Power Pros Forum

End of July stats: 1.88 ERA, 17-0 record, 186 strikeouts
Chicago Cubs record: 66-41, 11 games ahead of Cardinals

I made the All-Star Game as a starter, I'm sure people were about as surprised with that as that time somebody came up with the idea of slicing bread.

July was another great month for the Cubs, going 19-6, and it was another undefeated month for me. This year has been ridiculous to me so far, you'd think somewhere along the line an unlucky bounce or poor run support would give me a loss, but I still don't have one. I already have more wins than my previous best and there are still 2 months left in the season.

The lead we have in our division now is amazing, it's like the Cubs have returned to the team they were the year before I joined them, we currently lead the MLB by 4 games. I don't expect the next couple months to be this dominant, but as long as we don't suffer a major collapse we should be good.

I lead the MLB in every Triple Crown category right now, and now the ERA lead looks to be the only one I could possibly lose, but a lot can happen in two months. We'll just have to wait and see what happens there.

What'd I tell ya? I knew you would have a Verlander-esque breakout year!

I wouldn't really call this a breakout year. His guy was always pretty good

Yeah, but he wasn't doing this good

End of August stats: 2.04 ERA, 20-2 record, 233 strikeouts
Chicago Cubs record: 80-54, 8 games ahead of Cardinals

I got my first loss of the season after 18 straight wins, it was an amazing streak, it's a pity that it had to end, ah well, it's still a decent enough record, I suppose.

The Cubs record wasn't that great for August, going 14-13, but we still maintain a pretty comfortable division lead and it would take a huge collapse almost at the level of the 2011 Red Sox for us to miss the playoffs now. Oh wait, that didn't happen in this timeline, my mistake, but you know what I mean.

My ERA continued to rise but I still lead the MLB because everyone else's did too. I have 3 more wins than second place and an amazing 68 strikeouts more than second place, I don't know how great that really is though, I do pitch a lot more innings than anyone else. The bottom line is, I'm in the lead for a Triple Crown, and it's at the same time my team is going for a playoff spot, things couldn't be much better right now.

End of 2016 stats: 2.13 ERA, 24-4 record, 288 strikeouts
MLB Career stats to this point: 3.42 ERA, 1814.1 innings pitched, 132-82 record, 23 shutouts, 35 complete games, 1679 strikeouts, 464 walks, .243 average against, 719 runs allowed, 689 earned runs, 283 games started, 1718 hits allowed, 28179 pitches, 156 quality starts.
Chicago Cubs record: 95-67, DIVISION WINNERS

This has been, without question, the best year of my career, if not the best year of my life in general. It's just been phenomenal all-around. The team has been great and I have been legendary. Not only did I win the Triple Crown for the NL, I won it for the whole MLB, and nobody came close to touching me in a single category. I had 98 strikeouts more than second place!

The Cubs are headed for the playoffs as the NL Central Division Champions, they ran into a bit of a collapse and finished one game behind the MLB standings, finishing tied for second in the MLB and first in the NL, but that doesn't really matter. We're headed to the playoffs. If I can win a World Series this year, it will without a doubt be the best year of my life, and I'll know there will never be a better one than winning on the Cubs for their first World Series that anyone has seen in their lifetime.

Anything can happen in the playoffs, though... I just hope I can make it out of the first round for once, and take this one step at a time here.

Regardless of what happens in this playoff run, the Cubs have proven themselves to me, for sure, winning the division by 8 games. If they give me fair offers in contract negotiations, considering my legendary year, I'd be willing to re-sign with them, even if the deal is quite long term.

This is the only time, in real life or in a log, I will root for the Cubs to win.

Whoa.

Dish, you were wrong. Even Verlander didn't have that good of a season.

Looks like I'm not the only Triple Crown winner, Pujols on the Angels won the AL Triple Crown with a .389 average, 46 home runs, and 165 RBI. He lead the whole MLB in each of those categories.

Apparently my control is as good as it can get, which is really disappointing, I seriously think there's a ton of room for improvement there.

In any case, on to the playoffs..

Round 1:

Game 1: Cubs win 7-4

Game 2: Cubs win 4-2

Game 3: Dodgers win 2-1

Game 4: My turn to start. I allowed 3 runs, some of moronic fielding decisions, the others on horrendous fielding. It wouldn't matter though, as the team scored 0 runs anyway to lose 3-0. This playoff run is seeming quite familiar now...

Game 5: Dodgers win 8-5 to win the series and knock out the Cubs.


Other playoff results:

Angels over Blue Jays 3-2
Rays over Indians 3-2
Cardinals over Phillies 3-1

Rays over Angels 3-2
Dodgers over Cardinals 4-1

Dodgers over Rays 4-3 to win the 2016 World Series

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We lost the playoffs, again, I got eliminated in the first round, again... I know you can say it's not our fault because we lost to the World Series champions and nobody can stop them. But trust me, that doesn't make anyone on the team feel better about how that run ended. Damn it...

On a lighter note, Luis Gonzalez still hasn't retired, his next season will be his 27th MLB season. What exactly is he trying to prove?
Ivan Rodriguez will be coming back for a 26th season.
Kenny Rogers is really trying to make a statement, he'll be coming back for a 28th season.
Mike Mussina is coming back for a 26th season.
Tom Gordon is coming back for a 29th season, give it up already!
Tom Glavine will be coming back for a 30th season... For God's sake, you're 50 years old, just retire...
John Smoltz is coming back for season 29. Nobody seems to care that these players have lost their talent ages ago.
Frank Thomas is entering season 27.
Ken Griffey Jr. will be back for a 28th season.
Gary Sheffield will be playing his 29th season for the Astros.
Randy Johnson is coming back for year 29.
Curt Schilling will pitch for his 27th year in the MLB.
Omar Vizquel will play a 28th year, he can still field.

I thought Sports were supposed to be for relatively young guys, but these players are trying to prove me wrong. I have to respect their passion for the game, as they play into the ages where their memory is slipping to the point they forget what the sport even is.

Aw, man. That sucks about the whole playoff run. The whole "old guys" part was great, though. Ah, fifty year old baseball players. Gotta love 'em.

Offseason:

I re-signed with the Cubs to a 1 year contract worth $30,000,000, didn't need to negotiate with them, they offered it right away. Nice of them to begin to appreciate my value. It's still kind of bizarre they aren't willing to offer me a long term contract, but whatever, it'll keep my options open I guess.

It seems like this year the team's aim is once again to have a top pitching staff, and if I can have a year half as good as last year, that shouldn't be a problem.

Every time I have ever simmed a franchise, Billy Wagner is a perennial all star even when he gets as old as 44-47 years old.

89 mph, F Control, Level 2 slider = all-star.

Because he has the star ability.

Spring Training (the most boring part of the year):

Game 1: 3 innings pitched, 0 hits, 0 runs, 4 strikeouts

Game 2: 3 innings pitched, 1 hit, 0 runs, 3 strikeouts

Game 3: 3 innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 run (apparently earned, but it really wasn't), 2 strikeouts
We had a 1B worse than Aiporlani playing this game.

Game 4: 3 innings pitched, 3 hits, 0 runs, 0 strikeouts


Abilities after Spring Training:

104 Top Speed
B 159 Control (won't increase any more)
A 162 Stamina
Level 2 Sinking Fastball
Level 6 Sinker
Level 2 Changeup
Level 2 Knuckle-Curveball
W/RISP 4
VS LH Batter 4
Poise 2
Spin 4
Release 2
Safe Pitch
Dr.K
Good Delivery
Battler

Title: Triple Crown

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This mode would be several times better if you could simulate Spring Training...

End of April stats: 2.70 ERA, 1-3 record, 55 strikeouts
Chicago Cubs record: 15-12, tied with Cardinals for first

Well, I can tell already I won't be having as good a year this year as I did last year, I'm fairly certain that's impossible. Where I was undefeated until August last season, I got a loss in my first start this season, and my poor pitching was actually to blame for it. My personal performance got better from there, but then the lack of run support hit and I was still only able to get 1 win as a result, and I also have almost as many losses in this month as I had all last season. The Cubs could stand to be doing a bit better too, but we are in a tie for first, even though our record doesn't look amazing.

In my free time, I've been getting into chess lately. It seems I'm starting to run out of things to do in my free time, I feel like I've done everything. I've also started bringing sunglasses with me on road trips, I have no idea why, but I bought them for $1000, so I might as well get some use out of them.