Notes from around the League

I’ve just reached the one third point of the league (all of the teams have played six games) and it seems like a good time to check in with some developments around the league.

The 1993 Giants and the 1985 Yankees are off to the best starts, with both teams 5-1 in the early going. The Giants aren’t really a surprise.  They were a powerhouse regular season team that was only denied a playoff berth due to the unfortunate luck of sharing a division with the 104 win Braves in the pre Wild Card days. The Yankees are a little surprising though, not just for the hot start, but for how dominant they have been in doing so.  They have outscored their opponents 55-25 and have the firepower to turn any game in a moment.  And yeah, I know we’re talking about six games but this is only an 18 game season. 

On the other side of things are the 1983 Phillies, a pennant winning team that just can’t get anything going.  Steve Carlton and John Denny have been getting rocked, the bullpen is in shambles and Gary Matthews has been their best hitter by far. That’s not a good thing. They are 1-5 and in danger of letting the Giants run away with the Rendell division.  Looking at the players on this team I am shocked that they were able to make it to the World Series. They just aren’t that good. Pete Rose in particular is awful and is probably worthy of his own post at some point.  

Oakland’s Curt Young has been making a case for the best pitcher in this short season. Two starts, two complete game shutouts. In fact, those are the only two shutouts by a starter in the league so far.  Nolan Ryan is defying Father Time once again and looks pretty good with a 2-0 record, 1.69 ERA and almost 11 strikeouts per nine. 

The 2-4 Pirates have been devastated by injuries in the early going.  They’ve lost Jose Lind for ten games, Andy Van Slyke for two games, and Jay Bell for one game.  Not exactly superstars, but they don’t really have the depth to absorb those losses. Especially in the infield.  Mike LaValliere has been getting a lot of playing time this season.  Next time I do one of these seasons I need to take a look at how I should prorate injuries to be reflective of a short season.  A ten game injury is a major loss.

1997 Randy Johnson was one of the players I was really looking forward to seeing in action but so far he has stunk up the Kingdome.  It’s only two games but he is 0-1 with a 6.43 ERA in 14 innings.  He’s walked nine guys and only struck out eleven.  I expected more from the Big Unit!

Early favorite for the AL MVP is the Man of Steal, Rickey Henderson.  His line so far: 478/613/913 with 8 RBI, 12 runs, 4 steals and 3 home runs.  NL MVP is a little closer but I’d have to go with Fred McGriff. 455/538/773 with some clutch hits. But it’s really a wide open race. 

Team Review: 1996 Atlanta Braves

1996 Atlanta Braves

Actual Record: 96-66, 1^st in NL East, lost in World Series

Notable Players: Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff

The Braves of the 1990’s were a legitimate dynasty, manhandling the rest of the National League for most of the decade with an elite pitching staff and enough offense to win plenty of low scoring games.  The key parts stayed together for a long time and were clearly the reason for the success. However, the supporting casts were pretty good and this year’s version includes Denny Neagle as the #4 starter, Marquis Grissom as the center fielder (a year before ceding the role to Andruw Jones, he’s a rookie with 100 at bats), and Mark Wohlers as the closer du jour.  This is a really good team with no holes in their game.

Except they are boring as shit.  Does that count as a weakness? Now I love a well pitched game as much as the next guy (probably more, truthfully) but the thing about this team is that they aren’t a lot of fun to manage.  The starting pitching is awesome and goes four deep so with every game there is a pretty good chance that I won’t need to even think about a reliever until the 7^th or 8^th inning.  And the other major thing that contributes to the boredom is that the bench really sucks. As a manager it’s fun to play around with platoons and work in some double switches and defensive replacements, but this team has virtually no room for that.  I’ve gotten into the habit of benching Klesko against lefties and shifting Dye to left field and having Andruw play right, but it’s really not necessary.  And Rafael Belliard is a good defensive middle infielder for the late innings, but he’s really no better than Blauser and Lemke and far inferior with the bat. 

They could really use a pinch hitter.  Terry Pendleton (238/290/345) is usually the first bat off the bench (especially since he’s a switch hitter) and he’s not very good at all. And who is Dwight Smith? How did he get 154 at bats on a pennant winner?

Grissom is a great centerfielder. He’s got a 1 range factor and an e1 error rating.  He even has a pretty good arm (-2) for a centerfielder.  I think that Chipper’s rating of a 2 range and an e18 seems a bit generous, since he has never really been regarded as a great defender. 

Marquis Grissom is cute as a button.

As a kid I always really enjoyed Greg Maddux. Did anyone who love baseball not enjoy Maddux?  Two thoughts about him.  One, the Mad Dog nickname has got to be the least appropriate name in the history of sports. Whoever perpetuated that one should be killed. Or at least not make up any more nicknames.  Two, I was very excited when interleague play began because I would get a chance see Maddux pitch (I grew up going to Yankee games. As a kid the idea of going all the way to Shea was ludicrous to me).  I remember taking the train to the game by myself and sitting way upstairs at Yankee stadium and watching Maddux absolutely dominate the Yanks. In my brain the game was over in about twenty minutes and Maddux absolutely carved them up.  But like many shards of memory I’ve often wondered how well I remember the actual details. I want to say it was a one hitter, but that’s seems unlikely. Thanks to the nice folks over at Retrosheet, however, I can sift through the sands of time and check it out.  And there it is.  2-0 Braves over Yankees, Maddux vs. Doc Gooden.  Maddux through a complete game shutout, allowing three hits and striking out eight.  Time of game was 2:09.  That’s some ball game. 

Prediction: 1^st place in the Street Division.  This is the most pitching dominant division in the league, so the huge pitching advantage that the Braves have is somewhat dampened against their divisional foes (86 Astros and 92 Pirates).  The big competition here is going to be the 1986 Astros.  The Astros and the Braves are actually very similar teams but the Braves have the slightly better offense and defense.  The Astros are a much deeper team so a big injury could definitely derail the Braves here, but I think they have enough bullets to keep Houston at bay.  This is going to be a close one. 

Team Review: 1987 Oakands A's

1987 Oakland A’s

Real Life Record: 81-81, 3^rd in the AL West

Notable Players: Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Dave Stewart, Reggie Jackson, Dennis Eckersley

This is the inferior version of the A’s teams that went on to have a mini dynasty in the late 80’s/early 90’s.  The Bash Brothers were in place, but still sort of in their infancy.  It was Eck’s first year with the team and he had yet to transform into the moustached dynamo he would become.  It’s also McGwire’s rookie season, when he hit a rookie record 49 home runs.  1988 is when Canseco really broke out and dominated the league. He won the MVP, led the league in home runs and slugging.  He’s still a year away here. 

I think they were doing something illegal. Look at those bats!

They definitely have some power and I expect them to score a bunch of runs, but they are also probably going to give up a ton.  The starting pitching is a mess.  Dave Stewart won 20 games, but his ERA is close to 4. The #2 is C. Young, who unfortunately is Curt not Cy. The #3 and #4 are shaping up to be Steve Ontiveros and Gene Nelson.  Eck started a couple of games for them that season, but I’d like to have him in my pocket for some high leverage situations. They also have some decidedly below average defense all over the field. They have three guys who can play second, and they all have a 4 defense rating.  McGwire is a butcher at first and Tony Philips is a butcher at four positions. It’s really a team of Designated Hitters who are forced to play the field. The bullpen is decent but nothing extraordinary. They lack a real shutdown guy for when it gets dicey. 

The team has a total of 29 cards, but since I am only using 25 man rosters I had to cut four guys from the team.  Those unfortunates are Ron Cey, Mike Gallego, Moose Haas, and the legendary Walking Underwear (Joaquin Andujar). 

I really love that they have the old, broken down Reggie Jackson on this team.  It’s his last year in baseball and well, he pretty much sucked. But hey, it’s the AL. That’s what the DH is for. I’ve always been a fan of Reggie and I suspect that I will give him way more playing time than he deserves. The first time he struts up to the plate and swats a pinch hit home run will make this whole season worth it.  He actually is halfway decent against righties and platoons with Steve Henderson for a capable DH duo.  Or at least I’ve convinced myself that he is. 

The first baseball game I ever went to was the Yankees against these A’s. It may not been 1987 exactly, but it was this era and I went with my uncle and I remember that he was absolutely blown away by the size of Canseco. He wouldn’t stop talking about it, he just kept saying that his uniform looked painted on.  He really couldn’t get over it. My uncle’s reaction has stuck with me more than the actual size of the man.  In hindsight, it turns out my uncle had a great eye for things that are not as they should be. 

Alfredo Griffin is the short stop on this team and I recently read something that Bill James wrote about him.  He referenced that Griffin was the most aggressive baserunner he had ever seen.  Apparently he would try to take the extra base in just about any circumstances.  That’s good to know and I plan on keeping that in mind when playing with him.  His running rating is 1-14, which is good but not great.  So maybe he just seemed so aggressive because he was cutting it close?

Prediction: 3^rd place in the Rizzo division.  The other teams in this division have very solid pitching and should be able to contain the bats.  Don’t get me wrong, these yellow and green clad guys will have their moments and I wouldn’t be shocked if McGwire put up a monster year, but in the end I don’t think they can hang with the others.  I may be selling them short, but they recently got trounced by the Yankees in some preseason games I played and it left a bad taste in my mouth. 

Play Ball!

Welcome to the Mayors of Philadelphia Stratomatic League (MOPS)!  MOPS is my first attempt at running an entire season of stratomatic baseball.  I’ve always loved games and baseball, and I’ve been a Strat fan for a while, but never until now have I felt the need to really have such a structured undertaking.  Maybe it’s the fall weather and the absence (once again) of playoff baseball here in Philadelphia, or maybe I’m just becoming more of a shut-in as I get older. I’m not really sure. But I’m excited to get this project underway. 

Are you actually going to roll out all these games? I sure am.  There is a computer version of Stratomatic but I have no interest in it.  Part of the appeal for me is rolling the dice and looking at charts and filling out the box score. I can’t imagine doing it any other way.  So what’s this league all about?  Glad you asked. 

What do the mayors of Philadelphia have to do with this league? Aside from lending their names to the Divisions, not much at all.  Actually, nothing at all other than the names.  The four divisions are Rendell and Street (that’s the NL) and Goode and Rizzo (the AL). 

Who are the teams? There are 3 teams in each league for a total of 12 teams.  The Rendell Division consists of the 1983 Phillies, 1993 Giants and the 1997 Marlins.  The 1986 Astros, 1996 Braves and 1992 Pirates comprise the Street Division.  Over in the AL we have the 1985 Yankees, 1986 Royals and 1997 Mariners in the Goode Division.  The 1992 White Sox, 1987 A’s and 2011 Rangers inhabit the Rizzo Division. 

How did you come up with that random bunch of teams? A couple of factors.  For starters those are all teams that I own and can actually play with.  That’s a big one.  Older teams are not that easy to find, especially popular ones.  For example, I really wanted the dominant pitching of the 1985 Royals, but I had to settle for the hangover year of 1986 instead. But for one reason or another these are all teams that I find interesting and would like to see how they do in a little short season action.  The 1997 Marlins are the only World Series winner in the bunch, but they are by no means a great team.  They made it into the playoffs as a Wild Card and then put together a great run.  On the flipside is a team like the 1993 Giants, who won 103 games and didn’t even make the playoffs.  Maybe this is a shot at redemption for them. I’m sure that they are psyched about it. 

I didn’t want this to be a tournament of super teams. That doesn’t really interest me at all. These are all real teams that are good at some things and no so great in other areas.  There are definitely favorites, but I don’t think anyone is going to run away with the MOPS championship.

How is the league set up? Each team is going to play a total of 18 games. The four division winners will then square off in two League Championships and then a World Series to follow for supremacy of the City of Brotherly love.  I will then write letters to the members of the winning team and let them know about their accomplishments.

I chose an 18 game season for several reasons.  For me to actually finish out this league (which I’d very much like to do) I needed to have a realistic and attainable goal.  I think I can manage an 18 game season.  It works out to 108 total games (and then the playoffs).  I can do that without my life falling completely into a stratomatic shaped sinkhole.  I also think 18 games is a good enough time for the good teams to emerge, but not so long that a surprise team couldn’t steal one of the divisions. 

Each team will play the other two teams in their division a total of six games, and also a two game series against the three other teams in their league.  No interleague play until the World Series.  A DH in the AL, not in the NL.  Just like the real thing.  Rosters are 25 men.  Four man rotations.  Gentlemen’s rules regarding overworking relievers. I’ll do my best to get players regular rest, but some guys are definitely going to be out there everyday.  There’s a lot at stake here.  You tell Rickey that he’s going to sit the game out.  

I generally play with Advanced Rules for the most part, though some of the earlier teams in the league don’t have the info for minor things like balks and wild pitches, so that gets left out. 

Are we ready? Play ball!