Categories: Podcasts

Playing the Rube: A Baseball Experiment – Chapter 7 – Grasping at Bartolos

The Phillies won a world championship in 2008.

Then Ruben Amaro Jr. was named general manager.

The Phillies didn’t win another world championship.

Tim Malcolm and Dan Walsh wonder if they can do better. So, we continue “Playing the Rube,” a weekly series with accompanying podcast in which Tim and Dan attempt to steer the Phillies to more victories, starting in 2009, through the deep simulation game OOTP Baseball ’18.

***

CHAPTER 7: GRASPING AT BARTOLOS

Things are getting worse.

Last week felt like the nadir of our experiment, since we still figured the team had the talent to be better and we knew our pitching couldn’t get much worse.

But first we had to ensure it wouldn’t get much worse.

So this week we call on some reinforcements, both to fill spots left by injured players, and to simply improve our staff.

Yup, “Big Sexy” is now a Phillie.

Luckily we saw some inspired gameplay this week, including a big Carlos Ruiz walkoff.

We also get an injury scare and meet the Mets for the first time this season.

Follow our progress with the 2009 Phillies by checking out “Playing the Rube” below!

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.