An 11-run explosion over the final two innings propelled the Cincinnati Reds (17-21) to a 14-9 victory over the Colorado Rockies (15-22) at Coors Field.

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!

The first seven innings of today’s game were shaping up very similar to yesterday’s 6-3 Colorado victory. The sim Reds trailed 5-3 after seven innings today, but unloaded on the Rockies bullpen with four runs in the eighth and seven in the ninth. Two-run singles by Freddy Galvis and Jesse Winker sparked the four-run rally in the eighth. Eight Reds singles and two walks in the ninth produced seven more runs. Ironically, with only one out in the top of the ninth and seven Reds runs in, the Rockies inserted catcher Drew Butera to pitch, and he struck out Phillip Ervin and Tucker Barnhart to prevent further damage. Cincinnati needed the insurance runs in the ninth, as David Dahl hit a grand slam off Michael Lorenzen in the bottom of the ninth in what can be best described as a typical Coors Field game.

Winning commenter/manager James Owens got fantastic production from the top of his batting order. Shogo Akiyama, Jesse Winker, Nick Castellanos and Eugenio Suarez combined for 12 hits and seven RBIs among them, giving sim Reds fans a glimmer of the kind of offense they hope to see when the actual season opens.

The Chicago Cubs lost 7-6 to the Washington Nationals today, and the rest of the NL Central teams capitalized by winning their respective games. The gap between first and last place in the division is now only six games.

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

A-Subbed Defensively (2B) For Miley In 5th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Stephenson In 8th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Garrett In 9th Inning

B-Pinch Hit For Hoffman In 6th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For McGee In 7th Inning
F-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Estevez In 9th Inning

Standings following the May 8 games:

The 2020 schedule as currently constituted has the Reds playing game three of the four-game series at Coors Field Saturday against the Colorado Rockies. Luis Castillo will pitch for the sim Reds, while right-hander Chi Chi Gonzalez pitches for Colorado.

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.

All players’ batting stats

All players’ pitching stats

Batting and pitching player stats by team

James Owens has the priority for lineup selection for Saturday because he came up with the winning formula for today’s game. 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:

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’ performance based on statistics that their statistical experts project for each player in the 2020 season. 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.

The All Do Over Team

Over at The Athletic this morning, Marc Carig and Andy McCullough put together an article on Baseball’s All-Second-Chance Team. The catch, however, is that the players needed to be active, and they also needed to create a 26-man roster. Players needed to have previously been released, waived, exposed to the Rule 5 draft, or “otherwise exposed to the other 29 teams” – though I can’t quite figure out what that last one entails that isn’t covered by the previous options (perhaps minor league free agency?). Only one former Red made the list, and funny enough, that’s his nickname. Red. Of course we’re talking about Justin Turner.

The Reds didn’t make the biggest mistake with regards to Justin Turner. After being selected by Cincinnati in the 7th round of the 2006 draft, he was traded in December of 2008 in a package that brought back catcher Ramon Hernandez, who spent three seasons in Cincinnati. The Orioles would eventually put Turner on waivers, where he was claimed by the Mets. He didn’t exactly put things together with New York before reaching free agency after the 2013 season. That’s when he signed with Los Angeles and figured out hitting the ball in the air was a good idea, and over the last six seasons he’s hit .302/.381/.506 for the Dodgers – good for a 139 OPS+. His career before arriving in LA? He hit .260/.323/.361 – good for a 92 OPS+.

The Reds best “small school” draft pick ever

Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo, and Mike Rosenbaum looked at each teams best small school draft pick over at MLB.com on Thursday afternoon. For the Cincinnati Reds they chose Reggie Sanders. This list is for college picks only, of course, as every high school is “small” by comparison.

The draft dates back to 1965, so while we are dealing with a lot of history, and a lot of players, it’s only about half of baseball’s history that we are looking at. Reggie Sanders went to Spartanburg Methodist College. If you’ve never heard of it, you probably aren’t alone. But it’s helped produce nine future Major Leaguers, including three that you’d almost assuredly heard of. Sanders, of course, but the school also saw Mookie Wilson and Orlando Hudson on their field. Hudson was selected and signed out of the 1997 draft by the Blue Jays from the school. Wilson moved on to play at South Carolina where he was drafted in the 2nd round in 1977 by the Mets.

But it was Reggie Sanders that had the best career of any player from the school. Sanders played in 1777 Major League games and posted 39.8 WAR in his career. Wilson would post a 22.4 career WAR in his 1403 games, while Hudson was between the two with 30.9 WAR in his 1345 career games. Sanders would spend parts of 17 seasons in the Majors, hitting .267/.343/.487 with 305 home runs and 304 stolen bases in his career – one of just eight players to top the 300 mark in both categories in Major League Baseball history.