Computer programs are used to simulate everything from a B.J. to saving everyone aboard a 747 jet aircraft and the Shocker League will now use an intricate simulation model to project a very important issue; the results of the 2017 season.
The software we’ll be using is a game called Out Of The Park Baseball ’18. It’s a pretty incredible game that allows the user to customize and simulate pretty much whatever he wants in the world of baseball. You can play any year of baseball since Abner Doubleday and can play in any league from any continent. In fact, I might have to play the 1996 Yankees season when I’m done with this. Unfortunately, I did not see a Tenniball League within this game's universe. I’ve probably explored about 3% of what this game has to offer but if I am ever fired from my job (possibly for doing stupid shit like this on the company clock), I will no doubt spend a fair amount of my time playing this game until I eventually turn out like this.
The software we’ll be using is a game called Out Of The Park Baseball ’18. It’s a pretty incredible game that allows the user to customize and simulate pretty much whatever he wants in the world of baseball. You can play any year of baseball since Abner Doubleday and can play in any league from any continent. In fact, I might have to play the 1996 Yankees season when I’m done with this. Unfortunately, I did not see a Tenniball League within this game's universe. I’ve probably explored about 3% of what this game has to offer but if I am ever fired from my job (possibly for doing stupid shit like this on the company clock), I will no doubt spend a fair amount of my time playing this game until I eventually turn out like this.
Anywho, I’ve used their customizable options to create a Shocker Sim League with all the players we drafted to see how our 2017 season will play out. There are flaws in this sim because this sim incorporates defense in the outcome, lineup construction is different, and I turned off all injuries and roster moves for the sake of simplicity, but this should still give us a decent idea of who has the most talent and who will prevail in a contained environment. We’re now running a fantasy league based off a fantasy league, which sounds dorky as hell but not when I’m talking to a lot of guys that sat in a basement with a Baseball Almanac to input all real MLB names on Griffey and then play that season 3 hours a day for an entire summer. There’s going to be a lot of screenshots and I would recommend reading this on something other than your phone if you can help it. I’ll try not to ramble about everything but join me as I take you on a trip into the future of the 2017 Shocker Fantasy Season.
We begin with the draft, as always, where even the fake news was harsh on a few decisions of that night on and off the draft board.
We begin with the draft, as always, where even the fake news was harsh on a few decisions of that night on and off the draft board.
Mike Castillo gets to enjoy the first no-hitter of the year as Chris Archer dominated Runge and Luciano’s team. No telling if this will be the exact prop that hits on the Shocker Prop Sheet or not.
As the calendar flips to June, Kevin Petty is our early leader thanks to huge power numbers from Josh Donaldson whose calves are now incapable of being injured in our fantasy world. There are a few at the bottom of the standings that will emerge as the season goes along and a few that will stay right there in the bottom of the well like that chick in Silence of the Lambs. “It rubs the lotion on the skin or else it gets the hose again."
We get into July with the Perez Boyz making a huge push, winners of 11 straight.
Here’s a peek at the midseason leaders. This may tell you who to trade for within our league. Apparently Carlos Correa is about to have himself a season.
The Perez Boyz lead our Power Rankings as we roll into August and you can see that their ability to get on base at the bottom right is the reason they are pushing past so many other teams in the league. Don’t sleep on Zach Suer, who employs the top pitching staff in our league. Sorry, I know it's hard to read a lot of this.
As the season comes to a close, we see Zach’s superior pitching allow him to outlast the rest of the league as he overtakes Perez and pulls away comfortably as our regular season champion. Matt Suer’s disappointing season ends without a playoff berth. Mike Trout is unable to carry Downs into the playoffs and both the Mike’s suffer a pretty horrific year from April to September.
Below are the final 2017 regular season stats with Manny Machado emerging as our top hitter and another big reason Zach is our #1 seed going into the playoffs.
Not too many surprises this year but Gio Gonzalez coming out of nowhere certainly helped Zach and the Gio-Thor duo caused a lot of problems for opposing batters all year long.
Here’s the final team stats. I wanted to convert this to our Roto Standings but was missing a few key stats that were in our fantasy league but not on this summary page. Based on a quick 30 second estimation, it looks like Zach is the Roto Champ based on his top HR total and 2nd place spot in OPS behind Runge and Luciano. Jeff Petty, Jeff Meyer, and Arch remain comfortably in the middle of every possible standing, waiting to make noise come playoff time.
Team pitching stats:
Which takes us to the 2017 playoffs, and as you’ll soon find out, they do not unfold as expected. In a shocking turn of events, our most dominant team gets bounced in round 1 by the commish. You might want to question the computer sim on this one but it does reflect pretty accurately on fantasy playoffs in general, where it seems like there’s at least one or two big upsets early. In this case, the underdog prevails in three out of four series, all ending with a 4-2 advantage.
The Semi’s see the commish comeback from an 0-3 hole to push past Petty. He’ll meet Runge and Luciano in the Shocker Series.
I swear to you I did not press the reset button repeatedly until it gave the title to my team. I swear on all of Phil Rivers’s children. The commish will be able to put his own name on the newly created Big Black Bat trophy thanks to a big series from Starlin Marte. Jerome came storming out the gates in Game 5 with an 8 run 1st inning to pretty much wrap up the title then and there.
Here are the final Silver Slugger awards for the league and a final season summary that hands the MVP trophy to Manny Machado.
Thanks for hopping into our Shocker time machine to predict the future. I will probably just go ahead and spend everyone’s entry fee now since it’s a lock that I will be the champion. I’ll leave you with everyone’s team pages at the bottom that will show your final 2017 stats.