MVP Baseball 2004

While I am not updating rosters on NCAA Football 2005, I'm playing EA Sports' MVP Baseball 2004, with Albert Pujols as the cover boy this year.

I'm playing through a Dynasty right now, with my team -- the Minnesota Twins.  It's a fairly easy game to play with a lot of depth, but with a week to go before the All-Star break and a 70-9 record, maybe I should crank up the level a little bit.  Kyle Lohse -- 14-0 with a 0.47 ERA.

I created my own player, maxed his abilities out, and ran him up through AA ball, AAA ball, and now is playing on the MLB team.  "Tony" did well in AA, struggled in AAA -- then players like Torii Hunter and Shannon Stewart were struggling, so I brought up "Tony" and he's been ripping it up since.

The depth of this game in unbeliveable.  Each MLB team has two minor league teams, representing AA and AAA.  With that, as the GM, you have to keep track of several ballplayers -- like their salaries and if they're simply in a good mood or not.  I get countless e-mails from my players every day (MVP Inbox), having players bitching me out for not getting any playing time or they're unhappy about their contract.  DELETE!

The man for me this year is catcher Matt LeCroy, already hitting around .320 while blasting 42 home runs -- BEFORE the All-Star break.  That a kid!

Who knows if I'll be able to finish the season or not, because we're getting into the influx of new videogames for the summer and early fall, like Madden 2005, NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, LOTR: The Third Age and Burnout 3.  I'll keep it up as long as I can, but I cannot guarantee of giving Minnesota another highly anticipated world championship!