Early Tight Races (83' NXPL Update)

Youngblood playing many roles with Tigers.

The 1983 NXPL Season has been rolling for about a month now, and the pennant races in both leagues (especially the American League) are really close, with no clear favorites.

My Detroit Tigers entered this season, as the defending American League Champions, after losing the 1982 NXPL World Series in seven hard-fought games to the St. Louis Cardinals. It's a computer league in which consists of 15 other owners like myself, in which we make the moves necessary to improve our teams from year-to-year; We get to be the Owners, General Managers & Managers, all rolled into one.

Last season, it didn't take me long to feel a nice flow with my lineup & team -- and for the last two seasons, my two starts to the seasons, consisted of 7-3 & 8-2 starts... this year, however, I came out of the gate at 5-5, while I have had trouble trying to get Ben Oglivie & Jason Thompson going at the plate.

The team as a whole, has been playing better of late, with the team going 11-9 since, while only trailing the first-place Baltimore Orioles & Chicago White Sox, by a single game at 16-14. My Tigers have actually played much better on the road (7-3) compared to my managing at home (9-11), hopefully we can get that straightened out.

We still have a stellar pitching staff, with Tom Seaver rebounding in 1983 for us (joining the staff) with Mario Soto, Dan Petry, Joaquin Andujar & Walt Terrell. Here is how they stack up...

• Dan Petry, who won 20 games for us last season, is off to a superb start at 3-1, 1.60 ERA, 19 K's (through 6 GS, 1 CG & 45 innings). 
• Joaquin Andujar, who has the weakest APBA grade of the bunch, has certainly not been showing that much, while he also has a 3-1, with a 2.18 ERA & 23 K's in 41.1 innings. 
• Tom Seaver: The Hall-of-Famer is 3-1, 2.78 ERA, 26 K's in 35.2 innings. 
• Mario Soto: 2-3, 2.98 ERA -- leads the team with 40 K's & a .898 WHIP! He has had bad luck so far, one game for example, he cruised through 6 scoreless innings & then gave up 4+ runs, or the Tigers lineup is just not doing enough to get him that victory.
• Walt Terrell: 2-2, 2.97 ERA, with 15 K's in 30.1 innings.

Other than Soto, the entire rotation has already pitched a complete game, including one by spot-starter/reliever Dave Rozema; Plus 3 shutouts!

Starters ranked by WHIP (Walks + Hits / Innings Pitched):

• Soto -    .898
• Andujar -    1.040
• Terrell -    1.220
• Petry -    1.222
• Seaver -    1.262

For the hitting, Ben Oglivie had a multi-homer game, while producing 3 homers last series, to finally lift his batting average over .200 (.222) -- he does rank among the team's RBI leaders (12).

• Lance Parrish was last season's MVP, it will definitely be difficult for him to repeat 1982, which was his best MLB season, but 83' was a down-year for him; His 83' NXPL Season has so far been a productive one, while leading the team with 5 HR & 14 RBI (tied)... while batting .246, although his .275 On-Base Percentage definitely could use a lift.

• Bill Madlock leads the team with a .329 batting average, .420 OBP & .855 OPS! He has produced 2 HR & 11 RBI, while scoring 11 runs as well. 

• For Alan Trammell & Lou Whitaker, 1983 is the year that they broke through offensively & would continue to improve at the plate for years to come; These two batted near the bottom of my lineup last season -- this year, they bat near the top. Trammell ranks 2nd in Batting Average (.315) while leading the team with 7 doubles -- he has yet to hit a home run & only has 5 RBI though. Whitaker is 3rd in batting (.309) with 1 HR, 14 RBI (tied for team lead) while also leading the team with 14 runs.

• Entering the 1982 NXPL Draft, I selected George Wright, who had a decent 1982, but a pretty good 1983 Season (.276 BA, 18 HR, 80 RBI & 8 steals; .746 OPS) -- plus he brings solid defense for an outfielder. Wright went above & beyond in 82' for me, and has been a blessing for my 83' team as well (.283, 2 HR, 13 RBI, 11 runs, 4 doubles & 2 triples). For people not in-the-know, Wright, played the majority of his short MLB career (1982-1986) with the Texas Rangers.

• Joel Youngblood has been an excellent jack-of-all-trades, coming off the bench, or platooning in left or at third -- he's done his job well! Youngblood is currently batting .258 with 3 homers, 8 RBI & 8 runs, with a .814 OPS in 66 at-bats.

While those players have done well, I need Oglivie (like mentioned above) to step up along with Jason Thompson, Kirk Gibson & Mookie Wilson.

There is still plenty of season, so while we are starting to show some encouraging signs for what's to come this season, I hope & expect to see more positive outcomes.

The Long Hangover

So Happy New Years! Sorry for the long, long wait, on a new post presented by the Boys of Summer. My last post was December 30th, and I mentioned in my December 26th post that I planned to hit the new year running... So far, that running is about as pathetic as Cecil Fielder attempting to steal second, LOL!

During these last few weeks, I have been conducting league business with my Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League, while at the same time, the wife & I have been diving under the covers to stay warm from all this snowfall here in northern Michigan.

These last few weeks I have not been doing much APBA (even though I have been dying to roll the dice), but that has not stopped me from enjoying many of my APBA friends' wonderful APBA projects.

So here they are...

• Doug Schuyler & company got together for the 2nd Cheese Bowl (Cheese Bowl II), among the attendees were Curt Bartel, Kurt Bergland, Jason Cox & Eric Griebenow playing APBA. Bartel, ended up repeating (they played with power teams), with his 1958 Oconomowoc Ball Buster squad, winning the championship game, 6-3 (led by Hank Aaron & Richie Ashburn). The Cheese Bowl usually consists of the APBA fellas from northern Illinois & Wisconsin to get together, after the holidays... looks to be a wonderful tradition in the making.

• Kevin Burghardt's APBA Season project... in the latest episode, Assistant to the traveling secretary, George Costanza had to break the latest news to George Steinbrenner on the 1978 New York Yankees falling to 28-28, as they were blasted by the 1979 Milwaukee Brewers, by the mammoth score of 14-3.

• Drew Hogeland has been providing us wonderful in-depth game reports with pics, on his 1977 Season Replay. In his latest post, Steve Carlton improved to 17-5, while the Philadelphia Phillies keep rolling with a 74-48 record, while the Atlanta Braves, simply suck, at 39-85! He has also been provided excellent in-season stat sheets for each team.

• I'm really digging Shay Simmons' 1969 National League Replay, on her Fireblossom's APBA Baseball. I really love her style, humor & excellent game write-ups on this site, if you have not had the pleasure of reading her blog, you must check it out!

• My friend Beau Lofgren is doing a 1984 Minnesota Twins season replay, in an attempt to get those Twins to win the American League West crown; I didn't realize that those Twins only fell 3 games short of accomplishing just that in 84'. Currently his replay has a very close race for the division with the Twins clinging onto 1st place with a 76-69 record, with the Kansas City Royals one game out at 75-70 & the California Angels in 3rd at 74-70 (1.5 games out). Only 17-18 games remaining, should be an exciting finish!

• Our friend Rich Zawadzki is at it again, with his super-teams, this time in the Brewster Bashers, he started his latest project in late November. The Bashers are currently 20-1, and contain superstar players from the BATS#2 set. His upcoming Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament has 36+ attendees for this March, while one of my other friends, Ken Schulz has locked in 36+ attendees as well for this summer's upcoming APBA tournament in Pittsburgh (3rd Annual Linda B. Schulz APBA Baseball Tournament).

There are many more fun projects from many friends & other APBA Facebook Group, so to those, if I left you out, that's my bad, I am sure I have enjoyed many of your replays in the past.