Revisiting my childhood baseball days (1980 Cubs) - PureSim 2007 1.86

[hoopsguy]

A quick look at the other division races:

AL East - Detroit, with a 63-47 record, is up by a half game on Baltimore. Milwaukee is probably too far back (6.5 games) to catch two teams at this point.

AL West - Oakland reeled in Kansas City in the last week and now enjoys a three game lead with a 66-47 mark. Minnesota is 3.5 back, while everyone else is at least 12 behind.

NL West - Houston has won four straight and begun to separate from the mediocre pack. The Astros are now 62-47. Very disappointing season for LA, who has the highest payroll in the game. The Reds, who were so dominant at the start of last year, are one game under .500.

[hoopsguy]

We come home to host the Mets and find ourselves in tough pitchers duels. Bud Black surrenders two runs in the 8th in the opener, paving the way to a 4-2 Mets win. We can't solve Rick Matula in the second game, but do better against their bullpen, scoring three late to get a 3-2 victory. Ben Ogilve contributed a two run homer in that game. He connects again the following night while Reuschel and the pen shut out the Mets 4-0. And in the final game we score two in the 9th off their closer, Neil Allen. That is the first time we've done that in a long time, maybe all year.

I had mentioned that our middle of the order is not producing in the second half. Here are a couple of sluggers that are getting the job done lately:
1.) Dave Parker (Pit) - now at .278/19/77, he has taken the NL lead in RBIs and already passed his power numbers from 1980. 13 homers and 42 RBIs since July 1st.
2.) Gorman Thomas (Mil) - .245/23/72, but was just put on the 15 day DL with an elbow injury. On June 1st he only had 5 homers and 15 RBIs.

Hopefully one of our power guys can catch fire like this. Right now we're still waiting for someone to eclipse 50 RBIs. Rice and Kingman lead with 49 and we have 5 players in the 40-49 range.

Andre Dawson of Montreal is riding a 21 game hitting streak, which is the best that we've seen since the start of this dynasty.

[hoopsguy]

Ben Ogilve hits two more homers, bringing his total to 14, against the Pirates on 8/14. That sets up a Gullickson/Blyleven matchup but it is a dud, at least from a Cub perspective. The starters combined for 9 2/3 innings and we got smoked 8-2. Worst outing of the year for Gullickson, who gave up all the runs. The wind is blowing out on the 16th, as 7 balls leave the yard. We score one more run, picking up an 11-10 win in 10 innings. Foote, Vail, and Kingman homered in the win.

The bullpen gives up 5 in the first game of a series against the Dodgers, wasting a homer and 4 RBIs by Kingman. Martinez posts his 10th win of the season in game #2, 3-1 final. Templeton homers in the finale, boosting his average to .211, to back Dennis Lamp in a 3-0 victory.

San Francisco is next to come to town. So far we have not gained any ground on St. Louis on this homestand. We obviously need to keep stringing together wins. Mission accomplished on the 21st, as Kingman and Ogilve both put balls over the fence to back Gullickson in his 16th win of the year. Otto Velez hit his 24th of the year for the Giants in the loss. Kingman hit a two run walk-off homer in the 10th the next day; 3-1 final. Witt allowed one hit over seven innings, only to see Orosco blow his lead. We sweep the Giants, once again riding terrific pitching, with a 2-1 win. Those two came in the 9th off their closer Al Holland.

Steve McCatty of Oakland throws the first no-hitter of the dynasty on 8/22.

We host San Diego next. A quick peek at the standings shows that we are only three back now.

[hoopsguy]

Martinez is on fire right now, earning a 1-0 victory over the Padres. I wish the game tracked stuff like scoreless inning streaks, but I know Martinez is at least at 17 after tacking on 8 more today. His ERA is down to 2.29.

Another one run win the next day, this time by a 4-3 margin. These types of games are allowing Smith to rack up saves, as he now has 39. But the hitting remains a concern.

The win streak ends at 7 with a 3-0 loss. Gullickson has not been getting many runs lately; hopefully it does not derail his shot at 20 wins. Dave Winfield slugged his 26th homer for the Padres in this game. That ends the homestand. 12-4 is awfully good and we made up two games in that time (down to 3 now). But we'll need to win a bunch of games on the road from here on out. We'll also have five remaining games with the Cards, but based on 5-8 record against them so far that might not be a good thing.

[hoopsguy]

We are off to Los Angeles, to play a team desperate for victories. They are 6.5 back of the Astros and need to string together lots of wins in order to justify that bloated payroll. Mike Witt is having none of it, throwing a three hit shutout. Kingman hit his 18th to help support the outing.

A quick look at the boxscore shows that our best batting average belong to Ken Oberkfell. No surprise there, I guess, but the number is .268. Just about everyone is in the .240 - .265 range. Hmm, what is it going to take to find someone that can bat .280?

The answer - more than we saw on 8/28. 2-1 loss, with a total of four hits. Former Cub Cliff Johnson is splitting time at 1B with Steve Garvey and their aggregate numbers are something like .305/20/70. But 15 million for Johnson still blows my mind, even for one year.

Martinez gives up a run in the first, then four more in the fifth. The first run was enough, as we are shut out 6-0. Fernando Valenzuela struck out 10 over 8 innings. And we drop our 3rd straight in LA when Dennis Lamp struggles. 5-3, wasting a two run homer from Jim Rice.

Off to San Diego. Gullickson once again gets zero run support and the Padres win 4-0. Starting to sound like a broken record. That brings us to September. We'll start the month on a four game losing streak and a 4.5 game deficit. But we can no longer complain about being left out of the playoffs with the 2nd best record in baseball since two teams in the AL have now passed us.

[hoopsguy]

AL East - Detroit is at 80-51 and up five games on Baltimore, despite the O's winning eight straight ballgames.

AL West - Oakland has rattled off seven straight to move to 80-52 and pretty much lock up the division. KC is 8.5 back and the Twins are 9.5 behind.

NL West - Houston, at 75-55, is six up on the Dodgers. Both teams have won four straight.

Remember Greg Luzinksi? At the All Star Break he was a triple crown threat. But at this point he has been passed by Dave Winfield in the MVP discussions. Here are their numbers:
Winfield: .304/27/73
Luzinski: .277/22/67

Guys like Andre Dawson, Bob Horner, and maybe even Leon Durham have passed Luzinski at this point. Oh, Dawson's hitting streak ended at 21 games - forgot to note that earlier.

Since it is September it is time to look at making some call-ups. Here are our young OF numbers:
Barfield .253/20/73
Hall .273/13/51
Hayes .267/6/19 (limited time)

All three of them will get the call. I don't anticipate much playing time but maybe this can help with development. I want at least one of these guys starting next year for us so they should consider this a casting call for that part.

Also, now seems like as good a time as any to go about the business of contract discussions.
- Doug Capilla, currently slotted as our #5 reliever, is up. He is 29 and making 2.9 million this year. I'm not wild about his stuff, but his asking price is not that high. 2.4 million for one year, and the price goes below 2 million for more years. We'll hold off on him and see what else is on the table.
- Mick Kelleher, a 34 year old utility player making 1.6 million can consider himself gone. In fairness, he has produced at a level about his smallish talent this year. He belongs on a big league roster (maybe), just not ours.
- Jerry Martin, a 32 year old CF/RF has played all over for us this year as a 4th outfielder. He is making 2.5 milion. I'm certainly not looking to clog our outfield with more 30+ guys when I have three young players come up. Bon voyage, Jerry.

Those are the only guys whose contracts are up this year. So I'm going to let Capilla go as well in order to potentially make room for other younger arms. That was much tamer than I expected.

[hoopsguy]

Another month, another shutout loss. 2-0 to the Padres this time. I would not be surprised if the starting pitchers are drawing up papers to sue the offense for negligence. Winfield hit his 28th homer, one of only three Padre hits on the day.

The losing streak is snapped by Rick Reuschel, who pitches seven strong innings in a 4-2 win. Winfield was 3-4 and drove in both Padre runs. I'm glad to be done with him for the year.

A day after picking up his 40th save, Lee Smith collects his third loss. 3-2 final. We are now down 5.5 games and the fat lady is warming up. That feeling is magnified the next day when the bullpen gives up five runs in the 7th/8th to surrender another lead. 6-3 final.

Guess how many runs the offense scored for Gullickson? If you guessed zero, for the 3rd straight start, then you would be correct. They treat Mike Witt better the following day, backing him with 3 homers. Kingman (19), Ogilve (16), and Foote (9) did the damage. That was our 81st win of the year, tying our mark from last year. We visit St. Louis next, once again with the back of our rotation getting the call.

[hoopsguy]

The good news is that we are only 4.5 back of the Cardinals, as badly as we are playing.

Game #1 - Leon Durham's two run homer in the 4th is all the offense that is needed. 2-1 loss.

Game #2 - Dennis Martinez gives us seven scoreless innings and the offense puts up three insurance runs in the 9th to pick up a 4-0 victory. Yount hit a homer and had three hits.

Game #3 - Dennis Lamp came through with another huge outing and the bullpen did not screw him this time. Jim Rice hit a two run homer in the 6th and that was all the offense for either team.

So, we are 3.5 back with 20 to play. It sounds doable, particularly if the Cards keep playing the way they have the last two weeks.

The Astros have lost four in a row and their lead over the Dodgers has shrunk to 3 games.

Earlier this year I had mentioned the quick start for New York Mets OF George Bell. He has sustained that pace all year. .291/23/65 with 23 steals. I would call him a lock for Rookie of the Year.

Yankees All-Star Oscar Gamble is out for the rest of the year.

[hoopsguy]

Bill Gullickson is begging for some runs this start against his former team (Montreal). He gets three but it is not enough. 4-3 loss in our first game back at the friendly confines. We left the bases loaded in the 9th in a failed attempt to rally from a 4-0 deficit.

The offense is shut out for 7 innings the next day before rallying for three runs off Ted Power to get a much needed win. Smith made it interesting in the 9th, filling the bags full of Expos, before closing the door on a 3-1 win.

The sluggers come to play on the final day of this series. Reuschel is the beneficiary of four homers - two from Yount, one each by Rice and Ogilve. 7-4 win.

Pittsburgh comes calling next. Bert Blyleven drills us in the opener, holding us to four hits and no runs. It seems like we get the top of their rotation (Blyleven and Robinson) every time, which is aggrevating because the back part stinks. Speaking of Robinson, we can't score off him either. 4-0 loss and we are now 2-3 on our homestand and five back of the Cards. Looking very gloomy right now ...

[hoopsguy]

Gullickson just isn't worth a damn right now. He is now 16-9 after starting the year 14-2. That includes a 7-4 loss at Montreal. The offense gave him a 3-0 lead but he could not make it hold up. I'm calling "game" on the season.

We win one of the next two games. Reuschel picks up his 15th win of the year, giving us three starters with 15 wins. I guess that is nice to have, but I'm not in a celebratory mood after watching this team for the last month.

We head home for two games against the Cards, trailing them by five games. As usual, they are getting the back part of our rotation. But Dennis Martinez relishes the challenge and the hitters back him up big-time in a 11-2 laugher. Rice hit his 21st homer of the season. Every starter but Ogilve got a hit in this one.

September 22nd - the day that the season died. 6-5 loss to the Cards in a game that we just could not stop their offense. They had 15 hits and their bullpen completely stymied us over the last three innings. 5 games back, 12 to play.

8/23 - Gullickson snaps his personal five game losing streak and both Mel Hall and Jesse Barfield hit the first homers of their career in a 6-1 win over the Mets at Wrigley.

PSPN reports that Ken Oberkfell is 2nd in all of baseball in getting caught stealing. 15 steals, caught 14 times. Hmm, that does not sound like a particularly good ratio.

In better news, Mike Witt is tied with Nolan Ryan for the best WHIP. So we've got that going for us.

The only division race that is still a contest is the NL West, where the Dodgers remain four back of Houston.

[hoopsguy]

9/24 - both Detroit and Oakland clinch their divisions. Houston and St. Louis each have a magic number of 7.

9/27 - the Cubs win their 5th straight game, sweeping the Phillies at Wrigley. The deficit has been cut to 2 games with 7 to play. It looks like I'm going to need to start reporting game-by-game again. The Dodgers are still 3 back of Houston.

[hoopsguy]

9/28 - off to Pittsburgh, with Gullickson vs Candelaria as the pitching matchup. The Cardinals are hosting the Expos. Both Montreal and Pitt have identical 77-78 records.

The 2nd hitter for the Pirates, Tony Pena, has a 16 pitch at-bat against Gullickson. He fouled off ten straight pitches before lacing a double down the left field line. Bill Madlock followed with a single, Pena holding at 3rd as Madlock got gunned down at 2nd base. Big break there.

Bottom of the 8th - Richie Zisk took a ball for a ride, 406 feet to center. But that is not enough to clear the fence at Three Rivers. When the heck did the Rangers deal Richie Zisk to Pitt? Apparently at the trade deadline (7/29) for Alan Wiggins. How does PSPN not report a deal like that? Zisk is a monster! But I digress.

The game is scoreless through nine innings.

Top of 11 - Ben Ogilve leads off with a double, moves to third on a single by Jesse Barfield, and scores on a weak grounder to 1st by Ken Oberkfell.

Bottom of 11 - Smith comes in, gives up a leadoff double to Pena, his 4th hit (and 3rd double) of the day. But Smith gets a groundout and two K's to leave Pena on 2nd.

Exciting ballgame. Too bad the Cards won 6-3 and kept the margin at two games.

[hoopsguy]

9/29 - All-Star pitchers collide, with Mike Witt facing Bert Blyleven.

Witt nearly works his way out of a jam in the 2nd inning, but gives up a run scoring single to Blyleven (!!!) and Omar Moreno follows with a double to bring home a 2nd run.

Blyleven is perfect for the first three innings but Templeton leads off the 4th with a bunt hit, steals 2nd, and scores on a double by Mel Hall. But he is stranded there as Blyleven mows down Rice and Barfield before retiring Hayes on a flyout. I'm wondering about a lineup that includes all three rookie outfielders for an important game like this???

That was it for the scoring in this game. Rice doubled with two outs in the 9th but was stranded when Jerry Martin flew out to end the game.

The Cards won 6-4, taking a 3 game lead with 5 to play.

[hoopsguy]

9/30 - we are in New York and St. Louis travels to Philadelphia. Well, at least they are going to have to win road games to keep the pressure on us.

1st - Templeton again looks to bunt for a hit and reaches first on an error by Bob Brenly. He steals 2nd (31 of 39 on the year) and comes home on a Von Hayes single. We again are going with the three rookie lineup. Where are Ben Ogilve and Dave Kingman? Have they disappointed the manage so profusely that he really thinks these callow youths are our best shot this year?

6th - Buckner walks, advances to 2nd on a ground out, steals 3rd (Hall also stole 3rd earlier in game) and scores on a sac fly by Mick Kelleher. That is some serious run manufacturing.

Reuschel is out after 6 very strong innings.

9th - Smith gives up three straight singles with one out. The runners advanced to 2nd/3rd on an attempt at the plate. Score now 2-1. But Smith worked out of a 3-0 count to get a backwards K and a line out to first to end the game.

The Cards won 8-1. They just do not seem to require the same level of drama that we do to win games. Magic number is two with four to play.

[hoopsguy]

October 1st -

1st - Mookie Wilson singles, steals 2nd, and scores on a Buddy Bell single. 1-0 Mets.

2nd - double by Hayes, single by Foote, and Ontiveros knocks in Hayes with a single. Kelleher (what kind of lineups are we playing? where is Robin Yount?) knocks in Foote with a single and Martinez brings home a 3rd run on fielders choice for the first out of the inning. Unfortunately, we don't get any more.

3rd - Mookie goes yard. 3-2.

4th - Martinez gives up a hit to starting pitcher Rick Matula to tie the game. God I hate baseball sometimes.

6th - Von Hayes is thrown out at the plate trying to score on a shallow single to left.

6th - Doug Flynn makes the final out of the inning on a 16 pitch at bat, pushing Martinez up to 105 pitches on the evening.

7th - Doug Capilla is in, walks two men and gives up two hits. 5-3 Mets.

Cards win again to clinch at least a share of the division title.

[hoopsguy]

We end the season in Philadelphia, losing the first game 6-3. We win the final game of the season to finish with a 95-67 record, which is four games behind St. Louis.

AL East - Detroit goes 101-61 to finish 8 in front of Baltimore.
AL West - Oakland matches Detroit's mark; this is 11 better than KC.
NL West - Houston finishes 91-71, 7 ahead of the Dodgers.

Detroit and Houston host the first round series.

10/9
Oakland @ Detroit - Jack Morris may have been 13-13 in the regular season, but he is the emotional leader of this team and he showed why on this evening. The A's only got two hits and one run. Stan Papi had a pair of RBIs for the Tigers before giving way to Ryne Sandberg (.270/2/45 w/18 steals in 346 at bats) as a defensive replacement. 5-1 Tigers win.

St Louis @ Houston - 17 innings, 16 of them scoreless. This one will be remembered in both cities for decades. Pete Vukovich and Ken Forsch were the starters but they were long gone by the time that Brian Giles hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Denny Walling with the only run. You would think that both bullpens would be in trouble, but in fact each time only used four pitchers.

10/10
Oakland @ Detroit - Matt Keough gave up a pair of early runs and it could have been a lot worse if not for sparkling defensive work by his outfield. Oakland battled back to tie it at 2 in the top of the 5th on a Jim Essian homer but Lance Parrish untied it with a two run homer that was the difference in this game. 2-0 Tigers lead.

St Louis @ Houston - Bibby vs Ryan was the matchup that most expected in Game #1. This one started off as a pitchers duel but St. Louis blew open a 1-1 game with four runs in the top of the 7th. Three straight hits to start the inning chased Ryan from the mound and reliever Gordie Pladson walked two men with the bases loaded to make things worse. 5-1 final, series tied 1-1.

10/12
Detroit @ Oakland - It was an angry Oakland team that took the field backing Steve McCatty. And while he did not have his no-hit stuff, it was still plenty good when the offense supplies twelve runs. 1B Dave Revering hit a grand slam and everyone besides Rickey Henderson contributed a hit. Final score: 12-1. Series at 2-1, Tigers.

Houston @ St Louis - Silvio Martinez did not have his best day on the mound, but it was among the worst for Mike Krukow. The Astros rallied back from an early 5-0 hole to tie it before Krukow gave up four more earned runs in the bottom of the 5th. Martinez did a lot of the damage, contributing four RBIs. 9-5 final, 2-1 Cardinals lead.

10/13
Detroit @ Oakland - what a ride this game was. The Tigers posted three runs in the top of the first, thanks to one swing of the bat from Kirk Gibson. But the A's rallied to take a 5-4 lead with a pair of runs in both the 5th and 6th innings. It stayed that way until the top of the 9th, when the A's sent their closer, Jeff Jones, in to finish off the game. Stan Papi walked and the Tigers collected back-to-back singles from Sandberg and Alan Trammell to load the bases with no outs. Tom Brookens flew out to Tony Armas, who then gunned down Papi at the plate! But Rick Peters stroked a single, bringing in both Sandberg and Trammell to make it a 6-5 game.

Detroit closer Andy Hassler was called upon to send his team to the World Series for the second straight season. He walked Rob Picciolo, who was promptly replaced by pinch-runner John Shelby. Shelby stole second on what appears to have been a blown call. Jim Essian hit a sinking liner to left that was speared by Steve Kemp to save a run. Hassler struck out Henderson, bringing up Dwayne Murphy as the last Oakland hope. Murphy worked a 3-0 count and swang at a belt high fastball, stroking it past Tom Brookens for a game tying single. Hassler struck out likely AL MVP Mitchell Page to send the game to extra innings.

Bottom of the 11th - Mickey Klutts (.212/1/13) singles and advances to 3rd on two out hit by Rickey Henderson. Dwayne Murphy once again has ice water running through his veins, knocking a 2-1 pitch past Trammell to bring home the winning run. 7-6 final, we are heading back to Detroit for an elimination game!

Houston @ St. Louis - Houston had them. It was 4-1 heading into the bottom of the 8th. Joaquin Andujar had only allowed one hit over six scoreless innings. The worthless Gordie Pladson had given up a run, but the Astros were still in control thanks in part to three hits from Cesar Cedeno. But then Dave Smith happened. Walk to Durham, another one to Hendricks. Keith "motherf'ing" Hernandez hits a triple to cut the margin to 4-3. Chet Lemon walks. Smith gets his one out on the evening, retiring Mike Ramsey. Then Dave Chalk doubles in Hernandez. 4-4. Out goes Smith, who will never need to buy another drink in this town. New pitcher Lynn McGlothlen induces a grounder to short with the infield in but Lemon beats the throw. Tom Herr hits a sac fly to bring in the 6th run. The Cards win 6-4 to advance to the World Series. Six runs on five hits. I want to throw up.

10/14
Detroit @ Oakland - was there any doubt that Jack Morris would win this game? Well, there might have been after two innings when the score was 2-0 A's. Or after seven when the score was 5-3 A's. But Oakland left starter Rick Langford in to start the 8th after throwing 107 pitches in the first seven innings. Lynn Jones worked Langford for 14 more pitches before grounding out, but Langford was done at that point. With two outs, and no one on, here is what transpired:
- Parrish single
- Kemp to first on error by Langford
- Gibson single, bases now loaded. Langford is at 131 pitches at this point.
- Hebner single, Parrish scores, 5-4 A's
- Cowens doubles, Kemp and Gibson score, 6-5 Tigers
- Papi intentionally walked
- Trammell ground out
Langford was then lifted to start the 9th. Huh? Managers have been fired for less. Tigers advance to the World Series, with all of Chicago hoping that they can extract some revenge for 1980.

[hoopsguy]

1981 World Series - St. Louis Cardinals vs Detroit Tigers

10/19
Morris is back on the hill again, facing Pete Vukovich. And Morris is dealing, going eight strong innings while only allowing three hits. Vukovich went the distance, but it was only eight innings as the Cards lost 2-1. Lance Parrish hit a solo shot in the top of the first and Lynn Jones knocked in the go-ahead run in the 6th. Andy Hassler is relieved that he no longer has to face Dwayne Murphy; he pitched a perfect 9th. Tigers lead the series 1-0.

10/20
The good news for the Cardinals is that Jim Bibby held the Tigers to one run. The bad news is that run, scored in the bottom of the 9th, stood up. The Cardinals could only muster four hits against the tandem of Dave Rozema and Dan Petry. Kirk Gibson doubled to lead off the 9th and advanced to third on Mike Heath's one out single. Bibby was pulled at that point, after throwing 119 pitches. John Urrea was the new pitcher and he did get Stan Papi to fly out to George Hendrick. Hendrick is a very good fielder but only has a so-so arm. It was not enough to get Gibson. Tigers lead the series 2-0.

10/22
Another low scoring game, and this one went extras. Both sides posted zeroes on the scoreboard through five, but the Cardinals drew first blood in the sixth when Leon Durham tripled home Jay Johnstone. The Tigers got that run back in the 8th, once again rallying with two outs and none on. Parrish doubled and scored on a single by Steve Kemp. Kemp had a great at-bat, battling back from 0-2 to foul off four straight pitches before delivering his base hit. In the top of the 11th Al Cowens blasted a homer to dead center off John Littlefield. Durham made a tremendous catch in shallow right to keep more runs off the board that inning. But the Cardinals went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning and find themselves trailing 3-0 in the series.

10/23
Sweep. The Cardinals offense just could not get anything going against a highly motivated Tigers team. This time it was Milt Wilcox stifling their sluggers. Wilcox and the pen held St. Louis to just three hits on the night while the Tigers did just enough to win. 2-1 was the final.

[hoopsguy]

AL Cy Young - Matt Keough (Oak) 27-5 2.27 ERA, 13 CG, 3 SO, 149:98 K/BB, .190 BAA, 1.05 WHIP
AL MVP - Tony Armas (Oak) .289/30/89 with 19 steals
AL Rookie of the Year - Andre Thornton (KC) - .269/23/77
AL Rooke Pitcher of the Year - Chris Welsh (Bal) - 8-8 3.28 ERA, 4 CG, 1 SO, 86:76 K/BB, .246 BAA, 1.32 WHIP

AL Gold Glove Winners:
P Larry Christenson (Cle)
C Jim Essian (Oak)
1B Bruce Bochte (Sea)
2B Frank White (KC)
3B Dave Edler (Sea)
SS Rob Picciolo (Oak)
LF Gary Ward (Min)
CF Lloyd Moseby (Tor)
RF Bobby Clark (Cal)

AL Silver Sluggers:
C John Stearns (CHW) .176/7/54 - how in the world does this happen?
1B Willy Aikens (KC) .280/21/81
2B Bobby Grich (Cal) .279/26/98 - repeat winner
3B Wayne Gross (Oak) .293/23/87 - repeat winner
SS Roy Smalley (Min) .237/21/74 - repeat winner
LF Gary Gray (NYY) .261/24/81
CF Gorman Thomas (Mil) .247/27/80
RF Harold Baines (CHW) .289/28/91
DH Mitchell Paige (Oak) .295/30/110

Notes - ROTY Andre Thornton was a 3rd round pick by KC, despite being the most talented hitter in the draft. Teams were scared off by his high salary demands. He signed a one year deal and is now a free agent.

Chris Welsh of Baltimore was not drafted in five rounds of the amateur draft. He is not a dominator right now, but is a 26 year old with reasonable potential and is under contract for three more years. He looks pretty similar to Bud Black, who we added in the 4th round last year for about 50% of the money being earned by Welsh.

There were no repeat Gold Glove winners.

[hoopsguy]

NL Cy Young - Mike Witt (Chi) 17-6 2.18 ERA, 2 CG, 1 SO, 122:60 K/BB, .205 BAA, 1.02 WHIP
NL MVP - Dave Winfield (SD) .306/39/100
NL Rookie of the Year - Mike Witt (Chi)
NL Rooke Pitcher of the Year - George Bell (NY) .278/27/74 w/23 steals

NL Gold Glove Winners:
P Vern Ruhle (Hou)
C Gary Carter (Mon)
1B Dan Driessen (Cin) - repeat winner
2B Manny Trillo (Phi) - repeat winner
3B Bill Madlock (Pit)
SS Ozzie Smith (SD)
LF George Hendricks (StL)
CF Dale Murphy (Atl)
RF Leon Durham (StL)

NL Pure Slugger Winners:
C Gary Carter (Mon) - .201/17/66
1B Chris Chambliss (Atl) - .308/23/83
2B Glenn Hubbard (Atl) - .249/12/68
3B Bob Horner (Atl) - .289/34/87
SS Rafael Ramirez (Atl) - .252/9/55
LF Pedro Guerrero (LA) - .277/28/87
CF Andre Dawson (Mon) - .315/18/81 w/58 steals. Repeat winner
RF Dave Winfield (SD) - repeat winner

The Atlanta infield swept the Silver Slugger awards. I'm guessing that will not happen again anytime real soon.

[hoopsguy]

Team Stats for 1980:
Offense: 587 Runs Scored - 19th (+79 Runs, +4 Rank)
Defense: 463 Runs Allowed - 1st (-98 Runs, -8 Rank)
Total Salaries: $77,421,139 - 1st (+20.8 million)
Available Finances: some stupid amount
Approval Rating: 1/100 - last? (-74 from previous year)

Notes:
A lot more balance than last year, but no standouts for BA, HR, or RBIs. We are going to be seeing a complete overturn of our outfield by 1983 at the latest.

I'm not expecting to add as aggressively this off-season as we did last year because there are not as many putrid spots to fill. But Tidrow is 34, Reuschel is 32, and Lamp/Buckner/Boone are not good enough to be starters for this team. So there will be some turnover.

I would love to add a lefty corner infielder that will be in the lineup for the next 5+ years. That would help balance us out a bit. Yount and Rice are both right-handed hitters and those are the only guys I'm looking at as likely to be on the roster come 1983. Hall and Hayes, currently back in the minors, are both left handed hitters as well.

The state of catching and middle infield play is really putrid in this era; just look at the Silver Slugger awards for proof. Being able to find a guy who can be a consistent contributor at those positions would be a real edge for a couple of seasons at least.

We need to find ways to beat the Cardinals. In Leon Durham they have a young player that is better than any of our hitters. George Hendrick is a stud as well. And that damn Keith Hernandez represents a large talent gap compared to our corner infielders. Obviously four games is not a huge deficit to make up and I think we absolutely should do it next season.

[Radii]

Thoroughly enjoying this, especially as a Cubs fan who became a fan in the early 80s!

[hoopsguy]

League Leaders - Hitting:
BA:
AL - .307 Dave Stapleton (Bos)
NL - .323 Leon Durham (StL)
Top Cub - .270 Robin Yount (tied 43rd)

HR:
AL - 30 Tony Armas (Oak), Mitchell Page (Oak)
NL - 39 Dave Winfield (SD)
Top Cub - 22 Jim Rice (23rd)

RBI:
AL - 110 Mitchell Page (Oak)
NL - 100 Dave Winfield (SD)
Top Cub - 77 Dave Kingman (tied 23rd)

Runs:
AL - 99 Rickey Henderson (Oak)
NL - 104 Dave Winfield (SD)
Top Cub - 87 Robin Yount (tied 11th)

Hits:
AL - 186 Eddie Murray (Bal)
NL - 180 Dave Winfield (SD)
Top Cub - 145 Robin Yount (48th)

Stolen Bases:
AL - 85 Rickey Henderson (Oak)
NL - 92 Mookie Wilson (NY)
Top Cub - 44 Robin Yount (20th)

On Base %:
AL - .376 Al Cowens (Det)
NL - .385 Leon Durham (StL)
Top Cub - .343 Ben Ogilve (tied 31st)

OPS:
AL - .886 Mitchell Page (Oak)
NL - .933 Dave Winfield (SD)
Top Cub - .795 Ben Ogilve (25th)

[hoopsguy]

Originally Posted by Radii

Thoroughly enjoying this, especially as a Cubs fan who became a fan in the early 80s!

Thanks. I'm absolutely loving playing this era as well. Hopefully we'll see the World Series streak come to an end at 74 years

[hoopsguy]

League Leaders - Pitching:
ERA:
AL - 2.23 Ron Guidry (NYY)
NL - 1.97 Mario Soto (Cin)
Top Cub - 2.18 Mike Witt (4th)

Wins:
AL - 27 Matt Keough (Oak) - monster season, don't expect to see this topped anytime soon
NL - 17 Ken Forsch (Hou) and 3 Cubs (Gullickson, Witt, Reuschel)
Top Cub - see above

Saves:
AL - 52 Andy Hassler (Det)
NL - 54 George Frazier (StL)
Top Cub - 24 Lee Smith (tied 6th) - tied with Bruce Sutter

Innings Pitched:
AL - 293.1 Mike Norris (NYY) - repeat winner
NL - 248 Scott Sanderson (Mon)
Top Cub - 224.1 Bill Gullickson (43rd)

Complete Games:
AL - 22 Mike Norris (NYY)
NL - 4 Mario Soto (Cin), John Candelaria (Pit) - Candelaria repeat winner
Top Cub - 2 Dennis Martinez, Mike Witt (tied 45th)

Shutouts:
AL - 4 Mike Norris (NYY), Rick Langford (Oak)
NL - 3 Mario Soto (Cin)
Top Cub - 2 Dennis Martinez (tied 6th)

Strikeouts:
AL - 210 Len Barker (Cle)
NL - 206 Nolan Ryan (Hou)
Top Cub - 166 Bill Gullickson (10th)

Walks:
AL - 113 Tim Lollar (NYY)
NL - 109 Eric Show (Pit)
Top Cub - 70 Dennis Martinez (tied 51st)

Run Support:
AL - 180 Matt Keough (Oak) - easier to win 27 games this way, next closest was 147
NL - 109 Ken Forsch (Hou)
Top Cub - 104 Mike Witt (tied 32nd)

[hoopsguy]

Offseason:
GM Score = 51/100. Much more fair than last season. I'm pretty satisfied with our win total on the year and roster improvement year-to-year but recognize that this is still a fairly flawed club.

Records - I'll start listing this next year. There are still too many changing year-to-year for this to be interesting.

Noteworthy Retirements:
Willy Stargell
Luis Tiant
Joe Morgan - hate acknowledging him
Tony Perez

Attractive Draft Prospects (wish list for #23):
After last year I feel like just about anything is possible in terms of players falling to us.

Hitters - our desire for a power hitting corner infielder is not going to be met. 1B Wade Boggs could supply us with some much needed average, but not pop. Don Mattingly is listed as LF/CF. He and Glenn Wilson look like the top guys. 1B Greg Walker looks like he could be a fit if the CPU drafting improves from last season. Pete O'Brien looks like a very cost-effective option. Maybe Howard Johnson could contribute early, but his potential is not that high.

Pitchers - Frank Viola looks like a clear cut above the others to me. Mike Morgan is another intriguing name. Oil Can Boyd could be a really nice 2nd round pick.

[hoopsguy]

Placeholder to review last seasons top picks (can't get to them when in new draft):
#1 - Kent Hrbek (Bal) - .244/19/76, decent rookie campaign overlooked by monster season from Bell. Will likely become a very complete hitter, over/under is 3.5 All Star games.
#3 - George Bell (NY) - .278/27/74 ROY, surprised he hit this well with a 30 eye. But 98 potential says that he is going to keep getting better.
#8 - Cal Ripken (Tex) - .247/16/67, surprising power now and 100 potential says that he will be a consistent force at the plate. No range or speed.
#11 - Tom Brunansky (Sea) - .221/14/35, looks like he is going to be a monster at the plate. Only 22 years old heading into 1982.
#15 - Chili Davis (Bos) - .266/14/57, not quite as prolific as Bell right now but 100 potential says he has a ton of room for growth.
#18 - Brook Jacoby (Mil) - .274/10/47, numbers are a bit better than I would expect right now but 100 potential says that the sky is the limit.
#22 - Ryne Sandbery (Det) - already a world champion, but not likely to be the same kind of producers as guys at top of this draft. 90 potential says that it is too soon to close the book on him just yet.
#25 - Darryl Motley (LA) - .224/10/45, has the look of a AAA player right now. Still young (22) with some potential (62) but probably not going to be anything better than average MLB guy.
#26 - Jody Davis (Cin) - .245/5/26, should be a good contributor at a position with few of them.
#27 - Gary Gaetti (Bal) - .249/5/24, looks like a guy who is going to put balls over the fence but needs work on his plate approach. Good in field, still has 90 potential.

[hoopsguy]

1st Round:
#1 Philadelphia selects Adam Jamieson. Must be the taste?
#2 Seattle picks Wade Boggs, continuing a tradition they established last year of making sane picks.
#3 Boston grabs Glenn Wilson. Very good pick.
#4 Cleveland - Jason Brown, a name that is forgotten as soon as it is announced. Unless you are talking about local sports radio, who will lampoon this for the next decade.
#5 San Francisco - Don Mattingly. Curses, the best hitters are now gone.
#6 White Sox - CF George Wright, who is actually a pretty good pick. Potential to become a do-everything player.
#7 Texas - CF Tony Gwynn. All in all, better drafting early on this year.
#8 San Diego - CF Willie McGee. Something is cosmically off, as they were supposed to get Gwynn and not E.T.
#9 Atlanta - took a pitcher, which is good. But not this guy. Fernando Garcia will be working at the DMV in two years.
#10 Milwaukee - Greg Walker. Darn, that was supposed to be our "safety valve"
#11 California - Tyson Sale (P). What we have just witnessed is the most insanely idiotic pick.
#12 Cincinnati - Michael Bonner. Another worthless pitching prospect.
#13 New York Mets - RF Kevin Bass. It looks like the CPU hitter logic is just fine. It is the pitchers that are a mess. Note to self - if you see a hitter you like, take him. The pitchers will fall.
#14 Minnesota - William Hodge. Maybe this will be a "local boy is terrible and booed" story
#15 New York Yankees - LF Pete O'Brien. Again, my safety picks are flying off the board.
#16 Montreal - P Maxwell Young. My division rivals are not good.
#17 Pittsburgh - 3B Howard Johnson. Well, this division rival did better.
#18 Los Angeles - 1B Greg Brock just might be really good. But probably not.
#19 Toronto - 2B Bill Doran could be a good BA/SB type infielder.
#20 Kansas City - RF Ron Kittle. I've got enough of this type of player, so I do not lament him coming off the board.
#21 Houston - Armando Pitts. Mr. Pitts, rise above your name!
#22 Baltimore - Tony Phillips. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt based on last year.
#23 Chicago - the hitters left at this point stink. So I'm going to grab a bunch of pitchers this draft and look to make deals and FA pickups to solidify the lineup. It is probably too much to ask of Frank Viola to match what Witt did last year (you know, win the Cy Young as a rookie) but I think he is going to be terrific. So he gets a 5 year deal for nearly 1.65 million per season.
#24 St. Louis - LF Mike Young. Backup OF talent now, just not much potential.
#25 Detroit - Jeremy Boland. Terrible. Next.
#26 Oakland - Larry Simone = Jeremy Boland, but with a wimpier last name.

2nd round - SP Mike Morgan gets 4 years @ 950K per
3rd round - C Don Slaught is the only position player that I would have taken in the 2nd round. Mainly due to scarcity at the position. 4 years @ 180K a season.
4th round - Ed Vande Berg is a 24 year old lefty reliever with big league stuff and a high ceiling. We're going to have some turnover in our pen soon and I want him to help fill it. 3 years @ 675K.
5th round - Oil Can Boyd. Just because I want to draft him. In all seriousness, there are better pitchers out there right now if I'm looking strictly to stack the deck for our team. 3 years @ 255K.

Round #2
San Diego takes Gary Redus, who was the one position player left that was mildly intriguing. The Dodgers grab 24 year old SS Julio Franco - remember when he was young? Me either. Detroit snags Gary Pettis with the last pick of the 2nd round, which is great value for a hitter in that spot.

Rounds 3-5
San Diego - Buddy Biancalana can fly. 100 speed. Other than that, he sucks. This is the last player really worth mentioning. The computer cannot draft pitchers, which means they get snapped us as FAs afterwards. The hitters are not deep enough in this draft to be interesting by this point. They lack potential and usually only have one + category.

[hoopsguy]

The draft puts us at 36 players, one above the maximum allowed. So I probably need to move 3-4 players to free up space for free agents. Good bye Carlos Lezscano, Jim Tracy, and Steve Dillard.

On a lark, I project my rotation right now with Viola at the big league level. #5 starter, ahead of Lamp. He may pass others when spring training is done. The computer also has Mel Hall ahead of Dave Kingman.

One last note - Gary Templeton hit .210 last year.

[hoopsguy]

Looking at the FA market, here are a few of the more interesting names that are looking for bids:
- Cliff Johnson: Buckner's former platoon buddy is back on the market and looking for 13 million after a .293/9/32 season.
- Gorman Thomas: .247/27/80 last year for this 32 CF. San Francisco has submitted an early bid.
- Steve Garvey: .303/14/49, but at age 34 how much is left in his tank?
- Jeffrey Leonard: 27 year old OF coming off .279/15/46 season. Normally don't see guys this young with talent on FA market. Cards are submitting a bid for him.
- George Hendrick: ah, this explains why the Cards would be looking at other OFs.
- Steve Carlton: at 38, pretty long in the tooth. But probably still a front of the rotation guy for next year.
- Mike Norris: this premier innings-eater will be looking for big money from another team next season.
- Floyd Bannister: this years version of Gullickson. Well, he is five years older but still a stud FA and only 27.
- Bob Forsch: Astros should try to resign him, even if his fastball cannot break a pane of glass.
- Jeff Reardon: best closer on market, still young (27).
- Jim Bibby: at 38 you can't figure he will have a sub-2.00 ERA again, can you?
- Cecilio Guante: 22 year old that was not taken in last draft, will be a 15 year starter in the league. Could be had for a million per year or so.

We are going to go after reliever Tom Henke, a 25 year old right hander who is major league ready. I'm guessing he'll take 1 million per year or so. Boston is already bidding on him. We'll put in a 3 year/1 million offer.

Another guy who is getting an offer is C Mike Scoscia. He is 24 years old, good behind the plate, and looks better with a bat than most of the guys playing the position. I think he'll take about 1.3 million to land. We'll offer four years at that price tag.

If we land those two that would bring us to 35 players.

[hoopsguy]

Here are a few of the early signings. I'll look to add more as they come up.

Stage 1:
- Henke wants to take a 5 year, 1,075,556 offer from the Red Sox. We pop our counter-offer up 75K beyond that to see if we can convince him to join our rotation. But no dice, he is headed to Boston.
- KC signs Bob Knepper for 5 years @ 8.4 per season. He has talent, but he was terrible last year. Something like 4-17 terrible.
- Cleveland signs Tommy Boggs for 5 years @ 2.85 a year. That is huge value, in my opinion. Especially compared to the Knepper signing.
- St. Louis gets Leonard for 2 years @ 7.7 apiece. Probably a good signing for them. I'm kind of intrigued about bringing in Hendricks for a one year deal to play against his old team if the market will allow that to happen.
- The Reds get Guante at 3 years for about 1 million a year. Good signing, he could be the successor to Mario Soto.
- Seattle signs Mike Scott for 2 years at 1.4 apiece. Another promising young pitcher.
- Toronto inks Rudy Law, the hitter with the most potential (86) on the market, for 2 years at nearly 3 million per year. I just was not in the market for more young outfielders.
- St. Louis picks up our former reliever Doug Capilla. Four years at 2.1 a year. That is too long a contract, but he now has the chance to haunt us.
- California adds 1B Mike Ivie for 3 years/8 million per year. That was too much money for too little talent.

Time to change targets for bullpen help. Bob James is a polished 24 year old right hander. Not as much potential, but he is pretty good right now and way undervalued based on his asking price. I would be very pleased to lock him up at 5/450K, which is considerably more than he is seeking. Baltimore is the leader for his services at the moment and he seems to like their 3 year/312K offer more.

The White Sox have offered Scoscia 2 years @ 1.66. We counter with 3/1.7.

James wants to take a Rangers offer for 4 years @ 464K. How about 5/500?

Stage 2:
- Scoscia signs with us, James has not put pen to paper just yet.
- The Phillies add Dave Dravecky for 3/2.1. Another very promising starter that went undrafted. Oh, and Gorman Thomas jumps on board for a one year, 10.5 million dollar contract. Finally, Jerry Martin will be calling Philadelphia home for the next three years. 3.7 per season.
- The Yankees add 37 year old Jim Palmer for 2 years at a cool 6 million apiece.
- Houston brings Bumps Wills aboard for 4 years/4.2 million.

Stage 3:
- White Sox put Pudge Fisk behind the plate with a one year, 5.2 million dollar deal.

Stage 4:
- Atlanta brings Steve Garvey on board for a one year, 8.4 million dollar deal that seems to spell the end of Silver Slugger Chris Chambliss in Atlanta.

Bob James accepts our offer at the end of Stage 6.

[hoopsguy]

More FA news: Baltimore signed Mike Norris for one year, $19,613,664. That is a pay cut for him, but a huge step for Baltimore in catching up to the defending champion Tigers.

Looking at our rotation, we'll be lining up Gullickson, Witt, Reuschel, Martinez, and Viola. Smith will close and the other relievers will be Lamp, Orosco, Caudill, Vande Berg, and Hernandez. I'm still waffling on whether or not to carry 12 pitchers and keep Black up here. Tidrow and James are heading down to the minors to act as reinforcements or (Tidrow) potential trade bait.

The lineup still needs some work. We have three catchers right now, which is one too many. I've decided that Foote is the man to go and it is time to see if we can find something at 3B for him. Cleveland's Toby Harrah is a definite upgrade, but we are taking on another 4.5 million in salary for a 34 year old in his walk year. Fine. Done. We are "all in" this year in terms of making deals to get a title now that we've begun building an organization with some young talent.

Mike Vail has significantly more trade value than Kingman, which is odd to me because Kingman has one high-level skill (power) while Vail is a mediocre jack-of-all-trades. We swap him for Mike Hargrove, aka "The Human Rain Delay', of the Yankees to bring in some 1B competition. Hargrove is another older (33) player in the last year of his deal but we don't flinch.

Final cuts, subject to Spring training changes - Hayes, Black.

Lineup vsL - Oberkfell, Yount, Rice, Harrah, Ogilve, Buckner, Boone, Barfield
Lineup vsR - Oberkfell, Yount, Ogilve, Rice, Hall, Harrah, Buckner, Scioscia

[hoopsguy]

PSPN thinks that this is our year, as they list us #1 in the Pre-Season Power Rankings. Detroit, LA, and KC are the next three teams and thus the forecasted division winners. The Cardinals are #25 of 26???? Huh? Pittsburgh at #6 is supposed to be our toughest competitor.

The most feared hitters, and projected numbers, are:
- Eddie Murray (Bal): .285/30
- Cecil Cooper (Mil): .308/26
- Dave Winfield (SD): .274/34
- Reggie Jackson (Cle): .261/36
- Mike Schmidt (Phi): .265/34
- Bob Horner (Atl): .274/34
- Doug DeCinces (Bal): .280/27

Payroll #'s - four teams are over 100 million, led by LA at $113,994,113. Detroit is tops in the AL at $104,955,119, just two million more than Baltimore. The Angels are the 4th member of the century club. Chicago is 8th at $86,038,765, one spot behind the Cardinals.


Spring training - Viola improved enough to take the 3rd spot in the rotation. Ed Vande Berg also improved big-time, moving to the top of the bullpen ahead of Lamp. Smith has really improved his control, which should make him a very scary proposition for our opponents who did not hit him much last year.

[hoopsguy]

We open the season in Cincinnati, in what looks to be a great pitching matchup: Gullickson vs Soto. And the game bears this out, as we squeak out a 1-0 victory. Toby Harrah gets two hits, including an RBI single in the 4th, to lead the offense. Gullickson (6), Vande Berg (2), and Smith (1) shut down the Reds on three hits. Gullickson was pulled after throwing only 56 pitches.

Mike Witt goes eight strong and Bill Buckner knocks in a pair in a 3-2 victory that completes a two game road sweep in Cincinnati.

The home opener is on April 9th, as the 0-2 Mets come to town. Frank Viola makes his big league debut and it is one that he would rather forget. So would the offense, who only garnered one hit (thank you, Jim Rice)in the 6-0 loss. Lee Mazzili had a homer and 4 RBIs for the Mets, who scored all of their runs off our rookie starter.

The bats find their stride the next day, putting up 10 runs for a stunned Dennis Martinez. All ten runs came in the 4th inning. No homers, but Harrah went 4-5 with 3 RBIs.

But the offense was shut out again on 4/11, meaning that we had not scored in 34 of the last 35 innings. Hopefully we can start stringing some hits together because this lineup is too good for that kind of performance. We split those four games but that lack of production is a bad joke.

Gullickson closes out the Mets series with another flawless performance, throwing seven scoreless innings. Robin Yount had three hits in the win, bringing his average up to .240.

Time for the first Cardinals series of the year. Both teams are 4-2 heading into the showdown.

[hoopsguy]

4/13 - The Cards continue to have success at Wrigley, putting together four runs in the final four frames to win 4-1. Both Leon Durham and Jeffrey Leonard had two hits and one RBI. We had ten hits but were not clutch at all.

4/14 - nice game by Viola to get his first win, 3-2 final. Ben Ogilve had his second straight 3 hit game in the victory.

4/15 - another 3-2 game, this one in 12 innings. Smith gave up a 2-1 lead in the 9th to blow a win for Martinez but Jesse Orosco threw two perfect innings of relief to get the win. Ken Oberkfell drove in the winning run and Jesse Barfield hit a homer along the way.

Taking 2 out of 3 from the Cards is nice, but it is also what we are supposed to do at home. We've gotten good starting pitching all year, but the hitting just has to come around at some point because it is not realistic to expect 3-2 wins every time out.

[hoopsguy]

News: Nolan Ryan (Houston) has suffered a serious knee injury and is not due back until June.

On the Cubs beat, the extra inning game against the Cards means that it is a quick turnaround to Pittsburgh the following evening. But a good pitching staff trumps small matters like that, as we move the road record to 3-0 with a 5-1 victory over the Pirates. The offense came alive in the top of the 8th, putting up four runs to give Dennis Lamp a win. Mel Hall had a pair of hits, two RBIs and a steal in the victory.

In other news, the Phillies had started off 8-0 before losing in St. Louis 2-0. We've seen them start off fast before ... not going to make much of this just yet, as I'm pretty sure that our #1 competitor is the NL representative in the World Series the last two seasons.

Back to Pittsburgh - Gullickson and his 0.00 ERA line up against Cub-killer Bert Blyleven. Something has to give and it is Gullickson + our hitters. 3-1 loss, with Blyleven holding us to one hit over six innings. The skid hits two the following night in a tough 5-4 defeat with the bullpen surrendering four runs in the final two innings. Ouch. Barfield had three hits to bring his batting average up to .300. His platoon with Hall is one of the better things going for our offense.

In news that should not be all that surprising, Gary Templeton is batting .182.

Around the league, Boston's Fred Lynn is killing everything in site to the tune of .520/6/16. Dare I say, en fuego.

[hoopsguy]

Off to New York, where the Mets are punchless against a motivated Viola. 9-0 shutout, with most of the offense coming late. Hall had four hits and four RBIs. Yount had two hits and three steals. But the offense is silent the following evening against the immortal Pete Falcone as the Mets triumph 3-0.

That wraps up a short roadtrip, leaving us with a 2-3 mark. We were not playing teams that I fear all that much based on last year, so this certainly is not a positive. The offense remains very much a work in progress. Our 8-6 mark leaves us tied with the Cardinals, one game back of the Phillies.

[hoopsguy]

After three starts Rick Reuschel (our #5 starter!) has an ERA of 0.89 and an 0-1 record. That is because he got a no decision in a 2-1 win at home against the pesky Pirates. Lamp picked up his 2nd vulture win on the year when the Hall doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. Gullickson won the rematch with Blyleven, throwing a two hit shutout. The staff has surrendered zero runs in three of his four starts. Jim Rice was 4-4 in the victory.

The batting averages of the starting lineup are not horrific, by any means.

Oberkfell - .239
Yount - .257
Ogilvie - .283
Rice - .297
Hall - .310
Harrah - .196
Buckner - .326
Scioscia - .226

Not great, but not morbid. What is morbid is the lack of power. Not a single one of these guys has a home run. Jesse Barfield has hit the only two homers by Cubs on the season. That is beyond belief.

Back to the games - Witt throttles the Pittsburgh hitters, giving us our second straight complete game, in a 5-1 win. He had three hits and three RBIs and I'm thinking about playing him in the field on his off days.

[hoopsguy]

Top five paid pitchers for 1982:
1. Steve Rogers (California) - 20,002,502
2. Mike "Hired Gun" Norris (Baltimore) - 19,613,664
3 (tie). Bert Blyleven (Pittsburgh) - 14,720,000
3 (tie). J.R. Richard (Milwaukee) - 14,720,000
3 (tie). Nolan Ryan (Houston) - 14,720,000
Gullickson, at 9,878,879, is 16th on this list.

Rogers, in his 2nd year for California, is coming off a 16-14 season with a 3.09 ERA. All of his totals were improvements from the previous year with Montreal. He is a solid pitcher, but at 33 with four more years of that deal he is a terrible investment.

The schedule has not shown much diversity earlier and the trend continues with our next series - the Reds come to town. Jim Rice celebrates by hitting our 3rd overall homer of the month off Mario Soto as we run away and hide in a 9-6 win. Lost in the victory was a 2nd horrid outing on the year by Willie Hernandez, whose ERA hovers at 16.20 right now. Stop it, dude.

Two more homers the next day (that is 5 over three weeks if you are scoring at home), with Yount and Harrah getting on the board. Our team has almost caught up to Fred Lynn. The 8-1 win was a result of 7 runs in the 8th inning.

Atlanta hosts the Cubbies and keeps Reuschel winless, delivering us a 5-4 defeat and snapping our four game winning streak. Chris Chambliss socked a three run homer in the 7th to send the fans home happy. Gary Templeton is at .125, which is low even by his standards.

But the bats strike back the following night, putting two over the wall at Fulton County. Rice and Harrah add their 2nd homers on the year and both players plus Hall eclipse the 10 RBI mark. Slowly but surely we are starting to hit.

Rice does it again the following night, paving the way to a 4-2 win. Rice was responsible for three of the RBIs and Witt once again helped himself with a sac fly. Dale Murphy supplied all the Braves runs with a two run jack.

The fourth game had Atlanta rolling out 4-0 Doyle Alexander to face our rookie starter. Alexander left 5-0 and we had a split with the Braves: 8-2 loss.

At 15-8 we held a one game lead over the Phillies and a 2.5 game margin on the Cardinals. Those same Cardinals will be hosting the Cubs next.

[hoopsguy]

So, who had a good May? Well, the Cubs have the best record in the bigs right now so it would appear that the correct answer is "no one".

AL East - The Yankees are 14-9 and one game ahead of Baltimore. Detroit is one of three other teams that are 1.5 behind the Evil Empire.

AL West - Oakland is in first with a 15-10 mark, just .5 ahead of Kansas City and 1 up on Texas.

NL West - Three way tie at the top, with San Diego, San Francisco, and Houston each three games over .500.

[hoopsguy]

Von Hayes is destroying AAA Iowa, putting up .379/7/15 with an OPS around 1.100. We'll have to see about getting him up to the big club at some point ...

FA signee Bob James was not happy about being sent down to AAA but he got beat out in spring training. He has responded well, with a 0.00 ERA in 16.2 innings and a 17/4 K:BB ratio.

Mike Morgan also looks like a guy who could/should be pitching on a major league roster, as he has a 2.95 ERA through one month of minor league ball. This is the kind of depth I had envisioned for our organization. It should be fun having these kind of guys to shop around the deadline, or to displace established starters who are a little too demanding with their salary requests.

Off to the Gateway City to play our rivals. We forgot the lumber in the opener, allowing John Martin to dominate us for the second time this year in a commanding 4-0 victory. The winless Big Daddy is next in line, and he is still winless but the Cubs have evened up the series thanks to a 3-1 victory. Rice hit a two run homer in the top of the 8th to break the tie and making a winner out of Dennis "Vulture" Lamp. Durham homered in the loss for the Cardinals.

The third game features a pitching mismatch: Gullickson vs Bob Sykes and his 8.00 ERA. So what happens? Well, we score our runs and allow Gullickson to be less than perfect in a 7-4 win. Mike Hargrove had three hits to move his average up to .350. In exciting news, Templeton went 2-5 and is hitting .227! Wow, where did this come from?

In all seriousness, it came from a lack of at-bats. His average had plummeted from .286 to .125 after an 0-9 stretch and jumped back up .100 points with a 3-6 showing over the last two games.

So far we've won both series against the Cards. Things are looking good in Chicago for the time being.

[hoopsguy]

Want to know what kills a feel-good buzz faster than anything in baseball? How about your closer pissing a game away in the 9th? Smith did exactly that to open up a series against the Astros at Wrigley. A 2-1 lead quickly morphed into a 4-2 loss, much to the chagrin of Mike Witt and about 30,000 fans in attendance (the real-life Cubs would have killed for those numbers in 1982).

The Astros maintain their mojo the next afternoon, with pitcher Vern Ruehle clubbing a two run homer to back his own cause in a 5-3 win. And it is a clean sweep when the Astros push a run across in the 10th to beat us 4-3. Cesar Cedeno hit three hits in the win for Houston. So much for "things looking good". Hopefully I've learned my lesson.

[hoopsguy]

The losing streak, at home (!), hits four in an 8-0 pasting at the hands of the 12-18 Atlanta Braves. Bob Horner went yard for the 8th time on the year. When would the losing stop? Not the next day, as we were shut out again. 2-0 this time in 12 innings, wasting 11 K's by Gullickson. Disgusting. 0-5 homestand = loss of all good vibes.

The streak ends at 5, as Mike Witt enjoyed 10 runs. Or, to be precise, more runs than we scored during the homestand. Harrah and Hargrove each had three RBIs in delivering some payback to the Astros. It is at this point that I notice that the Mets have won 8 in a row, moving into a tie for first in the division at 19-15.

Frank Viola makes sure our winning streak stops at one, giving us another uneven outing with 5 earned runs in as many innings. His ERA is now 5.23, which is in line with what I see for several members of our bullpen:
Vande Berg: 5.93
Orosco: 4.22
Hernandez: 8.59
James (recent call-up): 6.75

Only Lamp is excelling in the pen, with a 1.61 ERA. Caudill is at 3.18, which is a clear #2 with this bunch.

Remember Mike Krukow? Well, our hitters must not as they were absolutely baffled in a 5-0 loss to sink us down to 18-16. And we lose 3 of 4 in the series when the finale goes Houston's way by a 5-4 margin. If this continues it will be time to shuffle the deck chairs ...

[hoopsguy]

Rickey Henderson is going bananas on the base paths so far this year, posting 38 steals. That total is 15 better than Oakland teammate Dwayne Murphy. We feel like we've got a faster team on the bases than years past, with our top duo being Yount (14 - tied for 16th best) and Hall (13 - T18th). Obviously Oakland is on another completely different level.

One guy who is having a "wait, WHO is posting those numbers?" type year is Seattle CF Juan Beniquez. This 32 year old has been among the most productive players in baseball all year, posting .318/8/22.

The first game in LA is a baseball fans delight, with stud pitchers Gullickson and Fernando Valenzuela colliding. Each goes seven innings and gives up one run, leaving it up to the bullpens to decide. It goes 11 and LA blinks, when Toby Harrah empties the bases with a double to send this one to a 4-1 final.

The next day features Witt vs. 0-5 Burt Hooten. Automatic win? Not with us, but Witt refuses to lose this one and he makes the only run of the game stand up.

I have low expectations for Viola against Bob Welch, but we end up with our second 1-0 win in a row. It is lucky and good to win when you only get two hits, but that was the formula on this day. A Hargrove sacrifice accounted for the scoring. We swept a series where we only scored 6 runs, 3 in extra innings. That is hard to do and I don't think it is a formula for success.

Two guys that are giving us very little right now are Ken Oberkfell and Mike Scioscia. I don't think anyone is swinging a great bat at the moment but we need these guys to get their averages up from .205 and .200, respectively.

[hoopsguy]

The road show continues in San Francisco, where the bats are out in force to bail out Dennis Martinez. El Presidente surrendered an early 3-0 lead, falling behind 9-3 after 7 before the boys rallied with 4 in the 8th, 2 in the 9th, and 3 more in the 10th! Ogilve put two balls over the wall, including the deciding blow in the 10th. And check out this box score for Harrah: 4-4, 4 runs, 4 RBI, 2 walks.

Lamp has pitched 19 2/3 scoreless innings for us, bringing his ERA down to 1.24. That guy has been awesome, just lights out.

The good vibes come to an end with Reuschel falling to 0-5 on the year. This is kind of sad, in part because he did not deserve the losses early in the year and because he has been such a good member of the team up to this point. But he is struggling right now and we have arms in the organization that will take his spot (soon) if this continues much longer. 4-2 final on this day, with the Giants getting all of their runs in the bottom of the 6th. Rick has given up too many big innings this year.

We sweep a double-header with our two aces on the mound to finish 3-1 in San Francisco. 5-2 and 6-2 wins, with homers for Rice, Harrah, and Hall. Scioscia has responded to the criticism in LA, raising his average to .247.

This monster road trip continues in San Diego, where we see Lamp move to 5-0 on a day where the offense posted 21 hits in pasting the Padres 13-3. Viola threw 87 pitches in three innings (only giving up one run), which allowed Lamp to vulture the win with 3 2/3 scoreless innings. His streak is now at 25 1/3 innings. Go, dude, go. Scioscia, Boone, Hall, and Rice homered. Dave Kingman got his first RBI of the year.

Boone does it again the following day to drive in the only run in a showdown between Martinez and Bob Shirley. What a contrast compared to the slugfest the day before.

Big Daddy gets pounded to close out the road trip. 0-6 with a 4.15 ERA for a first place team is just not getting the job done. I never figured he would be the first guy heading out of town this year but this game is full of surprises.

Maybe I could package him with Templeton, who is hitting .171. Time to fire up the trade generator.

[hoopsguy]

A look around the league at things that have caught my eye:
1.) Mike "Hired Gun" Norris is 2-8 for the Orioles with an ERA of 5.00. At 27 years of age, he should be in his prime. I'm guessing this is just a bad stretch for him, rather than the kind of career slide that I'm seeing with Reuschel.
2.) Boston's Dwight Evans has kept up his white-hot start, posting numbers that should make him an All-Star lock: .288/13/30.
3.) There have been almost no serious injuries this season.

OK, back to Reuschel. He is 33 years of age, still has top-end control, but average stuff and velocity. In other words, the same guy he has been the past two years but with more mileage and an increasing likelihood of falling off the map. And his performance over the last month has been garbage. He is signed for this year and next at 4.1 million per year. If I'm going to move him I want to fee like I've got candidates to replace him as well as some control over the contracts coming up behind him. I do not want to be extending all of the following pitchers to huge money in the same year behind him, if that makes sense.

1. Gullickson (23) - 2 years, 9.9 million. I'm going to have to break the bank to keep him, but I'll almost certainly do it if he stays this productive.
2. Witt (22) - 3 years, 1.5 million. Awesome start to his career, has look of a 10+ year Cub.
3. Viola (22) - 5 years, 1.6 million. Not enjoying same success as Witt did in rookie season but that is incredibly high bar. This guy is also a part of the long-term plan.
4. Martinez (27) - 1 year, 4.5 million. This guy is interesting because he is a good pitcher but not as successful as the first three and because his contract is up now. He is asking for reasonable money on the extension, basically the same amount he is making now. Which probably seals Reuschel's fate.
5. Lamp (30) - there is no way I'm moving him out of his current role, but since he could start I'll list him here. His contract is up this year as well. He is making 2.2 million this year and is looking to double his salary. Hmm, that is pricey for a long reliever but I'm caught up in the buzz of what he is doing this year. If he sustains this I'll reward him with a 2-3 year deal later this season. If not, I'll see how the rest of the pen is doing at growing into roles and factor that into the decision.
6. Morgan (23) - 4 years at 950K, he would be displacing Reuschel by next year if we just let nature take its course.
7. Black (25) - 2 years @ 300K. I just have not seen the development yet. He may never crack our rotation, which would leave him as a long reliever, trade bait, or just shuffling off at the end of his contract.
8. Boyd (23) - 3 years @ 250K. Not ready yet, maybe next year for long relief role as best case scenario?

[hoopsguy]

The Twins make an interesting offer for Reuschel - their closer, Doug Corbett. Looking at his makeup, I think he would be a really nice setup man for us but would not displace Smith. Corbett is under contract for two years at 4.5 million, so it is a wash on salaries. If Mike Morgan is ready to give us what Reuschel has (0-6? I'm sure he can at least do that) then this move would definitely strengthen our bullpen without costing us anything now. I've talked myself into it.

I'm also at 26 men on the roster right now, with Von Hayes begging for a call-up so it is time to take a hard look at the depth charts + contract situations and see if I find a move that makes sense.

Walk Year:
1B Buckner (33) - 3 million for a platoon guy, want 7+ million. Bill, it is time for you to fly.
RP Caudill (26) - 3.7 million, I want him around long-term even though he has been mediocre this year
1B Hargrove (33) - 1.6 million for a platoon guy, with reasonable contract demands going forward. Hello, Mr "on the Cubs roster in 1983"
3B Harrah (34) - 6.7 million, but bringing it for us this year
RP Hernandez (28) - I like him, but other teams love him and I think I may test that market. 3.7 million salary.
SP Lamp (30) - covered previously
SP Martinez (27) - see above
LF/RF Ogilvie (33) - not quite the power I expected to see, lots of young OFs, he is almost certainly gone

So it is Buckner and Ogilvie that are the guys that make the most sense to move, unless I get offered a truckload for Hernandez.

[hoopsguy]

May as well find out what Hernandez would attract before deciding on which of the other guys to move.

Baltimore offers 3B Gary Gaetti, who is raw but has a lot of upside at 24. This is the kind of deal I will end up regretting if I do not make it, but I expect that it would not be a home run if I did pull the trigger. Another player they are willing to offer is Mike Norris but I'm not looking to take on that type of salary.

But Seattle's offer of Wade Boggs is too good to pass up. The 24 year old first baseman is not going to be a power hitter, but he is going to make contact relentlessly (100/100 already) and has a ton of upside (100/100 potential) still to untap. He is hitting .301/5/19 this year and is under contract for the next 4 years at 1.2 million per season. Plus he is pretty good defensively. I'm guessing they want Hernandez to close; he is certainly a better option than Salome Barojas.

Done - I still have 26 players in the bigs and we are now top-heavy on hitters so I'll have one more move to make. It will certainly involve the no-longer-needed Buckner.

[hoopsguy]

Buckner heads to Milwaukee for Enrique Romo, a very solid 35 year old reliever in the last year of his deal. So that should help out our bullpen some more in the short term. We are actually taking on salary, as Romo is making 5.5 million this season. I'm not all that worried about signing him for next year - we'll find ourselves arms for the bullpen in the draft or off-season, if need be.

I can't justify sending down Barfield to promote Hayes. Point of fact, Barfield is more talented and is right-handed, which works in a platoon with Hall. Hayes is a lefty and would not work as well. But we do extend Hayes' deal, giving him 3 more years at about 1.2 million per season.

So, as the end of May is approaching here are the standings in each of the divisions:

AL East - The Tigers have assumed their usual position of looking down on the division. Their 27-17 mark is the best in baseball and puts them 2.5 in front of the Blue Jays. The Yankees and Baltimore are both still in this with records above .500.

AL West - Oakland, at 27-19, finds themselves one in front of California and two in front of KC.

NL East - The Cubs are on top with a 26-19 mark, but the last-place team is only 4.5 games back.

NL West - Houston, despite losing 3 straight, has a 4 game lead over the Padres. The Astros are the only team with a winning record in the division.

[hoopsguy]

Los Angeles pays us back for our handiwork in their ballpark with a 3-1 win where Valenzuela outdueled Gullickson. Yount was caught stealing twice in this game. Bah. But Witt gets us back in the win column with seven shutout innings in a 5-0 win. Boggs had a pair of hits and 3 RBIs in his first start as a Cub. LA takes the third in a good pitchers duel, 2-1 final.

We jump out to a 5-2 lead in the opener of the Padres series, watch San Diego tie it in the 9th (Smith not in, nursing a minor injury?) but earn the win on a Rice triple in the bottom of the inning. Mike Morgan's first start ends up like Viola's earlier this year - a loss. Lamp extended his scoreless streak to 32 1/3 innings in the 5-3 loss. Harrah and Yount each had solo shots. Gullickson closed out the series with a win, finally getting his 6th on the year in a 7-2 triumph. Both Rice and Dave Winfield hit their 8th homers of the year in this game.

On the year, Jim Rice has out-performed last season's MVP:
Rice: .271/8/31
Winfield: .264/8/30

[hoopsguy]

Toby Harrah is starting to show up on some of the "best hitter" lists, and with good reason. He is unlikely to start in the All-Star game with Bob Horner and Mike Schmidt around, but his numbers are very strong. .315/7/27 with a .911 OPS. That OPS is 9th in the majors.

One of the more productive players in baseball that is not widely known is California Angels 1B Jason Thompson. He was an All-Star in 1980 and led the league in walks last season. This year he is hitting .301/9/29. The 28 year old is a force in the American League.

Yount has a 13 game hitting streak going, 2nd best currently behind Houston's Terry Puhl (14).

Ryne Sandberg is coming along in Detroit. He still does not grade out as an A+ prospect, but he is getting the job done at SS for the World Series champs with a .288 average, 1 homer, 24 RBIs, and 22 steals.

Dickie Thon of the Angels is out for a month with a MCL strain.