SIM COMPLETE - 1987 - Regular Season 12

[Andrew]

Next sim: Sunday

[Carlos]

Norm Seltzer making a nice return to the big leagues. Better keep it up.

5-1. Things are going well in Denver. Now comes the number crunching. 2 relievers in AAA that could be called up and no place to put them.

Borkholder is probably spending the rest of the season in AAA to figure it out.

[Pat]

4-2 Sim
2-1 vs. California, 2-1 vs. Carolina, both losses by one run.

The Good
-Joe Sierra has waken from the dead! The former superstar is now hitting .300 with a .775 OPS after a going 11/25 this week.
-Rookie Robert Abbott continues his fast start as well. 9/23 this week, raising his average to .379 with a .964 OPS.
-Michio Nago's injury replacement in center, Larry Fitzsymons picked up the slack. Hitting .500 for the week.

The Bad
-No one else could get the bat on the ball. My number three and five hitters, Mike Murdock and Dave Robbins combined to go 4/42. Oh and for good measure, third basemen Pete Summers and Brody Whiteley (platoon), was 1/24.

The Ugly
-SP Romano Gonzalez injured his shoulder and will miss the rest of the season. The 38-year-old was 6-3 on the year, with a 2.84 ERA and .93 WHIP. He is a free-agent at seasons end and might be done in Washington after refusing a contract extension offer last week.

[Jake]

We are truly a terrible team. I thought the offense would be much better.

[Matt]

3-3

1-2 vs. Davenport
2-1 vs. Windy City

Good

- Cam Mills wins another. He's now 3-1 with a 2.67 ERA after being called back up to the BLB. After some horrible years and an overall record of 7-27 he was sent back down for most of '86 and the start of '87.

- After the '88 season we are going to cut down $15 mil when Sizer and Uchiyama (a failed experiment) are gone. Screw FA's...we are going to just save-save-save and add a roof or something down the road.

- I have some guys in the minor leagues tearing it up. Maybe my 3 drafts might actually produce some edible fruit. I have green +1's all over my minor leagues...please oh please OOTP gods keep it up. We are finally getting younger and a little better. Really excited about 1B Raul De Jesus (just got called up to AA) and SS Shawn Ray (AA).

Bad

- SP Coronda is 1-9 with a 3.89 ERA.

- My 3 big FA signings over the last 2 years...Bing, Sizer, and Uchiyama (trade) are absolutely worthless. Sizer is in AAA, Bing is hurt for another month, and Uchiyama is angry and hit .152 the month of June.

[mahoney2]

First sim over .500 in quite awhile, putting us 2 games over .500 and just 6 back in the division. Judson Gill after a horrific May has lost his last 3 starts giving up a total of 3 runs since the offense scored a total of 3 in those three games.

Sin City and Denver coming up, probably another .500 sim.

[Whale]

4-2 Sim, winning each series against Indy and Miss. This year is the opposite of last with my hitting still leading the way...kinda scary. Jack Curry comes back after a 13 month stint on the DL...probably going to see some time in AAA first as it appears he took a ratings hit.

Nice 3 game series with Denver, who is 1 up on us in the WC chase, and we are currently 1-5 against this season.

[Riverman]

My hitters struggled for the most part against Batavia's pitching; if they had a few decent hitters I'd probably have gotten swept. I managed to go 2-1 thanks in part to a pinch-hit 3-run homer by rookie Victor Fernandez. Fernandez had just been recalled from AAA and got the call only because I needed a 40-man roster spot to make room for reliever Doug Jones who debuted in the BLB last sim. To make room on the 40-man I decided to cut Joe Laboca and hence Fernandez got the call. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. Laboca BTW went 2-5 with a homer in his first BLB game this season and then followed it up with an 0-19 with 1 BB and 14 Ks.

What is going on with Dani Alvarez? He didn't do much at all against me in my series with Wilmington and his OPS sits at .778. Is he on the downside of his career already at 26? I notice that he actually got an all-star vote from someone over Robbie Shannon. I'd like to hear the rationale for that pick. Then again, maybe I wouldn't. Probably it was Linty, who seems to always be going out of his way to be nice his competition.

[Jim]

What is going on with Dani Alvarez? He didn't do much at all against me in my series with Wilmington and his OPS sits at .778. Is he on the downside of his career already at 26? I notice that he actually got an all-star vote from someone over Robbie Shannon. I'd like to hear the rationale for that pick. Then again, maybe I wouldn't. Probably it was Linty, who seems to always be going out of his way to be nice his competition.

I saw a few guys get votes (like Alvarez & Molenza) who shouldn't have...I wonder if some people were just voting for the name vs. their stats this year (ala Josh Hamilton this year getting the start in the All-Star game).

[Lintyfresh85]

What is going on with Dani Alvarez? He didn't do much at all against me in my series with Wilmington and his OPS sits at .778. Is he on the downside of his career already at 26? I notice that he actually got an all-star vote from someone over Robbie Shannon. I'd like to hear the rationale for that pick. Then again, maybe I wouldn't. Probably it was Linty, who seems to always be going out of his way to be nice his competition.

As much as I am the Lou Holtz of the SGN website, it wasn't me.

I voted Shannon without thinking twice about it.

[Clay]

I'm a big Alvarez fan... but Shannon was a no-brainer.

[Riverman]

As much as I am the Lou Holtz of the SGN website, it wasn't me.

I voted Shannon without thinking twice about it.

Come on Linty, don't be modest; we know it was you. Chubby couldn't be such a homer to have made that pick, so who else could it possibly be?

[Lintyfresh85]

California Kodiaks (46-30)

1-2 @ Washington
2-1 @ Morgantown

The Good
- Not a whole lot. Of course one should always be pleased when going .500 on a road trip... but I was expecting a slight better showing from my offense in Washington. Watching the two teams trying to hit the others pitching was pretty brutal that series.

- Harry Elliott had a solid week.

- Conan Wilkerson had a pretty good start against Morgantown... even if he took the loss. 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 6/3 K/BB. He's now 7-3 on the year with a 2.57 ERA and a VORP of 25.4. His hitting is going nicely as well as he's now up to a .312 average after a great 2/3 showing with an rbi and a double, the second of the season for him.

The Bad
- Robby Shannon. For the first time in forever, Shannon did not post a 1.000+ OPS. He only got it up to .914 this sim.

- Owen Gilbertson. 1/21, 10 K's. Ouch. Did take four walks... but he's a much better player than that.

- Oswaldo Escarcaga. He's been very hit or miss lately and this week it was a big miss. Thanks to an error his ERA didn't get trashed but he pitched poorly in his only start for the week.

Next Week: 3 vs. Davenport, 3 @ Windy City

[Lintyfresh85]

Come on Linty, don't be modest; we know it was you. Chubby couldn't be such a homer to have made that pick, so who else could it possibly be?

Swear it wasn't me. Probably someone who either thought Alveraz deserved it... or just clicked the box.

[BradZ]

Philadelphia Freedom (43 - 33, 3.0 GB)

4-2 overall

2-1 @ Wilmington

Gm 1: Bill Gillespie gave us 7.0 solid innings allowing 3 ER. Not outstanding, but as far as BG goes, that’s good enough for us. Unfortunately the Freedom bats couldn’t figure out crafty vet Alonzo Gugierrez who went 8.0 strong innings only allowing 1 ER while punching out 7. We got a little something going against the Wildcats CL Kenshin Krsnich (2ER in .2 IP), but fell one run short when Z. Ba came in and got Desi Rochs to fly out to end the game.
WIL 4 PHI 3

Gm 2: Former 1st round draft pick (1980 pk 1.6) and career minor league filler Rayman Minnoz took the hill for game 2 and performed admirably (8.1 IP 2 ER) while picking up his 2nd W. That’s four straight good efforts out of the 26 year old who is only in the rotation due to the Ben Irvin injury ( 4 GS 29.2 IP 2.12 ERA) He doesn’t strike many out and is a fly ball pitcher, but he is in a decent groove for now. WIL got off to a quick 2 run lead in the second on 4 singles, but those were the only runs they would push across. We went ahead for good in the 6th inning on a 2RBI single by OF Greg Josey.
WIL 2 PHI 7

Gm 3: Joe Aurillo was Joe Aurillo. 8.0 IP 2H 0ER 9K. A rain delay of 46 minutes in the 9th inning assured no CG effort, but it’s debatable if Aurillo would have been sent out for the 9th any way since he is on a strict pitch count. CL Joe Alveraz came in for the save with no real excitement.
WIL 0 PHI 3

2-1 @ Virginia

Gm 1: PHI sent Y. Kang to the hill and Virginia countered with young Pancho Herrera. Neither starter had an outstanding outing both giving up 4ER in 5+ innings. Kang left after 83 pitches with an elbow injury that will hold him out for a couple of weeks. The difference in the game was 1 unearned run given up by VIR in the 6th when backup catcher sailed a throw into left field trying to gun down Dave Ibison on a steal of 3rd attempt. Ibison quickly got to his feet and scampered home for what would prove to be the winning run. Neither BP yielded any runs in relief of the starters.
VIR 4 PHI 5

Gm 2: Nathan MacOwl continued his solid campaign going 6.2 IP without giving up any earned runs to drop his season long ERA to 2.89. We got to Colonials starter Delmar Oyos and chased him before the end of the 5th. A trio of Freedom relief pitchers came in to go the last 2.1 innings and preserved the shutout.
VIR 0 PHI 8

Gm 3: Bill Gillespie couldn’t make it through 5 innings and allowed VIR to get out to a 6-0 lead. Colonials 3B Vincent Nino had 2 HR and drove in 3.
VIR 7 PHI 2



Good:

Jim Newlin – I hope this is a sign that he is heating up. He produced a stat line of .417/.440/.583/1.023 for this sim. He only drove in two runs, but we need his bat to get hot and stay hot.

Jerry Fortin – Another guy who has been having a subpar season so far, but for the week went .389/.500/.611/1.111. If both of these guys get on a little roll our offense will start to produce like it is capable of.


Not as Good:

Bill Gillespie – started two games, 1 decent and 1 horrid, and now he thinks he wants to go to the BP. Suck it up and go earn your $$.

Yeong-suk Kang – recently acquired and now is dealing with an injury. The AllStar break will make sure he doesn’t miss too many starts.