2020 OOTP sim: Rain Delay Theater
With Sunday's finale against Minnesota postponed by rain (makeup date on August 17, a scheduled off-day before a series at the Twins), let's catch up on some of the MLB doings around our sim season.
April's AL Batter of the Month was Randal Grichuk of the Blue Jays, who had 12 homers, 32 RBIs and 30 runs while batting .340.
Pete Alonso of the Mets was April's NL Batter of the Month after hitting .280 with 12 homers, 28 runs batted in and 24 runs scored.
Marco Gonzales of the Seattle Mariners, after going 5-0 with 31 strikeouts and a 1.40 ERA over 38 ⅔ innings, was April's AL Pitcher of the Month.
Jacob deGrom went 5-0 with 42 Ks and a crazy 0.48 ERA in 37 ⅓ innings to become April's NL Pitcher of the Month.
Luis Robert was the AL Rookie of the Month after hitting .301 with six homers and 18 RBIs.
Reggie McClain of the Philadelphia Phillies took NL Rookie of the Month honors after throwing 27 ⅓ innings and holding hitters to a .168 average.
Back on May 1, Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers hit for the cycle against the San Diego Padres, going 4-for-5 on the day. He got the hardest hits out of the way first, capping the cycle with a single in the eighth.
Wade Davis, injured in a game vs. the White Sox, suffered a partial UCL tear and is out for the season after appearing in 10 games with a 9.45 ERA.
Yu Darvish, at 3-1 with a 2.72 ERA for the Cubs, suffered a sprained MCL while running the bases on May 3 and will miss five weeks.
Cleveland's Francisco Lindor was the AL Batter of the Week for the first two weeks of May, marking the second and third weekly awards for him already this season. He also had a 22-game hitting streak in April and May.
Noted cheater Alex Bregman also won an AL Batter of the Week award in May.
Atlanta's Ronald Acuña Jr., Colorado's Nolan Arenado and L.A.'s Justin Turner are the NL Batters of the Week so far in May.
In early May, Stephen Strasburg suffered shoulder inflammation that will see him missing four months — potentially the rest of the regular season. Strasburg went 1-3 with a 4.79 ERA in 2020.
On May 7, Kenley Jansen was diagnosed with elbow inflammation that will see him miss the rest of the month. Jansen has 10 saves, with a 2.87 ERA.
A brawl on May 9 resulted in suspensions for Washington's Victor Robles (four games) and the Cubs' Alec Mills (nine).
On May 10, Kansas City's Glenn Sparkman was fined for showing up late to the ballpark. He was heard screaming, "I got stuck in traffic!" before a closed-door meeting with manager Mike Matheny. And on May 15, another White Sox fan favorite, Brad Keller, was lost for the season with a torn labrum after going 3-4 with a 4.45 ERA in 2020.
Also on May 10, Mike Trout hit is 300th career homer.
Padres starter Garrett Richards tore his labrum and will miss the rest of the season. He went 3-2 with a 4.01 ERA in 2020.
On May 14, Joc Pederson joined the three-home run club, going 3-for-4 with five RBIs in a 11-1 win over Philly. Cubs first baseman Victor Caratini did the same thing in a 17-3 win over Milwaukee on May 24.
According to OOTP, the White Sox clubhouse is collectively happy that Michael Kopech was sent down to Charlotte, and upset that James McCann was traded.
On May 22, Oakland center fielder Ramon Laureano was lost for the season with an MCL tear. Laureano was hitting just .207 when he went down.
Nicholas Castellanos has also suffered a torn labrum and will miss the rest of the season. Castellanos hit .259 with four homers in 41 games before his injury.
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.