SIM COMPLETE - 1987 - Regular Season 26

[Pat]

Washington will play Philadelphia
California will play the winner of LAM/CAR
Maine will play Mississippi
Indy will play Harford

[BradZ]

Philadelphia Freedom (89 - 73, Clinched WC )

2-5 Overall Well, it certainly wasn’t pretty, but it was enough to clinch the WC. We’ll look to win at least one game in the playoffs and then get out of the way so the real contenders can go at it.


1-2 @ Baltimore

Gm 1 We led 2-0 going into the 7th, but Nathan MacOwl ran out of gas and BAL scored 4 in the bottom of the frame. RP Cristian Correa (we’ll hear more about him as the week progresses; seems the rookie might have wilted under the pressure of the pennant race) came in and gave up a 3 run homer allowing 2 inherited runners to score. Ballgame.
PHI 1 BAL 5

Gm 2 Ray Minnoz allowed 5 runs (all earned) in 5.2 innings. Cristian Correa, pitching on consecutive days, gave up a run while going the rest of the way. That run was the difference.
PHI 5 BAL 6

Gm 3 Bill Gillespie got a spot start to try to setup our rotation for the next series at CAL and he was good enough to win. He went 7 innings and allowed 3 earned runs. He doesn’t miss many bats and depends on the defense which can be a dicey proposition given our infield defense. The bats woke up a bit and we managed 10 hits and 8 runs. Desi Rochs went 2 for 4 scored a run and drove in 3.
PHI 8 BAL 5


1-3 @ California

Gm 1 Joe Aurillo was let down by the left side of the infield. Geoff Scott had a very costly error on a routine grounder in the bottom of the 7th that led to 3 unearned runs that erased a 4-1 Philly lead. Cristian Correa allowed 2 inherited runners to score in the inning. This game went to extras and our offense managed 1 single from the 10th through the 15th and that runner was immediately erased on a double play. CAL had runners all over the bases and finally pushed one across in the 15th to take game 1.
PHI 4 CAL 5 (15 innings)

Gm 2 Ben Irvin pitched his heart out, but at the end of the day had nothing to show for it. He went 7.2 innings, allowing only 4 hits and a run while striking out 11. The Freedom offense collected 11 hits, but only 1 for extra bases and never managed to score. Mark Steward led off the 8th inning with a double and a PR advanced to 3rd on a deep flyout by Lucio Mendez. Malek Garane followed with a sac fly to score the 1st (and ultimately only) run of the game. We managed to get runners on the corners with only 1 out in the 9th, but Dave Ibison decided to try to steal 2nd and was thrown out leaving a runner on 3rd with 2 outs. Backup catcher Harry Endsley struck out and the game was over and CAL had taken a 1 game lead in the division.
PHI 0 CAL 1

Gm 3 Game 3 was a crisp, well played game that took less than 2 ½ hours to complete. Tim Nathan went 8 strong innings to pick up his 17th win of the season (his 9th in a Freedom uni). The offense pushed a single run across in both the 6th and 7th without any Freedom batter collecting an RBI (1 runs scored on a GIDP and the other on an errant throw on a steal attempt). Joe Alveraz picked up his 43rd save of the season while pitching a perfect 9th bringing the Freedom back into a tie for the Porter Division lead. It all came down to the 162nd game of the season.
PHI 2 CAL 1

Gm 4 Nathan MacOwl got the final start of the year and surrendered only a solo HR by Robby Shannon in the 2nd inning which gave the Kodiaks an early 1 run lead. We managed to scratch out a run in the 5th to tie the score at 1-1. MacOwl went out for the 7th and picked up the first out on a ground out. Young Cristian Correa was summoned from the bullpen as MacOwl’s pitch count neared 100. Correa had a rough week up to this point and it only got worse from there. After getting the first batter he faced to fly out he immediately gave up a solo homer to Lucio Mendez which put CAL up 2-1. Correa went back out for the 8th but would leave without recording an out while allowing 3 more earned runs. At the end of the day he had allowed a total of 4 earned runs in only 0.2 IP. He was a standout member of the bullpen all season, but he really struggled during the last week of the season. CAL took the game and the division by 1 game. Congrats to the Kodiaks.
PHI 1 CAL 5

Good:

Jerry Fortin -- .333 | .407 | .667 | 1.074 4 R | 2 HR | 6 RBI

Desi Rochs -- .429 | .433 | .679 | 1.112 3 R | 2 HR | 5 RBI

Ben Irvin – 7.2 IP | 1 ER | 1.17 ERA | .78 WHIP | 11 K and still picked up a loss


Not as Good:

Cristian Correa – 5.1 IP | 7 ER | 11.81 ERA | 2.62 WHIP | 2 BS | 2 L; He entered the week with and ERA of 1.76 and left at 2.37. He added more than a ½ a run in 1 week under the pressure of the pennant race. I guess the lights were too bright. Doesn’t give much confidence for his performance in the playoffs.

[Lintyfresh85]

Philadelphia Freedom (89 - 73, Clinched WC )

2-5 Overall Well, it certainly wasn’t pretty, but it was enough to clinch the WC. We’ll look to win at least one game in the playoffs and then get out of the way so the real contenders can go at it.

I owe Dave Ibison a beer. That steal in the ninth would have been maddening if I was his manager. Totally unnecessary and gave us the momentum to end the game. He also got thrown out at a crucial point in game four that helped us turn the tide of the game.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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The man should not be trying to steal bases.<o:p></o:p>

[BradZ]

I owe Dave Ibison a beer. That steal in the ninth would have been maddening if I was his manager. Totally unnecessary and gave us the momentum to end the game. He also got thrown out at a crucial point in game four that helped us turn the tide of the game.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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The man should not be trying to steal bases.<o:p></o:p>

You mean 11 steals in 21 attempts isn't a good %? I don't understand his issue with stealing. He's a 6 - 7 - 6 in base running ratings.

I thought at some point I adjusted his individual player strategy to reduce his steal attempts, but I may have overridden my changes at the time since I export from two different computers and sometimes forget to import my changes when I'm on the other computer.

[Carlos]

I am pretty sure that if we compared BLB DLs with MLB DLs at the end of the year the latter would be a lot larger yet I don't ever recall as many key players going down IRL the last couple of months of a season as we have seen here. One difference is probably that IRL a lot of relievers, who tend to be less critical, get hurt, while here the injuries tend to happen to other players.

Are guys getting proper rest in this league? Lots of guys play an insane number of games.

[Clay]

Looks like we managed to stay under the Luxury Tax (woo hoo!) and are lined up for about $109.0 budget next season.

[spot]

You on the other hand, dear brother, need to learn to write logically. How can you say I had no affect on the Bock race? By losing that last game to the Tobs, I prevented you from backing into the title while losing your finale to that has been Theodore.

Perspective....

[liquidcrash]

Hector Castre had a great September, too bad he didn't win either Pitcher or Rookie of the Month (robbed....)

3-1
35.1 IP
29:8 K:BB
0.79 ERA
0.79 WHIP
.161 AVG
.423 OPS

Somehow Magness stole the Pitcher of the Month award.

[Clay]

Hector Castre had a great September, too bad he didn't win either Pitcher or Rookie of the Month (robbed....)

3-1
35.1 IP
29:8 K:BB
0.79 ERA
0.79 WHIP
.161 AVG
.423 OPS

Somehow Magness stole the Pitcher of the Month award.

Wow... right before I'm going to run the sim....