## Standings / Recap / Comments
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Boston Red Sox 17 9 .654 - 99 61
Detroit Tigers 18 10 .643 - 109 60
Baltimore Orioles 16 12 .571 2 101 92
Cleveland Indians 12 15 .444 5½ 104 107
Milwaukee Brewers 11 14 .440 5½ 70 83
New York Yankees 8 19 .296 9½ 69 91
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Minnesota Twins 18 10 .643 - 115 96
California Angels 17 13 .567 2 96 95
Oakland Athletics 14 13 .519 3½ 97 107
Texas Rangers 13 17 .433 6 78 93
Chicago White Sox 12 16 .429 6 83 105
Kansas City Royals 11 19 .367 8 101 132
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Chicago Cubs 19 11 .633 - 113 112
Pittsburgh Pirates 17 13 .567 2 90 65
Philadelphia Phillies 17 14 .548 2½ 125 125
St. Louis Cardinals 17 16 .515 3½ 145 117
New York Mets 15 17 .469 5 110 130
Montreal Expos 10 22 .312 10 80 134
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Houston Astros 18 12 .600 - 90 97
Atlanta Braves 17 15 .531 2 137 124
Los Angeles Dodgers 17 15 .531 2 126 118
San Francisco Giants 18 18 .500 3 130 116
San Diego Padres 15 18 .455 4½ 122 129
Cincinnati Reds 12 21 .364 7½ 129 130
Lowkey the TRUE STORY of the American League is that the Texas Rangers aren't even the worst offense in the league anymore. Not even the 2nd worst! Now it's the New York Yankees trailing everyone. You love to see it. Not that I root against the Yankees... of course I root against the Yankees. I am a red-blooded American and that is what we do. Otherwise, though, the O's took the tumble we were waiting on for a while, although they're still very competitive, and now the Red Sox have the best record in baseball just like everyone expected. Meanwhile, the Twins, in spite of some kind of crazy bad starts by people (including former MVP 3B Mike Brookes (.213, 1, 6)) have the 2nd best record in baseball. I guess there are just a lot of punching bags in the junior circuit.
NL-wise, the Cubs are still on top of the East. Is this sustainable, even with them losing probably their best starter for the season? I'm going to say not and point to the FUN differential, but you never know I guess. The Pirates are right there with a full-on opposite approach to baseball. Power vs. pitching: who will win? Sadly, in the NL West the Astros have Twins-like overcome some bad starts by some key players to lead the division by 2 games over the incumbent Braves and the "how are they doing this?" Dodgers. Also, sadly, the Reds have finally gotten outscored this season.
LET'S LOOK AT SOME STATS BOYS
Tony Danza (.390, 0. 8) hit a whole bunch of singles this week - 9-24 - and is still maybe chasing .400. .400 is about the most unlikely thing to see this year but hey, it's late May and there he is. Twins 2B Daniel Gilmet (.351, 3, 11) hit "only" .259 this past week to fall all the way to 3rd in the race, with Detroit speedster Alvin Romero (.363, 1, 11, 9 SB) hitting .616(!) this week. Right there, that's my guess for AL PotW. Ernesto Garcia (.345, 11, 25) and Alice Cooper (.310, 10, 26) continue to mash and chase each other in the HR and RBI race (and by extension the MVP race) with Royals slugger RJ Dominguez (.305, 8, 22) right on in behind them. Imagine how bad the Royals would be without that man in the middle of their lineup. As you'd expect with the averasge, Alvin Romero is now co-leading the AL in steals with bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger (.220, 0, 5, 9 SB), who seems to do nothing but steal when he gets on base (in spite of the BA he does have a league-average .310 OBP).
The Twins' Rich Whetzel (3-0, 1.20) is somehow out in the lead in the ERA race in spite of an even BB/K ratio. Finesse still wins in the early 70s I guess; also, Minnesota's been managing him kind of hard so far. He just did pass Jimmy Goddard (5-2, 1.31), who messed up his run by getting knocked out of the box in the 4th last week against the Royals - well, then again, only 1 of the 7 runs he allowed was counted as earned. Still, when you're allowing nothing, that can be huge. The Red Sox' Marco Sanchez (3-3, 1.40) only has a .500 record to show for his 3rd-best ERA but he's like the only Red Sox pitcher who's not getting support. Speaking of Bosox pitchers, Michael Pesco (6-1, 2.47) became the AL's first 6 game winner with a 1-0 win over the 2nd place Detroit Tigers this week, and teammate Justin Kindberg (5-2, 1.86) struck out 9 Yankees today to vault the Tigers' Edgar Molina (5-2, 1.73) in the strikeout race, 59 to 57.
In the National! Baseball! League!, I think .400 has flown the coop. Still, Cubs CF Alex Vallejo (.350, 2, 8) was only 3-12 this week due to, you guessed it, injuries, but the rest of the league fell off I guess so he's leading the league in average now. Rookie phenom Robin Gibb (.337, 2, 12) might be the least well-known of the Gibb brothers but he's the best hitter. And look out, NLers, because 1970 batting champ Alonzo Huanosta (.331, 0, 15) is now in Cincinnati and seems to be up to his old ways. Braves 1B Dante Chairez (.236, 9, 20) is the early HR leader, edging out Cubs SS Jeremy Taylor (.231, 8, 23) and Cards 3B Mike Galeana (.198, 7, 22), and man, the low-average HR hitter is more than a cliche in the NL. Jaden Weaver of the Reds (.258, 7, 25) is slightly bucking that trend (the leage BA is .236) to pace the league in RBIs. And man, Reds 2B Pedro "Speedy" Ortiz (.279, 1, 9, 13 SB) seems hell-bent on breaking the 3 year old NL steals record (69, held by Zackery Hadley of the Padres in their expansion season). I guess he's "only" on pace to get to 64 but still. BUT STILL.
The Astros' Tony Rivera (7-1, 1.97) has combined good pitching with good run support to lead everyone in baseball in wins. Nobody else in the league has more than 5. The Expos' Frank Evans (2-1, 1.32) is in the back of their rotation but probably not for much longer, given that he's leading the NL in ERA right now, 3 points ahead of the Dodgers' Fernando Apolonio (5-2, 1.35). Jason Sanders is #3 for the final week; he, as noted many times before, is out for the year and threw 31 pitches. The Cubs are at 30 games. Cards' SP Roger Quintana (3-3, 2.31) could be the biggest acquisition in an offseason of big acquisitions; he leads the NL with 63 strikeouts now, well ahead of Ernesto "Wild Thing" Carillo (2-5, 3.67), who's control issues have prevented him from pitching further into games. As such he's struck out almost a batter an inning but has "only" 56.1 of them to date (52 Ks).
## Major Transactions
May 15: The A's traded SS Gil Wilson (.167, 0, 0) to the Cardinals for minor league P Matt Owensby (2-2, 2.63 in AAA Tulsa). I left him off of my Mad List but the Cardinals' current SS Brian Wilcox (.157, 1, 4) has been baaaad, so much so that they really need someone to spell him a lot and the left-handed batting Gil Wilson seems like a great fit. The A's traded for a loooot of relief pitching this year, apparently, and they're kind of packed right now so instead I took on the Cardinals' #2 pitching prospect in Owensby. Was that too much? Look. This is the Cardinals' window. As in right now. And meanwhile, there just wasn't anyone at the major league level that fit the bill to match this trade up properly.
May 16: The White Sox traded minor league P Oscar Amador (1-3, 2.48 at AAA Tucson) to the Cardinals for minor league P Dusty Collins (0-1, 4.70 at AAA Tulsa). This is a deal with both teams cutting bait on pitchers who are aging out of prospect status. Collins got into the majors in 1970 but sucked (2-5, 7.41) and walked almost twice as many men as he struck out in AAA ball last year. Still, he did crack the majors. Looking at it, I guess Amador, an international scouting discovery back in 1963 who's never been able to overcome bad control, did too last year and was similarly bad (0-2, 6.38). Last year, prior to the call-up, he went 14-11, 3.86 for the Toros, striking out 176 batters in 217 innings (great!) but walkine 186 (woooow). Good luck to both guys, I guess.
May 16: The A's traded RP Robbie Vaughn (0-1, 27.00), C Derek Kane (.000, 0, 0), and minor league CF Jeremy Harrison (.235, 2, 17 at AAA Iowa) to the Padres from LF/1B Alex Canales (.296, 3, 7). Canales is a former Gold Glove award winner at first base, which is where he may see a lot of action what with Ray Hawkinson (.222, 1, 6) not really cutting it and now being plagued with an uncertain-return sprained knee. To get him, they send back Vaughn, a man they just acquired from Detroit who got to pitch one game (he was blown up in it, hence the 27 ERA) in A's green before the move, their backup catcher in Kane, and a 25 year old not-really-a-prospect who can field, at least. The Padres' GM was ecstatic about this deal for some reason.
May 19: The Reds traded CF Sonny Burwell (.214, 0, 4) to the Cardinals for minor league OF/1B Chris Cooper (.256, 3, 11 at AA Arkansas). Hey, the Reds are going nowhere so they will go ahead and trade off the 23 year old Burwell, who hit .299 and made the All-Star Team last year, for the 23 year old Cooper, who's rated as St. Louis' #2 prospect and #1 hitting prospect. He hasn't hit super well in AA so far so he's probably at least a year away, but even hitting only .256 the man loves to draw bases on balls. Meanwhile, the scouts kind of hate Burwell but again, this man was an All-Star last year. St. Louis is trying to contend; their current guy Jim James (.244, 1, 6) is a heck of a find for a Rule V pick but even when he hit .286 last year it was accompanied by a .307 OBP, which is just not good enough for leadoff.
## News
May 15: After 26 years of rule by the United States, the island of Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands were returned to the jurisdiction of Japan. Unbeknownst to anyone, this move would later become important as conquering the world as Ryukyu became Europa Universalis 4's version of the Kobayashi Maru, the scenario that is supposed to be unwinnable unless you cheat and/or cheese the game out of existence. Literally dozens of players have gotten the "Three Mountains" achievement FWIW.
May 15: Alabama governor George Wallace was shot 5 times while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for President. Wallace survived but was permanently paralyzed from the waist down. At the time of the shooting Wallace had won more votes in the primaries than either George McGovern or Hubert Humphrey but was second to McGovern in delegates. Wallace was fresh off of running a gubernatorial campaign that Jimmy Carter called "one of the most racist campaigns in modern southern political history", which is really saying something. I'm not one to root for assassins but... let's just say that the American people may have dodged a bullet when Wallace failed to do the same.
May 15: Yankees MI Ty Stover (.056, 0, 1) went right past "hey man, put me in the lineup already" and is requesting a trade. I don't know if I can do it! I've gone ahead and added him to the trading block to remind me and in the meantime the guy I named as his replacement at 2B, Jonathan "Mike Ermantraut" Banks (.243, 0, 6), is not exactly lighting up the American League so I'll start working Stover in a little harder. He was a starting SS 2 years ago but there's absolutely no way he can field at that position anymore.
May 15: A small bit of good news for the Mets, as Nick Hawkinson's (.107, 0, 3) is not as bad as once feared and he should be able to play again in a few days. On the other hand, the early returns on Hawkinson is that he's showing his age and the end is near.
May 15: The NL Player of the Week is a guy who very nearly got onto my Mad List I composed last week, young Padres RF Ed "Al Bundy" O'Neill (.237, 1, 6). He got his role shaved down a bit last week and responded by hitting 10-18 (.588) with a HR, 3 RBIs, and 4 runs scored. If that's how to get production from him, OK! O'Neill is now carrying an OPS+ Of 94 so he's still got some room to grow. This was also the 26 year old future "Married With Children" and "Modern Family" star's 1st ever Player of the Week. And also, apparently Ed O'Neill is older than the guy who played Mike Ermantraut. Really?
May 15: The AL also went with a future comic actor for its Player of the Week award and if you read my NOVEL last week, you might have figured out who it is: Royals RF Tony "The Boss" "Tony Micelli" Danza (.395, 0, 6). Danza also hit over .500 but got a few more at-bats: 12-21, .571. In spite of hitting 5th in the order for the Royals he's got no kind of power and so he only had 2 RBIs but did hit 2 doubles and 2 triples. Only 2 runs though. Soooomeone's algorithm does not include clutch! Anyway, this was also Danza's first PotW and there will surely be many more.
May 15: The Boss, Tony Danza (.418, 0, 6) raised his average to over .400 with a 3-3 game but it wasn't enough as the Rangers had an absolute offensive outburst of a 5-3 win. Danza might even have contributed a little to the loss as he was caught trying to stretch a double in the 8th inning into a triple by the slick fielding Rangers CF Norm Hodge (.228, 0, 5). "That's the way the cookie crumbles," said Danza after the game. "Also, I'm not just an actor, I am a boxer too."
May 16: The Pirates (12-12) have been dealing with the middle infield decently well by using a tandem of Henry Villar (.263, 0, 6) and Luke Dunnahoe (.254, 0, 8). It hasn't exactly been gangbusters but meh. That said, Dunnahoe's now out for the next month plus with a herniated disc in his back and that means they're reverting to what they came up with last year, which involved moving the Gold Glove of Villar to shortstop and using the former starting SS Tyler Webster (.250, 0, 3) at 2nd. Webster has lost some range at short but kind of hits like a shortstop, not a 2B, so it's not a great fix for a team who's still trying to contend. The backup MI replacement is a familiar if disappointing face: Sergio Cando (.239, 3, 5 in AAA Charlotte), who hit .169 last year in 21 starts and who is already 29. Unlike the so-called prospects, though, Cando at least can field the positions.
May 16: The Pirates take 16 innings to edge their rivals the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 at Three Rivers Stadium. What this essentially came down to was that the Pirates finally got to the already-depleted Cards bullpen; long man Paul Boerger (0-1, 2.04) threw 3 innings of shutout ball but then tired in his 4th frame. Both starting pitchers went more than 9 innings to try to get this - St. Louis' Mario Garcia (0-0, 0.90) went 10 in his first major league outing of the season and Pittsburgh's Jeremy Battaglia (2-4, 2.29) went 12. The winning pitcher Miguel Urbina (1-0, 0.00) actually also hit the game-winning RBI, driving in "Doctor" Jack Holman (.278, 2, 11) from 2nd base on a 2 out single.
May 17: Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers (?) played to a 1-1 draw in the first ever UEFA Cup Championship. As Spurs had won the first game 2-1, this delivered them the championship. HOORAY EUROPE A TIE
May 17: Some movement today in the AL homerun race: Chicago's Alice Cooper (.318, 9, 24) hit 2 dingers to temporarily put him into a tie with Cleveland's Ernesto Garcia (.347, 10, 23), only for the bulky Indians first baseman to hit a solo shot late in his team's 3-1 win over the Yankees. That made him the first player in the major leagues with double-digit HRs. "Hey, I'm all for competition," said Garcia, who famously hit twice as many HRs last season as the AL #2 guy. "As long as Ernesto Garcia comes out on top."
May 17: The first-place Detroit Tigers (16-8) will have to figure out how to score runs without their #3 hitter, 2B Joey Ramone (.299, 1, 12), who tore a ligament in his thumb and will miss the next month and a half. Frankie "Commissioner Burrell" Faison (.325, 0, 7 at Toledo), a 22 year old not-really-a-prospect who nevertheless was raking in AAA this year, will come up to take Ramone's place. 1B Danny Villegas (.302, 6, 22) is already out with an as-yet-undiagnosed injury so the Tigers are truly scrambling for runs now. Their teammates, especially SP Edgar Molina (5-2, 1.80) still did enough to beat the Orioles 3-0 today.
May 17: MY DAD picked up his first loss, giving up 5 runs in 6 innings for the Expos in a 6-2 loss. No walks, 3 Ks, 9 hits allowed. He's not getting a lot of help!
May 17: Dodgers 2B Danny Fager (.529, 0, 1) picked up right where he left off. Playing his first game in almost a month, the oft-injured Fager went 2 for 5, including a single in the 8th that helped contribute to the 4-3 Dodgers win inasmuch as the next man up, 1B Justin Stone (.226, 6, 21) clobbered a homerun over the right field wall in San Diego Stadium. "I'm just glad I can be back to where I can put my money where my mouth is," Fager, a 3-time All-Star, said after the game.
May 18: Following a march four days earlier by more than 100,000 protestor, Madagascar president Philibert Tsiranana agreed to step down and hand over all power to General Garbriel Ramanantsoa. Never let it be said that I do not report on Madagascari news!
May 18: Robert Lee Johnson, a 50 year old former US Army sergeant who was 7 years into a 25-year prison sentence for treason and espionage, was murdered by his own son in a visitor's area at the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. His son would tell authorities that the patricide was "a personal matter".
May 18: The other shoe fell, and fell hard, for the Tigers today. 1B Danny Villegas' (.302, 6, 22) sore hand turned out to be a fracture and as a result he'll be out until the All-Star Break. Villegas was off to a typically strong start; now, without either him nor Joey Ramone, the Tigers are left with a lot of guys who just plain aren't producing much this year... and the top of the lineup, where CF Alvin Romero (.327, 0, 6, 6 SB) and LF Danny Hohman (.319, 0, 8, 7 SB) are doing all of the speedy things.
May 18: I'm a little surprised that Red Sox P Mike Pesco (6-1, 2.47) had never struck out more than 13 batters a game but I guess that's true, as he pitched an 11 inning shutout in a classic pitching duel against Detroit's Jimmy Goddard (5-2, 1.31) en route to a 1-0 victory. Pesco tied Boston records with 12 Ks in regulation and 13 (hey, he was tiring) in the full game. This was the 11th time a Red Sox player hit 12 Ks, many of those by Pesco himself (including the last time it happened in June of 1971) and the 3rd time a Red Sox pitcher has reached 13 in extras (last accomplished by Marco Sanchez in 1970; Pesco never reached this mark before). Goddard, on the losing end of this one, might want to get used to the feeling...
May 18: The Reds have been struggling this year (11-18) in part due to blowing 1-run games (they've still scored 5 more runs than they've allowed, 117-112). Today their young first baseman Alonzo Rivera (.312, 3, 22) sprained his elbow pretty badly making a play at first base, which is going to make the road that much harder for this team. They did beat the Giants 9-5 because whenever they win, they win big. Junior Cannon (.154, 0, 0), who was one of the best hitters in the league 2 years ago, will take his place while he's out, with LF Alonzo Huanosta (.321, 0, 13), who looks like last year's .261 average was just a one-year blip, taking over in the 3 hole.
May 19: A bomb exploded at the Pentagon, destryoing an unoccupied women's restroom where it was placed. Although nobody was injured a computer tape archive with highly classified information was severely damaged.
May 19: The Eagle Scouts were created. I might have been an Eagle Scout once if only I had any ability to concentrate on anything at all when I was in school...
May 19: Northeast Airlines was acquired by Delta.
May 19: Angels IF Mike "Pappy" Ramos (.207, 0, 3), who was looking out for a role this year after hitting .302 in 232 at-bats for KC last year, will miss the entire season with a ruptured Achilles tendon. Ramos had played in 5 games for his new team after being traded from the Royals for P Andy Lagunas. And now the 3-time All-Star will be out, and at his age, it's not out of the question that that's the last we've seen of him (I'm going to guess not though).
May 19: In waaay better news for the Dodgers, who are still hanging around the West at 16-14, Rogelio Salinas (3-2, 3.92), who was removed from yesterday's game as a precaution after he complained of a sore arm, will in fact miss no time. "Phantom pains, I guess," said Salinas.
May 19: Phillies backup Lee Citro (.440, 2, 6) made a kind of a bizarre requesat, at least me: he demanded to start (actuallu he straight up asked to be traded). I guess when I look at his history he did start for St. Louis for several years, even making the All-Star Game in 1965. With incumbent Sam Rahn (.032, 0, 3) now 2-63 on the season, why not?
May 19: Meanwhile in San Diego 3B Kevin Landry (.320, 0, 2) wants to start as well. Here, while I can feel for Landry, who's been San Diego's AS rep the past 2 seasons, he's also 39 years old and while Dale Earnharft (.247, 3, 8) hasn't been anything amazing... hmm. I think I will stick Landry into that spot. There will be plenty of time to play Earnhardt in the future and if he's really good enough to take out Landry, he can earn it (which, he did earn it in spring training but now he's got a .302 OBP... also his OPS+ is 118 but I'm going to use this as an excuse, okay!?).
May 19: Phillies "stopper" Tom Grohs (1-2, 4.76, 2 Sv) is really struggling to open the year. Tonight he came in in the 8th to protect a 3-2 lead and blew it in the 9th for a 4-3 loss to the Mets. "I guess my sinker just wasn't sinking enough," said Grohs after the game. "Man." It's still early but so far it looks like the stuff that caused him to strike out 81 batters in 89.1 innings in 1970 but which fell to a pedestrian 60 in 86.1 (still 6.3/9, still above average, just not "stopper" level) has not returned: he did strike out 2 batters tonight but has only 11 in 17 innings (5.8/9) to date.
May 20: The Indiana Pacers win the New York Nets 108-105 to win the ABA Championship in Game 6. The Pacers and Nets, of course, would go on to join the NBA, although the Nets were more or less forced to sell off their superstar - and star of the ABA - Julius "Dr. J" Erving.
May 20: Cardinals OF Elijah Johnson (.238, 1, 4), forced to take more of a backup/pinch-hitter role now that the 38 year old's defense has gone from great to merely OK over the last couple years, will miss the next 4 weeks with shoulder tendinitis. The Cardinals are 17-14 and 1 1/2 games out of first in the NL East, so not terrible by any means, but this is a team that could really, really use prime Johnson. The injury also does give the Cards the opportunity to call up French-Canadian race car driver cum center fielder Gilles Villenueve (.325, 5, 18 at AAA Tulsa), who was raking in the minors.
May 20: Pirates 3B Roberto Prieto (.074, 0, 0) announced he'll retire at the end of the season. If he makes it that far, I guess. A 3-time All-Star, the 38 year old Prieto was the team's starter last year and has been a starter with the Pirates since 1965. Before then he was a guy for the Reds, where he was a starter for the pennant-winners in 1960 but lost that job for a few years with the emergence of a young Mike Ramos. Now he's kind of back into that pinch-hitting role, although he hasn't exactly shone. Prieto is a lifetime .264 hitter whose relative lack of starting chances means he's only got 1,289 hits.
May 20: Maybe the newly Barry Cooper-free Giants are a prime target for a "get right" game. In any case, they certainly played the part for Braves P Julio Sandoval (5-1, 3.93), who's been pretty shaky this year in spite of that record. Today he put everything together, throwing a 3-hit shutout and leading the Braves to a 2-0 win in Candlestick Park. 2B Kevin Dwyer (.331, 4, 18), who's been in a little slump of his own as of late, drove in both runs and was 2 for 3 on the night.
May 20: Astros RF Justin Jensen (.200, 1, 11) finally got on the board with HRs and he got his at the best possible time. Coming in in the 10th inning with a man on base, Jensen belted one into the RF alley at Dodger Stadium off reliever Arthur Wood (0-1, 11.00) to give the 'Stros a 4-2 lead that stopper Jon Douglas (1-1, 2.77) turned into Houston's 18th victory of the season. "I was pressing a little, I won't deny it," said the Longview, Washington native who cruelly and terribly went to Oregon State University instead of staying in the greatest state in the union. "Now that number 1 is out of the way, it's time for another forty". Jensen has 284 HRs in his career, which stretches back to 1961, and includes 2 40+ HR years and 5 30+ ones.
May 21: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union announced the removal of Petro Shelest, the now-former leader of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, where he'd led since 1963 as the First Secretary of ts Communist Party. Shelest was accused of "mestnichestvo" (localism) and placing Ukraine's interest over those of the larger USSR and was transferred to a job as a Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers. Following his removal, many of his associates were purged from office, which I think and hope by the early 70s just meant "fired" as opposed to "tortured and murdered".
May 21: Michaelangelo's 475 year old masterpiece, the sculpture Pieta, was heavily damaged by Laszlo Toth with a hammer. Just goes to show, this kind of thing is not an exclusively 21st century phenomenon...
May 21: The rapper Notorious BIG (Christopher Wallace) was born today.
May 21: The struggling Yankees played kind hosts to the Boston Red Sox today -- too kind, in fact. They scored just 2 runs in a double-header sweep at the hands of their classic rivals, losing the opener 5-2 as Justin Kindberg (5-2, 1.86) threw a 3-hitter and then getting shut out in the nightcap 4-0 behind the high-control pitching of Marco Sanchez (3-3, 1.40). The two losses put the Yankees at 8-19 on the season and on the brink of a REVIEW, which also means I've got to take a long look at 39 year old Ty Stover (.125, 0, 1) and 38 year old Aaron Sullivan (.067, 0, 1). Stover is the face of the franchise but man, he is not doing well in his new role as a backup and right-handed pinch-hitter, whereas Sullivan was acquired to be a captain and to pinch-hit and when you can't do the latter nobody listens to you when you try to be the former.
May 21: Speaking of doubleheaders between top teams and bottom ones, the Twins salvaged a split of their 4-game series vs the Texas Rangers by sweeping the twinbill at Arlington Stadium. At least the Rangers here scored a few runs in the first game, though they still lost it 7-4 thanks to a 5 RBI outburst by Minnesota SS Justin Ramey (.263, 2, 14). Whatever issues Minnesota may be having this year, they turned a major weakness into a strength by acquiring Ramey from the Brewers last year. In Game 2, Rich Whetzel (3-0, 1.20) gave his team 7 solid innings and then allowed lefty specialist Walt Gurganus (2-0, 3.60) and closer Travis Livingston (0-2, 0.57, 7 Sv) to put the game to bed for the 6-1 victory. It was still, in fact, 3-1 in the 9th when the old veteran slugger Angelo Ramos (.234, 7, 19) parked his 7th HR of the year into the left field seats for a 3 run HR off of Rangers stopper Gabe Slaughter (0-2, 5.84, 3 Sv), who so far has kind of shown why this team, when it was still called the Senators, stopped using him as a co-closer with the now-departed Jake Duckett.
Texas is 13-17, having started to put things together a little after a monumentally slow start. This... this is not helping.
May 21: Call today the Doubleheaders of Truth, I guess. The Pirates swept the Expos at home in their own double although they had to go 14 in the first game to do so. They wound up winning that one 7-4 thanks to a 2 out 3-run HR by RF Justin Lawson (.246, 6, 17), who had a rare multi-HR game at Three Rivers Stadium. Paz Lemus (2-0, 0.00) continued his 1972 scoreless streak with 10 games and 20.1 innings of run-free baseball for the W. Game 2 came down to a pitchers' duel between back of the rotation guys Richard "MY DAD IS THE BEST DAD" Craven (0-2, 2.74) and Danny Perez (3-0, 2.37). Perez went 7 strong innings and handed the ball over to Bucs setup man Brian Bruno (0-2, 4.91), who finished the 2-0 shutout and picked up his first save on the year in the process. Asked if he pitched well today, Richard Craven said "I gueeeeesssss" and then changed into a plaid shirt.
## Teams in Review
May 20: It took until Saturday but I was right! The
Montreal Expos are the first team to 20 losses and as such the first team I "get" to take a look at. Montreal is dead last in the NL in both runs scored and runs allowed, not a great combination. The pitching is especially, especially bad though; although the Texas Rangers out-futile them at the plate nobody is worse than Montreal's 4.19 ERA.
Rotation: Annoyingly it's the top of the Expos' rotation, the guys who were supposed to carry, who have been awful for the most part. Neither DJ Fletcher (2-4, 4.43) nor Jeff Graton (2-4, 4.43) are looking like much at all but neither looks like a guy I feel comfortable swapping out, especially given the complete lack of good pitching in AAA Peninsula. Nate Lancaster (1-3, 5.76) was an 11 game winner for the A's last year but hasn't even been able to average 6 IP a start so I'm going to flip-flop him and the guy who's been the team's situational lefty so far, Andy Tudor (0-1, 2.61). For now that'll have to be all.
Bullpen: Lancaster was a tweener last year too, with 13 starts and 14 games in relief, so maybe he'll bounce back in the 'pen. Otherwise, the bullpen's kind of not that bad. Long reliever Melvin Navarro (0-0, 4.11) has had some crazy control issues so far (15 walks in 15.1 IP) but that right now is less of a reason to cut the 28 year old and more of a reason to keep him out of the rotation... yet.
Infield: 1B Willie Morales (.241, 5, 9) is hitting dingers but not a whole lot else, as evidenced, too, by a .278 OBP. I'm going to start mixing in the old vet, Armando Munoz (.158, 0, 1) against righties. It's a natural platoon!
The former Cub David Holcolmbe (.172, 2, 6) was supposed to be the guy at second this year but he is not and the team has a guy doing well - I guess tearing it up in 1972 terms - in AAA in the AAAA player Luis Alvarez (.297, 4, 7 at AAA Peninsula). It looks like a 50/50 platoon between him and Danny Waters (.263, 1, 2). I just noticed that I'd been trying Ruberto Yebra (.150, 0, 1) there against lefties; that's a bad idea although somehow the stone-handed Yebra hasn't made an error in 7 games and 62 innings at the position to date.
I totally didn't realize this but even though George Yarbor (.193, 0, 2) and Hudson Watts (.286, 3, 5) are the same age - 25 - Watts as a toooon more cachet, given that he was the 1st overall pick in the 1970 draft. I'd entered the year with Yarbor as the starter but, meh fielding or no, Watts is the clear choice out there.
Outfield: I'll probably not make huge changes but it's not because the OF is settled. Paul Kahl (.257, 3, 12) is the only guy who's actually hitting so far. RF Matt Williams (.105, 0, 2) has had a baaaad 10 games since starting the season late; I'm pretty much set on forcing the 1971 All-Star to hit, eventually, if that's a thing that works. CF Marc Ash (.178, 1, 4) is also not hitting in a larger sample, too. His backup Anton Mendoza (.208, 0, 2) is equally not hitting; he was a starter before Williams came back so he's got a decent sample now - 77 at-bats - as well.
May 21: The
Cincinnati Reds do have the 2nd worst record in baseball but honestly... they aren't really that bad, I don't think. The pitching is certainly not good and we'll need to look into that but they've successfully upgraded the offense, even with the injuries (and the recent trade of Sonny Burwell). What can we do? We shall SEE.
Rotation: Basically everyone outside of Steve Waiters (4-3, 2.10) has an ERA higher than 4. This cannot stand! I'm immediately going to pull both Josh Mullett (1-4, 5.10) and Mike Johnston (0-6, 5.53) out, replacing them with Tom Bertan (0-0, 2.25), who hopefully won't have an ERA higher than an airplane this year as he did last year with his disastrous 7.51, and Hector Fernandez (0-0, 3.12), who was 11-7 with a 2.72 ERA in AAA Eugene last year. That still leaves a 5 man rotation, which... I'm confident that the Reds aren't as bad as their record but not *that* confident. Love to give Waiters more outings but I'm not so hot on the remaining two guys, "Bullet Bill" Vanover (6-6, 4.35) and Joe Hagan (3-3, 4.78), both of whom are having issues with HRs early on.
Bullpen: For a little while it looked like Mullet would just be a guy who puts up a 4 ERA anywhere but in 1972 there's no place where a 4 ERA is OK and also he got hammered a couple times since that point. I'm still putting him in as the middle relief guy because I kind of think Mike Johnston might be washed. I'll also promote Brian Yates (0-0, 0.00) to a setup role as the only other guy in the 'pen I'm sure of. Well, actually, Pete Lynn (0-1, 2.70, 2 Sv) has looked pretty OK as the stopper and to be honest he might be someone the Twins let get away a little too quickly.
Infield: Junior Cannon (.125, 0, 0) is not off to the greatest start as a pinch-hitter and now the interim 1B but he's kind of all we have there. Even when Rivera was healthy, Carlos Gomez (.286, 2, 6) was pinch-hitting for him late so I'll move him in as a platoon partner for Cannon in the hopes that Cannon can find that 25 HR stroke he exhibited in '69 and '70 before he slumped to just 18 dingers and a .222 average last year.
I've already pushed Bobby Kralcevic (.179, 1, 6) down into a platoon role with Scott Dorman (.353, 1, 7) and I'm worried I'll need to do more soon. Kralcevic hit .277 and .291 his first 2 years, then slumped to .241 in 1971. It he hits .280 he's still one of the best third sackers in the National League. That seems kind of far off right now.
Dusty McCully (.263, 0, 4) has been getting the job done but not "he should start every day" levels of getting the job done so I'll start mixing in last year's starter Mike Wendt (1 whole at-bat so far this year). McCully is a better hitter and fielder than Wendt so there's no real chance that I see of Wendt getting his job back but I don't think there's a lot of point here in pushing McCully until he gets hurt or something.
Outfield: Here I called up OF Dan "Horse" Issel (.299, 2, 12 at AAA Indianapolis). Issel plays for the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA when he's not playing baseball and in fact was so good at that that he even won All-Star MVP this year. As a ballplayer, he's got really good range in the outfield thanks to those long big man legs and hit for a high average this year at Indianapolis. He's kind of new to baseball, having just joined up with Trois-Rivieres last year when that team was added to the minor league system, so it's hard to come to any hard conclusions on the guy. I'm going to try to use him as much as I can though. For starters, he'll be the right-handed half of the CF platoon I'm putting together with the loss of Burwell; Dennis bin Naim (.265, 1, 14) being the other half. I'm happy to report that the corner guys are doing just fine with their new teams; the former AL batting king Alonzo Huanosta (.308, 0, 13) looks like he's put a rough 1971 (a .261 average) behind him and RF Jaden Weaver (.274, 7, 25) is among the league leaders in HRs.