California Angels 1970-1986/Dodgers 1987-
 

I intended to start a career simulation of my favorite player ever, Graig Nettles, but I messed up and forgot to choose a team prior to league creation. As a result, only 3 teams were looking for managers once the league was created, Milwaukee, KC and the Angels. The Brewers and KC were REALLY bad with poor prospects and the Angels were 71-91 with decent prospects, so I took them on.

Mickey Rivers broke camp as the every day CF as a 22 year old straight out of rookie ball. He had walked 66 times in less than 300 AB's in his only pro season, so his eye is rated 50. He was the unanimous pick for Rookie of the year hitting .283/.364/.418 with 11 HR's/42 steals and 170 hit along with 73 walks. His career best IRL was 43. If he develops on that kind of path, he could have a special career.

25 year old Jay Johnstone won a Gold Glove in RF despite getting just 450 AB's in a semi-platoon. He shared RF with Jim Hicks, who shared 1st with rookie Jim Spencer. Hicks led the team with 19 HR's going .253/.364/.426 but striking out a league high 198 times. That's...way too much for 1970.

28 year old Jim Fregosi won Silver Slugger at SS going .282/.347/.442 with 17 HR's and a league high 41 doubles.

25 year old Andy Messersmith hurt his forearm and missed half the season and only won 4 games despite a 2.37 ERA and 1.08 WHIP.

26 year old Rudy May went 14-10 with a 2.89 ERA and 1.18 WHIP

They started the season hot and was in first place at 46-30, but limped home 41-45 the rest of the way to finish in 2nd place, 7 games behind the West winning Minnesota Twins who traded for Lou Brock (!!!!).

At 87-75, they finished with 641 runs scored.

IRL they were 86-76 and scored 631 runs.

Not bad.

In the World Series, the Pirates took it over the Yankees in 6 games with Roberto Clemente winning the series MVP.

Clemente was 2nd in the regular season MVP voting behind Bobby Bonds who went .317/.392/.513 28 HR 90 RBI. He led the league with 60 SB's and a WAR of 10.3.

Tom Seaver won the Cy Young going 21-8 with a 2.60 ERA 1.12 WHIP 137 ERA plus.

Darrell Evans won ROY going .256/.347/.414 with 16 HR's.

Jim Brewer won Fireman of the Year going 9-9 with 21 saves and a 2.26 in 102 innings

In the AL, Rivers won the ROY as mentioned.

Frank Robinson won his 3rd MVP going .292/.408/.546 with a lead leading 41 HR's, 104 RBI's and a 173 OPS+.

Jim Perry won the CY Young with 21-8, a league leading 1.79 ERA a league leading .95 WHIP and an ERA+ of 198.

Lindy McDaniel won Fireman of the Year, 7-12 33 saves 2.71 ERA.

In the off season, I shook things up a bit. The Giants are going with a re-build and offered us 32 year old Juan Marichal for our #1 prospect and starting (below average) catcher. I had to jump on that.

To offset some of the $$$ that I took on, I dealt Hicks (way too many K's) to the Giants for 2B Tito Fuentes, coming off a rookie year of .283/.334/.379

I then dealt our previous 2b, Sandy Alomar for 22 yr old P Buzz Capra. He will start the year in the BP but has potential to start.

I picked up veteran C Johnny Edwards on a salary dump for a AAA outfielder.

Rivers-CF
Fregosi-SS
Alex Johnson-LF .298/.337/.411
Johnstone-RF
Aurelio Rodriguez-3B .280/.318/.419 72 RBI
Jim Spencer-1B 133 AB .278/.368/.386 3HR's
Fuentes-2B
Edwards-C

Marichal 7-14 4.07 ERA 87 ERA plus, (hope he's not done at age 33)
Messersmith 4-9 2.37 ERA 149 ERA plus
May 14-10 2.89 ERA 122 ERA plus
23 yr old Tom Bradley 13-9 2.82 ERA 125 ERA plus
29 year old Clyde Wright 10-11 2.83 ERA 125 ERA plus

In the draft, I drafted a fake player in the 1st round and a player who never went above AAA in the 2nd round. The only big leaguer I drafted was Dennis Lamp in the 3rd round.

Top ten picks were

Jim Rice-Milwaukee
George Brett-Montreal
Mike Schmidt-Cleveland
Sixto Lezcano-San Diego
Jerry Mumphrey-San Francisco
Ron Guidry-Kansas City
Burt Hooton-Philadelphia
Larry Herndon-Cincinnati
Frank White-Chicago Cubs
Charlie Moore-Houston

Jesus, they have me playing 37 games in 34 days with no days off before the all-star break.

The first month of the season has not gone to plan.

As a team, we are hitting .240/.288/.308. Even in the offensive starved 1971, that's not good. The .240 is the league average, but 3rd to last in runs and just 10 hr's for the month.

Only 10-12 because our pitching is 5th in the league. Messersmith had a dead arm and missed a start, so I have to make sure to keep him to no more than 6 innings for the next month since he missed 8 weeks last year and he is my #1.

An 11-16 May is making it clear we have much work to do.

I understand that 1971 was the year of the pitcher, but dead last in runs, next to last in home runs and an OBP of under .300 is not what I expected.

My big off season move, trading for Juan Marichal has actually worked out. Although he is under .500, he is 4th in the league in WAR. If you had told me that I would say we could be in first. But Mickey Rivers has gone from ROY to a WAR of 0.0.

Hope I don't get fired.

The month of June began the stretch of 37 games in 33 days with no off days. The Angels won 3 of the first 4 of that stretch our hitting finally showed up in June after a long spring vacation. But just as we approached .500, last years ROY Mickey Rivers fractured his elbow and was lost for the year. One week later, 26 year old #2 starter Rudy May hurt his knee and was lost for the year.

That led to a rough stretch, but we turned things around, somehow. A 17-13 month brought us to 38-41, but miles behind the 49-29 Twins. At the start of the season, we picked up Al Bumbry on waivers with a promise that he had to be in the big leagues by May 1st. He hit .400 in April in AAA and was inserted in the Angels every day lineup when Rivers went down. He's not hitting yet, but he stole 9 bases in June.

We went from 12th to 10th in runs, but we still have 12 games in 11 days before the All-Star game. 8-4 would put us over .500 which would be a little miracle given our injuries.

I lose another starting pitcher, this time Clyde Wright for 6 weeks with a bad back.

Down my #2 and #3 from my pre-season rotation. I picked up Luis Tiant after he posted a 5.66 ERA last year and then was released after an ERA over 4 in AAA this year. He gave up 15 baserunners in 7 innings his first start, but bounced back allowing 3 runs in 7 innings his second time out. Just need him to be a reliable #5,

Despite losing 2 starters and our leadoff hitter, we ended up going 22-16 during the 38 games in 34 days. Still 11 games out, so we won't win anything, but being 46-45 at the ASG is as good as we can expect given the injuries.

A few weeks until the trade deadline, the pitcher I wanted to deal is out for another 5 weeks, so he's out. I really only have a veteran catcher to give up unless I want to see if Juan Marichal can get me a top prospect. I'll shop him

July is over and we have passed the trading deadline. After a very impressive 17-11 July, we were still 10 games back and had no realistic chance to catch the Twins. We ended up selling 3 parts for future pieces.

Veteran catcher Johnny Edwards lost his job to Jerry Grote, so his salary was dealt for a 25 year old middle reliever who will probably be an 11th-12 pitcher.

Third base platooner Rich Barry was dealt for #141 prospect Greg Minton. Minton was a starter last year and started closing this year in A ball. We are going to put him back in the rotation and see if can develop there.

Finally, we decided to deal Juan Marichal. He is 4th in WAR,so he is having a great season, but he's 33 and our most expensive player. If we can be 11 games back with him, why not get a piece that can help us for 10 years. The market for him wasn't great the week before the deadline. I was going to have to settle for something less than I wanted, but then the Red Sox offered 24 year old starter Bill Lee straight up. He has a ERA+ of 107 and gives us a chance to have a nice group of arms under 28.

Al Bumbry had a great month. Forced into a full time job due to the injury to Mickey Rivers, he improved from a .173 first month to .289 in July. Overall, he has an OPS+ of 112 and actually leads the AL in triples with 9 despite having 190 less plate appearances than the 2nd place player. He's also 19 for 24 in steals and is slugging a robust .402 despite just 1 home run. With him and Rivers in 2 spots, if Morris Nettles develops as he might, we could have 3 players capable of .300 BA and over 40 steals each. 1970's and 80's baseball.

...and in his first start for us, Lee strains his forearm and is out for 5 weeks.

*head shake*

An abysmal 8-20 August has dropped us to 63-72 and 17 1/2 back now. Couldn't hit, couldn't catch, couldn't pitch. It was a team effort.

Dude, I think you need to dial back the injury slider a bit. That is simply too many injuries. Are the other teams suffering as bad? I mean, injuries are part of the game, and make it more of a challenge, forcing you to have depth. But too many guys going down ruins it for me. My impression is that you did well, given all those injuries - unless the other teams were losing multiple starters as well.

I have it under normal, but there were a huge amount of injuries all season, which wasn't the case in season 1.

Just ended the season, will have a re-cap after the playoffs, but the Red Sox went 15-0 to close the season out to force a playoff against the Orioles just to be shut out in the playoff game.

I have it under normal, but there were a huge amount of injuries all season, which wasn't the case in season 1.

Just ended the season, will have a re-cap after the playoffs, but the Red Sox went 15-0 to close the season out to force a playoff against the Orioles just to be shut out in the playoff game.

As example, the Twins won the West despite 7 players on the DL including 4 starters. Not only did they win the West, they won the World Series in 7 over the Mets, winning game 7 1-0 when Nolan Ryan walked in the only run in the game. The Mets had zero players on the DL.

To sum up 1971, we finished 75-87. We were 10th in hitting, 9th in pitching and 10th in defense. Not much to hang our hats on. Our bullpen was 3rd and I expect that to get better as most of them were young live arms.

The best OPS+ was 113, nobody had a good year even though Fregosi won another Silver Slugger at SS, but .264/.345/.373 was a step back from 1970.

We drafted 3B Roy Howell with the 8th pick as we need hitting at that position badly. Added P Randy Jones as well.

Going to try to deal a SP for a bat, but not sure there is much of a market when hitting is at premium.

The 1972 season is about to get under way and we've decided to try to make the Angels manufacture runs via the stolen base. Pitching is dominating and we now have 3 youngsters that can get on base and run our way into runs, because we have no power at all.

Just before the season we dealt leading hitter 31 year old Alex Johnson to Pittsburgh for 23 year old 2nd baseman Dave Cash coming off an All-Star year of .297/.341/.372 and a 5.3 WAR. He can run and will hit behind Al Bumbry who can fly and just ahead of Mickey Rivers hitting 3rd who is almost as fast as Bumbry. The hope to get these guys on base for Silver Slugger Jim Fregosi hitting cleanup. The cast behind him are pedestrian, average players like Aurelio Rodriguez, Jim Spencer and Jay Johnstone, so the top of the lineup has to do the work.

Rudy May is healthy and leads a rotation where everyone is under 27 and only 3 bullpen arms are over 30. 32 year old Clyde Wright lost his spot in the rotation and I didn't want to pay $90,000 to a long reliever, so I dealt him for 25 year old Gene Clines who can run, play all OF positions and backup at 3rd base.

Acquiring Dave Cash made Tito Fuentes superfluous, so he was dealt for a 19 year old 1b with a great eye who will start the year in AA and some middle infield depth.

I could totally crash and burn or my young players can get on base and steal 50 bases each. I am starting the year healthy. So we have that working for us.

Enjoying reading this. I started a game (albeit in Go not the desktop version) playing the Yankees beginning in 1970 to see how they do with me and no George Steinbrenner to buy the club in 1973

Thanks. I am enjoying doing this. Let's me remember moves that I make plus I went to school to be in sports journalism, so this is as far as I will get. :)

After the first month, we are lucky to be 8-10. We only scored 36 runs our first 18 games. Couldn't hit. Only Fregosi and Rivers were doing anything. Thankfully, our starting pitching is (somehow) 1st in the league. We then scored 39 runs our last 7 going 5-2 to end the month on a nice run.

Fregosi is leading the AL with a .394 avg. Rivers is over .300, but we were getting nothing from our corners. I dealt disappointing 1b Jim Spencer to KC for LR Tom Burgmeister as our BP blew 4 games in April. Backup C/1b Randy Brown was inserted in the lineup since Spencer couldn't get his average over .200. Brown ended up .382/.450/.500 in 40 PA. We will see if he can at least do better than .200.Dave Cash has struggled, only going .250/.300/.310.

The only starter in the top 5 of any of the major categories is Bill Lee with a 1.69 ERA. He has NO stamina though. Getting 6 IP a game is the best I can hope for.

3 games behind the A's and Twins, though the A's lost Vida Blue for the season. Again, there seems to be a ton of big injuries, but it's on normal. If the season goes like this again, I may drop it a level next year.

Norm Cash just went on the DL for a month with an injury he picked up making brownies.

We followed up a 9-11 April with a worse 12-17 May. We just can't hit at all. 10th in BA, dead last in HR's with 15 after 49 games. Because we've been behind so much, I haven't run as much as I wanted. In addition, Bumbry has been out for most of the year. We are just 3rd in SB.

Fregosi was 1st in the league in BA in April and in May he only hit .260. We dealt slick fielding-waffle ball bat power Jay Johnstone for a 1b who was hitting but has stopped now that he is here.

There is no HC available with a better rep than the one I have now. Kinda stuck going nowhere. My top hitting prospects won't make the jump this year.

We share something else in common and I cheated to start my 1970 taking control of the Yankees. Graig Nettles is still my favorite ball player of all time so I fudged a trade with the Indians by editing Jerry Kenney and editing him back after the trade. I didnt want to manage the Indians. Otherwise I play it straight up from there.

Nice! I was 7 years old in the mid-70's when I started playing baseball and I played 3rd base, wore #9 and my name is Greg. He kinda had to be my favorite.

I've tried to deal for him, but they won't even listen to an offer. I was hoping Aurelio Rodriguez could develop a little more so that he may be a little more attractive, but no luck.

My name's not Greg, but the same played third in little league and had to have #9-ended up as a second baseman but still wore 9. I am halfway through 1970 and my Yankees are two games off the pace of the real 1970 team so I don't feel guilty about how I acquired him.

A coach who is Excellent in coaching hitting became available and I had to hire him even though he has a poor reputation

An 11-16 June in the books. Still can't score any runs, though I am getting on base more since I hired the new hitting coach. Sitting in last now, 20 games back with half the year to go. Zero optimism.

Rather than wait until the end of July, here is a recap of the month through the All-Star game. We are having our best month at 13-10 despite losing multiple players to injury. I have to adjust the amount of injuries in this sim. It's set as "normal" but this is out of hand. Far too many pitchers are getting major arm injuries. Seaver/Gibson/Sutton/Perry all before the all-star game.

Bumbry has a chance to be special. He's healthy now and hitting .300/.351/.462. I decided to make a big deal. Aurelio Rodriquez is a 24 year old 3b who has potential, but he can't seem to get his average over .230. Jim Wynn became available and I received him and 19 year old Terry Whitfield in return for the first A-Rod.

Wynn's salary is double that of Rodriguez and Houston was trying to shed salary and I got an OF who has potential to be "solid" as a major leaguer. I am not sure I am spending to get to the middle, but Wynn was one of my favorites as a kid. And having fun is really the point of this.

I called up my 21 year old 3B prospect from AAA who was hitting .352/.451/.514, Rudy Meoli. I also have a 2B I am curious about, but Dave Cash has turned things around and there is no reason to do anything with him.

No All-Stars, and we don't deserve any. A possible exception is George Dixon who is 9-3 and 6th in ERA, but no harm done. We are 45-54, Bumbry would be an All-Star if was healthy all year, but that's how it is going.

....first game after the ASG saw us down 5-0 early but we rallied for 9 runs, the most we've scored all year. Bumbry hit a 3-run shot and Meoli added 2 hits. Maybe we can reach .500 with a good 2nd half.....but I can't see it.

Real life the Pirates traded Cash (and Willie Randolph) and kept Rennie Stennett. Who is playing 2B for the Pirates?

21 year old rookie Stennett. .356/.369/.464

6 walks in 300 PA. :)

Randolph was drafted 3rd by the Expos and is the #13 prospect. Jim Rice for Milwaukee is #1 and they also have #7 Gorman Thomas, who is a SS in this world

Ah, so you're not playing historical rookies.

No, it's odd seeing Mike Schmidt at shortstop for Cleveland. Nettles has him blocked at third. heh

I like seeing players with their real teams. Also in the draft, knowing the names, a human GM can pick up decent everyday players as late as round three.

I've tried that in both drafts, Dennis Lamp is not looking good at all but Randy Jones may be decent

Well yea, nothing is guaranteed with TCR. Also someone posted a belief that at game creation every player is coded for how close his career will be to real life. But despite those things I believe a human GM has an advantage in the draft.

We ended up 16-12 in June and followed that up with a 15-13 July as we climbed from last to 3rd, still over 20 games behind the Twins. The Twins are on their way to their 4th straight division title and are favorites to make it back-to-back World Series championships.

Having Rivers and Bumbry healthy for 2 months in a row and adding Wynn last month has helped us play much better. I am going to give Rudy May and Messersmith 1 more start and then shut them down for the year. They've been on the DL in the last 2 years and I don't want to lose them given how frequent pitchers get hurt in this world.

The Twins are 8 games up on the A's, who you have to feel bad for as they would be in 1st place in the AL East. The Yankees hold a 1 1/2 game lead over the Sox and 3 1/2 over Baltimore in what should be an exciting final month.

But they have nothing on the NL races. In the East, St Louis has a 1 game lead over the Mets and 3 1/2 over the Phillies. But it's the West where it gets crazy

Astros
Reds 1/2
Giants 2 1/2
Dodgers 3
Padres 5

There are a large group of teams with a similar record as ours and I really want a higher pick this year. There is a great group in this years draft and I need a power source as the DH is getting added next year. This year has Winfield/Guerrero/Jack Clark/Lynn/Eddie Murray/Yount and is pretty weak in pitching so I want to be in the top 7 and right now I would be 8th. Another reason to rest my 2 best pitchers.

One game left in the season:

Yankees
Orioles - 1/2 (season over)
Red Sox -1

Reds
Giants -1

We are sitting all our best players to avoid long term injuries after both May and Rivers picked up short term knocks. So we losing a lot, I hope it doesn't cost me the job. Right now we'd be picking 4th, and I would happily take that. I want Eddie Murray badly. He's just 16 and I think I can get him to the majors in a short period of time.

If I do get fired, the Giants have offered me their job. You can see they are a good team and they are the #1 system in the game. That would be an easy way to get a good team, but I won't take that job unless I get canned.

Red Sox won, Yankees lost and there is a 3-way tie for 1st.

1st game of the playoff, Roger Freed hit a pinch-hit 3 run home run with 2 outs in the 9th as the Orioles beat the Sox 6-5. The Orioles went 9-2 down the stretch as the Sox only went 5-6 as they had the lead with 4 games to go, but went out on a heartbreaker.

2nd game of the playoffs, Brooks Robinson broke a 2-2 tie with a bases loaded double in the 7th to lead the O's to the playoffs against the Twins as Baltimore went on to win 5-2.

So it's O's-Twins and Cardinals-Reds.

The Orioles continued their hot play in the playoffs as they had an easy time beating defending WS champs Minnesota 3 games to 1 as Boog Powell was series MVP

St Louis had an equally easy time taking out the Reds in 4 games. Jim Northrup was the series MVP.

It took 7 games, but the Orioles won 3 of 4 in St Louis including 6-4 win in game 7. Don Baylor won series MVP as he hit 3 triples in game 7 and over .400 in the Series.

I got a contract extension, but he is "worried". I have improved our prospects from 21st to 13th and that's before our #4 pick.

Very happy to get Eddie Murray with the 4th pick. I am going to start him at A ball. If he progresses 1 level a year, he would start his career at 19 and given his potential, could have a great career. Picked up a non-historical catcher in the 2nd round and former A's pitchers Dave Heaverlo and Rick Langford in the 3rd and 7th respectively.

The top 10 were:

1)Expos-Fred Lynn
2)Brewers-Robin Yount!!! Yount, Jim Rice and Gorman Thomas are all 21 and younger. Nice future I could have had if I picked them over the Angels when I started the sim, those were my options
3)Cubs-Pedro Guerrero
4)Angels-Murray
5)Rangers-Jack Clark
6)Cleveland-Dave Winfield
7)Royals-Jonathan Astroth
8)Pirates-Mitchell Page
9)Padres-John Montefusco
10)Braves-Ellis Valentine

....one of these things is not like the others

The option to edit injuries is grey-ed out, I can't change it.

.....any idea how I can do that?

Steve Garvey, who just put up a 3.9 WAR as a 23 year old, retired from baseball to donate a kidney to his cousin,

Everyone knows Garvey was a selfish dude IRL, so this is really funny to me, plus he wasn't on my team. :)

I experimented and changed the injury settings from "classic" to "high" in spring training and only 18 players in the league were put on the DL during spring training which is down from the previous year. So will give his a go and see if the amount of injuries level down some.

My owner is going super cheap and I am way over budget. I can't deal Fregosi because he is a 5-10 guy and has refused any trade talk. I think I will have to deal Wynn at the deadline unless I somehow am in the pennant chase. I dealt Messersmith for Jim Merritt who is cheaper and not injury-prone. I sent closer Tom Burgmeier for 1B Ron Fairly and I also dealt many of my AAA guys on the 40-man roster to save $$$. Here is my lineup going into 1973 once Wynn comes off the DL with a minor injury.

Bumbry
Fregosi
Rivers
Wynn
Fairly
Cash
Cal Emery (DH)
Rudy Meoli 3b 21 year old
Francisco Marquez C 23 year old

My bullpen is ranked in the top 5 and while my starting staff looks mediocre, they are all between 24-29 and can improve.

The best news is my prospect ranking has gone from 3rd to last up to 7th after drafting Eddie Murray this year. He ripped up spring training, hitting .462, but I am staring him at A ball, he is only 17 and I have a 4 1/2 star prospect in AA who was my 1st rounder last year and a 3 1/2 in AAA. I am moving my AA prospect to LF to see if I can get him up to an average fielder by the time he gets to majors.

I am predicted to go 67-95 scoring 60 runs less than any other team. Sooooo...that's not promising.

One month in and as a 9-10 record would indicate, some ups and downs. Rudy May has been out 3 weeks and will be out 2 more weeks. None of my rookies are hitting but Mickey Rivers is leading the AL in hitting at .430. My guys are getting on base, we are 1st in OBP but just 10th in runs! I am getting no pop from my 4/5/6/7 guys.

On the very bright side, I have allowed the fewest runs in the AL. Jim Merritt, who I picked up for Andy Messersmith, is 3-1 with a 1.25 ERA and George Dixon is 3-1 with a 1.53 ERA.

We are first in the AL in SB with 17 steals in 19 games. Going to try to get 162 in 162.

The owner is angry with me, I will probably have to part with May or Wynn at the deadline for budgetary reasons unless I am somehow in the hunt.

A 15-13 May puts us 25-24 and in 3rd place, 6 games behind the A's. Other than pathetic attendance I can't complain at all. 5th in the AL in runs and 6th in pitching is pretty average which I will take.

Rudy May is still on rehab in AAA and Dave Cash missed much of May but everyone picked up the slack including rookie 3B Rudy Meoli who was Player of the Week the last week of May. Rivers tanked all the way down to .320 and out of the top 10.

I shopped Wynn around and didn't get anything worth even considering. 19 out of 30 games at home this month and I need to do well not only for the wins but to get more butts in seats.

Well....quite a June. We went 19-11 and are now just 1 1/2 behind the A's in 2nd place. The bats were explosive all month, all 9 of our regulars have an OPS+ over 100, everyone is rowing the boat.

Wynn has vaulted into MVP awareness as he is 2nd in HR's, 2nd in RBI 5th in slugging and 5th in OPS. Mickey Rivers is back to leading the leading in hitting and Al Bumbry is up to .300 and is 31 for 34 in steals.

The team is 1st in AVG, 2nd in OPB, 2nd in offensive WAR, 4th in slugging ....and dead last in HR's. We are 1st in triple and 3rd in doubles along with being 1st in steals.

Attendance is on the rise as we ended the month on a 12-3 tear. After being as low as 5,000 early in the year we were up to 11,000 on the last day of the month. Since we are still $350,000 over budget, we need to get that number to keep rising. I did raise ticket prices 20% in the off-season which led to the low early numbers. But if we can actually be in a pennant race, it could turn out to be good move.

Dammit, first 3 games of July were at the A's for 1st place and we lost 2 of 3, both on walk-off HR's in the bottom of the 9th.

15-14 in July, not terrible. But the A's went 23-5.

Twenty three.......and five.

10 games back now, and on July 31 I lost Jim Wynn for the year with an ankle the same day he was names player of the month. Was leading the AL in WAR. So many injuries this sim version.

The owner gave me the, "improve the attendance or we may have to make changes in the front office" the week before I lost Wynn. I don't want to lose this job, we are up to the #3 system in baseball now, but he's all about money.

Eddie Murray #6 prospect
Ed Kurpiel #15 prospect
Roy Howell #41 prospect
Craig Casek #64 prospect
Kevin Kobel #67 prospect
Dan Briggs #79 prospect

Well that was an interesting August

15-10 while the A's crashed to earth going 11-15, so we are only 5 1/2 back with 35 games left and 6 games to play against the A's. We've got a shot.

Wynn is out a few more weeks, but we will get him back with 2 weeks to go. I'll slot him back in at DH and hope we go 4-2 or 5-1 against the A's so we can make this a fun last few weeks.

4th in runs scored and runs allowed and we have the 4th best record in the AL. Seems like we are where we should be. Bumbry is now 54 for 62 in steals, leads the league by a mile. He also leads in runs and triples. He's a real catalyst.

Our young 3b and C are developing well, 22 yr old Meoli at 3rd is .285/.390/.412 and 22 year old catcher Marquez is .274/.373/.404. I am trying to get players that can draw walks and run some. Marquez and Meoli each have a dozen steals adding to their value.

Two games in Chicago before coming home for 4 against the A's. We need to start drawing. We are slowing closing the revenue gap from last year and hopefully this A's series can be a success on and off the field.

....we took the last two in Chicago and the A's lost two to the Royals, so we are now 3 1/2 back and have 4 at home against Oakland.

Updates?

Was about as evenly matched as could be.

A's blew a 3-run lead in the 8th in game 1, we blew a 7-3 lead in game 2. We then won a routine 4-1 game and then dropped a 4-3 game when Bumbry struck out with the bases loaded and 2 out in the 9th.

Still 3 1/2 back, but we do have 25 to play. Wynn still shows out for 2 weeks so best case we will get him back with 9 games to go now.

I picked up 31-year old Mel Stottlemyre in July from Cincinnati in exchange for a reliever. He had a rough last year and a half and was good for us as a swingman. He just threw a 1-hitter and beat KC 1-0 on a walk-off by Robert Cole.

4 back with 18 to go, but the bad news is Wynn suffered a setback and will not be back this year. So this is who I've got to make up 4 games.