Aries - All-Star Baseball 2001 Retrospective

When I first fired up my copy of MLB The Show 2020, I was mostly looking forward to using it as a simulation engine to flesh out my patented Fantasy Astrology Baseball lineups. This project is temporarily on hold, because I’m currently obsessed with my Road to the Show created character, Krys Regnom, #24 (an anagram for RyskMonger42, get it?), but that’s a story for another time. I was particularly excited about this year’s version of MLB The Show because it marks the 20-year anniversary of my second favorite baseball video game of all time: All-Star Baseball 2001 for the Nintendo 64. While the title would suggest that we won't hit that milestone until 2021, ASB01 was actually released prior to the 2000 MLB season, based on stats from 1999. (Remember that the naming conventions of sports games were a little wonky until 2006 - that's why you have both MLB 2006 and MLB 06: The Show released in back-to-back years for the same franchise.)

I just recently took an in-depth look at the Aries Rams projected lineup for the 2020 season. And since we’re still several days from the end of the current Aries season, I’m now jumping back 20 years to look at how the Aries roster looked, through the eyes of the ASB01 game engine. As with any video game based simulation, the batting lineup and pitching rotation will be based less on real world production, and more on the game’s player rating system, which uses letter grades, rather than the 1-100 scale from the more modern games. Also, since I don’t have the capability of capturing footage directly from my N64, you’ll have to make do with photos of my TV screen.

Wow, it’s crazy how far video games have come since the year 2000, huh? Actually, it’s kind of to be expected, isn’t it? Either way, since we don’t get a heckuva lot of information from these screenshots, I’ll supplement them at the bottom with an excerpt from the database I use to compile these rosters. But for now, marvel at the innocent simplicity of how these lineup screens were arranged. You could scroll to the right to view more stats, but they didn’t let you look at player attributes - for that, you had to navigate to the Scouting Report or Player Movement sections. The Switch Lineup button only differentiated between AL and NL ballpark (i.e. DH or no DH), so you didn’t have to slog through setting different lineups vs. right-handed or left-handed pitchers. Also, in addition to the 25-player active roster, each franchise only had 10 spaces for minor league players, rather than full rosters for Triple-A and Double-A, plus another 15 A-Ball spots. Times sure were simpler back then...

But enough about the inner workings of 20-year-old video games. What kind of firepower were the Aries Rams working with back in 1999-2000? The short answer is: not a whole lot, at least not relative to the superpowered offensive climate of the time. Third baseman Scott Rolen (an actual real-life Phillie at the time) garnered a coveted A+ overall rating, and he’s supported by a couple of A- players in Jeromy Burnitz and Brian Jordan. But those latter two outfielders and Rolen’s real-life teammate Rico Brogna at first base were the only three hitters to top 2,000 fantasy points in 1999, and all three barely even eclipsed that threshold. For context, only one other sign had fewer 2,000-point batters: the Gemini Twins have only two, but they both scored 3,000 points (hello Jeff Bagwell and Manny Ramirez). Of course, leadoff hitter Marquis Grissom just missed 2,000 with his power/speed combo, and both Rolen and David Justice would have approached that milestone with full seasons.

Of course, fantasy point totals aren’t the only way to evaluate a player, especially in a multi-level simulation like a video game. Justice has the contact-hitting profile that goes well as a tablesetter at the top of the lineup, even if he lacked the home run power of some of the bigtime point-scorers. Alex (S.) Gonzalez was putting up his usual decent production in 1999, before a torn labrum cut his season short. Bret Boone on the other hand was still a couple of seasons from breaking out with the 2001 Mariners. On the other side of the ball, Brad Ausmus gets the starting nod because of his sterling defensive reputation, even though according to his blurb from Sports Illustrated's pre-2000 baseball preview, Jason Varitek is also "a good glove man and handler of pitchers." Speaking of defense, Rolen earned eight Gold Gloves in his career, and his backup, not-yet-21-year-old Adrian Beltre, is no slouch himself. Rounding out the bench (which is not shown on the starting lineup page) is speedy infielder Quilvio Veras and slugging outfielder Glenallen Hill.

On the pitching side, this team was a lot more impressive than on offense. While you might not see the gaudy point totals reminiscent of today’s aces, remember that the juiced ball era of the late 2010’s pales in comparison to the juiced PLAYER era of the late 1990’s, driving pitching point totals down across the board. For example, while they averaged just under 1,600 points between them, the duo of Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine was rightly feared across the league. Shane Reynolds was the ace of a very talented Houston Astros pitching staff (then in the National League). Jon Lieber was a very serviceable workhorse in his first year with the Cubs. Veteran Bret Saberhagen pitched well when healthy, but it's a bit of a stretch to include him here, since he missed the entire then-upcoming 2000 season due to injury. Since I allow two additional starters to serve as long relievers, the righty-lefty combination of Masato Yoshii and Wilson Alvarez are also on the roster.

Since ASB01 doesn’t show the bullpen on the Starting Rotation screen (although it does give you letter grade ratings for each starter’s individual pitches, which is pretty neat), you can refer to the above chart for the team’s remaining relievers. Although Antonio "El Pulpo" Alfonseca is technically the closer, Indians fireballer Steve Karsay is the highest-rated reliever on the roster. He also ended up serving as Cleveland's ninth-inning specialist in 2000, the only year reaching 20 saves. Interestingly enough, Mike Trombley racked up saves in '99 with the Twins, but lost the closer's role to Ryan Kohlmeier when he went to the Orioles... not that there were many save opportunities for that club.


I took these screenshots just before the release of MLB The Show 2020, so I won't have too much time to fire up the old N64 and do many 20-year-old simulations. But depending on how long the 2020 season is delayed (if it happens at all), I might revisit these lineups as the karmic wheel spins.