1973 Season -it's the little things

I put my Royals career replay on hold 2 years just to wait for the 73 caddy version after I completed the 1972 replay. Well worth it though it was a tough 2013 winter. What separates Strat from other games is how it teaches you about history and context in any given year. You get a true feel of the essence of what that year in baseball was all about and what any given manager was thinking about and dealing with. I also love to look back at a season when sabermetrics was nowhere to be seen and apply in hindsight if a manager was onto something in his gut that was actually statistically supported and of course vice versa where managers got it so wrong and a move made absolutely no sense in any historical context.

Start with the good- I salute you Ken Aspromonte skipper of the not so hot 1973 Cleveland Indians. The tribe could mash but had iron gloves especially in the outfield. Only Frank Duffy at SS and a young Buddy Bell could field their positions. Outfield had Charlie Spikes  in LF (4-17) George Hendrick in CF (3-4) and The Fro Oscar Gamble in Rf (5-10), all hit over 20 home runs slugged .400-.460. Aspromonte also predates Earl Weaver's platoon discovery of John Lowenstein who partnered with Walter "No Neck" Williams at DH and outfield, they couldn't  field either. Enter our subject Rusty Torres, a career utility player. Strat shows us how a player like Torres (.205 7 homers in 312 at bats) has value especially in context with the team he plays on. This team could score some runs, and Torres makes a perfect late inning defensive sub, plays all 3 outfield positions 2 e9 with a -2 arm. Offensively he has a little pop if needed and walked 50 times which makes him a little extra solid. On many teams Torres is an end of bench guy but Aspromonte needed him and he has value in that replay if played correctly.

Unfortunately this story does not end well for Rusty as apparently he is now a convicted child molester.

Bad Saber 1973 version:
The Royals are my replay and at the time they were the most successful expansion franchise ever. 1971 they were very good, slipped in 72 but the nucleus (thank you Cedric Tallis- a post on him coming up) was young and strong especially up the middle and with John Mayberry taking over at first. Bob Lemon was an excellent manager for this young team. He especially was adept at balancing a staff of young developing arms and castoffs. In 72 they lost more (though I got them to finish 12 games over .500 tied for third 9.5  out behind Oakland in my replay) and Jack McKeon was promoted from Omaha for his first job. Jack McKeon went on to become a very good manager (specialized in expansion teams on the cusp of doing big things) but his first gig had some hiccups despite the Royals finishing a strong second.

1973 was also the first year of the DH. The Royals made a typically (Cedric's MO) bizarre trade with Cincinnati. We trade Richie Scheinblum  and Roger Nelson for Hal McRae and Wayne Simpson. Sure now it's McRae's name that stands out but then, it was a huge gamble. Scheinblum had a fluky from nowhere 1972.385 on base and .803 OPS- terrible fielding in right but hey the DH was coming, he's your man right? Roger Nelson was no slouch either, 11-6 2.08 era (lead the league) while McRae off a serious injury and shoulder surgery, only had 93 at bats in 72 and hit .278 with nice small sample power against leftys. Simpson had a great rookie year but was also very ineffective after his own injury problems. McRae hit poorly and Simpson pitched poorly in their first year. One of them turned it around.

The poor managing decision is what McKeon did at DH and RF. I used as played lineups and I am stunned McRae was started not just in LF but RF and not DH. This is more than just second guessing history. It was widely known McRae could throw due to his shoulder surgery. I remember Buddy Blattner and Denny Mathews saying this on radio frequently. Officially he is rated 4 e12 +4 arm and that is in RF! Worse yet McKeon had better options. Ed Kirtpatrick and Steve Hovely both good to decent fielders were not played in the field. They DH'd! with McRae in RF. I can't figure out what advantage McKeon was considering setting it up the way he did. He eventually figured this out but April he was consistently putting out the wrong lineups. I could conject that with the DH being a new phenomenon there was a mindset not to assign 1 player to a non fielding role but rotate it among several. McKeon did rotate his DH early on, but there is no way to justify starting Hal McRae in the outfield 64 times.

Jack will have better days but with other teams