Historical Replay 1981 onward

bjohn13 · 03-29-2021, 09:50 PM

Hello,

In the past, I posted about the "epic" simulation that I played starting with the 1884 Dodgers. I stopped posting about that simulation, but I didn't stop playing it until 2012.

The reason I stopped posting is because, quite frankly, I got kind of burned out on posting screenshots. So this thread will be about general musings as I play through the season.

This time around, I'm doing something a bit different. It's something I haven't done since I was a kid, but I am going to try to start a historical simulation starting with a much less ambitious date (1981) and play every team.

There are going to be some "what if" scenarios playing out. Like what if Ken Phelps had stayed with the Royals? What if the Reds started Nick Esasky at first base instead of Pete Rose in 1985? What if the Dodgers' Fernando Valenzuela and Pedro Guerrero had played the entire decade healthy? And what if the 1981 strike season hadn't been shortened?

Ultimately, though, I'm going to try to keep up with teams transactions, and I'm going to play players based on their performance in the game. Players are set to reture when they do in the real world. I have real minor leagues turned on. I'm playing using OOTB 2021, though I will likely upgrade at some point.

bjohn13 · 03-29-2021, 10:30 PM

Week One Results:

Week one is in the books, and because of the crazy scheduling combined with a few rainouts, the standings look goofy. There are two remaining teams that are undefeated, both in the American League East.

The Detroit Tigers started out with a 3-0 record behind the arms of Jack Morris, Dan Petry, and Milt Wilcox who all pitched complete game victories. Their offense has been fueled by Howard Johnson, who hit two dingers on the week, and Al Cowens, who has driven in six. They trounced Toronto in the opening series by a combined sore of 24-6.

Cleveland is the other undefeated team by the slimmest of margins. After Len Barker went the distance in a 3-2 opener, Bert Blyleven was rocked in their second game, knocked out after giving up seven runs in an inning and a third. The Cleveland bullpen buckled down, though, and the Indians came down from 7-1 to win 9-8 off the bats of Bo Diaz and Mike Fischlin.

Harold Baines knocked out three home runs in the opening week, playing in just two games. Ken Griffey drove in 10 runs, winning the NL Player of the Week award with a .467 average. Don Baylor won the AL Player of the Week award hitting at a a ..567 clip with 6 RBIs.

Steve Carlton was the only pitcher able to get in two starts on the week, and he went the distance and won them both. Jim Bibby, Juan Eichelberger, Stever Mura, Steve Renko, and Mike Torrez all pitched shutouts in a week that was, with the exception of a handful of games, dominated by pitching.

The most lopsided game was when the 1-1 Padres blew out the 1-1 Giants on the road behind the arm of Eichelberger. Doyle Alexander was chased in the second after giving up 7, and the Padres went on to win 11-0 behind 4 hits by Gene Richard and 5 RBI by Jim Lefebvre.

Teams off to the best start:
Detroit 3-0
Cleveland 2-0
California 3-1
Philadelphia 3-1

Teams off to the worst start:
Toronto 0-4
Milwaukee 0-2
Kansas City 0-2
Pittsburgh 1-3
Seattle 1-3

As I get towards the tail end of everyone's rotation, I imagine that the pitching will lapse more.

Some key injuries:

Geoff Zahn is expected to miss two weeks for the Angels. He went down in the second inning of the Angels 5-2 win over Seattle on Saturday. Mike Witt came in to pitch six innings, giving up only one run. He is expected to replace Zahn in the rotation.

In Atlanta, Gene Garber is nursing shoulder tendonitis and is expected to miss 3-4 weeks.

Joe Sambito in Houston is out with a strained abdominal muscle and was placed on the 15 day DL.

Floyd Bannister in Seattle tore his UCL and is expected to miss the season.

Looking forward to week two. There is a Dodgers-Giants series coming up, and Detroit gets to beat up on Toronto for three more games.

bjohn13 · 03-30-2021, 11:01 PM

Highlights of the day:

Mario Soto wins the performance of the day award. In his second start of the year, he blanked San Diego to help the Reds improve to 3-2. Dave Collins had two hits and an RBI for the Reds.

In San Francisco, the Dodgers jumped on top of the Giants 3-0 through four innings, but Larry Herndon gunned down Pedro Guerrero at the plate in the first, and then he gunned down Ron Cey at the plate in the fourth to single-handedly keep the game within reach. The Giants pulled to within 3-2 in the fifth with a Max Venable RBI triple followed by a sac fly by Mike Rex, but the Dodgers ended up putting the game out of reach for a final 6-2 victory off the bats of Ron Cey and Pedro Guerrero who each went 3 for 4.

The undefeated Tigers visited the winless Royals with predictable results. Ken Phelps went yard twice for the Royals, but the Tigers put up 8 runs overall to the Royals' 3.

bjohn13 · 03-30-2021, 11:48 PM

The performance of the week award goes to Charlie Hough, who only gave up 4 hits and struck out nine in the Rangers' 1-0 win over Cleveland. John Denny gave up a lead off double to Bump Wills in the first and then an RBI single to Nick Capra before proceeding to pitch shutout baseball for the remainder of the game in a losing effort.

With the Cleveland loss, the Tigers are the only remaining undefeated team, and they had the day off. Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Toronto are the remaining winless teams. Kansas City and Toronto had off days while Milwaukee's game in Chicago was rained out.

MIke Norris took the mound for the A's in the first inning with an ERA over 21, and when he proceeded to give up two runs, he actually lowered his ERA. He then proceeded to dispatch opposing Angels hitters with efficiency, retiring 21 in a row and 23 of 25. Going into the bottom of the 10th in a 2-2 tie, he had only racked up 59 pitches, but the Angels got to him anyway as Dan Ford hit a walk-off two-run home run for the 4-2 victory. Norris threw 23 pitches to two hitters in the 10th. He was definitely on his last hitter.

Nolan Ryan struck out 14 and went the distance in a 9-1 victory over Atlanta. Dickie Thon had three hits for the Astros.

Baltimore exploded for 14 runs in a 14-1 victory over Boston. Al Bumbry and John Lowenstein both had 3 hits and 3 runs for the Orioles while Rick Dempsey drove in 3. Dennis Martinez pitched 7 innings with 5 strikeouts for the win.

Tomorrow:

The big National League matchup is when 1-0 pitchers Frank Pastore and Steve Mura start for the Reds and Padres, both of whom are 3-3 on the season.

In the American League, 1-0 Rick Langford of Oakland (3-3) will match up against 1-0 Steve Renko of California (4-2).

Dave Steibe and Ron Guidry, both who had rocky opening day starts, will match up as the Blue Jays try to get their first win of the season against the Yankees (2-2).

The 4-0 Tigers will visit the 0-3 Royals as Jack Morris squares off against Larry Gura.

Rick Waits and the 2-1 Indians will visit Doc Medich and the 3-1 Rangers in the only game on the day that will feature two teams with winning records.

bjohn13 · 04-04-2021, 10:22 PM

Billed as "The Game of the Day", Yankee ace Ron Guidry (0-0) squared up against Blue Jays ace Dave Stieb (01). Both starters were rocked in their first outing, and the trend continued for Stieb, as he gave up 5 through the fist three innings. He seemed to settle down before giving up two more and getting pulled in the seventh. Meanwhile, Guidry gave up one in the 1st and 1 in the 7th to earn a complete game victory by the eventual count of 10-2. Willie Randolph had a huge day for New York, going 3 for 4 with 4 runs scored while Dave Winfield also went 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs.

The performance of the day goes to Steve Mura, who pitched his second straight shutout to start the season 2-0 by a final score of 1-0. Frank Pastore went the distance for Cincinnati, giving up just seven hits to drop to 1-1.

The 4-0 Tigers looked poised to beat up on the 0-3 Royals. The Tigers got off to a 2-0 start, and Royals' ace starter Larry Gura went down in the fourth inning with a leg injury. Things were not looking up for Kansas City, but Jim Wright, Atlee Hammaker, and Dan Quisenberry tacked on 5 1/3 scoreless innings while Hal McRae and the Royals offense went crazy. McRae went 4 for 5 scoring 2 runs while Frank White went 2 for 3 with 4 RBIs. The Royals ended up scoring 9 to win their first of the year. Gura is expected to miss 2-3 weeks. Hammaker will likely get a couple of starts as we await Gura's return.

Cecil Cooper had a four hit game for the Brewers, scoring two and driving in two more as Milwaukee outslugged the White Sox 11-6. Ron Kittle hit his second home run of the year for Chicago.

George Hendrick went 4-5 with two runs scored to help the Cardinals overtake the Mets 6-2.

Ray Langford went to 2-0 as he and the A's beat the Steve Renko and the Angels 3-1.

Jose Cruz went 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs as Bob Knepper and the Astros beat Gaylord Perry and the Braves. Perry dropped to 0-2 on the season. Meanwhile, Dave Smith filling in for the closer role for the injured Joe Sambito, earned his third save.

There are no undefeated teams left in the Majors. The 4-1 Tigers lead the AL West by a half game over Cleveland while the 4-2 Twins lead the AL East by a half a game over Texas, Oakland, and California. Montreal and Philadelphia are tied atop the NL East at 4-1, a half game ahead of St. Louis, while Houston and Los Angeles are tied for the NL West lead at 4-2, a half game over San Diego. Toronto, at 0-5, is the only winless team.

There are six games scheduled for Tomorrow. The Game of the Day is the 4-3 Athletics playing in California against the 4-3 Angels. Steve McCatty, who got a no decision in his first start, will face Mike Witt, who is getting his first start since joining the rotation.

03-29-2021, 09:50 PM	#1
bjohn13 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2017 Posts: 47 Blog Entries: 52	Historical Replay 1981 onward Hello, In the past, I posted about the "epic" simulation that I played starting with the 1884 Dodgers. I stopped posting about that simulation, but I didn't stop playing it until 2012. The reason I stopped posting is because, quite frankly, I got kind of burned out on posting screenshots. So this thread will be about general musings as I play through the season. This time around, I'm doing something a bit different. It's something I haven't done since I was a kid, but I am going to try to start a historical simulation starting with a much less ambitious date (1981) and play every team. There are going to be some "what if" scenarios playing out. Like what if Ken Phelps had stayed with the Royals? What if the Reds started Nick Esasky at first base instead of Pete Rose in 1985? What if the Dodgers' Fernando Valenzuela and Pedro Guerrero had played the entire decade healthy? And what if the 1981 strike season hadn't been shortened? Ultimately, though, I'm going to try to keep up with teams transactions, and I'm going to play players based on their performance in the game. Players are set to reture when they do in the real world. I have real minor leagues turned on. I'm playing using OOTB 2021, though I will likely upgrade at some point.

03-29-2021, 10:30 PM	#2
bjohn13 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2017 Posts: 47 Blog Entries: 52	Week One Results: Week one is in the books, and because of the crazy scheduling combined with a few rainouts, the standings look goofy. There are two remaining teams that are undefeated, both in the American League East. The Detroit Tigers started out with a 3-0 record behind the arms of Jack Morris, Dan Petry, and Milt Wilcox who all pitched complete game victories. Their offense has been fueled by Howard Johnson, who hit two dingers on the week, and Al Cowens, who has driven in six. They trounced Toronto in the opening series by a combined sore of 24-6. Cleveland is the other undefeated team by the slimmest of margins. After Len Barker went the distance in a 3-2 opener, Bert Blyleven was rocked in their second game, knocked out after giving up seven runs in an inning and a third. The Cleveland bullpen buckled down, though, and the Indians came down from 7-1 to win 9-8 off the bats of Bo Diaz and Mike Fischlin. Harold Baines knocked out three home runs in the opening week, playing in just two games. Ken Griffey drove in 10 runs, winning the NL Player of the Week award with a .467 average. Don Baylor won the AL Player of the Week award hitting at a a ..567 clip with 6 RBIs. Steve Carlton was the only pitcher able to get in two starts on the week, and he went the distance and won them both. Jim Bibby, Juan Eichelberger, Stever Mura, Steve Renko, and Mike Torrez all pitched shutouts in a week that was, with the exception of a handful of games, dominated by pitching. The most lopsided game was when the 1-1 Padres blew out the 1-1 Giants on the road behind the arm of Eichelberger. Doyle Alexander was chased in the second after giving up 7, and the Padres went on to win 11-0 behind 4 hits by Gene Richard and 5 RBI by Jim Lefebvre. Teams off to the best start: Detroit 3-0 Cleveland 2-0 California 3-1 Philadelphia 3-1 Teams off to the worst start: Toronto 0-4 Milwaukee 0-2 Kansas City 0-2 Pittsburgh 1-3 Seattle 1-3 As I get towards the tail end of everyone's rotation, I imagine that the pitching will lapse more. Some key injuries: Geoff Zahn is expected to miss two weeks for the Angels. He went down in the second inning of the Angels 5-2 win over Seattle on Saturday. Mike Witt came in to pitch six innings, giving up only one run. He is expected to replace Zahn in the rotation. In Atlanta, Gene Garber is nursing shoulder tendonitis and is expected to miss 3-4 weeks. Joe Sambito in Houston is out with a strained abdominal muscle and was placed on the 15 day DL. Floyd Bannister in Seattle tore his UCL and is expected to miss the season. Looking forward to week two. There is a Dodgers-Giants series coming up, and Detroit gets to beat up on Toronto for three more games. Last edited by bjohn13; 03-29-2021 at 10:32 PM.

03-30-2021, 11:01 PM	#3
bjohn13 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2017 Posts: 47 Blog Entries: 52	Monday, April 13th Highlights of the day: Mario Soto wins the performance of the day award. In his second start of the year, he blanked San Diego to help the Reds improve to 3-2. Dave Collins had two hits and an RBI for the Reds. In San Francisco, the Dodgers jumped on top of the Giants 3-0 through four innings, but Larry Herndon gunned down Pedro Guerrero at the plate in the first, and then he gunned down Ron Cey at the plate in the fourth to single-handedly keep the game within reach. The Giants pulled to within 3-2 in the fifth with a Max Venable RBI triple followed by a sac fly by Mike Rex, but the Dodgers ended up putting the game out of reach for a final 6-2 victory off the bats of Ron Cey and Pedro Guerrero who each went 3 for 4. The undefeated Tigers visited the winless Royals with predictable results. Ken Phelps went yard twice for the Royals, but the Tigers put up 8 runs overall to the Royals' 3.

03-30-2021, 11:48 PM	#4
bjohn13 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2017 Posts: 47 Blog Entries: 52	Tuesday, April 14th The performance of the week award goes to Charlie Hough, who only gave up 4 hits and struck out nine in the Rangers' 1-0 win over Cleveland. John Denny gave up a lead off double to Bump Wills in the first and then an RBI single to Nick Capra before proceeding to pitch shutout baseball for the remainder of the game in a losing effort. With the Cleveland loss, the Tigers are the only remaining undefeated team, and they had the day off. Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Toronto are the remaining winless teams. Kansas City and Toronto had off days while Milwaukee's game in Chicago was rained out. MIke Norris took the mound for the A's in the first inning with an ERA over 21, and when he proceeded to give up two runs, he actually lowered his ERA. He then proceeded to dispatch opposing Angels hitters with efficiency, retiring 21 in a row and 23 of 25. Going into the bottom of the 10th in a 2-2 tie, he had only racked up 59 pitches, but the Angels got to him anyway as Dan Ford hit a walk-off two-run home run for the 4-2 victory. Norris threw 23 pitches to two hitters in the 10th. He was definitely on his last hitter. Nolan Ryan struck out 14 and went the distance in a 9-1 victory over Atlanta. Dickie Thon had three hits for the Astros. Baltimore exploded for 14 runs in a 14-1 victory over Boston. Al Bumbry and John Lowenstein both had 3 hits and 3 runs for the Orioles while Rick Dempsey drove in 3. Dennis Martinez pitched 7 innings with 5 strikeouts for the win. Tomorrow: The big National League matchup is when 1-0 pitchers Frank Pastore and Steve Mura start for the Reds and Padres, both of whom are 3-3 on the season. In the American League, 1-0 Rick Langford of Oakland (3-3) will match up against 1-0 Steve Renko of California (4-2). Dave Steibe and Ron Guidry, both who had rocky opening day starts, will match up as the Blue Jays try to get their first win of the season against the Yankees (2-2). The 4-0 Tigers will visit the 0-3 Royals as Jack Morris squares off against Larry Gura. Rick Waits and the 2-1 Indians will visit Doc Medich and the 3-1 Rangers in the only game on the day that will feature two teams with winning records.

04-04-2021, 10:22 PM	#5
bjohn13 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: May 2017 Posts: 47 Blog Entries: 52	Wednesday, April 15 Billed as "The Game of the Day", Yankee ace Ron Guidry (0-0) squared up against Blue Jays ace Dave Stieb (01). Both starters were rocked in their first outing, and the trend continued for Stieb, as he gave up 5 through the fist three innings. He seemed to settle down before giving up two more and getting pulled in the seventh. Meanwhile, Guidry gave up one in the 1st and 1 in the 7th to earn a complete game victory by the eventual count of 10-2. Willie Randolph had a huge day for New York, going 3 for 4 with 4 runs scored while Dave Winfield also went 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs. The performance of the day goes to Steve Mura, who pitched his second straight shutout to start the season 2-0 by a final score of 1-0. Frank Pastore went the distance for Cincinnati, giving up just seven hits to drop to 1-1. The 4-0 Tigers looked poised to beat up on the 0-3 Royals. The Tigers got off to a 2-0 start, and Royals' ace starter Larry Gura went down in the fourth inning with a leg injury. Things were not looking up for Kansas City, but Jim Wright, Atlee Hammaker, and Dan Quisenberry tacked on 5 1/3 scoreless innings while Hal McRae and the Royals offense went crazy. McRae went 4 for 5 scoring 2 runs while Frank White went 2 for 3 with 4 RBIs. The Royals ended up scoring 9 to win their first of the year. Gura is expected to miss 2-3 weeks. Hammaker will likely get a couple of starts as we await Gura's return. Cecil Cooper had a four hit game for the Brewers, scoring two and driving in two more as Milwaukee outslugged the White Sox 11-6. Ron Kittle hit his second home run of the year for Chicago. George Hendrick went 4-5 with two runs scored to help the Cardinals overtake the Mets 6-2. Ray Langford went to 2-0 as he and the A's beat the Steve Renko and the Angels 3-1. Jose Cruz went 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs as Bob Knepper and the Astros beat Gaylord Perry and the Braves. Perry dropped to 0-2 on the season. Meanwhile, Dave Smith filling in for the closer role for the injured Joe Sambito, earned his third save. There are no undefeated teams left in the Majors. The 4-1 Tigers lead the AL West by a half game over Cleveland while the 4-2 Twins lead the AL East by a half a game over Texas, Oakland, and California. Montreal and Philadelphia are tied atop the NL East at 4-1, a half game ahead of St. Louis, while Houston and Los Angeles are tied for the NL West lead at 4-2, a half game over San Diego. Toronto, at 0-5, is the only winless team. There are six games scheduled for Tomorrow. The Game of the Day is the 4-3 Athletics playing in California against the 4-3 Angels. Steve McCatty, who got a no decision in his first start, will face Mike Witt, who is getting his first start since joining the rotation.