Simulating the Future

Quickly before I begin. The weekend in football was rather uneventful.

I was all set to write about how the Chiefs and my stud fantasy back Larry Johnson were on there way to the playoffs and then they choked a late lead away in Dallas.

I’ll save the Colts undefeated season talk for one more week.

Much like its offense, there just isn’t that much to talk about when it comes to Chicago.

Lastly, I was one of about fourteen people in the northeast watching the Falcons game tonight and just want express my thoughts on how ludicrous Michael Vick’s second quarter touchdown was. I know the “infinity goal line” rule, but I just don’t understand it.

Let me move on…

I don’t consider my self a crazy gamer by any means. I don’t own a Playstation or XBOX. When I do play console games, I use my Dreamcast from my freshman year of high school.

However, I would look to promote the game I play most. Baseball Mogul is the most entertaining simulation you will ever play.

This completely addicting game got my roommate and I through 8:00 A.M philosophy class last year. I don’t know a thing about Socrates but I can tell you that Alex Rodriguez might hit 900 homeruns by the end of his career.

My favorite thing to do with the game is to update the rosters and see how the game thinks the future will go.

I did that today. I downloaded an updated roster as of last week and then plugged in the rest of the info by hand. Every move, including the Matt Morris signing to San Francisco is in the game.

I simulated the 2006 season five times and tried to average everything out. The results were interesting to say the least.

For the sake of time, I will just give the average division winner and how the playoffs figured to go.

DISCLAIMER: The game’s statistical engine is very basic. Among other stats, Win Shares and VORP were not taken into any consideration whatsoever.

AL East: Boston Red Sox: 94-69
AL Central: Cleveland Indians: 90-72
AL West: Los Angeles Angels: 101-61
Wild Card: New York Yankees: 91-71
MVP: Manny Ramirez
CY: Bartolo Colon
ROY: BJ Upton

Interesting notes: The Devil Rays and Blue Jays both averaged over 80 wins, making the AL East a super power. Mike Lowell averaged 32 homeruns a year for the Sox. The Seattle Mariners won the AL West once, but did not finish over .500 any other season.

NL East: New York Mets: 100-62
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals: 94-68
NL West: San Francisco Giants: 93-69
Wild Card: Chicago Cubs: 92-70
MVP: Barry Bonds
CY: Pedro Martinez
ROY: Hanley Ramirez

Interesting notes: Barry Bonds broke the homerun record. The Mets won 119 games in one of the seasons.

Playoffs
ALDS: LAA over NYY 3-1, BOS over CLE 3-2
ALCS: LAA over BOS 4-2

NLDS: NYM over CHI 3-0, SFG over STL 3-2
NLCS: SFG over NYM 4-3

World Series: SFG over LAA 4-1

A rematch of the boring, terribly low rated 2002 World Series scares the hell out of me.

Let’s hope this was just a game.