We ended up 8 back even thought we went 17-14 in September. We lost several hundred thousand dollars this year and I am sure the owner will be pissed.

This was the closest division, amazingly enough. The Yankees, Mets and Astros ran away with the other divisions, they won by an average of 17 games each.

Lee May won the Triple Crown in the AL for the Yankees. He hit .324 with 38 HR's and 138 RBI's. Cesar Cedeno led the NL in hitting, Bobby Bonds in HR's and Rico Carty in RBI's.

Will have a full review after the playoffs....going to be a Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees. Yankees with an easy 4-1 series win. Thurmon Munson won the MVP hitting .350.

Bright side, the owner was happy with the results.

Dark side, he cut the budget further. I have to cut about 20% of total payroll. This should be a fun exercise.

I need to cut about $550,000, and I got a bit of a gift. Joe Torre asked for a trade so I dealt Jim Merritt and had the Braves retain salary on Torre next year, so I pick up an upgrade at 1B (1 of the owners goals for 1974) and cut $50,000 in payroll. Fan interest went up 10% to 63, so that will make us money in ticket sales as well.

I can't deal my two highest paid players, Fregosi or Wynn. They are too popular locally and I need to keep fan interest as high as I can. My best pitcher and 3rd highest paid player, Rudy May, is a legit #2 and not far from being a #1. I really can't deal him either. George Dixon got some Cy Young votes as well and he's cheap and only 26. So he stays.

Will sit and wait to see if other players ask for a trade and perhaps deal a contract away. I could also deal a few AAAA players making the minimum for low-rated prospects as an easy way to save another $100,000 or so.

A very active off-season saw over a half-dozen deals to shed salary and then a sudden budget increase where I actually have about $500,000 to play with now.

I had picked up a few veterans who had bad seasons and could get them in cost savings moves like pitchers Wilbur Wood, Tom Walker and John Hiller in those moves that shed about $200,000 but also most of our depth. When I could suddenly add some salary, I dealt a AAA outfielder who has hit over .300 every year but isn't a top 4 outfield prospect for me for a 25 year old pitcher who has struck out 293 in 272 big league innings over a few years of being a swingman, William Sheets.

I am very excited for this coming year with the above additions and earlier acquiring Joe Torre. My fan interest has gone from 53 to 69 and when combined with a 10% ticket price drop, our season tickets are up 40% and we still have a few months before opening day. If projections are correct our revenue would be up 80% this year. That would be great timing with free agency coming up in a few years and top minor league top prospects are starting to reach AAA now. I can see all 3 of my OF that just got to AAA being good major leaguers in 2-3 years. Then at AA I have my top 3 prospects, Eddie Murray (#5 in baseball), Ed Kurpiel (#13) and Roy Howell (#19).

In the amateur draft, the top 10 were:

1)Dale Murphy-Rangers
2)Lance Parrish-Twins (Twins went from 4 straight WS to the 2nd pick in 2 years)
3)Roy Smalley-Dodgers
4)Lonnie Smith-Cubs
5)Terry Puhl-Expos
6)Willie Wilson-White Sox
7)Steve Henderson-Pirates
8)Mark Luckich-Padres
9)Tony Bernezard-Brewers
10)Gerry Templeton-Reds

We took RF Rupert Jones at #21.We need pitching prospects badly, but there have been few top ones available. My plan is to just stockpile bats in the system and trade them for arms once they develop.

My 2nd round pick was a LF named Alfredo Edmead. I had thought he was a fictional player but I had googled him and he had a single season in A going .314/.329/.429, stole 61 bases and was considered a top prospect for the Pirates. In his 2nd spring training however, he tragically became the youngest pro player to be killed in an on-field accident. See this link....tragic.

https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/06/18/al...th-daily-cover

“There wasn’t anything that young man at 18 couldn’t do on a baseball field,” says former catcher Sal Butera, a Blue Jays scout who played for the Lynchburg (Va.) Twins that year. “He was probably the best player on the team, and he was very young. If he grew into his full potential, he would have been a major league All-Star for many, many years.”

Incredibly tragic and moving article. One thing about OOTP is, we can rewrite history. Abolish the color bar in 1920; not 1947. Spare Lou Gehrig from ALS (he is raking in my 1938 season sim). And you have the chance to let Edmead survive and advance. Of course it cannot change the sorrow of his family and Pablo Cruz. But it’s an alternative universe “what if”. Plus, Cruz can get called up to Pittsburgh in my 1971 sim. We’ll see what TCR has to say.

Yep, there have been so many players I knew nothing about before running various historical sims.

So far so good for Edmead. I started him off in A ball and he's .387/.418/.597 after a week.

And so far so good for the big club. 9-1 after 10 games. Drawing 19,000 a game at home and Bumbry, Rivers and Wynn are just hitting .215 between them. Torre, Rudy Meoli, Dave Cash and Jim Fregosi have been hitting well and we are 1st in pitching.

Looking forward to this season

What a tragic story, I am going to be coming up on that draft and will look for him and draft him. One of the things that has made bouncing around history or even random debut is learning about players I have no knowledge of.

1 month into 1974 and we have the 2nd best record in baseball at 17-6. I am 1st in ERA and hitting well enough to have a 4 game lead. Rudy May has become an ace 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA. Tom Bradley, Tom Walker and William Sheets all have ERA's under 3.00. Gerald Lewis is 2-0 with 6 saves and 0.00 out of the pen.

Offensively, Dave Cash is .356/.398/.425 and leading the league in hitting. Joe Torre is .296/.404/.432, Rudy Meoli is .300/.356/.438 and Jim Wynn is .289/.400/.386 to make up for Mickey Rivers and Al Bumbry each struggling at the plate.

I have stayed healthy and Dan Briggs is close to a call up from AAA. I think Ron Fairly is washed, he is my DH against righties and only hitting .200. I just shopped him and received no offers I would consider. I will ride things out a few more weeks and see where my team levels out. We aren't this good.

And within a week I lose Mickey Rivers and Rudy May for a month.

....let's see what Dan Briggs can do

A little more realistic May had us going 15-13 while battling through the injuries to our #1 and our CF. Rivers will be back this week, Briggs has barely hit .200 but has a couple of HR's, which isn't his game. I was expecting .260 or so with double and triples.

32-19 after 2 months with a 2 game lead is ok by me. Still 1st in pitching despite losing May. Bradley and Walker are still in the top 6 in ERA and Sheets is 5th in WAR, so everyone is picking up the slack.

I dealt Ron Fairly straight up for Donn Clendennon. I took on a little salary and some age to get a little more pop from the DH. 3 HR's in 12 games so far, but has yet to hit his OBP above .300 for us.

Heh

After 48 games he is at .339/.404/.497 on pace for 20 doubles, 14 triples, 13 home runs......and 105 steals.

He's ok.

Rivers will be back in a week, but Briggs isn't cutting it. He's just 22, so maybe he needs more time in AAA. Meanwhile, I have a prospect named Gregory Foreman. He was our 2nd round pick in 1970 and has been a two-star guy each of his 4 seasons despite putting up good numbers, with a 5.5 WAR in A ball two years ago, a 4.4 WAR in AA last year and so far this year he is on pace for a WAR of 8.2 in AAA.

So I've called him up after a .380/.469/.641 start with 13 HR's and 49 RBI's after just 51 games. He's also a 60 in LF with potential to be 70. I'll give him a week before Rivers gets back and see what happens.

Foreman IRL was a REALLY good Braves prospect who passed away a few years ago and I can't find out why he quit baseball. This is the only thing I found was actually here at the OOTP message board

"In the most recent Topps Vault releases was a Braves minor league phenom for the early 70s, Greg Foreman, in his first professional camp in 1971.

Foreman, a lefty hitting outfielder, was undrafted because in part his high school did not have a baseball team and in part because he'd signed a football grant-in-aid with LSU. But according to the Braves' 1971 media guide, Braves general manager Paul Richards signed Foreman himself as a favor to a former Southern Association teammate, Jack Sudyam, who was a friend of the Foreman family. He was invited to spring training after hitting .467 in American Legion ball.
Richards: "He has as pretty a swing as any youngster I've ever seen."

And it seemed he had promise, hitting 23 homers for Greenwood in 1971 and 21 and 27 homers for Savannah in 72-73. He had eight for Richmond in 1974 along with more walks than strikeouts (66-62), but played no more.

A "Where are they now?" story written in 2014 indicated that Foreman recently was making a living selling paint at a Sears in his Lake Charles hometown.

A 19-9 June puts us 7 games clear of the Royals. It wasn't our bats, we are still 1st in the AL in pitching with Tom Bradley winning Pitcher of the Month after a 5-0 June. He's now 12-1 with a 2.48 ERA/1.13 WHIP.

Rudy May is off the injured list and is now 6-0/2.35 ERA/1.10 WHIP. Our closer Gerald Lewis will be off the injured list this week, he's been great this season going 3-0 with 10 saves and a 0.90 ERA. Once he's back, we will be 100% healthy.

Our AAA team and one of our A teams are in first place. The AA club is in 3rd and our other A team along with rookie teams are 4th.

A week before the all-star break I dealt our 23-year old 3b good-looking youngster Rudy Meoli and a 3 or 4 star 1b prospect who would be buried behind Eddie Murray forever for disgruntled 30 year old 3b Sal Bando.

Guess I go for it

We hit the All-Star break 60-38 with the 3rd best record in baseball...and we have 2 All-Stars, one of whom, Sal Bando, we've had for 1 week!

Baffling.

We are first in ERA and only Tom Bradley made the team. Rudy May is 9-0 with a 2.22 ERA in only 15 starts and that wasn't good enough. William Sheets 10-5 with a 2.84 ERA and 3rd in strikeouts, nope.

Actually, I should be glad. We are 100% healthy and Bradley just started a game so they may not even use them. Gives everyone else 4 days off before we have 3 with the Royals, 6 1/2 half back in second.

The players just had a players only meeting to "clear the air". Our team mood is "estactic" and it was called by our captain who I have a great relationship with and nobody has complaints about chemistry.

Odd timing.

We have dropped 7 out of the first 8 in July, our lead has dropped to 2 over the Twins and 3 1/2 over the Royals giving up 6 runs a game and the top of the lineup has gone cold.

Great team meeting.

1-6 home stand and now we are in a tie for first with the Royals and the Twins are 1/2 back.

Taking on water....

My whole life I've had a bit of a fascination about the study of what causes plane crashes or how pilots save hundreds of lives by recovering from a potentially fatal incident.

With that in mind, we opened August 2-13 and into a tie for first on 8/15. Two things were going to happen; nose down into Disneyland or the plane leveling off at 5000 feet.

We finished up 8-5 while the Royals went 5-9 and the Twins fell into one of those lakes up there going 3-13. So we open September with a 4 game lead over the Royals and 7 clear of the Twins.

My injury list is clear. I still have no idea who is playing CF and LF from day to day. Al Bumbry and Mickey Rivers have combined for barely a .300 OPB and we can't have the table setters not setting tables. Rookie Dan Briggs has knocked in more runs than both in less than 200 AB's and recent call up Gregory Foreman was hitting .330 with 30 HR's in AAA. Would like 2 of them to get hot. The Yankees will be formidable and if we get THAT far, the Astros look like a dynasty 97-36 so far:

Bob Watson 28 year old catcher .306/.357/.448 10 HR
John Mayberry 23 year old 1B .248/.350/.419 17 HR
Joe Morgan 30 year old 2B. .268/.388/.381 40 SB
Mike Easler. 23 year old LF .328/.393/.523 21 HR
Cesar Cedeno 23 year old RF .341/.393/.537 22 HR SB

Their pitchers are just as young and great, being 1/2/3/5 in ERA.

Jon Astroth
 

Yeah, no record of any Jonathon Astroth in MLB. Joe was a defense-first catcher for the Philly (and KC) A’s, one of the best ever at throwing out would-be base-stealers. He had three sons; but no Jonathon. Is Jonathon a catcher? Could he be a fictional player thrown into your draft for some odd reason? What were the Royals thinking??

Yes, he is a catcher but nothing at all about him in the game, empty page of "real life stats"

He's already with the Royals at age 23 and he is a 4 1/2 star potential guy

He is in the baseball reference minor league page. He was a 23rd round pick by Texas in 1973. Bounced around their minor league system for 4 seasons, that was the extent of his career.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Our 4 game lead is gone. We had a 4 1/2 game lead over the Royals when they came to California and took all 3 games and after we lost 2 of 3 to the White Sox, the Royals kept winning and took all 4 games against the Twins and now we are tied at 81-66.

We have 3 games in KC in a week which will likely mean everything,

After 161 games the Angels and Royals are 88-73.

We are at Oakland and we have our ace Tom Bradley (18-4 2.46 ERA 1.11 WHIP) going and KC has their slightly tired ace going at the White Sox. We have to face LaDon Boyd, who led the AL in ERA last year and the Royals face Goose Gossage.

Going to play this later today.....

Knowing that the Royals already lost 5-4 our ace Tom Bradley went out......and gave up 8 runs in 4 innings, we lost 11-4.

So we had a 1 game playoff, It turns out the Royals rested their ace and threw a rested #1 at us as we put out a 25 year old who has gone 2.39/1.20WHIP since picking him up on waivers and had won his last 4 starts with a 1.33 ERA.

I was going to do a thorough re-cap of the playoff game, but we took it really easily 13-5 as we knocked out 16 hits and 3 different players knocked in 2 runs each.

So it will be the 89-74 Angels vs the 103-59 Yankees in the AL and the 92-70 Cardinals vs 114-48(!!!) Astros in the NL

In game 1 of the 5 game ALCS, William Sheets only gave up 1 run through 7 and we took a 2-1 lead into the 8th, but Jerry Tabb hit a 3-run HR pinch-hitting for Thurmon Munson (who hit .340 with 20 HR's in the regular season...I mean...really?), so we dropped game 1 4-2.

We jumped all over Fritz Peterson in game 2 evening up the series with a 12-6 win. Sal Bando and Joe Torre hit home runs and Torre and Dave Cash knocked in 3 each as we flew west and had our top 2 pitchers going.

Game 3 saw Rudy May give up 5 runs in the first. Lee May, who should win his 2nd straight AL MVP this year, hit a 2-run HR and we had a steep hill to climb. In the 2nd, we put together 6 hits to cut it to 5-4. We tied it in the 4th and in the 5th, rookie CF Gregory Foreman hit a 2-run home run and we went up 6-5. The Yankees worked a few singles to tie it in the 7th and we were tied going into the bottom of the 9th.

In late September as we struggled to make the post-season, we couldn't find someone to take CF and make it their own. Al Bumbry, Dan Briggs and Gregory Foreman all had at least 60 AB's and only Foreman was hitting over .200 in September at .215, so we went with him. Foreman is 22 and has been a 2 and 2 1/2 star guy after being drafted in the 2nd round 4 years ago.

In his 2nd year, he won the MVP in A-ball going .289/.380/.485 with 21 HR's and 29 SB's. In his 3rd year, he won the MVP in AA, going .275/.375/.471 with 24 HR's, 102 RBI's and 19 steals. This year in AAA, he was named the MVP AGAIN this week after he went .343/.443/.637(!!!) with 31 HR's 108 RBI's in just 105 games. Yet he is not a top 100 prospect and just a 2 1/2 star player.

With 2 outs in game 3, he ripped a 2-out, 3 run HR off Alan Tetrault to give us a 9-6 walkoff win and a 2-1 advantage and a chance to go to the WS with 1 more win. Foreman ended up 3 for 5 with 2 HR's, 5 RBI's and 3 runs scored.

Our ace Tom Bradley, who was ripped in the play in game, was ripped for 3 runs in the top of the 1st, but Jim Wynn homered in the bottom of the 1st and we scratched a run across in the 5th to make it 3-3. However, the Yankees scored twice in the 6th to go up 5-3 and after we pushed a run across in the 7th, we trailed 5-4 going into the 9th. Our bullpen messed the bed and gave up 5 in the 9th and despite Foreman's 3rd HR's in the series in the 9th, we fell 10-5 and there would be a game 5.

We started William Sheets who we acquired FROM the Yankees in the off-season. He was a 25-year old swing man last year for New York going 13-9 with 2 saves and a 3.62 ERA. We dealt a superfluous prospect for him and he went 13-10 with a 3.22 ERA/1.35 WHIP and 183 strikeouts in 212 innings. We faced off against Robert Elliott, the 1973 Cy Young and pitched through injuries this year, but still went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA/1.05 WHIP and a 3 WAR in just 19 starts.

Elliott and Sheets threw zeros through 6 1/2, but that man Foreman again led off the 7th with a double and scored on a Dave Cash single and we went up 1-0. Mickey Rivers then broke it open with a bases loaded triple in the 8th and Sheets went 8 2/3 scoreless innings before giving up a meaningless run in the bottom of the 9th and we going to the World Series as we won 6-1.

Foreman was named the series MVP going .389/.500/1.000 with 3 HR's, 6 RBI's, 8 runs scored.

So on we go to face the Astros who swept the Cardinals and look absolutely unstoppable. Frankly, I expected to lose to the Yankees and the World Series is gravy. Just noticed Joe Morgan will miss the first 4 games with a thumb injury. Need to take advantage.

I didn't realize that Morgan was not on the Astros post-season roster, so even though he was healthy, he didn't play. Did it matter?

In game 1, Wynn and Torre hit RBI singles in the top of the 1st, but Mike Easler and Bob Watson did the same in the bottom of the 1st and it was on. It stayed 2-2 until the 5th when we added a run on another Torre RBI single off Larry Dierker to go up 3-2. But the Astros came right back in the bottom half on a 2-RBI triple by Don Buford off George Dixon and we found ourselves down 4-3. In the top of the 7th, Sal Bando hit a 2-out, 448 foot 3-run HR off Dick Ruthven and we ended up taking game 1 6-5.

The pitchers did not cover themselves in glory in game 2. Former Angels Aurelio Rodriguez and Ken Berry touched Rudy May for RBI singles in the 1st but we scratched together single runs to make it 2-2 going into the 4th. Ron Cey hit a 455 ft HR and it was 4-2 Astros. But not for long. Ken Holtzman didn't have it, Francisco Marquez hit a 2-RBI single and the Angels came back to lead 5-4. It was 6-5 Angels going into the bottom of the 8th where the Astros put together 5 hits to score 3 runs and we fell behind 8-6 going into the 9th. NL ERA leader James Chamberlain entered the game, and when Dave Cash took the first pitch he saw over the left fiel fence for a rare home run, it was 8-7 Astros. After a walk to Rivers and a Bando single, Joe Torre lined a single up the middle scoring Rivers and we were tied at 8. After Jim Fregosi struck out, ALCS MVP Gregory Foreman doubled to the right field gap to score pinch runner Kurt Bevacqua and after a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th, the Angels went up 2-0 with an exciting 9-8 win.

The Astros put 3 hits together off Tom Bradley to go up 1-0 and Don Wilson had a perfect game through 3 when an error by 3rd baseman seemed to unravel Wilson for a bit as after a single to Rivers and walking Torre, Jim Wynn took an 0-2 pitch over the left field wall for a grand slam and a 4-1 lead. The Angels added 2 more and the Astros 1 and somehow........we were up 3-0 over a team with almost 30 more wins in the regular season.

Game 4 saw Jimmy Ray and Chamberlain scatter 5 hits, Cesar Cedeno hit a 3-run HR and Mike Easler and Bob Watson combined for 9 hits in an easy 5-1 win. The Angles also committed 3 errors and it was 3-1.

The last game in California saw George Dixon and Larry Dierker throw absolute gems. Dixon gave up 1 unearned run thanks to 3 more Los Angeles errors, but Dierker went 1 better, shutting out the Angels scattering 9 hits and after a 1-0 Houston win, it was 3-2 and back to Texas we went.

Game 6 was a rematch between lefties Holtzman and May and both pitched much better than their first efforts. After each team scored in the top of the 1st, John Mayberry knocked in a run and it was 2-1 Houston after 6. Despite the lead and Holtzman pitching well, they unsuccessfully pinch hit for him in the 6th and they went to Dick Ruthven who sailed into the 9th but he walked Jim Fregosi to lead off the 9th. Foreman then singled PR Doug Griffin to 3rd and after a short fly out, our regular season DH, Donn Clendenon, who was forced to the bench since this was at an NL park, hit a long sac fly and we were tied and 2nd. We then sent Foreman on a steal of 2nd and with 2 outs, Cash was once again money in the 9th inning, ripping a single up the middle and after Foreman came around to score, we were three outs from a World Series Championship.

And we got them, 1-2-3.

We won it

Wow.

Time to toot my own horn. Joe Torre was named the World Series MVP, William Sheets went 13-10 with a 5.0 WAR, Tom Walker was a solid 1.2 WAR in a swingman role and Wood ate up some innings in the bullpen. Then during the season I dealt Ron Fairly for Donn Clendenon, who tied the WS clinching game in the 9th inning.

Lots to do in the off-season. I have about 6 players for 3 outfield spots, so I will be making deals and hopefully have the same luck this offseason

I concur

Some post-season housekeeping:

We didn't receive any post-season awards. Not a single Gold Glove. No Silver Sluggers. Nada. Just the scoreboard. :)

Bob Boone and Jeff Burroughs won Rookie of the Year. Sam McDowell went 22-11 with 3.26 ERA and 211 K's and won the AL Cy Young. Our Tom Bradley did finish 2nd. Larry Dierker won the NL version with a 21-6 record and a 2.47 ERA.

23-year old Dave Winfield won the AL MVP for Cleveland, leading the league in hits and in batting average with .340/.390/.532 with 24 HR's, 100 RBI's. 22-year old Fred Lynn won the NL MVP for the Expos as he led the NL in AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS/WAR and hit 23 HR's on top.

The draft pool seems pretty shallow of names:

1)Gene Richards
2)Lee Smith
3)Lou Whitaker
4)Terry Puhl
5)Jason Thompson
6)Andre Dawson
7)Dan Graham
8)Frank Pastore
9)Don Robinson
10)Brian Rosinski

The entire reason I am playing this sim is I screwed up wanting to play Graig Nettles career. I tried to get him a few times but was shot down every time. Now he is on the trading block and I can get him if I want. But while Nettles is a vastly superior fielder to Bando, Bando does everything better at the plate. It pains me, but I am going to resist the temptation.

Our first deal in the books. Al Bumbry looks to be a guy who is a good player for a bad team, but on a good team, he's not good enough. After averaging 3 WAR his first 2 full years, he dipped to 1 last year as younger players earned time over him. We picked up Donn Clendennon last year to be our DH and he helped lead us to the World Series. But he is 39 and really tapered off down the stretch.

So we sent them to the Cubs where both will start. In return we received 26 year old LHP Larry Gura. Though he went just 10-17 last year, his 3.13 ERA was top 10 and a 3.7 WAR pitching in Wrigley. Given that Rudy May has turned 30 and has been hurt in 3 of the last 4 years, my next deal is to deal him for either a SS or a CF.

I received 29 year old CF Reggie Smith from Boston for 30 year old Rudy May and 33 year old Wilbur Wood. My assistant GM said no, but Smith's WAR the last 4 years was 5.8/3.7/5.7/6.1 and is a 5-time All-Star coming off the Silver Slugger Award.

It's no-brainer to me seeing how the falloff in pitching seems to be out-weighed both by May's injury history and Smith's averaging 150 games a season. Wood was a bullpen arm for me but he will start for Boston. They also have a young Jim Dwyer in center who could be a nice player.

Our fan interest went from 73 to 80. I was going to raise ticket prices 7%, but I think I can bump it a little more now.

Nice trade -- loved Gura as a kid when he pitched for the Royals in the early to mid-80's.

Royals always had a tough rotation from the late 70's on, Gura, Leonard, Splittorff.

I try not to abuse the trade function. I try.

I could have done it straight up for Bumbry, but I wasn't going to play Clendennon, so it made the trade more equal in value.

Top 10 picks of the draft

1-Cubs-Lee Smith (nice)
2-Tigers-Lou Whitaker (Nice!!)
3-White Sox-Andre Dawson
4-Brewers-Jason Thompson
5-Padres-Carney Lansford
6-Expos-Gene Richards
7-Giants-Terry Puhl
8-Expos-Willie Aikens
9-Twins-Keith Moreland
10-Dodgers-Willie Upshaw

With pick 20, we took SP Dave Rozema. Our 2nd rounder had 40 career MLB AB's, our 3rd rounder never played above AA and our 4th rounder had a career 2-13 record with a 6.18 ERA.

After reviewing last years stats, our Joe Torre broke the MLB record by grounding into 34 DP's. (broken by Jim Rice in the 80's) I remember thinking as the year progressed that he had to be close, but then forgot when I got into a tight race. He still had a 2.5 WAR and a OBP over .400, so still very glad I traded for him.

I traded Jim Merritt for him, he went 8-15 but an impressive 4 WAR on a bad St Louis team. Win-Win trade

Frank Robinson of the O's is out for a week after being attacked by a wild animal at the zoo

We go into 1975 as follows:

Rivers-LF/DH
Cash-2B
Reggie Smith-CF
Wynn-RF
Torre-1B
Bando-3B
Fregosi-SS
Briggs/Foreman-LF/DH
Marquez-C

I have Roberts, Gura and 3 fake players in my rotation ranking 16th in baseball in a preseason poll. We did deal a prospect for Dean Chance as our last deal in the offseason. He's won 160 games, but I am converting him to closer at age 33. Stamina is down to 55 and he has good stuff and I think he can make the switch.

Healthy team, defending champs, let's go.

Some players of note on the waiver wire, well known players who never quite developed as IRL:

Bernie Carbo, 27
Joe Ferguson, 28
Dave Kingman, 26
Bill North, 26
Richie Zisk, 26
Bob Forsch, 25
Gene Garber, 26
Joe Niekro, 30

Way too many weird things happening during the first month.

I have committed 35 errors in 22 games, no other team has 15. My team was 3rd in defense last year, I am dead last with the same starters and an upgrade in CF.

I have blown 3-4 run leads, 2-5 run leads and a 7 run lead.

I have allowed more unearned runs in April than I did from April to July last year, I am starting the season over, something is way off.

ETA, I decided to play one more game and I committed 3 more errors leading to 3 unearned runs. Dave Cash has 9 errors, he made 13 all last year. Fregosi has 8 at SS.

I think re-starting is a last-resort, but something has to be off why I am the only team that can't catch the ball.

Crap, I thought I saved before the start of the season. I hadn't saved since right after the draft but before my trades. Will see if I can still get Gura/Chance/Smith as I did before the strangeness happened.

Has anyone else had something gone really weird with a sim and had to restore a backup?

As they say, its your game, play it your way, but going back and redoing when you don't like the results gets rid of me as a reader.

It's not disliking the results, I am still over .500. The results just aren't logical. How does the average game have .8 errors and our games have over 4 per game? 500% worse than other games.

Still haven't decided what to do, but now my team is unhappy and arguing with each other.

Logical results? Meaning what? That even short term you want results within one standard deviation? Or maybe half of one?

The idea of logical results means no one will be setting records! :ohmy:

I'm muscling through. I really don't like it. LOL

Dave Cash has committed more errors in 30 games than he did in 2 of the last 4 seasons. I wonder.....does the game ever do a "Steve Sax" on someone? Is it possible this is one of those things?

After two months we are 24-27 and tied for last 5 games out.

We are 1st in runs scored, 6th in ERA but 11th in runs allowed, thanks to our 12th place defense. Our 1-4 hitters are raking which is needed since Bando and Torre have yet to get going and Fregosi might be washed, but it's still early.

In other news, Brooks Robinson announced he will retire this year, and there have been 2 no-hitters; Dick Ruthven for the Astros against the Dodgers and Benny Farley for the Cardinals against the Phillies. Farley is a 24-year old fictional player who is already a 2-time All-Star.

We had a very good 18-12 June, we are still 5 games back but now we are 3rd. We are still 1st in offense and up to 3rd in ERA and 9th in runs allowed thanks to our defense no longer being a sieve.

The bad news is our good health has run out as Dave Cash and SP George Dixon each picked up muscle injuries the last week of the month and are both out 6 weeks.

I had picked up utility man Larry Milbourne in the Donn Clendennon trade last year when he was in AAA. I knew he played 4 positions and hoped he could become a 5th infielder. A few weeks ago I dealt another ulitilty player, Kurt Bevacqua for fellow utility man Sonny Jackson. They both played several positions, but Jackson played 1 additional infield spot so I made that swap and so he and Milbourne will split 2nd until Cash gets back.

Reggie Smith leads CF's in All-Star voting with .296/.390/.452 10 HR and 44 RBI's. LF Gregory Foreman, last year's ALCS MVP, is favorite so far for Rookie of the Year with .254/.346/.431 and leading all rookies with 9 HR/37 RBI/ and slugging and WAR and OPS+.

My minor league teams aren't doing well but some prospects are.

AAA
22 year old C Bob Allieta .308/.403/.473 8 HR 56 RBI
21 year old LF Ed Kurpiel .283/.432/.506 10 HR 49 RBI

AA
19 year old 1B Eddie Murray .289/.351/.487 *missed 6 weeks with back injury..dammit
19 year old LF Alfredo Edmead .305/.383/.414 5 HR 51 SB
21 year old 3B Don Money .319/.423/.578 7 HR (promoted to AAA)

A
18 year old 3B Larry Rush .317/.372/.453
23 year old CF David Robinson .308/.371/.391 45 SB
20 year old RF Rupert Jones .305/.395/.409 5 HR 20 SB

We've reached the All-Star break at 50-44 and 3 games out of first. The Royals and Twins are tied and Minnesota just dealt for Dock Ellis, so we will need to make a deal as well to keep up with them.

Despite being World Champs and leading baseball in runs scored, Jimmy Wynn is our only All-Star, which is one more than last year, we are exceptionally balanced and don't have a flat out monster bat. We have 7 players between 42 and 53 RBI's and 8 players between 38 and 55 runs scored.

Rivers .289/.333/.378 43 RBI 55 Runs 20 SB
Cash .297/.339/.366 35 RBI 32 Runs (on DL last 3 weeks)
Smith .284/.374/.424 49 RBI 53 Runs 10 HR
Wynn .282/378/.466 53 RBI 52 Runs 14 HR
Torre .265/.345/.369 42 RBI 40 Runs
Foreman.265/.351/.438 49 RBI 42 Runs 11 HR 6 SB (rookie)
Bando .199/.286/.339 43 RBI 46 Runs 10 HR
Fregosi .279/.345/.397 43 RBI 39 Runs
Marquez .237/.333/.335 27 RBI 39 Runs

Lewis 10-4 2.60 ERA
Bradley 9-7 3.94 ERA
Sheets 8-8 3.29 ERA
Gura 4-6 3.82 ERA
Dixon 7-3 3.98 ERA

Chance 5-0 7 saves 1.91 ERA

Twins made another deal, sending a prospect for Del Unser. The Yankees, who we beat in the ALCS made a huge deal, sending 4 prospects to the Reds for Dave Concepcion.

I need to improve my team, I am going to use my prospect depth to get another starter. We are 1st in runs and OBP, we don't need any help there. If I can get at least a solid #2, I will feel much better about our chances

The Athletics traded Catfish Hunter to the Dodgers for Bill Russell, Thad Bosley and Jim Gantner. 31 year-old Hunter only has 110 wins and didn't develop into the star he did IRL. Russell is a light hitting great fielding 2b and Gantner is a top-100 3b prospect.