Philadelphia Athletics
Here is a fun fact: the Phillies actually had a winning record last year! No, really. They scored more runs than they gave up and our statisticians, whom we pay a very large amount of money because we are the Philadelphia Phillies, inform us that that means they were a better team than average and therefore should have had more wins than losses. Should have is basically is. It's a scientific fact.
Our Phils were briefly, believe it or not, on top of the entire National League in May. It did not last, what with the Giants and all, but it was a nice, if short-lived, feeling. It made the older members of the front office remember the first eight years of the league, when the Phillies took 5 NL pennants. We've hung around the .500 mark the last couple years while working on implementing our grand plan of attack but rest assured Phase III is almost ready to go.
Code:
Record overall 75-79, .487 PCT 5th, 35.0 GB
Home 36-41, .468 PCT
Road 39-38, .506 PCT
X-inning games 4-7, .364 PCT
One-run games 19-28, .404 PCT
Versus LHP 15-18, .455 PCT
Versus RHP 60-61, .496 PCT
April 2-6, .250 PCT
May 21-10, .677 PCT
June 14-12, .538 PCT
July 14-15, .483 PCT
August 11-17, .393 PCT
September 10-15, .400 PCT
October 3-4, .429 PCT
Team Batting Stats & Rankings
Batting Average .298 - 3rd in NL
On-Base Percentage .356 - 3rd in NL
Slugging Percentage .468 - 2nd in NL
On-Base + Slugging .824 - 2nd in NL
Runs Scored 964 - 3rd in NL
Hits 1689 - 3rd in NL
Extra-Base Hits 580 - 1st in NL
Home Runs 149 - 2nd in NL
Bases-On-Balls 528 - 3rd in NL
Strikeouts 488 - 6th in NL
Stolen Bases 51 - 4th in NL
Team Pitching Stats & Rankings
Earned Run Average 4.68 - 6th in NL
Starters' ERA 4.86 - 6th in NL
Bullpen ERA 3.92 - 3rd in NL
Runs allowed 897 - 6th in NL
Hits allowed 1597 - 4th in NL
Opponents AVG .285 - 4th in NL
BABIP .292 - 4th in NL
Home Runs allowed 140 - 8th in NL
Bases-On-Balls 509 - 4th in NL
Strikeouts 470 - 3rd in NL
Pitching
The first thing in Phase III that we shall need to figure out is how to properly work to the effects of the Baker Bowl. Last year's strategy of trying out veterans skilled in the art of nibbling on the corners was not the most successful. Neither was the overall philosophy of finding guys who pitch high in the strike zone in the hopes that opposing hitters would get too overconfident and hit pop outs instead of bases-clearing homeruns. As it turns out, even with the 35 foot screen, lots of pop ups to right field turn out to be homeruns anyway. But that is what we are all about as scientists: we try out lots of different permutations and don't stop until we find the one that works.
Our perennial staff ace Kyung-chor Kim, was lost for the season with a really bad elbow injury. He has succumbed to our scientists of physiology, who have chosen to take a tendon out from his non-pitching arm and replace the corresponding broken one in his pitching arm. Our original thoughts were to use a tendon from a chimpanzee but Mr. Kim objected and in the end we could not talk any of the local zoos into it. We hope that these dark tales of science bring him back, as he is the second-most winningest pitcher in Phillies history.
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA VORP
Barney Pierce 32 17 16 0.515 37 37 0 296 322 122 27 81 107 3.71 86.5
Kyung-chor Kim 33 17 14 0.548 34 34 0 254 275 111 31 73 79 3.93 68.2
Steven Pease 27 8 14 0.364 30 26 0 189.1 223 134 15 131 67 6.37 10.1
John Herman 31 10 7 0.588 21 21 0 149 180 76 21 40 30 4.59 29.8
Kevin Mask 44 2 5 0.286 29 9 1 82.1 128 66 17 31 12 7.21 -1.7
Harry Clements 23 3 5 0.375 44 0 4 79.1 86 32 4 22 53 3.63 23.8
Gene Hayden 32 6 2 0.750 44 0 0 77.1 74 29 3 18 57 3.38 24.9
Francisco Gómez 39 6 5 0.545 46 0 14 62.1 74 23 5 24 15 3.32 20.4
Harry Anderson 24 1 3 0.250 10 8 0 50.1 63 29 6 17 27 5.19 8.1
Bob Hazard 20 3 1 0.750 5 5 0 41.1 40 16 2 22 7 3.48 12.8
Keenan Hubbard 37 1 4 0.200 6 6 0 35.2 56 35 5 24 7 8.83 -6.0
Kent May 22 0 3 0.000 5 5 0 27 40 28 3 19 5 9.33 -6.0
Andy Brunet 25 1 0 1.000 3 3 0 22 31 9 1 7 1 3.68 6.4
Danny Collier 23 0 0 0.000 1 0 0 4.2 5 2 0 0 3 3.86 1.2
Team Totals 29.4 75 79 0.487 315 154 19 1370.2 1597 712 140 509 470 4.68 278.5
Catcher/First Base
The Phillies didn't like the pitch-calling of Mark Grill and Habte Kehinde seemed to forget how to hit, so in July they nabbed veterean Al Thiele from the Washington Senators. Thiele brings a plus arm and can still hit. Canadian Remi Parent was a late bloomer, not getting a regular starting job until he was almost 28 years of age. It seems like the extra time off has given him a special appreciation for the value of the homerun. His 41 dingers last year is a total that may never be matched, ever. Someone should tell him that it is, in fact, possible to reach the United States from Canada via walk.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
C #Al Thiele 32 67 67 260 52 83 29 3 9 57 0 0 36 20 0.319 0.401 0.558 0.959 20.8
C Mark Grill 31 66 58 215 30 56 14 0 7 33 0 0 30 20 0.260 0.351 0.423 0.774 -6.8
C #Darren Larson 24 19 14 63 12 18 3 0 3 9 0 0 2 8 0.286 0.318 0.476 0.794 0.2
C Habte Kehinde 34 19 15 57 7 12 1 1 3 10 0 0 4 3 0.211 0.258 0.421 0.679 -3.4
C *Bill McDonald 25 30 0 27 4 7 0 0 2 5 0 0 2 0 0.259 0.310 0.481 0.792 -0.3
1B *Rémi Parent 30 153 152 668 133 236 41 13 41 137 4 2 47 74 0.353 0.393 0.638 1.031 55.6
Infield
A .328 batting average in September lifted Will Mitchell's rookie campaign from "disappointing" to "potentially promising". That's good news for the Phillies, as Mitchell was their 4th starter in 4 seasons at second following the retirement of Charlie Standridge. Benedict Henderson came over in a trade with the Tigers and although he hit well enough, his .893 fielding average is not something that Philadelphia can deal with.
Shortstop was by far the most stable position, but even it had problems when Otis Moyer missed more than a month with a sore wrist and a broken foot. The Phils would love to utilize Dale van Tassel, who missed most of last year with his own aches and pains, but all he does even when is healthy is hit singles. He has a career .307 average but just 106 or 754 of his career hits have gone for extra bases. He is a fantastic fielder, though, which ought to count for something.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
2B Will Mitchell 24 124 122 485 67 140 34 15 4 77 6 8 24 60 0.289 0.321 0.445 0.766 10.5
3B Benedict Henderson 33 73 73 329 58 104 18 3 1 38 0 1 19 20 0.316 0.350 0.398 0.748 1.4
3B #John Scofield 39 84 69 290 48 77 9 4 7 43 0 2 39 19 0.266 0.349 0.397 0.746 -4.6
3B Cisco González 28 39 32 132 12 34 5 1 1 21 0 1 5 7 0.258 0.285 0.333 0.618 -8.1
3B Bill Whitehouse 22 30 21 89 14 26 2 1 1 12 1 0 9 9 0.292 0.354 0.371 0.724 0.5
SS #Otis Moyer 25 122 122 467 90 143 23 5 17 84 3 5 72 23 0.306 0.397 0.486 0.883 31.5
SS #Dale van Tassel 30 15 15 54 5 18 2 2 0 13 1 1 9 5 0.333 0.431 0.444 0.875 2.9
SS #Raúl Soto 23 18 10 40 4 5 3 0 0 7 2 1 4 0 0.125 0.217 0.200 0.417 -6.5
Outfield
Several guys had power on the level they'd never had it before in 1932. Charles Payne almost doubled his previous career high in homeruns (previously he hit 22). Payne had always been a good hitter, though; it's not like this was completely unexpected. Okay, it was, but in the context of the season, you see...
The corners were surprisingly light for a team with this much power. Ronald Normand was pressed into a bit more action than he's used to but he acquitted himself fairly well. He's not exactly young, though. Doug Levin's season can only be termed a disappointment, even if he did hit .349; his on-base percentage fell for the second straight year and despite hitting in front of some huge sluggers he only managed to get home 91 times.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
LF Ronald Normand 33 103 95 412 64 132 21 2 5 64 0 3 17 20 0.320 0.347 0.417 0.765 -8.2
LF *Jim Howard 30 100 74 327 45 89 17 6 5 28 1 3 28 36 0.272 0.331 0.407 0.738 -5.4
LF Steve Davis 22 39 21 110 12 34 11 5 2 24 2 2 6 11 0.309 0.342 0.555 0.896 5.1
LF Jim Cathcart 29 10 3 17 3 4 1 0 1 1 0 0 3 2 0.235 0.350 0.471 0.821 0.5
LF Dewitt Collins 25 12 1 15 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 0.133 0.188 0.133 0.321 -3.1
CF *Charles Payne 35 150 149 566 152 190 46 7 38 130 19 7 122 39 0.336 0.452 0.643 1.095 78.0
CF Su-shun Won 26 6 5 17 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0.059 0.150 0.059 0.209 -4.1
RF *Doug Levin 24 111 110 513 91 179 36 16 1 72 10 11 31 41 0.349 0.383 0.487 0.871 25.5
RF *Conrado Lucci 39 30 4 42 3 8 2 0 0 3 1 1 3 5 0.190 0.244 0.238 0.483 -5.9
Code:
- *John Walker 25 21 0 19 2 5 1 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0.263 0.250 0.421 0.671 -0.6
Team Totals 28.9 1756 1386 5673 964 1689 342 89 149 918 51 50 528 488 0.298 0.356 0.468 0.824 183.5