Friday, November 30, 2012

AL West Divisional All-Stars 2012

It's Friday, a new Undercover Boss airs this evening on CBS (if you liked Stephen Cloobeck from the Season 3 premiere, be sure to tune in), and I deserve to write about the division that houses my favorite team. So let's move out west but stay in the same league for today's installment of the 2012 Divisional All-Stars. Here's the lineup and analysis:

AL WEST DIVISIONAL ALL-STARS



As has been the case for the last couple of years, the offense on this squad is very Texas-heavy. We all know how well Josh Hamilton was doing before his famous caffeine overdose slowed the former MVP's production. What we DON'T know is what team will be willing to shell out for his services next year and beyond. Adrian Beltre, an All-Star with both his bat (5.5 oWAR) and his glove (1.4 dWAR), successfully defends his starting 3B crown from last year. Recent astrological research shows that Ian Kinsler, who had been incorrectly languishing on the Gemini team, actually belongs to Cancer, my own sign's team. That little gaffe on my part very well might have cost us the fantasy-astrology championship. Mike Napoli was named to his first actual All-Star team this year, the fifth in a row in which he reached 20 home runs - pretty impressive for a catcher.

The Angels are represented with two of the highest-profile players in the league. Last off-season, Albert Pujols went through the same free agent rigamarole Josh Hamilton is currently going through, although Mike Trout's Rookie of the Year presence in the Angels outfield will likely prevent his going to the same team where Phat Albert ended up. The A's also have two players on this team, but despite Josh Reddick winning a gold glove, Yoenis Cespedes finishing second in ROY voting, and each picking up some MVP votes, the players repping the Green & Gold flew much lower under the radar than their counterparts. You'll notice also that I was a little liberal with assigning positions, considering Hamilton played mostly in CF and Cespedes played in LF. However, both players spent enough time at their secondary positions to qualify in fantasy, and it wasn't worth relegating Hamilton to the Wild Card team in favor of Michael Young's 1,457 points at DH.

It took us the entire offense, but we finally have a Mariner on this list: in the year of his perfect game, King Felix Hernandez headlines this staff as he did in 2009 and '10. Last year he finished behind the trio of Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, and C.J. Wilson, of which only the first pitcher returns this year, after leading the league in wins and WHIP. First-time All-Star Matt Harrison makes the divisional team for the first time as a starter: in 2010 he made the squad as a swingman, and in 2011 he started for the Wild Card team. Yu Darvish also makes his first appearance, which is appropriate since it's his first year since coming to the majors from Japan. Jason Vargas has come into his own as a solid middle-of-the-rotation starter just in time for his last year of arbitration eligibility.

Joe Nathan hasn't been a star reliever since he dominated the AL Central with Minnesota in 2009, but a weak closer class this year gives him the crown once again at age 37. My close personal friend Jerry Blevins (he signed my book of stats during Spring Training 2011) and rookie Robbie Ross hold it down from the left side, while it's interesting that the three righty relievers in this bullpen have all spent time as starters earlier in their careers. Depending on what happens with free agents Zack Greinke and Dan Haren, Angels swingman Jerome Williams might find himself with an opportunity to start full time.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

AL Central Divisional All-Stars

In the past, I have always ordered this feature by league and geographically by division, but this year I thought I'd mix it up and jump around a bit. So without further ado, here's the 2012 version of the...

AL CENTRAL DIVISIONAL ALL-STARS



Three key positions from the AL Champion Detroit Tigers remain intact in this lineup - I guess you don't get to the World Series with schlubs in the 1, 3, and 4 spots in the order. Austin Jackson makes his first appearance in this feature in his third full season with an OPS more than 100 points above his previous career high. Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder on the other hand have never missed an appearance: Miggy was the AL Central's starting 1B the last 3 years running and the change back to his original position only seemed to increase his production, what with his MVP/Triple Crown performance. Fielder has bounced around a little: he started at 1B for the NL Central last year (ahead of both Joey Votto and Albert Pujols), was relegated to the Wild Card team in 2010 (behind Votto and Pujols), and earned a spot as the NL Central's DH in 2009 (behind Pujols, but ahead of Votto and the surprisingly resurgent Derrek Lee).

Sandwiched between those Tigers is one of two Twins to merit inclusion on this list (surprising based on how dismal their season was). While Joe Mauer will likely never approach his legendary 2009 that led to a record contract, but his high batting average and plate discipline still make him one of the top catchers in the game. Speaking of impossible-to-live-up-to contracts, Alex Rios has had two out of three good seasons since leaving the team that signed him and going to Chicago, even garnering some MVP votes in 2012 for the first time in his career. Back to the Twins, left fielder Josh Willingham returns from last year where he DH'd for the AL West team representing the A's. As Willingham's 2011 placement indicates, I tend to play fast and loose with the DH position even in the AL, since many teams are using it not as a full-time spot, but as a way to rest their veterans on a regular basis. But the Royals' regular DH Billy Butler happened to be the best candidate to fill that position on this team. Jason Kipnis just missed rookie eligibility (not that it would have mattered with the likes of Mike Trout in the equation), but he could develop the power/speed abilities worth building a team around.

Except for 2009 when he played second-fiddle to Zack Greinke's unbelievable season, Justin Verlander has been the ace of the AL Central staff every year since I started this feature, and deservedly so. Chris Sale graduated from Divisional All-Star setup man to Divisional All-Star SP2, and his teammate Jake Peavy makes his first appearance on this list in his first injury-free season since before he joined the White Sox in '09. Scherzer and Fister are repeats (Scherzer is in fact a three-peat), although Fister's place on the '11 list is somewhat controversial: he pitched more innings for Seattle, which would place him in the AL West, but he scored more points for Detroit. I'm usually very scientific about these things, but sometimes the heart has to triumph over the head.

Talk about the volatility of Major League relief pitchers - exactly ONE member of this bullpen showed up on any other divisional All-Star team since 2009: Vinnie Pestano of the Indians. His teammate gained the closer role with a mediocre season after Jose Valverde (famously perfect in save situations in '11) flamed out and lost his job in the playoffs. Anthony Swarzak on the Twins can't seem to hold on to a starter spot, which makes it questionable why he needs to be included here, but I'm a sucker for a swingman.

With this new system I have in place, who can tell which team will show up here tomorrow? The only way to find out is to tune in!

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

NL East Divisional All-Stars 2012

Since I'm taking a more casual, relaxed approach to my quest towards 100% completion of LEGO: The Lord of the Rings, it's going to be a while until I have anything of note to report on that front. Let's just say at this point I'm focusing my efforts on unlocking the score multipliers so I'll be able to purchase all the interesting characters at a much faster rate. The one time I strayed from this plan was to purchase the "8-bit music" upgrade, which, to my complete and utter disappointment, WASN'T an 8-bit rendition of Howard Shore's music that we love so well, but a dull, boring, generic background tune - at least for the overworld. I haven't tried it out in-level yet, so I may yet be pleasantly surprised.

My next project - a video Power Hour based on Batman: The Animated Series - is nearing completion, so expect a detailed analysis of that as soon as it's ready to hit the presses (by which I mean probably YouTube). So until then, let me return to a best-loved feature of mine, one that was not published last year due to my unhealthy yet creatively productive obsession with Batman: Arkham City - Major League Baseball Divisional All-Stars! To recap: these are lineups consisting of the best players at each position in each division (East, West, Central, and one Wild Card - screw the new two-team setup). I'll provide the lineup (arranged according to my projected batting order) and then provide some analysis, including mentioning runners-up when applicable. Hope you enjoy the first of eight painstakingly researched lineups!

NL EAST DIVISIONAL ALL-STARS



Jose Reyes may have played for a different team than in 2011, but he stayed in the same division, which allowed him to repeat as starting SS and leadoff hitter for the NL East squad. He hit 50 points lower than his league-leading .337 average last year, but not for lack of trying: his 716 plate appearances were the most of anyone in the league. The NL East is known for producing a glut of star shortstops, and 2012 was no exception: Jimmy Rollins was not only the 2nd-highest scoring SS, but he was also the team's 9th-highest scorer overall, allowing him to claim a spot on this lineup as the DH - which is ironic because J-Roll won a Gold Glove in 2012. I chose to bat him 6th (or "second leadoff") rather than 2nd despite his point advantage over Michael Bourn because, as an NL team, this squad won't have Rollins available to start every day and I didn't want to gum up the chemistry in such a crucial spot in the order. Plus, as table-setters go, Bourn is probably the better fit with a 30 point advantage in OBP.

I wanted the heart of the order to alternate handedness of the batters, so I sandwiched David Wright (who had a nice comeback after injuries kept the 2010 starting 3B off the list in 2011) between two power lefties making their first Divisional All-Star appearances: Jason Heyward (who flashed 20/20 power/speed after suffering through a sophomore slump last year) and Adam LaRoche (who took advantage of an injury to NL East 1B stalwart Ryan Howard to post Silver Slugger numbers). Carlos Ruiz's rise to prominence as an elite backstop perfectly coincides with runner-up Brian McCann's slide into mediocrity: the Braves' hometown hero missed inclusion this year for the first time since I started blogging this feature in 2009. In a similar vein, slugging 2B Dan Uggla (who had held the spot two years running, first with the Marlins, then with the Braves) fell to Danny Espinosa by the margin of one point.

Perhaps the most shocking development in this year's NL East pitching staff is the absence of 3-time ace Roy Halladay (twice for the NL East, once for the AL East). In his place is surprise Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey. The ulnar collateral ligament-less knuckleballer, ranked 303 by MLB prior to the season, ended up leading the league in innings, strikeouts, complete games, and shutouts. He's followed by a trio of lefties: Cole Hamels (who was supposed to be the Phillies' SP3, but was forced to take on the role of ace), Gio Gonzalez (who led the league in wins), and Cliff Lee (who couldn't buy a win with his $21.5mm 2012 salary, despite a league-best 7.39 K/BB ratio). I'm pleased to announce that Stephen Strasburg will make an appearance on this team, despite being shut down in the most controversial personnel decision of the year.

Craig Kimbrel was once again the closer to beat in the NL, pushing the division's newest bullpen addition (Jonathan Papelbon, 1,966 points) to the curb. Just when we had gotten used to seeing Tyler Clippard in the setup role, an injury to Drew Storen made him the de facto closer, but fortunately his replacement Craig Stammen did quite well. Despite Frank Francisco's 5.50+ ERA, the Mets never committed to making Bobby Parnell the full-time closer. This team has the luxury of having both a long lefty (Gorzelanny) and a situational lefty (O'Flaherty), which should make playing matchups that much easier. Kris Medlen was one of the best starters down the stretch after being a very effective reliever the rest of the season, so the swingman role is a perfect place to put him.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

True Adventurer, Part 2: Story Mode

Thanksgiving is a day for reminding ourselves what we have to be thankful for. Right now I personally am thankful that I had some time off work where I was able to play through the story mode of LEGO: The Lord of the Rings. I was going to review it piecemeal, similar to how I chronicled my journey through Batman: Arkham City, but I found that I just in fact couldn't bring myself to stop adventuring long enough to reflect. With the main story behind me, I'm ready to take a pause before embarking on my quest for 100% completion.

SPOILERS FOLLOW


Upon playing through Weathertop and finding myself at Rivendell, I realized I had to amend my previous statements about multiple hub worlds: there is in fact only ONE giant Middle Earth hub world, but the various cities are spaced so far apart that at the time I thought I was dealing with multiple locations. This feature sets up a nice dichotomy between the actual action-packed levels on one hand and the low-key hub world on the other, through which you have to travel in order to reach the next level. You can use the map to go directly to certain locations, but only after you've unlocked the "Map Stone" for that area, but it's more fun to wander through the landscape and listen to the majestic music pulled right from the movie soundtracks. Plus, if you quick-travel, you miss out on all the side-quests and hidden Mithril Bricks hidden throughout the land!

I'll go into the rewards-collection process in my next post - before you can even begin thinking about collecting all the prizes in the game, you need to unlock more characters/items than are available to you simply from playing through the story mode. Suffice it to say, the game provides you with just enough resources to progress, but not to thrive in the treasure hunting business. For example, if you have to shoot down some boulders that are blocking your path on the Pass of Caradhras, you now have Legolas who's equipped with a bow. Or if there's a crack in the floor of the Mines of Moria that you have to smash through, Gimli's axe will do the trick. (And if that crack is situated high up on the wall, don't worry: one of the bigger characters can pick Gimli up and toss him! Just don't tell the Elf...) But forget about grabbing those orange handles or blowing up those shiny metallic LEGO bricks until way down the road.

Speaking of the mines of Moria, I was immediately struck by the lack of a boss fight with Gandalf vs. the Balrog - I guess you have to play The Third Age if you want to re-live that scene - but I was immediately gratified when we got to play as Gandalf as he plummeted through the chasm and fought the Balrog in free-fall. Plus we revisit the wizard's fight with the ancient demon on top of the peak of Zirak-Zigil two levels later, when Frodo sees the events in a dream while wandering through the Emyn Muil with Sam. But that doesn't happen until after you finish the levels associated with Fellowship and watch the game's credits roll, for the first of three times. At this point I was 10.8% done with the game.

Speaking of Frodo and Sam's adventures, it seems like this game struggles a bit with coming up with meaningful gameplay in the chapters that feature the Hobbits. For example, there's a long sequence where you have to search for fish to distract Gollum enough to punch him, and in the Dead Marshes using Frodo's Elven cloak to hide from the Black Riders over and over gets pretty repetitive. Thankfully the monotony is broken up by... Treebeard and the Ents! While these characters brought only minutes of slow-talking boredom to the table, it's much more fun to smash orcs and toss huge boulders while playing as them. Except for the missed opportunity to remove Aragorn's unnecessary red-herring death of falling off the cliff at the conclusion of the Warg Attack, the rest of The Two Towers plays out extremely satisfyingly, including an epic trip to Helm's Deep. My progress now stood at 19.7%.

Speaking of missed opportunities to remove superfluous bits added to the movie, I don't know why they found it necessary to keep in the whole bit of Frodo sending Sam away at the stairs of Cirith Ungol. I will speak out against that decision as long as I am able. On the other hand, a section of the movie that was cut but shouldn't have been was EVERYTHING THAT TOOK PLACE IN MINAS TIRITH! You don't meet Denethor, you don't get to play as Gandalf and Pippin inside the gates of the city, nothing! At least it's satisfying to fight the Witch King as Eowyn and to take out all the Oliphaunts with Aragorn and Legolas. The fight at the Black Gate was less so, as you basically just find three different yet similar ways to dispatch some trolls (which we'd already seen in Moria), before switching back to Sam and Frodo, who I'm glad to say get a costume change for their trek up Mount Doom. After completing Return of the King, I was 29.9% of the way through. That's a lot of ground to cover for my next post. But if anyone's up to the task....

Saturday, November 17, 2012

True Adventurer, Part 1: Live-Reviewing LEGO The Lord of the Rings

As we enter the holiday season, it's not uncommon for most Americans to have a lot on their plate. I am happy to say that at the moment I am no different. The Baseball season just ended, and rather than be content watching the World Baseball Classic qualifying rounds, I've taken it upon myself to create an extensive sortable database of every significant player in the Major Leagues this season. I was two teams away from completing said database when I came to realize that Part 3 of R. Kelly's masterful hip-hopera Trapped in the Closet is set to come out next week on IFC. So naturally we had to celebrate the occasion with a screening of Parts 1 & 2 accompanied by the drinking game associated with them: Trashed in the Closet. Also, I'm deep in the process of creating a Batman: The Animated Series video power hour - not because I'm unhealthily obsessed with drinking games, but because I consider making power hours an art form. And this is all on top of my day-career of producing unscripted television. If you're interested in seeing how that's going, you should tune in to A&E at 10pm on Sunday, December 2 for the uplifting competition show Be the Boss.

But sometimes there's an event that immediately circumvents every other project an obligation in one's life. Such an event was the arrival of my anxiously-awaited copy of LEGO The Lord of the Rings from Traveller's Tales and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. As soon as I was able, I eagerly fed the disk to my PS3 and dove into the experience. Right away, before you're even prompted to Press Start for the main menu, you hear Galadriel's immortal first lines lifted straight from the movie's audio: "I amar prestar aen... the world has changed..." Upon formally creating your file and starting the game, a cinematic takes you through the rest of the prologue, almost exactly as it appears in the movies except with LEGO minifigs instead of real actors. Of course you get the bits of LEGO humor - one of the seven Dwarf lords raises up a mug of (not)beer instead of his ring of power and one of the nine humans drops his on the ground - that are just subtle enough to remind players that they are not in fact watching a straight shot-for-shot LEGO adaptation of the films.

When gameplay starts, you are still in the world of the Prologue, controlling three of the Second Age's most distinguished characters: Elrond (of whom there was talk of receiving an exclusive minifig with the purchase of a "Special Edition" of the game, but to my knowledge that promotion never came to pass), Elendil the High King of Arnor (whose sword, Narsil, has the ability to destroy "Morgul" LEGO objects, the first taste of the character-specific abilities that are the hallmark of the LEGO games), and his son Isildur. The three parts of the tutorial-esque first level take you from the epic conclusion of the Battle of Dagorlad, through Isildur cutting the One Ring from Sauron's hand, to his refusal to cast the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom at Elrond's behest. Right around the time that we entered the Cracks of Doom (don't laugh, that's what it's called in the book too), a horn blast informed me that I had collected enough LEGO studs to achieve "True Adventurer" status, returning to the term from LEGO Indiana JonesLEGO Star Wars used "True Jedi" and in the LEGO Batman series you could become a "Super Hero," but they all mean the same thing.

Let me now take a pause from reviewing the game to write perhaps the nerdiest thought I've ever had: the events of the prologue take place in the year 3441 of the Second Age. Here's the entry on that year from Appendix B, the Tale of Years: "Sauron overthrown by Elendil and Gil-galad, who perish. Isildur takes the One Ring." Now towards the beginning the Fellowship of the Ring movie, we see Gandalf travel to Gondor to do some research into the matter of Frodo's ring by way of reading some ancient scrolls. As he mutters what he's reading out loud, we hear him say:
                    GANDALF
              (reading)
          The year 3434 of the Second Age...here
          follows the account of Isildur, High King
          of Gondor, and the finding of the ring of
          power.
Well, mishter Peter Jachshun should have read Appendixch B a little closher, cuz it CLEARLY SHTATESH that Shawruon washn't overthrown until shix yearsh later, OBVIOUSHLY!!1 I sure hope shomeone got fired for THAT little blunder. That is all...

Anyway, after the prologue - for the completion of which I earned the trophy "The Strength of Men Failed" - I was awarded the characters Elendil and Isildur, plus three more mystery folks that I could buy. I can already see the economics of this game taking shape. As I choose to continue the story, the cinematic takes us to the night of Bilbo's long-expected party. The star of The Hobbit has already decided to leave The Shire for one last adventure, and we see him reluctantly agree to leave his ring behind before he walks out onto the road. Immediately after that, Frodo comes in, and just as immediately after that, Gandalf explains the danger he's in and sets he and Sam out on his quest. No passage of 17 years between the two events. No confusion on Gandalf's part as to the true nature of Frodo's Ring. Dramatic break from the source material, but you know what? I have no problem with that.

Since becoming a story producer, I've come to realize that sometimes the best story you can tell isn't the most faithful retelling of what happened in reality, but rather an amalgamation of truth, exaggeration, and fiction. The story flows much quicker this way (even if it makes Frodo a much younger character) and gets players into the first open world section of the game: Hobbiton. Now this is next to impossible to prove, but long ago, back when the LEGO Lord of the Rings licensing agreement was nothing but a twinkle in Kjeld Kirk Christiansen's eye, I jotted down some preliminary ideas of how I'd like to see a potential LEGO Lord of the Rings video game play out. This was back in the day where they only had hub worlds from which you could access all the levels, such as the Mos Eisley Cantina from LEGO Star Wars II, or the Batcave from LEGO Batman. I wasn't sure if the technology would support it, but I thought the only way to adequately express the scope of Middle Earth was to have multiple hub worlds after each level, so that we could have the characters spend time in all the different locations that don't necessarily lend themselves to a whole level's worth of gameplay.

But at this point in my playthrough, all I had seen was Hobbiton, where Frodo and Sam could run around the countryside, using the special items in Sam's inventory to light LEGO fires, dig LEGO dirt patches, and grow LEGO plants. The inventory is another new feature in this game, which really helps expand the possibilities, however it's a little frustrating in that I couldn't figure out how to put an item away once I'd pulled it out. From there we meet Merry and Pippin, and enter the second level, which consists of sneaking away from The Black Rider (which is also the name of the level). But this sneaking is interspersed with a short mini-boss fight where you play as Gandalf as he does battle with Saruman. Another short word about the timeline: Appendix B CLEARLY SHTATESH that Gandalf is imprisoned in Orthanc (Saruman's stronghold) on July 10 of the year 3018 of the Third Age, where he is held prisoner until September 18. Frodo and his party don't leave Hobbiton until September 23. In my opinion, it's another good change to have these events happen simultaneously.

The level ends with a frantic race to the Buckleberry Ferry, where we control Frodo as he flees the Black Riders and runs straight towards the camera (think Batman fleeing from Killer Croc in Arkham Asylum). After a cinematic introducing us to Bree, I was absolutely thrilled to find that my idea of multiple hub worlds was indeed applied to this game! I was delighted that I was on the same page as the game's eventual developers, but somewhat disappointed that my obviously good ideas didn't directly impact the development of the game, except for inasmuch as they became part of the collective unconscious...

In Bree I was fortunate enough to have a friend join me, so I could check out the split-screen multiplayer mode. We were able to embark on a couple of sidequests, one of which involved forging items at the blacksmith's shop in exchange for upgrades that were available to buy. I opted not to purchase the "Quest Finder" for 50,000 studs (a little less than half my bank at the time) since I was pretty sure I'd want to save my studs for more interesting prizes ahead. Next time I'll pick up with how multiplayer and the events of Weathertop translate into an actual gameplay level. Until then, never stop adventuring!