It's veeery early in the season but there are some... interesting stories so far. Is San Diego for real? Okay, maybe not. But they're looking good so far. What about Washington? I think there's a greater chance there; they've got some really strong pitching (an AL-best 1.87 ERA) that might just carry a pretty mediocre offense all season long. On the flip side, the Giants started the year with a win and then lost theit next 10 games. The early verdict on whether or not their late season swoon in 1970 was just hard luck appears to be a big "no, this is who they are now". Oh yeah, and the Angels are riding a league-best .288 average to lead the AL in scoring (57 runs) and wins, and that's with half of "Circus Vargas" (LAUGH if you want but in the 19th century the now-Dodgers were nicknamed the Superbas for a time because their manager was a guy named Ned Hanlon and there was a New York City circus called Hanlon's Superba) (and yes, for those of you who are not on the West Coast, Circus Vargas is a thing).
Standings
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Code:
AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Washington Senators 9 3 .750 -
Baltimore Orioles 7 3 .700 1.0
Boston Red Sox 5 5 .500 3.0
Cleveland Indians 4 5 .444 3.5
New York Yankees 3 8 .273 5.5
Detroit Tigers 3 8 .273 5.5
West W L PCT GB
California Angels 10 2 .833 -
Oakland Athletics 9 5 .643 2.0
Minnesota Twins 7 5 .583 3.0
Kansas City Royals 5 8 .385 5.5
Chicago White Sox 4 9 .308 6.5
Milwaukee Brewers 3 8 .273 6.5
NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
New York Mets 7 2 .778 -
St. Louis Cardinals 8 4 .667 .5
Chicago Cubs 7 6 .538 2.0
Montreal Expos 4 4 .500 2.5
Philadelphia Phillies 4 6 .400 3.5
Pittsburgh Pirates 3 9 .250 5.5
West W L PCT GB
San Diego Padres 8 3 .727 -
Cincinnati Reds 6 4 .600 1.5
Houston Astros 8 6 .571 1.5
Atlanta Braves 6 5 .545 2.0
Los Angeles Dodgers 5 8 .385 4.0
San Francisco Giants 2 11 .154 7.0
Major Transactions
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April 15: The Royals traded minor league P Brian Johnson (5-3, 2.02 with AAA Omaha in 1970) to the Padres for minor league P Jake Callaway (1-1, 2.00 with AAA Hawaii). Both of these guys (IRL too) were minor league depth who had small bites of the big leagues, which is why this shows up on my radar at all.
News
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April 12: There were doubleheaders today and so I'm already seeing pitchers getting their starts pushed back. Incidentally there's a mini-strike that wipes out a weekend in September (SPOILER ALERT) and the July/August schedules are maybe not quite as insane as in previous years so maybe we'll see someone finish with more than 40 starts, who knows?
April 12: This is also where I'd normally put the Players of the Week but there aren't any of those yet so I... won't. Instead I'll probably screenshot the Game of the Week or something.
April 13: It took 11 innings but the defending AL East champion New York Yankees finally won their first game of the season in 6 tries with a 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers. The Flying Dutchman Obe Olthof (1-1, 2.65) not only went all the way for the W, he drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 11th with 2 outs. "I'm just very tired," Olthof said after the game. "I'm just going to eat a stroopwaffel and go to sleep." Detroit's Edgar Molina (1-1, 1.37) also went all 11 (technically 10.2) for the tough loss.
April 13: Washington's pitching staff is pretty good. Today Raul Mendoza (2-0, 1.00) shut out the Red Sox on 2 hits en route to a 1-0 victory. It's the 4th shutout for the Senators in their first 8 games. Mendoza, the 1967 AL Cy Young Award winner (although he won with just a 15-7 record, albeit with a 2.26 ERA), had his curveball snapping off tonight. He struck out 8 and issued no walks. "I guess I needed every bit of that shut-out," Mendoza said after the game. "I hope I get more run support later though. That was a lot of work." The Senators have an ERA of 0.62 through 8 games; as you'd expect, they're 7-1.
April 14: A big blow to the Phillies' chances at winning the NL East as their star LF Paul Stewart (.350, 0, 1) was diagnosed with a torn tricep that happened in a freak throwing injury in the game vs. the Pirates on the 12th. He will be out until the second half. Rumors abound that he had been hiding a partially torn muscle throughout spring training; he's been known to be a "gamer" who tries to play through things like this.
April 15: So much for replacing Stephen Clark. Reds' 1B Alonzo Rivera (.304, 1, 3) fractured his knee sliding into second base yesterday and will miss the entire season. Hey, it's a good thing they didn't trade Clark away, I guess...
April 15: Yankees reliever Nate Herod (0-0, 9.00), who I mostly know as the screwball guy (he's a lefty with reverse splits) announced he will retire at the end of the season. Herod is 36 and clearly his best days are behind him (he was an All-Star in 1961 and 1963) so it's not completely unexpected. It's also a side effect of the Yankees being so old. Hopefully it all comes crashing down.
April 16: Tigers 1B Danny Valdez (.167, 0, 1) badly strained his back today and will miss a lot of time (note: I know how much but I feel like a strained oblique is the kind of injury where it's unclear when exactly he'd come back IRL). Veteran Jose "Joker" Ayala (.182, 0, 0), who lost the 3B job to Rob Curran (.250, 0, 2) in spring training, will mostly take over while he's gone, although Detroit's got a kid in AAA in Tim Suman who hit .360 in AA Montgomery last year, so I'm going to go ahead and call him up and see what he can do. Expectations are very low for this team, after all. The other side of that is that Adam Dittmar (.000, 0, 0 in 4 at-bats) is still on the outside looking in but, like, he was not good in 1970.
April 16: The Twins suffered a pair of injuries today that are going to really give them an uphill battle for the AL West early in the year in a 4-2 loss to the Angels. Reigning MVP 3B Mike Brookes (.258, 2,7) strained an abdominal muscle and will be out for at least a month, and if that wasn't enough, LF Alejandro Cortez (.250, 1, 6), who won an MVP of his own back in 1966, left the game with a sore elbow he incurred trying to throw out a runner at home. This isn't expected to impact his hitting but even in left you need *some* ability to throw guys out. For now I've called up corner infielder Jeff Franks (.318, 2, 5 in AAA Portland), who can hopefully not be too big of a drop-off with the bat, and I already had a half-platoon set up with Cortez and Mike Grigg (.250, 0, 0) which I won't change for now. It's going to be a rough month.
April 17: What is wrong with Paz Lemus (1-2, 8.00)? Tonight the Pirates stopper blew his 4th save of the season, giving up a walk-off 2-run HR to the Mets' Jimmy Washington (.172, 1, 3) in a 5-4 loss. "I can't explain it," said a dejected Lemus after the game. "I'm throwing as hard as ever." To date, Lemus has walked 7 batters in 9 innings and given up 2 HRs. Lemus is a 2-time All-Star and last season won his first Rolaids Relief Award.
April 18: Cubs SP and 1970 ROY Jose Zarate (1-0, 5.27) strained his forearm in yesterday's start vs. the Giants and he'll be out for the next 5 weeks. The Cubs do not have a lot of pitching - well, they have some but it's all mediocre or worse - and so this hurts.
April 18: The Game of the Week: California (9-2) @ Minnesota (7-4). It's an early showdown between the top two teams in the AL West. Twins ace Angelo Ramos (2-1, 1.85) faded in the late innings, allowing 4 runs from the 7th on before he was replaced in the 9th, and a depleted Minnesota lineup could manage just 8 hits against journeyman Parker Lafler (1-0. 2.45) and 2 relievers. In the end, the Angels won 5-3. "Circus Vargas", the budding new 1-2 punch of 1B Willie (.375, 0, 8) and LF Nelson Vargas (.234, 0, 4) went a combined 3 for 8 with a double and 2 RBIs.
April 18: Man, that offense has gone south. For the second time this year, a team got shut out of both ends of a double-header. This time it was the Pirates who lost to the Mets in consecutive 2-0 and 2-0 defeats. Joe Beane (2-1, 3.38) 7-hit the Bucs in the early one, with 1B Jerome "Superman" Waltenberry (.156, 2, 5) creating the only runs of the game with a 2 run HR in the 3rd. In the nightcap, CF Curtis Hope (.314, 4, 10) broke a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the 9th with a HR off of hapless starter Octavio Vargas (0-3, 7.71), who'd been knocked out of the box early in his first two starts. David Camacho (1-0, 0.00) gave up just 3 hits in his first outing of 1971.
Teams in Review
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Obviously it's too early for this but I'll want to add this section before I forget.