'07 Xbox Sox

Yup, that's where it all started.

Each year since the days of Nintendo, I’ve enjoyed me some videogame baseball. The Bases Loaded series was all I needed until the Playstation came out when I was in high school. EA’s Triple Play series was something I played the shit out of while in high school and college when it became MVP baseball. I still maintain that MVP 2005 (with Manny on the cover) is the best non-baseball simulator ever. This year I decided to not buy MLB The Show for my PS2 and opted for MLB 2K7 for my Xbox 360. Even with Derek Jeter on the cover. The game play and franchise mode aren’t as deep as The Show, but the players, the movements, and the environments all look spectacular and feel real.

Obviously, I play with the Boston Red Sox, and every couple months or so you will get the benefit of seeing how my season progresses. Just a side note, I’m the general manager for the Kansas City Royals (and don’t actually play any ballgames) and building into my second season in a separate mode. As a rule, I play as the season goes along and try to stay about 3 or 4 weeks ahead of the regular schedule to pace myself for when Madden comes out. Anyway, here is how the AL East is shaking out 50 games in…

Boston 34 16 .680 -
Toronto 27 24 .529 7.5
Tampa 25 25 .500 9.0
New York 23 26 .469 10.5
Baltimore 23 28 .450 11.5

Not really unlike how the division looks right now. DH David Ortiz and 3B Mike Lowell are about a week away from coming off the 15 day DL for a sprained ankle and strained quad respectively. Here is the lineup I’ve had to use the past 10 days or so because of said injuries.

Avg HR RBI

SS Lugo .332 17 48
1B Youkillis .357 18 35
LF Ramirez .408 32 65 (in the early running for the Triple Crown)
DH Pena .229 3 9
RF Drew .358 12 35
3B Hinske .250 2 13
C Varitek .283 10 27
CF Crisp .296 10 26
2B Pedroia .248 5 16

Overall I’m hitting .315 as a team which is first in the bigs. Sometimes I’ll sub in Alex Cora for Pedroia or Lugo and swap Crisp and Youk around in the lineup depending on whom I play and who’s pitching. Two weeks before the Yankees nabbed Roger Clemens, I did the same thing in my game but only for the Red Sox benefit. Here is what my starting rotation is looking like in order…

W-L ERA SO BB BAA WHIP

Clemens 4-0 1.77 31 7 .222 1.04
Schilling 6-4 4.83 43 12 .285 1.37
Beckett 6-2 4.78 36 4 .246 1.03
Mills (DiceK) 7-3 2.55 53 11 .206 .094
Wakefield 3-5 7.11 28 19 .294 1.56

Lot’s of offense in this game as you can tell. On the games default, Jonathan Papelbon is in the starting rotation. After the team announced in spring training he was moving back to the bullpen as the closer I did the same…

Papelbon 2-2 3.00 17 5 .242 1.06

He’s got four out of five in save opportunities as well. I’d like to get him into some more save situations but save opportunities are few and far between in this game which kind of bugs me. So there you go, I know I’ll probably win the World Series because I do every year. I’m not a person that resets or quits if I’m losing either, because I’ve got the difficulty jacked all the way up so I don’t feel bad when I lose. I can play, manage, and run the GM duties as well which I love. It gives you the opportunity to manage your AAA and AA teams too. MVP let you play those games, which is a complete waste of time but a cool idea. As a result of my superior GM abilities I’ve been able to spend on Clemens, wrap up Ortiz for the rest of his career, and get Schilling to sign year to year until he retires. Of course selling out Fenway Park all the time and getting huge market share on TV broadcasts don’t hurt either.

2007 Budget - $183,640,000
2007 Expense - $178,950,000
Projected Inc. - $214,030,000
Projected Pft - $35,080,000
Ticket Avg - $42.50 (there are a lot of rich people in Boston apparently).

I still work in a bank by day you know. Just for the record for some dumb reason every team’s spending is up by $10-40 million over their real life spending. So I’m in first place playing on super duper All Star difficulty, I know how to manage my team to not only get them to win when I play but when I simulate games against the computer, and I’m in the black financially. Move over Theo, I’m takin’ over.