OOTP simulation has KC winning the Central

OOTP Developments recently provided some bloggers with free copies of their latest baseball simulation game Out of The Park Baseball '11. They wanted us to sim the 2010 season and write about it, which I finally did (I actually think I missed their deadline). Well good news Royals fans, because in my sim KC finished 90-72, a whopping 13 games in front of the Twins. I played in commish mode so I didn't have any input in playing time or roster decisions. And that's the difference between this sim and reality because it gave Betancourt only 37 at bats, I guess even a computer program likes Aviles better. It also gave Callaspo and Pena more playing time than Getz and Kendall.

Here are the individual offensive performances.

	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	SB	BA	OBP	SLG
Jason Kendall	211	17	54	1	26	1	.256	.315	.346
Billy Butler	549	91	168	27	90	0	.306	.376	.525
Alberto Callaspo	614	106	196	15	77	7	.319	.377	.493
Mike Aviles	626	94	192	15	102	7	.307	.347	.486
Alex Gordon	553	78	134	19	78	2	.242	.334	.407
David DeJesus	557	67	135	10	81	8	.242	.302	.381
Rick Ankiel	469	87	119	31	85	3	.254	.336	.503
Scott Podsednik	292	46	76	2	14	13	.260	.330	.315
Jose Guillen	168	22	45	4	25	1	.256	.315	.375
Willie Bloomquist	424	52	105	10	45	13	.248	.286	.382
Mitch Maier	16	0	4	0	2	0	.250	.294	.250
Kila Ka'aihue	84	17	30	3	21	1	.357	.473	.524
Josh Fields	148	17	39	5	15	0	.264	.325	.405
Brayan Pena	364	50	105	10	50	0	.288	.326	.440
Yuniesky Betancourt	37	3	9	0	3	1	.243	.300	.297
Wilson Betemit	48	3	15	0	6	0	.313	.377	.438
Chris Getz	163	21	38	1	20	10	.233	.308	.307

I will really not be a happy camper if Bloomquist comes to the plate over 400 times this season, I don't think he will, but I didn't think he would last year either. Ankiel probably won't hit 31 home runs and Aviles won't drive in 102 runs, other than those two I don't think anyone else's stats are beyond reasonable.

Pitching wise the game liked Davies (15-9 4.15) but only gave Hochevar one appearance. Greinke (16-13 2.84), Meche (14-11 5.02), Bannister (10-13 5.02), and Davies all made 30+ starts. The fifth spot in the rotation belonged to an odd combo of Osuna, Chen, and Pedro Martinez. Soria had 35 saves and Tejeda had a 2.06 ERA, the rest of the bullpen was unremarkable.

Unfortunately KC lost to the Yankees in the LDS, who in turn eventually lost to the Cardinals in the World Series. Trey Hillman won the Manager of the Year award and in an odd bit of simulating David Glass passed away. Weird but that's the kind of detail this game goes into (stat-wise it even tracks FIP, wOBA, ISO, and VORP, I wasn't expecting that).

I have played several baseball sims but this one easily tops them all.