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

[Izulde]

4 pennants in 5 years is pretty damn impressive, to say nothing of the 2 rings. That's a Tigers dynasty fo' sho.

[hoopsguy]

Yeah, and they are getting better.
- Stubbs, their first round pick this last year, was awfully effective in the playoffs.
- Sandberg is continuing to improve.
- Morris is in his prime, having just won 22 games.
- Parrish had his best year yet for them.
- They are the best defensive team in the game, year in and year out.

They are going to have to stay good to win their division because Toronto and Milwaukee both have very good talent. But that has only been a problem one time so far and they have treated the AL West like a speed bump in the playoffs.

[hoopsguy]

AL Cy Young - Mark Gubicza (Tor) 27-7 2.73 ERA, 7 CG, 3 SO, 181:90 K/BB, .214 BAA, 1.12 WHIP. Pretty impressive rookie year. Led league in wins.
AL MVP - Darryl Strawberry (Mil) .284/40/97 w/46 steals. Numbers all down from last year but still dominant. Back to back 40-40 seasons.
AL Rookie of the Year - Franklin Stubb (Det) .297/19/87. Guess it was not my imagination that this dude was a force.
AL Rookie Pitcher of the Year - Mark Gubicza (Tor) - 27 wins; you think?

AL Gold Glove Winners:
P Dan Quisenberry (KC) - this reliever winner trend has to stop
C Bill Schroeder (Tor) - repeat winner
1B Franklin Stubbs (Det) - rookie winner
2B Tony Bernazard (NYY)
3B Alan Trammell (Det)
SS Ryne Sandberg (Det) - 2nd win for him
LF Steve Kemp (Det) - 2nd win for him
CF Willie Wilson (KC)
RF Ron Kittle (Chi) - repeat winner

AL Silver Sluggers:
C Lance Parrish (Det) - .314/28/92 - repeat winner
1B Ken Phelps (KC) - .282/36/88 - great walk year, way better than previous bests
2B Paul Molitor (Tex) - .320/15/73 w/39 steals - three straight
3B Mike Marshall (Tor) - .252/23/104 - also three straight
SS Cal Ripken (Tex) - .324/22/114 - three straight as well
LF George Bell (Mil) - .273/23/81
CF Dwayne Murphy (Oak) - .269/29/101 w/43 steals - repeat winner
RF Ron Kittle (KC) - .270/44/111
DH Tom Brunansky (Sea) .287/53/123 - three straight, led league in homers, RBI, and slugging %. If this is not enough to win MVP then how is anyone ever going to dislodge Strawberry?

Also, how is Strawberry MVP without winning a Silver Slugger award?

[hoopsguy]

NL Cy Young - Dwight Gooden (StL) 17-7 2.42 ERA, 6 CG, 3 SO, 257:70 K/BB, .206 BAA, 1.07 WHIP. Led league in Strikeouts, Complete Games, and Shutouts. Not a bad debut.
NL MVP - Alvin Davis (LA) .290/34/100. What??? Led league in Walks and OPS.
NL Rookie of the Year - Alvin Davis (LA). The award he deserved to win.
NL Rooke Pitcher of the Year - Dwight Gooden (StL)

NL Gold Glove Winners:
P Fernando Valenzuela (LA)
C Butch Wynegar (Chi) - takes award away from our starting (injured) catcher
1B Wade Boggs (Chi)
2B Tim Raines (Mon)
3B Tom O'Malley (Phi)
SS Julio Franco (LA) - repeat winner
LF Don Mattingly (SF) - repeat winner
CF Ricky Manning (LA) - wins in first year in NL, came over from Indians as FA
RF Candy Maldonado (SF) - only played 1/2 season in NL, came over at deadline in deal for Jack Clark (fire PSPN!!!!)

NL Silver Sluggers:
C Gary Carter (Mon) - .247/17/80. Four straight.
1B Alvin Davis (LA) - .290/34/100
2B Wayne Krenchicki (SF) - .226/12/76
3B Nick Esasky (LA) - .288/28/95
SS Jose Oquendo (SD) - .261/11/70
LF Joe Carter (Chi) - .279/22/92 w/22 steals
CF Ellis Valentine (Mon) - .258/30/88
RF Jesse Barfield (Chi) - .284/38/126. Led league in homers, RBI, Runs, and Slugging %. But somehow not the MVP.

[hoopsguy]

League Leaders - Hitting:
BA:
AL - .334 Tony Gwynn (Tex)
NL - .341 Wade Boggs (Chi)
Top Cub - Boggs
This looks kind of like most of the 1980s ...

HR:
AL - 53 Tom Brunansky (Sea)
NL - 38 Jesse Barfield (Chi)
Top Cub - Jesse Barfield (4th overall)

RBI:
AL - 123 Tom Brunansky (Sea) - repeat winner
NL - 126 Jesse Barfield (Chi) - repeat winner
Top Cub - Jesse Barfield

Runs:
AL - 121 Rickey Henderson (Oak) - 3rd time leading league
NL - 100 Jesse Barfield (Chi) - repeat winner
Top Cub - Jesse Barfield (6th overall)

Hits:
AL - 209 Harold Baines (CHW)
NL - 219 Wade Boggs (Chi) - 3 straight years
Top Cub - Boggs

Stolen Bases:
AL - 104 Rickey Henderson (Oak) - 3rd time leading league
NL - 68 Mookie Wilson (NYM), Willie McGee (SD) - 4th straight year for Wilson leading NL
Top Cub - 31 Mel Hall (36th)

On Base %:
AL - .400 Tony Gwynn (Tex)
NL - .410 Wade Boggs (Chi) - repeat winner
Top Cub - Boggs

OPS:
AL - .929 Lance Parrish (Det)
NL - .880 Alvin Davis (LA)
Top Cub - .869 Jesse Barfield (8th)

[hoopsguy]

League Leaders - Pitching:
ERA:
AL - 2.57 Len Barker (Cle)
NL - 2.19 Scott Sanderson (Mon) - repeat winner
Top Cub - 2.29 Mike Witt (2nd)

Wins:
AL - 27 Mark Gubicza (Tor)
NL - 18 Mark Langston (Chi)
Top Cub - Langston (tied 8th)

Saves:
AL - 57 Keith Atherton (Det)
NL - 48 Rick Camp (Atl)
Top Cub - 44 Jesse Orosco (8th)

Innings Pitched:
AL - 294.1 Rick Langford (Oak) - 2nd time leading category
NL - 250.1 Scott Sanderson (Mon) - repeat winner, 3rd time overall
Top Cub - 225.2 Mark Langston (48th)

Complete Games:
AL - 16 Dave Stieb (Tor)
NL - 6 Dwight Gooden (StL)
Top Cub - 5 Mike Witt (tied 26th)

Shutouts:
AL - 5 Dave Rozema
NL - 3 Scott Sanderon (Mon), Dwight Gooden (StL), Craig McMurtry (Mon) - repeat for Sanderson
Top Cub - 2 Mike Witt (big tie for 9th)

Strikeouts:
AL - 213 Dave Stieb (Tor)
NL - 257 Dwight Gooden (StL)
Top Cub - 159 Mark Langston (tied 24th)

Walks:
AL - 116 Renie Martin (KC)
NL - 125 Bill Krueger (StL)
Top Cub - 102 Langston (5th)

Run Support:
AL - 157 Richard Dotson (CHW)
NL - 144 Mike Moore (SF)
Top Cub - Mike Witt (11th)

[hoopsguy]

Team Stats for 1984:
Offense: 725 Runs Scored - 1st (-110 Runs, same Rank)
Defense: 485 Runs Allowed - 1st (same Runs, same Rank)
Total Salaries: $52,560,192 - 1st (-2 million versus same point last year)
Available Finances: some stupid amount
Approval Rating: 80/100 - not sure where to see compared to other teams (+2 from previous year)

Once again the salary heads down, and I'm not sure when we will see it nudge upwards again with the house rules. We really saw an impact on our offense this year, going from a monster offensive unit to merely the best in the game. We mostly replaced the guys we let go, but downturns from Yount and Hall hurt badly. Ditto losing Scioscia for half the year with injuries. I'm not optimistic that we'll be able to do as good a job filling the cracks in 1985.

Draft/FA needs - a young OF would be very helpful, but I think the biggest need is an injection of speed in the lineup. We've got a couple of long-in-the-tooth starters with Smalley and Burroughs right now, so finding a position player for one of those spots would be ideal.

[hoopsguy]

Season summary is a 76/100. I'm just wondering what kind of scores other teams are being given who win a lot less while paying out a lot more. Good god.

New records:
Batting average - 1984 Boggs (.341) beats 1983 Ripken (.328)
On base percentage - 1984 Boggs (.410) beats 1983 Boggs (.394)
Home runs - 1984 Brunansky (53) beats 1983 Barfield (48)
Runs - 1984 Henderson (121) beats 1983 Strawberry (119)
Hits - 1984 Boggs (219) beats 1983 Ripken (203)
Triples - 1984 Law (16) beats Stearns, 1983 Yount (14)
Wins - 1984 Gubicza (27) ties 1982 Keough (27)
Losses - 1984 Boggs (21) beats 3 others (19)
Saves - 1984 Atherton (57) beats 1983 Smith (56)
Starts - 1984 Gubicza (38) beats 4 others (37)
Shutouts - 1984 Rozema (5) beats 1982 Candelaria (4), 1982 Keough (4)
Strikeouts - 1984 Gooden (257) beats 1983 DeLeon (228)

Retirements:
Steve Carlton 30-17 2.71 ERA
Jim Palmer 48-36 2.75 ERA
Dusty Baker .275/65/247
Andre Thornton .275/58/245 (short career)
Dick Tidrow 12-6 2.92 ERA

[hoopsguy]

We'll go back to the Almanac to look at league history. I'm planning to do this every other year during the off-season.

Top Five for each category:
Batting Average:
1. George Brett (KC) .307 - average up a point
2. Cal Ripken (Tex) .303 - not previously in top 5
3. Fred Lynn (Bos) .296 - another newcomer
4. Bob Horner (Atl) .290 - same spot, average down 3 points
5. Leon Durham (Stl) .289 - down six points, 2 slots
Falling out: Andre Dawson, Fred Lynn

On Base %:
1. George Brett (KC) .372 - down two points
2. Cal Ripken (Tex) .370 - newcomer
3. Fred Lynn (Bos) .365 - down one point, one spot
4. Keith Hernandez (StL) - newcomer
5. Rickey Henderson (Oak) - newcomer
Falling out: Kirk Gibson, Leon Durham, Bob Horner

Slugging %:
1. Bob Horner (Atl) .526 - still on top, but down 12 points
2. Tom Brunansky (Sea) .503 - newcomer
3. Georg Brett (KC) .499 - up a spot, one point
4. Tony Armas (Oak) .491 - newcomer
5. Cal Ripken (Tex) .488 - newcomer
Falling out: George Foster, Dave Winfield, Andre Dawson

OPS:
1. Bob Horner (Atl) .879 - down 14 points
2. George Brett (KC) .870 - up 3 points
3. Cal Ripken (Tex) .858 - newcomer
4. Fred Lynn (Bos) .849 - up one spot, 3 points
5. Dave Winfield (SD) .828 - down one spot, 24 points
Falling out: George Foster

Home Runs:
1. Bob Horner (Atl) 162
2. Tony Armas (Oak) 147 - up from 5th (tie)
3. Dale Murphy (Atl) 139 - down one spot
3. Tom Brunansky (Sea) 139 - newcomer
5. Dave Winfield (SD) 128 - down three spots
Falling out: Gorman Thomas, George Foster,

RBIs:
1. Tony Armas (Oak) 447 - newcomer
2. Dave Winfield (SD) 439 - down one spot
3. Harold Baines (CHW) 412- up two spots
4. Bob Horner (Atl) 402 - down one spot
4. Jack Clark (Bal) 402 - newcomer
Falling out: Mitchell Page

Runs:
1. Rickey Henderson (Oak) 513
2. Dale Murphy (Atl) 469 - up one spot
3. Robin Yount (FA) 444 - newcomer
4. Harold Baines (CHW) 434 - newcomer
5. Paul Molitor (Tex) 427 - newcomer
Falling out: Mookie Wilson, Carney Lansford, Andre Dawson

Hits:
1. Eddie Murray (Bal) 880
2. Harold Baines (CHW) 874 - newcomer
3. Rickey Henderson (Oak) 872 - newcomer
4. Willie Wilson (KC) 855 - down two spots
5. Leon Durham (StL) 833 - newcomer
Falling out: Andre Dawson, Dave Winfield, Keith Hernandez, Carney Lansford

Doubles:
1. Harold Baines (CHW) 166 - up from 3rd
2. Eddie Murray (Bal) 158 - up from 5th
3. Lloyd Moseby (Tor) 155 - newcomer
4. Carney Lansford (Cal) 153 - down three spots
4. Georg Brett (KC) 153 - newcomer
Falling Out: Kirk Gibson, Tom Brookens, Andre Dawson

Triples:
1. Willie Wilson (KC) 54
2. Hosken Powell (FA) 41 - newcomer
3. Mookie Wilson (NYM) 40 - down one spot
3. Craig Reynolds (Hou) 40 - same spot
5. Leon Durham (StL) 38 - down one spot
Falling out: John Castino

Stolen Bases:
1. Rickey Henderson (Oak) 491 - same spot
2. Willie Wilson (KC) 390 - same spot
3. Mookie Wilson (NYM) 368 - same spot
4. Rudy Law (Tor) 336 - newcomer
5. Dale Murphy (Atl) 315 - newcomer
Falling out: Omar Moreno, Ken Landreaux

Walks:
1. Rickey Henderson (Oak) 410
2. Jason Thompson (Cal) 371
3. Eddie Murray (Bal) 352
4. Jack Clark (Bal) 210
5. Keith Hernandez (StL) 210 - newcomer
Falling out: Lee Mazzili

ERA:
1. Mario Soto (Cin) 2.34, up 0.23
2. Scott Sanderson (Mon) 2.49 - newcomer
3. Bert Blyleven (Pit) 2.73 - newcomer
4. Jim Palmer (Retired) 2.75 - newcomer
5. Matt Keough (Oak) 2.76 - newcomer
Falling out: Tom Seaver, Pete Vukovich, Nolan Ryan, Bob Welch

Innings Pitched:
1. Dave Stieb (Tor) 1396.2 - up one spot
2. Britt Burns (CHW) 1390.1 - up one spot
3. Matt Keough (Oak) 1374 - up one spot
4. Moose Haas (Mil) 1361.2 - up one spot
5. Jim Clancy (Tor) 1355.2 - newcomer
Falling out: Rick Langford

Wins:
1. Matt Keough (Oak) 91 - up two spots
2. Jack Morris (Det) 90 - newcomer
3. Dave Stieb (Tor) 85 - up one spot
4. Rick Langford (Oak) 84 - down two spots
5. Jim Clancy (Tor) 83 - newcomer
Falling out: Dennis Leonard, Mike Norris

Losses:
1. Moose Haas (Mil) 77- up three spots
2. Tommy Boggs (Cle) 75 - newcomer
3. Frank Tanana (Cal) 74
3. Britt Burns (CHW) 74
5. Roger Erickson (Min) 73 - newcomer
Falling Out: Richard Dotson, Glenn Abbott

Saves:
1. Lee Smith (Mon) 227 - newcomer
2. Dan Quizenberry (KC) 222 - down one spot
3. Tom Hume (Cin) 217 - up one spot
4. Rick Camp (Atl) 216 - newcomer
5. Victor Cruz (Cle) 210 - newcomer
Falling Out: Joe Sambito, Mark Clear, George Frazier

Strikeouts:
1. Len Barker (Cle) 996
2. Mario Soto (Cin) 971
3. Britt Burns (CHW) 928
4. Dave Stieb (Tor) 863 - newcomer
5. Bob Welch (LA) 838 - newcomer
Falling Out: Bert Blyleven, Steve Rogers

Walks:
1. Renie Martin (KC) 513 - up one spot
2. Matt Keough (Oak) 503 - up one spot
3. Jim Clancy (Tor) 484 - down two spots
4. Richard Dotson (CHW) 442 - newcomer
4. Britt Burns (CHW) 442
Falling Out: Mike Norris

Appearances:
1. John Urrea (StL) 350
2. Roy Lee Jackson (NYM) 336 - newcomer
3. John Littlefield (STL) 331 - up one spot
4. Dave Smith (Hou) 324 - newcomer
5. Preston Hanna (Atl) 300 - newcomer
Falling Out: Gene Garber, Roy Thomas, Rick Sutcliffe

Games Started:
1. John Candelaria (Pit) 178 - up two spots
1. Jim Clancy (Tor) 178 - newcomer
3. Bob Knepper (KC) 177 - down two spots
3. Frank Pastore (Cin) 177 - newcomer
5. Richard Dotson (CHW) 176 - newcomer
5. Scott Sanderson (Mon) 176 - newcomer
Falling Out: Mike Caldwell, Ed Whitson

Complete Games:
1. Rick Langford (Oak) 65
2. Matt Keough (Oak) 63 - up two spots
2. Britt Burns (CHW) 63 - up one spot
4. Dave Stieb (Tor) 61 - up one spot
5. Moose Haas (Mil) 56 - newcomer
Falling Out: Mike Norris, Dennis Leonard

Shutouts:
1. Britt Burns (CHW) 11 - up three spots
2. John Candelaria (Pit) 10
3. Matt Keough (Oak) 9 - up one spot
3. Scott Sanderson (Mon) - newcomer
3. Dave Rozema (Det) - newcomer
Falling Out: Mike Norris, Rick Langford, Dave Stieb

[hoopsguy]

Draft time. Last year's draft was a bumper crop of great players, with both the Cy Young winners and NL MVP being rookies. This year? Not so much. At all. I've got my eye on one player, a speedy outfielder who would meet my long-term needs for a leadoff hitter and team speed. But I'm guessing the Dodgers will pluck him, based on the past couple of seasons, if he gets that far.

#1 Houston - CL Randy Myers. Big league ready, lots of potential at age 23, but a closer #1? Really?
#2 California - RF Jose Canseco. The 21 year old has loads of potential and could grow into a big star.
#3 Philadelphia - MR Tim Burke. Like a worse version of Myers. This is a loser pick by a loser franchise.
#4 Pittsburgh - SP Kirk McCaskill. One of the two best starters, should help fill spots in an aging rotation. Nice pick, Pitt.
#5 Texas - SP Teddy Higuera. The other really high quality starter in this draft. Texas is dying for quality arms to help Ripken, Molitor, and Gwynn start winning some games.
#6 Minnesota - OF Mike Greenwell. It is not a bad pick, but I think there are a couple of other outfielders I would have preferred in this spot.
#7 Baltimore - OF Devon White. This was one of the OFs I referenced above. Good pick by Baltimore, who seems to have their share of pieces but have not put it together lately.
#8 Boston - OF Paul O'Neill. Pretty solid prospect, maybe protection against an aging Fred Lynn?
#9 Seattle - CL Todd Worrell. Not a hangable offense, given the lack of quality starters out there, if he immediately becomes their closer.
#10 Mets - MR Brian Holton. At 26 years old, this feels like a tweener. Not good value for the pick.
#11 Cleveland - CL Roger McDowell. The right guy to grab if you feel that you need a back of the bullpen guy, even if he costs 1.5 million a year.
#12 St Louis - OF Vince Coleman. The guy I was hoping would fall to us. The Cards have loaded up on good pieces lately. What does this mean for Durham and Leonard?
#13 San Francisco - MR Brian Fisher. I guess I'm not getting a relief pitcher with my pick. Weird draft class.
#14 Atlanta - MR Pat Clements. Bad, bad pick. Bad velocity, not a ton of upside.
#15 Milwaukee - MR Rob Murphy. Umm, there are still at least a couple of starting pitchers worth looking at right now. What the heck are teams doing?
#16 Yankees - MR Lance McCullers. Much better pitcher than the last two guys picked.
#17 Oakland - 1B Cecil Fielder. I was wondering when chunky would come off the board. Great pull for Oakland in this spot.
#18 San Diego - CF Lenny Dykstra. He lasted just long enough for me to get my hopes up. Drat.
#19 Montreal - SS Shawon Dunston. I'm surprised his potential is so low. I would have drafted another SS if I was looking for that position.
#20 Kansas City - MR Pat Perry. All the good MRs are gone already, horrible reach pick.
#21 Cincinnati - OF Oddibe McDowell. Potentially the best hitter in the draft, I'm amazed he lasted this long and devastated to see him gone just a few picks in front of us.
#22 Toronto - SS Ernest Riles. High price tag (2 million) for guy who was not a top 10 talent, but good value here.
#23 White Sox - 1B Andres Galarraga. Could emerge as a good pickup, definitely worth a chance for a team strong in pitching and needing quality bats.
#24 Los Angeles - MR Bob Patterson. So much for them taking a guy off our board.
#25 Detroit - SS Mariano Duncan. They have had magic touch with their late 1st round picks (Sandberg, Atherton, Stubbs) so I expect he'll end up being pretty good. Was a guy that we had discussed.
#26 Chicago - SS Ozzie Guillen is asking for 3x as much money as anyone else, but his lack of power and batting eye make that a bad bet. 3B Steve Buechele looks like a pretty good option, either as a starter or good trade bait? SP Rick Aguilera is a ton better than anyone else at his position, but I'm determined to sign a position player this year. Guess it is Buechele. 5 years, 682K per season.

2nd round:
- California signs 3B Jack Howell, who is pretty close to the guy we signed, for about 70% of the salary. Nice draft for them so far.
- Philadelphia signs the very ugly Matt Nokes, who might be a better player than their initial pick.
- Pittsburgh signs Steve "Psycho" Lyons, who I would have loved to get in the 2nd round.
- Minnesota inks slugger Dan Pasqua, who has some talent but not too much potential.
- Milwaukee signs SP Bill Swift, who is not a bad pick but why not get Aguilera if you are taking a starter there?
- Aguilera and MR Steve Ontiveros are both pretty attractive options if I want to go pitching for the 2nd round pick. Guillen is also still available, at a cost that is about 9x any other position player. I pull the trigger on Ontiveros, who is a big league ready arm right now although his potential is not all that good. 4 years, nearly 719K per season.

Round #3:
- Pittsburgh signs Guillen.
- lots of teams sign guys that will never play at a major league level.
- We are delighted to sign Rick Aguilear at this point to a 3 year deal for 638K.

Round #4:
- Seattle signs C Charlie O'Brien, who I've at least considered in the last two rounds. He was my runner-up choice last round.
- Every remaining hitter is hot garbage, so I'm back to looking at pitchers. 19 year old starter Ed Correa could become something. I can only offer him two years, however. Bummer, but we sign him for 242K for each of those years.

Round #5 - 21 year old starter Floyd Youmans gets a one year deal for 225K.

We have a full roster of 35 players, but I'm willing to release stiffs if it means that we can add a contributor or two in free agency. We'll be looking strictly at hitters.

[hoopsguy]

So the player who would most help us on the Free Agent market would be .... Mel Hall. He is only looking for 6.2 million so there is a chance we could get him. If we only want to land one player then here are a few options:
1.) Hall - will probably go for 7.5 - 8 million
2.) Rice - another familiar name, at 32 he is a bit older but could be a good 1-2 year fit. Seeking 7 million.

That is pretty much it. I'm going to go hard after Hall and see if we can keep a little more continuity in our team than I had initially expected.

Initial offer - 4 years, 7.75 million per.

Early signings:
- Steve Howe, one of two decent young closers on the market, signs with San Diego for 3 years at just under 4 million per season.
- Seattle signs former Cub Dennis Martinez for 2 years @ 6.3 million apiece. Hopefully he can help them get things going for a franchise that has been lousy just about every year.
- Houston signs Mike Scott for 2 years @ 5.7 per. His career took off in real life when he signed with the Astros, so maybe history repeats itself?
- Houston also signs David Green, a poor mans Mel Hall, to a 2 year deal worth 5.6 million a year. I guess it is good to see them showing signs of life.
- Atlanta shells out 20 million for one year of Vida Blue. Terrible, terrible signing but at least the pain of it will be gone in a year.
- Yankees sign Keith Moreland to a three year deal for 5.3 million a year. He could be a solid catcher for them.
- Oakland grabs Doug Corbett for one year at just under 5 million. He still has a good arm, but is fading fast.
- Philadelphia ponies up a bucket of cash to bring in Robin Yount. 2 years, 18 million apiece. I guess they need to spend that kind of money to entice a top flight FA to come to that mess.

We land Hall with our offer, which means that our starting outfield is once again set. I'm done with FA and will have to cut one player from our system to account for the signing of Hall. That player is Allan Ramirez, a 4th round pick in 1983.

[hoopsguy]

I want to see what Juan Samuel can do at the big league level this year rather than shuttling him up/down and only seeing him as a pinch-runner. So it is time to move one of my current 2B - Randolph or Oberkfell.

Randolph appears to have a little more value, but people are not burning up the phone to acquire him either. Some of the names that we could get back are "Disco" Dan Ford, Ray Knight, and Mitchell Page. All of these guys are north of 30 and none would project as starters. Still, if the goal is more roster flexibility then I probably need to pull the trigger.

Ken Griffey Sr. is another player that could work within the 25% rule, and he is probably the best of the bunch right now. My only worry is making the Padres too much better. But I still swing this deal.

Orta and Boyd are the last two cuts, as they head down to the minors for the year.

Significant off-season ratings changes:
- Boyd's stuff +5
- Caudill got better, which is bad news for the NL. Detroit shrugs, knowing they hit him hard in the World Series
- Ken Dixon is getting better, he'll be a MLB pitcher by next year somewhere
- Gullickson lost 7 more points off his velocity, he seems destined to be a star that burns bright early and heads south quickly. It is less and less likely that I'll use my exception on him when the time comes
- Langston lost 9 points of velocity. That is very disturbing for a young pitcher, even moreso when combined with 4 less points of control.
- Orosco added velocity (+5)
- Kurt Kepshire's stuff is up 7 points, but velocity is down 8
- Mike Witt got a little more nasty in the offseason, with modest improvements to stuff and velocity
- Barfield improved marginally, gaining in contact while losing a smidge on eye
- Boggs lost 8 points off his batting eye, which suggests he may not be repeating his .400+ OBP this year
- Ken Oberkfell jumped 7 points on power, but gave up 5 points on eye. Hmm, this is my leadoff hitter? It does not sound like he got with our program
- Juan Samuel added four points to his eye, a very good sign
- Butch Wynegar was on the same program as Oberkfell, adding 7 points of power but losing 9 points on eye
- Carter sacrificed some power (5) points to pick up some eye (4). That should make him a little more balanced

[hoopsguy]

Surprise, surprise. PSPN has us and Detroit as 1-2 in their pre-season power rankings. But the rest of the Top 10 is pretty interesting.
1. Chicago Cubs
2. Detroit Tigers
3. Pittsburgh Pirates - huh?
4. Boston Red Sox - I think not
5. Toronto Blue Jays
6. New York Yankees - so four teams in the AL East. East coast bias showing?
7. Kansas City Royals
8. Montreal Expos
9. Philadelphia Phillies - I just cannot see this at all
10. St. Louis Cardinals - five of top ten in our division

Highest ranking AL West team = #12 Los Angeles Dodgers
Milwaukee = #23

Most Feared Hitter projections:
Don Mattingly (SF) .318/28
Pedro Guerrero (LA) .294/32
Dale Murphy (Atl) .288/30
Eddie Murray (Bal) .293/28
George Brett (KC) .297/26
Dave Parker (Pit) .292/28 - huge under, best season was 23 homers and had two single-digit years
Mike Marshall (Tor) .283/29
Floyd Rayford (Bal) .291/26

I know everyone fears Floyd Rayford, especially on a list that does not include Barfield, Strawberry, Brunansky, Horner, Kittle, and Alvin Davis. Yep ... who mailed in this terrible effort, PSPN?

Top Payrolls:
1. Detroit - 126,833,621
2. Baltimore - 111,255,063. Like the early Angelos years, spending a lot for not very much in way of wins
3. Los Angeles - 107,835,073. They will move back to top of the list when they have to resign their young talent
4. Atlanta - 107,158,676
5. Milwaukee - 106,079,790
6. Montreal - 103,395,670
7. Oakland - 102,172,802

Those are all the 100+ million teams. Others of interest
White Sox - 87,135,334
St. Louis - 80,186,562
Chicago Cubs - 62,528,644 (2nd lowest in baseball)
Minnesota - 47,152,850. Hello, original Small Market team!

[hoopsguy]

Lance Parrish is streaking toward the Steve Sax 23 game hitting streak. He hit successfully in his last 21 games coming into the year. I expect this story to get a lot of coverage in the first week of the year.

Our year begins at home against the much-hyped Pirates. We do not have a ring ceremony this year; we will be strictly business. Sid Fernandez has ascended to the top of the Pirates rotation. And he gives a decent effort, but is no match for a focused Cub team that wins 3-0 behind Gullickson's strong start and a Barfield home run. The wind is blowing out for game #2, much to the chagrin of the starting pitchers. Four balls leave the yard, including one off Barfield's bat, and we win 10-9.

Next to visit is Montreal, who has also started 2-0. They keep their perfect record intact with a 4-2 win featuring a pair of home runs by Gary Carter. We pull back even with them by picking up a 4-3 win in 10 innings. Orosco blew a save in the 9th but the hitters picked him up in the bottom of the 10th when Samuel singled, stole 2nd, and came home on an Oberkfell RBI. We close out the series with a 4-2 win, getting a quality start from Romanick. Three tough games with the Expos; that will probably be the rule with them this season.

Another division rival comes calling, this time the 3-2 Phillies. I have to admit that I'm astonished to see them with a winning record after how bad they have been the last couple of years. We put them back to .500 behind Gullickson and a home run for Samuel in a 4-2 win. The next day is a 9-0 beating featuring a 5-5 day for Boggs and a 4-4 performance by Hall. We win our fifth in a row to sweep the series, 9-4 final thanks in part to 4 RBIs for Smalley.

One interesting note - we see that Bill Kreuger of St. Louis is off to a 2-0 start with a 0.69 ERA. That is a far cry from his performance last year when he lost 20 games. The Cards are 5-2 and nipping at our heels in the division.

The Parrish hit streak ended at 22 games, with Cleveland's 21 game loser Tommy Boggs holding him to an 0-4 performance in a 2-1 Tigers win.

[hoopsguy]

We head north to Montreal, where the Expos have now lost five straight (starting with the last two in our series). It would be great to pile on in this series and give them a real deficit to have to overcome. That is not to be, as we lose 1-0 in the opener. Viola is getting antsy about run support again, having an 0-1 record to show for his 2.08 ERA. Brian Dayett's 3rd inning homer was the difference in this one. We bounce back with a 3-1 win behind Romanick's arm and Carter's bat. Carter hit one out and now has 11 RBIs in 10 games. We win the swing game in the series 8-6 after putting up four runs in the top of the 8th. Boggs was 4-4 and is hitting .432 so far. Orosco got his 6th save in seven chances.

On to Pittsburgh, where the Pirates have a respectable 6-5 record. We blow a 3-0 lead in a 4-3 loss. Carter supplied all the offense with a homer in the first. No worries, as the offense bounces back with a 9-2 pounding the next day. Barfield left the building twice. Pittsburgh wins the series thanks to a 6-2 win on getaway day. We got a Viola clunker in this one.

The hottest hitter in baseball right now is Atlanta 1B Glenn Davis. He is hitting .442 with 7 homers and 16 RBIs. He was in a platoon last year, but the starting job is his now and he already has 50% of his home run total from last year.

We head to Philadelphia where we get to see Romanick test himself against Roger Clemens. The results are not great, as he cracks late, gives away a 3-0 lead, and we lose 6-4. Two more RBIs for Carter, who is up to 19. We rebound with our own 6-4 win, featuring Carter's fourth homer on the year. Phillies C Ozzie Virgil homers for the second straight day in the loss. The final game of the series is a pitchers duel, with us on the right end of a 1-0 affair. Witt moved to 3-0 with that performance. Caudill already has six holds on the year.

[hoopsguy]

Kansas City slugger Ron Kittle has put up some impressive April numbers. .292/9/16 but the real surprise is 5 steals! People think that the big man cannot run, but he did swipe 13 last year. Maybe he is trying to pad these numbers so that he has some kind of shot at catching Strawberry in one of these MVP races. I'm still surprised that his average is as high as it has been last year (.270) and this year ...

Detroit is getting some major production out of SS/2B Ryne Sandberg. .333/4/19 for the month. I don't think that I have any ability to trade for him with the current house rules and probably will not until he is north of 30 (he is 26 now).

Bob Horner will be missing two weeks with a broken finger.

Here is a quick look at the division races through 4/30:
AL East - Toronto, at 13-6, enjoys a two game lead on Detroit. The Brewers are 2.5 back. The high payroll Orioles are 5-13 and already 7.5 out.

AL West - The Angels and A's are both red hot, compiling five and six game win streaks, respectively. California, at 14-6, is one game in front. Last year's division champion White Sox are two games out and KC is four back.

NL East - Cubs (12-5, all in division) are up two on Pitt + Montreal, with the Cards 2.5 back. The Mets are a train wreck at 5-12.

NL West - LA is on top with a 13-7 mark, just .5 ahead of Cincinnati. Both the Padres and Braves have disappointed their fans with 6-12 starts.

[hoopsguy]

Time for some NL West opposition; the Giants (8-10) come to town. And we move our record in 1-0 games to 2-1 with a win for Langston. The Giants starter, Mike Moore gets a tough luck loss and saw his ERA move up to 0.87 on the year. But he has no one to blame but himself, as his own error allowed our only run. Another 1-0 win the next day in extra innings; man, runs are hard to come by right now. Smalley cranked one out of the park to lead off the bottom of the 10th. Viola is still stewing about his lack of run support.

The Padres (6-14) come calling next. They were a surprise last year and a bust so far this season. We pick up our fifth straight win with a 5-2 win. Three hits and three RBIs for Oberkfell, who has gotten off to a slow start this year (.210 BA). We get another one run victory the following day, 4-3 this time in 10 innings. Their closer, John Franco, gave up two in the 9th and we brought home the winner in the 10th. Morgan has been unscored upon in 10 2/3 innings so far this season out of the pen. We wrap up the series with a solid 7-3 win that featured a pair of homers for Carter. He has definitely been the force in the middle of our lineup, as Barfield appears to have caught "Mel Hall" disease over the last month. This is an affliction that involves being terrible early in your contract year. Three more scoreless innings for Morgan.

Next up is a playoff rematch, with the Dodgers invading Wrigley and trying to stop our seven game win streak. Valenzuela is 5-0 with a 0.25 ERA. Make it 6-0 with 0.22 after an 8-7 win where we fell behind 8-0 and rallied for seven runs over the last three innings before falling short. The losing streak is snapped at one thanks to a 7-4 win the following day. Another homer for Carter, another no decision for Viola who is still looking for his first win.

We are happy with our 6-1 homestand, but still have not separated from the pack as the Cardinals have won five straight to stay right with us. In fact, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Montreal are all 7-3 over their last ten and within 3 games of the division lead.

[hoopsguy]

Time for us to head west, starting with the Giants. We take a tough 2-1 loss to begin the trip. One run on 12 hits sucks. It is not much better the next day as we fall 3-1 and see Morgan's scoreless streak come to an end when he gave up a two run shot to Milt May in the bottom of the 9th. The Giants pen just dominated us over that two game set. One Giant having a banner year is 2B/SS Wayne Krenchicki who homered in the opener and whose numbers read .354/7/16. He looks like a reasonable bet to get his 2nd straight Silver Slugger.

We pick up a win in San Diego, 5-4 despite allowing a home run to former Cub Willie Randolph. Remember when I was worried about making them better? They are now 6-22. Ken Griffey is thanking me nearly every day for getting him off that sinking ship. We win the next game 5-3 with Smalley getting three hits and moving his average up to .350. Night and day difference from last year. We pick up the sweep with a 6-3 win in the finale. Carter hits his 9th of the year and now has 32 RBIs (18 more than Barfield). Gaetti has been hitting everything thrown to him in May and is now batting .303. Oh, and congratulations to Viola for getting his first win on May 12th.

Toronto's Damaso Garcia is hitting .465 so far this year, including a staggering .571 against lefties. More relevant to the Cubs is the performance by St. Louis Cardinal Jeffrey Leonard, who has hit .405 with 6 homers and 14 RBIs.

I've made it all the way to mid-May without mentioning Strawberry. So far there is not all that much to report. He is hitting .291/4/14 w/6 steals.

Montreal 3B Larry Parrish is out for about a month with a broken foot.

[hoopsguy]

Off to LA, where the Dodgers (18-14) are looking up at the Reds. We get a nice showing in the opener, winning 9-5 with homers by Barfield, Carter, and Scioscia. Even better, we did that against Bill Laskey who has been a thorn in our side the last several years. Every starter got a hit in this one. Gullickson moved to 4-0 with a 4-1 win against Welch. It seems like those guys end up facing each other every series we play and we get the better of it way more often than we should. First homers on the year for Griffey and Hall.

We see in the boxscores that Bob Horner had a three homer day in a loss against Philadelphia. That doubled his output on the year.

Our roadtrip continues with us heading cross-country to play the Braves. They are not quite the bomb that the Padres have been, but more was expected than 12-20. They proceed to snap our five game winning streak by a score of 3-1 in the opener. Hershiser hands Witt his first loss on the year even though we held the Braves to three hits. We respond with a 4-2 win. Hall had three more hits and is hitting a robust .376. We take the series thanks to a 6-1 win in the finale. #11 for Carter.

That wraps up a 7-3 roadtrip. Very impressive, this team has been a ton better than the squad we saw during the first half of last season. We'll head home for a matchup of division leaders as the Reds will be calling on us.

[hoopsguy]

Romanick is not yet ready for these kind of moments, as he opens with a 5-2 loss to the Reds against their ace Mario Soto. Giving up a grand slam to Oddibe McDowell does not help, period. But we rough up Jose DeLeon and move his ERA north of the 1.24 value he brought into the game en route to a 7-0 win. Gullickson and Pena combined to hold the Reds to three hits, a total matched by Samuel on his own. Samuel is hitting .373 in limited duty; it may be time to bump up his playing time. We take the third game of the set 3-2 to move our record on the year to 27-10. That is a blistering pace and I don't think that any of the NL East teams have the roster to stay with us if we can maintain this for even one more month.

So what do we do about Jesse Barfield? He is now hitting .219 on the year. There is little question that I'm going to continue putting him out there in the lineup, but should this impact my thoughts at all about extending him for the max year/max dollars? This year our whole lineup is hitting a ton except him.

[hoopsguy]

Houston is the next team to get welcomed to the friendly confines. They are a lot better than last year, but 19-20 is not the stuff that dynasties are made of, either. Langston gets his 6th win on the year as we win 4-1 to start the series. Save #17 for Orosco. Ex-Cub Mike Krukow falls to 1-6 after taking the loss. We dismantle Houston again the next day, 6-1 this time. But another 0-5 for Barfield. Ugh, this is painful to watch. Viola went the distance, striking out 10. We take a disappointing loss in the final, 7-6 in 10 innings after giving away a 6-1 lead. Carter hit his 12th homer and is up to 40 RBIs. Romanick needs to stop giving away leads like this if he wants to stay in the rotation. Morgan has been having a great season in the pen and has had a lot of success as a starter before.

Off to Cincinnati to see if we can take another series from the dangerous Reds. The opener sees us lose 6-5 with Gullickson getting his first loss of the year. Gah, we gave up a 5-0 lead in this one and wasted a Barfield homer. Another one run loss the next day, 5-4. Orosco blew the 4-2 lead heading into the 9th. These are three hugely disappointing losses in the row after a great start to the year. Langston steps up and ends the string with a commanding 6-0 shutout win to end our misery.

Rupert Jones, who was traded to the Mariners last year for Doug Decinces, is just crushing AL pitching this year. .337/17/38 should be enough to get this consistent producer recognized with an All Star berth for the first time. At 30 years of age, he really seems to have found his stride over the last 1.5 years.

Tom Brunansky just continues to raise his batting average while maintaining out-of-this-world power numbers. So far he is at .330/12/36 on the year. What a 1-2 punch for Seattle between him and Jones.

Throw in one more stud hitter for the Mariners, FA signing Denny Walling. The 1B is putting up .340/6/31 thanks in part to the huge lineup protection he is receiving.

The Dodgers have two players with the longest hitting streaks in the game: Julio Franco (16 games) and Nick Esasky (14 games). I'm not sure why they have not extended Esasky yet, as he is at .282/10/29 this year and has been a stud from day one.

Standings as of 5/31:
AL East - The Tigers have run down the Blue Jays are are now percentage points ahead. Both teams are 11 over .500, sitting three games ahead of Milwaukee. Both the Yankees and Red Sox have won five in a row, but at 7 and 8 games back of two teams it is probably too little, too late (in May!)

AL West - Seattle is riding their monster hitting into first (26-19), although four teams are within three games. Texas and Minnesota are the only teams that are more or less out of it.

NL East - At 30-13 we've tried to deliver an early kill shot. But the Cards are ten over .500 and just 3.5 back. Montreal and Pitt are having solid seasons but have to be disappointed about trailing by 5.5 and 6 games, respectively.

NL West - The Reds have seen their lead chopped to just 0.5 games over the Dodgers (27-19). San Francisco (3.5) and Houston (5) still have reason to entertain hopes, but frankly are not as complete as the teams they are chasing.

[hoopsguy]

Off to Houston, where they have Matt Young putting his 1.88 ERA on the line against us in the opener. It is ugly, if you are a Cubs fan: 9-3 loss. Viola clunker, as he gives up all the runs in the first four innings. We take the second game, 2-1 in 11 innings. That moves our record in one run games to 9-7; I thought it was better, actually. Gullickson is masterful in the finale, as we win 5-0 behind his five hit shutout.

We head home to face the Braves. And the opener moves us closer to .500 in one run games, as we fall 6-5 in 10 innings. Glenn Davis hit a grand slam for them early, but we bounced back to tie it at 4 before falling in extras. 20 million dollar man Vida Blue was working out of the pen for the Braves. Another day, another loss to a sub-.500 team as we get bounced 10-6. Two more homers for Davis, who is now at 16. That series mercifully concludes. I gnash my teeth after realizing we gave away another big lead, 6-1 this time.

So, the only starter in baseball with ten straight quality starts is a shocker - New York Met Jimmy Key. He is 4-1 with a 2.14 ERA for a bad franchise and looks like he is only going to get better.

Willie Wilson has a fifteen game hitting streak. Nothing to see here, folks.

A name that we have not heard in awhile; Gorman Thomas is hitting a ton for the Dodgers. He is at .314/13/29 on the season.

[hoopsguy]

We bounce back with a 3-1 win over the Pirates at Wrigley. Viola gave us a good outing and the two most reliable guys in the pen - Caudill and Orosco made it stand up. But we fall 4-2 the next day. I can't remember the last time we hit a ball out of the park. A 4-4 day from Boggs, which puts him back over .300, is wasted. We proceed to lose the third game 6-3 in 11 innings. We were outhomered 4-1 in the game, although props to Barfield for reminding the fans what it feels like to see the home team put the ball over the wall. We eke out a 2-1 win in the finale to avoid a total tirade from the general manager. I guess John Candelaria is now pitching out of the bullpen for the Pirates? We scored one in the bottom of the 9th against him to earn the win. 2-4 homestand: not good.

Montreal is the destination, and the Expos have taken advantage of our struggles to climb within 3.5 games of first. You can tack on one more after we win 7-6 in the opener. This time it was us rallying from far behind, overcoming a 6-1 hole with six in the 8th inning. We keep it going the next day, winning 5-3 in 12 innings and getting Steve Ontiveros his first career win. Four hits and four steals for Samuel in this one, as he has moved into the starting lineup against lefties. Romanick picks up his fifth win, and earns a little breathing room in the race for his starting job, with a 5-2 victory. Barfield hit his 9th homer and has RBI's in the last three games. Maybe he is starting to come around, although you would not know it from his .227 average. The finale of this series features Gullickson vs Sanderson, and it is one-sided. 8-0 Montreal. That dude can pitch, although he is only 5-6 with a 3.97 ERA after locking us up with a one-hitter. Kent Hrbek had two homers for the Expos.

Yankee Doug Decinces is out for three weeks with a finger injury that the team refuses to elaborate on ... hmm. And Atlanta should be primed for a run now that Rick Mahler is scheduled to miss a month and a half with a neck injury.

We are home hosting the Cardinals, who have moved to within one game of first. They just swept four straight on the road from Pittsburgh. We end their win streak with a 6-4 victory. Samuel knocked the ball over the wall and stole his 20th base while Barfield picked up two more RBIs to close in on Carter for the team lead. The going looks tougher for game two against the major league strikeout leader, Dwight Gooden and it was. 11-0, as Langston came up really small in the matchup of second year pitchers. Tim Hulett hit a pair of homers against us and drove in five. How the heck does that guy have 41 RBIs????? We win the finale 4-2 as Barfield and Carter combine to launch three balls out of the park. Hulett homered again for the Cardinals. Orosco collects his 24th save.

[hoopsguy]

At this point we have given up on a quick and decisive NL East victory and have begun to prepare for a long slog. Off to New York to take on the lowly Mets, who through 0-4 14+ ERA John Dopson against us. That is like a free win for Romanick, who moves to 6-3 with a 5-1 complete game victory. Gary Gaetti hits two homers the next night, bringing his season total to three, as we win 7-3. Key is waiting for us in the 3rd game of the set but we solve him in an 8-3 rout. Carter hits his 15th homer on the year and is now at 52 RBIs. We fail to sweep them with a poor getaway effort, losing 4-1 as we were peeking ahead to St. Louis.

We are up 3.5 on St. Louis now, and would love to build on it by piling on the Deadbirds this trip. The first game is a great success, as we win 4-2 in 11 innings. Butch Wynegar hit a key double in the 11th to drive home the go-ahead run. But can we get past 7-0, 1.98 ERA Bill Krueger in the next game? Bill Krueger???? What a strange baseball universe we live in. We drill him 9-1 and give him his first loss. Two more homers for Carter. Romanick threw another complete game. We can't get the sweep, losing 2-1 in the last game thanks to a strong outing by Vukovich and the Cardinal bullpen.

[hoopsguy]

It looks like the Tigers have yet another weapon. 22 year old Nelson Simmons was their second round draft pick in 1984 and he has recently been moved into the starting lineup, shuttling between RF/CF. His line of .324/2/7 is not that scary, but his 100 potential is as well as his good skill set. This guy has star written all over him, even more than last years ROY Franklin Stubbs.

Meanwhile, a guy who represents the "Now" for Detroit is Al Cowens. He is having a career year, putting up .338/14/43. This guy has been a steady performer for years but at the age of 34 is putting up the best year of his life.

Looking at the major league RBI leaders, here are a couple of observations:
#1 - our own Joe Carter with 56.
#3 - Angels rookie Jose Canseco has 53, one off the AL lead.
#4 - Cleveland stinks, so Kevin McReynolds does not get more pub but he has been a really solid player for his 2.5 years in the league.
#8 - Detroit's Ryne Sandberg, a two-time Gold Glover, is playing DH and batting 4th against lefties.
#11 Cincinnati rookie Oddibe McDowell is going to haunt me at least as much as Esasky does.
#16 Yankees Von Hayes - good to see our old players producing. Great RBI numbers considering he bats either 8th or leadoff.
#19 Barfield who can probably hit 100 RBIs in his sleep if this year is any indication.

We also just got news of a huge trade (not via PSPN, who fails to report any meaningful trades) - Philadelphia dealt Yount to Texas for Cal Ripken! Wow!

[hoopsguy]

Back to Chicago Cubs baseball - we host the Mets for three games at Wrigley. We do not have as much luck with Key this time, although the bigger issue was our pitching in an 11-4 loss. LF Duane Walker homered against us for the third time in our last four meetings and SS Johnny Ray went 5-6. Just ugly. We rebound with a 7-4 win with us scoring all the runs in the 7th/8th innings. The finale was a slugfest, with us taking it 14-8. Hall, Barfield, and Smalley all homered and had 4 RBIs and every starter had at least one hit.

Next stop - Pittsburgh, to face our long-time foe Bert Blyleven. We fall 5-3 despite Carter's 19th homer. Worse yet, Blyleven was scratched in favor of Pascual Perez. Not a particularly good loss. We rebound with a 4-0 win, as Gullickson moves to 8-3. The final game was a taut 2-1 win for us, with Witt over their ace Sid Fernandez. Nice to win 2 of 3 from a team who started the series 7 over .500.

Philadelphia is our next stop. Clemens is the opponent. I'm expecting amazing things from him but so far in his career he has not been able to arise above his team as his record stands at 15-19. He gets a no decision in our 4-2 win, only throwing three innings before suffering a minor hamstring injury. Gaetti hit a three run homer. We fall 3-2 the next day, allowing the Phillies to break a six game losing streak. RF Dave Engle, a career backup for Detroit before this year, hit his 12th homer on the season in the win. We take the third game 4-3, giving us another series win. Samuel and Ripken homered, and Orosco recorded his 29th save.

A look at the standing on the 4th of July:
AL East - Detroit has once again surged past Toronto, posting an AL best 48-27 mark. The Jays are 1.5 back and everyone else is playing for third place.

AL West - The White Sox have turned it on and everyone else has regressed towards .500. The Sox 45-29 mark is 5.5 better than KC and 6.5 ahead of Oakland.

NL East - We've put five games between us and the Cardinals, thanks to our major league best 50-25 record.

NL West - no race at all, as the Reds are 10 up on the field with a 50-26 mark. They are crushing their division to the tune of 32-13.

[hoopsguy]

Home to play the Giants, waiting to see what kind of representation we get with the All Star game. My initial thoughts - Carter and Orosco should be locks, and I think Caudill gets in with all of his holds. Maybe Smalley if the SS position is thin, but with Ripken moving leagues that probably is not happening. Smalley is pissed

We beat the Giants 6-1 in the opener, with Carter recording his 20th homer. Gullickson gets his 9th win and Witt joins him the following day after a 5-1 triumph. The third game of the set is a 7-3 win and suddenly I'm worrying that Orosco may be overtaken for saves and not get his All Star bid after all. Mattingly homered for the second straight day for the Giants, but .250/12/24 is not a banner season by his standards. Samuel went 4-5 with 3 steals and 3 runs. We love what he is doing as a leadoff man. The final game of the four game series is nuts, with the wind howling out of the ballpark. 17-10 final, nine homers between the teams. Our outfield combines to go 8-16 with 4 homers, 8 runs, and 10 RBIs.

San Diego comes calling, hoping to slow down our torrid bats. They do, although our pitching is equally to blame in an 11-3 loss. We take another loss the following day, 4-3 when Winfield homers against Caudill in the 7th. The Padres take a third straight game 5-3, sending us to the All Star break in a foul mood.

PSPN reports a trade involving Kevin Bass and Pat Tabler. I'm not even going to look at their teams, given how inconsequential these guys are and the massive deals that go ignored by their sixth-rate publication.

[hoopsguy]

Here are your American League All Stars:

AL Starters (in order of votes):
RF Al Cowens (Det) - .348/16/52 - nice showing for 34 year old in walk year
LF Tom Brunansky (Sea) - .333/21/57 - shockingly, his first All Star team
CF Rupert Jones (Sea) - .310/25/62 w/16 steals -
3B George Brett (KC) - .341/9/37 - 5th AS game, all starts. 3rd straight.
1B Greg Walker (Mil) - .294/15/47 - repeat starter
SS Ryne Sandberg (Det) - .309/11/55 w/22 steals
2B Damaso Garcia (Tor) - .333/3/28 w/10 steals
C Lance Parrish (Det) - .243/18/50 - 4th AS game, 3rd straight.

AL Reserves
RF Darryl Strawberry (Mil) - .284/19/51 w/21 steals - 2nd AS game
CF Lloyd Moseby (Tor) - .341/10/54 w/39 steals
RF Ron Kittle (KC) - .246/22/55 w/15 steals - 2nd AS game
3B Carney Lansford (Cal) - .299/8/44 w/36 steals
1B Denny Walling (Sea) - .283/6/37 - career sub for Astros (??) who already has bests for homers and RBIs

AL Pitchers
SP Dan Petry (Det) - 11-2 2.86 ERA, 1 CG, 76:46 K/BB, .206 BAA, 1.10 WHIP
SP Dave Stieb (Tor) - 11-5 3.44 ERA, 6 CG, 111:57 K/BB, .212 BAA, 1.17 WHIP. 2nd AS team.
SP Charles Hudson (CHW) - 10-6 2.36 ERA, 2 CG, 92:39 K/BB, .222 BAA, 1.15 WHIP. 2nd AS team.
SP Jim Clancy (Tor) - 10-5 2.72 ERA, 6 CG, 82:39 K/BB, .185 BAA, 0.97 WHIP. 2nd AS team.
MR Mike Jeffcoat (Cal) - 3-1 1.61 ERA, 1 save, 1 blown, 1 hold, 18:10 K/BB, .206 BAA, 0.96 WHIP
SP Jack Morris (Det) - 10-5 2.72 ERA, 2 CG, 84:63 K/BB, .235 BAA, 1.40 WHIP. Repeat selection, 3rd appearance overall.
MR Mark Huismann (Min) - 4-3 1.69 ERA, 1 blown, 1 hold, 37:16 K/BB, .196 BAA, 1.05 WHIP
CL Keith Atherton (Det) - 0-1 1.35 ERA, 29 saves, 2 blown, 25:8 K/BB, .228 BAA, 1.11 WHIP. Repeat selection.
MR (actually a starter) Scott McGregor (Bal) - 3-8 3.18 ERA, 3 CG, 69:39 K/BB, .244 BAA, 1.25 WHIP
MR (actually a starter) Rick Sutcliffe (Min) - 5-1 2.60 ERA, 47:18 K/BB, .208 BAA, 1.05 WHIP


I think McGregor's dad is some kind of MLB higher-up. That is the only explanation for him on this team, let alone as a middle reliever.

[hoopsguy]

And the National League All Stars:

NL Starters (in order of votes):
C Gary Carter (Mon) - .330/16/36 - repeat selection, 3rd AS team
LF Jeffrey Leonard (StL) - .366/12/42 w/10 steals - 3rd straight team
1B Alvin Davis (LA) - .327/13/49 - 2 for 2 in AS games for his career
CF Pedro Guerrero (LA) - .303/20/61 w/12 steals - 3rd AS selection
RF Tim Wallach (Mon) - .301/15/56 - repeat selection
SS Cal Ripken (Phi) - .320/11/42 - 4th straight AS team, 1st w/NL
3B Bob Horner (Atl) - .286/16/49 - 5th AS game
2B Wayne Krenchicki (SF) - .281/8/30 - injured for his first AS game

NL Reserves
1B Glenn Davis (Atl) - .303/22/67
1B Kent Hrbek (Mon) - .334/15/58 - 1st AS game for former #1 pick
LF Joe Carter (Chi) - .304/21/68 w/10 steals
RF Dave Winfield (SD) - .321/10/43
CF Mel Hall (Chi) - .326/10/43 w/19 steals

NL Pitchers
SP Craig McMurtry (Mon) - 10-4 2.36 ERA, 4 CG, 2 SO, 96:56 K/BB, .215 BAA, 1.22 WHIP
SP Matt Young (Hou) - 11-7 2.35 ERA, 3 CG, 87:33 K/BB, .209 BAA, 1.02 WHIP. 3rd year pitcher already has career high for wins.
SP Bob Welch (LA) - 10-2 2.55 ERA, 1 CG, 1 SO, 97:33 K/BB, .226 BAA, 1.12 WHIP. 2nd AS game.
SP Jose DeLeon (Cin) - 9-5 1.98 ERA, 102:48 K/BB, .226 BAA, 1.28 WHIP
SP Mario Soto (Cin) - 9-2 2.35 ERA, 1 CG, 109:42 K/BB, .210 BAA, 1.13 WHIP. 3rd AS game.
CL Jesse Orosco (Chi) - 0-1 1.23 ERA, 29 saves, 2 blown, 26:8 K/BB, 1.96 BAA, 0.99 WHIP.
MR Pat Clements (Atl) - 1-4 1.88 ERA, 3 saves, 2 blown, 5 holds, 25:16 K/BB, .220 BAA, 1.21 WHIP.
MR Bryn Smith (Mon) - 2-1 2.22 ERA, 1 save, 1 blown, 3 holds, 33:19 K/BB, .227 BAA, 1.22 WHIP. 2nd AS appearance.
MR Tom Gorman (Mon) - 5-1 2.31 ERA, 2 saves, 6 holds, 30:8 K/BB, .190 BAA, 0.85 WHIP
MR Eric Show (Pit) - 3-1 2.60 ERA, 2 blown, 9 holds, 40:16 K/BB, .267 BAA, 1.31 WHIP.

[hoopsguy]

We host the Dodgers coming out of the AS break. Boggs has a sixteen game hitting streak and we'll make sure to follow his boxscore. We take home a 6-2 victory to start the second half. Boggs gets a pinch-hit single; would have been a tough way to lose the hitting streak, skipper. We can't do anything over the first six innings against Valenzuela but just crush the Dodgers pen. It is 7-2 the following day, and Boggs walks in his only plate appearance. I think that breaks the streak? Smalley and Samuel go yard and Griffey picks up four hits. The Cubs continue to crush LA pitching, rolling up a 13-3 win the next game. I'm pretty surprised at these results as the Dodgers have a very strong pitching staff. 4 homers, 14 hits, and 10 walks = tons of pressure on the LA pitching staff. We complete the four game sweep with a 3-2 victory. Barfield homers for the second straight game and Orosco struck out the side in the 9th for his 30th save.

Off to San Francisco, where the Giants now sit 12 games under .500. We now have a double digit lead in the division, putting the Cardinals (three straight losses) and the Expos (also lost three straight) out of sight and out of mind. The hit parade continues in a 12-6 win that included a pair of homers for Hall. We again pick up double digit walks, with 12. The hitters make it look easy the next day in a nearly identical 12-5 win. Hall and Carter both connect for the second straight day, as does Giant Don Mattingly.

A quick look at the batting averages since the guys have been tearing the cover off the ball:
Oberkfell - .290
Boggs - .315
Barfield - .242
Carter - .312
Smalley - .318
Hall - .330
Gaetti - .280
Scioscia - .265
Samuel - .302

The good vibes come to an end in a 6-1 loss that allows Giant pitcher Ed Whitson to move his record up to 2-8. John Russell homers for the second straight game. And the Giants pick up a split with a 6-3 win in the finale despite homer #25 for Carter. I guess now is a fair time to say that I'm not exactly wowed by our starting pitching since the break?

[hoopsguy]

The trade deadline is coming up in another ten days. This is probably a decent time for me to take a look at player salaries, potential moves, and see how much money Barfield is going to demand.

Easy Calls:
RF Jeff Burroughs - buh-bye
RF Jorge Orta - ditto
C Don Slaught - "Sluggo" was "Sucko" when called upon
MR Bill Caudill - best reliever in the game? He certainly belongs in the conversation. We bring back the 29 year old for four years @ just under 4 million per year. $3,955,166 leaves me $6,044,834 for the rest of my guys.


Kind of Interesting:
SP Steve Brown - minor league guy last three seasons, don't ever want him in my starting rotation but he represents serviceable depth. Happy to have him in my minors and a price tag of 450-500K for the next few years is very cap friendly. He is an easy call if I can't pull the trigger on bringing back both of the next two.


Decisions, decisions:
SP Ken Dixon - 4th round pick last year, he belongs on a big league roster. 25 years old, still with lots of potential, he is asking for 2.5 million per year.

SP Mike Morgan - just a smidge better right now than Brown, but one year older and a ton less potential. He has a track record, but wants 3.5 million per year. I'm leaning towards Brown over him at the moment.


Likely Sign:
SP Floyd Youmans - 5th round draft pick last year, only 21 and has potential. Same price tag as Brown, I'm just about positive that I'll sign him.

Cap Exemption:
RF Jesse Barfield - 4 years @ 8.5 million seems like a very reasonable deal. Done.

I decide that Youmans is the next signing. 4 years at $486,957 leaves me with $5,557,877 for the other players. That means I can't have both Dixon and Morgan. I'll look at shopping one of them, along with our spare old parts in the OF (if they command any value at all) over the next week or two.

[hoopsguy]

I've found one more interesting way to approach this year. Carter's contract is up next year, but I could extend him right now for three years at 3.4 million. That is probably more important than resigning either of the pitchers that I'm looking at right now, especially with us having just inked Youmans for another few seasons. But I could take a shot at signing Carter now and waiting until the end of the year on Dixon. If his demands drop, I might still be able to get him. I do not think there is any chance that Morgan's demands would drop that much, but there is probably a shot with Dixon.

Also factoring into this thought process is that Gullickson, Witt, and Viola are up at the end of next year. I won't have my exception available since I used it on Barfield and I'll likely be priced out of resigning these guys. So they are likely going to be traded next season, in what will be a huge re-adjustment period for our team. So it is probably pretty important that I try to retain some of our starting pitching options for the future since the guys who have been here for a few years are likely moving on to larger paychecks.

Starting Pitchers under Contract:
1985: Dixon, Morgan, Brown
1986: Gullickson, Witt, Viola, Correa, Tolliver
1987: Romanick, Aguilera
1988: Boyd, Langston, Kepshire
1989: Youmans

Push comes to shove, I can put extensions on guys like Correa, Romanick, and Aguilera at this point to secure a long-term rotation.

Worst-case rotation for 1987:
SP Langston
SP Romanick
SP Aguilera
SP Correa
SP Boyd

Depending on development, I could probably live with this. But I would hope to gain some assets back in trading our three starting pitchers as well to help keep our team where I want it to be. I'm also wondering which player I would look at as our next cap exception. Maybe Langston?

[hoopsguy]

Morgan has some value, but with a contract of about 950K, I'm limited in terms of getting similar talent back. Contract ranges that I can accept are roughly 725K - 1.2 million. The most interesting names are NYM Wally Backman, Pittsburgh Pirate Pascual Perez (say that four times fast), and Padre Mike Boddicker. None of these guys project as contributors on this years team, but they are relatively young (under 30) with potential that could still be realized. We go with Perez, who is signed through next year. I think it is pretty unlikely that he both breaks out and is cheap enough to resign. This is a bad deal for us, but the best that I could get with the house rules.

We sent Perez down to the minors and promote Oil Can Boyd.

Time to play a little baseball. We head to San Diego looking to break a two game skid and find some starting pitching. I have no idea if the Morgan trade puts the starters on notice or not, given that Morgan was pitching out of our bullpen. But Morgan was a starter in the past and a contributor during some good seasons. Either way, the pitching staff delivers a strong performance in a 3-1 win. We fall 3-2 the following day in a matchup of ten game winners: Witt vs Bob Shirley. We are then shut out the following day 3-0. Four out of five losses, and the hitters have suddenly gone ice cold.

There was a pretty big trade reported by PSPN (gasp!) - California traded Carney Lansford to Montreal for former Cub closer Lee Smith. Lansford has been one of the most consistent hitters in the game over the past six seasons. At the age of 28 he is still in his prime. The Expos definitely have some nice assets, starting with their corner infielders (Lansford and Hrbek).

Back to Los Angeles, where hopefully we can rekindle our hitting prowess from the last series against these guys. We pick up a 6-3 win thanks to a 4-5 day (w/homer) from Barfield and a strong pitching performance from Viola (3 hits allowed over 8 innings). The score is actually a little disappointing considering we outhit them 16-3. We are pounded 8-1 the next day. Welch over Romanick in a result that is no surprise. We win the third game of the set 4-3 behind a Carter home run. Win #11 for Gullickson. The Dodgers had three solo shots to account for their runs. Weird lineup, as Carter was hitting leadoff. Samuel is a little banged up right now, which probably factored into this. We pound LA 10-1 on getaway day. Jeff Burroughs had a homer and 5 RBIs. We would like to thank the Dodgers for helping us rediscover our mojo.

[hoopsguy]

Another monster trade - Chicago sends Harold Baines to Detroit for Al Cowens! I know Cowens is having a monster year, but that deal should only be completed with a gun and a mask. The Tigers continue to build upon their dominant team in the AL.

Some injury news around the league:
- Minnesota OF Ken Landreaux is out three weeks with a broken hand. Got to be careful with those head first slides.
- Houston staring pitcher Joaquin Andujar has a torn biceps and will miss two months.

Last minute trade exploration:
- Burroughs has no trade value. So much for striking while the iron is hot after his big game.
- Orta has even less value than Burroughs.
- We move Ken Dixon for Boston 1B Carmelo Martinez. Martinez is a 25 year old who bats 5th for the Red Sox and is putting up decent numbers (.252/11/43) this year. He is under contract for three seasons. There is not an immediate place for him, but we may see him move to a corner outfield spot in the future. I'm excited about acquiring a legitimate prospect in a deal after not being able to find matching contracts for Morgan earlier.

[hoopsguy]

The Cardinals come to town to close out July. They are having a pretty good year at 54-43, but sit ten back in the standings. The opener matches ten game winners Langston and Krueger (still cannot get over this). And we lose it 3-0 ... what a difference a year has made for that guy. We bounce back with a 3-1 win the following afternoon thanks to a two run homer for Hall. And Hall is back at it the following day, banging a pair over the wall in a 9-7 win. Keith Hernandez hit two for the Redbirds in the loss.

We welcome the Mets (35-66) next. They are an astonishing 31.5 games behind us. We win 11-7 in the opener with Boggs hitting his first two homers on the year. His home run and RBI totals are down pretty dramatically from previous years, as he had averaged 8/75 the past three seasons. He is now at 2/37. We rallied from a 7-1 deficit in the bottom of the 8th with 10 runs as the Mets bullpen massively failed starter Jimmy Key. 11-3 win the following day, with another Boggs homer and two from Barfield. Jesse is up to .256 now and looks like he is headed for at least a 25/100 season. The Mets manage to win one game, registering a 4-1 victory in the 3rd game. 2B Johnny Ray hit his second homer of the series (4 on year). Viola allowed two hits over 8 1/3 in a 5-0 win to close out the series. Another homer each for Hall and Carter.

Standings:
AL East - The 68-37 Tigers are six games up on Toronto, who has to be disappointed to see such a strong season going to waste. Milwaukee, at 58-46, is having a pretty good year as well but at 9.5 back are more or less done.

AL West - The White Sox (60-43) lead KC and California by four games each. The Angels have won four in a row to help close that gap.

NL East - St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Montreal are all 12-13 games back. We'll likely start giving the quick summaries for games/series at this point.

NL West - The Reds (68-37) are a whopping fifteen games in front of the Dodgers. This race is over. We should be scouting Soto and DeLeon now.

[hoopsguy]

8/6 - 8/8 @ St Louis - the opener features seven homers, including a grand slam by Oil Can Boyd, in a 14-12 win. We get a surprising 6-0 win over Gooden the next day. A 6-2 win over Krueger completes a sweep. Barfield got a ton of hits in this series and is up to .266 on the season. Carmelo Martinez got some looks in center field and had a pair of multi-hit games as well.

8/9 - 8/11 @ New York: nothing like blowing a save against the worst team in the NL. But Bob Brenly hit a shot in the 9th to give the Mets the opener and Orosco his 3rd blown save to go with 36 saves in a 3-2 loss. The score is almost the same the following day: 3-1 loss. We win the finale 7-3 as Sciosica and Oberkfell both record their 4th homers on the season.

8/12 - 8/15 vs Montreal: 13-7 slugfest win in the opener, with our starting OF all collecting one home run. 5-2 win the next day, as Witt moves to 14-4 on the year. 8-3 win the next day, with Buechelle hitting his first big league home run. Hrbek hit his 3rd homer of the series in the Expos loss. 3-1 in the final game of the series, as we emphatically sweep the Expos and put them 18 games back.

Our manager is once again disregarding my lineups, and is continuing to put Martinez in center instead of Hall. I hate when that happens and I'm not sure what I want to do about it. Martinez is a nice player and I really do not want to dump him in the minors to correct this.

[hoopsguy]

8/16 - 8/18 vs Philadelphia: ugly outing by Romanick, whose ERA blows up to 4.81 in a 9-1 loss. I'm not thrilled about him as a top-of-the-rotation pitcher in 1987. We win 3-0 in the second game, with Gullickson moving to 14-3. We maul the Phillies 14-1 to close out the series. Hall and Martinez go deep. Roger Clemens is now 3-12.

Some notes from around the league:
- Gooden is head and shoulders above everyone else this year in strikeouts. He has 188 right now and the next closest is Jeff Robinson (who?) with 156.
- Ron Kittle has seen his batting average start sinking towards the Mendoza line. His line is .223/24/62.
- Strawberry looks like he is closing in on another AL MVP. .278/31/79 w/31 steals with a month and a half to play. The guy who had been leading most of the way, Rupert Jones, is down to .287/31/80 w/26 steals. I know who I think will close stronger ...
- Dan Driessen is out for the year for the Reds with a major kneecap injury. He was platooning this year, but I would expect this is still a serious blow to the class of the NL West.

[hoopsguy]

8/20 - 8/22 @ Atlanta: 6-0 win in the opener, three hit shutout for Langston. Both Smalley (2) and Gaetti hit their 10th homers on the year. 4-2 in the second game, Hall hit his 20th and Orosco saved his 40th. 4-0 win in the final game, which pushes on win streak to 5.

8/23 - 8/25 @ Cincinnati: the Reds are a scintillating 79-42, but that is four games back of our pace. Still, I believe they represent the best team we've seen for NL competition with the possible exception of the Cardinals team that bested us in 1981. We lose the opener 1-0 with Soto besting Gullickson. We bounce back with a 2-1 win the following night, Witt over DeLeon. This feels like postseason baseball. 6-2 in the Sunday game behind a complete game for Langston. I think it is pretty clear those three guys will be our top three starters in the playoffs.

8/26 - 8/28 @ Houston: 5-4 win, home run for Barfield. He also stole his 2nd base, which is 10 less than Scioscia and 47 less than team-leader Samuel. Jesse went deep again the following day (#20) in a 7-6 win. He is up to 88 RBIs and is closing fast on league leader Joe Carter. Another bomb the next day, another Cubs win. 4-3 final. I think he is happy to have his contract behind him.

[hoopsguy]

8/29 - 9/1 vs Atlanta: win #17 for Witt in a 3-1 triumph. But we lose the second game 5-3 thanks in part to some shoddy bullpen work. Dale Murphy hit his 17th homer. Viola wins a 1-0 game on Saturday; at 13-6 with a 3.34 ERA he has put together a solid season. We give up the last game 5-4.

Time to expand the rosters. We bring up Burroughs, Youmans, and Aguilera. We'll also spend the rest of our money on extensions.
- Correa for three years @ 585,390. $5,557,877 - $585,390 = $4,972,487.
- Carter for three years @ 3,423,504. $4,972,487 - $3,423,504 = $,1548,983.
Aguilera wants about 1.7 million to extend, just a little more than we can offer at this point. Samuel is over 3.5 million, so we can't get him. We'll see if we can get him next season or if he prices himself out. If so, we can always re-ink Oberkfell. We'll sit on the money to see if Aguilera will come down to our number by the end of the year.

[hoopsguy]

Standings at the start of September:
AL East - Detroit (87-44) is 6.5 in front of Toronto. The Blue Jays wish there was a wild card, as their 81-51 record is awfully good and they would be a very dangerous out.

AL West - All of the Angels spending has paid off, at least for now. Their 71-60 mark is two games better than Chicago and 3.5 in front of Oakland. Never mind that this record would put them fourth in the AL East ...

NL East - At 90-41, we are 18 in front of Pittsburgh. But at least the guys at PSPN were right about the Pirates being better.

NL West - The Reds are 81-51 and 13 in front of Houston.


9/2 - 9/4 vs Houston: 5-2 win in the opener. 4-3 the next day in 14 innings, with 8 shutout innings from the pen. We notice that the Pirates have won 8 straight but the magic number is still down to 12. We are unable to do our part to shrink it the next day, falling 3-2. Kudos to Houston for playing us very tough in our own building.

9/6 - 9/8 vs Cincinnati. The Reds just snapped a six game losing streak; it looks like they are having a tough time finding motivation this month. Well, they beat us 3-2 in 11 innings and suddenly we are struggling in close games. We solve that issue by not letting the next game be close: 6-2 win, homer #30 for Carter. That also gives him 100 RBIs. Add in steal #18 and a .293 batting average and he should be a very strong MVP candidate. We win the finale 1-0, Gullickson over DeLeon, who lowered his 1.71 ERA in the loss. Samuel hit a leadoff homer in this one for the only run. He also stole two bases, bringing his total to 61. It is fun having a speed threat on the team again.

Don Mattingly has a 16 game hitting streak. He has put up nice numbers this year: .306/20/66. At 24 years of age and with 100 potential, his best years should still be ahead of him.

[hoopsguy]

9/10 - 9/12 @ Pittsburgh: We pound Kirk McCaskill and the Pirates 13-4 in the opener. Four more RBI for Carter. 9-2 the next day, as the bats have gotten hot once again. We really have transformed from a "starting pitching" team to a "hitting team" this year. We have scored 33 more runs than any other team (Tigers #2) but are no longer #1 in runs allowed (11 back of Tigers). 5-4 loss in the finale, and I would like to see us start winning some one run games again.

9/13 - 9/15 vs St. Louis: 3-2 win in the opener, always good to win against Gooden. Always sucks giving up homers to frigging Keith Hernandez. But one run in the 8th and 9th to steal the win feels good. 7-3 win the next night, as our starting OF once again all homer. Hall got his 3th steal, but I do not think he'll get 7 more homers before the end of the year. 5-4 win to sweep, Barfield hits homers in back-to-back games again. His line is now .281/24/99.

[hoopsguy]

9/16 - 9/18 @ Montreal: Our magic number is one heading into the series and we back into the division title with a 9-3 loss to the Expos. Carter hits number 33 but long-time Cub-killer Ellis Valentine hits a pair. Kent Hrbek is making his claim for the NL MVP with his .330/26/93 numbers. We get a 4-2 win the following day in 10 innings.

I'll interrupt these game reports to note that the Toronto Blue Jays have won eight in a row and have closed within 2.5 games of the Tigers. Neither one of those teams deserves to be home in October. Toronto would be 15 games ahead of the AL West leader, but they are in the wrong division, plain and simple. However, the difference between these teams is their play against the AL West. The Jays have crushed AL East foes to the tune of 43-18, 5.5 better than the Tigers. But they have been a whole lot less good against the lesser lights in the AL West.

9/18 - 9/19 @ New York: 7-4 win, the Romanick win gives all five of our starters 13+ wins. 11-3 win the next day, with seven starters (including Gullickson) having multi-hit games.

The Blue Jays are up to 9 in a row and sit 2 back of the Tigers. The Brewers have also won 8 in a row to move to 20 over .500 but no one cares. They are 13 out with 16 to play. But they do host the Blue Jays next, so one win streak will have to give.

The White Sox, at 78-67, sit 0.5 ahead of both California and Oakland. The A's have won six in a row to vault into the conversation.

9/20 - 9/22 @ Philadelphia: 6-2 win, number 19 on the season for Witt. We walked Ripken four times (six total walks on the day) but only gave up four hits. Caudill has 19 holds and 8 wins on the year. Detroit lead down to one. 2-1 win for us in the middle game of the series, and the Toronto win streak ends at 10. Detroit is back up two games. We sweep the Phillies with a 5-2 win that includes save #50 for Orosco. Viola cleared the bases with a double to supply his own offense. Toronto is back within one game of first.

[hoopsguy]

9/23 - 9/24 vs Montreal:
#1 - 4-2 win over 17 game winning Craig McMurtry. We've handed him a pair of losses in the last month. It is probably worth spending a minute or two to figure out who should get the NL Cy Young award ... my gut is that our pitchers all have ERA's that are a bit too high, but who knows? Tigers and Jays both win.
#2 - Our old nemesis Scott Sanderson beats us 4-1, with the only run coming on a solo shot from Barfield. Toronto moves into a tie with the Tigers, with identical 98-53 records.

9/25 - 9/26 vs New York:
#1 - 6-1 loss that denies Witt his 20th win. Both Detroit and Toronto lose.

#2 - 5-2 victory, win #15 for Langston. He also homered, as did Carter. We beat Jimmy Key, knocking him out after 3 1/3 innings. Detroit and Toronto both lose again. And the White Sox have opened up a 2.5 game lead on Oakland, while the Angels have self-destructed. They are five back with 10 to play.

9/27 - 9/29 vs Philadelphia:
#1 - 3-2 loss. Tigers and Jays both win their 99th to stay tied.

#2 - Another 3-2 loss. Yuck. Detroit picks up a game on Toronto. I hope that these guys have a series left against each other.

#3 - 4-1 win, #18 for Gullickson. Home run #35 for Carter. Both AL East teams win.

Strawberry is two steals away from his 3rd straight 40-40 year to start his big league career.

WOW! We learn that Glenn Davis has been forced to retire due to a career ending knee injury. He was posting big numbers for the Braves this year, hitting somewhere around .290 with 26 homers and 77 RBIs. It looks like this happened back in early August. And, for whatever reason, it does not appear on the weekly PSPN Disabled List reports. What a waste; Braves fans must be devastated.

Blue Jay Steve Balboni has a twenty game hitting streak. This is his third straight 30+ homer season, but his batting average is up over 50 points from the last two seasons.

[hoopsguy]

10/1 vs Pittsburgh: Our 5-1 win gives Witt his 20th win. This is his first time hitting that mark; he has won 15+ in each of his five years in the league. Samuel stole his 70th base of the year. Detroit beats Toronto 3-1, winning at home against 22 game winning Jim Clancy to increase the lead to two games with five to play.

10/2 vs Pittsburgh: 3-1 win, Smalley hits his 11th homer. He has had a great year, hitting .324 with 11 homers. But he has only gotten 364 at-bats, despite me listing him as the starter every day and being injury free. I hate our manager. The Jays get a 3-0 win; Mark Gubicza won his 18th. Great clutch pitching performance. And the White Sox have clinched, with the A's running out of steam (5 straight losses).

10/3 vs Pittsburgh: 6-5 win, Orosco gets his first win of the year. We gave up a 4-0 lead in the 9th, but scored two in the bottom of the inning. Viola is pissed, as usual. Thirteen of his last fourteen outings have been quality starts. Toronto wins 4-2 in 10 innings to move into a tie with Detroit heading into the final series of the season.

[hoopsguy]

NL Cy Young recap: if it is not Jose DeLeon of Cincinnati then I'll be pretty stunned. 16-8, 1.76 ERA, 1 CG, 1 SO, 205:95 K/BB, .213 BAA, 1.22 WHIP. I'm pretty surprised that a guy with this many walks and this high a WHIP has such a great ERA.

Matt Young of Houston has put up good numbers as well. 19-9, 2.15 ERA, 4 CG, 1 SO, 150:60 K/BB, .221 BAA, 1.09 WHIP.

Bob Welch from LA belongs in the team photo as well. 18-7, 2.40 ERA, 2 CG, 1 SO, 176:58 K/BB, .212 BAA, 1.03 WHIP. But I don't think you can overlook the ERA for DeLeon.

[hoopsguy]

10/4 @ St. Louis: 5-0 win, #15 for Romanick and a shutout to boot. Detroit loses 2-1 in Baltimore (who stinks) in 12 innings. Toronto takes advantage with a 1-0 home win against the Yankees. Jay Tibbs, who is 8-10, comes up huge. How the heck do you go 8-10 starting for a team that is 103-57?

10/5 @ St. Louis: We get pounded 5-0 and only collect three hits. The Tigers lose their fourth game in a row (5-4) when Atherton gives up four runs in the 9th on a Dan Gladden grand slam. But they are still alive because the Jays fall 3-1; 23 game winner Dave Stieb could not clinch the division.

10/6 @ St. Louis: 4-3 loss, despite home run #26 for Barfield. I can't pull up box scores on this one because the regular season is over. Detroit mauls Baltimore 8-2 to finish at 103-59. Well, not finished yet as there will be a one game playoff since the Yankees housed Toronto 7-0. Jim Clancy, who had won 22 games, took the loss. Very disappointing for Toronto to send two horses like that to the mound, at home, with a chance to clinch and come up empty.

10/8 - Detroit wins 7-3 at Toronto to move onto the AL East Championship series. Another Toronto starter with big win totals (Gubicza - 18) fails to deliver.

[hoopsguy]

Regular season roster recap:

RF/CF Jesse Barfield: .279/26/110 are huge numbers, but he will not three-peat as league leader in Runs, Homers, RBIs, and Slugging %. I'm expecting him to maintain this level for the next four years on his contract.

1B Wade Boggs - .308/3/58 seem like the type of numbers to expect from a singles hitter. But his 100 potential, at age 27, leave me hoping that he can become even more than he is right now. Boggs has also turned into a pretty good defensive player. This is four straight .300 seasons, although it represents his worst average so far.

3B Steve Buechele only got 82 at bats this year; we'll give him more next season. 24 years old, 100 potential, defensive animal ... this guy will be a cornerstone player.

LF/RF Joe Carter had a coming-of-age year with .283/35/122 and 19 steals. I'm hoping he is rewarded with an MVP. I do not expect these kind of numbers every year going forward, which is why I was thrilled at being able to extend him for a reasonable salary.

MR Bill Caudill is the best closer in the business. 8-2, 2.28 ERA, 3 saves, 21 holds, 0 blown. The amazing thing is that this is a down year compared to last season.

3B Gary Gaetti .262/11/67 represents a nice first year as a starter. Now his next trick is to hold off Buechele next year.

RF/CF Ken Griffey .360/3/21 means that he was a nice picnh hitter/role player. We'll welcome him back again next year and then send him on his way at the end of the year.

SP Bill Gullickson 18-6 2.90 ERA, 3 CG, 1 SO, 114:54 K/BB, .228 BAA, 1.10 WHIP. The lower strikeout totals are indicative of his crashing "Stuff" rating. Still a great winner, we hope that he shows that in this postseason after an uneven September.

CF/RF Mel Hall .314/23/91 w/32 steals. He might have gotten 100 RBIs if our manager did not mess with his playing time after we acquired Martinez. Nonetheless, this was a great year for Hall and we are very happy to have him back after his brief time on the FA market.

MR Bob James 4-3 2.63 ERA, 1 save, 5 holds, 0 blown, 37:12 K/BB, .220 BAA, 1.14 WHIP. He only got about 1/2 the appearances of Caudill, but he was effective. Nice work for a guy who took some time to find his role with our team.

SP Mark Langston 16-9 3.55 ERA 4 CG, 2 SO, 145:86 K/BB, .241 BAA, 1.33 WHIP. Same old, same old with him - needs to find control. If he does, the sky is the limit.

1B Carmelo Martinez .266/14/61. He'll be a great piece off the bench for the next two seasons.

2B Ken Obrkfell .270/5/58. His at-bats (518) are going to go way down next year with the emergence of Samuel and me making sure that Smalley gets his playing time.

MR Steve Ontiveros 5-1 1.22 ERA, 5 holds, 0 blown, 26:18 K/BB, .189 BAA, 1.08 WHIP. Great work in his 44 1/3 innings. Probably not sustainable, but should remain a good bullpen component.

CL Jesse Orosco 1-2 1.73 ERA, 54 saves, 5 blown, 61:20 K/BB, .200 BAA, 1.10 WHIP. Up 10 saves from last year, probably the best closer in the league this year. I wonder how much he is going to want when his contract is up.

MR Alejandro Pena 1-1 5.86 ERA, 2 saves, 2 holds, 23:13 K/BB, .328 BAA, 1.88 WHIP. He stunk, and then I threw him into mop-up duty. Still has a big-league arm, but will likely price himself out of Chicago next year.

SP Ron Romanick 15-10 4.27 ERA, 5 CG, 1 SO, 110:75 K/BB, .268 BAA, 1.40 WHIP. Rubber arm, does not like to leave games. Control issues like Langston, only without the same caliber stuff.

2B/SS Juan Samuel .290/10/42 w/70 steals. Great numbers in only 438 at bats. Only caught stealing 3 times. We want to play him every day and hope that he can maintain this average/power going forward. No idea if we will be able to sign him at the end of next year, but I doubt it. Wish we had tried extending him two years ago.

C Mike Scioscia .262/4/38. No clue how he only had 367 at bats this year. Nor how he stole 21 bases this year, matching his total from the last three seasons.

SS Roy Smalley .318/11/56. I hope that he has at least one more season like this in him. At age 33, that is not a given. If he hits like this again I'll make sure that he gets 500+ at bats instead of the 371 he saw this year.

MR Ed Vande Berg 5-1 2.79 ERA, 12:2 K/BB, .208 BAA, 0.88 WHIP. Only saw 19 1/3 innings of work, did great work with it. He'll have more time next year as I move a couple of pieces out of our pen. I'm hoping he still has a little development left (27 years old, 78/100 Potential).

SP Frank Viola - 14-7 3.21 ERA, 3 CG, 155:73 K/BB, .228 BAA, 1.20 WHIP. I'm guessing he will have the best post-Cubs career out of all the starters we are going to be losing. He seemed to be "on the verge" during the second half of this year, but just can't seem to catch a break with run support. That is a pretty annoying trait for a starting pitcher, although not as bad as walking people I guess ...

SP Mike Witt - 20-5 3.36 ERA, 2 CG, 158:75 K/BB, .234 BAA, 1.22 WHIP. All of his stats are comparable/worse than Viola, but Witt seems to know how to win without runs, give up runs when he is getting a ton of run support. This is the kind of pitcher that you can fall in love with, especially when they win big games in the postseason.

C Butch Wynegar - .239/3/23. Just happy to have a credible backup catcher.

[hoopsguy]

Note - series have moved to best-of-7 format this season.

Game #1:
ALCS - Chicago @ Detroit. Richard Dotson (15-8 3.32 ERA) vs Dave Rozema (8-8 3.53 ERA). I give up on trying to figure out what the Tigers are doing with their postseason rotation. The most noteworthy thing about Rozema is his 8 complete games in 25 starts. Otherwise, no idea why he starts in front of Morris. But it works for Detroit, just like most of their postseason moves. Rozema goes the distance and Reid Nichols is 3-3 with a homer and 3 RBIs. 1-0 Detroit.

NLCS - Mario Soto (15-8 3.03 ERA) and Bill Gullickson (18-6 2.90 ERA) are old foes who know each other well by now. Either one of these teams is capable of completely dominating the series with good starting pitching, so the pressure will be on the lineups to take advantage of opportunties when they present themselves. The Reds take a 4-0 lead after 4.5 innings only to see it squandered away in the middle innings. The game is decided in the 10th when Mike Scioscia doubles in Roy Smalley. Gut punch loss for the Reds to start their postseason. 1-0 Chicago.

Game #2:
ALCS - Burns vs Morris in a matchup of starting pitcher heavyweights. Morris is masterful, holding the ChiSox to four hits over eight innings. The offense gets three hits from RF Nelson Simmons to lead a balanced attack en route to a 6-1 win and a 2-0 series lead.

NLCS - DeLeon vs Witt, the ERA leader versus the only 20 game winner in the NL. Advantage, ERA leader. The Reds only surrender two hits in a 2-0 win. Both runs come in the 6th, with Oddibe McDowell tripling in a run and scoring himself. 1-1 series tie.

Game #3:
ALCS - Dan Petry vs Charles Hudson, a couple of guys who are not strangers to post-season baseball. It is obviously do-or-die time for the Sox and it should be comforting to turn to a pitcher who has won 18+ games in each of his three years at the big league level. Well, comforting is being a Tigers fan. They roll 8-4 to take a 3-0 lead. Petry left in the third with an injury, but the Tigers were already up 4-0 and never looked back. The Tigers slugged four homers in this one, including a 3 run shot by Stubbs. Nichols had three more hits and is batting .800 for the series.

NLCS - Langston vs Frank Pastore (14-8 3.48 ERA). Initially I'm glad to see him rather than Charlie Liebrandt, who has given us trouble in the past. But that feeling goes away as he keeps posting goose eggs. The Reds get two in the bottom of the 8th on a Jim Dwyer home run to ice this one, 4-1 final. The Reds are one game away from their first World Series trip.

Game #4:
ALCS - Trout vs Schatzeder. The Tigers are a machine. 7-2 final. Two homers for Lance Parrish. They held former Tiger Al Cowens to an .083 average for the series. This series was a massacre and I think that they will probably treat either NL team about the same way.

NLCS - Viola vs Liebrandt. It was our turn to blow a four run lead, and Orosco allowed the tying run in the bottom of the 9th after retiring the first two hitters. This one went 13 innings and ended with the Reds advancing after putting together three singles and a walk against Ed Vande Berg.

Game #5:
NLCS - We jump on Soto for three runs in the top of the first, including two on a Carter home run. Then we hold on for dear life, including Caudill getting out of a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the 8th with the score at 4-2. Orosco makes that score stand up and we need to see if someone besides Gullickson can beat the Reds. The good news is that the remaining games will be at Wrigley.

Game #6:
NLCS - same score as Game #2, but this time we have the runs. Witt throws seven innings of four hit ball and fans nine. Samuel leads off the bottom of the first with a triple and comes home on a Hall ground out for the only run required. 2-0, we are headed for Game #7.

Game #7:
NLCS - Remember how the Blue Jays lost their shot at taking down the Tigers and could not recover in the one-game playoff? This was kind of like that. Langston dominated their lineup and our hitters finally found a groove against a tough pitching staff. The result was a 9-0 throttling. We scored five in the bottom of the first, thanks in part to a Reds error. Then Langston cruised, going the distance with ten strikeouts. We took a very different path to the final than Detroit, but hopefully we can represent ourselves well in the next round.

[hoopsguy]

World Series:
Game #1: We host, by virtue of our 111 regular season wins. I think our rotation is better than Detroit, but their lineup is just a bear. Baines, Gibson, Sandberg, Parrish, Trammell, Stubbs ... they are deeper than us and better defensively than us. It helps that they spend 2x as much money, but so do other teams and they have not been able to achieve what Detroit has done. We will need Gullickson, who was my choice for MVP of the NLCS, to dominate his matchups against Rozema.

Bottom of 1st - Smalley leaves two men on when he flies out to right.

Bottom of 3rd - the wind has already kept two of our balls in the park.

Top of 5th - a Gullickson error puts two men on but he gets Trammell to end the threat.

Top of 6th - three straight hits lead to a pair of Tiger runs. RBIs for Stubbs and Nichols. This is bad news as Rozema has been dealing for the past couple of innings and appears to have found a groove.

Top of 7th - solo shot for Baines. This is looking like every Tigers postseason game of the past two seasons.

Bottom of 8th - Baines saves a run with a diving catch. I swear, guys become better fielders when they come to Detroit.

Top of 9th - Caudill loads the bases before registering a pair of strikeouts. We need 3 to tie.

Bottom of 9th - Atherton puts two on before closing the door.

[hoopsguy]

Game #2: So much for home field advantage. And here comes Jack Morris and his 8-2 postseason record.

Top of 2nd - Parrish hits a long fly out, thanks to the strong breeze coming off Lake Michigan. Six up, six down so far for Witt.

Bottom of 2nd - Hall singles and steals 2nd, but stays at third on a two out single by Scioscia. That is a mistake with the pitcher up next. Witt strikes out to end the threat.

Top of 4th - Trammell singles, breaking up the "perfect game" at 3 1/3 innings. Gibson follows with a single, but Witt works his way out of the inning with a pair of fly outs.

Top of 5th - Simmons singles to lead off the inning, moves to 2nd on a sac bunt, 3rd on a ground out, and scores on a single by Morris. Good grief. 1-0 Tigers.

Bottom of 6th - with two on and two outs our manager brings in Griffey to pinch hit for Gaetti. Not the worst move ever, as it gives the lefty/righty matchup but it does not pay off. Griffey grounds out to Morris.

Top of 8th - Witt is out, Ontiveros is in. Trammell walks, moves to second on a ground out, and comes home on a Gibson double. 2-0 Tigers, and time is running out on the Cubs.

Bottom of 8th - Morris is out (lifted for pinch hitter) and we capitalize. Barfield walks, advances on a single by Carter, and scores from second on a flyout by Smalley thanks to a Tigers error. Buechele, in for Gaetti, singles home the tying run. Scioscia is walked to load the bases and pinch-hitter Carmelo Martinez also coaxes a walk. Bad, bad inning for Tigers reliever Brad Havens. 3-2 Cubs!

Top of 9th - Stubbs gets a leadoff hit but never makes it to second. Cubs win.