Photo: Doug Gray

Cincinnati Reds 14, Miami Marlins 7 in Strat-O-Matic 2020 season simulation game 43

05/13/2020

Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Marlins	0	2	1	0	2	0	0	1	1	7	13	2
Reds	2	2	0	3	4	0	3	0	X	14	17	1

Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!

Three hits apiece from Mark Payton, Tucker Barnhart and Joey Votto led a relentless Cincinnati Reds (20-23) offensive attack which defeated the Miami Marlins (16-28) by a 14-7 score at Great American Ball Park. The three-game sweep of the Marlins was the first for the sim Reds this season.

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 sim Reds took the lead for good in the bottom of the second. With the score tied at 2-2, Freddy Galvis led off with a walk, and Payton launched his second home run over the wall, giving the home team a 4-2 lead. Other offensive highlights for the winners included a two-run home run by Phillip Ervin following a Payton double in the fifth, and doubles by Mike Moustakas and Votto.

Unfortunately, Jesse Winker suffered an injury in the sixth inning while batting against Jose Urena. Winker hit a line drive that was caught for an out, but was injured on the play. He will miss the entire upcoming four-game series against the Brewers.

Winning commenter/manager BK now has seven wins in that role, tops among Redleg Nation participants, and it was his third straight win. BK made the unconventional move of appointing some of his fellow Redleg Nation readers as members of his coaching staff prior to today’s game — a move which clearly paid dividends. Because he submitted a winning lineup today, BK will have priority for submitting Thursday’s lineup.

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated Pittsburgh for the second straight day, while the Chicago Cubs lost their third straight to Milwaukee — moving St. Louis ahead of Chicago into undisputed possession of first place in the NL Central. The Cubs are one game back, Milwaukee two back, the Reds 4.5 back, and Pittsburgh six games back.

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

A-Subbed Defensively (2B) For Conley In 5th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Urena In 7th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Tarpley In 9th Inning

B-Pinch Hit For Stephenson In 5th Inning
C-Subbed Defensively (CF) For Winker In 7th Inning

Standings following the May 13 games:

NL Central	WON	LOST	PCT	GB
Cardinals	25	19	.568	0.0
Cubs	24	20	.545	1.0
Brewers	23	21	.523	2.0
Reds	20	23	.465	4.5
Pirates	18	24	.429	6.0

The 2020 schedule as currently constituted has the Reds welcoming the Milwaukee Brewers to Great American Ball Park for what must be characterized as an important early-season four-game series due to the tightness of the standings. Luis Castillo will pitch for the sim Reds in the opener Thursday, while lefthander Eric Lauer pitches for Milwaukee.

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

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
BK	7	3	.700
Peter Onte	2	1	.667
Gonzo Reds	2	2	.500
James Owens	2	2	.500
Redsfan4life	2	2	.500
Doug Gray	1	1	.500
RedsEuphoria	1	1	.500
Tomn	1	1	.500
AirborneJayJay	0	1	.000
Don	0	1	.000
Jeff	0	1	.000
Mark Moore	0	1	.000
Tom Mitsoff	0	1	.000
VaRedsFan	0	1	.000
Melvin	0	2	.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’ 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.

Watch the 1976 World Series, starting tonight

Starting tonight, Fox Sports Ohio will be rebroadcasting the Cincinnati Reds destruction of the New York Yankees in the 1976 World Series. The sweep saw The Big Red Machine outscore their opponent 22-8 over the four games, with Johnny Bench going wild – hitting .533 and slugging 1.133 during the series. Dan Driessen, George Foster, and Joe Morgan all saw an OPS of at least 1.000 during the series, too.

Relive the #BigRedMachine's triumph over the Yankees in the 1976 World Series with us this week on FOX Sports Ohio!

? Tonight, 7 p.m. ET: Game 1
? Thursday, 7 p.m. ET: Game 2
? Friday, 7 p.m. ET: Game 3
? Saturday, 7 p.m. ET: Game 4#RedsReplay | @FOXSportsCincy pic.twitter.com/NLnk1YE7o8

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 13, 2020

A 5-round draft is shortsighted, pound foolish

Craig Edwards of Fangraphs looked into the reduction of the 2020 Major League Baseball draft and how it’s reduction to just five rounds is ill thought out and doesn’t really save that much money overall. He uses Jacob deGrom as his ultimate example of a “what if” scenario of the potential consequences.

It might be unfair to cite the Met’s 2010 draft because deGrom is an unquestionably great success and not generally representative of the kind of players teams take in rounds six to 10. He’s also a player who might not even be in the big leagues if there weren’t at least 10 rounds in the 2010 draft.

The players major league teams are passing on this year might not make it back to them in future years. The October after deGrom was drafted, he had Tommy John surgery. If there had been just five rounds the year he was actually drafted, deGrom very likely goes back to school for his senior year. There’s a decent chance he would have still needed Tommy John surgery at some point and it quite likely would have been before the draft. If deGrom was coming off an injury-riddled senior season, or hadn’t pitched at all due to a surgery that would have kept him out a full year after the draft, he might well have gone undrafted and potentially pursued a career outside of baseball with his college degree. The winner of the last two NL Cy Young awards might not even be playing baseball with a five-round draft in 2010.

It was an interesting thought process to go through. The odds aren’t good that it will happen that way – but the fact that it could really sucks given how little actual money is being saved here.

Stan Musial and a called shot in the All-Star Game

Let’s end the notes today with a fun look back at history via Tim Kurkjian of ESPN. Earlier today he wrote a quick note about Stan The Man and the 1955 All-Star Game. The game took place in Milwaukee and the game went to extra innings. It was the bottom of the 12th and Musial came to the plate and told American League catcher Yogi Berra, “I’m going to end this thing right here. Yogi, I’m tired, it’s time to go home.” And he wasn’t kidding, either. The 24-time All-Star did just that as he crushed a home run to walk it off and indeed, go home.