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Art Deco · 05-28-2020, 11:52 PM

Spring training & opening day roster.

The less said about spring training in OOTP the better, I guess, with the main thing being getting everyone enough AB or IP to shake off the rust and hope nobody gets hurt. Mission accomplished on both fronts.

As mentioned, the only excitement of note was bringing in Michael Brantley (who did drop off in 2020 from his usual hitting excellence hence his availability) but he was always slated to start at Durham. As it came time to fashion the final roster, there wasn't much drama, although I decided to give Tsutsugo another crack at salvaging 2021's $7M.

By Position:

C: Zunino, Jason Castro (Perez had options to send back to AAA)
1B: Choi
2B: B.Lowe
SS: Franco
3B: Y.Diaz
IF: Wendle,
OF: Renfroe, Meadows, Kiermaier, Margot, Tsutsugo
DH: J.Martinez

Rotation:Snell, Glasnow, McKay, Fried, Chirinos.
Bullpen: Drake, Roe, Anderson, Alvarado, D.Castillo, N.Anderson, Hand, T.Richards.

The only drama was the last bullpen spot where Poche had options and Trevor Richards didn't, so Poche went to AAA. With Hand bumping everyone down a spot and being a lefty, Poche wasn't going to pitch much for the big club anyway.

The other issue regarding the final roster involved a player who I didn't mention previously. Brett Honeywell of course IRL is going to miss a third straight season this year but in my universe he came back and pitched at AAA last year. And he didn't pitch that well (ERA of about 5.50 with mediocre peripherals) so he ended up going on waivers as he was out of options. Probably should have tried shopping him for someone I didn't have to put on the 40-man but I was ready to get on with the season. The Marlins claimed him and he's been in their rotation and has pitched OK (better than he did at Durham in 2020) but I see from using the "shop a player" function I often try that he's easy available in trade.

I let the AI handle all the minor league assignments, making a few tweaks as needed, and while I had the AI in charge, it signed Tyler Flowers as a minor league FA and put him in Durham, whom I released early in the season because I wanted catcher-of-the-future Ronaldo Hernandez (who hit really well at AA after a mid-season promotion) to get regular at-bats especially with Perez there as well. (Spoiler alert: Hernandez is hitting about .390 with some power after nearly 2 months in Durham getting about 60-65% of the playing time, giddyup)

Anyway onto the regular season. As I said earlier at the time of writing this I'm in late May already so I'm going to have rely on memory and the boxscores for these early season games. I'll group them by series.

March 25-28, 2021: Home vs Boston (4).
The Sox were mediocre last season with some bad pitching. Chris Sale is still hurt, so their opening day starter is Lance Lynn, acquired in an offseason deal with Texas after reverting to mediocrity in my world in 2020 after a great 2019. Marcell Ozuna replaces JD Martinez as the middle-of-the order bat. Strangely at mid-season last year the AI dealt Andrew Benintendi to the Twins for Willians Astudillo so he's not in the picture any longer.

Anyway, opening day is a heartbreaking 3-1 loss in 12 innings. The game was actually scoreless with Snell (7 3 0 0 2 8) trading zeroes with Lynn, who went 8 1/3, through 10 innings. Top 11, scrap-heap pickup and former Ray Logan Morrison pinch-hit and LoMo went deep off Diego Castillo. But in the bottom of the inning, Meadows did likewise off Matt Barnes. This took us into the 12th where Alvarado and Chaz Roe conspired to allow 2 runs one of which was unearned off a key Castro passed ball. Colton Brewer closed it out for the Sox in the bottom of the 12th.

Game 2 was another excruciating loss. Up 2-1 behind Glasnow (LoMo went deep again for Boston while Meadows and Renfroe had RBI doubles) and his 7 3 1 1 1 10 line, the bullpen blew it again, this time with a bases-loaded walk from Anderson to let Boston tie in the 8th, and then Hand gave up an RBI double to another pinch-hitter, Dustin Peterson in the 9th while the offense came up lame again in a 3-2 loss.

Game 3 was shaping up to be deja vu all over again. McKay in a 1-1 duel with another former Ray, Nate Eovaldi (a Ji-Man HR the only offense), when I left him in one batter too long as he gave up a leadoff HR in the 8th to the immortal Kevin Plawecki to make it 2-1. But down to their last out in the 9th, Meadows came through again with the longball off Cody Carroll to send it to extras. And this time the Rays prevailed in the 10th thanks to a walk-off RBI hit from Jose Martinez to make Alvarado the winner. Still the lack of offense against a mediocre Red Sox staff is an early cause for concern.

Game 4 saw the Rays up 4-3 through 5 as Max Fried was struggling in his Rays debut but still had a lead, which in part came from a 2-run HR from Wander. But the wheels fell off in the 6th as Rafael Devers homered to tie, and Jackie Bradley Jr hit a 2-run triple off last year's hero Anthony Banda and the Rays went on to lose 7-4.

Record after 4 games: 1-3.

March 29-31, vs Cincinnati (3).

Yonny got the nod and things looked bad early as he allowed 3 runs in the 2nd. But the Rays got the 3 runs back in the 3rd including a 2-run double from Wander, and then got 3 more in the 4th including a 2-run double from Renfroe. Yonny couldn't finish the 5th but the bullpen shut it down from there with Banda getting the win with two scoreless innings and Hand nailing down his first Rays save in the 6-3 win.

In Game 2, the Rays built a 3-0 lead on HRs from Martinez and Wander and Snell rolled with an 8 5 0 0 1 12 line. But Hand was shaky in the 9th, allowing 2 runs and Diego Castillo had to bail him out for his first save. The Rays are now at .500 after the 3-2 win.

Game 3 was another nail-biter like the games in the Boston series. Glasnow was great again, taking a 1-0 lead into the 9th with a reasonable pitch count and a somewhat tired pen. But with one out he got into some trouble, and Nick Anderson allowed a tying single. And things looked bleak when Joey Votto took Alvarado deep in the top of the 11th to give the Reds the lead. But the Rays put together a rally against Raisel Iglesias and Phil Maton, capped by Ji-Man's walk-off RBI single to pull out a 3-2 win and a series sweep.

Record after 7 games: 4-3.

WanderWatch: 7-25 (.280), 2 HR, 7 RBI, 1 SB.

April's games in the next post.

05-28-2020, 11:52 PM	#4
Art Deco Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2020 Posts: 7,510	Spring training & opening day roster. The less said about spring training in OOTP the better, I guess, with the main thing being getting everyone enough AB or IP to shake off the rust and hope nobody gets hurt. Mission accomplished on both fronts. As mentioned, the only excitement of note was bringing in Michael Brantley (who did drop off in 2020 from his usual hitting excellence hence his availability) but he was always slated to start at Durham. As it came time to fashion the final roster, there wasn't much drama, although I decided to give Tsutsugo another crack at salvaging 2021's $7M. By Position: C: Zunino, Jason Castro (Perez had options to send back to AAA) 1B: Choi 2B: B.Lowe SS: Franco 3B: Y.Diaz IF: Wendle, OF: Renfroe, Meadows, Kiermaier, Margot, Tsutsugo DH: J.Martinez Rotation:Snell, Glasnow, McKay, Fried, Chirinos. Bullpen: Drake, Roe, Anderson, Alvarado, D.Castillo, N.Anderson, Hand, T.Richards. The only drama was the last bullpen spot where Poche had options and Trevor Richards didn't, so Poche went to AAA. With Hand bumping everyone down a spot and being a lefty, Poche wasn't going to pitch much for the big club anyway. The other issue regarding the final roster involved a player who I didn't mention previously. Brett Honeywell of course IRL is going to miss a third straight season this year but in my universe he came back and pitched at AAA last year. And he didn't pitch that well (ERA of about 5.50 with mediocre peripherals) so he ended up going on waivers as he was out of options. Probably should have tried shopping him for someone I didn't have to put on the 40-man but I was ready to get on with the season. The Marlins claimed him and he's been in their rotation and has pitched OK (better than he did at Durham in 2020) but I see from using the "shop a player" function I often try that he's easy available in trade. I let the AI handle all the minor league assignments, making a few tweaks as needed, and while I had the AI in charge, it signed Tyler Flowers as a minor league FA and put him in Durham, whom I released early in the season because I wanted catcher-of-the-future Ronaldo Hernandez (who hit really well at AA after a mid-season promotion) to get regular at-bats especially with Perez there as well. (Spoiler alert: Hernandez is hitting about .390 with some power after nearly 2 months in Durham getting about 60-65% of the playing time, giddyup) Anyway onto the regular season. As I said earlier at the time of writing this I'm in late May already so I'm going to have rely on memory and the boxscores for these early season games. I'll group them by series. March 25-28, 2021: Home vs Boston (4). The Sox were mediocre last season with some bad pitching. Chris Sale is still hurt, so their opening day starter is Lance Lynn, acquired in an offseason deal with Texas after reverting to mediocrity in my world in 2020 after a great 2019. Marcell Ozuna replaces JD Martinez as the middle-of-the order bat. Strangely at mid-season last year the AI dealt Andrew Benintendi to the Twins for Willians Astudillo so he's not in the picture any longer. Anyway, opening day is a heartbreaking 3-1 loss in 12 innings. The game was actually scoreless with Snell (7 3 0 0 2 8) trading zeroes with Lynn, who went 8 1/3, through 10 innings. Top 11, scrap-heap pickup and former Ray Logan Morrison pinch-hit and LoMo went deep off Diego Castillo. But in the bottom of the inning, Meadows did likewise off Matt Barnes. This took us into the 12th where Alvarado and Chaz Roe conspired to allow 2 runs one of which was unearned off a key Castro passed ball. Colton Brewer closed it out for the Sox in the bottom of the 12th. Game 2 was another excruciating loss. Up 2-1 behind Glasnow (LoMo went deep again for Boston while Meadows and Renfroe had RBI doubles) and his 7 3 1 1 1 10 line, the bullpen blew it again, this time with a bases-loaded walk from Anderson to let Boston tie in the 8th, and then Hand gave up an RBI double to another pinch-hitter, Dustin Peterson in the 9th while the offense came up lame again in a 3-2 loss. Game 3 was shaping up to be deja vu all over again. McKay in a 1-1 duel with another former Ray, Nate Eovaldi (a Ji-Man HR the only offense), when I left him in one batter too long as he gave up a leadoff HR in the 8th to the immortal Kevin Plawecki to make it 2-1. But down to their last out in the 9th, Meadows came through again with the longball off Cody Carroll to send it to extras. And this time the Rays prevailed in the 10th thanks to a walk-off RBI hit from Jose Martinez to make Alvarado the winner. Still the lack of offense against a mediocre Red Sox staff is an early cause for concern. Game 4 saw the Rays up 4-3 through 5 as Max Fried was struggling in his Rays debut but still had a lead, which in part came from a 2-run HR from Wander. But the wheels fell off in the 6th as Rafael Devers homered to tie, and Jackie Bradley Jr hit a 2-run triple off last year's hero Anthony Banda and the Rays went on to lose 7-4. Record after 4 games: 1-3. March 29-31, vs Cincinnati (3). Yonny got the nod and things looked bad early as he allowed 3 runs in the 2nd. But the Rays got the 3 runs back in the 3rd including a 2-run double from Wander, and then got 3 more in the 4th including a 2-run double from Renfroe. Yonny couldn't finish the 5th but the bullpen shut it down from there with Banda getting the win with two scoreless innings and Hand nailing down his first Rays save in the 6-3 win. In Game 2, the Rays built a 3-0 lead on HRs from Martinez and Wander and Snell rolled with an 8 5 0 0 1 12 line. But Hand was shaky in the 9th, allowing 2 runs and Diego Castillo had to bail him out for his first save. The Rays are now at .500 after the 3-2 win. Game 3 was another nail-biter like the games in the Boston series. Glasnow was great again, taking a 1-0 lead into the 9th with a reasonable pitch count and a somewhat tired pen. But with one out he got into some trouble, and Nick Anderson allowed a tying single. And things looked bleak when Joey Votto took Alvarado deep in the top of the 11th to give the Reds the lead. But the Rays put together a rally against Raisel Iglesias and Phil Maton, capped by Ji-Man's walk-off RBI single to pull out a 3-2 win and a series sweep. Record after 7 games: 4-3. WanderWatch: 7-25 (.280), 2 HR, 7 RBI, 1 SB. April's games in the next post. Last edited by Art Deco; 05-29-2020 at 12:15 AM.