1981 Team Previews

[Young Drachma]

BOSTON BOMBERS
1980: 59-95, 8th RL
1979: 77-77, 4th RL
1979: 58-96, 8th RL

INTRODUCTION
Just when you thought that Dark Cloud couldn't find a job worse than the Chicago gig back when he started there in 1970, he goes and picks up another club in the doldrums and looks to infuse the brand with something other than...crap.

So gone are the New Orleans Rens, the franchise formerly known as the El Paso Alligators and before that...well....let's just say this club has been around the block a few times.

The team has one winning season in franchise history (1969) and finished higher than 7th once (1979) since 1969.

The bottom line is? The uber competitive Republic League has left these guys behind.

Enter Dark Cloud fresh off a one-year hiatus where he served as an advisor to the Compton Brothers during an ownership change, he's now at the helm as Team President with a new regime that has relocated the team to Boston, a city that has gone without a FOOL franchise since 1976.

"It made absolute sense to me. This is a story about redepemption. This franchise has suffered a ton, as has this city through the years of near misses with the old Boston (Settlers) clubs of the 60s and 70s. Nothing would make me happier than to help build a winner here," said the 8-time RL pennant winning GM who took Chicago from FOOL's worst franchise to back to back FOOL Classic appearances in 1974 and 1975, with a win in '75.

Now, he looks to do the same in Beantown.

STARTING PITCHING
Despite signing with the Bombers after free agency had already ended, DC still managed to revamp the entire rotation of his new club. Joining 22-year old phenom Jessie McGorry (10-16, 156 K, 13 Complete games) are Joe Hart (20-8, 3.63 ERA 219 K), Arturo Periera (11-11, 3.08 RA, 182K) who come over from Colorado and factor have breakout years away from the altitude of the Mile High City to contend with. Also back this year is David Barajas (10-14, 3.97 ERA) who will anchor the bottom of the rotation and veteran Guillermo Arrojo who was acquired from Chicago (9-11, 3.29)

The bullpen is also much improved, featuring veteran hurler Bob Halpin, Harry Clark who came over in the Colorado deal and closer Kenny O'Quinn and his 36 saves from a year ago return back to Bombers country to see what he can do for this revived ballclub.

OFFENSE
Statistically, there isn't a whole lot of polish on the Bombers lineup. But on paper, they look to be a much better ballclub that the numbers bear out.

Joining DC for another stint together is Mac Rasmussen, coming off the worst season of his career with a .244 average and just 11 HRs and 61 RBI.

The leaders of the team include third baseman Kenko Nishida whose 21 HRs and 73 RBI will need to be improved on if the team is to have any shot going into next year. Ramon Chavez hit .254 with 24 HRs and 79 RBI last year and will man center field for the Bombers.

Other players that will be relied upon are former batting champ Rich Haas who was hauled in before DC arrived, but will start at second base this year. Catcher Nori Makino is expected to bring pop to the lineup as well, but the team hopes he can improve on his .216 average from a year ago.

OUTLOOK
Only four times in his previous 20 seasons has DC ever had one of his teams finish under .500 and of those times, only once did a team fail to win at least 74 games in a season (1970 Chicago) and so, we feel comfortable saying this team will win at least 70 games this year.

After Hartford, the only team in the RL with as deep a pitching staff as the Bombers are the Columbus Crusaders. The improved pitching staff alone should help propel this team to its first winning season in 12 years.

But the offense is the great unknown. While there are some bright spots, the question will be whether the offense can produce enough runs to make this team resemble that of a contender or a pretender.

That'll determine the outcome of this year for Boston's newest team.

PREDICTION: 3rd Place, RL (83-71)

[TimGuru]

Who besides the Violators (a given) are you finishing behind?

[kaosfere]

1981 Toronto Osprey: "Under the Gun in '81"
1980: 80-74, 3rd
1979: 89-65, 2nd


After a few bad years following their '75 CL crown, the Osprey have again been climbing to the top. Unfortunately, in 1979, the team came second to a terrifyingly dominant Baltimore club, and in '80 the CL was intensely competitive, with four teams in contention in the final weeks. Now, in 1981, the Osprey have added a few more pieces, and feel the need to show the world that this team can once again compete with the best.

Pitching

Last year's lead starters Manny López (2.47 ERA, 1.02 WHIP) and CL's pitcher of the year David Simpson (2.05 ERA, 0.98 WHIP) return to the front of the rotation. Joining them will be the latest FOOL pitcher to attempt the MR-SP conversion, Júlio Martinez. In his three seasons as a Toronto reliever, Martinez has put together a combined 2.43 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in 281.2 innings. This year, he will attempt to put up similar marks as a short-starter. Backing up the three marquee names will be new hires Victor González and Kurt Carpenter.

The conversion of Martinez to starting will weaken Toronto's traditionally powerhouse bullpen. Closer Corey Templeman and set-up man Dave McDonald will return. In the mid-relief role, Toronto vet Francisco Padilla will serve his 9th year with the club, accompanied by AAA callups Shunsho Hashimoto and Raúl Reyes. On those days in need of only mop-up relief, Jerry Miller will do the dirty work, along with Brady Bates, who converts from SP to MR to make room for Martinez.

The Lineup

At catcher, Mark Shepherd looks his strongest as he starts his fourth year with the club. First base duties will be taken over by newcomer Gabriel Mata, who Toronto hopes will be their best hitting firstbagger in years. Still-excellent Elmer Meyer returns to second base. Third base will see a platoon between last year's Émeric Loiselle and former first-baseman Walter Reed. At short, the Osprey try something new, and will have eight-time all star Araham Lujan share duties with the better-against-lefties Yu-bao Tsu.

The outfield picks up a second strong bat this year, as Ed Morgan will pin down right field, next to returning great Charlie Wilson. Cade Numbers will field left field against lefties, and Randy Horswill will due the duties verses right-hand hurlers.

Projection

Toronto is a team that has been not-quite-good-enough for the past two years. They are hoping this year that the off-season signing of Morgan, the conversion of Martinez, and the slight shuffling of the infield will provide the spark needed to get this team over the hump. If Morgan lives up to his contract, Martinez fills the shoes he needs to fill, Mata does decently at first base, and Tsou performs competently on his share of third base, this team could be big.

Realistically, the CL is again a toss-up, but I'm going to be bold here, and predict that under-the-gun Toronto will rise to the opportunity and end up first place in the CL, with a record of 84-70, and only 6 games ahead of third place.

[ekcut]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Enter Dark Cloud fresh off a one-year hiatus where he served as an advisor to the Compton Brothers during an ownership change, he's now at the helm as Team President with a new regime that has relocated the team to Boston, a city that has gone without a FOOL franchise since 1976.

Don't forget your brief but memorable stint as Gotham PR guy....

[ekcut]

Gothams 1981 in a nutshell...
My PR guy quit, so I gotta do things myself.

The impeneratrable Gothams pitching staff has a few chinks in the armor. The retiring of Xingpen Tien leaves a gapping hole in our rotation that will be filled by, uhhh, I forget his name and to be honest is isn't woth the effort for me to look it up. All I know is he has like a 75-130 career record and an ERA closing in on 5.00. His name MAY be Tyler, but it isn't important. He is no Tien able to post a .88whip.

Offense is about the same as last year, which is good as most of my lineup had an off year last year.

SOoooo pitching is worse, batting should be better...they should cancel each other out meaning I should pretty much be in a battle for 2-4th position. Read last years writeup if you want to see names, inseam sizes etc etc. It's the same lineup.
"Hopefully not an also-run, in 81"

[Pike]

I just put together a really cool preview, spent about an hour on it and went to post.....got the login screen. My preview is gone.

So I will just state my prediction and a few words:We have some good young guys like Pila at 1B and Chase at 2B, and Hererra in the outfield looks like he might be alright too. Our FA pickup, Roussy, looks like the perfect leadoff guy. He's been a beast in AAA for 5 seasons, I'm hoping that translates onto the big stage.

Really, I'm not to unhappy about the lineup. It isn't great, but it's a start and I hope that within a year or two it will be good enough.

But the pitching situation is bad. Really bad. I have two legit FOOL-level pitchers, while the rest are likely to improve hitting numbers across the RL. My pen isn't terrible, Ine and Fontenot make a good late game combo, but the middle inning relief just isn't very good. Ine is a VL pickup, and he dominated there. Never had a WHIP at or over 1.00, and he's ERA had been below 2.00 for all but one of his 5 years in the VL.

So I can likely put up some runs, but with the exception of the starts I get out of my top 2 pitchers, my arms are going to put games out of reach early and often.

60-94, 8th place

[TimGuru]

The Panthers are playing for a draft pick this year. Remember this guy?

Pitching:

Last year's pitching staff was pretty good, with overall runs allowed in the middle of the pack for the CL. The problem was, we were the best of the rest, 3 teams were at the top of the heap, then there was a 30 RA dropoff to...us. Demesu Berui led the staff, with a 13-10 record, 2.37 ERA and 206K. Elliot Brown, Matt Burton and Bob Morgan also return this season, with Derek Carpenter coming up from AAA to round out the rotation. Carpenter is old for a return to the majors and undistinguished in Valdosta's pen back in the day, but he's what I'm going with this year.

Behind the starting 5, my pen is reasonably steady. Ignacio Garcia was close to lights out as closer, and Mike Conley finally lived up to his hype once removed from the pressures of the closing job. Of concern and disappointment is the cliff-fall of Porter Gilbert's stuff, which now joins a more slow and steady decrease in the movement on his pitches. The old guy will have to depend on his ability to paint the corners and hopefully have one more effective year.

Hitting:

Stinks. Brian Waller, still a star, has seen his OPS drop 150 points over the course of 2 seasons. I've moved him back up the order to the 2 hole, hitting behind phenom rookie Carlos Romero, for whom I have high hopes.

The time is now for Todd Conway and Chris Newman. Kept around at the expense of dealing off Exekila Pila and Josh Robinson respectively, they have betrayed my confidence in them and as a tandem are an embarassment. Newman in particular is a real problem, since he can't really handle RIGHTIES. Sippo Murto and Jose Colon will each see significant playing time in platoon situations at 1B and catcher this year.

Greg Baird is also up from AAA for his ML debut this year, rounding out the regular outfield. Norby Trevino and Brandon Black will platoon in the vs-left platoon, and I don't expect much out of either.

Kendrick Hayes and Bernie Evans are stationed up the middle, and who knows if either will hit. Bernie shouldn't hit much based on his scouting record and yet, sometimes he does. Hayes should and hasn't. They will each get the majority of at-bats at their position to see what they can do in such a role. 3B is going to be manned by Cary Andrews vs rhp and another multi-player platoon vs lhp. Jorge Zamora batted .373 in limited action in AAA last year, so he's back up for backup infield help. He has never proven to be anything other than a AAAA-quality player, but he's still (barely) young enough to finally put something together.

I didn't spend much this offseason, looking for value on the free agent market like Cary Andrew (29, 3 yr, 4 mil, frontloaded) and Sippo Murto (26, 3 yrs, 3 mil).

My team should be good enough to stay the course, sub 500 but within shouting distance of the mediocre mark. Prediction: 70-84