MLB 13: The Show

A few weeks ago, I played some MVP Baseball 2005 with an old friend. I absolutely loved it. I realized that, incredibly, it had been ten years since I last played a baseball video game. So I sought to remedy that by purchasing the much more recent - but still absurdly cheap - MLB 13: The Show. I liked it a lot, but, to put it bluntly, it didn't feel like an improvement over MVP Baseball 2005 in any way beyond the graphics. Now, in almost every way it did feel like MVP Baseball 2005, which was great. But where it diverged from that game (and that series, really) it seemed worse for the wear.

I played close to twenty nine-inning games in The Show and was just as flustered by some of the fielding controls by the twentieth game as I was during the second. Double plays felt nearly impossible to turn, for one thing. For another, the "throwing to different bases" dynamic was timing-based, so that if I just casually tapped a button without paying attention, the baseball would sail into the outfield or the dugout. And don't ask me why, on a hard hit ball to the outfield, my outfielders never broke toward the ball until after it cleared the infield. The CPU never seemed to have this issue. Fuckers...

But I did like most of the gameplay elements here. Pitching took me a while to get used to - my regular season ERA and playoff ERA were night and day - but I did enjoy it once I finally figured out the timing and the way to work different hitters outside the strike zone. Hitting was a mixed bag, but generally a big success; I swung at nearly everything thrown at me, which was a recipe for striking out a ton and never walking - yet, still I led the league in home runs. There were games where I got shut out and games where I put up more than a dozen runs. It really seemed to be based largely on the pitchers I was facing, and how well I could see the pitches coming out of their hands.

Anyway, I keep referring to "leading the league" and "regular season." The truth is that I played a shortened (29-game) season and even then I ended up simulating around half of the games. Then the playoffs came, and those were a full-fledged three-round tournament with a 5-7-7 structure, just like the real deal. I played not as my hometown Boston Red Sox, because they actually won the World Series in 2013, so what would the fun be in repeating that exact same accomplishment? No, instead I created my 2013 fantasy team to the best of my ability (turns out a lot of rookies that season weren't in the game at all) and tried to win the title. I did exactly that (admittedly simulating and "managing" more games than I played) and, well, here are my team's fantasy stats, projected over 162 games from the 48 game season-and-postseason I endured:

Lastly - because this post is running long anyway, so fuck it - here are the three pivotal moments from my three postseason series-clinching games.

ALDS (vs. Royals) - Game 5

With the series on the line, it was time for my fifth starting pitcher to take his turn. I easily could have gone back to ace Dan Haren, or best pitcher Anibal Sanchez on short rest, but instead I rolled with the recently-called-up-from-Triple-A Mike Minor, a then-unproven youngin' with mediocre stuff and a rating worse than many of my middle relievers. The number five spot in the rotation had been a nightmare all season, with guys like Liriano, Buchholz, and de la Rosa all trying (and failing) to lock down that final spot.

Anyway, Mike Minor - one start all season prior to this, mind you - goes out there... and pitches a complete game shut out. It was the only complete game I'd pitch all season, and certainly the only shut out. The bats came through early and often in a 7-0 win, but Mike Minor owned the night.

ALCS (vs. Blue Jays) - Game 7

Tim Lincecum pitched this one, and he did just fine, as the staff allowed four runs overall in nine innings. But he was not the hero of the night. That honor is reserved for Wilin Rosario. All season, Wilin had been my "go big or go home" power hitter of sorts. I hit way too many home runs with him - that's a 43 homer rate over 162 games - but struck out a fuck ton, too. That batting average obfuscates just how all-or-nothing Wilin was when I controlled him; he must have hit a lot of RBI singles in simulated games, because I swear, for me he had an average of about .150 but two out of every three of those hits was a dinger.

Anyway, the score was all tied up in the sixth inning and I was getting pretty nervous. Wilin, it bears mentioning, had not yet played a single inning in the postseason as he'd been injured with one game left in the regular season. Jarrod Saltalamacchia had filled in pretty adequately. But late in a tie game, and with a lefty on the mound, this just wasn't Jarrod's time. In came Wilin, with two outs and the bases empty, and what does he do? Yeah, you know what he does. Pinch hit home run, giving me a lead I'd retain for the rest of the game. Just incredible. (I'm probably embellishing, but I think Rosario struck out on three pitches in his following at bat. It might have been four.)

World Series (vs. Phillies) - Game 6

Hey! Look at that! Rays-Phillies again! (Oh yeah, did I mention I had chosen to use the Tampa Bay Rays as my fantasy team?) Anyway, I wanted this one to go seven games, particularly after the first two series went the distance, but I wasn't about to throw a game just to make that the case.

I don't think I ever trailed in this game, and the win was truly a team effort. Eight of my nine batters got at least one hit (sorry, Aaron Hill) and several of them homered. Ryan Braun set the tone with a first inning bomb; David Wright was my hottest player in the postseason, and he hit one too. Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the ninth in a non-save situation (four-run lead) after Brandon Beachy went eight strong innings. But if I have to pick one plate appearance to recognize here, I've got to continue my underdog story. In the ALDS it was Mike Minor, and in the ALCS it was Wilin Rosario, and I suppose in the World Series, it was none other than little Zack Cozart, my backup shortstop, playing in this vital game only because Jimmy Rollins both sucked against left-handers and had played for too many consecutive days.

Anyway, some quick background. Zack Cozart was easily the worst player on my team. I think his overall rating was a 67, which made him worse than several of the minor leaguers in the Rays system when I was assembling my fantasy roster. He had been on my team since the middle of the regular season strictly as an emergency middle infielder because I really didn't need three back-up corner infielders. However, he was forced into action during a two-week stretch when Jimmy Rollins went down with some kind of injury. Zack Cozart had shown promise then, batting over .300, but he had no pop or speed at all (one homer, one steal) and was a defensive liability at shortstop. He was by all accounts a twenty-fifth man, and his presence on my 40-man roster at all was a byproduct of MLB 13: The Show not having several other middle infielders from my 2013 fantasy team at all: Jedd Gyorko, Kolten Wong, Anthony Rendon, Brad Miller. In real life, Zack Cozart never sniffed my fantasy team in 2013; he was someone I had dropped before the end of June in 2012, his rookie season, and I had never looked back.

So what does little Zack Cozart do, right in the middle of the clinching game of the World Series? Motherfucker just absolutely blasts a three-run homer in the fourth or fifth inning to break it wide open. Zack goddamn Cozart! Imagine that.