You're Fired

[David Watts]

Before coming to work this morning I finished up the 1971 World Series. The San Francisco Giants defeated the New York Yankee 4 games to 3 to join the 1970 Detroit Tigers as the leagues first two champions. I've decided to do something I haven't done for awhile. I'm going to manage a team. Now, I'm usually awful at this for so many reasons it would be pointless to even try and list them all. It usually doesn't take long for me to get the email saying your FIRED! I do all kinds of dumb things when I manage. The phone will ring and I will think I'm smart enough to hold a conversation and game manage at the same time. Next thing you know, I'm down 14 and my pitcher is double exhausted. I also tend to get angry at relief pitchers and this will often lead to me punishing them by leaving them in games till I feel they have suffered enough. I will try my best to be better. Maybe I will put the phone in another room......

This is a random debut league that started in 1970. I deleted the California Angels, Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres and the Milwaukee Brewers. I changed the Washington Senators to the Texas Rangers.

Here is the league Setup

American League

East
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
Cleveland Guardians
Detroit Tigers
New York Yankees

West
Chicago White Sox
Houston Astros
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins
Texas Rangers

National League

East
Atlanta Braves
Cincinnati Reds
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
New York Mets

West
Chicago Cubs
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland A's
San Francisco Giants
St. Louis Cardinals

This morning I decided to accept a job offer from the Minnesota Twins. The Twins finished in the AL West cellar in 1971, Grady Sizemore is their best player, but they should get a pretty high pick in the upcoming draft. I took the job just before heading out the door to work, so I didn't really get a chance to look at the roster.

3 year recalc(I may have unchecked the box for double weight current year when I created the league. If I did, I did so just to be different) I have TCR set to 50, Why? Who knows, probably because it's halfway between 0 and a 100. Not using any of the retire according to history nonsense. I want rosters that are usable. For now I'm letting the game advance historically year to year. At some point, I will stop this and random gets kind of wonky post 1992. But, I have to get there first.

One thing I'm trying to decide is if I want to add interleague play. I despise interleague play in real life, but in a sim, enabling it allows one to get to see the teams in the opposing league at least once each season.

Both the AL and NL are using the DH. Free agency is in place. Teams have to sign their first 2 draft picks or they go back into the following years pool. I have finances locked to 1970 the year I started.

When I get fired, I will see if I'm offered another job. If not, I will create a new manager and see if that persona can last longer than the first. The first manager will be Stan Laurel.

[italyprof]

Look at the bright side: tou can't do much worse than Aaron Boone.

[David Watts]

What a way to start my career. I pull Steve Rogers in the 9th with 1 out and a man on 1st base up 2-1. Bring Ron Bryant the cat that's supposed to be my best bullpen arm. 2 batters later I'm losing 3-2. We then load the bases in the bottom of the 9th but fail to score. Boston 3, Twins 2.

[David Watts]

Well isn't that special? Wasn't paying attention and I missed a trade involving my Twins. My Twins traded a 24 year old Nathan Eovaldi and 23 year old Mike Harkey to Dodgers for 28 year old Jose Deleon and 23 year old Brett Oberholtzer. Deleon is of course a free agent at the end of the season. Not too happy.

[David Watts]

Deleon's first start as a Twin is a good one, problem is, Jay Hughes start is better. We lose 2-1. 3 runs over the first 2 games. Yikes! Grady Sizemore left the game with blurred vision after getting hit by a Hughes pitch. Good thing is it doesn't look serious. Only supposed to effect him for 3 days.

[David Watts]

Unbelievable. So Jared Weaver starts game 3 for us, going 7 strong innings. Weaver scattered 5 hits, allowing 1 run on a Wally Burger home run in the 2nd inning. I didn't want to take Weaver out of the game, but he was tired, so we called Reese Olson into the game to start the 8th. Olson breezes through the 8th with a 1 2 3 inning, so I decide to leave him in the game to pitch the 9th. My first mistake. Olson walks the first batter. Al Bumbry steps in a hits into a fielders choice. One out man on 1B. Olson decides to play catch with the backstop unleashing a wild pitch moving Bumbry to 2B. Jon Jay singles moving Bumbry to 3B. I stay with Olson, my second mistake. Billy Conigliaro raps a single off Olson, scoring Bumbry and moving Jay to 2B. Ty Cobb is next, and he too singles. Base are loaded, but we still have the lead. I've had enough of Olson and his rosy cheeks, so I go to the pen once more for guess who? Ron Bryant. Bryant is a lefty and the next batter is Chuck Klein a left handed hitter. My third mistake. Bryant's first pitch is fouled off. The second pitch lands in the the left field seats. Ugh! Boston 6 Minnesota 3. So, we start the season 0-3, scoring a grand total of 6 runs. Our starting pitching has been great. Our bullpen pitching has been awful.

Catfish Metkovitch starting in place of the blurry eyed Grady Sizemore went 3-3, with a double, a triple and a home run. He missed on the cycle by a single, but did draw a walk in the game.

[David Watts]

Kansas City comes to town next.

Wow, did we need this one. A walk off win 8-7 thanks to a 2 run home run from Jake Cronenworth. Jake went 2-4 on the day with 3 runs batted in. We also got a home run out of Steve Nicosia(c). Glad the bats showed up, because today our starting pitching wasn't all there. George McConnell winner of 22 games over the last two seasons got the start for the Twins. McConnell surrendered 5 runs over 7 innings pitched with the big blow being a John Peters 3 run home run in the 6th inning. That home run tied the game up at 5. McConnell stayed in the game for a scoreless 7th before yielding the rubber to Ken Holloway. Holloway would quickly give up 2 runs in the Royals half of the 8th inning. Down 7-5, we managed to claw back to 7-6 with a run in the bottom of the 8th. Holloway managed to keep the Royals off the board in the 9th thank goodness leading to the Cronenworth heroics. McConnell's day wasn't all bad, as he was whiffed 10 batters over his 7 innings on the mound.

1-3

[David Watts]

We win another close one, beating the Royals 4-3. Brett Oberholtzer was excellent for us today on the mound, going 8.2 innings, giving up 3 earned runs. Brett allowed 6 hits, with one of those being a 3 run home run off the bat of John Jaha in the 3rd inning. From that point on he held the Royals scoreless. Reese (I want to spell your name with a C) Olson came in to get the final out of the game, earning the Twins first save of the season. Backup catcher Larry Woodall would drive in what would be the game winning run in the bottom of the 6th inning. Jake Cronenworth had another productive day for us going 1-3 with the game tying RBI in the 5th inning.

Bad news of the day. We lost Scott Posednik to a fractured shoulder blade. Scott managed to do this on the base paths following his first and only at bat of the season. Probably just me, but I have a feeling that 5 weeks will end up being 6 or 7 at least.

To replace Posednik they sent me that creepy Charlie Manuel guy. Dude follows me around asking too many questions. Something tells me the dude has his eye on managing. I will often hide from him.

[David Watts]

We had the third pick in the amateur draft this past offseason. Our GM went with OF/3B Bob Meusel. Nice pick and hopefully he will be a star for the Twins for many years to come. That being said, the team right below us in the draft nabbed Justin Verlander. Ugh! Then again, if our GM picked Verlander he would probably turn around and trade him for a soon to be free agent pitcher that's likely only got a few good years left to begin with. Thing is, even if DeLeon has a nice season for us, I really don't know if I want the team to reup with him for next year or longer. Actually hope he dominates and gets dealt at the trade deadline.

Ugh, that creepy Charlie Manuel just arrived at the park and already he's pestering me about why I did this and why I did that. I may have to play this guy, just to get him out of the dugout. He actually asked if I had a spare room he could rent. c'mon.

[David Watts]

Steve Rogers pitched a decent game, but we were held to only 3 runs on 8 hits by Russ Meyer, Nick Blackburn and Mike Wegener. Jake Cronenworth hit his second home run of the season. We lost the game 4-3 and now sit 2-4 on the season.

Jake Cronenworth takes home AL Player of the Week honors 7 for 21 .333, 2 home runs and 6 RBI. Jake also scored 5 runs.


We are off to Detroit for Monday and Tuesday games against the Tigers. The Tigers come into the series 3-3.

[David Watts]

Another day another loss. We just can't score enough runs. Jose DeLeon gave up 4 runs over 6 innings taking his second loss on the season. Ron Bryant relieved DeLeon with 2 outs in the 6th and managed to get out of the inning. He then decided the Tigers didn't have a big enough lead in the 8th so he served up home run balls to Wayne Gross and Fred Lynn. Bryant has now tossed 5 innings to the tune of a 7.20 ERA. Jake Cronenworth continued his hot hitting going 2-4 with a triple.

Today I made Charlie Manuel sit in the stands and chart the pitchers. In the 4th inning the fan he was sitting next to complained and we had to let Charlie back in the dugout.

Jared Weaver takes the mound tomorrow.

[David Watts]

Holy cow! Twins win 1-0. Jared Weaver goes the distance for the shutout. It wasn't easy. Weaver started the bottom of the 9th by getting the first two batters, the first by strikeout, the second by groundout. Then Larry Herndon bounced one off the wall for a double. Up steps Dick Stuart for the Tigers. On a 1-2 pitch, Stuart drilled a single to CF, Herndon advanced to 3B and was waved in....the throw from Grady Sizemore was right on the money, nailing Herndon for the final out and the victory. Jake Cronenworth went 2-4, scoring our only run of the game.

3-5. We now head to Cleveland for two against the Guardians.

[jksander]

Unless your owner's a total tool, it's pretty hard to get canned ... I'm not a perfect manager, having gone 247-313 through three and a half seasons with the mid-50s A's, and even my "unmerciful / penny pincher" owner hasn't fired my ass yet lol

[David Watts]

Boy did we stink today. George McConnell made his second start of the season and was awful from the get go. McConnell only lasted 2.1 innings giving up 9 hits, and surrendering 6 runs. Buck Ross took over for George, making his first appearance of the season. It wasn't a good one. Ross gave of 4 runs over 3.2 innings, walking 8 batters in the process. We end up losing the game 10-1. Grady Sizemore left the game after his first at bat with abdominal soreness. Looks like he will be less than 100% for around 2 games. Cronenworth didn't play. Our only run was unearned so we couldn't even do that right.

3-6

[David Watts]

Well, we were having some weather last night, so I decided to turn off my computer. Evidently I didn't close out OOTP before doing so. Woke up this morning and I was still 3-5. So George McConnell got a shot a redemption. Buck Ross could forget those 8 walks. My Twins could go 4-5.

Yeah Right. It actually got worse the second time around. We lost 10-1 in the erased game. We lose 14-3 in the do over. What the bloody heck. McConnell was just awful on the mound. Just like the first game, we brought in Buck Ross to relieve him. Ross was better, but still awful. The guy that relieved Ross is so bad I have trouble remembering his name. His last name starts with an H. He stunk too. The only guy that didn't enjoy the do over for the Guardians was Neal Heaton. He was untouchable in the first round, but gave up 3 runs in this one. He's still off to a 2-0 start on the season.

We would lose the actual second game in the series to the Guardians and follow that up with 2 straight losses to the Houston Astros. We flat out stink.

In the first game of the Astros series I had to leave Steve Rogers in the game for longer than I wanted to, due to our bullpen being gassed. Rogers saw his ERA climb over 5 and did not look happy in the clubhouse after the game. I will have to have a talk with him later. In the next game our free agent to be Jose DeLeon was a pile of socks on the mound. He walked way too many batters and never seemed in control. He actually came up tired in the 5th inning. I'm thinking about trading him to the Colts.

I don't have a single relief pitcher I can trust. Ron Bryant my so called stopper is a serial arsonist. Reese Olson can't consistently get anyone out and his rosy cheeks are really starting to get on my nerves. Buck Ross, a guy I thought maybe OOTP just made up, but he did exist has only pitched in one game so far, but it wasn't confidence inducing. Then there's the guy that has a name I can't remember. I think that speaks for itself.

Jake Cronenworth, Grady Sizemore, Steve Nicosia, Catfish Metcovich and Mickey Rocco are the only guys hitting on the team. Cronenworth continues to thrive and is now up to 4 home runs. Our number one draft pick Bob Meusel looks overmatched so far. He's hitting well below .200 with no power whatsoever. Billy Lush the guy we had pegged to be our leadoff hitter is struggling to keep his average above .100. Our DH Mike Diaz hit 20+ home runs last year. He too is hitting well below .200. Right before our last game I found out Diaz has some form of Viras that will keep him out of the lineup for 1 to 2 weeks. The guy sent to replace him is another guy I think OOTP may have just invented(joking). I finally got Charlie Manuel into a game as a pinch hitter. He failed. One of our backups is named Andy High. Has a guy ever went 0 for an entire season?

Right now we just don't have any fight to us. We can get out to a 4 or 5 run lead and look to be cruising along. Then in the blink of an eye that lead is gone and once it's gone, our bats simply disappear. We need a few come from behind wins to boost our confidence. We also need to string together some great pitching performances. Jared Weaver takes the mound in the final game of the Houston series. Maybe that will be the start of a hot streak.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by jksander

Unless your owner's a total tool, it's pretty hard to get canned ... I'm not a perfect manager, having gone 247-313 through three and a half seasons with the mid-50s A's, and even my "unmerciful / penny pincher" owner hasn't fired my ass yet lol

Are you managing only or are you also acting as GM?

[jksander]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Are you managing only or are you also acting as GM?

I manage out every game but am also the GM ... you can follow the insanely detailed logs in my sig lol -- started in August and got locked in to challenge mode before they stopped the ability to get out of it through the editor, so it's been a true challenge (trading difficulty is at 80% so it's tough to get the AI to ever let go of anyone young, which has meant making a lot of waiver moves and some trades where I had to give up a lot to get anything good ... like when we traded for Ernie Banks with Chicago and had to give up a really good young starter to get him)

[jksander]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Ron Bryant my so called stopper is a serial arsonist.

A flame-throwing pyromaniac! Love it ...

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by jksander

I manage out every game but am also the GM ... you can follow the insanely detailed logs in my sig lol -- started in August and got locked in to challenge mode before they stopped the ability to get out of it through the editor, so it's been a true challenge (trading difficulty is at 80% so it's tough to get the AI to ever let go of anyone young, which has meant making a lot of waiver moves and some trades where I had to give up a lot to get anything good ... like when we traded for Ernie Banks with Chicago and had to give up a really good young starter to get him)

I find myself following your thread often. I don't trust myself to gm, so I simply manage and even then all I pretty much do is set lineups and make substitutions. I leave everything else up the AI.

[David Watts]

So last night after our last game, My wife asked if I would take the trash out. I was pulling the can out to the street and out from behind our neighbor hedges jumped Charley Manuel. Coach coach, can I ask you why you didn't go to the bullpen earlier last night.........oh heaven, this isn't going to work.