Playing the Rube: A Baseball Experiment – Chapter 13: Bad Brad Goes Buh-Bye
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 bi-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.
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CHAPTER 13: BAD BRAD GOES BUH-BYE
Our Phillies are finally playing well. After taking five of their last seven, we head on a 10-game road trip to play the Padres, Dodgers and Mets. But first, we have to deal with Brad Lidge.
In the last chapter we placed Lidge on waivers in the hopes that a team would pick him up. Nobody did. Somehow teams don’t want a pitcher making $12 million over the next three years and putting up a 14.00 ERA.
“You and I have no loyalty,” says Dan. Dan is right. So we make a trade. Then the trade immediately bites us in the butt.
Meanwhile our Phils return to their losing ways, getting especially creamed in Los Angeles, sans one pretty awesome game. During this series Dan and I do a purge of pitching at triple- and double-A in anticipation of the beginning of rookie league season and the first major round of minor league promotions.
Then it’s on to New York to face the Mets as we search for stability.
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