Things That Should Have Been Posted in 2011: bdj610's 2010 End of Year All-Star Teams Simulated Games Results

I am so sorry. AGAIN!!! I have no idea what happened here. For those of you who are still reading this blog, you will know that I create End-of-the-Year All-Star Teams (and have done this since 1988). And thanks to the Strategic Baseball Simulator (aka SBS), my fantasies had become somewhat of a reality as I could finally see which of the teams (I did one for the NL and one for the AL) would have won a game (or series of games) if they were to have competed against each other. You can see the on the sidebar the results of those games.

I had stalled so long on the my simulated 2010 ASG Series that I finally had them done. The seven game simulations were done in June, and the one-game All-Star Game took place...IN SEPTEMBER!!! It is now May 20, (happy 6th birthday to my nephew Jacob by the way), and it is only now that I am finally taking the time to get this done so that I can upload the 2011 rosters onto the SBS.

To review, here is how the simulations work:

I simulate seven series of games, pitting the six starting pitchers on each side and a set roster of eight or nine position players (somebody DH's when the AL All-Stars "host") against each other for the first six games, and then a seventh series of games where the rosters and the starting pitchers are chosen randomly. Each series consists of 10,000 simulated games. The winner of each series = the winner of a game. Presently, the National League All-Star Teams have a 13-10 advantage over their American League counterparts, and 12-11 record in the one-game All-Star Game (a far cry from reality, considering that the NL has only won 6 real All-Star Games since 1987).

Here are the results from the seven series simulations:

• Game 1: AL vs. NL, CC Sabathia vs. Roy Halladay. The NL wins 5,450 games out of 10,000 simulations.
• Game 2: AL vs. NL, David Price vs. Adam Wainwright. The NL wins 5,564 games.
• Game 3: NL vs. AL, Ubaldo Jimenez vs. Jon Lester. The NL wins 5,459 games (using a DH).
• Game 4: NL vs. AL, Tim Hudson vs. Justin Verlander. The AL wins 5,327 games (using a DH). The first ever multi-pitcher No-Hitter was performed by Verlander and Neftali Feliz.
• Game 5: NL vs. AL, Tim Lincecum vs. Trevor Cahill. The AL wins 5,555 games (using a DH).
• Game 6: AL vs. NL, Felix Hernandez vs. Josh Johnson. The NL wins 5,296 games. A second ever multi-pitcher No-Hitter was performed by King Felix and Rafael Soriano.
• Game 7: AL vs. NL, anything goes. The NL wins 5,158 games.

The NL takes the seven game series 5-2. In 24 simulated series, the NL now has a comfortable 14-10 record against their AL rivals. With the NL also winning the crucial seventh game series where just about anything goes, would history be on their side for the one-game ASG? The team that wins the seventh series has won the final game 14 times.

For the official All-Star Game, I decided to just simulate one game and one game only. The starting pitchers were Sabathia and Halladay and I let them pitch two innings (unless they struggled badly). The rest of the pitchers would get one inning each (unless they struggled badly). The position players were replaced every three innings. To follow the new rule that dictates that the ASG be played with designated hitters, regardless of which league hosts the game, the DH's (Vladimir Guerrero of the AL and Adrian Gonzalez of the NL) were never replaced.

The starting lineups, first for the American League (I'm using 2011 Topps cards because these are the cards I used to represent the players on my All-Star teams):

Now the National League starting lineup:

Here is the result:

The 2010 NL All-Stars beat the 2010 AL All-Stars by a final score of 6-3. Sabathia was a bit wild in the first inning, allowing all six of the NL runs in the first inning on three hits, two walks, and a hit batter. The rest of the AL pitching staff shut down the NL bats, allowing just one hit the rest of the way. The AL offense however, had the hits, but just were not able to drive in enough runs to catch up with the NL's first inning barrage.

The box score is below (Just click on the picture to take a closer look).

The scoring plays were as follows:

Bottom 1: CC Sabathia pitching. Hanley Ramirez is hit by a pitch. David Wright strikes out. Albert Pujols walks, Ramirez advancing to second. Adrian Gonzalez reaches first base on a fielders choice (4-6), Ramirez advancing to third, Wright out at second base. Ryan Braun draws a walk, A Gonzalez advances to second. Carlos Gonzalez hits a single, Ramirez scores, A Gonzalez advancing to third, Braun advancing to second. Matt Holliday hits a single, A Gonzalez scores, Braun advancing to third, C Gonzalez advancing to second. Brian McCann hits a home run, Braun scores, C Gonzalez scores, Holliday scores.

Top 2: Roy Halladay pitching. Josh Hamilton hits a single. Vladimir Guerrero hits a single, Hamilton advancing to second. Evan Longoria hits a double to center field, Hamilton scores, Guerrero is thrown out at home attempting to score (8-2).

Top 7: Mike Adams pitching. Victor Martinez draws a walk. Chone Figgins pops out to Troy Tulowitzki (6). Nick Markakis hits a double, Martinez advancing to third. Marco Scutaro grounds out to Rickie Weeks (4-3), Martinez scores, Markakis advancing to third.

Top 9: Marmol pitching. Adrian Beltre draws a walk. John Buck strikes out. Howie Kendrick hits a double, Beltre scores.

Your starters, CC Sabathia and Roy Halladay.

The MVP for the 2010 All-Star Game is Brian McCann.

If the game actually existed, the MVP would be Brian McCann, who went 1-2 with a grand slam. His home run proved to be the difference as the AL rallied with three runs.  Funny, but didn't McCann win the MVP award for the actual All-Star Game in 2010???  Anyway, although the SBS simulation dictated that Adam Wainwright took the W, the real winner should have been Halladay.  Sabathia takes the loss, and the players who did not appear include pitchers Trevor Cahill, Mariano Rivera, and Joakim Soria of the AL, and Josh Johnson, Billy Wagner, and Brian Wilson of the NL.

If you want to see the .DAT files that I used (I still don't know how to download these onto the blog , so please just take a look at the screen caps below). If anyone can e-mail me instructions, please do so at bdj610@hotmail.com. Below is the AL .DAT file, then the NL .DAT file:

Now that the 2010 All-Star Games are officially over, maybe now I can start work on the 2011 rosters and simulations.  Maybe I can get these in before the end of the year (at least before the All-Star Game).  Maybe I'll get around to doing the tournament now that I have 24 pairs of teams in play (not counting the 2011 teams).  

I better stop.  I have to be better at actually doing the work instead of just talking about it.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama