California Angels 1970

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I lost reserve catcher Fred Kendall to an injury, but it was still being diagnosed, so I had to call up top prospect Bob Allietta in the rare chance Marquez, my only other catcher got hurt.....so of course Marquez did the next day.

Lost Kendall for 3 weeks and Marquez for 2 months and so Allietta will get his chance before I wanted to give it to him, but I have no choice. I put in a waiver claim for backup catcher Greg Goossen but in the meantime promoted AAA backup catcher John Wathan

23 year old Allietta was .297/.392/.442 with 9 HR in AAA in 300 AB's.

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We are at the trading deadline and despite my previous comments about having to make a deal to keep up with the other teams in the division, we ended July on fire. We went 17-11 and won our last 7 allowing only 8 runs in the process. We are 3rd in runs, 3rd in runs allowed and any pitcher that can improve us at all has an asking price that I really don't want to pay. They all want Eddie Murray and that's a deal breaker so I am going to ride with our horses.

In our last game of the month, William Sheets/Tom Walker/Dean Chance combined for 12 no-hit innings against the White Sox, but we couldn't score. Aurelio Lopez gave up a 2-out single in the 13th, so of course we scored in the bottom half. Willie McCovey hit his 500th HR for the Giants, he's still going strong

Gerald Lewis has won 9 out of 10 decisions and is 12-4 with a 2.37 ERA, 2nd in the AL in both. I did pick up Grant Jackson who was on waivers for some reason to add a left-handed arm for the bullpen without giving up anything. We also got Goossen off waivers since I will be down 2 catchers for weeks.

I think since we won the WS last year, we don't have to give up the farm to add an arm. Maybe if we were looking to win for the first time I would make a big move, but I think we will just trust what we have.

We start August 1st tied for first.

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18-12 in June, 17-11 in July and now a 16-12 August puts us 3 1/2 up going into September. The Twins are 1/2 game up on 3rd place KC and we play both 6 times this last month which will settle the division. But right behind them, the A's were 21-12 in August and just 5 1/2 back

My fears of having to promote C Bob Allietta too soon due to injuries were needless. He went .385/.446/.593 in July with 3 HR's and 17 RBI. Marquez seems to have DL'd himself out of a job a season early.

I do have worries that the faith I had in my starting 5 was optimistic, however. Our starters have dropped from 3rd to 8th in August, but our bullpen kept in several games. After a 15-4 start with a 2.65 ERA, Gerald Lewis is now 15-7 with a 3.80 ERA. Tom Bradley, last years ace, is just 12-13 with a 4.19 ERA.

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Dropped the first 2 games of the month to the A's, so they crept to 3 1/2 back, but we took game 3 to hopefully get things back on track Royals and Twins both 4 back.

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Lewis surrendered a 2-out, 3-run HR to Phil Garner and the last place Rangers swept a 2 game series from us at home and now we are just 2 up on the Royals and we start our first 3-game series with them.

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In game 1, Fregosi hit a 2-out 3-run HR in the 7th to give us a 5-3 win over the Royals.

We trailed 4-0 going into the 8th in game 2, but Rick Rhoden (who they use as a DH when he starts, and they shouldn't) lost the plate and Jim Wynn hit a tie-breaking 3-run double to give us a 5-4 win.

In game 3, we put up 4 in the first thanks to a 3-run HR by Gregory Foreman and swept the Royals from 2nd to 4th in a 7-1 win.

We are now up 3 1/2 on the Twins, 4 1/2 on the A's and 5 1/2 on the Royals.

The Indians are up 2 1/2 on the Yankees in the East, the Cards are 1/2 up on the Cubs and 3 over the Pirates, and the Astros, the team I thought could be a dynasty, are 6 1/2 behind the Giants and in 3rd place. The Dodgers are in 2nd, 3 1/2 games ahead of the Astros despite being 69 runs worse than the Astros.

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A very up and down week saw us take both of a 2 game series against the White Sox, but then the Royals swept their way back in the race in Kansas City.

Now we only lead Twins by 1 1/2 and Royals by 2 1/2

The Yankees have won 8 straight and now lead the Indians by a game.

The Cardinals now lead the Cubs by 1 and the red-hot Phillies by 1 1/2, who have won 9 out of 10.

And the Dodgers somehow lead the Giants by 2 in the west. They are 83-67 with a -5 run differential.

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We bounced back to take a 2-game set against the 2nd place Twins. George Dixon went to 12-3 with a 5-2 win in the 1st game and then 7 different players had an RBI in a 7-5 win to drop the Twins 3 1/2 back. The pain-in-the-ass Rangers then split a set against us and we sit at 84-69 with 9 to go.

We are 2 1/2 up over the Twins and 3 1/2 over the Royals and we start a 3-game series at home against the Twins that will go very far in determining the division.

The Yankees lead over the Indians is down to 1/2 game and they start a 3 game set, the Cardinals are up 2 over the Cubs and 2 1/2 over the Phils and out west, the miracle Dodgers are still 2 up over the Giants.

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We took 2 of 3 from the Twins and swept the Sox in a 2 game series and our magic # is 1 with 4 to play.

The Indians and Giants have flipped their divisions and are now in first and the Cards still lead by 2.

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We ended up winning the division by 6 and was able to get 100% healthy and rest our regulars and starting pitchers.

We will face the Yankees while it will be the Giants and Cards in the NL.

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In a back and forth series, we've alternated losses and wins and fly back to New York for a deciding game 5 tied at 2.

The Yanks took game 1 as game 5-to-be starter Robert Elliott combined with Blue Moon Odom to out duel Gerald Lewis 2-1.

We bounced back with a 5-2 win. The Yankees were up 2-0 into the 6th when Jim Wynn hit a 2-run home run to jump start the team to the win.

In game 3, Danny Delonzo gave up just 1 run and Thurmon Munson hit a 2-run HR and Roy White added 2 more RBI in an easy 6-1 win.

With our back against the wall, 6 different players knocked in runs in a 7-4 win. Larry Gura had a no hitter going into the 7th, but after 6 men reached, John Hiller came in with 2 1/3 great innings to even things up.

Over in the NL, kind of the same situation. Alternating wins and losses have the Giants and Cards tied at 2. Benny Farley, the best pitcher in the game, threw a 2 hitter and the Cards went up 1-0 with a 1-0 win.

The Giants knocked around Steve Carlton for 3 HR's in a 16-1 cakewalk to tie it up at 1.

Don Kissinger and Randy Bass (Who is a stud) each knocked in 3 runs as the Cardinals beat Ed Halicki and the Giants 12-3 to go within 1 game of the World Series.

But, like their Southern California neighbors, the Giants didn't roll over and took a nail-biter 6-5 in 10 innings as Jack Hiatt walked with the bases loaded to send this back to St Louis.

Since Farley is going in game 7 for the Cards, I'll take them.

Giants/Cards and Yankees/Los Angeles, how happy would the networks be?

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Lost to a 2-run 2-out walk off...........I need some time

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You would think the walk-off by Lee May would be in the story somewhere

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Yankees couldn't even win a game against the Cards.

Damn it.

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We really were a well balanced club this year:

Foreman-83 RBI (he will win ROY I am sure)
Wynn-81
Smith-79
Fregosi-70
Torre-69
Rivers-69
Bando-66

AL leaders
Garry Maddox-Rangers .341
Lee F-ing May-Yankees-38 HR
Dave Winfield-Cleveland-125 RBI
Bobby Murcer-Yankees 6.9 WAR
Wilbur Howard-Brewers-45 steals

Mel Stottlemyre-Orioles 2.51 ERA (Traded him away 2 years ago. Nice)
Vida Blue-A's-18 wins
Rollie Fingers-A's 34 saves
Sam McDowell-Indians 198 K's
Vida Blue-A's 6.3 WAR

NL Leaders
Lyman Bostock-Dodgers- .318
Willie McCovey-Giants-32 HR
Willie McCovey-Giants 109 RBI
David Rusco-Phillies 7.9 WAR
Jerry Mumphrey-Giants 51 steals

Tom Seaver-Mets 2.25 ERA
Tom Seaver-Mets 21 wins
David Manes-Phillies 38 saves
Nolan Ryan-Mets 236 strikeouts
Jon Matlack Mets-7.0 WAR

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One of the goals the owners have for me is to hit more home runs again. We only improved from 9th to 8th last year and that was not enough.

28-year old Darrell Evans is on the trade block, so I will give up 35-year old Joe Torre and Ed Kurpiel, the #25 prospect in baseball for him. Kurpiel is 21 and has hit 21, 23, 24 and 24 HR's up the chain the last 4 years and walked 113 times in AAA last year. But he has struck out over 100 times every year, I think he will max out as an Adam Dunn-type....very low average, lots of walks and k's and hr's. Evans can play 1st, 3rd, and all 3 OF positions, but I will plug him in at for for Torre.

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The Cardinals just signed their young catcher Ted Simmons to an 8 year deal, I guess free agency starts next year. I haven't seen anything longer than a 2 year deal before this,

Yep, after this year I will have the following free agents:

Darrell Evans
Jim Wynn
Reggie Smith
Mickey Rivers
Sal Bando
Jim Fregosi

Dean Chance
John Hiller
Tom Bradley
George Dixon
Larry Gura

....I have some work to do

Overall, the amount of players on the trade block is ridiculous.

Seaver, Reggie, Morgan, Blue, Fingers, Ryan, Blyleven, Bench, Carew, Perez, just to start.

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Here are the asks by our pending UFA's.

Evans-8 years-$480,000 a year
Smith-6 years-$696,000 a year
Wynn-4 years-$440,000 a year
Fregosi-3 years-$320,000 a year (he's 34, going to let him walk)
Bando-4 years-$260,000 a year (I have a 4-star 3rd baseball in AAA and will let Bando walk or trade)
Rivers-2 years-$165,000 a year (I wanted to let him walk, but that is a good deal)

Chance-4 years-$175,000 a year (going to trade him)
Dixon-10 years (!!!!!)-$423,000 a year (hell no)
Bradley-3 years-$352,000 a year
Hiller-3 years-$180,000 a year
Gura-2 years-$280,000 a year

I counter offered Gura 2 years-$230,000 a year and he signed, so 1 down.

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Just some housekeeping from 1975 before we go into the draft. I was correct in expecting our LF Gregory Foreman would win AL ROY and he did, getting 23 of 24 votes. But he also won the Silver Slugger, which was a surprise to me. .249/.340/.411 with 17 HR 14 SB 83 RBI was enough to win the Silver Slugger I guess

AL Awards
MVP-Garry Maddox-Tex .340/.382/.511 16 HR
Cy Young-Robert Elliott-NYY 2nd award
ROY-Gregory Foreman-Angels
Reliever of Year-Willie Hernandez-Orioles

NL
MVP-David Rusco-SS-Phillies .296/.427/.433 16 HR 8 WAR
CY Young-Tom Seaver-3rd award
ROY-Dave Collins
Reliever of Year-David Manes-Phillies 38 saves 1.89 ERA