California Angels 1970

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Offensively, as a team that finished last in runs, not a ton of highlights, but I think we may have a few players that may stick for a while

28 year old 1B Jeff King re-signed with us for 1 more year after being our best weapon all year. He hit .259/.310/.434 with 24 HR, 34 2B and 90 RBI. He doesn't walk much, but there was a reason he was available in the expansion draft.

27 year old LF Wes Chamberlain a bit of a find for us. He only had 100 AB's before the season but he had 54 XBH with 33 2B, 9 3B and 11 HR. He also stole 11 bases hitting .294/.323/.472.

27 year old C Tony Barron was a career backup before the expansion draft. But he hit .273/.331/.411 with 11 homers, 11 steals and 48 RBI in 400 AB's. He strikeouts a lot....but double digits in HR and steals from your catcher isn't terrible for an expansion team.

I picked up 24 year old 3B Jeff Barry in July from the Giants for 2 pitchers. After promoting him to the big leagues, he hit 13 home runs the last 61 games of season, knocking in 49 in 234 at bats. He's also fast and is a plus-fielder at 1B, where he will play after Jeff King is dealt next year at the deadline (most likely).

29 year old CF Kevin Reimer battled a finger injury for 3 months, but he still hit .278/.319/.430 with 11 HR and 66 RBI in 407 AB's. If he can stay healthy all year, with a full season of Berry as well, we may have a decent little group of 5 that could hit 15-20 HR's.

We have 1 more year of RF Darryl Hamilton as he doesn't want to talk deal. He hit for us, he went .289/.355/.399 with 9 HR and 20 steals with 49 RBI leading off most of the season. But he was a bad fielder, I may shop him before the season as we have several players who may be 10% worse as a hitter, but a -9 zone rating isn't good enough.

We claimed 24 year old 2B Cris Colon from the Giants in July and he was a very good fielder with some speed who slugged .400 in 185 AB's. But his .259 average isn't helped much by only 3 walks. He'll get a shot to start he season there most likely

The draft is coming up tomorrow.

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Here is how the top of the 1st round went, lots of big historical names:

1)Angels-Nomar
2)Red Sox- A Rod (HAH!) (unsigned) (HAH HAH!
3)Orioles-Vlad
4)Reds-Big Papi
5)Twins-Konerko
6)Brewers-Andruw Jones
7)Cards-Javier Vasquez
8)Cubs-Carlos Lee
9)Padres-Chris Carpenter
10)Pirates-Jose Guillen (unsigned)
11)Toronto-Trot Nixon
12)A's-Ben Grieve

With the last pick of the round, I took 1B Mario Valdez who will start in rookie ball. In the 2nd round we grabbed 20-year old P Paul Wilson who will start in AA. We once again wanted to get a wide pool of positions drafted to start building up a system.

In the rule 5 draft, we took a shot and took 20 year old pitcher Jon Barnes from the Mets. He was in rookie ball last year but was ranked a 3 or 4 star prospect, so I will give him a chance to be the last arm in the bullpen to hide him this year and see if he develops. He had 81 K's in 76 innings in his 1st year in pro ball with a 3.56 ERA in 14 starts.

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Woah, we made an offer to my former All-Star closer in California Arthur Martinez for 1 year at just $400,000 and he took it. I had him his first 3 years, but he was Reliever of the Year twice for me, a 6-time All-Star in total and still good.

He's 32 and has 211 saves, but in the 5 years since he left the Angels, he's bounced around 4 teams, some of them used him as a starter. But he's going back into the pen for me and once I deal Farmer since he doesn't want to re-sign here and he's a free agent next year, he will close again for me.

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31-year old Tony Fernandez was selected by the Rockies in the expansion draft last year and had his best season. He isn't a very good hitter in this world, his 1.7 WAR last year was his best ever, but he is a plus fielder at both middle IF positions so we signed him for 1 year at $1 million to play SS for us to give us plus fielders at 2B/SS/CF/LF, so that should help our pitchers.

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We signed 34 year old righty Sheldon Andrews to a 1 year deal for $880,000. He's a career 74-86 pitcher with a 4.14 ERA in 220 career starts. He's basically been a #4 for his career, and that's what we signed him for.

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31 year old Andy Araujo won the Cy Young for me in LA back in 1987 going 21-6 with a 2.37 ERA as a 24 year old. After 2 more solid years, he blew his elbow out on his last start in 1989 and missed all of 1990 as a UFA. He signed for Baltimore and played in AAA in 1991 and most of 1992. The Rockies took him in the expansion draft and he went 10-14 with a 3.49 ERA with a fantastic 4.9 WAR.

He should have been able to get a better deal, but we got for 1 year at $700,000. Re-united and hopefully a #2 or #3 guy.

I think we have a shot at a decent rotation

[sharknut]

Originally Posted by sharknut

Our 23 year old rookie World Series MVP Varnell is in the minors after hitting over .400 in AAA and tearing up the majors after a recall. Not only that, I don't have single player the Dodgers want for him, so I can't trade for him..

It took a year, but I got Varnell. He only got 74 AB's last year and hit 9 doubles hitting .290. I finally was able to put a package together of Jeff Neely, a good reliever, a 29-year old at AAA and a 24 year old at AA for him and he's going right to the lead off spot.

Which means I had to trade Darryl Hamilton. So I shopped him and got an offer of 23-year old SP Bobby Jones who has gone 16-18 with a 4.45 ERA in 2 seasons as a starter/reliever. He's going to get every chance to start.

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My 2nd season as the Marlins manager begins and are expected to....stink again. Predicted with 55 wins, but the sim is typically 10 games low on their predictions of my teams.

None of our starting 5 were on the team at the start of last year, so not a great sign of the finding any nuggets in the expansion draft.

Will Cunnane 19 years old. Was 8-2 for us last year and will turn 20 next week. Picked him up on waivers in the spring last year and zoomed up our minor league system and has earned the #1 spot.

We dealt our "ace" of last year, Al Leiter to Philly for 29 year old Dave Otto who has gone 38-37 with a 3.57 ERA in 163 games with the Phillies, 82 of them starts. He had a 5.4 WAR 2 years ago and a 3.7 WAR last year, so very happy to have him locked up for 4 years.

I signed my former Cy Young award winner 31 year old Andy Araujo to a 1 year deal. After winning the award in 1987, he blew his shoulder out his last start of spring training in 1988 and was out of the majors for 2 full years, spending the 2nd year in AAA. Last year he was healthy enough to lead the NL in starts for Colorado, going 10-14 but with a solid 3.49 ERA especially for Colorado. We signed him for 1 year, but if he really returns to previous form, he will be the #1.

We signed 34 year old Sheldon Andrews to a 1 year deal after he posted a 6-8 record with a 4.23 ERA for Oakland in 23 starts. He's accumulated a 76-86 record over 218 starts over 11 years, many years he split time between the bigs and AAA.

Finally, we traded for 24-year old Bobby Jones who has gone 16-13 with 18 saves as he split time between the rotation and as closer. He had a high 4.40 ERA and he was really bad in spring training and his hold on the 5th spot is precarious.

We did keep 4 pitchers from our bullpen last year including our stud closer Bryan Farmer. The 30 year old is a UFA to be and currently has no interest in signing here long term which is a shame because he was clearly our MVP last year. He went 5-1 with 29 saves and a 1.46 ERA coming in 2nd for the reliever of the year award.

I signed another former star of mine, 32 year old Arthur Martinez to a 1 year deal and once I deal Farmer, he will slide into the closer role for me again. He won Rookie of the Year for me in California back in the day picking up 27 saves as a 23 year rookie with a miniscule 1.21 ERA. He then led the AL in saves for 3 of the next 4 years. After I left the Angels, the new skipper put him into the rotation despite having poor stamina. He's back in the pen where he can star again

Steven Oizumi, Eric Show and James McIntosh return to the bullpen for me and I picked up lefty Jamie Moyer to improve our left side options. We also selected 20 year old Jon Barnes in the Rule 5 draft and he is our #1 prospect, #41 in the game. We will use him as the last arm in the bullpen for now and hope he can grow into a starter in a year or two.

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To start the season, we are going with just 2 starters from game 1 last year, but 5 starters from the end of the season:

1-LF Daniel Varnell. Ever since he won the MVP in the World Series as a rookie, I've wanted to try to get him but was unable until a few weeks ago. While he forces a good LF over to play RF and hurting our defense, I think he will hit .300 for me.

2-SS Tony Fernandez. Not a great hitter, but had his best season as a 30 year old last year and if he can repeat that, I will take it.

3-1B Jeff King. Our best hitter last year and he re-signed for this year. Won't walk much, but will get 20-30 HR and 70-90 RBI, hopefully.

4-3B Jeff Barry. The 24-year old hit .286 with 13 HR's in half a season last year and had a good spring as well. If he's legit, our offense could be....average.

5-CF Kevin Reimer. Hit .278 with 11 HR in 400 AB's last year, being hampered by a sprained finger for 3 months.

6-RF Wes Chamberlain. A much better LF, he will move to right to make room for Varnell. The best find in the expansion draft, he hit .294 with 33 doubles, 9 triples and 12 homers last year.

7-C Tony Barron. Our 2nd best find last year, he hit .273 with 11 HR in 450 AB's last year and added 12 steals as well.

8-2b Tony Tarasco. Acquired late in the season last year, he has some pop, some wheels and can play 4 positions well. He may not play 140 games at 2b, but his versatility will be big for us.

Rick Wilkens returns as the back up catcher but Luis Gonzalez beat out Paul Sorrento for the back up 1b/of position with a huge spring. We unfortunately lost Sorrento to a waiver claim.

F.P. Santangelo hit well for us last year as short, but doesn't have the glove Fernandez has. Like Tarasco, he plays 4 positions and will likely get into a ton of games.

We lost Al Martin to a waiver claim when Matt Mieske and Chris Cron beat him out for the last OF position. (Why are teams claiming my players who I send to AAA? We stink!)

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This is the first year of the wild card and 3 divisions per league, so we won't finish 6th or 7th!

...I think I am going to love this team. I don't think we're good, but I've played a handful of games this morning and going right back to finish up the first 10 games.

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I freaking LOVE this team. We are only 4-6, but we played 8 1-run games. And not only are they 1-run games, the games are being won in the 9th or extras. We are in every game and that's because we overhauled our pitching and defense. We are last in runs, and that bothers me, but we are 4th in pitching, 1st in zone rating and committed the 2nd fewest errors.

Dodgers 4 Marlins 3 (10 innings) winning run in the bottom of the 10th
Dodgers 6 Marlins 5 winning run in the bottom of the 9th
Marlins 2 Dodgers 1 winning run in the top of the 8th
Padres 3 Marlins 2 winning run in the bottom of the 8th
Padres 4 Marlins 1
Marlins 5 Astros 4 we scored 4 in the bottom of the 7th to rally
Astros 3 Marlins 1
Marlins 5 Astros 4 winning run in the bottom of the 9th
Marlins 1 Giants 0 (10 innings) winning run in the bottom of the 10th

Don't leave our games early

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20 games in and we are 10-10, very happy with that as we are -12 in run difference. Just like last year, we are good in 1-run games, we are 9-5, so 9 of our 10 wins have come by just 1 run. Cardiac kids

We are still dead last in....runs/avg/obp/ops and WAR. And 13th in HR/SB. None of Chamberlain/Reimer/Barry/Tarasco are hitting above .220. Only Tony Fernandez Daniel Varnell have averages over .290. It's pretty grim.

But we are 2nd in runs allowed, 1st in defensive efficiency, 3rd in zone ratings and 2nd in fewest errors committed.

After 20 games, the new 3 division format has meant close standings so far:

Mets by 1 over the Expos and 2 over Atlanta, Philly and us
St Louis by 1 over Astros, 2 over the Reds, 3 over the Pirates and 4 over the Cubs
Padres by 1/2 over the Dodgers, 2 over the Giants and the Rockies

Yankees by 1 over the Sox, 1 1/2 over the Tigers and 2 over the Orioles. The Jays are 6 back
Twins by 1 over Cleveland, 4 over the Brewers and Sox and 5 over the Royals
Rangers by 1 over the A's, 6 over the Mariners and 7 the Angels.

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30 games in and seeing how we are 16-14 and 1/2 game out of first, I couldn't be happier. We are now 11-5 in 1 run games, so it's probably fools good that we win the close games, but we don't have enough of them.

We are still last in.....runs/obp/ops/WAR, but we have moved up to 12th in batting avg and are up to 8th in home runs. Lots of solo homers, we have to get on base more.

Varnell has a 13 game hitting streak and is hitting .314, but with just a .382 slugging and no homers or steals, it hasn't been terribly impactful. Fernandez is back down to .250 and he just had his worst game of the year committing 3 errors leading to 10 unearned runs against the Phillies. That really hurt because up to then we were 2nd in runs allowed, 4th in zone and 5th in errors, but 5 total errors in game 30 really dropped us down the rankings.

Two guys we counted on have been huge disappointments. 3b Jeff Barry has hit just 2 homers in 29 games after hitting 14 in 70 last season and his .215 average from the 4th or 5th spot in the lineup has hurt us. RF Wes Chamberlain is just hitting .209/.216/.309 with 3 HR and 0 steals after going .294/.323/.472 last year with 54 XBH and 13 steals.

1b Jeff King has been great, hitting .311/.333/.538 with 8 HR's and 23 RBI and Kevin Reimer has been holding up his end of the bargain hitting .284/.324/.516 with 6 HR and 17 RBI. But our best player has been catcher Tony Barron. He's hitting .315/.378/.562 with 4 HR, 7 2B, 2 3B, 15 RBI and 5 steals. HE could be our first all-star

Cunane has been our best pitcher at 3-1 with a 2.72 ERA, but he's got a dead arm again, same thing happened last year and I'm worried about it. Araujo hasn't been very good and Otto has been average, so we do have room to improve there.

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The standing are still super close throughout the league

Yankees with a 1 game lead over Baltimore and 2 over the Sox
Twins up 1/2 on the Indians and 2 over the Royals
Rangers and A's tied for 1st

Expos with a 1/2 game lead on us, Philadelphia and the Mets and 1 game over the last place Braves
Cardinals 1/2 game over the Astros and 2 over the Pirates
Padres and Dodges tied with the Giants 2 back

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A few other notes, our 20-year old rule 5 pick Jon Barnes started as the last guy in the pen. He's moved up 1 role, he's been pretty good. 1-0 with a 3.55 ERA in 16 innings. He's struck out 8 and walked 7 and hopefully can be a more than just an arm to hide.

An update on our very shallow prospect pool

19 year old catcher Juan Brea was a 3rd round pick 2 years ago and is hitting .316/.367/.504 at AA with 4 HR, 6 2B and 2 3B. Looks to be on a fast track after hitting .298/.367/.505 at A last year with 11 HR 20 2B and an amazing 23 3B.

Last years 1st rounder, 1st baseman Mario Valdez is off to a .286/.323/.714 start at A ball in 28 AB's with 2 HR's. He was going to be in rookie ball, but the starter at High Desert went out with a broken leg so I called him up 2 weeks ago.

5th rounder 3rd baseman Bradley Burckel is also at High Desert and the 22 year old is hitting .345/.387/.573 with 3 HR and 16 2b's.

1992 9th rounder Daron Dondero is hitting .377/.453/.515 in High Desert with 11 XBH

And rather than testing the market as a UFA, we signed King to a 4 year-$4.4 million contract, each year is $1.1 and the 4th year is an option.He's our #3 hitter and even though his OBP will not be great, I am an old school guy and 25 HR and 90 RBI means something

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After a 3-7 run of games, we find ourselves 19-21 and 2 1/2 behind the Expos. Still last in hitting, though Chamberlain and Berry have shown signs of waking up. We scored 37 runs in the 10 games, we need to find at least a half a run a game to give our staff some relief. We are still 5th in pitching and 2nd in defensive efficiency, but we need our batters to come alive.

We have 4 guys (Varnell/King/Reimer/Barron) who are pulling their weight, but when half the lineup are a combined -1 WAR.....help.

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The next 10 game block saw us go 5-5 and we end May 3 games behind the Expos. While our record in 24-26, our run differential is an ugly -42. 14-8 in 1 run games have kept us dog-paddling.

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Another 5-5 stretch of games and at the 60 game mark we are 29-31, 4 games behind the Expos.

We have slowly climbed our way to 12th in runs scored, but we have matched that be dropping to 8th in runs allowed. Our zone rating tanked when I put in Santangelo at short over Fernandez who is in a 4-42 slump, but F.P. raked and our offense scored more. Crappy position to be in.

I only have 3 players with an OPS+ over 100, and 2 of them can only play 1st base, Jeff King and Luis Gonzales. Varnell is the other one, barely over at 101. Trades will be coming, I need a bat or 3.

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We didn't have a player in the top 20 rankings of any position so we traded for one. We dealt a bullpen arm to the Reds for Kevin Seitzer who can player either corner position and 3b in a pinch. He is the 13th ranked RF and has averaged 3 WAR the last 2 years and is on pace for 3 again.

His 162 game average is .285/.350/.395 with 8 HR 38 2B 11 steals 85 runs and 72 RBI's and will bat 2nd against righties and lead off against lefties and play a plus right field.

He's due $1.5 million for 1 more year, just behind Kevin Reimer's $1.6 million deal. He's 32, so he's not a long term answer, but he's going to help a lot.

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After 2-straight 10 game results of going 5-5, we went 6-4 this to get us back to .500.

We are 35-35 after 70 games, 4 1/2 behind the Expos and 4 back in the Wild Card. So, we are right in it somehow. We are scoring a little more so our offensive numbers are making their way from last to 13th or 12th.

The bad news is that in game 68, we lost Jeff King for 5 weeks with torn ankle ligaments. We were in a tied game in the 9th and he was on 2nd base. He is not a fast runner, but I thought with 2 outs, I shouldn't take my best player out for a pinch runner. Reimer ended up singling King home, but he hurt himself on the play.

We signed Randy Milligan in the offseason and he was great in AAA and so I called him up. He was hitting .335/.428/.567 in AAA with 16 HR's in 62 games. He played for me in LA for a few years and hit well. After I left he moved along to St Louis where he wasn't very good and was available as AAA depth, so we will see how far a drop off it will be for 5 weeks.

Now we have 20 games in 20 days before the All-Star break with 14 of them at home. We have a chance to be right in it at the break and I will take that