California Angels 1970

[sharknut]

Some post-season housekeeping:

We didn't receive any post-season awards. Not a single Gold Glove. No Silver Sluggers. Nada. Just the scoreboard.

Bob Boone and Jeff Burroughs won Rookie of the Year. Sam McDowell went 22-11 with 3.26 ERA and 211 K's and won the AL Cy Young. Our Tom Bradley did finish 2nd. Larry Dierker won the NL version with a 21-6 record and a 2.47 ERA.

23-year old Dave Winfield won the AL MVP for Cleveland, leading the league in hits and in batting average with .340/.390/.532 with 24 HR's, 100 RBI's. 22-year old Fred Lynn won the NL MVP for the Expos as he led the NL in AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS/WAR and hit 23 HR's on top.

The draft pool seems pretty shallow of names:

1)Gene Richards
2)Lee Smith
3)Lou Whitaker
4)Terry Puhl
5)Jason Thompson
6)Andre Dawson
7)Dan Graham
8)Frank Pastore
9)Don Robinson
10)Brian Rosinski

The entire reason I am playing this sim is I screwed up wanting to play Graig Nettles career. I tried to get him a few times but was shot down every time. Now he is on the trading block and I can get him if I want. But while Nettles is a vastly superior fielder to Bando, Bando does everything better at the plate. It pains me, but I am going to resist the temptation.

[sharknut]

Our first deal in the books. Al Bumbry looks to be a guy who is a good player for a bad team, but on a good team, he's not good enough. After averaging 3 WAR his first 2 full years, he dipped to 1 last year as younger players earned time over him. We picked up Donn Clendennon last year to be our DH and he helped lead us to the World Series. But he is 39 and really tapered off down the stretch.

So we sent them to the Cubs where both will start. In return we received 26 year old LHP Larry Gura. Though he went just 10-17 last year, his 3.13 ERA was top 10 and a 3.7 WAR pitching in Wrigley. Given that Rudy May has turned 30 and has been hurt in 3 of the last 4 years, my next deal is to deal him for either a SS or a CF.

[sharknut]

I received 29 year old CF Reggie Smith from Boston for 30 year old Rudy May and 33 year old Wilbur Wood. My assistant GM said no, but Smith's WAR the last 4 years was 5.8/3.7/5.7/6.1 and is a 5-time All-Star coming off the Silver Slugger Award.

It's no-brainer to me seeing how the falloff in pitching seems to be out-weighed both by May's injury history and Smith's averaging 150 games a season. Wood was a bullpen arm for me but he will start for Boston. They also have a young Jim Dwyer in center who could be a nice player.

Our fan interest went from 73 to 80. I was going to raise ticket prices 7%, but I think I can bump it a little more now.

[OmahaBaseball]

Originally Posted by sharknut

In return we received 26 year old LHP Larry Gura. Though he went just 10-17 last year, his 3.13 ERA was top 10 and a 3.7 WAR pitching in Wrigley.

Nice trade -- loved Gura as a kid when he pitched for the Royals in the early to mid-80's.

[sharknut]

Originally Posted by CHOWDERHEAD

Nice trade -- loved Gura as a kid when he pitched for the Royals in the early to mid-80's.

Royals always had a tough rotation from the late 70's on, Gura, Leonard, Splittorff.

I try not to abuse the trade function. I try.

I could have done it straight up for Bumbry, but I wasn't going to play Clendennon, so it made the trade more equal in value.

[sharknut]

Top 10 picks of the draft

1-Cubs-Lee Smith (nice)
2-Tigers-Lou Whitaker (Nice!!)
3-White Sox-Andre Dawson
4-Brewers-Jason Thompson
5-Padres-Carney Lansford
6-Expos-Gene Richards
7-Giants-Terry Puhl
8-Expos-Willie Aikens
9-Twins-Keith Moreland
10-Dodgers-Willie Upshaw

With pick 20, we took SP Dave Rozema. Our 2nd rounder had 40 career MLB AB's, our 3rd rounder never played above AA and our 4th rounder had a career 2-13 record with a 6.18 ERA.

[sharknut]

After reviewing last years stats, our Joe Torre broke the MLB record by grounding into 34 DP's. (broken by Jim Rice in the 80's) I remember thinking as the year progressed that he had to be close, but then forgot when I got into a tight race. He still had a 2.5 WAR and a OBP over .400, so still very glad I traded for him.

I traded Jim Merritt for him, he went 8-15 but an impressive 4 WAR on a bad St Louis team. Win-Win trade

Frank Robinson of the O's is out for a week after being attacked by a wild animal at the zoo

[sharknut]

We go into 1975 as follows:

Rivers-LF/DH
Cash-2B
Reggie Smith-CF
Wynn-RF
Torre-1B
Bando-3B
Fregosi-SS
Briggs/Foreman-LF/DH
Marquez-C

I have Roberts, Gura and 3 fake players in my rotation ranking 16th in baseball in a preseason poll. We did deal a prospect for Dean Chance as our last deal in the offseason. He's won 160 games, but I am converting him to closer at age 33. Stamina is down to 55 and he has good stuff and I think he can make the switch.

Healthy team, defending champs, let's go.

[sharknut]

Some players of note on the waiver wire, well known players who never quite developed as IRL:

Bernie Carbo, 27
Joe Ferguson, 28
Dave Kingman, 26
Bill North, 26
Richie Zisk, 26
Bob Forsch, 25
Gene Garber, 26
Joe Niekro, 30

[sharknut]

Way too many weird things happening during the first month.

I have committed 35 errors in 22 games, no other team has 15. My team was 3rd in defense last year, I am dead last with the same starters and an upgrade in CF.

I have blown 3-4 run leads, 2-5 run leads and a 7 run lead.

I have allowed more unearned runs in April than I did from April to July last year, I am starting the season over, something is way off.

ETA, I decided to play one more game and I committed 3 more errors leading to 3 unearned runs. Dave Cash has 9 errors, he made 13 all last year. Fregosi has 8 at SS.

I think re-starting is a last-resort, but something has to be off why I am the only team that can't catch the ball.

[sharknut]

Crap, I thought I saved before the start of the season. I hadn't saved since right after the draft but before my trades. Will see if I can still get Gura/Chance/Smith as I did before the strangeness happened.

Has anyone else had something gone really weird with a sim and had to restore a backup?

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by sharknut

Crap, I thought I saved before the start of the season. I hadn't saved since right after the draft but before my trades. Will see if I can still get Gura/Chance/Smith as I did before the strangeness happened.

Has anyone else had something gone really weird with a sim and had to restore a backup?

As they say, its your game, play it your way, but going back and redoing when you don't like the results gets rid of me as a reader.

[sharknut]

Originally Posted by Brad K

As they say, its your game, play it your way, but going back and redoing when you don't like the results gets rid of me as a reader.

It's not disliking the results, I am still over .500. The results just aren't logical. How does the average game have .8 errors and our games have over 4 per game? 500% worse than other games.

Still haven't decided what to do, but now my team is unhappy and arguing with each other.

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by sharknut

It's not disliking the results, I am still over .500. The results just aren't logical. How does the average game have .8 errors and our games have over 4 per game? 500% worse than other games.

Logical results? Meaning what? That even short term you want results within one standard deviation? Or maybe half of one?

The idea of logical results means no one will be setting records!

[sharknut]

I'm muscling through. I really don't like it. LOL

Dave Cash has committed more errors in 30 games than he did in 2 of the last 4 seasons. I wonder.....does the game ever do a "Steve Sax" on someone? Is it possible this is one of those things?

[sharknut]

After two months we are 24-27 and tied for last 5 games out.

We are 1st in runs scored, 6th in ERA but 11th in runs allowed, thanks to our 12th place defense. Our 1-4 hitters are raking which is needed since Bando and Torre have yet to get going and Fregosi might be washed, but it's still early.

In other news, Brooks Robinson announced he will retire this year, and there have been 2 no-hitters; Dick Ruthven for the Astros against the Dodgers and Benny Farley for the Cardinals against the Phillies. Farley is a 24-year old fictional player who is already a 2-time All-Star.

[sharknut]

We had a very good 18-12 June, we are still 5 games back but now we are 3rd. We are still 1st in offense and up to 3rd in ERA and 9th in runs allowed thanks to our defense no longer being a sieve.

The bad news is our good health has run out as Dave Cash and SP George Dixon each picked up muscle injuries the last week of the month and are both out 6 weeks.

I had picked up utility man Larry Milbourne in the Donn Clendennon trade last year when he was in AAA. I knew he played 4 positions and hoped he could become a 5th infielder. A few weeks ago I dealt another ulitilty player, Kurt Bevacqua for fellow utility man Sonny Jackson. They both played several positions, but Jackson played 1 additional infield spot so I made that swap and so he and Milbourne will split 2nd until Cash gets back.

Reggie Smith leads CF's in All-Star voting with .296/.390/.452 10 HR and 44 RBI's. LF Gregory Foreman, last year's ALCS MVP, is favorite so far for Rookie of the Year with .254/.346/.431 and leading all rookies with 9 HR/37 RBI/ and slugging and WAR and OPS+.

My minor league teams aren't doing well but some prospects are.

AAA
22 year old C Bob Allieta .308/.403/.473 8 HR 56 RBI
21 year old LF Ed Kurpiel .283/.432/.506 10 HR 49 RBI

AA
19 year old 1B Eddie Murray .289/.351/.487 *missed 6 weeks with back injury..dammit
19 year old LF Alfredo Edmead .305/.383/.414 5 HR 51 SB
21 year old 3B Don Money .319/.423/.578 7 HR (promoted to AAA)

A
18 year old 3B Larry Rush .317/.372/.453
23 year old CF David Robinson .308/.371/.391 45 SB
20 year old RF Rupert Jones .305/.395/.409 5 HR 20 SB

[sharknut]

We've reached the All-Star break at 50-44 and 3 games out of first. The Royals and Twins are tied and Minnesota just dealt for Dock Ellis, so we will need to make a deal as well to keep up with them.

Despite being World Champs and leading baseball in runs scored, Jimmy Wynn is our only All-Star, which is one more than last year, we are exceptionally balanced and don't have a flat out monster bat. We have 7 players between 42 and 53 RBI's and 8 players between 38 and 55 runs scored.

Rivers .289/.333/.378 43 RBI 55 Runs 20 SB
Cash .297/.339/.366 35 RBI 32 Runs (on DL last 3 weeks)
Smith .284/.374/.424 49 RBI 53 Runs 10 HR
Wynn .282/378/.466 53 RBI 52 Runs 14 HR
Torre .265/.345/.369 42 RBI 40 Runs
Foreman.265/.351/.438 49 RBI 42 Runs 11 HR 6 SB (rookie)
Bando .199/.286/.339 43 RBI 46 Runs 10 HR
Fregosi .279/.345/.397 43 RBI 39 Runs
Marquez .237/.333/.335 27 RBI 39 Runs

Lewis 10-4 2.60 ERA
Bradley 9-7 3.94 ERA
Sheets 8-8 3.29 ERA
Gura 4-6 3.82 ERA
Dixon 7-3 3.98 ERA

Chance 5-0 7 saves 1.91 ERA

[sharknut]

Twins made another deal, sending a prospect for Del Unser. The Yankees, who we beat in the ALCS made a huge deal, sending 4 prospects to the Reds for Dave Concepcion.

I need to improve my team, I am going to use my prospect depth to get another starter. We are 1st in runs and OBP, we don't need any help there. If I can get at least a solid #2, I will feel much better about our chances

[sharknut]

The Athletics traded Catfish Hunter to the Dodgers for Bill Russell, Thad Bosley and Jim Gantner. 31 year-old Hunter only has 110 wins and didn't develop into the star he did IRL. Russell is a light hitting great fielding 2b and Gantner is a top-100 3b prospect.