Standings
---------------
Code:
AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Cleveland Indians 79 53 .598 -
New York Yankees 79 53 .598 -
Boston Red Sox 75 55 .577 3.0
Baltimore Orioles 64 68 .485 15.0
Detroit Tigers 59 72 .450 19.5
Washington Senators 59 72 .450 19.5
West W L PCT GB
Minnesota Twins 74 59 .556 -
Oakland Athletics 69 61 .531 3.5
California Angels 70 62 .530 3.5
Chicago White Sox 63 72 .467 12.0
Milwaukee Brewers 52 80 .394 21.5
Kansas City Royals 48 84 .364 25.5
NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Chicago Cubs 79 54 .594 -
Philadelphia Phillies 72 60 .545 6.5
Pittsburgh Pirates 72 61 .541 7.0
New York Mets 62 69 .473 16.0
St. Louis Cardinals 60 72 .455 18.5
Montreal Expos 47 85 .356 31.5
West W L PCT GB
Cincinnati Reds 82 53 .607 -
Houston Astros 80 52 .606 .5
Atlanta Braves 65 67 .492 15.5
San Francisco Giants 64 68 .485 16.5
Los Angeles Dodgers 59 71 .454 20.5
San Diego Padres 51 81 .386 29.5
Now that we've got just over a month to play, the pennant chase screen is up. The AL East is now a coin flip between the Indians and Yankees, although their chances are both at about 45% because Boston's still got a 1 in 10 chance of coming away with it. It looks to me like the Yanks have the easiest schedule with 18 of their final 30 at Yankee Stadium but who knows, I guess. I know I'm personally rooting for the Indians to repeat.
In the AL West it's Minnesota's race to lose, with the Angels somehow having a much better chance according to the odds than Oakland (14% to 8.8%).
The Cubs have all but wrapped up the NL West, having a 95.2% chance to win the division. Whatever pitching issues they had early in the year... well, they still have them, but having the #1 ranked offense in all of baseball helps.
And finally, the Reds and Astros are also a coin-flip, with the Reds having a tiny advantage (53.6%) thanks to the half-game advantage in the standings and the fact that they have 3 fewer games left to play.
Power Rankings
----------------------
Code:
Rank Team PTS Tend W-L PCT AVG ERA Pyth Diff
1st (6th) Chicago 118 ++ 79-54 .594 .279 3.59 85-48 -6
2nd (3rd) New York 115 + 79-53 .598 .264 3.59 80-52 -1
3rd (4th) Cincinnati 113 + 82-53 .607 .262 3.48 84-51 -2
4th (5th) Boston 111 + 75-55 .577 .262 3.19 74-56 1
5th (2nd) Houston 106 -- 80-52 .606 .265 3.57 76-56 4
6th (1st) Cleveland 106 -- 79-53 .598 .284 3.33 79-53 0
7th (8th) Minnesota 105 + 74-59 .556 .250 3.50 74-59 0
8th (11th) California 103 ++ 70-62 .530 .268 3.51 74-58 -4
9th (9th) Philadelphia 99 o 72-60 .545 .262 3.62 69-63 3
10th (7th) Pittsburgh 94 -- 72-61 .541 .247 3.27 74-59 -2
11th (10th) Oakland 93 - 69-61 .531 .259 3.67 64-66 5
12th (12th) Atlanta 90 o 65-67 .492 .249 4.45 59-73 6
13th (13th) Baltimore 88 o 64-68 .485 .233 3.62 63-69 1
14th (17th) San Francisco 86 ++ 64-68 .485 .256 3.47 68-64 -4
15th (19th) Washington 86 ++ 59-72 .450 .250 3.27 67-64 -8
16th (18th) St. Louis 86 + 60-72 .455 .253 4.25 59-73 1
17th (16th) New York 84 - 62-69 .473 .239 3.76 63-68 -1
18th (14th) Los Angeles 78 -- 59-71 .454 .248 3.92 59-71 0
19th (15th) Chicago 77 -- 63-72 .467 .252 4.04 62-73 1
20th (20th) Detroit 72 o 59-72 .450 .260 3.97 58-73 1
21st (21st) Milwaukee 68 o 52-80 .394 .242 4.24 49-83 3
22nd (22nd) San Diego 65 o 51-81 .386 .234 4.48 55-77 -4
23rd (24th) Montreal 60 + 47-85 .356 .243 4.68 43-89 4
24th (23rd) Kansas City 56 - 48-84 .364 .245 4.85 47-85 1
I'd love to see an expansion team creep ahead of an established one but I don't think that's happening this year. Otherwise, I'm pretty surprised by the relative lack of good and bad luck this year. I guess the Cubs at the top would say otherwise but really it's just them and the Senators (who should have a winning record but who are instead in the AL East cellar) who are -5 or worse, and conversely the A's and Braves are the only overachievers (which, also, man the Braves are suffering this year).
Major Transactions
------------------------
August 25: The Padres purchased SP Paul Kahl (6-9, 4.52) from the Angels. Kahl is one of those "2 way" guys that 22 created a million of if you let it. I didn't realize I had the option turned on... anyway, he's also a finesse pitcher who didn't strike anyone out in 19 starts in the majors this season. Presumably he'll get more chances in San Diego. TBH I didn't see this move coming and was considering selling Kahl to the *** so here at least he'll get to keep going in the majors.
News
-----------------------
August 24: Dodgers CF Danny Hohman (no line in 1969), who suffered a season-ending torn PCL in March, just got some terrible news. He tried to avoid surgery and rehab it on its own but it never felt right and now he's going to have to undergo that surgery at all. Hohman, a 3-time All-Star, figures to miss all of next season now if he comes back at all.
August 24: Another week, another Yankee is selected as the best player. This time around it's SS Ty Stover (.272, 25, 82) who went 9-22 (.409) with 4 dingers and 9 RBIs to get his 10th such honor. He's also just 4 homers off from 400. Maybe he'll get those this week!
August 24: For the NL, it's... a Phillie just like last week as well. This time around it's 2nd year starter LF Paul Stewart (.299, 12, 56). Stewart was 14-29 (.483) and also collected 2 homers and 5 RBIs, although the hits alone were probably enough. This was the first Player of the Week of Stewart's young career.
August 24: Phillies 3B Pedro Arellano (.190, 3, 14) isn't hitting worth a crap, has never had more than 290 at-bats in a season, and has a clearly better player in front of him in Alex Becerra (.233, 22, 67). That isn't stopping him from demanding a slot in the lineup. Also the Phillies are 4 games out of first in the NL East and in no position to play around with lineups. I'm not in complete disagreement that Becerra, who has 26 errors and a .901 fielding average this year, should probably get moved off of first in the near future, but not now and not in favor of Arellano. For now, I'll stick him on the trading block, although to be honest I'll probably just let him find his fortune at the end of the year.
August 25: In Minnesota, a bomb scare delays the game for 43 minutes in the 4th inning (not really in-game, but this happened IRL and, hey, flavor).
August 25: Rookie White Sox CF Ryan Clements (.262, 3, 8) belted a walkoff homerun in the bottom of the 10th to improve Chicago's record to 62-68. In doing so, Clements ended a great pitching matchup between winner Raul Mendoza (10-13, 3.92) and the Senators' Kevin Freeman (8-12, 3.44), who we last saw when he threw a no-hitter on July 30. Since then, Freeman is 0-3, albeit with a 3.55 ERA and 2 no-decisions in 5 starts. Washington is not known for its offense...
August 27: The Reds' Joe Hagan (16-11, 4.59) pitches seven strong innings to lead Cincinnati to a 4-2 win over Philadelphia and, combined with an Astros loss, move them to within a half game of the NL West division lead. The Reds were down 2-1 going into the top of the 8th but got to Phillies closer Tom Grohs (7-5, 2.93, 15 Sv) for 3 runs. The capper was an RBI double by backup catcher John Kohut (.248, 2, 14). The Reds and Astros will face each other in 2 series in September: a mid-week 2 gamer in Houston on the 15th and 16th and a Monday-Wednesday matchup in Cincinnati the following week (21st-23rd). Houston has won 9 of 13 games between the two clubs to date.
August 28: The old man can still bring it. Senators 1B John Skelton went 5 for 10 with 2 HR and 5 RBI in a doubleheader vs the Royals. Washington as a whole scored 20 runs in the two games but could only emerge with a split after RP Ron Shepherd (2-4, 2.81) melted down in the 9th inning of the first game. The Senators have the 3rd worst offense in all of baseball.
August 28: Giants CF Danny "The Phantom" Seligman (.285, 5, 39), who might as well be called the Phantom of the Disabled List with all the time he spends there, will miss the remainder of the season with a sprained ankle. He was performing for San Francisco so I don't want to call this a net positive, but the team has, of course, been floundering this month and now they get another extended look at 24 year old OF Will Hartmann (.312, 4, 35).
August 28: The Reds move ahead of the Astros for the first time this season thanks to a 15-0 blowout of the Expos. Bullet Bill Vanover (8-6, 3.38) picked up the easy peasy lemon-squeezy victory, which was also punctuated by 2 homeruns by LF Junior Cannon (.277, 21, 81), who is now just 4 dingers off from what he did in that humongous half-season in 1969.
August 30: There was a small chance that Cardinals C John Stuart (.222, 2, 15) was going to come back by the very end of the year but it's pretty well gone now, as it was reported that his fractured ankle hasn't been healing right. He should be ready for spring training, where the Cards can see whether or not he lost his power stroke this season because he was playing hurt.
August 30: Tracy Mosher (20-10, 2.35) picked a great time to pick up his 20th win, as the victory coupled with a Cleveland loss to the Angels puts them into a tie atop the AL East with identical 79-53 records. Mosher struggled somewhat, giving up 2 homeruns in 7 innings, but still left in the 8th with a quality start and a 6-3 lead that their stopper Jesse Kelly (9-3, 2.78, 20 Sv) held against the Oakland A's. The Yankees won 3 out of 4 against Oakland and will now face the Tribe 6 times over the next two weeks.
August 30: Speaking of 20 game winners, Steve Waiters (23-3, 2.21) earned his latest with a 2-0 shutout of the Expos. In any other season his 7 shutouts would be the thing to talk about; this year, Indians ace Justin Kindberg (18-10, 2.43) has already set the major league record with 9, which also means that with just one more he'll become the first player in modern history to get double digits in the category. Anyway, back to Waiters: he needs 3 wins to tie the modern record of 26 set by Jeff Borden in 1955, and he's already shattered the old Reds record for wins, which was the 20 Luis Benavides collected back in 1956.
Teams In Review
-----------------
August 29: Well, it was only inevitable... the
Oakland Athletics, somehow only 4 games in back of the Twins in the NL West, but fading.
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Oakland Athletics 68 60 .531 L4 4 537 104 .260 35 3.66 0.9 3.9 6.8 .981 -11.6 847,475
Oakland is now only 29-29 since July 1 and are really only in the race because Minnesota has been almost as average at 32-26 since that point. I should also note that the California Angels are nipping at their heels, currently 1/2 game back at 69-62 going into this game. It really is a smoke and mirrors game, as the A's have allowed 7 more runs than they've scored this year. I've got to keep them playing for now but man, they are really not good enough...
Rotation: The A's have a 4 man rotation right now but all 4 of their starters are basically 4th and 5th men. Ryan O'Neal (6-6, 4.71) is the odd man out in favor of Mike Harris (3-4, 3.75) but nobody is super great here and right now it's more a matter of "get there with what got you this far" than anything else.
Bullpen: There's also not really a lot to do here, I don't think. Josh Howard (4-3, 4.48, 3 Sv) has been pretty rocky since coming to Oakland from Milwaukee but he's still getting a lot of swings and misses from a devastating changeup so I don't raelly want to do much with thim. Currently they have a 6 man bullpen, which is a bit much for 1970. I ran this due to a recent double-header and reserve the right to send someone down (probably Nate Dolezal (0-0, 0.00)) when I need the extra bat.
Infield: Jeff Culliton (.220, 0. 6) has been a huge disappointment after being a pretty solid pinch-hitter for the A's last year. Now he seems like a bog standard backup catcher and isn't a positive influence in the clubhouse. I'm not making a decision yet but he may not be around next year.
I've been waffling around at second base between Rich Potter (.222, 0, 16), Ruben Molina (.250, 0, 10), and Chris Moore (.231, 9, 35), and... okay, fine, the power of Moore is the deal-maker. Moore actually made the All-Star Game this year but he's hit .159 for the month of August so he doesn't look so starry anymore. FINE, game. I will leave Moore in there.
Shortstop has been a similar mess all year but Matt Evenson (.219, 0, 7) is the best gloveman on the roster (not that he's all that good - he's still -3.7 in ZR in 38 starts) so he'll continue to stay in there. Also he's young (24) so it's kind of like I'm giving the youth a shot.
Outfield: Matt Levario (.255, 20, 52) has really come down right when the A's have needed him the most. He's hitting just .191 this month. It's not going to bad enough to bench him... unless the A's do what their Bay Area counterparts have just been wrapping up doing, but at 37 he's not giving me a lot of reason to hand him the job in left in 1971.
Jordan Henricks (.229, 0, 11) has been pretty bad in right. He's not a very good fielder either. I'm still going to do nothing and remind myself that he's only keeping the spot warm for Richard Berman (.308, 2, 44), who is nursing a fractured hand but should be back in 2-3 weeks.
August 30: The
Milwaukee Brewers are, well, not good, but hey, they aren't the worst team in baseball either! And 18 of their last 30 games are against the A's, Twins, and Angels, so they'll have lots of chances to play the spoiler role this year. I mean, more probably they'll get doormatted by all three teams 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
Milwaukee Brewers 52 80 .394 W1 22 477 71 .242 68 4.24 0.8 3.3 5.3 .977 -33.5 1,157,460
Like a lot of cellar-dwelling teams, the Brewers have been experimenting with guys in the field, which has hurt the old ERA. More problematically for them, that hasn't translated into offense: they are dead last in the AL in runs scored. They've had something of a dead-cat bounce in August, going 13-17, which is a lot better than their 9-18 July, but that's not really based on anything good. That said, there may not be much to do here if only because I already set this team up for the second half.
Rotation: Chris McGranahan (7-11, 4.32) has started more games this year than in any season since his All-Star season of 1964, which, you know, good for him, but he's been really, really bad with Milwaukee (3-5, 5.76 since coming over from Oakland). He's hurt right now so I don't really have to decide on him; anyway he'll probably get a full-on chance next year anyway since he has at least some track record of success. The staff "ace" at this point, arguably, is a guy who went 4-16 last year, but I've already brought up the guy who looks major league ready in Alex Izquierdo (1-3, 3.59) so there's just not much to do.
Bullpen: Milwaukee has the makings of a decent bullpen and it's not too old either - nobody's over 28. I recently had Elliot Pettitjohn (0-2, 6.75) up but he was the victim of a roster crunch; he'll get the call in a couple of days when the rosters expand anyway.
Infield: Catcher is so, so bad this year. Neither Ivan Sanchez (.165, 1, 7) nor Jonathan Victoria (.194, 10, 32) are hitting over the Mendoza Line and there's nothing on the farm that looks like it'd fare any better. The organization did recently sign former Angels backup Juan Cavazos (.191, 1, 12), who I'll probably call up as well, but he's 35 and really bad defensively.
Dr. Jack Holman (.244, 6, 40) is a recurring nightmare for me at first base. I say I'm done with him, I put a replacement in, and then said replacement gets hurt or is even worse than Dr. Jack's been... well, maybe not to that latter point, as Holman isn't even scraping 650 in OPS. Anyway, Mike Ramos (.264, 1, 16) is a career .300 hitter who found himself on the outs with the Reds and, if he can stay healthy, could be the answer at first for a few years. For the time being, he's out for another 10 days to 2 weeks so hooray, more Dr. Jack.
Outfield: Neither Fernando Ceballos (.212, 1, 14) nor Dylan Dockery (.207, 5, 23) are hitting at all but at least Ceballos can play center like a major leaguer. As such, he's got the job through the rest of the season and probably next year too, barring some sort of blockbuster trade.
August 30: The
Pittsburgh Pirates just lost number 60. They're still on the outskirts of a pennant chase so let's take a look at them.
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Pittsburgh Pirates 71 60 .542 L1 6½ 550 89 .246 42 3.28 0.6 2.8 6.2 .981 33.2 961,699
As you'd might expect from a team playing in the spacious (if rickety) Forbes Field, the Pirates are built on speed and defense. Well, defense; for all that range they're only 7th in the NL in steals. Anyway, I know that in the preseason write-up I called these guys a bog-standard 75 win team. They're definitely overperforming in that regard. Unfortunately they're an 85-90 win team in a division with a 95 win club already there, so they're going to need a lot of help to ring out Forbes with a division title. Either way, this team is definitely not in a position to start calling up prospects.
I should point out here, too, that even though the nature of these check-ins (that they come every 20 losses) is that they tend to happen when a team is doing poorly, the Pirates are actually 17-10 for the month and if anything are trending upwards rather than downwards.
Rotation: Somehow I'd had the Pirates in a 5 man rotation. That changes now as they get going for that final pennant push. I can see part of the reason for doing this, as the back end of the rotation is kind of indistinguishable. The odd man out Danny Perez (8-6, 3.71) isn't that bad and arguably isn't the worst guy there. But he is the least experienced and, well, you've got to get Jeremy Battaglia (14-9, 2.84) as many starts as you can down the stretch.
Bullpen: The bullpen is really Paz Lemus (6-4, 1.69, 21 Sv) and whatever else Pittsburgh can muster. Lemus threw 151 games between 1968 and 1969 and I would be surprised if he gets into less than 75 this year as well (he's at 63). It almost doesn't matter who everyone else is, as Lemus figures to pitch in about 90% of the high-leverage innings available.
Infield: I'm not super impressed by 2B Marty Wolcott's (.356, 4, 11) lack of range or ability to turn the double play but he's hitting and that's more than what I can say for anyone else at the position. Anyway, Henry Villar (.400, 0, 4) figures to come back next season so this is a 1970-only solution.
I installed Luis Cardenas (.180, 1, 4) at short hoping he'd hit like he did last year in Columbus (.310 with a .398 OBP) but he's failed to do so and so the job falls to 2B Arturo Martinez (.171, 0, 16), who can at least field decently. This is mostly keeping the spot warm until Tyler Webster (.226, 16, 55) comes back from a torn quad. He's around 3 weeks away.
Outfield: All three outfield spots are set. I guess the most vulnerable player is CF Justin Hearl (.262, 0, 19), who is also filling in for an injured player - 11 time Gold Glove winner Elijah Johnson (.288, 2, 23) - but the question of who starts (hint: the answer is Johnson) is, again, a 1971 problem, not a 1970 one.
August 30: The
San Diego Padres, on the other hand, are slumping. I mean, they're an expansion team. They're just bad. Is it slumping to play to your level (they're 10-17 for the month entering into their final game in August)?
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
San Diego Padres 51 80 .389 L2 29 524 115 .234 65 4.48 1.0 4.4 5.2 .980 -2.3 1,178,348
I'm a little surprised their team ZR isn't lower but then I guess they just haven't experimented with playing guys wildly out of position so much as the other bad teams. No, the Pads have come by their badness honestly: 10th in runs scored, dead last in BA, 2nd worst in team ERA (3rd worst in baseball), 2nd worst in Ks. As with other bad teams I've already set their second half course so there may not be much left to do, but we'll see.
Rotation: I think the guys in the rotation right now are more or less who they want to look at through the rest of the year. The iffiest guy maybe is LHP Francisco Ortega (2-10, 4.84) but nobody in AAA looks particularly appetizing and hey, replacement level is a level after all.
Bullpen: More of the same here, although I'll surely pad this area of the team out in a couple days. Juan Moreno (3-8, 5.31) is barely hanging on and is 33 to boot but hey, he was 8-6 last year in a similar swingman role and, once again, it's not like he's blocking anybody right now. I also wanted to make note of Erik Schnipke (5-15, 4.77), who I tried as a starter for a big chunk of the year but is just, like, light years better as a reliever (2.08 ERA in relief, 5-13, 5.32 as a starter).
Infield: C Adam Bakke (.227, 1, 25) is fine when he hits in the .270s like he did last year but as a .227 hitter he's an overall minus. His OPS is less than .600. Xiu-Tou Shen is sitting in the minors, where he hit .300 for Salt Lake City (.300, 5, 36) but failed to hit in a limited trial. I'm sure I'll add him to the roster in September but probably will wait until next year to put him into an outright battle for the position.
1B Alex Canales (.243, 2, 12) hasn't been hitting so much since missing most of the year with the old biscuit meniscus but again... who am I going to use there instead? He was a starter for the Braves in 1968 and was pretty OK last year.
Outfield: CF Zachery Hadley (.239, 1, 29) combines inadequate hitting with inadequate fielding in center. He's not a long term answer except in the sense that the team is a little forced to use him. Their top CF prospects are all in short season A ball with ETAs of 1972 or later. Oh right, also Tyler Mitchell (.241, 6, 17), who's out for the year. Maybe next year, though.