[Syd Thrift]

## Standings / Recap / Comments
The big franchise move, of course, involves the Washington Senators moving down to Arlington, Texas and becoming the Texas Rangers. This also necessitates a move from the AL East to the West, and to accommodate them the Brewers move to the East. In retrospect, I get why it was done - Milwaukee's an expansion team and so doesn't have any historical ties - but there's a kind of natural Minneapolis/St. Paul - Milwaukee - Chicago rivalry right there that MLB put the kibosh on by shipping the Brewers out to the East. No wonder why Bud Selig chose to be the guy to move his own team to the National League to balance things out in the 90s...

It looks like the auto-picker is working properly this year for the unis, which is a good thing because it looks like for the 1972 season there was a patch on everyone's uniforms. The 100th anniversary of... the 2nd season of the National Association? I have no idea. So that does mean that for the most part I'm just inputting the ballpark effects for each team. Not a lot to report here; Cleveland and Detroit went a little less extreme HR (so don't expect another 65 dinger season). Most noticeable to me is that Arlington Stadium is actually only 85/90 for HRs. That's still a better HR park than RFK but obviously it's well within "pitcher's park" range. Speaking of, one move I do see here - I use 3 year averages so the trends tend to be small - is Busch going into "destroy the end of Lorenzo Martinez's career" mode; it's now 75/74 for HRs, down from the low 80s.

The Rangers, of course, have all new uniforms. I'm happy to see that they didn't just stick with the Senators rend and white as I thought they had; there's a whole lot of blue that wasn't in there before and the road unis are positively 1970s. I've included the baseball card for their up and coming first baseman George W "Dubya" Bush both so you can get an idea of the new unis (from the neck up anyway) as well as the 1972 Topps cards, which I think are one of the more favorite sets out there.

Minor League Team stuff
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American Association: The Winnipeg Whips (MON) moved out of icy Canadia and to Hampton, VA, where they will be the Peninsula Whips this season. The Wichita Aeros move to becoming a Cubs' affiliate. I chose to just allow the world to burn here and move the rosters of all these teams.

Pacific Coast League: They split east and west instead of north and south this year. The new Eastern Division is comprised of Phoenix (SF), Salt Lake City (CAL), Tucson (CHW), and a new team in Albuquerque (LAD), replacing the Spokane Indians. In the West you've got the Hawaii Islanders (SD), the Eugene Emeralds (PHI), the Portland Beavers (now CLE), and the Tacoma Twins (formerly CHC, now MIN).

Dixie Association: This splits off into 2 separate leagues, the Texas League and the Southern League, and ups its number of teams to 8 apieces so that now all MLB teams have a AA affiliate.

Carolinas League: They dropped from 8 teams to 6, but there are already more than 1 team per A-level affiliate so it's not such a huge deal. At this level, too, I'm just switching teams to match their affiliates and if that means someone gets a big old new influx of minor leaguers, oh well.

Northern League: This short-season A league ceased to operate after 1971.

Dominican Winter League: I'm going to ease into this, try this out and see how it works. I see that there were already also fall instructional leagues but I'll hold off on making those, too. Because I did redo the preseason twice (once because the game crashed and I didn't notice it, once because I accidentally started deleting teams from MLB and had to give it the ol' 3 finger salute) I wound up adding a Venezeulan Winter League as well. We'll see how that works!

Spring Training Camp Battles
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Pretty much every team has a loosely defined bottom of their rotation and bullpen, so I'm not going to really mention pitching...

Atlanta: 35 year old incumbent Vicente Luna will fight off William Jefferson Clinton in a hitting (or what's left of it) vs. defense battle.

Baltimore: I can't just hand the job over to him so Frank Abagnale will duke it out against last year's man David Delgado at catcher. Jon Hernandez will fight things out with veteran 3rd baseman Mike Morrison for the 1st base job. And who will take over for the departed Danny Fager? It's between newcomer Alex Perez and "old" (he's 23) guard Vladimir Yakunin (my first one of these this year). Sergio Viera de Mello also will need to compete for the LF job, this time with TJ Corron. Finally RF Jamal Jenkins can't expect to get a job just handed to him after a .223 season so he'll fight it out with Ralph May. Lots of camp battles... this will not be a good team.

Boston: Bruce Springsteen seems to have the LF job set but I will make him fight it out with 26 year old Cuban national Carlos "Cupcakes" Rodriguez.

California: I fully expect Kurt freaking Russell to beat out Mauricio Mendez at second but hey, Mendez has been in this role before. Left field is out between the veteran Lou Morgenstern, acquired from Minnesota, and young stud / GREATEST BASSIST OF ALL TIME Jaco Pastorius. I haven't put Andrew Powell anywhere to compete because he sucked last year but he could play in the corners or first base should something happen.

Chicago (A): The White Sox are a complete mess. Jeff Nation, who played 3rd base last year, will compete with JP Carter for the 1st base job. Neither guy will probably hold it for very long. At 2nd, Chicago likes former Angels starter Chance Hopka and they've put him in the driver's seat at 2nd base against incumbent Ian Reeder. Chris Morgan and Jim Fiederlein are kind of going at it at short; I say "kind of" because that's more about whether Morgan is ready to play in the major leagues. The 24 games he got in September indicate he is. John Penn will battle Ian Everett in center just because Penn seems like a guy who should play more. And Ahnold hit well in 112 at-bats but those were 112 at-bats so he'll face off against last year's RF Josh Wade.

Chicago (N): Manuel Lozano has the inside track vs. oft-injured incumbent at 2B Juan Perez but again, can't just give the job away outright, especially with the vet still there.

Cincinnati: My thinking with catcher here is to split Jarrod Day and Oliver Williams about 50/50 but we'll see how that shakes out. Alonzo Rivera will see if he can hit anywhere near .400 again and also fight off Junior Cannon at first. Justin Richens is also in the mix there. LF will see a battle between two veterans: former Indians slugger Alonzo Huanosta is facing off against Carlos Gomez, who started the year horribly with San Diego but really picked it up after being traded to the Reds.

Cleveland: Joe Wolfe will probably play the lions' share of games but I want to push him with left-handed batting Ray Varner to see how much of a platoonish situation I can set up. I feel like this is the year TJ Pritchett loses his job, in this case to .300 hitting Luis Oropeza, but we need to play things out to be sure. Bobby Kaplan is going to fight Bobby Turner in left, although Kaplan, a .303 hitter with Washington last year, should really, really win this. Nelson Vargas will face off against Chris Fonseca in right; Fonseca is average at best but I need to make sure Vargas' bad 1971 in California isn't repeated.

Detroit: I'm *not* battling Suman with Danny Villegas but rather giving the job to the veteran outright. This is likely only a temporary situation, what with the DH on the horizon, and, well, even in the best case scenarios Villegas will probably miss time. Adam Dittmar has the inside track on Guillermo Thompson but hey, Thompson could become a .300 guy again and then what do you do? Danny Hohman likewise has the inside track on Chris Contreras in RF, although with Hohman's luck he could just miss the entire season again...

Houston: The scouts love them some Nick Miller at 1B but he hasn't exactly produced so I'll push him with pinch-hitting specialist Nate Ringstad. Here this feels like a team that's going to be suddenly weak in the lineup even though there aren't a lot of unsettled positions. Well, unless Justin Jensen comes back all the way...

Kansas City: Funny cats or no, I'm not entirely sold on just giving Jim Davis all of the at-bats at first base, so I'm pairing him with Josh Lewis. That could work as a platoon situation into the regular season. In right field, Kyle Brown was the team's pinch-hitter last year and will try and consolidate that into a starting gig against top prospect / questionable boss Tony Danza.

Los Angeles Dodgers: Can 3B Robin Gibb make the move all the way from A ball to the major leagues? He'll fight it out with Jeremy Schwartz, although honestlu that position could be an absolute black hole come April. Luis Solis will try to fend off Justin Henderson at short; Solis is the obvious choice on offense but he's a very bad defender where Henderson is a 3-time Gold Glover (all at second but still). Paul Stewart in LF is another guy who was not good last year but who will try to shake that off. He'll be battling JD Heil, who isn't all that good at anything other than defense. And with CF Butch Magana now out for the season after suffering a setback in his recovery from a broken kneecap, CF is down to Ben Ernst vs Mexican League veteran Tony Martinez.

Milwaukee: Adam Brown ended the season as the team's catcher but hey, 26 year old Ken Hall hit .312 at the end of the year - let's make 'em fight it out. At third base it's the semi-incumbent Franciso Martinez (Martinez did start the year as the Brewers' 3B but lost the job) vs. career second baseman Pat Jones. Jones is 34 but he just deserves to play somewhere, especially on a team like this with such iffy hitting. Guido Temudo vs Eric Biron at SS is good-field, no-hit vs no-field, good hit. I have to think Temudo will win this because Biron wasn't a shortstop in 1970 and he's gotten 2 years older since then. Ross Poynor also can't really stick in centerfield but Fernando Ceballos can't hit so maybe we can create some kind of platoon arrangement there that approaches quality.

Minnesota: Daniel Gilmet is still a good hitter but man, that defense at second base is really beginning to drop off so I feel the need to push him with Pietro Palmarocchi. Jeff Franks does not look great as a fielder but I'm just plain not going to go into the season with 38 year old Mike "the Randy Bush of this save" Grigg as the Twins' Opening Day left fielder so he'll get to prove it when the games count.

Montreal: Rule V pick Norman Engelmann looks poised to take over the starting C role but as long as Roberto Carranco is there he'll challenge. At SS, Klaus Meine has loads of potetial but hit just .130 in 23 at-bats at the end of the season. I guess even if he hit .500 I'd have to test him. Incumbent George Yarbor is the tester.

New York (A): The stoic Jonathan Banks will duke it out against future Hall of Famer Ty Stover, who could potentially still have something left. The entire outfield is up for grabs. In left, it's going to be 34 year old Frank Meneses, a man who, every time you think he's done he comes back, against Alan Rickman, who was pushed off of first base by the acquisition of Angels and White Sox slugger Pete Jennings. Center field is a fight between Micah MacMillan and Joel Schaben. Neither of them is a super great fielder but Schaben, I have to say, hit pretty well last season. And in right field, known Canadian Phil Hartman will see if he can keep up the good work of '71 against former Cubs CF Ryan Johnston, who come to think of it could also play in... center.

New York (N): Jason Bushon will see if he can out-catch, or at least out-hit known rabble-rouser Gerry Adams. Adri van Zanten has to be one of the worst .260 hitters in the league. I'm not super fond of Danny Waters either (anymore) but they can fight it out for the 1972 job. Ethan Keesee will fight it out to see if the .358 average he put up in 100 ABs for St. Louis last year is sustainable; his opposition in LF is former Expos pinch-hitting specialist Gabe Martinez.

Oakland: The A's are the first time I've run through who have zero camp battles. Except for the pitching of course.

Philadelphia: Victor Serna deserves to defend his job after all these years with the team, even if he'll probably lose it to Nate Rowe. In left, Brandon Anderson played most of the year there but he's facing top prospect and Cuban not-defector Alberto Juantorena, who's a world-class sprinter in his off time. In right, Philadelphia hopes that John Belushi can keep going with his 66 1971 at-bats; he faces token competition there in the form of 28 year old Bobby Corley.

Pittsburgh: I intend to run back the platoon combo of Jack Holman and Albilio Valdivia at first base but that looks like a "competition" in the books. Alex Flores will try to wrest the 3rd base job away from 38 year old Roberto Prieto. I'm not a huge fan of the gloves of either Luke Dunnahoe or Tyler Webster but that's what we've got right now at shortstop and so that's the competition. Michio Kaku will try and prove he can acclimate to the spooky physics of center field as he battles it out with incumbent Justin Hearl.

San Diego: Peter Gabriel will fight it out with Michael DeBose at catcher but if Gabriel can hit I'll probably use both players extensively. Will Dale Earnhardt take pole position at third base vs 39 year old Kevin Landry? I guess we'll see. Andy Johnson, a 27 year old rookie, is going to get a shot at shortstop againt Armando Troncoso, who looks a step worse at the position and he was already around 3 steps bad. I don't really think either Jake Leone nor Josh Coldiron bring much to the table in center but one of them (probably) has to have the job. In right, I fully expect Ed O'Neill to emerge there but I want to give Ray Herring a lot of ABs to see if maybe he can be that guy in center.

San Francisco: Catcher will see Iggy Pop vs Chris Campbell in an offense vs defense and also youth vs age matchup (yes, in this universe Iggy Pop is actually young). Joe Kimball looks like a league-average first baseman waiting to happen, which is an upgrade over Chris Seek, but Seek will nevertheless fight it out with him. I'd be extremely surprised if George Harrison loses to Tim Mock at third base but hey, weirder things have occurred.

St. Louis: Given that they brought him in to shore up the defense, Brian Wilcox would have to completely die in order to lose the job to incumbent Dusty McCully... but then, McCully is the incumbent. Otherwise, this team is somewhat surprisingly set.

Texas: Andres Gamez hit .318 as a catcher and should win the job here but he is only 23 so Jonathan House will push him in case he falls off. Tyler Knight is listed as being in competition with David Salinas at third base but probably what happens there if Salinas "wins" is that Knight switches back to shortstop. Speaking of which, that's down to a couple of younger and unproven players in Michael Luna and Henry Rodriguez. Tommy Pron will face token "new guy" competition in minor leaguer Greg Mathis; the Rangers really need Pron to find that stroke. Devin Bucciarelli and Bill Iverson are at it in a true "battle of the crap". Well, both can cover the field well.

I won't list who won all them things but here's a very brief recap of spring training....

AL: The Tigers went 19-11 to lead the AL East over the 17-13 Yankees. Boston was only 14-16, which I won't take as a sign of anything. The O's trailed everyone with a 13-17 record. The West saw the hottest team all spring, the White Sox, who finished 21-9. Trailing the division were the champs, the A's, and the new kids, the Rangers, at 11-19 apiece. Of those two, I kind of expect that to be the Rangers' overall performance. Ernesto Garcia put on a clinic in spring training to lead everyone with 9 HRs. Brand new Twin Ernie Griffin had 7 of his own. Rob Curran led everyone in hitting with a .389 average although I'm almost positive that wasn't enough to win him a starting job. TJ Corron also performed super well and he *did* get a starting gig with that. Dylan Hamilton (CLE), Justin Kindberg (BOS), and Chris McGranahan (DET) all won 4 games, and Vince "not Denny McClain" Akright led the AL with a 0.41 ERA.

NL: Montreal(!) paced the East with a 20-10 record. Hey, it's nice to have fun in the spring. Philly finished 13-17 and in last place so it was a topsy-turvy division. Houston led the West with an 18-12 record in spite of having what felt like a day to day injury to a random middle reliever every day. Hey, maybe moving Jaden Weaver was the right thing to do after all (narrator: it wasn't). The Reds, speaking of which, finished 15-15 in the middle of the pack. The Dodgers and Padres had identical 10-20 records; as I look through both of those rosters I think both may have lowkey really awful seasons. Jimmy "Olson" Washington of the Mets led the entire NL in HRs with 8 - is he coming back this year? Bobby Beaulieu seems poised to make Astros fans forget about Weaver in right field (haha); he led the NL with a .491 average this spring. Sean Gabel also hit over .400 in holding off a challenge at third in Chicago. There were just 2 4-game winners in the NL this spring: knuckleballer Colin Rose of Atlanta (who is now in the rotation, I'm happy to say) and Montreal's Aaron Terrell. Paz Lemus looks like he's ready to turn aside the bad finish in 1971 as he led the NL with 7 saves and didn't allow an earned run all spring (which made him lead in ERA).

In preseason predictions news...

AL East: The Red Sox are expected to repeat in the West - prognosticators give them 95 wins, even in the protracted season (HOW DO THEY KNOW????). Detroit's once again second, with a resurgent Indians club in 3rd. The Yankees look to continue to stick above .500 if not exactly in contention. Baltimore also looks like they're out of it, although they, too, should finish around .500. And in the cellar, by a long, long ways, are the new kids in town the Milwaukee Brewers.

AL West: The Twins are predicted to come back after a year away from the playoffs, although truth be told there isn't really a clear front-runner here. The White Sox (what?) are predicted for 2nd, I guess thanks to a great spring (yes, I know how these are calculated; I'm just using my 1972 brain), with the Angels and A's both skimming a little below .500. That would be a big setback for Oakland, although they did overachieve like heck last season. Both Kansas City and Texas look like they're going to be losing a lot of games this year, which will be a big disappointment for both clubs.

AL top performers: The game has Ernesto Garcia hitting 69 HRs this year. I would say "uh uh no way" but the man did hit 65 in 1971. YOU ARE MAKING A MOCKERY OUT OF MY SAVE. Alvin Romero looks like, once again, the premiere leadoff man (.339/9/60, 56 steals). Dave Corona similarly should shine for an otherwise bad Royals team (.314/22/75, 38 steals). I guess White Sox OF Alice Cooper is why the White Sox are destined for... not-awfulness (.279/45/107). Pitching-wise, look for another Cy Young showdown between Red Sox hurlers Marco Sanchez (23-11, 2.37) and Justin Kindberg (28-9, 2.58) with the A's Vince Akright (22-13, 2.57) doing what he can to prop up his guys. Chris Benavides (17-18, 3.25) looks like both the ace of the Twins and the AL leader in losses.

NL East: A repeat by the Cards is... in the cards as they are predicted to make it 2 in a row, just barely beating out the Phillies thanks to a kind of big regression by the Philadelphia pitching staff (a predicted 3.66 ERA that should be below average in '72). The Pirates figure to tread water and remain well out of the race, while... the Expos(?) should be right behind them. The Mets and Cubs are the predicted cellar-mates, with both teams carrying a 4+ ERA (predicted).

NL West: Hey hey hey, the Reds (might be) are back! They're predicted to win the division and maybe the whole entire enchilada with a 90 win season. Predicted in #2 are the Padres in spite of an awful spring training, then the other 2 California teams, the Dodgers and Giants. That Giants team just looks mediocre from top to bottom, but the prognosticators insist they're basically .500. That also means that both of 1971's Western contenders, the Braves and Astros, are going to duke it out for last place. I don't like Houston's offseason in particular and I guess the Braves are just getting old.

NL top performers: Jaden Weaver, wow (.301, 55, 149). If it wasn't for what Ernesto Garcia is predicted to do in the AL, that would easily be the story of the year. Unleashed from the Astrodome, he's predicted to be a monster. Justin Stone (.314, 41, 113) is also predicted to do a lot for a Dodgers team who's stadium is kind of HR neutral this year for once. Henry Riggs (.309, 42, 97) continues to chug along for what is now supposed to be a bad Braves team. Sir Paul McCartney (.311, 27, 89) should continue to mash at second base. And Mike Galeana (.257, 40, 110) should be the key man for the Cardinals (Lorenzo Martinez is hurt, meaning he doesn't figure into this, which also means that the Cards might be even better than predicted). Pitching-wise, look for a race in NL wins between the Cardinals' new guy Roger Quintana (21-11, 2.47) and the Pirates' Santos Arango (21-12, 2.65). Tony Rivera of the Astros (16-16, 3.01) is on here as a "top performer" but that looks kind of bad to be honest. Geoff Saus (10-4, 1.84, 19 Sv) is the only reliever listed in either side; I expect he'll get a lot more saves than that, at least.

## Major Transactions

February 5: The White Sox purchased P Ruben Estrada (7-11, 3.52 at AAA Portland) from the Twins for $5,000. Estrada did play in 2 games in September but otherwise seems unlikely to fit into Minnesota's plans (although they haaaate this trade).

February 7: The White Sox purchased P Randy Nixon (0-3, 5.08) from the Giants for $2,000. The Sox continue to stockpile... bad arms.

February 8: The Phillies traded 3B Joel King (.227, 6, 34 at AAA Eugene) to the Brewers for 3B Marco Villafana (.172, 1, 7). Another organizational move for each team (in fact, this is another PTBNL trade). Of the two, maybe Joel King has a marginally better chance to start at some point, although he's also now behind two other players at 3rd for the Brew Crew.

February 25: The Cardinals traded P Vince Bachler (14-15, 3.44) to the Phillies for P Roger Quintana (17-14, 3.39). Bachler has never quite come through on his promise and so the Cards and Phillies are conducting a rare "challenge" trade between division rivals. Quintana immediately becomes St. Louis' strikeout artist; Bachler is roughly the same age but profiles as more of a middle-of-the-road who will make it hard to beat him. This is the Steve Carlton for Rick Wise deal; I think this is a waaay closer move than the real-life one, although Wise was no slouch IRL.

March 1: The Padres purchased minor league P Dan Stone (0-1, 3.86 at AAA Rochester). Stone was shuttled through 3 levels last year and kind of looks like a guy without a job. At least, that was the appearance in Baltimore. Now he's in the Padres' organization.

March 4: The A's traded RP Doug Ellis (1-0, 2.19) and P Billy Crystal (9-17, 3.36 in AAA Iowa) to the Rangers for P Vince Akright (18-13, 2.26). This is the Denny McClain deal, although of course in this universe McClain didn't implode between 1969 and 1971. Needless to say, this is a huuuge move for Oakland, as it gets them right into contention in the AL West. The Rangers do get a nice prospect in Crystal but man, they were supposed to compete this year...

March 20: The Royals purchased minor league IF Brandon Holloway (.221, 2, 10 at AAA Charlotte) from the Pirates for $1,000. Holloway's got zero place in Pittsburgh and... he doesn't look like a player to me but numbers!

March 20: The Red Sox purchased 2B Chris Moore (.200, 0, 3) from the Brewers for $750. How did this guy make the All-Star Game in 1970 again? I have no clue. Anyway, he had no place with the Brewers but in Boston he can maybe kind of back up the infield.

March 22: The Yankees traded OF Frank Meneses (.250, 17, 57) and 2B prospect Angel Rivera (.259, 11, 62 at AAA Syracuse) to the Red Sox for RP Kojiro Nakazawa (5-3, 3.21). This was actually the Sparky Lyle trade but I kind of already traded Matt Brock off. Oops! Nakazawa is pretty good himself though and could fashion a Lyle type career. Meneses was probably going to win the LF job, knowing him, but now the Sox have a guy who can legitimately push Bruce Springsteen.

March 25: The Reds traded OF/PH Javy Perez (.280, 5, 8) to the White Sox for minor league 1B Omari King (.222, 9, 13). Perez had increasingly no place in a crowded Reds outfield so this beats getting cut. The White Sox send back a guy who's got power but not a lot else; at least he won't cost the Reds a roster spot.

March 26: OF/P Paul Kahl, who had been used as a pure pitcher the last couple years but lacked the stuff to stick, has been signed by the Montreal Expos to play in the outfield. He went .269/11/53 in 1968, so don't expect him to lead the league in anything but hey, an above average corner outfielder is not bad to find on the scrap heap...

March 30: The Royals purchased C Mike Fenley (.172, 0, 3) from the Pirates for $5,000. With the development of Brent Spiner, the Pirates didn't really have any room for Fenley, who nevertheless is still only 25 himself. He'll probably just take the backup C job outright and maybe challenge Nick McIntyre if he can't get his hitting act together.

March 30: The Indians purchased P Eddie Sanchez (2-2, 4.72) from the Brewers for $2,500. Sanchez wasn't doing super well with the Brewers and now the 36 year old is Cleveland's project.

March 31: The Yankees purchased OF Jim Rogers (.286, 2, 7) from the Brewers for $750. Rogers couldn't break into the Brewers' OF game, probably because he's alreaady 30 years old. The Yankees see that number and think "oooh, veteran leadership".

March 31: The Cubs traded P Victor Marin (5-10, 4.19) to the Brewers for RF Roger Greeno (.200, 0, 3) and RP Elliott Pettijon (2-2, 4.41). Marin looked a lot better in relief last year than as a starter so naturally the Brewers will likely put him back into the rotation. He's still only 30, though he's now 4 years removed from carrying a sub-4.00 ERA. Maybe the more forgiving County Stadium will do good for him. Chicago gets back organizational soldier Greeno as well as the 25 year old Pettijohn, who was off and on for Milwaukee last year and struggled with his control (28 walks in 49 IP).

April 3: The Indians traded CF Norm Hodge (.232, 9, 48) to the Rangers for LF Tommy Pron (.273, 9, 48) and 1B Danny Cardenas (.218, 2, 7). Cleveland brings back Pron, whom they'd traded away earlier in the offseason, after he had a solid spring (.283, 1, 7) and send back the 7 time Gold Glove award winner in Hodge to get him. Reportedly Hodge had fallen out of favor with the Indians coaching staff due to his "clubhouse lawyer" attitude.

April 5: The Expos traded 2B Bill Heyen to the Mets for 2B Danny Waters, minor league OF Bill Anderson, and LF Ruberto Yebra. Hey, the Expos are, after all, still working on building something up. Trading away Heyen in this case nets them the Mets' top prospect in Bill Anderson, rated the 100th best prospect in MLB in July of last year, so that's a thing. They also take a flier on Danny Waters, who looked like a guy 2 years ago, and Ruberto Yebra, who's been trying to be a leadoff man for several years now. For the Mets, to an extent this feels like opening one hole by plugging up another but presumably a corner OFer will be easier to find than a second baseman.

April 7: The Cubs traded 2B David Holcombe and minor league 2B Zachary Taylor to the Expos for P Tom Owens. The Expos continue to be like "hey, we're supposed to be bad; don't make us a .500 team", although here they're trading away pitch-to-contact veteran reliever Owens and getting maybe their new 2B in return.

April 10: The Giants signed 1B Justin Richens to a 1-year contract. The 39 year old Richens may no longer be good enough to make another All-Star Game but San Francisco was heading into the season with a gaping hole at the position and besides, he's within striking distance of 2,500 hits, so that should be fun for the fans.

April 10: The Rangers signed LF Matthew Levario to a 1-year contract. Similarly, Levario fills a hole and is 5 HRs away from 450. His presence also allows the Rangers to put the young George W. Bush in the 5 hole in the lineup instead of cleanup.

April 12: The Indians purchased CF Eric Weyenberg from the White Sox for $7,500. Weyenberg had just been sent down to the minors so this also constitutes a promotion for him. Cleveland barely has a starting CF since they traded Norm Hodge away so Weyenberg should get a long look.

## News

January 24 (hey, overlap, sue me): Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi is discovered in Guam; he spent the last 28 years in the jungle, having failed to surrender after World War II.

January 30: The British Army kills 14 unarmed nationalist civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland, an event that came to be known as "Bloody Sunday".

February 3-13: The Winter Olympics are held in Sapporo, Japan. The top medal winners are:

1. Soviet Union - 8 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze
2. East Germany - 4G, 3S, 7B
3. Switzerland - 4G, 3S, 3B
4. Netherlands - 4G, 3S, 2B
5. USA - 3G, 2S, 3B

Host Japan won 3 medals, all of them for ski jumping - this was one of three events where one country swept the podium, the other two being the women's and men's singles luge events, both won by a total of 6 East Germans.

February 4: Mariner 9 sends pictures as it orbits Mars. No news of whether or not it saw that dead Soviet capsule or not (probably not).

February 8: (real life) Commissioner Bowie Kuhn announces the Hall of Fame selection of Josh Leonard and Buck Leonard by the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues.

February 17: The Volkswagen Beetle produces its 15,007,034th model, exceeding the total of Ford Model Ts created.

February 21-28: Richard Nixon visits China, the first ever visit by a sitting US president to that country.

February 22: The Troubles continue in Northern Ireland; here, a car bomb planted by the IRA kills seven people outside a British military base in Aldershot, England.

February 29: A's reliever Josh Howard (2-4, 14 Sv, 5.00) tore a muscle in his back while moving furniture and will miss all of spring training plus the first month of the season. Ouch.

March 3rd: Orioles RF Ralph May will miss the rest of spring training with a sore shoulder, probably handing that job off to Jamal Jenkins, who I'm not sure deserves it.

March 9th: The White Sox voted 31-0 in favor of a strike, if necessary, during negotiations between players and owners. The dispute centers around health and pension benefits for the plauyers. Particularly outspoken on behalf of the players is 24 year old Ben Lamar (3-4, 2.52, 4 Sv in 1971).

March 9th: I guess it just wasn't going to be the year for Carlos Ramirez. The former Pilots and A's closer who played in only 34 games behind Paz Lemus in Pittsburgh, will now miss all of 1972 with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. He's 29 now and so it's not out of the question that this is a career-ender.

March 10th: Giants RF Barry Cooper (.258, 3, 34), trying to come back from a bad, bad 1971 season, will not get the PT he wanted this spring, as a bone bruise in his knee will set the 28 year old back until late April. That also, at least for the time being, opens up the job between prospect Carl Weathers and 31 year old Jon Berry, who led the league in runs scored in 1968 while playing for the Red Sox.

March 13th: So... remember how Joel Schaben was going to try and become the Yankees 4th OFer and maybe something more? Not so much. He's out until midseason with a torn meniscus in his knee. That means that Ryan Johnston is now directly competing with Micah MacMillan, and that also means that Phil Hartman almost certainly has a lock on the starting RF gig now.

March 20th: Red Sox P Shunichi Zeniya (2-1, 5.17), hoping to make the roster following a tough 1971, will instead miss all of 1971 and possibly have to call it quits on his career with a partially torn UCL.

March 22nd: Nick Mileti, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, heads a group that purchases the Cleveland Indians from Vernon Stouffer for $9M. Stouffer had originally turned down an offer from George Steinbrenner to buy the team but when the rest of the owners reject a proposal to have the Indians play some of their home games in that classic Cleveland suburb called New Orleans, Stouffer decides to sell the team. I put Mileti in as fiscally controlling, tolerant, and kind of tight-fisted, owing to the way he's pretty heavily leveraged.

March 23rd: Rangers hurler Eric Godard (1-8, 16 Sv, 4.53), who was working on a big comeback after a really bad season as the Indians' closer, will miss the entire season with shoulder inflammation. I guess the inflammation is really bad or something.

March 23rd: It's a now-regular occurrence but Expos RF Matt Williams (.281, 19, 48) will once again miss the start of the season, this time with a sprained knee. He's not expected back until mid to late May. This also leaves the Expos completely without a RF to the point that I am signing guys off the street, including outfielder-turned-pitcher-turned-back-to-outfielder Paul Kahl.

March 23rd: And in news of guys who've done nothing but tantalize you with talent while sucking rocks at the major league level... Royals P Jose Zuazua ruptured his UCL and will miss all of 1972 as a result. He's only 26 so maaaaaybe could come back but the man has a lifetime 6.47 ERA over 3 seasons so it's going to be an uphill climb.

March 24th: The Expos purchased OF Bill Swan (.188, 5, 12) from the Tigers for $1,000. Swan looked pretty much done last year and wasn't figuring into the roster but the Expos are pretty, pretty desperate for outfield help right now.

March 24th: The Reds traded RP Edward James Olmos (3-5, 14 Sv, 2.51) to the Cardinals for SS Dusty McCully (.253, 9, 58). The Reds, no doubt, did not want to part with the young hurler Olmos who was a bright light on a bad pitching staff last year, but their own SS Mike Wendt (.236, 10, 54) is looking more and more replacement-level and McCully did start for a pennant-winning team (I guess you could say the same about Wendt in 1970). The Cardinals had handed the SS job to Brian Wilcox (.230, 8, 31) anyway and now they've added the setup man they were missing all offseason after trading away Rick Legere.

March 25th: In what is truly the biggest news of the year, the final episode of Bewitched was broadcast, ending a run that had started in September 1964.

March 25th: The UCLA Bruins beat Florida State 81-76 to win their 6th NCAA basketball championship, their 8th overall, and their 45th consecutive victory.

March 25th: 10-time All-Star for the Cardinals, 1B Lorenzo Martinez (.265, 37, 100), will be out until May with a badly sprained knee. Spring training has been if anything a little light so far this year, at least in terms of injuries to frontline players. This, obviously, is an exception.

March 27th: Dutch lithographer MC Escher died today at the age of 73.

March 28th: Northern Ireland's Parliament, the Stormont, met for the very last time; British prime minister Edward Heath dissolved the assembly earlier in the month when he announced that the region would be ruled directly by the United Kingdom.

March 29th: Douglas Sweetapple, a 3 time All-Star who was attempting a comeback in Philadelphia after being limited to just 61.2 IP snce 1967, suffered a partially torn UCL yesterday and today announced that rather than go through another round of extensive rehab, he'd retire. Sweetapple finishes with a major league record of only 40-52 with a 3.67 ERA. He made the All-Star Game from 1962-64 as a young, up-and-coming member of the expansion Astros.

March 30th: Marvin Miller, the executive director of the MLB Players' Association, completes his canvass of players on the strike issue: 663 vote in favor of a strike, 10 against, and there are 2 abstentions. Barring anything major, it looks like the season's going to be delayed by a labor dispute for the first time in MLB history.

April 1st: Tigers CL Alex Madrigal (9-7, 2.24, 20 Sv), who missed a chunk of last year too, will miss the entire first half of the season with shoulder inflammation. Jim Marceau (5-3, 11 Sv, 2.22) will hold down the job while he's out; the 30 year old filled a similar role for the Tigers last year.

April 1st: Brewers IF Pat Jones (.316, 2, 16), who was looking like the easy favorite to take over the 3rd base job, will instead be out until July with a broken hand. Jones is 34 and to be honest I was kind of looking forward to a comeback type season for him. Instead, the job reverts bacck to Francisco Martinez, who I guess to be fair is hitting .333 this spring and looks like maybe he'll be the .306 hitter he was in 1970.

April 1st: The former 18th overall pick (in 1967), P Tim Elliott, will miss the entire season with a partially torn UCL. Elliott has never been able to stay healthy and now at age 25 it might be time to call it quits.

April 1st: Following today's games, the long-rumored strike officially goes into effect. The remaining 3 days of exhibitions have been cancelled (handily, OOTP did not schedule them in the first place) and the season opener on April 5 will be postponed.

April 2nd: Just as Cubs 2B Juan Perez (.248, 6, 27) looked like he was going to be crowned the winner of the 2B-off in Chicago, he came down with a sprained knee that's going to keep him out until May. That may actually not be all that bad of an injury given the strike...

April 2nd: Speaking of starters who will miss Opening Day, whenever that is, Phillies 3B Alex Becerra (.248, 30, 72) is out for the next 2 months with a sprained knee. It's right on the cusp as to where he should go but I'll stick him on the 21 day DL for now in the hopes that he can come back quickly.

April 2nd: (real life) Mets manager Gil Hodges died suddenly of a heart attack at age 47.

April 3rd: Silent film legend Charlie Chaplin returned to the USA after more than 20 years of a self-imposed exile. He's back in the States for an invitation to the Academy Awards.

April 5th: A waaaay out of place tornado killed 6 people in the Portland suburb of Vancouver, Washington. I grew up in Western Washington and in all my time living there I never saw anything twistier than a dust devil.

April 5th: As expected, Opening Day comes and goes with nobody playing ball due to the strike.

April 9th: President Richard Nixon recommends that both sides in the baseball dispute meet with J. Curtis Counts, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. I don't think anything comes of this and it sounds suspect to me anyway.

April 10th: President Nixon is a busy man: he and Soviet head of state Nikolai Podgorny signed the Biological Weapons Convention, in their respective capitals of Washington and Moscow. Okay, maybe saying baseball should mediate one day and signing a document the next isn't a super tight schedule...

April 11th: (real life) Red Sox fan favorite Jason Varitek was born in Rochester, Michigan.

April 13th: The end of the strike is announced! Games will officially begin on the 15th, a Saturday. That's probably the first time in MLB history that the season starts on a Saturday but I'm not going to check on that, haha.

## Teams in Review

ABSOLUTELY NOT