Capital_Dave

The ego on this guy.

Yeah, I think Coach Fletcher tries to keep things pretty realistic, giving players occasional rest days, as they would in an actual season. And yes, Heaney came off the DL yesterday, after suffering a 15-game injury on May 17th. Bedrosian suffered a similar-duration injury yesterday, which is why he was DL'd today.

We were 20-30 after 50 games, and 11-2 since. Can we count our most recent 50 games instead?

Mike Trout obliterates Jose Berrios, smashing three hits and two home runs in the first three innings of the game, including a third inning Grand Slam. Trout goes on to post a career-high 8 RBIs as the Angels down the Twins, 12-9. Guess that cold snap last week is over. Trout's video-game numbers aside, it was actually a team win, with every member of the lineup posting at least one hit. Middleton earns the win in relief after Griffin Canning gets chased in the fifth, having given up 5 ERs after just four innings of work.

The Angels' eight game winning streak ends on a walk-off Twins victory. The "Extend Jeff Fletcher" campaign takes a step back when Marwin Gonzalez strokes a single to left, scoring Mitch Garver from second. Not all bad news for the Angels though: Albert Pujols had a huge game at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two home runs. Per Strat-o-matic's writeup: "With his RBIs, Pujols moved into sole possession of third place on the all-time RBI list with his first HR (passing Alex Rodriguez) and later tied Willie Mays for fifth all-time on the career HR list with his 2nd of the game and 650th of his career. Today’s historic accomplishment was Pujols’ first multi-homer game since May of 2019 and 60th multi-homer game of his career."

What's a make-believe season without a make-believe All Star Game? Vote for your favorite Angels here: http://www.strat-o-matic.com/announcements/2020-strat-season-all-star-voting/

It's Wednesday so you know what that means: It's Sho-time! Ohtani has his best outing of his young season, hurling seven shutout innings, with 8 K's, as the Angels obliterate the Rangers 11-0. It's their eighth straight win. The Angels get 15 hits altogether, and despite the score there was just one homer in the game: a 4th inning solo shot by Mike Trout, his 17th. Jo Adell with another multi-hit game. You might remember he got this winning streak started with his May 26th walk-off hit. He's knocking on the door asking to be moved up above Albert Pujols in the lineup. What say you, @Jeff Fletcher?

Ty Buttrey blows the lead in the 8th and the Angels head into the 9th inning down 1 facing the Rangers' closer. Worrisome... until you realize their closer is Jose LeClerc. The Angels go bananas against LeClerc, ultimately tallying 9 runs in the 9th inning, as the Angels embarrass the Rangers 16-8. LeClerc's ERA has ballooned to 8.18. 7th straight win for the Angels. The winning pitcher is the guy who blew the lead, Ty Buttrey, because wins remain a dumb stat. Jo Adell continues his hot streak, smacking another homer (his first career home run on the road) and going 3-for-5 with three extra base hits.

Angels hit the road and win the first game of their road trip and their sixth in a row. Mike Trout (16th) and Shohei Ohtani (8th) hit homers in this one, and Anthony Rendon also makes a tremendous impact as the Angels 2-3-4 hitters all contribute three hits with 7 RBIs combined. Matt Andriese gets his team-leading 7th win on the season (further, he's on the overall leaderboard, just one off the major-league lead... Cole, Chirinos, and Kershaw all have eight wins).

Oh, sorry, thought you were referring to the Stratomatic sim. At least the Strat sim passes the smell test!

The Angels complete the sweep over the Yankees and have now won 8 of their last 10 games. Jo Adell is heating up; he gets his second homer of the series and goes 1 for 2 with 2 walks. Julio Teheran is more than just eating innings; his ERA is down to 3.41 on the season. Robles gets a day off and Middleton earns the save in his stead.

Um... fake Bryce Harper is batting .294/.414/.569? https://2020seasonsim.s3.amazonaws.com/May30th/5-30+Batting+Stats.html

Quite the pitchers' duel as Bundy, Bedrosian, Barnes, and Robles combine for an Angels shutout. Shohei Ohtani provides the entire run production for the game with a solo shot in the 7th inning. Angels win 1-0.

Griffin Canning extends his streak; he's now pitched 11.2 innings of shutout baseball to start the season, after getting a late start due to "chronic changes to the ulnar collateral ligament and acute joint irritation in his right elbow." He earns his second win in as many starts, shutting down a formidable Yankee lineup. One thing's for sure: this rotation looks a hell of a lot better with Canning and Ohtani in it. Jo Adell gets his second career homer. Mike Trout is in the midst of an uncharacteristic slump; he's batting 1-for-20 (.050) in his last five games. These things happen, even in pretend baseball.

And Mallex Smith becoming Vince Coleman on the basepaths.

First day off for our Pretend Angels in two weeks, but they move into sole possession of third place in the division due to a Rangers loss. So... yay. I learned yesterday of a second slow-played, real-time simulation of this season, which is being staged by Out of the Park 2021 in conjunction with BaseballReference.com. I learned about this because Baseball Reference is reporting the results of this simulation on their real-world stat pages, which just seems all sorts of wrong. Let's check in on the standings in that parallel-parallel-universe simulation. And if after reviewing this you ask, "Well Capital _Dave why aren't you doing daily updates of this far happier alternate universe where the Angels have a winning record?" I would say, "A.) That's a very good question... I regret many of my life decisions. and B.) @Jeff Fletcher isn't managing the Baseball Reference pretend team so does it really matter so much?"

As predicted by @Slegnaac and as hinted at by @Jeff Fletcher, the Angels forego the DH, and Shohei Ohtani starts and bats cleanup, likely making American League history in the process! He did go 0-for-3 but the pitching line was nothing short of spectacular. 7IP, 0ER, 8Ks, giving up just two hits. Ohtani left the game with the score tied 0-0, but a 7th inning, 2RBI double by Matt Thaiss would provide the offense needed to seal the win for Ohtani. Robles pitches a perfect ninth to earn the save.

DRIVE HOME SAFELY! Jo Adell strokes a game-winning single to left, his first-ever walk-off base hit, scoring Albert Pujols from 2nd, as the Angels beat the AL-Central leading Indians 3-2. The Angels were down 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth after another great start by Matt Andriese (surprisingly effective so far this season) who lowers his seasonal ERA to 3.48. Doubles by Rendon and Pujols set up Adell for the game winner. The Angels move into a tie for third place in the division, which... I guess counts for progress?

Angels start their homestand with a tough hard-fought loss to the Tribe, by a score of 5-4. Mike Clevinger strikes out 11 over six innings of work to earn the win. Shohei Ohtani responds to recent criticism on AngelsWin by hitting his sixth homer of the season and very nearly walking the game off with his second homer; with the tying run on base, Ohtani's blast to deep right chased Jordan Luplow back to the warning track, but ultimately, the ball dropped into Luplow's mitt and the game was over.

I suspect the simulation will continue. I suspect my daily updates will not.

Angels complete the sweep over the Wild Card-leading A's. A solo shot by Brian Goodwin in the top of the 10th proves the difference. The closer controversy that seemed to be brewing a week ago is certainly cooling now, as Robles comes out of the bullpen for the third game in a row and throws an immaculate inning (1 inning, 3 K's, 9 pitches) to dominate the A's and earn the save.

Griffin Canning is back. Um, allow me to rephrase. GRIFFIN CANNING IS BACK. Canning comes off the IL in a big way, throwing 6 one-hit shutout innings in his season debut en route to a 2-0 Angels victory. Robles pitches a perfect ninth inning to earn the save. Angels clinch a series win against the AL Wild Card leaders and look to complete the sweep tomorrow afternoon.

Trout gets his 15th home run of the year, now batting .340, and Ty Buttrey works to turn things around for his season, going two strong innings to earn the win, as the Angels top the A's, 7-2. A's starter Frankie Montas needs to go back on the PEDs. He doesn't make it to the end of the third inning, giving up 7 earned runs.

Angels drop their third straight in KC by a score of 4-2 and lose the series, three games to one. Jorge Soler continues his assault on pitchers, blasting his 21st homer and his 57th RBI. (He leads the major leagues in both categories.) Matt Andriese takes the loss, though two of the runs he gave up came on a costly Justin Upton error. Don't look now, but Matt Thaiss and Jo Adell are playing pretty well lately. They've both seen their batting averages perk up above the Mendoza Line. (This is what we're counting as progress these days.) Angels head to Oakland next to visit Tarpy and the Athletics, who lead the Wild Card standings.

Shohei Ohtani continues to struggle on the mound to start the season. Today, it's Jorge Soler who proved his undoing, as Soler homered in his first two at bats, accounting for all 5 Royals runs. KC wins 5-4.