California Angels 1970

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It was Sterling Hitchcock vs 20-8 Rheal Cormier in game 1 and we jumped on him for 4 runs over just 4 1/2 innings and added 4 more runs off Denny Neagle in the 8th, but we really only needed 1 run. Hitchcock only allowed 5 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6 in a 8-0 win. Clark and Stanley each knocked in 2 and rookie Daniel Varnell continued to rake, going 2-3 with a walk.

Game 2 wasn't much more difficult than game 1. Andy Hawkins finally surrendered a run with 2 outs in the 9th, but the Dodgers took game 2 5-1. Clark smacked a 3 run home run off William Jester in the 4th to open up a 4-0 lead and so far it seems like the Sox aren't up for the challenge

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In game 3 back in Chicago, catcher Trent Hubbard hit a 3-run home run off David Cone in the 2nd and Gregg Jefferies added a 2-run shot off Sid Fernandez in the 6th, and the Sox had a 8-1 lead with 2 outs in the 9th and nobody on......until....

Stanley-single
Hayes-walk
Meulens-single
*change of pitcher to Denny Neagle
Varnell-Grand Slam 8-5
Kelly-double
*change of pitcher to Rick Huisman
Lynn-strikeout-------but a passed ball, so he reaches 1st.
Larkin-single to score Kelly 8-6 and we somehow had the winning run at the plate
Clark..........pop out to shor

That would have been the greatest World Series comeback ever...but instead, it's 2-1 and we have a series

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Andy Hawkins and William Jester had themselves a pitchers duel in game 4, with only Hawkins allowing a single run as the game entered the 8th 1-0 Chicago on a Hubbard single. The White Sox went to closer Kevin Ryan in the 8th, but Clark hit sac fly to tie the game at 1, but the White Sox scored the game winner in the bottom half as Kevin Houston allowed a lead off double to Lou Whitaker and that man Hubbard knocked him in with 2 outs off Steve Bedrosian and the series is now tied at 2

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Hitchcock and Cormier matched zeros through 5 innings in game 5, but we solved him in the 6th as Clark, Meulens and Valentine had RBI singles and Hayes hit a sac fly to give us a 4-0 lead. Hitchcock went into the 8th with a shutout, meaning he had thrown 16 1/3 shutout innings so far in the World Series, but he went the distance after allowing RBI's to Jefferies and Mike McDonald. We now lead 3-2 going home to LA.

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We can't do anything easy this season.

We touched up Jack Morris for 4 runs in the 2nd on 4 straight hits, but Hubbard hit another 3-run homer off Novoa in the 2nd and then Jefferies hit a 2-run shot in the 5th to give them the lead 6-5. Von Hayes tied things up with a solo shot in the 7th, but the Sox scratched across a run on a single, wild pitch, ground out and sac fly in the 8th and it's going 7 games, the Sox won 7-6

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It was David Cone vs Jack Armstrong in game 7 and after a Dave Clark single scored Daniel Varnell, that man Trent Hubbard tied it up in the 2rd with an RBI single of his own. Varnell broke the tie with a sac fly in the 3rd and it stayed 2-1 Dodgers until the 8th.

With the bases loaded, Hayes yanked a double inside 1st to clear the bases and a Mike Stanley single later, we took a 6-1 lead into the 9th and we won another World Series 4-3 over a game White Sox team.

This is my 4th World Series in 6 season in LA after winning 4 World Series in 17 years in California. I am 8-1 in the World Series. Not bad.

Rookie Daniel Varnell ended up winning the MVP hitting .390 with 1 HR and 8 RBI. I had him on the bench for game 1 against the Mets but started him the last 13 games and he had a 13 game hitting streak. He only has 20 regular season games under his belt and was not awed by anything in the majors.

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I backed up my game and as the season ended, the Marlins and Rockies have been created now. My plan to take over the Marlins can begin.

.....I am going to miss Southern California. And winning. This rookie Varnell may be a superstar and it would be fun to coach his career. I've managed Fred Lynn for the last 12 years and this Dodger club has my DNA all over it.

But unless I change my mind in the next day or so, I'm going to take the Marlins job and get ready for the expansion draft.

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Hello Florida!

That was SO much fun........doing a full expansion draft to build a team for less than $15 million when my last payroll in LA was $55 million. LOL

But first we did the amateur draft and we got the last pick in the 1st round. What I did was draft 1 player at each position and 6 pitchers in my first 14 picks to try to get a young player at each position and a handful of pitchers early and then just fill out the best I could.

I then started signing some minor league free agents. I have to build 1 AAA, 2 A and 2 rookie teams from nothing, so about 150 players to sign. I have 85 signed as of now with spring training starting in 2 weeks.

I managed to draft 36 players at a spend of $9 million. After the draft, I tempted CF Kevin Reimer with a $1.4 million a year deal. He has a good glove and has a little pop and at age 28, it's nice to have one position "up the middle" be a better than average.

I have a rating system of 20-80, 50 being bang average and I have a projected lineup as of now of:

RF-Darryl Hamilton Contact-60/Eye-50/Power-35/Speed-70/defense 50
2B-Luis Alicea-50/50/35/70/55
1B-Jeff King-50/45/60/55/50
CF-Kevin Reimer-50/40/55/50/60
3B-Kelly Gruber-45/40/60/60/45
C-Tony Barron-45/45/55/75/45
LF-Wes Chamberlain-45/35/50/70/65
SS-Scott Leius-40/45/45/70/55

We have 5 of 8 who have a steal rating of at least 70 including a catcher at 75. I think we are going to be running to score runs this year.

I only picked 1 player in the Expansion Draft with a salary over $1, and that was starter Al Leiter at $1.4 million. He's been a closer 4 of the last 5 years, but he's going to be my #1.

1-Al Leiter Stuff-60/Movement-45/Control-40/Stamina 65
2-Michael Jackson-55/45/45/55
3-Joe Beckwith-40/40/55/70
4-James McIntosh-45/40/55/70
5-Mike Roesler-45/65/50/65

I picked a lot of decent minimum salary middle relievers and spent a little on closer Bryan Farmer who was the closer in Cincinnati last year and is cheap enough where I could flip him at the deadline for some futures.

I still have a payroll of less than $11 million with $4 million to spend. I could make the team better, but there really is no reason, I'm not going to contend. I'd rather leave the budget space there in case a team is trying to dump a big salary.

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Before I go into the season, I am so 'angry' that the AI GM for the Dodgers has messed up my old team. LOL

Our 23 year old rookie World Series MVP Varnell is in the minors after hitting over .400 in AAA and tearing up the majors after a recall. Not only that, I don't have single player the Dodgers want for him, so I can't trade for him.

They benched Von Hayes and Hensley Muelens and signed sub-par players. They left the pitching pretty much alone, but the biggest sin is they benched Fred Lynn.

How dare they.

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Our team was 8-9 in Spring Training and we stayed healthy, so I can't complain about that. We played as expected, we pitched ok and didn't hit much, but we barely allowed more than 3 runs a game, so we were competitive.

Our bullpen looks to be pretty strong, I wanted to make sure we won the games we had chances to win. To instill a winning culture, we can't blow late leads. We need to learn how to win.

I selected a bunch of "good guys" in the expansion draft. Not a single disruptive player. Not a single outspoken player. Not a single selfish player. We are going to get along and have fun.

I knew I would be able to get a player or two on waivers when spring training broke. I raided my old Dodger bullpen for lefty Chris Nabholz and grabbed 25-year old catcher Rick Wilkins from the Mets and they should both have sizable roles.

Ironically, we open the season at home against the Dodgers.

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After 1 week we were 4-1 and I thought, "I really hope the sim doesn't 'let' me somehow have a good team right away." I wanted a somewhat realistic sim of an expansion team from day 1 and not some easy to solve game where it's easy to win.

11 straight losses later and safe to say, no worries about that!

So we are pretty bad. LOL Our bullpen, which was supposed to be a strength and was great in spring training has an ERA of over 8. Not that our starters are burning down the house with an ERA of 5.51,

The one thing I couldn't do prior to the season was hire coaches or trainers, they were already hired and I am worried our trainer is clueless. 17 games in and we have had 5 day-to-day injuries and 2 players placed on the DL. Our base coaches are subpar as well. I'm going to get improvements in after the season at the latest.

We are 5-12 and Colorado is 4-13. In addition my minor league teams are stinking things up. I hope I live long enough to turn things around. Hopefully the #1 or #2 pick next year will be a player who can star quickly...I think A-Rod may be in next years draft.

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We went 3-3 the rest of the month to give us a 8-15 record in April for our 1st month in the big leagues. 13th in offense and 14th in pitching. We do play decent defense and we run ok, but we're bad.

We keep getting day-to-day and 1-2 week long injuries, so I am doing the AAA shuffle quite a bit, which makes sense given we are an expansion team. We've already had 32 players this season and I have a feeling we will end up in the 40's before the expansion in September once we trade some of our assets for younger ones

Colorado is worse than we are, 6-17. A few other teams are about as bad as we are, but I hope we can make the race for the #1 pick a 2-team race soon enough

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We are pretty bad as expected, 8-18 in May and we have the 2nd worst record to the Rockies who are 5 games behind us.

Dead last in hitting, next to last in pitching, down to 10th in fielding and last in base running. At least we are well rounded.

We picked up a bizarrely highly rated prospect a few weeks ago. 19 year old Will Cunane pitched as an undrafted free agent for an independent team in the lowest tier last year for 2 games, throwing 2 shutouts. That team disbanded and the Twins signed him to a contract that had a major league guarantee after 1 month, because the Sim isn't smart.

He was named the #47 prospect in the game, the Twins didn't promote him after going 4-0 with a 2.86 ERA in AA and was granted free agency again, and I signed him. I sent him to AAA and was 3-1 with a 2.95 ERA and just threw back-to-back shutouts, so now 19 year old Will Cunane is my future #1 and has been promoted to the big leagues.

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Primarily thanks to Rookie of the Month Will Cunane, we had our best month of 11-15 in June. We were 4-1 in his starts and he ended up 3-0 with a 3,53 ERA and impressed enough to win the monthly award.

Other than that, I haven't found any gems that may make us a good club in a few years. I've signed guys off waivers and none have taken advantage of the opportunity, for the most part. We are last or next to last in essentially every category with Colorado, who we still have a 6 game lead over.

Our 11-15 month saw us pass Boston by 1 game and tie California, 2 other terrible teams. I am not tanking like I mentioned, but I don't want the 4th or 5th pick. If I don't pick 1st, I want the 2nd pick

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We've gone 6-5 before the All-Star break in July, a season high 4 game winning streak to close out the 1st half was nice. We are still 6 games ahead of Colorado for the 1st pick, tied with both Boston and California.

I made our first 2 deals of the trading season during the break. I dealt relievers Kevin Ponder and Michael Jackson to the Giants for AAA corner 23 year old Jeff Barry. Ponder was the closer for the Angels last year but had an ERA close to 6 in Florida while Jackson was in the rotation to start the season but lost his spot with an ERA over 5. Barry looks to be a Dave Magadan type but with plenty of speed. He's hit .300 every stop so far and hit 40 doubles last year in AAA. He will go right into the lineup.

With an extra corner man and suddenly down two arms, I dealt Steve Buchele to Baltimore for lefty Don Carman. Buchele was hitting .181 as a utility man and Carman is an arm. We also called up Chris Bosio to go into the bullpen as he was having a nice year in Edmonton.

We have 4 blowouts in the divisions. The Yankees are 8 games ahead of the Tigers, the White Sox are 8 up on the Rangers, Houston are also up 8 games over the Dodgers while the Mets are 'only' 7 games ahead of the Phils.

Barry Larkin is hitting .401 so far, but he's on the DL for 4 weeks with a broken thumb. Sheffield is having another amazing year hitting .372 with 26 HR and 64 RBI. Walker is at .330, 23 HR and 76 RBI.

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A mid-season review has us where we should be, last place and trying to get a few keepers per season to build a decent club.

Our big money pitcher, Al Leiter, has been our worst starter. He's gone 4-12 with a 5.47 ERA. I just shopped him and didn't get much interest, but he has 1 more year at $1.4 million. I can keep him and hope his value rises next season. Will Cunane is going to be a good one. The 19 year old has gone 5-0 with a 3.38 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. We also picked up 26-year old Jeff Neely on waivers and he was great in AAA and hasn't given up a run in 12 innings out of the bullpen. It would be nice to have a few young arms that can be part of a development.

Our hitters haven't done anything to stand out. Tony Barron has been good at catcher with 6 HR's, 6 steals and a .340 OBP. Wes Chamberlain has been a nice all around player hitting .293/.328/.489 with 6 HR, 6 3B and 14 2B. F.P. Santangelo was supposed to be a backup at many positions, but he's hitting .305/.373/.405 and has taken the SS despite not being a good fielder. Scott Leius can't hit, I can't carry his .240 OBP, so I use him as a defensive sub.

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We ended up 14-13 in July! Several late comeback wins had us close the month with 5 wins in our last 6 as we made a plethora of deals as the trade deadline passed;

1)Steve Buchele to Baltimore for Don Carman. Carman pitched 1/3 of an inning and then blew his elbow out. F-you Baltimore!

2)Michael Jackson and Kevin Ponder to the Giants for 23-year old 3b Jeff Berry. Berry is a 2nd round pick back in 89 and was a AAA All-Star this year hitting .301/.366/.446 with speed. In his 15 games for Florida, he's hit .356/.415/.678 with 5 doubles and 4 home runs with 3 steals. Future 3b-aquired:

3)Claimed 24-year old Cris Colon off waivers from the Giants. He is another AAA All-Star for the Giants hitting .326/.334/.465. I've plugged him in at 2b for the rest of season as he is a plus-fielder.

4)Traded Jeff Reed to the Cardinals for minor leaguer pitcher Bob Fallon to save $$$.

5)Traded Darren Holmes to Texas for minor league 3-star prospect pitcher Dave Fleming.

6)Traded Luis Alicia to Cleveland for 25 year old OF Matt Mieske and 26 year old RP Don Strange. We will have Mieske play 4th outfielder for us to wrap up the year and Strange will get a shot in the bullpen.

7)Traded 31-year old Kelly Gruber for 30-year old Randy Velarde as a way to save money the rest of the year. However, after the trade, the locker room said they were happy to add a leader like Velarde, so I am going to make an effort to sign him next year.

8)Traded pitcher Daniel Fischer to our friends in San Francisco for 2 meh prospects to save money.

9)Traded C Jerry Goff to KC for P Jose Waldron-cost savings

10)Traded OF Mike Huff and P Chris Bennett to the Mets for 3-star prospect pitcher Sean Bergman and a meh prospect.

11)Traded P Mike Roesler to Cleveland for P Jeff Ciszkowski to get younger an cheaper.

I've dealt 4 of the 5 starters from opening day along with 2 from the starting lineup and 3 relievers.

I told everyone to rent for a reason

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Well.......crap

I didn't realize the Marlins were locked into the next to last pick in the draft this year.

Sigh, so much for the #1 race. And this draft class is GREAT. A-Rod, Nomar, Big Poppy, Vlad Guerrero, Andruw Jones......oh well. Guess I'll draft someone like....Jay Payton.