In case you missed Part 1, I was able to simulate the 2012 baseball season thanks to Out of the Park Baseball version 13. The game not only provides incredibly detailed simulations of any Major League Baseball season, it's a lot of fun to play. In this article is all the good stuff from the second half of the season sim, including where your team finished. Read on to find out:


July

The All-Star Game was held on July 10, with the American League running out 6-4 winners...Jose Bautista was All-Star MVP after a 2-for-3 performance including a home run off Stephen Strasburg..."Joey Bats" had 30 dingers at the All-Star break but has cooled off, and is sitting on 34 as of July 31...Ichiro Suzuki announced his retirement, effective at the end of the season...Nobody in the NL Central, it seems, like the Cardinals. Their rivalry with the Cubs is well-documented, and they feuded with the Reds during the 2010 season. Now the latest divisional foes to trade blows with the Redbirds is Milwaukee, after a Lance Lynn fastball landed between Rickie Weeks's shoulder blades. Both players were suspended for nine games...Shin-Soo Choo had a 24-game hitting streak snapped on July 16...Carlos Beltran joined the 2000 hit club on July 21...


Award winners: Adam Dunn (.330/12 HR/33 RBI) was AL batter of the month, while Jason Heyward (.382/8 HR/24 RBI) won the NL award. Jair Jurrjens (3-0/1.80 ERA/33 K) and P.J. Walters (4-2/2.51 ERA/37 K) were pitchers of the month...

Notable transactions: Lance Berkman signed a 2-year, $16 million extension with St. Louis...Kevin Millwood's new lease on his career (8-1, 3.77 ERA with the Mariners) caught the notice of his former team Baltimore, who re-acquired him in exchange for Jai Miller and two minor leaguers...Robert Andino was traded to the White Sox for minor leaguer Jacob Petricka

Trade Deadline Roundup
After Madison Bumgarner went down for the season, the Giants pulled off a blockbuster, acquiring Justin Verlander in exchange for Pablo Sandoval. The deal also brought an end to the Miguel Cabrera third base experiment, as he was shifted back to first base and Prince Fielder installed as the full-time DH...Milwaukee sent Shawn Marcum to the Cardinals for Tyler Greene...The L.A. Angels traded for Francisco Liriano (12-3), giving up two prospects in a classic rent-a-player deal...The Yankees re-acquired Chien-Ming Wang in exchange for Andruw Jones and a minor leaguer...The Cubs, 14 games out, sent Geovany Soto to Philadelphia...The Philles also acquired Nolan Reimold for minor league catcher John Hill...The Padres and White Sox swapped Orlando Hudson for Gavin Floyd. At the same time, a White Star Line employee was busy re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic...Tsuyoshi Wada didn't last one season in Baltimore, traded to Milwaukee after compiling a 5-10 record for the Birds. Baltimore received Logan Schafer and a minor leaguer in return...The Brewers then added Jason Giambi for a pair of minor leaguers...Marco Scutaro, unhappy in Colorado, was sent back east - but to the last-place Mets for knuckleballer R.A. Dickey...Omar Infante will join Scutaro in the Big Apple after being swapped for Daniel Murphy...Justin Morneau joins the Rangers for the stretch run...Finally, Milwaukee shored up its rotation, acquiring Joe Saunders from Arizona for Mat Gamel and Brett Myers from Houston for Nyjer Morgan. No word if Tony Plush will also report to Minute Maid Park


August
Todd Frazier hit three home runs for the Reds on August 3 against Pittsburgh...C.J. Wilson is done for the year, placed on the 60-day DL on August 4...David Price pitched a one-hitter with nine strikeouts, blanking the Orioles 3-0 on August 5...San Diego's Will Venable landed in hot water after arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Angel Hernandez. The son of former big leaguer Max Venable bumped Hernandez during the argument, earning himself a four-game suspension...Dan Haren struck out 10 in a 8-0 shutout of the Tigers on August 25...Notable milestones reached this month were Jason Giambi (2000 hits) and Miguel Cabrera (300 HR)...


Award winners: Jason Giambi (.395/8 HR/20 RBI) was NL batter of the month, while Dustin Ackley (.333/27 R/26 RBI) won the AL award. Cleveland's Justin Masterson (6-0/1.79 ERA/28 K) and San Francisco's Eric Surkamp (5-0/1.45 ERA/33 K) were pitchers of the month...

Notable transactions: Brian Fuentes was traded to Seattle for minor leaguers Stefen Romero and Rudy van Heydoorn...a last-place record doomed Robin Ventura's managerial debut, and he was let go by the White Sox on August 27 following a 51-75 record. Jim Leyland took over as White Sox manager


September
Stephen Strasburg was shut down on September 5. His final stats were 15-7, 3.14 ERA and 216 strikeouts in 189 innings...Coco Crisp hit safely in 21 games, ending on September 8...Toronto's surprising run at a wild card spot hit the skids with Jose Bautista's injury on September 13...Pablo Sandoval hit for the cycle in Detroit's 10-8 loss to Oakland on September 18...Philadelphia milestones achieved this month include Ryan Howard (300 HR), Roy Halladay (200 wins) and Jimmy Rollins (2000 hits)...Other milestones are Todd Helton (2500 hits) and Adam Dunn (400 HR)

Award winners: Albert Pujols (.354/10 HR/26 RBI) was AL batter of the month, while Carlos Gonzalez (.357/10 HR/20 RBI) won his second NL award for the year. Josh Beckett (5-1/2.66 ERA/45 K) and Jason Motte (2-0/9 SV/2.70 ERA/21 K) were pitchers of the month...

Notable transactions: Matt Harrison will get a substantial raise next season. The Rangers bought out his second arbitration year with a $4.4 million extension. The lefty made $480,000 this season...The Rangers also did the same with Neftali Feliz, agreeing to a $4.32 million contract for next season...Papa Grande may have only saved 25 games this season, but Jose Valverde will stay in Detroit, signing a three-year, $19.5 million extension. The Tigers also signed Delmon Young to a $2.2 million contract for 2013

Click on the graphic for the final regular season standings. Spare a thought for the poor Toronto Blue Jays, who had the fifth-best record in the AL but only the fourth-best in the AL East, thus missing the playoffs:



Playoffs
The playoffs started early, with the Dodgers and Phillies needing a one-game playoff for the second NL wild card spot (man it feels weird to type that)...The game was close until an eight-run Dodger eighth, bookended by two Matt Kemp home runs, put the game to rest...The Red Sox beat the Rays and the Cardinals beat the Dodgers in the first Wild Card rounds...The Braves then swept the Cards in the Divisional Series, and had to wait for the Giants, who ran out to a 2-0 series lead, to put away the Brewers in five games...The Red Sox and Indians both won the first games of their respective series, only to see the Yankees and Rangers win the next three...Phil Hughes pitched that first game for the Bombers, and struck out 12 in the loss. Unfortunately for Hughes, Tim Lincecum struck out 13 in the Giants win, so Hughes wasn't even the best pitcher on the night...The ALCS was a home team extravaganza. Unfortunately for the Rangers, there were four games played at Yankee Stadium and only three in Arlington...The Braves beat the Giants in six...The Yankees, thanks to the AL's victory in the All-Star Game, held home-field advantage for the World Series...The Bombers used that to good effect, jumping out to a 2-0 series lead...The Braves won the third game, 12-2, only to drop the fourth game 3-2...Atlanta won the fifth game, 5-3, on Halloween but faced two must-win games in Yankee Stadium...Down 7-6 in the 9th inning, a two-RBI triple by Martin Prado gave the Braves an 8-7 lead, which was padded when Jack Wilson doubled home Prado, then secured by the ever-reliable Craig Kimbrel...That left a Game 7 at Yankee Stadium, and the Braves drew first blood in the 4th when Dan Uggla hit a solo homer off CC Sabathia...Two innings later, Atlanta delivered the knockout blow with a five-run 6th inning followed by a six-run 7th...Robinson Cano touched Tommy Hanson for a two-run blast in the 6th for all of the Yankees scoring in a 12-2 Atlanta win...The World Series title was the fourth for the Braves organisation (1914, 1957, 1995) and the second in Atlanta...Martin Prado was named World Series MVP


I will be happy to provide any information about players or teams you might be interested in, and how they fared in the simulation. Just leave a comment below and I'll do the same with the answer!