MLB Leaders by OPS (Min 71 PA)
MLB Leaders by ERA (Min 21 IP)
Facts....... and more Facts.
The 1970 season batting title was not close in National League, Atlanta Braves LF
Rico Carty hit .366 with 25 HRs and 101 RBIs in 136 games for the Braves. Well so far in this SIM, Carty is hitting the identical .366. In 1970 Carty got off to a great start and was hitting .435 on May 3rd and had 8 HRs. At 6'3 the "Beeg Mon" spent most of his career batting around that .300 mark including 1974 when he hit .363. Carty missed the entire 1968 season when he contracted "tuberculosis" and throughout his Braves years had various run ins with teammates such as
Hank Aaron and
Ron Reed.
California Angels LF
Alex Johnson won the AL batting title. Johnson hit .329 with 14 HRs and 86 RBIs in 156 games for the Angels in 1970. So far in the SIM, Johnson is hitting a woeful .193 with 0 HRs and 6 RBIs so he would need to get on his horse. On this date in real life Johnson was hitting .337 with 2 HRs. Johnson won the NL batting in the SIM in 1969. In real life, 1970 was the only season Johnson had more then 200 hits. Johnson was considered all bat, no defense. In two seasons prior in Cincinnati, Johnson led the NL in "OF" errors. In a tight race with
Carl Yastrzemski for the AL batting title, Johnson went 2 for 3 to pull ahead of "Yaz" and then pulled by the Angels to ensure his title.
Boston Red Sox 1B
Carl Yastrzemski finished just slightly behind Johnson in the 1970 batting title race hitting .329 as well. ( Johnson .3290) Yastrzemski (.3286) in a pretty tight race. "Yaz" had won 3 batting titles already in his career (1963 .321) (1967 .326) and (1969 .301* the lowest average to win the title in MLB history). In this SIM in 1970, the 30 year old is hitting .325 with 1 HR and 8 RBIs in 21 games. Yastrzemski was a AL Triple Crown winner in 1967 winning the batting title, HR title (44) and RBI title (121) which also led to the MVP award.
As mentioned earlier, the National League batting title race was never close in 1970. The 2nd place finisher in the NL was Cardinals C
Joe Torre. The 29 year old hit .325 with 21 HRs and 100 RBIs and only in 1971 did Torre have more hits. The closest to the top Torre had finished previously was 4th in 1964 when he hit .321. Torre would win at batting title in 1971 while also leading the NL with RBIs. Torre hit the first HR in Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium in 1966.
Pittsburgh Pirates C
Manny Sanguillen finished 5th in the MLB for hitting, he hit .325 with 7 HRs and 61 RBIs in 128 games for the Pirates. Coming off a season in the SIM where he hit .330 (.303 in RL), a season where Sanguillen was selected as an All Star. Sanguillen would break the .300 barrier two more times in his real life career, in 1971 he hit .319 and in 1975 he hit .328. Sanguillen is off to a slow start in the SIM hitting just .255. Sanguillen rarely walks, he would love to chase pitches and turn them into base hits. Sanguillen was a close friend to Pirate teammate
Roberto Clemente, and should have been on the plane with Clemente that crashed and killed Clemente in 1972 if not for some misplaced car keys.