The OOTP AI Still Cheats!!!---MLB & The NY METS 2018

[rjl518]

It is late June so lets look at the MLB.
ALE: The Red Sox and the Blue Jays are staying close, even though the Jays are on a 5-game losing streak.
ALC: CLE and MIN will probably stay with each other for the rest of the year.
ALW: The logjam in this division continues as the Angels, Astros, Rangers and A's are within 4.5 games of each other.
NLE: The NYM lead!
NLC: The CHI Cubs are starting to pull away and the rest of the division knows that they better get it together soon.
NLW: Another logjam featuring SD, ARZ and the LAD.

[rjl518]

1989 Score Players of the Week:

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June 25-28:

[rjl518]

June 28-July 1:

[rjl518]

Series Preview: PIT Pirates @ Citi Field (3-Games)

Throughout all the years of playing PIT, the Mets always seem to have very interesting games against them.
Josh Bell and Jordy Mercer are the leaders at the plate while Joe Musgrove leads this team on the mound.
With a .468 pct., this team can be scrappy, but after losing our last series to the LAD, this is a team we can bounce back on.
Strasburg, Sale and Kluber get the starts for this set of games.

[rjl518]

6/25

PIT Pirates 1
NY METS 3
Citi Field

A pitchers duel in the Big Apple, but one that we win.
Strasburg went 7.1 and gave up 1 run on 4 hits with 8 Ks.
Andrew Miller got his 2nd win on the year and Zach Britton finally gets his 1st save.
Buster Posey had two hits including his 12th HR of the year.
But Charlie Blackmon, on a hit and run call, smacks a pinch-hit HR, his 4th.
These Pirates are tough, but we do squeak by with our 60th win of the season.

[rjl518]

6/26

PIT Pirates 0
NY METS 4
Citi Field

Chris Sale goes 7 and strikes out 9 batters.
He gives up 6 hits but no runs.
Luis Severino gets his 1st save of the season.
Giancarlo Stanton hit his 18th HR of the year.
But tonight, it was all Bryce Harper.
Going deep twice for his 18th and 19th HRs of the year is the main reason why the Mets took it to PIT in this game.
We win the series and will try to sweep tomorrow.

[rjl518]

6/27

PIT Pirates 0
NY METS 3
Citi Field

Corey Kluber was not on planet Earth.
He goes 7 and gives up 3 hits while striking out 11.
7 of them were consecutive.
Max Scherzer gets his 1st save of the year.
Freddie Freeman hit his 14th HR of the year and had 2 hits tonight along with Jose Altuve.
We sweep the Pirates.
We have the day off tomorrow before taking our talents to South Beach for a weekend series with the Marlins.

[rjl518]

Series Preview: MIA Marlins @ Marlins Park (3-Games)

South Beach is our destination for a weekend series with the Marlins.
Do I really need to say much about them?
Only that we should win all three games, but with the OOTP AI in charge, I'm expecting a loss or two.
Syndergaard, Kershaw and Strasburg are the starters between the palm trees.

[rjl518]

6/29

NY METS 3
MIA Marlins 1
Marlins Park

Noah Syndergaard did get the win, but he didn't get it easily.
He gives up 1 run on 7 hits, but he only had 4 strikeouts with 4 walks.
Ken Giles gets his 4th save.
Freddie Freeman and Francisco Lindor had 2 hits tonight and Lindor got his 1st stolen base.
As you know, this team doesn't steal bases, but sometimes you have open the playbook once in a while.
A nice win to open up the weekend.

[rjl518]

6/30

NY METS 12
MIA Marlins 2
Marlins Park


The Mets take out their frustrations with a drubbing of MIA.
Clayton Kershaw goes 7 and gives up 2 runs on 6 hits with 8 Ks.
He now has over 120 strikeouts on the year.
Jose Altuve and Daniel Murphy had 3 hits tonight;
Carlos Correa hit his 10th HR on the year and Bryce Harper, his 20th.
We win the series over MIA and will try to sweep tomorrow.
I will have the month end report after tomorrow's game!

[rjl518]

7/1

NY METS 3
MIA Marlins 5
Marlins Park
(10 Innings)

A perfect example of the AI cheating its A$$ off.
Stephen Strasburg was awesome going 7 innings and giving up 1 run on 4 hits.
MIA Adam Conley did the job on us too.
We score 3 runs in the 9th and no matter what I tried to do, Kenley Jensen blows his 2nd save of the year.
Luis Severino took his 1st loss of the year as MIA Derek Dietrich smacked a HR in the bottom of the 10th.
We only had 4 hits this game as my lineup was powerless.
We do win the series, but the bullpen blew this one. (AI CHEATS!)

[rjl518]

We finish 19-7 for June.
The 7 losses in June are the most losses we have had this year.
Am I really worried about the season?
Of course not, but sometimes, the AI does like to play tricks and continue to do things that I feel it still should not do in certain game situations.
Can you believe that we still have a losing record in 1-run games?
We are also 3-4 in extra inning games.
I have a very bad feeling that come playoff time, those two records are going to bite me in the A$$!

[rjl518]

Halfway thru the 2018 season and here is how MLB is looking:
ALE: Its a two horse race between the Red Sox and the Blue Jays.
ALC: Same thing in this division as CLE and MIN are staying within a few lengths of each other.
ALW: Four horses are still jockeying for position as the Angels, Astros, Rangers and Athletics are all at the midway point of the season.
NLE: The NYM still lead!
NLC: Its all about the Cubs now, even though the Cardinals are not out of it yet.
NLW: SD, ARZ and the LAD. All within 1.5 games of each other.

Side Note:
Looking at how this experiment is going...take a look at how some of the other teams are doing that I forced trades on to take their star players.
The NYY and WAS are the ones really feeling the effects of losing key players: Stanton, Judge, Sanchez, Chapman, Scherzer, Strasburg, Murphy, Harper and Severino.
HOU, LAD, and CLE are still strong: Kershaw, Jansen, Altuve, Giles, Correa, Lindor and Kluber.
BOS and LAA are ok also: Sale and Trout.
I did not take anyone from TOR, CHC, ARZ, SD, STL, TEX or OAK.
Very interesting if I do say so myself.

[rjl518]

1986 Topps AL Players of the Month:

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1967 Topps NL Players of the Month:

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1990 Fleer Players of the Week:

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MLB Injury and Trade News:

[rjl518]

NY Mets July Schedule:

Its All-Star month and this is where things start to get really interesting.
On the schedule for July we have: TOR, TB, PHI, WAS, NYY, SD, and PIT.

Rules Changes:
AI Trading Frequency: VERY HIGH
AI Injury Frequency: NORMAL

[rjl518]

July 2-5: