California Angels 1970

[sharknut]

Elsewhere, the Red Sox are cruising with a 9 game lead over the Brewers. We are 5-4 so far this season against Boston and our next three are at Fenway in one of those "post-season preview" series and it happens to fall where our 3 best will be going.

The Braves have a 17 1/2 game lead in the NL West but the East is still as tight as can be.

Pittsburgh 70-62
Mets -1
Phillies -2
Cardinals -3

[sharknut]

The Sox took 2 out of 3 at Fenway, so that makes us 6-6 against them this year. Could be a fun LCS. We got back on our feet taking 3 of 4 over the Yankees and now we come home with a 5 1/2 game lead over Oakland with just 15 games left.

The acquisition of Johnny Bench has been the pickup of the trade deadline, to say the least:

For the Giants
.240/.294/.342 5 HR in 286 PA's
For the Angels
.329/.408/.553 9 HR 33 RBI in 190 PA's and a 2.5 WAR in 40 games.

He wants $1 million a year for 4 years at age 32. I just fell for this trap with Thurman Munson, but Bench is a step above him. I will counteroffer at $750,000 and see what he says. He is at $400,000 this year.

The NL East is still a dog fight, a bunch of dogs hoping to limp across the line

Pirates 72-66
Phillies 70-65 1/2
Mets 70-66 1
Cards 68-68 3

[sharknut]

Bench now has a 20-game hitting streak and has continued to be an MVP level player.

And now he wants $2 million a year. Heh. Nope.

[sharknut]

I just noticed....Willie Wilson has 124 steals with 2 weeks to go.

[sharknut]

On the very day we clinch the AL West with 7 games to go, we lost Reggie Smith for the season with a hamstring.

.291/.386/.487 25 HR 109 RBI

[sharknut]

99 wins and 6 games clear at the end of the season but having to face the Red Sox without Fred Lynn and Reggie Smith is not going to be easy. They were 1st in runs, we were 1st in pitching.

Going to try to win with this lineup

cf-Vernon Armstead .325 8 hr 72 rbi 78 runs 30 doubles 23 steals
2b-German Barranca .418 OBP 8 hr 52 rbi 68 runs 450 PA
3b-Roy Howell .273 19 hr 93 rbi
c-Johnny Bench. .278 15 hr 69 rbi
lf-Danny Briggs. .277 38 doubles
rf-Ken Landreaux .287 18 hr 67 rbi
dh-Bake McBride .319 41 rbi 47 runs 19 steals 350 PA
1b-Eddie Murray .209 14 hr 56 rbi
ss-Rodney Scott .254 43 steals

Bert Blyleven. 20-9 2.89 ERA 1.11 WHIP 169 K
Floyd Bannister 15-7 3.83 ERA 1.25 WHIP
Mike Brandt. 17-9 3.08 ERA 1.27 WHIP
Burt Hooton. 15-13 3.67 ERA 1.25 WHIP

[sharknut]

In the NL, the Phillies and Pirates were tied going into game 162 but rookie Tom Candiotti of the Phillies got lit up and the Pirates will face the Braves. The Braves had a 20 game lead at one point, but they lost 18 of their last 30 games and are without 7-time all-star Ray Fosse due to injury and the Pirates are totally healthy.

[sharknut]

Bert Blyleven had 2 seasons this year:

1st half, he was Bob Gibson 13-3 1.23 ERA
2nd half, he was Sideshow Bob 7-6 4.51 ERA

So I didn't know if he was going to start a 3rd season in game 1. 120 pitches and a 6-hit shutout later, I think I know. We took game 1 in Boston 1-0 as we scratched out a run in the top of the 9 off Rollie Fingers to break up a very well pitched game started by Len Barker and Blyleven.

Bake McBride, playing for injured Reggie Smith, blooped a 2-out hit in the 9th. He stole 2nd and scored on a Rodney Scott double. Blyleven had an easy 1-2-3 9th and we took a huge step to the World Series. Game 2 will see Floyd Bannister face Tom Hume.

[sharknut]

We dropped game 2 6-3 allowing 3 unearned runs in the 4th and we never could catch up. During game 1, Eddie Murray suffered back spasms and is day-to-day and since he was a .209 hitter in the regular season, I didn't think I could take him being actually WORSE, so I put in a worse fielding 1b, Dan Briggs, and Jim Fregosi came in to DH. I don't know if the throwing error by Howell would have been prevented if Murray was playing, but too late now. Plus Fregosi went 2-4 as the DH.

On the "bright side", Boston's lead off man 2B (yes, 2B) Ozzie Smith hurt his hand and will be out the rest of the playoffs. .288/.355 42 XBH and a 5 WAR will need to be replaced.

[sharknut]

We had a 6-0 lead after 3 innings in game 3 and ended up losing 9-7.

Gutting loss. 1 in the 4th, 2 in the 5th, 2 in the 6th, 2 in the 7th and 2 in the 9th.

[sharknut]

We fell behind 2-0 early but battled back and Bake McBride hit a walk-off solo shot in the bottom of the 9th to take game 4 4-3. Hooton went all 9 setting up a deciding game 5, a rematch between Len Barker and Bert Blyleven.

Armstead ended the season 3rd in the AL in hitting, but he is 0-for the first 4 games, so we will slide him down to 7th and move Dan Briggs, hitting .500, into the leadoff slot.

The Braves took the NL in 4 games over the Pirates, so they await.

[sharknut]

Dropped game 5 5-2. Gave up 3 in the 1st and never really fought back.

11 seasons in and after 4 season building the team, we have 1 World Series and 3 times losing in the LCS the last 7 seasons.

Going to get Lynn and Smith back for next year and hopefully that can get us over the line

[sharknut]

We dealt 24-year old 3-star prospect RP Roger Erickson to the Dodgers for 31-year old Jim Sundberg. We aren't paying Bench what he demands and Sundberg is a career .285 hitter who averages about 2.4 WAR. We have a 22-year old catcher who was the MVP in AA last year hitting .290 with 29 HR and will be in AAA this year. Sundberg will be an FA after next year, which would leave the job open to him should he keep progressing. In 70 PA in AAA he went .277/.533!!!!/.383 with 23 walks.

We are going to offer UFA Dusty Baker a 5 year deal. He's been a 3b, but he would move to 1b for us and we would then unload perennial disappointment Eddie Murray.

[sharknut]

Dusty asked for $1 million and I countered for $900,000 a year for 5 years. He said he liked and would get back to us. He then countered for $1.15 million after the Cubs offered that much. I looked around and Jeff Burroughs was there. While he has played OF so far, he is highly-rated at 1B and his offensive stats are almost a match for Baker. Baker hits about 10 points higher but Burroughs averages 6 more HR's and he also asked for $1 million. I counted for $900,000 and he took it, so he will be our 1B for the next several years.

I want to add 1 more bullpen arm and I think that will be it for this off-season. 22-year old Ray Fontenot is going to get a shot as the #5 starter. Our 1st round pick 3 years ago is the #29 prospect in baseball and between AA and AAA he compiled a 6.6 WAR going 18-7 with a 2.99 ERA and 163 K.

Prior to the draft, our prospect pool is up to 4th, which is the highest it's been. Being 1 game short of the World Series and also having players with potential coming up is a good place to be.

Interestingly, the Blue Jays have the 1st and 7th pick and Eric Davis and cousin Darryl Strawberry are top prospects. Strawberry was drafted by Toronto last year but didn't sign and so they have a compensatory pick.

The last place Jays splashed big cash before the draft signing 26 year old-3 time All-Star Gary Carter to a $1.3 million a year deal for 5 years and 29-year old 2-time All Star Rick Burleson to a $1.6 a year deal for 4. I am not sure how much that will help them as defending World Series champ Boston just signed free agent Jim Rice from Milwaukee coming off a 5.3 WAR season.

[sharknut]

A few post-season awards:

Blyleven unanimously won the Cy Young and was 9th in MVP voting. Willie Wilson won the MVP leading the league in hitting, hits, triple and had 133 steals. Reggie Smith was 9th and surprisingly, Vernon Armstead was 10th in his first year as a starter (although he was 0-19 in our LCS loss...ugh).

Gary Redus won the NL MVP with a season of .312/.393/.492 with 19 HR's and 53 steals. Pat Underwood won Cy Young with a season of 18-7, 9 saves 2.01 ERA in 222 innings. Tim Leary somehow only won ROY with a 24-4 season in Atlanta.

[sharknut]

Slight change of plans. I shopped Eddie Murray around hoping some re-building team would take a chance on a 25 year old who after a good rookie season has been a negative WAR player the last 2 years.

The Tigers are cutting salary and offered their closer, 30 year old Mike Proly, with 2 years and $1.8 million left on his deal. We asked for 20% retention and we got it. Proly is a closer in the tradition of Mike Marshall, he eats innings. In the last 4 years, here are his numbers:

18-9 20 saves 84 games 4.22 ERA 179 innings
13-10 17 saves 77 games 3.00 ERA 168 innings
14-16 19 saves 80 games 3.74 ERA 183 innings
10-10 23 saves 64 games 3.10 ERA 105 innings

He has only allowed 25 HR's in over 600 innings, so he is Mr. Groundball.

[sharknut]

Originally Posted by sharknut

Interestingly, the Blue Jays have the 1st and 6th pick and Eric Davis and cousin Darryl Strawberry are top prospects. Strawberry was drafted by Toronto last year but didn't sign and so they have a compensatory pick

The Jays took Davis with the 1st pick and they took Strawberry for the 2nd year in a row with the 6th pick......and signed them both!

Toronto Davis
Cleveland-Kevin Mitchell
Seattle-David Cone
Giants-Jose Rijo (age 15??)
Cleveland-Fred McGriff
Toronto-Strawberry
Cubs-Sid Fernandez
Texas-Mickey Tettleton
Yankees-John Kruk
San Diego-Tony Gwynn

We took Tom Niedenfuer with pick #26. He's 21 and will start him at AAA, he's already quite advanced. We lost a few decent arms in the Rule 5 draft, so there is room for him to get to the Angels pretty quickly.

[Edster007]

Interested to see what Eddie Murray does with the change of scenery. I am about 1/2 a season behind you and I shopped and traded Cecil Cooper for the same reason and in the 3 seasons since he has been a 3 time all star.

[sharknut]

Originally Posted by Edster007

Interested to see what Eddie Murray does with the change of scenery. I am about 1/2 a season behind you and I shopped and traded Cecil Cooper for the same reason and in the 3 seasons since he has been a 3 time all star.

Cooper has been a nice player in my world, not an all star, but he has put up good traditional numbers, though his WAR isn't indicative.

His 162 avg is

.296/.333/.450 14 hr 80 rbi 14 steals

He wasn't good as a youngster, but the last 4 years he's averaged .308, 20 hr 89 rbi (crap....that may happen with Murray)

He's gone from the A's to the Giants and then back to the A's again.

[sharknut]

The season kicks off and the team is missing our leadoff hitter, Vernon Armstead, for 2 more weeks after a HBP in a spring game.

When healthy, I think this will be our 9

Armstead-LF
Barranca-2B
Lynn-DH
Smith-CF
Burroughs-1B
Howell-3B
Landreaux-RF
Fregosi/Scott-SS
Sundberg-C