Mile High 2013 Review

It was a disappointing season for Mile High. After a respectable 82-80 campaign (not bad for my first ever OOTP season of any kind), it seemed like everything was pointing up. With a stellar defense, good starting pitching and a top tier bullpen, I felt we just needed some better hitting to score a few more runs.

Tommy Harris

The outfield was overhauled to address this lack. Enter $14 million left field slugger Tommy Harris, $5 million right field Roberto Mendoza and, to help out with DH duties, $2 million Dave Hester. Only speedy defensive stud Eric "Flash" Black remained from the 2012 crew. Fans loved the moves of bring in Tommy Harris and inking staff ace Manuel Ruíz to a long term deal. Interest was at an all time high, but that interest along with the owners mood slowly deteriorated as the weeks progressed.

Things started off slowly as it took until almost the All-Star break for Harris to get his batting average over .200 and Mendoza spent a month on the disabled list. Additionally three out of the six starting pitchers had ERAs over 8 for two months into the season. 2012 All Star Jeff "Superstar" Wade bounced in and out of the lineup with a myriad of minor injuries and never really got clicking. In the end the Mustangs were never able to dig themselves out of the hole a 9-18 April put them in.

Paul Durden

As noted above something needed to be done to address the issues with starting pitching. After allowing 15 runs in his first 5 starts, Tim Berry was demoted to Triple-A for the rest of the season where he performed pretty well. Kurt Taylor and his 8.04 ERA tore a back muscle and was lost for the season. To replace them Manuel López returned to the bigs and had a solid year going 11-9 with a 3.73 ERA. Also brought up way ahead of the planned schedule was 19-year-old Paul Durden (obtained via trade in 2012). His 1.25 WHIP and 3.64 ERA over 166 innings earned him 9 wins. I am super excited about this kid. The last piece of the three-headed suck crew was Charles Bailey. We tried him and his 1-8 record in the bullpen but he got lit up there too. Since he was out of minor league options he got thrown on waivers. We were less than impressed when he got picked up by San Francisco, started against us the very next sim and got the win. Looks like he had a decent season over there. I suppose I am happy for him.

Expectations are up again as the season ended on several high notes.

Triple-A club Minneapolis Freeze won their division with 94 wins and are in the playoffs. That inspires confidence in the depth of the upcoming options.

Manuel Ruíz

Stud starter Manuel Ruiz was a shining star all year long again.

For the second strait season David "Slam" Reynolds blew merely a single save.

The bullpen was also stellar again. Failed starter converted to middle reliever Joe Russell (also acquired via trade) and 27th-round draft pick Mal Meade anchored the league's best bullpen that ended up with an impressive 2.52 ERA.

Danny Hardy

2012 Mustang left fielder Danny Hardy started 2013 with the Freeze. Despite his stellar defense and 39 stolen bases last season, his .264 OBP was too low to handle.  This year Hardy performed great in Triple-A and was brought back up to play the final 42 games with the Mustangs. Something must have clicked for the guy. He batted .294 with a .354 OBP and 13 stolen bases in 16 attempts. Next year he'll likely get the center field spot while Flash moves over to right.  This will be a huge defensive upgrade in the outfield and return us to the core strategies of speed and defense in the most pitcher friendly park in the league. Hopefully this time without sacrificing much run production.

The Mustangs ended up winning six of their last seven and almost broke even again (80-82). And (this is where it gets REALLY sweet) took full advantage of their opportunity to knock the Tornadoes out of the playoffs by taking two of the last three from them. The final nail in the Tornadoes coffin was a 10-0 whooping on the last day. Every time I load the game throughout the off season I get to be reminded of that game right there in the lower right corner of my screen. That's so money. If pressed, Mustang management would admit that winning a championship would be better than spoiling the Tornadoes season. But not by much!