The 1973 Washington Senators In (Several) Boxes
Not last in the American League this year...
As you may be aware, I spend a fair amount of my time playing Dynasty League Baseball, an online version of the old Pursue the Pennant tabletop baseball game. This should have been the team’s second year in Texas, but I’m stubborn and still carrying a grudge, so the team is still playing in RFK Stadium. Also, Pete’s league has very different rules than Major League Baseball historically did, and I’ve made different moves than Bob Short and whoever bought the Rangers did, so overall we’ve had better results than the Senators & Rangers did.
This year we finished 73-89, fourth out of the five teams in the AL West and seventh out of ten teams in the league, with a slightly better record on the road (39-42) than at home (34-47). As I said on The Other McCain’s FMJRA post on Saturday, given that we had a winning record against NL teams and on turf, I was tempted to tell Pete I was moving to Texas after all - but to Houston. Anyway, this is a much better record than the pathetic Texas Rangers, who were 57-105 in their second year at Arlington.
Our biggest problem all year was that we couldn’t get guys on base and when we did get them on, we couldn’t bring them home. Now part of this may be due to RFK being a pitcher’s park, at least according to Total Baseball, but most of my hitters are coming from parks as bad or even worse for hitters, so I guess it’s just the RNG screwing with me. Again.
WE HAVE LOTS OF BATS BUT NONE OF THEM WORK
Cookie Rojas Game OPS 567/IRL OPS 692 -125
Ed Brinkman 501/609 -108
Andy Etchebarren 578/686 -108
Frank Howard 684/789 -105
Del Unser 683/781 -98
Dave Kingman 704/779 -75
Steve Braun 771/845 -74
Nate Colbert 726/793 -67
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
Vic Harris 629/549 +80
Tommie Agee 705/691 +14
Randy Hundley 638/625 +13
TEAM LEADERS
Home runs: Dave Kingman, 37
Triples: Del Unser, 12
Doubles: Del Unser & Nate Colbert, 26
RBI: Dave Kingman, 71
Runs: Del Unser, 79
Batting average: Jim Northrup, .295
Stolen bases: Cookie Rojas, 12 (also caught stealing 12)
TOP FIVE OFFENSIVE PLAYERS
Del Unser, 73 runs created
Jim Northrup, 60
Nate Colbert, 57
Dave Kingman, 54
Cito Gaston, 48
In contrast to our hitting, our pitching was outstanding most of the time. Usually if we could hold the opposing team under three runs in the first six innings (a quality start), we had a shot, but there were 26 games where our starters managed that and we still lost*. If we’d won even half of those games, we would have finished 85-77 - but we didn’t.
Joe Coleman 14-15, 2.75 ERA, 275.1 IP, 11 complete games
39 starts, 30 QS/10 TL, no cheap wins (Hugh Mulcahy Award)
Carl Morton 12-19, 3.66 ERA, 258 IP, 6 CG
38 starts, 23 QS/10 TL, 1 cheap win
Bill “Spaceman” Lee 16-16, 4.01 ERA, 264.2 IP, 7 CG
37 starts, 18 QS/3 TL, 3 cheap wins
Jim Kaat 6-9, 3.09 ERA, 125.1 IP (4 relief appearances)
20 starts, 8 QS/1 TL, 1 cheap win
Pat Dobson 5-6, 4.68 ERA, 109.2 IP (14 RA)
14 starts, 7 QS/1 TL, 1 cheap win
Blue Moon Odom 5-11-1, 3.61 ERA, 127 IP (22 RA)
11 starts, 1QS/1 TL, no cheap wins
TEN BEST STARTS
4/18 at Boston Coleman 9 IP, 4 H, 0 runs, 1 BB, 11K = Game Score 89
9/6 at St. Louis Lee 9 IP, 3 H, 0 runs, 2 BB, 7K = 86
6/16 at LA Lee 9.2 IP, 5 H, 0 runs, 3 BB, 6K = 83
6/23 vs. Baltimore Coleman 9 IP, 3 H, 1 earned run, 3 BB, 8K = 82
4/12 at Yankees Coleman 9 IP, 5 H, 0 runs, 3 BB, 6 K = 80
5/23 at California Lee 8.1 IP, 3 H, 0 runs, 0 BB, 2 K = 80
9/28 at Pittsburgh Morton 8.2 IP, 5 H, 0 runs, 1 BB, 6 K = 79
5/9 at Montreal Lee 10.2 IP, 7 H, 2 earned runs, 1 BB, 6 K = 78
8/15 vs. KC Morton 9 IP, 5 H, 0 runs, 3 BB, 3 K = 77
8/22 vs. Milwaukee Coleman 9 IP, 5 H, 2 unearned runs, 4 BB, 5 k = 74
TEN WORST STARTS
7/23 vs. Philadelphia Dobson 0.2 IP 6 H, 7 earned runs, 2 BB, 0 K = 3
9/1 vs. Yankees Morton 1.2 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K = 12
6/25 vs. Pittsburgh Lee 2 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1K = 14
9/14 at Oakland Lee 1 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K = 17
5/5 at Minnesota Lee 2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB 0 K = 19
5/8 at Montreal Coleman 3 IP, 7 H, 6 R/5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K = 19
4/20 at Boston Morton 5 IP, 10 H, 7 R/6 ER, 4 BB, 3 K = 20
5/25 at California Odom 2.1 IP, 6 H, 6 R/3 ER, 3 BB, 0 K = 21
8/2 vs. Oakland Lee 4.6 IP, 8 H, 8 ER, 2 BB, 7 K = 22
7/13 at Yankees Coleman 3 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 1 K = 23
The Senators were 13-15 in April & May, dropped to 10-16 in June, then had a run of great pitching and good hitting to go 16-12 in July, but then our stud long reliever Charlie Hough ran out of innings. We went 12-15 in August and 12-13 in September, getting swept by the Dodgers and the O’s before finishing the season with a sweep of the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium. And that was the season.