OOTP Padres: Playoffs are here!

If you’ve missed any part of the story so far, you can always check here to see all of the posts I’ve written on Gaslamp Ball about this virtual San Diego Padres team I’m playing through with OOTP21.

REMINDER: After I finish this season, I’ll be restarting without the ability to make roster moves myself.

Well, I predicted playoffs with a couple of weeks left to go in the season for my virtual Padres and that did not blow up in my face. Hooray!

All that was left after that was to play out the final games of the season, which I’ve now done.

Season In Review

My Padres finished just shy of a .600 winning percentage on the season (96-66), which was good enough for 2nd place in the NL West and 2nd place in the NL Wild Card race. Here’s a deep dive into all of the numbers:

As you can see, these Padres excelled at pitching and had just enough hitting to get by. I imagine that’s the recipe for success I’ll need to follow in the playoffs, as well.

Among qualified players, my best two hitters were (without a doubt) Andrew Benintendi and Fernando Tatis Jr.. Wander Franco probably would’ve led some of these categories had he been called up sooner than mid-August, but he’s just 19-years old, so I’m going to cut him some slack.

I’m really struggling to name my starting pitching staff, and bullpen, for the playoffs. Chris Paddack has been my most reliable pitcher all season, but is he my best right now? Garrett Richards was my best pitcher earlier, but he just got back from injury. Can I count on him? Is MacKenzie Gore ready for the spotlight?

We’ll see. One thing I know for sure, I probably can’t trust Brad Hand. He’s been significantly worse than Kirby Yates since that trade happened.

One. Game. Playoff.

The two NL Wild Card winners (Padres & New York Mets) now face off in a one-game playoff to see who gets to be stomped on by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Seeing as how the real Padres haven’t made the playoffs in 84 years, I thought it made sense to turn this game into a bit of a party.

I’m going to live-stream the game on my Twitch channel tomorrow (April 30th) at 3pm PT, and I’ll create an open thread here on Gaslamp Ball for those that want to watch and comment along.

I expect the starting pitching matchup to be Chris Paddack vs. Marcus Stroman, and for my starting lineup to look something like this:

I hope you’ll join me in rooting on these fake Padres as they attempt to win their way into the division series!