Standings / Recap / Comments
------------------------
WE'RE COMIN TO American League
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Boston Red Sox 89 50 .640 - 602 451
Detroit Tigers 78 61 .561 11 579 523
Washington Senators 74 64 .536 14½ 575 494
Baltimore Orioles 70 64 .522 16½ 521 485
New York Yankees 66 73 .475 23 579 591
Cleveland Indians 60 80 .429 29½ 588 656
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Oakland Athletics 73 66 .525 - 516 545
California Angels 70 69 .504 3 542 521
Minnesota Twins 68 68 .500 3½ 556 573
Kansas City Royals 66 72 .478 6½ 581 653
Chicago White Sox 60 78 .435 12½ 511 542
Milwaukee Brewers 54 83 .394 18 443 559
WHOA WHOA MERCY MERCY ME THE National League AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
St. Louis Cardinals 75 65 .536 - 602 600
Philadelphia Phillies 74 66 .529 1 605 540
Pittsburgh Pirates 74 67 .525 1½ 533 513
New York Mets 72 66 .522 2 577 546
Chicago Cubs 65 74 .468 9½ 618 666
Montreal Expos 55 82 .401 18½ 527 650
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Atlanta Braves 82 60 .577 - 693 562
Houston Astros 78 63 .553 3½ 629 614
San Diego Padres 68 72 .486 13 579 583
Cincinnati Reds 67 75 .472 15 574 607
San Francisco Giants 66 74 .471 15 545 577
Los Angeles Dodgers 64 76 .457 17 574 598
Power Rankings
Code:
Rank Team Pts Td Record PCT AVG ERA Pyt.Rec Diff
1st (1st) Boston 131 o 89-50 .640 .271 2.93 87-52 2
2nd (4th) Detroit 105 + 78-61 .561 .259 3.32 76-63 2
3rd (11th) St. Louis 103 ++ 75-65 .536 .271 3.81 70-70 5
4th (3rd) Houston 101 - 78-63 .553 .262 3.93 72-69 6
5th (15th) California 100 ++ 70-69 .504 .254 3.31 72-67 -2
6th (8th) Washington 98 + 74-64 .536 .261 3.05 79-59 -5
7th (2nd) Atlanta 97 -- 82-60 .577 .260 3.53 84-58 -2
8th (7th) Philadelphia 96 - 74-66 .529 .254 3.55 77-63 -3
9th (9th) Oakland 96 o 73-66 .525 .263 3.48 66-73 7
10th (6th) Baltimore 93 -- 70-64 .522 .253 3.16 71-63 -1
11th (5th) New York 93 -- 72-66 .522 .247 3.68 72-66 0
12th (20th) San Diego 92 ++ 68-72 .486 .257 3.76 70-70 -2
13th (19th) Kansas City 92 ++ 66-72 .478 .242 4.44 62-76 4
14th (16th) Pittsburgh 88 + 74-67 .525 .253 3.15 73-68 1
15th (17th) San Francisco 88 + 66-74 .471 .250 3.66 66-74 0
16th (10th) Minnesota 87 -- 68-68 .500 .259 3.80 66-70 2
17th (18th) Los Angeles 84 + 64-76 .457 .251 3.64 67-73 -3
18th (13th) Cincinnati 83 -- 67-75 .472 .245 3.93 67-75 0
19th (12th) New York 81 -- 66-73 .475 .249 3.86 68-71 -2
20th (14th) Chicago 77 -- 65-74 .468 .261 4.28 65-74 0
21st (24th) Montreal 76 ++ 55-82 .401 .256 4.29 56-81 -1
22nd (23rd) Chicago 72 + 60-78 .435 .247 3.64 65-73 -5
23rd (21st) Cleveland 70 - 60-80 .429 .256 4.18 63-77 -3
24th (22nd) Milwaukee 57 - 54-83 .394 .240 3.55 54-83 0
As we head into Labor Day, 3 out of the 4 divisions have a pennant race a'brewing. The closest one is the NL East with 4 teams within 2 games of the top spot. St. Louis is on top right now but St. Louis as a team has only scored 2 more runs than they've allowed so I'm more than a little skeptical they can hang there. The odds have them with a 38.5% chance of winning the division, which is the plurality but obviously well under 50% and just barely ahead of the Philles at 33.5%. Pittsburgh (11.1%) and the Mets (16.7%) both have a fighting chance and even the Cubs are not mathematically eliminated yet.
The AL West has been the division we've been highlighting, mostly because neither the A's nor the Twins can win games consistently enough to establish themselves. In fact, that's led this week's yuppies the California Angels back into the chase. The Angels won all 5 of their games last week and in so doing, find themselves 3 games back with a 3 game series at Oakland coming up tomorrow. This is their last series against the A's but they do have a one-night doubleheader of a series next week vs. the Twins and the season-ender at home against that club... and what has to be the easiest schedule of any contender otherwise, with the remainder of their games all against sub-.500 teams.
The one race I haven't covered at all because it's been over since early August is the AL East. I should point out there, though, that the Red Sox would totally be the yuppies if they weren't already #1 in power rankings, as they've won 8 in a row and, even with the Tigers earning their way into 2nd place in the power rankings, have cut their magic number to 13. The Yankees meanwhile dropped series vs the Senators and Tigers this past week to earn the dirty hippie of the week award. The Red Sox' magic number against the Bombers is exactly 1 - a single Red Sox win or Yankees loss officially eliminates them.
Major Transactions
------------------------
August 31: The Cubs traded OF Adam Groves (.264, 11, 39) to the A's for CF Mike Schurke (.280, 1, 21). The actual transaction was a lot smaller than this but hey, both these teams have kind of gaping holes they can fill with each other. Um. Phrasing. The Cubs just have not been into Groves for a while now and I think the long-term plan has always been to replace him eventually. He's only a medium average hitter with good but not great power and his biggest attribute - the ability to get on base via walks - is not super highly valued in Chicago. Schurke was the A's starter last year but they have Alex Vallejo (.315, 4, 21) now and even if/when he gets hurt they seem to have better options up the middle.
September 1: The Twins traded RP Todd Thiesen (1-3, 5.59, 5 Sv) to the Cardinals for minor league 3B Coleman Agnew (.358, 0, 11 in AAA Tulsa) and minor league RP Jimmy Davidson (4-1, 0.62, 5 Sv at AA Arkansas). This move for the Twins is mainly to cut ties with Thiesen, who got blown up a few too many times since returning from nearly a year out of the game this summer. They get back... mostly scraps for him. Agnew is a career organizational soldier whose main value is to protect against Mike Brookes playing both hurt and tired, and Davidson is a 26 year old who's too old for his level but who nevertheless dominated it.
September 1: The White Sox claimed 2B Chance Hopka (.232, 1, 10) on waivers from California. Hopka feels like he's been playing forever but he's still only 28 and he should challenge Ian Reeder (.248, 6, 34) for the rest of the month as well as spring training in 1972. Cal would have preferred for Hopka to clear waivers of course. They're kind of stacked at the keystone position though.
News
-----------------------
August 30: Ugh the top music gets EVEN WORSE this week...
1. Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey, Paul and "Linda" McCartney - YOU SHOULD BE SORRY PAUL MCCARTNEY FOR CAUSING MY EARS PAIN
2. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Bee Gees - I would be happy to see them trending downward except for the new #1
3. Smiling Faces Sometimes - The Undisputed Truth
4. Spanish Harlem, Aretha Franklin
5. Go Away Little Girl, Donny Osmond - Seriously, 1971, you uprooted Mercy Mercy Me for this!?
I had to sit through this and now you do too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y8fDsU0hX8
This is what happens when you let Paul McCartney roam too far away from John Lennon: good production and interesting musical moments wrapped around a just plain horrible song. Go back to playing second, Paul! Also I am skeptical that Linda was actually a part of this because, well, the only place she could be in here is in the background and I've heard bootlegs of Wings several years after this song was produced where it's very clear she's, um, let's just say tone deaf. I guess there's like one line where a woman says something in the "Admiral Halsey" half of this song but... I think Frank Zappa sampled Moon's voice throughout "Valley Girl" for example and I don't think she got a co-artist nod on that.
I will give "Halsey" a nod for not being as awful as the "Uncle Albert" half. Early 70s, why do you have so much sappy, string-filled horrendousness?
Also I was unfamiliar with Smiling Faces Sometimes so here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXSHRJYxTQ
I want to get behind a soul group, especially with all this dross around them, but man, I don't know. These lyrics... "a smile is just a frown turned upside down" YOU DO NOT NEED TO RHYME EVERY ****ING LINE
YouTube has decided to play "The Goodbye Look" by Donald Fagen on autoplay after this song, as if to comfort me by reminding me that a decade later, music got good again. Even here though, Steely Dan from this era is kind of meh, with one of their few good songs in the early 70s being "Only A Fool Would Say That", which itself is a response song to the treacly "Imagine" by John Lennon. I wish someone had made a response song to "Uncle Albert". I guess any good top 40 song is in a sense a response song to "Uncle Albert" as it makes one realize that pop musicians can, in fact, not suck.
August 30: The Progressive Conservatives defeat the Social Credit government in Alberta, ending 36 years of uninterrupted power for Social Credit in the province. "Progressive Conservatives"?
August 30: With his team desperate to make up ground, I chose not to DL SS Jordan Green (.272, 9, 51), who was diagnosed with a sprained wrist on his throwing hand today, and instead have him play second base until the injury heals in 3-4 weeks. This means displacing Jon Sherron (.275, 1, 10), which I don't like a whole lot, but there aren't a lot of good options here.
August 30: The NL Player of the Week was Cubs RF Nelson Hernandez (.278, 8, 39), who was recently promoted to cleanup due to the poor hitting by Jason Workman (.261, 20, 74) and the injury to Jeremy Taylor (.259, 17, 57) that's taken him all the way out of the lineup. Hernandez responded by hitting .500 (12-24) with 2 HRs, 7 R, and 7 RBI for a team that somehow finds itself not completely out of the playoff picture with Labor Day Weekend fast approaching. This is the first time the 2-time All-Star has ever won this award.
August 30: The AL Player of the Week for the second time in his career was pesky Tigers CF Alvin Romero (.341, 8, 33), who went 14-26 (.538) with 2 HRs in the leadoff role, 6 runs scored, and a steal (in 3 attempts but hey, this is a good award). Romero has hit .423 since returning from a strained groin muscle that cost him most of August. Needless to say, he's leading the AL in average now. He's also a close 2nd in steals to Kansas City's Dave Corona (.290, 12, 53), with 44 thefts to "Cookie Monster"'s 47.
August 30: Also, the entire AL has the day off - slackers! - but I keep forgetting to bring this up so I will now: Cleveland 3B Bobby Ramirez (.338, 11, 53) is on a 31 game hitting streak. OOTP doesn't generally do a great job with long hitting streaks so it's nice to see. The record is 40 games set by Matt Clayton in 1957 (not bad!) and there have been 2 other 30+ game streaks in modern history, the last of which was a 32 game streak set by the recently retired Alex Cardenas. Will Martinez break the record?
August 30: Meanwhile for the Pirates, when it rains it pours... today they lost C Doug Connally (.264, 8, 34) for the next three weeks with an oblique strain. I guess to some extent this was to be expected, as Connally is not known for his durability (and I mean, catcher), but they are pretty thin behind the guy. Brent "Data" Spiner (.323, 1, 5) hit way over his head as a backup previous to this; maybe he'll wind up being decent?
August 31: John Lennon, WHO IS ALREADY IN THE US PLAYING IN THE MINOR LEAGUES HELLO, leaves Britain for New York City, never to return.
August 31: Giants OF Jon Berry (.259, 1, 12), the man with a career .246 average and a .340 career slugging percentage, is very unhappy because he wants to start. I was initially thinking "oh, he's mad about the losing and this is how it's expressing himself" but nope, he's unhappiest about team transactions (which I think is analogous to "stop signing people or calling people up who play my position") and role on team. I guess when he came over via the trade (which maybe he also didn't like?) he came over expecting to start, I don't know. So all that said, I've got nothing better to do with the Giants and Berry does bat left. First base is a weak position for SF; why not just give him a try in a platoon role? (answer: because he can't hit)
August 31: Cleveland 3B Bobby Ramirez (.335, 11, 53) flied to center field in the 9th to end an 0-5 night in the second game of a double-header. This snapped his hitting streak at 32 games, tied for the 2nd longest in modern history (which, hey, did include the low-offense 60s). "I'm a little bummed, sure," said Ramirez after the game. "But I feel a lot better about winning." The Indians won 8-5 and in fact swept this double-header, which was played in Detroit, thanks in large part to an absolutely monster game from 1B Ernesto Garcia (.263, 51, 119), who went 5-10 with *4* HRs and *9* RBIs. Speaking of, with the first dinger in the 2nd game (he had 2 in each), Garcia became the 5th player in modern history to belt 50 HRs in a single season. He's also back on pace to hit 60+ and needs just 3 more to tie Beau Dooley for the AL record.
August 31: Looks like we're not going to see White Sox OF Alice Cooper (.284, 19, 44) make a run at the rookie HR record this year, as he's out for more or less the rest of the season after getting drilled in the wrist by Twins starter Angelo Ramos (11-17, 3.91). Karma came back to feed on Ramos, as he hit in the winning run in the top of the 8th as the White Sox won the game 5-4. The teeniest, tiniest, silver lining to this cloud is that it affords them the opportunity to call up speedster and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger (.240, 6, 39 at AAA Louisville), who stole 42 bases in AAA ball this year.
September (general): Forces from the Royal Thai Army recapture several positions in the territory of Laos on the south bank of the Mekong in response to an encroaching Chinese presence to the north.
September 1: (IRL baseball) The Pirates field what is believed to be the first all-Black lineup in MLB history.
September 1: A new month is beginning and that means the second-to-last round of montly awards! Let's get started in the NL with the Rookie of the Month: it goes to Giants starting pitcher Moises Melendez (12-8, 2.74), who went a deceptively urbane 2-1 with a 1.60 ERA in 6 starts and 45 innings. After a pretty bad August (2-2, 5.46), San Francisco has been keeping him on a pretty short leash and the results as of late have been very positive.
September 1: In the AL, it's probably not hard to guess who the Rookie of the Month was. Yep, it was White Sox RF Alice Cooper (.284, 19, 44). He's out for the next 3-4 weeks, sadly, but he hit .280 with 9 HRs, 21 R, and 19 RBI - if the average was just a little higher, he could have won Player of the Month outright.
September 1: The NL Pitcher of the Month is a guy who might be making the NL Cy Young race interesting: Pirates pitcher Jeremy Battaglia (20-11, 2.56). He went 6-2 with a 1.85 ERA in 8 starts with a K/BB ratio of 34/12 in 68 IP. Yeah, he's a finesse guy, but he sure finessed the job done.
September 1: Meanwhile the AL guy is probably the front-runner for the Cy, Red Sox SP Justin Kindberg (21-5, 2.20). He's leading the league in wins thanks in large part to a huge 7-0, 2.03 month with 3 complete games, a shutout, and 48 Ks in 62 IPs. Kindberg was raking before but he really turned up the heat in August.
September 1: Finally, the Players of the Month: first for the NL, we've got Red LF Carlos Gomez (.306, 14, 52), who hit .321 with 5 HRs, 21 RBIs, and 25 runs scored. Cincinnati had/has a really rough year but they really turned it around in August, finishing the month 18-11. Gomez was a huge, huge part of that.
September 1: I don't expect the AL MVP award to go to a leadoff hitter but if it did there are worse guys out there than Tigers CF Alvin Romero (.339, 8, 43), who won the August Player of the Month award by hitting .404 with an unleadoffy 5 HRs and 27 runs scored - a run a game! He's currently slowed down by a strained abdominal muscle so he might just not get the counting stats you might need to win the MVP - he'd need 43 more hits to get 200, 12 doubles to get to 40, even 14 runs to reach 100 might be tough - but he's truly one of the toughest outs in all of baseball (and of course when he does work his way onto the basepaths, he's 44/54 in steals, good for 2nd in the league and 3rd in all of baseball).
September 1: And FINALLY (on my side, I spent a couple hours expanding every team's rosters, so this definitely feels like a FINALLY to me), let's take a look at the Cy Young race. For the AL"
Code:
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- +
| last_name | first_name | throws | team | w | l | Sv | era | g | gs | cg | sho | ip | bb | so | CYP |
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- +
| Kindberg | Justin | R | BOS | 21 | 5 | 0 | 2.20 | 34 | 34 | 15 | 6 | 266 | 84 | 193 | 220.9 |
| Akright | Vince | L | WAS | 18 | 11 | 0 | 1.98 | 32 | 32 | 13 | 5 | 259 | 73 | 169 | 192.0 |
| Mosher | Tracy | R | NYY | 19 | 13 | 0 | 3.24 | 34 | 34 | 13 | 6 | 255 | 52 | 181 | 158.7 |
| Sanchez | Marco | L | BOS | 15 | 9 | 0 | 2.16 | 26 | 26 | 12 | 3 | 204 | 32 | 128 | 150.0 |
| Benavides | Chris | L | MIN | 18 | 16 | 0 | 3.22 | 35 | 35 | 8 | 4 | 251 | 75 | 153 | 142.2 |
| Pesco | Michael | R | BOS | 17 | 14 | 0 | 3.39 | 35 | 35 | 13 | 3 | 263 | 99 | 212 | 141.8 |
| Ring | Andy | L | CAL | 15 | 8 | 0 | 2.65 | 26 | 26 | 8 | 5 | 193 | 87 | 134 | 140.4 |
| Molina | Edgar | L | DET | 17 | 12 | 0 | 3.08 | 30 | 30 | 10 | 2 | 222 | 74 | 152 | 140.0 |
| Hinojosa | Sandy | L | BOS | 14 | 9 | 0 | 3.04 | 30 | 30 | 6 | 3 | 224 | 69 | 154 | 130.3 |
| Luiso | Montay | R | BAL | 10 | 6 | 22 | 2.78 | 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 87 | 12 | 58 | 129.2 |
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- +
Kindberg's got himself a nice, nice lead in there but I don't think it's a 100% given; Vince Akright is awfully good himself and his team could try to get some hardware for what's increasingly looking like their last year in Washington, DC. Tracy Mosher is last year's winner and he's still a dark horse candidate; if he had a proper amount of run support, surely he'd be higher. Montay Luiso just baaaarely creeps into the bottom of the list as the only reliever.
On to the NL:
Code:
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- +
| last_name | first_name | throws | team | w | l | Sv | era | g | gs | cg | sho | ip | bb | so | CYP |
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- +
| Arango | Santos | R | PIT | 22 | 5 | 0 | 2.19 | 34 | 34 | 15 | 4 | 271 | 62 | 185 | 226.0 |
| House | George | L | ATL | 22 | 5 | 0 | 2.70 | 32 | 32 | 9 | 3 | 243 | 55 | 161 | 200.4 |
| Waiters | Steve | R | CIN | 20 | 9 | 0 | 2.53 | 34 | 34 | 11 | 2 | 266 | 79 | 181 | 191.9 |
| Battaglia | Jeremy | R | PIT | 20 | 11 | 0 | 2.56 | 34 | 34 | 13 | 5 | 277 | 57 | 139 | 189.5 |
| Rivera | Tony | R | HOU | 21 | 8 | 0 | 3.12 | 35 | 35 | 9 | 2 | 273 | 110 | 172 | 183.0 |
| Winn | John | L | ATL | 10 | 4 | 26 | 0.88 | 51 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 17 | 73 | 160.6 |
| Carrillo | Ernesto | L | NYM | 17 | 9 | 0 | 3.31 | 32 | 32 | 6 | 1 | 236 | 129 | 205 | 146.2 |
| Saus | Geoff | L | NYM | 11 | 11 | 25 | 2.55 | 60 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 98 | 36 | 96 | 140.9 |
| Quintana | Roger | R | PHI | 15 | 11 | 0 | 3.00 | 32 | 32 | 9 | 1 | 237 | 68 | 175 | 136.2 |
| Sanders | Jason | L | CHC | 16 | 10 | 0 | 3.33 | 29 | 29 | 9 | 0 | 221 | 90 | 137 | 128.2 |
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- +
Cy Young Points say that this isn't quite neck and neck but... I feel like it is. Steve Waiters, as awful as his team has been this year, is not at all out of the mix either, and neither is August Pitcher of the Month Jeremy Battaglia. I guess I'd even list Tony Rivera as a strong dark horse, especially if the Astros make a push in the final month (having just looked over their roster, that seems very, very unlikely, but still). If you didn't have multiple guys finishing with 25+ wins, Braves stopper John Winn would be right in the mix as well. He's having a Dennis Eckersley in 1988 type of season, except with even more innings pitched.
September 1: This will be a bigger deal on the 2nd and 3rd but I will forget by then so... the A's and Twins, currently 1 1/2 games apart, have a huge series coming up this weekend in Minneapolis. Also, the Mets and Phillies, who themselves were tied for the NL East lead coming in to today, have a big *5* game series of their own starting on the 2nd and extending until Sunday the 5th. Both teams, interestingly (at least to me), have a series at the other team's stadium the following weekend.
September 2: The United Arab Republic is renamed to the Arab Republic of Egypt. This was basically a name change to reality, as the "united republic" between Egypt and Syria had ceased to be a thing 10 years ago.
September 2: 43 year old 1B David Decker (.235, 12, 38) wants to start for the Senators but he's not going to, not with 25 year old George W. Bush (.245, 9, 29) pretty well outhitting him. Given the way these things are going, and given that Washington has essentially no chance at the AL East title, this translates into "screw it, I'm retiring". Decker finishes his career with 2,672 hits, 417 HRs, 1,522 RBI, and a .291 average. He won the NL MVP back in 1957 when he hit .319 with 35 HRs and 113 RBIs and made the All-Star Game a total of 12 times. This guy is a a shoo-in for the Hall, I think.
September 2: With a 10-9 loss to the Tigers the Cleveland Indians (60-77) became the first team in the American League to be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. This loss, while inevitable, put a final exclamation point on a bad, bad year for Cleveland, who was expected to contend this season but instead sees themselves 5 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the AL East cellar. 1B Ernesto Garcia (.264, 53, 124) collected his 53rd HR in the 10-9 loss, which saw the team come back from a 4-1 deficit to take an 8-4 lead which the bullpen promptly squandered. Tigers stopper Alex Madrigal (8-5, 2.31, 14 Sv) got the somewhat vultured victory after he allowed the Indians to break open an 8-8 tie in the top of the 9th only to be the pitcher of record when Malik Johnson (1-1, 5.09) melted down in the bottom half of the inning. Cleveland, unsurprisingly, is dead last in the AL with 634 runs allowed and starters' ERA of 4.31.
September 2: This series could be for all the marbles. The Phillies and Mets opened up a 5-game series at Veteran's Stadium that could break up the logjam in the AL East. Today the winners were the Phillies, 5-4, behind their ace Marius Gaddi (14-17, 3.23), who threw a couple of mistake pitches to Mets 1B Joshua "Superman" Waltenbery (.322, 19, 81) but otherwise navigated through 7.1 innings before giving the ball to lefty specialist Josh Willie (2-2, 2.47) and stopper Tom "Hippie" Grohs (9-5, 3.47), who picked up his 17th save to close this one out.
September 3: Cubs P Victor Marin (5-10, 4.36) wants back into the rotation that I kicked him out of for ineffectiveness. At 30, I'd say Marin is too young to force-retire (and he's not at a point of demanding a trade anyway) but this is a guy who at his best was a mid-rotation innings eater. The past 3 years he's hasn't even really been that: that 4.36 ERA is his lowest during that span. In a nutshell, I'll ignore him but stick him on the trading block in case I remember to ever use that.
September 3: Royals P Joe Field (4-1, 2.83) went a step further and *did* demand a trade. He's had a good year with KC but let's be realistic here: that good season came after Milwaukee waived him in May. Here though I think I will go ahead and stick him in the rotation if for no other reason than the fact that the Royals' rotation right now is really bad. He is a 3 time All-Star, so that's nice. His last ASG was in 1965, so not so nice, but maybe he can put together a couple of good starts and, like, fool someone into thinking he's back.
September 3: The big A's-Twins series opens with Oakland coming back from a 4-2 deficit to win, 5-4. CF Alex Vallejo (.305, 4, 22) issued the key hit in the 7th that first closed the gap to 4-3 and then, when he came around to score, tied it up, and then grizzled veteran 1B John Skelton (.239, 4, 17) launched the game-winner over the center field fence off Twins starter Mike Larsen (11-11, 4.21). Roberto Ortiz (12-15, 3.72) was his normal wild self but kept it together for 7 innings to earn the victory.
September 3: And with an easy 9-4 win in the nightcap, the A's leap out to a 3 1/2 game lead and drive the Twins all the way down to .500 with a record of 67 wins and 67 losses. Pundits now give the Twinkies about a 1 in 8 chance to threepeat the AL West title. RF Richard Berman (.277, 2, 29), a former .300 hitter, went 4 for 5 tonight to lead the A's attack. It wasn't all good news for them, though, as their #1 starter Mike Harris (14-9, 3.04) left the game in the bottom of the 3rd inning with an as-yet undisclosed injury.
Notable in the 2nd game, too, was that Twins 3B Mike Brookes (.262, 21, 55) failed to reach base for the first time in a game since June 29. OK, so he was hurt for some of that time, but still, that's 52 consecutive games on base. You wouldn't know it from the average, I guess, but then again Brookes did collect the second-highest amount of walks last season and is already 15th all time in that category at the still-youngish age of 32.
September 3: Cleveland 1B Ernesto Garcia (.262, 54, 125) had just one hit in tonight's game against the Red Sox but it was a long one. His solo HR off of Sandy Hinojosa (14-9, 3.14) in the 2nd inning tied the American League record set by Beau Dooley in 1961. In classic Indians fashion, they wound up tying the game up and sending it to extra innings, where they lost 10-9, although in not classic Indians fashion it took 16 innings for the bullpen to finally expire.
September 3: In the NL, the Phillies opened their own huge series vs the Mets in a way that gave their fans a heart attack, getting down 5-2 in the 6th, tying the game in the 8th off of a solo HR by 3B Alex Becerra (.245, 26, 63) and then winning the game outright when CF Bryant Tarala (.221, 17, 58) belted a walk-off grand slam HR in the bottom of the next inning. Somehow they did this all against Mets stopper Geoff Saus (11-12, 3.06, 25 Sv), who blew his 7th save of the season and saw his ERA lurch upwards by 50 points. "I was fortunate to get a pitch I could hit," said Tarala after the game. "It was one heck of a game and I'm just gonna say this now: we're gonna be the world champs!"
September 3: Elsewhere in the NL East, the Pirates knocked off the Expos 7-6 with a 5 run 9th and the Cardinals' bullpen also very nearly gave up a 10-2 lead, winning 10-9. As of now the Phillies (73-64) and Pirates (74-65) are now a single percentage point apart and essentially tied for the division lead with the Cardinals (73-65) 1/2 game back and the Mets (70-65) slipping to 2 games behind.
<note> This is about the time I figured out the big OOTP showstopping bug for fictional leagues, which is that players rated 0 in BABIP are actually rated "worst possible BABIP" instead of "default". I've gone ahead and modified hits all the way down to .790 to account for this statistically (using the numbers I've got so far for September, which include an insane .322 BABIP). I'll see how this plays out going forward and I do have the original going-into-24 ratings if OOTPD ever acknowledges this bug and fixes it.
September 4: A Boeing 727 crashes into the side of a mountain near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board. This is the first fatal flight of an Alaskan Airlines plane and still as of 2023 the worst air disaster in Alaskan history.
September 4: The Free State of Christiana is founded in the middle of Copenhagen, Denmark.
September 4: The Twins get one back at home. They ride starter Victor Ramos (12-17, 3.84) to an easy 8-2 victory to get back to 2 1/2 games back. Minnesota was helped along with homeruns by C Brad Reed (.232, 11, 50), RF Lou Morgenstern (.252, 16, 62), and LF Darrel Bump (.317, 1, 5), not to mention *9* walks issued by A's starter Rick Shelton (12-14, 3.67), who was tagged for 5 runs in 6 innings to get the loss. Remember when he was a relative control guy with the Pilots in 1969? OK in retrospect that was never the case (even in '69 he averaged 4.2 BB/9) but it sure feels like the wildness in Oakland is contagious.
September 4: The Mets hang on to win the first game of today's double-header vs the Phillies, 5-4. Starter Ernesto Carillo (18-9, 3.36) carried a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the 8th but gave up a 3 run homerun to RF Brandon Anderson (.269, 6, 36). That chased him from the game but fortunately for the Mets their setup man Charlie "The Test" Bechtel (5-2, 2.76, 6 Sv) was able to slam the door shut the rest of the way.
The nightcap featured two spot starters going at it: Joe Beane (9-12, 4.53) for the Mets and Dale Parks (0-1, 2.05) for the Phillies. Both of them were chased in the 6th inning. With the score thus tied at 7 apiece in the 8th, Mets SS Brian Wilcox (.254, 7, 28), not exactly a paragon of power, launched one over the Veterans' Stadium center field fence to give the Mets a lead that they would not relinquish. New York stopper Geoff Saus (11-12, 3.03, 26 Sv) came in tired, loaded the bases with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th, and still managed to escape on pure guile. With a Pirates loss to the Expos and an 8-4 Cardinals win at Busch Stadium, it's now St. Louis who's on top of the NL East:
Code:
Cardinals 74-65 -
Pirates 74-66 1/2
Mets 72-65 1
Phillies 73-66 1
September 5: Whatever Oakland does for the rest of the year, they'll have to do it without their #1 starter Mike Harris (14-9, 3.06), who's out long-term with a torn rotator cuff injury. Harris has been a big of a "zig" where the rest of the A's rotation has "zagged" in that he's been a finesse pitcher in spite of a low-90s sinker. Now the A's will have to figure out how to make things work without him.
September 5: It's not often that I get to report on good injury news so here you go! Reds 1B prospect Alonzo Rivera (.304, 1, 3), who broke his knee back in April, has been cleared to play. I'm immediately putting him back into the lineup because the Reds have nothing to lose.
September 5: The A's got a bases loaded double from RF Richard Berman (.282, 2, 33) in the 9th inning off of beleaguered closer Pete Lynn (6-8, 3.28) to win the game 5-2 and the series 3 games to 1. In fact, not only are the Twins back to .500 with this loss, but an 8-4 Angels romp over the Brewers means that California is now in 2nd place in the AL West. Oddsmakers now give Oakland a 71.5% chance to make it to the playoffs with the Angels at 18.5% and the Twins suddenly on the outside looking in with a 8.5% shot.
September 5: The NL West is suddenly turning into a race to the bottom. The Astros only managed to split a doubleheader at San Francisco but even that was enough to gain ground on the Braves, who lost their 5th straight as San Diego completed a series sweep at home. Oddsmakers still give Atlanta an 88% chance of winning the division but they have to start winning games again for that to happen. In fact, next week we're going to get a huge 2-game midweek series between the Astros and Braves at Atlanta. Should Houston win both of those, the West is right there for the taking. These two teams then have one more 2-game midweek series between each other on the 15th and 16th. Atlanta leads the season series 8-6 so far.
September 5: The Phillies wrap up their big series with the Mets with a 4-3 win in 11 innings thanks to an RBI double by pinch-hitter Cris Ramos (.236, 3, 12). The win means Philadelphia won 3 out of 5 games and they're still 1 game back in a tight, tight NL East division (see the standings at the top of this recap!).
Teams in Review
-------------------------
We're getting close to the end of the season, meaning I'm getting close to not doing these anymore for most teams. We'll see!
September 1: I literally just looked at the
Baltimore Orioles (69-60, 3rd AL East) but then I guess I literally just looked at everyone. They're pretty much out of the race even though they're also 9 games over .500 so I started transitioning them to trotting out the young'uns. I don't think there's a lot to do here above and beyond the call-ups but we'll see...
Rotation: I made the rare (in 1971 terms) move of expanding the rotation all the way to 6 men; this works here because the O's have a really, really wide but also flat rotation and I didn't think it was worth putting the top starters TJ Ziegler (7-13, 3.20) and Hector Giron (12-12, 3.68) into the bullpen until they get at least 30 starts. Probably both will finish the year in the rotation because they're good enough. The guy I added was Zachariah Fallon (3-7, 3.67 at AAA Rochester), acquired from the Yankees back in late May for Mike Overmann (3-3, 2.40, 6 Sv in New York). Overmann's turned into their stopper, at least this year; given that, I felt it was a good move to kick the tires on Fallon, who was pretty solid for the Red Wings in spite of what the wins and losses might say.
Bullpen: Other than just bringing everyone up - these rosters get bloated with pitchers because the author has a 90s grindset - no huge changes here. Montay Luiso (10-6, 2.78, 22 Sv) is still technically in the Cy Young mix, I guess, although it would take a massive month by both the O's and Montay himself.
Infield: One big change I did was that I noticed the existence of 23 year old Frank Abagnale (.249, 5, 37 in AAA Rochester), who may or may not be a catching prospect. He certainly likes to stretch the truth about other things (and, I'm told, he likes kiting checks and in fact is playing for the O's farm system on work release). Either way, he's as good a fielder as anyone on the team save Robert Keith (.244, 3, 12), which is not saying much, so we'll kick the tires on him.
Outfield: At the other end of the humanity spectrum, newly promotoed LF Sergio Viera de Mello (.327, 2, 28 at AAA Rochester) got installed at the position for the remainder of the month. You can't find a nicer guy or a better person, and he seems like he might be a good hitter to boot.
September 1: Likewise I'm not sure how much I'll actually change around the
Detroit Tigers (74-60, 2nd AL East), who are not really in the pennant chase either. I should note that this has already been a fantastic year for Detroit baseball fans; the owner's directive of "don't suck completely" should give you an idea of how bad this team looked last year.
Rotation: I'm still working with the 4-man for now, at least until the Tigers get mathematically eliminated. That means no changes here.
Bullpen: Likewise, there are a bunch more relievers up but aside from promoting Jim Marceau (2-3, 2.65, 9 Sv) into the setup role, a move I did mainly just to differentiate him from all the other guys in the bullpen right now, everything's the same.
Infield: 1B Niki "Formula One" Lauda (.314, 17, 61) was sooooo good in the minors. It's too bad that the guy playing 1st right now is Tim Suman (.335, 5, 33), who has been great; for that matter even Suman is only warming the spot for Danny Villegas (.287, 21, 58), who is out for another 2 weeks with a torn flexor tendon in his hip. I forsee trades happening.
Outfield: No changes; I'm sitting CF Alvin Romero (.339, 8, 43) while he recovers from a strained abdominal muscle as a precaution. I really really want to play him though.
September 1: Hey, the
Montreal Expos (52-80, 6th NL East) were kind enough to lose their 80th last night, just in time for me to do NOTHING with them. We'll see!
Rotation: I'm giving TJ Matson (1-3, 9.27) another hitch in the rotation because why not? Well, the why not is that he's been terrible, but the guy I wanted to use, Armani Pinkney (0-0, 3.00) is not ready so I'll probably just one-and-done him. Or else, you know, pull Melvin Navarro (3-11, 5.46) into the bullpen. Navarro entices with his stuff but you just can't trust a guy who's given up 99 walks in 128.2 innings. So far he's nominally been a lot better out of the 'pen anyway (2.65 ERA vs 5.88).
Bullpen: I sent a lot of Expos down earlier this year because they were really bad and most of them are back up again. This should be... fun is not the word I'm looking for.
Infield: There's not a lot I'm changing here... I guess one thing I did was I had SS George Yarbor (.257, 6, 38) spell a little with prospect and heavy metal singer Klaus Meine (.282, 3, 15 at AAA Winnipeg). There will be Gorky Park puns coming in the future, I'm sure.
Outfield: Even less to do here. The team has 4 OFers I'd like to use but of course just 3 spaces. Hmm. Teams usually burn the 1B in those situations, don't they? OK... yeah, 36 year old Armando Munoz (.264, 17, 67) was great in '69 but kind of meh the last two years, so I'll just drop Willie Morales (.256, 20, 70) down there for the last month of the year and play the speedy Anton Mendoza (.292, 6, 26) in that position instead. That doesn't need to be how things look in 1972 but it could be...
September 3: Again, probably won't do much with the
Milwaukee Brewers (54-80, 6th AL West) since I just did look at them, although I guess most of the above reviews are more or less looking at what I already changed, so...
Rotation: I'd do a 6 man rotation here but the Brewers lacked people I wanted to take a look at in September so I still have a relatively short (at least in September terms) 11 man staff. So, like, no changes out here.
Bullpen: Also no real changes. Dave Zapata (9-5, 3.35, 13 Sv) will get another chance to get lefties out - he was sent down earlier after allowing 8 earned runs in 5 innings - but that's pretty much it.
Infield: I'm not sure when exactly I did this but I deided to give 2B Wing-fung Yi (.245, 0, 8) the reins at second for the remainder of the season. This is sure to anger Pat Jones (.321, 0, 11), but Jones is 34 and really doesn't have a long future with this club. Also it'll have the effect of having like 42 guys on the roster with 150 at-bats each but whatever, this is still an expansion team trying to find its footing.
Speaking of, SS Guido Temudo (.208, 1, 10) has not been a good hitter in 120 at-bats but he'll nevertheless start for the rest of the year owing to the fact that he's the Brewers' best fielder at shortstop, and while Andrew Yeater (.219, 1, 15) was supposed to have a better stick, that never materialized. Temudo might get 200 at-bats!
Outfield: The major move here was pushing 1B/OF Josh Zalaznik (.288, 5, 25 at AAA Evanston) into left field vs. LHPs and making Ross Poynor (.251, 9, 34) a righties-only guy for the rest of the year. Poynor's been a bit of a disappointment; Milwaukee was hoping he'd hit like he did in '69 (.298, 8, 41), when he looked like a nice late blooming prospect for the Yankees. Even with an uptick in his game after coming to Milwaukee (he hit .220 in 91 at-bats to open the season in New York before the trade that brought him here), he just looks... average.
September 3: The
Houston Astros (77-60, 2nd NL West) did drop their 60th but they're right there. The early 70s Astros aren't cheaty jerks so hey, if they do catch up to the Braves it'd be fine...
Rotation: They're down to trying 23 year old Don Henley (0-1, 6.75; 9-11, 3.53 in AAA Oklahoma City) and using Josh Mullett (13-12, 4.48) in the back of the rotation but, assuming Garcia doesn't suck, I don't have a massive amount of leeway here.
Bullpen: Adam Eastin (0-0, 0.00) has been injured all year but he's been dumped straight into a high-leverage setup role because Jeff Graton (5-4, 4.22) has been kind of bad. Graton could be the guy to jump back into the rotation if Henley can't cut it.
Infield: A common refrain on this team: 39 year old 1B Justin Richens (.250, 7, 38) played his way out of the lineup but now a ton of injuries have pushed him back into it. I just don't see him sticking around long-term; he seems to have seriously declined this year. Right now, he's all that the Astros have.
SS Jordan Green (.271, 9, 52) is barely adequate at his primary position when he's healthy and he's nursing a sprained wrist, so I've got him playing 2nd until he gets better. I'm a little on the fence on just benching him entirely, as he's not a particularly good 2B either. For now, he is who he is, and Nick Webber (.233, 7, 39 at AAA OKC) is the current shortstop.
Outfield: John Lopez (.264, 6, 48) at least so far is looking adequate in right field, which is a huge upgrade from his "maybe the worst in the league" levels he put up in center. I'm still not huge on the lack of power but what else are you gonna do? OF Jesse Lockhart (.293, 6, 47) is out for the year with a broken hand and even when RF/1B Jaden Weaver (.307, 34, 96) returns it's probably at first base.