Friday Afternoon Cyber Baseball: Royals vs. Tigers

It’s raining today. Like a lot. And for all the day. Sounds like a great time to continue the shadow season grind using MLB The Show 20.

What’s happened since

Since the Royals (controlled by yours truly) Dolly Parton’d the Tampa Bay Rays to the tune of 9-5, they split a series in Baltimore and have taken the first two games of the next series at home against the Detroit Tigers. With the two wins, our shadow Royals have moved to 19-14 on the year and are still 4.0 games behind the Twins for the Central Division. May has just started so we have plenty of season left t play, but the soft opening schedule has translated to a winning record, which is always a good thing.

Salvador Perez has been a monster at the plate so far this season. His .368 average is the best in the AL, his 9 home runs is in the top 10 in the majors, and his 30 RBIs is tied for 3rd in the majors. He’s certainly been a big part to this team’s success and has a legitimate case to be the AL MVP through two months.

Danny Duffy has also had a great start and is anchoring the rotation with a 3.14 ERA and 0.98 WHIP through 43.0IP. The down side is that he’s already shown a bit of wear and tear as he had a start pushed back a week ago. Hopefully he’ll continue to shove while fighting that injury bug off.

Life on the farm is also going well; at least for the prospects we need to produce go. Jackson Kowar has 27 Ks in 27.2 innings while holding a 3.58 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in Omaha. Not to be outdone, Daniel Lynch (also in Omaha) has struck out 33 over 29.2 innings and sporting a 3.03 ERA and 1.28 WHIP. Brady Singer has run into some problem, however. He’s sitting on a 6.04 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP. So there’s certainly an unlucky factor there but he’ll be looking to rebound in May. Kris Bubic is shoving in AA, bringing in a 1.44 ERA/0.93 WHIP in 31.1 innings while striking out 36. He’s probably due for a promotion soon.

After turning some heads in Spring Training, Kyle Isbel and Khalil Lee are continuing to produce in their time in AAA. Lee has a .256 average with 2 dingers and 2 steels in 90 at-bats for the Storm Chasers while Kyle Isbel is sporting a .311 average, 1 visit to Dong Town, and 3 bags in 74 at-bats. The Royals shadow brass are excited to see what they could potentially do for the big league team when the opportunity arises.

Today’s preview

Here’s how we’re lining up today.

Once again, you can watch the game either here or over at Twitch while chatting about it with us. So let’s enjoy this rainy day action together!