Standings / Recap / Comments
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Things are really starting to heat up in the NL... and cool down in the AL. The Red Sox just plain look light years better than the rest of the league, although they did narrowly avoid a sweep by the 2nd place Senators with a win today. The big thing with them is that their offense has still not quite gotten itself going yet with key hitters like 1B Mike Miller (.254, 6, 27) and SS Oniji Handa (.227, 3, 28) still scuffling as the season reaches its halfway point. You can't imagine all those players will continue to slump. In the West, Minnesota leads as much because nobody else stepped up in the absence of 3B Mike Brookes (.209, 5, 17) as anything else (which, Brookes has also been struggling this year). Kansas City of all teams has been the latest to make a push. You get the feeling that anyone in that division who can get a long streak going will win it all.
Then you've got the Pirates and Cardinals duking it out, the Pirates with frontline pitching and their ace closer Paz Lemus (8-6, 2.31, 9 Sv), and the Cards with a combination of average - 2B Tom Depew (.365, 1, 22) is still kind of chasing .400 - and power - never count 1B Lorenzo Martinez (.233, 13, 35) out, and 3B Mike Galeana (.264, 9, 22) is also socking lots of hits in just 87 at-bats. The Mets and Phillies are not exactly far behind either. The West is even closer, with percentage points separating the Astros and Braves. Atlanta took a big nosedive last year but so far their pitching has appeared to hold up just enough to take advantage of their awesome power, especially 35 year old RF Henry Riggs (.298, 19, 53), who with his next HR will become the first hitter in modern league history to break the 500 mark.
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Boston Red Sox 40 24 .625 - 255 211
Washington Senators 35 27 .565 4 257 189
Baltimore Orioles 33 29 .532 6 254 204
Detroit Tigers 34 33 .507 7½ 256 270
New York Yankees 33 33 .500 8 258 273
Cleveland Indians 30 35 .462 10½ 282 299
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Minnesota Twins 37 30 .552 - 267 270
Oakland Athletics 34 32 .515 2½ 240 245
Kansas City Royals 31 31 .500 3½ 275 288
California Angels 33 36 .478 5 258 272
Chicago White Sox 23 38 .377 11 226 256
Milwaukee Brewers 23 38 .377 11 169 220
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Pittsburgh Pirates 40 28 .588 - 267 232
St. Louis Cardinals 40 29 .580 ½ 313 279
New York Mets 35 28 .556 2½ 262 230
Philadelphia Phillies 34 31 .523 4½ 277 242
Chicago Cubs 31 37 .456 9 304 340
Montreal Expos 20 41 .328 16½ 219 284
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Houston Astros 41 26 .612 - 297 282
Atlanta Braves 43 28 .606 - 340 265
San Diego Padres 35 35 .500 7½ 296 283
San Francisco Giants 30 41 .423 13 254 303
Cincinnati Reds 28 40 .412 13½ 248 304
Los Angeles Dodgers 27 40 .403 14 269 302
Major Transactions
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June 14: The A's purchased 1B Ray Hawkinson (.333, 0, 4) from the Brewers for $2,500. This deal was originally for Mike Hegan, who was an unlikely All-Star for the real-life Pilots in 1969; however, this Brewers team has nobody like that still remaining. Hawkinson's an organizational guy, at least, and he potentially fills a hole caused by 42 year old John Skelton (.260, 1, 7) losing his power as a man in his 40s sometimes does.
June 15: The Senators purchased 2B Ray Camarena (.250, 0, 1 at AAA Iowa) from the A's for $500. Camarena is a AAAA guy who hasn't gotten major league time since 1969 and lately has been losing playing time even in the minor leagues. He'll now become minor league depth for the cash-strapped Sens.
June 15: The Expos traded minor league P Jonas Youngblood (3-3, 4.71, 2 Sv at AAA Winnipeg) to the Cardinals for minor league P TJ Matson (6-4, 1.97 at AAA Tulsa). Matson's obviously pitching well in the minors but Youngblood has a good amount of major league experience pitching out of the bullpen, which seems to benefit St. Louis more. Montreal's got nothing to lose taking a chance on Matson, who pitched his way out of Boston last year with a 6.38 ERA in 1970.
June 16: The Expos traded SS Brian Mueller (.357, 0, 0 in 14 at-bats in Montreal) to the Mets for 2B Jorge Burkett (.283, 0, 4). Mueller was recently DFA'd, which isn't great for his own long-term prospects, but he'll be the youngest infielder on the Mets' AAA farm team at 28 so that's a thing at least. Burkett is a 32 year old with 121 major league games under his belt; he could, conceivably, work his way into the Expos' plans this year, such as they are.
June 17: The Cubs purchased 2B Rich Potter (.320, 0, 2) from the A's for $1,500. Potter was the A's starter at second the past 2 years but is on the outside looking in this year with the emergence of Rule V draft pick Israel Gaytan (.283, 1, 23). He's only 28 and from the Cubs' standpoint he's good insurance in case their own 2B Juan Perez' (.167, 1, 4) bad start is actually premature aging (Perez is 33).
News
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June 14: Reds RF Justin Jensen (no appearances in 1971), who suffered a fractured ankle in spring training that was due to keep him out until after the All-Star Break, suffered a setback in his recovery and instead it looks like he'll miss all of 1971. Jensen's loss has been catastrophic for Cincinnati; he led the team with 42 HRs and 96 RBIs last year as their cleanup hitter, and they do not have anything close to a replacement.
June 14: Cubs 1B Antonio Lopez (.325, 21, 62) had a banner week and was rewarded for it with the NL Player of the Week award. Lopez went 12 for 23 with 3 HRs and 11 RBIs and wrested control of the HR race away from the other big hitters in the Senior Circuit. This is the 5th time in his career - not bad considering he's still just 25 years of age - and 2nd time this season he's won the award.
June 14: It's a week for youth, as the AL Player of the Week award goes to 22 year old LF Dave "Cookie Monster" Corona (.287, 6, 23), the 1970 Royals All-Star who's been recovering from a horrible (.187, 1, 5) April. This week he also hit over .500 at 11-19 and added 2 HRs, 6 RBIs from the leadoff slot, and 4 runs scored. Corona won the PotW last April; this is his second award.
June 16: The Brewers' lineup issues just got worse. 2B Chris Moore (.200, 0, 3), the veteran signed as a free agent after the A's cut him in spring training this year, was diagnosed with a broken kneecap from a play on the 11th and will miss the entire season. Moore was already the Brewers' 2nd choice at the keystone with Eric Biron (.262, 3, 10) currently on the DL with a torn thumb ligament and not expected to be back until August; they are now down to man #3, Yankees castoff Wing-fung Yi (.354, 3, 16 at AAA Syracuse but hitless in 6 at-bats with Milwaukee). It can't get much worse, right?
June 16: Angels 3B Jordan Wooten (.257, 1, 9), who was brought in from the White Sox to challenge prospect Travis Corley (.297, 6, 28) for the starting job, is complaining that he'd rather start. Wooten is 39 and Corley is getting the job done at the hot corner. I think it's time to cut ties with Wooten and let him sign on somewhere else if somewhere else wants him.
June 16: Red Sox SP Michael Pesco (10-6, 3.12) tied his own Red Sox record for the 8th time in a 2-1, 10 inning win over the Angels today. Pesco, who also walked 6, was pulled for the bottom of the 10th after 1B Mike Miller (.254, 6, 25) homered in the top of the inning. "Wish I could have finished what I started," he said after the game, "but striking out a dozen men is what I do."
June 17: The US and Japan sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, in which Japan will retake control of the island for the first time since World War II.
June 17: Richard Nixon declares war... on drugs. This will end well.
June 18: Southwest Airlines begins its first flights between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
June 18: Cardinals C John Stuart (.303, 2, 19) has had some issues hitting for power this year but you wouldn't have known it today. He hit for the cycle today in a 10-7 win over the Cubs, capping off his game with a 2-RBI triple in the top of the 8th. It's the 6th cycle in Cards history and the first since Justin Stone accomplished the feat in 1961. Stuart, who hit 20 HRs in his final season in Philadelphia in 1969, has hit just 4 of them for the Cubs in the last year and a half and had just 6 extra-base hits in 115 at-bats prior to this game. "It's good to get off the schneid," said a happy Stuart after the game. "Now let's chase down those Pirates."
June 19: Pitchers... aren't supposed to do that. As iffy as he's been on the mound, Cleveland SP Dylan Hamilton (6-7, 4.34) is doing what he can to help himself out at the plate. Today he went 2 for 4 with a HR and also threw an 8-hitter in a 9-0 pasting of the Detroit Tigers. To date, Hamilton is hitting .349 with *14* RBIs. I have no idea what the single-season pitcher RBI record is but 14 is a lot.
June 20: Britain announces that Soviet space scientiest Anatoli Fedoseyev has been granted asylum.
June 20: GAME OF THE WEEK! It's been a while (thanks to a vacation in December that had me out of town for most of the month) so I don't know if last "week"'s GotW was an AL matchup or not but... this seems like the best one. Right now the Red Sox are flying with a 39-24 record that's far and away the best in the American League. Who's #2? Of all teams, the Washington Senators with a 35-26 record, even as rumors fly around about this being their final season in the nation's capital. They're playing this afternoon in Washington. It's a great starter matchup too: Michael Pesco (10-6, 3.12), a two-time Cy Young Award winner who was limited to just 9 games last year, takes the mound for Boston; as you can see, he seems to be more or less back to his old self. For Washington, their man is Raul Mendoza (10-2, 2.21), who was acquired from the White Sox back in February for CF Ian Everett (.290, 1, 12 for his new club). Mendoza's a former Cy guy himself but seemed to take a step back last year with a 14-14, 3.78 campaign. So far in 1971 though he's a strong early Cy Young contender.
Pesco (11-6, 3.05) withstood a 2-run HR by C Armando Flores (.267, 4, 25) in the bottom of the 9th to win a relative pitcher's matchup, 3-2. Pesco himself actually drove in what turned out to be the meaningful run, in fact, with a single in the top of the 7th that at the time put the Bosox up 3-0. Mendoza (10-3, 2.27) pitched pretty well overall, matching his total for all of 1970 with his 8th complete game this season, but it just wasn't quite enough.
June 20: Braves RF Henry Riggs (.298, 19, 53) went 2 for 6 with 3 walks in a doubleheader split vs the Reds at Riverfront Stadium but neither of those hits was a HR and so he remains stuck at 499.
June 20: 1971 is not starting the way Expos SP TJ Matson would have hoped, that's for sure. The 24 year old got knocked out of the box in the 2nd inning today and through 2 *starts* has 1.2 IP... and a 64.80 ERA. Yeah, not good! Of course the Expos lost this one to the division leading Pirates, 10-3.
Teams in Review
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I thought I wouldn't get one this week but instead I have the awkward between-doubleheaders review of the
Montreal Expos (20-40, 6th NL East), the worst team in baseball for the 3rd straight season. Things are just not looking great for these guys at any level. They're sort of 5th in the NL in runs, and I say sort of because it's only because they've played like 10 fewer games than some other teams. By runs scored they're 2nd worst in baseball behind only Milwaukee and they're 5th from the bottom in ERA, too. I feel like it's time to just punt the vets and lose with youth.
Rotation: Yeah, first on that list of puntable vets is Josh Young (1-8, 4.98), who's been able to strike out a whopping 14 men in 85 IP. He's still replacement-level effective due to control but I just don't see how he's helping, like, at all. Javier Olvera (5-5, 4.60), who just threw his first game in relief and picked up loss #40, will move back into the rotation.
Bullpen: Trevor Munro (NR) is finally back from a forearm strain that he suffered at the end of spring training. He wasn't very good last year as the team's de facto stopper but he was the stopper so hey, why not. 39 year old Tom Owens (1-1, 2.89) has been... okay as a lefty specialist so I'll keep him around for now.
Catcher/1B: The catchers are both a couple of vets to help with the kids on the pitching staff. Let's go with that!
Infield: I tried Hudson Watts (.198, 1, 6) out at shortstop in place of last year's incumbent George Yarbor (.221, 2, 10). Watts didn't need to do much - a small upgrade as a fielder or a hitter would have been enough - but if anything he's slightly worse than Yarbor at the plate and neither of them look like the SS of the future out there - Yarbor's got a poor arm, Watts just isn't anything special as a fielder, period. For now, I'll hand Yarbor the job back.
I also moved Heath Carreon (.077, 0, 1) out of a starting job because he's just plain not a major league hitter. This was a kind of irrational move given that he has all of 3 games but a. he also was hitting .195 at AAA Winnipeg prior to being called up so it's not like he has a great resume, and b. the new guy Brian Hunter (.174, 1, 3) is just a placeholder until Adam Owens (.325, 4, 20) gets back anyway.
Outfield: It looks like I have, fortunately, already kicked most of the underperforming veteran outfielders to the curb, leaving just underperforming guys in their late 20s. 23 year old Johnny Vargas (.296, 2, 11 at AAA Winnipeg) is the hot hand in the minor leagues and looks like he might be the latest solid singles hitter in the Vargas "family". I went ahead and called him straight up. I'm pretty well unimpressed with OF Gabe Martinez (.240, 1, 4) at this point himself but he's out of options and he's hit in the past, kind of, so I'll keep a hold of him for now. Sending down Willie Ortega (.178, 1, 2) does open a hole in left field which I'll plug by just allowing Willie Morales (.253, 11, 34) to start full-time. Morales leads the team in HRs so he deserves that chance.
June 20: OK, so I've got two this week. The
San Francisco Giants (30-40, 4th NL West) are very much an also-ran this year. There was some hope that they'd bounce back from what amounted to a horrific August last season to contend again but nope, they appear to be just plain not very good. Going forward, I guess it's time to rebuild...
Rotation: Poor Mike Stuckey (6-5, 3.26) just seems like he's in the wrong place. I hope I can find a good trade partner for the guy. At least he probably won't lose 18 again. The one true move I'm going to make here is to drop Justin Mader (1-3, 8.18) into the bullpen and call up Bobby Scott (9-2, 2.53 at AAA Phoenix) to take his place. Mader just started in the first game of the double-header (yep, it's another one of those!) and got KO'ed early; maybe he'll do better in long relief.
Bullpen: Yeah, there's not really much to change here. Most of the bullpen has been pretty OK with the possible exception of lefty specialist Henry Roman (0-0, 9.00). OK, no "possible" about that, he's just been bad. He was a solid reliever each of the past two seasons though and I'm not willing to toss him out just yet.
Infield: 40 year old backup C Pat Molina (.219, 1, 7) looks completely unable to handle the tools of ignorance any longer. He's a 9 time All-Star and a fan favorite but the end is near. The softy in me is going to keep him around for a bit longer.
Chris Seek (.294, 1, 16) doesn't have the power to play first base but the team has bigger problems right now.
It's too bad that both Tim Mock (.254, 5, 23) and Ryan Jersey (.273, 1, 5) bat righty because they'd make a good platoon couple. As it stands, I'm staying with Mock because he's the incumbent but Jersey is 4 years younger (at 26 so still not prospect-young) and could eat a bit more into Mock's PT if this team is still in the dregs in August.
I have no reason to keep starting Akiho "The Truth" Fujimoto (.220, 1, 16) except that he's the best the team has to offer at shortstop. Well, OK, that's reason enough. Mario Sanchez (.208, 0, 8) doesn't hit as well and doesn't field as well either. He's still a full decade younger so he may eventually capture this job instead of becoming the utility infielder that looks like his projected long-term role. I kind of expect someone, anyone, to come up through the farm system before that happens though.
Outfield: I don't know what's wrong with OF John Everhart (.137, 2, 11) but at this point I think it's best figured out from the bench. Everhart, who was .261/23/80 and the team's top/only power threat last season, started the year poorly, got hurt, and then has been poor in his return. I'm not exactly impressed by Bobby Turner (.252, 2, 7) either but he's not hitting .137. He'll platoon with Pat Piper (.286, 1, 2), who maybe just barely qualifies as a prospect, for now.