Alternate 1993 Regular Season Ends (A.L. East Season Report)

The Alternate 1993 Season has ended, before I go over the season highlights, let me remind all of you that this is a league if the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins never join... plus no Arizona or Tampa Bay franchises will come; It's a league without expansion.

This also means that the two division format that we were accustomed to in the 1980's is back.

First we'll start with the A.L. East Division Champion Cleveland Indians....

CLEVELAND INDIANS (104-58)

No Purple Hayes: Hayes with Indians.

The Cleveland Indians were supposed to still be a year or two away, they thought they would be competitive enough with the addition of Charlie Hayes (prior to the season) and they were right, as they heated up in June they decided that they were buyers & acquired starting pitchers Cal Eldred and Armando Reynoso, plus reliever Gene Nelson & Brian Bohanan added some much-needed pitching depth; The moves did cost them Paul Sorrento, who now plays for Texas.

Jose Mesa (A Grade 4-Z, the equivalent to a D-Z) won a surprising 20 games (8 losses) with a fine 3.55 ERA in 243.1 innings of work (134 K's); Eldred would go 19-13 with a 3.84 ERA & 192 K's, while Reynoso would go 18-11 with a 3.92 ERA. Jerry DiPoto was 5th in the American League with 27 Saves.

Albert Belle had an even bigger 'alternate' season than in real life; Belle hit 42 bombs with 136 RBI, while stealing 32 bases (making him part of the 30/30 club -- something he never accomplished in the Majors) instead of real-life career-high 23 stolen bases... his batting average was down from .290 to .272 though. Charlie Hayes batted .333 with 27 HR & 130 RBI, while Carlos Baerga was a stud with a .342 BA (3rd in the A.L.), 26 HR & 131 RBI; Kenny Lofton stole 85 bases, while collecting 212 hits & his speedy teammate Wayne Kirby nearly doubled real-life season with 11 HR & had 92 RBI (compared to 60 RBI in 1993) -- Kirby had 18 steals.

I believe offense was up all across the board (in the league) with second-half simulation and players only dealing with fatigue -- I did try to respectfully play part-time players as part-time players though... but as you noticed we will have some bloated numbers like three Indians having 130+ RBI each.

TORONTO BLUE JAYS (101-61, 3 GB / 2nd Place)

Only division winners move on, there is no wild card, and the Blue Jays will be one of two teams in the 'Alternate 1993' season not to move onto the post-season despite gathering 100+ wins (Atlanta Braves had 107 wins, but lost division to San Francisco).

The team started off so-so in the first-half of the season, looking nothing close to the actual dominance of the real-life 1993 team -- the pitching came around to catch up with the offense, and the team finished with an impressive +299 scoring differential.

The team's offense was led by Roberto Alomar in which all his numbers were up comparably to real-life, batting .320, 25 HR, 108 RBI, 206 hits with 138 runs, while stealing 75 bases! John Olerud and Paul Molitor's numbers slightly down; Olerud won the real-life batting title in 1993 with a .363 average... he would finish the season with a .336 AVG (6th) with 21 HR & 99 RBI, while Molitor batted .301 with 20 HR & 103 RBI. Rickey Henderson was right on cue, Devon White's power numbers were up (.307, 22 HR, 94 RBI with a .854 OPS) while Joe Carter (.221, 19 HR with .626 OPS compared to real-life .802 OPS) was considerably low, although he still knocked in 117 runs.

Tom Candiotti would be acquired from the Dodgers in exchange for Mike Timlin and Woody Williams; Candiotti would finish with 23 wins & help the Jays pitching staff settle down from its rough start -- team would finish with 2nd-best ERA in A.L. (3.67) to the White Sox. Pat Hentgen was great all-year around with 22-7, 2.64 ERA in 242 innings, while Juan Guzman would settle down, lowering his ERA to 3.55 while striking out 212; Todd Stottlemyre managed to collect 16 wins with 4.98 ERA. Their bullpen was strong all around, led by Duane Ward (25 SV, 1.46 ERA), Mark Eichhorn (1.90 ERA) & Danny Cox (5 W, 2.69 ERA).

The Blue Jays challenged the Indians in the end and past both Baltimore and Detroit in the standings, while being as low as 5th place at one point... but their late charge was not enough.

BALTIMORE ORIOLES (98-63, 6 GB / 3rd Place)

In a division that would end up featuring four teams with 90+ victories, the Baltimore Orioles were probably the favorite to challenge the Toronto Blue Jays for the division... Neither would end up winning the division though.

Baltimore got great production with the bats (Sporting a +211 scoring differential), Harold Baines finished 2nd in the A.L. Batting Title race, finishing with a .346 average, while being on par with his real-life HR & RBI numbers at 22 HR & 82 RBI -- his OPS was much higher (.968 OPS) which is impressive at age 34. Other vets stepped up in Harold Reynolds (.315 BA, 12 HR & 75 RBI -- compared to real-life 4 HR & .252 AVG) and Mike Pagliarulo (.313, 13, 74 RBI -- compared to 44 RBI in actual 1993). Add in strong seasons from Chris Hoiles (.291, 36 HR, 100 RBI) and Cal Ripken (.279, 30 HR, 120 RBI) and you would think the O's would win the division, but their pitching was another story....

Although they finished 5th in the A.L. in ERA (4.05), it was areas like Ryan Bowen in the rotation that hurt the ballclub; Bowen was drafted in the dispersal draft (he played for Florida in actual 1993), and should have been an improvement for Baltimore in the rotation, instead he finished with a horrible 6.18 ERA, while allowing 204 hits & 112 walks in only 163 innings (1.939 WHIP -- Ouch!).

Ben McDonald's ERA (4.34) was a run higher than actual life, while Jamie Moyer and Mike Mussina had strong seasons. The team's bullpen was strong as expected with Gregg Olson leading the A.L. with 36 Saves (1.48 ERA). 

DETROIT TIGERS (93-69, 11 GB / 4th Place)

The Detroit Tigers were a scoring machine in alternate 1993, and were a strong power lineup in actual 1993 as well; The team was better in the alternate version due to the addition of Jeff Conine and with Phillips and Trammell tearing it up. They were the only team to record over 1,000+ runs (1,069).

Tony Phillips would finish 4th in the batting race with a .340 batting average, while hitting 19 HR & 86 RBI with 222 hits (led league) & 151 runs scored! In real-life 1993, he only managed 7 HR, so the HR numbers were a bit surprising, while his OPS was also up from .841 to .926. Alan Trammell played the majority of the season, but not enough to qualify for the batting race -- he would bat .371 in the 7th slot through 113 games... Many forget that "Tram" actually had a .885 OPS that season while batting .328 as well -- his 'alternate' OPS was at .952 (with a .438 On-Base Percentage). Kirk Gibson (.284, 14 HR, 75 RBI & 23 steals) and Danny Gladden's (.286, 17 HR, 66 RBI) were slightly up from normal, to go along with Lou Whitaker (on par with .869 OPS).

Then add a huge season by Travis Fryman (.309, 30 HR & 140 RBI) to go along with Cecil Fielder, Mickey Tettleton, Jeff Conine & Eric Davis -- then you see why they have no problem scoring, the real problem was their pitching.

They added Jack Armstrong as an innings eater for the season (and he served simply as that), while they would land veteran star Frank Viola from Boston at mid-season. Most of the pitchers were all on par for what they actually did, but there was a considerable drop in David Wells' season (14-12, 6.26 ERA -- nearly two points higher than real-life); The only plus that comes from Wells is the fact that he led the A.L. with 8.8 K's per 9 innings. The Tigers' pitching highlight would be Mike Henneman, one of the best closers in baseball with his 34 Saves (3rd in A.L.) while sporting an impressive 1.76 ERA. 

Overall though the offense was not enough, while the team's pitching (5.11 ERA) ranked as the 4th worst in the American League -- ranking dead-last in the tough A.L. East. 

NEW YORK YANKEES (88-74, 16 GB / 5th Place)

The world always seems to be a better place when the Yankees come nowhere close to competing -- or at least to the rest of the baseball world that is. Despite their finish, they barely missed 90 wins in a tough division; They managed to go on the plus side for scoring (+50) and suffered losses due to lack of a bullpen while scoring most of their runs early -- Luis Aquino (18 SV) would only have a Save Opportunity percentage of 78.3 among relievers -- Poor Aquino's ERA was bloated at 6.31 & makes the choice of selecting him before the season, a poor choice by the Yankees. Lee Smith only managed 3 Saves (compared to 48 Saves) in the 'Alternate' Season.

Only two teams were worse than the Yankees in the A.L. in pitching, and that was the Detroit Tigers and the last-place Milwaukee Brewers.

Lonely Ace: Key won 27.3% of the Yankees victories with 24 wins. 

Jimmy Key would collect an impressive 24 wins to lead the American League in that category, meaning he won 27.3% of the Yankees' wins this season -- he also sported a sturdy 2.74 ERA (4th) with 211 strikeouts (6th). Scott Kamienecki would prove to be a plus, with 15 wins & 3.74 ERA, but Jim Abbott (like Wells for Detroit) was nowhere to be found -- with a lousy 8-14 record & 6.84 ERA!

The offense played really strong like the actual team did, Mike Stanley (.339, 20 HR & 75 RBI) and Paul O'Neill (.281, 30 HR & 110 RBI) led the way for the Bombers.

The Clemens saga finished earlier in the Alternative realm, Duquette sends the 'Rocket' packing.

BOSTON RED SOX (84-78, 20 GB / 6th Place)

If anything can be taken from this 6th place finish, it can be said that the Boston Red Sox made it as interesting as it could get for the little production to show for it. The team would enter the season with one roster & exit the season with a completely new roster; As the season moved on, Boston said goodbye to ace Roger Clemens, Frank Viola, Jeff Russell, and Mo Vaughn -- while saying hello to Chuck Finley, Mark Langston, J.T. Snow, Mike Stanton, Xavier Hernandez & Danny Bautista.

Eric Young and Daryl Boston joined the Red Sox prior to the season via free agency; Young's numbers were on par with his actual 1993 numbers (.262, 8 HR & .718 OPS) while his RBI numbers as a lead-off man was down to 26 from 42, while his steal numbers were up with 55 steals & a 75.3% steal success rate. For Boston (the player), his batting average was down from .261 to .217, while his HR (16) and RBI (55) were up. The Red Sox are not known historically for their speed, so they were thrilled to have landed Young prior to the season.

Andre Dawson's age is starting to show early, as his OPS (.677 in alternative) was down from its actual .738 mark, which had a lot to do with his low .243 Batting Average & .285 On-Base Percentage -- while the rest of the numbers match his 93' totals pretty closely.

The promise of John Valentin has shown early with 16 HR & 78 RBI & a solid .846 OPS.

Danny Darwin was the only starter to pitch from the beginning of the season on to the end, as he put up great numbers at Age 37 -- His numbers: 18-10, 3.42 ERA with 154 K's & 80 walks through 226.1 innings. Darwin's WHIP (1.189) was up from his A.L. best 1.068 WHIP in 1993 (Darwin also led the N.L. in WHIP in 1990 with 1.027).

MILWAUKEE BREWERS (54-107, 49.5 GB / 7th Place)

The Milwaukee Brewers signed Benito Santiago to a two-year deal, to help give the pitching staff more stability, in hopes to take the Brewers to the next level, they finished a surprise second last season with a 92-70 record. The deal would be a first-year bust, as Santiago's numbers were down all across the board from his real-life 1993 numbers -- batting only .200 with 6 HR & 31 RBI (his HR & RBI numbers were basically cut in half), while his .570 OPS was down .101 from real-life as well. 

If you want disappointment, you can find around every corner on this ballclub... Kevin Seitzer, after giving the 1992 team, a strong veteran leader with good supportive stats (.270 AVG, 142 hits & .704 OPS) would fall on his face, batting .219 (50 points lower from real-life), while he had a difficult time getting on base (.271 OBP compared to 93's actual .338 line). Kevin Reimer's batting average was down from .249 to .216.

There was some plus sides in the hitting area, with B.J. Surhoff showing some power (that we would see in his upcoming Baltimore days), doubling his real-life mark with 14 HR, but his batting average & OPS was down. Greg Vaughn hits the 100 RBI marker, with 31 HRs. John Jaha's batting average was up from .264 to .284, while hitting 22 HR & 66 RBI, while Robin Yount displayed more power than his actual 1993 season, hitting 16 long balls, while his OPS was up slightly to .719 for his final season; He ended his career with 259 home runs & 3,142 hits, and well on his way to Cooperstown.

The pitching was horrible, with two starting pitchers producing 17 losses each in Ricky Bones (6.22 ERA & 1.757 WHIP) and Jaime Navarro (6.36 ERA & 1.718 WHIP); Bones was so bad, that he gave up 300 hits & 40 HR in a single-season... 

I had to look up the real-life record, because I wasn't sure if I ever heard of a case of a pitcher allowing 300+ hits, the number sounds ridiculous, but I got my answers, it's not a record. The dead-ball record was John Coleman allowing 772 hits in a single-season (1883), he also has the earned runs allowed record with 291; The modern era record is owned by George Uhle, with 378 hits allowed in 1923. 

The team would trade their two best pitchers in pennant-race deals, with Cal Eldred going to Cleveland, and Jesse Orosco going to the Cardinals.

*** This wraps up the A.L. East ***