Power Pros Forum

End of August stats: 4.43 ERA, 8-9 record, 137 strikeouts.
Oakland A's record: 58-76, 15 games behind, 28th in the MLB, ahead of the Cubs and Royals.

This month was not a particularly good one for the team's play or my own, I was 2-3 for the month and my ERA went up by another 0.5 or so. The A's managed to secure last place in the division with a 10-17 month, but that's enough about that. The only real highlight of the month was that Emma found out she was pregnant, I made sure to check the budget to see that we were prepared, the due date for the baby is May 2nd. I'm hoping by the time the child grows up I'll be a good player playing for a good team.

Send my congrats to the Valtieri family!

If it's a boy, you better name it Benny!

End of 2011 Stats: 4.14 ERA, 11-10 record, 164 strikeouts.
Oakland A's record: 71-91, 19 games behind, tied for 27th in the majors.
MLB Career stats to this point: 3.87 ERA, 769 innings pitched, 55-37 record, 124 games pitched in, 7 shutouts, 11 complete games, 644 strikeouts, 199 walks, .254 average against, 349 runs allowed, 331 earned runs, 122 games started, 777 hits allowed, 11906 pitches, 60 quality starts.


What more can be said about the team but this: I led the team in wins, I only had 11 wins, anyone else see a problem there? Maybe I could add that the home run leader had 18 all year. Whatever I say about the team, it ultimately can't be good. My play wasn't dominant this year, most of my career stats have gotten worse, I'll have to keep practicing for next year. Although I doubt even if I was perfect we'd be able to make the playoffs, I hope I can help another team someday. All in all I stuck with my regular routine of practicing in Oakland, while reading and golfing on the road, maybe it's time to change things up? It hasn't really been working this year.

October Highlights:

Indians defeat Yankees 3-1
Tigers defeat Angels 3-1
Braves defeat Diamondbacks 3-1
Phillies defeat Pirates 3-2

Indians sweep Tigers 4-0
Braves sweep Phillies 4-0

Braves defeat Indians 4-2 to win the 2011 World Series

I donated $110,000 because of the amount of wins I had, and an additional $10,000 for some Halloween thing. I practiced my Top Speed for the whole month.

Offseason: I was fairly impressed when Darryl showed me his resume, this year I decided to go with him for contract negotiations. After only a week of negotiating he got me a contract for $6,753,100, which I was ecstatic to sign, I happily paid him $337,600 for his good work, he must be amazing to get me roughly double my previous salary after the year I had, I think I'll trust him with my future contract negotiations.

I donated $10,000 for some Thanksgiving thing. Some kids sent me some sports drinks to thank me.

I donated another $10,000 for Christmas, it seems to make the Coach like me. I also dressed up as Santa, I think it got me some new fans.

Throughout the offseason, I spent a lot of time focusing on my practice, I'm looking forward to next year and I hope it will be a good one, at least better than the last.

2012 Spring Training:

Game 1 vs. Rockies: 3 innings pitched, 3 strikeouts, no hits, no runs allowed.

Game 2 vs. Royals: 3 innings pitched, 3 strikeouts, no hits, no runs allowed.

Game 3 vs. Mariners: 3 innings pitched, 6 strikeouts, 4 hits, 1 run allowed.

Game 4 vs. Padres: 3 innings pitched, 3 strikeouts, 1 hit, no runs allowed.

I'm finally back, that offseason seemed to last forever. After a long break, there's nothing like the snapping sound the catcher's glove makes when you throw high 90's fastballs right past the batters. I had a pretty good spring, only allowing one run and not a lot of hits.

The coach really screwed up this time when asking for donations, I mean, I volunteered to donate 20,000 per win, which is a lot to begin with. He changed it to 200,000... If I have a good year, I may not even be able to afford my living expenses, ten wins would cost me about a third of my annual salary! I'm never going to trust him with even the simplest tasks anymore.

Still, I can't wait for the season to start, I hope it's a good one, I'm not sure what I'll do for hobbies, I may want to switch things up, but I haven't really gotten good at golf yet, maybe I'll move on once I achieve a certain level of skill.

End of April stats: 4.11 ERA, 1-3 record, 23 strikeouts
Oakland A's record: 12-16, 5 games behind

Already 5 games behind, if we don't turn it around soon, we're in danger of yet again coming nowhere near the playoffs, which is what I expect. I don't expect us to turn this around. We're doomed to be a bad team, and I haven't even been much good at all lately either, but if I had better run support I could have easily managed another win or two. I think I will move to another team as soon as I hit free agency, I'm not emotionally attached to being in Oakland at all, even the friends I've made on this team have been moved to another team some time ago. I'm just thinking about what team to go to next... Though for now, I need to focus and have a good season, otherwise the team I want won't want me when the time comes.

End of May stats: 3.59 ERA, 5-4 record, 54 strikeouts
Oakland A's record: 28-27, 5 games behind

Well, it happened, and I'm not talking about the A's getting to a record above .500, but that's pretty nice as well. What I was talking about was my wife Emma having the baby. It was around the same days where I was in and out of the hospital to deal with an injury that kept me from taking a start or two. The baby was a girl, I was told to name it, I wound up going with Antoinetta, I'm not sure why, it just felt right, I suppose.

I donated $1000 for some Mother's Day thing. I don't really pay attention to these things, I just donate to make my manager happy.

Oakley came to see me after I bought a Home Theater System and a Plasma TV for my house, he made some odd comment about how I should "pay attention to that" or something, I didn't understand what he was talking about, at all, or why he went all the way out to LA to tell me that when his team was supposed to be playing in Milwaukee, does his team seriously care that little? And why wouldn't he just call me about that? And how did he hear about me getting a new TV in the first place?

Overall, this was a good month for the A's, at 16-11, but we didn't gain any ground, we need to continue this level of play and raise it just a bit to make a run for a playoff spot. My mind just always keeps replaying the games of my only playoff series, up 2-0 to the Yankees and then losing 3 straight to be eliminated, ugh...

Heh, Oakley.

Glad you're updating this again!

Oakley's a weirdo stalker guy.

End of June stats: 4.65 ERA, 5-7 record, 69 strikeouts
Oakland A's record: 41-41, 2 games behind

A bad month, but we got even closer to 1st place, we're still last in our division though, it's a really tight race. My win-loss record certainly doesn't show it, but our team winds up winning well over half of the games I start.

End of July stats: 4.23 ERA, 6-9 record, 89 strikeouts
Oakland A's record: 49-58, 13 games behind

I have just about had it with this team, the management is flat-out braindead, it's no wonder we've sucked every year I've played for them and this team will continue to suck. We traded a star pitcher in C.C.Sabathia as well as a decent and established hitter in Ryan Sweeney for Zegarra, never heard of him? Me neither, I checked him out, he's a prospect who has no upside, completely sucks, and has no major league experience whatsoever. He sucks and always will, and we gave up two good players for him... Ridiculous, when I hit Free Agency, I'm gone, I'm not even going to look in the direction of an offer from this team.

I didn't get invited to the All-Star Game or anything this year, it was all-around a dull and dismal month for me and the whole team...

I used to think I was a good pitcher, but the way things are going, I'm reconsidering things, I do know that on a team with good defense and run support I could win more than half my starts though, that much is true for sure.

I could never play as a pitcher in MLB Life, due to the awfulness of the AI

End of August stats: 3.82 ERA. 9-9 record, 110 strikeouts
Oakland A's record: 66-68, 13 games behind

It was a pretty good month overall for me and the team, unfortunately the team had fallen so far behind in earlier months that it would take consecutive amazing months for us to get anywhere. We're in the toughest division in the AL, which is part of our struggles. We're 6 games out of the wild card spot, so making the playoffs isn't quite impossible, but it would take a great month and a monumental collapse by all the other teams in the running. I hope I can at least maintain the pitching level I've been around lately, if I understand things correctly, I'm eligible for Free Agency after this team and I'd love to get a good pay raise while moving to a good team at the same time. If I have to choose between money and a good team, honestly I'd go for money at this point, I'm still early in my career, and I'll have some time later in the future to compete for a championship when my living situation is more comfortable. I'm not exactly poor as it is, but I'd love to be able to pay off my house and get some elite training equipment to live with.

End of 2012 regular season stats: 3.69 ERA, 11-11 record, 146 strikeouts
Oakland A's record: 78-84, 14 games behind
MLB Career stats to this point: 3.84 ERA, 959.1 innings pitched, 66-48 record, 155 games pitched in, 8 shutouts, 14 complete games, 790 strikeouts, 244 walks, .257 average against, 429 runs allowed, 409 earned runs, 153 games started, 985 hits allowed, 14958 pitches, 76 quality starts

We had a chance, we really did, but the team gave up long before they should have, particularly the offense, if we could have won even half the games we lost by only 1, we would have had a great chance at the wild card spot, and then if we won another game or two that we didn't even attempt to win in, even more so. I'm ashamed to be a part of this team of quitters, hopefully I won't be for much longer...

I have convinced myself that I'm a good pitcher at least, I lead our team in ERA and innings pitched, and was 9th in the MLB in ERA and 5th in innings pitched. I had the best ERA of any MLB pitcher that pitched as many innings as I did, I think that would be a valuable asset to any team that would want to sign me.

I'm not sure what I want to practice for next season, but I'm thinking of working on my fastball, when I'm having an off day it just seems like my fastball doesn't hit the speeds needed to throw people off.

Postseason:
LA Angels over Cleveland 3-1
Detroit over NY Yankees 3-2
Colorado over Florida 3-1
Atlanta over Chicago 3-2

LA Angels over Detroit 4-1
Atlanta over Colorado 4-0

LA Angels over Atlanta Braves 4-2 to win the World Series

Our divisional rivals, the LA Angels, won the World Series, wouldn't mind playing for them in the future, not that the odds of them repeating are too great, but I'd be fine to be on any competing team, at least.


Donation of $2,200,000 for win total, not trusting the coach ever again, I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have made such a contribution to... whatever the cause was, but I really can't afford this. Donated $1000 to Halloween related causes. Donated $1000 for Thanksgiving. Donated yet another $1000 at Christmas.

Sabathia lead the NL in strikeouts, and we traded him away for nothing...

I, surprisingly enough, won a Fielder of the Year Award at my position, personally I consider my fielding pretty average, but I'm very happy to accept the award anyway.

Signed a new contract for 1 year at $11,266,000, paying Darryl $563,300 for his work, it's a good raise from last year, but apparently I am still stuck with the A's, damn... One more year, hopefully...