1973 Season Thread (FOOL Classic is Sunday!)

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by Commo_Soldier

WOW what a season, I am just sad I had to take a quick nap for work and was unable to be here live.

I used to do nothing but work/drive nights. I am pretty sure you are actually happier to get that nap in so you are not dead by 3 am.

[Commo_Soldier]

Looks like the file is up

[Commo_Soldier]

Man Arrojo is a stud went from a great closer to No-Hitting All-Star SP.

Well technically not a no-hitter; but the game counted it as one. He struck out the first two batters in the bottom of the ninth, then walked the next batter after having the count at 2-2. The guy then stole second base. Finally then next batter hit a ground ball but reached on an error and the guy scored from second

[Cringer]

I think I might actually right up a Rio Grande season review.... I am in the mood for this stuff today.

[Cringer]

Initial reaction to base stealing, so far so good. One of my leadoff guys, Juan Medina (running speed 74, SB 97, instincts 95) went from 15 SB and 19 CS last year to 23 SB and 9 CS this year. I am much more comfortable with that.

[Commo_Soldier]

Looking at the FA's, looks like this years class might be even better than last years.

[Cringer]

Rio Grande Roadrunners 1973 Review
Finished 74-80, 5th place in CL

Pitching

Starters
So it was a mixed year in the rotation this year. Ace Todd Sparks was fantastic for a third straight year, but for the second straight year he only manages 13 wins to show for it going 13-9. His ERA was a career low of 2.32 while his OAVG was also a career low of .230. I wish would could find a way to get him more wins like his 19 from a few years ago, but no go so far.

I am actually semi-happy with how the rest of the rotation was, it could have been worse. I think Gustavo Betancourt responded well to the #2 spot with a 14-12 record and 3.93 ERA. I worried he would bomb, so that isn't too bad. Pepe Santana cut his losses in half from last year to post a 13-8 record. Jose 'Chunky' Medina just may not have the Rio Grande magic any more and we need to accept it. Quad City didn't expect too much from him like our fans. He went 8-12 with an ERA over 4.50. Rookie Mike Nash did well splitting time in the #5 spot, going 8-6 with a 4.17 ERA. This was actually one of my mistakes, since the guy 'sharing' the spot with, Juan Aleman, went 3-7 in his 11 starts, and going 5-11 with 3 saves overall. Strange enough, he only had 2 starts until the end of June when he all of the sudden was given the start 7 times in a month and a half. Not how I planned that, won't do it again.

Bullpen
Two stories here, middle relief was crap, late relief was average. I think they hurt Todd Sparks' win-loss record the bastards. Javier Cruz, Dave Briggs, and former SP Ron Wilson were horrible with ERAs from 4.13 to 5.85.

Setup guys Raul Pagan (2-1, 3.74 ERA) and Darryl Holland (3-7, 2.76) where better then the middle guys but the big disappointment in this group really. I expected better from these two. CL John Mockly had 37 saves and an ERA of 3.21, nothing to really complain about with this All-Star.

Lineup

C - Glad to see Hideaki Tanaka bounce back with a solid year. He had 25 HRs, 97 RBI, hit .293, and in general went up from last year in every stat across the board.

1B - Jeff Brooks, at only 22, finally got the chance to play every day and made me very pleased actually. He had 24 HRs, hit .290, had 72 RBI, and finished with a VORP of 35.2. He just locked up the job for a few years I think.

2B - Not sure how to feel about this one as Connor Daniels repeats is 'OK' year he had in '72 with numbers almost exactly the same across my screen. I can't really complain about a guy finishing with 46.9 VORP, but it is the 3rd year in a row his average as dipped a little.

SS - At 30 years old Mike Jones had his first real chance to play every day, and had a career year. Yay for him! 67 RBI, .311 avg. to lead the team, 61 runs, 28.7 VORP.

3B - It was the first sign of showing his age from Warren Lewis as his average dropped 15 points to .268. That was only his real statistical drop though as he even had the 2nd most doubles of his career. He wouldn't resign before the season, but is willing now. It may be too late my friend, now I have to think it over since you still want 6 million a year at 34 years of age.

LF - With his best season since 1970, Andres Aguilera made me happy despite the fact he will never be what he once was. The bad news for him is it may not be enough for him to maintain a regular spot in the outfield next year. He split time with rookie and top team prospect Derek O'Cleary. O'Cleary outplayed Aguilera by matching his 15 HRs in almost 150 fewer at bats, had 59 RBI, and hit .276. I think O'Cleary has gone from the future to the present in '74.

CF - Another spot in the outfield which saw a couple guys split duty. Mainly against the righties was 29 year old rookie Glen O'Reilly who had 63 runs, hit .285, and had an OBP of .364 along with 33 SB and 15 CS. Not great, but not horrible either. Always in against the lefties (and sometimes righties) was Juan Medina who added 44 Runs, 23 SB with 9 CS, a .283 AVG, and .349 OBP. Overall an improvement from our leadoff spot, which both guys hit from.

RF - Three years ago he hit .351, and two years ago he hit .322. That has dropped since then for Luke Parker, who dropped down to .268 this season on his way to a career low VORP of 19.0. At 31 it was bound to happen and having this happen while he hit in the second spot of the lineup hurt us. One of the young guys may have that spot next year.

Overall Thoughts

Despite the 5th place finish, our lowest since the 7th place finish in 1966, I am not too disappointed. I see some good thing in this team. We have some changes that need to be made in the bullpen, and adding a 'just below star level' starting pitcher would of course be a big help. At the plate the young guys really pleased me and I have a couple of guys who are the future of this batting order. I have some decisions to make this offseason for sure, but with the chance at some cap money I may finally be able to bring in a guy or two to help these young bucks and old mofos out.

Minors Report

Ok, so at 27 years old and two chances with the big club, OF Mark Nelson finally had a solid season at AAA hitting over .300. He finally jumped up from 1 of 5 stars to 3 of 4. Is the bastard tricking me or is he really this late of a bloomer? I would love for him to succeed, but twice bitten makes me shy for a guy in a contract year.

The 20 year old OF Sin-young Kim has spent 4 years in AAA Brownsville now, and has been consistent though not impressive. Ignoring the 1 star, I wonder about when I give him a chance.

No one else for me to like in AAA, bad sign.

At AA Monterrey I had some guys to watch though, some young prospects I am impatient to rush up. SP Travis Klein (12-11, 4.01) and SP Matt Kelley (7-12, 3.65) probably shouldn't have skipped A ball, but held their own. This is a debate inside the orginization though if we move them up to AAA or let them stay at AA another year. 2B George Stewart was crap his first year in pro ball at the A level, we moved him to AA anyway and he improved. Not a ton, but a decent sign. OF Stanley Patterson is a guy I want to see in the majors. He is an all-around good player if he develops. He had a solid season at AA this year. OF Brian Smith looks to need a second year in AA ball, though there is already doubt about him making it above even AAA.

2B Russ Morrison may not go far, but a second solid year in A ball has him on his way to AA next year. Nothing really special in A ball overall though, just a few guys like Morrison who we cross fingers on and hope they surprise us.

3B draftee Marcos Acevedo was put into Short-A right away and struggled, I think A ball is still in his near future. SS Blaine Reginbald showed enough improvement this year to get a move to A ball. RG top brass want this guy to show just enough to get into the bigs because his defensive skills are awesome. OF Greg Turner is another new draftee who struggled at Short-A. We had som many OFs drafted though I wanted to spread them around. We did have some decent season from Rookie-L guys, all 1 star boys who will get their chance to move up.

[Cringer]

Crap, that was long. Hope someone likes to read.

[Cringer]

It's funny looking through the SB leaders. It seems the changes had a positive effect on all of them except Rich Lang. Almost seemed like just another year for him.

[Cringer]

Loyalty to fake baseball players is going to bite me in the butt again possibly. Tanaka needs to be extended. $11 mil a year for 3 years. He would be 36. Time to test this aging thing out real well here.

[Commo_Soldier]

Nice writeup Cringer.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Quad City making a statement...and I am not going away either! Where's gstelmack? (well, it is Friday...)

I'm usually in bed by 9:30 or so Eastern. Young'uns. Trying to catch up on SEVEN FREAKIN' PAGES of discussion, mostly skimming. Right now I'm at the point where we are blowing a 2-game lead to Quad City by dropping 3 in a row to them.

[gstelmack]

Second time we've been in a tight race down the stretch, and the second time we dropped too many games to the team we were racing with (even if Quad City ended up fading to third). Getting swept in that next-to-last series is what did us in.

Nice playoff, though, with Colorado finally winning a home game to take it. "If only" on the 11 inning game. Looks like we gave up the two runs in the top of the 11th (left Dennis O'Neal in a bit too long), then got runners on 1st and 2nd with one out, sac bunted them over to 2nd and 3rd, then of COURSE my manager pinch hits with .231 hitting Denny West for .360 hitting and RL Batter of the Year Jason Curtis (17 HRs, 56 VORP, etc) . Denny West pops out to end the shot. It's like leaving Pedro in there one inning too long all over again...

Apparently I need to adjust the "pinch hit for" settings on Jason Curtis.

[Alan T]

Rough year for my ace Carlos Gonzales, who went 8-12. He had less than 3 runs in run support per game this season despite having an ERA of 3.16 and whip of 1.09.

Other than that my other starting pitching all seemed to do well, including rookie George Crawford that I tried to trade to numerous teams in a trade this last offseason. He went 18-9 this season and has to be in consideration for the rookie of the year.

Nice to see Ken Connolly come back home and immediately hit for .331 again this season (an increase of .100 points from his last major league season in Toronto).

Most of my outfielders hit ok, but I'll have to tweak some of my settings as my starting left fielder only got 131 at b ats this season.. woops

Looking at other things I feel pretty good that this season I was as good as the other teams in the league, but I don't feel I got unlucky to Atlanta, I think their team was actually a few games better than mine. I don't think it is time to panic though in Valdosta, I'll have to tweak a few things and try it again next season.

[gstelmack]

Big decisions coming up in Boston. Pedro Castillo and Jason Curtis, RL Batting Champ, are both upcoming free agents, and I've got just over 3 million to spend next year. Probably going to have to cut someone I don't want to, as there is no way Jason Curtis is becoming an FA after the year he just had...

[muns]

Originally Posted by Commo_Soldier

Nice writeup Cringer.

+1

Im actually thinking I might like that more than doing a preview..... but anyways that was neat stuff

[muns]

Harftford underachieved this year IMO........ and I think im at a crossroads with this rebuilding junk.......

Basically none of my INF spects have progressed anywhere near what I was hoping any of them would and its either I play them next year on the MLB team or im afraid they wont develop.... Really dissapointed in how that has gone.

Its tough to sit here 3 years in a row without making any moves in the FA market when better players are there, to have this crap happen.

I think it might be time for another breakup like I did 3 years ago. Really thinking hard about it again.

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Rough year for my ace Carlos Gonzales, who went 8-12. He had less than 3 runs in run support per game this season despite having an ERA of 3.16 and whip of 1.09.

Other than that my other starting pitching all seemed to do well, including rookie George Crawford that I tried to trade to numerous teams in a trade this last offseason. He went 18-9 this season and has to be in consideration for the rookie of the year.

Nice to see Ken Connolly come back home and immediately hit for .331 again this season (an increase of .100 points from his last major league season in Toronto).

Most of my outfielders hit ok, but I'll have to tweak some of my settings as my starting left fielder only got 131 at b ats this season.. woops

Looking at other things I feel pretty good that this season I was as good as the other teams in the league, but I don't feel I got unlucky to Atlanta, I think their team was actually a few games better than mine. I don't think it is time to panic though in Valdosta, I'll have to tweak a few things and try it again next season.

Didn't check this last night, looks like Todd Sparks suffered the same problem for me this year with run support. It dropped to 2.87 for him this year, so it clearly was not just the MRs fault his wins couldn't get over 13 again. Two years ago he was getting just over 4 a game.

[gstelmack]

One of those things that frustrates me about OOTP is what happened with my pitching staff. Basically the same staff, but my starting pitchers had a much higher ERA than last year, and my pen had a much lower one. Give me last year's rotation stats with this year's pen, and either one would have been a FOOL Classic appearance.

[graygoose12]

I've exported for the Classic.

DC, when do you plan on running the sim?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by graygoose12

I've exported for the Classic.

DC, when do you plan on running the sim?

Sunday night.

[Young Drachma]

On tonight's sim:

I won't be here at 9pm central. I just realized it and so, I'll run the Classic, but it won't be until we get back tonight...which is likely to be somewhere in the 11pm-ish central range.

Just occurred to me, so I wanted to inform you all.

[Young Drachma]

Speaking of the Classic, any bets on who is gonna win? Maybe I ought to create a thread just for the Classic. I think I will.

[Young Drachma]

1973 FOOL Classic Thread - Front Office Football Central