MLB 2009 Tourney [Playing 5/28-5/31]

[MuEagles79]

MuEagles79 wins Game 4407116

[geigerm]

Thanks to everyone for the updates, as always. The schedule & standings graphics in the first few posts have now been updated--if you haven't been checking the spreadsheet, take a look at the third post to see where you stand after the first two series (with the Padres-Giants games still in progress--appears all 3 of those have gone into extra innings ).

We're in danger of needing to go to the reserve pool for the first time, as a couple of players still haven't joined their most recent games. I may be a little lax on the 72-hour deadline this early in the season, especially when games go out over the weekend--don't really want to lose people THIS quickly. But I do think it's necessary to keep the tourney moving along. I also might start actually sending out two series at a time, if everyone's okay getting 6-7 games at once. At our current rate, our tournament might take longer than the actual MLB season!

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BoSox update (since I do enjoy occasionally writing these things): The Sox are in the middle of a very successful road trip, sandwiching two losses around a 4-game winning streak against the Angels and A's. The main concern for manager geigerm is Brad Penny, who dropped to 0-2 after taking both of the losses. "Brad's getting hit early, so we're falling behind and getting deficits we just can't make up. Hopefully a little home cooking will help him rebound--I know our fans will welcome him warmly when he makes his first home start next week."

[plash.ricrem]

The Blue Jays have completed a successful road trip to Minnesota where they fought off a hard charging Twins team to win 3 of 4 games. Roy Halladay was able to pick up his 3rd straight win to start the season (4407113) as the Jays were able to get to the Twins pen in the later innings to pull away for the W. Purcey was able to hand Johan Santana his first loss of the year, outdueling the twins ace in a slugfest where the Jays never trailed (4407110). Shawn Marcum was able to overcome the deafening crowd noise of the metrodome and lead the Jays to victory in his start over Joe Nathan (4407102). The Jays only defeat came when Dustin Mcgowan got lit up in the first inning (inital territory bonus on the first drop of the game) and it was off to the races for the twinkies (4407108). Manager Plash Ricrem did note that the twins were a very scrappy and will surely be dangerous in the A.L. Central this year.

[geigerm]

Thanks for the update, plash.ricrem--the Jays are off to an impressive start against the AL Central, having played all 11 games in that division. Maybe we should move your team there ...

Next set of games is coming tonight, folks--my apologies for the delays on that. Also, I was finally able to work out some Visual Basic functions to make calculating GB and home/road/divisional records easy, so you'll see the results of that in the next spreadsheet/thread update later.

[geigerm]

The next set of games are out. Expect an update to the schedule/standings graphics in the 2nd/3rd posts in the near future.

Also, I'll be sending everyone a PM soon asking for your input on the idea of sending out more games at a time--I think it might be a good idea to send out 2 series at once to keep the tourney moving, but if people feel they'll be overloaded, I'll avoid doing that.

[dcc1220]

Game 4407135: Grienke (1-1) defeats Reyes (1-1)
Game 4407137: Quisenberry (2-0) defeats Carmona (0-2)
Game 4407139: Cone (1-1) loses to Lewis (1-1)

[slickstick]

Game 4445821
won by slickstick

[dcc1220]

Kansas City @ Texas

Davies loses (1-1) to McCarthy
Saberhagen wins (3-0) against Millwood
Grienke wins (2-1) against Padilla

[geigerm]

Keep 'em coming, folks. The next batch of games, featuring two simultaneous series for the first time, will come out in the next day or two. We'll see how that whole idea goes.

EDIT: Also, the 2nd and 3rd posts have been updated with the standings and schedules, and the spreadsheet also has the most up-to-date information.

[flexmaster33]

What an idea geigerm...if I was more into baseball I'd join in...I like you idea for a pitching rotation though...very cool.

[freakns]

for spreadsheet

as for the results, i need one more move(maybe two) in one game of both series im currently playing to finish it, so ill post results when series ended

[geigerm]

What an idea geigerm...if I was more into baseball I'd join in...I like you idea for a pitching rotation though...very cool.

Thanks flex. I gotta say, your tourneys inspired me quite a bit, being great examples of very successful sports-based tourneys, so I really appreciate the positive feedback.

for spreadsheet

as for the results, i need one more move(maybe two) in one game of both series im currently playing to finish it, so ill post results when series ended

Thanks--I've put a lot of time into that spreadsheet, but I think it's turned out to be pretty cool and I'm glad I actually was able to figure out how to show all the records and stuff that I needed. I've found working on that to be more enjoyable than my job lately ... which is probably not a good thing.

[freakns]

Rays swept White Sox.

Price over Contreras (4445774)
Kazmir over Buerhle (4445776)
Shields over Danks (4445778)
Garza over Floyd (4445779)

luckily, Rays are of to a road trip after this series cause as our reporters said, Ozzie Guillen eat pitching mound during forth game and then spit dirt on referee. it will take some time to get the field in playable position. larger problems are withheld due to timely reaction from MuEagles79 who remove Ozzie from field and immediately gave him horse doze of composure drogs. also, AJ Pierzynski was ejected during first game of series while reciting love poem to a referee and trying to gave him pink underwear. after the game he said its finally time for him to step out of closet and that his often bully behaviour was nothing but pure attempt to keep his true sexuality secret. he also mentioned he is planing to open a restaurant with Jim Edmonds.

disclaimer: this is actually second series in Tropicana. unfortunately the Yankees(or the.killing.44) arent very active(as we are expecting from true Yankees to be) so this series is taking longer to finish... atm, Rays already took 2 games and are close to take 3rd, but until whole series is finished, official results wouldnt be posted.

[geigerm]

freakns, thanks as always for the incredibly weird but very entertaining update. The spreadsheet does actually have the game results from the Yanks-Rays series that have finished, so your record there is correct, but I'm looking forward to seeing your thoughts when that series is actually done.

Also, FYI, TB moved into first place in the AL East with those game results in ... keeping track of standings with people having very, very different numbers of games finished is kind of a pain! I may end up calling off the "two series at a time" experiment if that becomes too much of a problem, but we shall see. As much as I want to make sure the tourney moves along so people don't lose interest, I also really agree with the minority that said one of the things that makes the MLB season great is that it's such a long journey. Stay tuned ...

I'm working on the settings for the new games right now. They'll likely come out tomorrow morning.

[plash.ricrem]

Toronto avoids a sweep at home from the hands of the A's pulling out a highly contested win with Mcgowan on the mound (4445817). Manager Ricrem was displeased that his team was seemingly giving up first inning runs all over the place and digging themselves into deep holes early, but hopes that the pitching will settle down as the season goes on.

[Sackett58]

Giants at the Dodgers Circus Maximus
Game # 44077231 Dodgers 10 Rounds WP-Newcombe LP-Cain
# 4407235 Giants 7 Rounds WP-Johnson LP-Podres
# 4407237 Dodgers 12 Rounds WP-Maglie LP-Zito

[freakns]

Rays swept Yankees(this got to sounds good, even in game. someone swept Yankees... makes me smile, just to hear it) at home season opener

Shields over Sabathia (4407087)
Garza over Wang (4407093)
Sonnanstine over Reynolds (4407098)

this ensured steady start for Rays at their home field, winning all 7 games on Tropicana. and nothing weird today as i just woke up, so im not even sure how badly my english looks like... thus i better stop
hear you all after next series

[geigerm]

All right folks, the next games are out. We'll see how this thing goes now that I'm throwing twice as many games at you folks. Expect a spreadsheet update later today ...

[geigerm]

... yeah ... about that spreadsheet update: I added some functions to the spreadsheet that are going to make it much easier for me to track everything appropriately ...

... but VBA functions don't work with Google Docs. Fixing this problem for the function that calculates GB is easy, since there are only 30 numbers to type in. Fixing this issue for the new functions, which are used on every single game of every single team page .... yeah, that's somewhat of a problem. So I'm looking into other ways to post the spreadsheet online. I'll keep you posted.

[HighlanderAttack]

You are doing a fantastic job running this tournament. It is everything a tourney should be about.

Thanks

[freakns]

it took some time, but Rays winning streak was ended. after 10 successful games, it was Mariners on their home field who overcome Rays.
Silva over Sonnanstine (4472086)
with fantastic management from MLB newcomer mr. bonus_mop, Carlos Silva is continuing to amaze people all over the world. the guy with basically only one pitch controlled the game from the very beginning and gave no hope to Rays to overcame early deficit. but it was not only the fault of poorly prepared batters who couldnt hit the ball out of infield, it was also outrageously bad performance from Sonnanstine who pitched like he has one hand stuck in his ass and gave grand slam to Adrian Beltre early in the first inning. freakns escaped from stadium before the game ended so we didnt catch any statement from him. later that day he was found somewhere around Sacramento asking people how to get to his hotel in Seattle... it just shows how lost he was in the Seattle home stadium(home map)

Price over Rowland-Smith (4472095)
it was David Price, the new sensation who gave the edge to Rays in second game of the series. aggressive from the very beginning Price took control and never looked back until he throw a complete game for his 3 win of the season from that many matches. fantastic performance from this youngster put smile on freakns' face who gave comment after the game. "it was me who found this boy! im the king of the world! im the BEST! im monster of baseball!". Price was usually quiet and said only one sentence on freakns' comment that he is the one who found the boy "it is true hw found me while i was a boy, just as his wife is responsible for making me a man". i guess its true what they say about family business...

Hernandez over Kazmir (4472098)
after two dominating games, the third one was finally an interesting one. it was a game that king Felix took under his arm from the start and control it until almost the very end of the game. but bonus_mop made a slight mistake and left him in the game a little too much and what has looked like secure win for Mariners turned out to quite a battle. in 8th inning Rays loaded bases on Felix and that was the sing for relievers to come to the mound. but Rays continue hitting the ball hard and it was 2RBI double from Eva Longoria... errrr, sry, EvaN Longoria, that put Rays on 3 points difference. after it both Crawford and Pena hit RBI singles and Rays was only one point behind with Pena on first and Crawford on 3rd and only one out. and then freakns made strange change. he took a bat and become PH. it was, of course DPI on the first pitch... in 9th disappointing Rays had no new chance. freakns said after the game that he almost hit HR, but it was unregular ball that refuse to get not only over the fence, but not even out of infield. Juan Pierre is power hitter if we compare him with that hit...

in the end, it was Mariners 2 - Rays 1

[freakns]

You are doing a fantastic job running this tournament. It is everything a tourney should be about.

Thanks

signed: freakns

really wonderful job geigerm

[geigerm]

Thanks for the compliments and the updates, folks. Good feedback is always appreciated. And I'm having a ton of fun running this tourney, so it's good to know people are enjoying it as well.

Still working on the spreadsheet "issue," but probably not a whole lot today. Actual work is getting in the way of tourney organizing. There are two ways to save an Excel workbook in web page formats--either a single-file web page, or multiple pages with one for each worksheet--but the first solution doesn't appear to work with Firefox, and the second screws up the VBA functions in the same way Google Docs does. I'll be updating the standings/schedule JPGs in the 2nd and 3rd posts shortly to hopefully make up for the lack of spreadsheet updates a bit.

[slickstick]

Game 4407162
won by slickstick

[freakns]

Rays swept Athletics

Shields over Hunter (4472415)
Garza over Odom (4472421)
Sonnanstine over Holtzman (4472424)

nothing fancy about this series... rolls completely killed joeeeeeeee and that was pretty much decisive factor in all 3 games