MLB Replay....A new History

[rjl518]

go mets and marlins!!!

[HerbertMcHoover]

Uh? Yankees? We'll see.

[George_Bell]

1998 MLB Regular Season

Here are the top 10 prospects heading into the 1998 season



Here are the new minor league affiliates of the Tampa Bay Rays and the Arizona Diamondbacks.



Bo Jackson opens the season by hitting his 1^st home run as a member of the Pirates, which also happens to be the 500^th of his career. He is the 16^th player to accomplish 500 home runs. Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt, and Eddie Mathews all failed to get there! Bo Jackson has established himself as one of the all-time greats!! This makes me happy!

A fantastic, fun Bo Jackson stat. Bo has lead all of baseball in strikeouts every single season he’s played except for 1996, when he finished 3^rd. Bo has also only hit below 35 home runs once. He hit 29 in 1995!! It's very much all or nothing for Bo Jackson!



This is the Colorado Rockies rotation.



Despite this, Colorado is 35-21, and in first place by a mile. The pitching staff is sooooooo bad!! This goes back to my classic complaint of how any logical manager would keep pitching horrible pitchers who perform badly. How is Roy Oswalt in this rotation!! He’s 20. He’s not even close to ready for MLB. Last year, he started 28 big league games, and went 3-17, with 9.19 era. I’m not a genius, but does it really take a genius to find and acquire a fringe pitchers to start instead of this guy. Oswalt could be good one day. I doubt it now.

This is Colorado’s lineup.


Wow, that’s why they are so good. They knock the cover off the ball. Rico Brogna is fantastic. The Rockies have the #1 prospect in baseball. Lance Berkman appears blocked by Brogna, maybe trade Berkman for a pitcher, or a SS like Jeter……

Time to give some props to one of my all-time favourite players I haven’t really mentioned yet. Tony Fernandez, now 36 years old, playing with the Expos, gets his 3000^th hit! He’s the 22^nd man to achieve this. 3000 hits is a rare feat. Only Mattingly, Brett and Brooks Robinson have done this in the last 35 years! Tony is having a wonderful season as he nears the end of his career. At 36, he’s hitting a career high .349. Looking at his resume, Fernandez is a borderline Hall of Famer at this point. The door is being forced open!



Todd Greene again leads baseball in All-Star voting, receiving 3.3 million votes. Javy Lopez is 2^nd with about 3.1 million votes.

Here are the trades made during the 1998 season.



The teasing has finally ended. Heading into September, the NY Yankees have a enormous on the rest of the AL east. 21 games to be exact. They are in. The Phillies and Cardinals are also most certainly in at this point. Everything else is up in the air!

Todd Greene has 55 home runs on September 1^st. He’s within 10 of Lou Gehrig's record of 65. Greene’s career high is 57, hit back in 1996. He’s got a realistic shot at making history.



Todd Greene hits home runs 60 and 61 on the 13^th of September. It’s looking very likely that he’s gonna set a record…..in 1998…..ironic…coincidence.

Greene goes the next 8 games without a home run. He enters the final series of the season with 61. He hits a long bomb in the opener against Houston. 62. Amazingly, he does deep twice in the 2^nd game of the season. 63. 64. In his final game of the season, in his final at bat, Todd Greene hits his 65^th home run. Todd Greene ties Lou Gehrig with the most single season home runs ever. 65!!!



No pennant races end up being close enough to cover. The AL West looks close, but the Angels were never really in any danger. The NL East takes over as the worst division in baseball!



Bo Jackson has his first injury plagued season of his career. He plays 79 games, hitting 12 home runs with 48 RBIs.

John Smoltz is a member of the Rockies pitching staff who was hurt at the time of my indulgence. He goes 21-3, wtih a 3.75 era. The next two pitchers each have 35 starts, and era's over 7. Roy Oswalt finishes 8-15, with a 7.07 era. Terrible.

Tony Fernandez really fell off, hitting .289 for the season. He's still great in the field, and has a chance for his 11th gold glove!

[darnoff]

Originally Posted by George_Bell

Todd Greene ties Lou Gehrig with the most single season home runs ever. 65!!!

How many at-bats did each of them need? It would seem like Greene would get far fewer since he is a catcher.

[HerbertMcHoover]

That Roy Oswalt stat is one of my favorites ever. 9.19 and that rotation. Wow, if the Blue Jays from a few years ago had the offense of the Rockies this year, they would be WS contenders!

Sweet, Johnny Damon is a Yankee.

Todd Greene is a legend... until 2007, but wow.

Wow, look at those Yankees and that division lead. If we were in the NL East, WOOF.

NL Central avoided above .500 for the first time in like five years it feels like. NL West is starting to get some fire power, aside from the medicore Dodgers.

Padres seem to have the best mini-division dynasty that nobody seems to talk about. It feels like the last 6 or 7 years, they've come in either first or second. Great turnaround for a team that didn't make the playoffs until this dynasty.

Nice job, John Smoltz! He can do it anywhere (except Boston).

[George_Bell]

Originally Posted by darnoff

How many at-bats did each of them need? It would seem like Greene would get far fewer since he is a catcher.

Greene got 576 at bats, with 634 plate appearances over 149 games.
Gehrig, got 651 at bats, with 751 plate appearainces, starting each of his teams 154 games. Gehrig also hit .425 that year!!

[George_Bell]

Originally Posted by HerbertMcHoover

Padres seem to have the best mini-division dynasty that nobody seems to talk about. It feels like the last 6 or 7 years, they've come in either first or second. Great turnaround for a team that didn't make the playoffs until this dynasty.

Your right about the Padres, they seems to be a perennial playoff team these days, but never win anything, so i had to go back and look at their playoff success.

Since 1994, which was the teams first playoff appearance, they have won the NL West 4 times, with one 2nd place finish. Including this year, which is a spoiler, but whatever, they have won just one playoff series, in 95 and have a 6-17 record in the postseason!

Maybe the NL West is just too soft!

[George_Bell]

[George_Bell]

[George_Bell]

The Angels franchise is playing in their first ever World Series. They are an unlikely bunch of underdogs. I would have picked the Yankees, Twins, and White Sox over them, but here they are.

Not a good offensive team, Sean Casey carries the load. He’s legit. Tim Salmon and Jason Varitek are the only other legit threats. I guess Frank Catalanotto is one too, but overall, this lineup isn’t scary.

The pitching is ok. Chris Carpenter is probably the staff ace. He’s most likely in over his head right now though. Only 23, has the potential to be a true ace one day, but he's still a bit undeveloped, and looks more lucky then good at the moment.

The Cards are really good. Gary Sheffield had a monster season. 180 RBIS!! The middle of the order is indeed scary. These guys do a lot of good things. They have a bench to. Jose Canseco platoons with Rusty Greer and Dave Roberts! The pitching is similar to Anaheim. Nothing scary, nothing that you would expect to be an ace, but these do get the job done.

[HerbertMcHoover]

Damn it Yankees. Another year or two. How did the Yanks lose to the White Sox?

Also, Sean Casey always seems to put up monster numbers in 1998. Big upset by the Cards. What a powerhouse lineup Houston has!

[CecilCooper]

We have a Brien Taylor sighting. Now we just need Todd Van Poppel.

[George_Bell]

Originally Posted by HerbertMcHoover

Damn it Yankees. Another year or two. How did the Yanks lose to the White Sox?

Also, Sean Casey always seems to put up monster numbers in 1998. Big upset by the Cards. What a powerhouse lineup Houston has!

Yankees scored 7 in the opener and the offense just dried up. Ken Griffey Jr. finally had a moment in the sun, hitting over .400 for the series.

[George_Bell]

Anaheim starter Jason Schmidt gets off to a rough start. His nerves showed up. After allowing a leadoff single, he throws a wild pitch, allows a stolen base by Elvis Pena, who would score on a Gary Sheffield fly ball. Schmidt then walked the next two hitters, made an error, and walked in a 2^nd run. The Angels respond in the 2^nd. Jason Varitek hit the series’ first home run, a two run shot which tied it up.
Both pitchers then settled down and cruised for a few innings.

In the 7^th, St. Louis’ Eric Young led off with a triple. Alex Cabrera would plate him with a double and score on a Gabe Kapler single. The Cards led 4-2, and would add 2 more the next inning. St. Louis wins game one, 6-2.

Anaheim gets off to a good start, loading the bases and trotting home after a bases loaded walk to lead 1-0. The Cards tie the game in the 4^th. Gabe Kapler with a 2 out RBI single. St. Louis would grab the lead when Gary Sheffield knocked in his 2^nd run of the series. 2-1 Cardinals!

It stayed that way until the ninth. Cards closer, Kiyoshi Toyoda(2.17 ERA, 35 saves) walked leadoff hitter Warren Newson. After a bunt moved the tying run to 2^nd, Frank Catalanotto got the biggest hit of his career, a 2 run home run to put Anaheim ahead 3-2! Angels closer John Wetteland came on and had no trouble with is opportunity. Angels win game two, 3-2.


Game 2 hero!

Tied at two, heading into the 8^th inning of game three, the first World Series game played in Anaheim was a well played, pitching matchup. Both teams have had very little in the way of chances to score. In the top of the inning, with two out, Eric Young and Gary Sheffield would hit back to back home runs to give the Cards a 4-2 lead. Kiyoshi Toyado came on in the ninth to close out the game…..



Woah, that was close. Toyado almost blew it again! 2 games to 1 for St. Louis.

3 RBI’s by Todd Zeile and a Jose Canseco home run had the Cards up 4-1 after 3 innings. The Angels decided to wake up and give their fans something to cheer about. 4 straight singles, a few walks, a balk, and back to back doubles by Frank Catalanotto and Sean Casey cap off a 6 run inning, giving Anaheim a 7-4 lead. That’s all the offense they would need, as the Angels tie the series with a 7-5 win.

A first inning Rusty Greer single scores 2 early runs to give the Cards the lead. Then Angels respond right away. Phil Nevin came to the plate with 2 men on, and hits a towering home run to to right field. The next inning, Masahiko Harada hits a 2 run homer, and it’s 5-2 Angels.

The Cardinals fight back, but still trail 6-5 heading into the ninth. With John Wetteland closing, Dave Roberts leads off with a double, and scores on a Elvis Pena sac fly to tie it. With 2 outs, Eric Young walks, steals 2^nd, and scores when the best clutch hitter of the season(.364 RISP, 129 RBI’s) singles him in. Toyado would close the game, and the Cardinals steal game five, 7-6.

Phil Nevin doubles in Frank Catalanotto to give the Angels a first inning lead. It doesn’t last too long. Eric Young would knock in two, and score on a Sheffield sac fly to cap a 3 run third inning for St. Louis. Jason Varitek would homer to cut the lead to one, but Jose Canseco would hit his 2^nd of the series to give St. Louis the 2 run lead again. Down 5-3 heading into the ninth, Toyoda would walk the first to Angels in the inning. Already in trouble, he would get Catalanotto and Sean Casey to ground out, which scored a run. Phil Nevin would then fly out, with the tying run on 2^nd. Game over, Series over. St. Louis wins 5-4, and take the series in 6.

[George_Bell]

[HerbertMcHoover]

Good for Griffey. Thanks for posting that. Glad to see him getting a moment to shine, even though it was against us.

You know what was going on with the (0) next to the names in the HR category? That's pretty strange.

[George_Bell]

Originally Posted by HerbertMcHoover

Good for Griffey. Thanks for posting that. Glad to see him getting a moment to shine, even though it was against us.

You know what was going on with the (0) next to the names in the HR category? That's pretty strange.

No idea, but i've seen it a few times. It's a legacy bug that i noticed going back to OOTP 14. I guess I just kind of ignore it these days.

[George_Bell]

[George_Bell]

Getting close to the 100th anniversary of the league, i wanted to do something just to make note of the teams and players. At 50, i did a half century team, this time, i decided to pick a franchise player for each team. Someone who i guess would be considered the historic face of the franchise. When you think of this team, you think of this player.

So, over the next 2 or 3 seasons, i'll be posting a few teams here and their, trying to stretch it out as a sort of celebration. Some tough decisions, some surprises and some obvious choices were made. Who is Philly's franchise player...Lou Gehrig, Mule Suttles or Harmon Killebrew?! Only room for one. Here is the first installment.

[rjl518]

im not sure...but I think Dwight Gooden might have been the best pitcher in the history of your league...or at least...very close...