"Fans, Please Welcome Your 1977 Lionville Tiiiiiger-Cats"

With the retirements in the off-season of Willie Davis and Jim Wynn, my Tiger-Cats' biggest needs coming into the 1977 season were an outfielder and DH. The best OF prospects in the draft pool were George Hendrick, Andre Dawson, and Jeff Burroughs. However, I didn't expect any of those players to be available by the time the 10th pick rolled around.

To my surprise both Hendrick and Dawson were available. I decided to go with Dawson, the younger player. I believe we're set for years to come with him patrolling CF.

Because we had a need at 1B, due to the release of Joe Torre, I expected to address that need in the 2nd round. With Gene Tenace gone to Honey Brook, the best 1B option appeared to be Davey Johnson and he was available when my turn came. But I had another dilemma. OF Tony Scott was the best player on the board. Taking the slick fielding Scott would allow me to use Greg Luzinski as designated hitter.

The temptation was too much to pass up. I took Scott and hoped Johnson, with his limited available usage, would still be there at the end of the 3rd round. Lo and behold Johnson was still on the board so I grabbed him. He'll platoon at 1B with Ed Kranepool. Now and again I'll cross my fingers and start Jerry Martin at 1B to give the aged Davey and Ed some extra rest.

I figured Martin, when not playing 1B, could platoon with Scott in LF. But come the end of round 4, Gene Clines was still available. He'll make an even better platoon pairing with Scott.

In round 5 I was pleased to be able to get Fred Holdsworth to help alleviate the vacuum left in the bullpen with the retirement of Ken Sanders and release of Al Downing. In the 12th round I picked 40-year old Vic Davalillo and will use him as a left-handed pitch-hitting specialist. Maybe Vic will provide some of that "secret sauce" that gave us .390 pinch-hitting in our pennant run last season.

So, here is the group I'm going with:

1977 Lionville Tiger-Cats   Black=on active roster  Blue=minor leaguers
 
Batters            CODES YEAR TEAM BAL  AB DO TR HR BAVG  BB K'S RBI  OB%  SL%
Joe Morgan (L)     1   0 1977  CIN  1L 521 21  6 22 .288 117  58  78 .417 .478
Greg Luzinski (R)  2   0 1977  PHN  3R 554 35  3 39 .309  80 140 130 .394 .594
Ted Simmons (S)    3   0 1977  SLN  1R 516 25  3 21 .318  79  37  95 .408 .500
Jerry Morales (R)  4   0 1977  CHN  4L 490 34  5 11 .290  43  75  69 .348 .447
Ken Reitz (R)      5   0 1977  SLN   E 587 36  1 17 .261  19  74  79 .291 .412
Ed Kranepool (L)   6   0 1977  NYN  8R 281 17  0 10 .281  23  20  40 .330 .448
Chris Speier (R)   7   0 1977  MON  4R 548 31  6  5 .234  67  81  38 .317 .339
Ed Ott (L)         8   0 1977  PIN  2R 311 14  3  7 .264  32  41  38 .334 .395
Jerry Martin (R)   9   0 1977  PHN  1L 215 16  3  6 .260  18  42  28 .328 .447
Andre Dawson (R)  10   0 1977  MON  2L 525 26  9 19 .282  34  93  65 .326 .474
Tony Scott (S)    11   0 1977  SLN  2L 292 16  3  3 .291  33  48  41 .368 .397
Davey Johnson (R) 12   0 1977  PHN  4L 156  9  1  8 .321  23  20  36 .408 .545
Gene Clines (R)   13   0 1977  CHN  1L 239 12  2  3 .293  25  25  41 .358 .397
F. Gonzalez (R)   14   0 1977  PIN  2L 181 10  0  4 .276  13  21  27 .320 .398
Ray Knight (R)    15   0 1977  CIN  2R  92  5  1  1 .261   9  16  13 .324 .370
Dane Iorg  (L)    16   0 1977  SLN  6R  62  2  0  0 .242   6   7   6 .304 .274
Bob Davis (R)     17   0 1977  SDN  3L  94  2  0  1 .181   5  24  10 .235 .234
Vic Davalillo (L) 18   0 1977  LAN  4R  48  2  0  0 .313   0   6   4 .313 .354

Pitchers           LEFT% BAL WON LOST  ERA  IP HITS WALKS K'S HR GS SV
Randy Jones (L)     21    6R   6  12  4.58 147  173   36   44 12 25  0
Burt Hooton (R)     41    4R  12   7  2.62 223  184   60  153 14 31  1
Steve Carlton (L)   17    1R  23  10  2.64 283  229   89  198 25 36  0
Ron Reed (R)        39    4R   7   5  2.75 124  101   37   84  9  3 15
Bruce Kison (R)     43    7R   9  10  4.90 193  209   55  122 25 32  0
Joe Sambito (L)     28    4L   5   5  2.33  89   77   24   67  6  1  7
Craig Swan (R)      42    1R   9  10  4.23 147  153   56   71 10 24  0
Max Leon (R)        44    1L   4   4  3.97  82   89   25   44  9  9  1
Fred Holdsworth (R) 51    9L   3   3  3.19  42   35   18   21  6  6  0
Dan Schatzeder (L)  29    5L   2   1  2.49  22   16   13   14  0  3  0
Terry Cornutt (R)   35    9R   1   2  3.86  44   38   22   23  4  1  0
Don Collins (L)     33    5L   3   9  5.09  71   82   41   27  8  6  2
 

My guess is the road to a pennant won't be nearly as smooth this season. Our starting pitching will not be nearly as reliable. Furthermore, I expect a falloff in Morgan's performance. How could he possibly duplicate what he did last season? On the plus side we have more power and speed with the addition of Dawson. I'm expecting an uptick in the power numbers of Simba and Reitz. As good as Bull was last year, he could be even better this season, assuming he takes a liking to his new role as DH.

Triple-digit wins is within sight - and 100 should be enough for us to repeat.