3-3-2013 Update [March 4, 2012 - Orioles (2-0) vs Cardinals (0-1): Palm Frond Park , Wind 1 MPH S]




O's Line Up Box Score:
1) Brian Roberts (2B, .600) - 2/3; 2R


2) Endy Chavez (LF, .250) - 1/2; BB; K


3) Nick Markakis (RF, .500) - 1/3; RBI; K; GIDP
4) J.J Hardy (SS, .000) - 0/3; K


5) Adam Jones (CF, .000) - 0/4; K
6) Wilson Betemit (3B, .500) - 1/3; R; K
7) Ike Davis (1B, .166) - 1/4; RBI-Double; R; K
(see double under Jon Jay line)

8) Matt Weiters (C, .166) - 1/4; RBI; K
9) Pitchers - 0/2; K
Bench Players:
Nick Johnson (1B, .200) - 0/1; K
? Adams (2B, 1.000) - 1/1
? Flaherty (?, .333) - 0/1
Jai Miller (LF, .500) - 1/1; RBI
Jay Mahoney (RF, .500 (1HR)) - 0/1; BB
Nolan Reimold (U, .000) - 0/1; K
Robert Andino (SS, .000) - 0/1; K
Matt Antonelli (3B, 1.000) - 1/1; R
Ronny Paulino (C, .000) - 0/1
Mark Reynolds (3B, .500) - 1/1; RBI; R


Pitching Staff ( I faced murderers row, wtf. I hate MLB the Show spring training logic ):







Cardinals Line Up Box Score:
1) Jon Jay (CF, .000) - 0/4; 3K; E8 (had a bad day in his first day as lead off, im trying to use this month to make him lead-off, so hopefully it gets better from here. check out cool video.)


2) Rafael Furcal (SS, .000) - 0/3; K
3) Lance Berkman (1B, .000) - 0/2; R; BB; K
4) Matt Holliday (LF, .000) - 0/3;


5) Carlos Beltran (RF, .000) - 0/3; 3K (ouch)


6) David Freese (3B, .666) - 2/3; R;


7) Yadier Molina (C, .500) - 1/2; RBI
8) Daniel Descalso (2B, .666) - 2/3; RBI; K


9) Pitchers - 0/0; SB (Lohse)
Bench Players:
Tyler Greene (SS, .000) - 0/1
Allen Craig (RF/1B, .000) - 0/1
Eric Komatsu (RF, .000) - 0/1
Adron Chambers (CF, .000) - 0/1; K



Matt Carpenter (3B, .000) - 0/1 (would david freese have made this play???)



Bryan Anderson (C, .000) - 0/1
Zack Cox (C, .000) - 0/1
Shane Robinson (CF, 000) - 0/1; K


Pitching Staff ( fools gold first inning for Lohse, & an unraveling for Sanchez in the 9th):

"After 6 games, I'm 2-4. And statistics aside, the most notable thing that has developed over this first week is my level of progress and improvement, particularly offensively. Nearly all games, prior to my 6th game I felt high discomfort in the majority of all my at-bats, especially pressure situations, and 2 strike counts. That discomfort easily led into un-necessary strikeouts, and very poor at-bats pushing me closer to losses and suffering statistically.

By game 6 & now 7, inevitably, that problem has been fully eradicated and I am very comfortable now. Which makes me eager to see how statistics unfold and progress this point on. The fact that I'll be able to play better is enough reason, alone, to see a rise in statistical categories we are talking about.

The stats I will focus here are in the most major categories and will not be extremely player specific & filled with fun minutia. So in a compact update here, I will try to address, Batting Averages, Power Numbers, and Pitching, in these early stages after the 1st week of Spring Training."






It is far to early to judge batting averages in my case on franchise mode at this point. My starting players have had an average of 10-12 at bats each, Beltran and Jay leading the way with 14. As seen already in the real-deal MLB, Pujols, Hamilton, Reddick, Kemp each went 0 for 10, that's not enough sample size by any means. However, there's still been some noteworthy activity hitting for this update:

Matt Holliday: 0 for his first 10 AB's, now 2-13 (2 HRs, 5 K) - .154

Rafael Furcal: .273, 3-11 (1 HR)

Furcal has seen the most early success, even bagging a rare homerun as well.

Jon Jay & David Freese have also shown flashes, wtih 3 hits a piece also.




There will be much more to report on this front, next update most surely. And expect a very much so positive update, but it will present more solid and reliable, meaningful information to analyze. What I take away from this early result is that I showed a number of good signs and flashes of offensive capability, despite my high levels of discomfort in the early stages. This also included success with the minor league bats I'm using in spring training. Here's a few of their numbers:

Bryan Anderson C: 1-5 (.200 , RBI , BB , 2K)


Tony Pena C: 2-8 (.250 , BB , 2K)

Pete Kozma SS: 1-8 (.125 , BB , 6K , 1 Sacrifice Hit)


Eric Komatsu RF: 1-9 (.111 , BB , 2K)

Adron Chambers CF: 1-10, (.100 , 2B , 2BB , 2K)

And it hasn't bore itself out yet fully in statistics, but my home ball park, Palm Frond Park, is undoubtedly a pitchers haven and won't see many balls fly around for XBHs, I think even less will fly out of the ball park for HRs. I'll be sure to review that at the end of Spring Training for a full reflection of statistics at home, offensively. But here is why this information is important to mention; currently all of the HRs hit combined, which number 6 in total, were in games played outside of my home facility which I've only done twice. Now I will transition to power numbers and continue on early assessments.


This will be short and sweet, with a couple of fun Home Run videos to watch. To expand on my experience power hitting this week, it was reassuring and exciting to see the flashes of power hitting and gap finding ability despite a low team batting average. Obviously we all know that it's not usually possible to rake in good power numbers without first getting consistent hits. So I expect to uncover more power and xbh's in future games and soon, but here are some details of what I did find in the first 6 games:

Most notably, as mentioned before, all 6 HRs hit this week were in away facilities in only 2 games. With me bagging 4 of them (with 3 players) and the CPU taking the other 2, one being OSFM created Bryce Harper. Below is Matt Holliday breaking out of his 0 for 10 slump starting Spring Training.



In addition to that note about power hitting, it was very encouraging to see power numbers come from unusual suspects while a lot of my MLB sluggers were struggling. Here, Rafael Furcal hits his Homerun and prospect Adron Chambers bangs in a impressive double. Other players have hit the ball well too, some not rewarded but still very good signs.






the final discussion,

Pitching & CPU Hitting

will be addressed in a short & focused update next. All media in further updates will also be broadcast in HD from now as well .