We're into mid-August and all four divisions are within 5 games. Maybe things will un-tighten in the next two weeks but if not, man, there are going to be some crazy pennant races this year. The Indians, who ironically enough were the team in this group who, as of early May, looked like they were over, are the closest team to closing things out by September. Minnesota seems like it can't do anything right and, I mean, you can't blame Oakland for not stepping up harder given that they lost 108 games last year. Then you've got Chicago trying to hit their way into a title in spite of a horribly depleted pitching staff. And even in the NL West, where the Astros look like they could win 100 games, things are close because the Cincinnati Reds are the 2nd best team in the NL.
Too bad there aren't wild cards, because somebody's almost certain to wind up out of the playoffs with a better record than someone who made it in...
Standings
---------------
Code:
AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Cleveland Indians 72 47 .605 -
New York Yankees 67 51 .568 4.5
Boston Red Sox 66 51 .564 5.0
Detroit Tigers 57 62 .479 15.0
Baltimore Orioles 56 63 .471 16.0
Washington Senators 52 67 .437 20.0
West W L PCT GB
Oakland Athletics 65 52 .556 -
Minnesota Twins 66 54 .550 .5
California Angels 61 58 .513 5.0
Chicago White Sox 59 63 .484 8.5
Milwaukee Brewers 48 72 .400 18.5
Kansas City Royals 45 74 .378 21.0
NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Chicago Cubs 69 52 .570 -
Pittsburgh Pirates 66 55 .545 3.0
Philadelphia Phillies 64 54 .542 3.5
New York Mets 57 62 .479 11.0
St. Louis Cardinals 54 66 .450 14.5
Montreal Expos 43 78 .355 26.0
West W L PCT GB
Houston Astros 75 45 .625 -
Cincinnati Reds 74 48 .607 2.0
San Francisco Giants 60 59 .504 14.5
Atlanta Braves 58 62 .483 17.0
Los Angeles Dodgers 53 65 .449 21.0
San Diego Padres 47 74 .388 28.5
Power Rankings
----------------------
I may as well flip over to just having all the teams...
Code:
Rank (Last) Team Points Tend Record PCT AVG ERA Pyt.Rec Diff
1st (1st) Houston 119 o 75-45 .625 .266 3.54 70-50 5
2nd (4th) Cleveland 117 + 72-47 .605 .284 3.27 73-46 -1
3rd (2nd) Cincinnati 114 - 74-48 .607 .264 3.49 75-47 -1
4th (5th) New York 109 + 67-51 .568 .263 3.65 70-48 -3
5th (6th) Pittsburgh 103 + 66-55 .545 .246 3.26 67-54 -1
6th (9th) Oakland 103 ++ 65-52 .556 .260 3.54 61-56 4
7th (3rd) Chicago 103 -- 69-52 .570 .275 3.75 74-47 -5
8th (7th) Boston 103 - 66-51 .564 .262 3.25 65-52 1
9th (8th) Minnesota 97 - 66-54 .550 .252 3.57 66-54 0
10th (12th) Philadelphia 95 + 64-54 .542 .261 3.66 61-57 3
11th (11th) California 92 o 61-58 .513 .267 3.54 65-54 -4
12th (18th) St. Louis 92 ++ 54-66 .450 .254 4.31 52-68 2
13th (16th) Atlanta 88 ++ 58-62 .483 .250 4.50 53-67 5
14th (13th) Detroit 84 - 57-62 .479 .260 3.90 55-64 2
15th (17th) Los Angeles 83 + 53-65 .449 .250 3.94 54-64 -1
16th (10th) Chicago 82 -- 59-63 .484 .255 3.97 58-64 1
17th (19th) Baltimore 82 + 56-63 .471 .234 3.64 57-62 -1
18th (15th) New York 79 -- 57-62 .479 .238 3.75 57-62 0
19th (14th) San Francisco 77 -- 60-59 .504 .260 3.34 65-54 -5
20th (20th) Washington 76 o 52-67 .437 .249 3.37 57-62 -5
21st (21st) Milwaukee 73 o 48-72 .400 .245 4.35 45-75 3
22nd (22nd) San Diego 69 o 47-74 .388 .233 4.29 52-69 -5
23rd (23rd) Kansas City 63 o 45-74 .378 .247 4.86 44-75 1
24th (24th) Montreal 60 o 43-78 .355 .244 4.64 41-80 2
One thing that's notable here is how nobody's really insanely over or underperforming their Pythagorean totals. There's this general sense that teams with good bullpens tend to do better but I'm not seeing it here: Houston has a really volatile closer in Jon Douglas (2-9, 3.74, 22 Sv) but they're +5. Atlanta for that matter has had some absolutely horrible performances from their pen but they're also +5. Okay, the Cubs have had some awful pitching just in general, including their bullpen and maybe that's contributing to their -5. But the Giants, to make this 3 out of 4, have a good bullpen - better before they lost the Assassin John Booth (4-6, 2.50, 21 Sv), but that was a week ago.
Major Transactions
------------------------
August 10 (should have been August 7 WHOOPS): The Brewers purchased RP Deshawn Mazyck (1-2, 4.68, 4 Sv) from the Indians. As depleted as Cleveland's bullpen has been, they were still willing to part with Mazyck, I guess, because Mazych hasn't been very good. Mazyck reportedly wants to start; he should get at least one spot start in Oakland today with Chris McGranahan (3-4, 4.72) tending to his chronically sore elbow. Cleveland it should be said seems to have an embarassment of riches at pitcher, at least when it comes to guys approximately as good or better than Mazyck.
August 15 (should have been August 14 but WHATEVER): The Cardinals purchased SP Steve Guarino (6-4, 4.39 in 3 AAA locations) from the Senators for $1,500. Guarino was pretty good in late-season action with the Pilots last year but has had... mixed results in AAA in 1970. Guarino for now is seeing time in AA, which isn't ideal for a 28 year old but hey, maybe he'll do something...
August 15 (also supposed to be yesterday): The A's purchased RP Andy Tudor (4-1, 2.42, 4 Sv) from the Reds for $1,250. The 28 year old Tudor is blocked in Cincinnati but maybe won't quite be so blocked in Oakland. This by the way is the equivalent of the fated Dooley Womack trade (okay, maybe not fated but I have an affinity for this guy based on his being transactionally tied to Jim Bouton). Tudor was never a member of the Pilots' organization, unfortunately. The A's minor league GM has Tudor in AA, which is not my favorite spot for a guy of his age, but he's going to try his hand at starting at least.
News
-----------------------
August 10: The Giants are the latest team to receive some catastrophic injury news as they learned that their stopper John "The Assassin" Booth (4-6, 2.50, 21 Sv) will miss the remainder of the season with the shoulder inflammation disease that is the COVID of 1970, I guess. At 59-53 the Giants are 11 games behind the Astros and it's probably about over for them this season.
August 10: Speaking of catastrophic injuries to closers, the Indians found out that their own guy Elias Sanchez (0-2, 2.55, 5 Sv) will miss the remainder of the year with more shoulder inflammation. Jesus, 1970. For Cleveland, that's the 3rd closer they've had to put on the long-term DL, with Doug Ellis (2-2, 3.91, 2 Sv) still out until late September and Eric Godard (3-0, 2.27, 8 Sv) not expected back until the playoffs if at all. Joe Brda (2-0. 3.08) is the next man up.
August 10: In more... amusing news, Dodgers SS Jason Staiti (.186, 9, 35), who is 34 and who also hit just .202 last season, wants his starting job back. I don't want him to become a distraction in the clubhouse so instead I'll free him up to find that starting job somewhere else (and more probably take up a new career) (although the way the minor league GMs snap up guys like this, I wouldn't be surprised if he wraps up the season in AAA somewhere).
August 10: Cleveland LF Alonzo Huanosta (.349, 15, 71) racked up yet another reward in his career by nabbing the AL PotW honors. He went 14 for 32 (.438) with 3 dingers and 8 ribbies. Actually, that seems like kind of a tame output for Player of the Week, but he's relatively deserving, I guess. This was Alonzo's 6th career PotW and second this season.
August 10: The NL counterpart is another corner outfielder, Pirates RF Brian Jackson (.336, 2, 75). He hit .448 (13 for 29) with LITERALLY HALF of his season HR output and 9 RBIs. Jackson has only won 2 such awards, both of them this year; this is kind of a breakout season for the 26 year old.
August 10: The Mets drop one in extra innings to the Pirates, 3-2, and in doing fall to .500 on the year (56-56). It's a huge fall for a team that won 104 games last year (they've already lost more games than they did in 1969) and was 13 games over .500 as of the 31st of May (they split a doubleheader against the Astros that day but won the first game). I won't officially pack it in until they get loss #60 but they're close...
August 12: The Astros are going to have to make do for the next month without 1B Justin Richens (.290, 16, 73) as he recovers from a strained PCL. Richens had been a key member of the Houston lineup after spending almost his entire career in Detroit, where he's still the team's lifetime leader in games played (2,141), hits (2,189), and homeruns (388). Yoshiaki Miyahara (.248, 7, 21), who joined the organization as an international free agent back in 1966 but who has never quite lived up to the hype surround him, has been called up to fill in.
August 12: Now that I've broken everything else out, it seems like 90% of all news stories are injuries, but hey... Twins CF Jose Villasenor (.269, 10, 34) is out until mid-September with a strained groin he suffered sliding into second base in a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers. Things are getting tighter and tighter for the Twinkies, who as of this writing are half a game behind the Cinderella A's team at 65 wins and 52 losses.
August 12: Phillies SP Marius Gaddi (18-3, 2.28) gave up a grand slam homerun to Astros RF Jaden Weaver (.272, 35, 97) in the 10th inning to break his season-high 12 game winning streak. I still think Gaddi's very much in the driver's seat for the Cy Young Award in the National League... no, scratch that. Cincinnati Reds hurler Steve Waiters (20-2, 2.11) is currently in the lead in all of the pitchers' triple crown stats.
August 13: I'd been thinking about whether or not to do this for a while but a month in to the conversion to 23, some of the league totals feel off and I now have enough data to try and manually recalc a bit. This is why you don't convert your leagues over in midseason, folks! Anyway, the results were interesting and not quite what I expected:
Code:
h 2b 3b hr bb ibb hp so sh sf sb cs sbr
diff 97% 94% 112% 111% 105% 147% 103% 92% 94% 120% 78% 84% 98%
The "diff" here is the actual 1970 rates divided by what's happened over the past month in the league. I thought HRs in particular were running a little high; in fact, if anything they're slightly low. The biggest outliers are steals and that's because, really, that's the one number I manually fiddled with going into 23 (because the devs specifically said that steals might be too low; I actually doubled the steal rates to get to the above number, so it was probably still a good thing t hat I did so). Otherwise the only really and truly "off" numbers are intentional walks, which, apparently, the AI doesn't like to give out compared to real life (the pre-conversion IBB rates are the same) and sac flies, which I can't do a whole lot about.
So I went ahead and made these adjustments, even though most of them pull the LTMs further from 1 (i.e. the game was already using a number higher than 1.000 as the LTM for homeruns). Hope I didn't just blow up the league!
Interesting to note though that in 1970 the league averaged 0.9 HR/9, which is really close to what's being averaged this year (1.0) and not something the leagues averaged consistently until they expanded to Colorado in 1993. So... yeah, lots of HRs this season, way more than I thought. K rates, too, were... I wouldn't call them high, as 5.8/9IP is down from the 6.0 they hit in the 60s, but for whatever reason the league is about to stop striking out as much and this rate will be the high water mark until 1986. Walk rates, too, will be matched at 3.5/9IP in 1975 but won't get this high again until 1994. 1970 was kind of like an early Year of the Hitter, I guess, although leaguewide ERA is still only 3.88...
August 13: I don't know how he does it but Houston SP Josh "Party in the Back" Mullett (12-9, 4.28) picked up a shutout today, blanking the Phillies 1-0 on 3 hits. This guy has a negative K/BB ratio this year (97/94), which is actually a lot better than what he did last year (97/145 in 237 IP, and those 145 walks led the National League). I mean, to a great extent he's not really "doing it": he's got an ERA well over 4 in spite of calling the Astrodome home, and I mean this was his first shutout. That said, he's also 2-1 with a 1.23 ERA in 3 starts and 22 innings as the 'Stros round the pennant stretch. He did, it should be said, have the highest groundout percentage in the NL last year, although he's average at best at allowing HRs (none allowed in August so far though). In any case, Mullett has walked 42 more men than he's struck out in a 3+ year career but in spite of that he has a 45 and 30 career record. This is one of these guys who I guess you just sit back and enjoy it because it doesn't make a lick of sense.
August 13: I noticed that Cardinals SP Vince Bachler (6-9, 3.83) was the 9th overall pick in last yer's draft but has absolutely flown through the minors. He got promoted to the Cards this year after just 12 games total in the reserve leagues, which is pretty insane. I do have player development goosed up quite a bit but I also tend not to bring up guys with zero experience like this unless there's a very, very strong need...
Anyway, I wanted to use this opportunity to see how the top 10 picks from the 1969 draft are doing:
1. OAK C Josh Lewis (.380, 11, 53 at AAA Iowa). This is more or less the first chance I've had to look at Lewis. He's tearing up AAA and the only reason he's not in the majors is that the A's are fairly well set at catcher - Jonathan Escobar (.252, 6, 46) is doing a fine job and was the 1969 Gold Glove award winner. Somehow Lewis is only the #2 prospect on the team behind SP Josh Haugen (3-2, 3.28 in AAA Iowa) but wherever he is, I'll surely use him somewhere in 1971.
2. WAS SP Scott Kinzer (0-1, 9.00 at A Burlington). Kinzer's been slowed down by injuries and to date is just 2-8, 4.84 combined in the minor leagues. The Senators can kind of wait for him to develop, as, well, they aren't very good.
3. HOU CF Henry Samson (.276, 3, 26 in AA Columbus). Samson's biggest issue right now is that I don't know that he profiles as a major-league CF. He lacks the power to play the corners so that could be an issue, although scouts insist he has A+ speed and will eventually be a .300 hitter.
5. NYY SS German Ybarra (.262, 6, 52 in AA Manchester). Ybarra looks a good long-term replacement for 37 year old Ty Stover (.265, 21, 71). I um, don't know how he wound up with the Yankees. I switch teams around manually and he was probably on a team who transferred from Pitt to NY. I chalk it up to a minor league move. Bad news for the Pirates, great news for the Yanks.
6. CHC CF Chance Cooper (.259, 7, 16 with the Cubs). Cooper slid into center when Mark Tooley (.275, 10, 33) and at least with the bat he's been pretty great. I don't think he profiles as a CF long-term though - his range is only a 55 - but I think he's hitting well enough to force him into a corner, if not this year than in 1971.
7. CIN CF Bobby Beaulieu (.270, 11, 57 at AAA Indianapolis). Another guy who is waiting in the wings for a really good and kind of stacked team, Beaulieu isn't quite destroying the minors the way you'd hope a guy to to bring him up, but then again he's still only 23. I'm very worried about that minor league K rate (101 strikeouts in 333 at-bats).
8. NYM SP Matt Owensby (5-8, 4.21 in AA Memphis). Owensby's only 20 but his peripherals are... I don't know. Pitchers evolve their stuff in OOTP a bit more than IRL but he's only striking out 4.9 guys per 9 innings in AA (he's actually just earned a promotion to Tidewater, which all I can say is, I have scouts set to 0/67/22/11 so I'm not sure they're going off of any hidden ratings power). Scouts project him to be a middle of the rotation starter, which seems a bit underwhelming for the 8th overall pick.
9. STL SP Vince Baechler (see above).
10. PHI CF Nick Hamburger (.235, 13, 63 in AA Reading). Another guy who's putting up kind of meh numbers but is very young for his league (Hamburger - love that name! - turns 23 in November). Hamburger has decent but not all-world range for a CF but his hitting profile is more of a corner guy (or an Andruw Jones type). Unlike Bobby Beaulieu, Hamburger's .235 average doesn't look like it's fueled by a high K rate. If he learns to take advantage of his plus speed, he might lose some power but gain a lot of average in return.
August 14: Brewers 3B Mike Ramos (.277, 1, 5) expressed his frustration with his smallish role with Milwaukee. He missed basically all of last season with an injury - 9 games total - and wasn't in the Reds' plans when he returned, but this is a guy who was a pretty solid player for Cincy as recently as 1967 and I don't know, maybe he deserves PT somewhere. I'm going to drop him into first base to replace "Doctor" Jack Holman (.249, 6, 40), who now has almost 1000 major league at-bats to prove that he's basically replacement level.
August 14: In a battle between the two most disappointing teams in the majors this year, the Atlanta Braves (57-61) sweep the New York Mets (56-61) in a double-header, 4-1 and 11-2. RF Henry Riggs (.281, 31, 83) went 6 for 8 with 2 HRs today, with 3B Vicente Luna (.327, 7, 23) adding a 5 for 8 performance of his own, including 1 HR. Atlanta is completely buried in the NL West but at this point they can at least, with a win tomorrow, console themselves with the fact that they've knocked the Mets completely out of playoff contention. The not-so-Amazin's have now lost 9 games in a row.
August 14: I was looking at Giants SP Scott Morelli (2-3, 6.27) to see why he's been so bad (he got chased in the 5th today in a 7-4 loss to the Cardinals) and I just wanted to share these stats... to date, he's pitched 33 major league innings with a fantastic 18/2 K/W ratio. Also though he's give up 10 homeruns. Ten! He let hitters dial 1 followed by the area code 3 times today, including one each to NL leaders 1B Justin Stone (.298, 33, 82) and LF Lorenzo Martinez (.263, 34, 87). One thing is for sure: I can't ever let him play St. Louis again...
August 15: I guess this was inevitable but Mets 3B Bob Baldwin (.256, 1, 8), who maybe should have known better when he joined a team that already had Nick Hawkinson (I've cited him like 10 places in this report), is unhappy about the playing time. I mean, if the Mets were winning he probably woudn't be so saucy. As it stands, dude's 35 and hit all of .267 this year. I won't cut him but might let him go find his fortunes elsewhere this offseason.
August 15: Speaking of, literally the day after I benched him in favor of Danny Waters, 2B Nick Warren (also see below) is complaining that he should be starting. Come on, man. Warren at least has a shot at being good next year and is only 31 but dude's also OBPed .259 this season. Nah, sorry Nick but you've had your chance.
August 15: Senators SP DJ Marrone (3-10, 4.82) and White Sox SS Justin Henderson (.232, 5, 44) were suspended by the league for 9 and 4 games respectively for fighting (is it 10 and 5 but the game considers the current game part of the suspension? Those are weird lengths). I was today years old when I discovered I could use the restricted list in this league. I've generally been wary of such things because when you control 24 teams at a time you tend to forget about people on random lists. It says they can only be on it for the length of the suspension though so hopefully I'll get a message...
Teams In Review
-----------------
August 11: The
Baltimore Orioles dropped both ends of a doubleheader on Sunday to fall to 52-61 so it's only now that I get to take a deeper dive into what they're doing...
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Baltimore Orioles 52 61 .460 L5 16 444 102 .234 80 3.67 0.7 3.5 4.7 .978 28.1 953,761
The O's went 10-18 in July and are 3-7 so far in August; clearly, the honeymoon is over with this team. The first thing I see here is the complete lack of ability to get opposing hitters to miss bats. Thanks to some excellent fielding the O's are still doing OK in ERA (only 8th in the AL but above the AL average of 3.74) but it's not really a great position to be in, especially with so much of that staff being so damn ooooold. Also, the lineup is dead last in batting average and first in strikeouts, which is a huge driver in why they're 3rd from the bottom in runs scored.
Rotation: The first thing I see is that this team's farm system is kind of awful, at least on the pitching side of things. They're 14th in the OSA ratings (well, at the beginning of the year anyway) but both of the top 100 pitching prospects on that list are still stuck in A ball (and one of them is out for a month). In AAA there are literally zero starters with an ERA under 4 or with the green arrow. Point being, there's just not anything to call up. All of which is to say, this is why I'm not changing things even though 3/5ths of the rotation is 33 or older.
Bullpen: Man, I really, really wanted to move things around here. There just isn't anyone to call up. For the sake of making changes I'm going to DFA 33 year old Sung-jin Lee (2-2, 3.10), who isn't even doing that badly although he has a K/W ratio of 29/21 in 49.1 innings so he's not exactly gangbusters out there, so that I can call up 23 year old Dermott Albertson (7-4, 3.65 in AAA Rochester). At least Albertson stands to be a member of the next good Orioles team.
Infield: I'm moving C Tanner DiGirolamo (.320, 0, 5) into a larger role in the platoon with Robert Keith (.174, 3, 20). DiGirolamo's arm is kind of bad, as bad as Jon Hernandez' (.237, 12, 52), who was moved to catcher because of that, but Keith is hitting like a pitcher and Tanner (guhh) is 22 and could get better.
2B Danny Fager (.257, 6, 24) led the league in hitting in 1967, albeit with a .302 average, but he's way off his career totals. He's still a plus fielder though and as with the entire pitching staff there's nobody ready to move up. Their top rated guy is Juan Baldiera (.452, 2, 10 in AA Dallas), so there's that for the future, at least, but he's got all of 31 at-bats above A ball so I'm going to pass for now.
SS John "Lucky Number" Blevins (.241, 7, 32) is a classic good-field, no-hit shortstop who'd be exactly the kind of guy I'd replace given the way this team is going but he's having a career year(!) and he's a really good fielder(!!) and TBH I think he's my favorite Oriole (granted, due mainly to the name) (!!!) so I'm leaving him in.
Outfield: RF Matt Nugent (.207, 10, 35) has all the problems that like 80% of this team has - he strikes out too much, isn't hitting, and even though he does a pretty decent job of drawing walks he's not getting on base at all. For now I'm pushing him down to a platoon with 32 year old minor league veteran Jason Seidenberger (.158, 0, 0 in 19 at-bats) and see if that gets his confidence up. Long-term, once again the best-looking replacements are in the low minors.
August 13: The
Chicago White Sox have been scraping and scrapping their way back into semi-contention in the AL West but a couple of tough losses put them at the 60 loss mark (58-60) and so it's time to take a look-see.
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Chicago White Sox 58 60 .492 L2 8 503 86 .257 51 4.03 1.1 3.5 6.1 .983 -10.2 900,991
It's hard to look at this team and point to anything other than general mediocrity. The pitching's been not great (4.03 is 10th in the AL) and a bunch of that is built off of bad ZR (actually only 9th in the league mainly because the expansion teams aren't really trying). They've also been really, really bad at giving up HRs, so there's that (and I'd say "despite Comiskey" except Comiskey is a mild HR park this year). They probably don't have a chance this year but given that they were in the running last season and have come really far to fight against a 6-13 April I don't have it in my heart to shut things down just yet.
Rotation: Not making any changes, mainly because I've already made the main one, which was dropping Gene Lueders (4-9, 5.16) out of it. In fact, given how many good players there are in the minors I'm going to send him down so that he can get quality innings instead of hanging around in long relief.
Bullpen: Likewise (and other than Lueders) the bullpen has been... OK. Malcolm Post (5-8, 3.26, 12 Sv) has been kind of volatile as a closer and Ben Lamar (1-1, 1.98, 7 Sv) was really effective when he was out earlier in the season so I think I'm going to make him the #1 guy for now. It's a little bit of a Hail Mary for the team to turn to a 23 year old kid, but hey, this is a Hail Mary situation.
Infield: I'm not really sure what I was ever thinking giving 1B Josh Lewis (.237, 10, 51) his old job back after taking it away for much of 1969. I guess the average fooled me (he hit .301 last year). Anyway, Willie Vargas (.330, 6, 52) has this job back for good now. He's not a very good fielder at first base but then, he's not a very good left fielder either, and if we're going to stash that glove somewhere it may as well be here. Long-term, he's waaay too fast to be that bad in the field but he's kind of a jerk so I guess it is what it is. For now, too, I'm moving him up to leadoff and dropping RF Josh Wade (.319, 6, 50) into the 3 hole. I'd been batting Wade leadoff but his lack of speed was just causing GIDPs for the hitters behind him.
3B Omar Dominguez (.224, 4, 22) has pretty well proven that he can't hit. I was using him to spell the 39 year old Jordan Wooten (.252, 9, 29) but we're heading down the stretch and I think it's time to just plain take the risk that Wooten can hold up for 40-some games.
Outfield: I'm only making a relatively subtle change here, making the CF situation into more of a half and half platoon between Eric Weyenberg (.215, 0, 5) and Ryan Clements (.244, 2, 4). Neither player is exactly hitting up a storm and long-term Weyenberg's got the better chance of sticking given that he's 23 and a (slightly) better fielder, but for now I think it serves the team best to have two equal heads sharing time (previously Weyenberg was getting the lion's share of starts).
August 14: It's been a long season for the
Detroit Tigers but it's gotten... less long? lately. They're actually 10-4 this month and 15-4 dating back to July 26. Granted, they had a 6 game losing streak right before that. They've been pretty much out of the playoffs since, jeez, the beginning of the season I guess, but they've been kind of coming around as of late.
(oops, forgot the team stats! These are a couple days late)
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Detroit Tigers 57 60 .487 W1 13½ 473 96 .261 61 3.90 0.9 3.9 7.1 .986 25.1 786,398
Rotation: The main guy I'm wondering about keeping in the rotation is 31 year old swingman Douglas Sweetapple (1-1, 2.67). The only thing he really has going for him is that he's been a shutdown starter this year, which, granted, is a pretty good reason. Looking back on his career it looks like he had a run as a 3-time All Star on a bad Astros team from 1962 to 1964 so perhaps this is a renaissance? Whatever the case may be, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth too much and just let him take the mound every 5th day until he proves that he isn't fit for that.
Bullpen: There are a lot of really iffy players in this bullpen and now is as good a time as any to bring in younger iffy players. First on my cut list is Gus Abeyta (1-1, 4.50), who, I will grant you, has got a great name but he's 35 and his control is awful. The new Abeyta is 29 year old German national Niklas Krug (7-0, 1.81 in AAA Toledo), who's been kicking around between AA and AAA since 1964 but perhaps has put it all together this year. Ben Schmidt (6-6, 4.50) has also not had great results but I think I'll stick with him for now because hes got pretty electric stuff (8 K/9) and should be fine on the road. He did lead the NL in homers allowed last year (34) as a starter for the Expos so taters are an issue (he's also allowed 20 in 104 innings for the Tigers this season).
Infield: Really, at this point I'm just playing 1B Jose Ayala (.256, 13, 50) every day in the hopes that he'll hit .300 again like he did with the Tigers last year. His history indicates that that might be slightly ambitious, although his .285 career average is still 30 points higher than where he's at right now. He's also only 29 and has made the All-Star Game twice in his relatively young career so I don't think it's time to cut bait at all. Still, Ryan Stokes (.319, 9, 53) has hit well enough to get a call-up and eat some time vs. righties and also do some pinch-hitting.
2B Alex Ortega (.254, 0, 7) has had a fine career but I think the team has better uses for that roster spot than a 38 year old righty pinch-hitter who can't play in the field. Bye, Alex! You'll be missed.
3B David Salinas' (.265, 2, 16) ability to hit seems to have left him. He used to be a guy who could hit .320 for you with some amount of doubles power. Now he's a .260ish hitter who gets nothing but singles. He's unlikely to get that stroke back at 35 years of age. Of course, that's why I tried John Daughtry in there to replace him and that failed. As a result, I'll just live with Salinas for the rest of the year. Ivan Hernandez (.265, 16, 34 with AAA Toledo) has hit a whole bunch of homeruns in just 181 at-bats for the minor league Mud Hens and I think he'll be a good choice to challenge Salinas next year. For now, I'll just stick with Tim Reynolds (.071, 0, 0) given that the Tigers just purchased him like 12 days ago.
Outfield: LF Adam Dittmar (.221, 10, 31) is hitting .361 in August and is making me rethink my rethinking his role on this team. Chris Contreras (.319, 5, 31) is back in 3 days... I think Dittmar has to move to the bench but I think he also has to be a super-sub. If he doesn't suck then the Tigers have too many good outfielders for the number of OF positions, which isn't the worst problem in the world to have.
August 14: It just hasn't been the
New York Mets' season in 1970. They opened up out of the gate pretty strong but they're just 4-11 so far in August. Is it time to cry "Uncle"? I feel like, as far back as they are, they jus can't do that to their fans just yet, but we'll see...
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
New York Mets 56 60 .483 L8 11 468 80 .238 35 3.69 0.9 3.8 6.6 .978 -0.2 1,203,980
Clearly the team's biggest issue has been scoring runs. They're 3rd from the bottom in runs scored, have the 2nd lowest batting average, and really are only above average in terms of drawing walks (440 BBs, 2nd in the NL). For all of that, they aren't even getting great fielding. Again, I probably won't make huge changes but if I did, that's where I'd go...
Rotation: I've already slightly bailed on this team, at least in terms of who they offer out of the rotation, as Julio Sandoval (6-11, 4.03) was sent packing to the Braves for cash a month ago. I've gone ahead and pushed this team's rotation out to 5 guys, probably for the rest of the season; there's no point in overworking the front half of the rotation at this point. That means that for now both Vinny Chavez (1-3, 5.10) and David McNicholas (4-7, 6.13) will see time as starters. I'm not super keen on either player at this point though.
Bullpen: The major change here was foisted upon me, with setup man Steve Hollopeter (2-3, 2.69) out for a month with a strained forearm. That means that two 23 year olds - RH Mark Seitz (1-1, 0.96, 4 Sv at AAA Tidewater) and LH Nate Khoury (1-2, 1.75, 6 Sv at AA Memphis) are now in a somewhat expanded bullpen. I said I wouldn't make major changes!
Infield: Nick Warren (.222, 4, 34) has been just plain awful this year after a good-enough run as the starting second baseman last year, coming from the Expos in a trade involving a big pack of minor leaguers that's undoubtedly going to look really awful in a couple years. That said, there's no use chasing good money after bad so I'll use the last couple months of the year to give UT Danny Waters (.288, 4, 22 at AA Memphis) a shot against big league pitching. Perhaps more importantly for the long term is whether or not he'll be adequate at second. He's got decent range but is pretty bad on the pivot so I guess we'll see. He does have a gun for an arm so perhaps he'll take over for the aging Nick Hawkinson (.241, 6, 26, but also a .364 OBP).
Outfield: Annoyingly the minor league GM decided to stock the outfield organization with a bunch of 33 year olds (seriously I just cut like 10 guys who were all 30+, all outfielders, and all in AA or lower... the Memphis Blues still have an OF with 2 guys under 30 but at this point any further cuts look like they'd leave the lower minors undermanned). That means that as bad as 34 year old Adam Greenlee (.200, 0, 6) has been as a 5th OF/pinch-hitter, there's really nobody on the farm who looks better. Out of necessity, OF Jimmy Washington (.262, 10, 69) is moving from left to right to accommodate 37 year old Mario Diaz (.278, 1, 13), who is the only guy left on the bench who looks like he can hit. The other odd man out is Edgar Arriaga (.224, 10, 34). He's still getting some PT but last year's 27 HR performance looks like a one-off to me.