OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - The Bucs Start Here - A Pirates Do-Over

luckymann · 08-17-2023, 11:39 PM

A not totally unexpected scratchy start by the boys that more closely resembles a Claymation short than a baseball season in progress. It’s mainly our hitting that struggles, with dominant performances interspersed by hapless ones with great regularity and neither Rose (246 BA / 0.2 bWAR) nor Johnson (1 HR / 9 RBI) showing much from the off. While better than the hitting, our pitching isn’t totally immune as Woodie Fryman, Grant Jackson and Dave Giusti each has a couple of worrying blowouts as well. All in all, everything looks a bit shaky in this early sectional.

Our depth is tested for the first time when a thumb fracture sidelines C Ed Kirkpatrick for 4 weeks. At least a nice turn comes of it as Don Leppert, who has been in the league since 1961 but never played a game in the bigs, finally gets the long-awaited call-up at age 37 (and cracks his first homer a few games in). But it does mess up our shape, leaving us with only Al Oliver to backup Pops at 1B. A subsequent injury to Clemente further erodes our group, although we elect to keep him off the IL and just rest him.

The only even remotely positive thing I can say is that at least – thanks to this season’s somewhat forgiving environment with the expansion clubs and divisional alignment being introduced, as well as what seems to be a pretty evenly-balanced competition – we haven’t completely stuffed our chances of participating in the post-season action. But the Phillies have made a strong move to head us by 5.5 going into June, so another sectional like this one will change that entirely.

Monthly Award Winners

April

American League

Batter – Bill Melton (White Sox): 397 / 6 HR / 18 RBI
Pitcher – Bob Veale (Red Sox): 4-1 / 0.66 / 36 K / 40.2 IP
Rookie – Gary Gentry (Angels): 3-0 / 1.42 / 22 K / 38 IP

National League

Batter – Frank Robinson (Reds): 397 / 2 HR / 18 RBI
Pitcher – Bob Gibson (Cardinals): 4-0 / 1.41 / 39 K / 44.2 IP
Rookie – Jim Colborn (Padres): 3-2 / 2.91 / 20 K / 34 IP

May

American League

Batter – Rico Petrocelli (Red Sox): 333 / 9 HR / 20 RBI
Pitcher – Sam McDowell (Indians): 5-1 / 0.87 / 55 K / 51.2 IP
Rookie – Vida Blue (A’s): 3-0 / 2.92 / 31 K / 40 IP

National League

Batter – Tony Perez (Reds): 361 / 10 HR / 23 RBI
Pitcher – Rick Wise (Reds): 5-1 / 2.55 / 24 K / 42.1 IP
Rookie – Steve Renko (Expos): 4-1 / 3.38 / 19 K / 42.2 IP

News and Leaders

Milestones and Observations of Note

400 HR: Harmon Killebrew
2500 Hits: Henry Aaron
A slight setback for reigning AL RoY Reggie Jackson, with a hamstring tear set to keep him out of action for a month or so. A bigger one for Willie Mays, knocked out for the mandatory 3 month Legacy maximum with an Achilles’ injury.
The Twins sign Claude Osteen on a 1/212 deal, while Chico Salmon is claimed off the Cubs by KC.
The Waiver Wire is indeed treacherous as you’d expect, and we claim Bill Robinson from the Tigers and install him at the big club. That’s a great get for us, despite him being bereft of OYs. Bill is a young and talented three-slot OF who played for us IRL from 1975-82. The only hiccup is that Ted Savage is subsequently claimed by the A’s, but that’s only a minor annoyance.

Our re-signing project starts well, with Woodie Fryman agreeing to a 5-year deal at a total outlay of $587k. That’s an AAV of $117k, a decent margin less than we’d expected. Johnson follows for a year on $168k, which implies a higher-than-forecast cost for him beyond next season. Tolan re-ups on a slightly backended 4-year / $820k deal that hopefully gives us some time to grow into the latter part of. Only Blass is a holdout despite us making a generous offer, which is a real disappointment given what we’re trying to build here. So we’ll send him to arb and we’ll lowball him when we do just to remind him who’s running things in case he’s forgotten or maybe even trade his ass, just for spite—1971 heroics IRL be damned. So the other three cost us a fair bit less than we had budgeted for, which is great going. We also keep Grant Jackson at the club thru 1972 for $35k per and Paul Popovich on a 2/100 deal. That’ll do us for now.

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08-17-2023, 11:39 PM	#2184
luckymann Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2019 Posts: 12,745	The View from the Gangplank June 1, 1969 A not totally unexpected scratchy start by the boys that more closely resembles a Claymation short than a baseball season in progress. It’s mainly our hitting that struggles, with dominant performances interspersed by hapless ones with great regularity and neither Rose (246 BA / 0.2 bWAR) nor Johnson (1 HR / 9 RBI) showing much from the off. While better than the hitting, our pitching isn’t totally immune as Woodie Fryman, Grant Jackson and Dave Giusti each has a couple of worrying blowouts as well. All in all, everything looks a bit shaky in this early sectional. Our depth is tested for the first time when a thumb fracture sidelines C Ed Kirkpatrick for 4 weeks. At least a nice turn comes of it as Don Leppert, who has been in the league since 1961 but never played a game in the bigs, finally gets the long-awaited call-up at age 37 (and cracks his first homer a few games in). But it does mess up our shape, leaving us with only Al Oliver to backup Pops at 1B. A subsequent injury to Clemente further erodes our group, although we elect to keep him off the IL and just rest him. The only even remotely positive thing I can say is that at least – thanks to this season’s somewhat forgiving environment with the expansion clubs and divisional alignment being introduced, as well as what seems to be a pretty evenly-balanced competition – we haven’t completely stuffed our chances of participating in the post-season action. But the Phillies have made a strong move to head us by 5.5 going into June, so another sectional like this one will change that entirely. Monthly Award Winners April *American League* Batter – Bill Melton (White Sox): 397 / 6 HR / 18 RBI Pitcher – Bob Veale (Red Sox): 4-1 / 0.66 / 36 K / 40.2 IP Rookie – Gary Gentry (Angels): 3-0 / 1.42 / 22 K / 38 IP *National League* Batter – Frank Robinson (Reds): 397 / 2 HR / 18 RBI Pitcher – Bob Gibson (Cardinals): 4-0 / 1.41 / 39 K / 44.2 IP Rookie – Jim Colborn (Padres): 3-2 / 2.91 / 20 K / 34 IP May *American League* Batter – Rico Petrocelli (Red Sox): 333 / 9 HR / 20 RBI Pitcher – Sam McDowell (Indians): 5-1 / 0.87 / 55 K / 51.2 IP Rookie – Vida Blue (A’s): 3-0 / 2.92 / 31 K / 40 IP *National League* Batter – Tony Perez (Reds): 361 / 10 HR / 23 RBI Pitcher – Rick Wise (Reds): 5-1 / 2.55 / 24 K / 42.1 IP Rookie – Steve Renko (Expos): 4-1 / 3.38 / 19 K / 42.2 IP News and Leaders Milestones and Observations of Note 400 HR: Harmon Killebrew 2500 Hits: Henry Aaron A slight setback for reigning AL RoY Reggie Jackson, with a hamstring tear set to keep him out of action for a month or so. A bigger one for Willie Mays, knocked out for the mandatory 3 month Legacy maximum with an Achilles’ injury. The Twins sign Claude Osteen on a 1/212 deal, while Chico Salmon is claimed off the Cubs by KC. The Waiver Wire is indeed treacherous as you’d expect, and we claim Bill Robinson from the Tigers and install him at the big club. That’s a great get for us, despite him being bereft of OYs. Bill is a young and talented three-slot OF who played for us IRL from 1975-82. The only hiccup is that Ted Savage is subsequently claimed by the A’s, but that’s only a minor annoyance. Our re-signing project starts well, with Woodie Fryman agreeing to a 5-year deal at a total outlay of $587k. That’s an AAV of $117k, a decent margin less than we’d expected. Johnson follows for a year on $168k, which implies a higher-than-forecast cost for him beyond next season. Tolan re-ups on a slightly backended 4-year / $820k deal that hopefully gives us some time to grow into the latter part of. Only Blass is a holdout despite us making a generous offer, which is a real disappointment given what we’re trying to build here. So we’ll send him to arb and we’ll lowball him when we do just to remind him who’s running things in case he’s forgotten or maybe even trade his ass, just for spite—1971 heroics IRL be damned. So the other three cost us a fair bit less than we had budgeted for, which is great going. We also keep Grant Jackson at the club thru 1972 for $35k per and Paul Popovich on a 2/100 deal. That’ll do us for now. S+ HOME REPORTS HOME PIRATES HOME __________________ HISTORICAL DO-OVERS PIRATES A'S RED SOX DODGERS CUSTOM SAVES ECLIPSE LEAGUE MOON SHOT LEAGUE EVERYMAN LEAGUE GULF LEAGUE Last edited by luckymann; 08-18-2023 at 09:12 AM.