Will follow this one. I like to start with the 1989 Rangers. So many big bats in the system at that time.

I have rookies go to their historical teams, and am only getting players that played for the Rangers at some point on my teams. So by 1989 I might have a similar lineup to the real Rangers. I'm not quite sure how Latin American player imports work. Hopefully I get Pudge and Juan Gone imported automatically.

1982 END OF SEASON

Texas is still hanging on as the top team in the AL West, as we won the division again with 98 wins. We also got a new logo this year which is interesting.

The playoffs look pretty similar as we yet again face the Orioles. Cal Ripken has become a monster and was far and away the best player in all of baseball this year. The Dodgers and Phillies will play each other in the NLCS.

I really like how the simulation is shaping up thanks to my tweaks. I now have accurate ballparks, and players have a bit more realistic fielding ratings so it allows for some cool variance here and there. I'm starting to have a lot of guys who are only really able to play DH, so it's interesting trying to put a lineup together.

Bill Madlock finally broke out of his underperformance and won the batting title, which was nice to see. Toby Harrah, Buddy Bell, and Al Oliver also had good years. Pitching-wise our starters are slowing down a bit, but our bullpen continues to be the best in MLB.

On to the playoffs!

1982 ALCS: TEXAS RANGERS VS. BALTIMORE ORIOLES

For the 4th time in our relatively short history, the Texas Rangers are facing the Baltimore Orioles in the ALCS. Previously we lost two series' against them in the 70s, and won last year.

It was an interesting series this year, where despite our identical record, I would classify the Rangers as the underdog. The little batting lineup widget showed the Orioles having the advantage over us in most of their players, including having the best player in the game right now Cal Ripken. The one advantage we had over them was pitching, especially our bullpen.

That bullpen advantage would prove crucial in Game 2, where we prevailed in a 14 inning game. A 3-run homer by Mike Hargrove won it in the top of the 14th. The Rangers even went up 2-1 in Game 3, giving ourselves two chances to close out the series.

Unfortunately our luck would run out and Baltimore would win Game 4 and 5 to go to the World Series. Our hitting just never got going, as often happens in the playoffs. We needed to put some runs on the board and get deep into their bullpen but couldn't deliver. Meanwhile Baltimore won Game 5 on the strength of dozens of bloop singles. I've never seen so many bloop singles! Just kept happening.

Next year will be the curtain call for Gaylord Perry (who has limped into the last few years of his career with lots of injuries), Fergie Jenkins, and Jon Matlack. The first two are Hall of Fame locks, but Matlack might need a little help to get into the Hall (he didn't in real life). I really want another World Series title but it will be tough. My restrictions on only Rangers players make it hard to find a good balance of offense and defense, but it's made it more interesting.

Oh by the way, the Orioles beat the Dodgers in the World Series, just in case I don't make a recap post on 1982. Sometimes I just get going and sim ahead!

1982 RECAP

Record: 98-64, 1st in AL West

World Series
Baltimore Orioles defeat Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2

MLB Awards
AL Reliever of the Year: Goose Gossage
AL Gold Glove: Buddy Bell (SS), Jon Matlack (P)
AL Silver Slugger: Bill Madlock (2B), Toby Harrah (3B), Al Oliver (DH)

Bill Madlock and Toby Harrah also finished 2-3 in MVP voting with 6+ WAR each, but were outclassed by Cal Ripken who had 10+ WAR.

The re-calc for next year gives us a bit of a problem fitting everyone in the lineup, as a lot of guys can no longer play defense -- really at all. I held my nose and played Madlock at 2B in '82, and his bat was worth it. But now 4 or 5 guys can only play 1B/DH. It's an interesting problem to solve, and I want to improve the defense anyway to give our pitchers good support next season.

MISSION 1983

1983 really marks an important year for the Texas Rangers. As I've mentioned, it's the final year before retirement for Gaylord Perry, Fergie Jenkins, and Jon Matlack. They've made up 3/5 of the rotation for almost a decade and were a big part of our ability to dominate the AL West for a long time.

Perry is well above the standard and a lock for the Hall of Fame, and Jenkins is exactly right at the average for the Hall -- it's actually eerie how identical he is to the average HoF starting pitcher in terms of stats. Jon Matlack is slightly below the mark and needs some help to get in. I'm trying to get all of these guys in the Hall in a Rangers cap.

Although their ratings aren't at their peak, these 3 can still put up some counting stats and positive value in 1983. Part of what I can do to help is improve the defense. I've busted out a couple of trades to bring in a defensive CF and SS, which I'll detail later. But I'm sure I can also help their HoF case, as well as give a good sending off by winning our 2nd World Series!

So this is Mission 1983: Win the World Series.

MISSION 1983: GARY WARD

Man, I wish I found this guy earlier. Given my restriction of only historical Texas Rangers players, and my dynasty being a re-calc one... the only scouting I can really do is look at Baseball Reference and find all the appropriate players who played in Texas. Sometimes I find them a season too late, like with Gary Ward.

Gary Ward played for Texas from 1984 to 1986 historically, so we're getting him a bit earlier here. He's already had a good year and very good year in Minnesota, and I could have used him in the outfield last year. He's a defensive CF who can hit well too -- a great value for any team.

Interestingly our trade with the Twins was almost the same as the one in real life, with John Butcher and some others going the other way. In both cases it looks good for Texas, as we have a bit of a glut of pitching.

Gary slots in as our starting CF, and I hope his defensive ratings hold up over a few seasons of re-calc... I never fully know what will happen!

MISSION 1983: SCOTT FLETCHER

With Bill Madlock no longer able to play 2B, we've had to shuffle around the infield a bit this year. I took a while to pull the gun on this trade, for reasons I'll explain, but the good news is that Scott Fletcher is coming to the Rangers.

Fletcher played shortstop for the Rangers historically between 1986 and 1989. Interestingly the AI in my dynasty traded him from the Cubs to the White Sox, where I got him from, and that's also the route he took in real life. Just doing it a little earlier. I love to have a guy with great range at SS, and Fletcher fits the bill.

Unfortunately the White Sox were tough to deal with. I gave them Dave Schmidt who was part of the real life trade, but I also had to give up Ron Darling. I tried a bunch of different ways to make it work, but basically it boiled down to the Sox only willing to do the trade if it involved 1 of my top 2 prospects -- Ron Darling or Julio Franco. I didn't want to give up Franco, who had some good years for the real life Rangers, so Darling is the odd one out as more of a Mets guy in real life.

I wanted to keep Ron Darling around, maybe if not to pitch long-term, but to use as trade ammunition for future deals. I'm going to want to acquire Rafael Palmeiro pretty soon (I think he pops up in 85 or 86), so I need pieces. I think I'll get Sammy Sosa around the same time though, and trading Sosa to the Cubs for Palmeiro just makes way too much sense for everyone. Hope it works out that way.

Anyway, Fletcher should give us a very good defensive infield, but he can't hit all that much right now. I've got it penciled in like this:

1B: Mike Hargrove/Bill Madlock (Madlock against LHP and RHP split more evenly)
2B: Buddy Bell
3B: Toby Harrah
SS: Scott Fletcher

It looks good to me. Hopefully Buddy Bell can settle back into his more iconic 3B role, we'll probably do that when Harrah retires or no longer is good enough with a bat. Julio Franco will fit into the infield pretty soon, and I have him rotating with these guys now.

1983 ALL-STAR BREAK: HAROLD BAINES COMES TO TEXAS

Mission 1983 continues, and it's becoming tense at the All-Star Break. At 52-30, the Texas Rangers are only 2 games up on the Minnesota Twins. Old man Rod Carew is leading the way for the Twins batting .382. Nevermind winning the World Series, there's a chance we may not even make the playoffs! Bert Blyleven is pitching a masterful season, but everyone else in Texas is sort of humming along at best.

Our current biggest weakness is probably the corner outfield positions -- we have some guys with average bats and below average defense. I'd much rather have above average bats here. Juan Beniquez is showing as having 70 Contact this season but his stats aren't keeping pace, as he sports an OPS+ below 100. Mickey Rivers and Billy Sample are past their prime, and Claudell Washington was never much more than an average player despite his memorable walk off home run.

I decided I have to do everything I can to win more games. That meant bringing in Harold Baines from the White Sox. Baines has a bit of an infamous reputation nowadays owing to his dubious Hall of Fame selection in real life. But I guess that's not his fault. Anyway if he can help lead my Rangers to glory I'm sure I'll see him in a new light. He was the only real plus bat I could find out there that played for the Rangers historically, and a guy that will have good value for a number of years.

I sent Claudell Washington (retained salary) plus some okay prospects to the Sox for Baines. It helps them financially, but is probably a bit of a fleecing to be honest. I don't mind too much though because they were tough to deal with for Scott Fletcher, and I need to win bad!

By the way, Ron Darling is injured for the White Sox and they sit in last place. Too bad for them. Nice to see the expansion Mariners and Blue Jays starting to play pretty well. George Brett went from the Dodgers to the Blue Jays which is all sorts of weird.

My owner is continuously mad at me despite the Rangers winning all kinds of division titles. He doesn't care and wants a World Series trophy every season. What did Billy Beane say.. my **** doesn't work in the playoffs..

1983 END OF SEASON: TEXAS MOUNTS A COMEBACK

At the trading deadline the Rangers were in a bit of a skid, and the Twins were hot. We sat 3 GB of Minnesota in the AL West, and I was nervous. Mission 1983 was in jeopardy! I had to do something.

So I traded for Brian Downing, who in real life played for the Rangers in the twilight of his baseball years at 40 years old. But boy, did he ever have an underrated career. Before anybody knew what OPS was, Downing was casually a well above average hitter his entire career. He had enough power and walks to hit for a lifetime OPS near .800, very good for a guy that moved from C to OF. Although we currently have enough corner outfielders to fill a barn, I'm happy to add him to the lineup. The Giants gave him away for almost nothing because he was on a big salary.

I also saw that I was starting Jon Matlack, who had slipped down to 30 stamina without my realizing it. In his last year with Texas he was in the bullpen in real life. He didn't pitch all that bad for us as a SP, but didn't go many innings. I swapped him out for Len Barker who I'd been using as a luxury stopper with stamina in the bullpen for years. Barker and Downing, plus some rejiggering of my lineups definitely helped right the ship in Texas.

We overtook the Twins and ended up a comfortable 7 games ahead at 100-62. I decided to play out the last game, and throw out our 3 retiring pitchers as a swan song. Luckily it was Fergie Jenkins' turn in the rotation (he's had a great final year by the way). They all pitched pretty good, although we lost the game with not enough run support. The pitching stats from the game are attached. Gaylord Perry hit a guy, and Fergie hit 2 which was pretty funny.

Stats for the whole season are also attached. Highlights include Bert Blyleven's excellent year with a 2.01 ERA and 7.1 WAR.. he'll be up for the AL Cy Young. Our bats were quite good overall, and the Rangers certainly don't have many weaknesses heading into the playoffs. It's Mission 1983!

But who is that we're facing? Oh no, it's Earl Weaver's Baltimore Orioles...

1983 ALCS: BIGGEST COLLAPSE IN BASEBALL HISTORY

Perhaps the title is a bit of hyperbole, but to me it feels apt based on my feelings at the time. It's been a week or two (in real time) since this game happened, so the sting has worn off a bit. But I was in shock and disbelief when it unfolded.

The ALCS went down to the deciding Game 5, because of course it always does. This time we were in Baltimore. The Texas Rangers built up a nice little 3-0 lead, and had Bert Blyleven on the mound (who would later be the unanimous 1983 Cy Young winner).

All of a sudden Bert goes down with an injury in the bottom of the 6th inning, which was disappointing because he was cruising in the deciding game. It was too early to bring in the fireman Goose Gossage. I thought about bringing in Nolan Ryan, as he was rested... but decided I should keep him fresh because I planned on winning this game and going to the World Series. I brought in Charlie Hough because he had the stamina to go a few innings, and a nice knuckleball to keep the BABIP down.

Charlie does OK, but after allowing a run in the 8th, I turn to Goose Gossage in the bottom of the 9th to shut the game down. It's the obvious move, he's been the best reliever in baseball for several years running. And I just need 3 outs. All of a sudden, a walk. And then the next batter -- Butch Wynegar with only 65 career homers IRL -- goes long. It's 3-3. My ticket to the World Series is burning before my eyes.

At this point I'm in shock and just tapping the spacebar waiting for the pain to end. At some point there's 2 outs. Then a double. And another homer. This time Baltimore walks us off. Must have been fun for Orioles fans.

Goose Gossage, he of 65 or 70 Movement, gives up the game tying and ALCS walk-off home runs. I seem to remember Goose being a boob in other playoffs, and lights-out in others. But the only explanation is that the game just didn't want me to win. Yeah, I could have pulled him after the first homer. But it all happened so fast and I was pretty much resigned to my fate. Just check out the win probability graph.

Speechless.

F

1983-84 OFFSEASON

Lots to discuss in the ensuing offseason, so I'll try to get through it.

1. The Atlanta Braves actually ended up smashing the Orioles in the World Series. Go figure. Wonder if we would have beat them?

2. As expected, Fergie Jenkins, Jon Matlack, and Gaylord Perry retired. Fergie's number was automatically retired for the Rangers. I manually retired Matlack's, as I figured he earned it.

3. Fergie actually had a killer last game that resulted in a win during the heartbreaking playoff series, I've attached the box score. He almost went for a complete game but ran out of gas before the last batter. Good way to go out.

4. Worst of all - Gaylord Perry retired with a Giants hat! I'm mad at the OOTP algorithm for doing that, given he has more WAR and pitched better with Texas. I ended up un-retiring him to try to earn the Texas hat with another season in 1984. This isn't really cheating too much I figure, as I'll be paying a lot of money for an old replacement-level pitcher.

NOLAN RYAN IS THE NEW STRIKEOUT KING

For once, it's great news for Texas Rangers fans as Nolan Ryan is now the all-time leader in strikeouts. And hey, he's also the all-time leader in walks. And he still has another decade in him...

Also, check out the opposing batting AVG against him, very cool.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...14,317_AL_.jpg

1984 END OF SEASON

Fresh off the disappointment of 1983, the Texas Rangers are forging ahead all the same, with an awesome new logo. I think that's the best one the Rangers have had, IMO.

We've continued our great regular season history in Texas by winning the AL West again in 1984. I don't know how many years that is in a row now but it's a lot. Reminding myself to check later...

Even with the restriction of only having players who actually played for the Rangers on my team, I still seem to find enough guys to make a nice balanced roster that I like. With the nature of re-calc, players ratings are jumping up and down, especially the fielding ratings in some of the important positions. I found myself at the start of 1984 without a competent CF, so I dug through the game and Baseball Reference to find Gary Pettis, who won 5 Gold Gloves at CF including one for Texas.

Some good years from my batters this time around, with Juan Beniquez winning the batting title with a .373 AVG, and Harold Baines, Brian Downing, and Buddy Bell also putting up good numbers. Our pitching numbers seem to be a bit more humdrum than I'm used to, but our runs against is still good for 2nd in the league. I guess league-wide scoring is starting to tick up in 1984.

Some familiar faces in the playoffs again, as the Red Sox are our opponents and the Mets and Dodgers square off in the NL. I swear I've seen something like this before. Anyway, there's definitely some teams that keep winning in my universe, and this years' playoff teams plus the Orioles come to mind first.

Goose Gossage was pitching great again from the pen but picked up an injury that will see him miss the playoffs. He's kind of had a mostly-awful playoff record that cost us a lot of games, so we won't get a chance to see if that continues. Is that a thing that's even coded into OOTP? Just bad luck? Either way it's just like real sports. In the meantime our bullpen is looking a bit weak and we'll be relying on our starters to go deep.

I don't have huge expectations and hopes like I did last season, and Boston won more games and should be favoured to come out of the AL. We'll see!

1984 ALCS

There isn't much to say about the ALCS this year. Although we continued our tradition of losing in the playoffs, I'm not disappointed like I was last season. The Red Sox were undoubtedly a better team than us this year. Their lineup was just too good, with future Hall of Famers Wade Boggs, Steve Carlton, and Roger Clemens as highlights.

They even had Ozzie Smith at SS to add to the misery. I had a platoon-heavy lineup, so when they put a LHP on the mound like Carlton, all of my righties just hit the ball to the Wizard of Oz.

In Game 2 we had another typical playoff collapse in the bottom of the 8th inning, as attached. If I remember right I pulled the SP only for the bullpen to blow it again. And this time I can't blame it on Goose.

We'll try again in 1985. We're getting close to having some cool rookies appearing in the Texas organization! I suspect they'll be a bit of a generational shift in the mid-to-late 80s for the Rangers roster.

1985 ALL-STAR BREAK

Another year, another season of dominance for the Rangers in the AL West. We sit 11.5 games ahead at the All-Star Break, so should comfortably get into the playoffs again. We have to give it another go!

Not much is changed as far as the team goes. I've brought Gaylord Perry back for another year because he was still wearing a Giants hat. It's getting a bit silly at this point, so this'll be the final chance to see if he dons a Rangers hat or not. He's set to finally be ahead in terms of innings pitched this year so hopefully that counts for something.

The big move of the offseason was acquiring Will Clark from the aforementioned Giants, who played a great first base for Texas in real life. I had to give up Mike Stanley, who was set to develop into a great hitting catcher. With Pudge on the way soon I'm not too bothered. Plus I'm attached to Jim Sundberg even though he's old and declining. Clark has a chance for the Hall of Fame if I play him consistently for the next 15 years. He's already getting some extra reps compared to real life as I brought him up to MLB a year early.

Beniquez is batting well again, as are others on the team. The pitching is great too, with Rick Honeycutt having a great year and the bullpen being lights out. Tom Henke has developed into an elite closer, and him and Goose form a great one-two punch in the pen.

Waiting for another shot at the playoffs and our 2nd World Series title!

1985 END OF SEASON

I forgot to take a picture of the final standings, but we finished 1st in the AL West as expected. The final record was 108-54, winning an even 2 out of 3 games which is great.

The bats were solid, with Harold Baines and Juan Beniquez leading the way. Attached below. Love to have a good CF and SS, as you can see the value Scott Fletcher and Gary Pettis brought in their fielding.

The pitching was crazy good, as I'm sure we led the MLB in run prevention. Nolan Ryan did what he does, and led the team in WAR with 5.9. But Rick Honeycutt had a great year, going 19-2 with a 2.02 ERA. Our bullpen was lights out, with Tom Henke and Goose Gossage adding tons of value from the pen. Henke had a sub-2.00 ERA, and Goose had a sub-1.00 ERA for most of the season with zero homers. He finally gave up a homer in September, and another in his last game to push his ERA above 1.00. Getting ready to become playoff Goose I guess.

Over in the NL it's the Mets and Dodgers again! Again! I guess they have their own rivalries, like I have mine. Speaking of which, the musical chairs that is the AL East champion has landed on...

The Baltimore Orioles!!! Again. Time for revenge.

1985 ALCS: TEXAS RANGERS VS. BALTIMORE ORIOLES

Like clockwork, once the playoffs comes around our bullpen falls to pieces. Gossage and Henke unhittable during the regular season? Doesn't matter, can't buy an out during the playoffs. Gossage had something like a 72.00 ERA in this series. What is with him? I've posted the box score from Game 4, where Gossage had some trouble in the 8th, got relieved for Henke, who then had some trouble of his own in the 9th. We almost blew it according to the win probability graph.

But in the end it didn't matter! Our bats did enough against the Orioles pitching, which wasn't elite. And outside of Ripken their defense wasn't that hot either. But our starters were solid, including Nolan Ryan who dealt a shutout to clinch the ALCS in 5 games. Harold Baines got the ALCS MVP.

The Texas Rangers are going to the World Series! Haven't been there since 1981.

1985 WORLD SERIES PREVIEW: TEXAS RANGERS VS. NEW YORK METS

The last time we went to the World Series was 1981, and we lost in a Game 7 heartbreak to the New York Mets. Well, we're back again and ready for another round of revenge.

I've attached the preview of our batting lineup against theirs. Apparently nearly all of the advantage is on the side of the Mets. They have some real sluggers in the heart of their lineup, led by a young Darryl Strawberry.

But there's hope. I'm sure we have a better bullpen than them (well technically, but maybe not with our playoff luck). We also have a much better defense than them, as they aren't fielding anyone who's good at defense besides Lenny Dykstra in LF. And that's one of the 2 least important positions on the field. The Rangers focus on putting the ball in play, so we're going to make their defense work.

Their pitching staff is led by ultra ace Dwight Gooden, who was lighting the world on fire in the real-life mid 80s. I think the rest of their rotation is pretty good, but maybe not quite as good as it was in '81.

They also have Toby Harrah, who spent a lot of good years with the Rangers. I can't remember who I got from the Mets for Harrah.. might have been a bullpen guy. Must have been Greg Harris. Anyway, Harrah couldn't play defense anymore and was blocking the young Julio Franco so he's drawing walks for NYM now.

It should be a good World Series. I figure I've been to the playoffs over 10 times, and only won it all once. If we assume we have a 25% chance any given year (and some years we were really the best team, so maybe higher), then we are certainly due for another win. Let's go!

1985 WORLD SERIES: TEXAS RANGERS VS. NEW YORK METS

We were up against the Mets again in a rematch of the 1981 World Series. Nothing much to say about this one, we just couldn't close the deal in the playoffs again and lost the series 4-2.

The turning point was Game 4. We were leading the Mets 2-1 in the series, and whenever that happens Game 4 is definitely the crucial event in any 7 game series. You can either have a team go up 3-1 and it's almost over, or you can be tied 2-2 and it's wide open.

In the top of the 9th we were behind by a run (after scoring 2) with 2 outs on the board, and a runner on 1st. Then our speedster Gary Pettis tries to steal 2nd base! With 2 outs. Usually he's successful but this time he fails and the game is over. End of the game on a caught stealing in the World Series. Maybe hasn't happened since Babe Ruth.

We proceeded to get crushed in Game 5, then lost an agonizingly close Game 6 to continue our legacy of playoff failure. I've attached the turning point Game 4, as well as the final Game 6. So close, and if we just flipped those two games it would have been a different story. We stranded a lot of guys on base throughout the series, which leads me into thinking that the Rangers need to start loading up on power.

THE TEXAS RANGERS: A LEGACY OF FAILURE?

I've decided to do a bit of a retrospective on this Texas Rangers dynasty, seeing as how all I can really remember is playoff failure. Just how bad is it? It turns out it's pretty bad, at least in the playoffs.

As you can see from the attached screenshot, we've only had one bad year -- our first season in Texas. Since then we've been pretty brilliant in the regular season. We've made the playoffs 10 times out of 14 seasons, which is an amazing success.

But we've just won the World Series one time, in 1979. If you're just flipping coins and treat the teams equally, which they kind of are in the 4-team format, we would have been expected to win about 2 or 3 championships so far. As such I'm disappointed with our playoff record.

9 straight division titles and only 1 championship to show for it. What are some real-life parallels and how does this compare? The Atlanta Braves? Washington Capitals? I can't say the Buffalo Bills because sadly they didn't even get one title.

This screenshot reminded me of that brilliant year in 1977 though. A record 121 wins.. and check it.. 1007 runs! That's the most since Ted Williams and the Boston Red Sox scored 1027 in 1950. We also allowed only 461 runs in the championship year of 1979 which was cool. I can't find any data on that but it must be close to some sort of record.

Anyway this dynasty has been just the right mix of success and frustration to keep me interested for 14 seasons and counting.

1985-86 OFFSEASON: PALMEIRO, VALLE, AND CANSECO COME TO TEXAS

In an effort to spark the Rangers offense and bring some heavy bats to score runs with power, I've brought in some big names who've played for Texas.

Rafael Palmeiro was always a target of mine, and I wanted to trade the Cubs Sammy Sosa for him because it was fitting. Sosa appeared in my intake during the offseason, and I made the swap. The Cubs wanted some extra pieces, but oh well. Pete O'Brien has good ratings but I'm piling up a lot of 1B types on my roster so it's OK to lose him.

Jim Sundberg is starting to fade as far as his value goes, so I brought in Dave Valle to be my starting catcher until Pudge arrives. It took quite a bit to pry him away from Oakland, including Rick Honeycutt who was one of the best pitchers in the majors last year.

Later on I then decided to make another trade with the A's, this time for Jose Canseco. I'm piling up a lot of bad boys aren't I? The A's get quite a few pieces for him, but a lot of them are guys who can't really make the cut in Texas. So I'm happy with the trade.

I'm guessing if I'm doing a historical replay, the game won't really "realize" who did steroids and who didn't, so I think Palmeiro and Canseco have a shot at going in the Hall of Fame with a Rangers hat. They should benefit from playing in my park, which I think is set now to the most offensive park in the majors until Coors arrives. Raffy needs one more year in the minors I think, but Canseco has been playing for the A's already and can start in the OF or as DH for me.

1986 ALL-STAR BREAK: NECK AND NECK WITH OAKLAND

An old nemesis has caught up with Texas again, the Oakland Athletics! Back in the 70s they beat us to a few division titles before we've gone on our great division-winning streak.

Oakland has been helped by a lot of the players we sent to them, including Doyle Alexander (2.38 ERA) who is having an excellent season. Perhaps our trades to acquire Valle and Canseco will come back to bite us?

A lot of Rangers are hitting well, with Brian Downing and Will Clark especially playing great. We seem to be unlucky though, based on the stats I'm seeing. We're 3rd in AVG, 2nd in OBP, 1st in Batting WAR, but only 7th in Runs Scored? Seems like the sequencing is off. Perhaps it's partially because Harold Baines is underperforming his ratings in the all-important 2-slot.

I've attached the standings and the stats.

1986 END OF SEASON

The race between the Rangers and Athletics turned out to be a bit of a smokescreen. With the help of an undefeated July (after the All-Star Break), Texas blazed ahead to once again top the AL West.

For some reason I didn't screenshot the overall standings like I usually do, but we are joined in the playoffs by the Red Sox (again!), Mets (again!), and the Reds. Texas finished with a nice 113-49 record.

I've attached the batter and pitcher stats for the '86 season. Some great performances from our entire batting lineup, led by Brian Downing (162 wRC+, 6.8 WAR). Also some great pitching, with Nolan Ryan leading the way... and Tom Henke with a ridiculous 1.63 ERA and 4.5 WAR (!!) from the pen. He was 1 out away from pitching 100 innings too, heh.

The bad news though is that Scott Fletcher (5.5 WAR) -- our shutdown SS who can also hit -- got a season-ending injury in the last week of the season. That's a huge blow seeing as how our infield backups (Wayne Tolleson and Curt Wilkerson) are a big step down on both offense and defense. We'll see how it plays out.

This dynasty you came up with is a really cool idea. I've enjoyed reading through your reports. Do you think you would've won that 1 WS title if you had implemented the rule to only acquire players who actually played for Texas right from the start?

My favorite years of MLB were 1975-1986, even though my favorite team (Cleveland) was terrible during that era. I've wanted to do historical simulations, but figured I would miss the scouting element. And since the Indians were awful, I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to replay those years. But your idea is an interesting workaround.

God knows the Indians gave away so much talent in the 70's & 80's, receiving little in return. What if they would've kept guys like Chambliss, Nettles, Eckersley, Gaylord Perry, etc. And then you consider the pitchers they obtained well past their prime, like Steve Carlton, Gooden, Hershiser, and Dennis Martinez. Sort of like in your dynasty, I could build an incredible rotation if I could bring these guys in earlier in their careers.

I wonder if there was some connection between the Rangers & Indians front offices. They were trading partners so often. Think of all the guys who played for both teams - Perry, Blyleven, Harrah, Bell, Hargrove, Len Barker, Julio Franco, Jim Bibby, Jim Kern, David Clyde, Alan Bannister.

Thanks for your comment.

Maybe I wouldn't have won that particular World Series title in 1979, as Chet Lemon had a big role in it and he didn't fit my current rules. By the way I checked out Chet Lemon and he's still dominating in my universe in 1986, surely a lock for the Hall of Fame. Even though he didn't get in there in real life.

But I think I would have been good enough to win at least 1 World Series title in a re-boot from the start. Heck, I've been unlucky not to have won something even with my new rules implemented. Making the playoffs every year but always coming up short, it's really crazy. If I did it all again I would know better which players to prioritize. But maybe that would be less fun?

I recommend giving the Indians idea a go. Gaylord Perry is a horse in re-calc. And Eck is a monster in the years when he's an SP... he just had a 10 WAR season in my 1986! I'm sure you could do some damage in the AL East.

Yeah, funny about the Rangers/Indians trades... I replicated some of them and made some other deals as well along the way.

1986 FINAL STANDINGS & ALCS PREVIEW

I've attached the 1986 final standings and a preview of the ALCS against the Red Sox. The game does like my chances in terms of the lineup... but they do have Roger Clemens and Ozzie Smith so it'll be tough to score on them.

Trying to catch up with my posts here, so will only do light commentary and let the pictures explain things.

1986 ALCS: TEXAS RANGERS VS. BOSTON RED SOX

Texas' bad playoff woes continue in 1986, as the Red Sox take us out 4-2. I don't remember a lot of details, as it was a while ago. I do remember that they had a heck of a lot of LHB in their lineup, which made me realize I didn't have much in the way of LHP help in the bullpen to mitigate that. I attached a picture of Frank Tanana racking up a CGSO in Game 5, as he benefited from being a lefty.

You can see from the photo in Game 6... we had the bases loaded with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th, down 6-3. And we grounded into a double play! Brutal.

Disappointed in this one. Creating a nice team and racking up a lot of wins in the regular season never counts for much in the playoffs. We're snake-bitten for sure.

1986 PLAYOFFS, MVP, & OFFSEASON

Funny enough the Red Sox went on to lose to the Mets in the World Series. Funny because Boston still has the Curse of the Bambino in my universe, and because the Mets have now won back-to-back World Series. And I think 4 in their lifetime? Crazy.

Nolan Ryan also won the Cy Young and the MVP... very rare! I didn't even vote for him in either case as I didn't think he'd get it. But the voters definitely love ERA and bWAR, the latter of which is not easily viewable for me. It's surprising because Dennis Eckersley had a crazy 10.0 WAR. My guys were Top 3 in the voting, with Downing and Clark also getting votes. That's pretty wild, probably never happened.

I also shipped out Harold Baines for a decent reliever in McCullers. With Palmeiro coming up next year, we're far too heavy on the OF/1B/DH options. And the next re-calc says Baines can no longer field. So I'm glad to be out of his contract, which was kind of a bad deal that I signed.

Wow. I just read all four pages...every word. What a great Dynasty Report. I've read a few pages from other people, but I really liked how you laid yours out. Concise, but great commentary. Honestly, I had a stupid smile on my face almost the entire first page. I was so into it. :D :thumbup1:

Oh, you forgot to tell us who won the 1984 World Series! Please don't say Boston. Boo Boston! Hiss! Hiss!! I've gotta ask you, how did you do each season? Did you start off the season and auto-sim until the All-Star Break, or somewhere around there? Take some screenshots for your season write up and then sim again to somewhere right around game 162? It sounds like you did your post-season stuff one day at a time...is that correct? Sorry to be all nosy, but one day I'm sure I'll want to do something like this. I noticed many entries (I'm grouping seasons together) were within a few days of each other, so I assume you weren't spending a whole lot of time IRL on each season, or am I incorrect?

A few observations & comments:

I hate to say it, but I was laughing at your misery with Goose Gossage in the playoffs. Why? Because I'm doing a historical sim, started with the '81 Yankees and Mr. Gossage has given me the exact same type of performance when I made it to the playoffs. So, I know your pain. :mad:

I was so excited when I got my hands on Nolan Ryan for the '82 season. It's like winning the lottery, right?? Not for me. He was supposed to be my Ace but he was so terrible for me, I traded him before the year was over. My world must be in the upside-down. Look at this:

https://i.imgur.com/JZlDeun.jpg?1

Oh yeah, I totally forgot how gross Memorial Stadium was in Baltimore, in a good way... :laugh: Frankly, I love old stadiums. I love my Yanks, but living in Mass., I go to more Red Sox games because it's so much closer. Fenway is gross. Half of it smells like pee & beer. But history. When you come outta the tunnel and see that ultra-green grass. Ted Williams played right over there. Mickey ran down fly balls right over there. And so on... I was so sad when they got rid of Yankee Stadium. The House That Ruth Built. No more. :crying: :mad: :thumbdown:

I can't wait to see what's in store for the 1987 Texas Rangers and beyond! :D Great job!!!

Thanks for your great comment!

Apologies for this series being on hiatus. The pandemic altered my schedule, and I also had a bit of a shift in the games I was playing. Just fired up this dynasty for the first time in forever though cause I missed it. Had some good success too, so maybe the secret is stepping away for 6 months?? Will try to post details soon.

To answer a few of your questions... the Dodgers swept the Red Sox in 1984. So Boston is still winless in the World Series since 1918. They have a scary team now though with Clemens, Ozzie Smith, and Eck. Best SP, SS, and CL in the league... that's tough to beat.

Probably the most time I spend with this series is the playoffs, cause I sim 1 game and 1 plate appearance at a time, and the offseason... cause I have to check out all the changes that happened via re-calc and new players coming in and whatnot. Once I setup my lineups and pitching I can burn through a season pretty fast. At times I took a lot of screenshots and didn't post for a while, so I had a backlog for this dynasty thread.

Anyway, I think the plan for the future is to go until I finally win a World Series with just real life Texas Rangers players. And if that happens I'll not do updates here, until maybe the end or periodically when I can update on which players made the Hall, and what my overall record was like.

1987 REGULAR SEASON

I played this 1987 season an age and a half ago, so I don't remember exact details. But Texas is again the class of the AL West, and we were led by some excellent hitting at the top of the order, and some great pitching as usual.

Attached the standings, batter, and pitcher stats. Will Clark was on fire with a sizzling 7.0 WAR at 1B; he had a real 5-Tool season... hitting for average, power, with good baserunning, and plus defense. Even our bench players were hot, a couple with a ridiculous wRC+ over 140 somehow? Also some characteristically great pitching from Nolan Ryan, Tom Henke, and others.

Up next we face the hated Boston Red Sox in the ALCS yet again. Both of us with identical 106-56 records.

1987 ALCS: TEXAS RANGERS VS. BOSTON RED SOX

In a familiar rematch, we face the Red Sox in the ALCS. As I said before, they have the unfair combination of Roger Clemens, Ozzie Smith, and Dennis Eckersley to prevent runs. Altogether though we are pretty even, having identical records in the regular season. If we have an advantage, it's a bit more oomph at the top of the lineup, and better pitching depth.

Unfortunately we started the series down 3-1, with our only win coming in a ridiculous 16-14 Game 2, where we laid down 24 hits and had a real seesaw of a game, swinging the win probability pendulum around wildly.

It was at this point, down 3-1, that I stepped away from this series for a while. Amidst the pandemic and finding other games to play, I had forgotten all about what had happened with my virtual Rangers alt-history. It will continue in near real-time after this!

1987 ALCS: PUSHING IT TO GAME 7

Fast forward to October 2020, with the real-life LAD/TB World Series going on. I have a hankering to pick up my Texas Rangers dynasty again. Here we go! I discover we're down 3-1 to BOS in the 1987 ALCS. Surely we're out of it? Let's give it a go anyway!

Game 5 we win a tight 8-6 ballgame. OK we're in this.

Game 6, Jose Canseco hits a 1st inning grand slam from the cleanup spot, just like you draw it up right? And then in the 2nd inning, we hit back-to-back-to-back homers to go up 9-0. Yes! But then our bullpen (including Rich Gossage of course) almost blows it, giving up 8 runs. We squeak by with a 9-8 victory. Wow!

Game 7, again we score buckets of runs... and the bullpen has a meltdown. It ends up 10-7 in the bottom of the 9th with the bases loaded and 2 outs. We have our only trustworthy pitcher, Tom Henke, on the mound. A grand slam would end the game and our season. But Henke leaves them loaded and we record the final out!

Texas wins! Texas wins! We've come back from 3-1 down. We're going to the World Series! That's gotta be one of the all-time great series... look how many runs were scored. And the pendulum swinging back-and-forth between the Red Sox and Rangers, wow. They've gotta be our biggest rival by now.

I guess sometimes you just need to step away from a dynasty and come back with fresh eyes...

1987 WORLD SERIES PREVIEW: TEXAS RANGERS VS. ST LOUIS CARDINALS

For the 1987 World Series, we're up against the St Louis Cardinals. Ahh yes, the same opponent as in the infamous 2011 World Series.

They netted 100 wins on the year for the best record in the NL, and defeated the Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS (also in 7 games). Looking at their roster, they don't scare me as much as Boston did. They have Andy Van Slyke who is 3rd in Batter WAR in the NL with 5.8. Also Keith Hernandez who's good but for some reason batting 6th?? Some power spread throughout the lineup though.

STL is kind of a mishmash of decent pieces but I think we're definitely the favourite to win here. Their defense looks a bit weak so I hope our hitters take advantage.

1987 WORLD SERIES: TEXAS RANGERS WIN!

We've done it! We've swept the Cardinals and won the 1987 World Series, the 2nd in Texas's history after our triumph in 1979.

We also finally managed to win the World Series with our 1980s roster restrictions (only real-life Texas Rangers allowed). And after some heartbreaking playoff losses year after year.

The 1st inning of Game 2 brought some more magic. Jose Canseco (again!) hit a grand slam from the cleanup spot to start the game. What are the odds of that twice in the playoffs? He also tied the real-life playoff RBI record of 21, set by David Freese in 2011. Wait, what happened in 2011? Oh ya...

Even still, Will Clark was the MVP of both the ALCS and the World Series. He hit over .400 so it's well deserved I'm sure.

There was some drama in both Game 3 and Game 4 as St Louis had a chance to come back in the bottom of the 9th. Stopper Tom Henke helped seal the deal and cemented his legend in Rangers history with a sterling ~1 ERA in the 1987 postseason.

All-in-all we've reached our goal, and I'm happy to do it with a fresh look after not playing this dynasty for a while. I have a bonus post after this, then will pop in from time to time with Rangers players that have been elected to the Hall of Fame. Other than that, this dynasty has run its course in the current year-to-year format.

Thanks for reading!

GOOSE GOSSAGE: PLAYOFF CHOKER

I wanted to take a look at Goose Gossage, who for some reason always seemed to blow it in the postseason at the worst time. He's definitely the most infamous player in this dynasty. I've attached his regular season and postseason statistics for comparison.

As you can see, Goose sports an excellent 2.60 ERA in the regular season. That's better than his 2.88 ERA he had up until 1987 in real life. He's also put up a 184 ERA+ and 28.2 WAR. I'm not sure what the threshold will be for relief pitchers getting into the Hall of Fame in OOTP, but with all those Reliever of the Year awards he should be in the conversation.

Meanwhile, in the playoffs... Goose has a whopping 7.84 ERA! He was truly awful, nearly every year. He couldn't be trusted for more than a few innings in an entire playoffs, sometimes even a few batters. Yes, 31 innings is a small sample size, and .429 BABIP is unlucky. But how it felt during managing all those games was that he was going to blow it every time. He was actually good in limited action in 79/81/82, but I don't even remember that because of all the blowups.

Goose is certainly an interesting part of the story. You've got to have a bit of adversity in a storyline though, right? Winning all the time isn't that exciting. You need to have the downs, to make the ups feel that much better.

Anyway, as I said before... thanks for reading and we'll see you again when someone makes the Hall of Fame.

FERGIE JENKINS ELECTED TO HALL OF FAME

Big news in Texas, as the Rangers have their first ever player elected to the Hall of Fame! He's in on his 1st year of eligibility, with 99.3% of the vote. I guess one or two guys left him off the ballot for some reason.

Very fitting that Fergie is the first guy with a "T" cap to get in, as I traded for him in the first season of my dynasty and he immediately became our first big name in the rotation. He also is (and was) the first Canadian in the Hall, which is cool because that's my country too. As I started in 1972, he kept his 1971 Cy Young with the Cubs, and sadly didn't win another. But a lot of his stats were better than real life.

Real Life Fergie Jenkins: 284-226, 4500 IP, 3.34 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 3192 K, 84.2 bWAR, 80.1 fWAR, 67.8 JAWS
Dynasty Fergie Jenkins: 284-204, 4462 IP, 3.02 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 3119 K, 109.6 bWAR, 99.3 fWAR, 84.1 JAWS

Funny he had the same 284 Wins total, but his rate stats with me were much better. Likely owing to a solid defense most of the time. His JAWS score especially benefitted from his great career with Texas. Glad he improved upon his real-life totals and became a near unanimous Hall of Famer!

Also, you'll see in the voting that Jon Matlack netted 40.4% in his 1st year on the ballot. It'll be an uphill climb, but we'll see if we can get him in too.

Jenkins had a big drug problem at some point that took him off course in real life.

Matlack, was never the same after taking a line drive off his head off the bat of Dusty Baker IRL... he was effective but never had that promise after his rookie year.

1990 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS

We ended up beating the Mets in the 1990 World Series, which is nice because we've lost to them before. The real excitement came in the ALCS against the Blue Jays though, as Jose Canseco won it in Game 7 with a walk off home run in the bottom of the 10th! One of those great baseball moments.

Gaylord Perry was a no doubt Hall of Famer, but I won't highlight his stats or his plaque out of shame for him picking the Giants over the Rangers. The game loves 99.6% or 99.3% or whatever ballots. If I ever do this concept again I'll know to pick up guys like him earlier. Maybe even start with the Washington Senators before they move to Texas.

Some interesting takeaways from the rest of the voting though. It looks like Jon Matlack will fall short of the Hall of Fame, and very likely because his real life career was just not long enough. That, and because he never won the Cy Young, although he probably should have once or twice in my universe.

And also, Al Oliver has a decent shot at election, which would mark another Rangers plaque in the HoF that I kind of forgot about. He was only a few hits short of 3,000... which if I had noticed I could have done something about in his last season. Oh well.

I've played to the point where Bert Blyleven and Nolan Ryan have retired. Wondering if Ryan can get 100% of the vote? He got even more strikeouts than in real life, and has a godly amount of WAR in my universe.

Even with the 1990 World Series win I've been pretty unlucky overall in the playoffs. Lost in 1991/92/93 despite winning the usual 100+ games.