With baseball on indefinite hiatus, we here at Yahoo Sports MLB decided to have a little fun. We can’t watch real baseball on TV, but we can still play it … with a twist. We’ve decided to run some experiments using “MLB The Show 20” to simulate some unique baseball scenarios. This concept is lovingly inspired by Jon Bois’ Breaking Madden series. We’re calling our version “Living in Sim.”

The people over at “MLB The Show 20” either can’t — or don’t want to — help me. I can’t say I’m surprised. Honestly, I’m just thankful they didn’t laugh in my face when I told them I was planning to create a full 26-man roster of nothing but Mike Trouts. It’s not the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s up there.

By the time their email comes back, I’m already days into this experiment and have yet to simulate a single game. I’ve suspected for at least a day that this project is cursed, and that the video game is actively sabotaging me. The email only sends me further down a darker path.

(Yahoo illustration/Paul Rosales) More

It all started with a simple question: Can Mike Trout really do it all? Trout is easily the best player of his generation, and could go down as the best to ever play the game at the end of his career. If anyone could use the power to clone himself 25 times and field a team entirely made of himself, it’s Mike Trout.

Maybe with a team full of himself, Trout will get the Los Angeles Angels back to the playoffs and make the deep postseason run Trout deserves.

The task: Make a team full of Mike Trouts, ______, profit?

I knew going into this project that it would be more labor-intensive than my previous attempts at running simulations in “The Show.” This would require me to copy Trout’s stats 25 times before I could actually play a game. I was hopelessly naive about how difficult that would be.

I find out just what I’m in for immediately, as Trout doesn’t have any pitching stats. This is the first time I start to think the game doesn’t want me to do this. While position players can be used as pitchers in “MLB The Show 20,” position players don’t have pitching stats in the game. I don’t know the numbers for Trout’s pitching stamina, hits per nine innings or fastball control. I don’t even know what pitches Trout can throw.

The plan: Scout virtual Mike Trout to make this work

That part is solvable, at least. If I can insert Trout into a game as a pitcher, I can get a sense for some of his stats. If “MLB The Show 20” isn’t going to provide Trout’s stats, I’m going to do the next best thing: I’m going to scout virtual Mike Trout as a pitcher.

It takes multiple attempts, and a bevy of four-letter words before I realize the realness of “The Show” is preventing me from getting this done. The game adheres to real-life rules, including soon-to-be-enacted ones — meaning Trout cannot enter a game as a pitcher unless the Angels are up by six runs.

After a number of frustrating failures, I finally make it happen. Virtual Mike Trout has two pitches, a four-seam fastball that can hit 87 mph and a 73 mph changeup. He can last 2-3 innings before getting tired. This gives me valuable info I can use.

To figure out the rest, however, I’m going to have to take some educated guesses. It’s at this point I email the fine people at “MLB The Show 20” to see if they can offer me any help or guidance. After a few days, they nicely tell me I’m on my own. At least they didn’t tell me to never email them again. I can take solace in that.

My solution to this issue involves taking the average stats from other players to create an “accurate” version of virtual Mike Trout as a pitcher. For stamina, I decide Trout is similar to a Josh Hader. For the harder stats to figure out, I split the difference between the worst pitcher I can find — a 48 overall Brian Keller — and Tampa Bay Rays two-way player Brendan McKay. Pitching Trout will be better than Keller, but not as good as McKay, who was at least partially drafted for his skills on the mound.

This isn’t a perfect plan, but it’s something. The real-life data on position players pitching is spotty. The ones who have pitched at least a few times in recent years have ERAs ranging from 3.60 to 18.56, but it’s tough to know how much we can rely on those numbers considering they often pitch in games that aren’t competitive.

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