[Syd Thrift]

## Standings / Recap / Comments

Once the Winter Meetings ended, things got kind of back to normal, relatively speaking.

## Major Transactions
December 1: The Reds traded P Garrett Elser (4-2, 3.81 at AAA Indianapolis) to the Rangers for C Viet Bieler (.155, 0, 6) and IF Jose Hernandez (.128, 2, 7). Elser barely played in the majors this year - 4 games, 5 IP, but both Bieler and Hernandez hit like pitchers last year. So a big old nothing for both sides, hooray!

December 3: The Yankees signed Mexican League veteran Aitor de la Rosa (.320, 22, 71 at Yucatan). There sure were a lot of MLB quality guys who just kind of magically appeared at Yucatan a couple years ago... anyway, de la Rosa has got the power to be yet another bat in a suddenly-powerful Yankees lineup.

December 7: Cleveland traded minor league 2B Dong-hak Park (.214, 5, 23 at AAA Portland) to the Expos for minor league 1B JR Cook (.237, 1, 8 at AAA Peninsula). I noticed when I was referring to players as "redacted" with brackets around them, BBCode was reading that as a tag or something and deleted them... so instead I'll just list the WRONG name and let the chips fall where they may! Anyway JR Cook was a 24 year old pinch-hitter so I don't think he'll be much more than depth anyway. Park, you might remember, started 44 games for the Twins in 1970 so he, like, technically has experience and stuff. The Expos will put him in the 2B mix.

December 18: The Phillies traded PH/OF Ryan Ashbaker (.170, 1, 6) to the Cardinals for minor league OF Daniel Taylor (.256, 2, 8 at AAA Tulsa). Ashbaker will get a new chance with the Cardianals, who are suddenly a little bit light in the outfield now. Taylor's a 25 year old no-hoper who doesn't cost a roster spot.

January 22: The Tigers traded P Richard Pulido (11-5, 2.72 at AAA Toledo) to the Expos for minor league P Armani Pinkney (2-2, 5.17 in AAA Peninsula). This was more of a "hey man, you've done well for the organization, here's a ticket to a place where you might play more" deal for Pulido than anything else. Pinkney played in 9 games in the majors in 1971 but was really bad in AAA last year and might be done.

January 24: The Red Sox traded P Nate Aiken (2-2, 2.34 in AAA Louisville) to the Cardinals for P Franklin Medrano (0-0, 5.27). Ah, the offseason. A season when teams convince themselves they can fix other teams' messes. In this case, Aiken, the Red Sox' 4th round pick in 1967, has had some insane walk rates in the past that he's only just now looking like he's curtailing. His K rates are also way, way down from a 1970 season where he struck out 101 men in 106 innings in Louisville. Medrano is 2 years younger but was genuinely awful in the major leagues last year.

January 29: The Phillies purchased P Parker Leonard (1-3, 6.82) from the Angels. Leonard was awful in the majors and the Angels are short on cash. He was really good at AAA Salt Lake City though (15-2, 2.20).

February 1: The Royals traded minor league P Warren Key (7-9, 4.72 at AAA Omaha) to the Mets for minor league P Jon Creech (2-0, 4.61 at AAA Tidewater). Yeah, the Mets still have no pitching in their organization. Creech isn't any good; then again, neither is Key.

February 1: The Cardinals traded P Joey Kramer (2-3, 3.76) to the Rangers for minor league P Nick Escabar (12-9, 3.56 in AAA Syracuse). Escabar had been previously purchased by the Rangers from the Yankees in September. I guess they didn't like what they saw or else they see more in the 22 year old Joey Kramer. Escabar can compete for the lefty specialist gig in his new place.

February 1: The White Sox traded 1B JP Carter (.203, 7, 38 at AAA Tucson) to the Royals for OF Michael Kamen (.291, 4, 20 at AAA Omaha). Carter was baaaaad last year but was pretty OK in AAA in 1971 (.285, 2, 10 in 109 at-bats) so he'll get one more shot. Kamen was just plain stuck in a very crowded Royals' outfield that got even more crowdeder over the last year.



## News
December 15: With nothing else to do this month, I have Hall of Famers to vote on. Here's my list / my chance to look into the OOTP history of this league...

1. Emmanuel Costa, C, BRK. Costa is an easy, easy choice. A 17 (17!!!) time All-Star, Costa was basically the Dodgers' man from the day he was called up in 1947 through 1965. He spent another could years in a backup role after that. This is a catcher who, amazingly, had 2,704 hits in his career with 1,025 runs score and 1,110 RBIs. This guy isn't just a Hall of Famer, he's the greatest catcher of all time.

2. Matt Clayton, RF, BAL. Clayton is another guy who played his whole career with one franchise and who also accompoanied them when they moved. In Clayton's case he came up with the St. Louis Browns in 1950 and stayed with them through their move to Baltimore, sticking around through the 1966 season. Clayton had 10 All-Star appearances, 11 Gold Gloves, the 1954 MVP (he went .334/36/121), 2,663 hits (5th all-time), 393 HRs (10th), and a career .299 average.

3. Jose Luquin, P, NYY. Luquin had a relatively short career but he was awwwwfully good when he played. He finished with a 204-133 record, 10 All-Star trips, 2 Cy Young Awards ('55 and '61 - he went 17-11, 2.93 and 16-4, 2.36), and won 5 World Series during his career, which was also entirely spent with one team.

4. Francisco Galtan, P, CHC. When I say Luquin had a short career, Galtan REALLY had a short career: just 148 career wins (against 89 losses) over a career that spanned from 1953 to 1966. That said, if there was a Sandy Koufax (who?) of this league, this guy was it: a 3 time Cy Young Award winner ('57, '58, and '61 - 17-8, 2.45, 23-9, 2.76, and 11-3, 2.57... that last of which... man, I don't know). Galtan never pitched more than 25 games in a season after 1958, his age-26 season. A real story of what could have been but IMO it was still enough.

5. Pat Card, RF, DET. This is probably an edge case but Card made the All-Star Game 6 times in his career, indicating to me that he was one of the star outfielders of the 1950s, and finished with a career .323 average, if only with 1,656 hits. Because OOTP gotta OOTP it decided to turn him into a pinch-hitter over once he turned 30: he never got more than 41 starts in a year after that point and his career dried up at age 35, although he still hit .338 in a very limited PH role for the Tigers that year.

6. Lazaro Hernandez, SP, PIT. This guy doesn't score super high via HOF Monitor standards but he was the face of the Pirates franchise in the 50s and 60s and a real workhorse. He finished with a career record of 226-194 with a 3.47 ERA and 503 career starts (2nd all-time). He made 5 All-Star trips, which is around my low end where I look at things (I geeeeenerally ask myself the Ken Keltner List when looking at guys and appearing in several ASGs are a good indicator that a guy was among the league's stars for a given era). He's got low HOF Standards (33) and hey, if he does make it this year (this is his 4th ballot; he got 54.8% in the '71 voting), he might be the worst HOFer, but it's not like this guy is Joe Tinker and if he is I'll just have to write a poem about him.

He's got a faster fastball than any old man does
Who am I talking about? Lazaro Hernandez

Only six guys on my ballot. It's still a relatively new league.

January 3: The HOF voting results are in! 3 guys made it in.

The ballots are counted and the results are in. This year we will witness three players added to the Hall of Fame. Emmanuel Costa, Matt Clayton, and Lazaro Hernandez received the ultimate honor this year in being voted as the newest members of the Hall of Fame.

The full voting results are included here. Players require 75% of ballots cast to be elected to the Hall, may stay on the ballot for up to 10 years if they receive at least 5% of the votes. Players must be retired for 5 years before they are eligible for induction to the Hall of Fame.

C Emmanuel Costa 98.3 (1st year) Inducted HOF
RF Matt Clayton 91.2 (2nd year) Inducted HOF
SP Lazaro Hernandez 77.7 (4th year) Inducted HOF
SP Jose Luquin 69.9 (2nd year)
CL Sam King 49.0 (2nd year)
1B Ruben Vazquez 48.6 (9th year)
SP Francisco Galtan 43.9 (2nd year)
SP David Melton 38.2 (10th year) Dropped
RF Pat Card 16.6 (5th year)
RF Chris Seidel 14.5 (3rd year)
SP Carlos Moreno 12.8 (2nd year)
RP Justin Mueller 8.8 (1st year)
SP Frank Yanez 7.1 (5th year)
SS Alex Ortiz 6.8 (8th year)
3B Chris Anzalone 6.1 (2nd year)
SP Chris Casillas 5.4 (3rd year)
CF Henning Rasmussen 3.7 (4th year) Dropped
SP Elias Hernandez 3.4 (1st year) Dropped
SP Miguel Gonzalez 2.4 (1st year) Dropped
RP Jeff Hall 1.7 (1st year) Dropped
C Jesse David 1.4 (1st year) Dropped
C Jose Flores 0.3 (1st year) Dropped
RP Guy Pierce 0.0 (1st year) Dropped
SP Eric Cartee 0.0 (1st year) Dropped

David Melton dropped out after 10 years; to be honest, I'm most surprised that he got as much support as he did. The man just baaaarely made the 10 year cutoff, playing from 1949-1958, and finished with 84 wins. He was good in those 10 years but not, like, Addie Joss good, and this isn't the Deadball Era anyway when you could win like 250 games in 10 years.

Otherwise I can't quibble with any of the guys who got in. Even in OOTPland the HOF voters won't unanimously put guys in I guess but oh well. Both Costa and Clayton got over 90% of their vote and Hernandez, well, all that counts is that he crossed the threshold.


## Teams in Review