Texas Rangers (Est. 1972)
 

INTRODUCTION

Hello, and welcome to my dynasty thread. I'm taking over the Texas Rangers from their beginning in 1972. The initial players are holdovers from the Washington Senators, but I feel this is the real start of the franchise. The Rangers have been my favourite team since I played Ken Griffey Jr. Presents on the SNES growing up. Juan Gonzalez was a beast in that game, and due to no MLBPA license all of the players had cool cowboy names like W. Earp and B. Hickok.

The main goals of this save will be to:

1. Exceed the historical success of the real Texas Rangers. One World Series title should do that. Once I have that, the goal becomes to be a real long-term dynasty.

2. Put as many Texas Rangers into the Hall of Fame as possible. In real life only Nolan Ryan and Pudge are wearing a Rangers cap. And Ryan's choice of the Rangers is a bit dubious. So I'll improve on this.

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RELEVANT SETTINGS

1. 3-Year Recalc with Current Year Double-Weighted. I tried the Development Engine only in a test run, but it was too random for my taste. I'll try not to exploit the AI, but Texas starts off pretty weak so I'll have a bit of challenge.

2. Historical Rookies Import to their Teams. This will save time on drafting and add more historical flavour. Will try to build around a core of Rangers.

3. League Evolution On. The MLB will expand as relevant, and rules and strategy will update as the years pass by.

INITIAL PRIORITIES

1. Try to trade for Fergie Jenkins and Nolan Ryan. Getting them early will both help my team and ensure they have a Rangers cap in the Hall.

2. Also try to trade for Buddy Bell and Al Oliver. These guys are outside shots at the Hall, but they were also good historical Rangers I want.

For initial prospects I only have Bill Madlock who has a chance at the Hall. But given that I'd only play him as 1B/DH and that he didn't play much as a Ranger, I'll probably need him for my trade packages.

Any advice or comments or questions welcome!

1972 RECAP

Record: 60-102, 6th in AL West

Well, the Rangers inaugural season in Texas was awful. We stumbled out to a 60-102 record, good enough for dead last in the MLB. The good news is that we've made some strides to be competitive in the long-term.

Notable Ins: Fergie Jenkins (SP), Buddy Bell (3B), Mark Belanger (SS), Paul Blair (CF)
Notable Outs: Bill Gogolewski (SP), Frank Howard (LF), Toby Harrah (SS)
Rookie Class: Mike Hargrove (1B), Jim Sundberg (C), Len Barker (SP)

Toby Harrah and Buddy Bell swapped places in real history, but I engineered the move earlier. It's part of a move to have a strong defensive lineup with Belanger and Blair. I gave up quite a bit to get Fergie Jenkins, but he immediately becomes the best Ranger and a likely candidate for my first Hall of Fame cap.

Best Performers
Fergie Jenkins (SP): 5.5 WAR
Jeff Burroughs (RF): 4.5 WAR
Elliot Maddox (CF): 3.6 WAR
Dick Bosman (SP): 3.1 WAR

World Series
Baltimore Orioles defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3

MLB Awards
AL MVP: Bobby Grich (SS), BAL
NL MVP: Hank Aaron (RF), ATL
AL Cy Young: Vida Blue (SP), OAK
NL Cy Young: Tom Seaver (SP), NYM

Hall of Fame Inductees
Whitey Ford (SP), NYY
Robin Roberts (SP), PHI
Sandy Koufax (SP), LAD
Yogi Berra (C), NYY

Next step is to try to pry Nolan Ryan away from the Angels...

So I've done some pondering on this, and I'm thinking the 1970s version of my Rangers are going to skew to the run-prevention side. I've got Ferguson Jenkins and am aiming to get Nolan Ryan, so those 2 guys are my focus on getting Rangers in the Hall of Fame for now. A good defense should help them. Even if the Hall favours FIP, the lower ERAs will keep starting pitchers in the game longer and generating more value.

And OOTP is saying that the old Arlington Stadium is a pitcher's park, so that skews the decision even more. I don't know if those stadium factors will stay similar until 1993 when we move to the newer park (a hitter's park), but we'll see.

1973 update will come tomorrow. I'll put together a better lineup this year and win a lot more than 60 games for sure.

1973 ALL-STAR BREAK

So with California out of contention at the All-Star break, and Texas surprisingly in 1st place by 1 game over Oakland, I went all out and traded for Nolan Ryan. The Angels actually got quite a haul, including Bill Madlock who will be a perennial batting title candidate, my starting RF in Elliot Maddox, and Bill Hands (SP) who has 3.0 WAR at the break. And also Jonathan Astroth who has the potential to be a franchise catcher. See this thread on Astroth for an interesting story: https://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boa...d.php?t=305605

The trade might even weaken me in the short-term, but Nolan Ryan will no doubt become a Rangers legend and Hall of Famer. I'll have to find another outfielder and DH if I want to compete for the playoffs this year. In other news, I turned off personality and morale as I found I paid attention to it too much for a historical sim, and the values were randomized anyway I think.. which was annoying. It gave me an unfair advantage over the AI as I like to have teams full of "green" personalities.

1973 ALCS

The Rangers are going to the World Series! In only our second season, no less. We ended up winning the AL West Division by 2 games over Oakland, and then the Red Sox took us to the full 5 games in the ALCS.

It was a crazy series, with lots of back-and-forth. Nolan Ryan started twice, and had a ridiculous 1.17 ERA to go along with 18 strikeouts. Funny though, he actually lost the first game due to no run support.

The definitive moment came in the top of the ninth in Game 5. Our closer Steve Foucault and setup man Al Hrabosky combined to load the bases for Boston. The score is 6-3, so giving up anything would put us in a huge hole. I was sweating it. With 2 outs, Hrabosky strikes out Fred Lynn and the game is over!

On to face interstate rival Houston Astros in the World Series, in both teams' first shot at the title. You couldn't script it any better.

1973 WORLD SERIES

Well, that was disappointing. The Astros defeat the Rangers 4-1 in the World Series, and the first baseball championship in Texas goes to Houston. Nothing could be worse! :angry:

I hadn't quite finished the team the way I wanted, but somehow Texas had the best record in MLB with 98 wins, and we made our way to the finals. Throughout the series, Houston did "feel" like the better team and my hitting especially isn't quite good enough yet. Not enough slugging to drive runs in.

Steve Foucault totally blew a save in the deciding 5th game too. You can see by the game graph we had it locked-up in the top of the ninth. But then disaster.

Oakland is shaping up to be my biggest rival in the AL West, but Houston is definitely my biggest overall rival by virtue of being in-state and beating us in our first World Series. New goal: do better than Houston in this save.

1973 Recap coming in the next post.

1973 RECAP

Record: 98-64, 1st in AL West

A fantastic second year, although we came up short in the World Series. Along with Nolan Ryan I signed a couple of finesse pitchers in Peterson and Merritt, and I will try to focus on these types for my 3-5 slots as they fit well in a pitcher's park.

Mike Hargrove was great as a rookie starting a year earlier than history and actually won the AL Rookie of the Year. Nolan Ryan and Fergie Jenkins finished 2nd and 3rd in the Cy voting, and we got a few Gold Gloves (C, SS, CF) and one Silver Slugger (3B). And the Manager of the Year went to... me!

Notable Ins: Nolan Ryan (SP), Fritz Peterson (SP), Jim Merritt (SP), Felix Millan (2B)
Notable Outs: Bill Madlock (DH), Elliot Maddox (RF), Jonathan Astroth (C)
Rookie Class: Jim Umbarger (SP)

Best Performers
Nolan Ryan (SP): 6.8 WAR
Fergie Jenkins (SP): 6.1 WAR
Buddy Bell (3B): 5.8 WAR
Mark Belanger (SS): 4.7 WAR
Paul Blair (CF): 4.5 WAR
Felix Millan (2B): 4.2 WAR
Mike Hargrove (1B): 4.1 WAR

World Series
Houston Astros defeat Texas Rangers 4-1

MLB Awards
AL MVP: Rod Carew (2B), MIN
NL MVP: Don Money (2B), PHI
AL Cy Young: Bert Blyleven (SP), MIN
NL Cy Young: Don Wilson (SP), HOU
AL Rookie of the Year: Mike Hargrove (1B), TEX

Hall of Fame Inductees
Mickey Mantle (CF), NYY
Early Wynn (SP), CLE
Eddie Mathews (3B), ML1
Duke Snider (CF), LAD

Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame Watch
Locks: Fergie Jenkins, Nolan Ryan
Even Odds: Buddy Bell
Longshots: Mike Hargrove, Jeff Burroughs

1973-74 OFF-SEASON

I've noticed in my post-World-Series-blues that one of the biggest issues facing Texas right now is our financial situation. Despite making the big dance, we're up tight against the budget with no room to maneuver. So I've tried to kill two birds with one stone...

Big trade! The details are below. If you haven't noticed, I'm placing an emphasis on acquiring players who actually played for the Rangers. So we're picking up 35 years-young Gaylord Perry. We lose Millan, who was making too much money, Grubb who is a great bat, and Hrabosky who is a quality reliever. But we've freed up some cash.

The bonus with Perry is that he boosted fan popularity, which will help with ticket sales and therefore future finances. And he's also a great pitcher who will last another decade. Our rotation is scary good, but I'll have some holes to fill.

1974 MID-SEASON

The Texas Rangers have followed up their 1973 World Series appearance with a disappointing season. I'm not at home right now so I can't check details, so I'm just going by memory. I simmed to July 1st and am sitting with a losing record, at around 10 games back of the A's for the division lead. We're getting screwed by luck, with an astounding -8 expected wins by pythag record already.

In additional moves before the season started, I picked up an aging Lou Brock to bat DH, and a young Frank White to man 2B. Brock has been the best offensive Ranger by value, hitting for average and stealing a lot of bases (an owner goal). Frank White hasn't developed enough yet, so he's been bad at the plate. His great 2B defense hasn't made up for that.

In all, I think I've overdosed on defense. We're 1st in pretty much every defensive and pitching category, but middling at best in creating offense. To go along with 3 ace pitchers, the Rangers' C, 2B, SS, and CF are all defense-first players. The bottom of the lineup is kind of a black hole offensively. We're not getting timely runs, which I'm sure has contributed to the -8 pythag record. The bad news is that fans are starting to lose interest, and our ticket sales are suffering.

The interesting thing is that it's hard to get out of this in a historical sim -- with no scouting system, the AI is really helped in its player evaluations. And a full-on rebuild is a bit hard because I'm pegged to the Rangers draft picks. Which weren't that great? The only real bonafide superstar coming my way is Pudge, and that's not for a long time.

Anyway I'm quite embracing the challenge. Maybe I should just ride it out and see what happens? Would love any suggestions from readers.

I'd say it's really hard to full out rebuild in a sim like this. As a Blue Jay fan, I tend to do the same thing you do with getting Blue Jay prospects and sometimes you get years with a bunch of scrubs. It's easier to just weather the storm and try to always get better. Worst case, trade expiring Free Agents (can't remember if you have Free Agency turned on) and pick up any sort of young guys you can. There's no benefit of losing games with no draft, and it's a lot more fun when you win games lol.

Thanks for your comment. I also have a soft spot for the Blue Jays being from Canada, and growing up and (vaguely) remembering the back-to-back World Series wins. All the kids loved Alomar. Funny that the Rangers and Jays had a rivalry a few years back.

Free agency isn't really a thing, and I assume it won't be until 1976 when it came about in history. So it's coming soon. What happens now is players just get automatically arbitrated with new 1-year contracts every year. Costs rise a lot if they have good seasons.

I tried to plan for the future by locking-in players like Nolan Ryan to multi-year contracts to save big on inflation in the future. But players don't seem to accept anything other than 1-year deals right now.

The historical financial management seems to be harder than current day MLB, the latter of which is a sweet deal for the owners and easy to run a young moneyball team. I don't mind the historical setup because it adds some nice challenge.

You're right that there's no benefit to losing games, and that my focus is on winning. That's a positive thing. Every offseason I not only try to make my team better, but end up making it worse intentionally in a few of my trades just to save on salary costs. As a fledgling franchise in Texas, the Rangers aren't a popular team and don't bring in a lot of money yet. So I have to not only work within a budget, but also try to win games to bring more fan support.

All in all it's an interesting challenge and I'm enjoying it.

1974 ALL-STAR BREAK

I like to do my trading at the All-Star break before the deadline, and I did do a couple of deals in July 1974. We're 20 GB from the Athletics, so it's a lost season. So my moves were on the rebuilding side, but we don't have to wait too long for the payoff.

The big outs were my former Orioles defensive duo in Paul Blair (CF) and Mark Belanger (SS).

I brought in like-for-like replacements in Mickey Rivers (CF) from the Angels, and Rick Burleson (SS) from the Red Sox. In both cases I sacrifice a little defense for some future offense, and get a little younger.

The AI is not too dumb, especially with scouting off and Hard trading difficulty. So it also got some decent bench players and prospects from me. But the Red Sox were in "win now" mode so I took the opportunity to pick up the young Burleson.

I'm happy that Mickey Rivers played CF for Texas so I'll get another actual Ranger on my roster. Burleson didn't play for the Rangers historically, but he was the best fit in my screening for contact-hitting defensive shortstops.

Most of the time I have write posts I'm not at home, so I can't post screenshots or exact details. But I'll do so for the 1974 recap. Nothing much left to play for except a winning record, and maybe some hardware for my ace pitching trio.

1974 RECAP

Record: 81-81, 4th in AL West

An unlucky year as the Rangers go .500 despite a +58 run differential, good enough for a -6 pythag record. Our division rival Athletics went on to the World Series, only to get swept by the Dodgers. It was a good year for LAD as the title winners also had the only player elected to the Hall of Fame, Don Drysdale.

Our elite pitching trio of Ryan, Jenkins, and Perry was as good as expected, combining for a scintillating 22.2 WAR. If only the rest of the team was average we would have done well. Only Lou Brock, our DH in his mid-thirties performed: he was among the league leaders in batting average, picked up the Silver Slugger Award, and grabbed an amazing 130 stolen bases. I'm sure at this point in time that's the modern day record, with higher numbers only coming in the wacky 19th Century.

Belanger and Blair were shipped out as previously mentioned, but ended up winning the Gold Glove Awards for their whole season. But most importantly, Nolan Ryan won the Cy Young Award! Given that he never won one historically, I'm happy with that. He's still got a long career ahead.

Notable Ins: Gaylord Perry (SP), Lou Brock (DH), Frank White (2B), Rick Burleson (SS), Mickey Rivers (2B)
Notable Outs: Mark Belanger (SS), Paul Blair (CF)
Rookie Class: Bump Wills (2B)

Best Performers
Nolan Ryan (SP): 7.8 WAR
Fergie Jenkins (SP): 7.8 WAR
Gaylord Perry (SP): 6.6 WAR
Lou Brock (DH): 4.0 WAR
Mike Hargrove (1B): 3.0 WAR

World Series
Los Angeles Dodgers defeat Oakland Athletics 4-0

MLB Awards
AL MVP: Rod Carew (2B), MIN
NL MVP: Joe Morgan (2B), CIN
AL Cy Young: Nolan Ryan (SP), TEX
NL Cy Young: Tom Seaver (SP), NYM

Hall of Fame Inductees
Don Drysdale (SP), LAD

Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame Watch
Locks: Fergie Jenkins, Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry*
Even Odds: Buddy Bell
Longshots: Mike Hargrove, Jeff Burroughs

*: Lock for Hall of Fame but could go in a different cap

1975 SPRING TRAINING

The Texas Rangers are looking for a bounce-back year after disappointing in 1974.

With the benefit of hindsight, I know the big news is that free agency is coming next offseason. For that reason, I've worked on locking down my star players to long-term contracts. I originally thought this wasn't possible, but after offering Nolan Ryan a 10-year $3 million guaranteed contract, he accepted. I offered the same $300k/p.a. for fewer years to Fergie Jenkins and Gaylord Perry which they accepted. Perhaps it was fewer dollars for Perry, can't remember.

These deals are player-friendly now, but they will be owner-friendly in a few years. There's also the risk of a career-ending injury, even with recalc on. So I may be gaming the system a little bit, but there's still some risk, and my finances will be bad for the next couple of years, so all-in-all I think it's a reasonable move. Trying to get Buddy Bell locked-down too, but I don't have the money he's looking for now. Even though he had a bad 1974.

My biggest target right now is Jon Matlack, who's yet another elite pitcher that suited up for the Rangers. Having 4 elite pitchers would put even the 90s Atlanta Braves to shame, but I want to make it happen! The Mets aren't accepting huge offers now, but maybe I can catch them at the All-Star Break if they aren't contending. Also trying to get Al Oliver to the team and even Toby Harrah back, but haven't been able to make a move.

Bump Wills came in as a rookie and he's ready to start at 2B right away. He had a couple years in the minors in real life, but I'm going to put him on the Rangers early. Despite the early start he doesn't have a shot at the Hall of Fame, given that he had a relatively short career and I have recalc/retire history on. That's OK, not everyone can make the Hall and it's nice to have some quality role-players stick around for a while. I'll look to move Frank White as soon as a good deal pops up... his bat just isn't good enough right now.

Also, going by the ratings changes for 1975, it looks like my RF Jay Johnstone is due for a huge year. He wasn't a Ranger historically, so any great performance I'll try to leverage into a deal for someone... maybe Matlack or Oliver.

1975 ALL-STAR BREAK

The Texas Rangers have turned it around this year, and currently sit 1 GB of the Oakland Athletics at the All-Star Break. What a rivalry this is turning out to be! And we'll be in the same division for all of our history too.

Pitching has been great again, and batting has been much better this year, thanks in part to some of my moves. Mickey Rivers and Bump Wills are hitting much better than their defensive counterparts did last year.

The biggest contributor at the plate so far has been Mike Hargrove, who got the most All-Star votes in the AL. He already has a career-high WAR at the break, and is on pace for 7+ WAR on the year. If he keeps this production up he might even have a shot at the Hall of Fame. He already won Rookie of the Year, and if he wins some more hardware and manages to compile ~60 WAR that would be good for his cause. I'll likely move him into my "Even Odds" category at the end of the year.

I haven't been able to make any deals at the All-Star Break. The Mets aren't budging on Matlack, and the Pirates are being unreasonable on Al Oliver. At this point the Rangers are pretty strong, so I don't see the need to bring in any players that didn't play for Texas historically. We'll have to stand pat and see if we can catch the Athletics.

1975 END OF REGULAR SEASON

Heartbreak for the Texas Rangers as we finish 5 GB of the Oakland Athletics for the AL West division, and therefore miss out on a chance in the playoffs. Lady luck kills us again, as pythag says we should have had 105 wins and the division title.

As you can see from the attached screenshots, Texas had the best runs allowed, best batting average, and second best runs scored totals in the entire MLB. Oakland had a few more runs, and hit a lot more homers. Perhaps those homers were the difference, as they clustered their runs in bunches enough to win more games.

Maybe I do need to bring in more sluggers, as we are obviously good in batting average but our lack of power means our team wOBA is actually only 6th in the AL. Walks and dingers is boring though, and I'd rather live by contact and baserunning... the latter of which we were also 1st in the league in. I think I'll keep it going and hopefully our luck will turn around.

Next post will be the 1975 recap, where we'll find out who won the World Series and if our team picked up any individual awards.

1975 RECAP

Record: 97-65, 2nd in AL West

I've said most of what I wanted to say about this year in the last post. Our rival Athletics went on to win the World Series, leaving Rangers fans to wonder what could have been. Mike Hargrove tailed off his torrid pace in the second half of the season, but Jay Johnstone was on fire to lead our team with 6.4 WAR. I expected his breakout season and will be looking to deal him while he's hot. Hargrove (.338) and Johnstone (.332) were #2 and #3 in AL batting average, while Johnstone (.884) was #2 in OPS. Lou Brock easily led the league with 100+ stolen bases.

Our pitching wasn't quite as good, with our Big 3 averaging "only" 5.4 WAR between them. Part of that I'm sure was my playing more bat-friendly players, which was definitely worth it in the balance. Nolan Ryan was injured for a bit too. I picked up Sparky Lyle at the deadline to be my closer, and he was a historical Ranger which I obviously look for.

In award news, our friend Bump Wills won Rookie of the Year! Definitely a good idea to call him up his first year available. Hopefully he can give us several good seasons in his short career. I also had Hargrove (1B), Johnstone (RF), and Brock (DH) win Silver Slugger. Johnstone also picked up a Gold Glove in RF to cap off his big year.

Notable Ins: Sparky Lyle (RP)
Notable Outs: Fritz Peterson (SP)
Rookie Class: Billy Sample (2B), Danny Darwin (SP)

Best Performers

Jay Johnstone (RF): 6.4 WAR
Fergie Jenkins (SP): 5.9 WAR
Gaylord Perry (SP): 5.7 WAR
Mike Hargrove (1B): 5.7 WAR
Nolan Ryan (SP): 4.6 WAR
Mickey Rivers (CF): 3.7 WAR
Bump Wills (2B): 3.5 WAR
Buddy Bell (3B): 3.0 WAR

World Series
Oakland Athletics defeat Philadelphia Phillies 4-1

MLB Awards
AL MVP: Bobby Grich (SS), BAL
NL MVP: Mike Schmidt (3B), PHI
AL Cy Young: Vida Blue (SP), OAK
NL Cy Young: Don Sutton (SP), LAD
AL Rookie of the Year: Bump Wills (2B), TEX

Hall of Fame Inductees
N/A

Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame Watch
Locks: Fergie Jenkins, Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry*
Even Odds: Buddy Bell, Mike Hargrove
Longshots: Jeff Burroughs, Mickey Rivers

*: Lock for Hall of Fame but could go in a different cap

1976 SPRING TRAINING

Big moves in the offseason for the Rangers, as the market for players has gotten shaken-up in 1976 from a new financial system which includes free agency. The great news is that we finally got the top two guys on our shortlist!

Trade Summary

To Pirates: Jay Johnstone (RF), Lou Brock (DH), and three prospects -- Jim Burton (RP), Joseph Stewart (CF), and Rick Waits (SP)
To Rangers: Al Oliver (LF) and $100,000 cash

To Padres: Frank White (2B)
To Rangers: Mike Caldwell (SP)

To Mets: Mike Caldwell (SP), Billy Sample (LF), Marty Perez (IF)
To Rangers: Jon Matlack (SP)

To Angels: Larry Gura (SP)
To Rangers: Bill Madlock (DH)

I sold Jay Johnstone while he's hot in order to get Al Oliver, a good historical Ranger. The Pirates made out pretty well here, as although Oliver has maybe a little more upside than Johnstone in the future, they also pick up Lou Brock who has a couple good years left, and Rick Waits who can be a decent back-end rotation guy. I'll slot Oliver in at LF hopefully for the rest of his career. He has a chance at the Hall of Fame, and I got him 2 years earlier than Texas did in real life so it's a tossup between if he'll choose a P or T cap (knock on wood).

With Bump Wills slotted in as the starting 2B, I sent Frank White to the Padres for Mike Caldwell -- a finesse pitcher that I liked the look of. To my surprise, the Mets were interested in him as part of a package for Jon Matlack, who I've been trying to get for years. So I flipped Caldwell. I also sent Billy Sample, a prospect with some excellent ratings but who will be blocked by Al Oliver in LF.

Matlack becomes our 4th ace pitcher, which is ridiculous but awesome. He's one of those guys that FanGraphs likes better than BBRef, as his FIP is often better than his ERA. He's done super well in my universe so he has a shot at the Hall. Again, I brought him in 2 years before the Rangers did so he has a chance at wearing the Texas cap if he gets in.

The last trade is the only one I feel where I straight-up fleeced the AI, but it does make sense from their perspective. The Angels are in a huge financial hole, so they were happy to deal Bill Madlock and his large contract to us for Larry Gura, who can be a mid-rotation SP and is on a cheap deal right now. It's nice to bring Madlock back to the Rangers where he was drafted, and if has has a great career for us he just may be the first DH to make the Hall of Fame.

Our solid record last year and bringing in popular players has increased our financial outlook and fan interest by a lot. That's part of the reason why we're able to bring in some of these expensive players.

After these moves we have an incredibly strong roster that I believe has a big window in the late 70s and early 80s to win titles. Our prospect pool is barren, but I expect a lot of these starting guys to have long careers for Texas. I'll probably let a lot of them retire as Rangers, which will add some challenge to the dynasty as I'm not doing the prudent thing and recycling my assets.

Hmm... we brought in Matlack and Madlock. If they watch Matlock in the clubhouse together, the universe might just explode.

1976 ALL-STAR BREAK

It's going well for the Texas Rangers at the All-Star Break, as we sit in 1st place above the rival Athletics in the AL West. Although we have the best record in MLB, we are currently on a league-worst 4 game losing streak. We came up short in 2 consecutive doubleheaders against the Brewers, who sit in last place in all of MLB. Go figure.. that's baseball, right?

Texas is sending 6 players to the All-Star game:

Jon Matlack, SP: 12-4, 2.71 ERA, 2.7 WAR
Gaylord Perry, SP: 13-2, 2.31 ERA, 4.2 WAR
Nolan Ryan, SP: 13-3, 2.40 ERA, 3.3 WAR
Bill Madlock, DH: .303/.355/.409, 122 wRC+, 1.5 WAR
Rick Burleson, SS: .308/.360/.387, 119 wRC+, 3.0 WAR
Al Oliver, LF: .301/.358/.448, 136 wRC+, 3.8 WAR

Looking at some of the other players in the league, Rod Carew is batting .384 and has already accumulated 5.0 WAR. The guy is just a monster in my universe, probably even better than he was historically.

Speaking of the Twins, they have Bert Blyleven on the trading block. He pitched a couple of good years for the Rangers historically, and is a future Hall of Famer.. so of course I'm interested. But another ace pitcher? Is that even allowed? I'll see what they're asking, just for fun.

As far as my own ace pitchers go, as noted above 3 of them made the All-Star Game. Fergie Jenkins is missing out, as he's having a down year. I suspect part of this is because Arlington has gone from being a pitcher's park to a hitter's park this year according to OOTP. I don't like how these factors change for no real reason. It should be based on how the park is constructed and the climate and therefore be relatively steady. Anyway, given Fergie focuses on Control over Stuff and Movement, my wager is the new park effects are a net negative for him.

Hope we can hold off Oakland down the stretch.

1976 ROSTER EXPANSION

The bad news is that the Rangers had a horrible run after the All-Star Break. Nothing went right. We now sit 3 GB of.. you guessed it.. the Oakland Athletics.

It's frustrating because the divisions are so imbalanced in my universe. If we were in the AL East, we would be 7 games ahead of the Orioles for 1st place. Even the Kansas City Royals, who are in 4th place in the West, would be leading the AL East right now. But it's also adding a compelling challenge which I like.

At the trade deadline, I made a minor bullpen upgrade but otherwise stood pat. The bullpen doesn't seem to matter in the 70s anyway. We'll see if we can put together a September to remember and get back to the playoffs.

But there is one piece of good news, Nolan Ryan tossed a no-hitter... his second for the Rangers!

1976 END OF REGULAR SEASON

Frustration abounds as the Texas Rangers again have the 2nd best record in MLB, but again miss out on the playoffs. We did all we could in the last couple weeks, winning the last 7 games of the season. But Oakland was too steady and held us off.

The Athletics will face the Orioles in the ALCS, while the Phillies take on the Reds in the NL. Interestingly our in-state rival Astros won their last 14 games (!) to force a tie with the Reds, but they lost their Game 163 to the Big Red Machine.

I'm not a huge fan of the wildcard, but in the last couple of years Texas players, management, and fans certainly have a bit of a gripe with the current playoff format.

I've attached the league standings, and our pitching and hitting stats for the season. I haven't really figured out a way to embed them within these posts to my satisfaction, so they're just sitting there at the end.

The biggest clunker of the year was definitely Jeff Burroughs, who hit a shocking .184 and generated -1.6 WAR. Perhaps I've been too loyal to him, as his career was definitely up-and-down which doesn't play well to my recalc settings. With a better RF during the season we may have even won the division.

Mickey Rivers was the best of the batters: hitting .332, leading the league in stolen bases (though getting caught too much to generate value), and accumulating 5.4 WAR. Al Oliver was right behind with 5.3 WAR, generating a bit more power than Rivers at the plate.

Our pitching quartet was also great, with Nolan Ryan leading the way with a 2.55 ERA, and Gaylord Perry with a 2.66 FIP. Ryan came oh-so-close to 300 strikeouts, and led the league with a blistering 10.0 K/9. I'm sure both of them will get Cy Young consideration, with the voters likely overvaluing Ryan's 22 wins. Vida Blue was probably great for Oakland although I haven't checked.

Although we've missed out on the playoffs, we made some good Hall of Fame progress for our guys. But how do we get over the Oakland hump???

MLB EXPANDS TO SEATTLE AND TORONTO

So the offseason has started, and our division nemesis Oakland Athletics have just triumphed in a Game 7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. The Big Red Machine hasn't totally taken over in my universe... it's more like the Big Green Machine.

As if that isn't bad news enough, I'm pretty sure the A's are getting Rickey Henderson this year in their intake. The rich get richer. We'll see how long they have him in the minors.

I'm at work and don't have the full details of my universe at hand, so I can't do the full 1976 recap yet. But I just wanted to share something that I found exciting: the 1977 AL Expansion is underway, with the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners set to play next season. Seattle joins us in the AL West. There will be an expansion draft a day or so after free agency hits.

Now this current MLB alignment will mean that the AL and NL will be unbalanced for a very long time, until the Rockies and Marlins come around in 1993. Theoretically this means that it's harder to make the playoffs in the AL. But in practice, unless they manage to snag some great players from the other AI teams, I suspect the Mariners will be a punching bag for a while and our playoff chances won't be affected much. At least until they get Junior.

I can protect 15 players from my roster, with guys with 3 or fewer years experience automatically exempt. I'll get to keep all my star players, but there's still some interesting decisions. I've attached a preliminary protection list I put together. I've covered all of my position players and starting pitchers. The decisions come with my bench players versus my relievers.

As-is the list protects some relievers at the expense of my 2 good backups: catcher Bob Boone and utility infielder Manny Trillo. Both are good enough to start on a lot of teams. Boone especially is about as good as Jim Sundberg, but I favour the latter because he was a long-time Ranger in real life. So is it easier to find bench players or relievers? I'll think about it.

In other news, my ideal pitching target, real-life Ranger and Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven has become a free agent! I'll definitely try to sign him and have an unheard of Hall of Fame rotation. Not sure why the Twins didn't re-sign him, they have quite a bit of money available.

1976 EXPANSION DRAFT

Well, the expansion draft is over and it was actually quite interesting. With the 1st selection, the Toronto Blue Jays selected none other than Pete Rose! I was quite shocked that the Reds didn't protect him. I guess he's getting old in OOTP terms at 35, but he's not getting old in Pete Rose terms. Cincinnati didn't have money problems, either. I've attached a screenshot of him in a Blue Jays cap, which looks kind of funny to me.

In the real-life expansion draft, Seattle and Toronto only had access to AL players. I guess that's not an option in OOTP, and everyone across MLB was fair game. The second overall pick had the Mariners selecting Tony Perez, so the Reds were in the business of giving away talent it seems. Perhaps they had too many good players to protect.

My unprotected list got raided quite heavily as I suspected, so my bullpen and bench is pretty much gone. I ended up with almost the same list as is screenshotted in the last post, although I protected Bob Boone instead of Mike Marshall. I figure a good backup catcher is more valuable than a RP, and I can always trade away Boone because he deserves to start. Here are my losses:

Lenny Randle (OF): Toronto Blue Jays
Jackie Brown (SP/RP): Toronto Blue Jays
Manny Trillo (IF): Seattle Mariners
Mike G Marshall (RP): Toronto Blue Jays
Steve Foucault (RP): Toronto Blue Jays

My utility outfielder and infielder are gone, so I'll have to find others. I'll also have to find some bullpen arms which shouldn't be too hard. Happy for Randle and Trillo to be getting more at bats though.

I had a look at the Blue Jays and Mariners, and their rosters look pretty grim. Mostly it's their starting pitching, which will probably get totally shelled. I don't know whether it's the AI's selection of players during the draft, or if teams protected all of the possible pitching talent. Probably a combination of both. Will be interesting to see how they do.

BERT BLYLEVEN

The Texas Rangers have made a big splash in free agency, by signing future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven. In real life he played for Texas in 1976 and 1977, so this is a rare case of my getting a guy after the Rangers actually did. But the Twins always wanted too many assets for him, and free agency means "it's only money", as they say. Don't know why Minnesota didn't re-sign him, as they don't have money problems. In any case, it's our first big signing in the new era of free agency.

Blyleven has been excellent in my universe so far, picking up the Cy Young he never got in real life. Going by his historical stats, re-calc should make him a little less strong in the future and maybe not the Cy Young quality pitcher he was in his early 20s. But he'll still have a lengthy career and hopefully bring a lot of value to Texas. He's on board for 9 years at $650k per year, pretty much what he asked for. When he presumably goes into the Hall, he has a good shot at wearing a T cap if we keep him that long.

We now have a historically awesome 5-man rotation of some of the best pitchers to ever play for the Rangers, but all at the same time! I also poach the best pitcher from a fellow AL West team, so our batting should benefit a little bit too. Excited to go into 1977 and give Oakland a run for their money. Just need to sign some bench players and bullpen guys.

1977 ALL-STAR BREAK

After a bit of a break from the Rangers Dynasty I've gone ahead and played through to the 1977 All-Star Break. And finally, Texas is dominant.

Aside from adding Bert Blyleven, a 2nd major offseason acquisition saw the return of Toby Harrah to Texas. We moved Bump Wills to Cleveland in the deal. Harrah comes in to play 2B where he plays a decent defense and brings a nice bat. It seems like Texas and Cleveland love to deal with each other.

In the same move we also brought in closer Jim Kern from Cleveland, as the Indians had huge budget problems. Kern also played for the Rangers historically and had some good stats. In real life 1979, he finished 4th in Cy Young voting after having appeared in a whopping 71 games in relief, while sporting an amazing 1.57 ERA.

With a really solid squad now, Texas is starting to break away from the pack as we claim a 66-26 record, 13 games ahead of the Royals and 15.5 ahead of the rival Athletics. Barring a collapse it looks like we'll finally be back to the playoffs.

We sent a whole bevy of players to the All-Star Game: Bert Blyleven (SP), Jon Matlack (SP), Gaylord Perry (SP), Nolan Ryan (SP), Toby Harrah (2B), Buddy Bell (3B), Bill Madlock (DH), Al Oliver (LF), and Jeff Burroughs (RF).

Some of the player stats are listed below. Nice to see Burroughs bounce back after an awful year, as he's hitting 21 homers. Al Oliver is leading the way among batters with a .356/.399/.556 slashline, while Nolan Ryan sits at 13-3 with a 2.35 ERA to lead our pitching.

TEXAS WINS MLB RECORD 121 GAMES

Well, we've gone and done something crazy. The Rangers rattled off a scintillating 24-5 September record and finished 121-41, netting the all-time highest win total in MLB history (both in this sim and real life).

We are also second all-time in winning percentage, behind only the 1906 Chicago Cubs (.747 TEX, .763 CHC). Pythag says we were expected to win 124 games, which would have been enough to top the Cubs. Oh well, can't complain!

The final standings and some team stats are attached -- I'm sure there's some other records broken in there somewhere. We were 1st in every single defensive and pitching category, as well as batting .301 as a team.

There was only one "almost" thing where we came up short -- going into the final game of the season we had a chance to get all 5 pitchers in the rotation 20 wins. Fergie Jenkins was sitting on 19 wins, but unfortunately lost against the Athletics. I guess the A's had to get at least one over on me this year...

If we manage to go ahead and win the World Series (knock on wood), this could go down as the best season of all time! Up next we face the Orioles, and over in the NL the Cubs and Cardinals square off.

1977 PLAYOFFS

No comment.

1977 RECAP

Record: 121-41, 1st in AL West

World Series
Cincinnati Reds defeat Baltimore Orioles 4-0

So, that happened. Like the Mariners and Cubs in real life, our fictional Rangers set the MLB record for wins only to lose in the postseason. It was a frustrating loss, as we went down 4 games to 1, but actually outscored them by 5 runs in the series. Every losing game was a 1-run loss, the definition of a lucky series for Baltimore. They ended up going on to get swept by the Reds in the World Series of course. It would have been a much better series with Texas in it!

I employed Bert Blyleven in a stopper role during the series, which he excelled at in shutting down the Orioles (besides the last game, but at that point it was too late anyway). I thought it was a good way to get all of my elite 5-man rotation into the series. They all pitched well, but our bats were a bit too cold. Speaking of Bly, he won the Cy -- the highlight of our awards.

MLB Awards
AL Cy Young: Bert Blyleven (TEX)
AL Manager of the Year: Me (TEX)
AL Silver Slugger: Al Oliver, LF (TEX)
AL Gold Glove: Gaylord Perry, P (TEX), Al Oliver, LF (TEX)

4 of our pitchers were in the mix for the Cy Young (see below), and I actually voted for Nolan Ryan. But Blyleven picks up his second top pitcher award, and at only 26 years old he's amassed 56 WAR. He's basically already a Hall of Famer.

Also see the attached stats for our batters and pitchers. Al Oliver was the standout among position players.

Actually, the more I look at it -- the more I find it surprising that the fictional voters in OOTP gave Blyleven the Cy Young.

Based on what I'm seeing, I think he was only the 4th best pitcher on his own team, let alone the whole AL. Gaylord Perry had an almost identical season, though I'd give him a slight edge over Blyleven. Matlack and Ryan have clearly better numbers though.

I voted for Ryan but thought Matlack or Vida Blue would win it. Vida Blue also had really good numbers -- 22-9 record, 2.28 ERA, 3.30 FIP, 1.13 WHIP, 7.4 WAR.

Who do you think should have won it?

1978 ALL-STAR BREAK

Texas sits in 1st place in MLB at the break. But the Twins and Athletics are still in striking distance. Won't be another record-setting year, but hopefully we can make the playoffs and win when it counts. We sent these players to the All-Star Game:

Pitchers: Nolan Ryan, Bert Blyleven, Gaylord Perry
Batters: Jim Sundberg, Al Oliver

Blyleven is leading a lot of the important pitching categories. If he keeps it up he may win the Cy again, which would make me think the 1977 one should definitely have gone to someone else!

1978 END OF SEASON & ALCS

We finished the season in 1st place at 106-56, and that set up a grudge match against the Baltimore Orioles, who upset the Rangers last year.

The first game in Texas was a nailbiter that we walked off in the bottom of the 13th inning from a single by substitute Juan Beniquez! I'm using the Blyleven as stopper in the bullpen strategy, and it worked well as he gave us a few solid innings going into extra time.

A key moment was when Jim Kern had the bases loaded against him in the top of the 13th, and he nabbed a strikeout to escape the inning. Tense moments.

1978 PLAYOFFS

It's happened again...

1978 RECAP

Record: 106-56, 1st in AL West

World Series
Chicago Cubs defeat Baltimore Orioles 4-2

Frustration in Texas in another season as the Rangers are reverse-swept by the Orioles in the ALCS. And Baltimore again loses out in the World Series, this time to the Chicago Cubs. After assembling the best roster in baseball in the past few years, and one of the best pitching staffs of all time, we continue to have bad luck in reaching the ultimate goal. Are we cursed or something like the real-life Rangers? Time will tell.

The batting stats and pitching stats are below. Al Oliver and Bill Madlock had good seasons at the plate, while our pitching was lights-out as expected. 4 of our pitchers received Cy Young votes, but there could be only one winner...

Gaylord Perry at the young age of 40 won the AL Cy Young! I voted for him and am glad he won, as he had a great ERA and pitched the most innings in the league. That leaves only Jon Matlack as one of my 5 pitchers yet to win the Cy (though Fergie won it before this save started). Perry also won the Gold Glove at pitcher, and was our only player to win any hardware this year.

In other news, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente were 1st ballot Hall of Famers, which is not surprising. I'm starting to see guys eligible who retired in the early stages of when my save started, so that's exciting. I expect it'll be the mid-80s before I can vote for any of my guys. But that's always been one of the main goals of this save, to get Rangers caps in the Hall of Fame.

Has to be the best starting 5 in MLB history, at least in the modern history say post WW1. Tough break losing to those great Earl Weaver O’s in back to back seasons.

Since I’m a Mariner fan since the beginning, nice to see them improve in year 2 by 7 games up to a whomping 58 wins. I started a sim taking them at the start of the 77 with the A’s drafted team. I’m not using the historical draft picks because I don’t think I could go through 18 seasons of horrible baseball. But maybe I’ll try it and see.

Yeah I did notice that the AI Orioles still have Earl Weaver in there managing in my save, neat to see. They also currently have the #2 prospect in baseball, a "young kid" named Cal Ripken. Rickey Henderson is #1 for the A's.

I was interested in watching the Mariners and Blue Jays expansion draft. Man, they started with some awful teams in my universe, mostly due to bad pitching. I do like both of those teams in real life, living in British Columbia. I grew up in the Griffey era, and the Mariners had a lot of other cool players like the Big Unit and Edgar. Too bad they never made the World Series.

Historical draft picks is fun, and it saves a lot of time. Worth doing sometime. I'm sticking to all or mostly historical Rangers. I've still been able to assemble this all-time great rotation, but I'm worried if we don't win the World Series soon our window will close. I don't think there's as many great once-Rangers starting pitchers in the 80s and 90s.

1979 ALL-STAR BREAK

After recent postseason disappointments, I decided to go all-out and get the best player in free agency during the offseason. He cost all of our available budget, but it was worth it.

Chet Lemon is one of the best CFs in all of baseball at this time. Unfortunately he's not a former Ranger, but I've made an exception in the CF and SS spots because they're so important defensively. If there was one weakness last season, it's that Mickey Rivers was a below average CF in defense. Rivers has been moved to a platoon in RF with Jeff Burroughs.

Oh and by the way, Chet Lemon has an elite bat as well (see attached picture). He's in the running for MVP right now, and has locked down the AL Gold Glove the past few seasons.

At the All-Star Break, we are again on record-setting pace with a .763 winning percentage. Nolan Ryan and Gaylord Perry are among the league leaders in pitching. Smooth sailing so far, but I'm holding my breath for the postseason. Looks like either the Orioles or Red Sox coming out of the AL East, both of whom we've faced before.

Here are our AL All-Stars:

Pitchers: Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Jon Matlack, Len Barker
Batters: Jim Sundberg, Mike Hargrove, Toby Harrah, Chet Lemon

1979 END OF REGULAR SEASON

We've finished the regular season strong and ended up 1 win shy of the 121-61 record-breaking season we had a couple years back. The Rangers record stands at 120-62, with a pythag of -5. So we probably had the best run differential of all-time, but I can't seem to find that on Google for real MLB history.

The playoffs will have Texas vs. Boston in the AL, while Cincinnati and Pittsburgh square off in the NL. We faced Boston in the playoffs during our second ever season in Texas back in 1973, where we won a thriller to advance to the World Series. Will history repeat itself?

Below are the standings, batting, and pitching stats for 1979. Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Chet Lemon, and Al Oliver were the standouts. Not pictured is Jon Matlack, who had a season ending injury, and Bill Madlock, who played in all 162 games but finished with an awful WAR of around 1.0. Really a down year from him.

Adding Chet Lemon to the CF position really boosted the pitching staff to crazy numbers. Fergie Jenkins is starting to decline, so I put him on an 85 pitch count which helped to get the bullpen involved nicely. Len Barker and Goose Gossage were used to good effect in stopper roles.

On to the playoffs!

1979 ALCS

Texas beats Boston 3-2 in the ALCS to advance to the World Series! I guess that's the trick for the Rangers in the postseason, just face the Red Sox instead of the Orioles.

I've attached the scores below. A couple of pretty close losses, a close win, and a couple of blowouts in our favour. I don't remember anything too crazy or exciting, except for Nolan Ryan pitching wild in Game 2. He set (or tied?) the AL playoff record with 10 walks! He just kept walking guys over and over. I think one inning he walked 4 straight guys to walk in a run. And then there was a wild pitch that scored another. He also had 8 strikeouts so I guess that's why the AI left him in (I don't manage).

Al Oliver won the ALCS MVP, batting .500 with a couple of key home runs. Pitching wise, our bullpen was great in allowing no runs, while Bert Blyleven was the best of the starters and Gaylord Perry was good as well. Nolan Ryan and Fergie Jenkins had bad outings. Bly pitched 6.1 innings and allowed 1 run in the 1st game, and the full 9 innings with 1 run in the deciding 5th game.

We're up against the Big Red Machine in the World Series. I hope we won't miss Jon Matlack, but even without him our pitching is so strong.

By the way, it seems like in 1977 the ALCS was 7 games, while this year and other years it was the correct 5 games. Maybe a bug?

1979 WORLD SERIES

The Texas Rangers have won the World Series!

Finally living up to our expectations as a baseball powerhouse, the Rangers sweep the Reds in emphatic fashion 4-0 to win the World Series at home in Arlington. Summary:

Game 1: TEX 6 @ CIN 1; W: Nolan Ryan
Game 2: TEX 6 @ CIN 4; W: Gaylord Perry
Game 3: TEX 8 vs. CIN 2; W: Bert Blyleven
Game 4: TEX 10 vs. CIN 6; W: Fergie Jenkins

The final game had a bit of a scare. It was 10-1 going into the top of the 9th, and it looked like the series was all but decided. But my boneheaded AI manager somehow put my backup catcher in at 2B, and left my middle reliever in way too long. 5 runs scored, but eventually Len Barker came in to shut things down and record the final strikeout. But that's just a footnote.

Buddy Bell won World Series MVP, with 6 total hits, 2 home runs, and 2 walks in the final series. Bert Blyleven was my own personal playoff MVP, as he had a 0.74 ERA and had all of his 3 starts turn into wins for Texas.

I'm happy that we closed out the 70s decade with a victory, and put some past disappointments behind us. Our core team members now have a ring, and I have to think that'll only help them in their Hall of Fame chances. As for our other goal of this dynasty -- we've already done much better than the historical Rangers!

Congrats no upset or derailment along the way this time. Good way to wrap the decade up.

1979 RECAP

Record: 120-42, 1st in AL West

World Series
Texas Rangers defeat Cincinnati Reds 4-0

Nothing much more to say about this season, the Rangers are champions and that's what counts. We basically swept the postseason awards:

MLB Awards
AL MVP: Chet Lemon
AL Cy Young: Nolan Ryan
AL Reliever of the Year: Len Barker
AL Silver Slugger: Toby Harrah (2B), Chet Lemon (CF)
AL Gold Glove: Gaylord Perry (P), Rick Burleson (SS), Al Oliver (LF), Chet Lemon (CF), Mickey Rivers (RF)

With stacked starting pitching, I've made good use of surplus starters as relievers with stamina in the bullpen, and Len Barker was excellent in a 7th inning stopper role. Chet Lemon was tops in WAR in the league in his debut season with Texas, while Nolan Ryan edged out Gaylord Perry for the Cy Young. I forgot to vote in the awards, but it seems like the AI picked what I would have.

I'm starting to steamroll the AI teams a bit, so next season I'll be looking at ways to increase the difficulty of this dynasty.

NEW HOUSE RULES

As I alluded to in the last post, it's becoming apparent that my human brain is too much for the AI teams when it comes to building a great team in OOTP. Especially in historical mode with re-calc on, as I have foresight on who will be great long-term players for the team. Winning 120+ games with regularity isn't really fair. So I've decided to initiate two main house rules going forward:

1. Players on the roster must have played for the Texas Rangers in real history, or have been drafted by them.
2. The coaching system is turned off.

So the 1st rule means that reigning MVP Chet Lemon (CF) will have to leave, as well as Rick Burleson (SS) and some utility/backup players. Some are already set to leave in free agency anyway, so I won't re-sign them. Hopefully this restriction makes roster-building a bit more challenging and engaging. It'll also let me dig into more old baseball history.

The 2nd rule takes away my advantage of signing the best fitness trainer, and will perhaps result in more injuries to deal with. I'm not sure what hitting/pitching coaches actually do with re-calc on, but they're gone too anyway. This will also save me time which is another bonus.

Anyway if you've been following along, let me know some historical Rangers I should keep an eye out for in the 1980s.

1980 SPRING TRAINING

In a hurry to satisfy compliance for my new house rules, I've made several moves to make sure the roster is fully historical Rangers.

Lost to free agency were: Manny Trillo, Rick Burleson, Bob Boone, and some minor depth. I realized later I should have arbitrated some of these guys, and then traded them away for some of the historical Rangers I'm targeting. Oh well.

But the big trade is attached below: reigining MVP Chet Lemon goes to the Angels, and we get Frank Tanana (SP) and Cliff Johnson (C). Johnson is a solid replacement for Boone, and Tanana is the 1976 Cy Young winner in my universe.

While Tanana won't be as good as he used to be for the Angels, he'll be an important pitcher for us in the 80s, especially after some of my guys retire. Until then there's only room for him in Long Relief. I feel OK with this trade from a balancing perspective, seeing as we got Nolan Ryan from the Angels earlier. In a way it's kind of a bad trade for both teams, as we have a surplus of pitching and California doesn't.

I've also picked up Mario Mendoza of the infamous Mendoza Line to play backup IF, and Lenny Randle again as another bench player.

1980 ALL-STAR BREAK

When life takes away your Lemons, you can't make lemonade. But that's OK. The letting-go of non-Rangers hasn't slowed down Texas in 1980, as we sit atop the AL West at the break. The Twins are 10.5 games back, so it looks like another trip to the playoffs. Can we make it back-to-back titles? Surprising are the Milwaukee Brewers, who are currently leading the AL East with Robin Yount and Moose Haas at the helm.

Texas sends these players to the All-Star Game:

Pitchers: Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Len Barker, Rich Gossage
Batters: Mike Hargrove, Al Oliver, Mickey Rivers

1980 END OF REGULAR SEASON

The Texas Rangers have cruised to another division title, this time with the team sporting a 104-58 record. I'm happy with the changes we made and that it led to a more "normal" record. But winning is still fun!

Interesting development in that we'll be facing the Milwaukee Brewers in the playoffs for the first time. Previously we won two rounds against the Red Sox, and lost two against the Orioles. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes against a new opponent.

Also interesting in the NL is that the New York Mets have become a powerhouse this year. They picked up Rick Burleson who we left to free agency, and they also are still using Billy Sample who we sent over in the Matlack trade. They also hold Julio Franco who I'm targeting as a future Rangers acquisition. Ken Singleton seems to be having a career year and is outplaying his ratings, and Steve Carlton and Don Sutton highlight their pitching staff.

In the NL playoffs, the Mets will face the Dodgers, who have George Brett which is strange to see. I suspect they'll be a few oddities like that in my universe... even though players go to their drafted franchise, anything can happen after that of course.

One of these 4 teams will be the winner of the first World Series of the 1980s decade!

1980 ALCS: WON BECAUSE OF A BALK AND A MADDUX

The 1980 ALCS between the Rangers and Brewers was exciting, with the home teams winning each of their two games by 1 run each. Game 2 was won, I kid you not, by a balk. A BALK. I've attached the game log. The pitcher balked with runners on 1st and 2nd, moving them to 2nd and 3rd. Then Mike Hargrove hits a sac fly. That runner who was on 3rd turned out to be the winning run. BALK!

I thought the series was over after the balk incident, but Milwaukee of course won their home games. Nolan Ryan was wild again. And I grew frustrated by the AI's bullpen management throughout the series. Leaving starters in too long, picking the wrong guys out of the pen, etc. So I decided to step in and manage myself for the deciding Game 5.

And then Gaylord Perry decided to go ahead and throw a flipping Maddux! 9.0 IP, 5 HA, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K, 99 pitches. No managing decisions required after all. Perry also won Game 1, allowing 2 runs in 7.0 IP. I was shocked that he wasn't given Series MVP, and I expand upon that point in this thread. At 42 years old, Perry is likely still our most reliable pitcher. I'll pencil him in as top of the rotation for the World Series.

In all of the excitement of the ALCS, I forgot to check who we are facing in the World Series! It's either the Mets or the Dodgers... you and I will find out later.

1980 WORLD SERIES: TEXAS RANGERS VS. LOS ANGELES DODGERS

Although not as exciting as the ALCS, the World Series was still pretty interesting. I enjoyed putting on the managing hat, and decided that I only like to control substitutions and nothing else. Especially in the NL games it's fun to make decisions on pulling the pitcher. Can he get through another inning until his turn in the batting order? Those kinds of things.

Here was how it played out:

Game 1: TEX 2 vs. LAD 3
Game 2: TEX 1 vs. LAD 6
Game 3: TEX 12 @ LAD 5
Game 4: TEX 0 @ LAD 1
Game 5: TEX 5 @ LAD 1
Game 6: TEX 6 vs. LAD 7

Unfortunately the Dodgers took care of us in 6 games. I actually thought it was over after 2 games, but we were able to win 2/3 in LA. As you can see though, our inability to win at home cost us the series. We outscored them in the series, but lost the close games. It's the downfall of having a contact-heavy offense that scores runs in bunches.

Jon Matlack was the worst of our pitchers, having taken to the mound when LAD put up 6 runs in Game 2 and 7 runs in Game 6. Our bullpen -- well really just Goose Gossage -- also cost us games, with Gossage regularly loading the bases and giving up runs at the end of games. He got unlucky with BABIP, but he should have been striking more guys out.

I think the Dodgers only put up one home run in the whole series, and it was their pitcher with a solo shot in Game 5 against Nolan Ryan! The odds of that happening must have been near-zero. Didn't matter in that game, but an interesting tidbit.

Game 6 was an awful showing from Matlack, and I pulled him quite early for Len Barker, who pitched a gem until he ran out of gas. We had a 5-run deficit but stormed back with a 5-run inning to tie it. Unfortunately Gossage blew it again and the Dodgers re-captured the lead and won the World Series. George Brett won World Series MVP, although I didn't notice him much.

I'm not too disappointed with the loss, though it would have been nice to go back-to-back. I sneak peeked into next year's re-calc, and think that our window may be starting to close. More details later!

1981 END OF REGULAR SEASON

After a bit of a hiatus (I've been delving into OOTP Online Leagues), the Texas Rangers are back. I've gone ahead and simulated the 1981 season.

One rule change this year, I switched fielding and pitcher stamina re-calc from entire career to 3-year period. I figured this way was better than having a bunch of super old guys still being Gold Glove candidates. It resulted in some other problems, namely players having experience in positions that they can't play... so I think I'll try 1-year re-calc on at least fielding next year.

I had to sort of switch around my lineup based on the new positional ratings. Some players benefitted (Buddy Bell), while a surplus of others did not (Toby Harrah, Al Oliver, etc.). Harrah can now only play DH, and we played the woeful defending Madlock at 2B.

We had some disappointing injuries this year, including losing all-time legend Gaylord Perry to a season-ending injury early in the season. Was sad to see him not get to pad his stats more, but he still reached 300 wins. We also had a few other shorter term pitching injuries. All of this was just background noise though, as Texas again had the top record in MLB at 106-56.

Nolan Ryan and Bert Blyleven starred for the Rangers again, and with Perry, Matlack, and Jenkins set to retire in 1983.. this feels like a bit of a twilight period for our all-time ace pitching staff. Some of the latter 3's ratings are starting to shrink a little bit, but Nolan and Bly are still going strong. I'd like to see one more World Series title with this core!

The playoffs look similar to previous years, with the Rangers and Orioles squaring off in the AL, and the Mets and Dodgers battling it out in the NL. I was excited to face a new team in the Tigers, but they totally blew their division lead in the final weeks to the Orioles. So we'll be up against Baltimore again. Should be a good series!

1981 ALCS: TEXAS RANGERS VS. BALTIMORE ORIOLES

It's the deciding Game 5 of the ALCS. The score is 0-0. It's the bottom of the 9th. 2 outs. Texas RF Claudell Washington steps up to the plate. Here's the pitch.. and the swing.. it's a flyball to deep right field.. it's going, going, gone! Rangers win! Rangers win! On a walk off home run! And they're going back to the World Series!

High drama in the ALCS as the Rangers win on a walk off home run in the last inning of the series. And as often is the case in baseball, it's the unheralded Claudell Washington as the hero, a guy that I've been giving about half of the at bats in RF to.

It was a pitching showcase in the ALCS, with every one of the 5 games a shutout. We only gave up 3 total runs, but the series still went the distance. Game 5 was a scoreless draw between our aces Nolan Ryan and the O's Mario Soto. I made the fateful decision to get Ryan out for Goose Gossage in the 9th inning, while the O's left in Soto for the whole game and the clinching home run.

Our stopper duo of Len Barker and Gossage was instrumental in closing out games and keeping our runs against so low. I think they got us out of a couple jams with a ton of runners on base. Goose has already made up for his poor playoff showing last season.

Our bats were pretty quiet, and they have little time to wake up because we're going up against the New York Mets in the World Series! The Mets look to have the best rotation in the NL -- ultra-ace Steve Carlton, Don Sutton, Dave Righetti (who we traded to them to get Julio Franco), Ken Forsch, and an aging but still okay Tom Seaver. It's maybe even the best rotation in all of baseball. The TEX-NYM series will decide it!

1981 WORLD SERIES: TEXAS RANGERS VS. NEW YORK METS

Game 1: TEX 5 vs. NYM 1
Game 2: TEX 1 vs. NYM 2
Game 3: TEX 3 @ NYM 1
Game 4: TEX 0 @ NYM 2
Game 5: TEX 3 @ NYM 0
Game 6: TEX 1 vs. NYM 2
Game 7: TEX 2 vs. NYM 10

Texas blows it! Back-to-back World Series losses has me reminded of the poor recent Rangers. With two great pitching lineups going at it, it was a low scoring series between the Rangers and the Mets for the most part. We had a Game 5 victory to put us into a commanding 3-2 series lead coming home, but we couldn't get it done as the Mets won 2 straight.

The series was lost in Game 6, with a 1-1 tense pitching duel going into extra innings. Our batters couldn't get it done in the bottom of the 8th, 9th, or 10th. A bloop single and a double from the Mets in the top of the 10th was all they needed. Heartbroken, the Rangers failed to show up in the 7th game. Nolan Ryan forgot how to pitch and gave up all kinds of hits and walks early, there was nothing I could do. I just mashed the half-inning button until the pain was over.

I've got to find a way to win the whole thing in the next couple of years. Our starting rotation deserves another ring, and Matlack especially might need it to push him into the Hall of Fame. We'll see what the next recalc brings us.