Photo: Doug Gray

Milwaukee Brewers 2, Cincinnati Reds 1 in 2020 Strat-O-Matic simulation season game 11

04/07/2020

Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Brewers	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	7	1
Reds	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	0

Ryon Healy’s 10th inning home run off Raisel Iglesias earned the Milwaukee Brewers (5-6) a 2-1 extra-inning victory over the Cincinnati Reds (4-7), as the teams split a two-game series at Great American Ball Park.

That was the result today as Strat-O-Matic games of Glen Head, N.Y., continued its announced plan to simulate the entire 2020 Major League Baseball season on a day-by-day basis for as long as actual game play is on hold.

Help set the lineup, batting order for the simulated Reds:

Have you ever dreamed of your opportunity to “manage” the Reds? Now is your chance. Learn more below!

Milwaukee scored in the top of the second on a ground-out by Manny Pina, plating Brock Holt, who had led off the inning with a single, and then advanced to third on a single by Orlando Arcia. Otherwise, sim Reds starter Sonny Gray was brilliant, striking out 10 and walking none in six innings of work.

Cincinnati tied it in the fourth. Jesse Winker, who singled with one out, scored an out later when Brewers pitcher Adrian Houser fielded Nick Castellanos’ grounder but threw it past the first baseman and down the right-field line.

The sim Reds’ best chance at victory thereafter came in the bottom of the ninth when, with two outs, Milwaukee pitcher Ray Black walked Josh VanMeter and Freddy Galvis with two out. But Black struck out Curt Casali to snuff out the attempted rally.

Healy, who entered the game in a double switch with Black in the ninth, then launched an Iglesias pitch over the fence in the top of the 10th for what proved to be the game-winner. It was only his second sim at-bat, and he is 2-for-2.

Sim Reds pitching continues to perform largely as expected. After 11 games, the team ERA is 3.94, and the Reds pitching staff is tied for the sim league lead in strikeouts with 120, with the Miami Marlins. Gray has struck out 28 and walked only three in 17 innings of work. On the other hand, the hitters have still not hit their stride. The team batting average is only .226, with only seven homers in the first 11 games.

The Reds’ loss dropped them four games behind the first-place Cubs in the NL Central, and again into sole possession of the division basement.

Here is the box score, as provided by Strat-O-Matic:

A-Pinch Hit For Phelps In 8th Inning
D-Subbed Defensively (3B) For Suter In 9th Inning

B-Pinch Hit For Lorenzen In 8th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Akiyama In 8th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Mahle In 10th Inning

Standings following the April 7 games:

NL Central	WON	LOST	PCT	GB
Cubs	8	3	.727	0
Pirates	6	5	.545	2
Cardinals	6	5	.545	2
Brewers	5	6	.455	3
Reds	4	7	.364	4

The 2020 schedule as currently constituted has the Reds off Wednesday, then resuming the homestand Thursday with the first of a four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Trevor Bauer will pitch for Cincinnati, and righthander Vince Velazquez will be on the hill for the Phils, who have a record of 5-7 in sim play so far.

Help set the lineup, batting order for the simulated Reds:

Have you ever dreamed of your opportunity to “manage” the Reds? Now is your chance.

Strat-O-Matic has agreed to allow Redleg Nation to submit the Cincinnati Reds’ lineups for each day’s simulated game. We want all of our readers who want to participate to get involved.

Here is how it will work:

In each wrap up of that day’s simulated game, Redleg Nation will post the opposing starting pitcher for the next game. You will know who the pitcher is and whether he is left-handed or right-handed, and you can use that information in creating a lineup for the next game, and submitting it in the comments below. “Splits” such as performance vs. left-handers or right-handers are replicated in the Strat-O-Matic game algorithm, and therefore should be considered.
We will accept lineups from every reader who wants to submit one. The lineup that will be submitted to Strat-O-Matic each day will be the one that receives the most positive replies (in effect, “yes” votes) from readers other than the submitter. In case of ties:
- First tiebreaker: Lineup submitted by the reader who has had the fewest number of opportunities as a “manager.”
- Second tiebreaker: Lineup submitted earliest in the comment thread. (So get your lineup in “early” each day.)
What is “early?” Redleg Nation posts these articles daily between 5 and 6 p.m. Eastern time. Strat-O-Matic’s deadline for us to submit a lineup for the next day’s game is midnight. On most days, we’ll do this before “bedtime,” which is typically between 10:30 and 11 Eastern time.

Have fun with this! If you have any questions, please post them in the comment string below. Here are the “managerial records” of our Redleg Nation participants to date:

Commenter/”Manager”	WON	LOST	PCT
Doug Gray	1	1	.500
Tomn	1	1	.500
Mark Moore	0	1	.000
VaRedsFan	0	1	.000
Tom Mitsoff	0	1	.000

About Strat-O-Matic

Strat-O-Matic has been in the sports simulation business since the 1960s. A USA Today article contained this explanation:

Strat-O-Matic and other baseball simulations use statistics from the previous season to create “cards” for each player on a roster. The team managers select the batting order and the starting pitcher. From there, a series of dice rolls and calculations determines the outcome of each at-bat.

Strat-O, as it’s known to longtime players, first gained its immense popularity as a board game. The company has since expanded to a downloadable Windows version and one that’s played online. A few years ago, it introduced Baseball Daily – a new iteration that combined the player cards from the previous season with statistics from the real season being played at the same time.

Unlike many video games, the Strat-O-Matic results are based on algorithms that account for players’ actual past performance. It’s not a game played with a joystick that relies more on the skill of the person with the video game controller in his or her hand.

The simulation software will keep comprehensive statistics for all teams for the season, so we’ll be able to track year-to-date leaders in many statistical categories. Our current plan is to provide statistical leader summaries here at Redleg Nation each Sunday. You can follow the season at Strat-O-Matic.com, where they plan to post the results from each day’s schedule at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

News/Notes from around baseball

One of the things we would have during the season in the game threads was a section comprised of news and notes for the day. While there’s a lot less going on these days in the baseball world than usual for this time of year, there still are some things that are worth highlighting. When there are, we’ll be adding them to these daily simulation threads.

As we noted late last night/early this morning, Major League Baseball has been discussing a possible plan that could have them playing baseball before the end of May. The report, from Jeff Passan of ESPN spoke about many of the issues that needed to be overcome to make the plan work – including approval from the players.

Japan’s NPB has pushed back their start date to April 24th. They had restarted spring training, but put everything on pause when one team had multiple players test positive for COVID-19. Joel Sherman of the New York Post is reporting that they’ve now pushed their season back to “late May at the earliest”. One report from within the article notes that a team official doesn’t expect to start before late June.

Dan Szymborksi says “Embrace the Weirdness” and offers up five ways to make a 2020 season compelling over at Fangraphs. My favorite of the ideas is his ‘Players Year”. It’s much like the players weekend each season, but for the whole year that gives them a bit more freedom to choose their jersey names, wear custom cleats – you know, have a little bit of fun out there. Go check it out – maybe you’ll like some of the other ideas better.