California Angels 1970

[sharknut]

Originally Posted by sharknut

Injury-prone SS Ken Oberkfell is done for the year with a torn calf muscle. At 26 he's already been on the injured list for: Hamstring pulls (3 times, 20 weeks total), herniated disc in back (2 weeks) left ACL tear (10 months) broken left ankle (5 months) and now his calf muscle tear. Despite all these, he's hit .303/.368/.404 with average war adjusted for 162 games of 5.1.

Guess who herniated a disc in his back in spring training? Amazing

Other important injuries as the season starts:

Reds-SP Pascual Perez 6 weeks
Dodgers-CF Tommy Blanco 5 months
Twins-C Lance Parrish-4 months
Yankees-P Vida Blue 11 months
Mets-P Allan Ramirez 8 months
Mets-P Larry Gura 3 months
Phillies-P Rich Rodas 5 months
Padres-2B Johnny Ray 6 weeks
Giants-2B Marty Barrett 6 weeks

[sharknut]

Home opener, sold out crowd, all the players get their rings. Yay us!

And we lose 12-0 to Milwaukee

Early wake up call.

[sharknut]

We had 20 straight games to open the season with zero days off, which is a little bracing. After that 12-0 loss opening day, we outscored the opposition 109-67 over the next 19 games to start off the season 14-6.

Took 2 of 3 from Milwaukee
Took 2 of 3 from Oakland
Took 2 of 3 from Seattle
Took 3 of 4 from Minnesota
Took 3 of 4 from Oakland
Took 2 of 3 from Baltimore

1st in runs, 1st in batting WAR 1st in pitching war

Richards .250 12 runs 3 steals
Rookie Steve Sax .314 2 HR 10 RBI 12 runs 3 steals
Lynn .351 7 HR* 23 RBI* 16 runs*
Armstead .351 1hr 10 RBI 7 doubles
Howell .292 3 hr 13 RBI
Briggs .333 3 hr 12 RBI 13 runs
Bombo Rivera .386 2 HR 4 2b 2 3b 8 RBI 11 runs
Burroughs .286 9 RBI

Healthy team, this is the best team I've had

[sharknut]

Just 9-11 over the next 20 games and we are 23-17. Offense slowed down, which I guess I should have expected. 3rd now in runs, 3rd in batting WAR and 2nd in pitching WAR. Still 100% healthy.

Lynn is still leading the AL in HR/RBI and is 1st in slugging. I sent down a few struggling relievers and our backup catcher as well. Niedenfuer was good as a rookie, but was poor last year and his ERA was over 8 when sent down. Top prospect Brian Holton's ERA was over 6 and sent him down to start some games and get his game back on track. We called up rookie Alan Fowlkes and veteran Dan Schatzeder to replace them.

We also called up 1976 1st rounder Mike Davis. About to turn 24, we took our time letting him play at least a year and half at each level. He was .353 with 3 HR and 7 steals in 13 games in Edmonton and he's hit over .400 playing as a 5th outfielder and 24 at-bats. Burroughs is starting to struggle, so I am going to move Briggs to 1B and give Davis the starts in RF. It will hurt our defense at 1B, but should give us a faster and better hitting team

[sharknut]

2 months in and Lynn has been player of the month twice. We are hitting and pitching so well, we won 9 of our last 11 outscoring the opposition 82-33.

Our top players are on pace for:

Lynn .343/.433/.707 58 hr 175 RBI 220 hits 11 WAR
Howell .344/.381/.440 19 hr 118 RBI 211 hits 7 WAR
Briggs .314/.391/.430 13 hr 94 RBI 5.4 WAR
Armstead .321/.365/.465 13 hr 87 RBI 5.1 WAR
Richards .295/.374/.400 10 hr 30 2b 120 runs 81 RBI 40 steals 5.2 WAR
Sax .290/.347/.395 10 hr 20 2b 10 3B 117 runs 81 RBI 21 steals 3 WAR
Rivera .320/.368/.513 19 hr 25 2b 75 RBI 75 runs 5.8 WAR

Blyleven 19-6 2.34 ERA 1.16 WHIP 150 K 5.3 WAR
Tewksbury 10-10 2.31 ERA 1.11 WHIP 6.7 WAR
Cruz 10-10 2.97 ERA 1.19 WHIP 165 K 5.2 WAR

[sharknut]

We hit the All-Star break 2 1/2 games up at 49-34, slowed down a bit in June, but we are healthy and in 1st place.

Lynn was the leading vote getter, Gene Richards was named a starter as was 1st year starter Steve Sax at 2b. Bob Tewksbury, Clark Ellum and Lawrence Bender were named as pitchers.

At the break:

Lynn .325/.423/.656 26 HR 82 RBI
Richards. .285/.379/.389 18-2b 53 runs 35 rbi 15 steals
Briggs. .282/.348/.412 14-2b 7-hr 42 RBI 38 runs
Howell .300/.357/.466 24-2b 8-hr 48 RBI 42 runs
Sax. .323/.367/.422 12-2b 4-3b 4-hr 51 runs 42 RBI

Tewksbury 6-6 3.03 1.26
Ullum. 8-7 3.13 1.24
Blyleven. 9-3 3.23 1.24
Cruz. 6-5 3.45 1.27
Fontenot. 7-4 4.27 1.50

We traded for reliever and UFA to-be Enrique Romo to shore up the bullpen. We have gone from 13th to 9th in bullpen ERA, hope to be 5th by the end of the season.

[sharknut]

We made a few moves prior to the trade deadline. NL home run leader Greg Luzinski was available from the Mets and I offered a prospect that was really not good enough to get Luzinski and they took it. *shrug*. He is a UFA after the season, but he should have had a better return than a 3-star prospect who looks to be too good for AAA, but not good enough for the big leagues.

We also dumped Jeff Burroughs to Mets a few days later for a reliever. Burroughs is due $800,000 next year, so we ate 25% of it as he has hit .200 the last few years and will rot on our bench.

As July ends, we dropped our last 4 and are just 1/2 ahead of the White Sox. Our bullpen is now 5th in the AL and a strength, but our bats have slowed down after the break. The Royals are 5 back, the Mariners 6 and A's 7.

In the east, the Sox lead the Blue Jays by 2 1/2 with the Tigers 5 back. In the NL, the Cubs lead Philly by 3 1/2, Expos by 6, Cards by 7 and Mets by 8. Out west, the Braves and Dodgers are tied with the Giants 2 back.

Mike Marshall won the Triple Crown last year, and thanks to us trading for NL leader in HR and RBI's Luzinski, he has a great chance to win it again. He is currently 3rd in BA, 2nd in HR and 2nd in RBI, but he will pass Luzinski now that The Bull is in the AL

[sharknut]

2-5 to start the month and we just lost Briggs for 6 weeks and Concepcion has 1 week left on a 2-week injury. Our lead is down to 1/2 a game and now Seattle is 3 back, the Royals 4 and Oakland 5 games back.

The last 50 games should be interesting

[sharknut]

Fred Lynn just picked up a day-to-day groin injury (same injury as Briggs) that will last 3-4 weeks. I will try to sit him against lefties and DH against righties and try to get something from him without making the injury worse.

We are only 1 up on the Sox. We have opened up 5 games on the rest of the pack, but I need to find a way to keep Lynn in the lineup as much as possible.

....very next game we lost Steve Sax for the year with a hip injury, he was leading the AL in hitting at .323 and Mike Davis picked up a day-to-day injury that will last 2-3 weeks

medic!

[sharknut]

Originally Posted by sharknut

We made a few moves prior to the trade deadline. NL home run leader Greg Luzinski was available from the Mets and I offered a prospect that was really not good enough to get Luzinski and they took it. *shrug*. He is a UFA after the season, but he should have had a better return than a 3-star prospect who looks to be too good for AAA, but not good enough for the big leagues.

Luzinki was leading the NL in home runs with 21 when I traded for him.

He has zero home runs in 110 at bats for me.

[sharknut]

We hit September 1st 4 games up over the White Sox, who have struggled. We haven't been great, 6-4 in the last 10, but a 2-8 run finds us clear a few games. We do have 7 left against the Sox, so they have a good chance to run us down.

Lynn and Davis are still day-to-day another 7-10 days. We just got Concepcion back from a concussion, so that will help. We get Briggs back in about 2 weeks, but Sax is gone for the year. Jeff Cox probably would start at 2nd on most teams, so it won't kill us. He is better defensively than Sax, but Sax was leading the league in hitting, so we need Briggs back soon.

Victor Cruz has become a 3rd ace for us. He is 11-7 and leads the league in ERA at 2.85 and is 2nd in strikeouts with 147. He is 2nd in WAR, Fontenot is 4th, and Tewksbury is 5th. We can win this if our arms keep going.

[sharknut]

So much for the Sox. After a 3-game sweep, they are down to 4th. The Royals are the only threat 5 1/2 back. There are only 18 games left, but 5 of them are against KC, so they have a shot if they can win 4 or all 5.

The Red Sox are 1 1/2 up over the Jays and they have no games left against each other. The Cubs are comfortable, 6 1/2 games up and out west the Dodgers trail the Braves by 2 1/2

Mike Marshall is on pace to win his 2nd Triple Crown in a row. He leads the league in hitting by 12 points, home runs by 4 and RBI's by 14. He's 23 and may be the great player ever? LOL.

[sharknut]

We clinched the West with 7 games to go, no drama until the post-season for us. The Blue Jays went 9-1 to race past the Sox and have a 3 game lead. The Cubs have a magic number of 1 and the Braves magic number is 4.

Mike Marshall is at .347 and Gwynn .341 with a week to play. If Gwynn can't catch him, Marshall will win his 2nd straight Triple Crown.

Fred Lynn has a good chance to win 2 of the 3 legs. He is 10 RBI's up and is 1 home run ahead of Willie Aikens. Our injured Steve Sax still leads the league at .329, but Gene Richards is also at .329, just a bit behind Sax.

Other than Sax, our closer Enrique Romo is day-to-day with back spasms. Hope he can be 100% in 10 days.

[sharknut]

I limited my pitchers to 6 innings after I clinched it, but on his last pitch in the 6th inning of his last start, Bob Tewksbury ruptured a disk in his back. 6th in ERA, 5th in WAR and he's done for the year, dammit

[sharknut]

It was the best hitting team in the Blue Jays hosting the best pitching team in the Angels. Fernando Arroyo was 26-7 for Toronto and we put up 9 runs off of him in 3 innings and we held on for 9-6 win in game 1. Fred Lynn went 4-5 with a home run and 4 RBI.

Game 2 looked like game 1 as we put up 7 runs off Pete Vukovich in 3 innings to go up 7-0 and it looked like we were on easy street and heading for a sweep. But Toronto scored in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th and came back to win game 2 10-9. Kelvin Moore topped off the comeback with a 2-run HR in the 8th.

Game 3......see game 2. We scored 3 in the bottom of the 1st on a 3-run shot by Roy Howell. But a 4-run 7th gave the Jays a 7-5 win and 2-1 lead in the series.

Game 4 was another crazy game. Toronto was up 5-0 after 2 innings but 8 in the 5th, 5 in the 6th and 2 more in the 7th gave us game 4 with a 15-9 win. Armstead and Lynn each had 3 RBI and Richards, Briggs and Rivers had 2 each.

After 4 games, we have outscored them 38-32. Can Blyleven be the 1st pitcher in this series to put up a quality start, or will 26-game winner Arroyo give the Jays the win?

Both pitchers put up quality starts despite Blyleven giving up a 2-run double to Darryl Strawberry in the 1st. Bombo Rivera had an RBI single in the 2nd, but we entered the 7th down 2-1. Roy Howell lined an double to right and given his lack of speed, I decided to pinch run Mike Davis for him which paid off when Rivera knocked him in to tie things up. We brought in Jesus Alfaro to play 2nd and moved Cox to 3rd.

In the 8th, the Jays brought in Ron Guidry and he booted a Gene Richards grounder when we led off the 8th. I put the hit-and-run on to keep out the double play and Armstead grounded out to 3rd with Richards moving to 2nd. They did the smart thing to walk Fred Lynn and after a Greg Luzinski ground out, up came Jesus Alfaro with zero AB's in the post-season. He hit a ball off the end of the bat which landed just out of reach of 2nd baseman Jim Wohlford and 2 runs came in to score and we led 4-2.

Blyleven got the last 6 in order and we won the American League in a wild series. Howell ended up the MVP hitting .526 and 8 RBI. We will face the Cubs, who denied the Braves a chance to lose their 5th straight World Series. Jody Davis was the MVP hitting .538 with 2 HR's.

[sharknut]

I was 2 innings from winning the 1st two games of the World Series when the game crashed.

Going to wait for Saturday to pick this back up

[sharknut]

It was a close World Series, but then again it wasn't. The Cubs broke their curse (This is 1983) in a 4-1 series win where we had more baserunners in every game but couldn't stop hitting into double plays.

We split the 1st two games at home, losing 5-4 in game 1 and winning game 2 5-3.

In Chicago, there were 3 close games where.....not much happened to be honest. The Cubs won games of 4-3, 2-1 and 4-2 which I am sure were dramatic to the fans of the Angels and Cubs, for neutrals it wasn't a masterpiece.

Our Fred Lynn even won the MVP, but despite out hitting them every game, we lose our first World Series. Rather disappointing given I had the game crash, but it is what it is.

Since starting this sim, here are the World Series results:

Red Sox 2-0
Orioles 2-0
Angels 2-1
Royals 1-0
Pirates 1-0
Cubs 1-0
Twins 1-0
A's 1-1
Phillies 1-1
Cardinals 1-1
Yankees 1-2
Astros 0-1
Mets 0-2
Giants 0-2
Braves 0-3

[sharknut]

Our owner has had a burr under his saddle to get me to acquire an MVP for the last 3 years. Obviously there are a very limited pool of players I can find someone and do as he requires, especially since Fred Lynn has won 2 MVP's and we already have him.

There is no way we can get Mike Marshall, Chili Davis, Gary Redus, Lou Whitaker or Willie Wilson. We worked up an offer for Robin Yount that was accepted, but he has been on the DL 7 times and he's only 28. I would hate to give up what we would have to for a player like that, especially with 4 of the same muscle injury.

Given that we will lose 1B Jeff Burroughs to free agency, I decided to target Bob Horner of the Tigers. He's just 26 and has a 162 game avg of .301/.355/.517 36 HR 113 RBI and never been hurt. So we gave up the #18 prospect in baseball, SP Brian Holton along with 2 3-star prospects and got our man. He is signed for 6 more years, but has an opt-out after 2 which I am sure he will activate it. Holton has already pitched well for us and will be a stud, but not only does Horner shut my owner up, he will make us better.

We also need a SS and a catcher as Bombo Rivera exorcised his opt-out clause and we let Dave Concepcion go. Prospect Jesus Alfaro can hit at a big league level, but cannot play SS as his -12 range over 74 games proved. I look up and Alan Trammell is on the trade block. I offer up my other top 40 prospect, Dion James and 2 arms to the Pirates to get 25 year old Trammell. He is nice player in this world, but not IRL Trammell. He has a great glove but only averages 5 HR's and hits about .260. I got him for his glove.

[sharknut]

When you are offered a #1 or #2 starter you have to listen, even if you were 1st in ERA. So when the Mariners offered John Candelaria for Mike Davis straight up, it was something that I thought long and hard about. Once Bob Tewksbury comes back from his back injury, we are set. But Clark Ullum is 33 and will be a UFA next year. I had planned on having Davis take over in left for Dan Briggs this year, he will be a good player, but I had to do it.

We have 2 more years of Candelaria at $1.5 million a year. I cannot complain about the generosity of our owner. We are still just 14th in salary, but we will rise up that list as we will need to extend players soon, but now we have 6 starters and we still need a catcher.

Enter Lance Parrish. He has 2 years at $900,000 a year, but again, we have the money and he it a perfect fit. Ullom and a prospect for Parrish, done deal. Going into the season, we will go with:

Gene Richards-Silver Slugger winner last year
Steve Sax-Led AL in batting
Fred Lynn-3 time MVP
Bob Horner-1 time MVP averaging 36 HR and .301
Roy Howell-averaging 98 RBI over 162 games
Dan Briggs
Vernon Armstead
Lance Parrish
Alan Trammell

Victor Cruz-Defending Cy Young winner
Ray Fontenot-Won Cy Young 2 years ago
Bert Blyleven-193 wins, Won Cy Young 4 years ago
John Candelaria-at least 13 wins 9 years in a row, only 1 year of ERA+ under 100
Bob Tewskbury-4th in WAR last season

I feel confident

[sharknut]

Heh, Mark Davis and Keith Hernandez of the Brewers went into business together running a night club in Milwaukee. I thought that was an odd news story until 2 weeks later Davis was suspended for getting into a fight at the nightclub