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

[hoopsguy]

World Series - classic strength vs strength matchup, with our pitching staff working against their hitters. I think that our lineup should have some success against their staff, but the Rangers' hurlers are not chopped liver.

Game #1 - In a showdown between 22 game winners, Witt really answered the bell. Texas got ten hits, but could not capitalize at all with men in scoring position. Barfield had four RBIs to lead the attack in a surprisingly easy 7-0 opening win.

Game #2 - it should be clear to Texas that they are no longer dealing with the Boston pitching staff. Everything that Witt did to them, Gullickson did even better. He pitched seven innings, allowing only two hits while making the two runs he was provided stand up. Hall doubled in one run and came in on an error to score the other one. Texas will be looking for their hometown fans to provide some kind of spark.

Game #3 - The Rangers scored their first runs of the series in the second inning. Brooks stroked a two run homer and Gwynn stole three bases, taking advantage of Viola's slow delivery. We could not do anything with Neal Heaton, and we fall 4-0.

Game #4 - The Rangers ride their big-inning tendencies to another victory, tying the series at 2-2. Langston got in trouble in the 5th after retiring the first two men. Yount singled and Incaviglia had a great 13 pitch at-bat that culminated in a single. Molitor, Brooks, Gwynn, and Coles followed with hits and the rout was on. We waved the white flag, sending in Jesse Orosco to clean up the mess. 6-2 final, and we have ourselves a series again.

Game #5 - The Brewers bounced back from an early 2-0 deficit with three runs in the 5th. The score stayed there until the end. Higuera struck out 10 in 7 1/3 innings, Molitor had a pair of RBIs, and Incaviglia had three hits in the win. We just did not do enough hitting in the last three games against the back of their rotation or with guys on base today. Now we have a daunting task ahead of us as we head home.

[hoopsguy]

Game #6 - A five run 3rd for the Rangers removed an awful lot of suspense from this one. C Dann Bilardello hit a three run shot and Hubie Brooks added an RBI to finish the post-season with 13. Someone is going to pay him a mountain of cash in the off-season. We chipped away at the lead, but this team looked beat the last three innings. A sad end to a strong season, and we are left to wonder what went wrong after winning the first two games at home.

Next year looks pretty gloomy, as we are looking at a major pitching staff rebuild. I did not see enough out of our sluggers this year to feel like they will carry us to 90+ wins on their own. We're going to need some starting pitchers to emerge if we want to think about playing in these types of games again anytime soon.

[hoopsguy]

AL Cy Young - Teddy Higuera (Tex) 22-4 2.94 ERA, 8 CG, 174:83 K/BB, .220 BAA, 1.18 WHIP. Led league in Wins.
AL MVP - Pete Incaviglia (Tex) .323/48/137. Led league in RBI, Hits, Home Runs, On Base Plus Slugging, and Slugging Percentage.
AL Rookie of the Year - Incaviglia
AL Rookie Pitcher of the Year - Bruce Ruffin (Tor) 15-12 3.60 ERA, 7 CGG, 139:67 K/BB, .251 BAA, 1.24 WHIP.

AL Gold Glove Winners:
MR Clay Christiansen (NYY) - this is before he began his career as a business writer on the topic of disruptive innovation (I know, different spelling)
C Mike Martin (CHW) - rookie led league in triples as well while hitting .144. No idea how this happens, guy does not belong in big leagues at all.
1B Franklin Stubbs (Det) - 2nd time
2B Harold Reynolds (Sea) - repeat winner
3B Terry Pendleton (Sea)
SS Tony Fernandez (CHW) - repeat winner
LF Scott Bradley (Bal)
CF Eric Davis (Mil)
RF Chili Davis (Bos)

AL Silver Sluggers:
C Bill Schroeder (Tor) - .270/21/72
1B Greg Walker (Mil) - .311/40/126
2B Paul Molitor (Tex) - .339/19/94 - 4th time winning Silver Slugger. Led league in Batting Average and On Base Percentage.
3B Hubie Brooks (Tex) - .336/18/101 - led league in doubles.
SS Cal Ripken (Sea) - .287/27/100 - 5th straight Silver Slugger award.
LF George Bell (Mil) - .294/25/113 - 2nd time winning award.
CF Eric Davis (Mil) - .274/36/112
RF Pete Incaviglia (Tex) - .323/48/137
DH Cory Snyder (KC) - .289/36/93

[hoopsguy]

NL Cy Young - Mike Witt (Chi) 22-6 2.30 ERA, 8 CG, 3 SO, 199:84 K/BB, .207 BAA, 1.11 WHIP. 2nd Cy Young, led league in Innings Pitched, Complete Games, Wins, and ERA.
NL MVP - Juan Samuel (Chi) - .299/14/70 w/82 steals. Led the league in triples, runs scored, and steals.
NL Rookie of the Year - Wally Joyner (StL) - .305/26/96
NL Rookie Pitcher of the Year - Eric King (SF) - 14-6, 2.59 ERA, 2 CG, 159:87 K/BB, .226 BAA, 1.21 WHIP.

NL Gold Glove:
P Terry Mulholland (Hou)
C Mickey Tettleton (SF)
1B Will Clark (NYM)
2B Tim Raines (Mon) - 3rd straight
3B Mike Pagliarulo (Pit)
SS Johnny Ray (Chi) - 2nd win, first one was at SS
LF Joe Carter (Chi)
CF Kirby Puckett (Hou)
RF John Moses (NYM)

NL Silver Sluggers:
C Jody Davis (Cin) - .248/20/71
1B Kent Hrbek (Mon) - .297/20/102
2B Juan Samuel (Chi) - .299/14/70 w/82 steals
3B Mike Pagliarulo (Pit) - .279/25/112 - led league in Runs Batted In
SS Jose Oquendo (SD) - .290/2/66 w/30 steals - 2nd Slugger award
LF Don Mattingly (SF) - .317/31/101 w/20 steals - led league in On Base + Slugging and Slugging Percentage
CF Dale Murphy (Atl) - .281/29/91 w/60 steals
RF John Russell (SF) - .270/32/112 - led league in Runs Batted In, Doubles, and Home Runs

[hoopsguy]

I thought that Murphy would have taken the MVP, given that he had 2x as many homers, 20 more RBIs, and just 20 less steals than Samuel.

Best I can tell, the MVP does not look at team winning % at all. It overvalues stolen bases, but I'm not sure how the rest of the stats really fit into the mix.

I'm sure my next exemption will go towards a starter if one of them is worthy at the end of 1987.

I'm not all that worried about my starting lineup right now. We'll have a lot of power and decent speed, as well as guys who can hit for average. But just about any good lineup has a pretty good chance of looking ordinary against stud pitching. That is what was disappointing about the World Series this year; they looked ordinary against some chumps. What I am worried about is that our top-end starters won't be nearly as good as what I've grown accustomed to over the past few seasons. That is likely to manifest itself both in the regular season and the post-season.

[hoopsguy]

So, one last look at salary demands shows that Viola, Witt, and Gullickson are all looking for 16+ million. Bummer.

Pena is less expensive for a four year deal than James. This one is easy, if I can somehow chain a signing on him with an extension for a guy in the 1987 class. But that is not the case either, with Romanick, Orosco, and Aguilera asking for too much. I can't fit Aguilera at all, so I'm left with four choices and we'll only get one: Pena, James, Romanick, and Orosco.

It really boils down to Pena or Romanick. And that really comes down to how much I need a starter who has 100 potential but has not shown us much on the field over the last two seasons.

Here is what we have for potential starters for 1988 if I take a chance on letting Romanick go:
1. Langston
2. Youmans
3. Boyd
4. Bobby Witt
5. Ed Correa
6. Juan Nieves

You can throw in Kepshire and whatever pitchers I sign in the next two drafts. I'm thinking that is doable, and if Romanick somehow turns into a monster next year then I suppose I could exempt him (0% chance of this happening, but it is an option).

With the problems we had in the bullpen this year, plus the expected losses of James (may bring back as a FA) + Orosco, I decide to reward the guy who has been productive for us rather than the guy with untapped potential. Welcome back, Alejandro Pena. But he had other ideas, rejecting both the four and three year extensions.

Hmm, picking Pena over Romanick was mostly an emotional decision. It is a ton easier to sign middle relievers within my house rules than potential top-of-rotation starters. Screw you, Alejandro. Welcome back, Ron Romanick. Three years @ 3,485,315 a season.

This may be the last extension offered to a guy beyond the current year. I'll avoid doing so next season until the off-season. If we have the best record in the NL again next season I'll add that as a house rule in addition to the current ones.

[hoopsguy]

League Leaders - Hitters:
Batting Average:
NL - Kirby Puckett (Hou) .333
AL - Paul Molitor (Tex) .339
Top Cub - Juan Samuel .299 (tied 20th)

Home Runs:
NL - John Russell (SF) 32
AL - Pete Incaviglia (Tex) 48
Top Cub - Jesse Barfield 26 (tied 21st)

Runs Batted In:
NL - Mike Pagliarulo (Pit), John Russell (SF) 112
AL - Pete Incaviglia (Tex) 137
Top Cub - Joe Carter 86 (tied 31st)

Runs Scored:
NL - Juan Samuel (Chi) 114
AL - Darryl Strawberry (Mil) 128 - 2nd time leading this category
Top Cub - Samuel (2nd)

Hits:
NL - Kirby Puckett (Hou) 220
AL - Pete Incaviglia (Tex) 208
Top Cub - Juan Samuel 200 (tied 6th)

Stolen Bases:
NL - Juan Samuel (Chi) 82
AL - Rickey Henderson (Oak) 78 - 3rd straight, 5th overall SB title
Top Cub - Samuel (1st)

On Base Percentage:
NL - Pedro Guerrero (LA) .388
AL - Paul Molitor (Tex) .404
Top Cub - Wade Boggs .366 (19th)

On Base Plus Slugging:
NL - Don Mattingly .905
AL - Pete Incaviglia .994
Top Cub - Juan Samuel .813 (tied 33rd)

[hoopsguy]

League Leaders - Pitching:
Earned Run Average:
NL - Mike Witt (Chi) 2.30
AL - Dennis Rasmussen (Cal) 2.56
Top Cub - Witt (1st)

Wins:
NL - Mike Witt (Chi) 22 - 3rd time atop this category
AL - Teddy Higeura (Mil) 22
Top Cub - Witt (tied 1st)

Saves:
NL - Cecilio Guante (Cin) 50
AL - Todd Worrell (Sea) 54
Top Cub - Jesse Orosco 36 (tied 16th)

Innings Pitched:
NL - Mike Witt (Chi) 242 1/3
AL - Moose Haas (Mil) 277
Top Cub - Witt (21st)

Complete Games:
NL - Mike Witt (Chi) 8
AL - Dave Rozema (Det), Jim Clancy (Tor) 13 - Clancy is repeat leader
Top Cub - Witt (tied 11th)

Shutouts:
NL - Frank Viola (Chi) 4
AL - Mark Gubicza (Tor) 5
Top Cub - Viola (2nd)

Strikeouts:
NL - Jose DeLeon (Cin) 235 - 2nd time leading this category
AL - Jose Rijo (Min) 203
Top Cub - Mark Langston 204 (5th)

Walks:
NL - Mario Soto (Cin) 99
AL - Steve Farr (NYY) 109
Top Cub - Mark Langston 93 (tied 14th)

Run Support:
NL - Mike Witt (Chi) 180
AL - Moose Haas (Mil) 179
Top Cub - Witt (1st)
Runner-up in NL run support was Mike Moore (SF) with 130. Pretty monster gap.

[hoopsguy]

Team stats for 1986:
Offense: 740 Runs Scored - 5th (-34 Runs, -4 Rank)
Defense: 493 Runs Allowed - 1st (-45 Runs, same Rank)
Total Salaries: $60,527,917 - 23rd (-10 million, -11 Rank)
Approval Rating: 80 (+1 from last year)

We are going to need to make some FA moves to shore up the pitching staff. I'm not going to be afraid to shed some veteran hitters early if I need to do that to create roster spots for arms. I'm going to use FA to go after the bullpen, hopefully to add 2-3 quality middle relievers. I'll add a catcher if there is an option, but I'm not holding my breath.

We still have a young lineup. McGwire will have a full season and I expect him to put up some big, big power numbers. Samuel, Boggs, Carter, Barfield, and Hall are all under 30. Thompson will hopefully develop into a starter next year, but if not we'll be patient with him.

I'm hoping that Buechele has some value as a trading chip. Ditto Martinez, but I'm guessing he has less being in his walk year. That observation is based on what I've perceived with AI-valuations over the past few seasons.

[hoopsguy]

Lots of updates to the record books:
Slugging %: Pete Incaviglia (.596) best Bob Horner (.582)
OPS: Pete Incaviglia (.994) again tops Bob Horner (.952)
Runs Scored: Darryl Strawberry (128) over Rickey Henderson (121)
Hits: Kirby Puckett (220) over Wade Boggs (219)
Doubles: Barry Bonds (48) breaks the one-year record of John Russell (47)
Triples: Mike Martin (17) over Rudy Law (16)
Walks: Rickey Henderson (99) over Jason Thompson (94)
Appearances: Pat Clements (90) over Preston Hanna (89)
Shutouts: Mark Gubicza (5) ties Dave Rozema (5)

Retirements:
Chris Chambliss - .256/55/257. 1981 All Star and Silver Slugger
Milt Wilcox - 57-48 3.48 ERA. Won multiple titles w/Tigers
Richie Zisk - .269/82/303. 1981 All Star
Dave Kingman - .251/69/211
Rick Langford - 96-71 2.98 ERA. Twice led league in Innings Pitched and Complete Games
Dennis Leonard - 76-40 3.23 ERA. All Star in 1980, 1981.
Tom Seaver - 44-25 2.59 ERA. 1980 All Star.
Steve Garvey - .269/52/203. 1983 All Star.
Ben Ogilvie - .264/58/220. World Series champ w/Cubs in 1982.
Toby Harrah - .257/51/225. World Series champ w/Cubs in 1982.
Ron Cey - .262/53/193. World Series champ w/Cubs in 1983.
George Foster - .291/76/231. 1980, 1981 All Star.
Otto Velez - .250/68/200. 1980, 1981 All Star.
Bobby Grich - .275/63/239. 1980, 1981 Silver Slugger.

[hoopsguy]

Back to the Almanac for a look at the league history.

Batting Average:
1. Wade Boggs (Chi) .314 - newcomer
2. Tony Gwynn (Tex) .309 - newcomer
3. Don Mattingly (SF) .303 - newcomer
4. Willie McGee (SD) .302 - newcomer
5. Cal Ripken (Sea) .300 - average down 3 points, was previously 2nd
Falling out: George Brett, Fred Lynn, Bob Horner, Leon Durham
Comments: The bar has been raised; Durham was previously 5th at .289.

OBP:
1. Wade Boggs (Chi) .381 - newcomer
2. Darryl Strawberry (Mil) .370 - newcomer
3. Cal Ripken (Sea) .366 - down 4 points, one spot
4. Tony Gwynn (Tex) .366 - newcomer
5. George Brett (FA) .363 - down 9 points, four spots
Falling out: Lynn, Keith Hernandez, Rickey Hendeson

Slugging %:
1. Darryl Strawberry (Mil) .545 - newcomer
2. Bob Horner (Atl) .518 - down 8 points, one spot
3. Greg Walker (Mil) .508 - newcomer
4. Tom Brunansky (Sea) .502 - down 1 point, two spots
5. George Brett (FA) .494 - down 5 points, two spots
Falling out: Tony Armas, Cal Ripken

OPS:
1. Darryl Strawberry (Mil) .914 - newcomer
2. Bob Horner (Atl) .875 - down 4 points, one spot
3. Greg Walker (Mil) .866 - newcomer
4. George Brett (FA) .858 - down 12 points, two spots
5. Cal Ripken (Sea) .852 - down 6 points, two spots
Falling out: Lynn, Winfield
Comments: 5th is up 24 points from two years ago

Home Runs:
1. Bob Horner (Atl) 208 - stays #1, up 46
2. Tom Brunansky (Sea) 205 - up two spots w/66 homers over last two years
3. Dale Murphy (Atl) 186 - holding steady at #3 with 47 homers over last two years
4. Tony Armas (Oak) 176 - down 2 spots, 29 homers over last two years
5. Ron Kittle (KC) 171 - newcomer
Falling out: Winfield

Runs Batted In:
1. Cal Ripken (Sea) 592 - newcomer
2. Harold Baines (Det) 588 - up two spots, 176 RBIs last two seasons
3. Tony Armas (Oak) 582 - down two spots, 135 RBIs last two seasons
4. Bob Horner (Atl) 569 - same spot, 167 RBIs last two seasons
5. Tom Brunansky (Sea) 568 - newcomer
Falling out: Winfield, Jack Clark

Runs:
1. Rickey Henderson (Oak) 716 - same spot, 203 runs last two seasons
2. Dale Murphy (Atl) 676 - same spot, 207 runs last two seasons
3. Harold Baines (Det) 614 - up one spot, 180 runs last two seasons
4. Rupert Jones (Sea) 598 - newcomer
5. Lloyd Moseby (Tor) 589 - newcomer
Falling out: Robin Yount, Paul Molitor
Comments: kind of hard to believe Yount and Molitor fell out after being part of hyper-productive Texas offense last year.

Hits:
1. Harold Baines (Det) 1238 - up one spot, 364 hits over last two years
2. Eddie Murray (Bal) 1235 - down one spot, 355 hits over last two years
3. Rickey Henderson (Oak) 1219 - same spot, 347 hits over last two years
4. Lloyd Moseby (Tor) 1167 - newcomer
5. Paul Molitor (Tex) 1163 - newcomer
Falling out: Willie Wilson, Durham

Doubles:
1. Harold Baines (Det) 242 - same spot, 76 doubles in last two years
2. Rupert Jones (Sea) 223 - newcomer
3. Eddie Murray (Bal) 218 - down one spot, 60 doubles in last two years
4. Lloyd Moseby (Tor) 214 - down one spot, 59 doubles in last two years
5. Alan Trammell (Det) 207 - newcomer
Falling Out: Carney Lansford

Triples:
1. Willie Wilson (KC) 74 - same spot, 20 triples in last two years
2. Mookie Wilson (NYM) 57 - up one spot, 17 triples in last two years
3. Craig Reynolds (Hou) 49 - up one spot, 9 triples in last two years
4. Leon Durham (StL) 48 - up one spot, 10 triples in last two years
5. Hosken Powell (FA) 47 - down three spots, 6 triples in last two years
Falling out: none

Stolen Bases:
1. Rickey Henderson (Oak) 650 - same spot, 159 steals in last two years
2. Willie Wilson (KC) 508 - same spot, 118 steals in last two years
3. Mookie Wilson (NYM) 494 - same spot, 127 steals in last two years
4. Dale Murphy (Atl) 452 - up one spot, 137 steals in last two years
5. Rudy Law (FA) 400 - down one spot, 64 steals in last two years
Falling out: none

Walks:
1. Rickey Henderson (Oak) 576 - same spot, 166 walks in last two years
2. Jason Thompson (Cal) 514 - same spot, 143 walks in last two years
3. Eddie Murray (Bal) 479 - same spot, 127 walks in last two years
4. Dale Murphy (Atl) 436 - newcomer
5. Rupert Jones (Sea) 424 - newcomer
Falling out: Clark, Hernandez

Earned Run Average:
1. Jose DeLeon (Cin) 2.44 - newcomer
2. Mario Soto (Cin) 2.55 - down one spot, up .21
3. Bob Welch (LA) 2.68 - newcomer (was listed in 1982 as well)
4. Scott Sanderson (Mon) 2.73 - down two spots, up .24
5. Jim Palmer (Ret) 2.75 - down one spot

Innings Pitched:
1. Britt Burns (CHW) 1937 - up one spot, 546 2/3 innings over two years
2. Dave Stieb (Tor) 1935 2/3 - down one spot, 539 innings over two years
3. Moose Haas (Mil) 1903 1/3 - up one spot, 541 2/3 innings over two years
4. Matt Keough (Oak) 1880 1/3 - down one spot, 506 1/3 innings over two years
5. Richard Dotson (CHW) 1872 1/3 - newcomer
Falling out: Jim Clancy

Wins:
1. Matt Keough (Oak) 128 - same spot, 37 wins over two years
2. Jack Morris (Det) 127 - same spot, 37 wins over two years
3. Dave Stieb (Tor) 120 - same spot, 35 wins over two years
4. Jim Clancy (Tor) 117 - up one spot, 34 wins over two years
5. Bill Gullickson (FA) 113 - newcomer
Falling out: Rick Langford

Losses:
1. Tommy Boggs (Cle) 113 - up one spot, 38 losses over two years
2. Britt Burns (CHW) 105 - up one spot, 31 losses over two years
3. Roger Erickson (Min) 100 - up two spots, 27 losses over two years
4. Frank Tanana (Cal) 97 -down one spot, 23 losses over two years
5. Len Barker (Cle) 95 - newcomer
Falling out: Moose Haas
Comments: Haas was leader two years ago, but Milwaukee has started winning and he has been really good.

Saves:
1. Lee Smith (Phi) 311 - same spot, 84 saves over two years
2. Dan Quisenberry (FA) 293 - same spot, 71 saves over two years
3. Rick Camp (FA) 277 - up one spot, 61 saves over two years
4. Neil Allen (NYM) 250 - newcomer
5. John Henry Johnson (Tex) 244 - newcomer
Falling out: Tom Hume, Victor Cruz

Strikeouts:
1. Mario Soto (Cin) 1359 - up one spot, 388 Ks over two seasons
2. Len Barker (Cle) 1346 - down one spot, 350 Ks over two seasons
3. Britt Burns (CHW) 1334 - same spot, 406 Ks over two seasons
4. Dave Stieb (Tor) 1239 - same spot, 376 Ks over two seasons
5. Scott Sanderson (Mon) 1181 - newcomer
Falling out: Welch

Walks:
1. Matt Keough (Oak) 687 - up one spot, 184 walks over two seasons
2. Richard Dotson (CHW) 646 - up two spots, 204 walks over two seasons
3. Renie Martin (NYY) 637 - down two spots, 124 walks over two seasons
4. Jim Clancy (Tor) 624 - down one spot, 140 walks over two seasons
5. Jack Morris (Det) 620 - newcomer
Falling out: Burns

Appearances:
1. Dave Smith (Hou) 458 - up three spots, 134 appearances over two seasons
2. Ted Power (SF) 436 - newcomer
3. Roy Lee Jackson (NYM) 431 - down one spot, 95 appearances over two seasons
4. Bryan Clark (NYM) 416 - newcomer
5. John Urrea (StL) 402 - down four spots, 52 appearances over two seasons
Falling out: John Littlefield, Preston Hanna

Games Started:
1. Larry Sorenson (Mil) 244 - newcomer
2. Richard Doton (CHW) 243 - up three spots, 67 starts over two seasons
2. Jim Clancy (Tor) 243 - down two spots, 65 starts over two seasons
2. Britt Burns (CHW) 243 - newcomer
5. Scott Sanderson (Mon) 242 - same spot, 66 starts over two seasons
Falling out: John Candelaria, Bob Knepper, Frank Pastore

Complete Games:
1. Dave Stieb (Tor) 84 - up three spots, 23 complete games over two seasons
2. Matt Keough (Oak) 80 - same spot, 17 complete games over two seasons
3. Britt Burns (CHW) 79 - down one spot, 16 complete games over two seasons
4. Rick Langford (Ret) 78 - down three spots, 13 complete games over two seasons
5. Moose Haas (Mil) 76 - same spot, 20 complete games over two seasons
Falling out: none

Shutouts:
1. Matt Keough (Oak) 13 - up two spot, 4 shutouts over two seasons
2. Britt Burns (CHW) 12 - down one spot, 1 shutout over two seasons
3. Dave Stieb (Tor) 11 - newcomer
3. Dave Rozema (Det) 11 - same spot, 2 shutouts over two seasons
3. Scott Sanderson (Mon) 11 - same spot, 2 shutouts over two seasons
Falling out: Candelaria

[Young Drachma]

Interesting to see so many guys playing in different places, but Dave Steib still in Toronto.

[hoopsguy]

Dark Cloud, Toronto has been pretty stable. They've had Stieb, Clancy, and Moseby that have been there for the duration ... that is just off the top of my head.

Mike Marshall has also been there since 1981, and has been a very productive 3B. Balboni has also been there since 1981, starting the last four seasons.

Damaso Garcia has been there since 1980, but is now a free agent. So that is four original Blue Jays and two more with six years of tenure. I'm not sure I have a single player on my roster that has six years of service now that Gullickson and Witt are moving on to greener pastures.

OK, time to actually take a look at this roster in the Almanac:
1980 - Stieb, Clancy, Moseby, Garcia, Barry Bonnell (also FA like Garcia), Garth Iorg, Danny Ainge (now FA), Luis Leal, Joey McLaughlin
1981 - Marshall, Balboni
1982 - Doran, Steve Henderson (FA signing), Bill Sherrer
1983 - Schroeder

Damn, this is one exceptionally stable franchise! Nine guys on the original 35 man roster have played here seven years!

Jerry Garvin was there from 1980-1985, but has not been signed since hitting the FA market.

Part of the reason that they've been able to have this continuity is that they are a big budget team. Here is a rundown of their top salaries:
1. Balboni 2 years @ 17,020,000
2. Clancy 4 @ 16,146,000
3. Moseby 4 @ 15,980,400
4. Schroeder 3 @ 14,977,600 (fan favorite? really silly contrat, imo)
5. Stieb 1 @ 13,134,717
7. Leal 3 @ 6,581,033
9. Marshall 2 @ 5,246,605
10. Garcia 2 @ 4,603,505
12. Iorg 2 @ 3,698,964
13. McLaughlin 3 @ 2,462,408
14. Scherrer 2 @ 2,402,575

[hoopsguy]

By comparison, I'll take a look at a team that does not have the same kind of budget at Toronto (or Detroit, who I think has had good continuity as well). Let's look at defending champion Texas.

1980 - Molitor (acquired by trade this year), Danny Darwin, John Butcher, John Henry Johnson
1981 - Brooks (acquired by trade this year), Brett Butler, Alan Wiggins (trade this year)
1982 - Gwynn, Storm Davis
1983 - Dann Bilardello, Neal Heaton

[hoopsguy]

1987 Draft:
This is not the 1987 draft ... kind of ugly, actually. Just compare the names and my comments to the greatness that was last year.
1. Cleveland 3B Ken Caminiti - baffling pick, as Edgar Martinez is a better 3B prospect. I don't think this guy was a top five, maybe not top ten value.
2. Houston 3B Gregg Jeffries - this is also a better pick than Caminiti. He is four years younger and has 100 potential. I don't blame them one bit for taking a shot on a high potential 20 year old who is ready to be on a big league roster already.
3. Chicago White Sox CF Jay Buhner - Costanza loves him, I'm less enthralled. Has some power, but not great potential. He'll need to realize every bit of it to justify this pick.
4. San Diego SS Walt Weiss - just a baffling pick. There are some good players in this draft, but I don't have this guy listed as one of them. At best, a bottom of first round value in most drafts.
5. Kansas City C B.J. Surhoff - I would have loved, loved, loved for him to slip to us but with the dearth of catchers in our league I knew there was no shot. Capable major league hitter now, and if/when he realizes his 100 potential he could become really complete player. Very nice pick.
6. St Louis SP Jack McDowell - there are not many starting pitchers at all in this draft, but the Cards let a couple go in order to pick a guy who can't break a pane of glass with his fastball.
7. New York Yankees CF Ellis Burks - likely superstar, best talent in the draft. They have to be giddy to get him in this spot.
8. Minnesota Twins 3B Edgar Martinez - no complaints with this pick. I think there are better prospects on the board, but I think Martinez will be a quality major league player as soon as next season.
9. Pittsburgh Pirates SS Matt Williams - going to be a serious power hitter, I think he was a top five talent in this draft.
10. New York Mets MR Jeff Montgomery - pitching is bad in this draft, but this pick is hideous.
11. Atlanta Braves 2B Ron Gant - does everything pretty well, with legitimate chance at improving across the board. Nice pick for a team whose offensive stars (Horner, Murphy) probably have their best years behind them.
12. Seattle Mariners SP Tom Glavine - better than Black Jack McDowell, but same velocity issues. Still think this is a little bit of a reach, but I would have been tempted at the end of the first round with our needs.
13. Baltimore Orioles SP David Wells - immediate contributor, unlikely to get a ton better but he is back of rotation guy right now.
14. California Angels SP John Burkett - run on starters, another soft-tosser. I'm less irritated about this in middle of round if they felt like they had to have a starter. But someone is going to open up the checkbook for the best starter on the board at some point ...
15. Cincinnati Reds SS Jeff Blauser - similar to Gant, but a little more expensive. Still, decent value in this spot.
16. Los Angeles Dodgers SP Melido Perez - there goes a guy that I would have been happy to get. He was the second best starter in the draft, in my mind. Not quite as good as Wells right now, but with a lot more room for development.
17. Detroit Tigers SP Tim Belcher - what has happened to the velocity of this crop of pitchers?
18. San Francisco SP Joe Magrane - the dream is dead. I would have given a kidney to get him in this spot. Giants have massively upgraded their rotation over last two drafts.
19. Montreal Expos CF Roberto Kelly - guy can run, if he develops his hitting stroke he could be a 25-50 guy. Pretty good pick in this spot.
20. Philadelphia Phillies MR Mike Henneman - nice reliever, if that was a position of need then I won't knock this too much

Five picks to go, and here is who I'm hoping will be available: OF Shane Mack, C Mike Macfarlane, CL Bryan Harvey, SP Les Lancaster

21. Oakland A's RF Lance Johnson - speed merchant with some potential, but has to realize some of it to be a legit big league hitter.
22. Toronto Blue Jays CF Luis Polonia - I like him better than Johnson and probably Kelly too because I think he can hit now and is even faster. But doesn't have high end potential.
23. Milwaukee Brewers MR Chuck Crim - it is good that they are adding arms.
24. Boston Red Sox CF Shane Mack - these guys are just loading up on young, quality OFs. I'm not sure where they find opportunities for all of them.
25. Texas Rangers SS Jody Reed - meh, kind of uninspired in my mind. But Yount is getting older, I suppose.
26. I'm going to grab the catcher because he is the best of the group and the youngest of the group (23). I'll find arms either later in this draft, FA, or in the next draft. Mike Macfarlane it is, 5 years @ 310,766.

2nd round:
- Atlanta plucks Harvey. Bummer, would have snapped him up if available.
- Seattle gets a promising hitter in 1B Sam Horn.
- both of the other catchers (Lloyd McClendon and Nelson Santovenia) went in 2nd round, validating my thought that I had to take one in 1st if I wanted to fill the need. In fact, four other catchers come off the board before my next pick.
- we have an easy pick: Les Lancaster, 4 years @ $991,665. I think he'll spend this year, and probably next year as well, in the minors but he could develop into a contributor after that.

3rd - 5th rounds:
- by the middle of Round 3 there is nothing very good left to take.
- we take Mike Dunne, who was neck-and-neck with Lancaster last round. Not much potential, so unlikely to ever be better than a spot starter. 3 years @ 1,003,934.
- Milwaukee grabs Randy Velarde three picks in front of us. I almost took him in Round 3 because he was the only remaining hitter that had any chance of contributing to a major league roster. Would have certainly been my Round 4 pick.
- Round 4, we take 30 year old MR Dewayne Buice. He has a good shot of joining our rotation this year. He also has 4 potential. 2 years @ $835,650.
- Round 5 Jose Nunez, a AAA ready MR who we hope to resign next year and see if he can ever make the roster. 1 year @ $313,294.

[hoopsguy]

Free Agency:
Wow, 1B Wally Joyner is a free agent. The Yankees have swept in with an early offer for him. He is seeking 16 million per season and someone is going to give him a huge payday. I guess the Cards were in the same boat with him that we were with Bankhead, but they could not get an extension or a trade done. Oops.

Pena and James are the middle relievers looking for the most cash. The Dodgers already have an offer out there for James. Actually, there is one other reliever who is looking for big (6 million) money - Jeff Reardon.

We put in a 4 year, 3.4 million dollar offer to Pena.
We also offer 3 years, 1 million to Jay Howell, a 32 year old reliever who would probably be a fringe Chicago/Iowa Cub for us. He seems to like his prospects with the Jays better in our initial conversations.
We go big on 23 year old, high potential reliever Jeff Sellers. 4 years @ 514K. KC is after him.

Week 1 signings:
Viola to Baltimore - 5 years, $16,529,994 per season.
Joyner to New York Yankees - 1 year, $20,909,070. Glad to have him out of the division and the league.
Bobby Bonilla signs a one year deal with Oakland for $3,294,732. I'm pretty surprised he did not get a multi-year deal.
We receive word that we are the leaders on all three of our targets, but no signings.

Week #3:
We get all three of our guys, thus ending the free agency period. I hate that - I would have liked to see how that played out just to track where our pitchers ended up.

In fact, Witt and Gullickson did not sign and FA ends with them unemployed. That is so annoying. Every year there are a bunch of good players that end up on the scrap heap and do not get signed. This is exasperating after I've helped build up the stats of these guys to the point where they could be future Hall of Famers.

[hoopsguy]

Going into spring training, here is what the rotation looks like:
1. Langston
2. Youmans
3. Nieves
4. Witt (Bobby - new guy, not the old one)
5. Romanick

Pena is slated for our rotation, but our other two FA relievers are headed to Iowa.

We're looking at platooning Ray and Thompson at 2B but otherwise our lineup is pretty consistent with where we were at the end of last year.

We see Sellers have a great spring, but he is still a year away from making the club. But nice to see a FA signing improve that much. Langston and Youmans, our top two starters, both had small improvements.

[hoopsguy]

PSPN still has us listed as the top dog.
1. Chicago
2. Texas
3. Philadelphia
4. Montreal - three of top four in our division?
5. Boston
6. Toronto
7. New York Yankees
8. San Diego
9. LA
10. Baltimore - so the Tigers are not top four in their division?

Others of note:
13. St. Louis
15. Detroit
19. White Sox

Most feared hitters - we have a pair listed, and there are some crazy numbers being forecast:
Don Mattingly (SF) .341/28
Andre Dawson (Bal) .283/42 - no way on 42 homers
Mark McGwire (Chi) .262/44
Ron Kittle (KC) .272/41
Wade Boggs (Chi) .350/19 - both of those numbers are way up above what I reasonably expect
Bill Schroeder (Tor) .309/30 - huge under on both of these, although his improvement over last two seasons has been profound
Will Clark (NYM) .302/34
Kal Daniels (Mon) .299/25

Nine teams have 100+ million payrolls:
1. Toronto $139,696,437
2. Detroit $139,041,988
3. Pittsburgh $121,505,159
4. Los Angeles $109,685,549
5. Boston $109,002,844
6. Cleveland $103,395,105
7. Baltimore $103,307,456
8. Montreal $102,360,538
9. Philadelphia $100,743,835
Others of note
11. White Sox $98,489,726
13. Texas $97,438,597
15. Milwaukee $89,836,687 (wonder how they are going to pay their young talent?)
17. St. Louis $86,410,429
25. Cubs $68,802,685

[hoopsguy]

Opening Day - we see that Texas (Higuera) beats Baltimore (Viola) 2-0 in the opener. Nice work by Viola holding that offense in check, but the offense let him down. That seemed to happen a little too often in Chicago.

4/7 - 4/9 vs St. Louis - nothing like starting the season against Dwight Gooden. Time to see if Langston is going to wear the "ace" mantle well. The answer is "well enough when we score 7 against Gooden" as we put away St. Louis 7-5. Carter and McGwire both had a homer and three RBIs. We get an off-day before concluding the series on Thursday with a 6-2 win featuring homer #2 for Carter.

4/10 - 4/13 @ Philadelphia: there was some pre-season hype around Philadelphia. On our side, we get to look at our new members of the starting rotation. Nieves gives us a fine start (6 innings, 1 run) but we lose 5-1 when Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd stinks up the joint in the bottom of the 9th. Bobby Witt is even better, throwing a two hit shutout in his debut. 5-0 win, with Barfield adding three hits and two RBIs. Barfield leaves the yard on Sunday, but we lose 3-2. And Philly puts it to us 5-0 on Monday, dropping us back to .500.

A couple of guys killing in the first week:
NL - Mike Davis (LA) - .471/4/11
AL - Greg Walker (Mil) - .387/5/10

The opening day bombs by Carter (467') and McGwire (451') rank as #1/#3 on the longest homer list.

Bobby Bonilla has a fifteen game hitting streak.

The Rangers did resign Hubie Brooks (2 years, 11.7 million per year) but he has a major knee injury and is out for four months. A tough break for the defending champs.

[hoopsguy]

4/15 - 4/16 vs Pittsburgh: The Pirates are 4-2 and are sending Scott Bankhead against us in the opener. The Pirates gave him a four year deal for almost 11 million after we dealt him there last season. Bummer; was hoping he would move out of the division in the offseason. We take our first home loss of the year, 3-2, in 11 innings. Vance Law hit a game winner homer in the 11th. Boyd gives up an unearned run (his own error) in the top of the 9th to allow the Pirates to take a 2-1 lead. I've got a quick trigger finger and push him further back in the bullpen. Rick Aguilera moves up the list. We fall 8-4 the following day, pushing our losing streak to four. Ugly outing for Nieves, who gave up all the runs. Four came on a grand slam by Howard Johnson.

4/17 - 4/19 vs Montreal: the Expos are atop the division with a 5-2 mark. The give us our 5th straight loss in a brutal 4-3, 18 inning loss. Both bullpens were great, but our cracked first. Another 4-3 loss has us in disarray, although Carter hit two more homers (6 on year). We are throwing away the year in April! Langston is not able to play stopper and we are swept at home in a 3-2 loss. That puts us 5.5 behind Montreal.

[hoopsguy]

4/21 - 4/23 @ St. Louis: the Cards are also 3-8, so the loser of this series is really going to be floundering. Youmans moves to 2-0 with a 5-0 win, striking out 10 in 8 innings. Barfield went 4-4 in the game. We fall 7-5 the next day when Jack Clark hits a pair of homers for the Deadbirds. Nieves was not good and has been put on notice. We give away the series with a 5-0 loss on Thursday. This season sucks. Witt threw six shutout innings, matching Gooden, but our pen was miserable.

4/24 - 4/26 @ Montreal: We are hoping to start making up our 6.5 game deficit in this series. But Romanick falls to 0-3 and I officially hate that guy. Every chance I give him to start for us ends with him stinking. 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings does not give anyone a chance. Another day, another loss for the bullpen: 3-2, with Pena wearing the goat horns this time. We gave up a single run in the 8th and the 9th. We win the final game 3-2. Youmans picks up the win and has three of our five victories.

[hoopsguy]

So, what is going wrong for the Cubs? Lets take a look at the numbers:
- reigning MVP Samuel is hitting .193, although he does have ten steals. 20 K's in 83 ABs is pretty terrible, especially after he improved his batting eye in the offseason.
- 3B McGwire has four homers, but is only hitting .191. I'll give him a couple of more weeks before platooning him again.
- SP Nieves and Romanick are a combined 0-5 with ERAs over 7.50. I would be very surprised if both of them are in the rotation at the end of May.
- our bench players are not performing well at all. Wynegar, Martinez, and Magadan are all under .200
- our bullpen record is 0-5.
- every single game in our 5-12 start has been a division game.
- we are 1-6 in one run games.

I don't like our chances of winning the division, but we are better than we have shown this month. We'll improve, and I fully expect a winning record at the end of the year. Montreal (12-4) and Pittsburgh (12-5) would be advised to run and hide now, because we are going to be coming at some point.

[hoopsguy]

Oakland is off to a 14-5 start, best in the American League. A big reason, literally and figuratively, is Cecil Fielder (.313/9/19).

4/28 - 4/30 vs San Francisco: the NLCS rematch is not exactly must see TV, with the Giants also struggling (7-13). But we get a good outing from Nieves in a 2-0 win. Carter hit his 8th homer and has 15 RBIs. He has been a monster. Ontiveros picked up the first bullpen win of the year. We punish the Giants the next day 8-1, holding the Giants to two hits for the second straight day. Witt backed his own cause with 3 RBIs. And, miracle of miracles, Romanick gets a win in an 8-0 shutout to complete the sweep. Three more RBIs for Carter, who finishes the month .333/9/19.

A couple of guys who have made contributions so far but not gotten accolades are Boggs and Ray. Those guys are hitting .337 and .357, respectively. But because they don't put the ball over the wall much I don't mention them as much as the boppers.

Even with the sweep, we are eight games back.

Standings:
AL East - Milwaukee has won four straight to move to 15-7 and establish a 2.5 game lead over three teams (Baltimore, Boston, and New York). The Red Sox have won six straight. Detroit is 10-11 and 4.5 games back. Articles are beginning to appear about the changing of the guard in baseball, with Chicago and Detroit both fading into irrelevancy.

AL West - Oakland, despite losing four straight, is still two games in front of Kansas City with a 14-9 mark. Three other teams are three games back.

NL East - The Expos are a major league best 16-4 and now sit four games ahead of Pittsburgh. The rest of the division is below .500. Our four game win streak has us out of the cellar, one game above St. Louis.

NL West - The Dodgers are 16-7 and three in front of Atlanta. The Reds are 11-11, 4.5 back. All in all, there are only four NL teams with winning records in the first month of the year.

[hoopsguy]

5/1 - 5/3 vs San Diego: The Padres are one of a number of NL teams that are off to slow starts (10-12). We push our win streak to five with a 3-0 win. That was by far the best outing of the year for Langston. He went eight innings, striking out 10. Barfield hit a two run homer and is now batting .321 on the year. With Caudill nursing a minor injury, we saw Orosco pick up his 2nd save of the year. We give one back the next day in a 3-2 loss. Grrr, one run games. Pena is now 0-4 but two of the losses have been incorrectly assigned to him. This one should have been on Ontiveros. Balky game logic. And we are downed 5-2 to close out the series. Very disappointing at home. Dave Winfield hit his 5th homer of the year for the Padres.

5/4 - 5/5 vs Los Angeles: the Dodgers are firing on all cylinders at 18-8. We need to make a stand here to not give away home field advantage. We'll have a bunch of road games coming up later in the year and we have stunk on the road so far (3-7). Witt moves to 3-0 with a 5-0 win, backed by homers for McGwire and Barfield. Samuel had two hits and two steals and slowly is emerging from his slump. We pick up a 3-2 win the next day and I'm stunned/relieved that we managed a one run win. An extra inning win, no less, as this one went 13 innings. Orosco pitched three shutout innings to pick up the win.

[hoopsguy]

Fielder got even hotter since the last update, as his numbers are now .305/14/29. To put that in perspective, no one else in the majors has hit double digits for homers.

We see that both Witt and Youmans are among a small group of pitchers to provide quality starts every time out this year. Others include Greg Swindell (SD), Eric King (SF), Mario Soto (Cin), Bruce Ruffin (Tor), Neal Heaton (Tex), Joe Cowley (LA), Fernando Valenzuela (LA), Mike Scott (Hou), and Bob Shirley (SD). A lot more of those guys are in the NL, for whatever that is worth.

5/6 - 5/7 @ San Francisco: we get a 4-3 win to start off the road trip. Robbie Thompson hit his first homer of the year and brought his average up to .237. Ten more K's for Langston. Another win for Youmans, who extends his quality start string in a 9-1 laugher. Samuel had a pair of hits and three RBIs. Mattingly is only hitting .225 for the Giants.

5/8 - 5/10 @ San Diego: Ugh, a 10-8 loss pushed Nieves to 0-4 and keeps us from the .500 mark. He was awful; if Romanick gives us a decent outing on Sunday I'll likely send Nieves down to AAA. We wasted a pair of solo shots by Carter, who now has ten on the year. On the other end of the spectrum is Witt, who is 4-0 after a 3-1 win. His ERA is 0.99. Barfield homered and the bullpen gave us two lockdown innings. We lose the finale 5-4 with the only consolation being that we kept Swindell from getting a quality start.

Kurt Kepshire is promoted to take over Nieves' spot in the rotation. I do not think that he is a long-term answer but we need to do something and I'm not sure our younger pitchers are ready just yet.

[hoopsguy]

5/11 - 5/13 @ Los Angeles: a tough, tough 2-1 loss starts this series. Twelve innings of pain. Blown saves for Caudill in the 9th and a loss for Pena in the 12th. We win 8-5 the following day, proving that it is better to be Youmans (5-0) than Langston (no decision, 3-2 on year). McGwire was 3-5 with a homer in the win. Youman's lost his quality start streak while winning the game, just as Joe Cowley did while earning the loss. The swing game featured Kepshire against long-time thorn Bill Laskey. Surprisingly, we pick up a 5-3 win here. Samuel went 3-4 with a steal and an RBI double in a three run eigth as we rallied for a win. I wish we played as well against everyone else as we have against LA. Pedro Guerrero is off to a slow starting, hitting only .228.

Texas has recovered from a woeful start to move to 17-15 after a ten game win streak. The Mets are on the other end of the spectrum, dropping seven straight to fall to 12-21.

Our first look at Viola shows that he is 3-4 with a 2.80 ERA.

One guy that is off to a strong start is Milwaukee OF George Bell. He is leading the majors in hits with 49, while putting up numbers that read .348/8/20. He is in the last year of his current contract, getting just 2 1/4 million this year.

Perhaps the best start in baseball belongs to Montreal SP Ray Fontenot. He is 7-0 with a 1.82 ERA. This guy has been a pretty consistent 10-12 game winner for the Expos over his 4+ year career, but this is pretty much out of nowhere.

[hoopsguy]

5/15 - 5/17 @ Houston: The Astros are a .500 team, just a half game better than us. We pull ahead of them with a 6-2 win in the opener in 12 innings. Mel Hall crushed a three run homer in the top of the twelth and Boyd threw three strong innings of relief to get the win. I'm stunned the following day when Romanick wins a 1-0 game. He gave up just one hit over eight innings. I did not think he had that in him. The good vibes take a small hit in the finale, as we lose 2-1. Langston really has not gotten much much run support. We had ten hits in the loss. Yuck. Back to .500. Puckett is hitting .353 for the Astros.

5/18 - 5/21 vs Cincinnati: back home to face the 19-18 Reds. Hopefully we can capitalize on a pretty positive road trip with a better home showing. But that is not to be, even with ace Youmans in the opener as we lose 3-2. We fall 3-2, with Pena dropping to 0-6 on the year. That is hard to do as a reliever with a 2.00 ERA but somehow he has made that happen. I'm kind of lost on what to do about him as his pitching has been good except for that annoying loss thing. We hit into four double plays in this game. We turn our fortune around the next night with a 2-1 win in a game that had Kepshire facing Soto. Neither featured in the decision, as it went eleven innings. Instead, Pena finally got a win after throwing two shutout innings. Hall continued earning his big moment rep with a triple in the 11th and scored the winning run. And we pick up a 5-1 win in the finale, sending Witt's record to 5-0. Samuel hit his first homer on the year and drove in two. His average is now up to .263.

Another Milwaukee OF who is tearing it up this year is Eric Davis. He is celebrating his new paper (5 years, 10.6 per season) by putting up .315/10/21 w/16 steals. I wonder how Bell feels about the money his teammates are earning?

[hoopsguy]

5/22 - 5/24 vs Atlanta: the Braves are right at the top of the NL West with a 24-16 mark. We see former teammate Pascual Perez listed as the starter vs Romanick. We fall 10-6 in extra innings, with Caudill blowing another save and Aguilera giving up four in the 11th. Gah. We wasted a monster game for McGwire, who had two homers and five RBIs. The good news is that we have responded from bad losses this month and we do so again in a 4-1 win on Saturday. Wynegar had a three run homer off Hershiser and that was all Langston needed, as he stuck out ten. Youmans gives us the series with his sixth straight win, a 4-0 shutout. Well, technically not a shutout as Ontiveros recorded the final out. Carter was 3-4 with two RBIs.

5/25 - 5/27 @ Cincinnati: once again we win the Kepshire/Soto matchup, 7-6 this time in ten innings. We sure do play a lot of extra inning games. Our leaky bullpen has a lot to do with this, as Boyd gave up a pair of runs in the 8th. But Pena got his 2nd win and Caudill got the save. Barfield hit a homer in the 10th to give us the win, one of six hit between the two teams. Witt matches Youmans' record with another win against DeLeon in an 8-4 triumph. Carter homers for the second straight game and Boggs gets his first. Only 18 more for Boggs to match the PSPN projection. And we have a road sweep when Romanick gives us another strong showing in a 3-0 win. Three more hits for Ray, who is hitting .353.

5/29 - 5/31 @ Atlanta: we have a season high six game win streak after a 13-2 shelling of the Braves. Langston hits one of our five homers in the win and also recorded 14 strikeouts. Seven straight wins for both the Cubs and Youmans, thanks to a 7-1 win. Boggs hit his 3rd homer on the year in the win. He does it again the following day, and Kepshire gets his first win in a 8-3 victory. We end the month with eight straight wins.

Standings:
AL East - Milwaukee has six straight wins and a major league best 35-11 mark. The Orioles are having a fine year, but 31-18 leaves them 5.5 back. Ouch. Toronto is in last in the division at 23-25.

AL West - Oakland and Texas are in a dogfight, with the A's a half game up with a 26-22 mark. That would put them 6th in the AL East.

NL East - Montreal still leads, but our deficit is down to one game. Montreal is 29-19, while we are 28-20. No other NL East teams are above .500.

NL West - The Dodgers have the best mark in the NL at 32-19. Houston, San Diego, Atlanta, and Cincinnati all have winning records, but sit between 4-6 games behind LA.

[hoopsguy]

Some stats that should concern the Expos:
- our Pythagorean record is four games better than our actual mark.
- we are still 6-11 in one run games.
- we went 20-8 in May, a month that included 17 road games.

They can take comfort in their 5-1 mark against us, although all of those games were in April when we struggled. Also, we built our mark by going 21-7 against the West and we are due to start playing the East teams again. Finally, the Expos have played ten more road games than home games.

I've bashed our bullpen quite a bit, but one guy that has been unreal is Ed Vande Berg. He has thrown 18 innings this year without allowing an earned run. .117 BAA, 0.61 WHIP, 4 holds. Just a machine.

[hoopsguy]

6/1 - 6/3 vs Houston: wow, we blow up Houston 15-2. Win #7 for Witt, nine straight for the Cubs. Our 4-6 hitters (McGwire, Barfield, Carter) went 9-14 with two homers and ten RBIs. The win streak ends at the hands of Mike Scott (5-1, 1.18 ERA) in a 6-1 loss. But we win the series thanks to a 7-3 triumph on Wednesday. Our three big boppers - McGwire, Barfield, and Carter - all homered. Carter is up to 16, one better than Big Mac.

New York Yankee Al Leiter must be the worst starter in baseball right now. Check out his line: 0-5, 11.12 ERA, 5:36 K/BB ratio. Kansas City has a pair of pretty lousy starters as well:
Bob Knepper 1-7 7.90 ERA, 28:21 K/BB
Kelly Downs 1-8 5.10 ERA, 31:24 K/BB

What is the secret of the success for Youmans and Witt? Well, for starters each has allowed only one home run. The only other guys who can boast that are Eric Plunk (Oak), Charlie Liebrandt (Cin), and Scott (Hou).

Here are three perennial All Stars who are longshots to make it this year:
Mike Marshall (Tor) - .209/9/28
Cal Ripken (Sea) - .245/7/18
Darryl Strawberry (Mil) - .221/14/46

Detroit starter Dan Petry is out for a month or so with a serious arm injury. That is what I would call a lack of disclosure by the Tigers.

[hoopsguy]

6/4 - 6/7 vs St. Louis: the Cards have not pulled out of their early season funk and are stuck at 19-31. Their ace, Gooden, is 5-5 with a 3.91 ERA but has been a bit better of late. He is not able to stop Youmans, who moves to 8-0 with a 3-0 win. Boggs and Carter put balls in the bleachers. We take over first place with the win and a Montreal loss. That is short-lived as we fall 5-3 the next day in 11. I hate the 11th inning. I'm not a fan of Jack Clark either, who has his 2nd multi-homer game of the year against us. His second was the game winner against Pena. Another bullpen loss the next day, with Vande Berg getting hit for his first two earned runs in the top of the tenth. We take the final game 10-4, but lose Hall with a serious hip injury. Samuel and McGwire both had homers and three RBIs.

It looks like the Phillies ripped off four straight wins at home against Montreal. So we are now up 1.5 games in the division.

A further look at the Hall injury suggests that he is out until September. Here are his numbers so far: .292/4/23 w/8 steals. The worst news is that this injury was him re-aggravating a minor injury from the previous week. We'll probably give Carmelo Martinez the first shot, but maybe we'll need to make a deal. Roy Smalley is brought up from the minors to give us some depth; he may see some time in the outfield.

[hoopsguy]

6/8 - 6/10 vs New York: the Mets have fallen to 20-35 and it seems like forever ago (not last May/June) that they were leading our division. Why do they stink? Well, you can start with giving up two homer games to the opposing pitcher. Langston hit a pair of homers, and although he is a pretty fair hitter (7 career homers, >.200 average last two seasons and so far this year) that is inexcusable. Langston won his fourth consecutive outing, but lost his quality start streak (9). Youmans gets a freebie 9th win against Leiter, 8-3. Two hits and three RBI for Martinez, good to see. We pick up another victory the following day, 7-4. Our first three hitters - Samuel, Ray, and Boggs - combined for seven hits and seven RBIs. The pitching outside of Jimmy Key (under contract for 3 years @ 16.6 million a season) is horrific.

Bill Wegman (Bal) threw a no-hitter against Toronto. 4-0 final, with the Jays only managing four walks. Wegman cemented his status as a rising star in the organization. He is 6-5 with a 2.47 ERA, a 2:1 K/BB ratio, is holding opposing hitters under .200 and has a WHIP of 0.96. Stud, particularly in the American League.

[hoopsguy]

6/12 - 6/14 @ St. Louis: we win a wild one in the opener, 9-8. Witt gave away a 6-1 lead, but we never trailed. Carter had three RBI's, moving to 47 and widening his team lead on teammates Barfield and McGwire. Here are the top five in RBIs in the National League:
1. Carter 47
2. Clark (StL) 44
3. Barfield 36
4. McGwire 35
4. Puckett (Hou) 35
4. Jim Traber (Hou) 35

The scoring is way down in the next game as Romanick moves his record to .500 with a 3-0 win. The Cards only mustered three hits. Barfield homered for the second straight game. Langston keeps the Cards scoreless again the next day, going the distance and collecting ten strikeouts in a 5-0 win.

7/15 - 7/18 vs Philadelphia: the Phillies were rolling, putting up seven straight wins, before heading into Montreal and getting swept. There were a couple of gut-punch losses, as the Expos had a pair of walk-off homers. Now they get us. They are ready, giving Youmans his first loss in a 2-0 game that snapped our seven game winning streak. Boy, were they ready as Dave Dravecky and Lee Smith combined to no-hit us. What an ass their manager was to pull Dravecky after eight innings and 102 pitches. Smith walked three and struck out three in the bottom of the ninth. Man, I wish we had broken through in that spot. We bomb them 7-1 the following day as Carter ups his homer total by two, up to 19. McGwire hit his 17th homer, had three hits, and is now batting .291. Witt, our last undefeated starter, goes to 8-0 in an 8-4 win where every starter got a hit. And we punish them late in the fourth game of the series, 9-2. #20 for Carter.

Dodger Mike Davis may not make the All Star game due to a fibula injury that will sideline him for a month. His .324/8/24 stats certainly would have given him a good shot, although OF is a tough spot in the NL.

A guy who should be starting in the NL All-Star outfield is Dale Murphy. He just keeps putting up numbers: .318/14/37 w/14 steals. Stud.

Texas starter Neal Heaton is out three weeks with a shoulder injury.

Oakland fatass Cecil Fielder has seen his average slip to .259, but his 24 homers and 53 RBIs are no laughing matter.

Not much has gone right for Kansas City this year, but they have to be pleased with Cory Snyder. .281/17/42 spits in the face of any so-called sophomore jinx.

[hoopsguy]

6/19 - 6/22 vs Pittsburgh: the Pirates are eleven back of us and it is tough to imagine them climbing over a bunch of teams if they don't start winning in a hurry. We don't help them, as Langston wins his 6th straight decision 6-1. Another complete game, eleven more strikeouts (110 leads majors). and at 9-3 with a 2.60 ERA he is making a serious All-Star push. Youmans looks very ordinary in a 5-1 loss. Mike Pagliarulo, who was a monster last year, has homered in both games and now has ten on the year. We take a 9-8 win (10 innings) on Sunday afternoon. The offense had twenty hits on the day and four starters (Boggs, Carter, McGwire, and Ray) are hitting over .300. We take an ugly 7-1 loss in the final game, as Witt loses his first game. Ex-Cub Mike Morgan wins his 3rd game of the year, getting a complete game.

Morgan as Cub: 42-19
Morgan as Pirate: 10-21
One season split between teams: 9-6

Considering that we have lost to him three times, I think we are more responsible for his success than he is.

6/23 - 6/25 @ New York: unlike our series in Chicago, we get Key this time around. And he beats us 5-1 with ex-Cub Gaetti going nuts with three homers. 4-4, three homers, five RBIs. Damn, he was a one-man wrecking crew. Of course, I'll take McGwire over Gaetti's .231/12/39. Langston snaps our two game skid with a commanding 2-0 win. Scioscia has not had his best season, but he had both RBIs in this win. Boyd got his 8th hold on the year. Youmans loses again - he is streaky and in a bad one now - in the finale, 5-3. Gaetti added another three run bomb. Talk about making a guy ...

[hoopsguy]

So we just noticed that the Brewers did pick up Mike Witt off the FA scrap heap at the start of the year. He has been a big part of their success, going 10-2 with a 3.04 ERA. And he is getting well compensated: 5 years @ 16,873,444 a year. Good for him; I just hope we don't see the Brewers in the World Series because I want nothing to do with him in the postseason.

Witt has pushed Moose Haas, at age 31, into the background for the Brewers. But he is still plenty good: 8-3, 2.36 ERA.

Don Mattingly has gotten it going for San Francisco after a slow start. His .309/14/37 numbers have him in line for another All Star appearance.

Danny Tartabull is an emerging star for the Yankees. He was terrific for the Yankees last year, making the All Star team and at age 25 he is still improving. .306/17/38 this year should have him as a lock to start at short in the mid-summer classic. He is also in the last year of his contract, making only 428K. Someone is getting PAID this off-season, if not sooner.

Back to the games ..

6/26 - 6/28 @ Pittsburgh: Kepshire moves to 3-0 with a 4-1 win. We've bested Sid Fernandez twice, although that is not rare this year since he is 3-7. You would have a hard time picking three more unlikely guys on our roster to homer than we had this game: Smalley (1), Buechele (2), and Martinez (3). Caudill is now 15/17 in save situations with a 1.50 ERA. Witt moves to 9-1 with a 4-1 win as Buechele homers for the second straight game. Witt only gave up two hits in eight innings. But the Pirates win the finale 5-1.

The Expos swept a home series against St. Louis to move within 1.5 and will now be hosting us. We'll have the top of our rotation ready for that series.

[hoopsguy]

6/29 - 7/1 @ Montreal: heading into this series, these two teams have the best records in the National League. Montreal has been mopping people up at home lately, going 11-3 at home this month. We win a doozy in the opener, 8-7 thanks in part to the first two homers in Dave Magadan's career. Lance Parrish had a pair for Montreal. There were nine total homers in this one. We scored three runs in the 8th/9th to force extras before Magadan hit one out in the 11th. Pena threw three shutout innings for the win. Youmans gets back on track the next day, winning his 10th in decisive fashion, 4-0. McGwire hit his 20th on the year and Carter added his 22nd. We make it three straight as Kepshire keeps his mojo going in an 8-4 win. Barfield hit #17 in the win and Magadan had two more RBIs. I certainly did not expect a sweep in this spot. But as a result, we have a 4.5 game division lead.

Standings:
AL East - Milwaukee has come back to earth to some extent, but still sits at 50-25. That is good enough for a 4.5 game lead on Baltimore. Detroit is now in the cellar in this division at 36-39 and the stats suggest they don't have enough hitting nor top-end pitching to succeed in baseball's toughest division. Their 15-22 division record backs that conclusion.

AL West - Oakland and Texas have made everyone else in the division also-rans. Oakland, at 45-31, is one game up on the defending champs. Texas has scored the most runs in the majors (one more run than us) and their run differential of 69 is considerably better than the +29 for Oakland.

NL East - you know about us vs Montreal. Pittsburgh is 3rd in the division at 34-41, twelve games back. I'm happy to report that the Cardinals, at 27-50, are the worst team in baseball.

NL West - Los Angeles, at 46-33, is back on top. They are two up on San Diego and four ahead of Atlanta. Houston remains in contention at five back. San Francisco is poised for a first-to-worst run with their 35-43 mark.

Carter is #1 this week on the "Bill Harris Sabermetric Corner RC/27" rating, just ahead of Kevin Mitchell. The Padre slugger is poised to keep McGwire on the bench at the All-Star game, thanks to his .330/12/46 stat line. Mitchell has been a productive hitter the past three season, but has never hit better than .275 before so this is new territory for him. Mitchell is a steal at 1.2 million for the next four seasons.

I may have counted Mike Marshall out of the All Star game too early, as he is now up to .248/18/58. We'll see what the rest of the crop of third basemen looks like in the AL, but I suspect it will be hard to overlook 60 RBIs at the break.

A perennial All Star who will certainly be home is Paul Molitor. Despite a fourteen game hitting streak, he is only hitting .233 with six homers and 28 RBIs. Hard to fathom after he hit .339 last year.

Tony Phillips (Atl) now has a seventeen game hitting streak. Kind of hard to believe for a guy hitting just .258 on the year.

[hoopsguy]

7/3 - 7/5 vs San Francisco: Witt becomes the third Cub starter to win ten games in a 9-3 victory. Every starter had a hit; all but Barfield hit multi-hit games. Carter hit #23 and now has 59 RBIs. The next day is more competitive, but we put it away late in a 6-2 win. McGwire is 4-4 to move back above .300 for the season. And we have a sweep when Langston wins #11 by a 5-1 margin. Barfield hit his 18th in the win.

Phillips runs his hit streak up to 21 before the All Star lineups are announced.

[hoopsguy]

Viola - FA acquisition by Orioles for 5 years @ 16,529,994 per season. He is 8-7 with a 3.03 ERA. The AL is allowing him to go longer in games, as he has 8 complete games and a shutout. He has a sparkling 112:48 K/BB ratio, but his BAA (.248) and WHIP (1.27) are pretty ordinary by his standards. The Orioles have been a very improved team this year and I'm sure he has been a big part of this.

Witt - FA pickup before the start of the year by the Brewers, who have been the best team in baseball most of the year. His five year deal for $16,873,444 is the 6th richest for a pitcher in the majors. He is 11-3 with a 3.19 ERA for Milwaukee, although he is throwing fewer complete games (2) in the AL than he did for us last year. His strikeouts (69) are way down from last year when he recorded 199. Guys are making good contact against him: .262 BAA and 1.38 WHIP.

Gullickson - remains unsigned, his requested salary is $14,371,182. I would like to see him back in baseball ASAP but I have not activated commissioner mode at any point in the game when good players have languished on the sidelines. I'm not going to pull the trigger here, even though I consider a guy like this missing seasons (or even substantial time) a bug.

[hoopsguy]

Tigers - right now they are middle of the pack in both runs scored (308 - 16th) and runs allowed (317 - 14th) which tells me that they don't do anything particularly well. That is a problem when they are in the best division in baseball. The Milwaukee franchise has been loading up with talented players for years and it looks like their time has come this season. Baltimore and Boston both have been better the past couple of seasons. I've mentioned Toronto quite a bit over the years. Bottom line, this division is stacked this year.

A deeper look at the players shows that C Lance Parrish has put up a horrible season this year. The 31 year old is the full time catcher, but his numbers of .210/5/24 suggest a platoon player. I would be surprised if they bring him back next year, which would free up 15 million in salary to go get someone better.

Kirk Gibson is also having a poor season. He is 30, in the last year of his contract (only 3.2 million?) and putting up .249/2/16. Hard to fathom, as it looks like he still has skills.

Sandberg's numbers are down a bit (.272/9/26), but Trammell is having a huge year (.343/14/45). Simmons still looks like a long-term stud (.265/12/41) and I think they can expect several more productive years from Baines (.298/9/42). Those guys are the core players for the Tigers at this stage. Pretty good core, in my opinion. But the overall production in terms of runs scored suggests there is tinkering needed.


Pitching - I see some pretty serious problems here.

Morris is not the guy he was in 1980. He is now 32 and his skills are declining. So is his record, which is 2-7 with a 3.48 ERA. In the last seven seasons he has win totals of 15, 13, 22, 18, 22, 21, and 16. So this year is like falling off a cliff for him. I would be stunned if he ever sniffs 20 wins again; it is more realistic to expect 10-12 for the next 2-4 years until he retires and is hopefully elected to the Hall of Fame.

So what do the Tigers have behind Morris to pick up the slack? Well, the guy with the most wins on the staff is middle reliever Bruce Robbins with 8. Ouch.

Rozema has five wins (5-3, 2.99 ERA) and probably has the best stuff among the starters. But he is also 31.

Petry is 4-1 with a 3.44 ERA. He is 29, so he probably has another couple of years of near peak performance, but he has missed about six starts this year due to injury.

Dan Schatzeder is 33. Are you picking up on a theme with their starting pitching? For a team with the highest payroll in the game year in and year out, they have done a poor job of identifying young talent among starting pitchers.

Keith Atherton is no longer closing games for the Tigers. That seems like a mistake when you look at the "production" by Ed Olwine, the guy who replaced him last season. 1-3 6.26 ERA, 16 saves, 6 blown, BAA .306 and a 1.61 WHIP.

So, in summary the Tigers starting pitching has gotten old, their closer stinks, and there is tinkering needed around a good core of young and mature hitters.

[hoopsguy]

I'm pretty surprised by the success our young pitchers have had. Youmans and Bobby Witt have been monsters and filled two of the spots of our "Big Three" pretty ably. Langston was good in the past, but seems to have gotten better ... his "clunker" outings are not as terrible. Ditto Romanick, although he has gone from being a bad starter to being a mediocre starter, in my mind. Kepshire is doing it with smoke and mirrors.

Our hitting has not been a surprise to me, as I thought we had a really deep lineup. If we had Samuel performing at the same level as he did last year this would be a more fearsome group than the '86 Rangers.

I have not yet looked at our salary/FA status, but it probably is time to do so.

This year is very manageable. The list of FA's is as follows:
Smalley - 35 year old backup is gone after the year.
Orosco - 30 year old reliever (former closer) is looking for more than 5 million per year. He still has good skills and his 73 potential suggests that he can sustain performance into his 30s better than most (dude pitched forever in real life). I'll think about it.
Aguilera - although he is in the middle of our pen, his agent thinks he is a #1 starter and is asking for 14+ million. Needless to say, this is not an exemption guy. I'll either move him before the deadline for ten cents on the dollar or let him go.
Martinez - this guy is a pretty good player and is getting an extended audition with the Hall injury. I can extend him for 4+ million. Again, I'll think about it. Both he and Orosco are beneficiaries of a weak year for me, coupled with the new house rule about not extending guys prior to their last year under contract.
Jose Nunez - our 5th round pick this year can be retained for 400K. Almost a sure thing even with his meager 38 potential.
Magadan - this guy could be a pretty good hitter for average/OBP. He can also be extended super-cheap (350-400K). We add him on for two years @ 357,181, leaving us $9,642,819 for other re-signings.

[hoopsguy]

American League All-Stars:
1B Cecil Fielder (Oak) .265/27/60 - last year on contract, earning 812K this year. Already exceed HR total (26) from last year.
SS Danny Tartabull (NYY) .285/17/39 - repeat selection. Last year on contract, earning 429K this year.
3B Alan Trammell (Det) .343/14/45 - repeat selection, 4th time overall
LF George Bell (Mil) .317/17/52 - another guy in contract year, earning 2.3 million this year
RF Pete Incaviglia (Tex) .300/19/53 - repeat selection. Defending MVP is having "quiet" monster season.
CF Kevin McReynolds (Cle) .278/17/46
2B Tony Bernazard (NYY) .279/13/38
C Bill Schroeder (Tor) .295/8/30

American League All Star Reserves:
1B Wally Joyner (NYY) .306/14/48 - another contract year, he has not shrunk from pressure of earning 20 million this year.
SS Robin Yount (Tex) .318/10/38 - 4th All Star team, how many more in store for 32 year old in walk year?
CF Dave Henderson (Tex) .278/16/42
LF Rafael Palmeiro (Bos) .285/16/63
CF Eric Davis (Mil) .274/18/39 w/26 steals
2B Tim Teufel (Cle) .276/14/40
1B Fred McGriff (NYY) .247/13/39 - huh?

American League All Star Pitching Staff:
SP Zane Smith (Bal) 10-7 2.47 ERA, 4 CG, 83:41 K/BB, .230 BAA, 1.20 WHIP
SP Greg Matthews (Sea) 9-5 2.57 ERA, 5 CG, 1 SO, 70:42 K/BB, .213 BAA, 1.10 WHIP
SP Moose Haas (Mil) 9-3 2.58 ERA, 5 CG, 1 SO, 63:37 K/BB, .228 BAA, 1.13 WHIP. 31 year old starter in last year of contract (15.4 million).
CL Roger McDowell (Cle) 0-0 1.44 ERA, 24 saves, 2 blown, 15:4 K/BB, .223 BAA, 1.00 WHIP
SP Mark Gubicza (Tor) 10-4 3.05 ERA, 8 CG, 1 SO, 90:48 K/BB, .208 BAA, 1.14 WHIP. 2nd AS selection.
SP Storm Davis (Tex) 11-3 3.04 ERA, 4 CG, 95:53 K/BB, .214 BAA, 1.20 WHIP
MR Randy St. Claire (Mil) 4-1 1.47 ERA, 3 saves, 1 blown, 6 holds, 17:11 K/BB, .203 BAA, 1.04 WHIP
MR Barry Jones (KC) 1-1 1.62 ERA, 1 save, 1 blown, 1 hold, 27:17 K/BB, .228 BAA, 1.28 WHIP
MR Andy Mcgaffigan (Bos) 0-0 2.63 ERA, 5 holds, 33:12 K/BB, .171 BAA, 0.91 WHIP. Repeat selection.
MR Jeff Musselman (Min) 2-1 2.10 ERA, 1 save, 1 blown, 1 hold, 34:23 K/BB, .241 ERA, 1.34 WHIP

[hoopsguy]

National League All Star Starters:
LF Joe Carter (Chi) .307/23/59 - 2nd selection
3B Mark McGwire (Chi) .302/20/51
2B Kevin Mitchell (SD) .319/13/47 - only 14 of 75 appearances have been at 2B
CF Dale Murphy (Atl) .312/15/40 w/17 steals - repeat selection, 4th time overall
CF Kirby Puckett (Hou) .363/2/46 - they are sliding him over to RF, listed incorrectly in press release
1B Don Mattingly (SF) .301/14/37 w/11 steals - repeat selection, 4th selection in five years
C Benito Santiago (LA) .297/9/31 - has been an impact rookie
SS Jose Oquendo (SD) .313/2/31

Reserves:
RF Jesse Barfield (Chi) .277/18/49 - 3rd time AS
RF Jack Clark (StL) .267/15/53 - 3rd time AS
1B Will Clark (NYM) .279/21/51
3B Nick Esasky (LA) .270/15/47 - repeat selection, 4th time in five years
2B Jim Pankovits (SF) .290/11/30
2B Tim Raines (Mon) .304/4/30 - 2nd time AS
LF Pedro Guerrero (LA) .279/11/39 -3rd straight, 5th time overall. 31 year old is in walk year (15 million)

Pitching Staff:
SP Fernando Valenzuela (LA) 10-2 2.02 ERA, 2 CG, 2 SO, 99:48 K/BB, .190 BAA, 1.06 WHIP. 2nd selection.
SP Ray Fontenot (Mon) 10-2 2.38 ERA, 3 CG, 1 SO, 38:20 K/BB, .238 BAA, 1.08 WHIP
SP Mark Langston (Chi) 11-3 2.49 ERA, 2 CG, 1 SO, 126:37 K/BB, .203 BAA, 1.06 WHIP
SP Bobby Witt (Chi) 10-1 2.63 ERA, 2 CG, 1 SO, 119:60 K/BB, .182 BAA, 1.15 WHIP
SP Floyd Youmans (Chi) 10-3 2.50 ERA, 1 CG, 97:35 K/BB, .214 BAA, 1.13 WHIP
CL Cecilio Guante (Cin) 0-2 2.45 ERA, 25 saves, 1 blown, 24:11 K/BB, .255 BAA, 1.36 WHIP. Repeat selection, 3rd time overall.
MR John Cerutti (Cin) 2-0 1.70 ERA, 2 holds, 31:20 K/BB, .220 BAA, 1.24 WHIP
MR Randy Myers (Hou) 6-4 1.95 ERA, 2 saves, 2 blown, 6 holds, 75:28 K/BB, .206 BAA, 1.23 WHIP
MR Greg Booker (LA) 5-4 1.80 ERA, 2 saves, 1 blown, 7 holds, 23:15 K/BB, .189 BAA, 0.98 WHIP
MR Eric Show (Pit) 6-4 2.01 ERA, 1 save, 2 blown, 7 holds, 34:14 K/BB, .207 BAA, 1.05 WHIP

[hoopsguy]

7/6 - 7/8 vs San Diego: Youmans gets his 11th win in a 6-5 decision. That is also our 7th win in a row. Boggs had three hits and three RBIs. More runs for both sides the next day, as we win 11-9. We trailed 8-2 after four innings in this one. It is uncanny how we never lose in Kepshire's starts. McGwire had homer #21 as well as three hits and three RBIs. We put the broom to the Padres with a 3-1 win in the finale. Barfield homers for the second straight day and now has twenty on the year. Ruben Sierra homered in two of the three games for the Padres.

Tony Phillips (Atl) has now hit in 25 straight games, which is the longest recorded streak in the 80's.

Two of our guys - Samuel and Boggs - are tied for the NL lead in runs with 53. The third person in that tie is Will Clark (NYM). Incaviglia leads all of baseball with 58.

There is another Bill Harris stat shown from time to time called Power/Speed Number. The Brewers currently own this ranking.
#1 Eric Davis
#2 Darryl Strawberry
#4 George Bell
#7 Greg Walker

Texas has lost Ivan Calderon to a torn calf muscle. He won't be back until late August. He was a presence in the middle of their lineup: .248/13/58.

[hoopsguy]

7/9 - 7/12 vs Los Angeles: time for a battle of division leaders. We know and respect their pitching staff, no matter how badly we smashed them earlier this season. We get off to a good start with our 10th straight win, 6-4, Romanick over Welch. Boggs hit his 9th homer among his three hits and Martinez had three RBIs. The next day matches All-Stars Valenzuela/Langston and we earn a 2-1 victory. The beat keeps going (11 and counting) with a 7-1 win. Barfield puts two over the wall and has four RBIs. Kepshire finally takes a loss, in a game where he pitched well, 2-1 in the finale. Both Dodgers runs were unearned.

Roger Clemens stops the Phillips hit streak at 25, holding him to 0-4 with three strikeouts.

7/16 - 7/19 @ San Francisco: a new win streak begins with a 6-4 win. Three more hits and four RBI for Boggs; he is dialed in right now. Witt is now 12-1. The big dogs are out the next day in a 10-5 win where Carter hits 24 and McGwire adds his 22nd. The Giants win the Saturday night game 5-2, and we continue to wonder how in the world Jim Pankovits is any good. He homered and was on base three times. The dude stinks, but he kills us and was an All Star. We pound them 11-4 to close out the series. Two more bombs for Big Mac (24) and another Barfield shot (23).

[hoopsguy]

OK, I'm considering some pre-deadline trade moves and it is time to see what comes due next year. It is frightening, probably moreso than last season.

OF - Mel Hall. I can manage this with a Martinez extension this year, to some extent.

2B - Johnny Ray. Thompson should definitely be ready by this time.

C - Both Scioscia and Wynegar are done. We drafted one this year and I think we could probably extend Scioscia again, based on past negotiations.

P - Boyd, Langston, Witt, Vande Berg, Kepshire, Ontiveros. Gulp.

1B - Boggs

I'm definitely going to use the franchise tag on one of the starters, which will mean that we have to part ways with longtime Cub Wade Boggs. We're also going to lose a stud starter (Witt/Langston) and a couple of guys in the pen who could help fill the hole (Boyd/Kepshire). Harsh.

So, I'm looking at moving Aguilera and probably Buechele for some more pitching. With Aguilera I'll take what I can get. With other players I'll likely be a little more picky.

Aguilera - we could grab Gary Pettis from Detroit, who would basically be a 5th OF when Hall returns. And a pinch-runner off the bench. But he is signed for three years, I guess.

San Diego LF Gary Redus is pretty close to the same player, but he is only signed through this year. I have no idea what kind of money he would be looking for in an extension. He is also 31, so he is probably due to see his ratings crash and burn soon.

Ted Power (SF) is a serviceable reliever with two years on his deal, but he is 32. Not wild about this either.

Those are the choices, so I help Detroit address their greatest weakness (young SP) in exchange for a scrub. Perfect.