(Due to my level of enjoyment playing out a career in MLB 09 The Show, I thought I would share my progress with the world as I play. Makes it more fun to share how the game is going with others.)
My “player” is now 20 years old, third season of professional baseball, and including playoff games, I’ve managed to have an ERA under 2.00 for both the first season of AA and the second season in AAA baseball. Helps that the PawSox (yes, I play for Boston, it wasn’t my choice) won the International League title last year too! Combined, a 28-8 record over the two seasons. Also bumped up the strikeout rate to almost eight per 9 innings pitched.
After these two stellar All-Star seasons, both starting in the bullpen and moving to the rotation quickly, I’ve made it to the big leagues, and two starts in, and after (in my opinion) struggling in Spring Training (yes, with an ERA of 3.00), I think I should be pretty happy.
START #1 – At Tampa Bay. Struck out 8 batters over 6.2 innings, and started the game by retiring the first 19 batters! Got in trouble in that 7th inning and the manager came and got me, but still got a 3-2 win in my first start. All this on only two hits though, really impressive with how many hits I surrendered in Spring Training (a ton).
START #2 – Home against Kansas City. Complete game shutout, 7 hits, one walk, 8 strikeouts, was allowed to finish it off in the 9th even with two guys on base. Awesome pitching effort on my part, didn’t get the strikeout touch until late, as 6 of the strikeouts were in the last four innings.
Two starts in, 2-0 record, an ERA barely above 1, 16.2 innings and 9 hits allowed. If I do half this good the rest of the way, I could be Rookie Of The Year AND Cy Young winner. How nice would that be?! Anyways, it’s interesting to tell how things change when you go up from one level to the next, even at a Pro level of difficulty (not super hard, but no gimme stuff either), and I can’t wait to play some more. The updates will be here for it.
