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MVP Baseball Daeley Dodgers

(Those looking for info on MVP Baseball 2006 by EA Sports should know that 2005 is likely the last in the series due to an exclusive deal between Take Two Interactive and the MLBPA. MLB 06 The Show will be the new hotness. New exclusive hotness. However, EA Sports will be producing a college baseball title that will be spiffy, no doubt.)

Daeley’s Dodgers 2005, Regular Season

When I first started out with Daeley’s Dodgers, I caught the rosters more or less up to date with the roster edit guide on Game FAQs. Then I created a handful of friends and family members and scattered them to appropriate teams, including a distant cousin who played in the minors in real life, for a while in the Giants organization (oh, the shame! ;). On the Dodgers, I put myself at 3B, step-son Hans at 1B, and friend Alex at C. Hans’s buddy Jason, a BoSox fanatic, is on his beloved team.

After some crazy trades and attempts at trades in May 2005, my own doppelganger was also on the Red Sox, Hans was in Seattle, and Alex was on the Marlins. Adrian Beltre was back at 3B for the Dodgers, as was Paul Lo Duca behind the plate, with Dave Roberts ready for pinch running and spot starting and Jose Lima in the rotation again. All was right with the universe.

For a while we had Johnny Damon in center field and Kevin Millar on first. ;) J.D. Drew went to Boston along with me during that trade. A generous Milton Bradley moved over to right field. Drew was on a home run tear this season.

However, that all a wee bit too weird (seeing Johnny Damon in a Dodgers uni is surreal), so I undid some of it, bringing J.D. Drew back to the Dodgers and sending the scruffy guys back to the BoSox. ;) That left me with Hee-Sop Choi on first, who promptly got himself injured and on the 60-day DL with a fractured ankle. Antonio Perez, come on down! We executed a few trades here and there to bolster our relief pitching, mostly, in the middle range. With Brazoban and Gagne shutting down the 8th and 9th innings, the setup guys were important. Speaking of which, I tried to pry Guillermo Mota away from the Marlins, but nothing doing.

I also looked into getting Shawn Green back, or righting history and snagging Vlad Guerrero, but I think $11 million per year is better off in the Diamondbacks’ and Angels’ right fields instead of Chavez Ravine’s. At least until next year.

Daeley’s Dodgers: Injuries and the Playoffs

Well, the regular season is over now, and we’ve made the playoffs: we’re going against the Reds, with the Cards taking on the Marlins (where my buddy Alex is catching, and where ex-Dodger Jose Valentin wound up, both from the Lo Duca/Encarnacion regaining). Over in the AL, it’s NYY vs MIN and BOS vs OAK.

J.D. Drew picked up the NL MVP award, mostly thanks to a crazy 58-homer season.

A few games before the end of the season, Dave Roberts went down with a season-ending knee injury while subbing for Jayson Werth. Gah! And then the last game of the season, Paul Lo Duca went down with a season-ending knee injury. Double Gah! He is reportedly ‘only’ out for about two weeks, so perhaps he’ll be back during the playoffs (Dave Roberts is out for nearly 80 days). In the meantime, Dioner Navarro is in for Paulie, with Jason Phillips backing him up.

We wound up facing the Marlins for the NLCS, beating them in 4 hard-fought games. Aaron Miles absolutely dominated at the plate during the playoffs, really doing an amazing job.

Daeley’s Dodgers: World Series 2005

Hey, we won, sweeping the Yankees! Now that makes it even sweeter. :) Paul Lo Duca came back from his knee injury in time for the series, as well. Milton Bradley picked up the MVP. Here was our starting lineup/batting order:

  • SS Cesar Izturis
  • 1B Aaron Miles
  • 3B Adrian Beltre
  • RF J.D. Drew
  • 2B Jeff Kent
  • CF Milton Bradley
  • LF Jayson Werth
  • C Paul Lo Duca
  • (pitcher)

On the bench:

  • 1B/2B G. Rushton
  • SS/Util J. Hernandez
  • SS/IF A. Perez
  • C Dioner Navarro (C J. Phillips during the first two series)
  • RF Juan Encarnacion

Starting Pitcher Rotation:

  • Brad Penny
  • Odalis Perez
  • Jeff Weaver
  • Derek Lowe
  • Jose Lima

Relievers:

  • S. Hasegawa
  • K. Tadano
  • L. Hawkins
  • K. Wunsch
  • H. Yoshida

Setup:

  • Yhency Brazoban

Closer:

  • Eric Gagne

I was really pleased with our pitching. Strong starters, a mixture of different reliever types, and arguably the best setup/closer combo in the majors. There are some refinements that will be necessary for the relievers in the off-season, but all-in-all not too shabby. Like the real-life Dodgers of 2004, if we’re winning after 6 innings, it is pretty much Game Over for you.

The Off-Season

At first, our off-season was fairly uneventful, with most of our resignings going off without a hitch. The draft was okay, but having won the World Series, we were behind quite a few folks in line.

We had to release Jose Lima and Juan Encarnacion, due to their wanting way too much money — Jose wound up in Colorado making $6-7 million a year (?!) and Juan is now in Detroit.

The biggest news was our signing of unrestricted free agent relief pitcher Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez, formerly of the Angels, getting him for a song. We suddenly had a unbeatable sequence of Yhency Brazoban in the 7th, K-Rod in the 8th, and Gagne in the 9th. Scary!

We were also able to upgrade our 1B and starting pitching by signing free agent Derrek Lee from the Cubs and trading Derek Lowe straight up for Andy Pettitte of Houston. We upgraded our bullpen, too, signing a couple of free-agent relief pitchers, Antonio Osuna and Tracy Harper. We also made a minor trade to get Wilson Alvarez back as our 5th starter. By getting rid of Encarnacion’s, Lima’s, and Darren Dreifort’s ($11 million/year retired, thank goodness), I freed up a ton of money. Which opened up possibilities later, as you’ll see. Spring training started up in Florida with a exhibition game against the Twins, which we won 3-1. Pettitte threw the first couple of innings, and Osuna did well in relief.

Over the course of the next few weeks, our team morphed a significant amount, with the guiding principle of getting faster and better.

Through a series of trades, we picked up Vladimir Guerrero in exchange for K-Rod, returning the Angels their closer. Finally, Vlad’s a Dodger! :) A big $14 million salary, but well worth it. In left field, we have Hideki Matsui from the Yankees. And from the Blue Jays, we got Shea Hillenbrand (since we traded Derek Lee turing this period, we needed a 1B.)

We actually had Alfonso Soriano from the Rangers for a while, with the thought of replacing Jeff Kent at 2B — unfortunately I wasn’t able to move Kent (he’s getting a bit older now), and wound up trading Soriano. I may try to move him again later.

See MVP Baseball Daeley Dodgers 2006 for the latest roster and how the next season starts up.

UPDATE August 2007 Daeley’s Dodgers live!