Jackson & Allen with 150+ RBI?

[Outta Leftfield]

Back in the day, Bill James explained that the main reason that hitting was way down in the late-1960s through mid-1970s was that the big leagues were dominated in that era by pitchers parks, many of which were big new municipal stadiums: Dodger, Candlestick, the Oakland Coliseum, Shea, Jack Murphy, the Astrodome, etc. These were mostly multi-purpose parks for baseball and football, with distant fences and large foul grounds where popouts went to die. Eventually, owners began to realize that fan interest was also dying and, along with shrinking the strikezone, they also started shrinking their ballparks. Hitting perked up in the mid-70s, and by the mid-80s, it had come back strongly. By the mid-90s, hitting had gotten [i:7161db202e]completely[/i:7161db202e] out of hand. The ballpark environment of our 70s leagues is a lot like the ballpark environment of the real mlb in the 90s. And the hitters numbers are a lot like 90s numbers.

I'm just finishing a league (at game 159) where Dick Allen, on my team, has 152 RBI, 157 R, and 62 HR. However, he trails in RBI behind Stargell (168) and Kingman (165). The top HR hitters are Kingman (75), Allen (62), Stargell (61) and Jackson (58). But then again, like most 70s Strato leagues, the league is full of hitters parks. Managers are like fans: they [i:7161db202e]like[/i:7161db202e] runs and [i:7161db202e]like[/i:7161db202e] to play in hitters parks, or, at most, in neutral parks. Pitchers parks are comparatvely rare, and nobody's using the real OPS killers: Candlestick, Oakland, Anaheim, the Astrodome, etc. The top hitters in my league are putting up Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa numbers, and arguably it's because they're hitting in a 90s offensive environment.

There is a flip side, however, and one that's worth noting. A strong pitcher can pile up a lot of wins and innings pitched, in a way that's more like the 70s than the 90s. Gaylord Perry on my team, for example, has a 30-7 record and 350.2 IP. I think I have his top year, 1972. In real life Gaylord pitched 340.2 (not far from his Strato total) and had a league leading 24 wins for a lousy Cleveland team that went 72-84 while scoring a mere 472 runs. Put Perry on a decent real life team, and he could certainly have won 30, as Denny McLain had done 4 years earlier with a team that scored 671 runs, which sufficed to lead the AL.

Perry's ERA on my team is 2.95, about a run higher than his real life 1.92, but that higher ERA is more than compensated by the fact that my team-- in this hitters park environment --has scored 900+ runs (which is only 5th best in the league). If you consider the new environment, Perry's performance overall is very consistent with what he did in real life.

The kicker though is that Perry is a S(9)*, which has allowed him--given his good pitching--to post the huge endurance totals of 350.2 IP and 29 complete games in 40 starts so far.

Perry's case is extreme because he's in a great year and also because he has also gotten outstanding rolls and strong offensive support, but his case does illustrate a key point about managing a 70s team in a typical Stratomatic league. I tend to manage my hitters as if this were the 1990s, but manage my pitchers more like in the 70s. I play my hitters more for power and walks rather than speed and average--a 90s style--but I work my SP's awfully hard and enconomize in the bullpen--a 70s style. Their ERAs will definitely be higher, but those SPs can really pile up the innings. I think it can be an effective style... :wink:

[gutter huggers]

Most of the players favor drafting hitters over pitchers. In the real world half of the money should be spent on pitching and defense, but few players do that. Maybe that is why the numbers look screwy.