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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???
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