 |
 Home | Webstore
|
|
Latest News:
OOTP 26 Available
- FHM 12 Available
- OOTP Go! Available
Out of the Park Baseball 26 Buy Now! |
|
|
||||
| ||||
06-16-2023, 11:13 AM
|
#181 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Minnesota Twins
1971 Recap: Following a rough start, everything felt like it was humming along in July. Then an absolutely brutal August dropped the Twins out of first place and a mediocre September didn't let them get back in. 1972 Outlook: The AL West is closer than the 9 1/2 games the Twins finished behind the A's but it seems like a lot of improvements this team needs involve turning back the clock. If they could just get their infield healthy that would be a start. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Ramos, Angelo 36 SR 13 19 .406 3.96 41 41 0 11 2 0 302.1 331 138 133 18 69 2 199 1.323 100.0 0.5 2.1 5.9 Benavides, Chris 29 RR 19 17 .528 3.26 41 41 0 8 4 0 295.2 309 119 107 10 87 4 178 1.339 100.0 0.3 2.6 5.4 Larsen, Mike 31 RR 14 12 .538 4.02 34 34 0 8 4 0 239.2 283 116 107 7 69 1 96 1.469 100.0 0.3 2.6 3.6 Whetzel, Rich 26 RR 8 5 .615 3.40 22 22 0 1 1 0 135.0 126 56 51 5 62 0 57 1.393 100.0 0.3 4.1 3.8 Lynn, Pete 25 RR 6 9 .400 3.32 69 0 53 0 0 19 100.1 93 49 37 4 29 4 92 1.216 100.0 0.4 2.6 8.3 Ruiz, Victor 33 SR 9 8 .529 3.46 43 10 19 2 0 2 117.0 104 51 45 7 60 5 90 1.402 100.0 0.5 4.6 6.9 Lewis, Bryan 26 RR 1 1 .500 4.79 26 1 8 0 0 0 41.1 44 24 22 3 22 1 27 1.597 100.0 0.7 4.8 5.9 Melena, Melvin 38 RR 3 1 .750 5.28 23 0 14 0 0 1 29.0 38 19 17 2 11 0 11 1.690 100.0 0.6 3.4 3.4 Magdaleno, Ricardo 33 LL 0 2 .000 5.59 21 1 8 0 0 0 29.0 34 21 18 2 10 0 19 1.517 100.0 0.6 3.1 5.9 Murry, Cameron 26 RR 2 0 1.000 4.70 6 4 0 0 0 0 30.2 32 20 16 4 15 0 19 1.533 100.0 1.2 4.4 5.6 Cosme, Jesus 30 RR 1 1 .500 3.80 14 1 7 0 0 1 21.1 19 13 9 1 18 0 23 1.734 100.0 0.4 7.6 9.7 Howard, Caleb 25 LL 0 0 .000 3.10 16 1 4 0 0 0 20.1 18 7 7 1 8 0 24 1.279 100.0 0.4 3.5 10.6 Theisen, Todd 31 RR 0 0 .000 5.84 14 0 0 0 0 0 12.1 11 8 8 1 1 0 9 0.973 100.0 0.7 0.7 6.6 Estrada, Ruben 24 RR 1 1 .500 2.57 2 2 0 0 0 0 14.0 7 4 4 0 8 0 13 1.071 100.0 0.0 5.1 8.4 Serrano, Santiago 24 LL 0 0 .000 2.84 3 1 1 0 0 0 12.2 8 4 4 1 7 0 10 1.184 100.0 0.7 5.0 7.1 Gurganus, Walt 27 LL 2 0 1.000 1.08 9 0 0 0 0 0 8.1 5 1 1 0 6 0 4 1.320 100.0 0.0 6.5 4.3 Christensen, Justin 27 RR 0 0 .000 5.19 6 0 1 0 0 0 8.2 9 5 5 3 7 0 5 1.846 100.0 3.1 7.3 5.2 Zamora, Manny 27 RR 0 1 .000 4.50 1 1 0 0 0 0 6.0 5 3 3 2 4 0 3 1.500 100.0 3.0 6.0 4.5 Eason, Pete 31 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 2 0 0 1 3.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0.333 100.0 0.0 3.0 6.0 Davidson, Jimmy 26 LR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Ramos, Angelo 41 13 19 9 1 5 17 24 0.415 11 2 22 54% 53 88 14 31 2 3.1 3.8 7.4 108 1 8 25 7 140 Benavides, Chris 41 19 17 5 2 11 20 21 0.488 8 4 31 76% 54 84 12 31 3 3.2 4.0 7.2 111 1 7 22 11 147 Larsen, Mike 34 14 12 8 1 2 20 14 0.588 8 4 18 53% 48 83 12 19 10 4.3 5.4 7.0 106 4 9 13 8 160 Whetzel, Rich 22 8 5 9 2 4 13 9 0.591 1 1 14 64% 51 76 27 10 10 3.1 4.5 6.1 94 5 2 13 2 136 Ruiz, Victor 10 3 5 2 0 2 5 5 0.500 2 0 6 60% 51 71 30 5 4 2.4 3.1 7.0 113 0 3 3 4 131 Murry, Cameron 4 2 0 2 0 0 3 1 0.750 0 0 2 50% 47 60 37 0 4 4.0 5.5 6.5 109 0 2 1 1 138 Estrada, Ruben 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0.500 0 0 2 100% 64 71 58 1 1 2.0 2.6 7.0 113 0 0 2 0 118 Magdaleno, Ricardo 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 32 32 32 1 0 1.0 1.5 6.0 111 0 0 1 0 111 Cosme, Jesus 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 20 20 20 0 0 4.0 8.3 4.3 112 0 0 1 0 112 Zamora, Manny 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0.000 0 0 1 100% 49 49 49 0 1 0.0 0.0 6.0 93 0 1 0 0 93 Serrano, Santiago 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 1 100% 51 51 51 0 0 3.0 4.5 6.0 123 0 0 0 1 123 Lewis, Bryan 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 0 1 100% 63 63 63 1 0 5.0 7.5 6.0 88 0 1 0 0 88 Howard, Caleb 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 52 52 52 0 1 5.0 7.1 6.3 110 0 0 1 0 110 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Lynn, Pete 69 6 9 26 19 7 73% 27 1 27 10 27% 1.811 35 22 22 14 55 9 29 21 16 14 18 4.4 23 Ruiz, Victor 33 6 3 3 2 1 67% 5 2 14 3 18% 1.322 9 18 18 10 23 4 14 3 8 9 13 4.3 24 Lewis, Bryan 25 0 1 1 0 1 0% 3 2 25 5 17% 0.840 6 14 14 13 12 6 12 3 7 2 13 4.2 23 Melena, Melvin 23 3 1 2 1 1 50% 5 3 8 3 27% 1.143 6 12 12 6 17 6 8 3 6 3 11 3.8 23 Magdaleno, Ricardo 20 0 1 1 0 1 0% 5 4 8 3 27% 0.744 4 11 11 4 16 7 7 5 1 3 11 3.5 18 Howard, Caleb 15 0 0 0 0 0 0% 5 5 10 3 23% 1.167 5 6 5 5 10 7 5 4 3 2 6 2.8 17 Theisen, Todd 14 1 3 6 5 1 83% 6 0 7 2 22% 1.508 4 5 5 5 9 2 7 2 5 4 3 4.1 24 Cosme, Jesus 13 1 0 2 1 1 50% 3 1 13 2 13% 0.775 3 9 9 8 5 4 6 0 4 2 7 3.9 20 Gurganus, Walt 9 2 0 1 0 1 0% 3 2 5 4 44% 1.514 4 5 5 3 6 4 2 2 2 1 4 2.8 15 Christensen, Justin 6 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 1 33% 0.556 1 4 4 2 4 0 4 0 0 2 4 4.3 27 Eason, Pete 2 0 0 1 1 0 100% 1 0 0 0 0% 2.140 1 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 1 4.5 21 Murry, Cameron 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 1 33% 0.292 0 2 2 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 7.0 48 Serrano, Santiago 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.800 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 2 10.0 49 Davidson, Jimmy 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.467 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 12 I wouldn't be surprised if this team dips to a 5 man rotation for extended stretches this year; Benavides and Ramos co-led the league with 41 starts and looked gassed in the late summer. To that end, they'll really need Rich Whetzel to step it up for a full season. He was fine for a back of the rotation guy but has issues with stamina and walked more men than he struck out. They'll also give long looks to Justin Christensen, a 28 year old minor league vet who was 10-5, 2.95 in AAA Portland last year, and 24 year old Ruben Estrada, who struck out 13 guys in 14 innings following a kind of meh year in the minors (7-11, 3.52 in AAA Portland). He's the #75 prospect in all of baseball and if he can tie down his control he could be the #2 starter this team needs. Pete Lynn felt very volatile with 7 blown saves in 26 opportunities but he's still the best reliever the Twins have. It'd be nice to see them rely on him just a little less often. One possible key to this is converted starter Victor Ruiz. He started poorly - 0-3, 5.19 through 4 April starts - and then was moved into the bullpen, where he was pretty effective all season long. That effectiveness led the Twins to spot start him a bunch, where he was never really all that great, finishing the year 3-5, 4.26 as a starter but 6-3, 2.28 out of the 'pen. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Reed, Brad 30 RR 118 398 41 95 18 2 12 54 55 85 0 0 9 .239 .330 .384 2* Theroff, Matt 30 RR 55 145 15 31 4 0 2 16 21 34 1 0 3 .214 .310 .283 2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Martinez, Angelo 35 LL 154 616 86 165 24 2 23 91 74 90 1 0 19 .268 .348 .425 3* Buskey, Sam 41 LL 17 17 2 7 0 0 1 4 0 3 0 0 0 .412 .412 .588 /2 Gilmet, Daniel 33 RR 84 333 38 100 16 2 2 19 24 25 14 7 8 .300 .334 .378 4/6 Palmarocchi, Pietro 28 RR 86 260 33 71 10 1 3 26 23 41 4 0 8 .273 .333 .354 4 Park, Dong-hak 30 LR 10 27 3 6 4 0 0 0 4 5 0 0 1 .222 .323 .370 /46 Brookes, Mike 32 SR 112 400 73 110 22 2 27 72 73 61 1 2 7 .275 .396 .543 5* Pellot, Danny 36 RR 71 200 20 57 9 3 2 12 20 30 1 2 3 .285 .344 .390 546 Franks, Jeff 25 RR 46 162 20 57 11 3 6 28 12 17 9 5 4 .352 .399 .568 57 Agnew, Coleman 35 RR 1 4 0 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.250 /5 Mendel, Marty 28 RR 94 275 28 67 8 0 2 34 32 37 1 1 3 .244 .324 .295 6/4 Ramey, Justin 32 RR 32 99 11 26 3 2 0 4 20 17 1 1 1 .263 .397 .333 6 Baek, Jun-ho 32 RR 63 98 16 17 6 0 3 11 21 25 1 0 0 .173 .311 .327 6 Avalos, Gene 34 RR 8 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /6 When healthy, Daniel Gilmet is still one of the best second basemen in the game. People will say that his .300 is an empty .300 but it's still a .300 so come on. That said, he hasn't had more than 400 at-bats since 1966 and the Twins have long gone past considering him as an every day player. Last year they used former Pirates prospect Pietro Palmarrocchi as that guy. He looked about like he looked in Pittsburgh: fine, sure, a great glove, but nothing you'd want to use day in, day out. The aging Danny Pellot is also available as a Swiss Army knife type player. Mike Brookes is another guy who did well when he was around but who missed a bunch of time - 48 games in fact. He doesn't get hurt every single year the way Gilmet does but it happens often enough that you can't just go in and write his name in as MVP each season (I guess in fairness even if he'd have played in 150 games he wouldn't have won that trophy this year anyway). In 1971 he missed the first 4 weeks of the season with a strained abdominal muscle and then called it a year a week early due to a strained PCL. Those absences did have the positive effect of making the team notice Jeff Franks, who'd been stuck in the minors before he hit .349 in 58 games in Portland this year and practically demanded a call-up. His future looks like it's more in left though; he's got a good arm but has poor range even for a third baseman. The Twins look like they've finally found a replacement for Marty Mendel, who was considered a weak spot in the lineup even when the Twins were the World Champs a season ago. Mendel isn't the worst hitter in the world as a shortstop but his range has gotten really, really bad, culminating in a -12.5 ZR last season that had the effect of making all the Twins pitchers look worse than they really are. His replacement is 4 years older but a guy who really should have been starting anyway: Justin Ramey Ramey was cut loose by Washington in a salary-cutting move, signed by Milwaukee, and following 13 games there, acquired by the Twins in exchange for "18" year old ageless prospect James "Lo Pan" Hong. That move will probably wind up biting the Twins, who were able to sign Hong in the first place because he's a Minnesota native, but for now Ramey's their guy. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Cortes, Alejandro 34 LL 83 266 34 58 15 3 9 32 31 39 8 3 7 .218 .303 .398 7 Grigg, Mike 37 RR 127 262 30 75 11 1 4 22 17 46 0 2 9 .286 .332 .382 7/9 Ship, Kyle 28 SR 70 110 14 25 6 0 0 10 8 17 1 2 4 .227 .283 .282 /739 Bump, Darrel 26 RR 23 85 11 22 4 0 3 9 6 13 0 0 4 .259 .319 .412 7 Villasenor, Jose 25 LL 153 654 78 200 30 3 16 65 47 87 7 6 3 .306 .348 .434 8*/7 Dempsey, Zach 27 LL 29 53 8 12 4 0 1 15 11 16 1 0 0 .226 .354 .358 /89 Dees, Brian 32 LR 26 24 3 5 3 0 0 2 2 4 0 0 1 .208 .269 .333 /8 Menke, Ben 30 RR 1 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 .250 .200 .250 /8 Morgenstern, Lou 32 RR 149 559 73 138 24 12 19 69 74 100 3 4 14 .247 .332 .435 9* Jose Villasenor led the AL in at-bats and hits in his first full season as a starter. With seemingly everyone else in the lineup getting old and losing steam, Villasenor is the only young and established star. He even made his very first All-Star Game in 1971. I'd be surprised if the Twins are still using him in center field in 5 years but he's got the bat to survive a move to an easier spot in the field. Pardon me if this sounds like a broken record but Lou Morgenstern is on the wrong side of 30 and has seen his numbers tumble for the 3rd straight year. He wasn't way worse in 1971 than 1970 but the league hit a lot better and he was left in the dust. He still has that 20ish HR power that nobody in the organization does so chances are he'll run it back for another year.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
06-18-2023, 01:48 PM
|
#182 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
1971 Recap: A terrible July really only underscored the fate of this team: a year removed from 95 victories and a playoff berth, the Yankees' dynasty is over. 1972 Outlook: For a team only a year away from glory, these guys look very, very far away from contention. The pitching staff, which used to be a strength, devolved into the 3rd worst in the American League, and the hitting is old and in no position to step up. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Mosher, Tracy 32 LL 19 17 .528 3.40 39 39 0 14 6 0 291.1 287 127 110 29 64 0 209 1.205 100.0 0.9 2.0 6.5 Olthof, Obke 26 RR 12 13 .480 3.85 37 37 0 8 2 0 252.1 273 119 108 17 63 4 169 1.332 100.0 0.6 2.2 6.0 Caneas, Danilo 35 RR 8 13 .381 4.48 26 25 0 4 1 0 178.2 178 96 89 21 51 4 76 1.282 100.0 1.1 2.6 3.8 Holm, Roy 35 LL 10 11 .476 4.08 40 22 5 3 0 0 174.1 142 88 79 24 79 0 158 1.268 100.0 1.2 4.1 8.2 Kelly, Jesse 33 LL 8 7 .533 4.90 48 0 37 0 0 12 68.0 75 38 37 14 10 0 50 1.250 100.0 1.9 1.3 6.6 Wright, Will 25 SR 4 0 1.000 3.55 47 0 23 0 0 2 58.1 46 24 23 2 34 1 54 1.371 100.0 0.3 5.2 8.3 Overmann, Mike 33 RR 5 6 .455 4.37 42 0 33 0 0 7 57.2 65 31 28 5 19 3 35 1.457 100.0 0.8 3.0 5.5 Lueders, Gene 25 LL 6 6 .500 3.49 35 17 6 5 3 0 136.2 141 58 53 12 43 0 60 1.346 100.0 0.8 2.8 4.0 Carbajal, Manny 28 RR 2 1 .667 3.28 23 3 9 1 0 0 57.2 50 25 21 5 12 0 46 1.075 100.0 0.8 1.9 7.2 Mankell, Henning 23 RR 1 4 .200 3.88 10 10 0 1 0 0 72.0 78 32 31 6 23 0 35 1.403 100.0 0.7 2.9 4.4 Carpenter, John 22 LL 2 1 .667 2.58 5 5 0 1 1 0 38.1 34 11 11 2 14 0 32 1.252 100.0 0.5 3.3 7.5 Escabar, Nick 27 LL 1 0 1.000 5.82 8 1 1 0 0 0 17.0 20 11 11 0 6 0 9 1.529 100.0 0.0 3.2 4.8 Herod, Nate 36 LL 0 0 .000 8.49 12 0 0 0 0 0 11.2 15 11 11 5 6 1 1 1.800 100.0 3.9 4.6 0.8 Foster, Josh 27 RR 0 1 .000 6.00 2 2 0 0 0 0 9.0 12 7 6 1 4 0 7 1.778 100.0 1.0 4.0 7.0 Musquiz, Jordan 24 SR 1 0 1.000 0.00 1 1 0 1 1 0 9.0 3 0 0 0 4 0 6 0.778 100.0 0.0 4.0 6.0 Covarrubias, Gabriel 24 LR 0 0 .000 1.80 5 0 2 0 0 0 5.0 4 1 1 0 1 0 5 1.000 100.0 0.0 1.8 9.0 Williams, Michael 24 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 3 0 0 0 0 0 2.1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0.857 100.0 0.0 3.9 3.9 Manning, Archie 22 SR 0 1 .000 18.00 2 0 1 0 0 1 1.0 3 2 2 0 1 0 2 4.000 100.0 0.0 9.0 18.0 Ramirez, Oscar 32 LR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 1.2 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0.600 100.0 0.0 5.4 16.2 Rathmann, Jeremy 27 RR 1 0 1.000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 1.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.000 100.0 0.0 0.0 13.5 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Mosher, Tracy 39 19 17 3 3 7 21 18 0.538 14 6 24 62% 56 91 17 29 6 3.7 4.5 7.5 110 2 7 19 11 137 Olthof, Obke 37 12 13 12 0 1 20 17 0.541 8 2 20 54% 52 84 6 25 6 3.6 4.7 6.8 103 4 9 17 7 139 Caneas, Danilo 25 8 13 4 2 5 11 14 0.440 4 1 15 60% 50 86 5 15 6 3.0 3.9 7.0 99 4 5 15 1 127 Holm, Roy 22 9 11 2 1 4 9 13 0.409 3 0 12 55% 52 79 22 14 3 3.5 4.5 7.0 116 1 2 9 10 152 Lueders, Gene 17 6 6 5 0 2 8 9 0.471 5 3 10 59% 52 83 24 4 8 3.9 5.0 7.0 100 2 6 7 2 124 Mankell, Henning 10 1 4 5 0 2 4 6 0.400 1 0 6 60% 51 73 37 1 6 3.0 3.8 7.2 110 0 4 2 4 138 Carpenter, John 5 2 1 2 0 0 3 2 0.600 1 1 4 80% 61 80 46 2 3 3.0 3.5 7.7 116 0 0 3 2 137 Carbajal, Manny 3 2 1 0 0 0 2 1 0.667 1 0 2 67% 74 87 59 1 2 2.0 2.0 9.2 119 0 2 0 1 163 Foster, Josh 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 0 00% 41 59 23 0 2 4.5 9.0 4.5 84 1 0 0 1 122 Musquiz, Jordan 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 1 1 1 100% 83 83 83 0 1 4.0 4.0 9.0 127 0 0 0 1 127 Escabar, Nick 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 1 100% 44 44 44 0 1 1.0 1.5 6.0 96 0 1 0 0 96 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Kelly, Jesse 48 8 7 19 12 7 63% 20 1 16 7 30% 1.658 19 15 15 10 38 6 17 9 10 6 23 4.3 21 Wright, Will 47 4 0 3 2 1 67% 7 4 20 6 23% 0.938 10 27 27 12 35 5 17 7 13 5 22 3.7 21 Overmann, Mike 42 5 6 12 7 5 58% 14 2 18 8 31% 1.678 19 13 13 9 33 4 17 8 14 7 13 4.1 21 Carbajal, Manny 20 0 0 1 0 1 0% 3 2 19 6 24% 0.629 3 16 16 11 9 5 12 1 2 4 13 4.5 25 Holm, Roy 18 1 0 0 0 0 0% 2 2 7 0 0% 0.735 4 9 9 5 13 2 5 1 4 5 8 3.6 16 Lueders, Gene 18 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 11 7 39% 0.582 1 10 10 6 12 5 3 3 4 2 9 2.8 14 Herod, Nate 12 0 1 1 0 1 0% 1 0 7 6 46% 0.779 1 8 8 4 8 1 2 1 2 2 7 3.8 17 Escabar, Nick 7 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 4 0 0% 0.653 0 5 5 4 3 1 4 1 1 0 5 4.7 25 Covarrubias, Gabriel 5 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 3 0 0% 0.456 0 3 3 2 3 1 1 1 0 0 4 3.0 13 Williams, Michael 3 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.686 0 2 2 0 3 0 3 0 0 0 3 5.7 27 Ramirez, Oscar 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 1 0 0% 0.650 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 2.5 9 Rathmann, Jeremy 2 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.750 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2.0 10 Manning, Archie 2 0 1 2 1 1 50% 2 0 0 0 0% 2.150 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 1.5 19 Caneas, Danilo 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 3 0 0% 0.292 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 8.0 51 This team's pitching is not in a good shape beyond the first two starters. Right now former White Sox prospect Gene Lueders looks like he might be the #3 starter thanks to a decent end of the year (4-2, 3.26 in August and September). He's a lefty, which should help him out a lot in Yankee Stadium. Henning Mankell is a studious guy who writes children's books in the offseason; he also went 17-4 in AAA Syracuse before having mixed results in the major leagues. Internally, people wish he'd approach the game of baseball as smartly as he approaches his offseason hobby. Guess we can't have everything. Another prospect, John Carpenter, seems to fit right in with the Yankees inasmuch as he's an aspiring director of horror movies. He also enjoyed a gaudy season in Syracuse (8-3, 2.86, although he was 4-4, 2.41 with AAA Iowa) following a trade out of Oakland. For now the last guy in the mix is Jordan Musquiz, who's also young but in spite of an 11-6 record in AAA he had just barely more strikeouts (113) than walks (106). He only threw 134 innings so his reputation right now is as a wild man. The Yanks look committed to at least trying out prospect/football player Archie Manning in the closer role. Some might wonder what they do when football season starts, to which my answer is, don't think about it too hard. He moved up three levels last year and throws a wicked slider that should get outs even in the big leagues. New York used Will Wright heavily in 1971 and figure to use him just as much this coming season. I don't *think* I deliberately named this man after the creator of Sim City but I'd still like to think that it's him (note: definitely not; the real Will Wright was born in 1960). Last year's stopper Jesse Kelly will duke it out with Roy Holm to see who will be their lefty specialist in 1972. Chances are both will wind up on the Opening Day roster though. Kelly suffered through a really bad season that saw him allow 14 HRs in just 68 innings, whereas Holm was a real Jekyll and Hyde with regards to starting (9-11, 4.53) and relieving (1-0, 0.84). Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Tabb, Khalil 26 RR 124 438 50 124 20 5 3 49 43 70 1 2 19 .283 .348 .372 2* Paige, Josh 27 RR 50 136 16 39 6 0 3 16 10 13 0 0 8 .287 .333 .397 2 Lennon, John 22 RR 7 25 1 4 0 0 1 3 2 4 0 0 1 .160 .222 .280 /2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Cardenas, Alex 38 LL 96 342 37 82 15 2 9 40 35 48 0 0 20 .240 .312 .374 3 Rickman, Alan 25 LL 74 279 40 76 13 0 8 45 25 65 0 1 11 .272 .330 .405 3 Berg, Bobby 31 RR 13 28 4 11 4 0 1 6 0 6 0 0 0 .393 .414 .643 /3 Stover, Ty 38 RR 108 332 36 68 14 1 11 31 71 75 0 0 13 .205 .350 .352 4/6 Banks, Jonathan 24 RR 56 211 25 66 15 2 0 20 13 21 0 0 9 .313 .352 .403 4/6 Jones, Pat 34 LR 43 84 8 23 7 0 1 9 6 8 1 1 1 .274 .312 .393 4/36 Pang, Su-Kyung 33 RR 5 17 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 .235 .235 .235 /4 Samora, Jose 35 RR 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .000 .333 .000 Weiss, Tom 32 RR 152 567 87 174 26 4 27 99 101 64 0 0 13 .307 .416 .510 5*/3 Hodzic, Nick 24 LR 7 12 7 6 1 1 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 .500 .600 .750 /5 Ybarra, German 24 RR 137 435 50 108 30 1 5 35 59 89 1 1 10 .248 .337 .356 6* Cardenas, Luis 29 RR 40 105 16 27 3 0 2 7 14 18 0 2 4 .257 .339 .343 65/4 Armand, Mike 31 RR 14 23 5 5 1 1 0 4 5 5 1 0 0 .217 .379 .348 6 Sanchez, Alex 25 RR 8 21 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 6 0 1 1 .190 .190 .286 /6 Ty Stover picked the wrong time to see his offensive game tumble. I mean, it's never a good time to fall apart on offense, not even if you're a future Hall of Fame middle infielder. Stover increasingly looked like it's time to move him down to first base but last year he hit more like a second baseman, which is a bad combination. If he can get his average back up to his .252 career mark, perhaps he has a couple years left. If not, the 11-time All-Star might not make it a full season. Jonathan Banks looks like the Yankees' 2B of the future; he hit a rather empty .313 and accompanied that with Gold Glove level play at the position - in fact, scouts point to his Grade A arm and surmise he could be a great 3B or SS. He's also a very crafty guy who, depending on who you ask, is either an actor or a corrupt cop in Albuquerque in the offseason. "Tiptoe" Tommy Weiss was clearly the team MVP last season and one wonders what his career might have looked like if he was handed the starting job at a reasonable age instead of the ripe old age of 29. As it stands, he made his 2nd All-Star Game in his 4th season as a starter for New York and found heretofore untapped reservoirs of power (22 HRs was his previous career high) and clutch hitting (just missing the century mark for RBI; his previous career best was 80). German Ybarra was a big question mark heading into the season but by all accounts he answered that question with a big "yes". The 24 year old with just 16 games played above AA ball heading into the season was the Yankees' starter the entire season, providing surprising plate discipline and 30 HRs in 435 at-bats. He's suited for the bottom of the order but given the sudden aging of this team he might find himself in the 2 hole a lot. Luis Cardenas was picked up last October from the Pirates as a "just in case" at the position. He was an adequate backup for the Bucs and continued in that role for NY. He can play all 3 positions on the right side of the infield, although you probably wouldn't want to start him anywhere regularly. Alex Sanchez hit a solid .261/6/47 in the minor leagues but has a tendency to make big lapses in concentration in the field. He fielded just .930 at AAA Syracuse and he'll need to solve that if he wants to remain in the big leagues. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Levario, Matthew 38 SR 82 243 28 52 14 0 5 19 34 44 2 3 4 .214 .318 .333 7 Marsden, John 28 LL 30 92 9 18 5 1 1 13 6 13 0 1 3 .196 .250 .304 7 Poynor, Ross 28 LR 40 91 10 20 2 0 4 9 5 18 0 1 1 .220 .253 .374 7/89 Sullivan, Aaron 37 LL 58 63 9 10 1 0 4 9 8 11 0 0 0 .159 .260 .365 /79 Field, Dan 27 RR 21 48 4 8 2 0 0 6 4 5 0 0 1 .167 .231 .208 /792 Dwyer, Jonathan 28 LL 10 28 4 8 0 0 1 3 0 8 0 0 1 .286 .286 .393 /7 MacMillan, Micah 27 LR 121 521 66 126 24 6 14 56 38 70 8 3 8 .242 .294 .392 8* Murphy, Jeff 27 SL 56 170 22 51 5 1 2 18 8 17 7 5 2 .300 .333 .376 8/79 Hartman, Phil 23 LL 82 292 53 80 21 1 10 40 64 64 0 0 12 .274 .407 .455 9/7 Meneses, Frank 34 LL 101 328 46 82 8 5 17 57 62 72 7 6 2 .250 .368 .460 97 Green, Eric 28 RR 60 162 23 46 2 1 2 18 3 25 4 0 3 .284 .301 .346 97/8 Ash, Marc 28 RR 27 20 2 5 1 1 1 4 6 6 0 0 0 .250 .407 .550 /9 Micah MacMillan completed his 4th season as the Yankees' starting CF last year but concerns about his range are leading them to try Jeff Murphy out in 1972 instead. MacMillan's ZR dipped from 7.0 in 1968 and 4.0 in 1970 to -2.8 in 1971. There are definitely worse CFs in the league but it's probably best to get out in front of this situation. Murphy is a former starter with the White Sox, for whom he led the AL in at-bats in 1967. He also hit just .252 with a .293 OBP that season, which is probably why he's never gotten more than 331 at-bats since. He showed signs of maturing as a hitter last year and if nothing else should be an above average defender. Phil Hartman perhaps doesn't have the eye-popping stats of Matt Levario or even John Marsden had in their recent past but early returns are that he gets the job done, loves to get on base, and has at least middling power. The one thing he lacks is range afield, although he's been put into right because of a good arm that led to a combined 12 baserunner kills between AAA and the major leagues last year. He's also a bit of a jokester, although so much of what he does is in deadpan so teammates do not consider him a prankster.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-19-2023, 11:51 AM
|
#183 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Oakland A's
1971 Recap: The A's capped off their first winning season since 1964 with a 20-7 September that put them in the playoffs for the first time in team history, a history that spans 3 cities. Sadly, the wheels came off in the playoffs. This is what happens when you play a 102 win team. 1972 Outlook: One big, big word of caution with this team is that in spite of being 19 games over .500, they were actually outscored last year. A 33-22 record in one-run games can carry you pretty far. It's also probably not a thing you can rely on. What you can rely on is that the AL West is a pretty weak division; arguably their biggest competitor will be the team coming in from the East. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Ortiz, Roberto 25 RR 13 17 .433 3.71 36 36 0 5 1 0 242.2 197 111 100 19 164 11 260 1.488 100.0 0.7 6.1 9.6 Shelton, Rick 30 LR 15 15 .500 3.71 36 36 0 6 2 0 259.1 227 125 107 22 144 11 174 1.431 100.0 0.8 5.0 6.0 Barnard, Lee 27 LL 11 13 .458 3.46 35 35 0 8 1 0 250.0 240 112 96 15 80 14 150 1.280 100.0 0.5 2.9 5.4 Harris, Mike 23 LL 14 9 .609 3.04 29 29 0 12 1 0 213.0 188 79 72 7 74 10 128 1.230 100.0 0.3 3.1 5.4 Chavez, Willis 32 LL 10 5 .667 2.34 56 0 44 0 0 18 77.0 70 27 20 1 36 5 34 1.377 100.0 0.1 4.2 4.0 Howard, Josh 28 RR 2 4 .333 5.00 55 0 39 0 0 14 63.0 65 37 35 17 29 8 67 1.492 100.0 2.4 4.1 9.6 Wilson, Chris 34 RR 6 0 1.000 1.69 43 4 20 0 0 4 85.0 54 18 16 8 40 4 68 1.106 100.0 0.8 4.2 7.2 Lancaster, Nate 29 LL 11 3 .786 3.05 27 13 5 2 1 1 112.0 96 43 38 11 31 1 97 1.134 100.0 0.9 2.5 7.8 Allen, Chris 27 RL 1 1 .500 4.35 16 2 2 0 0 0 31.0 40 15 15 2 10 1 14 1.613 100.0 0.6 2.9 4.1 McCourt, Aaron 33 RR 1 0 1.000 4.91 14 0 5 0 0 0 22.0 24 15 12 3 12 1 9 1.636 100.0 1.2 4.9 3.7 Torres, Carlos 33 LL 3 0 1.000 4.50 13 1 1 0 0 0 18.0 23 13 9 2 4 1 11 1.500 100.0 1.0 2.0 5.5 Duckett, Jake 26 LL 0 0 .000 2.08 10 0 0 0 0 0 4.1 3 1 1 0 4 0 4 1.615 100.0 0.0 8.3 8.3 Crystal, Billy 22 LR 0 1 .000 6.89 4 2 1 0 0 0 15.2 17 14 12 3 11 2 12 1.787 100.0 1.7 6.3 6.9 Decker, King 24 RR 1 1 .500 5.40 3 2 1 0 0 0 13.1 15 8 8 1 9 0 11 1.800 100.0 0.7 6.1 7.4 Covarrubias, Gabriel 24 LR 1 1 .500 2.25 4 1 1 0 0 0 12.0 7 3 3 1 3 0 5 0.833 100.0 0.7 2.3 3.8 Krug, Niklas 30 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 1 0 0 0 3.0 2 0 0 0 1 0 2 1.000 100.0 0.0 3.0 6.0 Ellis, Doug 26 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.1 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.857 100.0 0.0 0.0 3.9 Trapasso, Philip 27 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 1.000 100.0 0.0 9.0 18.0 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Ortiz, Roberto 36 13 17 6 2 11 19 17 0.528 5 1 26 72% 56 89 4 16 10 2.6 3.4 6.7 114 3 3 15 15 156 Shelton, Rick 36 15 15 6 4 8 19 17 0.528 6 2 23 64% 53 89 22 14 8 3.3 4.1 7.2 116 0 4 20 12 145 Barnard, Lee 35 11 13 11 1 5 18 17 0.514 8 1 21 60% 54 83 19 15 12 3.2 4.1 7.1 104 2 13 15 5 137 Harris, Mike 29 14 9 6 2 4 16 13 0.552 12 1 18 62% 57 87 14 10 9 3.7 4.5 7.3 106 2 8 11 8 132 Lancaster, Nate 13 9 3 1 0 0 9 4 0.692 2 1 9 69% 59 86 28 5 7 3.6 4.4 7.4 109 0 2 9 2 145 Wilson, Chris 4 3 0 1 0 0 4 0 1.000 0 0 4 100% 67 77 55 1 1 2.5 3.0 7.5 110 0 1 2 1 124 Allen, Chris 2 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 1.000 0 0 2 100% 60 63 57 2 0 2.5 3.6 6.3 108 0 0 2 0 114 Decker, King 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 1 50% 43 52 34 0 2 2.0 2.9 6.2 107 0 1 1 0 115 Crystal, Billy 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 0 00% 41 46 36 0 1 3.0 4.5 6.0 101 0 1 1 0 107 Torres, Carlos 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 0 1 100% 71 71 71 0 1 4.0 5.1 7.0 101 0 0 1 0 101 Covarrubias, Gabriel 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0.000 0 0 1 100% 56 56 56 1 0 2.0 2.6 7.0 105 0 0 1 0 105 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Chavez, Willis 56 10 5 24 18 6 75% 27 3 25 11 31% 1.983 31 20 19 11 45 2 23 14 17 9 16 4.1 22 Howard, Josh 55 2 4 21 14 7 67% 22 1 32 20 38% 1.353 25 26 26 16 39 9 13 12 14 12 17 3.4 20 Wilson, Chris 39 3 0 5 4 1 80% 9 4 30 4 12% 0.848 6 22 21 17 22 4 20 7 12 4 16 4.2 21 McCourt, Aaron 14 1 0 0 0 0 0% 2 2 3 1 25% 0.673 4 9 9 3 11 2 8 0 3 2 9 4.7 24 Lancaster, Nate 14 2 0 1 1 0 100% 4 3 4 0 0% 1.066 5 7 7 3 11 1 3 4 4 1 5 3.4 17 Allen, Chris 14 0 1 1 0 1 0% 3 2 12 4 25% 0.764 3 8 7 9 5 7 3 2 2 3 7 3.9 23 Torres, Carlos 12 2 0 1 0 1 0% 2 1 4 2 33% 0.928 3 6 6 3 9 4 1 3 4 1 4 2.8 17 Duckett, Jake 11 1 1 4 3 1 75% 6 2 2 1 33% 1.832 5 3 3 2 9 2 5 4 2 3 2 4.1 20 Covarrubias, Gabriel 3 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.433 0 3 3 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 3 5.0 23 Krug, Niklas 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.418 0 2 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 4.5 22 Crystal, Billy 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.361 0 1 1 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 2 5.5 33 Trapasso, Philip 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 2 1 33% 3.325 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 21 Ellis, Doug 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 1.556 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 7.0 30 Decker, King 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 1 50% 0.100 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 15 In the back end of the rotation, right now the last guy looks like he'll probably be Nate Lancaster, who was 9-2, 3.19 for the team as a starter and 6-0, 2.03 in that 20-win September. He hasn't been able to stick in the majors yet in 3 tries but the overall numbers look pretty OK: 19-14, a 3.41 ERA, and 218 Ks in 279.2 career innings. They've also got a couple of prospects who probably aren't quiiite ready but hey, anything can happen in March. Billy Crystal insists that he "looks mahvelous" but neither his major league nor his minor league (9-17, 3.36) numbers agree. He's also the #2 overall pick from 1970 and was named the #49 overall prospect at the end of the season so there's a lot to go on. King Decker probably could also use another year of seasoning in the minors. He had a good K rate in his September call-up but has those same control issues that seemingly everyone else on the team has. Willis Chavez travelled from Washington to Oakland last year and was only expected to be the left half of a righty/lefty closer combination. Instead, Josh Howard just completely blew up last year and by season's end Chavez was the #1 guy. I'm not the biggest fan of that walk to strikeout ratio but it's hard to argue with success - and it's sustained success, too, as Chavez saved 20 games with a 2.48 ERA for the Senators in 1970. Howard allowed 17 HRs in 63 innings pitched, which needless to say is baaad. He's still only 28 and when he's not allowing dingers he strikes out more than a batter per inning so there's still a lot to like, potentially. The A's wound up relying on 35 year old Chris Wilson, who was practically a throw-in in the Matthew Levario trade. I find it highly doubtful he can replicate his 1971 performance but even if he doesn't, he alone won the A's that trade. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Lewis, Josh 23 SR 128 508 62 149 31 1 14 66 35 49 0 1 18 .293 .335 .441 2*7/3 Escobar, Jonathan 29 RR 19 61 6 11 2 0 1 4 9 13 0 0 3 .180 .282 .262 2 Gonzalez, Ramiro 31 SR 20 57 8 12 1 1 1 2 13 11 0 0 5 .211 .357 .316 2 Kane, Derek 25 RR 13 42 3 11 5 1 0 9 5 6 0 0 3 .262 .354 .429 2 Culliton, Jeff 28 LR 5 5 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 .200 .200 .200 /2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Hawkinson, Ray 29 LR 51 179 28 66 11 5 7 33 11 24 3 1 1 .369 .385 .603 3 Kelver, Kyle 32 RR 87 294 27 71 12 0 6 34 27 48 0 0 5 .241 .302 .344 37 Skelton, Jon 42 LL 87 154 10 36 7 1 4 19 20 18 0 0 7 .234 .330 .370 3 Decker, David 43 RR 27 100 15 20 3 0 3 9 17 11 0 0 4 .200 .316 .320 3 Bueno, Raul 33 RR 67 90 19 25 3 4 3 21 4 9 6 1 4 .278 .290 .500 3/794 Vallin, Jose 37 RR 47 41 3 10 0 0 0 5 3 4 1 0 0 .244 .283 .244 /35 Gaytan, Israel 24 RR 147 602 67 175 34 2 6 51 15 56 1 2 12 .291 .315 .384 4* Molina, Ruben 24 RR 33 106 13 30 4 1 1 7 9 11 4 0 1 .283 .331 .368 4/985 Jones, Chase 29 RR 153 567 80 152 15 2 31 83 66 102 0 2 13 .268 .342 .466 5* Evenson, Matt 25 RR 125 381 23 98 17 0 5 44 41 76 0 0 7 .257 .324 .341 6* Wilson, Gil 29 LR 67 155 15 42 6 0 2 15 8 24 0 0 1 .271 .299 .348 65/4 Potter, Rich 28 RR 14 25 3 8 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 0 1 .320 .346 .400 /64 Serrano, Angelo 25 RR 6 13 2 4 2 0 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 .308 .308 .462 /6 Flannery, Matt 25 RR 6 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .200 .200 .200 /6 Israel Gaytan put together a fine season of his own that might have been worth a Rookie of the Year award of its own in a weaker class. He was left off the Red Sox' 40 man roster last December for pure depth reasons, allowing the A's to snap him up in the Rule V draft. Gaytan doesn't have the greatest range in the world, which was of course a big part of why the Sox exposed him. He did pretty OK for them last year - there were far worse defenders out there than that -1.4 ZR suggests. Should Gaytan falter or get hurt, the A's do have homegrown prospect-ish Ruben Molina, who did, it should be said, hit .347 in AAA Iowa in 1970 and was the odd man out last year mostly because of a .241 showing in August and September of that season. Chase Jones really came into his own last season, finishing 2nd - a distant second but second nevertheless - in HRs, 8th in RBIs, and 6th in the AL in slugging percentage. Also, not to imply that he's nothing but an offensive guy, he won his first Gold Glove as well as the perennial winner Marco Perez of the Orioles missed time and might have lost a step afield. Jones doesn't necessarily look fancy out there but he's got some of the best hands in the game for a 3rd baseman, as evidenced by a .981 FA (just 7 errors in 366 chances) and a plus-plus arm. Matt Evenson is young and not necessarily the greatest fielder in the game, lacking the arm that you need from a shortstop. He's also merely adequate as a hitter. Suffice it to say, in spite of being 25 he's probably a short-term starter on this team. Nevertheless he is their guy for now and probably through the 1972 season at least. Gil Wilson was an OK foil for him; he's no great shakes as a fielder either but hit a solid .273 against right-handed pitching. The A's do have a couple of prospects in AAA - Tokugawa Tanimoto, who played for 5 different minor league teams in 2 organizations last season, and Ethan Dunbar (name subject to change), who hit only .226 in his first trial in AAA but who is a legitimately above average defenseman at the position. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Field, Dan 27 RR 83 315 33 79 16 2 8 41 22 46 0 0 8 .251 .298 .390 7 Groves, Adam 31 RR 26 95 20 31 7 0 5 18 14 19 1 0 1 .326 .405 .558 7/9 Levario, Matthew 38 SR 3 11 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 .182 .250 .182 /7 Wright, Elijah 25 LL 5 9 3 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .444 .500 .444 /7 Vallejo, Alex 28 LL 66 249 40 75 9 1 5 23 27 25 10 7 8 .301 .381 .406 8/9 Mesa, David 23 LL 67 252 32 71 18 2 1 25 16 45 9 3 4 .282 .324 .381 8/97 Schurke, Mike 24 SR 54 189 19 53 9 2 1 21 13 23 3 1 3 .280 .319 .365 8/97 Berman, Richard 25 RR 137 527 72 150 36 5 2 39 38 42 17 3 11 .285 .336 .383 9* Montoya, Carlos 24 RR 7 15 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 .067 .125 .067 /9 Alex Vallejo was expected to man centerfield last year. He was fine when he was healthy but that wound up being less than half the season. The good news is, he was still very effective when he did get to play. The A's also uncovered a nice find in David "Aperture Science" Mesa, a 2nd round pick in the 1971 draft who played in all of 7 minor league games before getting the call-up. If he's still a little raw, that's kind of great news because he was a more than adequate fill-in. Mike Schurke was surplus to the A's plans and in fact was the man the Cubs decided they wanted back for Adam Groves. Good luck in Chicago! In right field, Richard Berman was... fine but not quite the .300 hitter he'd been between Milwaukee and Oakland in 1970. He still had a lot of gap power (36 doubles, good for 2nd in the AL) and good speed. It's hard to see an outfield where he plays a lot with all of Groves, Vallejo, and Mesa healthy.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-19-2023, 04:58 PM
|
#184 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
1971 Recap: The 2nd coming Senators took until their final season in Washington to have a year as competitive as they were in their first (1961, when they went 87-74). They were never really all that close to Boston after May or so but it's always nice to follow a team that wins more than they lose. 1972 Outlook: And now they're headed to a new city - well, in between two cities, Dallas and Fort Worth - with a new ballpark, a new fanbase, and even a new division. It's that last bit that might give them their best hope of the playoffs in 1972. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Akright, Vince 28 SR 18 13 .581 2.26 37 37 0 13 5 0 295.1 234 88 74 16 86 8 195 1.084 100.0 0.5 2.6 5.9 Daugharty, Chad 26 RR 16 14 .533 3.46 36 36 0 8 2 0 273.0 245 112 105 16 88 8 164 1.220 100.0 0.5 2.9 5.4 Mendoza, Raul 28 RR 16 11 .593 3.45 34 33 0 13 3 0 242.2 216 116 93 27 55 3 165 1.117 100.0 1.0 2.0 6.1 Freeman, Kevin 28 LL 11 15 .423 3.27 33 32 0 10 2 0 239.2 221 102 87 25 63 5 126 1.185 100.0 0.9 2.4 4.7 Duckett, Jake 26 LL 4 6 .400 3.31 47 0 36 0 0 15 65.1 63 26 24 6 34 5 46 1.485 100.0 0.8 4.7 6.3 Slaughter, Gabe 25 RR 4 5 .444 4.17 40 0 29 0 0 8 54.0 55 27 25 7 26 5 22 1.500 100.0 1.2 4.3 3.7 Rivera, Andres 30 RR 2 2 .500 4.61 36 3 15 0 0 1 52.2 59 32 27 11 8 1 30 1.272 100.0 1.9 1.4 5.1 Shepherd, Ron 28 LL 2 2 .500 3.03 31 0 10 0 0 0 32.2 34 14 11 2 12 1 20 1.408 100.0 0.6 3.3 5.5 Kenner, Jim 30 SL 3 2 .600 1.88 24 7 5 1 0 0 76.2 47 20 16 3 43 0 37 1.174 100.0 0.4 5.0 4.3 Evans, Lee 23 RR 1 1 .500 3.50 4 4 0 1 1 0 18.0 14 7 7 0 3 1 17 0.944 100.0 0.0 1.5 8.5 Pulido, Richard 25 RL 2 0 1.000 3.38 2 2 0 1 0 0 16.0 14 6 6 2 5 0 6 1.188 100.0 1.1 2.8 3.4 Munoz, Danny 21 LL 0 2 .000 5.14 2 2 0 0 0 0 14.0 8 8 8 1 8 1 13 1.143 100.0 0.6 5.1 8.4 Kemp, Nate 22 LL 1 0 1.000 1.93 2 2 0 0 0 0 14.0 15 4 3 1 1 0 6 1.143 100.0 0.6 0.6 3.9 Chavez, Willis 32 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 7 0 0 0 0 0 7.2 5 1 0 0 3 0 6 1.043 100.0 0.0 3.5 7.0 Ortiz, Raul 29 RR 1 1 .500 6.75 11 0 9 0 0 2 8.0 11 8 6 2 6 1 10 2.125 100.0 2.3 6.8 11.3 Morales, Ramon 23 RR 1 1 .500 8.31 2 1 0 0 0 0 8.2 17 9 8 3 3 0 4 2.308 100.0 3.1 3.1 4.2 Richard, Rocky 26 RR 0 0 .000 1.93 4 0 0 0 0 0 4.2 5 1 1 0 1 0 2 1.286 100.0 0.0 1.9 3.9 Terrell, Jaden 25 SR 0 1 .000 11.57 3 0 0 0 0 0 4.2 6 6 6 3 2 0 4 1.714 100.0 5.8 3.9 7.7 Terry, Tyler 27 RR 0 0 .000 2.45 2 0 0 0 0 0 3.2 4 2 1 0 5 0 0 2.455 100.0 0.0 12.3 0.0 Marrone, D.J. 25 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 1 0 0 0 2.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 1.000 100.0 0.0 4.5 9.0 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Akright, Vince 37 18 13 6 0 9 20 17 0.541 13 5 31 84% 63 85 31 15 9 3.3 3.7 8.0 113 0 8 20 9 179 Daugharty, Chad 36 16 14 6 3 6 19 17 0.528 8 2 23 64% 56 86 9 18 13 3.9 4.6 7.6 111 2 6 17 11 146 Mendoza, Raul 33 16 11 6 4 5 21 12 0.636 13 3 20 61% 56 91 13 14 9 3.9 4.8 7.3 105 3 7 14 9 131 Freeman, Kevin 32 11 15 6 3 8 14 18 0.438 10 2 22 69% 55 88 4 12 9 3.2 3.9 7.4 106 3 8 14 7 157 Kenner, Jim 7 3 2 2 0 2 3 4 0.429 1 0 7 100% 63 71 57 2 4 3.1 3.8 7.4 102 0 4 2 1 132 Evans, Lee 4 1 1 2 0 0 2 2 0.500 1 1 1 25% 56 90 22 1 2 2.0 4.0 4.5 63 3 0 0 1 134 Rivera, Andres 3 0 2 1 0 0 1 2 0.333 0 0 1 33% 33 59 15 0 2 0.7 1.5 4.1 63 3 0 0 0 68 Munoz, Danny 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0.000 0 0 0 00% 56 58 53 0 2 0.5 0.6 7.0 106 0 0 2 0 109 Pulido, Richard 2 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 1.000 1 0 1 50% 56 70 43 0 2 4.5 5.1 8.0 104 0 1 1 0 110 Kemp, Nate 2 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 2 100% 58 58 57 0 2 2.5 3.2 7.0 95 0 1 1 0 109 Morales, Ramon 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 8 8 8 0 1 0.0 0.0 5.7 109 0 0 1 0 109 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Duckett, Jake 47 4 6 20 15 5 75% 21 1 23 14 38% 1.834 26 15 15 12 35 3 16 11 14 6 16 4.2 21 Slaughter, Gabe 40 4 5 10 8 2 80% 15 5 7 3 30% 1.660 17 12 12 4 36 5 16 6 10 10 14 4.1 22 Rivera, Andres 33 2 0 3 1 2 33% 5 2 15 7 32% 0.795 5 23 23 8 25 5 11 4 7 5 17 3.7 17 Shepherd, Ron 31 2 2 0 0 0 0% 4 4 15 3 17% 0.890 11 17 17 8 23 8 8 5 4 3 19 3.2 16 Kenner, Jim 17 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 10 5 33% 0.466 2 12 12 8 9 3 8 0 2 0 15 4.4 24 Ortiz, Raul 11 1 1 4 2 2 50% 4 0 8 5 38% 2.093 4 4 4 6 5 5 1 2 4 1 4 2.2 15 Chavez, Willis 7 1 0 3 3 0 100% 3 0 5 0 0% 1.537 3 3 3 3 4 0 4 0 1 1 5 4.3 23 Richard, Rocky 4 0 0 0 0 0 0% 2 2 3 2 40% 0.905 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 0 0 1 3 3.5 18 Terrell, Jaden 3 0 1 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 1.171 0 2 2 0 3 1 1 1 0 0 2 4.7 31 Marrone, D.J. 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.063 0 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 3.0 17 Terry, Tyler 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.590 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 5.5 39 Morales, Ramon 1 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 1.325 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 9.0 41 Mendoza, Raul 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.833 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1.0 11 Freeman, Kevin 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.300 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 10.0 28 Now that Raul Mendoza is gone, presumably to provide the St. Louis Cardinals with the ace they never had in '71, the back part of the rotation is kind of thin. The #1 choice for 4th starter looks like Jim Kenner. The fact that Kenner finished 5th on the team with 7 starts is a mark of how healthy the front four were but also a sign that they need to come up with new blood. Kenner, who somehow made the All-Star Game this year - he played in just 11 games prior to the Midsummer Classic - is an 11 year major league vet who is, I guess to be fair, still pretty decent when he's on the field. He didn't even really get hurt last year per se; he was just stuck in the back of the bullpen. Robert McHugh is a guy who came back from St. Louis in the Mendoza deal. He struck out 25 men in 27.1 major league innings, so the raw stuff is there to see. He also walked 14 guys and wound up with an ERA of 4.61. If he doesn't improve his control, the team's got a potential control artist in Nate Kemp, the 9th overall pick in the 1970 draft. Kemp walked just 44 men in 179.2 innings in AAA Denver last season. He lacks the high velocity or wicked movement you'd normally expect from a guy drafted so high but he sure looks to me like he could be effective. I just feel like if we're going to see some ERAs blow up, it's going to be out of the bullpen. Jake Duckett and Gabe Slaughter were more or less the lefty/righty closer squad all last year. Slaughter missed a bit of time due to injury and fell out of favor for late pressure for a while. The Norfolk, VA native is going to have to figure out how to get things together several thousand miles away from his family now. Duckett, on the other hand, is coming home: he's a native of Castle Hills, Texas who went to school at the old A&M (go Aggies! note: I don't really care about the Aggies). He's also the guy with the better peripherals. One guy who will probably be back to round out the bullpen is Andres Rivera, who recovered from true awfulness in 1969 and 1970 to only be sort of bad last season. He's in the majors at this point pretty much solely because of the 3-4, 2.68, 9 Sv turn with San Diego at the beginning of 1969. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Flores, Armando 29 RR 120 497 47 144 23 2 7 65 15 68 0 0 32 .290 .310 .386 2* Escobar, Jonathan 29 RR 29 96 14 23 5 0 1 9 14 25 0 0 6 .240 .330 .323 2 Bieler, Veit 25 RR 14 48 0 11 2 0 0 1 2 16 0 0 1 .229 .250 .271 2 Gonzalez, Ramiro 31 SR 5 16 0 4 2 0 0 2 3 2 0 0 0 .250 .368 .375 /2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Bush, George W. 25 LL 74 253 47 71 24 1 13 40 47 38 2 1 2 .281 .403 .538 3 Decker, David 43 RR 60 194 24 49 7 3 9 29 16 25 0 0 9 .253 .318 .459 3 DeBoer, Nick 39 RR 56 123 9 23 6 2 1 11 12 19 0 0 2 .187 .255 .293 3 Cardenas, Danny 32 RR 45 55 10 12 4 0 2 7 11 12 0 1 1 .218 .348 .400 3 Skelton, Jon 42 LL 7 22 1 8 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 1 .364 .440 .364 /3 Hernandez, Jose 24 RR 153 582 74 133 28 1 25 86 55 126 4 1 16 .229 .295 .409 4*/6 Salinas, David 36 RR 88 312 41 91 12 3 3 32 26 37 6 8 7 .292 .344 .378 5 Dominguez, Omar 30 RR 58 169 20 32 4 0 7 20 20 44 0 0 4 .189 .272 .337 5/43 Jackson, Reggie 24 RR 16 33 4 7 1 0 0 2 5 13 0 0 0 .212 .333 .242 5/4 Zuniga, German 30 RR 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /5 Knight, Tyler 30 RR 149 482 53 128 21 0 6 69 57 89 4 4 9 .266 .338 .346 6*5/4 Luna, Michael 23 RR 25 74 6 15 5 0 0 8 10 16 0 1 2 .203 .298 .270 6 Rodriguez, Henry 23 RR 41 55 7 14 4 1 1 10 3 10 0 0 1 .255 .295 .418 6 Ramey, Justin 32 RR 9 9 1 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 .222 .300 .444 /64 Jose Hernandez is, for the Senators/Rangers, a riddle wrapped up in an enigma. He hit for a looooot of power - actually, considering RFK, an absolute ton of it - but it's hard to drop a guy with a .229 average and sub-.300 OBP into the cleanup spot. One thing that helps is that he fields well enough that if the power turns out to be a fluke - and we're not saying it is - he'd still be a plus player at the position. The top players behind him are still at least a year away so the... Rangers will have some time to figure out what to do with the guy. David Salinas is pretty well liked around the league and his work ethic has led to him retaining his hitting into his late 30s, so it's a bit of a wonder why he's on his 3rd team in 4 years, not to mention why, as of this writing, he's not expected to start the year. He's beginning to lose some range, which is to be expected from a 36 year old, and that career .298 average has always meant a lot of singles. Right now it's looking like the Rangers will look to Tyler Knight, who's still very serviceable as a shortstop, at the position. He's a little bit of an offensive downgrade but honestly, not too much of one once you take the extra power into account. Reggie Jackson, a Hall of Fame level homerun hitter in another universe, is a good-field, no-hit third baseman in this one. If Knight does stick at third, it'll be because Michael Luna is ready to go at shortstop. Luna was a low 2nd round pick in 1970 who's risen through the ranks really quickly. His game screams "empty .250", even once he reaches his prime. The counter argument is putting two high quality defenders on the right side of the infield might just be the secret sauce. They also have Henry Rodriguez, who looks like kind of the polar opposite of Luna: iffy hands, only OK range, but a man who hit .295 at Denver in 1971. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Kaplan, Bobby 24 RR 137 512 61 155 21 2 2 55 37 60 10 9 14 .303 .356 .363 7*/9 Goyco, Ramon 27 LL 57 110 21 24 2 0 1 10 12 24 2 0 1 .218 .295 .264 7 Iverson, Bill 26 RR 4 12 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 1 0 .167 .231 .167 /78 Schaben, Joel 34 LR 127 502 73 153 27 9 6 65 36 31 12 6 5 .305 .348 .430 8*/9 Bucciarelli, Devin 25 RR 49 162 23 33 6 1 1 12 12 37 5 0 3 .204 .251 .272 8/9 Conners, Roy 30 SR 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 .500 .667 .500 /8 Wilson, Bubba 26 LR 150 603 78 176 26 7 3 45 53 91 11 7 10 .292 .339 .373 9*/78 Brown, Kyle 25 LL 104 119 18 35 4 0 7 19 21 18 0 0 0 .294 .397 .504 9/78 In center, Joel Schaben had another low-mistake season and managed to break the .300 mark for the 7th time in his career. At 34 years of age, he's still got the range to play the position and he was lowkey one of the top offensive players on the team. The Rangers hope that having the guys behind him hitting for more power will help improve on his 73 runs scored - all but 6 of his at-bats in 1971 came as a leadoff hitter. Bubba Wilson also enjoyed a nice year at the top of the order for the Senators and figures to do more of the same in Texas. I think one thing this club will need to do in the longer term is rebuild the offense; right now they've got a bunch .290ish hitters with iffy power. That was fine and even preferred in RFK; I think that in Arlington, a guy like Wilson might be a liability. One potential source of power in Kyle Brown has flown the coop, sold to Kansas City.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-20-2023, 11:55 AM
|
#185 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Atlanta braves (93-69)
1971 Recap: Atlanta rode a hot start all the way into the playoffs, although they were straight up average from July 1st forward (40-39). As you might expect from a team that did all its good action early, they faltered in the playoffs to an 88 win team. 1972 Outlook: Atlanta's got the same issue - aging - as the Twins and Yankees do. However, they still managed to pace the National League in wins and so can't be truly counted out until they are out. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 House, George 28 RR 23 9 .719 3.11 38 38 0 9 3 0 277.2 259 114 96 16 69 5 195 1.181 100.0 0.5 2.2 6.3 Sandoval, Julio 29 RR 13 15 .464 3.88 37 37 0 7 2 0 253.0 289 127 109 18 72 0 101 1.427 100.0 0.6 2.6 3.6 Carranza, Felix 27 RR 16 9 .640 3.92 35 32 2 8 1 0 238.2 247 108 104 28 75 4 138 1.349 100.0 1.1 2.8 5.2 Cari, Jake 26 RR 11 12 .478 3.56 29 29 0 3 2 0 197.1 200 88 78 17 71 1 105 1.373 100.0 0.8 3.2 4.8 Winn, John 28 SR 10 4 .714 1.32 62 0 55 0 0 31 102.0 73 18 15 3 21 2 98 0.922 100.0 0.3 1.9 8.6 Hollopeter, Steve 25 RR 4 6 .400 5.26 53 2 30 1 0 3 78.2 101 49 46 22 21 3 67 1.551 100.0 2.5 2.4 7.7 Evans, Roger 27 SL 3 1 .750 2.65 49 1 10 0 0 0 54.1 56 18 16 5 24 3 31 1.472 100.0 0.8 4.0 5.1 Lee, Sung-jin 34 RR 0 5 .000 4.50 37 0 21 0 0 5 48.0 47 27 24 3 12 1 27 1.229 100.0 0.6 2.3 5.1 Dean, Trevon 29 LR 0 0 .000 5.04 29 19 0 0 0 0 64.1 56 38 36 7 30 1 31 1.337 100.0 1.0 4.2 4.3 Rose, Colin 27 RR 2 1 .667 4.94 6 3 1 0 0 0 23.2 27 14 13 4 11 1 6 1.606 100.0 1.5 4.2 2.3 Baryshnikov, Mikhail 22 SR 2 0 1.000 3.00 6 1 4 0 0 1 12.0 8 5 4 2 6 0 8 1.167 100.0 1.5 4.5 6.0 Cokely, Seth 30 RR 0 0 .000 7.15 8 0 3 0 0 0 11.1 9 10 9 4 9 0 6 1.588 100.0 3.2 7.1 4.8 Morales, Tony 23 RR 0 0 .000 1.42 3 0 1 0 0 0 6.1 3 1 1 0 2 0 9 0.789 100.0 0.0 2.8 12.8 Diot, Mickael 34 RR 1 0 1.000 0.00 3 0 1 0 0 0 3.2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.273 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max House, George 38 23 9 6 1 2 25 13 0.658 9 3 26 68% 57 88 11 23 6 4.5 5.6 7.3 108 3 5 22 8 142 Sandoval, Julio 37 13 15 9 2 6 19 18 0.514 7 2 20 54% 49 83 18 21 8 3.7 4.9 6.8 102 3 7 23 4 130 Carranza, Felix 32 15 9 8 2 3 20 12 0.625 8 1 20 63% 52 80 9 16 10 4.1 5.1 7.3 113 0 8 13 11 152 Cari, Jake 29 11 12 6 2 8 13 16 0.448 3 2 20 69% 52 83 12 10 13 2.6 3.5 6.8 103 0 15 10 4 135 Dean, Trevon 19 8 7 4 1 1 10 9 0.526 2 0 11 58% 47 72 10 7 9 3.6 4.7 6.8 105 1 6 8 4 130 Rose, Colin 3 2 1 0 1 0 2 1 0.667 0 0 1 33% 44 64 32 1 2 5.0 6.4 7.0 109 0 1 0 2 122 Hollopeter, Steve 2 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 1.000 1 0 2 100% 60 68 51 1 1 5.5 6.2 8.0 125 0 0 1 1 136 Baryshnikov, Mikhail 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 0 1 100% 67 67 67 0 1 2.0 2.6 7.0 117 0 0 1 0 117 Evans, Roger 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 0 1 100% 53 53 53 0 1 7.0 9.0 7.0 96 0 1 0 0 96 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Winn, John 62 10 4 35 31 4 89% 36 1 37 10 21% 2.111 37 11 11 18 44 8 33 14 16 12 20 4.9 24 Hollopeter, Steve 51 3 6 5 3 2 60% 7 2 15 6 29% 1.046 11 26 26 9 42 9 18 6 13 12 20 3.7 19 Evans, Roger 48 2 1 4 0 4 0% 12 8 22 8 27% 0.905 13 24 24 14 34 14 7 13 12 7 16 3.0 16 Lee, Sung-jin 37 0 5 8 5 3 63% 10 2 19 9 32% 1.049 9 21 21 12 25 3 15 7 6 5 19 3.9 20 Dean, Trevon 13 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 9 2 18% 0.634 1 8 8 6 7 1 6 2 4 1 6 4.4 21 Cokely, Seth 8 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 5 2 29% 0.374 0 8 8 4 4 2 4 2 1 1 4 4.3 24 Baryshnikov, Mikhail 5 1 0 1 1 0 100% 1 0 3 0 0% 1.555 2 3 3 3 2 2 2 1 0 1 3 3.0 16 Diot, Mickael 3 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.758 0 2 1 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 3 3.7 17 Carranza, Felix 3 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.878 0 1 1 0 3 0 1 1 0 0 2 5.7 32 Morales, Tony 3 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.617 0 2 2 0 3 0 3 0 0 0 3 6.3 32 Rose, Colin 3 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.291 0 3 3 0 3 1 0 1 1 0 1 2.7 11 Jake Cari played well enough that he will probably be in the rotation as well to start the season. He didn't do much to affect the team's late-season swoon in large part because he missed most of September with a sore elbow. Cari wound up with just 1 start and 5 IP the entire month. He's not exactly the greatest pitcher ever assembled but the Braves really could have used his combination of mediocre stuff, OK control, and (for a guy who has to play so much in Atlanta) something of an ability to avoid dingers. He'll be pushed by Colin Rose, who is a knuckleballer - in fact, I believe I imported Phil Niekro and changed his name. Since then I may have goosed his abilities a bit because look, the 1970s need knuckleballs. He still hasn't been very good, sadly. More than anything else, the Braves were saved in 1971 by their bullpen and especially their ace John Winn. Winn could have won the Cy Young Award if there weren't multiple players with 24, 25 win seasons this year. Basically every time he pitched was a high leverage situation, as noted by that 2.11 average leverage index and that 37 of his 62 appearances were in that category, and virtually every time he pitched he shut opponents down. My only regret is that I maybe didn't use him enough, but with so many supposed stoppers around the league wearing out, I decided to use him more like Bruce Sutter than Mike Marshall. Steve Hollopeter was supposed to be his big setup man but to be honest an awful lot of the fires Winn put out were lit by the former Met. He's still only 25 so one would hope that his sudden proclivity to give up dingers - 22 in 78 innings, an absolutely insane rate - will go away and he'll be an effective guy again. The Braves ended the season with 22 year old ballet artist Mikhail "White Night" Barishnikov as their setup guy after spending the season in AAA Richmond as a starter. He may not have the stamina to start and the short relief stints allow him to unleash that devastating circle change. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Coyle, Danny 35 RR 121 354 43 77 24 1 10 46 68 79 1 0 12 .218 .347 .376 2* Gamez, Andres 23 RR 81 173 22 55 6 1 5 32 15 30 1 1 8 .318 .372 .451 2 Guest, Christopher 23 RR 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Chairez, Dante 27 LR 158 589 89 157 25 3 25 92 72 110 1 2 18 .267 .345 .447 3* Martinez, Franklin 36 RR 94 104 12 26 5 1 4 15 3 20 0 1 1 .250 .279 .433 /3 Holden, Jeremy 26 RR 34 36 4 14 3 0 1 7 3 7 3 2 2 .389 .436 .556 /3 Dwyer, Kevin 32 RR 125 509 89 160 29 5 19 77 44 47 1 1 15 .314 .366 .503 4* Villegas, Roberto 30 RR 16 41 3 8 3 0 1 2 1 7 0 0 1 .195 .214 .341 /465 Oddsson, David 23 RR 3 5 2 2 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 .400 .400 .600 /47 Luna, Vicente 35 RR 119 504 64 131 17 3 12 58 34 62 6 1 12 .260 .306 .377 5*/3 Medford, Mike 29 RR 45 123 13 25 3 1 4 14 17 30 1 0 1 .203 .317 .341 5/76 Clinton, Bill 25 RR 28 60 4 15 4 0 0 7 3 5 0 2 2 .250 .277 .317 5/46 Vallin, Jose 37 RR 7 8 3 3 0 0 1 4 2 2 0 0 1 .375 .455 .750 /53 Reid, Jon 26 RR 145 559 62 149 27 1 6 63 35 99 0 2 15 .267 .311 .351 6*4 Dietrich, Ryan 32 RR 57 129 9 23 2 1 0 8 9 23 1 2 5 .178 .243 .209 6 Kevin Dwyer lost a bunch of his power - from a career high 30 HRs in '70 to 19 last year - and didn't lead the league in hitting (.333 average in '70), but a second baseman who can hit well over .300 with 20 HR pop is still quite the asset to have. If anything, the Braves' biggest issues came when he was out of the lineup with a concussion for most of May. His replacements in Roberto Villegas and Ryan Dietrich (I guess technically Jon Reid, with Dietrich manning shortstop) were... not good. That's one reason why the Iceland national David Oddson is so intriguing, not necessarily as a replacement for Dwyer but as a caddy. Vicente Luna returned from a season that saw him play in just 70 games and seemed to age all at once. He simply doesn't look like the .300 hitting hot corner specialist he was before that 1970 injury. A .260 guy with average power is still... OK but the this is definitely a position where the Braves could stand to upgrade. One option is William Jefferson Clinton, a native Southerner (from Little Rock, AR) who attended college at Oxford and who's much more of a defensive guy than someone who can really fill in with the bat. Perhaps his future is more of a utility guy. At shortstop, Jon Reid is... just fine. He's no real threat to win a Gold Glove, although he does have terrific range, and while he hits well for a shortstop, it's only for a shortstop. None of that is bad at all and for 1971 at least it meant one position they didn't have to worry about so much. Right now both of the guys listed below him on the organizational depth chart are nursing injuries suffered late in the season so even if they could technically be ready in 1972 they won't be in April. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Ward, Chris 25 LL 124 456 86 135 13 7 12 47 50 67 56 21 1 .296 .369 .434 7*/93 LePera, Andy 25 RR 76 253 37 74 11 5 2 19 22 18 0 0 4 .292 .348 .399 79 Augspurger, Kenny 29 LL 37 57 5 9 1 0 4 12 9 11 0 0 2 .158 .269 .386 7 Baugher, Bill 26 LL 22 22 1 2 1 0 1 2 1 6 0 0 0 .091 .130 .273 /7 Damon, Josh 30 RR 122 459 61 119 18 1 18 61 44 67 3 0 12 .259 .327 .420 8* Gomez, Jose 30 RR 59 162 29 40 7 1 10 19 18 22 5 0 0 .247 .319 .488 8/97 Aday, Michael Lee 23 LL 7 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /87 Riggs, Henry 36 LL 149 559 112 167 35 1 43 119 93 78 0 1 9 .299 .398 .596 9* Josh Damon has been circling around the Braves' CF spot for years but never really got the opportunity to play there full time until 1971. He really took advantage of his opportunity. He obviously won't be a decade-long starter the way former guy Ed Salyer was but then, when all is said and done Salyer finished with a .215 career average and Damon will almost certainly eclipse that. Jose Gomez came over from the Cubs in June of 1970 and now basically fills the role that Damon filled previously. He's a former All-Star who's shown pop whenever he's been given a chance to play but otherwise he's really a 2nd-best type guy to Damon. Time ticks on and yet Henry Riggs continues to excel. He won his 4th MVP this season, made his 16th career All-Star Game, and became the first player in modern history to crack the 500 HR barrier (he currently has 523). He also has 2,753 hits, so don't be surprised to see him breaking the 3,000 mark over the next 3-4 years as well. Lest I sound like I'm making the case for a future HOFer who's past his prime, I should note here that he set career highs in runs scored (a league-leading 112), led the NL in slugging (.596), and was one off of his career best in HRs (43, which also led the league). The Gold Glove he won last year was more of a lifetime achievement / acknowledgement of his great arm; voters went back to normal this year with that.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-21-2023, 05:19 AM
|
#186 |
|
All Star Reserve
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 599
Infractions: 0/1 (1)
|
My favorite dynasty / sim chronicle. As someone with a keen interest in and encyclopedic knowledge of rosters from 1-26+, these team beat reports are great flashbacks to reading the “Sporting News”.
|
|
|
|
|
06-21-2023, 11:23 AM
|
#187 | ||
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Quote:
Yeah, those annuals and also stuff like Athlon Reports (hence the name!) and the Street and Smith annuals are exactly the feel I'm trying to get with these. I, too, remember reading those as a kid and gaining that big-time knowledge of the league over the course of a couple/few weekends, including the league I never got to see except on TV (the NL, since I lived in an AL city growing up). In previous dynasties I literally pulled up old copies of SN and copied/transposed articles from them into leaguewide storylines. Now that, that was too much work even for me (although part of me still wants to go back and do a deadball-era save that incorporates that from time to time).
__________________
Quote:
|
||
|
|
|
|
06-21-2023, 11:24 AM
|
#188 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Chicago Cubs
1971 Recap: The Cubbies struggled out of the gate and were never in the mix in a surprisingly wide open NL West. Last year seemed like it could be their chance; instead if was a lost season. 1972 Outlook: It's tough to quantify... this is a team that won 95 and 91 games in '69 and '70 and they aren't super old. But how do they improve by ten games? It feels like doing so would mean a lot of players reversing course. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Sanders, Jason 31 RR 16 11 .593 3.45 32 32 0 9 0 0 240.1 221 105 92 8 95 11 154 1.315 100.0 0.3 3.6 5.8 Lucas, Bill 33 LR 8 15 .348 5.17 31 31 0 4 1 0 196.2 216 129 113 31 94 16 104 1.576 100.0 1.4 4.3 4.8 Tidwell, Steve 30 LR 14 11 .560 4.19 31 31 0 9 4 0 212.2 232 108 99 25 89 14 139 1.509 100.0 1.1 3.8 5.9 Obregon, Javy 31 RR 5 9 .357 5.66 22 19 0 0 0 0 130.1 155 86 82 14 51 3 58 1.581 100.0 1.0 3.5 4.0 Uscanga, Freddy 25 LL 5 8 .385 4.09 61 0 49 0 0 13 92.1 93 47 42 9 51 7 72 1.560 100.0 0.9 5.0 7.0 Martinez, Antonio 35 SR 4 5 .444 3.36 52 0 36 0 0 10 67.0 65 27 25 8 22 8 49 1.299 100.0 1.1 3.0 6.6 Moon, Suk-min 35 SR 4 3 .571 2.33 51 0 25 0 0 2 73.1 59 21 19 5 34 6 54 1.268 100.0 0.6 4.2 6.6 Marin, Victor 30 RR 5 10 .333 4.19 36 15 4 3 0 0 150.1 161 83 70 11 53 10 93 1.424 100.0 0.7 3.2 5.6 Zarate, Jose 22 LL 3 6 .333 5.25 18 12 0 2 1 0 85.2 111 53 50 10 23 6 46 1.564 100.0 1.1 2.4 4.8 Coffey, Scott 28 LL 7 5 .583 3.99 16 16 0 4 1 0 112.2 111 53 50 10 36 1 76 1.305 100.0 0.8 2.9 6.1 Wilbers, Mike 32 RR 0 2 .000 4.30 10 4 3 0 0 1 23.0 21 15 11 3 15 0 11 1.565 100.0 1.2 5.9 4.3 Jones, Kenny 29 SR 0 0 .000 6.00 12 0 5 0 0 0 21.0 20 14 14 4 7 0 7 1.286 100.0 1.7 3.0 3.0 Tessler, Steve 23 RR 2 0 1.000 5.40 3 2 0 0 0 0 15.0 20 9 9 1 3 0 7 1.533 100.0 0.6 1.8 4.2 Grant, Eddy 22 RR 1 0 1.000 13.89 10 0 1 0 0 0 11.2 19 18 18 1 9 3 11 2.400 100.0 0.8 6.9 8.5 Murakami, Haruki 22 RR 3 0 1.000 5.59 8 0 4 0 0 0 9.2 8 6 6 1 5 0 8 1.345 100.0 0.9 4.7 7.4 Foster, Dan 29 LR 0 0 .000 14.21 5 0 2 0 0 0 6.1 13 10 10 1 5 1 3 2.842 100.0 1.4 7.1 4.3 Castro, Frank 30 RR 0 0 .000 2.70 4 0 2 0 0 0 3.1 3 1 1 0 2 0 1 1.500 100.0 0.0 5.4 2.7 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Sanders, Jason 32 16 11 5 3 4 19 13 0.594 9 0 20 63% 55 82 18 6 12 3.8 4.5 7.5 117 0 4 16 12 151 Lucas, Bill 31 8 15 8 1 5 14 17 0.452 4 1 19 61% 44 80 7 7 14 3.2 4.5 6.3 100 4 9 14 4 140 Tidwell, Steve 31 14 11 6 0 2 16 15 0.516 9 4 18 58% 50 84 11 8 14 4.2 5.5 6.9 108 4 1 19 7 135 Obregon, Javy 19 4 9 6 0 4 7 12 0.368 0 0 11 58% 42 68 11 2 10 3.2 4.6 6.2 101 2 8 4 5 133 Coffey, Scott 16 7 5 4 0 2 8 8 0.500 4 1 10 63% 53 83 10 3 8 3.6 4.6 7.0 106 1 4 7 4 127 Marin, Victor 15 4 9 2 0 5 4 11 0.267 3 0 10 67% 46 77 3 5 5 3.1 4.2 6.6 106 2 1 9 3 135 Zarate, Jose 12 3 6 3 0 1 5 7 0.417 2 1 4 33% 40 84 16 2 8 3.5 5.3 5.9 92 2 4 5 1 122 Wilbers, Mike 4 0 1 3 0 1 2 2 0.500 0 0 2 50% 52 56 46 0 3 2.0 4.6 3.9 63 2 0 2 0 119 Tessler, Steve 2 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 1.000 0 0 1 50% 48 57 38 1 1 7.5 11.3 6.0 103 0 0 2 0 105 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Uscanga, Freddy 61 5 8 20 13 7 65% 23 3 14 8 36% 1.755 22 25 25 9 52 7 27 15 17 7 22 4.5 25 Martinez, Antonio 52 4 5 13 10 3 77% 15 2 28 11 28% 1.424 20 25 25 16 36 8 22 8 10 12 22 3.9 19 Moon, Suk-min 51 4 3 5 2 3 40% 10 5 35 11 24% 1.208 10 28 28 19 32 7 22 9 13 9 20 4.3 21 Marin, Victor 21 1 1 1 0 1 0% 2 1 11 6 35% 0.764 4 12 12 7 14 0 17 0 7 4 10 7.3 35 Jones, Kenny 12 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 8 4 33% 0.366 0 11 11 6 6 0 8 4 0 2 6 5.3 24 Grant, Eddy 10 1 0 0 0 0 0% 3 3 1 0 0% 0.938 3 6 6 1 9 1 4 2 2 2 4 3.5 24 Murakami, Haruki 8 3 0 1 0 1 0% 1 0 2 0 0% 0.829 3 5 5 1 7 0 2 0 3 0 5 3.6 22 Wilbers, Mike 6 0 1 2 1 1 50% 2 0 3 3 50% 1.561 1 2 2 2 4 1 1 0 1 1 4 3.7 24 Zarate, Jose 6 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 3 0 0% 0.428 0 5 5 3 3 0 5 0 3 1 2 7.2 35 Foster, Dan 5 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.381 0 3 3 0 5 2 3 0 0 1 4 3.8 25 Castro, Frank 4 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 5 1 17% 0.320 0 3 3 3 1 2 1 0 0 1 3 2.5 14 Obregon, Javy 3 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 1 50% 0.537 0 2 2 1 2 0 3 0 1 0 2 12.0 62 Tessler, Steve 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 1 50% 0.369 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 9.0 39 For now Scott Coffey is listed as the #3 but pretty much after the first two everything is up in the air. Coffey was really bad in AAA Tacoma (2-7, 4.58) before injuries and ineffective play forced the Cubs to call him up anyway and he delivered pretty well, all things said. He's nothing super special but I mean the man did have an ERA under 4 last year. Man. Remember how I started by saying that maybe the Cubs aren't the worst pitching staff in the league? I'm beginning to see the light here. Behind him I've got Bill Lucas at this point for no reason except that he's been there for Chicago forever at this point. They used him heavily in '69 and '70 - 77 starts, a league leading 289 IP in 1969 followed by 266.2 in '70 - and seemed to completely come undone last season. Most disconcerting is his K rate: he's never been a strikeout artist but it's fallen for 4 years straight now and last year was an unacceptable 4.8/9 innings. I also have Jose Zarate in there. The 1970 Rookie of the Year was also very, very bad last season, even getting sent down to AAA for a while (where, to be fair, he went 5-4 with a very un-Cubs like 2.11 ERA). In the minors he seemed to recapture the extreme control/finesse stuff with no gophers that led him to the sub-2.00 ERA in 1970. If the 10 HRs in 85.2 IP turns out to be a fluke, you could see him maybe getting this done for a full season. And in the very back going into the year is Javy Obregon, the Cuban national signed out of that country in 1967 who dropped a 9-2, 3.21 record down the stretch for this team in 1969. Since then he's never quite fulfilled that. He's another guy who seems great at avoiding HRs in the minors but the second he has to play in Wrigley he can't deal with it. He allowed 12 of his 14 HRs at home last year. The bullpen certainly didn't help things, although by the end of the year it feels like they alighted on a guy to be their closer, the 36 year old Antonio Martinez. Martinez even has above-average stuff, which is kind of rare for this team. He's also not a young man, although, being a guy who also arrived in the US from Cuba via boat in 1965, he doesn't necessarily have the beat-up arm that American pitchers tend to have by that age. Another foreign national, South Korea's Suk-Min Moon, ended the year as a highly effective caddy for Martinez. It's been almost a decade now since he arrived in the States and he had to kind of resurrect his career in '69 with an awesome 16 game stint with the Pilots (6-1, 0.39, 3 Sv). At this point he, too, is fighting Father Time. Freddy Uscanga was set to be the team's starter, then got demoted into a platoon role, then got demoted even further into a lefty specialist. A 1.61 ERA over 17 appearances in August and September indicate that maybe this is the best spot for him going forward. And I'd be remiss to not mention Victor Marin, who I'm mostly not including in the rotation mix because he was so, so much better in relief last year (1-1, 3.33 as a reliever, 4-9, 4.64 as a starter). Even then, he performed better than most of the guys I'm trying out so I won't be surprised if the 30 year old winds up starting a few games in 1972. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Darrow, Greg 27 RR 130 507 42 130 32 0 13 75 23 71 0 0 18 .256 .289 .396 2* Kohut, John 32 LR 19 60 3 8 3 0 1 6 9 6 0 0 1 .133 .236 .233 2 Rosales, Juan 35 RR 16 57 6 15 1 1 3 8 6 9 0 1 2 .263 .333 .474 2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Lopez, Antonio 25 LL 161 631 105 197 34 2 42 125 67 92 0 1 12 .312 .378 .572 3* Perez, Juan 33 LR 67 202 20 50 4 1 6 27 22 30 0 1 7 .248 .328 .366 4/6 Holcombe, David 24 LR 35 116 14 31 5 1 2 15 19 21 0 1 1 .267 .380 .379 4 Lozano, Manuel 25 LR 32 107 16 35 6 2 1 12 14 27 0 0 0 .327 .408 .449 4 Owen, Kellen 30 RR 48 113 15 28 4 0 3 9 6 14 0 0 7 .248 .289 .363 45/63 Potter, Rich 28 RR 46 105 12 33 3 3 1 13 5 9 1 0 0 .314 .360 .429 4/65 Gabel, Sean 27 RR 144 601 80 174 26 10 0 46 19 61 30 16 11 .290 .313 .366 5*/3 Salgado, Hélio 34 RR 13 35 2 6 1 0 2 4 3 7 0 0 1 .171 .237 .371 5/3 Taylor, Jeremy 27 RR 145 537 82 144 13 16 29 85 51 99 9 6 8 .268 .334 .514 6* Timonen, John 28 RR 36 90 11 17 4 1 1 5 2 16 1 0 4 .189 .204 .289 6/4 For the 2nd straight season Juan Perez was unable to play in the majority of games for his team (okay, he started 85 in 1970 but close enough). To make matters worse, the 5 time All-Star just plain hasn't hit like he used to the past couple seasons either. It's probably well past time the Cubs start entertaining replacements. The man for them in September and perhaps going forward is Manuel Lozano. The .327 average came kind of out of nowhere, although farm pundits will be quick to point out that he hit a combined .295 between AA and AAA in 1969. He's also not the finest fielder at the position, which is a bit of an issue given that they also live with below average play at shortstop. That could open the door for David Holcombe, whom I wouldn't classify as a defensive whiz - he's definitely got the arm of a second baseman - but can make plays and isn't a terrible hitter himself. The Cubs also have the veteran Kellen Owen for give them a bit of sock against left-handed pitching when the need arises. For the first time in his 4 year career Sean Gabel didn't crack .300, although .290 is nothing to sneeze at. He's also the best 3rd baseman in the NL and took home his 4th Gold Glove. There are warning signs there with his complete lack of power - the former league leader in doubles (39 in 1969) failed to crack 30 2-base hits last season. It's clear that he needs to hit for a high average to be truly effective. Gabel's work at third is made all the more important because their shortstop is Jeremy Taylor. I'm probably being too hard on the guy - there are undoubtedly worse shortstops in the league - but he had a -10.8 ZR that screams "move me to left field" last year. The good news is that he did cut his Ks way down from 157 in 1970 to 99 last year, and his average rebounded from .235 to .268 as a result. He also led the league in triples for the 2nd time in his career. Taylor's got good speed, he's just never in a position to use it in the middle of the order. His defensive replacement is one of the best in the game at that, John Timonen. Of course, Timonen is a famously bad hitter, which is why he's a backup. He's still a 5-time Gold Glover, including a win in 1970 in spite of starting just 89 games for Houston; he had a +19.6 ZR in that time. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Workman, Jason 34 LL 147 565 75 140 18 1 26 84 38 57 0 1 9 .248 .294 .421 7*/9 Brettell, Matt 34 LL 18 18 3 5 1 0 1 1 2 2 0 0 0 .278 .350 .500 /7 Jung, Hee-gon 34 LL 9 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .125 .125 .125 /7 Johnston, Ryan 29 LL 110 430 67 109 20 5 12 39 55 99 20 4 4 .253 .342 .407 8 Cooper, Chance 24 LR 59 153 24 38 2 1 8 22 31 35 3 3 0 .248 .373 .431 89/7 Fenney, Steve 30 RR 43 78 10 21 1 0 2 5 8 11 1 2 2 .269 .341 .359 8/79 Pratchett, Terry 23 RR 11 41 5 11 3 1 1 7 7 8 3 0 0 .268 .375 .463 8 Schurke, Mike 24 SR 10 38 6 14 4 0 0 4 2 2 1 1 1 .368 .400 .474 /87 Crozier, Nick 26 RR 14 28 4 6 0 0 1 2 3 11 0 0 0 .214 .281 .321 /879 Clements, Ryan 28 RR 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 2.000 /8 Groves, Adam 31 RR 93 277 50 73 11 3 11 39 48 60 10 2 2 .264 .378 .444 9/78 Hernandez, Nelson 28 RR 66 245 39 73 13 2 10 34 28 38 2 2 3 .298 .370 .490 9/87 Casio, Steve 34 LL 106 145 27 43 7 0 6 20 19 32 0 0 3 .297 .369 .469 97/3 Littleton, Sincere 28 RR 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 The Cubs settled on Ryan Johnson following several years of dealing with an increasingly less rangey Mark Tooley (who just retired). Johnston, a 4 year starter and one time All-Star for the Red Sox prior to coming to the North Side, is purely a stopgap solution. The long-term fix will likely come from prospect Terry Pratchett, an author in the offseason who's got the range to stick in center if he can hit well enough or William Warner (not his real name), a 2nd round pick this past June who moved up 3 levels in 3 months and who'll start '72 as the Tacoma Cubs' starter. Nelson Hernandez wound up being a really solid pickup for Chicago, so solid in fact that they felt they could let Adam Groves go off to Oakland to pursue starting. Hernandez did not come close to his 27 HR output from 1970 but came close to .300 and got on base a lot, too, basically playing the role they thought Jason Workman was going to give them in the final couple months. Incidentally, between him and Taylor the Cubs have all the NL league leaders in triples since 1969. His backup/"backup", Steve Casio is really more of the team's #1 pinch hitter. He was arguably the best player in the league in this role in 1971.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-22-2023, 11:56 AM
|
#189 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
1971 Recap: No team in baseball experienced a bigger fall from grace than the Reds. They started out slow, then fell apart in May, continued that trend for most of the summer, and then, just in case the fanbase thought they might be good to go for 1972 after an 18-11 August, they suffered their worst month of all in September and just missed 90 losses. 1972 Outlook: The fall seemed to be based on the complete collapse of the pitching staff, but if that wasn't bad enough the Reds' offense fell from 2nd in the league to 9th - and dead last in average, too. One year removed from 98 wins, I'd be very surprised if this team wins 80 games next year. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Waiters, Steve 27 LL 21 12 .636 2.75 38 38 0 12 2 0 294.2 261 101 90 16 83 4 200 1.167 100.0 0.5 2.5 6.1 Hagan, Joe 30 RR 9 17 .346 3.86 35 33 0 7 2 0 249.2 252 123 107 39 79 2 155 1.326 100.0 1.4 2.8 5.6 Vanover, Bill 30 SR 13 14 .481 3.77 32 32 0 6 1 0 231.1 250 110 97 18 48 6 94 1.288 100.0 0.7 1.9 3.7 Bertan, Tom 28 RR 2 10 .167 7.51 29 14 7 1 0 0 109.0 124 94 91 23 49 2 79 1.587 100.0 1.9 4.0 6.5 Olmos, Edward James 23 SR 3 5 .375 2.51 39 0 33 0 0 14 64.2 61 22 18 3 21 5 43 1.268 100.0 0.4 2.9 6.0 Rosas, Ricky 28 RR 7 13 .350 4.93 47 9 32 0 0 9 107.2 106 62 59 17 55 3 80 1.495 100.0 1.4 4.6 6.7 Panarello, Graham 26 RR 1 5 .167 3.82 34 6 11 2 1 1 75.1 69 32 32 4 39 1 47 1.434 100.0 0.5 4.7 5.6 Shrewsbury, Greg 29 RR 3 4 .429 4.63 31 3 17 0 0 1 58.1 69 31 30 6 17 2 41 1.474 100.0 0.9 2.6 6.3 Bryant, Terrance 33 LL 3 0 1.000 1.35 29 0 12 0 0 2 26.2 19 4 4 0 11 2 9 1.125 100.0 0.0 3.7 3.0 Johnston, Mike 34 RR 5 3 .625 3.52 18 12 3 1 0 0 92.0 95 36 36 1 51 4 55 1.587 100.0 0.1 5.0 5.4 Maurice, Bastien 26 RL 3 2 .600 4.66 14 6 3 0 0 0 46.1 42 26 24 5 18 0 23 1.295 100.0 1.0 3.5 4.5 Rivera, Manny 25 RR 2 2 .500 3.66 21 2 10 0 0 2 32.0 24 13 13 7 5 0 11 0.906 100.0 2.0 1.4 3.1 Williams, David 30 RR 0 1 .000 5.30 3 3 0 0 0 0 18.2 21 13 11 3 6 0 7 1.446 100.0 1.4 2.9 3.4 Bell, Dave 25 RR 0 1 .000 5.25 2 2 0 0 0 0 12.0 14 7 7 4 3 0 6 1.417 100.0 3.0 2.3 4.5 Hale, Zach 25 LL 0 0 .000 18.69 7 0 0 0 0 0 4.1 9 9 9 3 4 0 5 3.000 100.0 6.2 8.3 10.4 Elser, Garrett 28 RR 0 0 .000 13.50 5 0 0 0 0 0 3.1 2 5 5 0 2 0 4 1.200 100.0 0.0 5.4 10.8 Reyes, Hugo 25 RR 1 0 1.000 5.40 2 2 0 0 0 0 6.2 8 4 4 0 2 0 3 1.500 100.0 0.0 2.7 4.1 Pierson, Pat 25 LL 0 0 .000 1.59 4 0 1 0 0 0 5.2 8 3 1 1 0 0 0 1.412 100.0 1.6 0.0 0.0 Yates, Brian 26 SR 0 0 .000 13.50 2 0 0 0 0 0 1.1 3 2 2 1 2 0 2 3.750 100.0 6.8 13.5 13.5 Lopez, Pete 28 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 1.1 0 0 0 0 4 1 1 3.000 100.0 0.0 27.0 6.8 Stephens, Geoff 26 RR 0 0 .000 9.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 2.000 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Vogel, Justin 26 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 100.0 0.0 0.0 9.0 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Waiters, Steve 38 21 12 5 0 7 23 15 0.605 12 2 31 82% 60 86 25 21 8 3.9 4.6 7.8 118 0 3 18 17 151 Hagan, Joe 33 9 16 8 1 6 14 19 0.424 7 2 18 55% 52 87 28 17 10 3.2 3.9 7.4 112 1 3 20 9 161 Vanover, Bill 32 13 14 5 3 9 15 17 0.469 6 1 22 69% 51 78 16 9 11 3.4 4.2 7.2 104 2 10 16 4 138 Bertan, Tom 14 1 10 3 1 2 3 11 0.214 1 0 4 29% 40 69 12 10 2 1.9 2.7 6.3 109 1 5 4 4 175 Johnston, Mike 12 4 2 6 0 0 6 6 0.500 1 0 9 75% 54 75 38 0 4 4.5 5.8 6.9 107 0 4 6 2 127 Rosas, Ricky 9 4 4 1 0 2 4 5 0.444 0 0 6 67% 45 71 8 0 2 2.8 4.2 5.9 97 2 3 3 1 123 Panarello, Graham 6 1 3 2 0 2 2 4 0.333 2 1 5 83% 49 79 15 1 3 1.7 2.3 6.6 104 1 1 2 2 132 Maurice, Bastien 6 3 2 1 0 0 3 3 0.500 0 0 3 50% 43 67 7 4 2 4.0 5.8 6.2 102 0 3 3 0 119 Shrewsbury, Greg 3 1 2 0 0 1 1 2 0.333 0 0 2 67% 41 74 6 1 1 2.3 3.8 5.6 88 1 1 1 0 110 Williams, David 3 0 1 2 0 0 1 2 0.333 0 0 2 67% 43 56 28 0 2 2.7 3.9 6.2 105 0 1 2 0 108 Reyes, Hugo 2 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 0 00% 46 51 42 0 2 2.5 6.8 3.3 59 1 0 1 0 115 Rivera, Manny 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0.000 0 0 0 00% 27 39 15 0 2 0.0 0.0 5.3 79 1 1 0 0 83 Bell, Dave 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 0.000 0 0 1 50% 46 57 34 0 2 2.5 3.8 6.0 103 0 1 1 0 110 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Olmos, Edward James 39 3 5 19 14 5 74% 19 0 6 0 0% 1.660 18 16 16 3 36 1 18 7 12 9 11 5.0 24 Rosas, Ricky 38 3 9 13 9 4 69% 13 0 13 4 24% 1.637 17 15 15 6 32 5 16 9 11 6 12 4.3 24 Bryant, Terrance 29 3 0 2 2 0 100% 7 5 16 1 6% 1.190 9 13 13 10 19 9 2 8 6 7 8 2.8 14 Shrewsbury, Greg 28 2 2 1 1 0 100% 4 3 12 3 20% 0.844 7 19 19 6 22 2 13 4 3 6 15 4.5 24 Panarello, Graham 28 0 2 1 1 0 100% 4 3 9 5 36% 0.810 5 19 19 7 21 4 8 5 3 7 13 3.8 20 Rivera, Manny 19 2 0 2 2 0 100% 5 3 11 1 8% 1.077 5 8 8 7 12 4 5 7 4 2 6 3.4 13 Bertan, Tom 15 1 0 0 0 0 0% 2 2 8 2 20% 0.645 3 10 10 6 9 4 5 2 5 2 6 4.2 24 Maurice, Bastien 8 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 2 0 0% 0.389 0 6 6 2 6 1 2 3 0 3 2 3.4 11 Hale, Zach 7 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 7 7 50% 0.598 1 4 4 4 3 2 1 1 0 2 4 3.6 32 Johnston, Mike 6 1 1 0 0 0 0% 0 0 3 1 25% 0.669 2 4 4 2 4 0 2 1 0 1 4 4.3 29 Elser, Garrett 5 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 2 50% 0.265 0 5 5 1 4 0 2 0 1 0 4 3.8 24 Pierson, Pat 4 0 0 1 0 1 0% 1 0 2 2 50% 1.991 2 2 2 1 3 1 1 0 0 1 3 4.3 16 Hagan, Joe 2 0 1 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.583 0 2 2 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 10.5 50 Yates, Brian 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 1 50% 0.444 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2.0 17 Lopez, Pete 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 1 0 0% 1.025 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2.0 18 Stephens, Geoff 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.260 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 14 Vogel, Justin 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.033 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 8 The back of that rotation... man. Tom Bertan has to get at least one more chance. The 28 year old from the tiny but booming suburb of St. Louis called Bethalto, Illinois went from being a back-end Cy Young Award candidate in 1970 (20-9, 3.69) to one of the worst pitchers in baseball in 1971. What happened? He lost a big chunk of the control that made him effective - his BB/9 ballooned from 2.4 to 4.0 - and to make matters worse, he missed over the plate with his curveball as often as he missed outside of it. He'd already led the league in HRs allowed in '70 with 36 but last year's 23 allowed in 109 innings represented a 50% increase in the rates. I went so far as to shut him down with a Miguel Batista style "he can't pitch" injury; his last game came on July 23rd. Given the very high chance Bertan can't come back, the Reds enjoyed what Hugo Reyes did in the minor leagues enough that he could get a chance. We're not so sure. He was 12-8 with a sparkling 2.08 ERA but allowed 109 walks vs just 72 Ks in 160 innings spent in AAA Indianapolis. That feels unsustainable. Scouts do like his low to mid 90s 4 seamer but that may not be enough. Danny Alejo (watch this space) was 12-14 in AA Trois-Rivieres but completed 19 of his 29 starts there and might be ready to skip a level. Nothing to lose so I'll give him a look. The bullpen was arguably the source of panic in 1971. Edward James Olmos eventually emerged as the stopper with all right results as he told his teammates to "stand and deliver" for him (movie joke!). I'm really, really not sure that he has the stuff to survive as a top-of-the-line short reliever if I'm being honest. The fact that he likes to keep the ball on the ground helps - his GB% was actually only 44% but he only allowed 0.4 HR/9 - in the minors he'd consistently been in the high 50s to 60s so expect there to not be a lot of dingers going forward either. He had to take over for Ricky Rosas who led the NL in saves in 1970 but completely fell apart last year. Stop me if you've heard this one before: Rosas allowed 17 HRs in 107.2 IP, so the longball was a huge factor. Another one though was that his electric stuff that got him 10.8 Ks per 9 innings in 1970 sort of evaporated last season. In an attempt to make some use of him as well as the rotation, Rosas got 9 starts last season, which were not great: 4-4, 5.61 and just 5.8 K/9. Even as a reliever though he only averaged 7.6/9, which is well above average but not good enough when whiffs is all you rely on. Mike Johnston is an interesting piece that's still on the roster somehow. He was actually pretty decent last year when he played. He missed half of 1969 and half of 1970 so the bullpen might mean less wear and tear on his arm going forward. On the other hand, he's a former 18 game winner for the Cardinals, a team for whom he won 4 World Series for in his youth, so maybe the rotation is where he belongs after all. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Williams, Oliver 27 RR 124 422 30 102 12 0 7 44 37 61 0 0 10 .242 .303 .320 2* Day, Jarrod 27 LR 61 159 28 41 11 1 7 32 29 29 0 0 1 .258 .364 .472 2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Miller, Nick 26 LL 106 301 37 81 11 3 6 33 33 50 16 3 5 .269 .346 .385 39/7 Flores, John 26 SR 39 102 12 22 1 2 4 12 11 23 0 0 2 .216 .287 .382 34/6 Clark, Stephen 33 LL 32 84 10 21 4 1 2 4 7 5 0 0 3 .250 .313 .393 3 Rivera, Alonzo 23 LL 21 62 7 25 6 0 3 6 3 5 0 0 1 .403 .424 .645 3 Schweitzer, Todd 23 LL 24 57 1 11 2 0 0 3 3 15 1 0 1 .193 .242 .228 3 Magoni, Mauro 32 RR 26 51 5 8 2 0 0 2 3 13 0 0 1 .157 .200 .196 3/5 Hopkins, Robert 26 RR 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Ortiz, Pedro 28 RR 148 622 77 165 31 6 6 43 68 79 28 16 5 .265 .338 .363 4* Kraljevic, Bobby 28 LR 143 497 58 120 20 2 12 58 87 67 1 3 11 .241 .351 .362 5*/3 Guerrero, Fidelio 25 LR 44 83 9 25 4 2 4 15 11 18 1 2 1 .301 .385 .542 5/3 Wendt, Mike 27 RR 143 471 44 111 14 6 10 54 26 83 17 6 13 .236 .273 .355 6* Dorman, Scott 26 RR 74 136 11 30 4 5 1 14 10 28 2 2 5 .221 .275 .346 65 Downing, Matt 37 RR 13 20 6 5 3 0 0 1 2 4 0 0 0 .250 .348 .400 /645 Pedro Ortiz lost 40 points off of his average last season and went from a top flight leadoff man, one who flirted with 100 runs scored in '70 (he finished with 98, good for 9th in the NL) to an average hitter. His reputation carried him into his 5th All-Star berth and a combination of good range and great hands (.988 FA last season) got him his 2nd Gold Glove. It's very, very unlikely the Reds are going to pull the plug on Ortiz so quickly. Bobby Kraljevic was teeeeerrible for the entire first half of the year. As of July 30th he was hitting just .203 with a slugging average of .309, a far, far cry from the .297 he hit the year before as a cornerstone of a powerful Reds lineup. Then he had a fantastic August - .387/2/12, possibly Player of the Month levels of good if he'd have started the whole time - and a decent enough September (.261/2/5) to pull the numbers back to near respectable levels. Despite the strong finish he faces a crossroads this season. Fidelio Guerrero filled in for Bobby K a lot when he was hurt or just being benched for ineffectiveness but probably isn't the future at the position. That said, a quick look at the farm indicates that 2 of the potential replacements struggled to hit and the third one is going to start the season in short season A ball. Mike Wendt is a guy you put up with at shortstop when he's an above average hitter because good men are hard to find at that position. He was not above average last year, not even close. Who to replace him with, though? Scott Forman is the obvious answer but the 2nd round pick in 1967 hit the way he's hit throughout his minor league career, which is to say not much. He's a marginally better fielder than Wendt, with only average range for a shortstop but a cannon for an arm and hands that might be the best in the business. Is that enough? Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Gomez, Carlos 29 RL 102 317 54 91 19 3 19 66 45 65 0 1 3 .287 .373 .546 7 Cannon, Junior 27 LL 137 469 65 104 14 1 18 72 74 88 4 1 8 .222 .325 .371 739 Martinez, Jerry 38 RL 46 50 8 10 1 0 5 11 3 5 0 0 2 .200 .236 .520 /7 Burwell, Sonny 23 LR 109 432 64 129 24 4 4 42 52 101 33 8 1 .299 .368 .400 8/9 Tooley, Mark 35 RR 58 193 26 40 6 2 4 16 18 41 3 3 3 .207 .269 .321 8/9 Wilkes, Chris 28 RR 13 18 1 2 0 0 1 1 0 3 0 2 1 .111 .100 .278 /87 Beaulieu, Bobby 24 SR 83 278 46 74 15 8 8 44 38 55 6 4 2 .266 .360 .464 9/85 Alvarez, Manuel 37 RR 30 97 12 22 5 0 2 6 6 12 0 0 3 .227 .269 .340 9 bin Naim, Dennis 24 LL 27 67 8 18 2 0 0 5 4 12 0 0 1 .269 .319 .299 /987 Cowan, Greg 30 LL 20 42 6 10 3 0 3 3 3 13 0 1 0 .238 .289 .524 /97 Penn, John 29 RL 22 37 4 11 1 1 1 4 1 4 0 0 0 .297 .316 .459 /987 Menke, Ben 30 RR 9 14 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 5 1 0 0 .143 .250 .143 /98 Actually, centerfield was another spot where the Reds' overall storyline was circumvented, because Sonny Burwell did great. In spite of not sticking in the major leagues until the Reds acquired him on May 29, the rookie won a trip to the All-Star Game - this in spite of not yet even clearing the threshold for prospect ABs; he was named the #74 prospect the week before the Midsummer Classic - and surely could have won the ROY if it wasn't for Paul McCartney. He also finished 3rd in the league in steals with 34. One thing he'll want to work on going forward is that K rate; Burwell still gets on base a lot because of his pure speed, but it's hard to see a world where he strikes out 100+ times a year and flirts with .300 every season. Right field was a minus overall but if everything breaks right it'll be a huge, huge plus. That's because the Reds figure to have slugger Justin Jensen back. Jensen suffered a broken ankle in spring training and then landed on it wrong while recovering in June and wound up missing the whole season because of it. Jensen hit 42 HRs for Cincinnati in 1970 so needless to say, this was a massive loss. The Reds tried using Cannon and Bobby Beaulieu in his stead but only with limited success. Beaulieu at least looks like he should fit in as a 4th OFer and pinch-hitter. Jensen, it should be noted, is 36 years old and so the Reds probably can't count on him to play 150 games in the best of circumstances.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-22-2023, 01:02 PM
|
#190 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Houston Astros
1971 Recap: Following a red-hot start, the Braves passed the Astros in mid-May and never really looked back the rest of the way. I guess their September struggles sort of opened the door but Houston was never in a position to take advantage. 1972 Outlook: Their pitching staff was grim last year and to be honest does not look like it's going to be much better in '72. To a great extent the Astros, in spite of playing in the actual Astrodome, are here to show how far you can go on hitting alone. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Rivera, Tony 27 LL 25 9 .735 3.20 42 42 0 13 4 0 328.2 307 124 117 9 128 24 207 1.324 100.0 0.2 3.5 5.7 McDonald, Caleb 30 SR 16 10 .615 4.07 37 37 0 8 3 0 243.1 241 120 110 20 106 10 103 1.426 100.0 0.7 3.9 3.8 Mullett, Josh 27 RR 15 14 .517 4.45 39 30 3 4 1 0 220.2 242 124 109 24 111 16 107 1.600 100.0 1.0 4.5 4.4 Rodriguez, Herman 27 RR 4 6 .400 5.19 34 17 3 1 0 0 130.0 144 81 75 11 64 3 62 1.600 100.0 0.8 4.4 4.3 Douglas, Jon 29 RR 5 11 .313 3.25 62 0 54 0 0 28 91.1 68 39 33 10 33 5 78 1.106 100.0 1.0 3.3 7.7 Graton, Jeff 31 RR 6 5 .545 4.03 46 8 28 2 1 4 109.1 114 56 49 10 45 7 64 1.454 100.0 0.8 3.7 5.3 Escobar, Roberto 24 RL 3 2 .600 3.00 45 0 12 0 0 0 51.0 45 20 17 6 26 5 59 1.392 100.0 1.1 4.6 10.4 Shepard, Aaron 27 LR 4 3 .571 3.56 31 8 9 1 1 1 78.1 73 33 31 7 25 4 63 1.251 100.0 0.8 2.9 7.2 Tyler, Steven 22 SR 2 3 .400 3.35 23 2 6 0 0 0 40.1 54 19 15 2 22 3 22 1.884 100.0 0.4 4.9 4.9 Lara, Juan 33 RR 3 4 .429 6.06 16 8 4 1 0 0 62.1 67 45 42 7 48 4 35 1.845 100.0 1.0 6.9 5.1 Henley, Don 23 LL 3 3 .500 4.44 10 7 3 0 0 0 48.2 49 26 24 4 18 3 26 1.377 100.0 0.7 3.3 4.8 Ochoa, Alex 25 RL 4 0 1.000 1.26 6 3 2 1 1 1 28.2 23 4 4 1 11 0 22 1.186 100.0 0.3 3.5 6.9 Eastin, Adam 31 RR 1 1 .500 4.82 7 0 6 0 0 1 9.1 11 5 5 3 2 0 4 1.393 100.0 2.9 1.9 3.9 Garcia, Carlos 27 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 3 0 0 0 0 0 6.2 2 0 0 0 3 0 7 0.750 100.0 0.0 4.1 9.5 Bryant, Mike 25 LR 0 0 .000 10.13 5 0 1 0 0 0 5.1 7 6 6 0 4 0 2 2.063 100.0 0.0 6.8 3.4 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Rivera, Tony 42 25 9 8 5 4 30 12 0.714 13 4 28 67% 57 86 20 32 4 4.0 4.6 7.8 120 1 3 17 21 159 McDonald, Caleb 37 16 10 11 3 2 21 16 0.568 8 3 19 51% 49 84 9 24 6 3.1 4.3 6.6 102 4 12 15 6 147 Mullett, Josh 30 14 14 2 3 4 14 16 0.467 4 1 16 53% 46 90 10 15 10 3.6 4.7 6.8 107 1 10 11 8 158 Rodriguez, Herman 17 3 6 8 1 1 6 11 0.353 1 0 6 35% 43 68 7 6 7 3.4 5.0 6.0 101 3 2 10 2 126 Lara, Juan 8 2 4 2 0 0 4 4 0.500 1 0 3 38% 44 72 24 2 5 2.6 3.7 6.5 115 0 1 4 3 142 Graton, Jeff 8 3 1 4 0 0 6 2 0.750 2 1 6 75% 56 79 36 3 3 3.0 3.6 7.5 121 0 0 4 4 141 Shepard, Aaron 8 3 3 2 0 0 4 4 0.500 1 1 4 50% 47 87 13 5 2 1.9 3.0 5.7 99 1 2 4 1 128 Henley, Don 7 3 3 1 1 0 3 4 0.429 0 0 3 43% 47 68 30 2 3 3.9 5.4 6.4 103 0 3 3 1 122 Ochoa, Alex 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 0 1.000 1 1 3 100% 68 78 63 1 2 7.3 8.0 8.2 115 0 1 0 2 131 Tyler, Steven 2 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 0.000 0 0 2 100% 40 52 27 1 1 2.5 3.8 6.0 112 0 1 0 1 132 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Douglas, Jon 62 5 11 32 28 4 88% 33 1 37 12 24% 1.805 32 19 18 19 43 4 32 14 18 10 20 4.4 22 Escobar, Roberto 45 3 2 2 0 2 0% 10 8 20 4 17% 0.768 6 25 25 13 32 9 13 12 5 7 21 3.4 19 Graton, Jeff 38 3 4 6 4 2 67% 10 4 12 6 33% 1.024 11 20 20 7 31 5 14 2 11 9 16 3.9 21 Shepard, Aaron 23 1 0 1 1 0 100% 2 1 2 0 0% 0.550 2 17 17 1 22 2 7 3 8 1 11 4.3 18 Tyler, Steven 21 2 1 0 0 0 0% 4 4 20 8 29% 0.855 3 13 12 11 10 7 8 7 5 2 7 4.0 23 Rodriguez, Herman 17 1 0 2 0 2 0% 4 2 11 4 27% 0.832 3 10 10 7 10 4 9 1 3 4 9 4.9 28 Mullett, Josh 9 1 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 3 1 25% 0.871 2 5 5 2 7 1 5 2 2 2 3 5.8 31 Lara, Juan 8 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 6 1 14% 0.375 0 7 7 3 5 2 4 3 2 0 3 4.0 23 Eastin, Adam 7 1 1 1 1 0 100% 1 0 1 1 50% 0.943 0 4 4 1 6 1 3 1 0 2 4 4.0 21 Bryant, Mike 5 0 0 1 0 1 0% 2 1 3 1 25% 1.657 2 1 1 2 3 3 2 2 0 0 3 3.2 21 Ochoa, Alex 3 1 0 1 1 0 100% 2 1 2 0 0% 1.287 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 3 4.0 17 Garcia, Carlos 3 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 2 50% 0.392 0 3 3 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 3 6.7 33 Henley, Don 3 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.125 0 3 3 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 3 4.0 16 The rest of that rotation though... how is Josh Mullett still around? He's been pretty much a replacement level starter the past two years but nevertheless has thrown more than 220 innings in each of the last 3. The Astros even took him out of the rotation for a while, only to have to stick him right back in there again. He's just not good but I guess like McDonald he's consistently mediocre enough that Houston can rely on him to give up like 4 runs in 7 innings and keep them in games. It goes without saying that the'll want more than that. One guy they hope will provide it is Eagles frontman Don Henley, who got an extended look in 1971. He honestly didn't look like anything much. In spite of that he was still named the #42 prospect in all of baseball at season's end. I guess there's a chance he'll develop strikeout stuff in the major leagues. The Astros will go into spring training trying out a couple of 24 year old prospects whose names will surely be changed to protect the innocent. Both of these players had kind of low K rates though so the issue persists. Jon Douglas led a bullpen that, frankly, could have been better. Douglas in particular is a guy whose up-and-down pitching was hidden by his home park - he was 5-5, 2.60 with 18 saves in the Astrodome but 0-6, 4.12 with only 10 saves elsewhere. And he was clearly the best the team had to offer. Well, okay, there was lefty specialist Roberto Escobar (who, again, I need to use more), but that's barely 51 innings of good work. Adam Eastin returned at the very, very end of the season after missing more than a calendar year with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. He looked rusty; a return to form for the 1965 Rolaids Relief Award winner and AL saves leader in '66 and '67 would be just plain huge for this team. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Rigdon, Dan 28 RR 128 496 58 133 36 3 6 52 33 81 0 0 20 .268 .312 .389 2* Copeland, Bobby 27 SR 34 113 9 24 4 0 1 5 6 11 0 0 2 .212 .248 .274 2 Williams, Nate 25 SR 6 15 2 4 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 .267 .333 .333 /2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Richens, Justin 39 LL 91 287 45 78 18 0 9 48 27 54 0 0 2 .272 .343 .429 3 Chairez, Alejandro 32 RR 88 314 38 66 8 3 6 25 20 46 8 4 12 .210 .252 .312 4/6 Blake, Adam 25 RR 28 100 19 25 6 0 3 9 5 14 0 0 6 .250 .299 .400 4/3 Sherron, Jon 28 RR 36 98 12 28 2 1 1 12 3 13 0 0 2 .286 .295 .357 4/3 Ryan, Nolan 24 RR 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 .000 .000 .000 Little, Pete 26 RR 138 499 64 115 19 1 15 69 58 92 1 1 18 .230 .313 .363 5* Ringstad, Nate 35 RR 112 195 24 57 15 0 3 42 15 14 0 0 7 .292 .341 .415 53 Green, Jordan 25 RR 140 527 64 146 23 1 9 60 48 87 0 0 19 .277 .333 .376 6*4/3 Patton, Elijah 33 RR 40 80 7 18 3 1 0 5 5 16 0 1 1 .225 .267 .288 64 Weber, Nick 25 SR 11 41 7 13 5 0 0 6 2 9 0 0 0 .317 .349 .439 6 Reiner, Rob 24 RR 10 17 2 2 1 0 0 0 3 4 1 0 1 .118 .250 .176 /6745 The bottom dropped out of Alejandro Chairez's game last year and, at age 32, it looks like Houston's going to try to kill two birds with one stone at this position. Jordan Green wound up playing 26 games at second base, most of it later in the season, and while there were signs of growing pains he figures to be better than... the only way to describe his play at shortstop is bad. Second base does unfortunately hide his greatest asset, which is his A++ arm, but it's also a place where you can kind of hide not-great infielders so there he goes. He was more than able to carry the position on offense. Adam Blake could fill in at the position if someone gets hurt. The less that is said about career minor leaguer Jon Sherron's 23 games played at the position, the better. [p]Pete Little[/b] is - I feel like I just said this about a player 2 teams ago but here goes - at a crossroads in his career. The 1969 All-Star saw his average tumble for the 2nd straight year and last season it hit new lows, as he wasn't even average at the plate. He's still a positive fielder, as the 3.5 ZR will attest to, but even a team playing where they play needs more production than this. That production will not, of course, come from Nate Ringstad; he's pretty well set in his role as the team's pinch-hitter. Jordan Green would probably excel at third but probably doesn't have the bat for it himself. Masanori Hattori played every position in the field last year except for catcher and pitcher. Right now he's penciled in as the starting shortstop. There's only one issue with this: he might not be able to stick there defensively. He's definitely got the arm for it and his range is OK but his concentration sometimes wanes and leads to dumb errors. That actually didn't affect him too much at short last year - just 1 error in 14 apperances for a .971 FA - but it really, really showed out at 2nd - 16 appearances, 5 errors, a .930 FA - and the law of averages says that'll carry over. As a hitter, he profiles as somewhere in between a middle infielder and a corner outfielder, which is great if he does manage to catch on at short. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Lockhart, Jesse 27 RR 105 416 52 122 27 0 6 47 31 56 3 0 12 .293 .345 .401 7 Rohrbough, John 24 LR 86 257 38 72 16 5 2 35 30 39 4 7 4 .280 .358 .405 73/89 Crozier, Nick 26 RR 16 36 3 5 2 0 0 2 2 8 1 0 0 .139 .184 .194 /78 Scott, Tommy 31 LR 32 28 4 10 1 0 1 5 2 7 1 0 1 .357 .387 .500 /7 Clark, Blake 25 LL 5 4 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .500 .600 .750 /7 Lopez, John 31 LL 148 605 89 163 15 3 8 57 66 52 31 10 4 .269 .343 .344 89 Hattori, Masanori 26 RR 78 252 31 73 9 1 7 41 20 34 3 3 3 .290 .338 .417 8463/579 Foreman, George 22 SR 56 208 42 79 16 5 9 39 24 27 8 5 0 .380 .447 .635 8/7 Weaver, Jaden 29 LL 131 501 77 152 27 2 37 104 52 85 1 2 8 .303 .368 .587 93/8 Perez, Javy 31 LL 58 93 20 26 2 1 5 8 12 16 0 3 1 .280 .358 .484 9/7 "Little John" Lopez was a little off at the plate but the Astros could have lived with that. What they couldn't bear was that his fielding, while never super terrific, took a nosedive in 1971. He wound up playing 90 games in center and posted a ZR of -9.8 during that time. Given the way the pitching staff was faltering, a change had to be made and through that the team thinks they've solved everything in the form of Marshall, Texas native "Big George" Foreman. He played good, solid defense, which everyone expected. What nobody expected was for the heavyweight boxer to hit nearly .400 in 55 starts. Even if his average is 50 points lower, sustaining that would make him an easy choice for All-Star. Masanori Hattori is also of course available here should somethign happen. All that means that Lopez is set as the starter in right field. In order to carry that position he'll need to hit more like he did in '69 and '70, when he broke the 100 run mark both times (including a league-high 116 in 1970) and hit .316 and .290 respectively. He was average to mediocre as a fielder in 59 games in right (-0.2 ZR) which is obviously a huge upswing.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-22-2023, 04:24 PM
|
#191 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Los Angeles Dodgers
1971 Recap: The Dodgers spent most of the year looking like a mediocre-to-bad team, fighting rivals San Francisco for the "staying out of the cellar" award. Then a monster end of the season almost landed them at .500 and gave fans lots of hope for the future. 1972 Outlook: Since the giant surge came after the team by and large moved away from their older players and started looking at the new guys, there's good reason for optimism. Maybe, just maybe they can contend in a West division that's in transition? Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Apolonio, Fernando 30 LL 18 11 .621 3.00 33 33 0 11 2 0 263.2 211 106 88 18 77 1 132 1.092 100.0 0.6 2.6 4.5 Castillo, Andres 34 RL 15 12 .556 3.02 33 30 1 12 2 0 232.2 229 101 78 14 68 4 176 1.277 100.0 0.5 2.6 6.8 Salinas, Rogelio 28 LL 9 14 .391 3.86 32 30 0 7 2 0 224.0 199 104 96 37 76 3 190 1.228 100.0 1.5 3.1 7.6 Figueroa, Carlos 25 RR 11 14 .440 4.69 31 29 0 3 0 0 201.1 219 112 105 26 97 2 168 1.570 100.0 1.2 4.3 7.5 Cosby, Alec 26 RR 6 7 .462 2.63 62 0 54 0 0 23 99.1 76 35 29 9 33 2 81 1.097 100.0 0.8 3.0 7.3 Wilson, Rich 33 RR 2 5 .286 2.56 46 0 29 0 0 5 59.2 59 23 17 4 22 1 59 1.358 100.0 0.6 3.3 8.9 Rodriguez, Santos 22 LL 8 11 .421 3.65 32 25 2 6 0 0 187.1 176 92 76 14 63 4 126 1.276 100.0 0.7 3.0 6.1 Wood, Arthur 35 SR 1 1 .500 2.72 30 0 13 0 0 1 39.2 38 15 12 2 15 0 13 1.336 100.0 0.5 3.4 2.9 Parsley, Jason 33 RR 2 1 .667 4.25 24 0 11 0 0 1 29.2 22 15 14 2 16 0 18 1.281 100.0 0.6 4.9 5.5 Juarez, Mario 26 LR 3 2 .600 4.15 24 5 5 0 0 0 52.0 57 26 24 3 16 0 35 1.404 100.0 0.5 2.8 6.1 Reiner, Rob 24 LL 1 2 .333 3.29 5 5 0 2 1 0 38.1 37 14 14 2 5 0 16 1.096 100.0 0.5 1.2 3.8 Mincher, Dylan 28 SL 2 1 .667 2.70 17 3 3 0 0 1 30.0 25 14 9 2 6 1 12 1.033 100.0 0.6 1.8 3.6 Lee, Dan 26 LL 1 1 .500 6.00 2 2 0 0 0 0 12.0 18 9 8 0 8 0 4 2.167 100.0 0.0 6.0 3.0 Entwistle, Josh 36 RL 0 1 .000 11.25 5 0 3 0 0 0 4.0 6 6 5 2 3 0 2 2.250 100.0 4.5 6.8 4.5 Flores, Orlando 24 SL 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 2.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 100.0 0.0 0.0 4.5 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Apolonio, Fernando 33 18 11 4 5 6 19 14 0.576 11 2 20 61% 59 84 32 4 16 4.0 4.5 8.0 116 0 6 17 10 232 Castillo, Andres 30 14 12 4 2 6 14 16 0.467 12 2 22 73% 57 84 15 3 16 3.6 4.2 7.7 118 2 2 12 14 148 Salinas, Rogelio 30 9 14 7 3 7 12 18 0.400 7 2 16 53% 56 89 17 4 16 3.4 4.2 7.4 114 0 6 11 13 139 Figueroa, Carlos 29 11 14 4 1 6 12 17 0.414 3 0 18 62% 49 84 16 5 15 3.6 4.7 6.8 115 2 5 10 12 146 Rodriguez, Santos 25 8 11 6 0 5 13 12 0.520 6 0 16 64% 53 86 20 0 16 3.1 3.9 7.1 113 2 4 9 10 152 Juarez, Mario 5 2 2 1 1 0 3 2 0.600 0 0 2 40% 44 53 38 2 1 3.0 4.5 6.0 97 0 3 2 0 103 Reiner, Rob 5 1 2 2 0 1 3 2 0.600 2 1 2 40% 56 83 42 1 3 1.8 2.1 7.7 100 0 3 2 0 117 Mincher, Dylan 3 2 1 0 1 1 2 1 0.667 0 0 2 67% 46 51 41 1 2 3.3 4.9 6.1 94 0 2 1 0 101 Lee, Dan 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 1 50% 35 50 20 0 2 3.0 4.5 6.0 106 0 0 2 0 106 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Cosby, Alec 62 6 7 32 23 9 72% 33 1 20 5 20% 2.080 33 15 15 13 49 1 30 12 19 11 20 4.8 25 Wilson, Rich 46 2 5 7 5 2 71% 15 8 35 17 33% 1.466 19 17 17 17 29 11 16 6 10 10 20 3.9 21 Wood, Arthur 30 1 1 2 1 1 50% 6 4 8 2 20% 0.576 2 23 23 6 24 3 12 3 5 3 19 4.0 20 Parsley, Jason 24 2 1 1 1 0 100% 2 1 11 2 15% 0.585 3 19 19 8 16 3 9 1 3 4 16 3.7 20 Juarez, Mario 19 1 0 0 0 0 0% 5 5 16 3 16% 0.745 4 10 10 9 10 5 7 3 5 2 9 3.5 18 Mincher, Dylan 14 0 0 1 1 0 100% 4 3 7 0 0% 0.879 4 10 9 4 10 5 2 4 3 2 5 2.5 10 Rodriguez, Santos 7 0 0 0 0 0 0% 2 2 1 0 0% 0.630 1 3 3 1 6 2 3 3 0 0 4 3.9 21 Entwistle, Josh 5 0 1 1 0 1 0% 2 1 3 1 25% 1.073 2 3 3 2 3 2 0 0 0 0 5 2.4 19 Castillo, Andres 3 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.600 0 1 1 0 3 1 0 0 1 0 2 2.0 7 Salinas, Rogelio 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 0 0 0% 0.586 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 3.0 18 Figueroa, Carlos 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.350 0 2 2 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 4.5 20 Flores, Orlando 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.250 0 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 3.0 12 For the rest of the rotation, this is the Dodgers so they'll go with the good old Dodgers 5 man setup. That means that 22 year old Santos Rodriguez is also a near lock to open the year. He had a pretty damn good rookie season, starting the year as the 12th ranked prospect in the game and winning the June NL Rookie of the Month with a 2.70 ERA in spite of a 1-1 record (he was doing some long relief that month; only 3 starts). Unlike the rest of the staff he had a rough August (2-3, 4.57) but he turned it around in limited time in September (2-0, 2.70 in 3 starts). Rogelio Salinas should also find a spot in there; dude struck out 7.6 batters per 9 innings so he might have been another guy who experienced plain old bad luck in arriving at his record. If not him (or if LA decides to use one of these 5 thousand lefties in a bigger relief role), Rob "Meathead' Reiner is a guy who won 19 games with a 2.65 ERA at AAA Spokane and largely followed up that good performance in 5 September appearances. He's definitely a control guy, with a hard slider he hopes to use to get more swinging strikes in the majors. LA was supported by a nice bullpen all year, led by stopper Alec Cosby. Cosby, a former starter who's nevertheless still only 27, set a career high with 23 saves in '71. Those 9 blown saves isn't so hot but those constituted 9 out of 10 of the meltdowns he had all season long vs 35 shutdown appearances. He's a definite positive heading into next season. His setup man for most of the year was Rich Wilson, who at 33 years of age still manages to get strikeouts off of a bunch of junk (which to be fair includes a devastating change of pace). For right now they've got another guy sitting in the lefty specialist role who started a bunch last year in Dylan Mincher. Rebuilding or otherwise, this does seem like a team that could stand to replace some of these lefties with similar righties. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Davis, Jason 26 RR 121 337 32 85 14 0 4 30 37 56 0 0 12 .252 .321 .329 2* Zimmerman, Jason 29 RR 72 192 20 31 7 0 3 14 29 37 0 0 6 .161 .274 .245 2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Stone, Justin 32 LL 152 564 94 165 20 1 38 112 92 82 10 6 3 .293 .396 .534 3* Pena, Francisco 27 RR 122 411 54 107 20 1 10 49 43 68 4 1 13 .260 .329 .387 4* Tristan, Billy 41 RR 87 188 19 51 4 1 1 20 25 27 1 1 6 .271 .355 .319 4/3 Sego, Nick 27 LR 9 28 1 6 3 1 0 3 3 4 0 0 1 .214 .281 .393 /43 Toscano, Ben 27 RR 7 25 3 6 0 1 0 4 1 5 0 0 0 .240 .269 .320 /4 Maccioli, Brian 26 RR 151 584 68 165 30 1 16 61 47 74 0 3 17 .283 .335 .420 5* Schwartz, Jeremy 29 RR 43 65 6 14 2 0 0 5 4 11 0 0 4 .215 .261 .246 5 Solis, Luis 22 LR 140 554 79 157 20 4 12 54 28 51 19 14 5 .283 .315 .399 6* Lander, Brian 32 SR 42 94 10 18 4 0 1 3 14 22 0 0 3 .191 .300 .266 6/4 Curtis, Matthew 30 RR 2 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 /67 1971 was finally the season that Billy Tristan was unable to plah second base. The man is 41 years old, let's be honest here. Unfortunately, this also came at a time when his power completely left him and so he's now a .270ish singles man: still useful as a pinch-hitter if he wants to play that role but that's about it. His replacement Francisco Pena doesn't look like any kind of a budding superstar or anything but he got the job done, with a .230 September pulling his yearly numbers down. Technically they also have Nick Sego except that he can neither field nor hit at a major league level. Brian Maccioli made the forward progress that scouts were expecting out of him in his 3rd season in the league. He set career highs in average, hits, doubles, HRs, RBIs, and also hit the only triple of his career on May 1st against the Braves. He does not have good speed but he does have a gun and that should serve him well enough. Luis Solis might not have hit .324 as he did in 1969 but a shortop who can hit in the .280s with 12 HR power is still one hell of an asset to have. One thing the Dodgers hope Solis can solve - and now that I look into this, this is kind of a big thing - are his iron-hard hands. Last year Solis led the league in errors with 30 and fielded just .949 at the position. As good of a hitter as he is, that might take the Venezuelan right out of the lineup. LA is kind of thin at the position, though, with the main competition to Solis being organizational soldier Matthew Curtis, who went .240/12/42 in AAA and had the same kinds of ball-handling issues that Solis did in the majors, with 20 errors and a .950 FA of his own in Spokane. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Griffin, Ernie 33 LL 133 484 61 119 9 7 18 61 44 60 16 7 2 .246 .309 .405 7*/98 Rhone, Jamal 39 RR 100 148 16 39 5 3 2 24 23 14 1 2 3 .264 .355 .378 79 Winchell, Dusty 29 LL 59 112 7 25 0 0 2 10 8 21 1 1 1 .223 .262 .277 7/389 Ernst, Ben 25 LL 103 412 46 110 13 7 5 45 43 56 8 7 3 .267 .330 .369 87 Heil, J.D. 26 RR 47 153 23 44 4 2 7 21 11 25 4 3 2 .288 .333 .477 87 Magana, Butch 25 LL 38 117 8 24 2 0 0 1 6 22 3 3 4 .205 .244 .222 8/79 Hohman, Danny 27 LL 26 106 15 30 4 2 2 11 7 16 2 2 0 .283 .327 .415 8 Costa, Ray 25 RR 149 548 69 125 24 3 20 75 68 103 6 4 11 .228 .316 .392 9* Vergara, Omar 25 LL 8 23 3 4 0 0 3 6 4 7 0 0 1 .174 .296 .565 /987 Ben Ernst was in and out of the lineup with an assortment of injuries and went from being an obvious choice for Rookie of the Year to really being just another guy in that mix. He was the April Rookie of the Month with a .315/2/13 record but hit only .254 the rest of the way. The hope here is that a full, healthy year will see him return closer to that April record. If not, Danny "The Phantom" Hohman has played in just 26 games since 1969 but is still theoretically there or in left. Ray Costa had a really rough season and fins himself in a situation where maybe he's a reverse-splits guy. He hit only .158 against left-handed pitchers last season, absolutely terrible. That also, I have to think, is unsustainable. By and large he's got good speed but, obviously, needs to cut down on the strikeouts. He's a man who hit .307 in AA Bakersfield in 1969 and .309 in 47 appearances in AAA last year so there is some hope this will happen.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-23-2023, 12:01 PM
|
#192 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Montreal Expos
[img][https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...687532439/img] 1971 Recap: Montreal set a team record for wins and avoided 100 losses for the first time in their history. In fact, they even enjoyed a winning month of September! 1972 Outlook: I don't want to ride too high here; they're still pretty bad, and they haven't found a guy like a Dave Corona or a Paul McCartney like some of the other 1969 expansion teams have. Still, mediocre / low 90s losses is definitely better than well over 100. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Fletcher, D.J. 23 RR 12 11 .522 2.90 32 32 0 7 3 0 232.2 197 89 75 19 72 4 139 1.156 100.0 0.7 2.8 5.4 Olvera, Javier 22 RR 16 9 .640 3.27 35 27 4 3 1 0 195.2 196 83 71 16 79 2 137 1.405 100.0 0.7 3.6 6.3 Terrell, Aaron 25 RL 11 8 .579 4.18 26 25 0 3 0 0 178.2 158 93 83 27 84 2 124 1.354 100.0 1.4 4.2 6.2 Navarro, Melvin 27 RR 3 11 .214 5.40 34 18 7 2 0 0 133.1 130 83 80 15 103 5 102 1.748 100.0 1.0 7.0 6.9 Hernandez, Ernesto 26 RR 5 13 .278 3.66 63 0 54 0 0 22 105.2 95 45 43 11 41 5 61 1.287 100.0 0.9 3.5 5.2 Owens, Tom 39 LL 2 5 .286 4.17 60 2 20 0 0 0 69.0 72 33 32 7 21 1 26 1.348 100.0 0.9 2.7 3.4 Munro, Trevor 30 RR 2 3 .400 6.60 31 1 21 0 0 5 45.0 54 33 33 17 14 1 17 1.511 100.0 3.4 2.8 3.4 Acosta, Carlos 27 RR 1 4 .200 3.96 29 9 6 0 0 1 86.1 88 44 38 8 43 3 75 1.517 100.0 0.8 4.5 7.8 Loggins, Kenny 22 LR 0 0 .000 0.70 20 0 11 0 0 3 25.2 11 2 2 0 10 1 18 0.818 100.0 0.0 3.5 6.3 Young, Josh 36 RR 1 8 .111 4.98 12 12 0 2 0 0 85.0 93 49 47 21 16 0 14 1.282 100.0 2.2 1.7 1.5 Evans, Frank 23 RR 3 4 .429 3.90 9 9 0 1 0 0 62.1 61 33 27 6 21 1 29 1.316 100.0 0.9 3.0 4.2 Matson, T.J. 24 RR 3 4 .429 6.34 12 9 0 0 0 0 49.2 46 36 35 12 24 1 32 1.409 100.0 2.2 4.3 5.8 Pinkney, Armani 27 LR 3 2 .600 3.12 9 5 1 0 0 0 40.1 38 18 14 0 17 1 22 1.364 100.0 0.0 3.8 4.9 Medrano, Franklin 23 LL 1 2 .333 4.63 5 5 0 1 0 0 35.0 34 18 18 12 9 0 33 1.229 100.0 3.1 2.3 8.5 Garcia, Salvatore 38 LL 0 2 .000 6.94 10 1 1 0 0 0 23.1 25 23 18 8 16 0 21 1.757 100.0 3.1 6.2 8.1 Webb, Josh 32 RR 2 0 1.000 7.65 15 0 6 0 0 0 20.0 18 17 17 4 9 1 17 1.350 100.0 1.8 4.1 7.7 Tudor, Andy 29 LL 2 0 1.000 3.77 2 2 0 0 0 0 14.1 10 6 6 1 10 0 11 1.395 100.0 0.6 6.3 6.9 Agudo, Jose 26 RR 0 0 .000 15.88 3 3 0 0 0 0 5.2 11 10 10 1 8 0 3 3.353 100.0 1.6 12.7 4.8 Farr, Phil 35 RR 1 4 .200 6.94 10 0 6 0 0 1 11.2 19 9 9 3 4 1 5 1.971 100.0 2.3 3.1 3.9 Zavala, Fernando 29 LL 0 1 .000 11.74 3 1 1 0 0 0 7.2 13 10 10 1 4 0 4 2.217 100.0 1.2 4.7 4.7 Roman, Henry 28 LL 0 0 .000 9.64 5 0 3 0 0 1 4.2 6 5 5 0 6 0 2 2.571 100.0 0.0 11.6 3.9 Figueiredo, Brian 28 RR 0 0 .000 6.75 2 0 1 0 0 0 1.1 2 2 1 0 2 0 1 3.000 100.0 0.0 13.5 6.8 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Fletcher, D.J. 32 12 11 9 1 5 16 16 0.500 7 3 25 78% 58 84 28 8 15 3.0 3.7 7.3 109 0 5 23 4 139 Olvera, Javier 27 16 8 3 2 3 16 11 0.593 3 1 18 67% 52 79 8 6 14 3.4 4.6 6.6 104 2 5 18 2 136 Terrell, Aaron 25 11 8 6 4 5 13 12 0.520 3 0 16 64% 52 78 22 8 9 3.8 4.9 7.1 113 2 3 10 10 159 Navarro, Melvin 18 3 10 5 1 3 5 13 0.278 2 0 8 44% 44 85 9 3 10 2.6 3.8 6.2 107 2 3 8 5 140 Young, Josh 12 1 8 3 1 3 2 10 0.167 2 0 5 42% 46 64 14 1 7 2.3 2.9 7.1 102 1 4 5 2 127 Acosta, Carlos 9 1 4 4 0 1 3 6 0.333 0 0 6 67% 51 74 14 1 5 1.9 2.6 6.4 111 0 2 6 1 133 Matson, T.J. 9 3 4 2 0 0 3 6 0.333 0 0 5 56% 44 65 17 3 4 3.1 5.5 5.1 82 4 2 2 1 129 Evans, Frank 9 3 4 2 0 1 3 6 0.333 1 0 5 56% 51 72 33 1 3 3.4 4.5 6.9 112 0 2 4 3 130 Medrano, Franklin 5 1 2 2 0 1 1 4 0.200 1 0 3 60% 53 63 42 0 5 3.0 3.9 7.0 107 0 2 2 1 126 Pinkney, Armani 5 3 2 0 0 1 3 2 0.600 0 0 4 80% 53 70 30 1 3 2.8 3.7 6.9 102 1 1 1 2 131 Agudo, Jose 3 0 2 1 0 0 0 3 0.000 0 0 0 00% 23 40 9 2 1 1.0 2.1 4.3 94 1 1 0 1 122 Owens, Tom 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 1 50% 42 47 36 2 0 2.5 4.0 5.7 110 0 1 0 1 124 Tudor, Andy 2 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 1.000 0 0 1 50% 56 68 44 0 2 4.0 5.0 7.2 114 0 0 1 1 120 Garcia, Salvatore 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 45 45 45 1 0 2.0 2.6 7.0 115 0 0 1 0 115 Zavala, Fernando 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 22 22 22 0 1 0.0 0.0 5.7 100 0 0 1 0 100 Munro, Trevor 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 18 18 18 0 1 2.0 4.9 3.7 60 1 0 0 0 60 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Hernandez, Ernesto 63 5 13 33 22 11 67% 33 0 30 11 27% 2.028 32 14 14 15 48 3 30 14 14 15 20 5.0 25 Owens, Tom 58 1 4 2 0 2 0% 11 9 28 14 33% 0.721 12 37 37 18 40 12 9 21 15 7 15 3.0 14 Munro, Trevor 30 2 2 6 5 1 83% 10 4 10 1 9% 1.150 10 13 13 5 25 3 11 8 6 8 8 4.1 21 Acosta, Carlos 20 0 0 1 1 0 100% 4 3 10 4 29% 0.446 0 15 15 7 13 4 10 1 3 4 12 4.3 24 Loggins, Kenny 20 0 0 3 3 0 100% 6 3 10 1 9% 1.247 6 12 12 4 16 2 7 1 9 5 5 3.9 18 Navarro, Melvin 16 0 1 1 0 1 0% 2 1 8 5 38% 0.713 3 12 12 5 11 3 7 2 3 3 8 4.1 26 Webb, Josh 15 2 0 0 0 0 0% 2 2 6 3 33% 0.582 3 11 11 4 11 2 7 3 5 2 5 4.0 20 Farr, Phil 10 1 4 2 1 1 50% 3 1 6 1 14% 1.678 5 2 2 3 7 2 4 1 2 0 7 3.5 20 Garcia, Salvatore 9 0 1 1 0 1 0% 2 1 5 1 17% 0.599 1 6 6 2 7 0 4 3 1 1 4 5.4 34 Olvera, Javier 8 0 1 0 0 0 0% 0 0 5 1 17% 0.574 2 5 5 4 4 1 5 1 1 3 3 7.0 40 Roman, Henry 5 0 0 1 1 0 100% 1 0 4 2 33% 1.274 2 1 1 3 2 2 1 0 1 0 4 2.8 22 Pinkney, Armani 4 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 0 0% 0.385 0 4 4 1 3 1 2 1 0 0 3 4.5 25 Matson, T.J. 3 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.418 0 2 2 1 2 0 1 0 1 0 2 4.0 23 Zavala, Fernando 2 0 0 1 0 1 0% 1 0 0 0 0% 1.300 1 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 3.0 20 Figueiredo, Brian 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.133 0 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2.0 16 Terrell, Aaron 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.100 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 12 After those 3, yeah, it's a mess. It's the Expos, what did you expect? Right now it's looking like recent acquisition Jeff Graton is going to fight for a rotation slot. Graton had an up and down year for the Astros in '71 and, I'll be honest, a 4.03 ERA playing half your games at the Astrodome is some cause for alarm. Graton was actually not all that much better at home (2-2, 3.88) than on the road last year (4-3, 4.21) and Montreal hopes that his tenure as a starter (3-1, 2.98 over 8 starts, compared to 3-4, 5.33 as a reliever) will translate. Also, veteran leadership and all that. Frank Evans had 9 OK enough starts in his 2nd call-up with Montreal (he had a 2-start cup of coffee in '70). He's also quite young but best of all, the man throws the knuckleball. Rounding out the guys expected to compete for a rotation spot is Melvin Navarro. Navarro was all kinds of awful last season but he's been the Expos' awful: he is currently the team record-holder for games started and is also 3rd on the all-time roster for wins (with 12, so let's not go crazy here). After a season of turmoil under Ernesto Hernandez, early returns are that Montreal is expected to look elsewhere for their stopper in 1972. Hernandez was just... not great: 11 blown saves, 13 relief losses... he did have 31 shutdowns compared to 16 meltdowns so there's that. He should stil play a lot in the 'pen, just not as the #1 guy. For now, that looks to be Erik Schnipke, who played in 35 games last year for the Mets. I don't know, he doesn't look like anything super-great himself, although Schnipke does have some previous experience as a closer, having led the Giants in saves in 1969 with 15 of them. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention their setup guy, singer Kenny "Danger Zone" Loggins. He has to become their stopper eventually, you have to think. As it is, fans stand up and start singing this weird, futuristic sounding song that sounds like it could be from an airplane movie whenever he enters the game. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Carranco, Roberto 29 SR 109 342 25 69 6 1 10 35 25 74 0 0 12 .202 .265 .313 2* Putnam, Brent 35 RR 43 127 10 25 5 0 3 15 12 27 0 0 2 .197 .262 .307 2 Villegas, Omar 23 RR 37 79 11 15 3 1 4 11 6 24 0 0 0 .190 .244 .405 2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Munoz, Armando 36 LL 129 514 64 135 25 0 18 68 29 82 0 1 13 .263 .302 .416 3* Porter, Jaime 27 RL 23 29 6 11 3 0 2 7 2 6 0 0 0 .379 .419 .690 /3 Baldwin, Bob 36 RR 8 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 .125 .125 .125 Burkett, Jorge 33 RR 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000 Heyen, Bill 28 RR 148 616 72 173 26 15 2 55 35 95 11 8 7 .281 .324 .381 4* Owens, Adam 24 RR 128 498 60 151 31 3 12 54 45 74 0 0 12 .303 .363 .450 5* Hunter, Brian 31 RR 31 96 9 19 2 0 2 10 1 8 3 0 8 .198 .210 .281 5/6 Carreon, Heath 25 RR 15 37 4 6 0 2 0 2 5 10 0 0 2 .162 .262 .270 5 Yarbor, George 25 SR 124 438 51 109 18 2 6 41 48 70 7 9 11 .249 .321 .340 6/475 Watts, Hudson 24 RR 51 174 14 40 10 4 1 11 16 34 6 1 4 .230 .295 .351 6 Meine, Klaus 23 RR 9 23 5 3 0 0 0 0 9 5 0 0 0 .130 .364 .130 /6 Mueller, Brian 29 RR 6 14 1 5 1 0 0 0 2 3 0 1 0 .357 .389 .429 /645 Bill Heyen was a good, solid, no-frills second baseman for the San Francisco Giants for 5 seasons prior to 1971 and he continued to be that guy for Montreal last year. In fact, '71 was arguably his best season: he didn't make it to the AS Game as he had in 1967 but he set career highs in hits and doubles and was one RBI off his best (56 in '67). He's a fine fielder, good enough to win a GG in an off year, and the kind of player every team should have a few of. Adam Owens matured into an All-Star last season and has to be considered one of the top third basemen in the National League now. His power declined just a bit (from 17 HRs in '70) but he more than made up for this by improving his average by 40 points from the season before. Owens was the very first person selected in the 1969 expansion draft (from Baltimore, who I guess did have Marco Perez looking like a guy who'd be their man at 3rd for the next decade plus) and we're beginning to see why. Shortstop was and probably will still be a position in transition. George Yarbor did a solid job there for the past two seasons but he's nothing super special either at the plate or with his glove (a -3.0 ZR although scouts say he's more or less average as a SS and point to his excellent range). Hudson Watts hit well in the minors the past 2 years but isn't a super great fielder and I for one applaud the Expos' conviction to try and keep the defense working even as they're trying things out. That might leave Klaus Meine, who, like Kenny Loggins, is a singer in the offseason; in the pros he didn't hit at all in 8 starts but profiles as a .270ish hitter with good range and who has a knack for following the Moskva down to Gorky Park. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Morales, Willie 27 LL 142 533 62 143 32 1 27 89 34 94 0 0 10 .268 .313 .484 73/9 Ortega, Willie 27 RL 27 76 5 13 3 0 2 4 3 13 0 0 2 .171 .198 .289 7/9 Maldonado, Jose 27 RR 12 36 6 6 1 0 1 2 6 5 1 0 0 .167 .286 .278 7 Aldridge, Ben 27 RR 4 8 4 5 1 0 2 2 2 0 1 0 0 .625 .700 1.500 /7 Ash, Marc 28 RR 87 320 55 98 19 3 6 27 62 63 12 7 1 .306 .414 .441 89/7 Mendoza, Anton 26 RL 103 386 41 111 17 4 7 40 14 29 4 2 6 .288 .314 .407 897 Byce, Jeff 31 RR 51 189 16 37 6 1 1 12 11 32 6 2 3 .196 .243 .254 8/7 Owens, Andy 31 RR 12 24 3 2 0 0 0 1 3 9 0 0 1 .083 .179 .083 /8 Williams, Matt 32 RR 98 313 47 88 8 4 19 48 45 59 7 7 10 .281 .379 .514 9/7 Martinez, Gabe 29 SR 101 170 16 48 10 2 1 16 14 24 2 0 4 .282 .333 .382 9/347 Vargas, Johnny 23 LL 36 54 4 11 2 0 0 5 3 9 0 1 0 .204 .246 .241 /978 Sullivan, Aaron 37 LL 39 40 7 15 1 0 3 9 4 5 0 0 0 .375 .413 .625 /9 Marc Ash is yet another former Yankee outfielder, although Ash, to be fair, was not a product of NY's farm, having arrived there in a 1968 trade with the Minnesota Twins. Still, he went from pinch-hitter in the Bronx to full-time outfielder in the City of Fraunce of Canadia. Ash also does not strike me as a pure CF and like Mendoza he has to hit well in order to justify a move to an outfield corner. He definitely deserved a bigger role than what he got in NYC though and now he's getting it. [b]Matt Williams[b] got shut down with a looot of minor, assorted injuries last year and the Expos seemed reticent to hand him the RF job. Sure, they've got plenty of young guys to give a shot to. Williams is a 2 time All-Star, including a 1970 berth that, sadly, ended with him breaking his kneecap right after the AS break, who has hit as many as 39 HRs in a season. He's always deserved more playing time than what he's gotten. Perhaps this will be the year he gets it. If he's hurt again, the Expos do have Gabe Martinez, who otherwise does a fine job as the team's primary pinch hitter. There's also a couple guys on the farm WHO WILL REMAIN NAMELESS BECAUSE I WILL PROBABLY CHANGE THEIR NAMES.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-23-2023, 02:30 PM
|
#193 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
New York Mets
1971 Recap: Now 2 years removed from a magical 104 win season, the Mets had another up and down year where they just couldn't get it right for any extended period of time. 1972 Outlook: This is a team that really looks like they're stuck in the middle - not bad enough to rebuild, not good enough to contend (although they did finish only 5 games back in a weak NL East). They also lack organizational depth. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Carrillo, Ernesto 27 RR 21 10 .677 3.17 39 39 0 8 2 0 289.2 219 109 102 23 156 2 252 1.295 100.0 0.7 4.8 7.8 Mash, John 34 SR 9 18 .333 3.94 36 36 0 10 1 0 253.2 258 116 111 20 86 6 136 1.356 100.0 0.7 3.1 4.8 Camacho, David 29 RL 12 10 .545 3.82 34 31 1 4 2 0 217.0 222 104 92 21 58 2 141 1.290 100.0 0.9 2.4 5.8 Beane, Joe 29 LL 10 13 .435 4.82 35 30 0 5 2 0 203.1 229 115 109 31 90 1 92 1.569 100.0 1.4 4.0 4.1 Saus, Geoff 29 RR 11 12 .478 2.91 75 1 69 0 0 34 117.1 102 44 38 7 43 1 112 1.236 100.0 0.5 3.3 8.6 Bechtel, Charlie 24 RR 5 3 .625 2.89 55 0 35 0 0 6 74.2 66 26 24 3 14 2 56 1.071 100.0 0.4 1.7 6.8 Hilbert, Larry 28 RR 3 2 .600 3.62 38 0 13 0 0 0 49.2 36 24 20 6 19 2 23 1.107 100.0 1.1 3.4 4.2 Schnipke, Erik 28 LR 6 5 .545 3.43 35 7 7 0 0 0 84.0 80 33 32 5 35 1 66 1.369 100.0 0.5 3.8 7.1 Marin, Roberto 31 RR 0 0 .000 4.00 18 0 5 0 0 0 27.0 30 12 12 3 12 0 20 1.556 100.0 1.0 4.0 6.7 Ratzenberger, John 24 RR 5 5 .500 4.58 16 15 1 1 0 0 98.1 94 50 50 7 37 0 67 1.332 100.0 0.6 3.4 6.1 Navarro, Eduardo 25 LR 1 1 .500 3.74 5 3 0 0 0 0 21.2 18 9 9 4 6 0 14 1.108 100.0 1.7 2.5 5.8 Seitz, Mark 24 RR 0 0 .000 4.11 12 0 3 0 0 0 15.1 13 7 7 1 7 0 8 1.304 100.0 0.6 4.1 4.7 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Carrillo, Ernesto 39 21 10 8 4 6 27 12 0.692 8 2 29 74% 59 88 24 21 6 3.4 4.1 7.4 122 1 3 9 26 147 Mash, John 36 9 18 9 1 11 14 22 0.389 10 1 24 67% 52 79 18 15 9 2.7 3.5 7.0 108 2 9 13 12 138 Camacho, David 31 11 10 10 0 3 16 15 0.516 4 2 20 65% 52 83 17 13 10 3.6 4.8 6.9 105 3 10 14 4 156 Beane, Joe 30 10 13 7 1 4 14 16 0.467 5 2 13 43% 46 79 21 9 9 2.8 3.9 6.6 106 3 4 15 8 142 Ratzenberger, John 15 5 5 5 0 2 8 7 0.533 1 0 9 60% 51 77 10 5 6 2.6 3.6 6.4 97 1 8 4 2 124 Schnipke, Erik 7 1 5 1 0 2 2 5 0.286 0 0 4 57% 50 63 37 6 1 1.7 2.4 6.5 111 0 3 1 3 133 Navarro, Eduardo 3 1 1 1 0 1 2 1 0.667 0 0 2 67% 53 60 41 0 3 2.7 3.8 6.3 97 0 2 1 0 106 Saus, Geoff 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 43 43 43 0 1 0.0 0.0 6.0 98 0 1 0 0 98 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Saus, Geoff 74 11 11 41 34 7 83% 42 1 40 15 27% 2.061 43 17 17 20 54 6 34 24 25 9 16 4.5 25 Bechtel, Charlie 55 5 3 7 6 1 86% 13 6 14 6 30% 0.882 14 36 36 8 47 5 24 9 15 11 20 4.1 20 Hilbert, Larry 38 3 2 0 0 0 0% 4 4 12 4 25% 0.719 5 25 25 7 31 5 11 5 7 9 17 3.9 20 Schnipke, Erik 28 5 0 1 0 1 0% 4 3 11 4 27% 0.856 4 15 15 9 19 6 8 3 6 1 18 4.1 22 Marin, Roberto 18 0 0 0 0 0 0% 2 2 6 3 33% 0.531 3 15 15 5 13 1 7 2 3 4 9 4.5 24 Seitz, Mark 12 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 0 0 0% 0.770 3 7 7 0 12 1 3 2 3 1 6 3.8 19 Beane, Joe 5 0 0 0 0 0 0% 3 3 1 1 50% 1.121 2 2 2 1 4 2 2 2 0 1 2 3.0 16 Camacho, David 3 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.460 0 3 3 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 2 3.0 11 Navarro, Eduardo 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.310 0 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 4.0 17 Ratzenberger, John 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.071 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 6.0 30 Joe Beane rounds out the top 4 guys in a pitching staff that managed to stay pretty healthy, all things considered. Beane simply just wasn't very good: his Ks have fallen the last 3 years now, from 193 to 122 to just 92 in 203.1 innings, and while he's only 30 that has to be a huge red flag. That's one reason why John Ratzenberger, a 24 year old who has the look and feel of a mailman even at his young age, got a long look. He seemed inconsistent - 9 QS over 15 appearances - and doesn't have a lot of stamina right now, but as the Mets' first overall pick in 1966 and a guy who was named the #20 prospect in all of baseball as recently as Opening Day 1970, he's a guy who deserves even more chances to show what he can do. Meanwhile, in the bullpen Geoff Saus was used early and often all season long and as a result kind of fell apart in September (0-1, 4.82, although still 9 saves). He even had a pretty useful caddy in Charlie Bechtel; the Mets just didn't trust the setup guy nearly as much as they trusted the stopper. Going forward, look for both of these guys to get a ton of usage, along with newcomer Rick Legere, acquired from the Cardinals as the cornerstone of an 8 player trade. Legere has saved 18 games over the past 2 seasons and so has what it takes to play short relief when Saus's wing is a bit too tired to continue. Last year the Mets were already 3rd from the bottom in complete games wuth just 28; look for that number to get even lower in 1972. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Bushon, Jason 28 RR 124 416 57 91 15 2 14 57 70 77 1 3 12 .219 .339 .365 2* Romero, Ricardo 26 RR 21 62 1 8 1 0 1 5 2 6 0 0 3 .129 .154 .194 2 Adams, Gerry 22 RR 17 53 7 16 3 0 1 10 3 5 0 0 3 .302 .317 .415 2 Munger, Randy 36 RR 12 27 1 2 1 0 0 2 8 13 0 0 0 .074 .297 .111 2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Waltenbery, Joshua 31 LL 154 588 112 184 41 4 25 99 91 75 0 0 18 .313 .403 .524 3* Hirano, Tatsuzo 36 SR 3 6 0 3 2 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500 .833 /3 van Zanten, Adri 26 RR 139 494 46 129 24 1 6 57 47 78 0 2 19 .261 .323 .350 4* Alvarez, Luis 27 RR 6 18 1 6 2 0 0 2 3 3 0 0 1 .333 .429 .444 /4 Hawkinson, Nick 42 RR 80 265 28 64 15 0 2 23 28 46 4 1 12 .242 .317 .321 5 Waters, Danny 25 LR 92 254 34 57 16 2 5 25 34 56 1 1 5 .224 .318 .362 574/6 Hamill, Mark 22 RR 67 268 30 67 17 3 1 15 16 36 0 2 8 .250 .295 .347 5/39 Maroney, John 34 RR 22 49 7 10 1 1 1 9 11 10 0 0 1 .204 .344 .327 5/3 Wilcox, Brian 29 RR 110 365 36 84 8 2 8 31 31 67 5 1 4 .230 .288 .329 6* Ortega, Lorenzo 25 LR 70 175 20 49 9 0 5 15 9 36 0 0 3 .280 .320 .417 6 Mueller, Brian 29 RR 19 50 4 8 2 1 0 4 4 11 1 1 1 .160 .222 .240 6/4 Williams, Robert 32 RR 27 36 6 12 2 1 1 6 5 8 0 0 0 .333 .405 .528 /645 Adri van Zanten traveled to New York by way of Montreal and at the age of 26 looks like neither the long-term solution they thought he could be nor a huge problem. He's got poor range and is only average as a hitter. The team has worse problems. One of those, in fact, is the guy who was supposed to challenge van Zanten for this job, Danny Waters. Waters really looked like a star in the making with a .295 average in 36 games in 1970. However, the man the fans call "Mr. Nice Guy" was a little bit too nice at the plate last season, allowing pitchers to throw an awful lot of strikes past him and seeing his average tumble more than 70 points to .224. Can he right that issue? Given the Mets' lack of depth, he'll almost certainly get a chance to find out. Young Mark Hamill was given the 3rd base job at the end of the season and while his Jedi mind trick powers are the talk of the city, they didn't quite translate into major league success. A .289/0/5 August with 10 doubles in 114 at-bats gives the Mets hope for the future. That said, 42 year old Nick Hawkinson is back to play as his caddy and maybe impart some good old-fashioned veteran know-how. He's sitting at 2,410 hits and I'm going to guess he won't reach 2,500. Is he a Hall of Famer? He got into just 5 All-Star Games, has no black ink to speak of, and even the red ink (top 10 finishes in major offensive categories) is kind of low. On the other hand, the man was essentially a starter in this league from 1952 to halfway through last year and that has to count for something. I guess we'll see in approximately 6 years. New York looks pretty set on Luis Ortega to be their starter for 1971, so much so that they already shipped Brian Wilcox off to St. Louis. Ortega's only 25 and so the fact that he had a job and then lost it last year doesn't necessarily mean he's not worth watching. His main issue is that he's not a super great fielder at the position (whereas Wilcox was and still is one of the top defensive shortstops in all of baseball). If he winds up not being the guy, the Mets have a couple of intriguing, weirdly unnamed prospects who project to start the season in AAA right now. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Yebra, Ruberto 29 RR 106 379 47 102 13 5 3 32 33 40 19 8 7 .269 .327 .354 7/3 Wagner, Brad 22 LL 33 109 15 23 1 2 5 13 18 22 0 0 2 .211 .326 .394 7 Winchell, Dusty 29 LL 57 96 10 28 5 0 1 10 9 19 2 0 2 .292 .343 .375 /789 Damian, Kyle 31 RR 26 58 7 12 0 0 3 10 2 7 0 0 3 .207 .233 .362 /789 Diaz, Mario 38 LL 28 36 10 10 2 0 2 3 5 0 2 0 0 .278 .366 .500 /79 Palencia, Ramiro 40 RR 21 24 2 4 0 0 0 1 2 7 0 0 0 .167 .231 .167 /7 Patterson, Matayahu 35 LL 9 8 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 .125 .300 .250 /7 Hope, Curtis 26 LR 152 565 80 162 33 8 22 85 67 109 11 11 4 .287 .363 .490 8* Allen, Mike 33 RR 8 13 0 2 1 0 0 1 2 4 0 0 0 .154 .267 .231 /89 Washington, Jimmy 28 LL 119 456 62 116 22 1 17 66 29 69 0 0 12 .254 .302 .419 9*/7 Tooley, Mark 35 RR 39 106 9 19 1 0 4 13 8 11 2 0 0 .179 .235 .302 9/78 Fath, Jon 34 LR 26 64 6 14 2 0 1 5 4 11 0 0 0 .219 .265 .297 9/3 Arriaga, Edgar 35 RR 18 34 1 6 0 0 0 2 5 9 0 0 0 .176 .282 .176 /93 Greenlee, Adam 35 LL 12 10 1 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 .200 .273 .400 /9 Curtis Hope took a nice and relatively unexpected step forward in his 4th season as a starter to finish 2nd on the team in HRs and RBIs and, by season's end, take over the cleanup spot from longtime incumbent Jimmy Washington. Hope still strikes out an awful lot for a person with his speed but the Mets seem to be pretty content with his development as a power hitter rather than the customary leadoff role a CF will often fill. Hope did miss out on winning a 3rd Gold Glove and from what the scouts say he probably won't get a lot of hardware in the future; he's fine in center, just not GG quality anymore. The aforementioned Jimmy Washington missed more than 40 games due to injury and when he did play he was relatively ineffective for the 2nd consecutive year. This means that 1972 has to be a watershed season for the man the fans refer to as "Jimmy Olsen" for his services as a right-hand man to Joshua Waltenbery or else he could find himself out of a job. Of course, for the latter to happen, the Mets would need a replacement; they had absolutely nothing last year when Washington missed a month with a broken finger to the point that they had to sign several old men off the street, and even now there's nobody in the minor leagues who looks closer than a late-season 1972 debut at the earliest.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-23-2023, 03:34 PM
|
#194 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Philadelphia Phillies
1971 Recap: Philadelphia fought the Cardinals for most of the season (with the Pirates also popping into the conversation at times), only to fall off with a 10-17 August and a 14-14 September. 1972 Outlook: This was the second straight season this franchise, who's experienced some highs (2 WS championships, most recently in 1966) and lows (a 9th place finish in 1964 with a 64-98 record and as recently as 1969 a finish 24 1/2 games out of first place) finished "in the money", and they'd love for this to be the year that they cash in. For that to happen, they'll need to reverse some of the regression in their rotation and get more out of their lineup than a lot of walks. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Gaddi, Marius 28 RR 16 20 .444 3.47 40 40 0 12 1 0 298.1 286 125 115 21 92 8 233 1.267 100.0 0.6 2.8 7.0 Quintana, Roger 23 LL 17 14 .548 3.39 39 39 0 11 2 0 287.0 271 121 108 30 85 7 223 1.240 100.0 0.9 2.7 7.0 Starkey, Richard 22 LL 19 8 .704 3.52 36 36 0 10 2 0 258.1 237 111 101 19 68 1 139 1.181 100.0 0.7 2.4 4.8 Ording, Billy 27 RR 10 15 .400 4.22 33 33 0 4 0 0 213.1 208 105 100 14 87 6 121 1.383 100.0 0.6 3.7 5.1 Grohs, Tom 28 LL 9 7 .563 3.54 67 0 55 0 0 20 86.1 84 41 34 11 25 5 60 1.263 100.0 1.1 2.6 6.3 Sherritt, Joe 30 RR 4 2 .667 2.97 45 0 33 0 0 4 60.2 56 20 20 0 18 3 24 1.220 100.0 0.0 2.7 3.6 Sanchez, Omar 29 LR 4 1 .800 2.70 42 0 17 0 0 1 56.2 46 20 17 3 10 2 40 0.988 100.0 0.5 1.6 6.4 Wille, Josh 27 LL 2 3 .400 2.37 41 3 14 0 0 2 60.2 41 20 16 8 9 0 49 0.824 100.0 1.2 1.3 7.3 de la Cruz, Luis 33 RR 1 4 .200 6.98 16 2 3 0 0 0 29.2 38 23 23 5 12 1 15 1.685 100.0 1.5 3.6 4.6 Parks, Dale 33 LL 0 1 .000 3.74 9 4 0 0 0 0 33.2 31 15 14 2 13 0 17 1.307 100.0 0.5 3.5 4.5 Natalie, Tim 25 LL 2 1 .667 2.81 5 3 0 0 0 0 25.2 22 10 8 1 6 0 11 1.091 100.0 0.4 2.1 3.9 Fernandez, Hector 27 LR 0 0 .000 7.02 4 1 0 0 0 0 16.2 22 13 13 3 7 0 14 1.740 100.0 1.6 3.8 7.6 Mounier, Robby 35 RR 1 0 1.000 1.42 6 0 3 0 0 0 6.1 4 1 1 0 2 0 5 0.947 100.0 0.0 2.8 7.1 Agudo, Jose 26 RR 0 1 .000 7.50 1 1 0 0 0 0 6.0 8 5 5 0 9 0 4 2.833 100.0 0.0 13.5 6.0 Sweetapple, Douglas 32 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.000 100.0 0.0 0.0 27.0 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Gaddi, Marius 40 16 20 4 1 10 19 21 0.475 12 1 27 68% 56 86 12 26 4 3.2 3.8 7.5 113 1 8 20 11 172 Quintana, Roger 39 17 14 8 0 8 23 16 0.590 11 2 31 79% 56 98 22 24 5 3.7 4.5 7.4 112 0 5 26 8 146 Starkey, Richard 36 19 8 9 2 2 24 12 0.667 10 2 25 69% 55 90 12 17 9 4.9 6.1 7.2 105 2 10 17 7 139 Ording, Billy 33 10 15 8 3 5 14 19 0.424 4 0 18 55% 50 80 8 16 9 2.8 4.0 6.5 99 3 13 13 4 129 Parks, Dale 4 0 1 3 0 1 1 3 0.250 0 0 3 75% 48 61 27 1 3 2.5 3.4 6.7 111 0 1 2 1 127 Wille, Josh 3 2 1 0 0 1 2 1 0.667 0 0 3 100% 63 68 59 2 0 4.3 5.5 7.1 107 0 0 3 0 110 Natalie, Tim 3 1 1 1 0 1 1 2 0.333 0 0 3 100% 57 64 51 1 2 2.0 2.5 7.1 99 1 0 2 0 118 de la Cruz, Luis 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 1 50% 30 44 16 0 0 2.0 4.3 4.2 73 1 1 0 0 94 Fernandez, Hector 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 1 100% 51 51 51 0 1 2.0 3.0 6.0 101 0 0 1 0 101 Agudo, Jose 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 31 31 31 0 1 2.0 3.0 6.0 128 0 0 0 1 128 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Grohs, Tom 67 9 7 33 20 13 61% 33 0 26 15 37% 1.826 33 22 21 15 52 13 26 16 24 9 18 3.9 20 Sherritt, Joe 45 4 2 6 4 2 67% 7 1 4 1 20% 1.039 8 32 31 3 42 0 15 10 7 4 24 4.0 20 Sanchez, Omar 42 4 1 2 1 1 50% 8 6 23 10 30% 0.942 10 23 23 14 28 11 15 8 5 3 26 4.0 19 Wille, Josh 38 0 2 3 2 1 67% 11 8 20 5 20% 0.876 6 23 23 10 28 6 7 8 4 7 19 3.1 14 de la Cruz, Luis 14 0 3 0 0 0 0% 1 1 6 2 25% 0.580 1 10 10 4 10 2 6 2 2 1 9 4.6 22 Mounier, Robby 6 1 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 3 2 40% 0.546 0 4 4 2 4 2 2 1 1 1 3 3.2 15 Parks, Dale 5 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 1 33% 0.412 0 5 5 2 3 0 2 1 1 0 3 4.2 15 Fernandez, Hector 3 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 0 0% 0.613 0 2 2 2 1 0 3 0 1 0 2 10.7 61 Natalie, Tim 2 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 1.121 0 1 1 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 2 6.5 33 Sweetapple, Douglas 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.167 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 15 With a top 3 like that, what else do you need? The Phillies will probably start the year with Billy Ording in their rotation. The 28 year old Ording did not fare well in his first full season in Philadelphia but he's still useful as a guy who can keep teams from loading up on right-handed hitters with lefties Starkey and Quintana ahead of him. He's a guy who saw a precipitous decline in his K rate from a solid 6.8 to 5.1 last season. Should the team decide to take their licks with soutpaws, former White Sox prospect Tim Natalie is a possible guy they can use. Speaking of K rates, though, his was reeeeeeeally low in AAA Eugene - 2.7/9 - although he was otherwise very effective (10-10, 2.85 ERA, 15 CGs in 27 starts). This is also still a guy who was, as recently as October of last year, rated as a top-50 prospect. For right now the team is also seeking to take a flier on lifelong Oklahoman Travis "Sooner" McConnell, who had 196 Ks in 221.1 innings at AAA Eugene last year. He's also got iffy control - 116 walks - and is at a point where you can't really call him a year away - at 25 years of age he's either got it or he doesn't - but as a potential #5 guy and long reliever, that's honestly not bad at all. The Phillies finished in a big tie for 6th in the major leagues in complete games last season in large part because they fell out of trust with the stopper Tom "Hippie" Grohs. Was this simple discrimination against a young leftist or was it other factors? The numbers indicate that the Phillies were right to be wary: Grohs blew 13 out of 33 opportunities and allowed more than half of his inherited runners to score - 15 of 26 (yeah, my math above is wrong). He also is the target of complaints for being lackadaisical in the clubhouse and the field, although that part could just be people clashing with his, ahem, unique approach to baseball. He's the team's closer going into 1972 but they'll likely have a short leash on him. Joe Sherritt was his setup guy. He throws from a weird, sidearm, almost submarine location and doesn't get very many strikeouts, not even against other right-handers. He's also less of a groundball expert than you'd think he'd be given all this. Despite that, he had a sub-3.00 ERA last year and has a career 2.98. You can understand why Philadelphia wouldn't want to close with him but maybe he can be used a lot more often. Another guy who could possibly see more use is one of the few lefty specialists I seem to trust: Josh Willie. This was an era where these guys often did play like 75 games with 75 IP (this basically describes Jim Bouton in 1969, although Bouton was a righty). Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Rahn, Sam 30 RR 125 448 47 117 19 2 5 52 34 79 0 0 17 .261 .316 .346 2* Citro, Lee 33 RR 49 134 9 34 7 0 0 12 17 25 0 0 5 .254 .336 .306 2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Coffey, Josh 28 RR 156 632 85 191 26 0 18 76 59 67 1 0 25 .302 .363 .429 3* Serrano, Juan 30 LL 5 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 .000 .200 .000 Serna, Victor 31 RR 142 509 66 102 19 3 22 71 73 115 4 3 9 .200 .303 .379 4*/6 Carrasco, Francisco 26 RR 45 59 15 18 5 1 1 6 11 18 0 2 0 .305 .411 .475 4/5 Becerra, Alex 32 RR 120 391 63 97 16 0 30 72 78 90 0 1 6 .248 .373 .519 5* Rowe, Nate 26 RR 80 276 39 93 13 3 11 54 20 35 1 2 6 .337 .380 .525 5467 Ramos, Cris 33 LR 49 130 19 34 7 0 6 20 9 15 0 0 5 .262 .310 .454 5 King, Joel 26 RR 4 10 2 2 1 0 1 4 0 2 0 0 0 .200 .200 .600 /5 Shannon, Tony 26 RR 150 575 100 190 30 4 14 76 92 79 39 7 11 .330 .419 .470 6*/3 Victor Serna has found himself right on the line of striking out too much and last year it looks like he might have played his way out of a job. The power, at least most of it, is still there, although if I'm beign honest the low average is a lot easier to stomach when a guy is hitting 37 HRs (as he did in 1970) than last year's 22. And he does, in fairness, walk a lot (note: I personally love me some guys who walk but I also try to filter that through early 70s sensibilities in this save). Still, .200 is unacceptable for a second baseman and Serna needed to hit .255 in August to even get to that level (I'd say "and September" but he was back to his normal ways with a .202/7/16 month). Nate Rowe is pretty much the opposite kind of player to Serna: not only did he hit .337 in half a year last year, the Cape Coral, FL native hit .360 in AAA Eugene in 1970. He doesn't strike out a huge amount and all in all just finds ways to get on base. Serna's only possible saving grace is that Rowe is a pure utility guy and might need to fill in elsewhere at times. For instance, third base, where Alex Becerra kept the wolves off of him for a season by setting a career high with 30 HRs. He'd have surely done the same with runs and RBIs but he missed a bunch of time over the summer with recurring knee tendinitis and then had to pack it in for the year with a broken collarbone suffered on September 15. Becerra has the rep of being a terrible fielder at third base, an absolute butcher. Last season he only committed 14 errors afield for a relatively OK fielding average of .948 and a "this isn't killing us" ZR of -2.9. This is probably where Rowe would have to play if Becerra regresses to the .907 FA with 31 errors he put up in 1970. Tony Shannon, like Becerra, is also more of an offensive-minded player at a defensive position. He did have a positive ZR although that came with 23 errors and a .965 FA. When you hit .330 (2nd in the NL) and lead the league in on-base percentage, you can get a bit of leeway there. Rowe played here a bit when Shannon experienced some neck stiffness in August but is too valuable elsewhere. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Anderson, Brandon 23 RR 112 368 52 101 19 4 8 46 57 71 10 12 5 .274 .366 .413 798 Ashbaker, Ryan 28 RR 69 185 22 47 9 1 1 15 11 30 1 2 4 .254 .298 .330 79/8 Stewart, Paul 28 LL 39 143 13 34 2 1 0 8 6 25 1 0 5 .238 .267 .266 7 Valencia, Antonio 25 LL 30 97 10 25 3 0 1 10 8 15 2 0 2 .258 .327 .320 7 Powell, Andrew 27 LL 10 31 6 9 3 0 1 5 0 5 0 0 0 .290 .281 .484 /7 McCarty, Paul 26 LR 10 16 1 4 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 2 .250 .250 .250 /7 Tarala, Bryant 29 LR 123 446 81 100 13 4 17 58 87 96 24 15 2 .224 .359 .386 8* O'Connor, Mark 27 LL 33 81 8 16 3 0 1 4 8 27 2 0 0 .198 .267 .272 8/7 Harpst, Corey 29 RR 46 173 11 39 5 3 0 11 9 26 2 4 6 .225 .268 .289 9 Carrasco, Pedro 28 LL 89 134 17 27 0 0 2 18 25 25 3 1 1 .201 .319 .246 9/7 Jeanty, Scott 26 LR 23 88 7 16 1 2 1 3 2 17 1 1 1 .182 .196 .273 9/8 Belushi, John 22 LL 21 66 16 22 4 3 2 5 7 9 0 0 0 .333 .405 .576 9/73 Granneman, Chris 36 LR 12 28 1 4 2 0 0 5 2 6 0 0 0 .143 .226 .214 /9 Corley, Bobby 28 RR 12 24 4 4 2 0 0 1 3 10 0 0 0 .167 .259 .250 /97 Bryant Tarala did exactly what he'd done in Baltimore, which is to say he hit for a frustratingly low average that was balanced somewhat by good power and great plate discipline, he was the best centerfielder in the league, winning his 2nd Gold Glove and first in the Senior Circuit... and he got hurt a lot, including missing the final month of the season with a sprained knee. What you see is what you get out of Tarala. He's never going to hit .270, let alone .300, and as fun as it is to ride along with him when he gets on a hot streak, you just have to accept that those will balance each other out. The Phillies are looking to enter the season with prospect and Chicago native John Belushi in right field. Belushi doesn't have the best range in the world but is a surprisingly spry person for a man of his size. He hit so well at AA Reading - .316/7/38 with a .396 OBP in 81 games - that the Phillies decided to skip a level with him and give him the job in September. He played well enough to take it away in '72. It doesn't hurt for his cause that Philadelphia has basically nothing else there right now.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-23-2023, 04:36 PM
|
#195 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Pittsburgh Pirates
1971 Recap: A 20-6 May put the Pirates into the NL East conversation and they stayed competitive for most of the year. They were just a game and a half back of the Phillies in 2nd place as late as July 31st. Unfortunately, a 23-33 record from then to the end of the season spelled doom. They got hurt again and unlike in 1970 they weren't able to find enough production from the scrubs to tide them over. 1972 Outlook: The Pirates definitely have the frontline pitching to compete and, should things break right for them, go deep into the playoffs. It's hard to see their bad injury-luck getting any better with an aging lineup and you wonder if maybe it's time to knock it all down (knowing how the Pirates were IRL, I'm guessing not). Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Arango, Santos 28 LL 24 8 .750 2.50 41 40 1 16 5 1 316.1 255 96 88 22 75 4 227 1.043 100.0 0.6 2.1 6.5 Battaglia, Jeremy 28 LL 22 14 .611 2.61 39 39 0 14 5 0 316.2 293 104 92 22 61 6 164 1.118 100.0 0.6 1.7 4.7 Cheeves, D.J. 31 RR 7 16 .304 3.72 31 31 0 8 5 0 218.0 207 100 90 17 77 1 143 1.303 100.0 0.7 3.2 5.9 Vargas, Octavio 39 SR 5 12 .294 4.08 29 29 0 3 0 0 194.1 200 100 88 22 54 2 90 1.307 100.0 1.0 2.5 4.2 Lemus, Paz 28 RR 11 12 .478 3.70 75 0 69 0 0 25 114.1 115 56 47 8 49 8 83 1.434 100.0 0.6 3.9 6.5 Ramirez, Carlos 28 SR 0 3 .000 2.98 34 0 19 0 0 3 45.1 49 21 15 5 14 2 31 1.390 100.0 1.0 2.8 6.2 Bruno, Brian 28 RR 7 7 .500 3.43 31 9 10 0 0 0 102.1 102 44 39 9 20 1 68 1.192 100.0 0.8 1.8 6.0 Kessler, Dustin 32 RR 1 0 1.000 5.11 18 0 10 0 0 1 24.2 20 14 14 1 13 0 15 1.338 100.0 0.4 4.7 5.5 Torres, Carlos 33 LL 0 0 .000 1.00 17 0 0 0 0 0 9.0 8 1 1 0 4 0 6 1.333 100.0 0.0 4.0 6.0 Perez, Danny 25 RR 3 3 .500 3.70 11 7 1 2 1 0 56.0 62 25 23 2 23 0 38 1.518 100.0 0.3 3.7 6.1 Jones, Clyde 24 RL 2 3 .400 3.31 5 5 0 1 1 0 35.1 29 13 13 4 7 0 32 1.019 100.0 1.0 1.8 8.2 Urbina, Miguel 30 LL 0 0 .000 1.37 16 0 3 0 0 0 19.2 11 3 3 2 7 1 12 0.915 100.0 0.9 3.2 5.5 Hernandez, Carlos 25 RR 0 0 .000 5.68 1 1 0 0 0 0 6.1 10 4 4 2 1 0 2 1.737 100.0 2.8 1.4 2.8 Castillo, Bill 24 RR 0 0 .000 6.00 1 1 0 0 0 0 6.0 8 4 4 1 4 0 2 2.000 100.0 1.5 6.0 3.0 Tekulve, Kent 24 RR 0 1 .000 13.50 2 0 1 0 0 1 2.0 5 3 3 0 1 0 1 3.000 100.0 0.0 4.5 4.5 Whitacre, Jim 24 LL 0 0 .000 5.40 2 0 1 0 0 0 1.2 0 1 1 0 2 0 2 1.200 100.0 0.0 10.8 10.8 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Arango, Santos 40 24 8 8 2 4 27 13 0.675 16 5 31 78% 63 87 24 30 3 4.0 4.6 7.9 116 0 6 16 18 148 Battaglia, Jeremy 39 22 14 3 2 8 25 14 0.641 14 5 30 77% 60 87 32 26 2 3.3 3.6 8.1 114 1 5 20 13 152 Cheeves, D.J. 31 7 16 8 0 5 11 20 0.355 8 5 17 55% 54 90 6 16 6 2.2 2.8 7.0 109 2 7 15 7 187 Vargas, Octavio 29 5 12 12 1 5 10 19 0.345 3 0 16 55% 50 77 19 15 9 2.7 3.7 6.7 99 4 10 12 3 148 Bruno, Brian 9 2 5 2 1 3 3 6 0.333 0 0 6 67% 54 68 38 7 2 2.8 3.6 7.0 102 1 3 4 1 120 Perez, Danny 7 2 3 2 0 0 3 4 0.429 2 1 3 43% 49 80 25 5 1 3.6 4.4 7.2 118 0 0 6 1 138 Jones, Clyde 5 2 3 0 1 3 2 3 0.400 1 1 4 80% 60 84 48 1 4 2.8 3.6 7.1 99 0 4 0 1 127 Hernandez, Carlos 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 0 0 00% 38 38 38 0 1 4.0 5.7 6.3 103 0 0 1 0 103 Castillo, Bill 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 38 38 38 0 1 4.0 6.0 6.0 97 0 1 0 0 97 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Lemus, Paz 75 11 12 39 25 14 64% 39 0 31 14 31% 2.006 39 26 25 18 57 6 35 22 24 15 14 4.6 24 Ramirez, Carlos 34 0 3 4 3 1 75% 6 2 21 11 34% 1.335 11 19 18 12 22 8 13 3 4 7 20 4.0 22 Bruno, Brian 22 5 2 0 0 0 0% 4 4 12 5 29% 0.970 4 12 12 7 15 6 9 2 2 2 16 5.4 27 Kessler, Dustin 18 1 0 2 1 1 50% 2 0 16 7 30% 0.736 2 10 10 9 9 1 8 1 3 3 11 4.1 21 Torres, Carlos 17 0 1 1 1 0 100% 2 1 4 1 20% 0.889 3 10 10 3 14 4 5 3 1 2 11 3.1 18 Urbina, Miguel 16 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 6 3 33% 0.820 3 9 8 5 11 4 5 2 5 3 6 3.7 17 Perez, Danny 4 1 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 1 0 0% 1.568 1 2 2 1 3 1 1 0 0 0 4 4.0 15 Whitacre, Jim 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.163 0 2 2 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 2.5 22 Tekulve, Kent 2 0 1 1 1 0 100% 2 1 0 0 0% 2.955 2 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 0 0 1 3.0 24 Arango, Santos 1 0 0 1 1 0 100% 1 0 0 0 0% 2.767 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 13 The Pirates could go with either of a 4 or 5 man rotation, it's hard to say. Clyde Jones pitched his way into an inside track for the back of it either way. The 24 year old Aruban throws nothing but absolute gas, to the point that he might eventually be better off as a stopper, and those 32 Ks in 35.1 innings is not merely a product of a good September. There are rumours that he's working on bulking up over the offseason so as to last a bit longer in games. Octavio "Papa" Vargas could come back in spite of a 5-12 record at the age of 39. He's not exactly the picture of a steady vet - he has the reputation as a clubhouse lawyer and true to form is demanding to start - but his presence alone as a guy who won't beat himself with easy walks calms the rest of this staff down. His 4.2 K rate was the lowest of his career so the end may be near for this 232 game winner. 26 year old Danny Perez will fight him for that final rotation slot if it exists. His thing is that he's an extreme groundball artist with an easy rocking-chair motion that allows him to stay out there practically forever. He's another guy who might profile well as a reliever. Nobody is likely to displace Paz Lemus though, although Pittsburgh probably needs to work harder on introducing other guys into the bullpen. Lemus has led the NL in appearances in 3 of the past 4 seasons and really started to look tired at the end of last season, with an 8.47 ERA in August (1-4, 4 saves). He did improve to 3.57 in September but with all of this came a lot more blown saves - 14 in all - than he's ever had in the past. Lemus struck out 8.2 batters per 9 innings and was back down to his more customary 6.5 last season; that's not necessarily a red flag, just a sign that he can't do literally everything. One guy that I at least hope will pick things up a bit is sidearmer Kent Tekulve (yep, that's an import -- the 70s need rubber-armed sidearm specialists, too, especially ones named Kent Tekulve!). He barely played last year for some reason but is in the major leagues now. Former Senators starter Brian Bruno is also a guy Pitt can/should rely on. He's not a shutdown reliever - more of a good control guy with decent enough bite to his cut fastball that he gets his share of Ks - but, as noted, when you overuse Lemus neither is he. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Connally, Doug 27 RR 87 314 39 83 15 2 8 34 53 54 1 0 11 .264 .376 .401 2 Spiner, Brent 22 SR 35 111 13 27 8 0 1 13 8 28 0 0 2 .243 .293 .342 2 Flores, Chris 31 RR 27 81 4 15 2 0 0 5 5 16 0 0 5 .185 .220 .210 2 Woodcock, Scott 37 RR 16 56 2 8 2 0 0 4 7 13 0 0 6 .143 .238 .179 2 Fenley, Mike 25 LR 9 29 1 5 1 0 0 3 3 10 0 0 0 .172 .235 .207 /2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Valdivia, Abílio 39 RL 101 302 32 90 13 2 5 27 34 37 1 0 8 .298 .371 .404 3 Holman, Jack 29 LL 121 307 43 84 16 0 8 32 40 64 1 0 10 .274 .360 .404 3 Ganzalez, Arturo 26 RR 45 109 10 26 8 0 0 8 10 13 0 1 3 .239 .300 .312 3/4 Lynch, David 24 RL 6 3 2 2 0 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 .667 .667 1.333 Ryun, Jim 24 LL 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500 .500 Villar, Henry 28 LR 151 580 74 159 20 4 3 34 59 84 4 9 11 .274 .328 .338 46/5 Wolcott, Marty 33 RR 31 80 11 21 7 3 2 12 12 6 0 2 5 .263 .351 .500 4 Cando, Sergio 28 SR 25 59 6 10 1 0 2 9 11 14 1 0 1 .169 .301 .288 4 Prieto, Roberto 38 RR 126 457 57 109 19 2 9 44 58 82 10 6 12 .239 .324 .348 5* Flores, Alex 27 RR 46 133 18 36 6 1 4 14 12 25 1 1 5 .271 .322 .421 5 Webster, Tyler 27 LR 69 217 17 52 6 3 6 27 32 40 0 0 2 .240 .340 .378 64 Dunnahoe, Luke 29 RR 69 180 24 49 10 1 3 25 21 20 0 2 1 .272 .341 .389 64/5 Kirkland, Jeremy 24 LR 21 52 2 9 1 1 1 4 3 7 0 0 1 .173 .218 .288 6 Martinez, Arturo 27 RR 10 29 2 12 2 0 0 2 4 6 0 0 1 .414 .471 .483 /64 Henry Villar recovered from a bad concussion that left him in the hospital for several weeks and caused him to miss all but 12 games of the 1970 season to be the same guy the Pirates had trusted in before. More than that, perhaps, as he was called upon to play 65 games at shortstop last year and looked pretty damn good out there. I'd go so far as to say he should be moved there except that the Pirates don't really have a hot bat to use at the position. Tyler Webster, the de facto starter at short last year, could be that guy; it's easy to look at the 30 HRs he hit between 1969 and 1970 and think about what might be. He doesn't hit for a lot of average though; his .240 average last year was a career high. The Pirates really, really need to find a replacment for Roberto Prieto, who hasn't been even a league average hitter in 2 years and at this point just doesn't have the range to be a good defensive third baseman. Alex Florex was passable out there last year and as of this writing looks like their guy for 1972 but he's a stopgap solution at best and a return to Prieto waiting to happen at worst. I have an as yet unnamed prospect too, who's played in just 22 games in AAA but hey, spring training is when you figure out if guys like this are ready to go. 1970's incumbent Webster has kind of bad range for a shortstop, although he committed just 3 errors in 268 chances over 60 games at the position (a .989 FA), and for that reason the Pirates are leaning towards using journeyman Luke Dunnahoe there to open the year. Dunnahoe himself doesn't have the best arm in the world. He's also a safe bet to outhit Webster, although probably unlikely to hit .272 again. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Lawson, Justin 30 RR 147 576 59 144 24 1 24 98 43 71 0 0 21 .250 .299 .420 7* Hearl, Justin 28 LL 150 578 62 151 13 8 3 49 66 84 31 13 3 .261 .332 .327 8* Menner, Frank 28 RR 15 37 2 7 0 0 1 4 6 10 0 0 0 .189 .295 .270 8/9 Macchia, George 25 RR 6 9 2 3 0 1 2 4 2 1 0 0 1 .333 .417 1.222 /8 Jackson, Brian 27 RR 114 473 59 135 20 6 10 50 35 43 8 6 16 .285 .339 .416 9* Kaku, Michio 24 RR 56 221 25 62 10 2 5 17 18 48 6 4 3 .281 .333 .412 9/78 Carrera, Carlos 25 RR 35 67 7 19 4 1 1 7 7 9 0 1 1 .284 .351 .418 /987 Herring, Ray 28 RR 40 61 8 17 3 1 1 7 4 6 2 0 5 .279 .309 .410 /97 In center, right now the plan is for prospect / nuclear physicist Michio Kaku to start the year in center. Justin Hearl is considered at least a mildly better fielder but even for a CF he hit for no power last year and there's only so much you can do with pure speed. Kaku, meanwhile, is a potential .300 threat - as he hit .312 for the AAA Charleston Charlies before the call-up - who almost out-XBH'ed Hearl in a little over a third of the games played. 25 year old AAA guy George Macchia also exists as a potential man who can be used, although a .222 BA in AAA Charleston last year makes me think otherwise (.404 OBP though! .295 SLG on the third hand). Right fielder Brian Jackson missed almost 50 games with injuries and was clearly playing hurt when he came back in late August, which is why his average tumbled from .324 in 1970 to .285 last year. Jackson hit .260 and .275 in the final two months and, a bigger sign he wasn't all the way back, he hit just 7 doubles and 3 HRs in 35 games. On the other hand, the man they call "Headhunter" for his ability to gun down runners had 10 baserunner kills last season in just 114 games and won his first ever Gold Glove.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-24-2023, 04:09 PM
|
#196 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
San Diago Whale ________
1971 Recap: The Pads flirted with .500 the whole season, even holding a 56-55 record as late as August 2nd, before a poor August sent them into high-70s win territory. 1972 Outlook: This is a team with some real holes but also, like the Royals, an expansion squad that already has a couple pieces of a potential contender down the road. That contention won't happen in 1972. Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Gilmer, Jason 29 RR 14 16 .467 3.69 31 31 0 13 2 0 231.2 233 104 95 19 93 4 116 1.407 100.0 0.7 3.6 4.5 Aguilar, Rodrigo 29 LL 11 10 .524 3.48 27 27 0 5 1 0 196.2 198 83 76 12 68 4 59 1.353 100.0 0.5 3.1 2.7 Feldhusen, Ben 32 LL 10 6 .625 2.96 24 24 0 4 1 0 167.1 166 60 55 7 47 6 99 1.273 100.0 0.4 2.5 5.3 Gordon, Shane 22 RR 7 9 .438 4.79 23 19 2 0 0 0 129.2 122 77 69 19 82 2 98 1.573 100.0 1.3 5.7 6.8 Parchman, Darius 28 RR 6 7 .462 2.46 61 0 48 0 0 17 84.0 63 26 23 7 22 3 75 1.012 100.0 0.7 2.4 8.0 Urbina, Miguel 30 LL 1 0 1.000 3.30 35 0 14 0 0 2 43.2 30 18 16 4 16 1 29 1.053 100.0 0.8 3.3 6.0 Kahl, Paul 27 RR 4 6 .400 4.26 34 11 14 1 0 0 112.0 130 55 53 13 42 4 34 1.536 100.0 1.0 3.4 2.7 Andrade, Raul 33 RR 0 1 .000 2.84 30 0 10 0 0 1 50.2 46 18 16 1 30 0 31 1.500 100.0 0.2 5.3 5.5 Hannon, Jerry 30 RR 2 6 .250 5.63 29 1 22 0 0 10 48.0 61 32 30 8 18 2 18 1.646 100.0 1.5 3.4 3.4 Lopez, Alfredo 37 RR 9 4 .692 2.99 16 16 0 5 1 0 111.1 107 42 37 6 28 1 48 1.213 100.0 0.5 2.3 3.9 Beaulieu, Dustin 34 LL 4 5 .444 4.34 10 10 0 0 0 0 64.1 66 38 31 5 26 1 35 1.430 100.0 0.7 3.6 4.9 Barreras, Cesar 25 RR 2 6 .250 7.91 12 9 0 0 0 0 58.0 78 59 51 6 30 2 29 1.862 100.0 0.9 4.7 4.5 Johnson, Brian 26 RR 3 1 .750 1.18 5 5 0 2 1 0 38.0 23 5 5 2 15 1 28 1.000 100.0 0.5 3.6 6.6 Golden, Mark 23 SR 2 2 .500 3.77 5 5 0 1 1 0 28.2 34 12 12 1 13 1 18 1.640 100.0 0.3 4.1 5.7 Schoner, Dan 31 LR 0 0 .000 1.74 15 0 0 0 0 0 10.1 11 2 2 0 6 1 4 1.645 100.0 0.0 5.2 3.5 Teague, Jon 25 LR 0 3 .000 2.33 14 0 6 0 0 1 19.1 15 6 5 0 7 1 11 1.138 100.0 0.0 3.3 5.1 Pineau, Dan 27 SL 2 0 1.000 1.93 14 0 4 0 0 0 14.0 8 3 3 1 5 0 10 0.929 100.0 0.6 3.2 6.4 Bowie, David 24 LR 0 2 .000 9.20 4 3 1 0 0 0 14.2 22 15 15 2 4 0 5 1.773 100.0 1.2 2.5 3.1 Fix, Pat 29 LL 0 0 .000 1.35 4 0 0 0 0 0 6.2 3 1 1 1 3 0 5 0.900 100.0 1.4 4.1 6.8 Moore, Roy 23 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 2.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1.000 100.0 0.0 4.5 4.5 Im, Ji-man 29 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 100.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Chacon, Frank 27 RR 0 0 .000 10.80 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.2 4 2 2 0 1 0 0 3.000 100.0 0.0 5.4 0.0 Richey, Scott 28 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.000 100.0 0.0 0.0 13.5 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Gilmer, Jason 31 14 16 1 3 4 14 17 0.452 13 2 16 52% 52 83 17 4 14 3.9 4.7 7.5 117 1 3 13 14 149 Aguilar, Rodrigo 27 11 10 6 2 5 14 13 0.519 5 1 18 67% 52 79 19 4 16 3.5 4.3 7.3 108 0 10 8 9 132 Feldhusen, Ben 24 10 6 8 0 4 12 12 0.500 4 1 19 79% 56 82 22 4 11 3.0 3.8 7.0 104 3 4 10 7 178 Gordon, Shane 19 6 9 4 0 2 8 11 0.421 0 0 10 53% 48 74 9 1 11 3.7 5.4 6.3 107 0 5 12 2 127 Lopez, Alfredo 16 9 4 3 2 1 10 6 0.625 5 1 9 56% 55 81 33 2 6 4.3 5.5 7.0 102 2 2 6 6 134 Kahl, Paul 11 3 5 3 0 2 5 6 0.455 1 0 7 64% 44 65 4 3 4 3.0 4.0 6.8 105 1 4 4 2 136 Beaulieu, Dustin 10 4 5 1 1 3 4 6 0.400 0 0 7 70% 48 69 15 2 6 3.4 4.8 6.4 106 1 2 5 2 126 Barreras, Cesar 9 2 6 1 1 1 3 6 0.333 0 0 2 22% 32 50 14 1 6 3.0 4.9 5.5 93 1 5 3 0 113 Johnson, Brian 5 3 1 1 0 1 4 1 0.800 2 1 5 100% 69 81 60 0 4 2.2 2.6 7.6 115 0 0 3 2 141 Golden, Mark 5 2 2 1 0 0 3 2 0.600 1 1 2 40% 49 81 33 0 3 2.4 3.8 5.7 92 1 1 2 1 121 Bowie, David 3 0 2 1 0 0 0 3 0.000 0 0 1 33% 32 55 16 0 3 1.7 3.3 4.6 81 1 2 0 0 89 Hannon, Jerry 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0.000 0 0 1 100% 46 46 46 0 0 1.0 1.5 6.0 92 0 1 0 0 92 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Parchman, Darius 61 6 7 19 17 2 89% 21 2 19 8 30% 1.589 27 23 22 10 51 6 26 16 16 8 21 4.1 20 Urbina, Miguel 35 1 0 3 2 1 67% 8 5 6 3 33% 1.009 8 20 20 5 30 4 10 7 9 9 10 3.7 18 Andrade, Raul 30 0 1 1 1 0 100% 1 0 17 4 19% 0.603 4 20 20 11 19 3 16 5 9 2 14 5.1 29 Hannon, Jerry 28 2 5 14 10 4 71% 14 0 11 3 21% 2.063 16 8 8 5 23 4 12 7 6 6 9 4.5 23 Kahl, Paul 23 1 1 1 0 1 0% 5 4 10 2 17% 0.819 6 15 15 4 19 0 13 2 6 2 13 4.9 24 Schoner, Dan 15 0 0 1 0 1 0% 4 3 11 7 39% 0.965 3 7 7 4 11 2 5 2 3 3 7 3.9 19 Teague, Jon 14 0 3 1 1 0 100% 2 1 6 3 33% 1.196 4 7 7 2 12 1 7 2 5 1 6 4.1 19 Pineau, Dan 14 2 0 0 0 0 0% 4 4 2 0 0% 1.223 4 8 8 2 12 2 1 4 1 2 7 3.0 15 Gordon, Shane 4 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 1.049 1 2 2 1 3 0 3 0 0 0 4 8.0 42 Fix, Pat 4 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 1 1 50% 1.360 1 0 0 1 3 0 2 0 0 1 3 5.0 23 Barreras, Cesar 3 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 1 33% 0.695 0 2 2 1 2 0 3 0 0 1 2 8.3 47 Richey, Scott 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 0 0% 0.100 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2.0 6 Bowie, David 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.180 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 20 Im, Ji-man 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 0 0% 1.020 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 4.0 14 Chacon, Frank 1 0 0 1 0 1 0% 1 0 1 1 50% 1.856 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 5.0 25 Moore, Roy 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.214 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 6.0 30 The front half of the rotation is surprisingly... veteran for a third year expansion team. The Padres would be great if they had a young ace in front of all of that. They've got 3 guys all under 26 who will try to fill in the last 2 slots and maybe, just maybe prove to be that guy. First up is Shane Gordon, who has the most experience of the trio but probably the lowest chances of becoming the staff ace. Gordon's a guy who can get strikeouts with a hard split-finger fastball and a solid change, but he misses a *lot* and what's maybe worse, he misses over the plate a lot too, to the tune of 19 HRs allowed in 129.2 innings. He throws too many pitches to consistently get out of the 7th inning at this point in his career. Brian Johnson flashed in 5 appearances in September, including 2 complete games. His out pitch is also one with a lot of natural dip - in his case a forkball - and unlike Gordon, Johnson is a guy with a track record of avoiding easy homeruns, a talent which will serve him well in San Diego's stadium. Finally there's Mark Golden, who's the wild cardest of all wild cards, having been drafted in the 15th round following an absolutely horrendous senior year at tiny St. Mary's College of California. I've got no idea what the scouts saw in him (and no, I don't run feeder leagues - those are computer-generated stats) but he's turned into a potential player with a hard, biting curveball that delivered whiffs for him in the major leagues last year in spite of a 4-seamer that gets into the high 80s on a good day and an ability to keep the ball down. This isn't the guy you'd expect to be on a minor league, let alone a major league roster, but hey, expansion. Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos DeBose, Michael 25 SR 103 323 34 78 21 2 6 51 24 73 0 1 7 .241 .291 .375 2 Bakke, Adam 31 RR 52 159 13 36 5 0 0 10 7 21 0 0 10 .226 .260 .258 2 Gabriel, Peter 20 LR 18 62 5 19 3 0 0 7 4 7 0 1 3 .306 .329 .355 2 Culliton, Jeff 28 LR 16 43 0 6 0 0 0 3 5 9 0 0 0 .140 .224 .140 2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Palacios, Carlos 25 LL 115 436 52 145 38 1 4 65 37 28 0 1 14 .333 .378 .452 3* Dimond, Zach 25 RR 3 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 McCartney, Paul 22 RR 151 568 88 164 24 7 26 87 62 84 4 3 10 .289 .356 .493 4*9/7 Honesto, Roberto 29 RR 51 143 13 32 6 1 4 10 14 22 3 0 3 .224 .296 .364 4 Landry, Kevin 39 RR 118 437 66 121 21 8 12 58 37 44 13 4 9 .277 .331 .444 5* Ware, Eli 31 RR 83 205 30 43 8 2 5 23 35 36 1 0 3 .210 .325 .341 53 Troncoso, Armando 24 RR 129 511 59 137 24 6 4 43 30 67 8 10 10 .268 .308 .362 6* Dowler, Ben 33 RR 40 120 8 28 4 0 1 13 9 20 1 0 3 .233 .285 .292 6/4 Littrell, Dan 33 SR 16 47 6 5 1 0 0 2 8 8 0 0 1 .106 .232 .128 /64 The 1971 Rookie of the Year Paul McCartney has very few holes in his game or, if we're being honest, his life. Maybe, and I mean maaaaaybe, you can criticize him for insisting that his photographer wife can sing - we've heard bootlegs of concerts where this is clearly not the case - but that has very, very little to do with baseball. As a baseballist, McCartney can hit for both power and some average, has above average speed (though you won't see him steal a lot), and has solid range and hands for a second baseman. He even played a fair chunk in right field (36 games) last season, recording 6 baserunner kills. The sky is the limit for him, so long as he doesn't put out another horrifically terrible single like that "hands across the water" medley (the "hands" half wasn't the bad part, I should note) this coming summer. Kevin Landry put together a fine 1971 season in spite of his age. That makes it 3 years now that he's provided above average production for San Diego after the Dodgers decided that he was done in April of 1969 and traded him here for relief pitcher Jesse Marshall (who, by the way, put in one kind of bad season for LA - 4-3 but a 4.79 ERA over 34 games and 47 IP before defecting to the Mexican League). He's still 39 and as such the Pads really, really need to find a replacement for him. Last year showed that Eli Ware, not a spring chicken himself, is not that guy, although he remains on the roster out of sheer necessity. Right now the idea is to give prospect / racecar driver Dale Earnhardt a long look in spring training but truth be told the #3 overall pick in last year's draft is probably at least a year away. Shortstop represents another hole that needs to be filled, although young Armando Troncoso at least provided some good hitting from the 2 hole for most of the year. The problem is, he's kind of a bad fielder, and while he has the arm to play third (and there, his lack of range won't kill him the way it does at shortstop), I'm not sure he hits well enough to justify playing there. Still, assuming Earnhardt isn't ready, that's a potential landing spot... of course, then you just have to fill the hole here, and with what? Ben Dowler is a grade A fielder but there's a reason why the 33 year old has never gotten a real shot to start in the bigs and it rhymes with "a career .211 splatting average". 27 year old minor leaguer Andy Johnston is also not a very good fielder - for him, it's a subpar arm that keeps him from being a decent player - but seems to have about the same bat as Troncoso does, so he'll get a look in March as well. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Canales, Alex 26 SR 144 572 73 149 24 0 14 72 43 79 0 2 10 .260 .313 .376 73/54 Cowan, Greg 30 LL 69 162 28 47 11 3 9 29 24 31 5 2 3 .290 .393 .562 79 Gomez, Carlos 29 RL 31 116 15 20 6 0 2 13 21 23 0 0 3 .172 .297 .276 7 Hadley, Zackery 32 RR 95 362 47 92 8 3 1 25 27 62 30 9 3 .254 .308 .301 8/9 Leone, Jake 25 LL 68 269 42 67 10 4 5 29 33 55 12 5 1 .249 .324 .372 8/7 Slater, Cody 30 LL 24 46 3 8 0 0 1 10 1 9 0 0 0 .174 .188 .239 8/9 Mitchell, Tyler 25 LL 8 21 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 0 1 .048 .167 .048 /8 O'Neill, Ed 25 LL 67 186 24 54 10 3 0 21 30 24 5 0 3 .290 .379 .376 9/8 Hernandez, Nelson 28 RR 37 152 18 34 9 1 3 18 5 35 2 2 2 .224 .268 .355 9 Kelly, Bryce 31 LL 79 133 8 32 3 3 0 17 7 15 0 0 2 .241 .281 .308 9/7 Herring, Ray 28 RR 21 26 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 1 .077 .111 .077 /97 It's easy to see why Paul McCartney played so much in the outfield last year; after San Diego traded Nelson Hernandez away, both right and center field were a mess. The long-term solution is probably to use former high school superstar Ed O'Neill (we know he was one because he won't stop talking about it - give it up, dude, it was 7 years ago) but for right now they'll probably have to live with O'Neill in right and Jake Leone in center. San Diego acquired Leone last June in exchange for relief pitcher Dan Schoner (who promptly tore his rotator cuff 6 games in with his new team) and doesn't really provide a lot that makes you want to use him regularly. He did finish in the top 10 in the NL in triples (11) and steals (20) when he played in 94 games in 1970 so he's got speed, I guess. O'Neill really doesn't hit like a right fielder should and is almost certainly destined to move once they figure out how to fill this position. That may not happen until 1972. In the meantime, he's as patient at the plate as he is sarcastic, with plus speed and plus-plus range. The .290 average was way higher than what he'd done at any point in the minor leagues but he's still only 25 so perhaps he gained a new skill, who knows?
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-25-2023, 12:10 PM
|
#197 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
San Francisco Giants
1971 Recap: It was a lost season for the Giants, who opened the year 6-17 and never got out of the bottom half of the NL West. They were only 1 game under .500 from May 1 onward, which I'm not sure is a good or a bad sign. 1972 Outlook: The Giants had something of a run in the mid-60s but that's clearly petered out now and it should be time for a rebuild. The question is, will this be a task the proud Bay Areans take up? Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Rivera, Robert 31 LL 14 15 .483 2.92 32 32 0 14 3 0 246.2 223 86 80 17 43 1 173 1.078 100.0 0.6 1.6 6.3 Melendez, Moises 23 RR 14 10 .583 2.84 32 32 0 6 2 0 234.1 215 86 74 16 52 4 102 1.139 100.0 0.6 2.0 3.9 Stuckey, Mike 30 RR 13 11 .542 3.19 31 30 0 7 2 0 228.2 230 96 81 14 81 2 156 1.360 100.0 0.6 3.2 6.1 Williams, Sam 27 LL 9 12 .429 3.81 30 23 2 4 1 1 172.1 166 87 73 11 77 1 115 1.410 100.0 0.6 4.0 6.0 Booth, John 35 LL 7 8 .467 3.30 64 0 56 0 0 23 90.0 88 35 33 9 36 6 42 1.378 100.0 0.9 3.6 4.2 Bailey, Matt 25 RR 2 2 .500 2.80 40 2 18 0 0 4 64.1 50 22 20 3 42 2 32 1.430 100.0 0.4 5.9 4.5 Ballard, Dan 36 LL 7 8 .467 4.05 38 11 8 4 0 1 117.2 114 57 53 13 40 2 64 1.309 100.0 1.0 3.1 4.9 Hinkson, David 30 LR 0 0 .000 4.41 24 0 14 0 0 1 34.2 33 18 17 7 11 1 25 1.269 100.0 1.8 2.9 6.5 Goltry, Mike 29 RR 2 0 1.000 2.63 22 0 8 0 0 1 24.0 24 9 7 2 13 0 15 1.542 100.0 0.7 4.9 5.6 Osbourne, Ozzy 23 RR 3 6 .333 5.60 12 9 1 0 0 0 64.1 79 41 40 9 18 0 39 1.508 100.0 1.3 2.5 5.5 Thompson, A.J. 22 RR 1 3 .250 4.35 6 6 0 0 0 0 39.1 40 24 19 3 18 0 17 1.475 100.0 0.7 4.1 3.9 Nixon, Randy 24 RR 0 3 .000 5.08 5 5 0 1 0 0 33.2 32 22 19 6 18 1 16 1.485 100.0 1.6 4.8 4.3 Cummings, Andy 27 RR 0 3 .000 6.07 12 4 4 0 0 1 29.2 35 22 20 9 7 0 14 1.416 100.0 2.7 2.1 4.2 Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem 23 RR 1 2 .333 2.43 12 4 4 1 0 0 29.2 25 8 8 1 9 0 13 1.146 100.0 0.3 2.7 3.9 Mader, Justin 24 SR 1 3 .250 7.83 5 4 1 0 0 0 23.0 23 21 20 8 15 0 19 1.652 100.0 3.1 5.9 7.4 Roman, Henry 28 LL 0 0 .000 9.00 18 0 5 0 0 1 20.0 27 21 20 3 10 1 7 1.850 100.0 1.4 4.5 3.2 Jordan, David 25 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 3.0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.667 100.0 0.0 0.0 3.0 Morelli, Scott 26 RR 0 1 .000 9.00 3 0 2 0 0 0 4.0 5 4 4 2 0 0 4 1.250 100.0 4.5 0.0 9.0 Cohen, Cale 21 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.000 100.0 0.0 0.0 27.0 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Rivera, Robert 32 14 15 3 2 11 16 16 0.500 14 3 25 78% 60 86 19 8 17 3.0 3.5 7.7 110 3 1 22 6 151 Melendez, Moises 32 14 10 8 1 5 19 13 0.594 6 2 23 72% 57 81 20 3 15 2.8 3.4 7.3 105 3 7 14 8 131 Stuckey, Mike 30 13 11 6 3 7 16 14 0.533 7 2 21 70% 55 88 6 5 16 3.1 3.7 7.5 119 1 4 13 12 202 Williams, Sam 23 8 12 3 2 6 9 14 0.391 4 1 13 57% 52 84 12 3 12 4.0 5.0 7.2 113 0 3 13 7 146 Ballard, Dan 11 2 8 1 0 2 3 8 0.273 4 0 4 36% 50 75 23 1 7 2.2 2.6 7.6 120 0 0 7 4 158 Osbourne, Ozzy 9 3 4 2 1 1 5 4 0.556 0 0 5 56% 44 64 7 1 5 3.1 4.7 5.9 98 1 5 3 0 117 Thompson, A.J. 6 1 3 2 0 1 2 4 0.333 0 0 4 67% 47 63 35 0 4 3.0 4.1 6.6 111 0 2 2 2 131 Nixon, Randy 5 0 3 2 0 1 1 4 0.200 1 0 2 40% 46 58 28 1 3 2.2 2.9 6.7 110 1 0 2 2 126 Mader, Justin 4 1 3 0 1 0 1 3 0.250 0 0 0 00% 38 45 21 0 1 1.8 2.9 5.5 99 0 3 1 0 110 Cummings, Andy 4 0 3 1 0 0 1 3 0.250 0 0 0 00% 37 57 11 2 2 1.5 2.6 5.2 84 1 2 1 0 103 Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem 4 1 1 2 0 0 1 3 0.250 1 0 1 25% 54 75 39 0 3 1.5 3.2 4.2 53 2 1 1 0 115 Bailey, Matt 2 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 0 00% 48 55 40 1 1 2.0 3.1 5.8 119 0 0 1 1 122 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Booth, John 64 7 8 29 23 6 79% 30 1 27 3 10% 2.054 34 17 17 14 50 11 26 16 17 13 18 4.2 21 Bailey, Matt 38 1 1 4 4 0 100% 9 5 17 8 32% 0.787 8 22 22 11 27 7 13 5 4 6 23 4.2 22 Ballard, Dan 27 5 0 3 1 2 33% 9 6 7 2 22% 1.275 6 12 12 4 23 6 5 8 4 3 12 3.8 19 Hinkson, David 24 0 0 1 1 0 100% 2 1 9 5 36% 0.500 1 20 20 4 20 3 12 3 4 4 13 4.3 23 Goltry, Mike 22 2 0 2 1 1 50% 3 1 15 8 35% 0.683 2 16 16 10 12 5 7 3 7 2 10 3.3 17 Roman, Henry 18 0 0 1 1 0 100% 2 1 5 2 29% 0.483 1 15 14 3 15 3 4 1 1 4 12 3.3 20 Cummings, Andy 8 0 0 1 1 0 100% 1 0 9 8 47% 0.587 0 5 5 5 3 2 3 1 0 1 6 3.4 16 Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem 8 0 1 0 0 0 0% 1 1 2 0 0% 1.033 2 4 4 2 6 1 5 1 0 2 5 4.9 23 Williams, Sam 7 1 0 1 1 0 100% 1 0 2 1 33% 1.196 2 3 3 1 6 3 0 4 0 0 3 2.4 15 Morelli, Scott 3 0 1 0 0 0 0% 0 0 3 1 25% 0.988 1 2 2 1 2 0 2 0 0 1 2 4.0 23 Osbourne, Ozzy 3 0 2 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.927 0 1 1 0 3 0 3 0 0 0 3 11.0 52 Jordan, David 2 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 1.638 1 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 10.5 35 Stuckey, Mike 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 1.900 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 15.0 68 Mader, Justin 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.033 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 6 Cohen, Cale 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.133 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3.0 10 Behind them, I mean, San Francisco's not doing so bad with the pitching. Sam Williams started 23 of his 30 games last season and the lefty will almost certainly begin the year in the rotation. Like Melendez he doesn't get as many Ks as you'd expect for someone who throws so hard (Williams is known to hit the upper 90s with his 4-seamer). Unlike Melendez, he's already 27 and entering "what you see is what you get" territory. Tall, lanky, huge, whatever you want to call him Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also has to figure in the mix somehow after 12 nice outings in August and September last year. He wasn't a big K guy either and you'd think all that leverage he gets would lead to more groundouts but hey, effective is effective. AJ "Chicken" Thompson is still another younger pitch-to-contact guy. I guess one thing about the back of this rotation: you won't know who's who. Going in a different direction is the English "heavy metal" man Ozzy Osbourne, who is accused of lacing his pitches with bat blood. It's a weird charge and we see no merit to it. He's got the stuff more in line with what you'd expect from a future front-line starter although a propensity to give up the longball really hurt him last year. John "The Assassin" Booth had a real up and down year as the team's stopper and at 35 it's probably time for the Jints to start auditioning other people for the role. He's never been a really huge strikeout guy, again in spite of a lot of velocity but in recent years his pinpoint control has begun to abandon him and last year he hung his signature 12-to-6 curve a little too often. Matt Bailey was good, at least superficially so, in 1970, but fans demanding that he close out games need to look at that 42/32 BB/K ratio and think twice. Former Yankees starter Dan Ballard seems to be well set in a lefty specialist role; he went 5-0, 3.18 in 27 relief apperances and held batters to a .235 average from innings 7-9 (opponents were also 7-34 in extra innings against him). Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Campbell, Chris 32 RR 97 270 24 62 10 0 1 31 48 62 0 0 7 .230 .349 .278 2 Pop, Iggy 24 LR 39 101 11 28 7 1 1 18 15 23 0 0 1 .277 .358 .396 2 Ronchetti, Felipe 27 RR 30 70 12 11 1 0 1 3 10 14 0 0 6 .157 .271 .214 2 Molina, Pat 40 RR 31 71 7 18 1 1 1 13 8 12 0 0 3 .254 .329 .338 2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Seek, Chris 27 RR 134 439 49 118 23 2 2 47 35 42 0 0 16 .269 .322 .344 3 Everhart, John 36 RR 59 191 18 29 11 0 2 13 29 32 0 0 5 .152 .267 .241 37 van Velthoven, Kelsey 34 RR 13 11 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 .091 .231 .182 Juarez, Rodrigo 24 RR 126 459 67 109 18 4 17 69 54 75 2 1 13 .237 .317 .405 4* Luper, Jimmy 28 RR 19 55 4 11 3 0 0 4 6 10 0 0 6 .200 .270 .255 4 Mock, Tim 30 RR 109 407 39 100 12 4 7 43 26 45 4 2 8 .246 .287 .346 5 Harrison, George 23 LR 33 121 15 47 14 2 2 13 5 12 0 1 0 .388 .394 .587 5/4 Jersey, Ryan 26 RR 47 99 17 27 2 1 5 13 16 17 0 0 1 .273 .371 .465 5 Krupenski, Armando 26 RR 13 25 2 6 0 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 0 .240 .310 .240 /564 Fujimoto, Akiho 33 RR 131 500 46 127 18 2 3 41 42 44 2 0 14 .254 .306 .316 6* Sanchez, Mario 23 RR 65 208 25 48 8 3 1 23 24 46 0 1 2 .231 .308 .313 64 Rodrigo Juarez was handed the second base job out of spring training and as a 24 year old it was a positive just that he held onto it all year. He's got nice power for a middle infielder and scouts say he could walk 70 times a season if he gets the opportunity. If he wants to stick around he'll need to raise his average, possibly by cutting down on the whiffs. As a defender, he's nothing special and is pretty much confined to second by a below average arm. The Giants do have another guy sitting in AA, <name redacted>, who hit .281 in A ball and who looks like an elite defensive second baseman (like Juarez, he's got a poor arm, so no shortstop for him). He's probably at best a September call-up. After dealing with the mediocrity of Tim Mock for 2 seasons the Giants tried something new for September and that new thing - prospect George Harrison - looks like the best thing that's happened to this team in a long time. Harrison did nothing but rake from the day he was called up in early August. Hey, he won't hit .388 but .288, even, would be a huge step up from what Mock was giving them. As a fielder, too, he's got the kind of arm that boys dream about and girls get their mind set on. Akiho "The Truth" Fujimoto is a fine defensive shortstop who hits, for the most part, like a fine defensive shortstop. This is an obvious place where SF will do well to find a replacement before the 33 year old Fujimoto's range falls off, but for now it's... a position. Mario Sanchez exists here and is 10 years younger, not nearly as good defensively, and similarly poor on offense. The best bets for long-term replacements are still more than a year away. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Walker, Jimmy 23 RR 107 399 50 110 22 3 14 56 30 88 10 4 4 .276 .328 .451 79 Turner, Bobby 25 LL 82 186 20 47 12 1 4 22 12 32 0 0 1 .253 .307 .392 73 Berry, Jon 31 LL 60 166 24 40 6 1 3 17 20 18 5 3 1 .241 .323 .343 73/9 Hartmann, Will 25 RR 38 143 12 33 4 0 1 12 5 13 2 3 1 .231 .257 .280 7/98 Seligman, Danny 30 RR 115 489 59 163 15 2 6 44 27 67 30 13 7 .333 .363 .409 8* Park, Chae-hwi 27 RR 33 123 17 26 3 1 7 17 11 17 3 2 1 .211 .275 .423 8/7 Piper, Pat 25 RL 36 116 14 27 6 1 1 11 7 11 10 1 1 .233 .280 .328 8/79 Burwell, Sonny 23 LR 2 5 1 3 1 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 .600 .500 .800 /8 Cooper, Barry 28 LR 109 445 44 115 14 2 3 34 27 59 20 2 12 .258 .299 .319 9* Stephens, Joel 26 RR 23 46 5 10 0 0 2 10 5 6 0 0 0 .217 .283 .348 /973 Weathers, Carl 23 RR 18 32 4 8 1 0 3 7 1 6 0 0 0 .250 .273 .563 /978 Danny "The Phantom" Seligman (I realize that I called Danny Hohman "The Phantom" in the Dodgers writeup; he is not the Phantom, this is) was healthy more than he usually is and actually led the NL in hitting with a .333 average. That's precisely why the team keeps turning to him even though he seems to be a lock to miss at least 50 games a season. Somehow last year was his first All-Star appearance; he also won a Gold Glove and if he can somehow find a way to stay healthy as he gets into his 30s - usually players go the opposite direction - he could win several more. "The Ritz" Barry Cooper missed a bunch of time a season after playing in a career high 158 games and wasn't very effective when he did play. He got out the gate poorly, hitting .243 through April and was still only at .231 on May 8 when he went down with a sports hernia that took him out until late June. After returning he hit .333 in July, making people think he was back... and then finished the year with a .220 August and a .229 September. The career .315 hitter needs to demonstrate that last season was just a really bad lost year or else Cooper, an All-Star in 1970, may be out of a job.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-26-2023, 12:28 PM
|
#198 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
1971 Recap: In spite of only outscoring their opponents by 13 runs in the regular season, the Cardinals hung around a weak NL East all season long and catapulted into the division title with a 17-9 September and a 7-1 record to finish the year. Then they knocked off a reeling Braves team in the NLCS and even took a 102-win Red Sox club to 7 games. It was a real Cinderella season for these overachievers. 1972 Outlook: St. Louis has some huge, huge holes that they desperately need to address if they want to compete again - there's no front-line starting to speak of, the lineup is aging and finished dead last in speed scores and near the bottom in defense. They also get hits and a relatively large amount of dingers considering big Busch Stadium. Just when the world thought the 1963-67 Cardinals dynasty was kaput, it shows up again! Pitching --------------------- Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Alvarez, Ernie 26 LR 16 18 .471 4.40 39 38 0 6 1 0 263.2 286 140 129 27 81 5 139 1.392 100.0 0.9 2.8 4.7 Bachler, Vince 24 RR 14 15 .483 3.44 35 35 0 7 0 0 233.0 218 110 89 15 102 6 148 1.373 100.0 0.6 3.9 5.7 McCauley, Jimmy 35 RR 12 12 .500 3.91 35 33 0 6 2 0 237.0 245 127 103 16 108 5 143 1.489 100.0 0.6 4.1 5.4 Garcia, Mario 24 RR 6 5 .545 4.03 19 19 0 2 1 0 116.0 106 57 52 10 42 4 80 1.276 100.0 0.8 3.3 6.2 Munoz, Billy 30 RR 0 0 .000 3.76 59 0 0 0 0 0 40.2 42 16 17 4 17 3 40 1.451 100.0 0.9 3.8 8.9 Legere, Rick 26 RR 7 4 .636 2.55 57 0 40 0 0 8 77.2 76 25 22 4 25 4 45 1.300 100.0 0.5 2.9 5.2 Kading, Kevin 35 LL 2 1 .667 5.00 45 0 19 0 0 0 45.0 48 26 25 4 20 3 40 1.511 100.0 0.8 4.0 8.0 Sandoval, Jordan 30 RR 1 1 .500 5.29 23 0 7 0 0 0 32.1 31 19 19 6 17 0 19 1.485 100.0 1.7 4.7 5.3 Qiu, Valentin 27 RR 6 5 .545 4.28 22 15 3 1 0 0 109.1 104 56 52 10 40 2 51 1.317 100.0 0.8 3.3 4.2 Gomez, Ricardo 30 RR 0 0 .000 2.79 11 11 0 0 0 0 42.0 33 14 13 1 5 0 19 0.905 100.0 0.2 1.1 4.1 Hernandez, Miguel 28 RR 1 2 .333 5.21 16 3 3 0 0 0 38.0 46 23 22 3 12 1 23 1.526 100.0 0.7 2.8 5.4 Mchugh, Robert 24 RR 0 2 .000 4.61 9 2 3 0 0 0 27.1 24 14 14 2 14 0 25 1.390 100.0 0.7 4.6 8.2 O'Leary, Mike 28 LL 1 0 1.000 5.48 5 3 0 0 0 0 21.1 19 13 13 7 13 0 24 1.500 100.0 3.0 5.5 10.1 Fix, Pat 29 LL 1 0 1.000 5.93 9 1 1 0 0 1 13.2 17 9 9 1 1 0 5 1.317 100.0 0.7 0.7 3.3 Ellis, Doug 26 RR 1 0 1.000 2.19 11 0 0 0 0 0 12.1 10 3 3 0 1 0 12 0.892 100.0 0.0 0.7 8.8 Theisen, Todd 31 RR 2 0 1.000 5.59 7 0 1 0 0 1 9.2 7 6 6 2 1 0 5 0.828 100.0 1.9 0.9 4.7 Schoner, Dan 31 LR 0 0 .000 1.04 6 0 3 0 0 0 8.2 6 1 1 0 1 0 3 0.808 100.0 0.0 1.0 3.1 Youngblood, Jonas 29 SR 0 0 .000 6.75 2 0 0 0 0 0 5.1 7 4 4 0 3 0 4 1.875 100.0 0.0 5.1 6.8 Mojica, Danny 36 LL 1 0 1.000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 3.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 0.333 100.0 0.0 0.0 15.0 Medrano, Franklin 23 LL 0 0 .000 3.38 2 2 0 0 0 0 2.2 4 1 1 0 0 0 4 1.500 100.0 0.0 0.0 13.5 Lopez, Ramon 26 LR 0 0 .000 13.50 2 0 1 0 0 0 2.0 3 3 3 0 2 0 1 2.500 100.0 0.0 9.0 4.5 Code:
Starting Pitching GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp LTuf WTm LTm tmW-L% CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst sDR lDR RS/GS RS/9 IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 >=120 Max Alvarez, Ernie 38 16 18 4 2 5 20 18 0.526 6 1 21 55% 49 78 3 25 6 3.8 4.9 6.9 110 1 7 21 9 146 Bachler, Vince 35 14 15 6 3 7 19 16 0.543 7 0 21 60% 53 81 6 23 8 3.2 4.3 6.7 107 3 5 21 6 151 McCauley, Jimmy 33 11 12 10 1 3 17 16 0.515 6 2 17 52% 50 91 6 22 6 3.5 4.5 7.1 120 1 2 12 18 163 Garcia, Mario 19 6 5 8 2 1 9 10 0.474 2 1 8 42% 52 81 6 7 9 3.0 4.4 6.1 96 3 6 6 4 135 Qiu, Valentin 15 5 5 5 1 2 9 6 0.600 1 0 10 67% 50 68 15 8 5 3.3 4.6 6.4 101 1 4 8 2 128 Gomez, Ricardo 11 7 3 1 0 2 7 4 0.636 2 1 10 91% 60 79 43 5 5 3.3 3.7 7.9 112 0 2 6 3 130 Hernandez, Miguel 3 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 0.667 0 0 2 67% 43 61 19 3 0 3.3 4.8 6.2 103 0 1 1 1 124 O'Leary, Mike 3 1 0 2 0 0 3 0 1.000 0 0 1 33% 49 70 29 1 1 5.7 8.1 6.3 113 0 0 2 1 120 Medrano, Franklin 2 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 0 00% 50 54 46 0 2 0.5 3.4 1.3 23 2 0 0 0 34 Mchugh, Robert 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0.500 0 0 1 50% 56 60 52 2 0 2.0 3.0 6.0 83 1 1 0 0 89 Fix, Pat 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.000 0 0 0 00% 35 35 35 1 0 0.0 0.0 6.0 82 0 1 0 0 82 Code:
Relief Pitching GR Wgr Lgr SVOpp Sv BSv SV% SvSit Hld IR IRS IRS% ALi LevHi LevMd LevLo Run Emp <3O >3O 0DR 1DR 2DR 3+DR Out/GR Pit/GR Munoz, Billy 67 10 6 29 24 5 83% 30 1 34 16 32% 1.858 29 24 22 16 51 5 34 18 20 12 17 4.5 23 Legere, Rick 57 7 4 11 8 3 73% 15 4 19 8 30% 1.314 21 30 30 11 46 7 23 7 26 4 20 4.1 20 Kading, Kevin 45 2 1 0 0 0 0% 5 5 24 11 31% 0.634 7 28 28 13 32 13 10 13 11 7 14 3.0 17 Sandoval, Jordan 23 1 1 0 0 0 0% 1 1 12 3 20% 0.621 2 17 17 9 14 4 9 5 4 3 11 4.2 23 Hernandez, Miguel 13 0 1 0 0 0 0% 1 1 5 3 38% 0.595 1 8 8 3 10 3 8 1 2 0 10 4.5 23 Ellis, Doug 11 1 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 12 0 0% 1.130 2 5 5 6 5 5 3 2 5 2 2 3.4 15 Fix, Pat 8 1 0 1 1 0 100% 4 3 2 0 0% 1.028 3 3 3 2 6 1 0 1 2 0 5 2.9 12 Mchugh, Robert 7 0 1 0 0 0 0% 0 0 4 0 0% 0.773 0 4 4 3 4 0 4 0 1 1 5 6.6 34 Theisen, Todd 7 2 0 2 1 1 50% 2 0 1 1 50% 0.638 0 5 5 1 6 1 3 1 0 0 6 4.1 19 Qiu, Valentin 7 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 6 3 33% 0.739 2 4 4 3 4 1 5 1 1 1 4 5.9 27 Schoner, Dan 6 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 3 1 25% 0.488 0 3 3 2 4 2 3 1 3 0 2 4.3 23 Mojica, Danny 2 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.850 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 4.5 21 McCauley, Jimmy 2 1 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 2 2 50% 0.446 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 4.0 27 Lopez, Ramon 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.370 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 3.0 20 Youngblood, Jonas 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 1 1 50% 0.352 0 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 8.0 45 O'Leary, Mike 2 0 0 0 0 0 0% 1 1 0 0 0% 0.600 0 2 2 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 3.5 12 Alvarez, Ernie 1 0 0 0 0 0 0% 0 0 0 0 0% 0.600 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 2.0 7 I could see St. Louis going with either a 4 or a 5 man rotation; if anything decides this, it might not be so much trying to give 6 or 7 extra starts to the top guys and more the fact that the St. Louis cupboard is bare in terms of younger players who can jump in and start. Jimmy McCauley started throughout the postseason and so seems to have the edge for the #4 job heading into spring training. He's already 36 but on the other hand was a late bloomer, having not played significantly in the major leagues until age 27, so might have more miles left on his arm than you'd expect for a guy his age. Ernie Alvarez came back from a torn meniscus that forced him to miss most of the 1970 season, which is nice, but he came back with a K rate of just 4.7. Honestly, he seems like the epitome of a guy who could probably do well outside of Busch or, more accurately, the men St. Louis likes to place behind the pitcher at Busch. The bullpen was the real strength of the team last year but this season stopper Billy Munoz is going to have to carry out more of it on his own, given that the Cards traded away his versatile setup man Rick Legere. Frankly, the rest of this staff is... iffy. Perhaps one man to step up will be now-former starter Mario Garcia, still recovering from a torn rotator cuff but expected to be ready to pitch again in spring training. He went 23-24 as a starter for the Phillies and Cardinals between 1969 and 1970 and before he got hurt last year he at least looked like a guy who can strike people out. St. Louis also acquired former AL saves leader Todd Theisen down the stretch, although Thiesen barely played. He has a career record that's rather up and down but hey, the guy does have experience pitching late and close... Batting ----------------------- Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Stuart, John 30 RR 104 384 50 113 17 2 12 59 38 65 0 0 9 .294 .362 .443 2 Medina, Jose 27 RR 53 187 20 49 11 1 0 17 15 31 0 0 6 .262 .317 .332 2 Hall, Lance 25 RR 7 18 1 5 2 0 1 4 3 1 0 0 0 .278 .348 .556 /2 Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Martinez, Lorenzo 33 LR 145 498 99 132 14 1 37 100 113 78 0 0 11 .265 .405 .520 3*7 Tortorella, T.J. 28 RR 10 15 3 5 1 0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 .333 .474 .400 /3 Hirano, Tatsuzo 36 SR 8 6 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 .167 .250 .667 Depew, Tom 26 LR 139 562 72 175 23 8 2 46 30 41 7 13 6 .311 .337 .391 4*/6 Johnston, Chris 37 RR 50 157 13 42 7 1 2 16 7 16 3 2 5 .268 .292 .363 4/36 Argumedo, Jeronimo 32 RR 15 33 3 7 0 0 0 1 2 7 0 0 1 .212 .250 .212 4 Galeana, Mike 27 RR 122 382 63 91 9 2 30 80 66 77 0 1 8 .238 .344 .508 53 Morrison, Mike 30 RR 59 215 21 56 6 3 0 25 20 20 0 1 8 .260 .322 .316 5 Webb, Jeremy 25 RR 18 55 3 11 4 1 0 10 4 6 2 0 0 .200 .246 .309 5 Street, J.D. 30 RR 22 22 4 4 1 0 0 1 2 4 0 1 0 .182 .250 .227 /5 Pope, Aaron 31 RR 9 15 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 .200 .294 .200 /5 McCully, Dusty 25 RR 149 549 53 139 19 3 9 58 35 73 0 0 23 .253 .296 .348 6* Wicker, Joe 26 RR 29 52 4 11 1 0 0 3 3 8 0 1 1 .212 .255 .231 6/4 Tom Depew finally kicked the long-time Cardinals man Chris Johnston off the caddy role he'd been playing for the last 3 years. In fact, he hit .365 in April and .359 in May and it was looking like the Cards had a brand new batting champion on their hands. After falling way down to earth with a .210 mark in July, he did hit .303 and .337 over the final two months, indicating that his status as a .300 man is legit. As for Johnston, the Cardinals traded him to Milwaukee along with Mike Morrison, the Brewers cut him in August, and he is now retired from baseball. At third, Mike Galeana kind of came out of nowhere to force the Cardinals to call him up at the end of April and then he just took the starting job away from the incumbent Mike Morrison by hitting dinger after dinger after dinger - 30 in all, good for 2nd on the team, in just 382 at-bats. Morrison, as noted above, is no longer on the team anymore so it'll be up to Galeana to prove the power is legit. Personally, I think it is - he also hit 37 HRs in AAA Tulsa in 1970. As with second, if he gets hurt, the fact that the team traded away the old incumbent coupled with St. Louis's very bereft farm system would mean that they'd be in a situation similar to where the Mets got in their outfield last year, that is, signing guys off the street. Dusty McCully gets some unfair press because he's not a top defender at shortstop. He's definitely got the arm for it but lacks great hands and finesse on the double play pivot. As a hitter, he made great strides from a .213/3/19 performance in 53 games after being traded from Houston in 1970. Joe Wicker was purely a later-season defensive replacement after the Cardinals stopped trying to use Johnston and Depew on the field at the same time. He could play a bigger role in 1971. Oh right! The Cardinals traded for McCully's probable replacement in the classically good-field, no-hit Brian Wilcox. Completely forgot about that move and there he is, on the roster. Yeah... Wilcox might be the best starting SS in terms of defense in the NL, which would be a gigantic step up from McCully. He's also a guy who provides absolutely nothing on offense. Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Disla, Rafael 27 LL 131 525 76 165 32 2 9 58 38 55 0 0 15 .314 .366 .434 7* Vasquez, Hector 29 RR 38 74 6 18 4 0 0 3 8 8 0 0 2 .243 .317 .297 7/9 James, Jim 25 LL 82 332 40 95 17 6 9 29 9 51 3 6 1 .286 .307 .455 8/7 Johnson, Elijah 37 SL 122 388 44 92 9 3 4 32 26 67 8 7 4 .237 .286 .307 897 Keesee, Ethan 24 LL 43 106 15 38 3 2 0 8 6 6 9 1 2 .358 .393 .425 8/397 Dockery, Dylan 28 RR 32 62 15 22 4 2 1 14 10 7 3 1 1 .355 .444 .532 8 Leone, Jake 25 LL 14 45 5 7 1 1 1 3 2 13 2 1 0 .156 .208 .289 8/9 Satterfield, Casey 25 RR 144 526 72 159 30 4 13 70 71 80 2 0 15 .302 .386 .449 9* Jim James is kind of an enigma. He's got great speed that he doesn't really take advantage of on the basepaths, he'd seem like a great leadoff guy with a nice average (that .286 comes on the heels of a .348 in AAA Tulsa in 1970) except that he seems morally opposed to taking pitches (only 8 unintentional walks last year). He'd be a good defensive centerfielder except that he sometimes loses concentration in the field and can commit stupid errors (only 2 of them in 75 games though). In spite of all that, he's still the best the Cards have and, barring injury, should play in most of the games. Elijah Johnson is an 11 time Gold Glove Award winner but now at age 37 he doesn't even look like an average CF anymore. Time waits for no man! Johnson also saw his hitting regress but the Cardinals still used him as a Swiss Army Knife throughout the year and they seem committed to doing more of the same going forward. Casey Satterfield went from being in danger of losing his job in right to being considered a mainstay of this team and, since July, an All-Star. Hitting .300 will do that for you. Otherwise, his power was about the same - fewer HRs but he's increasingly shown signs of working with the large Busch Stadium outfield and set new career highs in doubles and triples - and while his defense is still suspect he did record 8 baserunner kills by runners dumb enough to move on his above average arm. It's very hard to see anyone coming from the farm to oust him so the Cards will cross their fingers that the 40 point jump in average is a new skill.
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-27-2023, 02:53 PM
|
#199 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
1971-72 Offseason
## Standings / Recap / Comments
Just churnin' through the offseason! I haven't set up winter leagues, as BBRef data on them are pretty scarce, but I may bite the bullet on this in the next preseason, assuming I remember to do so. ## Major Transactions The first BIG ENCHILADA following my write-ups is the Rule V Draft. There was basically no movement from the beginning of November until then so that's where we are... 1. Milwaukee: 23 year old LF Jacquot Mazzucato (.259, 25, 72 at AAA Denver) out of WAS. 2. Montreal: 27 year old C Norman Engelman (.258, 6, 49 at AAA Toledo) out of DET. 3. Chicago (A): 22 year old P Jeremy Huizenga (11-11, 2.63 at AAA Amarillo) out of SF. 4. Cleveland: skip 5. Cincinnati: 24 year old P Dan Tripp (12-10, 2.99 with 271 Ks in 223 IP at AA Jacksonville) out of CLE. 6. San Francisco: 26 year old 1B Ian Swerdlove (.286, 15, 61 at AAA Charlotte) out of PIT. 7. Kansas City: 23 year old P Jon Gutierrez (12-7, 3.11 at A Clinton) out of DET. 8. Chicago (N): 24 year old P Jose Torres (16-3, 1.70 at AAA Charlotte) out of PIT. 9. San Diego: 27 year old 3B Jeremy Currie (.249, 1, 29 at AAA Richmond) out of ATL. 10. Baltimore: 24 year old RP Dave Bly (4-2, 1.79, 10 Sv at AA/AAA) out of BOS. 11. Los Angeles: 24 year old SS Tommy Martin (.228, 2, 42 and a +27.0 ZR at AAA Richmond) out of ATL. 12. New York (A): skip 13. California: 22 year old 3B Ricky Vigueras (.253, 11, 44 at AA Dallas/Fort Worth) out of BAL. 14. Minnesota: skip 15. Pittsburgh: 23 year old P Alberto Alvarez (5-4, 3.82, and 86 Ks in 68.1 IP for AA Asheville) out of CHW. 16. New York (N): 27 year old OF Josh Phillips (.257, 5, 47 at AAA Syracuse) out of NYY. 17. "Washington": 25 year old SS Jesus Rodriguez (.255, 11, 51 at AAA Reading) out of PHI. There were also a couple of big moves though... November 30: The Cubs traded P Steve Tidwell (14-11, 4.19) to the A's for CF Alex Vallejo (.301, 5, 23). Chicago's giving up a pretty penny for the oft-injured Vallejo but if he can stay healthy he turns a minus position into a positive one. For the A's, they consider that, as talented as Vallejo is, they still stuck in with David Mesa out there for half the year - Mesa's still just 23 and now they have a top veteran pitcher for their troubles. November 30: The Reds traded RF Justin Jensen (no statline in 1971), 1B Nick Miller (.269, 6, 33), and RF Bobby Beaulieu (.266, 8, 44) to the Astros for RF Jaden Weaver (.303, 37, 104), P Josh Mullett (15-14, 4.45), 1B Justin Richens (.272, 9, 48), OF/PH Javy Perez (.280, 5, 8) and OF prospect Joe Dean (.270, 0, 9 at AA OKC). This is the big one (the real life version was the Joe Morgan deal). Jaden Weaver is one of the great power hitters in the National League but his swing was never tailored well for Houston and now he'll try to ply his trade in more cozy confines. The Astros managed to unload a couple of big salaries in this deal, too, in Richens and Mullett, and get back Jensen, who hit 42 HRs in 1970 before missing all of last year, Nick Miller, who the scouts think can be a premier first baseman (I don't know about that but hey, what do I know, I'm just the player), and a guy in Beaulieu who might just be their new center fielder. November 30: The Indians traded P Josh Matthews (13-17, 3.57) to the Giants for P Robert Rivera (14-15, 2.92) and LF Bobby Turner (.253, 4, 22). Cleveland ships off their own troubled right-hander and picks up a guy who'd be a Cy Young candidate with better support. The original deal included Frank Duffy, who eventually became Cleveland's starting SS, as a throw in; I went with Turner here because scouts think highly of him and they also really, really do not like their incumbent LF Alonzo Huanosta. November 30: The Angels traded CL Travis Livingston (7-4, 2.18, 14 Sv) to the Twins for OF Lou Morgenstern (.247, 19, 69). The Twins kill two birds with one stone here, clearing up a crowded outfield (after the trade for Ernie Griffin) and acquiring a guy to shore up their beleaguered bullpen in the young Livingston. Morgenstern is not young but also not suuuper old at 32 and himself shores up a rough-looking position for California (and also in the offing becomes their top power hitter). December 2: The Tigers traded minor league P Jason Olson (3-0, 2.45) to the Dodgers for OF Danny Hohman (.283, 2, 11). This was originally a PTBNL trade but OOTP don't do that. Olson is a low-minors guy who has missed a lot of time via injury already. He did look good in 6 starts but this is mainly about LA dropping a guy who didn't fit into their plans in Danny Hohman, who's played in just 26 games in the last 2 years because of a variety of injuries. If Hohman can stay healthy he gives Detroit the fastest outfield in all of baseball. December 2: The Expos traded OF/PH Gabe Martinez (.282, 1, 16) to the Mets for C Ricardo Romero (.129, 1, 5), minor league 2B Luis Alvarez (.273, 1, 34 at AAA Tidewater), minor league P Matt Shaver (7-16, 4.70 at AAA Tidewater), and minor league OF Alekaneko Binda (.263, 2, 6 at A Visalia). Your classic "let's exploit the expansion team and give them a bunch of minor league depth" move. Granted that the Mets don't exactly have a huge amount of minor league depth to spare... in any case, Martinez will probably play quite a lot in that hole-filled Mets outfield. December 2: The Reds traded RP Ricky Rosas (7-13, 4.93, 9 Sv) to the Twins for RP Pete Lynn (6-9, 3.32, 19 Sv). Two stoppers who had bad years for their teams get moved here. Rosas certainly had the worse year but then again, Pete Lynn is 3 years younger. Call it even and by even I mean this is a steal for Cincy. December 2: The Astros traded P Don Henley (3-3, 4.44), P Steven Tyler (2-3, 3.35), and minor league P Mark Courtway (11-5, 2.83 at AAA OKC) to the Padres for P Jason Gilmer (14-16, 3.69). You can't say that the Astros aren't trying to do something this offseason, that's for sure. They paid dearly to pick up Gilmer but the former Tigers star is ready and Henley and Tyler are not. San Diego is now the musical team of music; Tyler is already discussing plans to create a "future villains band"... December 6: The Indians purchased minor league OF Mike Starratt (.319, 5, 27) from the Expos for $1,500. Starratt is a 35 year old minor leaguer and is pretty much nothing but organizational depth. But hey, free money! December 6: The Reds traded P Manny Rivera (2-2, 3.66) to the Indians for LF Alonzo Huanosta (.261, 13, 57). Rivera put together a decent enough 1971 for the Reds although he's an extreme pitch to contact guy. Cincy is taking a big, big chance in return in the form of Huanosta, whose average fell more than 80 points from .347 in 1970. The Reds can add him to their collection of underachieving corner outfielders. December 7: The Tigers traded P Benito Diaz (9-5, 4.12, 5 Sv at AAA Toledo) to the Cardinals for P Todd Thiesen (3-3, 5.59, 6 Sv). The Cards are essentially dumping Thiesen, whom the Tigers are taking a small gamble on: is he actually still good? December 9: The Orioles traded 3B Mauro Magoni (.212, 2, 12) to the Brewers for P Dave Zapata (0-1, 5.52). Magoni was an All-Star in 1968; maybe he can fit the bill for Milwaukee at third. Probably not. They're not exactly giving up much in Zapata. December 10: The Angels traded SS Chris Adams (.222, 15, 68) to the Mets for minor league C Juan Carmona (.198, 3, 13 at AA Memphis), RP Mark Seitz (0-0, 4.11), SP David "Macho" Camacho (12-10, 3.82), and LF Brad Wagner (.211, 5, 13). In real life this was the Jim Fregosi for Nolan Ryan deal. Camacho is not at all the player that Ryan was IRL of course but then, Brad Wagner is a top-rated prospect, bad September or no. Chris Adams is a very good shortstop, albeit one who fell in love with the longball a bit too much last year. As for replacing him in Cal, the Angels didn't have a real guy there... except that Richard Simmons is such a great fielder that he can easily take over shortstop and who's in this team's minor league system but MOTHER EFFING SNAKE PLIZKEN HIMSELF, KURT RUSSELL. December 10 (because I missed a bunch of deals from a week before UGH): The Indians traded RF Tommy Pron (.273, 9, 48), P Chris Regan (5-4, 4.82), CL Eric Godard (1-8, 4.53, 16 Sv), and C Jonathan House (.217, 3, 26) to the "Senators" for P Rocky Richard (10-10, 2.29 at AAA Denver), P Jaden Terrell (4-1, 2.66 at AAA Denver), CL Jake Duckett (4-6, 3.31), and LF Bobby Kaplan (.303, 2, 55). It's a trade that makes both teams worse! Cleveland seems like they're going whole-hog into rebuilding now; at least, their outfield will be entirely turned over. They bring back Bobby Kaplan, who is now not super well set up for Texas' new environs... although he's not exactly set up well for Cleveland Municipal Stadium either. Otherwise this was as much about Cleveland dumping the troubled Regan and House as anything else. December 10: The White Sox traded SS Justin Henderson (.233, 0, 24) and P Aidan Williams (13-14, 3.16) to the Dodgers for 3B Brian Maccioli (.283, 16, 61). The Dodgers open up a giant hole at third base with this move but acquire what they think will be a top-line starter in return. Justin Henderson could get trained up over there but he doesn't hit like a corner infielder at all. December 10: The Braves traded C Andres Gamez (.318, 5, 32) to the "Senators" for C Armando Flores (.290, 7, 65). Okay, so Washington, who really looked like they could compete for the AL West just by standing pat, now appears to be tearing it down. Gamez is 6 years younger than Flores but Flores is an All-Star. I don't know, man... December 10: The Yankees traded P Josh Foster (10-9, 3.98 at AAA Syracuse) and P Josh Powers (no record in 1971) to the "Senators" for OF Joel Schaben (.305, 6, 65). The dismantling continues. Sorry, future Rangers fans. Hope you like crap! Schaben will be on his 4th team in 4 years; he played center for the Sens last year but probably isn't cut out for that spot at age 34. No matter, the Yankees already have a guy for that spot but a gaping hole in left. December 10: The Astros traded minor league 2B Mike Fairbanks (.201, 12, 53) and minor league SS Vince Price (.248, 1, 22) to the Royals for P Allen Bailey (9-10, 3.29 at AAA Omaha) and RP Vincent Bump (3-2, 4.08). KC had a decent year but they're still a relatively new expansion team and so could use the minor league depth, especially when it comes so cheaply. Price has a small amount of hype surrounding him; Fairbanks is probably a career minor leaguer. December 10: The White Sox traded 1B Pete Jennings (.283, 16, 77) to the Yankees for SP Obke Olthof (12-13, 3.85). The Sox added a guy in the Flying Dutchman whom they hope will become their new ace. Olthof struggled last year but won 20 games in 1970 so it's not crazy talk. For the Yankees, they seem to enjoy going through a first baseman a year; why should 1972 be any different? Jennings looks like a much better fit for the position than Alan Rickman. December 10: The Orioles traded 2B Danny Fager (.293, 12, 60) and RP Chris Valenzuela (2-4, 3.86, 4 Sv) to the Dodgers for P Rob Reiner (1-2, 3.29), P Santos Rodriguez (8-11, 3.65), minor league C Jacob Marshall (.287, 2, 34), and minor league OF Steve Figueroa (.204, 6, 14 at A Bakersfield). Let the rebuilding begin! The Orioles will be sad to have to drop Fager, a star in the prime of his career, but he was also by far their biggest asset and they did get a good haul coming back. Most notably, Rob "Meathead" Reiner, LA's #1 prospect. Santos Rodriguez is no slouch himself. LA turns a minus position into an immediate plus. Is that going to be enough to propel them into contention in the NL West? We'll see! December 11: The Twins traded minor league 1B Rich Rios (.258, 2, 31 at A White Rapids) to the Padres for minor league C Josh Barclay (.180, 3, 26) and minor league SS Ryan Casper (.180, 1, 7). None of these three players are going anywhere for anyone; in fact, Casper is the only one of the three who's seen time in the major leagues and that's probably how it'll stay. December 13: The White Sox traded minor league OF Juan Ortiz (.277, 5, 47 at AAA Tucson) (probably not his real name) to the Phillies for minor league C Zack Delisle (.216, 3, 19). Ortiz is a highly sought after bat but the White Sox brass took one look at him and decided he was eventually going to be very expensive. Also, they need a catcher of the future in case Mike Perez goes to crap again. I can justify anything! December 14: The Reds traded minor league 1B Jake Fusco (.248, 1, 11) to the Cardinals for minor league P Willie Garcia (2-12, 7.32 combined between AAA Evansville and AAA Tulsa). Garcia's a hard thrower with terrible control who's more or less on his last legs. The Reds gave up a 25 year old pure hitter who's not super likely to see the major leagues except maybe as a September call-up. December 14: The White Sox traded P Hector Fernandez (11-7, 2.72 at AAA Eugene) to the Reds for OF John Penn (.297, 1, 4). The Reds just seem intent on collecting bad - well, questionable - pitchers. Fernandez had a 7.02 ERA in the major leagues last year but struck out 14 men in 16.2 innings. Even at age 28, it's worth taking a flyer on. They moved on from Penn, who really looks like a guy who deserves a bigger chance than the cups of coffee he's received so far. Will he get them in Chicago? Who knows. December 16: The Padres purchased CF Josh Coldiron (.211, 0, 7) from the Royals for $2,500. The Royals, who are a pretty young team now, increasingly had no need for the 25 year old backup CF. The Padres will let him fight it out with the other subpar hitters at the position in spring training. He'll project to be the best defender on the team at least. January 19: The Orioles traded P Alfredo Contreras (1-1, 9.42) to the Yankees for minor league P Gregg Snell (1-0, 5.01 at AA Manchester). Mostly a salary dump, the thinking from the Yankees is that Contreras, as bad as he was last year, is a lefty and therefore might be effective in the Bronx. January 20: The Cubs traded CF Ryan Johnston (.253, 12, 39) to the Yankees for RP Jesse Kelly (8-7, 4.90, 12 Sv). Both teams get pieces they love: the Yankees add an outfielder and the Cubs land a relief pitcher coming off of an awful season. January 26: The Angels traded OF Barney Leriche (.225, 10, 32) to the Brewers for OF Andrew Powell (.245, 3, 29). Both of these outfielders struggled badly for their respective teams and both get new starts with new teams who aren't as invested in their future. February 1: The Orioles traded P Pat Pierson (5-4, 3.02 at AAA Indianapolis) to the Tigers for 2B Alex Perez (.285, 1, 26 in AAA Toledo). Pierson is... fine, not young but maybe he'll become a thing, and for the Tigers, Perez was locked behind a couple of second basemen. He'll have every chance to fill the shoes vacated by Danny Fager for the O's in another month. February 3: The Yankees purchased 2B Jimmy Luper (.200, 0, 4) from the Giants for $1,250. Luper will maybe get to compete for the 2B job, sort of. ## News I'm still kinda interested in the news here, even if I'm not going to go way in depth with it until the season starts... November 8: Led Zeppelin releases Led Zeppelin IV, aka the Runes album. November 15: Intel releases the 4004 processor. Yeah, we're still a ways away from the 8086. November 18: Oman gains independence from the United Kingdom. November 21: Hall of Fame voting begins today. There are a bunch of guys who even I'm not particularly aware of. Nevertheless, here's my ballot: 3B Noah "Mungo" Buchanan (3rd year on the ballot, 69.1% last year). Buchanan finished his career with 2,311 hits and a .292 average with 1,121 RBIs. He went to 12 All-Star Games, won an MVP in 1950, and has a HOF Monitor score of 88. On top of that, he entered the league in 1946 as a 24 year old so might have lost up to 3 or 400 hits to the save date. Maybe this guy isn't like an inner circle HOFer but he's for suuuuuuuure a person who belongs in there. SP Lazaro "Spanky" Hernandez (3rd year, 59.9%). Hernandez finished his career 226-194, which I know is a lot of decisions for this league (which, I do not like the fact that OOTP just switches out to 4 man rotations, period, in the 60s - there needs to be some kind of gradual change). He's got a career ERA+ of only 107 (3.47 career) but that looks like he got pulled down by a kind of bad second half of his career. He "only" went to the AS Game 5 times so I think he's kind of a borderline case but I want more guys in there. SS Allen "Seeker" Ortiz (7th year, 21.1%). Another guy who's career was cut short by the start date, Ortiz entered the league in 1946 as a 27 year old starter, went to 7 All-Star Games, and collected 1,827 hits for a .298 average. And yeah, as a shortstop - only 1 GG as one but I'm seeing more than 8,000 innings in that role (he also played around 4 seasons' worth of 1st base). For sure, this guy was the premiere NL SS of the late 40s and early 50s. CF Henning Rasmussen (3rd year, 13.9%). I ran into this guy's name while writing up the Yankees. He was a nice starter for them for many years and was I guess the AL CF of the 50s. Some day I should go back and do a Bill James Historical Abstract look at the decades of the past. Anyway, another guy who falls short on the HOF Monitor but come on, the man played a major defensive position (not as a GG quality guy, granted). RF Chris Seidel (2nd year, 27.1%). A good RF for the Pirates throughout the 60s, Seidel had 8 trips to the AS Game, won an MVP in 1952 (.327/38/121 that year, and led the league in doubles (36), HRs, RBIs, and SLG (.623)). He looks like a guy who aged pretty quickly and so doesn't have gaudy counting stats (only 1,830 hits and 329 HRs) but my philosophy is, I kind of mentally tick down the Ken Keltner List and usually, "was this guy the best player at his position for an extended period of time" tends to cut it for me; I think it's clear that Seidel is in the mix as the top RF of the 50s. I did leave off David "Nugget" Melton on account of he finished with a career record of 84-42. He was reeeeeeeeally good but had an extremely short career. November 24: During a severe weather storm over Washington state, a man who called himself DB Cooper parachuted from a Northwest Orient plane that he'd previously hijacked with $200,000 in ransom money. He fell to his death. Sorry guys, that's what happened. November 28: The Calgary Stampeders win the Grey Cup by beating the Toronto Argonauts, 14-11. December 2: The Soviet Mars 3 lander reaches the surface of Mars, transmits for a few seconds, and goes silent. December 3: The Indo-Pakistani War of 1972 begins as Pakistani forces launches pre-emptive attacks on nine Indian airbases. December 4: The Montreaux Casino burns down during a Frank Zappa concert (later memorialized in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water"). December 10: The John Sinclair Freedom Rally is held, featuring a performance by John Lennon, at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan. December 11: The Pakistan Army in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) surrenders to joint forces of India and Bengali nationalist separatist, ending the Bangladesh Liberation War. December 19: The controversial Kubrick movie "A Clockwork Orange" is released in New York City. December 20: Two groups of French doctors involved in humanitarian aid merge to form Medecins Sans Frontieres (aka Doctors Without Borders). December 25: The Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 after 82 minutes, 40 seconds, the longest game in NFL history. Garo Yepremian kicked - not passed! - the winning field goal. January 1: Kurt Waldheim becomes the new Secretary-General of the UN. January 2: The first scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, is introduced, priced at $395 (almost $3,000 in today's money). January 5: The HOF voting results are in, with one new inductee: 3B Noah Buchanan (see my write-up above), who just barely slipped in with 75.1% of the vote. It looks like a line drive in the box score, Noah! RF Matt Clayton, who I didn't vote for but who is very clearly worthy (10x ASG, an MVP, 11 GGs, 2,663 career hits), just missed with 71.1% of the vote. I'll be sure to remember him next year. January 9: The original Queen Elizabeth ocean liner catches fire and sinks in Hong Kong's Victoria harbor. January 12: Tigers owner John Fetzer announces that the Tigers have signed a lease to built a $126M domed stadium along the river in downtown Detroit. The complex will seat 52,000 for baseball and 60,000 for football. In the end, the city of Detroit will (probably wisely) shoot this future cookie-cutter park down with lawsuits, a failed bond issue, and finally the construction of the Silverdome in nearby Pontiac to provide the Lions with a place to play. January 13: The prime minister of Ghana is overthrown in a military coup. January 13: Former umpire and now housewife Bernice Gera wins her lawsuit against Major League Baseball, began March 15, 1971, and is slated to call games in the New York-Penn league in June. January 19: The libertarian enclave Minerva, squatting on a platform in the South Pacific and sponsored by the Phoenix Foundation, declares independence. Soon, Tonga will annex the area and dismantle the platform. ## Teams in Review ABSOLUTELY NOT
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-30-2023, 01:30 PM
|
#200 | |
|
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
|
Preseason 1972
## Standings / Recap / Comments
The big franchise move, of course, involves the Washington Senators moving down to Arlington, Texas and becoming the Texas Rangers. This also necessitates a move from the AL East to the West, and to accommodate them the Brewers move to the East. In retrospect, I get why it was done - Milwaukee's an expansion team and so doesn't have any historical ties - but there's a kind of natural Minneapolis/St. Paul - Milwaukee - Chicago rivalry right there that MLB put the kibosh on by shipping the Brewers out to the East. No wonder why Bud Selig chose to be the guy to move his own team to the National League to balance things out in the 90s... It looks like the auto-picker is working properly this year for the unis, which is a good thing because it looks like for the 1972 season there was a patch on everyone's uniforms. The 100th anniversary of... the 2nd season of the National Association? I have no idea. So that does mean that for the most part I'm just inputting the ballpark effects for each team. Not a lot to report here; Cleveland and Detroit went a little less extreme HR (so don't expect another 65 dinger season). Most noticeable to me is that Arlington Stadium is actually only 85/90 for HRs. That's still a better HR park than RFK but obviously it's well within "pitcher's park" range. Speaking of, one move I do see here - I use 3 year averages so the trends tend to be small - is Busch going into "destroy the end of Lorenzo Martinez's career" mode; it's now 75/74 for HRs, down from the low 80s. The Rangers, of course, have all new uniforms. I'm happy to see that they didn't just stick with the Senators rend and white as I thought they had; there's a whole lot of blue that wasn't in there before and the road unis are positively 1970s. I've included the baseball card for their up and coming first baseman George W "Dubya" Bush both so you can get an idea of the new unis (from the neck up anyway) as well as the 1972 Topps cards, which I think are one of the more favorite sets out there. Minor League Team stuff ------------------------ American Association: The Winnipeg Whips (MON) moved out of icy Canadia and to Hampton, VA, where they will be the Peninsula Whips this season. The Wichita Aeros move to becoming a Cubs' affiliate. I chose to just allow the world to burn here and move the rosters of all these teams. Pacific Coast League: They split east and west instead of north and south this year. The new Eastern Division is comprised of Phoenix (SF), Salt Lake City (CAL), Tucson (CHW), and a new team in Albuquerque (LAD), replacing the Spokane Indians. In the West you've got the Hawaii Islanders (SD), the Eugene Emeralds (PHI), the Portland Beavers (now CLE), and the Tacoma Twins (formerly CHC, now MIN). Dixie Association: This splits off into 2 separate leagues, the Texas League and the Southern League, and ups its number of teams to 8 apieces so that now all MLB teams have a AA affiliate. Carolinas League: They dropped from 8 teams to 6, but there are already more than 1 team per A-level affiliate so it's not such a huge deal. At this level, too, I'm just switching teams to match their affiliates and if that means someone gets a big old new influx of minor leaguers, oh well. Northern League: This short-season A league ceased to operate after 1971. Dominican Winter League: I'm going to ease into this, try this out and see how it works. I see that there were already also fall instructional leagues but I'll hold off on making those, too. Because I did redo the preseason twice (once because the game crashed and I didn't notice it, once because I accidentally started deleting teams from MLB and had to give it the ol' 3 finger salute) I wound up adding a Venezeulan Winter League as well. We'll see how that works! Spring Training Camp Battles --------------------------------- Pretty much every team has a loosely defined bottom of their rotation and bullpen, so I'm not going to really mention pitching... Atlanta: 35 year old incumbent Vicente Luna will fight off William Jefferson Clinton in a hitting (or what's left of it) vs. defense battle. Baltimore: I can't just hand the job over to him so Frank Abagnale will duke it out against last year's man David Delgado at catcher. Jon Hernandez will fight things out with veteran 3rd baseman Mike Morrison for the 1st base job. And who will take over for the departed Danny Fager? It's between newcomer Alex Perez and "old" (he's 23) guard Vladimir Yakunin (my first one of these this year). Sergio Viera de Mello also will need to compete for the LF job, this time with TJ Corron. Finally RF Jamal Jenkins can't expect to get a job just handed to him after a .223 season so he'll fight it out with Ralph May. Lots of camp battles... this will not be a good team. Boston: Bruce Springsteen seems to have the LF job set but I will make him fight it out with 26 year old Cuban national Carlos "Cupcakes" Rodriguez. California: I fully expect Kurt freaking Russell to beat out Mauricio Mendez at second but hey, Mendez has been in this role before. Left field is out between the veteran Lou Morgenstern, acquired from Minnesota, and young stud / GREATEST BASSIST OF ALL TIME Jaco Pastorius. I haven't put Andrew Powell anywhere to compete because he sucked last year but he could play in the corners or first base should something happen. Chicago (A): The White Sox are a complete mess. Jeff Nation, who played 3rd base last year, will compete with JP Carter for the 1st base job. Neither guy will probably hold it for very long. At 2nd, Chicago likes former Angels starter Chance Hopka and they've put him in the driver's seat at 2nd base against incumbent Ian Reeder. Chris Morgan and Jim Fiederlein are kind of going at it at short; I say "kind of" because that's more about whether Morgan is ready to play in the major leagues. The 24 games he got in September indicate he is. John Penn will battle Ian Everett in center just because Penn seems like a guy who should play more. And Ahnold hit well in 112 at-bats but those were 112 at-bats so he'll face off against last year's RF Josh Wade. Chicago (N): Manuel Lozano has the inside track vs. oft-injured incumbent at 2B Juan Perez but again, can't just give the job away outright, especially with the vet still there. Cincinnati: My thinking with catcher here is to split Jarrod Day and Oliver Williams about 50/50 but we'll see how that shakes out. Alonzo Rivera will see if he can hit anywhere near .400 again and also fight off Junior Cannon at first. Justin Richens is also in the mix there. LF will see a battle between two veterans: former Indians slugger Alonzo Huanosta is facing off against Carlos Gomez, who started the year horribly with San Diego but really picked it up after being traded to the Reds. Cleveland: Joe Wolfe will probably play the lions' share of games but I want to push him with left-handed batting Ray Varner to see how much of a platoonish situation I can set up. I feel like this is the year TJ Pritchett loses his job, in this case to .300 hitting Luis Oropeza, but we need to play things out to be sure. Bobby Kaplan is going to fight Bobby Turner in left, although Kaplan, a .303 hitter with Washington last year, should really, really win this. Nelson Vargas will face off against Chris Fonseca in right; Fonseca is average at best but I need to make sure Vargas' bad 1971 in California isn't repeated. Detroit: I'm *not* battling Suman with Danny Villegas but rather giving the job to the veteran outright. This is likely only a temporary situation, what with the DH on the horizon, and, well, even in the best case scenarios Villegas will probably miss time. Adam Dittmar has the inside track on Guillermo Thompson but hey, Thompson could become a .300 guy again and then what do you do? Danny Hohman likewise has the inside track on Chris Contreras in RF, although with Hohman's luck he could just miss the entire season again... Houston: The scouts love them some Nick Miller at 1B but he hasn't exactly produced so I'll push him with pinch-hitting specialist Nate Ringstad. Here this feels like a team that's going to be suddenly weak in the lineup even though there aren't a lot of unsettled positions. Well, unless Justin Jensen comes back all the way... Kansas City: Funny cats or no, I'm not entirely sold on just giving Jim Davis all of the at-bats at first base, so I'm pairing him with Josh Lewis. That could work as a platoon situation into the regular season. In right field, Kyle Brown was the team's pinch-hitter last year and will try and consolidate that into a starting gig against top prospect / questionable boss Tony Danza. Los Angeles Dodgers: Can 3B Robin Gibb make the move all the way from A ball to the major leagues? He'll fight it out with Jeremy Schwartz, although honestlu that position could be an absolute black hole come April. Luis Solis will try to fend off Justin Henderson at short; Solis is the obvious choice on offense but he's a very bad defender where Henderson is a 3-time Gold Glover (all at second but still). Paul Stewart in LF is another guy who was not good last year but who will try to shake that off. He'll be battling JD Heil, who isn't all that good at anything other than defense. And with CF Butch Magana now out for the season after suffering a setback in his recovery from a broken kneecap, CF is down to Ben Ernst vs Mexican League veteran Tony Martinez. Milwaukee: Adam Brown ended the season as the team's catcher but hey, 26 year old Ken Hall hit .312 at the end of the year - let's make 'em fight it out. At third base it's the semi-incumbent Franciso Martinez (Martinez did start the year as the Brewers' 3B but lost the job) vs. career second baseman Pat Jones. Jones is 34 but he just deserves to play somewhere, especially on a team like this with such iffy hitting. Guido Temudo vs Eric Biron at SS is good-field, no-hit vs no-field, good hit. I have to think Temudo will win this because Biron wasn't a shortstop in 1970 and he's gotten 2 years older since then. Ross Poynor also can't really stick in centerfield but Fernando Ceballos can't hit so maybe we can create some kind of platoon arrangement there that approaches quality. Minnesota: Daniel Gilmet is still a good hitter but man, that defense at second base is really beginning to drop off so I feel the need to push him with Pietro Palmarocchi. Jeff Franks does not look great as a fielder but I'm just plain not going to go into the season with 38 year old Mike "the Randy Bush of this save" Grigg as the Twins' Opening Day left fielder so he'll get to prove it when the games count. Montreal: Rule V pick Norman Engelmann looks poised to take over the starting C role but as long as Roberto Carranco is there he'll challenge. At SS, Klaus Meine has loads of potetial but hit just .130 in 23 at-bats at the end of the season. I guess even if he hit .500 I'd have to test him. Incumbent George Yarbor is the tester. New York (A): The stoic Jonathan Banks will duke it out against future Hall of Famer Ty Stover, who could potentially still have something left. The entire outfield is up for grabs. In left, it's going to be 34 year old Frank Meneses, a man who, every time you think he's done he comes back, against Alan Rickman, who was pushed off of first base by the acquisition of Angels and White Sox slugger Pete Jennings. Center field is a fight between Micah MacMillan and Joel Schaben. Neither of them is a super great fielder but Schaben, I have to say, hit pretty well last season. And in right field, known Canadian Phil Hartman will see if he can keep up the good work of '71 against former Cubs CF Ryan Johnston, who come to think of it could also play in... center. New York (N): Jason Bushon will see if he can out-catch, or at least out-hit known rabble-rouser Gerry Adams. Adri van Zanten has to be one of the worst .260 hitters in the league. I'm not super fond of Danny Waters either (anymore) but they can fight it out for the 1972 job. Ethan Keesee will fight it out to see if the .358 average he put up in 100 ABs for St. Louis last year is sustainable; his opposition in LF is former Expos pinch-hitting specialist Gabe Martinez. Oakland: The A's are the first time I've run through who have zero camp battles. Except for the pitching of course. Philadelphia: Victor Serna deserves to defend his job after all these years with the team, even if he'll probably lose it to Nate Rowe. In left, Brandon Anderson played most of the year there but he's facing top prospect and Cuban not-defector Alberto Juantorena, who's a world-class sprinter in his off time. In right, Philadelphia hopes that John Belushi can keep going with his 66 1971 at-bats; he faces token competition there in the form of 28 year old Bobby Corley. Pittsburgh: I intend to run back the platoon combo of Jack Holman and Albilio Valdivia at first base but that looks like a "competition" in the books. Alex Flores will try to wrest the 3rd base job away from 38 year old Roberto Prieto. I'm not a huge fan of the gloves of either Luke Dunnahoe or Tyler Webster but that's what we've got right now at shortstop and so that's the competition. Michio Kaku will try and prove he can acclimate to the spooky physics of center field as he battles it out with incumbent Justin Hearl. San Diego: Peter Gabriel will fight it out with Michael DeBose at catcher but if Gabriel can hit I'll probably use both players extensively. Will Dale Earnhardt take pole position at third base vs 39 year old Kevin Landry? I guess we'll see. Andy Johnson, a 27 year old rookie, is going to get a shot at shortstop againt Armando Troncoso, who looks a step worse at the position and he was already around 3 steps bad. I don't really think either Jake Leone nor Josh Coldiron bring much to the table in center but one of them (probably) has to have the job. In right, I fully expect Ed O'Neill to emerge there but I want to give Ray Herring a lot of ABs to see if maybe he can be that guy in center. San Francisco: Catcher will see Iggy Pop vs Chris Campbell in an offense vs defense and also youth vs age matchup (yes, in this universe Iggy Pop is actually young). Joe Kimball looks like a league-average first baseman waiting to happen, which is an upgrade over Chris Seek, but Seek will nevertheless fight it out with him. I'd be extremely surprised if George Harrison loses to Tim Mock at third base but hey, weirder things have occurred. St. Louis: Given that they brought him in to shore up the defense, Brian Wilcox would have to completely die in order to lose the job to incumbent Dusty McCully... but then, McCully is the incumbent. Otherwise, this team is somewhat surprisingly set. Texas: Andres Gamez hit .318 as a catcher and should win the job here but he is only 23 so Jonathan House will push him in case he falls off. Tyler Knight is listed as being in competition with David Salinas at third base but probably what happens there if Salinas "wins" is that Knight switches back to shortstop. Speaking of which, that's down to a couple of younger and unproven players in Michael Luna and Henry Rodriguez. Tommy Pron will face token "new guy" competition in minor leaguer Greg Mathis; the Rangers really need Pron to find that stroke. Devin Bucciarelli and Bill Iverson are at it in a true "battle of the crap". Well, both can cover the field well. I won't list who won all them things but here's a very brief recap of spring training.... AL: The Tigers went 19-11 to lead the AL East over the 17-13 Yankees. Boston was only 14-16, which I won't take as a sign of anything. The O's trailed everyone with a 13-17 record. The West saw the hottest team all spring, the White Sox, who finished 21-9. Trailing the division were the champs, the A's, and the new kids, the Rangers, at 11-19 apiece. Of those two, I kind of expect that to be the Rangers' overall performance. Ernesto Garcia put on a clinic in spring training to lead everyone with 9 HRs. Brand new Twin Ernie Griffin had 7 of his own. Rob Curran led everyone in hitting with a .389 average although I'm almost positive that wasn't enough to win him a starting job. TJ Corron also performed super well and he *did* get a starting gig with that. Dylan Hamilton (CLE), Justin Kindberg (BOS), and Chris McGranahan (DET) all won 4 games, and Vince "not Denny McClain" Akright led the AL with a 0.41 ERA. NL: Montreal(!) paced the East with a 20-10 record. Hey, it's nice to have fun in the spring. Philly finished 13-17 and in last place so it was a topsy-turvy division. Houston led the West with an 18-12 record in spite of having what felt like a day to day injury to a random middle reliever every day. Hey, maybe moving Jaden Weaver was the right thing to do after all (narrator: it wasn't). The Reds, speaking of which, finished 15-15 in the middle of the pack. The Dodgers and Padres had identical 10-20 records; as I look through both of those rosters I think both may have lowkey really awful seasons. Jimmy "Olson" Washington of the Mets led the entire NL in HRs with 8 - is he coming back this year? Bobby Beaulieu seems poised to make Astros fans forget about Weaver in right field (haha); he led the NL with a .491 average this spring. Sean Gabel also hit over .400 in holding off a challenge at third in Chicago. There were just 2 4-game winners in the NL this spring: knuckleballer Colin Rose of Atlanta (who is now in the rotation, I'm happy to say) and Montreal's Aaron Terrell. Paz Lemus looks like he's ready to turn aside the bad finish in 1971 as he led the NL with 7 saves and didn't allow an earned run all spring (which made him lead in ERA). In preseason predictions news... AL East: The Red Sox are expected to repeat in the West - prognosticators give them 95 wins, even in the protracted season (HOW DO THEY KNOW????). Detroit's once again second, with a resurgent Indians club in 3rd. The Yankees look to continue to stick above .500 if not exactly in contention. Baltimore also looks like they're out of it, although they, too, should finish around .500. And in the cellar, by a long, long ways, are the new kids in town the Milwaukee Brewers. AL West: The Twins are predicted to come back after a year away from the playoffs, although truth be told there isn't really a clear front-runner here. The White Sox (what?) are predicted for 2nd, I guess thanks to a great spring (yes, I know how these are calculated; I'm just using my 1972 brain), with the Angels and A's both skimming a little below .500. That would be a big setback for Oakland, although they did overachieve like heck last season. Both Kansas City and Texas look like they're going to be losing a lot of games this year, which will be a big disappointment for both clubs. AL top performers: The game has Ernesto Garcia hitting 69 HRs this year. I would say "uh uh no way" but the man did hit 65 in 1971. YOU ARE MAKING A MOCKERY OUT OF MY SAVE. Alvin Romero looks like, once again, the premiere leadoff man (.339/9/60, 56 steals). Dave Corona similarly should shine for an otherwise bad Royals team (.314/22/75, 38 steals). I guess White Sox OF Alice Cooper is why the White Sox are destined for... not-awfulness (.279/45/107). Pitching-wise, look for another Cy Young showdown between Red Sox hurlers Marco Sanchez (23-11, 2.37) and Justin Kindberg (28-9, 2.58) with the A's Vince Akright (22-13, 2.57) doing what he can to prop up his guys. Chris Benavides (17-18, 3.25) looks like both the ace of the Twins and the AL leader in losses. NL East: A repeat by the Cards is... in the cards as they are predicted to make it 2 in a row, just barely beating out the Phillies thanks to a kind of big regression by the Philadelphia pitching staff (a predicted 3.66 ERA that should be below average in '72). The Pirates figure to tread water and remain well out of the race, while... the Expos(?) should be right behind them. The Mets and Cubs are the predicted cellar-mates, with both teams carrying a 4+ ERA (predicted). NL West: Hey hey hey, the Reds (might be) are back! They're predicted to win the division and maybe the whole entire enchilada with a 90 win season. Predicted in #2 are the Padres in spite of an awful spring training, then the other 2 California teams, the Dodgers and Giants. That Giants team just looks mediocre from top to bottom, but the prognosticators insist they're basically .500. That also means that both of 1971's Western contenders, the Braves and Astros, are going to duke it out for last place. I don't like Houston's offseason in particular and I guess the Braves are just getting old. NL top performers: Jaden Weaver, wow (.301, 55, 149). If it wasn't for what Ernesto Garcia is predicted to do in the AL, that would easily be the story of the year. Unleashed from the Astrodome, he's predicted to be a monster. Justin Stone (.314, 41, 113) is also predicted to do a lot for a Dodgers team who's stadium is kind of HR neutral this year for once. Henry Riggs (.309, 42, 97) continues to chug along for what is now supposed to be a bad Braves team. Sir Paul McCartney (.311, 27, 89) should continue to mash at second base. And Mike Galeana (.257, 40, 110) should be the key man for the Cardinals (Lorenzo Martinez is hurt, meaning he doesn't figure into this, which also means that the Cards might be even better than predicted). Pitching-wise, look for a race in NL wins between the Cardinals' new guy Roger Quintana (21-11, 2.47) and the Pirates' Santos Arango (21-12, 2.65). Tony Rivera of the Astros (16-16, 3.01) is on here as a "top performer" but that looks kind of bad to be honest. Geoff Saus (10-4, 1.84, 19 Sv) is the only reliever listed in either side; I expect he'll get a lot more saves than that, at least. ## Major Transactions February 5: The White Sox purchased P Ruben Estrada (7-11, 3.52 at AAA Portland) from the Twins for $5,000. Estrada did play in 2 games in September but otherwise seems unlikely to fit into Minnesota's plans (although they haaaate this trade). February 7: The White Sox purchased P Randy Nixon (0-3, 5.08) from the Giants for $2,000. The Sox continue to stockpile... bad arms. February 8: The Phillies traded 3B Joel King (.227, 6, 34 at AAA Eugene) to the Brewers for 3B Marco Villafana (.172, 1, 7). Another organizational move for each team (in fact, this is another PTBNL trade). Of the two, maybe Joel King has a marginally better chance to start at some point, although he's also now behind two other players at 3rd for the Brew Crew. February 25: The Cardinals traded P Vince Bachler (14-15, 3.44) to the Phillies for P Roger Quintana (17-14, 3.39). Bachler has never quite come through on his promise and so the Cards and Phillies are conducting a rare "challenge" trade between division rivals. Quintana immediately becomes St. Louis' strikeout artist; Bachler is roughly the same age but profiles as more of a middle-of-the-road who will make it hard to beat him. This is the Steve Carlton for Rick Wise deal; I think this is a waaay closer move than the real-life one, although Wise was no slouch IRL. March 1: The Padres purchased minor league P Dan Stone (0-1, 3.86 at AAA Rochester). Stone was shuttled through 3 levels last year and kind of looks like a guy without a job. At least, that was the appearance in Baltimore. Now he's in the Padres' organization. March 4: The A's traded RP Doug Ellis (1-0, 2.19) and P Billy Crystal (9-17, 3.36 in AAA Iowa) to the Rangers for P Vince Akright (18-13, 2.26). This is the Denny McClain deal, although of course in this universe McClain didn't implode between 1969 and 1971. Needless to say, this is a huuuge move for Oakland, as it gets them right into contention in the AL West. The Rangers do get a nice prospect in Crystal but man, they were supposed to compete this year... March 20: The Royals purchased minor league IF Brandon Holloway (.221, 2, 10 at AAA Charlotte) from the Pirates for $1,000. Holloway's got zero place in Pittsburgh and... he doesn't look like a player to me but numbers! March 20: The Red Sox purchased 2B Chris Moore (.200, 0, 3) from the Brewers for $750. How did this guy make the All-Star Game in 1970 again? I have no clue. Anyway, he had no place with the Brewers but in Boston he can maybe kind of back up the infield. March 22: The Yankees traded OF Frank Meneses (.250, 17, 57) and 2B prospect Angel Rivera (.259, 11, 62 at AAA Syracuse) to the Red Sox for RP Kojiro Nakazawa (5-3, 3.21). This was actually the Sparky Lyle trade but I kind of already traded Matt Brock off. Oops! Nakazawa is pretty good himself though and could fashion a Lyle type career. Meneses was probably going to win the LF job, knowing him, but now the Sox have a guy who can legitimately push Bruce Springsteen. March 25: The Reds traded OF/PH Javy Perez (.280, 5, 8) to the White Sox for minor league 1B Omari King (.222, 9, 13). Perez had increasingly no place in a crowded Reds outfield so this beats getting cut. The White Sox send back a guy who's got power but not a lot else; at least he won't cost the Reds a roster spot. March 26: OF/P Paul Kahl, who had been used as a pure pitcher the last couple years but lacked the stuff to stick, has been signed by the Montreal Expos to play in the outfield. He went .269/11/53 in 1968, so don't expect him to lead the league in anything but hey, an above average corner outfielder is not bad to find on the scrap heap... March 30: The Royals purchased C Mike Fenley (.172, 0, 3) from the Pirates for $5,000. With the development of Brent Spiner, the Pirates didn't really have any room for Fenley, who nevertheless is still only 25 himself. He'll probably just take the backup C job outright and maybe challenge Nick McIntyre if he can't get his hitting act together. March 30: The Indians purchased P Eddie Sanchez (2-2, 4.72) from the Brewers for $2,500. Sanchez wasn't doing super well with the Brewers and now the 36 year old is Cleveland's project. March 31: The Yankees purchased OF Jim Rogers (.286, 2, 7) from the Brewers for $750. Rogers couldn't break into the Brewers' OF game, probably because he's alreaady 30 years old. The Yankees see that number and think "oooh, veteran leadership". March 31: The Cubs traded P Victor Marin (5-10, 4.19) to the Brewers for RF Roger Greeno (.200, 0, 3) and RP Elliott Pettijon (2-2, 4.41). Marin looked a lot better in relief last year than as a starter so naturally the Brewers will likely put him back into the rotation. He's still only 30, though he's now 4 years removed from carrying a sub-4.00 ERA. Maybe the more forgiving County Stadium will do good for him. Chicago gets back organizational soldier Greeno as well as the 25 year old Pettijohn, who was off and on for Milwaukee last year and struggled with his control (28 walks in 49 IP). April 3: The Indians traded CF Norm Hodge (.232, 9, 48) to the Rangers for LF Tommy Pron (.273, 9, 48) and 1B Danny Cardenas (.218, 2, 7). Cleveland brings back Pron, whom they'd traded away earlier in the offseason, after he had a solid spring (.283, 1, 7) and send back the 7 time Gold Glove award winner in Hodge to get him. Reportedly Hodge had fallen out of favor with the Indians coaching staff due to his "clubhouse lawyer" attitude. April 5: The Expos traded 2B Bill Heyen to the Mets for 2B Danny Waters, minor league OF Bill Anderson, and LF Ruberto Yebra. Hey, the Expos are, after all, still working on building something up. Trading away Heyen in this case nets them the Mets' top prospect in Bill Anderson, rated the 100th best prospect in MLB in July of last year, so that's a thing. They also take a flier on Danny Waters, who looked like a guy 2 years ago, and Ruberto Yebra, who's been trying to be a leadoff man for several years now. For the Mets, to an extent this feels like opening one hole by plugging up another but presumably a corner OFer will be easier to find than a second baseman. April 7: The Cubs traded 2B David Holcombe and minor league 2B Zachary Taylor to the Expos for P Tom Owens. The Expos continue to be like "hey, we're supposed to be bad; don't make us a .500 team", although here they're trading away pitch-to-contact veteran reliever Owens and getting maybe their new 2B in return. April 10: The Giants signed 1B Justin Richens to a 1-year contract. The 39 year old Richens may no longer be good enough to make another All-Star Game but San Francisco was heading into the season with a gaping hole at the position and besides, he's within striking distance of 2,500 hits, so that should be fun for the fans. April 10: The Rangers signed LF Matthew Levario to a 1-year contract. Similarly, Levario fills a hole and is 5 HRs away from 450. His presence also allows the Rangers to put the young George W. Bush in the 5 hole in the lineup instead of cleanup. April 12: The Indians purchased CF Eric Weyenberg from the White Sox for $7,500. Weyenberg had just been sent down to the minors so this also constitutes a promotion for him. Cleveland barely has a starting CF since they traded Norm Hodge away so Weyenberg should get a long look. ## News January 24 (hey, overlap, sue me): Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi is discovered in Guam; he spent the last 28 years in the jungle, having failed to surrender after World War II. January 30: The British Army kills 14 unarmed nationalist civil rights marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland, an event that came to be known as "Bloody Sunday". February 3-13: The Winter Olympics are held in Sapporo, Japan. The top medal winners are: 1. Soviet Union - 8 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze 2. East Germany - 4G, 3S, 7B 3. Switzerland - 4G, 3S, 3B 4. Netherlands - 4G, 3S, 2B 5. USA - 3G, 2S, 3B Host Japan won 3 medals, all of them for ski jumping - this was one of three events where one country swept the podium, the other two being the women's and men's singles luge events, both won by a total of 6 East Germans. February 4: Mariner 9 sends pictures as it orbits Mars. No news of whether or not it saw that dead Soviet capsule or not (probably not). February 8: (real life) Commissioner Bowie Kuhn announces the Hall of Fame selection of Josh Leonard and Buck Leonard by the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues. February 17: The Volkswagen Beetle produces its 15,007,034th model, exceeding the total of Ford Model Ts created. February 21-28: Richard Nixon visits China, the first ever visit by a sitting US president to that country. February 22: The Troubles continue in Northern Ireland; here, a car bomb planted by the IRA kills seven people outside a British military base in Aldershot, England. February 29: A's reliever Josh Howard (2-4, 14 Sv, 5.00) tore a muscle in his back while moving furniture and will miss all of spring training plus the first month of the season. Ouch. March 3rd: Orioles RF Ralph May will miss the rest of spring training with a sore shoulder, probably handing that job off to Jamal Jenkins, who I'm not sure deserves it. March 9th: The White Sox voted 31-0 in favor of a strike, if necessary, during negotiations between players and owners. The dispute centers around health and pension benefits for the plauyers. Particularly outspoken on behalf of the players is 24 year old Ben Lamar (3-4, 2.52, 4 Sv in 1971). March 9th: I guess it just wasn't going to be the year for Carlos Ramirez. The former Pilots and A's closer who played in only 34 games behind Paz Lemus in Pittsburgh, will now miss all of 1972 with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. He's 29 now and so it's not out of the question that this is a career-ender. March 10th: Giants RF Barry Cooper (.258, 3, 34), trying to come back from a bad, bad 1971 season, will not get the PT he wanted this spring, as a bone bruise in his knee will set the 28 year old back until late April. That also, at least for the time being, opens up the job between prospect Carl Weathers and 31 year old Jon Berry, who led the league in runs scored in 1968 while playing for the Red Sox. March 13th: So... remember how Joel Schaben was going to try and become the Yankees 4th OFer and maybe something more? Not so much. He's out until midseason with a torn meniscus in his knee. That means that Ryan Johnston is now directly competing with Micah MacMillan, and that also means that Phil Hartman almost certainly has a lock on the starting RF gig now. March 20th: Red Sox P Shunichi Zeniya (2-1, 5.17), hoping to make the roster following a tough 1971, will instead miss all of 1971 and possibly have to call it quits on his career with a partially torn UCL. March 22nd: Nick Mileti, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, heads a group that purchases the Cleveland Indians from Vernon Stouffer for $9M. Stouffer had originally turned down an offer from George Steinbrenner to buy the team but when the rest of the owners reject a proposal to have the Indians play some of their home games in that classic Cleveland suburb called New Orleans, Stouffer decides to sell the team. I put Mileti in as fiscally controlling, tolerant, and kind of tight-fisted, owing to the way he's pretty heavily leveraged. March 23rd: Rangers hurler Eric Godard (1-8, 16 Sv, 4.53), who was working on a big comeback after a really bad season as the Indians' closer, will miss the entire season with shoulder inflammation. I guess the inflammation is really bad or something. March 23rd: It's a now-regular occurrence but Expos RF Matt Williams (.281, 19, 48) will once again miss the start of the season, this time with a sprained knee. He's not expected back until mid to late May. This also leaves the Expos completely without a RF to the point that I am signing guys off the street, including outfielder-turned-pitcher-turned-back-to-outfielder Paul Kahl. March 23rd: And in news of guys who've done nothing but tantalize you with talent while sucking rocks at the major league level... Royals P Jose Zuazua ruptured his UCL and will miss all of 1972 as a result. He's only 26 so maaaaaybe could come back but the man has a lifetime 6.47 ERA over 3 seasons so it's going to be an uphill climb. March 24th: The Expos purchased OF Bill Swan (.188, 5, 12) from the Tigers for $1,000. Swan looked pretty much done last year and wasn't figuring into the roster but the Expos are pretty, pretty desperate for outfield help right now. March 24th: The Reds traded RP Edward James Olmos (3-5, 14 Sv, 2.51) to the Cardinals for SS Dusty McCully (.253, 9, 58). The Reds, no doubt, did not want to part with the young hurler Olmos who was a bright light on a bad pitching staff last year, but their own SS Mike Wendt (.236, 10, 54) is looking more and more replacement-level and McCully did start for a pennant-winning team (I guess you could say the same about Wendt in 1970). The Cardinals had handed the SS job to Brian Wilcox (.230, 8, 31) anyway and now they've added the setup man they were missing all offseason after trading away Rick Legere. March 25th: In what is truly the biggest news of the year, the final episode of Bewitched was broadcast, ending a run that had started in September 1964. March 25th: The UCLA Bruins beat Florida State 81-76 to win their 6th NCAA basketball championship, their 8th overall, and their 45th consecutive victory. March 25th: 10-time All-Star for the Cardinals, 1B Lorenzo Martinez (.265, 37, 100), will be out until May with a badly sprained knee. Spring training has been if anything a little light so far this year, at least in terms of injuries to frontline players. This, obviously, is an exception. March 27th: Dutch lithographer MC Escher died today at the age of 73. March 28th: Northern Ireland's Parliament, the Stormont, met for the very last time; British prime minister Edward Heath dissolved the assembly earlier in the month when he announced that the region would be ruled directly by the United Kingdom. March 29th: Douglas Sweetapple, a 3 time All-Star who was attempting a comeback in Philadelphia after being limited to just 61.2 IP snce 1967, suffered a partially torn UCL yesterday and today announced that rather than go through another round of extensive rehab, he'd retire. Sweetapple finishes with a major league record of only 40-52 with a 3.67 ERA. He made the All-Star Game from 1962-64 as a young, up-and-coming member of the expansion Astros. March 30th: Marvin Miller, the executive director of the MLB Players' Association, completes his canvass of players on the strike issue: 663 vote in favor of a strike, 10 against, and there are 2 abstentions. Barring anything major, it looks like the season's going to be delayed by a labor dispute for the first time in MLB history. April 1st: Tigers CL Alex Madrigal (9-7, 2.24, 20 Sv), who missed a chunk of last year too, will miss the entire first half of the season with shoulder inflammation. Jim Marceau (5-3, 11 Sv, 2.22) will hold down the job while he's out; the 30 year old filled a similar role for the Tigers last year. April 1st: Brewers IF Pat Jones (.316, 2, 16), who was looking like the easy favorite to take over the 3rd base job, will instead be out until July with a broken hand. Jones is 34 and to be honest I was kind of looking forward to a comeback type season for him. Instead, the job reverts bacck to Francisco Martinez, who I guess to be fair is hitting .333 this spring and looks like maybe he'll be the .306 hitter he was in 1970. April 1st: The former 18th overall pick (in 1967), P Tim Elliott, will miss the entire season with a partially torn UCL. Elliott has never been able to stay healthy and now at age 25 it might be time to call it quits. April 1st: Following today's games, the long-rumored strike officially goes into effect. The remaining 3 days of exhibitions have been cancelled (handily, OOTP did not schedule them in the first place) and the season opener on April 5 will be postponed. April 2nd: Just as Cubs 2B Juan Perez (.248, 6, 27) looked like he was going to be crowned the winner of the 2B-off in Chicago, he came down with a sprained knee that's going to keep him out until May. That may actually not be all that bad of an injury given the strike... April 2nd: Speaking of starters who will miss Opening Day, whenever that is, Phillies 3B Alex Becerra (.248, 30, 72) is out for the next 2 months with a sprained knee. It's right on the cusp as to where he should go but I'll stick him on the 21 day DL for now in the hopes that he can come back quickly. April 2nd: (real life) Mets manager Gil Hodges died suddenly of a heart attack at age 47. April 3rd: Silent film legend Charlie Chaplin returned to the USA after more than 20 years of a self-imposed exile. He's back in the States for an invitation to the Academy Awards. April 5th: A waaaay out of place tornado killed 6 people in the Portland suburb of Vancouver, Washington. I grew up in Western Washington and in all my time living there I never saw anything twistier than a dust devil. April 5th: As expected, Opening Day comes and goes with nobody playing ball due to the strike. April 9th: President Richard Nixon recommends that both sides in the baseball dispute meet with J. Curtis Counts, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. I don't think anything comes of this and it sounds suspect to me anyway. April 10th: President Nixon is a busy man: he and Soviet head of state Nikolai Podgorny signed the Biological Weapons Convention, in their respective capitals of Washington and Moscow. Okay, maybe saying baseball should mediate one day and signing a document the next isn't a super tight schedule... April 11th: (real life) Red Sox fan favorite Jason Varitek was born in Rochester, Michigan. April 13th: The end of the strike is announced! Games will officially begin on the 15th, a Saturday. That's probably the first time in MLB history that the season starts on a Saturday but I'm not going to check on that, haha. ## Teams in Review ABSOLUTELY NOT
__________________
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Bookmarks |
|
|
