OOTPX: Rebuilding the legacy of the ChopNation

[mattlanta]

Like drzachery, I'm going to be posting team reports on my fantasy team. Mine is different though because it is of baseball and not college hoops. I will be keeping track of my Atlanta Braves franchise on the game called Out of the Park Baseball 10. You can find the link to the game here if you are interested.

So anyways, it's the beginning of the season again. No trades have been made yet. Schafer is still my center fielder and McLouth is still the Pirates' centerfielder. I might make a trade for McLouth though if Schafer, like in real life, proves that he is not ready for the MLB. But I will wait and see how things turn out for the first month or so.

I'm excited to try this out. My brother says it's one of the best games he's ever played, and he was only talking about OOTP 9. Supposedly, OOTP 10 is much improved.

The Batting Order

1. 2B Kelly Johnson

2. SS Yunel Escobar

3. 3B Chipper Jones

4. C Brian McCann

5. LF Garret Anderson / Matt Diaz

6. 1B Casey Kotchman / RF Jeff Francouer

7. RF Jeff Francouer / 1B Casey Kotchman

8. CF Jordan Schafer

9. P

The Pitching Rotation:

RHP Derek Lowe

RHP Javier Vasquez

RHP Jair Jurrjens

RHP Kenshin Kawakami

RHP Jorge Campillo

The Bullpen:

Jeff Bennett

Buddy Carllyle

Blaine Boyer

Boone Logan

Rafael Soriano (SU)

Peter Moylan (SU)

Mike Gonzalez (CL)

I will update you guys weekly and maybe if I have time, write up some reports.

Edited July 8, 2009 by Libid21

[mattlanta]

Before the season began, Baseball America released the Top Minor League Systems in the majors and the Top Prospects for each team.

Here is the list of the top farm systems in the majors:

And here's the list of the Braves' top prospects:

[mattlanta]

Okay, so I finished the first series against the Phillies. It ended with us sweeping them! Our pitchers did a decent job, but our hitting did even better. I received an e-mail after the last game of the series that Chipper Jones was injured and would not be able to return because of shoulder tendinitis (c'mon, they shouldn't have made it the game that realistic!) until 1-2 weeks from now. I'm going to put in Infante because he's hit a good bat in the series. I'm also going to bump Brandon Jones up to the majors.

The next opponent was the Natinals, and they gave us our first loss of the season. We also lost Derek Lowe for a week. I think the injuries are happening quite too often. I'm going to have to find some more realistic injury sliders or just adjust it myself.

Results Last Week

4.5.09 - @ Phillies - W 4-3

4.7.09 - @ Phillies - W 6-3

4.8.09 - @ Phillies - W 8-7

4.10.09 - vs. Nationals - W 9-7

4.11.09 - vs. Nationals - L 1-3

4.12.09 - vs. Nationals - W 10-5

I'm also going to do a monthly prospect watch. So after the month of April, expect to see the reports for Hanson, Heyward, Schafer, etc. So far, even though many don't regard him as a prospect, Brooks Conrad has FOUR homeruns (!!!) in just 16 at-bats and 4 games in Gwinnett (AAA)! That's very impressive.

[mattlanta]

Okay, the injury bug (no literally, there might actually be a small bug with the injuries, lol. I'm trying to find a patch / sliders to fix it, but until then, I'm still going to keep moving on with this) is still victimizing the whole league. The teams make some questionable trades also. For example, the Phillies traded Matt Stairs to the Blue Jays for reliever Jason Frasor. Hmm... that's the only shady trade I've seen so far.

My team has been very inconsistent in hitting (quite realistic) and also my relievers. Soriano has a 12.46 ERA. And surprise, surprise... Francouer is on the "Who's Hot, Who's Not" list, and guess where he is? Yup... he's certainly not on fire as he is hitting just .164 in about three weeks of play.

Jordan Schafer is hurt for four weeks with a sprained left ankle. I have replaced him with Gregor Blanco.

Results Last (2) Weeks

4.14.09 - vs. FLA - L 1-2

4.15.09 - vs. FLA - L 0-5

4.16.09 - vs. FLA - L 1-2

Jurrjens pitched an absolute game in the first game of this series. Pitching 8.1 innings, allowing only five hits and only two runs, he struck out 15 batters and walked none. Unfortunately for him, the hitting crew left 13 men on base. This series looked like a good one coming in since both the Marlins and the Braves were 5-1 coming in. To be fair, the Braves didn't have Chipper Jones in the lineup due to the injury listed before.

4.17.09 - @ PIT - W 6-2

4.18.09 - @ PIT - L 6-7

4.19.09 - @ PIT - L 1-2

4.20.09 - @ WAS - L 4-5

4.21.09 - @ WAS - L 1-11

4.22.09 - @ WAS - W 9-1

I have two more series to go for the rest of the month. One against the Reds and one against the Cardinals. Chipper Jones just came off the disabled list. He's only had 10 at-bats all season, so I do not expect him to be that good. After these series, I will be posting that monthly prospect watch of all the minor league teams of Atlanta. And a roundup of how my team is doing compared to the rest of the league. So stay tuned!

[mattlanta]

Okay, so the month of April is over. After the final game of the month, I found these e-mails in my inbox...

The first one came from back-up catcher David Ross.

I've been getting the feeling that you don't think I am a part of the starting lineup and that I am more of a "role player." If you give me the chance, I can show you how much I can contribute to the Braves. I'm not saying that I'm great, just that I deserve the chance to prove myself.

Umm... that's not going to work out. Seeing that Brian McCann is my guy. Message deleted.

The second one came from DH Greg Norton.

I am part of the starting lineup and I expect to be treated as such. I don't like to play second fiddle, but at the same time I don't want my feelings to be a distraction in the clubhouse.

Another message deleted!

Anyways, I've been obsessed with this game ever since I got it today. It's 5AM EST as I write this, and hopefully I'll be asleep by six because I have errands to do in the morning! LOL

So anyways, Derek Lowe got hurt after throwing 1 inning in the first game against Cincinatti. Is it just me or does he sound like Mike Hampton all over again? He'll be back after a couple of days, the doctors say.

I'll be looking over some trade possibilities later this month. I have to improve my bullpen and add another hitter if I want to contend this year. Schafer will be coming back soon, but I'd like to deal Francouer when he gets hot. Anyone have any good trade ideas?

Results Last Week

4.24.09 - @ CIN - W 11-8

4.25.09 - @ CIN - L 1-2

4.26.09 - @ CIN - W 10-6

(SLN = St. Louis Cardinals)

4.27.09 - vs. SLN - L 1-6

4.28.09 - vs. SLN - L 1-6

4.29.09 - vs. SLN - L 3-8

The month of April was an okay one. I had to wait out a few storms here and there, mostly because of injuries and inconsistency on both sides of the ball.

Here is how my team did in April:

Monthly Prospect Watch: April

I had originally planned to do most of the popular prospects, but that takes up way too much time. So what I'll do is update you guys on the top prospects and if a particular prospect that doesn't happen to be that popular is doing good, I'll let you guys know. For example, Brooks Conrad!

• (Gwinnett/AAA) Tommy Hanson (1-1) - 2.75 ERA - 36.0 IP - 32 K
  
• (Myrtle Beach/A) Jason Heyward - .257 AVG - 18 H, 1 2B, 5 RBI, 11 R - .381 OBP
  
• (Myrtle Beach/A) Freddie Freeman - .317 AVG - 26 H, 6 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 13 R - .411 OBP
  

Okay, it's 5:30AM. I have to sleep. There must be a more efficient way to do this MPW. If there isn't, then I probably won't be able to do it since there are way too many prospects to list. Unless you guys just want to hear about the Top 3 or 5 prospects and how they are doing during the season or how they did the past month.