2014 Transaction League - End of Regular Season.

In the 2014 Transaction League mix: The 2013 Athletics.

FINALLY!

There was a four-month hiatus from the project, when I brought up all the prospects for September action, it messed with the lineups & players being achy, tired & etc -- so I had to constantly update the lineups.

Here is where we left off...

In the American League, we had Boston and Texas running away from their divisions -- Boston was 97-47 at a .674 clip. Just a reminder, this is a "2013 replay with a twist", playing the 2013 MLB Season with whatever transactions ACTUALLY happened in 2014. In 2013, the Boston Red Sox won the whole thing, but in 2014 they were selling off some pieces... yet here they are. The 2013 Texas Rangers suffered that one-game wildcard playoff loss to Cleveland & were completely crippled by injuries in actual 2014 -- but for this 2014 Transaction League (2013 APBA Baseball), they have been injury-free. Oakland's recent trade acquisitions of Jon Lester & Jeff Smardzija have yet to go into fruition -- we'll see later in this blog piece, if they wake up in time.

Probably the best team in this recent run for Detroit, was the 2013 Detroit Tigers, as you all know David Ortiz ripped the hearts out of us Tigers fans & left Torii Hunter looking forward to a comfortable bed that evening (after flying over the wall). Hunter, by the way is my mom's favorite player, she's a bit bummed that he's now with his original franchise Minnesota -- she and my dad plan seeing the Tigers host the Twins this upcoming season (By the way, he has the most beautiful eye-lashes according to my mom, LOL!). 

Anyways, the Tigers are hanging on to that 5th Wild Card spot, trailing the Kansas City Royals in the Central, while the Baltimore Orioles (a game back) nip at their heels, with Oakland in striking distance. The Tampa Bay Rays hold the 4th Wild Card spot, at 82-59. The Cleveland Indians, by the way are one of the worst teams in American League at 57-84, things just have not gone their way, while they trade off a few pieces (most notably Asdrubal Cabrera to Washington) in real-life 2014.

The National League looks like this, with about 20+ games left...

We have a couple more closer races in the N.L., for example the Atlanta Braves only trail the Washington Nationals by a game -- the problem is, whoever does not win the division flirts with missing the post-season all together considering the strong top-half of the N.L. Central. The Colorado Rockies, who have been a huge surprise, have not made it easy for Atlanta & the 3rd place Central team (Cincinnati Reds) -- Cincinnati had dipped off, as Pittsburgh streaked past them a week or so ago.

Crashing the Party: Somebody forgot to tell the Rockies that they were not invited.

The New York Mets early on were actually doing well (They are technically, just 7 games from the division lead), while the San Francisco Giants just have not been able to find their footing. The Los Angeles Dodgers have pretty much led the N.L. West from wire-to-wire, Colorado at one point was within a few games from time-to-time.

NOW...

This is how it all ended, the results of the American League...

The Boston Red Sox held on to the A.L. East Division Title, despite trading off John Lackey & Jon Lester, two key pieces to their rotation of their 2013 World Championship team. They won the division by an impressive 15 1/2 games! The Detroit Tigers got within a few games of Kansas City for the A.L. Central, but K.C. held on. The Tigers went 7-3 down the stretch, while Baltimore went 4-6, a three-game swing that would put Detroit in the post-season. Billy Beane's moves were not good enough for the Oakland Athletics, they were on the outside of the Detroit/Baltimore/Oakland log-jam for the Wild Card spot, they went 5-5 down in the last ten games -- that seems to be the story with this replay, Oakland was always within striking distance, but would never put their foot on the peddle (deciding to stick with cruise control), which would cause them.

The Detroit Tigers will travel to Tampa Bay for the A.L. Playoff Game, as the Boston Red Sox await the winner (for a best-of-five) -- while the Kansas City Royals play a best-of-five, starting on the road in Arlington to play the Texas Rangers.

The Los Angeles Angels were under .500 almost all year, sticking in third -- while the New York Yankees end up in the A.L. East basement. I accidentally played a 163rd game between the Indians and the Rangers, using APBA's schedule of the 2013 MLB Season, it still had the tie-breaker game on the schedule, and didn't notice it for the last 20-game simulation until it was too late. So the real record should be Tampa Bay at 94-68, with the Rangers at 99-63. The Houston Astros (56-106) by the way, ended up with the league's worst record

Now, the National League results...

The Washington Nationals win the N.L. East, putting the Atlanta Braves at risk (mentioned earlier, above) -- which would be the case & their fate, Atlanta could only keep pace with Washington, while the Cincinnati Reds (92-70) not only came back to life at a 9-1 fever pitch to pass the Pittsburgh Pirates -- who lost four straight, to watch Cincy win five straight! The Braves & Pirates are out! The Colorado Rockies could not catch the Los Angeles Dodgers, but it's all good as Colorado will be hosting the N.L. Wild Card Playoff Game against the Reds. The winner of the game will face the Dodgers, as the St. Louis Cardinals (15-6 down the stretch, and possibly all of baseball's hottest team right now), will host the Nats. The Cards won their last 5 games of the season as well as the Reds, while St. Louis still won their division by 8 games, winning a 100 games for the season.

Another note, the Rockies happened to make the playoffs, on the franchise's 20th Anniversary -- so Happy Anniversary, Colorado!

The Dodgers had the N.L's best record at 104-58, while the Chicago Cubs had the league's worst record at 52-110. The San Diego Padres didn't do much better at 53-108.