Results tagged ‘ David Price ’
2K Sports gets another chance
Much to my surprise, Major League Baseball and 2K announced today that they will be releasing MLB 2K13 for the Xbox 360.
It wasn’t too long ago that 2K’s contract with MLB had expired, and I honestly thought there was little to no chance it would get picked up again. For those who played the games, you should be pretty well aware of where I’m coming from.
As a baseball fanatic (that’s probably putting it mildly), I have yet to be overly impressed with any of the 2K baseball games. Although they’ve come a long way since MLB 2K9 (trust me, it wasn’t pretty), there still is plenty of room for improvement.
My biggest concern is the fact that this deal was placed at the last minutes. Three months is not a lot of time for a game development company to make signficant changes. What does that mean? We may very well be getting MLB 2k12, just with David Price on the cover, and updated rosters.
Overall, that wouldn’t be such a terrible thing, although there are a few things I would very much like to see get changed. There’s several glitches, such as the replaying of animation (such as when a batter swings and misses). Although their minor details, I really hope they can get them fixed before they release the game.
Another huge improvement would be if they can keep up with the roster changes during the season. As the 2012 season progressed, it seemed like 2K Sports was sometimes a bit slow when it came to adding new players (due to injuries, being called up from the minor leagues, etc.), and also adjusting their player ratings based on what’s going on currently in baseball.
Yet, I have hope that Major League Baseball cares enough, and they will demand that 2K Sports finally get it right. They owe it to the fans who have suffered through the last few years, since there have been no other options for people who only own a Xbox 360.
So as it stands, the game is expected to be released on March 5th for both the Xbox 360, as well as Playstation 3. You can be sure that I’ll be there on “opening day” to pick it up and give it a try.
Votto, you got to go
I always try to treat my fantasy baseball teams similarly to how I would if I was a general manager for a baseball team. Of course, that doesn’t include payroll, staffing, corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, promotions…well, you get the idea.
What I can do however, is find ways to improve my team. So when I lost one of my two closers for the year (Ryan Madson), I immediately tried to find a replacement. Unfortunately, free agency left me only with Jonathon Broxton as a somewhat viable option. My next idea was to find a trade to bolster my roster.
When I looked at my team, I noticed that I have a very dominant pitching core. My biggest weakness is going to be home runs, and slugging percentage, and I’m okay with that. When playing a head to head league, I always suggest trying to build your team to be dominant in at least half the categories, while giving yourself a chance to win a few of the others.
Ultimately, I was offered a trade of David Price and Billy Butler for Joey Votto. After a bit of deliberation, I decided it was definitely going to make my team better in the long run. There’s no doubt that I’m losing a bit of value at first base, but a lot of people aren’t aware of how good Billy Butler is, and will be for quite a while. Throw in the fact I got a dominant starting pitcher in Price, I felt like there was no way I could turn this offer down.
Sure, Butler probably won’t hit as many home runs, or have as many RBIs as Votto, but the falloff isn’t that significant. I was already convinced my roster wasn’t going to be dominant in those categories, which I still will be competitive in, especially since no player on my team hit less than 10 home runs (David Freese in 333 at bats) last year.
I even did some number crunching, and if swap Votto’s offensive numbers with that of Billy Butler (and using all the 2011 statistics of all 14 of my position players), it comes out to: .282 batting average, 72 runs, 19 home runs, and 71 RBIs. If I can get a similar offensive production from all the players in 2012, I’ll consider myself to be in fine shape. Not to mention the fact having pitchers that include: Roy Halladay, Doug Fister, Rick Porcello, David Price, Max Scherzer, Tim Hudson and Jose Valverde certainly won’t hurt much, either.
Sorry Votto, but you got to go.
What a ride!
The Tigers won tonight, but it was admittedly a bit unexpected by me. Despite Brad Penny falling behind the overwhelming majority of hitters he faced today, he still managed to only give up one run in six and a third innings pitched. The Tigers found themselves without their setup guy and closer, yet still managed to find a way to close out a win against one of the best left handed pitchers in the American League. Sure, Detroit only managed to score two runs today against David Price, but it proved to be enough to get the win. It’s not easy to win series on the road in late August, but the Tigers find themselves with an opportunity to do just that tomorrow, as they look to win the first three of four games in Tampa Bay…and if Max Scherzer looks anything like he did his last start, it shouldn’t be hard.
Brad Jeffers
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