I lead the Colorado Rockies to a World Series Championship…sort of
You read the headline correctly I did it, just me. That may not be entirely true with the help of algorithms and such I lead them to it.
Video games are fun, but to a baseball fan, MLB The Show 18 is incredible. That’s exactly how I did it with the Colorado Rockies. This game has a mode called franchise mode that allows you to be the GM of a team (sorry Jeff Bridich). It’s the most realistic simulation that’s out there and even uses AI in order to produce most of the out comes. If you’d like a more in-depth and detailed overview of Franchise Mode feel free to watch this video below.
April
We dove straight into regular season play, note this is the exact schedule that the Colorado Rockies are actually playing. So let’s just dive into it. The month of April starts off as cliche as possible with the NL West, but it did have a twist.
The Los Angeles Dodgers did take 1st for the month, but the San Francisco was behind in 2nd while the Colorado Rockies were tied with them. The Rockies in actuality played about the same as they did starting in April finishing the month with a 16-11 record.
May
By the time May had been finished, the National League West was the most competitive division in all of baseball with four teams neck and neck and the Rockies were right in the middle of it. However, it did appear that the team had been slacking a little bit this month. Their record wasn’t as good being 14-12.
The majority of the losses were, sadly, division games against the 1st place Dodgers along with NL Central hopefuls Milwaukee Brewers. Especially against the Dodgers, this may not be surprising. However, the month of June proved to be a solid month for the Colorado Rockies.
June
The Colorado Rockies headed into June with hope to finish out the month strong and boy did they. Their month was highlighted by a 7 game winning streak. They also added 10 more wins to that as they had a 17-10 record in the month.
This got them into 1st place in the NL West while the Giants, Dodgers, and Diamondbacks were fighting it out within the Wild Card spots. While all this was happening, the front offices of all the teams were getting ready for the trades of July by putting quite a few players on the trading block.
July
The month that we’ve all been waiting for. The Colorado Rockies had to decide whether to be buyers or sellers as they are a team reaching towards contention. Like what happened this past week the Rockies did go after a a reliever, however it wasn’t Seunghwan Oh. They decided to go after Orioles’ reliever Brad Brach who was having a very good year. This trade was essentially the exact same as the Oh trade with the Orioles receiving two prospects. But Colorado did not stop there.
Ian Desmond wasn’t really working out for the Rox at first so why not go ahead and find a true first baseman that knows that position like the back of their hand. Low and behold, there was Justin Bour sitting on the trade block.
The Marlins wanted an outfielder along with some young talent so due to the outfield depth of the Rockies they went ahead and pitched Gerardo Parra as the main man on the trade since his contract would be up by seasons end. So, it became a done deal once the Rockies added another prospect to the deal and the Marlins got a true first baseman.
Was Colorado done, though? Not at all. Their last trade was for a starter as the rotation was beginning to digress and there was most definitely a need for a veteran starter to come in and help. So back to the trading block they go, and do they find?
It’s a Washington National, but he’s fairly overlooked on the team, but would certainly be a solid addition to the Rockies rotation. So after debating for a few weeks towards the end of the trade deadline the Rockies finally decided to make a trade. So the Colorado Rockies traded for starting pitcher Tanner Roark for Mike Tauchman and a player to be named.
However, during the adjustment period and the All-Star break the Rockies did get pushed down to 3rd place in the division. The Diamondbacks then turned it around and rose to first while the Giants took first place, in the Wild Card.
On a happy note, Charlie Blackmon participated and won the Home Run Derby.
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August & September
During both these months the Colorado Rockies were gearing up for a postseason run. All the newly arrived players that came via trade settled in and began to dominate in their respective positions.
However, their combined for both months 33-22 record was not good enough to capture a division title as the Dodgers accomplished that. This left the Rockies with capturing a Wild Card spot. With a final record of home being 49-32 and way being 43-38 the Colorado Rockies got the 1st Wild Card spot with a 92-70 record.
Rocktober
Since the Colorado Rockies won the 1st place spot, they had home field advantage. The Rockies had to face off against fellow NL West team San Francisco Giants. They won the game via walkoff with the score being 3-2. This moved them onto the NLDS where they were to play the Dodgers. They finished the series 3-2, moving them onto the NLCS to play the Washington Nationals. The Rockies almost got a sweep but lost the fourth game, however they went on to win the fifth game finishing the series out 4-1.
They were headed to the World Series. They had to wait for a couple of days the Yankees and the Astros had to duke it out to see who would go on to play them. The Yankees eventually beat out the Astros and the games were set. The Colorado Rockies were crowned World Series champions after playing 5 games where they won the series 4-1 with game five being at home.
Final Thoughts
I won the Colorado Rockies a World Series on my own. All me. While only making three trades that had great impacts on the roster and helped in the effort to contend. You’re welcome Rockies fans I hope you’re happy. That is all.