HOB2 - Meet your expansion Angels and Senators
 

I am getting a little ahead in the recaps but while I am at Opening Day 1961 simming the HOB2 I wanted to take a moment and look at the 2 American League expansion teams.


The Los Angeles Angels dropped their opener at home to Baltimore by a 9-2 score. Washington surprised World Series champ Detroit 1-0 on the strength of a Jim Bunning 3-hitter. Either way it looks to be a long season for both expansion teams.

Here are their opening day rosters and a brief note on each player.
<pre><font size="2">
<b>LOS ANGELES ANGELS</b>
C Johnny Roseboro - 28 - former first rd pick hit .287 in AAA last year. No MLB experience
1B Frank Torre -29 -ex Red Sox has 31 career mlb games. 3rd round pick in 1956
2B Ken Aspromonte - 29 - 1957 2nd rd pick of Cleveland has played 39 career MLB games
SS Leo Cardenas - 22 - 4th rd pick of Baltimore a year ago hit .249 in AA. No MLB experience
3B Eddie Yost - 34 - 1944 first rd pick has 75 games in bigs with .265 avg
OF Harry Simpson - 35 - 256 mlb games for 1951 2nd round pick of White Sox.
OF Pete Whisenant - 31 - 79 mlb games but spent all of last season in AAA where he hit 40 HR
OF Bill Tuttle - 31 - 257 mlb games but spent all of last season in AAA where he hit .277

C Dutch Dotterer - 29 - 7 games MLB exp. Hit .296 with 21 HR in AA last year
1B Tim Harkness - 23 - Angels 4th round pick in this season's ammy draft
2B Bobby Richardson - 25 - 3rd rd pick in 1957 played just 62 MLB games, none since 1958
SS Ken Hamlin - 26 - 3 MLB games for 1957 4th rd pick. Hit .307 at AA Omaha last year
OF Ellis Burton - 24 - LA native was 2nd rd pick of Clev in 1958. No major league exp.
OF Bob Allison - 26 - KC 2nd rnd pick in 1958. Hit 40 homers between Class A and AA last year.

PITCHERS
SP Dave Sisler 29- 24-40 career record for former 1st rd pick of A's.
SP Walt Craddock 28 - 16-7 career record for former 3rd rd pick.
SP Don Larsen 31 - 55-42 career but out of majors since 59 due to injury woes. FA pickup
SP Don Mossi 32 - 7-18 career mark for former 8th overall pick who has never panned out
SP Joey Jay 25 - 4-3 career mark for 1953 first rounder. Has pitched in majors since 1953
SP Sam McDowall 18 - Angels first rd pick (5th overall) this year will be eased in slow
RP Jim Brosnan 31 - 1-0 career mark for former 6th rd pick.
CL Bill Henry 33 - FA pickup from Cubs has 271 career saves. Only current mlb caliber pitcher on staff
RP Ben Flowers 33 - 0-1 career record for 1951 4th rd pick.
RP Jack Baldschun 24 - Angels 3rd round ammy pick this year has good potential
RP Bill Koski 29 - 6th rd pick of 1951 made mlb debut last year-pitched 1 inning for Chisox


<b>WASHINGTON SENATORS</b>
C Charlie Lau 28 - hitting guru played 420 games for Yankees. 3rd rd pick in 1956
1B Dale Coogan 30 -former 5th rd pick has 99 career MLB games to his credit. .219 career avg.
2B Johnny Temple 33 -1952 2nd overall pick never more than a backup, 295 games, .223 avg
SS Eddie O'Brien 30 - 149 career games for former 3rd rounder. .305 career avg.
3B Wayne Causey 24 - made ML debut with A's last year. .288 in 14 games. 4th rd pick in 55
OF Whitey Herzog 29 - former 3rd rd pick made ML debut with Chisox last year. .200 in 15 games.
OF George Shuba 36 - vet has 648 games of service. .266 career avg for ex-Yankee
OF Bob Hazle 30 - just 10 career at bats for 1955 2nd rounder. Hit .300 at AAA Buffalo last year

C Moe Thacker 27 - 5th rd pick in 1958 has no mlb experience. Hit .362 in A ball last year
C Red Wilson 31 - .235 average in 313 games with A's. 2nd rd pick in 1951
2B Elio Chacon 24 - 5th round pick of old Senators (now Min) last yr. hit .285 in Clas A
SS Zoilo Versalles 21 - Indians 2nd rd pick in 1959 played 6 games for Tribe that season
OF George Alusik 26 - 2nd rd pick in 1958 hit .332 in Class A Witchita last yr. O MLB games
OF Chuck Diering 38 - FA signee has 768 games to his credit, but just 7 in majors last year
OF Jim Small 23 - 6th rounder played 77 games for Tigers hitting .236 but in minors last 3 years.

PITCHERS
SP Jim Bunning 29 - 49-38 career for former 1st overall pick. Signed 5 yr 6.6 million FA contract
SP Niles Jordan 35 - 31-52 career for 1951 1st rounder. Injuries have hurt his career
SP Arnie Portocarrero 29 - 49-47 for 1954 1st rounder also bothered by injuries
SP Jim Wilson 38 - 218-161 last kick at can for 1945 first rounder
SP Tom Cheney 26 - Injuries have limited 1957 4th overall pick to 1 ML game. 8-5 in minors last year
RP Luis Arroyo 33 - 1-2 career mark for 1955 3rd rounder.
RP Billy Loes 31 - Free agent pick is 4-5 in career. Was 2nd rd pick of old Sens in 1950
RP Jim Golden 24 - no MLB experience for White Sox 4th rd pick a year ago. 7-9 in AAA last year
RP Lee Wheat 31 - 1-3 career mark for 6th rd pick in 1954.
RP Charlie Bicknell 32 - Free agent signee has 27 career games. Undrafted FA signed originally in 1948.
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Both teams appear to be in for a long season. The Senators appear to have the better squad mainly on the
strength of Bunning. If Jordan and Portocarrero can have decent years the Sens could win 65 games. The Angels will be lucky to win more than 50 I would think.

Note. I ran into a little bug and had to redo the draft and restart the season. It was my own fault. I was tinkering with the schedule to get the NL to 154 games and AL to stay at 162 and I changed the start date before I ran spring training. All is well now but the Sens and Angels have some minor roster changes. Nothing major though.

Actually neither team won 50. Angels finished 49-113, Sens 48-114.

Only bright spots for Angels
Dave Sisler went 11-11 but Walt Craddock was 7-20. However, Craddock's era (4.03) was better than Sisler's (4.47). Offensive leaders were OF's Pete Whisenant (.213,16,63) and Harry Simpson (.242,17,67). Bill Henry saved 29 of their 49 victories.
19 yr old Sam McDowall, their first round pick, went 8-12 in AAA and got a Sept callup..pitched just 1 inning for the Halos though.

Real bad news was catcher Johnny Roseboro breaking his foot and ending his career.

In Washington, 6 million dollar man Jim Bunning was 9-24 with a 3.86 era and Niles Jordan went 7-25 with a 3.89 era. Bob 'Hurricane' Hazle (.267,12,58) was the closest thing to an offensive threat.

Ouch. I bet Roseboro's injury was the main thing that kept the Angels from getting that extra win.

Bob "Hurricane" Hazle.... I'm a big fan of nicnames that endup picking fun at a player. I usually find the worst power hitter in my leagues and give them nicnames like Crusher and The Hammer... lots of fun...

I'm interested to see how long it takes your expansion teams to compete.

<font size="2">1962 EXPANSION METS AND COLT 45'S</font>
 

The 1962 Mets and Colt 45's will likely find the going as rough as the 1961 newcomers did.

The Mets have a little talent offensively, led by 41 year old Stan Musial and 35 year old free agent pickup Richie Ashburn. However, they have absolutely no experience in the starting rotation. The Houston club looks terrible and could well lose 125 games.

Here are the opening day rosters:
<b>NEW YORK METS</b>
C Dick Brown 27 - 2nd rd pick in 1957 signed as FA by Mets. .268 in 517 career games
1B Stan Musial 41 - likely final year for future Hall of Famer.
2B Jim Gilliam 33 - 2nd rd pick in 1952. .261 in over 700 games of MLB service
SS Jose Valdivielso 27 -Red 5th rd pick in 1955 has just 13 games of MLB experience
3B Dick Gray 30 - Cards 3rd rd pick in 1958 has played just 3 games in majors
LF Willie Davis 21 - 2nd rd pick in 1960 hit just .208 in 58 games with Milwaukee
CF Richie Ashburn 35- signed a 3.7 million free agent contract with Mets.
RF Jim Piersall 32- 1st rd pick in 1950 could never crack Pirates OF. .268 in 148 career games

C Billy Bryan 23 - SF 3rd rd pick in 1961 has no major league experience
1B Harry Agganis 32 - 2nd rd pick in 1954 played just one full season with Cubs
2B Jim Finigan 33 - FA pickup from Milwaukee, was a 2nd rd pick in 1954.
3B Cliff Cook 25 - played 45 games with Giants last year, was a 4th rd pick in 1959
OF Don Taussig 30 - 5th rd pick in 1958 played 12 major league games with Cubs last year
OF Albie Pearson 27 - Dodgers gave up on 2nd rd pick from 1958, .247 in 196 career games
OF Lou Johnson 27 - Phillies made a mistake taking him in rd 1 of 1960 draft. No MLB exp.

SP Bo Belinsky 25 - 0-0 career Mets 1st rd pick in ammy draft
SP Chris Short 24 - 0-0 SF 1st rd pick in 1959. Giants may regret losing him in exp. draft.
SP Whammy Douglass 27 - 0-0 1st rd pick in 1957 pitched just 2 innings in majors
SP Jack Kralick 26- 0-0 2nd rd pick in 1959 pitched 4 innings for Braves last year
SP Dave Ricketts 28 - 0-0 3rd rd pick of Cubs in 1959 was injured much of last season
RP Mike Joyce 21 - 0-0 Mets 3rd rd pick in this years ammy draft
RP Nelson Chittum 29 - 11-17 5th rd pick in 1958 has 5.82 career era with 29 saves
RP Fred Green 28 - 4-8 4th rd pick in 1959 was aquired from Det in a spring trade.
RP Ray Ripplemeyer 28 - 0-0 Mets selected him in 6th rd of this years ammy draft
RP Dave Gerard 25 - 0-0 Mets 7th rd pick of this years ammy draft

Player to Watch - 17 year old Ed Kranepool, the Mets second rd pick in the amateur draft will begin his career in Class A.

<b>HOUSTON COLT 45's</b>
C Earl Battey 27 - 1st rd pick of Dodgers in 1955 played just 8 major league games
1B Bob Skinner 30 - Free agent pickup from Cleveland hit .284 in 455 career games
2B Jerry Adair 25 - Braves 3rd rd pick in 1958. .264 in 61 career games
SS Jack Cusick 33 - FA pickup hit .342 in 44 career games over 5 seasons.
3B Larry Raines 32 - FA pickup hit .234 as a starter with Athletics last year
LF Harry Anderson 30 - Another FA pickup from KC. Hit .287 with 15 homers for A's last year
CF Carl Warwick 25 - Cards 5th rd pick a year ago is not ready for majors but Hou has no one else
RF Jackie Jensen 35- 1st rd pick in 1950 who never panned out. Hit .260 in 317 career games

C Chris Cannizzaro 23 - Cards 5th rd pick a year ago may have a decent future in Houston
1B Duke Carmel 24 - 3rd rd pick of Cards in 1959. Doesnt have much upside
2B Marv Breeding 28 - 4th rd pick of Cubs in 1960 will platoon with Adair. No MLB exp.
3B Ted Kazanski 28 - 1 game in majors for the 1953 second rd pick
OF Charlie James 24 - Phillies 3rd rd pick in 1960 no mlb experience
OF Gino Cimoli 32 - 3rd rd pick of Braves in 1956. .194 in 45 career games
OF Tex Nelson 25 - 4th rd pick of Dodgers in 1955, played just 29 mlb games

SP Vinegar Bend Mizell 31 - 9-7 First rd pick in 1952 has been hampered by injuries
SP Ernie Broglio 26 - 1-1 2nd rd pick in 1959 made debut with Giants last year
SP Dick Brodowski 29 - 5-5 Injuries have hurt 2nd rd pick in 1952's career
SP Charlie Rabe 29 - no mlb experience for Braves 3rd rd pick in 1957
SP Denny Lemaster 23 - bright future for Colt 45's first rd pick in this years ammy draft

RP Dennis Bennett 22 - 2nd rd pick of Houston in this years ammy draft
RP Glen Hobbie 25 - 2nd rd pick of Cubs in 1957. No MLB experience.
RP Joe Bonikowski 21 - Houston's 4th rd pick in this years ammy draft
RP Dick Radatz 25 - Houston's 3rd rd pick in this years ammy draft
RP Hal Reniff 23 - Giants fifth rd pick a year ago has no mlb experience.

Player to Watch Ron Fairly. 23 year old drafted out of Reds organization will begin year in AAA and could be in Houston by September.

TigerFan - how did you pick the players for the expansion teams?

It is discussed here

http://www.400softwarestudios.com/bo...threadid=19582

Btw, the expansion Mets were 51-111, the Astros were 49-113

The second year Angels improved by 1 game to 50-112 while the Sens jumped 7 games to 55-107.

Angels third rd pick in 1962 Ed Charles, surprised everyone by winning the AL rookie of the year award. Charles hit .265 with 13 homers and 65 rbi's to become the first member of an expansion team to win a major award. Full details on the 61 and 62 seasons will be coming in the next few days.

well, it looks like the expansion teams did better than what they did in the FABL.

One note: Ed Kranepool was also fittingly drafted by the Mets in the FABL Ammy draft of 1962, but he had to come straight to the majors and was a major part of their ineptitude. The Mets wound up trading for Willie McCovey in late 1964, and he remained there until leaving for Dertoit after the 1966 season. Kranepool regained the starting spot soon after and signed with the expansion Royals when he became a free agent (I believe it was 1970).

A replay question
 

Do you find yourself paying a little too much attention to your own knowledge of the game, instead of the statistical data presented in the game?

I have Harry Krebs, brilliant in hitting, and doesn't walk much...but if you said Rod Carew, then a certain set of expectations would be generated.

Does this hamper objective personnel decisions?

On occassion but because I am so engrossed in my league more often what occurs is I mix up real life history with my HOB2 history.

An example was just the other day some guys at work were rhyming off the 500 HR club and I swore Ralph Kiner belonged in the group. Kiner has hit 501 in the HOB2 but only 369 in real life.

This really did happen and they thought I was nuts when I tried to explain the HOB2

I love this thread. As I read down the names of the expansion teams I can picture the baseball cards.

Whammy Douglas! I haven't thought about him for 40 years, yet I can still see his card: a Reds uniform, 1959, LH pitcher.

How is Mel Roach doing in your league? Not only was Mel my very first baseball card in 1958, but I later worked with him at the Bank of Virginia. Not a nice man, it saddens me to say. Very bitter about the leg break that ended his career, even 30 years later.

He wont like his HOB2 career:

Drafted in the fourth round by Pittsburgh in 1953, Mel spent most of the next 5 years in Tulsa of the Class A Western League. He did a call-up to the big club in September of 1954 and got the first of his 4 career major league hits off of the Cubs Johnny Antonelli.

His only other major league time came in September of 1957. The Pirates released him in May of 1958 but the Dodgers signed him a week later and he has split his time between A and AA ball ever since. He is still just 29 so he may get a little more big league playing time. In 1962 he posted some decent numbers for the Class AA El Paso Sun Kings of the newly formed Texas League.

<pre><font size="2">
Year Ag Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS XR
+-------------+----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+---+----+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+
1953 20 A 147 561 68 204 21 4 17 88 3 0 41 99 .364 .407 .506 .913 105.0
1954 21 PIT NL 9 14 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 .143 .200 .143 .343 -0.9
1954 21 A 120 452 64 144 22 1 15 64 0 3 36 79 .319 .369 .471 .840 73.2
1955 22 A 153 607 83 206 28 1 15 88 0 1 36 125 .339 .376 .463 .839 97.2
1956 23 A 154 633 79 226 36 1 13 79 1 0 37 118 .357 .393 .479 .871 107.4
1957 24 PIT NL 16 20 2 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 6 .100 .143 .150 .293 -0.8
1957 24 A 111 463 78 160 27 2 10 66 0 1 39 108 .346 .396 .477 .874 80.3
1958 25 A 155 615 99 223 54 1 18 90 5 0 45 118 .363 .406 .541 .948 119.4
1959 26 AA 63 228 35 69 14 0 6 30 0 1 11 40 .303 .335 .443 .778 31.4
1959 26 A 87 358 47 123 20 0 7 36 3 1 28 74 .344 .391 .458 .849 59.7
1960 27 AA 150 561 62 155 36 0 11 74 3 2 26 92 .276 .308 .399 .708 65.5
1961 28 AA 100 344 40 89 25 0 7 55 0 1 21 57 .259 .301 .392 .694 38.9
1961 28 A 45 185 29 57 13 0 7 32 0 0 7 35 .308 .333 .492 .825 28.0
1962 29 AA 142 568 74 154 31 0 16 73 5 2 34 92 .271 .312 .410 .723 70.9
1962 29 A 19 81 12 26 2 0 5 14 1 0 2 22 .321 .337 .531 .868 13.7
+-------------+----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+----+---+----+----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+
2 Years Sim 25 34 2 4 1 0 0 2 0 0 2 6 .118 .167 .147 .314 -1.7
4 Years AA 455 1701 211 467 106 0 40 232 8 6 92 281 .275 .309 .407 .717 206.8
9 Years A 991 3955 559 1369 223 10 107 557 13 6 271 778 .346 .386 .489 .875 683.8
Total Minors 1446 5656 770 1836 329 10 147 789 21 12 363 1059 .325 .363 .464 .827 890.6
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27 year old (It is now end of 1962 sim wise) Whammy Douglas is getting a chance to shed the first round bust tag that has been associated with his name.

Whammy was taken 14th overall by the Reds in 1957 draft. A bicep injury cost him a month of his rookie season split between AA New Orleans Pelicans and AAA Seattle Rainiers. He struggled terribly the next couple seasons in AAA, managing to pitch just 1 major league inning in 1959 and 2/3 of an inning in 1961.

Selected by the Mets in the 1962 expansion draft, Whammy struggled like the rest of their staff during his rookie season.

<pre><font size="2">
Year Ag Tm Lg W L PCT G GS CG SHO SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA OAVG OOBP OSLG OOPS
+-------------+---+---+-----+----+----+---+---+---+------+----+----+---+----+----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
1957 22 AAA 5 6 .455 15 15 0 0 0 81.7 105 64 14 46 19 7.05 .316 .399 .551 .951
1957 22 AA 0 2 .000 4 4 0 0 0 10.0 14 13 2 9 7 11.70 .318 .434 .523 .957
1958 23 AAA 5 13 .278 22 22 0 0 0 113.3 171 89 27 54 29 7.07 .350 .415 .631 1.046
1959 24 CIN NL 0 0 .000 1 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 .000 .250 .000 .250
1959 24 AAA 6 8 .429 21 21 0 0 0 109.0 128 78 18 68 23 6.44 .284 .378 .499 .877
1960 25 AAA 3 5 .375 19 19 0 0 0 111.7 125 72 16 54 20 5.80 .285 .363 .487 .851
1960 25 AA 0 1 .000 1 1 0 0 0 5.3 5 4 0 4 2 6.75 .250 .375 .300 .675
1961 26 CIN NL 0 0 .000 1 0 0 0 0 0.7 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 .000 .000 .000 .000
1961 26 AAA 3 8 .273 19 19 0 0 0 92.3 103 57 19 45 31 5.56 .270 .347 .517 .864
1962 27 NYM NL 6 16 .273 29 29 3 1 0 172.7 182 109 36 89 35 5.68 .266 .350 .494 .844
+-------------+---+---+-----+----+----+---+---+---+------+----+----+---+----+----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
3 Years Sim 6 16 .273 31 29 3 1 0 174.4 182 109 36 90 35 5.63 .264 .348 .491 .839
5 Years AAA 22 40 .355 96 96 0 0 0 508.0 632 360 94 267 122 6.38 .302 .381 .539 .920
2 Years AA 0 3 .000 5 5 0 0 0 15.3 19 17 2 13 9 9.98 .297 .416 .453 .869
Total Minors 22 43 .338 101 101 0 0 0 523.3 651 377 96 280 131 6.48 .302 .382 .536 .919
+-------------+---+---+-----+----+----+---+---+---+------+----+----+---+----+----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+



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Thanks for the reports. I linked over to your site and spent what seemed like hours rummaging among the memories.

Great fun!

That's Whammy from the 1958 set. I didn't have him until the next season. Mel Roach is an earlier season, too.