time to post since I worked all weekend, played softball, and manged to crank out 5 games of WSB, I just figured I'd wait till today to post what I'd remember... lol

Lot of wheeling and dealing done, one blockbuster, and i'm NORMALLY not big on blockbusters, but when I was offered Randy Johnson, I had to go for it, even though I wasn't much on the high salary, I NEED to lower the team ERA. And badly! Before the trade I was sporting a team ERA (league worst) of over 8... I had traded and got Randy, but he was tired so I skipped his start, and bumped the rotation up one. After I lost 2 of 3 to the Cubbies I went and swept the Giants, in dominating fashion. Mainly because of excellent starting pitching, especially in the last two games with Randy and Prior having stellar games, allowing only 1 run apiece in their games.

I can't remember my EXCAT deals at this time, i'll just give you an updated roster.

C: Javy Lopez (Dealt Kendall straight-up mainly for the lower salary) Kendall was making 40, as opposed to Javy making 8

1B: I had dealt Hafner off in the Randy deal, but later on they had offered me Hafner back for an 84 rated relief pitcher, so I didn't hesitate on it..

2B: Thurston (This'll never change, he's the man... i'm CONSTANTLY getting offers on him)

SS: Womack and a couple prospects alternating, with womack spending most of the time sitting.

3B: Eric Chavez, I even signed him to a 4-year extention for 54 BP's.

LF: Giles
CF: Ludwick has been stepping up so he's been starting again...
RF: platoon of people, I just dealt Ibanez off in a salary issue, much like the case with Kendall and Cameron as well... mainly because of my RJ acquisition.

I'm got MANY good bats, and my pitching needs people that'll eat up solid innings, and Hudson and Halladay weren't cutting it..

my current start rotation is:

Randy Johnson
Mark Prior
Kip Wells
Aaron Sele
Shawn Chacon

Bullpen still needs work, but my closer has been solid as can be and has racked up 4 saves in a hurry!

After my sweep of SF, my record is 12-9 and am 3 games back of 1st place, I'm in third and Cincinnatti and St. Louis are tied for 1st.

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

Haven't had much time to post since I worked all weekend, played softball, and manged to crank out 5 games of WSB, I just figured I'd wait till today to post what I'd remember... lol

Lot of wheeling and dealing done, one blockbuster, and i'm NORMALLY not big on blockbusters, but when I was offered Randy Johnson, I had to go for it, even though I wasn't much on the high salary, I NEED to lower the team ERA. And badly! Before the trade I was sporting a team ERA (league worst) of over 8... I had traded and got Randy, but he was tired so I skipped his start, and bumped the rotation up one. After I lost 2 of 3 to the Cubbies I went and swept the Giants, in dominating fashion. Mainly because of excellent starting pitching, especially in the last two games with Randy and Prior having stellar games, allowing only 1 run apiece in their games.

I can't remember my EXCAT deals at this time, i'll just give you an updated roster.

C: Javy Lopez (Dealt Kendall straight-up mainly for the lower salary) Kendall was making 40, as opposed to Javy making 8

1B: I had dealt Hafner off in the Randy deal, but later on they had offered me Hafner back for an 84 rated relief pitcher, so I didn't hesitate on it..

2B: Thurston (This'll never change, he's the man... i'm CONSTANTLY getting offers on him)

SS: Womack and a couple prospects alternating, with womack spending most of the time sitting.

3B: Eric Chavez, I even signed him to a 4-year extention for 54 BP's.

LF: Giles
CF: Ludwick has been stepping up so he's been starting again...
RF: platoon of people, I just dealt Ibanez off in a salary issue, much like the case with Kendall and Cameron as well... mainly because of my RJ acquisition.

I'm got MANY good bats, and my pitching needs people that'll eat up solid innings, and Hudson and Halladay weren't cutting it..

my current start rotation is:

Randy Johnson
Mark Prior
Kip Wells
Aaron Sele
Shawn Chacon

Bullpen still needs work, but my closer has been solid as can be and has racked up 4 saves in a hurry!

After my sweep of SF, my record is 12-9 and am 3 games back of 1st place, I'm in third and Cincinnatti and St. Louis are tied for 1st.

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

Battle vs. the Dodgers last night started off dominating, but I fell short, due to the poor performance from the pen. Aaron Sele pitched5 innigs of scoreless baseball while my offense racked up a 7-0 lead.. He gives up a pair of runs in the 7th, when I decide to bring in my rookie reliever Charlie Bates. Bates gets shelled, but I escape the 7th with a 7-5 lead. I warm up Sterling Hitchcock for use in the 8th, and he promptly gets shelled as well, I brought in Oscar Hernandez with 1 out, runners on 1st and 2nd and the score is not 7-7.. Oscar gets the first out, but then allows a hit and scores the go-ahead run, making it 8-7 LA. I go into the 9th and my bats go silent. Tough loss... the bullpen will be worked on if I don't see some improvement out of them in the next month.

Tonight's probables:
Pittsburgh: Kip Wells vs. LA: Kaz Ishii

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

Battle vs. the Dodgers last night started off dominating, but I fell short, due to the poor performance from the pen. Aaron Sele pitched5 innigs of scoreless baseball while my offense racked up a 7-0 lead.. He gives up a pair of runs in the 7th, when I decide to bring in my rookie reliever Charlie Bates. Bates gets shelled, but I escape the 7th with a 7-5 lead. I warm up Sterling Hitchcock for use in the 8th, and he promptly gets shelled as well, I brought in Oscar Hernandez with 1 out, runners on 1st and 2nd and the score is not 7-7.. Oscar gets the first out, but then allows a hit and scores the go-ahead run, making it 8-7 LA. I go into the 9th and my bats go silent. Tough loss... the bullpen will be worked on if I don't see some improvement out of them in the next month.

Tonight's probables:
Pittsburgh: Kip Wells vs. LA: Kaz Ishii

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

Battle vs. the Dodgers last night started off dominating, but I fell short, due to the poor performance from the pen. Aaron Sele pitched5 innigs of scoreless baseball while my offense racked up a 7-0 lead.. He gives up a pair of runs in the 7th, when I decide to bring in my rookie reliever Charlie Bates. Bates gets shelled, but I escape the 7th with a 7-5 lead. I warm up Sterling Hitchcock for use in the 8th, and he promptly gets shelled as well, I brought in Oscar Hernandez with 1 out, runners on 1st and 2nd and the score is not 7-7.. Oscar gets the first out, but then allows a hit and scores the go-ahead run, making it 8-7 LA. I go into the 9th and my bats go silent. Tough loss... the bullpen will be worked on if I don't see some improvement out of them in the next month.

Tonight's probables:
Pittsburgh: Kip Wells vs. LA: Kaz Ishii

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

My bullpen officially sucks...

Kip and Ishii started off with a pitcher's duel... it was 2-1 me going into the 5th inning... until I rope in a couple runs, and left the bases loaded for Eric Chavez to deposit a souvenir into the leftcenter bleacher seats for his 3rd grand slam of the season! I eventually have the lead 8-4 when I opted to pull Kip in the 6th inning, only to have my rookie reliever Charlie Bates give you 3 runs and have runner on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, when bringing in Sterling Hitchcock... Hitchcock allowed a run, but escaped the inning... 8-7 me going into the 8th, my next reliever Oscar Hernandez gives up three hits, and I got action in the bullpen, he gives up a two-run double to give up the lead and go down 9-8... next reliever gives up back to back homers and leaves the inning in a deficit of 14-8, which turned out to be the final. Actions WILL be taken. You can't be jumping off to big leads like this and turn around and give up free games. I'm going to eye up a handful of relievers for trade talks tonight.

[MSRoble33]

Re: My Pittsburgh Pirates WSB2K3 Franchise...

My bullpen officially sucks...

Kip and Ishii started off with a pitcher's duel... it was 2-1 me going into the 5th inning... until I rope in a couple runs, and left the bases loaded for Eric Chavez to deposit a souvenir into the leftcenter bleacher seats for his 3rd grand slam of the season! I eventually have the lead 8-4 when I opted to pull Kip in the 6th inning, only to have my rookie reliever Charlie Bates give you 3 runs and have runner on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, when bringing in Sterling Hitchcock... Hitchcock allowed a run, but escaped the inning... 8-7 me going into the 8th, my next reliever Oscar Hernandez gives up three hits, and I got action in the bullpen, he gives up a two-run double to give up the lead and go down 9-8... next reliever gives up back to back homers and leaves the inning in a deficit of 14-8, which turned out to be the final. Actions WILL be taken. You can't be jumping off to big leads like this and turn around and give up free games. I'm going to eye up a handful of relievers for trade talks tonight.