RtB Exclusive: FanCave Finalist Simulates Brewers Season — In a video game

By now, the name Steve Sievwright should be very familiar to you.  He was featured on this blog 5 different times during his run to the 2012 MLB FanCave.  During that time, I it’s safe to say, he and I became close friends. 

You may remember that Steve was so unique because he was not a part of the wide world of sports media (blogging, tweeting, and so on).  In our many conversations, he said that he would like to try writing.  I told him that if he had an idea, that I would be more than happy to post it on RtB.

Last week, Steve came to me with a terrific idea.  SS wanted to play an entire Brewers season on MLB 2K12 for the X-Box 360.  This is great for me because, I am not a video game guy.  So, in just a weeks time, Steve has the results of the 2012 Brewers season.  Via the Microsoft Corporation and 2k Sports, of course.  Wait until you see the World Series result…

Take it away Steve:

Allow myself to introduce…myself…again. I’m the guy that represented the Brewers in the MLB Fan Cave contest. I ran on a platform of being a normal guy and try to just be myself. However, as it turns out: being myself didn’t turn the Fan Cave judges on because I didn’t make it to New York. But that’s okay because that will give me more time to be myself.  Oh wait…

Part of being myself is being a huge gamer. My Xbox 360 is probably my most prized possession, and I have a ridiculous Gamerscore that is north of 100,000. Long before I started my Fan Cave dream, I spent years (yes years!) selling video games. So, what I’m trying to say is, I know what I’m talking about.

The Brewers offseason has left a lot of questions so I couldn’t resist the urge to try to answer a few of them for you.  With the help of  MLB 2K12.

This could possibly be the last year that 2K sports makes an MLB game, so I wanted to see the effort that could be their last hoorah. When I started up the game I was greeted with some Skrillex – Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.  Felt right at home. I played two games right away, and in those games Mat Gamel hit 3 HRs.

How Mat Gamel does this season is one of those huge questions. If Mat was such a beast in those couple games, I needed to know what would happen over the course of an entire season. I played a whole season, with some great results not just for Mat but the whole team.

Mat Gamel led the team in HRs, RBI, Batting average, Slugging, and OPS. 28/98/.289/.502/.857 respectively. So according to this game Mat Gamel fills in at first base continuing the #BeastMode from last season.  And he does it in style

So you said great results Steve, what else happened?

•  Well, to any Brewers fan’s excitement, we got out to a hot start with 50 wins by the All-Star break.
• Despite the start, there was one bad piece of injury news early in the season: Zack Grienke was put on the DL with a torn finger ligament and was out most of the season.
• WAIT…What? How did we keep winning? Brandon Kintzler stepped up big time. 12 wins, 1.39 ERA, and a 0.93 WHIP.
• Great pitching didn’t stop there. Gallardo, Wolf, and Marcum also added 12 wins. Chris Narveson led the team with 13 wins. When Grienke came back in August he played in 19 games going 9-4 with a 0.95 ERA and a 0.83 WHIP. However, no Brewers pitchers came close to 200 K’s.
• Braun had a down year….WAAAY down. 14 HR, 69 RBI, 81 R, .295 AVG, and 27 SB.
• Interesting stat – Nyjer Morgan came back and had 39 stolen bases

Cool stats, hot start, but how did the Brewers finish?

We ended the season 93-69 with a 6 game lead over the Reds in the division. So a lot of the same success as last year.  You can stop worrying.  On the flip side, we had the same luck in the playoffs as we did last year. We had no problem advancing from the NLDS but went on to be swept by the Phillies in the NLCS (sad face). The Phillies lose the World Series though…to the Twins. (What?!)

Don’t get too down though; it’s just a video game. There’s a reason why we still play the games in real life (Just ask Lehigh). Ironically, I see the same success.  I have been firm in saying we have 92-ish wins in us. It was great fun looking ahead to the 2012 Brewers season through a video game. But remember, this is a video game that thinks the Twins win the World Series and that John Axford looks like this:

I’m not sure I can put much stock into that. It has been awesome being a Brewers fan lately, as we all know, and it should be no different this year. So, here’s to the real games getting started I’m sure no one can wait.