[Syd Thrift]

## Standings / Recap / Comments

I'm running this for a month, mostly doing trades but also there are a bunch of awards to announce! This feels like a good cutoff point as well as the Rule V draft is on November 27 and there is a CERTAIN large trade on its way on that day, too.

## Major Transactions
October 30: The A's traded LF Raul Bueno (.291, 2, 16) and minor league OF <redacted> (.248, 2, 18 in rookie ball) to the Rangers for RP Doug Ellis (3-0, 1.19, 7 Sv). I wish the game did PTNBL. Granted, usually they're either a means of getting around draft rules (which doesn't seem to be the case here; the real-life PTNBL was Brant Alyea, who's a rough comp for Bueno here). Anyway, this is a pretty big haul for a reliever in the 70s but Ellis was pretty good last year and the A's a. need pitching and b. have a glut of outfielders now. <Redacted> is their 3rd highest rated OFer, although he's pretty far from hitting the majors and kind of looks like he'll be a 1B/DH by the time he gets there.

October 31: The Brewers traded SP Danny Plaunt (15-10, 3.08), SP Chris Olivares (8-19, 3.46), CL Matt Brock (8-6, 2.53, 18 Sv), and P Jonas Youngblood (6-12, 3.25) to the Phillies for SP Marius Gaddi (11-16, 3.95), IF Francisco Carrasco (.214, 7, 21), and minor league LF Billy Ocean (.316, 9, 26 for A Spartanburg). So... yeah, a big oooold trade. The Brewers move their entire pitching staff for Gaddi, Carrasco, who's basically a warm body, and 22 year old Billy Ocean, the Phillies' 1st round pick in this year's amateur draft. This was 100% a white flag trade although frankly I think I might value Plaunt as a future starter over Gaddi. On the other hand, Gaddi does have that 27 win season and a bad team like the Brewers are exactly who should be playing that lottery.

November 1: The Royals purchased minor league RP Carlos Hernandez (6-3, 3.32, 6 Sv in AAA Charleston) for $10,000. Hernandez has a grand total of 1 game pitched in the majors, a start in 1971. He's just a victim of numbers in Pittsburgh and maybe he'll get a bigger / existant role in Kansas City.

November 2: The Indians traded minor league 2B <redacted> (.304, 10, 55 in A Reno) to the Royals for P Miguel Chavez (13-9, 4.17). Chavez had a winning record! Hey! It's an actual deal where Cleveland is bring in vet help! I kind of hope this prospect doesn't debut before he turns 25 because his OOTP-given name is "Remington Hegge". He's 23 and still in the California League so it's possible! The scouts still like him though.

November 2: The Braves traded 3B Vicente Luna (.248, 15, 69) and SP Julio Sandoval (10-12, 3.26) to the Mets for SP Ernesto Carrillo (9-15, 4.02) and RP Rick Legere (2-5, 4.46). The Mets and aging 3rd basemen: name a more iconic duo. Mark Hamill posted an OBP of .289 last year so he'll be competing for a roster spot now. This does leave the Braves without a 3rd baseman, although they have a guy who had a great 1972 in the minor leagues, Bill Wallace (.335, 6, 26). Julio Sandoval returns to a kind of broken Mets starting rotation where he led the league in ERA in 1969. Legere was awful in '72 but very good with St. Louis the year before and Carrillo, well, has long been an interesting pitcher.

November 6: The Expos traded OF Matt Williams (.253, 16, 42) to the Cardinals for OF Rory Gallagher (.277, 10, 37 in AAA Tulsa). Williams outproduced what Gallagher did in AAA, in the major leagues, but Williams is almost a decade older so the move makes a kind of sense for Montreal. For the Cardinals, Williams should be the Cardinals' best defensive corner outfielder they've had in years, and he's a good hitter too.

November 12: The White Sox signed 34 year old Mexican League superstar Pedro Castrejon (.324, 33, 78). Castrejon is old but he was really really good last year after kind of appearing out of nowhere in 1971. He looks like he could slot right on in as a DH if that power translates to the major leagues.

November 21: The Cubs traded CF Sammy Hagar (.317, 9, 33 at AAA Wichita) to the A's for P Chris Wilson (9-9, 3.95). These two teams just looooove to trade with each other. Hagar is a solid prospect in center, albeit 25, but the Cubs have a guy there right now in Alex Vallejo as well as a couple of younge prospects in Terry Pratchett and "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler. Wilson is a craft vet who had an off year last year but had sub-3.00 ERAs in both '70 and '71.

November 24: The Yankees traded RP Will Wright (2-3, 3.74) and OF Alan Rickman (.202, 3, 8) to the A's for LF Adam Groves (.211, 12, 41). Groves had a bad season last year like half the guys in the league but has been really good in the recent past and he does that annoying walking thing the Yankees love so much. They're sending Wright, who was very meh in middle relief, and Rickman, who looks evil enough to be a Yankee but is rumored to be kind of a nice guy.



## News
October 30: The Gold Glove awards are out! I've already pretty well talked about these guys so I'll try and be brief for once:

American League
-------------------
P: Justin Kindberg, BOS (1st)
C: Texas Josh Lewis, OAK (2nd)
1B: Alex Canales, OAK (4th) - and a clear winner even if he did only start 109 games for the A's
2B: Joey Ramone, DET (1st)
3B: Marco Perez, BAL (5th) - Chase Young was sliiightly better and won last year but he did so because Perez didn't play
SS: Oniji Handa, BOS (8th)
OF: Bobby Kaplan, CLE (1st) - I don't know, maybe a flukey award but his ZR was among the tops for AL CFs (5.4, which, granted, is not high)
OF: Norm Hodge, TEX (8th) - His numbers didn't really pop out but he's a legacy and his ratings are still veeeery high
OF: Jun Kim, BOS (6th) - I waffled between him and former teammate Troy Brown; in the end, I decided that, like Perez, it's his trophy to lose when he plays enough

National League
------------------
P: Rogelio Salinas, LAD (2nd)
C: Doug Connally, PIT (1st) - like I noted in his write-up, he's not graded suuuuper well but he threw out 44.7% of runners
1B: Willie Morales, MON (1st) - First was wiiide open this year. Alex Canales won from 1968-1970 but he's not there. I awarded it to the 2nd year player over the Cubs' Antonio Lopez, the 1971 winner, because frankly Morales was a lot better
2B: Pedro Ortiz, CIN (3rd)
3B: Sean Gabekm CHC (5th)
SS: Brian Wilcox, "STL" (5th) - Wilcox was traded to the A's in the final month but was an absolute beeeeeeast through August
OF: Ed O'Neill, SD (1st) - To get an idea of how light it was for CFs in the AL, O'Neill is the #2 guy and he had a 9.4 ZR. Rookie or no, great season
OF: Danny Seligman, SF (3rd) - Seligman was +13.9, which is around where I usually expect to see top CFs if I'm being honest
OF: Paul Kahl, MON (1st) - I've been hard on Kahl because he's like a tweener or something. He was also worth +14.9 ZR between the two OF corners. Pretty good

October 31: The Rolaids Relief Award winners are announced. Back in the day Rolaids used a really simple algorithm to figure these out: 2 * relief wins + saves. I do the same...

National League
--------------------
1. Alec "Hawk" Cosby (7-5, 1.84, 32 Sv). This is the 28 year old's first award and man, he deserved it. The real question is, can I Mike Marshall him over the next couple years (note: I doubt it; Cosby lacks the stamina)?
2. Jesse Kelly, CHC (8-5, 2.76, 28 Sv). Fantastic comeback year for Kelly, who posted a 4.90 ERA for the Yankees last season and looked like he might have been out of a job.
3. Geoff Saus, NYM (8-5, 1.58, 27 Sv). Imagine how much Saus could have done for a good team.

Le biggo snubberino: Pirates' ace Paz Lemus (9-4, 2.32, 25 Sv) just barely missed out here. I guess he was tied with Saus, technically speaking, but Saus was Eckersley-esque (who?) and Lemus, while also great, was not quuuuuite at that level.

American League
---------------------
1. Willis Chavez, OAK (7-4, 2.75, 27 Sv). This is also Chavez' first RR award; in fact, his previous high in saves was 20 so this is the first time he was even close.
2. Montay Luiso, BAL (5-6, 2.46, 27 Sv). I don't know what's with that won-lost record! But Luiso is a 3-time ugy who totally would have won his 4th RR if he'd just pulled another game or two out.
3. Jake Duckett, CLE (10-4, 22 Sv). Yeah, he's there because of all the relief wins.

November 1: And the Silver Sluggers!

American League
--------------------
P: Danny Plaunt, MIL (.190, 1, 10, 1st). The last-ever SS for the AL! Although Plaunt will have the chaaaance to win again in the NL given yesterday's blockbuster trade.
C: Texas Josh Lewis, OAK (.287, 18, 73, 2nd). Lewis is kind of good at baseball.
1B: Ernesto Garcia, CLE (.296, 68, 166, 2nd). The rest of the AL first basemen very kindly stepped aside, hitting-wise, to make this one easy. I mean, Alice Cooper is the 2nd best power hitter in the AL and he's also a 1B so maybe not...
2B: Aloha Dan Gilmet, MIN (.321, 9, 60, 4th)
3B: Jose "Joker" Ayala, DET (.260, 20, 74, 2nd)
SS: Justin Ramey, MIN (.247, 10, 49, 1st). Not gonna lie, I veeeery nearly gave this to Oniji Handa after ragging on his offense all year...
LF: RJ Dominguez, KC (.251, 19, 77). I guess I could have handed this to Cooper, who played 39 games in left. But I didn't.
CF: Alvin Romero, DET (.296, 4, 41, 48 SB, 3rd). More like Silver Sneakers amirite???
RF: Tony Danza, KC (.338, 7, 50, 34 SB, 1st)

National League
---------------------
P: Billy Ording, PHI (.393, 4, 16, 1st). Ording's a career .298 hitter so... Plaunt probably doesn't have a great chance to repeat.
C: John Stuart, STL (.263, 15, 52, 6th). It was kind of a meh year for catchers and I just about awarded this to the Mets' Jason Bushon (.245, 19, 71). Stuart's won it 6 times to Bushon's 1. Like it or not, legacies matter.
1B: Justin Stone, LAD (.257, 33, 95, 10th)
2B: Paul McCartney, SD (.266, 32, 94, 2nd). Two years, two SS awards.
3B: Mike Galeana, STL (.217, 32, 87, 2nd). I hemmed and hawed over Galeana, who was chasing .200 midway through the year, but HRs and RBIs don't lie.
SS: Jeremy Taylor, CHC (.246, 35, 100, 4th). Yeah, he moved off the position in the 2nd half but nobody in the NL was close to what he did.
LF: Justin Lawson, PIT (.272, 19, 84, 2nd). There were a couple guys - Rafael Disla comes to mind - who might have had better raw nummbers but Lawson was the #3 man for the pennant winners.
CF: George Foreman, HOU (.313, 19, 76, 1st)
RF: Jaden Weaver, CIN (.234, 32, 88, 2nd). Surprised he's only won this one other time. I guess Henry Riggs was taking them all for a while.

November 2: And now, onto the Rookies of the Year! I'll be honest... I just eyeball these. I have a couple of views set up that don't include WAR so I have no real clue if these guys are actually good according to semi-modern stats or not (I mean, I know they are but you know what I mean).

National League
--------------------
1. Steven Tyler, SP, SD (15-14, 3.55). Honestly it was a pretty light rookie class in the NL this year. George Foreman didn't qualify because he played too much in 1971 and there were just a lot of guys who weren't all that good. Tyler had a 93 ERA+ but led all rookies in wins so that's nice at least.

2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, SP, SF (12-12, 3.19). Abdul-Jabbar might have the better future ahead of him but he only started 29 games. He did well, don't get me wrong! Some of the doing-well is tempered by windy Candlestick Park.

3. Robin Gibb, 3B, LAD (.260, 13, 49). Californians swept the NL Rookie places this year. Gibb was... fine, like, those are league-average 3B numbers. Now I'll check WAR and it'll say that he had like a 3.5 or something (a 3.2 haha) but does that look like a ROY statline? Because it doesn't to me.

American League
-----------
1. Tony Danza, OF, KC (.338, 7, 50, 34 SB). Now this. THIS is what a ROY looks like. Danza led the league in average, hits, triples, and on-base perentage. He's not one of these 29 year old "rookie" rookies either: man's just 24 years of age and if you want to ask who's the boss... well, the answer is him.

2. Frank Abagnale, C, BAL (.284, 10, 51). The AL has produced 2 really great catchers in 2 years. Abagnale could have won the ROY in a normal year with those numbers. Unfortunately for him, Tony Danza also had his rookie season in '72.

3. Billy Crystal SP, TEX (13-15, 2.86). Sure, the won-lost record is trash but Crystal was actually really good. Now if he can only get himself som run support...

November 4: I found a much more complicated algorithm that I started using for the Cy Young last year. Here are the winners!

American League
---------------------
1. Michael Pesco, BOS (24-10, 2.62). As I did the write-ups I took one look at this guy's year and was like "oh yeah, that's your Cy Young". Pesco was 1st in wins, 2nd in Ks, and 8th in ERA. He also led the league in walks but things like this happen when you've got stuff like he does. This is the 28 year old Pesco's 3rd Cy Young; he also won in 1966 (20-8, 1.92) and 1968 (17-8, 2.00). He already has a record of 107-64 with a 2.51 ERA and 23 career shutouts.

2. Jose Martinez, CLE (22-7, 2.36). Martinez pitched around 60 fewer innings but was more effective. I'll just let the algo speak for itslef. He also came kind of out of nowhere: the 27 year old's ML record previous to this year was 6-6. It was a legit Cy Young season though: among other things Martinez led the AL in K rate with 8.2/9 innings.

3. Edgar Molina, DET (21-11, 3.10). Molina was definitely hurt by playing in Detroit: his ERA was under 3 (2.95) away from Tigers Stadium but 3.27 in it. He was also 13-5 away compared to 8-6 at home. This is still the 3rd best pitcher in the AL, mind you.

National League
---------------------
1. Tony Rivera (23-13, 2.57). I could have sworn that Rivera killed his chances with a 4-4 mark from September 1 onwards. I guess the lead was too big and he just did too many things, including tying the all-time shutouts record of 9. Surprisingly, Rivera's only made the All-Star Game twice, the last 2 seasons. He's 29 and has even more wins than Michael Pesco: 113-82, but less hardware to show for it.

2. DJ Cheeves, PIT (22-9, 2.48). Old Money Cheeves was on this year. Many other years, this would have been a Cy Young type season. He also made the All-Star game for only the 3rd time in his career and after a 5 year layoff. To be fair TOOOOO BEEEEE FAAAAAAIR he was kind of bad from 1968-1971: 40-55 with an ERA in the high 3s. Kudos to the Bucs for sticking with the guy, I guess.

3. Fernando Apolonio, LAD (20-10, 1.85). He couldn't quite keep up his first-half pace in setting the all-time ERA record but the 8 year veteran nevertheless had a career year that, continuing this trend, included his first-ever All-Star appearance.

November 5: Last but not least, the MVP! I kind of eyeballed these. I did find an "algorithm" that's basically "give one point each to six categories" and I kind of used that, which is a big part of why the NL winner is... well, you'll have to read.

American League
----------------------
1. Ernesto Garcia, CLE (.296, 68, 166). Like there was ever any doubt. All Garcia did was set the all-time HR record one year after tying it. His new record to chase is RBIs: he finished 3 short of Justin Stone's 169 from 1964. Let's be realistic here: 1972 was already a pretty beastly season and I'd be amazed if Garcia repeated it. Still, you saw it and here it is.

2. Alice Cooper, CHW (.261, 44, 96). This was an awwwwfully good 2nd-banana year. Cooper's 24 and should hold his head high. This will not be the last tme he competes for this award. He did miss a couple weeks at the end of the year - not that that would have made any difference of course.

3. Tony Danza, KC (.338, 7, 50). No, these aren't MVP numbers, exactly, but Danza did lead the league in hits and average; these are 100% 3rd in the MVP vote numbers.



## Teams in Review