Standings / Recap / Comments
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WE'RE COMIN TO AMERICAn League
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Boston Red Sox 66 40 .623 - 432 334
Washington Senators 56 48 .538 9 426 332
Detroit Tigers 56 50 .528 10 420 400
Baltimore Orioles 53 50 .515 11½ 393 372
New York Yankees 51 57 .472 16 402 448
Cleveland Indians 46 62 .426 21 450 500
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Minnesota Twins 57 47 .548 - 421 418
Oakland Athletics 57 48 .543 ½ 377 369
California Angels 54 55 .495 5½ 418 402
Kansas City Royals 49 53 .480 7 420 468
Chicago White Sox 47 59 .443 11 388 406
Milwaukee Brewers 41 64 .390 16½ 321 419
SWEET CAROLINE BOMP BOMP BOMP I GUESS THAT'S ASSOCIATED WITH AN AL TEAM TOO BUT THIS IS THE National League
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Philadelphia Phillies 62 46 .574 - 457 399
Pittsburgh Pirates 61 47 .565 1 412 380
St. Louis Cardinals 58 50 .537 4 467 458
New York Mets 53 51 .510 7 421 400
Chicago Cubs 47 59 .443 14 456 504
Montreal Expos 42 66 .389 20 408 518
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Atlanta Braves 67 44 .604 - 546 419
Houston Astros 60 47 .561 5 465 456
San Diego Padres 56 54 .509 10½ 452 430
San Francisco Giants 50 60 .455 16½ 419 441
Cincinnati Reds 47 63 .427 19½ 429 489
Los Angeles Dodgers 46 62 .426 19½ 420 458
Power Rankings
Code:
Rank Team Pts Td Record PCT AVG ERA Pyt.Rec Diff
1st (10th) Pittsburgh 117 ++ 61-47 .565 .250 2.95 58-50 3
2nd (2nd) Boston 113 o 66-40 .623 .261 2.79 65-41 1
3rd (3rd) Philadelphia 111 o 62-46 .574 .247 3.33 61-47 1
4th (5th) Houston 104 + 60-47 .561 .255 3.73 54-53 6
5th (1st) Atlanta 104 -- 67-44 .604 .256 3.27 69-42 -2
6th (9th) Washington 99 ++ 56-48 .538 .256 2.61 64-40 -8
7th (4th) Minnesota 99 -- 57-47 .548 .256 3.59 52-52 5
8th (7th) Detroit 98 - 56-50 .528 .248 3.36 55-51 1
9th (8th) Oakland 96 - 57-48 .543 .258 3.16 54-51 3
10th (6th) St. Louis 93 -- 58-50 .537 .270 3.77 55-53 3
11th (12th) Baltimore 92 + 53-50 .515 .248 3.08 54-49 -1
12th (14th) San Diego 91 + 56-54 .509 .253 3.51 58-52 -2
13th (15th) California 90 + 54-55 .495 .249 3.23 56-53 -2
14th (13th) New York 89 - 53-51 .510 .241 3.50 54-50 -1
15th (16th) Kansas City 85 + 49-53 .480 .240 4.24 46-56 3
16th (17th) New York 85 + 51-57 .472 .236 3.74 49-59 2
17th (18th) Chicago 81 + 47-59 .443 .243 3.51 51-55 -4
18th (22nd) Chicago 81 ++ 47-59 .443 .254 4.18 48-58 -1
19th (11th) San Francisco 80 -- 50-60 .455 .243 3.54 52-58 -2
20th (19th) Los Angeles 77 - 46-62 .426 .247 3.49 50-58 -4
21st (20th) Cleveland 75 - 46-62 .426 .254 4.15 49-59 -3
22nd (23rd) Cincinnati 71 + 47-63 .427 .238 4.07 48-62 -1
23rd (21st) Milwaukee 66 - 41-64 .390 .234 3.35 40-65 1
24th (24th) Montreal 65 o 42-66 .389 .252 4.29 42-66 0
UGH the Astros are in a virtual tie with the Braves in the power rankings I HATE IT. Welp, perhaps this version aren't the cheating cheaters of cheatersburg. The big shakeup in fact is at the top where the Braves suffered through a 1-5 week against the Giants and Padres to allow the Astros to creep within 5 games of them in the NL West but also lose their "best team in the league" status to Pittsburgh, who themselves are technically on the other side of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Bucs are in fact the yuppies of the week. They just swept the Dodgers and Giants - two of the worst teams in the NL, sure, but the Giants had a 10-game winning streak heading into that series that got snapped and put to bed - to finish the week 7-0. The Giants were the dirty hippies, dropping #60 after looking so, so good just a week ago.
Major Transactions
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July 29: The Brewers traded SP Ricardo Gomez (6-10, 4.04) and prospect Willie Garcia (1-5, 5.59 at AAA Evanston) to the Cardinals for 3B Mike Morrison (.260, 0, 25), 2B Chris Johnston (.268, 2, 16), and minor league P Jonas Youngblood (0-2, 4.44 at AAA Tulsa). For the Cards, this is primarily a "get rid of the disgruntled guys" move, although Gomez went 13-7 for the Brewers last year and so should have a role in the Cards' rotation. Milwaukee gets St. Louis' 1970 starters at second and third base plus a guy who... pitched for the Expos last year, or at least appeared on the mound for them. Incidentally, Cards fans reeeeally did not like this trade; both Morrison and Johnston were local fan favorites. Sometimes you've got to do stuff that the fans don't like.
News
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July 26: Apollo 15, carrying three astronauts, is launched.
July 26: The Billboard Top 5 for the week (the ratings are actually given out on Saturdays but I would forget then):
1. You've Got A Friend, James Taylor (2nd)
2. Indian Reservation, The Rrrrrrrrrrrrrraiders (1st)
3. It's Too Late / I Feel The Earth Move, Carole King (2nd)
4. Mr. Big Stuff, Jean Knight
5. Draggin' The Line, Tommy James and the Shondells
I was drawing a blank on the new #5 but then upon listening to it I realized that yes, I have in fact heard it a billion times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLfO738Ok5Y
TBH this isn't my favorite era for music, the Tapestry album aside (and as an aside I'm just... ugh on Carole King's association with James Taylor. "Mockingbird" is an OK song and definitely better than "Tapestry" on that album but if "Mockingbird" means that Taylor singing "You've Got A Friend", which of course King wrote because Carole King is a beast (in fact, according to Wikipedia she wrote it as a response to a line from "Fire and Rain"), then strike "Mockingbird"! It's the second worst recording of a song called "You've Got A Friend" of all time). The above song is at least a little bluesy and I like the vocal harmonies and horns. Also, Tommy James and the Shondells also did the song "Hanky Panky", which is featured in the jukebox musical about Ellie Greenwich, "Leader of the Pack", because, um, she wrote it.
July 26: It's not often that pitchers win the Player of the Week but this one is well-deserved. The Tigers' Bruce Rubio (10-5, 2.48), still only 23 years young, picked this bad boy up by throwing 2 shutouts in 2 starts, allowing a grand total of 13 hits in 18 innings. He's more of a control guy than a power pitcher so he only had 5 Ks in that period but, hey, 1 walk and obviously 0 HRs. This is Rubio's first PotW and his second major league award: he won the AL Rookie of the Month award for last August.
July 26: In the NL, Mets 1B Joshua Waltenberry (.319, 10, 53) won his 2nd Player of the Week award in 3 weeks. He's on a roll. Waltenberry went 11 for 22 with a HR, 4 RBIs, and 5 runs scored. This is the 12th PotW award in Waltenberry's career, and barring a collapse in the last week he's on track to win the NL Player of the Month as well - he's hitting .380 in July with 2 HR and 13 RBI. OK I guess TBF Braves RF Henry Riggs (.319, 33, 87) is hitting .324 with 7 HR and 18 RBI so maybe not, but it was still a great week.
July 26: Just as he was showing signs of getting this season on track, Angels LF Nelson Vargas (.256, 5, 28) was diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back and will miss the next month. He joins his brother with another mother Willie Vargas (.281, 1, 25) on the DL and if California's chances of contending weren't already gone, they are now.
July 26: Celebrities in the game can be fun but they can also be DEADLY or, well, result in hurt feelings. Astros OF Jesse Lockhart (.284, 6, 45) got into an altercation with Phillies P Richard "Ringo Starr" Starkey (12-5, 3.58) that was apparently kick-started when Starkey hit Lockhart with a pitch and, in retaliation, Lockhart yelled "YELLOW SUBMARINE IS KIND OF A TRASH SONG LIKE IF YOUR FRIENDS ARE ALL ABOARD HOW DO MANY MORE OF THEM LIVE NEXT DOOR IT'S LIKE YOU JUST ADDED THAT LINE BECAUSE IT RHYMES AND IT DOESN'T EVEN RHYME THAT WELL". As you might expect, this turned into a conflagration that resulted in multi-game suspensions for both players. Because baseball isn't fair, Starkey's 5-game suspension means his next start will get pushed back a day or two.
Note: with the Phillies playing a double-header vs the Astros on the 27th, I'm not even sure Ringo will miss a start, technically speaking (although the Phils already had to use a spot starter for the nightcap).
July 27: Pirates 2B Marty Wolcott (.263, 2, 12) wants to start. The problem here is that he's regressed into being a kind of bad second baseman and while he can play first, that space is already occupied by Abilio Valdivia (.289, 2, 13) and Doctor Jack Holman (.303, 6, 24). Not sure what to say to him until he argues his way off the team. He's a disruptive influence in the clubhouse too so... yeah, bat or no bat, the Pirates don't need him. I cut him and recalled IF Sergio Cando (.222, 2, 5), who was hitting .270/5/37 in AAA in between that 7 game stint earlier in the year. He's nothing great but at least he won't cheat at poker games.
July 27: Phillies SS Tony Shannon (.348, 12, 55) launched a solo HR off of Astros RP Roberto Escobar (2-2, 3.99) in the 9th to tie the 2nd game of a double-header at 3, and then the next time he came around he caught Escobar for a second time to win it with another solo shot, 4-3. "They were a couple of okay hits, I guess," said Shannon after the game. "I just see Escobar well, you know?" Shannon is now 3-3 lifetime vs the young Astros reliever with, of course, 2 HRs.
July 27: Look out, Marius Gaddi. It's not even August yet and Pirates ace Santos Arango (20-3, 2.09) just notched his 20th victory. He's on pace for 32 this year, which of course would more than break Gaddi's single-season wins record of 27 he set last year. "Games are a very serious matter," the straight-faced Arango said after the game. "I've won more than a hundred of them in my career. Also I have 83 career complete games and 24 shutouts." Arango might not have said that last sentence.
July 28: Abdel Khaliq Mahjub, a Sudanese communist leader, is hanged.
July 28: I intimated last week that I thought it'd be fun to look at preseason predictions - not for the teams, which I think I've referenced enough, but the players. This week I'll start with the top hitters for the AL and their predicted slashes:
CLE - 1B Ernesto Garcia: .265, 64, 158 - this one seemed like the craziest projection of them all and yet, it's the one that seems most likely to be reached, kind of. Garcia's currently slashing .264/39/89 which puts him on pace for 62 and 141.
DET - CF Alvin Romero: .320, 10, 65, 60 SB: Romero got hurt so it cut into these numbers a bit but he's still hitting .302 with 30 steals in 34 tries so it aint' bad. No way he's going to crack double digits with HRs though, as he's got just 2.
MIN - 3B Mike Brooks: .263, 37, 93: Brookes also missed a big chunk of the year with injury and to make matters worse slumped when he first did come back so at present he's only slashing .240/12/34. The Twins seem to be starting to put things together though, just in time to maybe take a weak AL West for the 3rd straight year. Also it should be noted, too, that Brookes loooves to get on base via the walk so that .240 average is deceptive.
KC - LF Dave Corona: .270, 15, 57, 45 SB: In this alternate timeline, Paul Simon sang "goodbye Rosie, the queen of Corona" in honor of this man. Dave "The King of" Corona is slashing .283/8/36 with 40 steals. He'll surely eclipse the RBIs because he was hitting leadoff to open the season and now he's batting 3rd for the Royals.
DET - 2B Danny Villegas: .271, 38, 101: The biggest move here - granted that it's fairly recent - is that Villegas, who's fighting a sprained knee, is moving on down to first base. That might be a permanent move for the 34 year old. Anyway, he's slashing .284/18/53 and he did miss about 10 games this year so that's at least some of the reason why those numbers are down.
OAK - CF Alex Vallejo: .291, 15, 76, 22 SB: This is the big whiff so far, unfortunately. Vallejo keeps getting hurt. He's... fine when he's been healthy so far - .290, 3, 17 with 8 steals - but those aren't exactly top 10 player type numbers.
CLE - RF Tommy Pron: .307, 18, 75: Pron's an even bigger whiff than Vallejo. He's been pretty healthy this year, he just hasn't hit. So far he's at .257/7/31, a far cry from the 3-hole type of player the projected numbers thought he'd be. Pron's now hitting 5th in the lineup for the Tribe to try and give him some ABs with lower pressure... well, and also because of the next guy.
CLE - 3B Bobby Ramirez: .288, 18, 71, 27 SB: I'm a little surprised to see Ramirez in here; I guess he won the 3rd base job coming out of spring training. Ramirez is hitting .322/6/35 and has moved up into the 3 hole over the course of the season where now he gets to set the table for Ernesto Garcia. He's somehow only on pace to score 75 runs but maybe that's because he was way lower in the order: in addition to the high average, Ramirez is also on pace to walk 70 times with a .402 OBP. Oh right, and he's got 23 steals already so he seems like a lock to match the prediction.
NYY - 3B Tommy Weiss: .276, 19, 62: I feel like the AI kind of screwed Weiss around prior to 1969 and it took me a little while to realize that this guy is one of the best 3rd basemen in the game. Anyway he was the All-Star starter for 1971 and he's hitting .271/16/51, one of the few bright spots on a dimming Yankees team.
NYY - 1B Alex Cardenas: .274, 25, 102: Speaking of dimming... Cardenas is 38 and sometimes the bottom falls out when you're that age. He's hitting just .236 and what's worse his power seems to be gone, with only 8 HRs and 34 RBIs to date. That's probably going to be close to his marks on the season too as the Yanks have called up 25 year old Englishman Alan Rickman, whose self-described mastery of the dark arts has only gotten him a .225 average with 3 HRs in 80 at-bats, but he is the future and Cardenas is not.
July 28: They say it's bad luck when you have an ERA of a jet plane and that's the case for Cubs RP Freddy Uscanga (4-8, 4.98, 13 Sv), who just blew his 7th save of the season and picked up a 5-4 loss to the lowly Montreal Expos. His July ERA is currently 7.47; I'm demoting him to middle relief, where hopefully the 25 year old can rediscover his stuff in lower-leverage innings. Cuban national Antonio Martinez (1-2, 3.74, 3 Sv) was the team's stopper before Uscanga was acquired and he'll re-take that role.
July 29: The United Kingdom cancels its BLACK ARROW rocket program on economic grounds, choosing to launch satellites on the USA's Scout rockets. The UK was the first - and so far the only - country to successfully develop and then abandon satellite launch capability. They have one launch still scheduled for late October which will be made from their facility at Woomera, South Australia.
July 29: The Giants knocked off the Braves 5-2 to win their 10th straight game. They're well out of contention but now they're 50-56 and .500 looks like it could be in sight. Quite a mark for a team that just a week and a half ago was struggling to get out of the NL West cellar. The attack was paced by a 4 for 5 game by RF Barry "The Ritz" Cooper (.290, 2, 14), who has recovered well from a rough start to the season followed by an injury that caused him to miss most of May and June. "We're flying high and I know that if we just work hard enough we can keep this thing going," said a jubilant Cooper following the game.
July 30: An All Nippon Airways flight collides with a Japanese fighter jet. All 162 people on the airliner are killed; the pilot of the jet freed himself from his plane and parachuted safely. The fighter pilot, a trainee flying a 2-plane flight with a trainer, was acquitted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter but the trainer, who avoided the collision, was found guilty of criminally negligent manslaughter and sentenced to 3 years in prison. It is to date the deadliest civil aviation disaster, passing the 1969 crash of Viasa Flight 742, in which 84 people in the plane plus 71 people on the ground perished when the flight crashed into a heavily populated neighborhood of Maracaibo, Venezuela.
July 30: IRL the Indians fired manager Alvin Dark with a 42-61 record. Kind of wish I'd implemented managers in this save but oh well.
July 30: There's arguably no big injury news for a team as bad as the White Sox but they did learn that they'll be without starting CF Ian Everett (.264, 2, 18) for the rest of the season. Everett was, as he has been for a few years now, fine, but he just can't seem to stay on the field and it might be time for the Chisox to start looking elsewhere.
July 30: Tigers CF Alvin Romero (.316, 3, 28) isn't a big power guy but if you give practically anyone in this league a hanging curveball, they're going to pounce. Tonight that hanger came in the bottom of the 9th with two runners on base and Angels RP Gavin Yates (4-5, 4.97) on the mound. The Tigers won the game 7-4. It was the 11th HR of Romero's career.
July 30: The Expos must be feeling tiiiiiiired. They play their 6th and final double-header of July tonight. Their schedule does clear up a bit in August with a couple of actual days off and, from what I can see, not a single twinbill in sight. The Expos will have played 33 games this month; so far they're 14-16. Their last 3 games are against the Astros so they may well finish 14-19 but even that's a pretty decent record for this team.
EDIT: The 'Spos split with the Astros with a 5-4 win followed by a 9-1 loss (which was itself looking close before the pitching and defense imploded in the 8th). So... it's going to wind up being a pretty good, if insane month for Montreal.
July 30: Cardinals SP Mario Garcia (6-4, 3.41) exited today's game vs. the Phillies in the 3rd inning with a strained biceps tendon and was placed on the DL immediately following the game. He'll miss the next month. Suddenly that trade for Ricardo Gomez (6-10, 4.04 with Milwaukee) is looking pretty good...
July 30: I'm not sure what's worse here: the fact that with OF/1B Junior Cannon resting tonight the AI decided to hit SS Mike Wendt (.216, 5, 31) cleanup, or that this lineup scored 4 times and beat the Dodgers in Dodger Stadium 4-1. Wendt appropriatedly went 0 for 4 with a walk and 2 strikeouts but the AI weirdness could not account for CF Sonny Burwell (.304, 2, 26), who went 3 for 3, drove in 2 guys, and wearked havoc on the basepaths with 2 steals and a caught stealing. Speaking of weirdo AI, Burwell was acquired from the Giants at the end of May - granted, the Reds had to part with a couple of prospects to get him - and made the All-Star Game on the basis of a good month and a half.
July 30: Ahhh man. The Giants' win streak is snapped at 10 as the Pirates do business the way the Pirates do business in a 4-2 final score at the Stick. Papa Vargas (5-9, 2.80) went 7+ and then Paz Lemus (10-7, 2.71, 17 Sv) shut the door the rest of the way. Hot straek or no, there's not a lot you can do when Pittsburgh's able to do that to you. The Assassin John Booth (5-7, 3.66, 15 Sv) took the L by allowing a 3-run bomb to LF Justin Lawson (.250, 17, 68) in the top of the 8th inning.
July 31: Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin become the first to ride in the Lunar Roving Vehicle a day after landing on the Moon.
August 1: 40,000 people in New York City attend the Concert for Bangladesh. Among the stars are minor leaguer George Harrison and Phillies SP Richard "Ringo Star" Starkey (12-5, 3.58), who sang a hit song called "Don't Think About It Too Much It's Just A Goofy Sim Where Syd Thrift Renamed Prospects After Celebrities".
August 1: The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour premiered on CBS.
August 1: Speaking of people who, via some strange teleportation device or else plot armor are able to be in two places at once, Richard Starkey was the NL Rookie of the Month for July. He went 3-0 in 6 starts, striking out 18 batters in 41.1 innings. Sure, it's not a lot of Ks but Starkey insists that after being snubbed by Paul and John for so long he wanted to bring a democratic spin to his baseball career. "You get everyone involved, it comes easy. If you don't, it don't come easy."
August 1: The AL Rookie of the Month is a rock star of a completely different color: White Sox RF Alice Cooper (.289, 10, 25). Cooper rocked the socks off the junior circuit with a .279 average and all 10 of his HRs along with 24 of his RBIs. And he did all of this while also going on tour. I'll quote from Wikipedia:
"The group's 1971 tour featured a stage show involving mock fights and gothic torture modes being imposed on Cooper, climaxing in a staged execution by electric chair, with the band sporting tight, sequined, color-contrasting glam rock-style costumes made by prominent rock-fashion designer Cindy Dunaway (sister of band member Neal Smith, and wife of band member Dennis Dunaway). Cooper's androgynous stage role had developed to present a villainous side, portraying a potential threat to modern society. The success of the band's single and album, and their tour of 1971, which included their first tour of Europe (audience members reportedly included Elton John and a pre-Ziggy Stardust David Bowie), provided enough encouragement for Warner Bros. to offer the band a new multi-album contract."
August 1: The top NL pitcher for July was Santos Arango (21-3, 2.05), who, barring injury, seems like a near lock to break Marius Gaddi's wins record set last year. Arango went 6-1 in 7 games with 39 Ks in 58.2 innings of work and a 1.69 ERA.
August 1: In the AL, Pitcher of the Month went to Twins #3 starter Rich Whetzel (7-2, 3.32), who went 5-0 with a 2.66 ERA in 40.2 innings of work over 6 appearances. 6+ innings per start doesn't seem like Pitcher of the Month levels to me but hey, the AI disagrees with me.
August 1: And finally, the Batters of the Month. Phillies SS Tony Shannon (.347, 12, 56) is leading the league in hitting and also, with off years by Boston's Oniji Handa, Cleveland's John Johnson, and Chicago's Jeremy Taylor, appears to be the premiere shortstop in Major League Baseball. In July he flirted with .400, winding up the month at .394 with 5 HRs, 17 RBIs, and 23 runs scored. Oh, and also, just in case you think he's got too much power tobat leadoff, he walked 19 times and posted a .487 on-base-percentage. I think I was predicting this award would go to Braves RF Henry Riggs or Chicago 1B Antonio Lopez, but I was incorrect and here I think I agree with the computer.
August 1: Wow, so not only was Alice Cooper the best rookie in the AL for the month of July, he was the best hitter in the AL for the month of July. I might have handed this award to Red Sox 1B Mike Miller (.280, 9, 50), who went .304 with 14 RBI, or Twins 3B Mike Brookes (.241, 13, 35), who went .299 with 7 HRs and 12 RBI, but I guess both of those would be due to how they're playing relative to the seasons they've been having to date, and double-digit HRs are nothing to scoff at. Cooper is of course still growing as a player; I think the Chisox might have lucked into a big, big win with Cooper, a 5th round draft pick in 1968.
August 1: Speaking of the White Sox, SS Justin Henderson (.213, 0, 15) is unhappy that he's been consigned to a backup role behind Jim Fiederlein (.200, 1, 16). To be fair, Fiederlein hs been almost as bad a hitter as Henderson and Henderson does have the body of work so I'm going to reverse course here and hand Henderson the job through the end of the year, barring something crazy. Henderson was a Gold Glove quality 2B in Los Angeles in the 60s and although he's older now and is playing a harder position, he's still a plus in the infield.
Teams in Review
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July 27: Shocker of all shockers, the
Milwaukee Brewers (38-61, 6th AL West) are bad. They're an expansion team but there's also the whole deal with moving out of Seattle last year and along with that just kind of arbitrarily shipping off anyone and everyone associated with the '69 Pilots that's just left them as a bad franchise that's hard to watch. I guess the fans in Milwaukee disagree; they're 8th in baseball in attendance with almost a million fans drawn this year in spite of having the league-lowest payroll. I've talked about the team's historical badness on offense; it looks like they've picked things up just enough to avoid that but they're definitely not, you know, good.
Rotation: All the above said, the rotation has been... well, average. 5th in the AL in ERA. It's nothing great but when you're looking like you're going to lose 100 games, even league average is an advantage. They've also got just one guy over 30 in there and while Ricardo Gomez (6-9, 4.19), who is 30 on the dot, has been kind of bad this year, he was the team's "ace" in 1970 with a 13-7 record and a 3.16 ERA so they're not dropping him.
Bullpen: The bullpen hasn't been so great but, well, this is where you stick guys you want to try, failed experiments, etc. In that regard, Kent Coffey (2-11, 3.99) has actually been OK since coming from the Tigers (0-9, 3.39) - well, the ERA's been good - but the former 17 game winner still has options left and he needs to pitch more, so I'm sending him down. John Labbe (1-2, 1.75 for AAA Evanston), a 30 year old AAA guy who epitomizes "expansion team trial", will take his place for like the next month or so before rosters expand and the AAA season ends.
Infield: I was thinking this going into the double-header vs the Red Sox that the Brewers just got swept in: there's no good reason not to let 23 year old C Adam Brown (.229, 1, 11) get into a full platoon with 35 year old Luis Garcia (.174, 1, 15). Like, yes, Garcia is the team's captain and Brown is reportedly kind of selfish, and Garcia's a better defensive player, but he's also hitting well below the Timonen Line and anyway how far has that superior defense gotten them so far?
At 2nd, the Brewers look like they just solved the problem at 2nd by signing White Sox and Yankees veteran Pat Jones (.283, 1, 10) off the street after he complained his way off the Bronx Bombers. 2 games in, he's looked great as their keystone and 2-hole hitter. Long-term, the team's top 2 prospects - 1st and 16th overall in fact - are both 2nd basemen but Jones is 32 and nobody in the organization thinks he's a long-term anything.
3B Marco Villafana (.190, 0, 5) got sent down earlier after the team freaked out about their middle infield situation. Now that things have settled themselves somewhat, they're pulling him back up, demoting Hugo Flores (.196, 3, 11) in the process. Villafana will platoon with Francisco Martinez (.254, 4, 31); Martinez has lost 50 points off of his average but he's still only 24. Villafana himself is only 25 so it works to try both guys out for a bit.
Outfield: LF Jared Ferrell (.271, 4, 13) needs to play somewhere but at the same time I'm not yet convinced Andrew Powell (.233, 1, 13) can't be the .298 hitter he was last year. Maybe I'll make the full transition after September 1. For now, Powell's been reeeeeeally bad since at his best he's an empty average hitter.
CF Fernando Ceballos (.225, 1, 16) isn't hitting at all either but he's just keeping the spot warm until Bruce Springsteen (.263, 2, 3) comes back from the back issues that sent him to the DL earlier in the month. The Boss doesn't look like he'll be back until September so we "get" to watch another month plus of this.
July 27: Looks like this is the week of the awful (60 loss) clubs, as we're getting a look at the
Cincinnati Reds (44-60, 6th NL West). What happened? I wish I knew the answer and I'll probably try to cover it in more depth in the offseason reports but for now I'll just look to retool for 1972 and beyond I guess. One of the little quirks about playing the way that I play is that real-life Cincinnati circa 1971 was certainly not in "rebuild mode" and so it's going to be interesting to see what happens this offseason to say the least.
Rotation: So Tom Bertan's (2-10, 7.51) already on the DL with an injury I called "lack of talent" because I was feeling especially peevish, so I don't have to think about what to do with the guy until next March. At the risk of dithering, Greg Shrewsbury (3-4, 4.26, 1 Sv) was in the rotation for two starts, one OK and one awful and the man is a reliever so he goes back to the 'pen. In his place I'll bring back Mike Johnson (2-0, 3.00), who's been limited to 18 innings so far this year after tearing a ligament in his elbow in June of 1970. He's 34 and injury-prone but he also used to be really good. Why not? And I guess I'm keeping Ricky Rosas (3-11, 4.55, 9 Sv) in the rotation because he's been useless in the bullpen and now says he always wanted to be a starter anyway. He's still only 28 so could recover.
Bullpen: The new stopper is Edward James Olmos (1-0, 0.38, 3 Sv), which... I had some friends who used to run a podcast about bad movies and they once reviewed a movie that had a guy who looked sort of like Olmos in it who they called "Edward James Almost". I can't for the life of me remember who they called Edward James Almost. Anyway, Olmos is one of the few really good performers on this team. Speaking of, I keep almost cutting LOOGY Terrance Bryant (2-1, 7.00, 2 Sv) but then I mouse over him and see that since joining Cincy he's 2-0, 2.16 with both of those saves. I do feel like I might have been too nice in giving Justin Vogel (0-0, 0.00) a shot after he missed the first half of the season. Yeah, it's only one game but he was really wild in his rehab stint (18 walks in 24 innings) and the team has a youngster in Manny Rivera (5-1, 2.02, 7 Sv in AAA Indianapolis) who looks better and also is mad that he's not in the bigs already.
Lots of moves there, whew! Well, the Reds have the worst bullpen in the National League.
Infield: 1B Nick Miller (.283, 6, 31) looks like a stopgap solution and I'd love to say "hey, the Reds have this guy waiting in the wings" but that guy Clay Wakefield has been awwwwwful in AAA - .194, 3, 14 in 155 at-bats. Dude hit .354 in Indy last year and looked to me like he'd be the guy but I think you have to clear the Timonen Line in the minor leagues before you get a chance in the majors. Looks to me like the question of who replaces Miller will be a 1972 question... actually, no, because they have Carlos Gomez (.231, 8, 37) and Junior Cannon (.226, 12, 43), who both deserve to start, and Cannon's actually a really good fielder at first so that's what's happening now.
3B Bobby Kralcevic (.205, 8, 41) was definitely hitting above his head last year but man, dude is not a .205 hitter either. I already have him giving up starts to Fidelio Guerrero (.290, 0, 3) and Scott Dorman (.191, 1, 8 but he's a right-handed batter) and I think that's as far s it goes. Bobby K has 322 at-bats so far; I want to get him at least 400 before I think about shutting things down.
Dorman's also been filling in for Mike Wendt (.218, 5, 31) at shortstop, who looked like a decent, probably like top 5ish NL SS last year but has fallen off. Even fielding-wise, he's fallen from a 1.4 ZR to a -2.6 now. Like Bobby K, he has to be better than this.
Outfield: As noted, getting Gomez into the lineup was the big "get" here.
Also in a mostly administrative move, I cut reserve OF Ben Menke (.143, 0, 0) and purchased the contract of John Penn (.279, 3, 14 in AAA Indianapolis). Frankly, I'm not even convinced that Penn is actually an upgrade over Menke, who was also as much of a clubhouse leader as a guy who had 14 at-bats all season long can be, but it's "try things out" season in Cincy and if Penn can't hit and the team gets even worse... well, draft picks.
July 28: Good teams get reviewed too! Just not as often. In any case, the
Atlanta Braves (66-40, 1st NL West) dropped #40 and so it's time for a review, as quick as it might be.
Rotation: The starters' ERA - 2nd in the NL at 3.28 is actually really good considering they play half their games at the Launching Pad. I don't expect I'll need to make any changes here... I guess at most I could flip-flop #3 guy Felix Carranza (12-5, 3.78) and #4 man Jake Cari (9-8, 3.37) just based on ERA but I trust Carranza a little bit more and even when Cari's throwing well, he's more of a 6-7 inning guy at best. A good piece to have as your last starter, don't get me wrong.
Bullpen: Likewise, the Braves' bullpen is 3rd in the NL (3.07) and John Winn (7-3, 0.97, 20 Sv) is clearly the best stopper in the NL (sorry Paz Lemus!). The guys behind Winn - Sung-jin Lee (0-3, 4.11, 5 Sv) and Steve Hollopeter (3-2, 4.06, 2 Sv) look more vulnerable but meh, why mess with success?
Infield: Backup C Andres Gamez (.299, 4, 19) looks like he might be ready to go as a starter but memories of last season make me not want to bail on Danny Coyle (.199, 8, 32) too early. I'm more or less keeping things Gucci but Gamez should play a bit more now (every 3rd game vs every 5th).
With incumbent 3B Vicente Luna (.272, 7, 38) on the DL with an unknown-duration back injury and last year's backup Mike Medford (.203, 3, 13) not hitting at all, I'm turning to recent call-up and semi-prospect William Jefferson Clinton (.206, 0, 4) to handle the bulk of at-bats until Luna gets back. Clinton isn't really expected to hit either but he's a plus fielder with A+ range for a third baseman and hopefully will help counteract some of the iffy range of the middle infield tandem of 2B Kevin Dwyer (.294, 11, 44, ZR of -2.3) and SS Jon Reid (.273, 2, 37, -2.0 ZR). Unfortunately neither Dwyer nor Reid are trained at third so I can't just shift one of them over there; that's especially too bad because Clinton's skillset looks even better as a 2B or SS.
Outfield: Nothing to do here. There are three clearly defined starters and a good 4th OFer who gets to play a lot.
July 28: Yep, and the
Cleveland Indians (43-60, 6th AL East) are just plain bad this year. They don't even really have key injuries as an excuse; just, a lot of guys regressed. Anyway, let's see what needs to be changed. Good news is, their farm system is ranked 3rd! It's all pitching at the top, which I guess is good news in the long run as well.
Rotation: I've already made the changes I was going to make in the rotation to open the second half. Chiefly, #3 propect according to BNN Robbie Coltrane (0-2, 6.94) is in there now along with Fernando Zavala (1-2, 3.60), who spent the first half in the bullpen after missing most of the last 2 seasons. Hope springs eternal!
Bullpen: Eric Godard (0-2, 2.74, 9 Sv) has a crazy meltown to shutdown ratio (6 MDs, 7 SDs) for a guy with superficially good stats. Still, he's performing in the bullpen and that's more than what I can say for a lot of the guys who've come out of the pen for the Tribe this year. Actually, as it currently stands the only guy who's not playing well is long reliever Chris Regan (3-4, 5.40) and his main thing is trying to recapture the magic that got him 15 wins in 1969.
Infield: Catcher has been a weak spot but it should be noted that Cleveland's actually 1st in the AL in runs scored. The teams are very bunched up so 1st doesn't mean what it used to, but suffice it to say that they aren't really having issues scoring. Anyway, Joe Wolfe (.226, 0, 14) is more or less their starter until they find someone better.
2B TJ Pritchett (.233, 7, 26) keeps getting injured this season and I'd give serious thought to replacing him except nobody's better. He's also a very good defender (6.9 ZR) and walks a ton (.367 OBP) so he's better than he looks at first glance.
I'm not really sure what to do about SS John Johnson (.233, 3, 20) except I guess to keep using him. He's hitting .265 for the month, which is better but still a far cry from hitting .340 and leading the league in hits, runs scored, and at-bats like he did last year. Righties have given him fits this year, holding him to a .200 BA with 1 HR in 284 at-bats and that's why I'm spelling him with light-hitting Chris Grube (.171, 1, 4).
Outfield: CF/4th OF Jorge Sanchez (.255, 0, 8) is nothing special but, like, Russ Deuser (.220, 7, 24) isn't either and there's no reason whatsoever why Deuser should ever play tired for Sanchez will get some regular ABs there. Whoop de do!