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!

No, that's not a misprint. Thanks to the folks at Out of the Park Baseball, I have simulated the 2012 MLB season using their just-released game, OOTP 13. Here are some highlights of the year that has yet to be. The amazing thing is, I didn't add any information. All of this came from the game, it's that detailed:

April
Joe Mauer suffered another injury, which kept him out of the Twins lineup for two weeks...Michael Young collected five hits in a game against the White Sox on April 6...Erik Bedard showed flashes of his old self, shutting out the Dodgers on three hits on April 11...Paul Konerko hit his 400th career home run against Baltimore on April 16, but the game was marred by a bench-clearing brawl sparked by the O's Luis Ayala beaning Chicago's Adam Dunn. Both players were suspended for five games...April 18 was a bad day for young pitchers, as both Kris Medlen of the Braves and Brad Ziegler of the Diamondbacks saw their seasons come to an early end with identical elbow injuries. They'll both need Tommy John surgery...The meek Dodgers bats re-surfaced on April 17; this time it was Zack Greinke who shut out Los Angeles on three hits...Carlos Marmol missed a week after getting beaned on the head by a faulty pitching machine during pitchers' batting practice, causing both a concussion and embarassment...

Award winners: Carlos Pena (.300/11 HR/24 RBI) was AL batter of the month, while Carlos Gonzalez (.366/7 HR/25 RBI) won the NL award. Francisco Liriano (5-0/2.72 ERA/38K) and Matt Cain (5-0/2.54 ERA/23 K) were pitchers of the month...

Notable transactions: Free agents Roy Oswalt (Mariners) and Vladimir Guerrero (Cubs) signed deals for the season...The Reds added veteran leadership in the infield and outfield, signing Derrek Lee and Johnny Damon...The Indians gave up on "Fausto Carmona", designating Roberto Hernandez for assignment and then waiving him...The Pirates, in need of catching help, traded for Braves back-up backstop David Ross, sending Jo-Jo Reyes back to Atlanta

May
John Lannan pitched the first only no-hitter of the season on May 11, blanking the Reds 6-0. The Nationals hurler faced only one batter over the minimum and racked up six strikeouts...Not one, but two batters rapped out five hits on May 1, with Milwaukee's Corey Hart and San Francisco's Nate Schierholtz holding the hot bats...Felix Hernandez will miss three months with rotator cuff inflammation. King Felix got off to his usual type of start, compiling a 5-3 record despite a 3.60 ERA thanks to non-support from the anemic Mariners' offense...Carl Crawford's injury continues to plague him. It's now expected that the Red Sox outfielder won't return until early June...More bad news for the Red Sox, as Crawford's replacement, Ryan Sweeney, injured himself in the weight room and will miss a few days...Ben Revere strung together a 27-game hitting streak from April 14 to May 18. Bizarrely, it wasn't enough to keep him from being sent down to Rochester on May 20...As if it couldn't get worse for the Phillies, they lost Chase Utley to a sprained ankle on May 22. He'll be out for eight weeks...

Award winners: Evan Longoria (.364/11 HR/32 RBI) was AL batter of the month, while Lance Berkman (.340/8 HR/25 RBI) won the NL award. Stephen Strasburg (5-0/1.29 ERA/40 K) and Jeff Niemann (5-1/3.30 ERA/38 K) were pitchers of the month...

Notable transactions: Brandon League signed a 3-year, $19.5 million extension with the Mariners...Shane Victorino signed a 6-year, $90 million deal with the Phillies...Jim Leyland was fired by the Tigers on May 30 after a 25-26 start saw them fall 10 games behind the AL Central leading Indians

June
Jon Lester seemed to enjoy interleague play, as the Red Sox hurler struck out 16 Washington batters on June 10...Jayson Werth wasn't amongst Lester's victims, as he was serving a 10-game suspension for a fight with the Mets' Jonathon Niese on June 7...Notable milestones reached this month were Ichiro Suzuki (2500 hits) and Placido Polanco (2000 hits)...The Roy Oswalt era in Seattle isn't going great, with Oswalt pitching to a 4-8 record with a 6.13 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 79.1 innings, then going on the DL on June 10...A bad omen for the Astros' move to the AL West, as there was a bench-clearing brawl in their June 16 interleague game against the Rangers. Derek Holland (Texas) and Jimmy Paredes (Houston) each received 10-game bans...Fredi Gonzalez's overuse of Jonny Venters has apparently caught up with him, as Venters learned on June 18 that his sore shoulder will rule him out for four months, bringing a premature end to his 2012 season...In an announcement that surprised absolutely nobody, the Twins announced Joe Mauer would miss one-to-two weeks with a shoulder strain...

Award winners: Dee Gordon (.458/13 SB/19 R) was NL batter of the month, while Jason Kipnis (.342/10 HR/27 RBI) won the AL award. CC Sabathia (5-1/1.86 ERA/39 K) and Adam Wainwright (5-0/1.76 ERA/28 K) were pitchers of the month...

Notable transactions: Cincinnati traded Drew Stubbs and minor leaguer Gabriel Rosa to Texas for David Murphy...Texas traded Mitch Moreland to Oakland for Yoenis Cespedes...Philadelphia dealt Polanco to St. Louis for minor leaguer Matt Carpenter...Pittsburgh sold high on Erik Bedard, trading him to Arizona for Chase Anderson...Zack Greinke signed a 4-year, $58 million extension with Milwaukee...Barry Larkin's stint as a Baseball Tonight analyst was short-lived, as the Hall of Famer and Michigan alumnus was tapped to succeed Jim Leyland as the Tigers' skipper...The Mariano Rivera circus will last for at least one more season, as the 42-year-old signed an $11 million deal to play in 2013

For Part Two of the Season Recap, click here

For a few years now, Out of the Park Baseball has killed, many, many hours for me. Which is to say that I have had lots of fun playing the game! Unfornately, my computer doesn't travel well, and my laptop died a few years ago. Having an OOTP game for my iPhone would a great way for me to get my fix when I'm not at home (it's ideal for travelling on a plane, for example).

Thankfully, OOTP has done that - it's called iOOTP, and the company was kind enough to let me review a copy.

While the PC version of Out of the Park comes with every historical MLB season, the limitations of the iPhone mean that iOOTP comes with only three historical seasons: 1923, 1965 and 2004. However, 1965 just happened to be a very good year for one Mr. Sandy Koufax, so of course I had to play that one. Once I loaded it up and selected the Dodgers, I saw that Koufax was scheduled to pitch on Opening Day against the Mets (as you'd expect). The result? A two-hit complete game shutout, with 13 strikeouts! That hooked me. I had to play the entire 1965 season.

One thing I didn't like, from a historical perspective, is that historical seasons such as 1965 are played with the current contract rules, such as free agency. This obviously didn't exist back then. In the desktop version of OOTP, you can choose what free agency rules to use. In the smaller iPhone version, this option was clearly left out to conserve memory and space. An understandable decision, but it seems to me it would have made more sense to program the game with the actual rules in the historical seasons.

One final word about the historical seasons - if the three that are offered aren't your cup of tea, you can now purchased more seasons, and you don't have to go to the iTunes store to do it. The latest upgrade of iOOTP allows for you to purchase bonus historical seasons in-app. They come in theme packages and are being released as they are completed.

My verdict:  I look at iOOTP the same way as I do the Football Manager Handheld application for the iPhone - it's not as good as "big brother", but it's an acceptable substitute. Am I going to play this game for hours at a time? Probably not. Is it a good way to kill an half-hour or so? Certainly.


My grade: B (a solid achiever, very good at what it does, but low customisability, mostly due to the limits of the iPhone platform, keeps it from superstar status)

Besides collecting baseball cards, my hobbies include watching baseball games on television, reading baseball books, listening to baseball games on my iPod, long walks on the beach, and playing computer baseball games. Pretty standard stuff, really.

For the past few years, I've been absolutely hooked on Out of the Park (OOTP). Many of you may or may not be familiar with it already. For a few years, I had been looking for a strategy-based game that didn't look like it was ported over from an old DOS version, and one that allows for me to act more like a general manager than a field manager. Lots of folks think they can do better, or just as well, as Tony LaRussa or Joe Torre. But I've always compared myself to the Billy Beanes and Theo Epsteins of the baseball world.

The great thing about OOTP is that it is all things to pretty much all people. Do you want to manage the games, set lineups, pitching rotations, and calls to the bullpen and pinch hitters? Fine, you can play the game like a straight-up managerial sim. Heck, set the defenses up the way you want to. However, if you're like me and you want to build a roster and let some other poor schmuck make the decisions on the field, then fire him when things go wrong, you can do that, too. Heck, you can even channel your inner Connie Mack and take on both roles if you so desire.

Speaking of Connie Mack, are you much more interested in how things were in the good ol' days? Well, OOTP ships with every Major League season since the Dead Ball era included. When I found that out, I was very excited because it meant not having to pay extra for historical seasons. You can also play out the current season - and by current, I mean 2011, not just 2010 (you can do that one, too). Finally, you can create your own league, based on any time frame you chose and located in any cities (and countries) you want.

I've had versions of OOTP since 2008 (when I was still in teacher's college) and it's given me hundreds of hours of fun. I've played current seasons, past seasons and made-up seasons, based on how I was feeling at the time. The only problem - I was tied to my computer when playing it. Until now.

Yesterday, OOTP announced that it has released iOOTP. As you probably guessed by the name, it's for the iPhone, and the iPad. No Android version yet, unfortunately that won't be live until next year. But if you do have an iPhone (like me), you'll be freed from the tyranny of your desktop. Playing OOTP surreptitiously in meetings when I should be paying attention? This could be dangerous for me.

I know it sounds like I'm shilling for OOTP but I'm really not. I enjoy playing this game, and I'm looking forward to the iPhone version as well (although my wife, less so). I hope to get my hands on it in the near future. When I do, look for a review here on the blog.

(The screenshots are from iOOTP, not the desktop version. Those have a lot more information. VORP, anyone?)