Photo: Doug Gray

Cincinnati Reds 13, Milwaukee Brewers 4 in Strat-O-Matic 2020 season simulation game 46

05/16/2020

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

Don’t look now, but here come the sim Cincinnati Reds!

Nick Senzel went 2-for-4 with four runs batted in to lead a balanced Cincinnati Reds (22-24) offensive attack in a 13-4 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers (24-23) 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!

The sim Reds scored all 13 runs in the first four innings as their predominantly righthanded batting lineup lowered the boom on Brewers lefthander Brett Anderson. The big inning was a six-spot in the bottom of the third inning. With one out, seven consecutive Reds reached base against Anderson and reliever Ray Black. Curt Casali walked with the bases loaded to open the scoring, then starter and winner Trevor Bauer poked a hit that knocked in a run. With the bases still loaded, Senzel smacked a two-run single, ending the day for Anderson. (Senzel’s two-hit game could have been a three-hit game had it not been for a web gem by Milwaukee second baseman Keston Hiura, who robbed him of a hit in the second inning.)

Michael Lorenzen, starting in right field, and Nick Castellanos followed with run-scoring singles to cap the inning.

Unfortunately, later in the game, Castellanos was injured while running out a ground ball in the fifth inning, and will miss the next eight games, according to Strat-O-Matic. That means the Reds will play the final game of the four-game series against the Brewers Sunday with Castellanos, Shogo Akiyama and Jesse Winker all sidelined by injuries.

Redleg Nation readers are asked, in the comments below, to nominate a position player who should be brought up from the minors to replace Castellanos, who will go on the 10-day injured list. The player with the most votes by late Saturday evening will be brought up for Sunday’s game.

Strat-O-Matic’s previous listing of position players who can be recalled included:

D. Dietrich
T. Jankowski
A. Blandino
S. Schebler
A. Aquino

Despite the recent rash of injuries, the sim Reds have won five of their last six games, their hottest streak of the sim season. Winning commenter/manager Jon Davis is now 2-0 in that role and will have priority for submitting a lineup for Sunday’s game. Many of the Reds players who got off to slow sim starts are now beginning to show signs of producing at levels closer to what Reds fans had hoped. It is an indication that perhaps over a larger sample size, the simulation statistics will appear closer to what fans might expect.

For the second consecutive day, all of the other teams in the NL Central Division lost. Cincinnati pulled to within three games of the leading Cardinals, and within one and a half of Milwaukee and Chicago, tied for second.

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

A-Pinch Hit For Black In 4th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Lindblom In 6th Inning
E-Pinch Hit For Suter In 8th Inning
F-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Holt In 8th Inning

B-Subbed Defensively (1B) For Castellanos In 6th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Bauer In 6th Inning
G-Subbed Defensively (3B) For Suarez In 9th Inning

Standings following the May 16 games:

NL Central	WON	LOST	PCT	GB
Cardinals	25	21	.543	0.0
Cubs	24	23	.511	1.5
Brewers	24	23	.511	1.5
Reds	22	24	.478	3.0
Pirates	18	26	.409	6.0

The 2020 schedule as currently constituted has the Reds hosting the Milwaukee Brewers at Great American Ball Park Saturday for the final game of the four-game series. Anthony DeSclafani will pitch for the sim Reds, while righthander and ace Brandon Woodruff pitches for Milwaukee.

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.

A deeper look at MLB’s safety plan proposal

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association have been meeting every day for the last half-week and almost all of their meetings have been around the safety for everyone involved in the game (not just the players, but the coaches/managers/training staff, and non-clubhouse staff that are all required to get a game in each day). Both Jeff Passan of ESPN, and The Athletic’s dynamic duo of Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich got their hands on MLB’s 67-page plan and have details.

Passan’s piece over at ESPN is free to read. So you may want to start there if you don’t have a subscription to The Athletic. But Drellich and Rosenthal’s piece at The Athletic has pictures laying out how team staff and players are supposed to be situated in and around the dugout in order to maintain proper social distancing, and well, it’s something else.

Both articles detail many aspects of testing, travel, expectations, etc. that is going to be in place for the games to happen. Let’s also be sure to note that all of this stuff needs to be approved by both the owners and the players to take place and that the likelihood that this is the only set of plans we see without a single change is very unlikely. But for now, it’s what we’ve got to look at and now both sides get to examine it and discuss it, and if they feel the need, make alterations to the plan to “fix” it.

Amir Garrett hires Scott Boras

For those of you who like to keep track of those sorts of things.

Agent news: Amir Garrett has hired Scott Boras to represent him #reds

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) May 16, 2020

Old Cincinnati Reds footage to close out the notes

Had this retweeted into my timeline earlier today and thought it would be a fun thing to share.

Reds vs Giants-Polo Grounds- Unedited 16mm-Can you guess the year ? From the Flagstaff Films Baseball home movie archive pic.twitter.com/cKvTlI5syz

— Flagstaff Films (@flagstafffilms) May 16, 2020

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
Jon Davis	2	0	1.000
Peter Onte	2	1	.667
BK	7	4	.636
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.