| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Reds | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| Padres | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
The bullpen blew up for both teams in the 7th inning, but the Padres got their damage in last with homers by Francisco Mejia and Fernando Tatis Jr (his 2nd of the day) and that lead held up over the final two innings to give San Diego (41-33) a 7-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds (35-38).
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!
Both offenses were quiet early on, but a Joey Votto error in the 3rd inning helped San Diego get things going on offense. A walk led off the inning, and after a fly out, Votto made an error to put two runners on for Fernando Tatis, who unloaded on a 3-run homer to put the Padres up 3-0. That’s where the score remained until a Shogo Akiyama ground out brought in Luis Castillo who doubled earlier in the inning.
Trailing 3-1 in the 7th, the Reds went to work with Freddy Galvis and Shogo Akiyama both singling to set up Joey Votto, who made up for his earlier error by crushing a 3-run homer to put Cincinnati up 4-3.
The Reds turned the lead over to the bullpen after 6.0 quality innings from Luis Castillo on the mound. Lefty Amir Garrett came in and made quick work of both Wil Myers and Jurickson Profar to begin the inning. But then the wheels fell off as he walked Brian Dozier and gave up a go-ahead homer to Francisco Mejia. After another single Garrett was replaced by Nate Jones who promptly gave up a 2-run homer to Fernando Tatis Jr. that put the game away as San Diego jumped out to a 7-4 lead. The Padres bullpen shut things down in the final two innings, with only a 2-out double in the 9th inning by Tucker Barnhart posing any threat the rest of the way.
Here is the sim Reds box score, as provided by Strat-O-Matic:
Standings following the June 16 games:
| NL Central | WON | LOST | PCT | GB |
| Cardinals | 40 | 32 | .556 | 0.0 |
| Cubs | 39 | 34 | .534 | 1.5 |
| Brewers | 37 | 35 | .514 | 3.0 |
| Reds | 35 | 38 | .479 | 5.5 |
| Pirates | 31 | 41 | .431 | 9.0 |
The 2020 schedule has the Reds taking on the San Diego Padres for Wednesday. The Reds will send Sonny to the mound and face off against right-handed pitcher Cal Quantrill.
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.
There are 6-8 owners who don’t want a season in 2020
According to Andy Martino of SNY there are somewhere between 6-8 owners who do not want to play a season in 2020.
Hearing that six owners that don't want a season. @Ken_Rosenthal reports 8 or more. Urgency for Manfred to corral his group before that number grows.
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) June 16, 2020
The Texas Rangers are bringing employees back to the ballpark offices
While many teams are still working remotely, and some even plan to do so until 2021, the Texas Rangers are pushing forward with bringing back even more team employees to the offices at their new stadium. They are the first and only team doing so at this point in time. RJ Anderson of CBS Sports reported this earlier today, noting that the Rangers are also preparing for the event of playing in front of fans if/when the season opens up.
MLB is Crumling. Blame the Owners
Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated looked back at the timeline of what’s been going on in baseball over at SI earlier today. She reached out to each of the 30 owners in Major League Baseball seeking comment about the ongoings, and was ignored by seven teams, had five teams say they would pass along the request (which no response ever came), and the remaining 18 teams declined.
The Reds, owned by Bob Castellini, said, “No, but thank you for asking.”
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.
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 | 6 | 2 | .750 |
| Peter Onte | 2 | 1 | .667 |
| BK | 9 | 5 | .643 |
| James Owens | 3 | 2 | .600 |
| Redsfan4life | 5 | 4 | .556 |
| Doug Gray | 1 | 1 | .500 |
| RedsEuphoria | 1 | 1 | .500 |
| Tomn | 1 | 1 | .500 |
| Gonzo Reds | 3 | 4 | .429 |
| Melvin | 1 | 4 | .200 |
| Don | 1 | 4 | .200 |
| AirborneJayJay | 0 | 1 | .000 |
| Jeff | 0 | 1 | .000 |
| Mark Moore | 0 | 2 | .000 |
| VaRedsFan | 0 | 1 | .000 |
| Tom Mitsoff | 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.
Current Roster
(* = player has NO options)
(+ = LHP or LHB)
(^ = Switch Hitter)
Our current 26 man roster is:
C – T. Stephenson, *+Barnhart, *Casali
IF – *+Votto, *+Moustakas, *Suarez, *^Galvis, *+Dietrich
OF – +Akiyama, Lorenzen, *Ervin, *Castellanos, +Payton, +Winker
SP – *Desclafani, *Gray, *+Miley, Castillo
RP – *+Reed, Iglesias, *+Garrett, *Sims, *Strop, *R. Stephenson, Lorenzen, *Jones, Kuhnel
DL – *Bauer (Can return 6/24)
Guys on the 40 man roster not on active roster
C – Farmer(Can Return 6/17)
IF – Garcia(Can Return 6/23), +Vanmeter, Blandino
OF – Senzel(Can Return 6/17), Aquino(Can Return 6/20), +Jankowski, *+Schebler
SP – Mahle(Can Return 6/24), Santillan, DeLeon, Antone
RP – Hendrix, Shafer, +Smith, Bowman(Can Return 6/23)
Finally here is a list of relevant non 40 man players
C – Chris Okey
IF – India, Davidson, Colon, Rodriguez, Trahan
OF – +Friedl, +Powell, Barnes, Fairchild, +Hannah, +Siani
SP – +Lodolo, Greene, Gutierrez, +Naughton, +Raley, Solomon, Lillie, +Sanmartin
RP – Thornburg, +Biddle, Romano, +Finnegan, Carpenter, Alaniz, Powers
Well I have nothing to say that isn’t obvious about that game, so I will just move on to tomorrow. I am not completely sure about the OF positioning if anyone has any suggestions, other than that here is my suggested lineup.
1. Akiyama – CF
2. Votto – 1B
3. Moustakas – 2B
4. Suarez – 3B
5. Winker – LF
6. Payton – RF
7. Barnhart – C
8. Gray – P
9. Galvis – SS
It looks like you have exactly who needs to be in the lineup. While some may differ on the order it’s your gut feeling that you should go with. I agree with your outfield alignment. i have a feeling virtually all of us have concluded Stephenson should stay up with Barnhart so we don’t have to keep playing him every game to see what he can do. As a side note it’s probably time to decide what to do with Casali.
Looks good Jon
Yeah. It’s not your fault they didn’t hit or play good defense today. Castillo pitched pretty well though so we can’t blame him.
This will be the lineup we’re sending in. Best of luck with the roll of the dice, Jon!
I’ll second Jon Davis lineup
I posted this late last night so I’ll do it again today if anyone cares to read it. Tough loss today.
Hi guys. During this off day I’m just going to give you my thoughts and what I’m thinking after 72 (now 73) games. It’s getting kind of late in the day so I’d be glad to post again another time if that would help. If there is some value in this and it helps anyone that’s great. If there’s some it doesn’t help than they can just forget about it and throw it in the trash so to speak.
All in all I think we’ve done pretty good since there is, according to what Tom has told us, only one other person or group that is doing what we’re doing. The rest is basically done by a computer program or the people at Strato who probably don’t make the same mistakes we’ve made. In the beginning we were having problems scoring runs because we were pushing what we thought things should be according to our expectations. We adjusted though and bounced back. Our pitching has fallen off but now we’er doing our best to adjust to that too. So here we sit. Two games (now three) under .500 and 4 1/2 back (now 5 1/2). Not doing too bad but not where we want to be either. The only other adjustment we could make, the big elephant in the room that we sometimes talk a little about but not much else, is defense. I understand why that is as it’s most likely because defense in simulation, especially, is not that fun. There’s not that many fun stats on it for one thing. The reason we’er here is to have fun. Don mostly but others too has shown us through research that our pitching may not be nearly much at fault as we thought and that our defense (mostly infield) could improve to help that. If we decide to take steps to improve our infield defense then that means we will have to sacrifice (probably) at least a little offense. We may see some offensive numbers go down and not see any other stats increase except for the most important one, the WIN column. Now we may not want to sacrifice offense to improve. As I said we’re here for the fun and distraction from all of the craziness that’s going on in the none baseball world. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’d all like to be the team being chased and switch places with the Cardinals. I believe with all of the all around talent that we have we can realistically do that. We have a chance to do that either way. If we want to, even though there is a less of a chance to succeed, just “duke it out” with the other teams and let the chips fall where they may because it’s more fun with all our big hitters I’m fine with that. We certainly have the offensive “horses” to compete. If we decide that we want to maximize our chances of winning our division and improve our infield defense too it may not be as dramatic as we think. We all know that the up the middle defense (C, SS, 2B, CF), even in sim world, is the most important. We’re pretty good at three of them with Akiyama/Lorenzen in CF, Galvis at SS, and now that Stephenson has replaced Casali, Stephenson/Branhart at C. That leaves Moose as the only average fielder out of the four with limited range at 2B. Now I don’t want anyone to panic as I’m not suggesting that we take him out of the lineup. It could just mean some form of what I talked about the other day if we wanted to give someone a day off. I’m gonna use Garcia as an example but it could be someone else like Colon, who was mentioned before, or someone like Rodriguez who may even be ahead of Garcia. Who knows? Garcia can’t come back up for another week right now anyway after being sent down.
Votto off – Moose 1B, Garcia 2B, Galvis SS, Suarez 3B
Moose off – Votto 1B, Garcia 2B, Galvis SS, Suarez 3B
Galvis off – Votto 1B, Moose 2B, Garcia SS, Suarez 3B
Suarez off – Votto 1B, Garcia 2B, Galvis SS, Moose 3B
Garcia off – Votto 1B, Moose 2B, Galvis SS, Suarez 3B
This would increase our range defense at 2B several times per week without really taking anyone out, and if Strato takes this into consideration (who knows?) keep everyone fresh. Of course every manger would have to make his own decisions. Nothing would be etched in stone. There could be variations according to a player being hot and may want to skip his turn for a day off etc. This is just an idea to think about.
As far as our outfield goes, they could take a little responsibility for all of the singles as balls could be dropping in that could be caught. Winker is our weakest link with no speed. It seems to be that we’re leaning towards Winker/Ervin platooning in LF (which IMO should be where we put our weakest defender out there), Akiyama in CF, and Payton/Lorenzen platooning in RF. Castellanos unfortunately would be the odd man out in our sim world. He would be valuable as a PH option and if Ervin keeps sinking Castellanos could replace him in the rotation. We have enough outfielders. We need to concentrate primarily on two bench options and maximizing those spots. Those would be Dietrich (everyone knows by now how I feel about that) and Casali. In my mind the leading candidates for those spots are Garcia, Colon, and Rodriguez.
Our best defense, should we decide we need it for a game, very well could be the following:
Votto 1B
Garcia 2B
Galvis SS
Moose 3B
Payton LF
Lorenzen CF
Akiayam RF
Barnhart C
Anyway guys. Just wanted to let you know what I’m thinking to help us all be on the same page. Hope you all are doing well.
Don’t forget about another option too guys. If we feel that we don’t need an extra player on the bench but instead an extra pitcher we could give Lorenzen a few more starts giving him two way status and then we could add another pitcher to replace Dietrich or Casali.
good analysis Melvin,
Castellanos should start playing more. I cannot image his card is really bad based on his history and entering the prime years of his career. Also, giving up on him after about 200 PAs just does not feel right.
Ervin in trending to his career average and he needs to just platoon with Winker vs lefties. Payton has a nice hot streak to start but has been cooling off, I see Payton as a player if Akiyama gets injured again as a replacement.
I would be all for demoting Deitrich and Castellanos. I did look at the transactions last week and there are players without option just listed as sent down.
Like
June 10
NYM- OF Yoenis Cespedes activated from IL, 1B Matt Adams sent down
June 12
DET- RHP Alex Wilson activated from IL and sent down. OF Christin Stewart sent down, OF Travis Demeritte called up
There is no way Matt Adams has an option and Alex Wilson has 5+ years of MLB experience so he has no options.
So based on this just sending down a player without options looks like it is possible as they are doing that with other teams.
That should settle that in our minds as far as losing Casali or Dietrich and remove any restraints we might have because of that possibility. Thanks for the info.
I meant Casali and Dietrich not Castellanos in my note.
I vote for calling up Senzel and shipping Casali down. We aren’t using Casali and he doesn’t PH so why not?