California Angels 1970

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We were just 15-13 in May and we find ourselves in a tight race:

Dodgers 31-22
Padres 29-24
Astros 28-24
Reds 28-24
Giants 27-25
Braves 26-26

We are now 1st in runs but still 7th in pitching, we need to improve our pitching by the end of the year. We have 3 pitchers in the top 50 prospects but none above AA. I may move one to see if we can get an upgrade at the deadline.

The best thing I did was sign Ellis Valentine. With Tom Brunansky still under .200, Valentine has basically ripped away the RF job. He's gone .333/.377/.583 with 5 HR/7 2B/4 3B 19 RBI in just 120 AB. Bruno has 2 years and $6 million owed after this year, that contract ain't looking good. We signed Valentine to a 2-year extension as a reward.

My starters don't have enough stamina. I have 3 guys who really can't go past 7 innings, so we need a strong bullpen. Sid Fernandez got off to a bad start allowing 8 runs in 1 inning in his first start with us, but he has won his last 3 starts and leads the NL in strikeouts per 9 innings, but he only averages 5 2/3 innings per start.

We signed Bedrosian to an extension and got Michael Elliott to sign much cheaper than he should have gotten in the offseason.

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A quick post about Ken Oberkfell. He's a career .300 hitter with a .370 OBP, but at age 35, he has been injured more than any player in my sim or in real life. He has been on the DL TWENTY times in 14 years. In addition to the 155 weeks he has been on the DL, he has had 57 injuries that were less than 1 week in length.

I can't think of anyone IRL who has been hurt as much.

Amazingly, he has 1814 hits when he wasn't injured, he would be a lock for 3000 hits if he wasn't so injury prone

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We had a nice 16-10 record in June and as we hit the halfway point, we are 47-32 and in 1st place but several teams are in striking distance

Dodgers 47-32
Giants 44-35
Reds 43-37
Astros 42-38

The Phillies are 2 up on Montreal, 3 ahead of Pittsburgh and 5 1/2 ahead of the Mets. The Red Sox have fallen back to earth after their red-hot start and are tied for 1st with the Blue Jays. Out west, the A's and Mariners are tied for 1st with the Twins 1 game back. Hopefully we have some races this year.

Referring back to Oberkfell and his injury history, Rickey Henderson is unfortunately catching up as the 31 year old has been on the DL 12 times since he entered the league.

Statistically, Larry Walker and Gary Sheffield are going head-to-head for MVP in the NL and in the AL, it could be any of a dozen players. 8 players are within 2 home runs of each other and the leading hitter is only .340, but Eric Davis of the A's leads the way now.

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Yet another month of 16-10 and our lead is now 6. Feels good. The Phillies and Expos are tied for 1st, so that could be fun to watch. The Jays lost their last 9 of the month and so the Sox are now up by 5 in the AL East. In the West, the Twins have opened up a 3 1/2 game lead on the A's.

Ken Griffey Jr has a chance at the AL Triple Crown as he leads in home runs and RBI's and is 5th in batting. In the NL, Larry Walker leads in batting and is in the top 5 in home runs and RBI's and Roger Clemens is on pace to win the pitching Triple Crown in the NL.

We are now 1st in pitching and 2nd in runs scored, so we are rounding into shape and are healthy.

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Thanks to 2 rainouts, we now have to play from August 7th until September 12th without a single day off. 37 days in a row, 22 on the road. We then have 1 day off and then a 10 day road trip.

Dennis Martinez started to struggle and in the most recent scouting report, his skills dropped across the board. Mike Morgan had been a really good long reliever so we gave him a go as the 5th starter and so far he has gone 2-2 with a sub 3 ERA, so hopefully we stabilized that 5th spot. We didn't make any deals at the deadline, I couldn't add a really good piece without giving up something I didn't want.

Hensley Meulens has become a really good prospect at AAA Albuquerque. The 23 year old started at AA San Antonio where he hit .312 with 7 home runs in 33 games earning his promotion. So far in AAA, he has hit .311/.410/,541 with 14 home runs in 72 games. He is also an A level fielding 1st baseman. Jack Clark will be a 35 year old UFA after the season, and I think we are going to let him go after 8 years in LA. I can use the millions I won't pay Clark to add a top starter, where I feel the need is greater next season. We got Sid Fernandez cheap last year, but he wants at least 5 years and almost $10 million and I don't trust him that much despite him being pretty good so far. He just can't go much past 6 innings

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The busy schedule bit us in the ass in August as we finished 13-16. We started the run of games healthy, but within a week Roberto Kelly picked up a 2-week day-to-day muscle injury. We have Earnie Riles as a great utility man, but when Julio Franco was injured and out "for a week", I didn't have another middle infielder other than Riles, so I put Franco on the DL knowing he would likely be healthy before he comes off the DL. But in the past I had been burned by not putting guys on the DL, so I called up Cecil Espy to back up while Franco was out. This time, Franco only missed 7 games due to injury, which meant we played 8 games while Franco was healthy and in those 8 games we only averaged 2 1/2 runs a game going 2-6.

We also lost Steve Howe for the last 2 weeks of the month, but now we are 100% heathy going into September. The rest of the top of the NL West struggled as well, so we are still 6 games up over the Giants as the Astros have totally faded.

In the NL East, the Expos lead both the Mets and Phillies by 2 1/2, so hopefully that's a good race. The AL East is a carbon copy of the NL East with the Red Sox holding a 2 1/2 game lead over 2 teams, the Yankees and Blue Jays and out West, the Twins have opened up 6 games over the A's.

Ken Griffey Jr appears on his way to leading the AL in HR's and RBI's, but he is now 15 points behind Jody Reed in hitting, so unless things change, no Triple Crown for him. In the NL, Larry Walker still leads the league by 20 points, but Matt Williams had a great August and and now has 15 more RBI as he knocked in 35 in August. Fred Lynn had a great month as well and now has 30 homers and 88 RBI, 3rd in the NL in both. Clemens still leads the NL in wins and strikeouts, but our Michael Elliott is a mere .02 ahead in ERA and Greg Maddox leads the AL with 19 wins for the Royals.

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First time for everything, we got no-hit!

Ronald Goode came into the game 6-6 with a 4.04 ERA, but left with some history as he didn't allow a hit while striking out 4 and walking 2. We broke up a no-hitter in the 9th earlier this year, but this time we went quietly.

77-61 now and our lead is down to 4. Starting to worry a bit.

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I was right to worry. We've gone 6-9, which is not very nice. We are now tied with the Giants with 9 games to play and 6 of those games are against the Giants. We stopped hitting, only scoring 21 runs in the 9 losses while smashing out 50 runs in our 5 wins.

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The Giants took 2 out of 3 against us in LA to go up 1 game, but we took 2 of 3 in Houston as the Giants lost 2 of 3 in San Diego so we are tied again with 3 games to go. We travel to San Francisco for a showdown for the division.

The Expos have clinched the NL East while the Red Sox are 2 games ahead of the Jays and they play each other in Toronto while the Twins have a 2 game lead on the A's.

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It was 14-13 Jose Rijo for the Giants and 14-11 Sid Fernandez going for us in game 1 of the final series and it was a 1-1 pitchers duel in the 5th when Julio Franco hit a grand slam, his 17th of the season to open the game up for us and we went on to win 10-2 as we got to within 1 game of the division. Fred Lynn also cracked his 35th home run of the year as he continued his red-hot 2nd half.

In game 2, Rafael Palmiero homered off Kevin Houston in the bottom of the 1st to give the Giants an early 2-0 lead. It was 3-0 Giants in the 4th when Giant starter Joe Margrane had to leave the game with a blister. The Giant bullpen kept it 3-0 until the 6th when Lynn homered off Doug Jones and then Ellis Valentine tied it with a 2 run double.

In the 8th, Gary Sheffield hit a home run off Ray Fontenot and the Giants were 3 outs away from tying the division, but just like earlier, the Giants lost a pitcher to injury. Edward Hale came into close but with 1 out and Fred Lynn up, Hale was replaced by Billy Presley with a sore shoulder and Lynn greeted Presley with a. 2-run homer to give us a 5-4 lead and suddenly we were 3 outs away from the division.

We went closer Joseph Janton in to close it out, but a walk and 2 singles later, we were heading into extras, a 2-out pinch hit single by Carlos Alvarez tying it up. In the bottom of the 11th, Steve Bedrosian walked 2 men and with 2 outs, Franco committed a throwing error to allow Dave Martinez to score and the season came down to 1 game.

Our ace Kevin Houston was up against Bob Welch and both were pitching well, it was a 1-1 game after 5. In the 6th, Jack Clark cracked his 23rd home run of the season with Fred Lynn on to give us a 3-1 lead. Dave Clark made it 4-1 in the 8th with a single and after Valentine doubled in 2 more, we had a 6-1 lead with 6 outs to go.

We sent Willie Hernandez out in the 8th and Steve Buchele greeted him with a solo homer to get the Giants to 6-2. After a 2-out single to Mo Vaughn, Martinez hit a 2-run homer and suddenly we had a 6-4 game.

Back went Janton to close it out and on the 1st pitch, pinch hitter Jim O'Dell made it 6-5. Janton got the next 2 outs before allowing a single to Greg Brock and then a game-tying double to Pat Bailey and we blew another 9th inning lead, to extra innings we go.

Fortunately, we jumped on Bob Sykes in the 10th as Valentine tripled in Dave Clark and Mike Stanley singled in Valentine and after Ray Fontenot got the Giants in order and we took the game and the division.

On to the Expos

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Since we had to use our ace in game 162 to make the playoffs, we sent Sid Fernandez to the mound in game 1 to face Dave Smth. It was a pitchers duel 1-1 through 4 when Julio Franco singled in Von Hayes and then Franco and Roberto Kelly scored on Fred Lynn's 2 run double.

The Expos scratched a run across to make it 4-2, but Kelly's 2 run homer in the 7th gave us a 6-2 lead. We sent Ray Fontenot out in the 8th and pinch hitter Sherman Obando met him with a solo homer to get them within 3 and then Albert Belle hit a 2-run shot to make it 6-5. Our closer Janton came in to finish them off in the 9th and allowed 3 singles and we blew another lead, 6-6 going into the 10th.

It stayed tied until the 12th when Ellis Valentine doubled in Lynn and we managed to hold on to the lead and won game 1 7-6

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Michael Elliott and Xavier Hernandez faced off in game 2 and matched zeros through 5 1/2 when Belle hit his 2nd home run of the series to break the deadlock and then Pete O'Brien made it 3-0 with a 2 run homer to make it 3-0 Montreal after 6.

We opened the 7th with back-to-back home runs by Mike Stanley and Hayes to cut the lead to 3-2, and that got us to their bullpen. With 1 out in the 8th, Valentine hit a 2-run home run off Anthony Threatt to give us a 4-3 lead and we padded our lead with 3 runs in the top of the 9th to give us a 7-3 win and 2-0 lead in the series.

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Neither Craig Lefferts for the Giants nor Mike Morgan covered themselves in glory in game 3. Both teams pounded out 13 hits, But while the Expos spread their hits throughout the lineup en route to 8 runs, the Dodgers middle of the order had 11 of their 13 hits as we took game 3 11-8.

Franco 4-5 4 runs 2 RBI home run
Lynn 2-3 2 runs 3 RBI 2 doubles
J. Clark 2-5 1 run 3 RBI home run
D. Clark 1-4 2 RBI
Stanley 2-4 RBI

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Well, this was easier than expected.

Kevin Houston, Rick Moore and Janton combined to shut out the Expos on 3 hits in game 4 as we swept into the World Series with a 2-0 win.

Oil Can Boyd was a hard luck loser only allowing a 2-run home run to Dave Clark, but the Dodgers heads to the World Series to face the Red Sox, who get a chance to revenge our World Series defeat of them 2 years ago as the Twins fell to Boston 4 games to 2.

Julio Franco won MVP as he hit .529 with 1 home run, 4 RBI and 5 runs scored, but Fred Lynn could have as he hit .533 to raise his all time batting average in the postseason to .364, he is just unstoppable.

Thanks to some days off, we can start our rotation at the top.

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Originally Posted by sharknut

Fred Lynn could have as he hit .533 to raise his all time batting average in the postseason to .364, he is just unstoppable..

Guess who was MVP in the World Series for the 3rd time? Yep, he hit .340 with 2 HR and 5 RBI as we beat the Sox in 5 games. None of the games were close as we outscored them 30-18.

Lots of business in the offseason. David Cone is my #1 target in free agency and we have about $10,000,000 in cap room. We are letting Jack Clark go as we will give Hensley Meulens every chance to win the job after 27 home runs in AA and AAA.

We were ranked 7th in prospects and the top 3 are all starters ranked 31, 32 and 33. They are all probably 2 years away as 2 are at AA and 1 at A. We also have Dean Palmer at AA who is a top 50 prospect as well.

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A few milestones were hit in the 1990 season:

Chili Davis passed the 300 home run and 1000 runs scored barrier and Ozzie Smith passed the 2000 hits and 1000 runs scored. 30 year old Mike Marshall and 28 year old Darryl Strawberry also passed the 300 home run mark this past year as well.

2 39 year olds, Dwight Evans and Mike Anderson of the Phillies have each passed 2500 hits while 34 year old Bob Welch and 28 year old Roger Clemens passed the 2000 strikeout mark.

But the big milestone was Frank Tanana winning his 300th game. He's averaged 18 wins a season over the last 4 years, he's not slowing down at all. He's led the league in WHIP and BB/9 3 times in the last 4 years as well, so he should add many wins to his totals

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Eric Davis won his 2nd MVP, this time for Oakland hitting .307/.402/.605 with 48 home runs and 39 steals and a WAR or 12 while playing gold glove level shortstop. He only committed 13 errors while earning a zone rating of 16.1. Omar Vizquel earned the gold glove with a zone rating of 20 while only committing 7 errors.

Douglas Nelson won his 4th Cy Young, becoming the 2nd pitcher to win in both leagues, matching Gaylord Perry's feat in the 1970's. He now has 228 wins and after winning 20 games this past year, he may get to 300.

Dave Fleming of the Rangers won Rookie of the Year with a 15-11 record and a 2.59 ERA while Jeff Montgomery won his 2nd reliever of the year award with 28 saves and a 2.10 ERA.

Larry Walker won his 2nd MVP in 3 years hitting .353/.429/.622 with 35 HR 46 doubles and 209 hits, 109 runs and 104 RBI.

Roger Clemens won his 2nd Cy Young in a row and 3rd overall going 23-7 with a 2.41 ERA while leading the league for the 4th straight year and 6th in 7 with 251 strikeouts.

The Big Hurt, Frank Thomas won Rookie of Year hitting .272 with 16 home runs and 33 doubles and Joseph Janton of Atlanta and the Dodgers won reliever of the year with 34 saves and 2.53 ERA

Our Sid Fernandez won his 4th Gold Glove for us, the only other post-season award we won,

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My #1 goal in the offseason was to get out from under the 2-year/$3.1 million per year option that Tom Brunansky picked up in the offseason. Despite hitting 15 home runs last year, he ended the year a -.4 WAR with an OBP of under .300 in 365 AB's. He wasn't going to get that many AB's this year, but nobody wanted anything to do with that deal on its own.

We had the #31, #32 and #33 prospects, all starters and I felt we could add one of them to try to get a starter. Rafael Novoa is 21 and was an All-Star at AA for us, but even that wasn't enough to get my target. But by taking on 20%, or $600,000 for each of the next 2 years of Brunansky's deal, we got ourselves a 30-year old 3-time All Star pitcher from St Louis in 1984 Cy Young Award winner Andy Hawkins.

Hawkins has 3 years left at $3 million a year and he's coming off a career low 7 wins but still sporting a quality 3.20 ERA. He was on the DL for 5 weeks with a sore shoulder last year, but that was his first injury in 7 years. While the fans were not at all happy to see a fan favorite go, they were equally happy to get a "natural born leader" in Hawkins.

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In addition to replacing Brunansky, we let 5th outfielder Kelvin Moore go in the offseason, so we needed a cf to back up Dave Clark and another utility guy. 32 year old Willie McGee, a career .280 hitter who can play all 3 positions was available as was 31 year old Larry Sheets. Sheets hit 42 home runs in the year of the home run in 1987, but he came back to earth with just 35 in the next 3 years combined, but he can play both corner outfielder spots and 1st base as well.

I thought there would be a huge market for David Cone, but I got him for $500,000 and he will be the #4 starter. He was a horse from 85-89, but lost his starting spot last year as he struggled to a 5.32 ERA and a -.3 WAR for Detroit. I still thought there would be a market for 28 year old who averages 7 strikeouts per 9 innings, but we will see.

As mentioned, I am letting Jack Clark go, and in fact he already got a 3 year/$10,000,000 deal with the team we beat in the World Series, the Red Sox. That gives them former Dodgers at the corners, as they signed Candy Maldonado when we let him go 2 years ago.

But we like Hensley Meulens and he will start the season as our first baseman hitting 7th in front of Von Hayes. Hayes has struggled both years in LA, he has not lived up to what we expected when we let Maldonado go and got Hayes from Philadelphia.

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Originally Posted by sharknut

We signed Bedrosian to an extension and got Michael Elliott to sign much cheaper than he should have gotten in the offseason.

In his last spring training start, Elliott tore his UCL and is out for the year. He hadn't been injury prone, this was his first trip to the DL in 8 years. He has 2 years at $1.1 million a year after this season, hopefully he can come back.

He was our ace, he led the NL in ERA last year. Our trade for Andy Hawkins looks like a very important move. He basically replaces Elliott as we were going to move our 5th starter Mike Morgan back to the pen, but he will fill the 5th starter role again, at least to start the season.