International League/Random Debut League

[David Watts]

Starting to get worried about my hero Alan Trammell. Poor dude is stuck on the Arkansas Travelers reserve roster. 2 years ago at the age of 19 he spent most of the season on the big league roster. He didn't exactly light the league on fire, but he didn't stink either. Pretty much played like a 19 year old. He sat on the reserve roster for all of last season. Now in 1982, he's once again not on the Travelers big league roster. Royce Clayton continues to be the Travelers starting SS. Trammell of course displays a bright red frown in terms of his mood and I don't blame him.

Was really hoping to see the DP combo of Ryne Sandberg and Alan Trammell take the league by storm, but now I'm starting to hope the Travelers simply trade Trammell to a team that might actually use him.

[David Watts]

Ted Trent is the latest International League pitcher to join the 200 win club.

Tris Speaker won the batting title in 1981. Speaker has now won that title 9 times over his incredible career. Tris has a career batting average of .350 with 3300+ career hits. He's approaching 700 doubles as well. He's 37 years old, so it will be interesting to see if he can reach 4000 hits.

Hilton Smith is off to a 5-1 start in 1982, giving him 305 career wins.

Greg Maddux is up to 175 career wins.

Jacob deGrom took home Cy Young honors in 1981 and then went down with a serious injury during Spring training. Doubt he will pitch much is at all in 1982. Sucks, as somehow the game must have heard my thoughts in regards to deGrom not suffering any OOTP injuries compared to his real life ones. Thoughts are sometimes a bad thing.

Dazzy Vance also went down with a season ender during Spring training. Vance was the 1981 strikeout leader.

Reggie Jefferson continues to think he's Rod Carew in my game. Dude is once again hitting above .300 and this years he's battling for a batting title hitting above .360.

Who in the heck is Phoenix Sanders? Just checked and he pitched briefly for the Baltimore Orioles during the 2022 season. Threw 14.2 innings, striking out 12 batters with a 3.07 era. Well OOTP may have it in the works for Sanders to be a Hall of Fame closer. Dude was great in 81 and is doing even better so far in 82, Dude has a sub 1 era early in the month of June.

Mark McGwire has 25 home runs early in the month of June. The preseason predictions had him hitting 50+ in 82, so he's on pace to prove the predictors right. On the other hand, Charlie Keller was tagged to hit 59 on the season. He's doing fine in 82 at the plate, but so far his pace makes the 59 prediction look ludicrous.

Added a third wild card for the 82 season. Wanted more post season baseball. I really wish I could expand this league, but it's just not possible without adding a subleague. Adding a subleague isn't possible due to the way it will screw up the history page. So wish this could get fixed at some point, as I would love to simply move all the teams in my Southern Division to a new subleague.

[David Watts]

Could 1982 be the year we finally see a player hit 60+ home runs? Mark McGwire has 31 home runs and we're only a week into the month of July. Of course, me posting this means he goes down with a season ender in the next week or two. Yes, I'm a positive thinker

Speaking of season ending injuries, San Antonio's super stud Pete Rose will miss the final 3 months of the 82 season with a knee injury.

[David Watts]

With only a few days left in July, Mark McGwire's home run pace has slowed down somewhat. He now has 37 home runs, putting him on pace for 61. His team the Great Lakes Loons continue to push their way towards the top of the Northern Division standings, trailing the St. Paul Saints by only a game and a half.

The Birmingham Barons continue to play with only one catcher on their roster. They remain in first place in the Southern Division, but just barely. Catching Lou Brock and other random guys once or twice a week is starting to prove itself foolish, but hey what can you say. Bubbles Hargrave finally has a time table in place to return from the land of the injured, but will it be too late?

Greg Maddux threw another no-hitter. Maddux tossed a perfect game in 1981 and nailed down the second no-hitter of his career during last weeks games.

[David Watts]

Duffy Dyer gets hurt, so until Bubbles Hargrave gets back(6 days), Birmingham is catcherless. They won't sign any catchers. This needs to be fixed.

[David Watts]

Mark McGwire ends the 1982 season with 55 home runs. Hank Aarons record of 58 home runs in a single season lives on.

Cy Falkenberg is the only 20 game winner in 1982, picking up win number 20 on the final Sunday of the season.

Frank Baker won his first batting title with a late season surge that saw him over take Reggie Jefferson for the league top average. Nap Lajoie came in 3rd place.

Tris Speaker notched hit number 3500 in a late September game.

Nap Lajoie will have a chance to reach 3000 hits in 1983, but I think it's probably more likely that he reaches the mark in early 1984.

Both Jacob deGrom and Greg Maddux could become 200 game winners in 1983.

[David Watts]

This years Hall of Fame inductee

[David Watts]

There's simply not an explanation for what's going on with Reggie Jefferson in this league. Dude battled for the batting title in 1982, before losing out to Frank Baker during the last month of the season. Jefferson would finish the season around .368 or thereabouts. It now June 1983 and Jefferson continues to dominate International League pitching to the tune of a .392 batting average. Really anxious to see how long Jefferson can continue this run. His current career average is around .337.

Hilton Smith finally called it quits following the 1982 season. It's been strange playing without him. I still find myself looking for his games to watch.

Greg Maddux rolled out to a 1-6 start to begin the 83 season.

Dazzy Vance missed all of 1982 due to injury. He started 1983 on the IL due to another injury. He's back and he's dominating. Even with the missed games, Dazzy is leading the league in strikeouts. He's on pace to strikeout 300+ batters. Vance is sporting a sub 1.50 era on the season.

Lansing sits atop the Northern Division by around 6 games. The Great Lakes Loons are in second place, but the entire Northern Division is struggling as a whole. Even though the Loons are in second, they find themselves hovering around the .500 mark.

Arkansas currently leads the Southern Division, but there are 6 teams all tangled up near the top of the standings. New Orleans is one of them. The Baby Cakes have been dreadful over the last few years, so it's refreshing to see them start to turn things around.

Mark McGwire once again leads the league's home run hitter with 19. Matt Williams and Charlie Keller are tied for second with 15 home runs.

Jud Wilson is off to a great start in the RBI department, leading the league with 53, Reggie Smith is in second, but just hit the IL with a back injury. Not supposed to a long stint, but I figure it will drop him in the race.

Cecil Fielder signed a free agent deal during the off season. His departure from the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers opened up a spot at 1B for his son Prince. Prince has been solid so far in 83 and will surely figure in the rookie of the year voting.

Royce Clayton signed a free agent deal leaving the Arkansas Travelers behind. Alan Trammell is the beneficiary of Claytons departure, as he is now leading off for the Travelers and playing SS. Still kind of bummed though, as so far the double play combo of Trammell and Ryne Sandberg hasn't happened. Instead, Arkansas is using Sandberg as the teams DH and starting Jerry Priddy at 2B. Ugh!

Tris Speaker is close behind Reggie Jefferson in the batting race. Speaker is closing in on 3600 hits. He also has 700+ doubles on his career. Going to be interesting to see how much longer he plays and if he can reach 4000 hits. Speaker is building quite the career WAR cushion and I really wonder if anyone will ever top him. He's in the hood of 175 at this time. The 9 time league MVP is a superstar that will be remembered forever for his accomplishments. Pretty cool that he's played his entire career so far for the Peoria Chiefs.

Nap Lajoie is actually hitting below .300 so far in 83.

Was glad to see the Birmingham Barons start the 83 season with 3 catchers on their roster. 2 on the 25 man and 1 on the reserve roster.

OOTP really makes it clear just how hard it must be for a pitcher to win 300 games. My league has a good number of 200 win pitchers but only 2 300 game winners. In fact, I think only 1 or 2 other pitchers have reached 250 wins. Rich Reuschel if I remember right has 253, of course he also has at least 250 losses. Still meaning to post his career stats on here. Wondering what y'all will think in terms of his Hall of Fame worthiness.

[David Watts]

Mark McGwire has 35 home runs at the All-Star break. Again fans are asking whether this will be the season we see someone break Hank Aaron's single season mark 58, or better yet will we see the first player to reach 60? McGwire fell 5 shy of reaching 60 last season. He hit 48 in 1981,

Dazzy Vance is now 11-2. He is now leading the league in ERA, Strikeouts and WAR.

Lansing continues to lead the Northern Division by 6 games over the Great Lakes Loons. The Loons haven't been able to catch the Lugnuts, but they have made their way into sole possession of the 2nd wild card spot.

The RBI race is a tight one between Jud Wilson and Mark McGwire. Amazing thing is Wilson is leading even though he only has 16 home runs.

[David Watts]

Crazy Mark McGwire closes out the month of August with a league leading 48 home runs. September arrives and for the most part McGwire goes ice cold. His average drops below .300 and he doesn't hit a single home run for roughly the first 3 weeks of the month. He then hits 2 in one game to reach 50 on the season. With roughly 10 games remaining in the season, that's where he sits, 50. Really thought this might be the season Aaron's single season record of 58 would get broken. Not very likely anymore. McGwire's team the Great Lakes Loons are on a 6 game winning streak, but still find themselves 1 game behind in the race for the third and final wild card slot. They trail the San Antonio Mission. Tulsa and Memphis hold the first two wild card slots.

Lansing's magic number is 4 in the Northern Division, while Arkansas has their magic number down to 1.

Jerry Reuss is having the best season of his career so far with 22 wins to show for it.

[David Watts]

Thanks to a game 163 tie breaker that his team lost to the Memphis Redbirds, Mark McGwire was able to hit one more home run to finish the season with 55, the exact number he hit in 1982. 110 home runs over 2 seasons is pretty amazing. Add the 48 he hit in 81 and it's even more impressive.

Greg Maddux managed to lose 18 games in 1983.

Jerry Reuss finished the season 23-3 for the Arkansas Travelers.

[David Watts]

The Wild Card Tulsa Drillers are the 1983 International League Champions, taking down their in division rival the Arkansas Travelers 4 games to 1. Nap Lajoie took home league championship MVP honors. Lajoie hit above .400 for the entire post season. Arkansas dominated the regular season winning 100+ games, but struggled in the post season. They fell behind the San Antonio Missions 3 games to 0 in the division series, before storming back to take the series in a bottom of the 9th come from behind victory in game 7.

This was Tulsa's second championship.

Reggie Jefferson finally won a batting title after a couple season in the running. Still amazed how great Jefferson is performing in this league.

Jerry Reuss continued to pitch well for the Arkansas Travelers in the post season, but in the League Championship he found himself facing off against and even hotter Dolf Luque. Both of their matchup were great pitching duels.

[David Watts]

This years Hall of Fame inductee

[David Watts]

Would love your thoughts. 38 seasons in and Ricks still has the 3rd most wins. The leagues only 2 300 game winners are the only pitchers with more wins. I'm leaning toward using my powers to put him in.

[luckymann]

Putting on my BBWAA cap for a sec, DW, Rick's only obvious knock is his barely .500 WIN%, and given the environment you have in this save, I reckon that's forgivable. Put it this way, there are plenty worse pitchers with a plaque in the IRL version. And his WAR total is more than double Tioga's!

My vote: in you go, Big Daddy!

G

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by luckymann

Putting on my BBWAA cap for a sec, DW, Rick's only obvious knock is his barely .500 WIN%, and given the environment you have in this save, I reckon that's forgivable. Put it this way, there are plenty worse pitchers with a plaque in the IRL version. And his WAR total is more than double Tioga's!

My vote: in you go, Big Daddy!

G

Thank you.