Historical Minors

[David Watts]

Thursday September 27, 1976

Baltimore down 5-3, scores 2 in the 6th and 1 in the 7th to defeat the Tigers. Jerry Koosman's Baltimore woes continued as he allowed 5 runs over 5 innings. Meanwhile the O's pen was perfect over the last 4 inning allowing Baltimore to pick up the come from behind victory. Mark Belanger hit his 3rd home run of the season. For Detroit, Tony Taylor hit his 2nd home run and Bill Freehan his 16th. The Orioles magic number is now 1.

The Pirates lowered their magic number to 1, defeating the Phillies 2-1. Dock Ellis(16-11, 2.75) pitched 7 strong innings for the Pirates scattering 7 hits, walking 3 and striking out 4. This time around the Pirates didn't waste time getting Dave Guisti into the game. Guisti entered in the 7th and tossed 2 scoreless innings to pick up his 16th save.

Steve Garvey and Ralph Garr now lead the NL with .325 batting averages.

[David Watts]

Friday September 28, 1973

Baltimore scores 2 in the bottom of the 9th to defeat Cleveland 4-2. The Orioles clinch the AL East. Jim Palmer goes the distance for his 23rd victory . Palmer is now an amazing 23-4 on the season. It's going to be really interesting to see which AL pitcher takes home Cy Young honors. Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Ken Holtzman, Jim Palmer or Bert Blyleven. Blyleven was the 72 Cy Young winner.

In the NL East, Pittsburgh romped over the Montreal Expos 7-3 and in doing sol eliminated the Phillies from the race. The Pirates repeat as NL East champs setting up a rematch of last years NLCS. Nelson Briles(15-14, 3.85) got the win. Willie Stargell led the charge going 3-4 including his 27 home run. Stargell drove in 4 giving him 92 RBI for the season.

[David Watts]

Holy Cow! We have a huge upset in the National League. The 84-78 Pittsburgh Pirates just swept the might 106-56 Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS. The Pirates The Pirates won game 1, 1-0 behind the pitching ace Tom Seaver. They beat Don Gullet(23-4, 2.39) 3-2 behind the arm of Dock Ellis. In Game #3, the Pirates rode the arms of Bob Moose and Dave Guisti for a 4-0 victory. Series MVP was Tom Seaver.

[David Watts]

You have to hand it to the Orioles for at least making it interesting. The O's fell behind quickly in the ALCS, losing the first two in Oakland. The Orioles would then win the next two in Baltimore to force a deciding game 5 back in Oakland. At that point things fell apart for the Baltimore Orioles. The A's followed the lead of the series MVP Catfish Hunter, winning the game 8-0. Hunter went 2-0 over the 5 game series, defeating Jim Palmer both times. Hunter threw 15 innings allowing only 1 run. The Oakland A's pounded out 12 home runs over the 5 game series.

So the World Series is set. The 108-54 Oakland A's vs the 84-78 Pittsburgh Pirates. The 7 game series will start in Oakland.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by David Watts

If I make it there, I'm anxious to see what happens when Toronto and Seattle come into the league. I think I've heard that the expansion teams come in with smaller farm systems. Hoping they have enough players to allow me to keep using the high modern injury setting.

I’m doing a fictional 1969 and they do, which TBF they did in real life as well, at least for teams only affiliated to them. I think the Expos and Pilots had agreements with existing AAA franchises to put their players on those rosters for a season (by 1970 they’ll all have their own AAA teams at least). I looked it up and know that this situation exists in 1977 too. In 1993 the league made a point of kick starting the minor leagues a year ahead of the actual expansion.

[David Watts]

I guess we have proof why the games are played. The Pittsburgh Pirates are your 1973 World Series champions. The Pirates completed one of sports biggest Cinderella stories by defeating the A's 4 games to 3. Dock Ellis took home World Series MVP honors. Ellis went 2-0, defeating Ken Holtzman two times over the 7 game series. Bob Moose also won 2 games during the series. The A's lost the series even though they managed to defeat Tom Seaver two times.

[David Watts]

April 13th, 1974. Al Kaline drilled a single off Boston's Bill Lee for his 3000th career hit.

[David Watts]

Ugh, Hank Aaron is sitting at 696 home runs and the Braves have decided he's no longer worthy of starting. They have 24 year old Andre Thorton starting at 1B. The Braves have Garr, Lum and Baker in the outfield. They could move Baker to CF, Garr to RF and play Aaron in LF. I was really looking forward to Aaron chasing 714, but now I'm worried.

[splat58]

Where's Bowie Kuhn to force the Braves to play Aaron?

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by splat58

Where's Bowie Kuhn to force the Braves to play Aaron?

I guess I'm Bowie Kuhn, but I don't like to meddle too much. It's also bugging the crap out of me seeing Buddy Bell relegated to DH for the Indians. He started in RF in 73, but loses his ratings in 74. Time for the Indians to ship Nettles to the Yankees Oh and the Brewers are playing Robin Yount at 2B with a red 1 rating. Gorman Thomas is manning SS.

[splat58]

Gotta love the AI. Whenever I play the 1969 season, the AI starts Gorman Thomas at SS for the Pilots as an 18 year old.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by David Watts

I guess I'm Bowie Kuhn, but I don't like to meddle too much. It's also bugging the crap out of me seeing Buddy Bell relegated to DH for the Indians. He started in RF in 73, but loses his ratings in 74. Time for the Indians to ship Nettles to the Yankees Oh and the Brewers are playing Robin Yount at 2B with a red 1 rating. Gorman Thomas is manning SS.

Sounds like it's early in the season. How's Hank hitting so far? Unless he's really horrid, I'd have to intervene for the sake of realism, as you gotta think the Braves would keep playing at least semi-regularly until he gets to 700. And then, if he's really struggling and they have better, younger options, they would phase him into parttime - at most - role.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by thehef

Sounds like it's early in the season. How's Hank hitting so far? Unless he's really horrid, I'd have to intervene for the sake of realism, as you gotta think the Braves would keep playing at least semi-regularly until he gets to 700. And then, if he's really struggling and they have better, younger options, they would phase him into parttime - at most - role.

It does look like Aaron will get starts on a regular basis, both in the outfield and at 1B. Just looks like he will get more rest than usual in 74. He is hitting when he plays, just hasn't put any over the fence yet. Thorton is young and is struggling big time, so who knows, he may find himself on the bench sooner than later.

[splat58]

Any rookies push their way into regular playing time this season?

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by splat58

Any rookies push their way into regular playing time this season?

There are some, but most are guys that at least briefly played in the bigs. That means they stay. I did delete a guy for the Orioles that found his way onto the big league roster. He could play several positions, but it looked like the AI was going to give him starts at catcher. This annoyed me because it meant the O's were carrying 3 catchers. Also retired another scrub from Yankeeland. Man, do the Yankee's need to trade for a SS.

[splat58]

Any real players like Madlock, Brett, Tanana, Foster, McBride, etc. make their way into the lineup/rotation?

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by splat58

Any real players like Madlock, Brett, Tanana, Foster, McBride, etc. make their way into the lineup/rotation?

At work right now, so I will have to check these guys more closely when I get home, but off the top of my head, all of them except Brett have found their way onto their teams big league rosters. Tanana has been in the Angels rotation since I began play in 72. Foster has finally found a way into the Red's everyday lineup to begin 1974. He was a sub in 73, but got a healthy dose of at bats. Madlock started for the Rangers for all of 73 and is right there again to start 74. McBride is starting for the Cardinals in 74.

Rice, Lynn, Burleson and Cooper all made it up to the Red Sox in 73. Burleson is the only one starting in 73, but I'm sure that will change as the season plays out.

Doug Decinces arrived in Baltimore. He's a sub as Robinson and Grich are the starters.

Mike Norris made his A's debut in 73

Brett for some reason has yet to get called up. Another guy lagging behind is Davey Lopes. Lopes has been a September call up in both 72 and 73, but that's it.

[Pelican]

In my 1971 sim (Golden Anniversary), my Phils traded for Lopes, even though his ratings do not much hint at his later success. I’ve been alternating him with Tony Taylor at 2B, and he has been holding his own at bat and in the field. But you have to wonder if skipping AAA could stunt his development. It worries me there is no guarantee that he develops as IRL. Of course, I didn’t give up much for him, since the AI was going on his minor league credentials and not his future career. I’m being quite patient with Mike Schmidt and Bob Boone; although I did bring up Greg Luzinski after he tore up AAA for a month, and he is raking inn the majors.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Pelican

In my 1971 sim (Golden Anniversary), my Phils traded for Lopes, even though his ratings do not much hint at his later success. I’ve been alternating him with Tony Taylor at 2B, and he has been holding his own at bat and in the field. But you have to wonder if skipping AAA could stunt his development. It worries me there is no guarantee that he develops as IRL. Of course, I didn’t give up much for him, since the AI was going on his minor league credentials and not his future career. I’m being quite patient with Mike Schmidt and Bob Boone; although I did bring up Greg Luzinski after he tore up AAA for a month, and he is raking inn the majors.

So I assume you are either playing without recalc, or with Player Development on and TCR set at least somewhat high. Otherwise, you should see Lopes develop as IRL.

[David Watts]

UGH!!! So during the offseason the Tigers made a trade landing Dal Maxvill. Eddie Brinkman was pretty bad at the plate in 74 hitting under .200, so I could see why the Tigers might want to go a different direction. So to start the season Maxvill is the starter and Brinkman the backup. Around 16 games into the season, the AI decides to send Brinkman down to AAA and call up Baggie Notastar to replace him. The AI right away decides Notastar should be the starter and not only that, he should bat leadoff. Notastar never played a single game in the bigs. I retired him, but now I'm kind of mad that I did. I should have let him stick to see if the AI would have played him 140+ games with him making 66 errors in the field and hitting below .150 in the leadoff spot. Thing is, the Tigers are very limited in terms of options at SS. They traded away Mark Wagner, they have John Knox a utility guy at best and a young 21 year old long haired freaky person named Tom Veryzer in AA.

So, Notastar is going to be the last player I retire. I'm not going to interfere from this point forward. I think unlike when you first start a league, the AI might have it's hand forced in terms of playing some of these bags of sand. I'm not allowing the the AI to draft, instead I have players going to their original teams. Therefore, teams at times aren't going to have viable options and Piggy Mcbackslide probably will look like a decent solution. Detroit didn't really have a SS or 2B once Eddie and Dick left the scene until those cool cats Alan and Lou showed up. They did have Tito Fuentes a guy that single handedly ruined little league coaching in the state of Michigan for one whole year, but that was a trade or free agent signing. Even Gary Sutherland and Pedro Garcia came through trades.