Friday, February 27, 2015

Grapefruit League Results

The 2014 Nats and 1999 Tribe split a home and home series, with each team winning big on the road.  It was great to scrape the KOD rust off and get to see how our teams should be handled.  I encourage you all to reach out to a manager in the opposite league and setup a home and home.  I love the look and feel of the new post game reports.

ExhibitionGame01ExhibitionGame02

Friday, February 20, 2015

2013 Tampa Bay Rays: 92-71

How in the world can a team that made the playoffs and battled all year long, like the Rays, finish 15th in attendance (dead last) in the league?  Not to denigrate Rays fans, but thanks to the lack of interest the team keeps selling off top talent and will eventually regress.  You’ve got to support the team if you want to keep the team.  I added 16 cards to this team set.

Alex_Colome_TBYAlex_Torres_TBYBrandon_Gomes_TBYCesar_Ramos_TBYDavid_DeJesus_TBYDelmon_Young_TBYEvan_Longoria_TBYJake_Odorizzi_TBYJamey_Wright_TBYJose_Lobaton_TBYJosh_Lueke_TBY'Roberto_Hernandez_TBYSam_Fuld_TBYSean_Rodriguez_TBYShelley_Duncan_TBYWesley_Wright_TBY

2013 Detroit Tigers: 93-69, 1 up

Leyland’s final year in the dugout.  Miggy wins the MVP and Max wins the Cy.  14 cards added to the team set.  Some gr8 online photos were found via Google search.

Alex_Avila_DETBryan_Holaday_DETDarin_Downs_DETDelmon_Young_DETEvan_Reed_DETHernan_Perez_DETJeremy_Bonderman_DETJose_Ortega_DETJose_Valverde_DETJose_Veras_DETMatt_Tuiasosopo_DETNick_Castellanos_DETQuintin_Berry_DET

5 more team cards to go…

I decided to stop posting team predictions and start working on producing team card sets.  Our “collectors” Mike Hill, Erik Nelson, Bruce Thomas and Joe Pryweller have been working overtime feeding me card downloads.  I’ll post some of the updates that I’ve been working on, sans the commentary Smile !

Sunday, February 15, 2015

1979 Cincinnati Reds: 90-71, 1.5 Up

John McNamaraThis was the last hurrah for the Big Red Machine.  For the past two season the team played second fiddle to the Dodgers and began parting with HOF pieces.  First Tony Perez left for Montreal and was replaced by Dan Driessen, a solid player, but no Tony Perez.  Then Pete Rose went to Philly and Ray Knight (a nice player) stepped in.  This team was not getting any younger.  At 31 and with over a decade of mileage on his knees, Johnny Bench was not the same guy behind the plate.  Joe Morgan was not the MVP 30-30 guy he was just a few years past and the great Tom Seaver was in the process of morphing from the games premier power pitcher into a classic pitcher.  With all those negatives, Johnny McNamara did a whale of a job cobbling together a division winning team out of the remnants of the past and some young guys who were solid performers.  Seaver didn’t have the fastball to strike out 200+ batters anymore, but he sure had the brain power to fool them and go 16-6 (3.14).  Youngster Mike LoCoss was 14-8 in the #2 roll.  Tom Hume pitched 163 innings out of the pen and saved 17.  George Foster (.302-30-98) was now the focal point of the offense.  Johnny Mac made the most of what he had.  He smartly chose to go with defense over offense in centerfield and platooned veteran’s Paul Blair (.150) and Cesar Geronimo (.239).  Both could track down just about anything in the air, but neither could hit a lick by this point in their careers.

The Reds and the Astros played cat and mouse all season until the Reds finally put it away down the stretch relying on veteran guile.  By the time the got to the NLCS they faced a Pirate team that was on a major roll and wound up getting swept in 3 straight.

There’s a lot of balance here for rookie KOD manager Mike Hill.  Mike did a fine job in the Holiday Festival and gets to pilot a team for a full season for the 1st time in KOD.

I didn’t have to do any work on the missing cards for this team set.  I wound up creating them last year for ARAIG, so it’s great to get a second usage from them.  Only 12 cards were needed to finish off the original set.

Arturo_DefreitasCharlie_LeibrandtDoug_Capilla_CINFrank_PastoreHarry_SpilmanHeity_Cruz_CINMario_SotoMike_LaCossPaul_Blair_CINRafael_Santo DomingoRon_OesterSam_Mejias_CIN

1987 Philadelphia Phillies 89-73, 1up

Charlie ManuelSome might argue that the Phillies didn’t win the division in 1987, but the Mets actually lost it by blowing a 7 1/2 game lead with 2 weeks left to go in the season.  However you want to look at it this Phils team found a way to claw their way to the top while the implosion in Flushing was happening.  Charlie Manuel exhibited his calm and layed back style to get his troops to perform.  This team could flat out hit.  Pitching, now that’s another story, but in 2007 who cared about pitching with all those bulked up sluggers gracing MLB lineups ?

Jimmy Rollins was the MVP that year.  He hit .296 and went 30-30.  He actually had 41 steals and 30 homers with 96 RBI’s while playing a stellar SS.  Chase Utley (.332-22-103) was only the best 2nd baseman in the game.  Ryan Howard hit 47 homers and knocked in 136 runs and no one cared that he fanned 199 times.  The Phigtin’s hit 213 roundtrippers, which was good enough for 2nd in the league.

On the hill is a different story.  Defending champ Andy Weinrib returns to Philly for his second year as their skipper and he will have his hands full managing this staff of 6 inning starters and specialty relievers.  Brett Myers (5-7, 4.33) had 21 saves and was a fan favorite, but he’s sure to give any manager an “agiata” in the 9th inning.

Cole Hamels and Kyle Kendrick will be solid in the rotation.  93 year old Jamie Moyer will get through 5 innings and give up 3 runs, so keep your fingers crossed there.  The rest of the starters are a crapshoot.

Originally I didn’t need a lot of cards for this set, but then I found this fantastic site called the “2007 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Gallery”, so I decided to use those photos to upgrade the original set of cards, which didn’t seem to look all that great from the scanned sites that they were posted on.  Our group of guys who tracked down the originals weren’t too fond of them either.

What originally looked like a 6 or 7 card update turned into a 30 card extravaganza.

Aaron_Rowand_PHIAbraham_Nunez_PHIAdam_Eaton_PHIAntonio_Alfonseca_PHIBrett_Myers_PHICarlos_Ruiz_PHIChris_Coste_PHIClay_Condrey_PHICole_Hamels_PHIFreddy_Garcia_PHIGeoff_Geary_PHIJamie_Moyer_PHIJayson_Werth_PHIJC_Romero_PHIJD _Durbin_PHIJimmy_Rollins_PHIJohn_Lieber_PHIJose_Mesa_PHIKyle_Kendrick_PHIKyle_Lohse_PHIMichael_Bourn_PHIPat_Burrell_PHIRod_Barajas_PHIRyan_Howard_PHIRyan_Madson_PHIShane_Victorino_PHITad_Iguchi_PHITom_Gordon_PHIWes_Helm_PHI