[Augetout]

Obscure Reference (Gathering Crowds) Baseball League’s Padres from ’83 onward.

The ORGCBL began with a fantasy draft (with historical players) before the 1983 season.

Disclosures:
1. I am taking full advantage of my ‘arrival knowledge’ i.e. the scouting is 100% accurate, and I know that Maddux, et al, will be HOF players. On the negative side, so do all the other teams…


2. I have the trade settings on the most difficult.


3. I have the financial settings at accurate, which for those scoring at home means my Padres have a difficult time paying players once they are done with arbitration.


4. I have it so I cannot be fired---I cannot see the logic in putting so much ‘work’ into building the ‘perfect’ team so I can end up coaching the ChiSox… (no offense intended for any ChiSox fans out there in OOTP land).


5. I have the players set on their stars being reset each year based on real world performance---see #1 for the why.


Thus far, the seasons have gone pretty much as expected: In ’83, my Padres were lucky to avoid losing 100 games---this was necessary in order to stockpile future stars such as the aforementioned Maddux, etc.

In ’84, San Diego managed to win 94 games but fell 1 game short of the NL West title (to the hated Dodgers, no less).

In ’85 we made the playoffs, and yes I realize the irony in my ‘dynasty’ Padres arriving in the playoffs a year late, but lost in the NLCS, to the Phillies.

I’m blowing thru the first few seasons, yes, but there is a method to the madness.

In ’86, the Padres won 107 games and a World Series trophy. That it was against the Twins was a small measure of ‘revenge’ for the ’87 Twinkies beating my then 3rd favorite team, the Redbirds.

In ’87, San Diego won 102 games, but we were swept out of the NLCS by a Redbirds team that really didn’t belong in the same stadium as my Padres, sigh.

In ’88, my Padres won 114 games, and the NLCS rematch with the Cardinals, then beat a good Seattle (yes, that Seattle) team in the World Series for a 2nd trophy-hoisting in the 6 seasons I have been the Manager/GM (take THAT, Whitey Herzog—to be fair he was 1 for 3 with the Redbirds).

Which brings us to the ’89 season, which the game engine predicts will be another successful year for San Diego’s anti-Dodger dynasty. All with a payroll that is in the bottom half of the league.

I highly doubt any one of us who has played OOTP extensively has much of a challenge ahead of them in building a team from scratch, regardless of settings financial or otherwise. For me, then, the challenge is to maintain the ‘dynasty,’ taking advantage of ‘arrival knowledge’ while being hamstrung by game variables and (of course) the financial constraints of having chosen to run the Padres.
As such, the initial (1983) fantasy draft was more about stockpiling future talent than current talent---kudos to the game developers in anticipating that strategy and having some teams dilute the talent by using the same (basically) strategy as I planned on using. From there, it has been about trading talent in the downward spiral caused by the ‘most difficult’ trade settings, and guessing correctly on which team would end up with the first draft pick in the next draft. Thus far it has been a successful strategy, as witnessed by the 1989 Padres starting lineup:

C: Mickey Tettleton, switch-hitting (still young) power hitting catcher, acquired via trade after I decided that Tony Pena’s performance was not matching his hefty (for the Padres) $1.6 million salary. Tettleton’s backup is promoted too soon Jim Leyritz (this due to Atlanta’s odd refusal to part with Steve Lake, who I wanted strictly for defense and sentimental reasons). On a plus note, I had traded Steve Lake to the Braves a couple years prior, and thus with their refusal to return him to me I avoided overpaying twice.

1B: Fred McGriff. ’88 was McGriff’s 1st year with the Padres. He was acquired via trade from the KC Royals that sent the great but way too expensive Ryne Sandberg to KC. This caused a need to get rid of drafted 1B Mark Grace, (who went to the Mariners, joining Paul Molitor, who had been traded a year earlier.

2B: Roberto Alomar’s rookie season for the ORGCBL was ’88, and San Diego is hoping for big things for this season. He was drafted by the Padres (as in the real world).

SS: Ozzie Smith was returned to the Padres via the initial fantasy draft, and while he has been being paid too much relative to other SS in the league, he has (despite his absurdly not high enough defensive ratings) played solid defense (other than that one 5 ERROR game in ’86), and has basically been a .300 hitter despite his real world stats. He is a free agent after ’89, and given his high salary/lowering performance I am not sure he will be a Padre in ’90. One wonders if the 2 World Series he won with the Padres will be enough for him to wear a brown hat in Cooperstown…

3B: Edgar Martinez (probably a year or 2 early). Terry Pendleton manned the left corner for San Diego from ’83-88, but the drop off in defensive abilities (I am hoping that even a year or two early version of E-Mart will match up with the ‘meh’ performance of Pendleton’s years) the move made sense, as the Padres’ payroll needed the help.

LF: Barry Bonds---I drafted Bonds out of college. In fact, I traded for the pick(s) so I would have a shot at drafting Barry Bonds. Truth be told, it was a bit of a bummer on a couple of levels: I had Vince Coleman and the west coast version of the ‘white rats’ ran roughshod over the rest of the league, and I (still?) have a bad taste in my mouth from the post-steroids version of Bonds…

CF: Ken Griffey Jr.-----I drafted Griffey, and as with the pick used for Bonds, I had to pull off multiple trades just to have that pick. ’89 is his rookie year. As such he is hitting 7th, at least temporarily. I was sad to part with Willie McGee, but geez, I have ‘the kid.’
RF Tony Gwynn. I drafted Mr. Padre in the initial fantasy draft as it wouldn’t seem right for him to be on any other team.

One small problem: Gwynn, Griffey, Bonds, and McGriff, pretty much the heart of the batting order, are all left-handed hitters, which makes San Diego somewhat vulnerable to lefty pitchers, especially lefty specialists in the late innings. Ozzie, Alomar, and Tettleton are all switch hitters, but the first 2 are top of the lineup guys and Tettleton is not good enough to push any of the big four backwards in the lineup (in fact, Tettleton is hitting in the 8 hole). E-Mart will help as time goes by, but ’89 might be a little tougher for my Padres, offensively. Good thing the rotation is (bias alert) probably the best in the league:

SP1: Orel Hershiser---I drafted Hershiser in the initial fantasy draft in a fit of addition by addition and by subtraction (I have him, AND the Dodgers do not). Sadly, ’89 is probably his last year as a member of the Padres, as he will be a free agent, wants a long-term deal at $3.8 million per year (over 15% of my payroll), and will see his performance drop (not horribly, but still) quickly to a point where trading him away would be impossible. I could trade him this year, but my fans have ‘poor’ loyalty level, and such actions have a direct impact on attendance, merchandising, etc., which in turn runs a large risk of negatively affecting my budget.

SP2: Greg Maddux. I drafted him way to early in the initial fantasy draft, and waited patiently for his arrival in the big leagues. Maddux did not disappoint, having a ‘decent’ rookie year in ’87 (13-6 w/ 3.14 ERA), before heading right to ‘ace-land’ in ’88, with a Cy Young runner up 22-4, 2.07 ERA (he was robbed in the voting, imho), campaign. Fun note: Maddux will only begin to be arbitration eligible after the ’89 season, but for some unknown reasons the owner who keeps telling me to save money wants me to sign him to an extension well ahead of time (one benefit of having a ‘no fire’ clause/setting is that I will be ignoring that particular request).

SP3: Tom Candiotti. As with Hershiser and Maddux, I drafted Candiotti in the initial fantasy draft, (probably a bit early). He will never be ‘great’ but he has been solid and/or good, and is relatively cheap ($2.2 million per year on his extension he signed last year).

SP4: Tom Glavine---I traded a prime Jimmy Key, some other players and some draft picks to get my hands on Glavine. He spent ’88 as a rookie #5 starter, and was 3rd in the RoY voting (another mugging, imho).

SP5: John Smoltz (rookie). I traded for the draft pick, and used it to take Smoltz. He only spent 2 years in the minors, and frankly he should have been promoted in the 2nd year---I simply had no room for him in the rotation until the roster expansion in September, at which time he announced his presence in the league by going 4-1 with a 1.57 ERA in his 5 starts. It made parting with Higuera (former #2 starter) a little easier (his arm went to hell in the ‘prime’ timeline, and his ratings will suffer as a result, although it pays to note that by not having historical retirements or historical injuries, there is still, even in 1988, an occasional Pete Vuckovich sighting, and even a Mark ‘the Bird’ Fidrych sighting or two when perusing minor league rosters).

In the bullpen:

Closer: Tom Henke. I drafted Henke in the initial fantasy draft and suffered through his ‘early’ years. Given that his performance in ’88 was relatively close to his real-world numbers, I am hoping ’89 is the first truly dominant year he’ll have.

Stopper: Greg Olson. I drafted Olson---like the other players I drafted outside of the initial fantasy draft, I had to trade for the pick and then use it on Olson.

Setup: Doug Jones. I drafted Jones in the initial fantasy draft, and suffered through the ’83-87 seasons watching him flounder in the minors. He was solid in his ’88 rookie campaign, and is less than pleased to not be the closer…

Middle Reliever/Lefty: Ken Dayley. I fear Dayley’s best days are behind him, but he’ll be ok for (at least) ’89. As I play the games manually (at bat by at bat, not pitch by pitch) I can report that he is better in high leverage situations (runners on base) than he is with a clean inning.

Middle Reliever: Roger McDowell. I traded for McDowell during the ’85 season, and he has been ‘meh’ throughout his tenure.

Long reliever/emergency starter: John Cerutti. I drafted Cerutti in the initial fantasy draft, and he has been only a little more ‘meh’ than McDowell. At the time there was no realistic expectation that I would be able to reassemble 3/5 of the Braves 90s rotation---that’s my story and I’ll stick to it.

Going back to the ‘too many lefties in the everyday lineup’ problem, it pays to note that I parted with a boatload of prospects to acquire the draft picks needed to have Frank Thomas and Mike Piazza (a year late, if baseball reference dot com is to be believed) in my minors with impending arrival dates of next season. This of course suggests that I will need to part with Fred McGriff, and Mickey Tettleton in order to make room. I will also need to have Andy Benes be ready to be 1990’s #5 starter (chances are very good that will work out) to replace the free agent-departing Orel Hershiser. I have traded for my beloved backup infielder Jose Vizcaino, who might serve as an adequate stop-gap replacement for Ozzie Smith, who will also be leaving via free agency unless his salary demands come down significantly. All that, and I need to acquire the #1 draft pick so I can add Chipper Jones to the Padres, so I will have someone to replace E-Mart once his salary demands are worse than his defense…

Errors (or features, depending on perspective) I have noticed:
1. I could not find the setting to make it so the owner could not ‘take over’ my draft budget, which in turn made it impossible for me to sign draft pick Andy Benes. While that was less than fun, Andy Benes showed up as a free agent, and while he was unwilling to negotiate with the Padres as a draft pick, he was perfectly willing to sign a minor league deal as a free agent---with the Padres.

2. The occasional wildly foul ball that ends up being a groundout is both amusing and frustrating.

3. In the World Series, the game tends to get who is ahead (in games won) incorrect.

Karma bummer: Dave Dravecky escaped his real-world cancer diagnosis, but despite the injury setting not being historically accurate, he still managed to blow out his arm and as such his virtual career will end pretty much in sync with his actual career…
Karma bummer (or not?) #2: Pete Rose retired early in the ORGCBL, thus this past off-season was enshrined in the HOF despite NOT being the all time hits leader, and (I assume) before issues with his gambling were known---heck, I even voted for him.

At any rate, the ORGCBL (Obscure Reference, Gathering Crowds, Baseball League) just had Opening Day festivities for the 1989 season, any my Padres are 0-1 thanks to closer Tom Henke blowing a 2 run lead in the top of the 9th against the heretofore lowly San Francisco Giants, sigh…

Updates on this particular dynasty will not come on a daily basis, but I hope any/all who bother to read the entries gain some semblance of enjoyment out of reading about the Padres’ struggle to become and then maintain a dynasty, despite having a fan base that barely knows they exist, and an owner who is ahead of time in the ‘moneyball’ expectations of continuously reloading with a low budget…

Cheers,

Augetout