Originally Posted by Charlie Hough
Okay, as it turns out, Fran Mullins' big season was in 1981 and not 1980. But he was still a big contributor in that 1980 pennant-winning season. In 1980, he was a mid-season callup and hit 8 HR, had 42 RBI, and had .402 SLG in 302 AB.
In 1981, he followed that up with a full season as the starter at 3B, where he moved when the White Sox signed Alfredo Griffin as a free agent at SS. Mullins went on to produce 23 HR, 92 RBI, and hit .264 with a whopping .447 slugging percentage in 535 AB. He beat out Claudell Washington for the team lead in HR and RBI, and he was a huge factor in the White Sox repeating as pennant winners.
It also helped that the Sox acquired Chris Chambliss and Larry Herndon, whereas they were trading away players and cutting costs in real life.
In 1982, Mullins went cold twice during the season and was not as productive, finishing with 12 HR, 56 RBI, and only .362 SLG in 486 AB. Oddly enough, this happened even though development is turned on and his power rating improved slightly for 1982.
But his minor league stats were a huge factor in all of this. He was a really good player in AAA and hit for considerable power for several years from 1980 through around 1985. But he never translated that into MLB performance during his brief stints with the White Sox, Giants and Indians. in OOTP, though, we get a chance to see how he might have performed if things had been different.
By the way, during those same 1980 and 1981 OOTP seasons, the San Diego Padres won the NL pennant, and largely for similar reasons. Randy Bass, who had a monster year in AAA in 1980 (37 HR, 123 RBI and .644 SLG), put up similar numbers for the Padres in MLB. He and Gene Tenace had mind-boggling seasons in 1980, each hitting over 30 HR, and John D'Acquisto was a flash-in-the-pan 20-game winner.
D'Acquisto got a good stamina rating based on his career starts, but I still don't know how he was so good in 1980. His real life stats for the initial calculation didn't really warrant it, so he was ultimately a clear overachiever. By the next season, his control started to suffer, and then it bottomed out in 1982, where he ended up barely clinging to life as a reliever, just as happened to him in real life.
FYI, the settings for this game involved 3-year recalc for the initial ratings and future player creation, with fairly heavy emphasis on the current season, and then development would take over. Pitcher stamina was based on a player's career.
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