1980 Season Thread

[leecemark]

--1980-81 Offseason thread is up

[Sockeye]

Sockeye's Angels are placing the following players in the trading block. MAKE OFFER!!!

SS: Bob Bailor 1.00M Contract: 1980 FA, 3 Years, Exp 1982
SP: Juan Berenguer 0.50K Contract: 1978 Rookie, Exp 1983
C: Bob Boone 0.50K Contract: 1980 FA, 3 Years, Exp 1982
SP: Mike Caldwell 6.00M Contract: 1977 FA, 5 Years, Exp 1981
1B: Dan Driessen 5.25M Contract: 1979 FA, 4 years, Exp 1982
OF: Greg Gross 0.25K Contract: 1980 FA, 3 Years, Exp 1982
SS: Toby Harrah 6.50M Contract: 1978 FA, 5 Years, Exp 1982
CF: Ruppert Jones 7.00M Contract: 1980 FA, 3 Years, Exp 1982
3B: Ray Knight 2.75M Contract: 1980 FA, 3 Years, Exp 1982
RP: Bob Lacey 0.75K Contract: 1977 Rookie, Exp 1982
RF: Jeffrey Leonard 0.50K Contract: 1977 Rookie, Exp 1982
CF: Lee Mazzilli 2.00M Contract: 1976 Rookie, Exp 1981
SP: Frank Pastore 0.75K Contract: 1979 Draft/trade, Exp 1984
C: Darrell Porter 4.00M Contract: 1980 FA, 3 Years, Exp 1982
LF: Gene Richards 1.50M Contract: 1977 Rookie, Exp 1982
C: Jim Sundberg 8.25M Contract: 1980 FA, 2 Years, Exp 1981
RP: Bob Veselic 0.25K Contract: 1980 FA, 2 Years, Exp 1981

[J W]

The Skipjacks are putting Jim Bibby on the trade market. If you're looking to compete this year but not in 1982, Bibby can give you a front-line pitcher (146 ERA+, 1.121) for the majority of the season for $10 mil. We're not asking for much in return.

[Sockeye]

When does the offseason thread go up? The Angels are looking forward to a very busy offseson with 15 picks this years draft.

[Windy City Fan]

Sadly it seems the Thunder are now going to enter into the dreaded rebuilding phase. Fortunately, we do have several useful players still on the roster that may interest contending teams ....

Leon Roberts (5.25 through 81, 126 OPS+ and a EX glove in LF or RF, or AV in CF)
Billy Sample (500K on a rookie deal through 83, 119 OPS+ with a VG glove in LF or RF, or FR in CF)
Bill Stein (250K through 81, 135 OPS+ in 126 PA. Rated to play 1B, 2B, 3B)
Ron Cey (15.0 through 81, 143 OPS+ at third base)
Mike Hargrove (12.0 141 OPS+ at first base, .424 OBP)
Rick Langford (1.5 through 81, 115 ERA+ makes a good mid rotation starter on a contender)
Len Barker (1.0 through 81, 94 ERA+, but good WHIP (1.279) and K/BB (2.75))

Reggie Smith is also on the table, he's useless this season but puts up a nice season in 82 if you're gunning for that season. Gary Lavelle is a lefty reliever with a subpar season this year, but bounce back next year. I'd even listen to offers on Al Holland and Dwayne Murphy, but they have multiple productive seasons so offers would have to be substantial. We're looking for draft picks, players that will contribute in 83 and beyond, or to upgrade our current stockpile of draft picks.

[leecemark]

--Who knew we'd make this work long enough to have 3,000 hit, 500 HR (Stargell and Aaron) and 4,000 IP players . Really rooting for Jenkins to give us our first 300 win pitcher before he's done. Reggie Jackson's big season (almost unnoticed in an off season for the Gold Sox) sets him up to break some CKL records before he's done. The HR, RBI and several others are doable for him.

[catcher24]

I updated the encyclopedia and then ran my milestones report. A couple of big milestones were reached during the 1980 season.
Carl Yastrzemski - 3000th hit (at 3008), becomes the second CKL batter to achieve the milestone.
Pete Rose - 600th double (612). Only batter with 600+ doubles.
Carl Yastrzemski - 1000th extra base hit (1004). Joins Willie Stargell and Hank Aaron in the exclusive club.
Carl Yastrzemski - Became the CKL career total base leader, passing Aaron. Yaz now has 4791 (Aaron has 4769)

Tom Seaver - 2600th strikeout (2623) - Is the CKL career leader
Fergie Jenkins - 2500th strikeout (2501) - Only he and Seaver in the 2500+ club.
Rich Gossage - 172nd save - ties Don McMahon for the all time CKL career total.
Fergie Jenkins and Gaylord Perry - each surpassed the 4000 innings pitched mark. Jenkins is all time leader with 4197.1, Perry second with 4089. They are the only ones with over 4000 IP.

[rmadachik]

I remember Rodgers and Sanderson making a great 1 2 punch in Montreal. Always rooted for them but that was back in the day when not many baseball games besides the local teams were televised.

[catcher24]

If you compare Rogers career with that of Catfish Hunter, they aren't too far apart. Rogers actually has a better career ERA and ERA+ than Hunter. The major difference is that Rogers pitched for sub-.500 Expos teams for almost half his career (6 out of 13 seasons). Hunter pitched three years for pathetic KC teams, but then never had a sub-.500 team behind him, while pitching for several division championship teams. And of course Rogers pitched in Montreal, while Hunter managed to put up his best season in New York.

[leecemark]

--I was an AL fan in those days (Tigers) and don't remember ever seeing Rogers pitch. Maybe an inning or two in All Star games? Back then there wasn't much opportunity (Game of the Week and postseason) to see games not involving your home team.
--I remember knowing of him as a really good pitcher, but not as a great one. The Expos came up with alot of really talented young pitchers in the 70s - Rogers, David Palmer, Bill Gullickson, Scott Sanderson, Dan Schatzader, Charlie Lea and probaly some others I'm forgetting now. Rogers was the one of the first of that group and the best, but had to share attention (and Montreal didn't get that much attention) with whoever was the hot new guy.
--He didn't last long enough and/or peak high enough to be a real life Hall of Famer, but with another franchise he would probably be better remembered as a Hall of Very Good kind of guy. Maybe he would even have some Hall support had he pitched for say the Big Red machine and piled up some shiney win totals - like he has with the Knights in the CKL .

[catcher24]

Well done to both of you, and congrats on getting back on top Mark! I'm seeing how Steve Rogers is a forgotten pitcher who was really good. He's a bit before my time; anyone remember how he was thought of while he pitched in Canada?

Oddly enough, I remember Rogers very well but don't recall that he was really highly regarded - and I rooted for Montreal to go all the way back in those days. He was elected to the All Star team several times, and came close to winning the Cy Young Award in 1982 when he had his best season. He was top five a couple of other times, too. He must have been considered the staff ace on a contending team, but I simply don't remember that. What I remember is rooting for the Expos and having them just miss a lot of times. My hometown minor league team was an Expos franchise, and over the years a few guys who started in Jamestown played for the Expos, hence my support for them.

[catcher24]

Congratulations Mark! It's been a long wait for the Knights. Congrats to Craig also on a fine season. You put together a great team.

[Windy City Fan]

Congrats to you, Mark. And a huge thanks as always for running things and maintaining such a high quality league!

[J W]

Well done to both of you, and congrats on getting back on top Mark! I'm seeing how Steve Rogers is a forgotten pitcher who was really good. He's a bit before my time; anyone remember how he was thought of while he pitched in Canada?

[leecemark]

Diamond Classic; Thunder at Knights: Game 5

--The Knights send CYA winner Steve Rogers (26-10, 3.03) to the hill to try and nail down the championship in front of their last home crowd of the season. The Thunder look to Dennis Eckersley (14-8, 2.96) to send the series back to Windy City.
--Rogers struggled with his command early. Two walks and an Oglive single loaded the bases with two down in the first. He got Cey on a called third strike to escape the jam. More of the same in the 2nd. Two walks and a Hargrove single again loaded the bases - but this time with no outs. Murphy grounded to first and Cooper was able to get the force at home. Randolph walked to force in a run, but Clark grounded into a 4-6-3 DP to end the rally. 7 bases runners in the first 2 innings resulted in only 1 Thunder run.
--The Knights knotted it up in the third. Eck threw away Thomas dribbler in front of the mound to put him on 2nd. Salazar singled him home to tie it up. Leecemark took the lead in the 4th on a solo blast by Brown.
--Rogers found his groove after the early control problems and held the 2-1 lead heading to the 8th. Randolph doubled and Clark singled to tie it up and the Knights went to MClure to finish the inning. In the bottom of the inning Cooper walked and Thomas hit a blast over the wall in straight away CF to give the Knights back the lead.
--Clear came on to close it out and Leecemark fans get to celebrate the end of their 13 year championship drought. Congrats on a great seasons for the Thunder, Craig.
--The Knights staff did a commendable job of controlling the mighty Thunder bats, allowing only 24 hits in 44 innings and 10 runs over the 5 games. The series MVP though goes to 1B Cecil Cooper who went 412/450/647 with a team leading 5 RBI.