[Syd Thrift]

Major Transactions
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October 22: The Angels purchased P Scott Richey (5-7, 4.34 in AAA Hawaii) from the Padres for $1,500. Richey, a former Angel, moves back to Cal in an "our old depth is the best depth" move.

October 22: The Dodgers traded LF Ernie Griffin (.246, 18, 61) to the Twins for 3B prospect DJ Lewis (.284, 5, 28 in AA Charlotte). Lewis is probably a year away, which is fine for the Dodgers, whose big surge at the end of the season kind of hid the fact that they are now in mediocre-ville. Griffin has had a long and excellent career in Tinseltown but his bat went a bit sideways last year and this is a "what have you done for me lately" league.

October 22: The Orioles traded minor league P Jon Diaz (8-11, 3.87 at AA Dallas/Fort Worth) and 3B Leo Lujan (.242, 6, 30 at AAA Rochester) to the Brewers for 3B Mike Morrison (.283, 5, 49) and minor league C Clint Welles (.320, 1, 4 at AAA Evansville). The Brewers continue to purge their roster of anyone over 30, receiving a mid-level pitching prospect and, perhaps, a replacement for Morrison in Lujan in return. If nothing else, Morrison should be available to fill in when the incumpent Marco Perez (.258, 12, 33) inevitably gets hurt.

November 3: The Cardinals traded SS prospect Arthur Faucher (.283, 1, 14 at AA Arkansas) and P Robert McHugh (0-2, 4.61) for SP Raul Mendoza (16-11, 3.45). Mendoza had a good season in Washington after coming in from the White Sox but was reportedly on the outs with management. The Senators/soon-to-be-Rangers get back a solid middle infield prospect who should at least challenge 2B Jose Hernandez (.229, 25, 86), who hit a lot of HRs but also led the AL in strikeouts, as well as the Cards' top pitching prospect in McHugh.

November 3: The Astros traded CF John Rohrbough (.280, 2, 35) to the Cardinals for C Jose Medina (.262, 0, 17). Rohrbough has the range to play center field and the Cardinals hope to use him in conjunction with Jim James to shore up that spot for them. They send back Jose Medina, who figures to give Houston a boost in terms of handling pitchers and covering the plate if not necessarily a great arm.

News
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October 22: I'm getting all of the awards set up but I will wait to reveal the winners until their schedule! I'm pretty sure the schedule goes away once you set up the winners manually but WHATEVER. I'm also already up to 163 hours in the new game so pbpbpbpbpt I guess (although who I'm razzing, I have no idea... Markus I guess)?

October 29: The Gold Glove Award winners were announced for both leagues today.

In the AL:

P Michael Pesco, BOS (1st)
C Josh Lewis, OAK (1st) - Lewis threw out 44.9% of opposing baserunners and that was just plain too much to ignore.
1B Mike Miller, BOS (2nd) - Miller also won in 1969; the incumbent, Jose "Joker" Ayala, played mostly 3B this year. Anyway, Miller is an excellent fielder.
2B Danny Fager, BAL (2nd) - 2nd straight award for Fager, who had a ZR of 16.9 at 2nd base this year.
3B Chase Jones, OAK (1st) - I had to give this to Jones instead of Baltimore's Marco Perez because a. Perez missed missed around 50 games that Jones did not, and b. Jones was, frankly, a better fielder.
SS Oniji Handa, BOS (7th) - Like clockwork, Handa wins another GG.
OF Norm Hodge, CAL (7th) - Hodge took a step back with the bat this year but was as good as he's ever been in the field.
OF Fernando Ceballos, MIL (1st) - I'm not a huuuge fan of handing an award to a guy who will probably only ever have the one season as a starter (Ceballos hit .225/3/23 in 520 at-bats with an OPS of .514) but he was soooo good in the field for the Brewers this year - a 9.2 ZR and *22* baserunner kills.
OF Tom Brown, BOS (2nd) - usually this slot's occupied by a right fielder but Brown played an excellent LF and frankly Jun Kim just plain missed too much time.

And the NL:

P Jason Gilmer, SD (3rd) - Gilmer's a 2 time award winner in the AL so this was an obvious choice.
C Greg Darrow, CHI (1st) - He's on a team with a bad defensive and pitching rep but the stats indicate that Darrow did everything he could to combat that - 12 framing runs and a 38.4% RTO rate.
1B Antonio Lopez, CHI (1st) - This kid is just entering his prime and while I wouldn't expect a lot of these in the future, he's a serviceable first baseman.
2B Pedro Ortiz, CIN (2nd) - Ortiz took a big tumble offensively but, as the saying goes, defense doesn't slump. He posted a FA of .988 - just 9 errors in 761 chances - and a 9.2 ZR.
3B Sean Gabel, CHI (4th) - With 3 GGs on this team, maybe I should re-evaluate their reputation? Gabel wins these every year and for good reason - this year featured a 14.4 ZR.
SS Brian Wilcox, NYM (4th) - John Timonem is no longer starting so this is basically Wilcox's award to lose.
OF Danny Seligman, SF (2nd) - Even missing 37 games this year, The Phantom carried a ZR of 14.9 out there.
OF Bryant Tarala, PHI (2nd) - Another guy coming over from the junior circuit, Tarala got hurt a lot like he always does but also played exemplary CF.
OF Brian Jackson, PIT (1st) - Jackson won in large part because of a strong arm that picked up 10 BRKs, but he also put together a 13.4 ZR in right field so he had a lot of range as well.

October 30: The Rolaids Relief Awards came out:

AL:

1. Montay Luiso, BAL: 11-8, 25 Sv, 3.34 ERA in 69 G
2. Matt Brock, BOS: 9-7, 25 Sv, 3.79 ERA in 59 G
3. Willis Chavez, OAK: 10-5, 18 Sv, 2.34 ERA in 56 G

Matt Brock had the award in the bag but suffered through a really bad last couple of months. In any case, he's plying his trade in Cleveland now. Montay Luiso was a step off his normally lights-out self this year but was still the best man standing. Willis Chavez was probably the best pure reliever on a day-in, day-out basis.

NL:

1. John Winn, ATL: 10-3, 31 Sv, 1.32 ERA in 62 G
2. Geoff Saus, NYM: 11-12, 34 Sv, 2.91 ERA in 75 G
3. Billy Munoz, STL: 10-6, 24 Sv, 2.69 ERA in 67 G

Winn had such an awesome season that he could have won the Cy if the starters' field was smaller (note: it wasn't). Saus was in some ways the Matt Brock of the NL, although Brock was even below average as a pitcher on the season if you're judging by ERA. Enough about Matt Brock! 12 losses is a lot by a stopper, even in 1971. Billy Munoz was awfully good himself but, well, 30+ saves are the 50+ saves of the early 70s.

October 31: It's Silver Slugger time!

AL:

P: Dylan Hamilton, CLE (1st): .312/2/22
C: Josh Lewis, OAK (1st): .293/14/66 and the A's #3 hitter for most of the year
1B: Ernesto Garcia, CLE (1st): .270/65/147 - pretty much any time you tie the all-time record for HRs, you win a SS
2B: Jose Hernandez, WAS (1st): .229/25/86 - not a fan of the BA but it was kind of a weak field this year
3B: Tom Weiss, NYY (1st): .307/27/99 - how he hasn't won one of these before is beyond me
SS: Tyler Knight, WAS (1st): .266/6/69 - in a year where the Big Two shortstops regressed kind of badly at the plate, Knight was who was left
LF: Tom Brown, BOS (1st): .301/17/89 - Everybody's a first-timer this year! What have I done!?
CF: Alvin Romero, DET (2nd): .335/8/48, 50 SB - Romero missed some time this year and his steals were down but he's still the pre-eminent leadoff hitter in baseball
RF: RJ Dominguez, KC (1st): .284/26/85 - This guy just plain stuck out to me as the obvious choice, 1st timer or no

NL:

P: Richard Starkey, PHI (1st): .277/0/16 - One of many to come for Ringo, I think
C: John Stuart, STL (5th): .294/12/59 - A satisfying return to form for Stuart, who fell to .222 last year
1B: Lorenzo Martinez, STL (5th): .265/37/100 - His first as a 1B and a controversial choice - Antonio Lopez mashed as well (.312/42/125) but ultimately I decided that his numbers were inflated by Wrigley and he also put them up for an 85 loss, non-contending team
2B: Paul McCartney, SD (1st): .289/26/87 - Also one of many to come, no doubt. FWIW George Harrison hit .388 as a September call-up; he might be on this list soon as well
3B: Mike Galeana, STL (1st): .238/30/80 - A part-timer and a rookie, yes, but 30 HRs in 382 at-bats is nothing to sneeze at
SS: Jeremy Taylor, CHI (3rd): .268/29/85 - I'm not sure how long I can keep him at short but as long as he's here he's a SS waiting to happen
LF: Justin Lawson, PIT (1st): .250/24/98 - Not eye-popping numbers but he was the heart of a Pirates lineup and just missed the century mark in RBIs
CF: Curtis Hope, NYM (1st): .287/22/85 - Missed out on the GG this year thanks to Bryant Tarala getting traded to the league; he can take this SS as consolation
RF: Henry Riggs, ATL (12th): .299/43/119 - The 36 year old keeps chugging along, leading the NL in HRs and finishing 2nd in RBI

November 1: Getting on to the BIG AWARDS now! First, Rookie of the Year:

AL:

1. 3B Bobby Ramirez, CLE (.344, 15, 67)
2. 2B Israel Gaytan, OAK (.291, 6, 51)
3. 1B Kozue Nakamura, MIL (.313, 4, 65)

This was pretty much Ramirez' award all the way, as he led the AL in hitting. Going forward he could definitely stand to work on the gap power (20 doubles, 10 triples) but, well, .344 is nothing to sneeze at. Izzy Gaytan kind of came out of nowhere to be a solid keystone option for the AL West champion A's. I wouldn't exactly say that the sky's the limit on the guy, but he's serviceable. Nakamura is already 29 but the career farmhand and 1970 Rule V pick (California) socked 177 hits in 565 at-bats to finish 3rd in the AL in average himself.

NL:

1. 2B Paul McCartney, SD (.289, 26, 87)
2. SP Richard Starkey, PHI (19-8, 3.52)
3. LF Willie Morales, MON (.268, 27, 89)

Yep, 1 and 2 are former Beatles and the other 2 members of the old Fab Four are close to breaking in. McCartney is looking like a potential Hall of Fame 2B in the making. His 26 HRs were actually "only" the 15th highest total for a 2nd baseman (Ty Stover hit 37 in 1961) so he's got plenty of room to fill in, and at the baseball age of 22 he's got plenty of time to do it. Ringo won 19 in part because he got the run support that teammate Marius Gaddi (16-20, 3.47) didn't get, but credit where it's due: he finished in the top 10 in BB/9 and H/9, so even if he's more of a finesse guy (4.8 K/9), he's still good enough to be a top pitcher in this league. Morales put up numbers similar to McCartney, only in a corner OF spot. That's still valuable!

November 3: Cy Young award time! I did not track the actual Cy Young Points here and I'm too lazy to pull up the MySQL workbench. These are based on a formula though.

NL:

1. Santos Arango, PIT (24-8, 2.50)
2. Tony Rivera, HOU (25-9, 3.20)
3. Jeremy Battaglia, PIT (22-14, 2.61)

Would real-life voters have marked Arango down for his poor September (2-3, 4.43)? I guess there's an argument to be made that he was ineffective when the Bucs needed him the most (and another one that IRL the pro-Pirates vote would have been split between him and Battaglia). Still, he did lead the NL in ERA and if I'm being perfectly honest, Rivera was only pretty good. A 3.20 ERA in the Astrodome isn't super-amazing, although their team ERA was pretty bad and that made him a much-needed ace. Battaglia might have won in a "normal" year, whatever that means.

AL:

1. Justin Kindberg, BOS (27-6, 2.06)
2. Vince Akright, WAS (18-13, 2.26)
3. Michael Pesco, BOS (20-14, 3.20)

Another deal where theoretically the Boston vote might have split things but here if there were such a thing as a unanimous 1st place vote in the algorithm I think Kindberg would have won it. He just missed the pitching Triple Crown; his 230 Ks were 3rd behind Oakland's Roberto Ortiz (260) and teammate Michael Pesco's (254). OK, that's not all that close. Still, he was really good and also tied the year-old modern record for most wins in a season. The previous record, 26 by Jeff Borden, was set in 1955 and sat untouched throughout the pitching-heavy 60s. Vince Akright had a lowkey great season himself and will now be the staff ace for the newly minted Texas Rangers.

November 4: And the BIG DADDY of awards, the MVP! This year I more or less eyeballed it; sue me.

AL:

1. 1B Ernesto Garcia (.270, 65, 147)
2. 1B Mike Miller (.292, 20, 90)
3. 3B Tom Weiss (.307, 27, 99)

Garcia doesn't hit for average, is the slowest player in the AL, doesn't field well, and is enough of a clubhouse cancer that he got a teammate kicked off by (allegedly) fabricating a claim about the teammate flashing a gun on him. When you hit 65 HRs, even with all that you're the most valuable player. Mike Miller might have a better case if voters were allowed to take the postseason into account; he went 18-48 in the ALCS and the Fall Classic. Tiptoe Tommy Weiss got started pretty late in his career and so only has 2 AS games under his belt as a 32 year old. For now, he's still one of the best players in baseball.

NL:

1. RF Henry Riggs, ATL (.299, 43, 119)
2. 1B Antonio Lopez, CHC (.312, 42, 125)
3. 1B Lorenzo Martinez, STL (.265, 37, 100)

Riggs won by a paper-thin margin; in the end, I decided that while both Lopez and Riggs were helped out a lot by their home parks, Riggs at least put up his gaudy numbers for a division champion while the Cubs lost 85 games this year. Also, I'm sure Lopez will win plenty of hardware in his future; the kid only turned 25 this year. Veteran Lorenzo Martinez hit the century mark in RBIs while amassing just 498 at-bats. Some of that was his customary lack of desire to put the ball in play (Martinez led the league in walks for the 2nd straight year with 113) but he also missed 17 games this season despite moving out of the outfield this year.