Oakland Dynasty: The 1977 Season

For those that were not reading this project, the Oakland Dynasty is a project conducted by Out of the Park Baseball simulation computer game. The goal of the project is to keep the Oakland dynasty rolling, instead of being put to an early death (like in real life) by their owner Charles Finley. This is an alternater reality which takes place immediately following the 1972-1974 three-peat. 

So a quick recap...

• Following the 1974 World Series, the Oakland Athletics decided to keep pitchers Catfish Hunter, Darold Knowles & Bob Locker, and position prospects OF-Chet Lemon, OF-Dan Ford and IF-Manny Trillo.

• As of July 4th, 1975, the Athletics would be sitting at a 56-25 record, would go on to acquire OF/DH- Hal McRae and RP-Bill Campbell along the way, finishing with the 1975 A.L. West Division Title with a 105-57 record. The Athletics won the division easily by 16 games. 

• During the 1975 A.L. Championship Series against the Baltimore Orioles, the Oakland Athletics would surrender a 6-2 lead entering the 9th inning of Game 1, but would go on to lose the ballgame, 8-6. The game would curse Oakland's chances for the remainder of the series, resulting in a Baltimore 3-0 series sweep of the Athletics.

• The 1975-1976 off-season prior to the 1976 season, witnessed the Athletics being very aggressive in the off-season. The team acquired SP-Jerry Koosman from the New York Mets, along with other deals that brought in P-Rick Langford, OF-Dick Davis, C-Rick Dempsey, and C-Rod Boone through trades, drafted two Rule V picks in P-Milt Wilcox and OF-Jerry Martin, and extending the contracts of OF-Reggie Jackson, Hal McRae, and Koosman.

• The Oakland Athletics acquired 3B-Doug DeCinces & OF-Terry Whitfield prior to the 1976 Trade Deadline, while unloading OF-Bill North, SP-Glenn Abbott & SS-Bert Campaneris.

• The 1976 Oakland Athletics win their 6th straight division crown with a 99-63 record, in a division where there were three 90-win teams. The Athletics would face the 88-74 Boston Red Sox during the 1975 A.L. Championship Series, only to lose to Boston, 3-1 in the series. The Red Sox only went 3-9 against Oakland during the regular season. 

So if you are keeping correct score, I am now 0-for-2 (falling short in 1975 & 1976) in trying to add more titles to the Oakland Athletics coming off of 1974. 

The Off-Season

Prior to the 1977 MLB Season, the Athletics had huge turnover. The team said goodbye to many fan favorites in SP-Catfish Hunter (MIN) , RP-Rollie Fingers (NYY), Sal Bando (HOU), P-Ken Holtzman (HOU), RP-Darold Knowles & P-Dick Bosman (CAL). With those names alone, and not knowing who Oakland picked up, you would most likely declare abandon ship. 

Each of the names in the paragraph above, all left via free agency... and to be honest, I only for the most part tried to bring back one of the players in Rollie Fingers. Fingers appeared to be resigning with us, until the New York Yankees snuck through the backdoor and snagged Fingers from us. Hunter, Holtzman and Bosman were definitely in decline, and I felt I could get more value from the free agency market, especially after freeing up money from salary-dump trades during last season, which said goodbye to North, Abbott & Campaneris. 

The good news for Athletics fans, we still have some recognizable faces from the championship years remaining in Reggie Jackson, Vida Blue, Gene Tenace, and Joe Rudi. Jackson in real life, signed with the New York Yankees after a one season with the Baltimore Orioles -- but during this alternate reality, I extended his contract for 7 years, $3.85 million total, in which Jackson could opt out early for the 1983 season. I resigned Gene Tenace and Joe Rudi this off-season, while Blue is signed through at least the 1982 season, in which the team could opt out of the 1983 season. 

The team made three big signings, starting with one that's no bigger than SP-Steve Carlton. Carlton brings his 163 career wins and 2,110 strikeouts to the bay area, after five seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. Carlton wanted to play for a winner, and join a solid 1-2 punch in Blue and Koosman. 

The big question marks after Carlton was the 4-5 slots of the rotation and the bullpen, especially after SP-Rick Langford got hurt during spring training with a torn flexor tendon in his throwing arm (elbow, out 9-10 months). Last season's Rule V acquisition Milt Wilcox and rookie Matt Keough, lacking heavy experience will have to do their best in those slots for now. The bullpen's only weapon remaining is Bill Campbell, who is now the full-time closer. 

Recognizing the bullpen as a serious weakness, the Athletics signed both John Hiller (SF) and Sparky Lyle (NYY) to beef up the 7-through-9 innings, but would enter the 1977 season with fringe relievers such as Dennis Kinney, Steve McCatty, Craig Mitchell & Leon Hooten to do the rest. 

The 1st Half of 1977

The Athletics started well out of the gate, but trailed the Kansas City Royals who started off really well at 38-18 through June 12th. The Royals won 11 of their first 12 games of June, until cooling off terribly that month with a 8-9 stretch. 

By the All-Star Break, the Athletics (57-34) only trailed Kansas City (57-33) by a 1/2 game. The Royals success has a lot to do with their solid bullpen in part-time starter Doug Bird, Gene Garber, Paul Splittorff, and closer Mark Littell. 

The Athletics started having more success once Chet Lemon (who started off the season ice-cold) started heating up, Phil Garner surrender some DH work to start at second base, for the struggling Manny Trillo. Hal McRae started playing more DH, while getting Joe Rudi to play more first base, and LF-Terry Whitfield more involved.

This momentum can only be sustainable if the Athletics could acquire more help.

I wasn't thrilled that Gene Tenace didn't have a solid backup at catcher, and that if I wanted to have Tenace play first, I would have had to play either (Rule V acquisition) Larry Cox or Rod Boone. Looking through my transactions log, I noticed that I failed to sign Rick Dempsey during the off-season and that he would end up signing a minor-league deal with the unaffiliated Salem Senators of the Northwest League. Oakland had Dempsey during the 1975 & 1976 campaigns, acquiring Dempsey from the New York Yankees in exchange for a minor-leaguer. The Athletics purchased Dempsey on June 14th, returning as the team's backup catcher. 

The Chicago White Sox contacted the Athletics, offering Clyde Wright, who was playing pretty good in the bullpen with a 3.35 ERA, 3-0 record, 142 ERA+ through 37.2 innings. We needed bullpen help, so we dealt prospect SP-Joe Cowley and third-string catcher Rod Boone to the White Sox. Thank goodness the deal was cheap, because he would only pitch another 3 games (5 innings) for us, until he got placed on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation, and won't be returning until September at the earliest. 

We decided to place 24 year-old outfielder Bruce Boisclair on the trade wire, and see what we could fetch for him, and much to my surprise the Detroit Tigers offered Bill Buckner. Buckner has been unhappy in Detroit, while he had struggled (.253, 1 HR & 22 RBI, .583 OPS) through 46 games. The Tigers acquired Buckner during the 1976 season (traded along with a prospect in exchange for Bernie Carbo), and then signed a 3-year extension worth a total of $622,000 -- mid-way through the 1st year of that contract, word on the street is that Buckner wanted out. So the Athletics are thrilled to scoop him up with Buckner signed through the 1979 season. 

Oakland would add to the bullpen, by first acquiring old vet RP-Ray Sadecki from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for catching prospect Bruce Robinson, and then acquiring RP-Skip Lockwood from the Chicago Cubs. Rumors of a recent Lockwood tantrum has led to his name being in trade rumors, we decided to contact the Cubs, and a trade was struck in which we would send OF-Dick Davis and young starting pitcher Mike Smithson in exchange for Lockwood & 2B-Kiko Garcia. 

With the recent additions, we decided to release Larry Cox, who was returned to the Philadelphia Phillies. In releasing Cox, trading away Boone, we were able to make room for the new players.

Through September 1st

The Oakland Athletics were up as many as 4 games, and now sit at 84-47, 2 games ahead of their only challenger in their division, Kansas City (82-49) in the A.L. West as of September 1st. 

The A.L. East which was a five-team race until early August is now between the 1st place New York Yankees (80-54) and the Detroit Tigers (77-55) who sit 2 games back. The Tigers made a huge splash in the off-season and signed Nolan Ryan to a 6 year-deal worth a total of $2.71 million. Ryan currently has a 13-5 record, 2.31 ERA & 243 strikeouts through 218 innings pitched. Dave Rozema and Dave A. Roberts are doing well as #2 and #3 starters in the rotation, while Clay Carroll (18 saves) has been very effective as the closer, but has had help in the bullpen with ailing Mark Fidrych (10 Saves). 

The New York Mets led the N.L. East through June and most of July, until the Pittsburgh Pirates surpassed the Mets in August. The Pirates (78-55) lead the Mets by 5.5 games and the Chicago Cubs by 6.5 games. 

It's been a runaway in the N.L. West, with the Los Angeles Dodgers (86-46) up 16 games on their next closest rival (San Francisco, 72-62). The Dodgers blasted through the month of June with a 24-4 record, while starting the season off with a 56-21 record (30-24 since). The Dodgers will be difficult to beat with George Foster, Bobby Bonds, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and Mickey Rivers in the lineup, going along with a great rotation in Tommy John, Fergie Jenkins, Doug Rau, Don Sutton, and Rick Rhoden, plus Charlie Hough and Joe Niekro in the bullpen.

The Home Stretch

The Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals went down literally the last day of the regular season. Oakland coming off a victory against the Texas Rangers, only had to make sure they won, while the Royals couldn't afford to lose. If Oakland loses & K.C. wins, there would have been Game #163, but fortunately for the Athletics they defeated the Rangers, 7-1, under a three-hit, 1-run victory on the mound for Vida Blue. Blue ends the season, 23-7 with a 1.99 ERA, 218 strikeouts & a 10.6 WAR. For Oakland, its their 7th consecutive Division Title, while the team is seeking its first World Series appearance since 1974.

The Royals may have fell short, but have a lot to hang their hat on. Their young 24 year-old superstar third baseman George Brett won the A.L. Batting Title, batting .346 with 25 HR & 128 RBI. The top four hitters in their lineup smacked in at least 100 RBI each. Ruppert Jones batted .296 with 39 HR & 120 RBI, while falling a stolen base short of the 30/30 club. Ben Oglivie batted .280 with 40 HR & 116 RBI, while the other 100+ RBI guy was Al Cowens who batted .299 with 22 HR & 117 RBI. It should be noted that they also had two guys over 90 RBI in Dan Ford and Ron Fairly, who may have been the Comeback Player of the Year -- batting .289 with 24 HR. The team will be much better once they add a rotation around Dennis Leonard (23-7, 2.45 ERA & 203 K).

The Pittsburgh Pirates won the N.L. East with a 91-71 record, outpacing the St. Louis Cardinals (87-75), Chicago Cubs (86-76) & New York Mets (86-76). The Cardinals won their last 6 games to pass both the Cubs & Mets. 

The Pirates' Dave Parker led the National League with a .355 batting average, along with 30 HR & 147 RBI, and is likely one of the front-runners for the N.L. Most Valuable Player of the Year Award. Rookie Mitchell Page batted .302 with 28 HR & 100 RBI, while stealing 18 bases -- while long-time Yankee Thurman Munson batted .317 with 14 HR & 71 RBI in his first season wearing the black and yellow. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers ran away with the N.L. West, finishing with a 103-59 record. The team went 47-38 during their last 85 games, looking more human and we'll see if they are battle-tested come playoff time. Dodgers should still be the favorites with a rotation that went 78-38 with a ERA's ranging between 2.52 through 3.72 ERA. 

The New York Yankees' strength is their pitching, the team certainly didn't do their damage with their lineup which ranked in the lower-half of the American League. The Yankees had three starting pitchers with ERA's under 3.00, starting with their ace Ron Guidry who won 18 games with a 2.99 ERA. Andy Hassler led the team with a 20-4 record and 2.24 ERA, with Don Medich posting a 12-6 record with a 2.93 ERA in 26 starts before a partially torn labrum took him out for the remainder of the season. Medich out? No problem, the Yankees also have Dick Tidrow (10-5, 3.42 ERA), Pat Dobson (11-11, 4.17 ERA) & Scott McGregor (6-4, 3.96 ERA).

The Yankees will face off against the Oakland Athletics, who have lost their last two A.L. Championship appearances to Baltimore & Boston. The Dodgers will have home-field against the Pittsburgh Pirates.