California Angels 1970

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And we have a new 2B. A 30 year old 6-time All-Star, 4 time Silver Slugger, 1 time MVP, 1 time World Series MVP Gregg Jefferies.

Jefferies in this world is Jefferies IRL except he's a great fielder, great in the clubhouse and stays healthy. His 162 avg is .310/.362/.449 with 14 HR 37 2B 85 RBI 97 runs 34 steals. To get him, we dealt Pete Incaviglia. Our RF hit 37 HR's and knocked in 117. We will miss that, but he wasn't a great fielder and Jefferies is a much better player.

He is also over 4 times more expensive. Pete has 2 years left at $1.3 million a year and Jefferies has 6 years at $6 million a year. So.....we had an opening in RF now

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And the next day we dealt 32 year old Jimmy Meadows to Cleveland for Bobby Higgenson. Meadows won 19 games for us 2 years ago, but fell to 5-10 with a. 5.36 ERA. He's very capable of bouncing back, but Higgenson filled a need.

The 27 year old missed 1/2 the season with a back injury and hit .244/.328/.469 with 18 HR in 324 AB's. He is also a plus fielder and good in the locker room.

I am really making a positive locker room and coaching office a priority this season

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In the Rule 5 draft, there was a 16 year old who has 5-star potential so....I took him. I don't know why he was available, but I didn't care. He is a C/1B who has maximum power potential and is already a 60 out of 80 in power and so he can be our 3rd catcher and 3rd 1b this year and then let him develop in the minors next year

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I wasn't sold on our rotation so I tried to sign 35 year old Sid Fernandez. Sid has had such an interesting career. He pitched for me in LA for a few years picking up a few Championships there and last year he went 13-9 winning it all in Pittsburgh

Since he hit the majors at age 19, Sid has gone 180-188 with 37 saves and a 3.87 ERA. He's only been on the DL once and has almost 500 starts. Despite the positive overall numbers, he has also lost 20 games twice! 7-20 as a 26 year old in Boston and then 5-20 2 years ago in Colorado. He asked for 1 year at $1.7 million but Boston came back with $1.8 million. By the time I dropped out of the bidding at $2.4 million, I thought that was way too high. He ended up going for $3.2 million a year for 2 years. His agent did well.

I still had almost $7 million in cap room and somehow the #1 free agent Barry Larkin was still unsigned with 4 days before the season started. He started by asking for about $7.7 million a year for 5 years. I didn't have enough this year, but I bumped up the next 4 years to make it equitable, so I thought I could get him. However, he also ended up in Boston for what I offered to begin with! Very disappointed.

So we have a ton of salary open if we want to trade for someone, but I think I could have done a little more.

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In the draft:

1-Dodgers-Matt Holliday (unsigned)
2-Cardinals-Jayson Werth
3-Cleveland-Aaron Rowand
4-Seattle-Aubrey Huff
5-Twins-CC Sabathia
6-Royals-Pat Burrell
7-Mariners-Morgan Ensburg
8-Boston-Adam Dunn
9-Brewers-Troy Glaus
10-Cubs-Michael Cuddyer

We took 21 year old BJ Ryan out of college with the 27th pick and he made our opening day roster in the bullpen

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6-4 in our 1st 10 games has us 1 game out of 1st.

My spring opinion that I was short on starting pitching has played out so far, we are 13th in runs allowed. We are not hitting as much as I thought yet, we are just 8th in runs but we are 1st in home runs but we are still at the bottom of OBP despite adding players who draw walks. So that's a work in progress.

But, our moves to improve our fielding has paid off as our efficiency has gone from 11th to 4th, our errors have gone from 9th to 1st and zone rating from 12th to 1st.

So if our hitting and pitching improves, I will take our chances.

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On the same day, teammates 33 year old Barry Larkin picked up his 2000th hit and 38 year old Ryne Sandberg picked up his 3000th hit for the Red Sox

Sandberg has only hit .300 once, he's a career .271 hitter and just a .305 OBP. He has 221 homers and 454 steals, but really......he's not that good. He's only been an all-star 5 times

Larkin has hit .300 5 times and is a career .302/.370 OBP guy. He has 210 homers and 202 steals and is a 7 time all star already.

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The very next day Barry Bonds hit home run #500 at age 33. After 10 years with the Rangers, the Oakland LF is a career .295/.411/.601 with 1446 RBI. He;s led the league:

Runs-3 times
Home runs-2 times
RBI-3 times
BB-2 times
OBP-2 times
Slugging-5 times
OPS-5 times
WAR-just once
10 time All Star
1 MVP

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We ripped things up over our next 10 games going 9-1 outscoring the opposition 73-33, scoring 10 runs 3 times and throwing 3 shutouts over that span.

We are now 3rd in runs and 4th in pitching while still 1st in zone rating, defensive efficiency and home runs.

Erstad .359 6 HR 20 rbi 20 runs
Baerga .318 1HR 9 rbi 9 runs
Jefferies .410 2 HR 2 3B 5 2B 10 rbi 19 runs 3 steals
Frias .368 8 HR 15 rbi 15 runs
Williams .359 3 HR 10 rbi 9 runs/Carlsen .314 4 HR 9 rbi 8 runs (1b platoon)
Cedeno .329 4 HR 16 rbi 13 runs
Higginson .226 4 HR 12 rbi 9 runs
Brown .208 1 HR 8 rbi

Bill Long started in the rotation and had 2 horrible starts so I decided to give 25 year old rookie Paul Wilson his 1st start. Wilson was our 2nd round pick 5 years ago and has slowly worked his way through the system and had 2 good appearances out of the bullpen. He spent 2 years each at AA and AAA and while never having an ERA less than 4.54, He averaged 2.5 WAR and was the #115 prospect.

So in his 1st and only start so far, he threw a 2-hit shutout over expansion Arizona.

Barnes 4-1 3.48 ERA
Pellien 2-0 4.18 ERA
Wilson 1-0 1.06 ERA
Jackson 2-1 5.75 ERA
Lieber 4-0 1.74 ERA

Long 0-3 9.30 ERA
Neely 1-0 1.50 ERA
Henneman 4.32 ERA
Rookie BJ Ryan 1.35 ERA
Wyatt 1.69 ERA
Cain 1-0 3 saves 2.70 ERA

I think we might be good

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6-4 in our next 10 games, but the last 4 wins all in a row, so we are on a bit of a roll.

After 30 games, our 21-9 record have us 1 game ahead of the Expos and 1 1/2 ahead of the Mets and 2 ahead of the Braves. The poor Phillies are 15-13 and in last. The top 4 teams in the wild card is the entire Eastern Division.

We are up to 2nd in runs scored and 8th in runs allowed. We still lead the league in home runs and are up to 7th in steals, a priority of our owner, for some stupid reason.

Frias-11 homers 26 RBI .359
Williams-8 homers 20 RBI .309
Jefferies-7 homers 21 RBI .371
Higginson-7 homers 18 RBI ,245
Erstad-6 homers 25 RBI .328
Cedeno-5 homers 17 RBI .325

We can hit.

[sharknut]

Originally Posted by sharknut

In the Rule 5 draft, there was a 16 year old who has 5-star potential so....I took him. I don't know why he was available, but I didn't care. He is a C/1B who has maximum power potential and is already a 60 out of 80 in power and so he can be our 3rd catcher and 3rd 1b this year and then let him develop in the minors next year

Osorio is 17 now and is a 65/80 in steals, 55/80 in homers, 50/80 in discipline already, so he can contribute as our last player on the bench. But after 30 games, he still hasn't started. But he has had 10 appearances as a pinch hitter/pinch runner/replacement.

April 7-fly out to center
April 9-walk
April 16-walk
April 18-walk
April 25-ground out to 2nd
April 27-walk
April 28-Home run and single in 2 at bats
April 30-strike out
May 1-pinch run
May 2-pinch run-run scored

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The next 10 games saw us go 9-1 against the really bad NL West. Once again, the top 4 wild card teams are all in the NL East. But for now, we are 2 games up on the Expos and 4 over the Mets.

We are now 1st in runs/OPS/WAR/HR's and our pitching is up to 5th with our defense sitting about 2nd. I think we have the pieces if we stay healthy

Jon Lieber 7-0 2.19 ERA
Danny Jackson 5-1 5.32 ERA
Jon Barnes 5-3 3.06 ERA
Kenneth Pellien 4-1 4.35 ERA
Paul Wilson 1-1 3.40 ERA in 5 starts

Tim Cain 4-0 11 saves 2.93 ERA
Dave Wyatt 3-1 5.14 ERA
Bill Long 1-3 7.06 ERA
Jeff Neely 1-0 1.32 ERA
Mike Henneman 0-0 5.84 ERA
BJ Ryan 0-0 2.76 ERA

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Right before game 49, our owner, Michael Rogers passed away after a long illness. The team has passed to his son, a 29 year old named Jayden.

I went from a "patient" owner to a 29 year old "demanding" owner.

Ok then

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We went 6-4 in our next 10, but that included 4 straight losses and then 5 straight wins to end that stretch. 2nd in runs/OPS/WAR and 1st in homers as our pitching is up to 4th with our defense still sitting 2nd.

Wilson and Jackson had back-to-back 1-0 wins over Pittsburgh, Jackson's shutout being the last game prior to Marlin owner Michael Rogers passing from cancer.

Baerga .319/.327/.406 2 HR 12 2B 5 steals 26 runs
Jefferies .354/.409/.577 10 HR 10 2B 8 steals 29 RBI 26 runs
Erstad .298/..354/.492 8 HR 11 2B 35 RBI 36 runs
Frias .358/.389/.709 16 HR 40 RBI 31 runs
Williams .283/.372/.575 9 HR 10 2B 28 RBI 18 runs/Carlsen .258/.410/.597 5 HR 10 RBI in 62 AB
Cedeno .347/.362/.563 8 HR 11 2B 29 RBI 26 runs
Higgenson .248/.318/.496 10 HR 29 RBI 24 runs
Brown .265/.315/.419 4 HR 19 RBI 15 runs/James .354/.395/.532 9 2B 11 rbi 14 runs 5 steals in 79 AB

We lead the Expos by 1 1/2, all 5 teams in our division continue to be over .500 with the Phils still in last at 25-23

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5-5 over the next 10 sees us with the best record in the game at 41-19. The Expos are just 1 game behind me, though. All 5 teams in the division are still over .500.

2nd in runs, 3rd in pitching and 1st in defense, I am pretty happy. We clearly have our best squad, 1st in homers and up to 4th in steals and the 2nd fewest errors. Need to get the middle relief squared away, but that's really all I need to do

Leiber 8-0 3.15 ERA 1.07 WHIP 1.2 WAR
Barnes 7-5 4.15 ERA 1.45 WHIP .7 WAR
Pellien 5-2 4.11 ERA 1.22 WHIP 2.1 WAR
Jackson 7-3 4.21 ERA 1.33 WHIP 1.1 WAR
Wilson 1-3 3.70 ERA 1.19 WHIP .5 WAR

We traded struggling lefty Dave Wyatt and AAA middle infielder Devin Dondero to Cleveland for lefty swingman Pat Combs. He's an upgrade to Wyatt and we need to solidify the setup role to closer Tim Cain. Cain is 7-0 with 15 saves in 23 appearances, so a win or save in 22 out of 23 games.

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An 8-2 run put us 49-21 and we've opened up a 3 game lead over Montreal. 1st in runs, 2nd in pitching and 2nd in defense as continue to lead in HR's and are now 2nd in steals.

Around the league, The Orioles have a 7 game lead in the AL East, but the other divisions are still close. The Royals lead the Twins by 2 games, and the A's are up 1 on the Rangers and 2 on the Mariners.

We are 3 up on the Expos while the Cubs are 4 games ahead of the Reds and 5 up on the Pirates. Out West, nobody is over .500, but the Padres lead the Giants by 1 1/2

Jim Thome of the Royals suffered one of the those random injuries tearing his rotator cuff, "tripping over luggage at home. The Astros were hit by major injuries with Greg Vaughn and Scott Brosius suffering season ending injuries, 5-time all star Dave Clark is out for the year with an elbow for the Tigers, Albert Belle will be out for 7 weeks with a leg injury, that will really hurt the Expos chances of catching us

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While we have the best team we've ever had, I have not improved our system. 26th in the league and only 2 of the top 100 prospects isn't where I would like to be, but we drafted in the middle, so we never really drafted that high. Erstad was our highest pick at #8, fortunately he has hit .329 in his 3 1/2 years.

AAA Charlotte is 29-37 in 4th place.
Jimmy Anderson 22 years old 13-4 3.88 ERA 1.5 WAR
Mario Valdez 23 year old 1B .260/.360/.492 13 home runs
David Hyman 23 year old RF .302/.399/.630 22 home runs (rocketing up the rankings

AA Portland 22-42 in 5th place
Not a single prospect worth mentioning

A Brevard County 32-28 3rd place
Jin-Ho Cho 2-1 3.10 ERA 8.0 K/BB in 7 starts
Kimani Stafford 22 year old 2B .370/.470/.442
Dee Brown 20 year old LF .318/.381/.538
Tarik Graham 18 year old CF .341/.486/.437

A Kane County 35-29 1st place
Mike Dean 20 year old C .301/.381/.432
Darren Doskocil 24 year old 2B .289/.407/.451 (just promoted to 2b)

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We went 7-3 in our next 10, so you think I would be happy. But......I hate blowing big leads. I really do. In our last game, we had a 6-2 lead going into the 9th and we gave up 6 hits, 2 walks and made 2 errors and gave up 8 runs. Our entire team fell apart. Then, we scored 3 in the bottom, but lost 10-9. So I'm salty despite having the best record in the league. We are now 6 up on the Expos and Orioles for the best record.

Our 1st base platoon is the league MVP. Carlsen and Williams are a combined .310/.390/.670 with 34 home runs, 84 rbi's and 82 runs scored in our first 80 games.

Our SS may be the front runner for MVP. Cedeno has elevated his game massively as a 28 year old. A career .274 hitter, he is .321/.334/.506 with 11 homers, 16 doubles, 5 triples, 48 rbi 39 runs and 18 steals for a 3.4 offensive WAR. Defensively, in 75 games he has only committed 3 errors with a zone rating of 9.2 leading the league in chances.

Frias .325/.358/.623 21 HR 56 RBI
Carlsen .274/.399/.664 11 HR 27 RBI in 113 AB
Williams .317/.382/.701 23 HR 57 RBI in 221 AB
Jefferies .358/.424/.560 13 HR 42 RBI 59 runs 14 steals
Baerga .333/.353/.421 4 HR 36 RBI 44 runs 9 steals
Cedeno .321/.334/.506 11 HR 48 RBI 39 runs 18 steals
Erstad .315/.367/.517 11 HR 25 doubles 52 RBI 55 runs 6 steals

We sent down our rookie star of last year, Roosevelt Brown as he was struggling at .242 and just 1 HR. I called up Hayman, our surprise star at AAA and so far he's hitting .263 with 1 HR in 19 AB.

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We had another 7-3 stretch surrounding the All-Star game and we are now 7 up on the Expos. Frias/Jefferies/Cedeno/Erstad/Williams/Lieber were all named to the All-Star game, where Lieber gave up 5 runs in 1 inning of work.

1st in runs, 2nd in runs allowed, 1st in zone rating, 2nd fewest errors committed, 1st in home runs and 4th in steals. Despite being 2nd in runs allowed, we are just 14th in pitching WAR, another reason why I am not a huge fan of that stat.

Lieber 12-0 3.09 ERA 1.12 WHIP
Pellien 11-3 3.94 ERA 1.25 WHIP
Jackson 10-4 4.16 ERA 1.42 WHIP
Cain 9-3 23 saves 3.38 ERA 1.23 WHIP
Barnes 8-7 4.19 ERA 1.46 WHIP
Combs 5-1 2.44 ERA 1.17 WHIP
Wilson 4-4 3.50 ERA 1.18 WHIP

Each of our 1-6 hitters are over .300, combine that with being 1st in home runs, it's clear why we are 1st in runs scored

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A 3-game losing streak ended the next 10 games with a 6-4 record and our lead has grown to 9 over the Expos who have really been struggling.

Paul Wilson is an interesting case. He's been a top 100-150 prospect for a few years, but never really had a great season coming up. He had 2 years at AA where his ERA+ went from 87 to 97, then 2 years at AAA where it went from 105 to 107, so he improved each year, but not an ace by any means. But so far this year, he's gone 6-4 with a 3.15 ERA in 21 appearances and 17 starts and an ERA+ of 140. He's done this in a year where the rookie crop isn't great, he was just the Rookie of the Month for June, so he has a chance to win it for sure.

Jefferies is 1st in hitting, 2nd in hits, 3rd in runs, 5th in WAR and 5th in OPS+
Baerga is 5th in hitting and 1st in hits
Frias is 2nd in home runs, 2nd in slugging, 4th in OPS, 3rd in OPS+
Williams is 6th in home runs
Cedeno is 6th in steals
Lieber is 2nd in wins, 2nd in shutouts
Cain is 2nd in saves
Wilson in 4th in CG, 1st in shutouts, 4th in WHIP, 5th in opp avg,
Jackson in shutouts