I decided to put my potential Red Sox roster through some tests. I booted up OOTP 22, which if you don’t have I highly recommend, and I got to work.
Before I get to the article I have some disclaimers;
For those of you that don’t know, OOTP is a baseball simulation game where you can be the GM and/or Manager of an MLB team. It is a SIMULATION so anything can happen. In my simulation, the league changed the rules before the 2022 season and lowered the mound 6 inches. It can do all kinds of crazy and weird things. It also simulates injuries and stuff, but we will get to that.
For those of you that DO know OOTP, I want to disclose the fact that I am TERRIBLE at OOTP.
For these simulations, I will be playing in GM only mode, and I have delegated basically everything except trades and signings to the assistant GM.
My simulation started on November 6th with everything pretty much current and up-to-date. Schwarber had already declined his option so he was a free agent. JD Martinez opted out of his contract next, so he was slated to become a free agent. My first order of business was of course resigning him, which cost me some money for sure. Next order of business for me was signing Robbie Ray. That took almost two months to get a contract good enough to lock him into. But I got it done. I got my team together the exact way I wanted it to be.
Some of the notable free agency signings aside from mine were;
Scherzer to the Astros, Charlie Morton to the Dodgers, Freddie Freeman resigning with the Braves, Brandon Crawford to the Astros (I am not sure as he was supposed to be a free agent), Brandon Belt to the Dodgers, Marcus Semien to the Dodgers as well, and Corey Seager signing a big 8 year deal with the Yankees.
With my roster set up the way I wanted it to be, it was time to start the season off. In the 3rd game of the season, new high-priced starter Robbie Ray strained his bicep, which would have him out for 5 weeks… Great start to the season. After that, we pretty much rolled around .500 for a while. At a bit over .500, on July 8th, Chris Sale tore a ligament in his elbow, needing surgery. He would be out for the next 14 months. So much for the idea of having a healthy Chris Sale for the year. For a bit of good news, my Sox did have one all-star. Wanna guess who it was? Rafael Devers? Xander Bogaerts? JD Martinez? Robbie Ray? Nathan Eovaldi even? Maybe Matt Barnes who made it last year? Nope. None of the above. Hunter. Renfroe. His 2021 outburst was amplified in my 2022 simulation. In my simulation, my Sox were sitting at 50-48 at the trade deadline. It’s a simulation though, right? So let’s make a run for it. I looked at my team stats so far on the year and noticed that I was 14th in the AL (15 teams) in bullpen ERA, so I decided to add a bullpen arm. I traded for Rasiel Iglesias and gave up a AAA SP named Brayan Bello. I had to look him up, but found out he was signed by the Sox in 2017 as an international free agent. Since Sale was hurt and out for the year, I also decided to trade for a starting pitcher for the stretch run. Justin Verlander was on the trade block, after signing with the not-good Nationals for a year. I traded for him, giving up 3 AA prospects highlighted by Matthew Lugo, and also getting the Nationals to cover 35% of Verlander’s salary. Unfortunately, the day after the trade deadline, on August 1st, Robbie Ray tore his rotator cuff. He would miss the next 9 months.
Things looked up after that somehow, and we gained ground on the wild card. The Yankees, who had a commanding lead on the division at one point, relinquished that lead to the Rays. By the end of the season, it was evident it was going to come down to the wire. I ended up missing the playoffs by 2 games, ending with a record of 87-75. Not a great season, but not a terrible record considering the fact that my top two starting pitchers missed most of the season.
Here was the stats for my final lineup and rotation at the end of the season;
I also had some major players injured though, so let’s get their stats as well.
Xander Bogaerts played 147 games, had a WAR of 4.4, and hit .279 with 32 HRs and 87 RBIs.
Christian Arroyo played 71 games, had a WAR of 1.3, and hit .298 with 6 HRs and 34 RBIs.
Chris Sale started 16 games, going 10-3, with a 2.82 ERA and 10.1 K/9. He had a 2.4 WAR in the roughly half of a season.
Robbie Ray started 10 games, going 2-2 with a 3.38 ERA and 11.7 K/9. He had a 1.3 WAR in about a third of a season.
The MLB Standings looked like this in the end;
This image probably won’t look good on phones, so I will summarize;
The Blue Jays won the AL East with 103 Wins, the Twins surprised and won the AL Central with 101 wins, and the Astros won the West with 95. Wild cards in the AL were the Guardians with 95 wins and the Rays with 89.
In the NL, the Braves repeated their division crown, but this year with 104 wins. The Cardinals won the Central with only 83 wins, and the Dodgers won the West with 106 wins. The NL Wild Cards were won by the Phillies with 94 wins, and the Padres with 88.
The AL playoffs looked like this;
Rays Over Indians, then Twins over Astros and Jays over Rays, then the Blue Jays took Game 7 from the Twins.
The NL went like this;
Padres over Phillies, then Cardinals over Braves and Dodgers over Padres, then the Cardinals took game 7 from the Dodgers.
The World Series of Cardinals and Blue Jays went 7 games and was won by the Cardinals. Let’s just remember they only had 83 wins.
Above, if you can see these images, are the stats leaders for both leagues. The cream of the crop for pitchers was Corbin Burnes in the NL with a 9.8 WAR, Shane Bieber in the AL with a 5.5 WAR. For hitters, Rafael Devers took the crown in the AL with a 8.2 WAR, while Bryce Harper took the NL with a 9.6 WAR.
I will be doing more of these simulations, trying to take other franchises all the way to the World Series or to see what they can do. If you like these simulations, let me know which one you would like to see next!
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Image by Eveline de Bruin from Pixabay
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