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Up to September 6, 1971.
Tris Speaker has fallen to .394. Speaker has already crossed the 200 hit mark for the season, but with roughly 17 or 18 games remaining, he needs a hot streak to reach .400. I give him about a 30% chance of doing so.
For the first time in years, the Northern Division has a pennant race and it's a barn burner. Peoria's lead is down to a single game over the St. Paul Saints. The Saints creeped to as close as a 1/2 game at one point. The Toledo Mud Hens are only a 1/2 game behind the St. Paul Saints and a game and a half behind Peoria. The remainder of the season should be a blast to watch play out. Peoria, St. Paul and Toledo should all make the post season, but the race for the division could be one for the ages.
The Southern Division is not all that intriguing. Tulsa has jumped out to a 7 1/2 game lead over Birmingham and San Antonio. Surprising thing is, the Drillers have built this lead without the services of hot hitting Nap Lajoie. Lajoie is down with an injury.
The home race is a 3 man battle between Edgar Wesley, Tony Armas and Wilson Redus. Ken Phelps is slowly creeping into the race, but I think he will run out of time to actually catch the leaders.
Jose Munoz picked up 2 more wins on the season to raise his league leading total to 19 and career totat to 274. Looks like Munoz will battle Sean Geunther for top ERA in the league as the 2 continue to trade stays in the top spot on the leaderboard.
Luis Arreaz has fallen all the way to .315 on the season. Arreaz hit close to .350 through July, but has tailed off big time during the dog days of summer.
Carl Yastrzemski is now the league all time hits leader with 3200+. Yaz passed Mel Ott to take the lead. Sam Rice is on Ott's heels as well.
I'm wondering if this will be the final season for Ad Lankford? I'd still put the guy in my rotation, but he has taken a step back this season. I think he's currently 42 years old.
I'm really surprised with how the 71 season has played out. I expected much higher totals for the leagues home run leaders, but it's looking like the league leaders will finish the season in the high 30's. I had it in my head that this might be the year for someone to hit 50 again. Of course, watch that be next year, as I always expect 72-76 to be rather blah in terms of offense, before things get crazy for that 77 season.
Roberto Clemente has remained in the San Antonio Missions starting lineup for the entire 1971 season. Haven't seen him pick up a rookie of the month award yet, but he hasn't sucked by any means. He continues to play centerfield and hit in the bottom half of the lineup.
I think the end is near for Kirby Puckett and Sammy Sosa. Not sure either have done enough to make the Hall of Fame, but I give Puckett a better chance than Sosa. Sosa had some nice power years, but definitely fell below expectations.
The end for Felix Hernandez may also be approaching. Hernandez has pitched out the bullpen for all of 1971. I always forget that Felix's real life career ended at a rather young age. I say the end is near, but who knows, maybe the OOTP gods will grant King Felix a second life and let him continue on. Maybe he will become a force in the bullpen into his 40's. I doubt it, but one never knows.
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