Keeping Up With the SCL

With the ‘regular’ Major League Baseball season finally underway, I had to make a decision about my Second Chance League in Out of the Park Baseball. This is the league that I started up way back when baseball was supposed to begin in March/April. It seems like it’s been forever that we’ve been in lockdown because of this COVID pandemic, but I did try to get an OOTP league going to keep my enjoyment of baseball alive while the world was falling apart. And here we are, months later, and MLB has it’s first ‘full’ week under it’s belt and we’re already seeing the race to the playoffs take shape.

Of course, we’ll see if things keep going with the way the Marlins are causing all kinds of trouble, but at least we have baseball for now.

Keep Playing or Move On?

With the real MLB season underway, should I keep going with my SCL? I’m thinking…yes. I’ve only played a few weeks into the season, but there are some exciting things happening. My Angels team is performing pretty well, and I think, now that I’ve gotten the injury thing under control (that’s why this is the Second Chance League, I had to reset because too many injuries), I can really get into the season.

The other aspect that I am looking at is that while this is a simulation, it is also a game. I know that the moment I started playing, I was deviating from the real-world results of the 2020 season, but I like the ‘what-if’ scenario. Hey, I might even be able to pull off some trades to push my team into the playoffs.

Topping things off, I really do not see a downside to continuing the league. Sure, it takes a bit of time to play through the games, but if I get into a real crunch, I could let the AI take over. I enjoy playing out the Angels games myself, though.

Status of the SCL

With the decision made to keep things going, what is the status of my Second Chance League?

Well, I am managing the Angels, and they had a great March! Yes, in my fictional Second Chance League, the baseball season actually got underway in March.

And my team rolled up a 5–0 record for the month of March.

They swept the cheating Astros in their home park, outscoring them 28 to 18 over the four-game series. They were clearly on fire.

April has been a bit of a mixed bag so far, though. After the hot March start, the Angels have gone 3–5 through April 8th, and what’s interesting is that they’ve only been able to go 2–4 at home. While they won both series, against Houston and Texas on the road, at home, they just can’t seem to get a break as both Houston and Oakland took two outta three games from them.

Hopefully, as they head out on the road to Detroit, Miami, and Houston again, they’ll get their mojo back.

So far, Shohei Ohtani has lead the pitching staff with 2 wins and a 2.61 ERA. He’s backed up by Andrew Heaney, who also has a couple of wins but a 4.58 ERA. The 5 home runs he’s given up certainly don’t help keep the scoring down, but he has been doing enough to get the wins. Hansel Robles is also performing well as the anchor of the bullpen with his 5 saves, and ZERO earn runs. Hopefully, the pitching will stay intact.

On the Offensive side of things, Ohtani is on fire again. He’s batting .389 with 4 home runs already. Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon are also performing well with the former leading the team with 9 RBIs and the later scoring 9 times.

And as a team, they’re 8–5, sitting 1.5 games up on the cheating Astros even though they’ve lost the last 2 games they’ve played. And, while it’s still early in the season, they’re ranked 4th in the power rankings behind Colorado, Tampa Bay, and the Phillies.

As I said, I think I’m gonna keep playing this season out to see where things go.

Promptapalooza Prompt Day 1

Today also is the kickoff for Blaugust. This year, Belghast over at Tales of the Aggronaut has suggested a different format…we’re gonna be posting writing prompts each day to get things rolling and to see the different perspectives on various topics in gaming, pop-culture, media, and fandoms.

The prompt for today (which I’ll tackle tomorrow) is:

If you could change anything about one of your core fandoms, what would it be?

I’m hoping to put on my thinking cap tonight as I sleep to figure out what to say.

It’s a Wrap

I suppose I have to keep reminding my self that the Second Chance League is only a simulation. It’s a game that is related to but not the same as the real MLB season. It’s not even related to my fantasy league…which I’m not doing too well in either.

In any case, I’d love to have seen the Angels get out to an 8–5 record to start the real MLB season…as it stands, they’re 2–6, so that’ll never happen in the 2020 season.

So perhaps that is why I want to keep this Second Chance League going. At least it’s a world where my Angels can start off the 2020 season with an 8–5 record and be on top of the AL West through the first two weeks of the season.

Ramble 2020.03.20 | Keeping Up With the SCL