California Angels 1970

[sharknut]

Despite a 6-game losing streak late in the month, we managed to go 15-11 in July and have a 3 1/2 game lead over the Twins. Given a rash of minor injuries and without Gene Richards all month, I'll take the lead into summer.

We are still 1st in pitching, but dipped to 5th in hitting so we made another move, acquiring CF Rick Leach from Toronto for Willie Upshaw. Leach will be a UFA, but Vernon Armstead has dipped in performance as has Briggs. Leach is a good fielding CF and I can use his .260 in the 9th spot vs Armstead who is stuck under .170.

Wow, Bruce Sutter was a nobody in my sim, he only had 1 save when he last played in the big leagues 8 years ago and he blew his arm out shortly after that save.

After 4 years at AAA, 2 at AA and 2 at A, he is leading the NL in saves as a 32 year old rookie. Comeback Player of the Year, which they don't award

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I have a bit of a predicament with our UFA to be John Candelaria. He wants to sign here and he's been great for us since we dealt for him 2 years ago. He's on a pace for 20 wins and sub-3.00 ERA.

He asked for $2.2 million a year for 5 years, which would be the 10th highest paid player in baseball. Not unfair, but I thought an even $10 million over 5 years was a good counteroffer to which he replied:

"That's close, but how about $2.3 million a year for 5 years?" He asked for $100,000 a year more.

"Ok, you've made your point, John. How about $2.1 a year?"

"We're getting there, how about $2.5 million a year?" $200,000 MORE than his previous ask.

I'm going to take a PR hit, but "F" this guy. "F" him in the ear. I'm not even going to ride him to the playoffs. I'm going to the deadline and get as much as I can for him. I may be cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I am not going to negotiate with someone like that.

[sharknut]

At the break we are 11 games up, we are 12-2 in July and running away with it. Lynn/Horner/Law will start in the All-Star game and Richards will be on the bench. Candelaria and Martinez made the pitching staff.

We have 15 wins in our last at-bats so far this year. We won 8 games on the road in our last at bats and have 7 walk-off hits at home, all by different players. We've scored 4 runs twice in our last at bat, 6 runs once and we had an 8 run bottom of the 9th in our largest comeback win.

At the ASG, Horner won the HR Derby and greedy Candelaria took the loss after giving up a 2-run HR to Billy Sample. heh

[sharknut]

We went 19-7 in July and are up 11 games. All the other divisions have races, though. In the east, 5 teams are within 2 games, the standings flip every day. In the NL, the Braves and Dodgers are tied for first and the Phillies are up 3 in the east.

35 year old Burt Hooton picked up his 200th win, 71 of which came in California where he made 1 all-star game. We sent him framed art of his best game as an Angel. He also recently picked up his 2000th strikeout, very impressive career.

[sharknut]

With 35 games left, we have a 20 game lead. I feel pretty safe. LOL

I decided to suck it up and keep Candelaria and just try to win the World Series and see what happens after the season. I just offered Blyleven a 4 year extension. He is 34 and has 1 year left on his deal and given his positive health history, I want to lock him up now. As a tempter, I claimed his brother Johannes on waivers earlier in the season and promoted him to the 40-man roster when rosters expanded today. I assume they get along?

Elsewhere, the Phillies and Braves (for the 6th year in a row) are comfortably in first in the NL, but the AL East still is a crapshoot. There are still 4 teams within 3 games with Toronto in front by 2 over the Brewers, Tigers and Sox.

Lynn in 3rd in hitting, 1st in runs and slugging, 6th in HR and RBI's. Horner is 4th in HR and 3rd in RBI's. Mark Gerard (non-historical player) leads the AL in HR and RBI's for the Brewers. If Rickey Henderson could stay healthy, I think they would be in first but he keeps getting 2-3 week injuries, but he is amazing.

Candelaria leads in ERA and is 2nd in wins and Victor Cruz is 3rd and Martinez has 34 saves and a sub-2.00 ERA. The pitching in the NL is much better, Roger Clemens is on pace for the pitching Triple Crown and could get 300 strikeouts at age 23.

[sharknut]

We had also signed David Clyde to a 2-way deal earlier in the year but never had the need to call him up until the rosters expanded. I just saw that this makes his 10th MLB club and he is only 30 years old. He has a great chance to at least tie Edwin Jackson's record of playing for 14 teams.

He has a career sub-4.00 ERA with a WAR over 11, so he's been a decent pitcher, even an All-Star once. But like this game does sometimes, he's been waived multiple times and claimed over and over so his bags are always packed.

[sharknut]

We clinched a while ago, but we are really struggling in September. We are only 10-13 this month scoring about 3 runs a game. We only have 12 games left, but thanks to rainouts, we have THREE double headers in 9 days. This gives me a chance to make a little history.

We had Bert and Johannes Blyleven start both games of a double header against Cleveland. As our month has gone, we got swept 3-2 and 4-3. We need to break out of this funk ASAP

[sharknut]

We did not expect to face the Brewers in the first round of the playoffs. Toronto had a 4 game lead with 16 games to go, but then Eric Davis fractured his knee cap, at least a 9 month injury. He still ended up with a 9 WAR as he hit .274 with 35 HR, 52 steals and 80 walks. From that point on, the Jays went 4-12 and the Brewers finished up 11-5.

The Brewers themselves are missing Rickey Henderson, out for the year as mentioned earlier. They still ended up 1st in runs as 1b Mark Gerard hit 44 HR and knocked in 134. Ivan Calderon added 25 HR and 119 RBI and Willie McGee and Robin Yount sets the table.

Over in the NL, the Braves won their 6th straight NL West title and they will face the Phillies, who have reached the playoffs for the 1st time in 6 years. The Braves have lost 4 out of the last 5 World Series. Can they finally...finally get over the hump?

[sharknut]

Fred Lynn has played in 7 playoff series for us, and after the 1st round series with Milwaukee, he has been named MVP in 4 of them. He hit .423 with 4 home runs as we took the Brewers down 4 games to 2.

After 39 post season games, Lynn has career playoff numbers of:

162 AB
.377
.396
12 HR
44 RBI
On pace for a season of 11 WAR

The poor Braves. Another division title. Another season of not winning the World Series. The Phillies only needed 5 games to beat the Braves as Dave Elder hit 4 HR's and they stand between us and back-to-back champships

The bad news is that Lance Parrish was hit with a pitch in game 3 and fractured his kneecap, knocking him out 5 months.

[sharknut]

We have officially been called a dynasty by our owner, back-to-back World Series wins and 3 out of 4. It was easy in the end, 4 games to 1 over the Phillies. Vernon Armstead, who played so poorly this season I traded for Rick Leach as an attempt to improve, won the World Series MVP after Leach went ice cold the last 2 weeks. Armstead hit .474 with a home run, 3 RBI, 5 runs and 2 steals. I would have given it to Victor Cruz who went 1-0 with a 1.90 ERA and started victorious games 1 and 5.

I still have several years to go before the Marlins and Rockies enter the league, and not that I am complaining about this winning team I built, but I am a little bored with it. Lots to do in the off-season and I think I have a lot of work to do to keep the train rolling.

[sharknut]

As we approach the draft, we have a bit of an issue. I wanted to let Candelaria walk, but the owner told me it was a priority to sign him.......so I gave into his demands with my tail between my legs.

Then Bob Horner opted out of his last deal, turned down my $2.6 million a year deal, asked for $3 million a year, and then signed for $2.6 a year with the Reds. I am not happy at all, there are no UFA's close to Horner's ability. The players closest to him are all in the mid-30's and want 3-4 years and I am not going to do that. Instead, I am gong to offer 29-year old Ellis Valentine a 3 year deal. His career got off to a great start, but was a part-time player the last 3 years. He his .315 last year with 14 HR in 293 AB's and maybe he can do that over a year. I also have the #41 prospect at AAA at 1b and will see if he hit in the big leagues.

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We ended up getting Valentine and then we decided that our #1 prospect, Bip Roberts is ready for 2b, so we moved 25 year old Steve Sax for 29 year old Jody Davis, who will be a UFA after this season. Davis is a 5-time All-Star and 3 time Silver Slugger and while Sax did win ROY 3 years ago, I think he's going to be a .300 hitter who doesn't walk and is avg in the field. Bip just hit .370 at AA and does walk and has speed that Sax doesn't have, and so now we have Davis.

While we still have Lance Parrish for 4 more years at $1.1 million a year, he fractured his kneecap in the playoffs last year and I'd rather be safe than sorry this year. We will see if Parrish recovers, meanwhile, we added a better hitter who can fill some of the missing Bob Horner power.

[sharknut]

Opening day is here, just wanted to list some awards and the draft:

AL
MVP-Darryl Strawberry .315/.405/.623 47 HR 38 SB
Cy Young-Dave Smith 22-9 3.37 ERA
ROY-Chris Brown .261/.337/.461 30 HR
Reliever of the Year-Arthur Martinez (2) 4-5 45 svs 1.87 ERA

NL (3 time Triple Crown winner Mike Marshall missed a month)
MVP-Lou Whitaker .297/.398/.531 31 HR 112 RBI 39 SB
Cy Young-Roger Clemens 19-7 2.60 ERA 303 K's
ROY-Dave Clark .279/.350/.428 17 HR
Reliever of the Year-Dan O'Brien 5-9 32 svs 2.58 ERA

Top 10 draft
Expos-Larry Walker
Seattle-Gary Sheffield (unsigned)
Yankees-Curt Schilling
Giants-Moises Alou
Rangers-Bernie Williams
A's-Juan Gonzalez
Cubs-Kevin Brown
Giants-Rafael Palmeiro
Cleveland-John Smoltz
Pirates-Chris Hoiles

We took Rey Sanchez with the last pick in the 1st round

[sharknut]

We are 33-16 through May, 5 games ahead of the Rangers. While we miss Horner's power, we are 2nd in runs despite being 8th in HR's. We are hitting .287 as a team and we are 3rd in steals.

As this game tends to do, there are a good number of unsigned UFA's when the season starts, about 40 of them SHOULD have been signed if there were quality AI GM's. A few weeks into the season, we were getting nothing from Armstead in center, so we picked up 33 year old Ray Knight. He's not spectacular, but he plays 5 positions, with CF his best. He hit .269/.310/.380 with 35 XBH last year, he averages a 1.8 WAR, so I picked him up and he has hit .292 with 5 HR in his first 30 games.

Ellis Valentine has turned out to be a great signing. He is hitting .331/.376/.486 with 6 HR. My big trade of the off-season, Jody Davis is only hitting .219 with 6 HR. I don't have luck with catchers, that's starting to drive me crazy. LOL

Gene Richards leads the league in hitting at .369, rookie Bip Roberts is hitting .293 with 16 doubles and 11 steals hitting 2nd and Fred Lynn is leading us in HR/RBI/WAR. as he always does.

We are also 1st in the AL in ERA with Victor Cruz having his best season yet. He leads the league in wins with 8 and in ERA at 2.53. He is also 2nd to David Cone in strikeouts. John Candelaria is 2nd in ERA at 2.59 and he is 3rd in wins with 6, tied with Blyleven

No complaints other than our 2-time defending Reliever of the Year Arthur Martinez has been poor. 2-1 with 10 saves and a 3.93 ERA doesn't sound awful, but he's given up runs in 6 of 14 appearances and has a 1-1 K-BB ratio.

[sharknut]

We went 16-11 in June and our lead has grown to 7 games, but we have a few issues. We didn't have anyone on the injured list to start June, but we have 4 on the list as we start July.

Key middle reliever Michael Holt is out for the year with an elbow and another middle reliever, Stan Hawkins is out through July with a herniated disk in his back. Starter Ray Fontenot is out a few more days with 2-week ankle injury and Alan Trammell is out 2 more weeks with a bad neck.

We are a very hard team to play, we are 1st in batting average and 2nd in walks, so we have a fantastic .360 OBP and are 2nd in runs despite being 8th in HR. We are also still 1st in ERA, though our defense is in the bottom half of the league so far.

[sharknut]

There is a 24-year old LF for Philly named Allen Sigler who has some amazing ratings. I do a 20-80 rating system and he has:

Contact-75
Home Run Power-75
Eye-75
Avoid K-40
Gap Power-35

He is on pace for:

.340
.426
.649
1.075
187 OPS+
8.2 WAR
172 hits
52 home runs
16 doubles
0 triples
99 walks
120 strikeouts

He's Adam Dunn who can hit for average.

[sharknut]

July has been crap. We are 8-15 and our lead is down to 5 games. We have only been outscored by 5 runs in those games, but we are 1-7 in 1-run games. Our bullpen has 9 of the 15 losses.

Carney Lansford was available as a pending UFA, so I dealt Vance Law, who has 1 year left on his deal.

One thing I don't like about this AI is that while I don't mind that players like Barry Bonds are as good as they were IRL, but these players are getting too good at too early an age. For example at age 22 Bonds is on pace for:

.326/.448/.709 58 HR 130 BB

[sharknut]

At the trade deadline, I decided to be proactive and take care of a problem that would develop after the season. 5th starter Bob Tewksbury is arbitration eligible and I am guessing he will want more than $1 million a year as his numbers are more of a #3 or #4. My top prospect is 26-year old SP Doug McKenzie and he pitched well out of the bullpen the first half of the season, so I dealt Tewksbury for a top setup man, 28 year old Neil Allen.

McKenzie thanked me by pitching 8 2/3 shutout innings in his 1st start in a 2-0 win.

[sharknut]

After a brief vacation, we won 4 of 6 and find ourselves 5 games ahead of the Rangers with 44 games left. We have 7 games left against Texas, so we have a lot of work still to do.

We still lead the AL in pitching and are 4th in runs, but we make a few too many errors for my liking and have given up more unearned runs than I am comfortable with.

The Cardinals will win the NL East, they are 15 games up, the Braves are 5 games ahead of the Dodgers and the Red Sox lead the Jays by 3 games.

[sharknut]

September begins and our lead is down to 2 1/2 over Texas. My talk of being bored with the team was premature; the Rangers are very young and I think I am in trouble. I don''t have much money left for extensions or high impact free agents and all the good players in Texas are under 26. This may be our last run, so I need to win.

Trammell is on DL for 2 more weeks, other than that we are healthy. We are still 1st in pitching and 5th in runs, but the Rangers are hitting the hell out of the ball. The Braves and Cardinals will meet in the playoffs again and the Blue Jays have passed the Sox and have a 1 game lead.