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04-07-2023, 11:44 AM
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#141 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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August 23-29, 1971
Standings / Recap / Comments
------------------------ WE'RE COMIN TO American League Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA Boston Red Sox 83 50 .624 - 562 434 Detroit Tigers 74 58 .561 8½ 545 487 Baltimore Orioles 69 59 .539 11½ 502 458 Washington Senators 70 62 .530 12½ 542 454 New York Yankees 64 69 .481 19 545 557 Cleveland Indians 58 75 .436 25 548 610 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Oakland Athletics 70 63 .526 - 494 516 Minnesota Twins 66 64 .508 2½ 528 545 California Angels 65 69 .485 5½ 512 512 Kansas City Royals 60 71 .458 9 535 624 Chicago White Sox 58 74 .439 11½ 484 499 Milwaukee Brewers 54 77 .412 15 426 527 Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA New York Mets 69 61 .531 - 540 509 Philadelphia Phillies 70 62 .530 - 561 499 Pittsburgh Pirates 71 64 .526 ½ 508 487 St. Louis Cardinals 70 64 .522 1 571 575 Chicago Cubs 63 68 .481 6½ 577 615 Montreal Expos 50 79 .388 18½ 488 613 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Atlanta Braves 82 55 .599 - 675 534 Houston Astros 75 58 .564 5 598 572 Cincinnati Reds 64 71 .474 17 538 568 San Diego Padres 63 70 .474 17 536 546 San Francisco Giants 61 73 .455 19½ 514 556 Los Angeles Dodgers 60 73 .451 20 539 571 Code:
Rank Team Pts Td Record PCT AVG ERA Pyt.Rec Diff 1st (1st) Boston 120 o 83-50 .624 .268 2.96 82-51 1 2nd (3rd) Atlanta 115 + 82-55 .599 .261 3.44 83-54 -1 3rd (4th) Houston 113 + 75-58 .564 .262 3.86 69-64 6 4th (2nd) Detroit 109 - 74-58 .561 .257 3.25 73-59 1 5th (5th) New York 106 o 69-61 .531 .247 3.62 69-61 0 6th (7th) Baltimore 102 + 69-59 .539 .254 3.11 69-59 0 7th (9th) Philadelphia 96 + 70-62 .530 .252 3.49 73-59 -3 8th (6th) Washington 94 - 70-62 .530 .260 2.91 77-55 -7 9th (21st) Oakland 94 ++ 70-63 .526 .263 3.41 64-69 6 10th (14th) Minnesota 88 ++ 66-64 .508 .259 3.76 63-67 3 11th (11th) St. Louis 87 o 70-64 .522 .269 3.81 67-67 3 12th (10th) New York 87 - 64-69 .481 .247 3.80 65-68 -1 13th (12th) Cincinnati 86 - 64-71 .474 .244 3.87 64-71 0 14th (13th) Chicago 86 - 63-68 .481 .260 4.14 62-69 1 15th (15th) California 85 o 65-69 .485 .252 3.36 67-67 -2 16th (8th) Pittsburgh 83 -- 71-64 .526 .251 3.11 70-65 1 17th (18th) San Francisco 81 + 61-73 .455 .250 3.69 62-72 -1 18th (20th) Los Angeles 79 + 60-73 .451 .250 3.65 63-70 -3 19th (16th) Kansas City 78 -- 60-71 .458 .236 4.46 56-75 4 20th (19th) San Diego 76 - 63-70 .474 .252 3.74 65-68 -2 21st (22nd) Cleveland 75 + 58-75 .436 .255 4.10 60-73 -2 22nd (24th) Milwaukee 73 + 54-77 .412 .239 3.49 53-78 1 23rd (17th) Chicago 73 -- 58-74 .439 .244 3.49 64-68 -6 24th (23rd) Montreal 71 - 50-79 .388 .254 4.27 51-78 -1 Meanwhile, though, the NL East has closed up trememdously. The Phillies and Mets are ostensibly in first place now but the Pirates are just a half game back with 3 games in the books compared to Philadelphia and 5 for the Mets. I bring this up because those extra games could all become losses given the state of this division. And at that, St. Louis, who's led the division for large chunks of the year, is only a single game back. I think of all these teams in terms of their problems, maybe, because mostly when I interact with them directly it's to try and fix something, but these are all pretty decent teams it would be fun to see in a division series. I'll just try and summarize their strengths in one phrase: NY Mets: Front line pitching and "Superman" (1B Josh Waltenbery (.321, 17, 79)), plus of course these guys are still the Amazin's Philadelphia: Possibly the best middle infield in baseball - SS Tony Shannon (.328, 13, 63) and 2B Nate Rowe (.366, 7, 37 in just 52 games) Pittsburgh: Incredible frontline pitching plus the great Paz Lemus (11-11, 3.51, 21 Sv) to bring them home St. Louis: Possibly insane middle of the order hitting, particularly 1B Lorenzo Martinez (.266, 32, 84) They'll almost certainly face Atlanta, who seems like they have a roster set especially well for a short series given that their biggest weakness is the back of their rotation, but whoever makes it, it should be a fun 5-game series. Whereas in the AL... well, anything can happen in a short series of course but I would be very, very surprised if the Red Sox don't completely slaughter either of the possible West entrants. I guess if you go by season records Minnesota could give them more of an issue: they're only 6-6 vs the Twins but 9-3 vs the A's. ANYWAY, this week's big yuppies are, of course, those Oakland Athletics, who pinioned all the way down into the 20s last week but are back up in the top 10. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh went 1-6 against the Braves and Astros to fall 8 places to 16th in the power rankings and earn the dirty hippie of the week award, just beating out the White Sox, who are definitely worse and had just as bad of a week (1-5) against lower quality teams (which, the Orioles and Tigers are still pretty good) but who had fewer places they could drop. Major Transactions ------------------------ August 23: The Expos claimed RP Fernando Zavala (3-3, 4.44) off of waivers from the Indians. Zavala's a guy who just never quite put things together in Cleveland and should, even at age 29, stand to be a good lottery ticket for Montreal. News ----------------------- August 23: This week's Billboard Top 5: 1. How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, Bee Gees 2. Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver 3. Signs, Five Man Electrial Band 4. Mercy Mercy Me, Marvin Gaye 5. Mr. Big Stuff, Jean Smart I don't really remember Signs... oh wait, yes I do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeT5otk2R1g The early 70s are a weird time in that I feel like half the songs in here, I think are from the late 60s and the other half are from the mid to late 70s. This is one of the "oh, this isn't 5 years later?" ones, although I guess in context the song is about dirty hippies. Also, wasn't this covered in a top 40 way in the late 80s? August 23: Dodgers CF Danny Hohman (.283, 2, 11) is out for the season because of course he is. The oft-injured Hohman, who was limited to just 120 games last season, will end his season with 26 of them. Looks like Ben Ernst (.270, 2, 31), who was looking like an early-season ROY lock, will get extended time to prove himself again... August 23: This week's AL Player of the Week is Twins 1B Angelo Martinez (.286, 18, 73), who had a week that reminded Twins fans of his 1969 MVP campaign. Martinez had 12 hits in 27 at-bats, 3 HRs, and 13 RBIs. I feel like we've had some marginal Player of the Week awards but this one was well-deserved. This is the 2nd time Martinez has won the PotW this season and the 19th of his career. August 23: It's another tale of age and youth between this week's PotW awards, as the NL's version goes to Astros rookie OF "Big George" Foreman (.330, 4, 19). Foreman, who practices the sweet science of boxing in the off-season, went 12 for 25 last week with a single HR and 6 RBIs. He's a guy I expect to have a bit of a downturn with the lowering of BABIP (see my notes from last week) but he's been awfully good so far. August 23: The A's fiiiiinally win their first, although it takes 10 innings and a 2-run rally in the bottom of the 9th off of Yankees stopper Mike Overmann (3-3, 2.31, 6 Sv) to do it. Roberto Ortiz had yet another trying game, leaving after 7 in spite of 9 Ks because he also walked 7 and threw 148 pitches. In any case, after CF Alex Vallejo (.295, 3, 18) drove in PH Raul Bueno (.257, 3, 20) in the 9th to tie it up, reserve SS Gil Wilson (.268, 1, 10) sent the Oakland fans home happy in the bottom of the next frame. Thanks to another Twins loss tonight, the A's move back into sole possession of first place in the AL West with a 66-61 record. August 23: It's the MOST streakiest TIME of the YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR R. Today the Mets rallied in the bottom of the 11th inning to take down the Giants 3-2 to win their 6th straight game. 2B Adri van Zanten (.258, 4, 49) got the game-winning 2-RBI single after San Francisco's stopper "The Assassin" John Booth (6-8, 3.70, 19 Sv) chose to intentionally walk the man before him, C Jason Bushon (.212, 12, 50) to load the bases. "I see a pitch I like, I hit it," said the Dutch/Aruban national van Zanten. "And Booth gave me a real olliebollen". The 'olliebollen' is basically what Americans call a donut hole and is very delicious if not necessarily eaten a lot in Aruba. You can buy them from vendors on the street in Amsterdam though. August 24: In real-life baseball news, Ernie Banks hit his 512th and final homerun of his career. He played sparingly the rest of the way, going 6-17 over 7 games and 4 starts for the rest of the season as the team relied on Joe Pepitone at first base (Banks had stopped playing shortstop years before). August 24: Oft-injured Braves pitcher Damian Seja was involved in a fight with two off-duty Atlanta police officers today after he reportedly took umbrage at one of them calling him a racial slur. (note: this is to echo an incident that happened with Rico Carty. I'm not "livening up" this save to make it worse than real life, I promise!) August 24: Astros 2B Alejandro Chairez (.208, 6, 23) was diagnosed with a sore elbow. It's not the worst injury in the world but with him suffering from an awful 1971 and with Jon Sherron looking like a solid long-term replacement for the 32 year old, I'm going to just go ahead and stick him on the DL until he's fully healed. August 24: I guess you could say that Royals P Miguel Chavez (12-8, 2.77) has had a very up and down season this year. All in all he's definitely playing better than last year, though, when he represented Kansas City in the All-Star Game. Today he was as good as ever, throwing a 7-hit shutout against the AL East leading Boston Red Sox and tying the Royals' record for strikeouts in a game with 12 (a mark initially set by Eric Tyler last year). This is the 2nd time this season Chavez has exceeded 10 Ks in a game, although these 2 were the five-time All Star's first such outbursts since 1967. August 24: A's rookie C Josh Lewis (.293, 11, 49), the clear front-runner for Rookie of the Year, just celebrated his 23rd birthday yesterday and today he did so on the field with a 3-4 day that included his 11th dinger of the year in a 4-0 A's win that puts his team 2 games up on the Twins in the standings. "I'm more of a singles guy," Lewis said after the game, "but when you give me that slow ball like Manny [Carbajal] threw, I'm gonna smoke it." Lewis' career high in HRs at any level is 13, a mark he set last season in AAA Iowa. August 25: There's a major flood in Bangladesh and eastern Bengal. August 25: Justin Kindberg (20-5, 2.23) became the first AL pitcher and 4th pitcher overall to win 20, but it had to come down to the wire. Kindberg was throwing a shutout into the 7th but was chased by Kansas City RF RJ Dominguez (.275, 18, 58), who knocked a 3-run homerun off him to close the score to 6-3. The next inning, Matt Brock then himself allowed a 2-run HR to CF Allen Scurry (.244, 11, 52) followed by a double by weak-hitting SS Nate Sita (.218, 11, 42 but 3-5 on the day) before finally settling down to strike out the Royals' best hitter, LF Dave Corona (.287, 10, 48) to end the game. "I'm more interested in team wins than my own wins," said the mild-mannered Kindberg after the game. This was also Boston's 80th win; they'll clinch their 4th consecutive .500 or better record with their next victory. August 26: A civilian government takes power in Greece... at least temporarily. All I see in the Wikipedia article about the country circa 1971 is that they continued to be controlled by the Regime of the Colonels, which, as you might guess from the name, was a military junta. August 26: In news that will surprise absolutely nobody, Padres hurler Ben Feldhusen (8-6, 2.99) had his elbow tendinitis downgraded to an uncertain return. Feldhusen initially figured to miss a month when this came up at the end of August; now, it may end his season. The oft-injured left-hander was at one time in his career a multi-time All Star and Cy Young candidate but he'd also thrown in just 1 game between 1969 and 1970, so the 21 starts he gave the Padres this year has to be seen as pure gravy. August 26: Braves CF Josh Damon (.264, 16, 56) will be out until late September with a herniated disc in his back, giving Jose Gomez (.264, 7, 14) a chance to prove himself. Gomez himself has been a bit injury-prone, which is a large part of why he went from an All-Star berth in 1968 with the Cubs to being a 4th OFer in Atlanta. He's got 7 HRs in just 87 at-bats this year and scouts insists that that power is for real. I guess we'll see! August 26: Cardinals CF Jim James (.296, 9, 28) also just had his injury status downgraded to unknown - he was due to come back next week - and with 37 year old Elijah Johnson (.244, 4, 31) struggling in his place, I've got to make a move. I'll release Hector Vazquez (.243, 0, 3) outright to make room at the big league club for former Brewers starter Dylan Dockery (.261, 3, 18 at AAA Tulsa), who looked like a legitimate hitter in 142 AAA at-bats since he was last up with the club. Prospect Ethan Keesee (.339, 0, 4) will also get a lot of time out in center. August 26: Man, it's a bad day for center fielders, as Brewers prospect Bruce Springsteen (.263, 2, 3) also had his recurring back spasms injury downgraded to unknown. This is maybe a bigger blow for the Boss than for the Brew Crew, as Milwaukee wasn't going anywhere anyway but Springsteen could have definitely used more experience this year. He's still only 22 so it's still not a huge deal. August 26: It was a classic deadball era style pitchers duel between the Senators' Raul Mendoza (15-11, 3.23) and the Angels' Gary Bruno (9-13, 3.61). Both men carried shutouts through 9 innings, with Bruno finally allowing an RBI single to the opposing pitcher, driving in LF Bobby Kaplan (.308, 2, 42) for the only run in the game. August 27: In amidst a disastrous season for the Reds, at least their ace Steve Waiters (20-9, 2.36) is still ticking. Waiters posted his 20th victory for the 2nd consecutive year in a 7-2 win over the Cardinals. Waiters probably could have gone all the way but was removed for a pinch-hitter in the 7th after scattering 9 hits and 2 earned runs. He also struck out 8 and okay, he did throw 128 pitches so maybe a CG was not in the books but still: it was a nice start. Some would call it a quality start. Some would say Waiters has had 29 quality starts in 33 games started this year. Some would also point out that he led the league in QSes last year with 31. August 27: Mets OF Mark Tooley (.196, 8, 26), who's been hitting .172 since New York signed him in mid-July, wants to start. You need some reality therapy, Mark. I'm not going to do anything about this because the Mets are desperately thin in the OF but this needs to be a priority in the offseason. August 28: Red Sox starter Mike Pesco's (17-14, 3.39) stuff has maybe not been quite as overpowering as it was before he missed most of last season with a torn tendon in his elbow, but now, at the ripe old age of 27, he's proving he can still win games on guile and heart. Tonight he scattered 8 hits and a walk in shutting out the Angels 3-0. This was Pesco's 13th complete game and 3rd shutout of the season, which he earned in spite of striking out just 4 guys. "I'm glad we got the results," a strangely unhappy Pesco said after the game, "but I'm not happy with my command tonight. I'll do better." August 28: Call him the Streakbreaker. Tasked with facing a red-hot Mets team that's won its last 8 games, Dodgers starter Fernando Apolonio (14-11, 2.95) set things in order, pitching a 6-hit complete game and shutting New York down just enough to get his team a 3-2 victory. The Mets even went so far as to tie this one up at 2 apiece in the 8th off of an RBI double by 1B Joshua "Superman" Waltenbery (.320, 17, 79), who also hit a solo HR earlier in the game. It wasn't enough as CF Ben Ernst (.286, 3, 36) got to stopper Geoff Saus (10-11, 2.66) in the top of the 9th with an RBI single. "It was a great team win", said Apolonio, who's way too polite to say that he should have a lot more of those this season. August 28: Something seems like it's seriously wrong with Paz Lemus (11-11, 3.51, 21 Sv), or else he's just having the absolute worst luck a pitcher can have. Entering what was supposed to be a pitcher's duel tonight between the Pirates' Santos Arango (22-5, 2.19) and the Astros' Tony Rivera (21-8, 3.12), Lemus inherited a 7-5 lead that he lost thanks to allowing 5 hits in 1 1/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .333 this month in spite of Lemus striking out a solid number of batters - 13 in 15.1 innings - so the statheads who live in their mom's basements insist that this is indeed bad luck, but man, True Baseballists don't believe in the "L" word. August 28: Richard "Ringo Starr" Starkey (15-7, 3.57) has had a pretty average month since winning the Pitcher of the Month award for the month of July - he's 3-2 with a 3.56 ERA in August following a 3-0, 2.61 month previously - but he was on the ball tonight, scattering 3 hits and just missing double digits in Ks for the first time in his major league career in a 6-0 win over the Giants. "It really makes you warm in the jubbly bubblies," Starr said, or at least we think he said, after the game. "Me hooker was hooking and... what was I talking about again?" His Phillies now sit 1/2 game up on the Pirates with a 70-61 record and 6 wins in their last 10 games. August 29: Yankees LHP Gene Lueders (4-5, 3.25) has taken a long road to New York and, well, it's been a bumpy ride for the Yankees this year too, but today at least he looked like a real ace, outdueling the Royals' Miguel Chavez (12-9, 2.71) in a 2-0 shutout win. It was Lueders' 2nd shutout of the season, one off of his career high he set in 1969 when he went 12-10 with a 3.39 ERA for the White Sox. He really struggled last season (4-9, 5.16), ending it in late August with a diagnosis of bone chips in his elbow, and, following a trade to the Bronx Bombers this offseason, took it easy in the first half of the year. As such, this was only his 12th start on the year and 30th appearance overall. Teams in Review ------------------------- August 23: The Minnesota Twins (64-60, T-1st, AL West) have been scuffling pretty hard as of late - 7-14 for the month of August - but luckily for them their 1971 rivals the Oakland A's are scuffling even harder. Still, they need to get things going soon. They are just plain not good for a playoff team, period - a league average offense (7th in runs scored, although 1st in OPS so maybe they have something up their sleeves) and a 4th worst scoring defense. Rotation: Victor Ruiz (6-5, 3.55) looks like he's back in the rotation for now and there's nothing I can do about it. I mean, I did just recall Pete Eason after a 10 inning stint in Portland but the 1963 Cy Young Award winner has been a reliever for this team since 1969 and I'm not changing that down the stretch. If nothing else he's too much of an injury risk in a starting role. Bullpen: As noted, Eason coming in is the big change. That also allowed the Twins to send Justin Christiansen (0-0, 5.40) back down. He'll probably be back up in a couple weeks. Todd Thiesen (1-2, 5.06, 4 Sv) has his numbers marred by essentially 1 bad outing so I am not even starting to lose faith in him (and even if I did, I'd have to gain a lot more faith in Pete Lynn (6-7, 3.15, 14 Sv) before going back). Infield: Jun-ho Baek (.226, 1, 8) is filling in at shortstop until Marty Mendel (.245, 2, 34) is healthy but I have to ask if I want to keep him there afterwards. Mendel has been baaaad with the glove this year, 3rd worst in baseball and worst in the AL according to ZR. He's finally started to hit, which is going to make this a tougher decision, but he's never been a great fielder and looks like he's taken a step back even at age 27. Long-term, though, the 32 year old Baek is not the answer either. Outfield: With Alejandro Cortes (.214, 7, 26) suffering from yet another DtD injury in admidst a really bad season, I went ahead and called up 3B/OF Darrel Bump (.284, 11, 65 at AAA Portland). Bump's basically blocked at his main position by Mike Brookes (.251, 17, 44), but there's no reason why he can't play some left field, especially with Mike Grigg (.276, 3, 20) showing his age as of late and Kyle Ship (.235, 0, 10) looking just kind of bad overall. I'd say these guys are all warming the spot for Jeff Franks (.342, 5, 23) except that Franks isn't going to get back until right at the very end of the season. August 23: So yeah, about those Oakland A's (65-61, T-1st AL West)... I'd say they're out of it except that Minnesota doesn't seem to want to win the AL West any more than they do. Oakland's lost 8 in a row but are still only 10-13 for the month so they're this close to getting it back on track. To get there, they need the starting pitching to pull its weight again; the hitting is just plain not going to do it (11th in the AL in runs scored, ahead of only the Brewers). Rotation: The lowest-performing guy right now is the putative ace Roberto Ortiz (10-15, 3.70), who in truth hasn't even been that bad overall. He's just very, very wild. I don't see myself changing anything up on that front. Bullpen: I am really beginning to distrust Josh Howard (2-4, 4.58, 14 Sv) in high-pressure situations. He's a very soft thrower for a right-handed pitcher, which is maybe the issue, as when slider isn't working, he can leave it right in the middle of the zone. He's allowed 25 HRs now over the past 2 seasons combined and 118 innings. I'll promote Chris Wilson (5-0, 1.46) into the setup role and figure out what I want to do with Howard over the offseason. Infield: 1B Kyle Kelver (.249, 4, 28) has 2 more weeks to prove he's worthy of getting significant at-bats; that's when Ray Hawkinson (.402, 6, 21) returns from the DL. There's a very solid chance that when that happens I'll force-retire John Skelton (.220, 2, 11), whose looked every last one of his 42 years of age this year. Outfield: I've got to keep it as it stands, I think. The question of whether to start David Mesa (.270, 1, 16) and his Gold Glove quality play is going to be a good one for 1972 but for now Alex Vallejo (.292, 3, 17) is the CF when he's healthy. August 23: The St. Louis Cardinals (68-60, 2nd NL East) were doing... I wouldn't say good, but OK at least before this past weekend, when they let the Atlanta Braves sweep them in a 3-game series. They're 10-11 for the month. This team is built around offense and homeruns - especially from their corner infielders - and their struggles usually come when the pitching staff can't hold up their end of the bargain, for example in the last series in which 2 of the losses were 12-3 and 8-4. What can be done? I mean, this is still very much a contending team. Rotation: The Cards just plain don't have a staff ace and it's a bit too late in the year to find one. For now, Ernie Alvarez (13-14, 4.21), who missed all but 8 games in 1970 before the Cardinals traded for him, just doesn't look like the same guy who won 15 games for the Bucs in 1968, but as noted above I don't see how they can swap him out at a critical juncture such as this one. Bullpen: I can always tinker around the edges and one obvious tinkering point is RP Jordan Sandoval (1-1, 5.29), who has been both wild and HR prone, can get the boot in favor of former Brewer Miguel Hernandez (0-1, 6.04). Hernandez was himself very bad in the beginning of the year but since then has flashed in AAA Tulsa with a 2.14 ERA and 14 saves. Infield: There's not a lot that I need or want to do here. I'm not super fond of Tom Depew's (.306, 1, 32) descent from flirting with .400 to barely cresting .300 but he's still getting the job done and has even shown signs of getting his swing back in order in the month of August (.310 with 6 RBIs so far). I'll spell him with Cuban national Jeronimo Argumedo (.357, 0, 1) because there's a natural platoon thing there. Outfield: The biggest issue right now is that Elijah Johnson (.246, 4, 31) is playing too much. He's hitting about to his career average of .245 but that's no longer good enough in the swingin' 70s, and to make matters worse he is no longer the Gold Glove quality center fielder he was with the Pirates for so many years. The good news there is that Jimmy James (.296, 9, 28) is back in about a week, at which point Johnson can go back to being the 4th or 5th outfielder he should have been all along. August 25: The NL East race isn't dominated by mediocrity the way the AL West is but it's sure that the Pittsburgh Pirates (71-60, 1st NL East) could be better. They've been riding a 1st place pitching staff all year but man, they have issues scoring runs (2nd worst in the NL, with just 90 HRs, which itself is 10th). I think they're a little trapped by their success there (and, to be honest, they've been hurt a lot) but we'll see... Rotation: There are three guys who are basically interchangeable at the tail end of the rotation - DJ Cheeves (5-13, 3.68), Danny Perez (2-3, 3.88), and Octavio "Papa" Vargas (5-11, 4.07). I'd been using Cheeves and Perez but I think, at least after today's game, I'll switch over to Papa and his 232 career wins. The only reason I'm not making this change immediately is that Vargas just started yesterday. Bullpen: Paz Lemus (11-10, 3.29, 21 Sv) has been well off of his form this month, with a 1-3 record and a 6.75 ERA, but I'm not just going to switch horses, not when that horse has been such a, um, great horse for this team. I'll try and remember to work setup man Brian Bruno (5-5, 2.64) in a bit more though. Infield: Much as I think Brent "Data" Spiner (.346, 1, 5) might be the Bucs' catcher of the future, Doug Connally (.271, 8, 33) is clearly their catcher of the now. I dropped him right back into the starting lineup when he came back from strained back that kept him out for most of the month and I expect him to be their man from here on out. 1B Albilio Valdivia (.304, 4, 21) looks like he's hitting as well as he's ever has but a lot of that has got to be the fact that the 39 year old isn't asked to play every day or even more than around half-time thanks to the presence of Jack Holman (.291, 8, 31). This platoon is working well enough for now. In the long-term, Valdivia might not be around but Holman has kind of proven now that he's fine as long as you don't make him hit against lefties. I only have Henry Villar (.263, 2, 26) at 2nd right now because a sore elbow has sapped his throwing arm. Once that's healed, he'll switch back to shortstop. That's also about the time Tyler Webster (.235, 5, 20) is due to come back and he's... good enough for this season I guess. In the meantime though, Arturo Martinez (.256, 5, 53 at AAA Charlotte) showed that he might just not be the sub-.200 hitter he was in 315 at-bats last season; if nothing else he has to be a better option as a backup infielder than Sergio Cando (.169, 2, 9), who has proven to be the epitome of a AAA hitter. I'm going to pull the trigger at 3rd and move Alex Flores (.280, 3, 8) into the starting job ahead of the aging Roberto Prieto (.229, 9, 42). Even last year I don't think I would have taken this gamble but Prieto lost almost 60 points off his average this year and so far has not done anything to demonstrate that he's a .280 hitter like he once was. Also, to make matters worse, his diminishing range has turned him into a liability at the hot corner. Outfield: Now that RF Brian Jackson (.289, 8, 33) is back from a separated shoulder that cost him all of July and most of August, the outfield at least is pretty well set. August 27: Somewhere in the midst of everyone else losing their 60th, I somehow missed the Washington Senators (68-60, 4th AL East). They've cooled off a bit from earlier in the year but it needs mentioned that if they were in the West - for instance, if they relocated to Texas as is rumored to be happening - they'd be in first place. The 1st place pitching leads an average hitting attack around as you'd expect from a team playing in RFK. I think this may be where they're destined to fall but... let's see? Rotation: It's a good time to go to a flat 5 man rotation. Prospect Ramon Morales (10-4, 2.12) has been excellent in AAA this year and so earns himself a promotion into the 5th starter slot for (probably) the rest of the season. Morales appeared briefly in the major leagues last year but had his season curtailed in his 3rd major league start by a torn labrum. Here's hoping that was just a fluke (although he missed 7 weeks with a strained hip, so maybe not). Bullpen: The only guy I'd look to replace is the 30 year old Andres Rivera (2-2, 4.78), who, even in RFK, can't seem to stop the longballs from inflating his ERA. I don't see a good reason to cut him mere days before the rosters expand, although he may take on a smaller role come September. Infield: I pulled the trigger on 3B Reggie Jackson (.201, 0, 18 at AAA Denver) when David Salinas (.292, 3, 32) suffered his latest injury but man, even now I'm seeing that he's just not a major league hitter, at least not yet. Salinas' caddy this year, Omar Dominguez (.178, 5, 18) isn't anything special either though, so I'll keep trotting Jackson out there to see if he picks anything up. That spot's going to be a major sink on the lineup for the rest of the year though. Outfield: The expanded pitching staff forced me to send down Devin Bucciarelli (.206, 1, 12), at least for the next few days. Outside of Bucciarelli though, the outfield looks pretty set, and yes, that includes Joel Schaben (.313, 3, 56) playing in center.
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04-10-2023, 11:11 AM
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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MONTHLY STAT DUMP for August 1971
Code:
American League 1971 ===================================================== Baltimore Orioles (69-60) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Giron, Hector 30 SR 12 12 .500 3.68 28 28 0 7 2 0 200.2 213 92 82 12 47 2 90 1.296 9.6 0.5 2.1 4.0 Ziegler, T.J. 24 RR 7 13 .350 3.20 28 28 0 3 2 0 188.1 172 80 67 7 107 4 99 1.481 8.2 0.3 5.1 4.7 Reece, Tim 27 RR 9 9 .500 2.48 26 26 0 9 3 0 192.2 163 56 53 12 58 4 113 1.147 7.6 0.6 2.7 5.3 Dapson, George 26 RR 10 9 .526 3.22 25 25 0 8 3 0 187.1 181 78 67 15 47 5 98 1.217 8.7 0.7 2.3 4.7 Luiso, Montay 33 LL 10 6 .625 2.78 54 0 47 0 0 22 87.1 80 34 27 2 12 3 58 1.053 8.2 0.2 1.2 6.0 Valenzuela, Chris 28 RR 2 4 .333 4.32 39 0 24 0 0 4 58.1 58 30 28 8 34 3 42 1.577 8.9 1.2 5.2 6.5 Bowman, Phil 24 RR 5 1 .833 0.75 39 0 19 0 0 3 59.2 36 7 5 2 19 2 45 0.922 5.4 0.3 2.9 6.8 Hart, William 26 RR 13 5 .722 3.12 22 22 0 3 2 0 155.2 135 60 54 14 49 4 57 1.182 7.8 0.8 2.8 3.3 Scott, Joe 26 RR 0 0 .000 4.15 19 0 7 0 0 1 26.0 15 12 12 5 9 0 20 0.923 5.2 1.7 3.1 6.9 Contreras, Alfredo 28 LL 1 1 .500 9.35 8 0 2 0 0 0 8.2 12 9 9 5 5 0 5 1.962 12.5 5.2 5.2 5.2 Overmann, Mike 33 RR 0 0 .000 1.93 3 0 0 0 0 0 4.2 4 4 1 1 2 0 4 1.286 7.7 1.9 3.9 7.7 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Delgado, David 23 RR 84 292 25 82 14 0 6 35 19 39 0 1 10 .281 .327 .390 23 Hernandez, Jon 28 LR 102 320 32 77 12 1 6 40 45 60 1 2 7 .241 .334 .341 3/2 Fager, Danny 29 RR 124 476 64 137 24 4 11 57 36 52 14 5 9 .288 .342 .424 4*/6 Perez, Marco 26 RR 73 284 35 76 10 2 9 21 32 37 16 3 5 .268 .346 .412 5 Blevins, Jon 30 RR 117 364 37 92 15 1 3 33 33 69 3 7 9 .253 .313 .324 6* Jenkins, Jamal 26 RL 48 168 23 43 7 2 8 20 20 41 6 1 2 .256 .342 .464 7 Nugent, Matt 25 LL 124 502 70 122 17 6 14 55 61 94 29 10 2 .243 .321 .384 8* Martinez, Luis 28 LL 68 227 29 60 13 1 5 20 23 47 0 0 6 .264 .329 .396 9 May, Ralph 23 LL 73 259 39 72 17 2 13 41 31 51 0 0 7 .278 .353 .510 97 King, Dave 28 RR 78 221 25 56 10 1 3 24 20 38 0 0 7 .253 .310 .348 5/36 Corron, T.J. 25 RR 89 205 23 58 8 1 4 33 18 28 3 3 3 .283 .330 .390 97/84 Baca, Mario 33 RR 72 198 27 43 4 2 7 21 20 40 2 3 6 .217 .290 .364 7/9 DiGirolamo, Ted 24 LR 52 138 16 35 5 2 1 12 12 23 0 0 6 .254 .307 .341 2 Keith, Robert 32 RR 45 131 10 32 3 0 3 12 8 24 0 0 4 .244 .289 .336 2 Rodriguez, Omar 28 RL 46 123 10 22 4 1 3 16 8 32 1 0 4 .179 .222 .301 3 Clark, Dustin 26 RR 57 116 8 25 7 2 1 10 14 21 0 0 7 .216 .300 .336 64/5 Magoni, Mauro 32 RR 17 45 3 12 2 0 2 9 5 11 0 0 0 .267 .340 .444 /537 Lujan, Leo 25 RR 13 14 2 3 0 0 1 3 0 3 0 0 1 .214 .214 .429 /53 Nichols, Mike 24 RR 7 7 0 5 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .714 .714 1.000 Riessen, Justin 27 RR 6 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .167 .167 .333 /9 Cutter, Devin 30 LL 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Boston Red Sox (84-50) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Pesco, Michael 27 LL 17 14 .548 3.39 35 35 0 13 3 0 263.0 244 105 99 21 99 4 212 1.304 8.3 0.7 3.4 7.3 Kindberg, Justin 26 LL 21 5 .808 2.20 34 34 0 15 6 0 266.1 201 71 65 12 84 3 193 1.070 6.8 0.4 2.8 6.5 Hinojosa, Sandy 36 RR 14 9 .609 3.04 30 30 0 6 3 0 224.2 187 89 76 17 69 3 154 1.139 7.5 0.7 2.8 6.2 Sanchez, Marco 24 LR 15 9 .625 2.16 26 26 0 12 3 0 204.0 158 54 49 16 32 3 128 0.931 7.0 0.7 1.4 5.6 Brock, Matt 31 RR 6 4 .600 3.54 48 0 42 0 0 23 73.2 65 29 29 7 29 5 60 1.276 7.9 0.9 3.5 7.3 Touchton, Bubba 27 RR 5 2 .714 1.74 34 0 19 0 0 1 41.1 27 9 8 3 14 3 24 0.992 5.9 0.7 3.0 5.2 Sanchez, Eddie 35 RR 2 2 .500 5.18 29 0 12 0 0 1 33.0 40 20 19 4 16 2 16 1.697 10.9 1.1 4.4 4.4 Nakazawa, Kojiro 25 RR 4 3 .571 3.33 21 6 6 0 0 1 67.2 60 28 25 9 11 1 50 1.049 8.0 1.2 1.5 6.7 Pratt, Byron 24 LL 0 1 .000 3.56 21 2 7 0 0 0 30.1 31 14 12 4 15 0 10 1.516 9.2 1.2 4.5 3.0 Bryant, Terrance 33 LL 0 0 .000 6.75 5 1 0 0 0 0 2.2 2 2 2 1 0 0 1 0.750 6.8 3.4 0.0 3.4 Boyce, Lamar 28 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 3.2 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 0.273 2.5 0.0 0.0 12.3 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Dolak, Jeremy 32 RR 98 318 32 79 17 1 6 35 14 30 0 0 10 .248 .279 .365 2* Miller, Mike 27 LL 129 491 65 139 34 2 10 64 65 85 0 0 19 .283 .370 .422 3* Long, Brian 29 RR 103 402 52 120 25 1 7 36 39 53 0 1 7 .299 .353 .418 4*/6 Schneider, Kristian 31 LR 94 358 45 100 20 1 8 51 27 45 2 2 8 .279 .323 .408 5* Handa, Oniji 27 RR 128 487 45 110 26 0 3 45 24 52 1 3 21 .226 .261 .298 6* Brown, Tom 32 RR 125 488 66 139 25 5 13 72 41 60 10 4 12 .285 .337 .436 7*9/8 Glynn, Jon 25 RR 121 497 78 137 26 6 7 39 33 61 34 10 5 .276 .310 .394 8* Kim, Jun 32 LL 110 391 42 110 12 4 11 43 37 60 7 2 3 .281 .345 .417 9* Marks, Sam 28 LR 75 157 22 49 12 0 2 18 10 15 0 0 6 .312 .355 .427 79 Carmer, Troy 27 RR 44 149 25 43 10 1 7 29 9 14 0 0 8 .289 .335 .510 5/6 Fraser, Dwayne 26 RR 43 145 16 45 8 3 2 20 5 19 1 0 4 .310 .333 .448 4 Bartoszek, Sid 30 RR 45 120 14 33 8 0 9 33 15 26 0 0 2 .275 .355 .567 2 Coleman, Jim 28 RR 27 75 8 17 0 0 0 1 7 11 1 4 0 .227 .293 .227 8/792 Puig, Ramon 33 SL 32 34 6 5 2 1 1 3 6 11 0 0 1 .147 .275 .353 /37 Rodriguez, Carlos 25 RR 15 31 6 12 2 1 1 7 3 2 0 0 1 .387 .441 .613 /37 Wilson, Matt 35 LL 28 27 5 9 1 0 0 5 4 6 0 0 2 .333 .419 .370 /9 Madriles, Edwin 24 RR 11 27 5 5 1 0 1 3 3 5 0 0 0 .185 .267 .333 /5 Hall, Ken 26 RR 11 27 3 10 2 0 0 6 2 5 0 0 1 .370 .400 .444 2 Escobesco, Tony 28 LR 9 18 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 .167 .158 .167 /64 Miller, Cody 27 RR 5 7 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 .286 .444 .286 /7 California Angels (66-69) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Bruno, Gary 25 RR 10 13 .435 3.51 32 32 0 8 1 0 228.1 242 99 89 16 65 5 81 1.345 9.5 0.6 2.6 3.2 Ring, Andy 31 RR 15 8 .652 2.65 26 26 0 8 5 0 193.2 157 65 57 12 87 3 134 1.260 7.3 0.6 4.0 6.2 Hansen, Ken 25 RR 9 9 .500 2.69 31 25 4 8 1 0 204.0 177 70 61 10 67 7 116 1.196 7.8 0.4 3.0 5.1 Lafler, Parker 32 RR 3 7 .300 3.67 24 15 4 2 0 0 117.2 123 56 48 3 47 3 31 1.445 9.4 0.2 3.6 2.4 Kihara, Tanzan 30 SR 2 6 .250 3.51 47 0 34 0 0 10 66.2 67 29 26 15 16 3 64 1.245 9.0 2.0 2.2 8.6 Livingston, Travis 24 RR 7 2 .778 1.73 42 1 27 0 0 8 67.2 48 13 13 1 37 4 50 1.256 6.4 0.1 4.9 6.7 Flores, Luis 27 RR 6 6 .500 3.86 32 10 9 0 0 3 88.2 93 43 38 5 33 6 54 1.421 9.4 0.5 3.3 5.5 Yates, Gavin 31 RR 4 5 .444 4.79 30 0 17 0 0 0 41.1 38 24 22 11 10 2 28 1.161 8.3 2.4 2.2 6.1 Beaulieu, Dustin 34 LL 3 4 .429 5.43 21 9 4 1 1 0 68.0 79 45 41 9 27 0 39 1.559 10.5 1.2 3.6 5.2 Vardaman, Jeremiah 32 RR 3 4 .429 3.49 17 8 4 2 2 0 67.0 70 30 26 7 23 2 44 1.388 9.4 0.9 3.1 5.9 Irons, Jordan 26 LL 2 2 .500 3.19 12 4 1 1 0 0 36.2 44 19 13 1 13 0 16 1.555 10.8 0.2 3.2 3.9 Gore, Al 22 RR 2 2 .500 5.19 4 4 0 0 0 0 26.0 29 16 15 5 7 1 14 1.385 10.0 1.7 2.4 4.8 O'Connor, Andy 27 RR 0 1 .000 2.63 4 1 1 0 0 0 13.2 5 4 4 0 12 0 9 1.244 3.3 0.0 7.9 5.9 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Dennehy, Shaun 27 RR 105 335 31 79 11 2 6 33 52 63 0 1 15 .236 .338 .334 2* Vargas, Willie 26 RR 109 445 52 127 21 5 2 33 30 38 25 12 6 .285 .340 .369 3* Mendez, Mauricio 25 RR 102 369 44 97 8 3 6 32 29 51 21 4 0 .263 .317 .350 4 Corley, Travis 26 RR 118 425 67 116 14 4 12 59 50 67 4 1 11 .273 .351 .409 5* Adams, Chris 30 RR 122 469 55 110 9 4 14 61 32 64 19 5 9 .235 .283 .360 6* Vargas, Nelson 28 RL 98 383 44 95 14 8 5 29 33 52 7 7 7 .248 .309 .366 7*/9 Hodge, Norm 29 LL 114 410 36 94 10 4 5 39 26 64 17 10 4 .229 .271 .310 8* Tyree, Chris 27 RL 94 378 37 124 19 5 2 42 10 28 11 8 7 .328 .341 .421 9/7 Leriche, Barney 29 RR 80 214 22 47 8 3 8 29 16 34 3 4 3 .220 .269 .397 397/8 Teague, Josh 29 LL 73 211 24 59 6 4 8 25 16 48 7 3 1 .280 .326 .460 97 Simmons, Richard 23 LR 31 114 16 29 8 0 1 12 17 15 2 3 2 .254 .353 .351 4/9 Dimmock, Eddie 29 LR 39 111 10 24 3 1 1 13 14 20 0 0 5 .216 .304 .288 2 Hopka, Chance 28 RR 35 99 5 23 5 0 1 10 5 19 1 2 0 .232 .264 .313 4/6 Wooten, Jordan 40 LR 33 74 10 19 5 0 1 9 10 10 2 0 0 .257 .341 .365 5 Pierce, Josh 24 SL 28 68 7 11 1 2 0 6 9 11 4 0 3 .162 .256 .235 8/79 Perez, Ivan 27 RR 19 53 9 14 1 0 3 9 3 10 0 1 0 .264 .333 .453 6/4 LaChance, Mike 30 LL 29 54 8 18 0 1 1 7 2 10 1 1 0 .333 .357 .426 /789 McSparren, Wayne 28 RR 30 36 3 8 4 0 1 2 4 8 0 0 1 .222 .310 .417 /5 Walkowiak, Lindsey 22 RR 11 26 2 10 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 .385 .429 .500 /89 Dennie, Brent 30 RR 15 27 2 5 1 0 1 5 0 2 0 0 0 .185 .185 .333 /3 Pastorius, Jaco 22 LR 5 7 1 3 1 0 0 2 2 1 2 0 0 .429 .636 .571 /798 Dulin, Andy 27 RR 11 10 3 4 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 .400 .400 .400 /9 Garza, Estevan 30 RR 3 8 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 .125 .125 .125 /2 Chicago White Sox (59-74) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Anderlik, Tim 27 SR 8 14 .364 4.76 27 27 0 4 2 0 183.1 227 99 97 24 54 5 107 1.533 11.1 1.2 2.7 5.3 Messina, Chris 30 RR 11 11 .500 3.46 26 26 0 5 0 0 190.0 180 85 73 14 56 6 80 1.242 8.5 0.7 2.7 3.8 Williams, Aidan 28 LL 11 11 .500 3.02 26 26 0 9 3 0 199.2 202 73 67 19 44 4 91 1.232 9.1 0.9 2.0 4.1 Colucci, Nick 29 SR 9 11 .450 4.09 23 21 1 4 1 0 147.1 128 71 67 9 69 3 85 1.337 7.8 0.5 4.2 5.2 Post, Malcolm 25 RR 5 4 .556 2.20 49 0 41 0 0 19 82.0 67 20 20 2 33 2 58 1.220 7.4 0.2 3.6 6.4 Lamar, Ben 23 RR 2 3 .400 2.56 42 0 33 0 0 4 52.2 40 19 15 3 24 7 44 1.215 6.8 0.5 4.1 7.5 Venegas, Manny 30 LL 0 2 .000 1.41 38 0 18 0 0 1 44.2 29 7 7 2 10 2 26 0.873 5.8 0.4 2.0 5.2 Lagos, Ed 27 RR 0 0 .000 4.56 19 0 4 0 0 0 25.2 23 13 13 4 4 1 12 1.052 8.1 1.4 1.4 4.2 Davila, Franklin 31 RR 6 7 .462 3.87 17 15 0 2 0 0 102.1 112 47 44 13 33 4 54 1.417 9.9 1.1 2.9 4.7 Martinez, Jason 27 LL 0 4 .000 4.42 7 5 0 0 0 0 36.2 39 18 18 2 13 2 11 1.418 9.6 0.5 3.2 2.7 Reyes, Bob 31 SR 2 2 .500 4.05 5 5 0 1 0 0 33.1 35 17 15 4 7 0 12 1.260 9.5 1.1 1.9 3.2 Reese, Rich 26 RR 2 1 .667 2.01 4 4 0 2 2 0 31.1 21 7 7 1 17 0 20 1.213 6.0 0.3 4.9 5.7 Roche, Daniel 33 RR 0 3 .000 3.86 15 3 6 0 0 0 28.0 28 17 12 2 15 2 11 1.536 9.0 0.6 4.8 3.5 de la Crus, Jesus 25 RR 2 1 .667 1.95 10 1 2 0 0 0 27.2 21 8 6 2 3 1 15 0.867 6.8 0.7 1.0 4.9 Gebhardt, Aaron 27 RR 0 0 .000 3.60 4 0 0 0 0 0 5.0 4 2 2 0 3 0 3 1.400 7.2 0.0 5.4 5.4 John, Brennan 28 LL 1 0 1.000 0.00 3 0 1 0 0 0 4.0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0.750 2.3 0.0 4.5 0.0 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Perez, Mike 33 RR 104 362 46 85 14 1 18 58 58 93 0 1 6 .235 .338 .428 2* Jennings, Pete 30 RR 129 510 75 143 22 2 13 63 51 66 1 1 30 .280 .342 .408 3* Reeder, Ian 26 RR 125 480 55 119 12 2 6 34 47 68 16 7 11 .248 .309 .319 4*/9 Nation, Jeff 26 RR 119 445 46 112 12 5 10 38 29 70 4 4 7 .252 .301 .369 5* Henderson, Justin 33 RR 103 291 23 68 8 3 0 20 27 49 2 2 12 .234 .301 .282 6*/4 Lammers, Scott 29 SR 51 172 27 40 4 1 11 27 39 41 0 0 6 .233 .373 .459 7 Everett, Ian 28 LL 90 333 27 88 8 3 2 18 18 74 8 9 3 .264 .302 .324 8 Wade, Josh 27 RR 109 405 43 113 22 3 2 29 10 60 5 4 10 .279 .298 .363 97 Kane, Brandon 27 LL 92 223 28 65 12 1 6 30 21 36 0 0 5 .291 .358 .435 7/9 Cooper, Alice 23 LL 58 190 38 54 10 2 19 44 35 43 1 6 2 .284 .399 .658 9/78 Weyenberg, Eric 23 LL 61 193 16 47 6 1 2 20 21 26 6 2 0 .244 .323 .316 8 Fiederlein, Jim 28 RR 82 183 8 35 6 1 1 18 6 46 0 0 3 .191 .211 .251 64 Veneziano, Sebastiano 34 LL 91 131 10 31 2 1 2 13 5 20 2 0 2 .237 .268 .313 7/8 Hackney, Matt 26 RR 34 110 11 17 2 1 1 5 1 12 0 0 7 .155 .168 .218 2/3 Carter, J.P. 24 RR 36 81 3 21 2 1 1 6 5 12 1 0 2 .259 .303 .346 5/3 Rhoades, Aaron 27 RR 25 43 5 10 2 1 1 5 4 4 0 0 1 .233 .280 .395 /798 Salazar, Bruce 28 SR 8 18 2 3 1 0 1 2 4 8 0 0 0 .167 .318 .389 /2 Arellano, Pedro 33 LR 15 17 1 3 1 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 1 .176 .176 .235 /5 Barone, Josh 25 RR 7 8 1 2 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 1 0 .250 .400 .250 /96 Cleveland Indians (60-75) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Matthews, Josh 25 LL 11 15 .423 3.60 31 31 0 9 2 0 237.1 228 105 95 13 83 3 144 1.310 8.6 0.5 3.1 5.5 Hamilton, Dylan 28 RR 10 12 .455 3.77 29 29 0 8 3 0 205.1 211 98 86 21 76 1 97 1.398 9.2 0.9 3.3 4.3 Lagunas, Andy 30 RR 8 15 .348 4.66 33 26 6 6 1 2 181.2 188 103 94 21 64 4 128 1.387 9.3 1.0 3.2 6.3 Regan, Chris 30 RR 5 4 .556 5.25 29 13 6 1 0 0 104.2 139 67 61 7 23 1 49 1.548 12.0 0.6 2.0 4.2 Godard, Eric 30 RR 0 6 .000 3.80 30 0 25 0 0 13 42.2 46 19 18 2 20 0 29 1.547 9.7 0.4 4.2 6.1 Sanchez, Elias 33 RR 6 3 .667 1.95 41 0 19 0 0 2 60.0 48 15 13 4 17 1 25 1.083 7.2 0.6 2.5 3.8 Zavala, Fernando 29 LL 3 3 .500 4.44 27 8 9 0 0 0 75.0 73 40 37 4 18 0 37 1.213 8.8 0.5 2.2 4.4 Pacheco, Keith 32 RR 5 6 .455 4.15 23 10 11 2 1 5 82.1 92 43 38 10 28 1 67 1.457 10.1 1.1 3.1 7.3 Martinez, Jose 26 RR 4 4 .500 3.34 20 11 2 1 0 0 94.1 99 43 35 11 24 7 79 1.304 9.4 1.0 2.3 7.5 Whittier, Landon 26 LR 1 0 1.000 4.37 9 2 4 0 0 0 22.2 24 11 11 5 16 0 17 1.765 9.5 2.0 6.4 6.8 Coltrane, Robbie 21 RR 1 2 .333 6.50 3 3 0 0 0 0 18.0 29 16 13 2 9 0 8 2.111 14.5 1.0 4.5 4.0 Johnson, Malik 25 RR 1 0 1.000 4.24 13 0 6 0 0 0 17.0 21 9 8 2 7 0 11 1.647 11.1 1.1 3.7 5.8 Ellis, Doug 26 RR 0 0 .000 5.40 9 0 0 0 0 0 5.0 5 3 3 1 3 0 3 1.600 9.0 1.8 5.4 5.4 Andrade, Raul 33 RR 1 0 1.000 4.86 7 1 1 0 0 0 16.2 15 10 9 3 12 0 7 1.620 8.1 1.6 6.5 3.8 Boyce, Lamar 28 LL 1 0 1.000 8.62 14 0 6 0 0 1 15.2 17 16 15 1 19 1 12 2.298 9.8 0.6 10.9 6.9 Herrera, Gerardo 26 LL 1 1 .500 4.50 10 0 4 0 0 0 12.0 11 6 6 1 10 1 9 1.750 8.3 0.7 7.5 6.8 Carr, Chris 25 LL 0 1 .000 8.31 3 1 1 0 0 0 8.2 15 11 8 3 1 0 3 1.846 15.6 3.1 1.0 3.1 Lopez, Ramon 27 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 4 0 1 0 0 0 3.1 3 0 0 0 1 0 2 1.200 8.1 0.0 2.7 5.4 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Wolfe, Joe 26 RR 78 222 23 51 7 0 1 22 31 35 0 0 11 .230 .328 .275 2 Garcia, Ernesto 27 LL 129 518 84 136 23 0 51 119 35 101 1 0 15 .263 .310 .602 3* Pritchett, T.J. 34 RR 107 361 45 84 11 2 10 38 63 61 0 2 12 .233 .345 .357 4* Ramirez, Bobby 23 LR 119 436 70 146 15 10 11 53 55 47 28 15 1 .335 .408 .491 5* Johnson, John 26 RR 96 382 43 89 17 4 3 21 19 35 6 3 10 .233 .272 .322 6* Huanosta, Alonzo 30 RR 120 513 67 130 24 4 12 53 28 62 1 1 9 .253 .296 .386 7*/3 Deuser, Russ 24 RR 77 310 42 65 7 5 8 28 28 55 19 5 3 .210 .278 .342 8 Pron, Tommy 29 LR 123 446 46 120 10 1 8 42 60 44 0 1 11 .269 .354 .350 9* House, Jonathan 29 LR 78 213 14 49 6 2 2 20 17 43 0 0 9 .230 .283 .305 2 Hernandez, Carlos 29 RR 49 169 16 48 6 0 3 15 8 21 2 2 2 .284 .314 .373 8/9 Escobedo, Marcos 32 RR 50 141 13 33 4 2 0 10 16 20 0 6 6 .234 .310 .291 4/3 Fonseca, Chris 24 LR 66 137 18 40 7 2 2 11 9 17 3 2 0 .292 .340 .416 79/8 Hernandez, Roberto 29 RR 58 122 13 31 6 1 4 25 7 17 0 0 5 .254 .290 .418 5/3 Sanchez, Jorge 28 RR 30 92 13 24 2 2 0 12 6 8 3 1 1 .261 .288 .326 8/97 Grube, Chris 29 LR 29 79 7 12 1 0 1 6 5 10 1 1 1 .152 .200 .203 6 Romney, Mitt 23 RR 22 64 6 15 2 1 0 5 7 12 1 0 5 .234 .306 .297 6 Whitney, Travis 27 LL 56 47 11 14 2 1 3 8 14 13 0 0 1 .298 .452 .574 /89 Harpst, Corey 29 RR 10 36 3 6 1 0 1 3 4 5 0 1 0 .167 .250 .278 8 Mexia, Cesar 30 RR 17 35 2 3 2 0 0 1 4 8 0 0 0 .086 .179 .143 2 Miller, Nick 26 LL 14 18 4 5 2 0 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 .278 .350 .389 /79 Kelver, Kyle 31 RR 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /3 Detroit Tigers (74-60) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Molina, Edgar 26 RR 17 12 .586 3.08 30 30 0 10 2 0 222.0 204 91 76 21 74 10 152 1.252 8.3 0.9 3.0 6.2 Rubio, Bruce 23 RR 13 8 .619 2.92 29 29 0 7 3 0 216.0 202 82 70 14 79 8 141 1.301 8.4 0.6 3.3 5.9 Merino, Juan 24 SR 12 11 .522 3.60 27 27 0 4 1 0 197.1 182 86 79 21 76 6 117 1.307 8.3 1.0 3.5 5.3 Goddard, Jimmy 31 SR 13 8 .619 2.73 26 22 0 4 3 0 171.1 143 62 52 7 53 2 108 1.144 7.5 0.4 2.8 5.7 Madrigal, Alex 31 LR 7 5 .583 2.20 40 0 33 0 0 14 61.1 42 17 15 6 23 3 40 1.060 6.2 0.9 3.4 5.9 Marceau, Jim 30 RR 2 3 .400 2.65 43 0 28 0 0 9 57.2 57 22 17 9 23 2 56 1.387 8.9 1.4 3.6 8.7 Khoury, Nate 24 LL 3 2 .600 2.79 37 0 17 0 0 3 42.0 38 13 13 4 13 0 19 1.214 8.1 0.9 2.8 4.1 McGranahan, Chris 33 RR 4 5 .444 4.41 27 13 8 1 0 1 100.0 102 51 49 14 21 1 42 1.230 9.2 1.3 1.9 3.8 Bryan, Danny 30 SR 0 3 .000 3.45 26 7 11 0 0 0 75.2 68 35 29 7 38 2 44 1.401 8.1 0.8 4.5 5.2 Coffey, Kent 26 SR 2 2 .500 5.05 6 6 0 1 1 0 41.0 39 23 23 1 26 2 22 1.585 8.6 0.2 5.7 4.8 Schmidt, Romain 34 LL 1 0 1.000 5.54 10 0 6 0 0 0 13.0 14 10 8 2 15 0 8 2.231 9.7 1.4 10.4 5.5 Krug, Niklas 30 RR 0 1 .000 11.57 5 0 4 0 0 1 7.0 10 9 9 1 5 0 6 2.143 12.9 1.3 6.4 7.7 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Farinelli, Gianluigi 29 RR 105 379 40 103 17 2 10 55 34 85 0 0 8 .272 .333 .406 2* Suman, Tim 24 SR 90 209 28 70 13 0 5 33 9 12 0 0 6 .335 .363 .469 3 Villegas, Danny 34 RR 98 342 56 98 13 1 21 58 51 62 2 0 6 .287 .390 .515 43 Ayala, Jose 30 RR 111 366 42 98 13 0 13 43 28 56 0 1 13 .268 .317 .410 53 Mullen, Matt 30 RR 116 337 23 76 12 2 0 23 18 64 4 3 7 .226 .263 .273 6* Thompson, Guillermo 28 RR 105 418 50 98 18 8 1 36 21 53 10 2 10 .234 .270 .323 79 Romero, Alvin 25 LL 111 463 86 157 28 5 8 43 44 41 44 10 1 .339 .391 .473 8* Contreras, Chris 27 LL 80 293 28 73 13 3 5 44 8 40 1 2 5 .249 .273 .365 9 Dittmar, Adam 29 RR 110 358 58 96 17 2 11 58 64 70 18 13 5 .268 .379 .419 739/8 Curran, Rob 24 LR 97 241 29 59 11 1 2 15 38 53 0 3 8 .245 .338 .324 56 Ramone, Joey 22 RR 43 155 20 52 10 4 4 24 20 31 1 2 5 .335 .407 .529 4 Swan, Bill 25 RR 49 135 18 25 1 0 5 12 11 29 0 1 4 .185 .245 .304 87/93 Valdez, Danny 27 LL 47 131 13 31 5 0 3 12 14 26 0 1 3 .237 .308 .344 3 Forgey, Trey 29 RR 35 105 6 21 4 2 1 12 16 21 0 0 3 .200 .301 .305 2 Harpst, Corey 29 RR 32 104 11 24 3 0 1 7 7 18 1 1 2 .231 .277 .288 9/87 Hernandez, Ivan 25 RR 50 88 12 15 3 0 3 13 9 17 1 0 3 .170 .242 .307 4/6 Rose, Josh 26 RR 56 56 4 13 2 1 1 8 4 7 0 0 2 .232 .283 .357 6/4 Irwin, Bob 28 RR 10 17 6 8 0 0 1 4 0 2 0 0 0 .471 .471 .647 /78 Busby, Don 26 RR 12 12 2 1 0 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 0 .083 .267 .083 /5 Birley, Joshua 26 LL 9 11 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 .091 .083 .091 /7 Barrientos, Alfonso 26 LL 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .000 .333 .000 Kansas City Royals (61-71) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Chavez, Miguel 31 LL 12 9 .571 2.71 28 28 0 7 5 0 212.1 176 72 64 7 89 11 154 1.248 7.5 0.3 3.8 6.5 LaPointe, Jason 32 RR 11 11 .500 4.18 26 26 0 7 3 0 180.2 189 90 84 14 58 6 91 1.367 9.4 0.7 2.9 4.5 Correra, Juan 26 RR 4 11 .267 4.85 21 21 0 2 1 0 128.0 157 82 69 14 49 7 51 1.609 11.0 1.0 3.4 3.6 Cervantez, Jorge 25 RR 8 10 .444 3.85 29 18 3 3 1 0 142.2 168 66 61 6 34 10 49 1.416 10.6 0.4 2.1 3.1 Banks, Tim 37 LL 2 4 .333 5.36 45 0 30 0 0 13 48.2 60 34 29 4 30 2 23 1.849 11.1 0.7 5.5 4.3 Reyes, Victor 29 RR 4 2 .667 3.63 43 0 23 0 0 7 57.0 55 27 23 2 17 3 42 1.263 8.7 0.3 2.7 6.6 Field, Joe 33 LR 3 1 .750 3.40 28 1 14 0 0 1 39.2 41 15 15 0 27 4 20 1.714 9.3 0.0 6.1 4.5 Chaves, Jose 30 RR 7 3 .700 4.82 25 14 2 2 0 0 121.1 118 66 65 22 39 2 98 1.294 8.8 1.6 2.9 7.3 Bump, Vince 25 RR 2 2 .500 4.60 24 0 18 0 0 2 31.1 36 18 16 2 17 7 20 1.691 10.3 0.6 4.9 5.7 Marrero, Mario 30 RR 3 3 .500 5.88 13 10 1 2 2 0 67.1 78 46 44 14 23 1 35 1.500 10.4 1.9 3.1 4.7 Onizuka, Ellison 25 RR 3 6 .333 6.63 9 9 0 1 1 0 57.0 75 44 42 7 25 2 29 1.754 11.8 1.1 3.9 4.6 Albarran, Eddy 29 LL 0 2 .000 5.61 24 0 9 0 0 0 25.2 31 17 16 5 3 0 16 1.325 10.9 1.8 1.1 5.6 Zuazua, Jose 25 RR 1 2 .333 7.78 4 3 1 0 0 0 19.2 25 17 17 3 8 0 9 1.678 11.4 1.4 3.7 4.1 Chavera, Ed 24 LR 1 2 .333 9.77 4 2 0 0 0 0 15.2 22 17 17 3 15 1 16 2.362 12.6 1.7 8.6 9.2 Quinn, Kevin 36 RR 0 3 .000 5.56 9 0 5 0 0 2 11.1 15 7 7 0 12 2 9 2.382 11.9 0.0 9.5 7.1 Gonzalez, Ismael 26 RR 0 0 .000 5.40 7 0 2 0 0 0 10.0 12 6 6 2 3 0 8 1.500 10.8 1.8 2.7 7.2 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos McIntyre, Nick 28 LR 89 324 30 64 16 2 8 40 26 76 0 0 10 .198 .252 .333 2* Ono, Yahashi 39 RR 89 243 24 52 5 1 1 25 27 39 0 2 8 .214 .288 .255 3 Coleman, Ian 29 RR 115 409 37 106 13 3 5 45 43 72 6 6 7 .259 .323 .342 4* Newton, Ryan 26 LR 88 273 28 76 17 1 3 34 18 41 9 4 6 .278 .319 .381 5/68 Sita, Nate 25 SR 122 414 46 90 11 3 12 44 53 97 3 10 6 .217 .303 .345 6*/4 Corona, Dave 22 LL 127 456 95 134 24 12 12 53 115 73 47 14 0 .294 .436 .478 7*8 Scurry, Allen 25 RR 116 384 47 93 11 5 12 53 60 61 7 13 6 .242 .336 .391 8*/7 DomÃ*nguez, R.J. 26 RR 124 419 81 114 19 1 19 60 109 78 2 3 5 .272 .428 .458 9* Ramos, Mike 34 LR 63 201 20 63 11 2 3 26 11 24 4 0 3 .313 .344 .433 5/3 Lewis, Josh 30 RR 94 186 16 47 6 0 4 26 24 23 1 0 7 .253 .338 .349 3 Davis, Jim 26 LL 45 124 28 27 6 1 10 22 44 28 0 0 3 .218 .424 .524 3 Altmann, Carlos 35 SR 53 138 16 27 1 6 0 12 16 21 4 0 4 .196 .279 .290 64/5 Coldiron, Josh 24 LR 38 82 7 15 2 1 0 5 12 11 6 3 1 .183 .284 .232 8/97 Johnson, Isaiah 28 RR 31 78 6 14 3 0 1 5 7 24 0 0 1 .179 .239 .256 2 Hernandez, Carlos 33 RR 26 63 9 10 4 1 0 3 7 20 0 1 1 .159 .243 .254 2 Carroll, Matt 26 RR 20 58 4 13 2 1 1 8 1 14 0 0 1 .224 .233 .345 5/3 Barlow, Terry 27 LL 24 40 6 8 0 0 3 5 3 7 0 2 0 .200 .267 .425 /79 Manchego, Edwin 26 LL 14 40 6 12 6 0 2 8 4 7 1 0 1 .300 .364 .600 7/9 Hull, Tom 30 RR 24 35 3 3 0 1 0 4 2 5 0 0 0 .086 .132 .143 /97 Birley, Joshua 26 LL 17 18 0 4 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 .222 .190 .333 /9 Cashion, Justin 25 LR 6 16 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 7 0 0 0 .063 .211 .063 /2 Steinmetz, Andy 30 RR 5 11 2 6 0 0 1 5 2 1 0 0 0 .545 .615 .818 /654 Jaquez, Arturo 28 RR 2 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /4 Milwaukee Brewers (54-78) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Olivares, Chris 24 RR 8 13 .381 3.84 26 26 0 9 4 0 190.0 182 92 81 15 60 7 108 1.274 8.6 0.7 2.8 5.1 Osborne, Brian 27 RR 7 14 .333 3.10 26 26 0 9 1 0 183.0 167 77 63 5 89 8 86 1.399 8.2 0.2 4.4 4.2 Izquierdo, Alex 22 LL 7 10 .412 2.32 24 24 0 10 1 0 178.1 152 59 46 7 70 4 121 1.245 7.7 0.4 3.5 6.1 Gomez, Ricardo 30 RR 0 0 .000 4.61 20 19 0 0 0 0 82.0 95 47 42 2 12 1 38 1.305 10.4 0.2 1.3 4.2 Plaunt, Danny 26 RR 4 4 .500 2.56 51 0 43 0 0 19 77.1 62 23 22 4 19 6 55 1.047 7.2 0.5 2.2 6.4 Mazyck, Deshawn 29 SR 3 1 .750 3.05 43 0 25 0 0 2 56.0 49 19 19 3 27 3 31 1.357 7.9 0.5 4.3 5.0 Pettijohn, Elliot 24 RR 2 2 .500 4.71 33 0 12 0 0 0 42.0 40 26 22 3 26 2 18 1.571 8.6 0.6 5.6 3.9 Whittier, Landon 26 LR 4 8 .333 4.95 21 12 1 0 0 0 80.0 71 44 44 13 58 1 39 1.613 8.0 1.5 6.5 4.4 Coffey, Kent 26 SR 0 11 .000 3.66 17 11 1 0 0 0 78.2 87 50 32 3 47 3 32 1.703 10.0 0.3 5.4 3.7 McGranahan, Chris 33 RR 4 1 .800 1.08 6 6 0 2 1 0 50.0 35 7 6 2 13 2 25 0.960 6.3 0.4 2.3 4.5 Rivera, Jose 29 RR 2 2 .500 6.06 9 4 5 0 0 0 32.2 39 22 22 3 15 1 21 1.653 10.7 0.8 4.1 5.8 Youngblood, Jonas 29 SR 3 0 1.000 2.52 4 4 0 0 0 0 25.0 19 7 7 0 13 0 11 1.280 6.8 0.0 4.7 4.0 Chavez, Pedro 28 RR 0 1 .000 5.32 13 0 6 0 0 0 22.0 27 18 13 3 13 2 10 1.818 11.0 1.2 5.3 4.1 Labbe, John 30 RR 3 0 1.000 4.97 8 0 0 0 0 0 12.2 18 7 7 0 4 0 10 1.737 12.8 0.0 2.8 7.1 Field, Joe 33 LR 1 0 1.000 0.00 5 0 2 0 0 0 8.0 4 0 0 0 2 0 5 0.750 4.5 0.0 2.3 5.6 Zapata, Dave 29 LL 0 1 .000 14.40 5 0 2 0 0 0 5.0 10 9 8 2 2 0 2 2.400 18.0 3.6 3.6 3.6 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Garcia, Luis 35 RR 93 245 8 49 6 0 2 22 30 50 0 0 8 .200 .280 .249 2* Nakamura, Kozue 29 RR 123 457 48 146 25 2 3 54 36 40 0 2 24 .319 .369 .403 3* Biron, Eric 24 RR 42 166 18 44 11 0 3 10 12 32 3 0 0 .265 .315 .386 4/7 Martinez, Francisco 24 LR 103 373 34 94 11 1 4 35 9 35 0 0 10 .252 .275 .319 5*/6 Yeater, Andrew 24 LR 51 137 13 30 2 0 1 15 8 28 2 1 3 .219 .267 .255 6/4 Powell, Andrew 27 LL 95 315 29 73 13 0 1 17 12 30 0 0 9 .232 .264 .283 7/9 Ceballos, Fernando 28 RR 120 481 49 107 5 5 3 21 6 66 13 3 3 .222 .229 .272 8*/9 Poynor, Ross 28 LR 67 244 27 64 5 6 5 24 16 32 8 5 2 .262 .304 .393 9/87 Ferrell, Jared 25 LL 80 192 30 55 10 2 11 28 32 35 1 0 3 .286 .397 .531 79 Brown, Adam 23 LR 72 179 21 39 10 2 2 18 25 32 0 0 8 .218 .310 .330 2/3 Marsden, John 28 LL 47 177 14 35 4 1 4 17 16 24 2 0 4 .198 .263 .299 9 Armand, Mike 31 RR 43 148 20 34 5 2 2 18 20 30 7 2 2 .230 .320 .331 64/5 Morrison, Mike 30 RR 30 127 12 41 6 0 3 14 4 9 0 2 2 .323 .344 .441 5 Temudo, Guido 24 RR 37 115 7 23 3 1 1 10 11 20 0 1 4 .200 .271 .270 6 Flores, Hugo 29 SR 35 112 10 22 4 2 3 11 3 19 1 1 1 .196 .222 .348 6/4 Yi, Wing-fung 26 RR 34 97 12 24 6 2 0 8 18 16 6 2 0 .247 .365 .351 4 Jones, Pat 34 LR 29 103 14 32 11 1 0 10 6 12 0 0 2 .311 .345 .437 4 Ramey, Justin 32 RR 13 57 12 14 0 0 2 6 2 10 0 1 2 .246 .271 .351 6/4 Allen, Mike 33 RR 20 45 4 2 0 0 0 2 2 15 0 0 1 .044 .098 .044 /789 Barlow, Terry 27 LL 16 44 3 11 1 2 1 3 5 7 0 0 1 .250 .340 .432 7 Moore, Chris 31 RR 14 45 2 9 2 0 0 3 4 11 0 0 1 .200 .265 .244 /453 Hawkinson, Ray 28 LR 26 45 4 15 4 0 0 4 2 5 0 0 0 .333 .354 .422 /3 Springsteen, Bruce 22 LL 13 38 4 10 1 0 2 3 5 7 1 0 1 .263 .349 .447 8 Rios, Esteban 25 RR 18 38 2 6 1 0 0 4 1 10 0 0 2 .158 .179 .184 4/8 Villafana, Marco 25 RR 15 29 4 5 1 0 1 7 5 5 0 0 0 .172 .297 .310 /56 Rogers, Jim 30 LL 26 31 2 9 1 0 1 5 2 7 0 0 0 .290 .333 .419 /379 Louderback, Frank 28 RR 10 24 2 3 1 0 0 1 4 3 0 0 0 .125 .250 .167 4 Greeno, Roger 29 RL 12 20 2 5 1 1 0 2 5 4 0 0 0 .250 .400 .400 /97 Haskell, Jason 30 LR 11 19 2 3 0 0 0 1 4 3 0 1 0 .158 .304 .158 /87 Fernandez, Mario 24 RR 10 19 1 7 1 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 0 .368 .400 .421 /7 Berry, Jon 30 LL 14 14 2 5 1 0 0 1 2 2 2 0 0 .357 .412 .429 /87 Ashbaker, Ryan 27 RR 6 17 1 5 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 .294 .294 .353 /7 Johnston, Chris 36 RR 8 9 2 3 1 0 0 1 3 1 1 0 0 .333 .500 .444 /34 Zalaznik, Josh 27 RR 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Minnesota Twins (66-65) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 11 17 .393 3.91 35 35 0 10 2 0 262.2 292 119 114 15 54 2 172 1.317 10.0 0.5 1.9 5.9 Benavides, Chris 29 RR 18 16 .529 3.22 35 35 0 8 4 0 251.2 258 99 90 9 75 2 153 1.323 9.2 0.3 2.7 5.5 Larsen, Mike 31 RR 11 10 .524 4.13 29 29 0 7 4 0 202.2 241 102 93 6 64 1 81 1.505 10.7 0.3 2.8 3.6 Whetzel, Rich 26 RR 8 4 .667 3.40 19 19 0 1 1 0 121.2 118 51 46 5 52 0 52 1.397 8.7 0.4 3.8 3.8 Lynn, Pete 25 RR 6 7 .462 3.07 56 0 44 0 0 14 82.0 75 39 28 4 24 2 72 1.207 8.2 0.4 2.6 7.9 Ruiz, Victor 33 SR 7 5 .583 3.41 32 9 11 2 0 1 97.2 86 43 37 7 52 2 71 1.413 7.9 0.6 4.8 6.5 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 11.8 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 10.6 0.6 3.1 5.9 Lewis, Bryan 26 RR 0 0 .000 4.88 18 0 5 0 0 0 27.2 26 17 15 2 14 0 19 1.446 8.5 0.7 4.6 6.2 Theisen, Todd 31 RR 1 3 .250 5.59 14 0 12 0 0 5 19.1 26 14 12 3 4 0 14 1.552 12.1 1.4 1.9 6.5 Howard, Caleb 25 LL 0 0 .000 3.20 14 1 4 0 0 0 19.2 18 7 7 1 7 0 22 1.271 8.2 0.5 3.2 10.1 Murry, Cameron 26 RR 0 0 .000 5.09 4 2 0 0 0 0 17.2 20 14 10 3 12 0 10 1.811 10.2 1.5 6.1 5.1 Cosme, Jesus 30 RR 1 0 1.000 2.79 6 0 4 0 0 1 9.2 7 3 3 0 8 0 9 1.552 6.5 0.0 7.4 8.4 Christensen, Justin 27 RR 0 0 .000 5.40 2 0 1 0 0 0 3.1 4 2 2 1 1 0 2 1.500 10.8 2.7 2.7 5.4 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Reed, Brad 30 RR 99 338 34 76 14 2 10 48 45 69 0 0 8 .225 .315 .367 2* Martinez, Angelo 35 LL 125 506 70 143 21 2 20 78 54 71 1 0 16 .283 .353 .451 3* Gilmet, Daniel 33 RR 72 296 33 88 14 1 1 15 19 22 13 7 6 .297 .329 .361 4/6 Brookes, Mike 32 SR 90 317 55 84 19 2 19 49 64 50 1 2 5 .265 .401 .517 5* Mendel, Marty 27 RR 93 274 28 67 8 0 2 34 32 37 1 1 3 .245 .325 .296 6*/4 Cortes, Alejandro 33 LL 71 229 29 49 13 3 7 26 27 32 8 2 6 .214 .301 .389 7 Villasenor, Jose 25 LL 125 531 60 156 22 3 13 56 36 75 6 5 2 .294 .332 .420 8*/7 Morgenstern, Lou 31 RR 121 455 61 115 21 12 14 59 60 81 1 2 12 .253 .338 .444 9* Grigg, Mike 37 RR 107 232 27 64 10 1 3 20 16 41 0 2 8 .276 .325 .366 7/9 Palmarocchi, Pietro 28 RR 64 181 27 51 8 1 1 15 21 30 3 0 5 .282 .361 .354 4 Pellot, Danny 36 RR 61 172 18 52 8 2 2 12 18 22 1 2 2 .302 .365 .407 546 Franks, Jeff 25 RR 44 155 19 53 10 2 5 23 12 17 9 5 4 .342 .388 .529 57 Theroff, Matt 30 RR 42 111 10 27 2 0 1 12 16 22 1 0 2 .243 .336 .288 2 Ship, Kyle 28 SR 67 105 11 24 6 0 0 10 8 17 1 2 4 .229 .281 .286 7/39 Baek, Jun-ho 32 RR 52 67 12 14 6 0 2 10 17 16 0 0 0 .209 .356 .388 6 Dempsey, Zach 27 LL 26 52 8 11 4 0 1 13 11 16 1 0 0 .212 .344 .346 8/9 Ramey, Justin 32 RR 12 37 5 10 0 1 0 2 10 7 1 1 1 .270 .438 .324 6 Park, Dong-hak 30 LR 10 27 3 6 4 0 0 0 4 5 0 0 1 .222 .323 .370 /46 Bump, Darrel 26 RR 7 26 3 8 1 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 .308 .345 .346 /7 Dees, Brian 31 LR 22 20 2 4 3 0 0 2 2 4 0 0 0 .200 .273 .350 /8 Avalos, Gene 34 RR 6 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /6 New York Yankees (65-69) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 13 .594 3.24 34 34 0 13 6 0 255.1 245 106 92 21 52 0 181 1.163 8.6 0.7 1.8 6.4 Olthof, Obke 26 RR 10 13 .435 3.95 33 33 0 7 1 0 225.2 246 109 99 14 58 3 144 1.347 9.8 0.6 2.3 5.7 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 9.0 1.1 2.6 3.8 Holm, Roy 35 LL 10 11 .476 4.26 32 22 5 3 0 0 167.0 140 88 79 24 77 0 149 1.299 7.5 1.3 4.1 8.0 Kelly, Jesse 33 LL 7 7 .500 4.67 41 0 34 0 0 11 61.2 67 33 32 11 9 0 47 1.232 9.8 1.6 1.3 6.9 Wright, Will 25 SR 2 0 1.000 2.57 38 0 19 0 0 2 49.0 39 15 14 1 24 1 47 1.286 7.2 0.2 4.4 8.6 Overmann, Mike 33 RR 3 3 .500 2.45 30 0 23 0 0 6 44.0 42 15 12 2 17 2 26 1.341 8.6 0.4 3.5 5.3 Lueders, Gene 25 LL 4 5 .444 3.25 30 12 6 3 2 0 99.2 106 41 36 8 30 0 43 1.365 9.6 0.7 2.7 3.9 Carbajal, Manny 28 RR 2 1 .667 3.18 22 3 9 1 0 0 56.2 49 24 20 4 12 0 46 1.076 7.8 0.6 1.9 7.3 Mankell, Henning 23 RR 0 2 .000 4.08 5 5 0 0 0 0 35.1 38 16 16 2 13 0 18 1.443 9.7 0.5 3.3 4.6 Herod, Nate 36 LL 0 1 .000 6.60 12 0 5 0 0 0 15.0 17 12 11 5 7 1 1 1.600 10.2 3.0 4.2 0.6 Escabar, Nick 27 LL 0 0 .000 9.39 6 0 1 0 0 0 7.2 9 8 8 0 5 0 4 1.826 10.6 0.0 5.9 4.7 Williams, Michael 24 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.500 13.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 Covarrubias, Gabriel 24 LR 0 0 .000 6.75 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.1 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 1.500 13.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Tabb, Khalil 26 RR 102 355 44 104 16 5 2 44 37 54 1 0 13 .293 .362 .383 2* Cardenas, Alex 38 LL 96 342 37 82 15 2 9 40 35 48 0 0 20 .240 .312 .374 3 Stover, Ty 38 RR 104 327 36 67 14 1 11 31 71 75 0 0 13 .205 .351 .355 4*/6 Weiss, Tom 31 RR 126 468 67 140 21 3 21 75 86 53 0 0 11 .299 .413 .491 5*/3 Ybarra, German 24 RR 114 358 41 91 28 0 3 30 52 68 1 1 6 .254 .348 .358 6* Levario, Matthew 38 SR 82 243 28 52 14 0 5 19 34 44 2 3 4 .214 .318 .333 7 MacMillan, Micah 27 LR 115 495 61 118 21 5 13 53 36 68 8 3 7 .238 .291 .380 8* Meneses, Frank 34 LL 81 264 39 63 8 4 12 37 55 60 6 5 2 .239 .370 .436 97 Hartman, Phil 23 LL 55 190 35 53 16 0 5 25 44 45 0 0 6 .279 .420 .442 9/7 Rickman, Alan 25 LL 49 189 18 45 6 0 4 26 14 46 0 1 8 .238 .288 .333 3 Paige, Josh 27 RR 50 136 16 39 6 0 3 16 10 13 0 0 8 .287 .333 .397 2 Green, Eric 27 RR 50 127 17 33 2 1 2 11 3 18 3 0 3 .260 .282 .339 97 Banks, Jonathan 24 RR 32 121 17 38 9 1 0 10 5 12 0 0 5 .314 .344 .405 4/6 Cardenas, Luis 29 RR 38 104 16 27 3 0 2 7 14 18 0 2 4 .260 .342 .346 65/4 Poynor, Ross 28 LR 40 91 10 20 2 0 4 9 5 18 0 1 1 .220 .253 .374 7/89 Marsden, John 28 LL 27 90 8 18 5 1 1 12 6 12 0 1 3 .200 .247 .311 7 Jones, Pat 34 LR 43 84 8 23 7 0 1 9 6 8 1 1 1 .274 .312 .393 4/36 Murphy, Jeff 27 SL 33 81 12 24 3 0 2 13 4 8 3 4 2 .296 .333 .407 8/79 Sullivan, Aaron 37 LL 42 48 6 6 1 0 4 9 7 9 0 0 0 .125 .246 .396 /79 Field, Dan 26 RR 21 48 4 8 2 0 0 6 4 5 0 0 1 .167 .231 .208 /792 Armand, Mike 31 RR 14 23 5 5 1 1 0 4 5 5 1 0 0 .217 .379 .348 6 Ash, Marc 28 RR 27 20 2 5 1 1 1 4 6 6 0 0 0 .250 .407 .550 /9 Berg, Bobby 31 RR 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 Oakland Athletics (70-64) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 11 15 .423 3.67 30 30 0 4 1 0 198.2 166 91 81 15 133 9 208 1.505 7.5 0.7 6.0 9.4 Shelton, Rick 30 LR 12 13 .480 3.56 30 30 0 5 2 0 217.1 194 103 86 18 123 11 145 1.459 8.0 0.7 5.1 6.0 Barnard, Lee 27 LL 10 11 .476 3.18 28 28 0 8 1 0 203.2 187 82 72 7 63 10 121 1.227 8.3 0.3 2.8 5.3 Harris, Mike 23 LL 14 9 .609 3.08 28 28 0 12 1 0 210.1 186 79 72 7 74 10 124 1.236 8.0 0.3 3.2 5.3 Howard, Josh 28 RR 2 4 .333 5.04 52 0 38 0 0 14 60.2 62 36 34 16 29 8 64 1.500 9.2 2.4 4.3 9.5 Chavez, Willis 32 LL 6 4 .600 2.21 43 0 32 0 0 12 57.0 53 21 14 1 23 4 27 1.333 8.4 0.2 3.6 4.3 Wilson, Chris 34 RR 5 0 1.000 1.38 32 4 13 0 0 1 71.2 42 13 11 5 35 4 57 1.074 5.3 0.6 4.4 7.2 Lancaster, Nate 29 LL 5 3 .625 3.84 19 7 4 1 1 1 63.1 54 32 27 7 19 0 52 1.153 7.7 1.0 2.7 7.4 Allen, Chris 27 RL 1 1 .500 5.13 14 2 2 0 0 0 26.1 35 15 15 2 9 1 13 1.671 12.0 0.7 3.1 4.4 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 9.8 1.2 4.9 3.7 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 6.2 0.0 8.3 8.3 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 5.2 0.7 2.3 3.8 Decker, King 24 RR 1 1 .500 5.84 2 2 0 0 0 0 12.1 14 8 8 1 9 0 10 1.865 10.2 0.7 6.6 7.3 Crystal, Billy 22 LR 0 1 .000 6.75 2 2 0 0 0 0 12.0 12 11 9 2 8 2 10 1.667 9.0 1.5 6.0 7.5 Torres, Carlos 33 LL 0 0 .000 9.64 7 0 1 0 0 0 4.2 12 9 5 2 1 0 2 2.786 23.1 3.9 1.9 3.9 Ellis, Doug 26 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.2 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1.200 10.8 0.0 0.0 5.4 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Lewis, Josh 23 SR 107 420 50 125 28 1 12 54 28 41 0 1 15 .298 .337 .455 2*7/3 Kelver, Kyle 31 RR 82 288 26 69 12 0 5 31 27 47 0 0 5 .240 .302 .333 37 Gaytan, Israel 24 RR 120 487 49 132 24 2 5 41 13 45 1 2 12 .271 .299 .359 4* Jones, Chase 28 RR 126 462 61 125 11 1 26 65 53 82 0 1 10 .271 .345 .468 5* Evenson, Matt 25 RR 107 324 21 82 16 0 5 37 37 63 0 0 6 .253 .325 .349 6* Field, Dan 26 RR 79 306 32 78 16 2 8 41 21 44 0 0 8 .255 .301 .399 7 Vallejo, Alex 28 LL 62 236 38 73 8 1 4 21 25 22 10 6 8 .309 .385 .403 8/9 Berman, Richard 25 RR 110 429 62 117 31 5 2 29 28 37 11 3 11 .273 .321 .382 9* Schurke, Mike 24 SR 54 189 19 53 9 2 1 21 13 23 3 1 3 .280 .319 .365 8/97 Mesa, David 23 LL 43 148 16 40 10 2 1 16 8 26 5 0 3 .270 .302 .385 89/7 Skelton, Jon 42 LL 71 127 8 30 7 1 3 16 15 13 0 0 6 .236 .326 .378 3 Wilson, Gil 29 LR 57 129 14 36 4 0 2 13 6 19 0 0 1 .279 .304 .357 65/4 Hawkinson, Ray 28 LR 31 107 15 43 9 2 6 21 8 12 2 1 0 .402 .418 .692 3 Decker, David 43 RR 27 100 15 20 3 0 3 9 17 11 0 0 4 .200 .316 .320 3 Molina, Ruben 24 RR 32 104 13 30 4 1 1 7 9 11 4 0 1 .288 .336 .375 4/985 Bueno, Raul 33 RR 52 76 17 21 3 4 3 20 3 7 5 1 4 .276 .289 .539 /3794 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 19 57 8 12 1 1 1 2 13 11 0 0 5 .211 .357 .316 2 Vallin, Jose 37 RR 47 41 3 10 0 0 0 5 3 4 1 0 0 .244 .283 .244 /35 Potter, Rich 28 RR 14 25 3 8 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 0 1 .320 .346 .400 /64 Kane, Derek 25 RR 6 23 0 3 2 0 0 3 1 5 0 0 1 .130 .167 .217 /2 Montoya, Carlos 24 RR 5 15 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 .067 .125 .067 /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 2 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .500 .600 .500 /7 Culliton, Jeff 28 LR 5 5 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 .200 .200 .200 /2 Groves, Adam 30 RR 1 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 .250 .250 1.000 /7 Flannery, Matt 25 RR 5 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 .250 .250 /6 Washington Senators (70-63) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 11 .621 1.98 32 32 0 13 5 0 259.0 199 70 57 11 73 4 169 1.050 6.9 0.4 2.5 5.9 Daugharty, Chad 26 RR 14 14 .500 3.52 31 31 0 6 2 0 232.2 213 98 91 14 80 7 146 1.259 8.2 0.5 3.1 5.6 Mendoza, Raul 28 RR 15 11 .577 3.23 30 30 0 12 3 0 225.2 196 100 81 24 45 3 154 1.068 7.8 1.0 1.8 6.1 Freeman, Kevin 28 LL 11 12 .478 2.95 30 29 0 10 2 0 216.2 193 84 71 22 59 4 114 1.163 8.0 0.9 2.5 4.7 Duckett, Jake 26 LL 2 5 .286 2.82 39 0 32 0 0 13 51.0 42 17 16 3 27 3 35 1.353 7.4 0.5 4.8 6.2 Slaughter, Gabe 25 RR 3 4 .429 4.14 36 0 26 0 0 8 50.0 51 25 23 7 22 3 19 1.460 9.2 1.3 4.0 3.4 Rivera, Andres 30 RR 2 2 .500 4.53 30 3 12 0 0 0 45.2 51 28 23 9 7 1 26 1.270 10.1 1.8 1.4 5.1 Shepherd, Ron 28 LL 1 1 .500 2.52 23 0 10 0 0 0 25.0 29 10 7 1 11 1 13 1.600 10.4 0.4 4.0 4.7 Kenner, Jim 30 SL 3 2 .600 1.97 20 7 4 1 0 0 73.0 44 20 16 3 40 0 36 1.151 5.4 0.4 4.9 4.4 Chavez, Willis 32 LL 1 0 1.000 0.00 7 0 7 0 0 3 10.0 7 1 0 0 3 0 7 1.000 6.3 0.0 2.7 6.3 Morales, Ramon 23 RR 0 1 .000 12.71 1 1 0 0 0 0 5.2 14 9 8 3 2 0 3 2.824 22.2 4.8 3.2 4.8 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 9.8 0.0 12.3 0.0 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Flores, Armando 29 RR 105 445 41 124 20 1 6 54 12 62 0 0 29 .279 .298 .369 2* Decker, David 43 RR 60 194 24 49 7 3 9 29 16 25 0 0 9 .253 .318 .459 3 Hernandez, Jose 24 RR 129 488 61 116 25 0 20 75 48 103 3 1 14 .238 .307 .412 4*/6 Salinas, David 36 RR 88 312 41 91 12 3 3 32 26 37 6 8 7 .292 .344 .378 5 Knight, Tyler 30 RR 125 387 47 102 14 0 6 50 51 68 3 2 8 .264 .345 .346 6*/45 Kaplan, Bobby 24 RR 117 434 49 135 15 2 2 45 34 50 9 8 14 .311 .368 .369 7*/9 Schaben, Joel 33 LR 103 404 54 128 24 7 3 57 21 25 7 5 5 .317 .346 .433 8*/9 Wilson, Bubba 26 LR 126 505 69 149 22 5 2 36 44 74 10 6 8 .295 .342 .370 9*/78 Bush, George W. 25 LL 48 155 27 38 13 0 8 28 34 25 1 1 1 .245 .392 .484 3 Dominguez, Omar 30 RR 56 162 18 29 4 0 6 19 19 42 0 0 4 .179 .262 .315 5/43 Bucciarelli, Devin 25 RR 48 160 23 33 6 1 1 12 12 36 5 0 3 .206 .256 .275 8/9 DeBoer, Nick 39 RR 56 123 9 23 6 2 1 11 12 19 0 0 2 .187 .255 .293 3 Goyco, Ramon 27 LL 48 97 19 21 2 0 1 9 12 24 2 0 0 .216 .303 .268 7 Escobar, Jonathan 29 RR 28 92 13 21 5 0 1 8 14 24 0 0 5 .228 .324 .315 2 Brown, Kyle 25 LL 82 90 12 27 2 0 4 9 14 13 0 0 0 .300 .390 .456 9 Cardenas, Danny 32 RR 40 50 9 10 2 0 2 6 11 12 0 1 1 .200 .344 .360 3 Rodriguez, Henry 22 RR 34 47 6 11 2 0 1 7 3 9 0 0 1 .234 .288 .340 6 Jackson, Reggie 24 RR 8 22 4 6 1 0 0 1 5 10 0 0 0 .273 .429 .318 /5 Skelton, Jon 42 LL 7 22 1 8 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 1 .364 .440 .364 /3 Gonzalez, Ramiro 31 SR 5 16 0 4 2 0 0 2 3 2 0 0 0 .250 .368 .375 /2 Ramey, Justin 32 RR 9 9 1 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 .222 .300 .444 /64 Conners, Roy 30 SR 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 .500 .667 .500 /8 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- National League 1971 ===================================================== Atlanta Braves (82-56) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 22 5 .815 2.70 32 32 0 9 3 0 243.1 217 89 73 15 55 3 161 1.118 8.0 0.6 2.0 6.0 Sandoval, Julio 29 RR 11 12 .478 3.50 30 30 0 6 2 0 213.2 241 101 83 14 62 0 86 1.418 10.2 0.6 2.6 3.6 Cari, Jake 26 RR 10 12 .455 3.60 28 28 0 3 2 0 192.1 195 86 77 17 69 1 101 1.373 9.1 0.8 3.2 4.7 Carranza, Felix 27 RR 15 6 .714 3.83 30 27 2 7 0 0 204.1 211 90 87 24 65 4 114 1.351 9.3 1.1 2.9 5.0 Winn, John 28 SR 10 4 .714 0.88 51 0 47 0 0 26 82.0 59 11 8 1 17 2 73 0.927 6.5 0.1 1.9 8.0 Hollopeter, Steve 25 RR 3 5 .375 4.94 46 2 26 1 0 3 71.0 90 42 39 19 15 2 61 1.479 11.4 2.4 1.9 7.7 Evans, Roger 27 SL 3 0 1.000 2.00 37 1 8 0 0 0 45.0 43 12 10 3 19 2 25 1.378 8.6 0.6 3.8 5.0 Lee, Sung-jin 34 RR 0 5 .000 4.85 33 0 21 0 0 5 42.2 42 25 23 3 11 1 22 1.242 8.9 0.6 2.3 4.6 Dean, Trevon 29 LR 7 7 .500 4.47 29 17 3 2 0 0 133.0 131 70 66 14 52 3 53 1.376 8.9 0.9 3.5 3.6 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 7.1 3.2 7.1 4.8 Baryshnikov, Mikhail 22 SR 1 0 1.000 1.29 1 1 0 0 0 0 7.0 4 1 1 0 4 0 6 1.143 5.1 0.0 5.1 7.7 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Coyle, Danny 35 RR 101 298 38 62 16 1 9 41 61 64 1 0 10 .208 .346 .359 2* Chairez, Dante 27 LR 134 500 78 132 19 3 23 78 63 92 1 1 15 .264 .345 .452 3* Dwyer, Kevin 32 RR 102 417 73 124 23 5 14 60 37 39 1 1 14 .297 .352 .477 4* Luna, Vicente 35 RR 96 411 54 107 13 3 9 47 26 51 4 0 8 .260 .305 .372 5*/3 Reid, Jon 26 RR 124 485 55 130 24 0 4 52 33 86 0 2 10 .268 .316 .342 6*4 Ward, Chris 25 LL 101 372 66 104 12 4 8 36 38 57 49 14 1 .280 .348 .398 7/93 Damon, Josh 30 RR 115 432 59 114 18 1 16 56 43 61 3 0 12 .264 .334 .421 8* Riggs, Henry 35 LL 125 467 99 146 27 0 39 110 84 67 0 1 7 .313 .416 .621 9* LePera, Andy 25 RR 71 243 35 71 11 5 2 19 20 18 0 0 4 .292 .345 .403 79 Gamez, Andres 23 RR 70 153 21 47 6 1 5 28 14 29 1 1 7 .307 .365 .458 2 Medford, Mike 29 RR 45 123 13 25 3 1 4 14 17 30 1 0 1 .203 .317 .341 5/76 Dietrich, Ryan 32 RR 49 119 8 22 1 1 0 7 7 21 1 2 5 .185 .242 .210 6 Gomez, Jose 30 RR 42 102 20 30 5 0 8 15 12 14 4 0 0 .294 .364 .578 8/97 Martinez, Franklin 36 RR 75 86 11 23 5 1 3 13 2 17 0 1 1 .267 .293 .453 /3 Augspurger, Kenny 29 LL 37 57 5 9 1 0 4 12 9 11 0 0 2 .158 .269 .386 7 Clinton, William Jefferson 25 RR 24 56 4 14 4 0 0 7 2 3 0 1 2 .250 .267 .321 5/46 Villegas, Roberto 30 RR 16 41 3 8 3 0 1 2 1 7 0 0 1 .195 .214 .341 4/65 Holden, Jeremy 25 RR 16 21 1 8 1 0 0 3 0 4 1 2 1 .381 .381 .429 /3 Baugher, Bill 26 LL 18 18 1 2 1 0 1 2 1 5 0 0 0 .111 .158 .333 /7 Vallin, Jose 37 RR 5 6 2 2 0 0 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 .333 .444 .333 /5 Aday, Michael Lee 23 LL 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /7 Chicago Cubs (64-70) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 10 .615 3.33 29 29 0 9 0 0 221.2 195 95 82 6 90 11 137 1.286 7.9 0.2 3.7 5.6 Lucas, Bill 33 LR 7 12 .368 4.65 27 27 0 3 1 0 176.0 186 107 91 25 84 13 95 1.534 9.5 1.3 4.3 4.9 Tidwell, Steve 30 LR 14 6 .700 3.61 26 26 0 9 4 0 184.1 195 82 74 21 71 9 127 1.443 9.5 1.0 3.5 6.2 Marin, Victor 30 RR 5 10 .333 4.33 27 15 2 3 0 0 131.0 139 76 63 10 50 10 78 1.443 9.5 0.7 3.4 5.4 Uscanga, Freddy 25 LL 5 8 .385 4.15 52 0 47 0 0 13 82.1 80 42 38 9 45 6 65 1.518 8.7 1.0 4.9 7.1 Moon, Suk-min 35 SR 4 3 .571 1.94 44 0 21 0 0 0 65.0 53 16 14 4 27 4 49 1.231 7.3 0.6 3.7 6.8 Martinez, Antonio 35 SR 2 4 .333 3.23 41 0 25 0 0 9 53.0 53 21 19 5 20 7 39 1.377 9.0 0.8 3.4 6.6 Obregon, Javy 31 RR 4 8 .333 5.42 18 15 0 0 0 0 108.0 123 69 65 13 42 1 48 1.528 10.3 1.1 3.5 4.0 Zarate, Jose 22 LL 2 4 .333 4.90 14 8 0 1 1 0 60.2 75 35 33 6 13 3 32 1.451 11.1 0.9 1.9 4.7 Coffey, Scott 28 LL 5 3 .625 3.80 10 10 0 3 1 0 71.0 73 33 30 8 24 1 44 1.366 9.3 1.0 3.0 5.6 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 8.2 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 8.6 1.7 3.0 3.0 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 18.5 1.4 7.1 4.3 Grant, Eddy 22 RR 0 0 .000 16.20 5 0 1 0 0 0 6.2 11 12 12 1 7 1 7 2.700 14.9 1.4 9.5 9.5 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Darrow, Greg 27 RR 108 421 36 112 25 0 10 61 20 58 0 0 16 .266 .300 .397 2* Lopez, Antonio 25 LL 134 535 80 169 28 2 33 102 55 78 0 0 9 .316 .378 .561 3* Perez, Juan 33 LR 58 173 18 44 3 1 5 22 21 24 0 1 7 .254 .343 .370 4 Gabel, Sean 27 RR 124 526 67 141 20 8 0 37 18 51 27 14 9 .268 .292 .337 5* Taylor, Jeremy 27 RR 120 460 62 119 11 13 17 57 35 86 9 6 5 .259 .314 .450 6* Workman, Jason 34 LL 124 487 66 126 17 1 21 79 33 47 0 1 7 .259 .304 .427 7*/9 Johnston, Ryan 28 LL 92 353 52 89 19 2 9 34 48 78 19 4 4 .252 .346 .394 8 Groves, Adam 30 RR 93 277 50 73 11 3 11 39 48 60 10 2 2 .264 .378 .444 9/78 Hernandez, Nelson 28 RR 40 150 23 48 9 1 5 21 20 21 1 2 2 .320 .401 .493 9/8 Cooper, Chance 24 LR 48 121 19 31 2 1 6 17 26 27 3 2 0 .256 .385 .438 89 Holcombe, David 24 LR 35 116 14 31 5 1 2 15 19 21 0 1 1 .267 .380 .379 4 Casio, Steve 34 LL 87 119 21 36 5 0 5 14 16 22 0 0 3 .303 .382 .471 9/73 Owen, Kellen 29 RR 42 102 13 25 3 0 1 4 6 13 0 0 7 .245 .291 .304 45/63 Fenney, Steve 30 RR 42 77 10 21 1 0 2 5 8 11 1 2 2 .273 .345 .364 8/79 Timonen, John 28 RR 31 79 10 16 4 1 1 5 2 12 1 0 3 .203 .220 .316 6/4 Potter, Rich 28 RR 34 73 7 22 2 2 1 12 5 5 1 0 0 .301 .350 .425 4/65 Lozano, Manuel 25 LR 19 67 12 24 5 1 1 7 10 17 0 0 0 .358 .449 .507 4 Kohut, John 31 LR 19 60 3 8 3 0 1 6 9 6 0 0 1 .133 .236 .233 2 Pratchett, Terry 22 RR 11 41 5 11 3 1 1 7 7 8 3 0 0 .268 .375 .463 8 Rosales, Juan 35 RR 10 33 4 8 0 0 3 7 6 6 0 1 2 .242 .359 .515 2 Crozier, Nick 26 RR 10 20 3 5 0 0 1 2 3 6 0 0 0 .250 .333 .400 /87 Schurke, Mike 24 SR 2 9 2 4 1 0 0 3 1 0 0 1 0 .444 .500 .556 /8 Jung, Hee-gon 34 LL 9 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .125 .125 .125 /7 Brettell, Matt 33 LL 5 4 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .500 .600 .750 Cincinnati Reds (65-73) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 20 9 .690 2.53 34 34 0 11 2 0 266.1 230 84 75 14 79 4 181 1.160 7.8 0.5 2.7 6.1 Hagan, Joe 30 RR 8 15 .348 3.79 30 30 0 6 2 0 220.2 217 109 93 37 73 2 125 1.314 8.9 1.5 3.0 5.1 Vanover, Bill 30 SR 10 12 .455 3.82 27 27 0 6 1 0 195.1 212 95 83 15 41 5 80 1.295 9.8 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 10.2 1.9 4.0 6.5 Olmos, Edward James 23 SR 2 3 .400 1.97 28 0 22 0 0 11 50.1 40 15 11 3 18 4 34 1.152 7.2 0.5 3.2 6.1 Rosas, Ricky 28 RR 7 13 .350 4.84 45 9 32 0 0 9 106.0 104 60 57 16 54 3 77 1.491 8.8 1.4 4.6 6.5 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 10.6 0.9 2.6 6.3 Panarello, Graham 26 RR 1 4 .200 3.78 28 6 9 2 1 0 69.0 65 29 29 3 36 1 42 1.464 8.5 0.4 4.7 5.5 Bryant, Terrance 33 LL 2 0 1.000 1.44 27 0 11 0 0 2 25.0 19 4 4 0 9 2 9 1.120 6.8 0.0 3.2 3.2 Johnston, Mike 34 RR 5 1 .833 2.96 12 9 2 0 0 0 67.0 64 22 22 1 39 2 41 1.537 8.6 0.1 5.2 5.5 Maurice, Bastien 26 RL 3 2 .600 5.79 6 6 0 0 0 0 37.1 40 26 24 5 17 0 17 1.527 9.6 1.2 4.1 4.1 Rivera, Manny 25 RR 2 0 1.000 0.47 16 0 8 0 0 2 19.0 6 1 1 0 3 0 9 0.474 2.8 0.0 1.4 4.3 Hale, Zach 25 LL 0 0 .000 11.25 7 0 0 0 0 0 4.0 6 5 5 1 7 0 5 3.250 13.5 2.3 15.8 11.3 Elser, Garrett 28 RR 0 0 .000 8.53 5 0 1 0 0 0 6.1 5 6 6 0 7 0 7 1.895 7.1 0.0 9.9 9.9 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 0.0 0.0 0.0 9.0 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Williams, Oliver 27 RR 106 366 25 88 9 0 7 41 34 53 0 0 10 .240 .306 .322 2* Miller, Nick 26 LL 90 272 33 74 7 3 6 32 26 45 14 3 5 .272 .340 .386 39/7 Ortiz, Pedro 27 RR 126 534 69 145 30 6 6 36 57 70 22 15 5 .272 .342 .384 4* Kraljevic, Bobby 28 LR 120 405 48 96 17 1 10 53 80 58 1 2 9 .237 .359 .358 5*/3 Wendt, Mike 27 RR 123 408 35 95 11 6 6 43 20 67 15 5 13 .233 .267 .333 6* Cannon, Junior 27 LL 114 389 56 89 11 1 15 62 67 79 4 0 7 .229 .340 .378 73 Burwell, Sonny 23 LR 86 337 57 102 18 4 3 34 45 80 28 6 1 .303 .377 .407 8/9 Beaulieu, Bobby 24 SR 69 254 41 63 13 6 7 38 32 52 6 4 2 .248 .339 .429 9/85 Gomez, Carlos 29 RL 80 235 39 72 12 3 14 52 36 46 0 0 2 .306 .396 .562 7 Tooley, Mark 35 RR 58 193 26 40 6 2 4 16 18 41 3 3 3 .207 .269 .321 8/9 Day, Jarrod 27 LR 50 131 24 34 11 1 5 27 26 25 0 0 1 .260 .374 .473 2 Dorman, Scott 26 RR 66 116 10 26 4 3 1 12 9 23 1 2 5 .224 .281 .336 65 Flores, John 26 SR 35 94 12 21 1 2 4 12 10 19 0 0 2 .223 .292 .404 3/46 Alvarez, Manuel 37 RR 30 97 12 22 5 0 2 6 6 12 0 0 3 .227 .269 .340 9 Clark, Stephen 33 LL 32 84 10 21 4 1 2 4 7 5 0 0 3 .250 .313 .393 3 Guerrero, Fidelio 25 LR 31 56 5 17 3 1 1 7 9 10 1 2 1 .304 .409 .446 5 bin Naim, Dennis 24 LL 21 58 8 17 2 0 0 5 4 10 0 0 1 .293 .339 .328 /987 Schweitzer, Todd 23 LL 24 57 1 11 2 0 0 3 3 15 1 0 1 .193 .242 .228 3 Martinez, Jerry 38 RL 46 50 8 10 1 0 5 11 3 5 0 0 2 .200 .236 .520 /7 Magoni, Mauro 32 RR 26 51 5 8 2 0 0 2 3 13 0 0 1 .157 .200 .196 3/5 Cowan, Greg 30 LL 20 42 6 10 3 0 3 3 3 13 0 1 0 .238 .289 .524 /97 Rivera, Alonzo 23 LL 7 23 1 7 2 0 1 3 3 1 0 0 0 .304 .370 .522 /3 Penn, John 29 RL 10 24 4 9 1 1 1 4 0 3 0 0 0 .375 .375 .625 /98 Downing, Matt 37 RR 13 20 6 5 3 0 0 1 2 4 0 0 0 .250 .348 .400 /645 Menke, Ben 30 RR 9 14 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 5 1 0 0 .143 .250 .143 /98 Wilkes, Chris 28 RR 12 15 1 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 .133 .125 .333 /87 Houston Astros (76-59) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 21 8 .724 3.12 35 35 0 9 2 0 273.2 254 102 95 5 110 17 172 1.330 8.4 0.2 3.6 5.7 McDonald, Caleb 30 SR 16 8 .667 3.68 33 33 0 8 3 0 220.0 215 100 90 17 97 9 90 1.418 8.8 0.7 4.0 3.7 Mullett, Josh 27 RR 13 12 .520 4.48 34 25 3 4 1 0 189.0 204 107 94 20 94 15 93 1.577 9.7 1.0 4.5 4.4 Rodriguez, Herman 27 RR 4 5 .444 4.67 30 15 2 1 0 0 117.2 121 66 61 7 59 3 55 1.530 9.3 0.5 4.5 4.2 Douglas, Jon 29 RR 4 9 .308 2.91 52 0 47 0 0 24 77.1 58 31 25 8 29 3 64 1.125 6.8 0.9 3.4 7.4 Graton, Jeff 31 RR 5 4 .556 4.22 42 5 27 1 1 4 85.1 92 46 40 6 41 6 52 1.559 9.7 0.6 4.3 5.5 Escobar, Roberto 24 RL 2 2 .500 3.10 36 0 8 0 0 0 40.2 36 16 14 5 23 4 46 1.451 8.0 1.1 5.1 10.2 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 8.4 0.8 2.9 7.2 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 9.7 1.0 6.9 5.1 Tyler, Steven 22 SR 1 3 .250 3.41 15 2 5 0 0 0 31.2 45 16 12 1 18 3 15 1.989 12.8 0.3 5.1 4.3 Ochoa, Alex 25 RL 3 0 1.000 1.09 3 3 0 1 1 0 24.2 21 3 3 0 10 0 20 1.257 7.7 0.0 3.6 7.3 Garcia, Andy 23 LL 0 1 .000 6.75 4 1 3 0 0 0 10.2 11 8 8 3 3 0 7 1.313 9.3 2.5 2.5 5.9 Bryant, Mike 25 LR 0 0 .000 11.57 4 0 1 0 0 0 4.2 5 6 6 0 4 0 2 1.929 9.6 0.0 7.7 3.9 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Rigdon, Dan 28 RR 106 407 47 112 29 2 6 44 28 69 0 0 16 .275 .320 .400 2* Richens, Justin 39 LL 71 232 33 58 11 0 7 37 24 42 0 0 2 .250 .323 .388 3 Chairez, Alejandro 32 RR 85 308 37 64 8 3 6 23 20 46 8 4 12 .208 .251 .312 4/6 Little, Pete 26 RR 118 422 48 92 15 1 12 60 53 77 1 1 14 .218 .308 .344 5* Green, Jordan 25 RR 116 423 55 115 15 1 9 52 45 71 0 0 17 .272 .337 .376 6*/43 Lockhart, Jesse 27 RR 105 416 52 122 27 0 6 47 31 56 3 0 12 .293 .345 .401 7* Lopez, John 30 LL 124 506 79 132 13 3 5 44 56 43 26 8 4 .261 .337 .328 89 Weaver, Jaden 29 LL 118 450 69 138 24 1 34 96 46 76 1 2 7 .307 .370 .591 93/8 Hattori, Masanori 25 RR 61 191 24 57 7 1 5 33 17 26 1 3 3 .298 .349 .424 843/5796 Rohrbough, John 23 LR 60 166 25 52 11 3 2 23 18 26 3 2 3 .313 .379 .452 37/89 Ringstad, Nate 35 RR 90 148 18 43 8 0 2 29 12 10 0 0 4 .291 .341 .385 35 Foreman, George 22 SR 31 118 19 40 10 1 4 20 11 19 4 2 0 .339 .394 .542 87 Copeland, Bobby 27 SR 33 112 9 24 4 0 1 5 6 11 0 0 2 .214 .250 .277 2 Blake, Adam 25 RR 25 97 19 25 6 0 3 9 5 14 0 0 6 .258 .308 .412 4/3 Sherron, Jon 28 RR 33 91 11 25 1 1 1 10 3 11 0 0 2 .275 .289 .341 4/3 Perez, Javy 31 LL 51 71 17 19 0 1 4 7 10 11 0 1 1 .268 .354 .465 9/7 Patton, Elijah 33 RR 38 75 7 17 2 1 0 3 5 15 0 1 1 .227 .272 .280 64 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 24 21 3 8 1 0 1 4 2 7 0 0 1 .381 .417 .571 Reiner, Rob 24 RR 10 17 2 2 1 0 0 0 3 4 1 0 1 .118 .250 .176 /6745 Ryan, Nolan 24 RR 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Clark, Blake 25 LL 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 2.000 Los Angeles Dodgers (61-74) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Castillo, Andres 34 RL 12 11 .522 3.29 27 27 0 9 1 0 202.2 203 95 74 14 64 3 159 1.317 9.0 0.6 2.8 7.1 Apolonio, Fernando 30 LL 14 11 .560 2.95 27 27 0 8 1 0 216.2 162 86 71 16 67 1 114 1.057 6.7 0.7 2.8 4.7 Salinas, Rogelio 28 LL 8 13 .381 3.96 27 27 0 7 2 0 200.0 180 94 88 34 69 3 164 1.245 8.1 1.5 3.1 7.4 Figueroa, Carlos 25 RR 10 13 .435 4.77 27 27 0 3 0 0 185.0 199 105 98 25 94 1 155 1.584 9.7 1.2 4.6 7.5 Cosby, Alec 26 RR 4 5 .444 2.90 50 0 42 0 0 18 83.2 65 31 27 7 27 2 64 1.100 7.0 0.8 2.9 6.9 Wilson, Rich 33 RR 2 5 .286 2.75 39 0 24 0 0 4 52.1 51 19 16 3 18 1 48 1.318 8.8 0.5 3.1 8.3 Rodriguez, Santos 22 LL 6 11 .353 3.79 29 22 2 5 0 0 164.0 155 84 69 12 57 4 105 1.293 8.5 0.7 3.1 5.8 Wood, Arthur 35 SR 1 1 .500 2.78 26 0 13 0 0 1 35.2 35 14 11 1 12 0 12 1.318 8.8 0.3 3.0 3.0 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 6.7 0.6 4.9 5.5 Juarez, Mario 26 LR 2 2 .500 4.28 20 5 5 0 0 0 48.1 55 25 23 3 15 0 32 1.448 10.2 0.6 2.8 6.0 Mincher, Dylan 28 SL 0 0 .000 0.00 11 0 3 0 0 1 9.0 6 0 0 0 2 1 6 0.889 6.0 0.0 2.0 6.0 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 13.5 4.5 6.8 4.5 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Davis, Jason 26 RR 100 271 26 63 9 0 3 24 32 47 0 0 10 .232 .307 .299 2* Stone, Justin 32 LL 125 467 70 131 18 1 24 83 77 70 8 4 1 .281 .387 .478 3* Pena, Francisco 27 RR 100 337 45 90 16 1 8 39 34 51 4 0 9 .267 .328 .392 4* Maccioli, Brian 26 RR 126 491 57 131 24 1 15 50 35 62 0 3 15 .267 .312 .411 5* Solis, Luis 22 LR 119 472 60 122 18 4 7 45 24 41 16 9 4 .258 .294 .358 6* Griffin, Ernie 33 LL 110 408 49 101 8 4 15 50 39 55 11 6 2 .248 .314 .397 7*/98 Ernst, Ben 25 LL 78 304 34 86 11 6 4 40 35 46 7 4 1 .283 .349 .398 87 Costa, Ray 25 RR 124 451 58 104 18 3 16 61 61 85 6 3 8 .231 .324 .390 9* Tristan, Billy 41 RR 69 171 17 45 4 1 1 19 22 24 1 0 6 .263 .349 .316 4/3 Zimmerman, Jason 28 RR 62 169 16 27 6 0 2 11 25 34 0 0 6 .160 .267 .231 2 Rhone, Jamal 38 RR 83 119 14 33 3 3 1 17 19 9 1 2 3 .277 .372 .378 79 Heil, J.D. 25 RR 38 131 20 34 4 2 5 16 9 22 4 3 2 .260 .308 .435 8/7 Magana, Butch 25 LL 38 117 8 24 2 0 0 1 6 22 3 3 4 .205 .244 .222 8/79 Winchell, Dusty 29 LL 59 112 7 25 0 0 2 10 8 21 1 1 1 .223 .262 .277 73/89 Hohman, Danny 27 LL 26 106 15 30 4 2 2 11 7 16 2 2 0 .283 .327 .415 8 Lander, Brian 32 SR 36 77 8 17 4 0 1 3 11 20 0 0 3 .221 .322 .312 6/4 Schwartz, Jeremy 28 RR 36 55 5 12 2 0 0 5 3 10 0 0 4 .218 .259 .255 5 Sego, Nick 26 LR 9 28 1 6 3 1 0 3 3 4 0 0 1 .214 .281 .393 /43 Vergara, Omar 25 LL 7 21 3 4 0 0 3 6 3 7 0 0 1 .190 .292 .619 /97 Montreal Expos (52-80) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 10 8 .556 2.70 26 26 0 6 3 0 190.0 162 71 57 18 57 3 111 1.153 7.7 0.9 2.7 5.3 Olvera, Javier 22 RR 11 9 .550 3.78 30 22 4 1 0 0 157.1 174 78 66 14 57 0 108 1.468 10.0 0.8 3.3 6.2 Terrell, Aaron 25 RL 9 7 .563 3.68 21 20 0 3 0 0 146.2 122 70 60 20 72 2 107 1.323 7.5 1.2 4.4 6.6 Navarro, Melvin 27 RR 3 11 .214 5.46 30 18 5 2 0 0 128.2 126 81 78 14 99 5 96 1.749 8.8 1.0 6.9 6.7 Hernandez, Ernesto 26 RR 5 10 .333 3.22 50 0 41 0 0 16 92.1 78 35 33 9 37 5 49 1.245 7.6 0.9 3.6 4.8 Owens, Tom 39 LL 2 3 .400 4.10 48 2 20 0 0 0 59.1 64 28 27 5 19 1 24 1.399 9.7 0.8 2.9 3.6 Munro, Trevor 30 RR 2 2 .500 5.49 28 0 21 0 0 5 39.1 43 24 24 12 12 1 16 1.398 9.8 2.7 2.7 3.7 Acosta, Carlos 27 RR 1 4 .200 3.78 26 9 5 0 0 1 83.1 86 41 35 8 41 3 71 1.524 9.3 0.9 4.4 7.7 Webb, Josh 32 RR 2 0 1.000 8.15 14 0 6 0 0 0 17.2 17 16 16 3 8 1 17 1.415 8.7 1.5 4.1 8.7 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 9.8 2.2 1.7 1.5 Evans, Frank 23 RR 3 4 .429 3.58 8 8 0 1 0 0 55.1 56 28 22 4 18 1 27 1.337 9.1 0.7 2.9 4.4 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 8.7 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 9.6 3.1 6.2 8.1 Matson, T.J. 24 RR 1 3 .250 9.27 8 5 0 0 0 0 22.1 28 24 23 7 14 1 15 1.881 11.3 2.8 5.6 6.0 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 17.5 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 14.7 2.3 3.1 3.9 Gouger, Trevor 22 LR 0 0 .000 1.08 7 0 2 0 0 0 8.1 4 1 1 0 4 1 7 0.960 4.3 0.0 4.3 7.6 Pinkney, Armani 27 LR 0 0 .000 3.00 4 0 1 0 0 0 6.0 7 3 2 0 2 0 7 1.500 10.5 0.0 3.0 10.5 Zavala, Fernando 29 LL 0 1 .000 11.12 1 1 0 0 0 0 5.2 9 7 7 0 3 0 2 2.118 14.3 0.0 4.8 3.2 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 11.6 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 13.5 0.0 13.5 6.8 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Carranco, Roberto 29 SR 88 283 20 58 5 1 8 28 22 62 0 0 9 .205 .268 .314 2* Munoz, Armando 36 LL 125 508 63 134 25 0 17 67 28 81 0 1 13 .264 .302 .413 3* Heyen, Bill 28 RR 121 505 58 141 20 11 1 38 30 78 10 7 5 .279 .322 .368 4* Owens, Adam 24 RR 101 388 44 122 23 3 7 37 42 57 0 0 9 .314 .384 .443 5* Yarbor, George 25 SR 103 370 41 95 14 1 6 38 35 61 6 8 9 .257 .316 .349 6/475 Morales, Willie 27 LL 114 425 47 109 22 0 20 70 26 69 0 0 9 .256 .300 .449 7*/9 Mendoza, Anton 26 RL 77 298 34 87 11 3 6 26 12 21 3 1 4 .292 .317 .409 89 Williams, Matt 32 RR 73 223 33 59 6 2 14 34 33 46 4 5 7 .265 .368 .498 9/7 Ash, Marc 28 RR 60 215 36 66 9 1 5 21 47 37 8 6 1 .307 .426 .428 89/7 Byce, Jeff 31 RR 51 189 16 37 6 1 1 12 11 32 6 2 3 .196 .243 .254 8/7 Watts, Hudson 24 RR 51 174 14 40 10 4 1 11 16 34 6 1 4 .230 .295 .351 6 Martinez, Gabe 29 SR 83 149 14 43 8 1 1 12 12 22 2 0 2 .289 .339 .376 9/374 Putnam, Brent 35 RR 43 127 10 25 5 0 3 15 12 27 0 0 2 .197 .262 .307 2 Hunter, Brian 31 RR 29 90 8 17 2 0 1 9 0 8 3 0 8 .189 .194 .244 5/6 Villegas, Omar 22 RR 21 48 5 9 2 0 1 3 2 13 0 0 0 .188 .220 .292 2 Ortega, Willie 27 RL 18 48 3 8 2 0 1 2 1 6 0 0 2 .167 .184 .271 /79 Vargas, Johnny 23 LL 28 45 4 8 1 0 0 4 3 8 0 0 0 .178 .229 .200 /978 Sullivan, Aaron 37 LL 39 40 7 15 1 0 3 9 4 5 0 0 0 .375 .413 .625 /9 Maldonado, Jose 27 RR 12 36 6 6 1 0 1 2 6 5 1 0 0 .167 .286 .278 7 Carreon, Heath 25 RR 15 37 4 6 0 2 0 2 5 10 0 0 2 .162 .262 .270 5 Porter, Jaime 27 RL 16 23 4 9 3 0 2 6 1 5 0 0 0 .391 .417 .783 /3 Owens, Andy 31 RR 10 16 3 2 0 0 0 1 3 4 0 0 1 .125 .250 .125 /8 Mueller, Brian 29 RR 6 14 1 5 1 0 0 0 2 3 0 1 0 .357 .389 .429 /645 Baldwin, Bob 36 RR 8 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 .125 .125 .125 New York Mets (70-62) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 17 9 .654 3.31 32 32 0 6 1 0 236.1 184 93 87 20 129 2 205 1.324 7.0 0.8 4.9 7.8 Mash, John 34 SR 8 13 .381 3.51 29 29 0 8 1 0 205.1 196 85 80 12 67 6 113 1.281 8.6 0.5 2.9 5.0 Camacho, David 29 RL 10 8 .556 3.73 27 27 0 4 2 0 188.1 194 89 78 16 55 2 116 1.322 9.3 0.8 2.6 5.5 Beane, Joe 29 LL 9 12 .429 4.53 31 26 0 5 2 0 177.0 193 95 89 25 83 0 80 1.559 9.8 1.3 4.2 4.1 Saus, Geoff 29 RR 11 11 .500 2.55 60 1 54 0 0 25 98.2 82 33 28 4 36 1 96 1.196 7.5 0.4 3.3 8.8 Bechtel, Charlie 24 RR 5 2 .714 2.76 46 0 28 0 0 5 62.0 55 21 19 2 12 2 47 1.081 8.0 0.3 1.7 6.8 Hilbert, Larry 28 RR 1 2 .333 2.84 30 0 12 0 0 0 38.0 23 15 12 1 15 1 15 1.000 5.4 0.2 3.6 3.6 Schnipke, Erik 28 LR 5 2 .714 3.39 28 4 7 0 0 0 61.0 58 24 23 5 25 1 49 1.361 8.6 0.7 3.7 7.2 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 10.0 1.0 4.0 6.7 Ratzenberger, John 24 RR 3 3 .500 4.50 11 11 0 1 0 0 72.0 67 36 36 5 24 0 44 1.264 8.4 0.6 3.0 5.5 Navarro, Eduardo 25 LR 1 0 1.000 4.50 2 2 0 0 0 0 12.0 13 6 6 2 2 0 9 1.250 9.8 1.5 1.5 6.8 Seitz, Mark 24 RR 0 0 .000 4.32 8 0 2 0 0 0 8.1 9 4 4 0 3 0 3 1.440 9.7 0.0 3.2 3.2 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Bushon, Jason 28 RR 104 349 49 74 11 1 12 51 63 67 1 3 11 .212 .342 .352 2* Waltenbery, Joshua 31 LL 126 479 92 154 33 3 17 79 79 57 0 0 14 .322 .414 .509 3* van Zanten, Adri 26 RR 114 411 37 105 21 1 4 50 38 63 0 2 15 .255 .316 .341 4* Hawkinson, Nick 42 RR 72 250 28 59 14 0 2 23 27 45 4 1 10 .236 .314 .316 5 Wilcox, Brian 29 RR 86 266 28 66 7 1 4 25 25 46 5 0 4 .248 .310 .327 6 Yebra, Ruberto 29 RR 90 339 44 94 11 5 2 26 30 30 19 6 6 .277 .336 .357 7 Hope, Curtis 25 LR 123 468 63 136 25 8 18 73 56 87 7 8 4 .291 .367 .494 8* Washington, Jimmy 28 LL 92 368 49 93 18 0 13 51 19 55 0 0 10 .253 .292 .408 9*/7 Waters, Danny 25 LR 82 243 34 55 15 2 5 22 34 55 1 1 5 .226 .324 .366 574/6 Hamill, Mark 22 RR 40 159 18 41 11 2 0 8 10 24 0 2 3 .258 .300 .352 5/39 Ortega, Lorenzo 25 LR 62 146 19 42 9 0 5 15 9 31 0 0 2 .288 .333 .452 6 Tooley, Mark 35 RR 29 88 7 16 1 0 4 11 6 9 2 0 0 .182 .234 .330 9/78 Winchell, Dusty 29 LL 35 68 6 17 3 0 0 5 6 13 2 0 2 .250 .299 .294 7/8 Fath, Jon 34 LR 26 64 6 14 2 0 1 5 4 11 0 0 0 .219 .265 .297 9/3 Romero, Ricardo 26 RR 21 62 1 8 1 0 1 5 2 6 0 0 3 .129 .154 .194 2 Maroney, John 34 RR 22 49 7 10 1 1 1 9 11 10 0 0 1 .204 .344 .327 5/3 Damian, Kyle 31 RR 25 57 7 12 0 0 3 10 2 7 0 0 3 .211 .237 .368 /789 Mueller, Brian 29 RR 19 50 4 8 2 1 0 4 4 11 1 1 1 .160 .222 .240 6/4 Wagner, Brad 22 LL 11 37 8 8 0 1 2 6 5 7 0 0 2 .216 .326 .432 7 Diaz, Mario 38 LL 28 36 10 10 2 0 2 3 5 0 2 0 0 .278 .366 .500 /79 Williams, Robert 32 RR 26 35 6 11 2 1 1 6 5 8 0 0 0 .314 .390 .514 /645 Arriaga, Edgar 35 RR 18 34 1 6 0 0 0 2 5 9 0 0 0 .176 .282 .176 /93 Munger, Randy 35 RR 11 26 1 2 1 0 0 2 8 13 0 0 0 .077 .306 .115 2 Palencia, Ramiro 40 RR 21 24 2 4 0 0 0 1 2 7 0 0 0 .167 .231 .167 /7 Mora, Jordan 22 RR 6 19 3 6 0 0 0 3 1 2 0 0 1 .316 .333 .316 /2 Allen, Mike 33 RR 5 11 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 .182 .250 .273 /89 Greenlee, Adam 35 LL 12 10 1 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 .200 .273 .400 /9 Patterson, Matayahu 35 LL 9 8 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 .125 .300 .250 /7 Philadelphia Phillies (71-63) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 13 17 .433 3.22 34 34 0 11 1 0 254.2 237 99 91 16 73 7 191 1.217 8.4 0.6 2.6 6.8 Quintana, Roger 23 LL 15 11 .577 3.00 32 32 0 9 1 0 237.1 220 89 79 21 68 6 175 1.213 8.3 0.8 2.6 6.6 Ording, Billy 27 RR 10 14 .417 4.11 30 30 0 4 0 0 199.1 192 96 91 13 78 4 113 1.355 8.7 0.6 3.5 5.1 Starkey, Richard 22 LL 15 7 .682 3.57 29 29 0 7 2 0 204.0 190 90 81 15 53 1 106 1.191 8.4 0.7 2.3 4.7 Grohs, Tom 28 LL 9 5 .643 3.50 53 0 45 0 0 16 72.0 71 35 28 7 23 5 44 1.306 8.9 0.9 2.9 5.5 Sherritt, Joe 30 RR 3 1 .750 3.48 35 0 25 0 0 3 44.0 43 17 17 0 12 1 18 1.250 8.8 0.0 2.5 3.7 Wille, Josh 27 LL 2 2 .500 2.50 35 3 14 0 0 2 54.0 38 19 15 7 7 0 47 0.833 6.3 1.2 1.2 7.8 Sanchez, Omar 29 LR 3 0 1.000 2.37 35 0 16 0 0 1 49.1 34 16 13 3 10 2 33 0.892 6.2 0.5 1.8 6.0 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 11.5 1.5 3.6 4.6 Parks, Dale 33 LL 0 1 .000 2.05 7 2 0 0 0 0 22.0 19 6 5 1 3 0 9 1.000 7.8 0.4 1.2 3.7 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 11.9 1.6 3.8 7.6 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 12.0 0.0 13.5 6.0 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Rahn, Sam 30 RR 104 375 36 102 17 2 4 43 28 63 0 0 16 .272 .327 .360 2* Coffey, Josh 28 RR 128 515 69 154 23 0 14 58 53 57 1 0 23 .299 .368 .425 3* Serna, Victor 30 RR 114 415 49 83 14 1 15 55 60 93 4 3 8 .200 .299 .347 4* Becerra, Alex 32 RR 107 345 52 83 16 0 23 57 71 80 0 1 6 .241 .369 .487 5* Shannon, Tony 26 RR 124 470 83 154 24 3 13 65 76 67 33 7 9 .328 .415 .474 6*/3 Anderson, Brandon 23 RR 86 272 37 72 15 3 5 33 43 52 6 8 3 .265 .356 .397 79/8 Tarala, Bryant 29 LR 119 433 78 95 13 4 15 52 87 90 22 15 2 .219 .359 .372 8* Harpst, Corey 29 RR 46 173 11 39 5 3 0 11 9 26 2 4 6 .225 .268 .289 9 Rowe, Nate 26 RR 54 172 27 61 6 2 7 38 14 18 0 2 3 .355 .415 .535 465/7 Ashbaker, Ryan 27 RR 59 151 21 41 6 1 1 15 9 21 1 2 4 .272 .315 .344 79/8 Carrasco, Pedro 28 LL 76 113 16 25 0 0 2 16 22 22 3 1 1 .221 .338 .274 9/7 Citro, Lee 33 RR 38 109 7 28 6 0 0 11 15 20 0 0 5 .257 .344 .312 2 Stewart, Paul 28 LL 28 117 9 30 2 1 0 7 3 19 1 0 4 .256 .275 .291 7 Ramos, Cris 33 LR 41 109 13 25 4 0 3 11 9 13 0 0 4 .229 .294 .349 5 Valencia, Antonio 25 LL 27 95 10 24 3 0 1 8 8 14 2 0 2 .253 .327 .316 7 Jeanty, Scott 26 LR 23 88 7 16 1 2 1 3 2 17 1 1 1 .182 .196 .273 9/8 O'Connor, Mark 27 LL 26 62 7 13 3 0 1 4 7 21 2 0 0 .210 .286 .306 8/7 Carrasco, Francisco 26 RR 31 39 10 12 4 1 0 5 6 11 0 2 0 .308 .404 .462 /45 Powell, Andrew 27 LL 10 31 6 9 3 0 1 5 0 5 0 0 0 .290 .281 .484 /7 Granneman, Chris 36 LR 12 28 1 4 2 0 0 5 2 6 0 0 0 .143 .226 .214 /9 Belushi, John 21 LL 6 20 4 5 2 0 1 2 2 2 0 0 0 .250 .318 .500 /7 McCarty, Paul 26 LR 7 13 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 .231 .231 .231 /7 Corley, Bobby 28 RR 4 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 .000 .250 .000 /79 Pittsburgh Pirates (72-65) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 22 5 .815 2.19 34 34 0 15 4 0 271.2 209 74 66 14 62 4 185 0.998 6.9 0.5 2.1 6.1 Battaglia, Jeremy 28 LL 20 11 .645 2.56 34 34 0 13 5 0 277.1 251 91 79 17 57 4 139 1.111 8.1 0.6 1.8 4.5 Vargas, Octavio 39 SR 5 11 .313 3.99 28 28 0 3 0 0 187.1 192 95 83 20 54 2 87 1.313 9.2 1.0 2.6 4.2 Cheeves, D.J. 31 RR 6 14 .300 3.76 26 26 0 7 4 0 182.0 176 86 76 15 68 1 121 1.341 8.7 0.7 3.4 6.0 Lemus, Paz 28 RR 11 11 .500 3.72 60 0 55 0 0 21 96.2 99 46 40 6 43 7 73 1.469 9.2 0.6 4.0 6.8 Ramirez, Carlos 28 SR 0 3 .000 2.63 30 0 18 0 0 3 41.0 44 18 12 3 12 2 29 1.366 9.7 0.7 2.6 6.4 Bruno, Brian 28 RR 5 6 .455 3.19 25 8 7 0 0 0 90.1 87 37 32 7 16 0 62 1.140 8.7 0.7 1.6 6.2 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 7.3 0.4 4.7 5.5 Torres, Carlos 33 LL 0 1 .000 4.67 17 0 3 0 0 1 17.1 22 10 9 0 12 1 12 1.962 11.4 0.0 6.2 6.2 Perez, Danny 25 RR 2 3 .400 3.93 9 7 1 2 1 0 52.2 61 25 23 2 22 0 38 1.576 10.4 0.3 3.8 6.5 Urbina, Miguel 30 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 8 0 2 0 0 0 10.1 6 0 0 0 3 0 6 0.871 5.2 0.0 2.6 5.2 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 0.0 0.0 10.8 10.8 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 Valdivia, AbÃ*lio 39 RL 82 246 28 75 9 1 4 21 28 31 1 0 6 .305 .376 .398 3 Villar, Henry 28 LR 127 488 60 132 17 4 2 28 51 73 3 8 9 .270 .330 .334 46/5 Prieto, Roberto 38 RR 119 432 50 98 16 2 9 42 53 78 7 6 12 .227 .311 .336 5* Webster, Tyler 27 LR 60 183 15 43 5 2 5 20 32 33 0 0 2 .235 .352 .366 64 Lawson, Justin 30 RR 127 511 54 128 23 1 21 87 34 62 0 0 17 .250 .294 .423 7* Hearl, Justin 27 LL 128 488 56 131 12 8 2 43 55 68 29 10 3 .268 .338 .338 8* Jackson, Brian 27 RR 90 371 48 107 14 5 9 38 29 36 7 5 14 .288 .345 .426 9 Holman, Jack 29 LL 101 258 38 73 14 0 8 31 34 50 1 0 8 .283 .367 .430 3 Kaku, Michio 24 RR 45 180 21 53 8 2 4 13 12 39 6 3 2 .294 .337 .428 9/87 Dunnahoe, Luke 29 RR 57 142 19 37 9 1 2 18 13 16 0 1 1 .261 .314 .380 46/5 Ganzalez, Arturo 26 RR 39 104 10 26 8 0 0 7 9 13 0 1 3 .250 .307 .327 3/4 Wolcott, Marty 32 RR 31 80 11 21 7 3 2 12 12 6 0 2 5 .263 .351 .500 4 Flores, Alex 27 RR 28 68 10 21 2 1 4 12 6 15 0 0 1 .309 .355 .544 5 Flores, Chris 31 RR 22 68 3 12 2 0 0 4 5 15 0 0 3 .176 .224 .206 2 Cando, Sergio 28 SR 24 59 6 10 1 0 2 9 11 14 1 0 1 .169 .301 .288 4 Carrera, Carlos 25 RR 34 64 6 18 4 1 1 7 7 9 0 1 1 .281 .352 .422 /987 Herring, Ray 28 RR 40 61 8 17 3 1 1 7 4 6 2 0 5 .279 .309 .410 /97 Woodcock, Scott 37 RR 16 56 2 8 2 0 0 4 7 13 0 0 6 .143 .238 .179 2 Kirkland, Jeremy 24 LR 19 48 2 8 1 1 1 4 3 6 0 0 1 .167 .216 .292 6 Menner, Frank 28 RR 15 37 2 7 0 0 1 4 6 10 0 0 0 .189 .295 .270 8/9 Spiner, Brent 22 SR 13 34 6 11 3 0 1 5 0 9 0 0 0 .324 .333 .500 2 Fenley, Mike 25 LR 9 29 1 5 1 0 0 3 3 10 0 0 0 .172 .235 .207 2 Martinez, Arturo 27 RR 5 12 1 6 2 0 0 2 3 2 0 0 1 .500 .563 .667 /64 Macchia, George 25 RR 6 9 2 3 0 1 2 4 2 1 0 0 1 .333 .417 1.222 /8 San Diego Padres (65-71) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 12 14 .462 3.57 27 27 0 12 2 0 201.2 196 89 80 14 85 4 102 1.393 8.7 0.6 3.8 4.6 Aguilar, Rodrigo 29 LL 10 8 .556 3.42 23 23 0 4 1 0 165.2 166 70 63 11 57 3 49 1.346 9.0 0.6 3.1 2.7 Feldhusen, Ben 32 LL 8 6 .571 2.99 21 21 0 4 1 0 144.1 143 53 48 6 41 6 90 1.275 8.9 0.4 2.6 5.6 Gordon, Shane 22 RR 7 8 .467 5.02 21 18 2 0 0 0 118.1 109 69 66 18 78 2 85 1.580 8.3 1.4 5.9 6.5 Parchman, Darius 28 RR 6 6 .500 2.73 49 0 38 0 0 12 66.0 48 22 20 7 15 3 58 0.955 6.5 1.0 2.0 7.9 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 6.2 0.8 3.3 6.0 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 11.4 1.5 3.4 3.4 Andrade, Raul 33 RR 0 1 .000 3.00 28 0 10 0 0 1 48.0 42 18 16 1 30 0 30 1.500 7.9 0.2 5.6 5.6 Kahl, Paul 27 RR 3 6 .333 4.17 27 11 9 1 0 0 103.2 120 50 48 11 37 4 29 1.514 10.4 1.0 3.2 2.5 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 8.6 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 9.2 0.7 3.6 4.9 Barreras, Cesar 25 RR 2 6 .250 8.03 10 9 0 0 0 0 52.2 70 55 47 6 29 2 27 1.880 12.0 1.0 5.0 4.6 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 9.6 0.0 5.2 3.5 Teague, Jon 25 LR 0 1 .000 2.25 12 0 4 0 0 1 16.0 13 4 4 0 7 1 9 1.250 7.3 0.0 3.9 5.1 Pineau, Dan 27 SL 1 0 1.000 1.93 9 0 3 0 0 0 9.1 6 2 2 1 4 0 10 1.071 5.8 1.0 3.9 9.6 Bowie, David 24 LR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 1.0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.000 18.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 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 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos DeBose, Michael 25 SR 93 299 31 72 19 2 6 46 23 66 0 1 7 .241 .291 .378 2 Palacios, Carlos 25 LL 90 337 39 112 29 1 2 57 27 25 0 0 11 .332 .375 .442 3 McCartney, Paul 22 RR 127 472 74 134 17 4 25 73 55 69 4 3 7 .284 .356 .496 4*9/7 Landry, Kevin 38 RR 99 367 53 97 18 6 11 44 31 38 10 4 8 .264 .320 .436 5* Troncoso, Armando 24 RR 116 458 54 125 24 6 4 41 28 59 7 8 10 .273 .313 .378 6* Canales, Alex 26 SR 132 521 64 135 23 0 11 68 42 74 0 2 10 .259 .315 .367 7*3/4 Hadley, Zackery 32 RR 84 331 46 89 8 3 1 24 23 54 30 9 3 .269 .318 .320 8/9 Hernandez, Nelson 28 RR 37 152 18 34 9 1 3 18 5 35 2 2 2 .224 .268 .355 9 Ware, Eli 30 RR 78 201 29 43 8 2 5 23 34 35 1 0 3 .214 .328 .348 53 Leone, Jake 25 LL 50 191 31 48 8 2 2 22 29 34 11 4 1 .251 .339 .346 8/7 Bakke, Adam 31 RR 51 157 13 36 5 0 0 10 7 20 0 0 10 .229 .263 .261 2 O'Neill, Ed 25 LL 47 129 20 38 7 1 0 12 21 17 4 0 1 .295 .390 .364 9/8 Gomez, Carlos 29 RL 31 116 15 20 6 0 2 13 21 23 0 0 3 .172 .297 .276 7 Honesto, Roberto 29 RR 44 122 11 28 6 1 4 10 12 20 2 0 3 .230 .301 .393 4 Kelly, Bryce 30 LL 68 124 8 30 3 2 0 15 7 15 0 0 2 .242 .289 .298 9/7 Cowan, Greg 30 LL 48 90 20 30 7 3 6 23 17 18 2 1 2 .333 .450 .678 9/7 Dowler, Ben 33 RR 27 69 4 16 3 0 1 10 7 12 1 0 2 .232 .303 .319 6/4 Littrell, Dan 33 SR 16 47 6 5 1 0 0 2 8 8 0 0 1 .106 .232 .128 6/4 Culliton, Jeff 28 LR 16 43 0 6 0 0 0 3 5 9 0 0 0 .140 .224 .140 2 Slater, Cody 30 LL 23 45 3 8 0 0 1 10 1 9 0 0 0 .178 .191 .244 8/9 Mitchell, Tyler 25 LL 8 21 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 0 1 .048 .167 .048 /8 Herring, Ray 28 RR 9 11 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .182 .182 .182 /9 Dimond, Zach 25 RR 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 San Francisco Giants (62-73) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 10 14 .417 3.08 27 27 0 10 2 0 204.2 191 74 70 14 36 1 137 1.109 8.4 0.6 1.6 6.0 Melendez, Moises 23 RR 12 8 .600 2.74 27 27 0 4 1 0 197.1 181 72 60 13 43 4 85 1.135 8.3 0.6 2.0 3.9 Stuckey, Mike 30 RR 11 9 .550 3.42 26 25 0 5 1 0 189.2 189 84 72 10 70 1 131 1.366 9.0 0.5 3.3 6.2 Williams, Sam 27 LL 8 11 .421 3.71 21 21 0 4 1 0 152.2 145 77 63 9 67 1 99 1.389 8.5 0.5 3.9 5.8 Booth, John 35 LL 7 8 .467 3.59 54 0 49 0 0 21 77.2 74 33 31 9 32 6 37 1.365 8.6 1.0 3.7 4.3 Bailey, Matt 25 RR 2 2 .500 2.60 33 2 15 0 0 3 55.1 40 18 16 1 35 0 27 1.355 6.5 0.2 5.7 4.4 Ballard, Dan 36 LL 6 8 .429 3.90 29 11 7 4 0 1 110.2 104 51 48 11 37 2 59 1.274 8.5 0.9 3.0 4.8 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 8.6 1.8 2.9 6.5 Goltry, Mike 29 RR 1 0 1.000 3.26 18 0 6 0 0 1 19.1 21 8 7 2 12 0 13 1.707 9.8 0.9 5.6 6.1 Osbourne, Ozzy 23 RR 3 4 .429 5.37 10 9 1 0 0 0 55.1 66 34 33 7 17 0 33 1.500 10.7 1.1 2.8 5.4 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 8.6 1.6 4.8 4.3 Cummings, Andy 27 RR 0 3 .000 6.43 11 4 4 0 0 1 28.0 34 22 20 9 7 0 13 1.464 10.9 2.9 2.3 4.2 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 9.0 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 12.2 1.4 4.5 3.2 Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem 23 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 7 0 3 0 0 0 11.0 7 0 0 0 3 0 6 0.909 5.7 0.0 2.5 4.9 Jordan, David 25 LL 0 0 .000 4.50 2 0 0 0 0 0 4.0 3 2 2 0 1 0 3 1.000 6.8 0.0 2.3 6.8 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Campbell, Chris 32 RR 84 231 20 54 8 0 1 30 46 51 0 0 7 .234 .364 .281 2 Seek, Chris 26 RR 116 386 44 105 19 2 2 42 33 32 0 0 14 .272 .329 .347 3* Juarez, Rodrigo 24 RR 102 360 56 83 15 4 13 60 44 64 2 0 8 .231 .315 .403 4* Mock, Tim 30 RR 103 386 34 96 11 3 7 42 24 40 4 2 8 .249 .288 .347 5* Fujimoto, Akiho 33 RR 117 453 40 113 15 2 2 34 38 43 2 0 11 .249 .303 .305 6* Walker, Jimmy 23 RR 81 295 44 88 17 2 13 44 25 60 9 4 2 .298 .351 .502 97 Seligman, Danny 30 RR 92 393 50 129 12 2 6 39 22 53 23 11 6 .328 .358 .415 8* Cooper, Barry 28 LR 83 336 35 90 13 1 3 26 21 46 11 2 11 .268 .308 .339 9 Everhart, John 36 RR 59 191 18 29 11 0 2 13 29 32 0 0 5 .152 .267 .241 37 Turner, Bobby 25 LL 75 181 20 46 12 1 4 22 11 32 0 0 1 .254 .303 .398 73 Sanchez, Mario 23 RR 52 163 20 39 5 3 1 20 19 37 0 1 1 .239 .317 .325 64 Hartmann, Will 25 RR 38 143 12 33 4 0 1 12 5 13 2 3 1 .231 .257 .280 7/98 Park, Chae-hwi 27 RR 33 123 17 26 3 1 7 17 11 17 3 2 1 .211 .275 .423 8/7 Berry, Jon 30 LL 43 105 14 25 5 0 1 11 14 10 0 3 1 .238 .325 .314 7/39 Jersey, Ryan 26 RR 47 99 17 27 2 1 5 13 16 17 0 0 1 .273 .371 .465 5 Piper, Pat 25 RL 27 89 10 21 3 0 1 3 5 10 9 1 1 .236 .284 .303 8/79 Molina, Pat 40 RR 31 71 7 18 1 1 1 13 8 12 0 0 3 .254 .329 .338 2 Ronchetti, Felipe 27 RR 27 68 9 11 1 0 1 3 6 14 0 0 6 .162 .234 .221 2 Pop, Iggy 23 LR 22 58 8 17 3 0 1 8 7 12 0 0 0 .293 .369 .397 2 Stephens, Joel 26 RR 23 46 5 10 0 0 2 10 5 6 0 0 0 .217 .283 .348 /973 Luper, Jimmy 28 RR 15 44 2 9 1 0 0 3 5 8 0 0 4 .205 .275 .227 4 Harrison, George 23 LR 11 39 6 14 5 1 0 3 2 5 0 0 0 .359 .372 .538 5/4 Krupenski, Armando 26 RR 8 17 0 4 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 .235 .278 .235 /564 Weathers, Carl 22 RR 10 16 2 4 0 0 2 3 0 3 0 0 0 .250 .250 .625 /98 van Velthoven, Kelsey 34 RR 13 11 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 .091 .231 .182 Burwell, Sonny 23 LR 2 5 1 3 1 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 .600 .500 .800 /8 St. Louis Cardinals (71-65) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 14 15 .483 4.13 33 33 0 6 1 0 228.2 246 116 105 16 73 4 118 1.395 9.7 0.6 2.9 4.6 McCauley, Jimmy 35 RR 10 11 .476 3.93 31 30 0 5 2 0 215.0 219 118 94 14 100 5 128 1.484 9.2 0.6 4.2 5.4 Bachler, Vince 24 RR 11 13 .458 3.70 29 29 0 5 0 0 192.0 184 100 79 14 89 5 121 1.422 8.6 0.7 4.2 5.7 Garcia, Mario 24 RR 6 5 .545 4.05 18 18 0 2 1 0 115.2 106 57 52 10 42 4 80 1.280 8.2 0.8 3.3 6.2 Munoz, Billy 30 RR 8 6 .571 2.55 54 0 46 0 0 18 81.1 69 23 23 6 31 3 62 1.230 7.6 0.7 3.4 6.9 Legere, Rick 26 RR 7 4 .636 2.15 49 0 33 0 0 7 67.0 57 19 16 3 21 3 39 1.164 7.7 0.4 2.8 5.2 Kading, Kevin 35 LL 2 1 .667 4.60 42 0 18 0 0 0 43.0 44 23 22 3 18 3 40 1.442 9.2 0.6 3.8 8.4 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 8.6 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 8.6 0.8 3.3 4.2 Gomez, Ricardo 30 RR 4 1 .800 2.08 6 6 0 1 0 0 47.2 41 12 11 1 7 0 19 1.007 7.7 0.2 1.3 3.6 Hernandez, Miguel 28 RR 0 2 .000 5.47 11 2 3 0 0 0 26.1 34 16 16 2 9 1 18 1.633 11.6 0.7 3.1 6.2 Mchugh, Robert 24 RR 0 1 .000 3.32 6 2 2 0 0 0 19.0 15 7 7 2 9 0 17 1.263 7.1 0.9 4.3 8.1 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 11.2 0.7 0.7 3.3 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 6.2 0.0 1.0 3.1 Ellis, Doug 26 RR 1 0 1.000 3.86 6 0 0 0 0 0 7.0 9 3 3 0 1 0 6 1.429 11.6 0.0 1.3 7.7 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 11.8 0.0 5.1 6.8 O'Leary, Mike 28 LL 0 0 .000 3.86 2 0 0 0 0 0 2.1 1 1 1 1 0 0 2 0.429 3.9 3.9 0.0 7.7 Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Stuart, John 30 RR 83 307 38 91 15 2 8 47 32 53 0 0 7 .296 .365 .436 2 Martinez, Lorenzo 33 LR 124 426 83 113 13 1 32 84 99 69 0 0 10 .265 .407 .526 3*7 Depew, Tom 26 LR 113 458 59 140 18 6 1 35 26 37 6 8 6 .306 .337 .378 4*/6 Galeana, Mike 26 RR 96 296 44 68 6 1 22 53 48 65 0 1 7 .230 .333 .480 53 McCully, Dusty 25 RR 124 467 45 121 13 2 7 48 22 63 0 0 19 .259 .290 .340 6* Disla, Rafael 27 LL 106 429 61 132 24 2 9 50 28 44 0 0 9 .308 .355 .436 7* James, Jim 25 LL 71 280 34 83 15 6 9 28 8 41 2 6 1 .296 .318 .489 8/7 Satterfield, Casey 25 RR 118 421 56 130 27 3 10 57 60 59 2 0 14 .309 .394 .458 9* Johnson, Elijah 37 SL 110 363 43 89 9 2 4 31 26 67 8 6 4 .245 .296 .314 897 Morrison, Mike 30 RR 59 215 21 56 6 3 0 25 20 20 0 1 8 .260 .322 .316 5 Medina, Jose 27 RR 48 167 18 44 10 1 0 14 15 27 0 0 6 .263 .328 .335 2 Johnston, Chris 36 RR 50 157 13 42 7 1 2 16 7 16 3 2 5 .268 .292 .363 4/36 Vasquez, Hector 29 RR 38 74 6 18 4 0 0 3 8 8 0 0 2 .243 .317 .297 7/9 Keesee, Ethan 24 LL 31 68 9 25 1 1 0 4 3 4 5 0 1 .368 .392 .412 8/397 Webb, Jeremy 25 RR 15 52 3 9 3 1 0 8 4 6 2 0 0 .173 .224 .269 5 Wicker, Joe 26 RR 21 46 4 9 1 0 0 3 3 6 0 1 1 .196 .245 .217 6/4 Leone, Jake 25 LL 14 45 5 7 1 1 1 3 2 13 2 1 0 .156 .208 .289 8/9 Dockery, Dylan 28 RR 24 35 8 12 1 2 0 7 5 3 1 0 1 .343 .425 .486 8 Argumedo, Jeronimo 31 RR 13 28 3 6 0 0 0 1 2 5 0 0 1 .214 .258 .214 /4 Street, J.D. 30 RR 20 21 4 4 1 0 0 1 2 3 0 1 0 .190 .261 .238 /5 Hall, Lance 24 RR 6 18 1 5 2 0 1 4 3 1 0 0 0 .278 .348 .556 /2 Pope, Aaron 31 RR 7 15 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 .200 .250 .200 /5 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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04-17-2023, 07:31 PM
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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OK so I guess I’m on hiatus until the devs fix the issue with fictional leagues and the new BABIP rating. It sucks but it is what it is I guess…
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04-19-2023, 01:23 PM
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#144 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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August 30 - September 5, 1971
Standings / Recap / Comments
------------------------ WE'RE COMIN TO American League Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA Boston Red Sox 89 50 .640 - 602 451 Detroit Tigers 78 61 .561 11 579 523 Washington Senators 74 64 .536 14½ 575 494 Baltimore Orioles 70 64 .522 16½ 521 485 New York Yankees 66 73 .475 23 579 591 Cleveland Indians 60 80 .429 29½ 588 656 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Oakland Athletics 73 66 .525 - 516 545 California Angels 70 69 .504 3 542 521 Minnesota Twins 68 68 .500 3½ 556 573 Kansas City Royals 66 72 .478 6½ 581 653 Chicago White Sox 60 78 .435 12½ 511 542 Milwaukee Brewers 54 83 .394 18 443 559 Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA St. Louis Cardinals 75 65 .536 - 602 600 Philadelphia Phillies 74 66 .529 1 605 540 Pittsburgh Pirates 74 67 .525 1½ 533 513 New York Mets 72 66 .522 2 577 546 Chicago Cubs 65 74 .468 9½ 618 666 Montreal Expos 55 82 .401 18½ 527 650 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Atlanta Braves 82 60 .577 - 693 562 Houston Astros 78 63 .553 3½ 629 614 San Diego Padres 68 72 .486 13 579 583 Cincinnati Reds 67 75 .472 15 574 607 San Francisco Giants 66 74 .471 15 545 577 Los Angeles Dodgers 64 76 .457 17 574 598 Code:
Rank Team Pts Td Record PCT AVG ERA Pyt.Rec Diff 1st (1st) Boston 131 o 89-50 .640 .271 2.93 87-52 2 2nd (4th) Detroit 105 + 78-61 .561 .259 3.32 76-63 2 3rd (11th) St. Louis 103 ++ 75-65 .536 .271 3.81 70-70 5 4th (3rd) Houston 101 - 78-63 .553 .262 3.93 72-69 6 5th (15th) California 100 ++ 70-69 .504 .254 3.31 72-67 -2 6th (8th) Washington 98 + 74-64 .536 .261 3.05 79-59 -5 7th (2nd) Atlanta 97 -- 82-60 .577 .260 3.53 84-58 -2 8th (7th) Philadelphia 96 - 74-66 .529 .254 3.55 77-63 -3 9th (9th) Oakland 96 o 73-66 .525 .263 3.48 66-73 7 10th (6th) Baltimore 93 -- 70-64 .522 .253 3.16 71-63 -1 11th (5th) New York 93 -- 72-66 .522 .247 3.68 72-66 0 12th (20th) San Diego 92 ++ 68-72 .486 .257 3.76 70-70 -2 13th (19th) Kansas City 92 ++ 66-72 .478 .242 4.44 62-76 4 14th (16th) Pittsburgh 88 + 74-67 .525 .253 3.15 73-68 1 15th (17th) San Francisco 88 + 66-74 .471 .250 3.66 66-74 0 16th (10th) Minnesota 87 -- 68-68 .500 .259 3.80 66-70 2 17th (18th) Los Angeles 84 + 64-76 .457 .251 3.64 67-73 -3 18th (13th) Cincinnati 83 -- 67-75 .472 .245 3.93 67-75 0 19th (12th) New York 81 -- 66-73 .475 .249 3.86 68-71 -2 20th (14th) Chicago 77 -- 65-74 .468 .261 4.28 65-74 0 21st (24th) Montreal 76 ++ 55-82 .401 .256 4.29 56-81 -1 22nd (23rd) Chicago 72 + 60-78 .435 .247 3.64 65-73 -5 23rd (21st) Cleveland 70 - 60-80 .429 .256 4.18 63-77 -3 24th (22nd) Milwaukee 57 - 54-83 .394 .240 3.55 54-83 0 The AL West has been the division we've been highlighting, mostly because neither the A's nor the Twins can win games consistently enough to establish themselves. In fact, that's led this week's yuppies the California Angels back into the chase. The Angels won all 5 of their games last week and in so doing, find themselves 3 games back with a 3 game series at Oakland coming up tomorrow. This is their last series against the A's but they do have a one-night doubleheader of a series next week vs. the Twins and the season-ender at home against that club... and what has to be the easiest schedule of any contender otherwise, with the remainder of their games all against sub-.500 teams. The one race I haven't covered at all because it's been over since early August is the AL East. I should point out there, though, that the Red Sox would totally be the yuppies if they weren't already #1 in power rankings, as they've won 8 in a row and, even with the Tigers earning their way into 2nd place in the power rankings, have cut their magic number to 13. The Yankees meanwhile dropped series vs the Senators and Tigers this past week to earn the dirty hippie of the week award. The Red Sox' magic number against the Bombers is exactly 1 - a single Red Sox win or Yankees loss officially eliminates them. Major Transactions ------------------------ August 31: The Cubs traded OF Adam Groves (.264, 11, 39) to the A's for CF Mike Schurke (.280, 1, 21). The actual transaction was a lot smaller than this but hey, both these teams have kind of gaping holes they can fill with each other. Um. Phrasing. The Cubs just have not been into Groves for a while now and I think the long-term plan has always been to replace him eventually. He's only a medium average hitter with good but not great power and his biggest attribute - the ability to get on base via walks - is not super highly valued in Chicago. Schurke was the A's starter last year but they have Alex Vallejo (.315, 4, 21) now and even if/when he gets hurt they seem to have better options up the middle. September 1: The Twins traded RP Todd Thiesen (1-3, 5.59, 5 Sv) to the Cardinals for minor league 3B Coleman Agnew (.358, 0, 11 in AAA Tulsa) and minor league RP Jimmy Davidson (4-1, 0.62, 5 Sv at AA Arkansas). This move for the Twins is mainly to cut ties with Thiesen, who got blown up a few too many times since returning from nearly a year out of the game this summer. They get back... mostly scraps for him. Agnew is a career organizational soldier whose main value is to protect against Mike Brookes playing both hurt and tired, and Davidson is a 26 year old who's too old for his level but who nevertheless dominated it. September 1: The White Sox claimed 2B Chance Hopka (.232, 1, 10) on waivers from California. Hopka feels like he's been playing forever but he's still only 28 and he should challenge Ian Reeder (.248, 6, 34) for the rest of the month as well as spring training in 1972. Cal would have preferred for Hopka to clear waivers of course. They're kind of stacked at the keystone position though. News ----------------------- August 30: Ugh the top music gets EVEN WORSE this week... 1. Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey, Paul and "Linda" McCartney - YOU SHOULD BE SORRY PAUL MCCARTNEY FOR CAUSING MY EARS PAIN 2. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Bee Gees - I would be happy to see them trending downward except for the new #1 3. Smiling Faces Sometimes - The Undisputed Truth 4. Spanish Harlem, Aretha Franklin 5. Go Away Little Girl, Donny Osmond - Seriously, 1971, you uprooted Mercy Mercy Me for this!? I had to sit through this and now you do too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y8fDsU0hX8 This is what happens when you let Paul McCartney roam too far away from John Lennon: good production and interesting musical moments wrapped around a just plain horrible song. Go back to playing second, Paul! Also I am skeptical that Linda was actually a part of this because, well, the only place she could be in here is in the background and I've heard bootlegs of Wings several years after this song was produced where it's very clear she's, um, let's just say tone deaf. I guess there's like one line where a woman says something in the "Admiral Halsey" half of this song but... I think Frank Zappa sampled Moon's voice throughout "Valley Girl" for example and I don't think she got a co-artist nod on that. I will give "Halsey" a nod for not being as awful as the "Uncle Albert" half. Early 70s, why do you have so much sappy, string-filled horrendousness? Also I was unfamiliar with Smiling Faces Sometimes so here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXSHRJYxTQ I want to get behind a soul group, especially with all this dross around them, but man, I don't know. These lyrics... "a smile is just a frown turned upside down" YOU DO NOT NEED TO RHYME EVERY ****ING LINE YouTube has decided to play "The Goodbye Look" by Donald Fagen on autoplay after this song, as if to comfort me by reminding me that a decade later, music got good again. Even here though, Steely Dan from this era is kind of meh, with one of their few good songs in the early 70s being "Only A Fool Would Say That", which itself is a response song to the treacly "Imagine" by John Lennon. I wish someone had made a response song to "Uncle Albert". I guess any good top 40 song is in a sense a response song to "Uncle Albert" as it makes one realize that pop musicians can, in fact, not suck. August 30: The Progressive Conservatives defeat the Social Credit government in Alberta, ending 36 years of uninterrupted power for Social Credit in the province. "Progressive Conservatives"? August 30: With his team desperate to make up ground, I chose not to DL SS Jordan Green (.272, 9, 51), who was diagnosed with a sprained wrist on his throwing hand today, and instead have him play second base until the injury heals in 3-4 weeks. This means displacing Jon Sherron (.275, 1, 10), which I don't like a whole lot, but there aren't a lot of good options here. August 30: The NL Player of the Week was Cubs RF Nelson Hernandez (.278, 8, 39), who was recently promoted to cleanup due to the poor hitting by Jason Workman (.261, 20, 74) and the injury to Jeremy Taylor (.259, 17, 57) that's taken him all the way out of the lineup. Hernandez responded by hitting .500 (12-24) with 2 HRs, 7 R, and 7 RBI for a team that somehow finds itself not completely out of the playoff picture with Labor Day Weekend fast approaching. This is the first time the 2-time All-Star has ever won this award. August 30: The AL Player of the Week for the second time in his career was pesky Tigers CF Alvin Romero (.341, 8, 33), who went 14-26 (.538) with 2 HRs in the leadoff role, 6 runs scored, and a steal (in 3 attempts but hey, this is a good award). Romero has hit .423 since returning from a strained groin muscle that cost him most of August. Needless to say, he's leading the AL in average now. He's also a close 2nd in steals to Kansas City's Dave Corona (.290, 12, 53), with 44 thefts to "Cookie Monster"'s 47. August 30: Also, the entire AL has the day off - slackers! - but I keep forgetting to bring this up so I will now: Cleveland 3B Bobby Ramirez (.338, 11, 53) is on a 31 game hitting streak. OOTP doesn't generally do a great job with long hitting streaks so it's nice to see. The record is 40 games set by Matt Clayton in 1957 (not bad!) and there have been 2 other 30+ game streaks in modern history, the last of which was a 32 game streak set by the recently retired Alex Cardenas. Will Martinez break the record? August 30: Meanwhile for the Pirates, when it rains it pours... today they lost C Doug Connally (.264, 8, 34) for the next three weeks with an oblique strain. I guess to some extent this was to be expected, as Connally is not known for his durability (and I mean, catcher), but they are pretty thin behind the guy. Brent "Data" Spiner (.323, 1, 5) hit way over his head as a backup previous to this; maybe he'll wind up being decent? August 31: John Lennon, WHO IS ALREADY IN THE US PLAYING IN THE MINOR LEAGUES HELLO, leaves Britain for New York City, never to return. August 31: Giants OF Jon Berry (.259, 1, 12), the man with a career .246 average and a .340 career slugging percentage, is very unhappy because he wants to start. I was initially thinking "oh, he's mad about the losing and this is how it's expressing himself" but nope, he's unhappiest about team transactions (which I think is analogous to "stop signing people or calling people up who play my position") and role on team. I guess when he came over via the trade (which maybe he also didn't like?) he came over expecting to start, I don't know. So all that said, I've got nothing better to do with the Giants and Berry does bat left. First base is a weak position for SF; why not just give him a try in a platoon role? (answer: because he can't hit) August 31: Cleveland 3B Bobby Ramirez (.335, 11, 53) flied to center field in the 9th to end an 0-5 night in the second game of a double-header. This snapped his hitting streak at 32 games, tied for the 2nd longest in modern history (which, hey, did include the low-offense 60s). "I'm a little bummed, sure," said Ramirez after the game. "But I feel a lot better about winning." The Indians won 8-5 and in fact swept this double-header, which was played in Detroit, thanks in large part to an absolutely monster game from 1B Ernesto Garcia (.263, 51, 119), who went 5-10 with *4* HRs and *9* RBIs. Speaking of, with the first dinger in the 2nd game (he had 2 in each), Garcia became the 5th player in modern history to belt 50 HRs in a single season. He's also back on pace to hit 60+ and needs just 3 more to tie Beau Dooley for the AL record. August 31: Looks like we're not going to see White Sox OF Alice Cooper (.284, 19, 44) make a run at the rookie HR record this year, as he's out for more or less the rest of the season after getting drilled in the wrist by Twins starter Angelo Ramos (11-17, 3.91). Karma came back to feed on Ramos, as he hit in the winning run in the top of the 8th as the White Sox won the game 5-4. The teeniest, tiniest, silver lining to this cloud is that it affords them the opportunity to call up speedster and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger (.240, 6, 39 at AAA Louisville), who stole 42 bases in AAA ball this year. September (general): Forces from the Royal Thai Army recapture several positions in the territory of Laos on the south bank of the Mekong in response to an encroaching Chinese presence to the north. September 1: (IRL baseball) The Pirates field what is believed to be the first all-Black lineup in MLB history. September 1: A new month is beginning and that means the second-to-last round of montly awards! Let's get started in the NL with the Rookie of the Month: it goes to Giants starting pitcher Moises Melendez (12-8, 2.74), who went a deceptively urbane 2-1 with a 1.60 ERA in 6 starts and 45 innings. After a pretty bad August (2-2, 5.46), San Francisco has been keeping him on a pretty short leash and the results as of late have been very positive. September 1: In the AL, it's probably not hard to guess who the Rookie of the Month was. Yep, it was White Sox RF Alice Cooper (.284, 19, 44). He's out for the next 3-4 weeks, sadly, but he hit .280 with 9 HRs, 21 R, and 19 RBI - if the average was just a little higher, he could have won Player of the Month outright. September 1: The NL Pitcher of the Month is a guy who might be making the NL Cy Young race interesting: Pirates pitcher Jeremy Battaglia (20-11, 2.56). He went 6-2 with a 1.85 ERA in 8 starts with a K/BB ratio of 34/12 in 68 IP. Yeah, he's a finesse guy, but he sure finessed the job done. September 1: Meanwhile the AL guy is probably the front-runner for the Cy, Red Sox SP Justin Kindberg (21-5, 2.20). He's leading the league in wins thanks in large part to a huge 7-0, 2.03 month with 3 complete games, a shutout, and 48 Ks in 62 IPs. Kindberg was raking before but he really turned up the heat in August. September 1: Finally, the Players of the Month: first for the NL, we've got Red LF Carlos Gomez (.306, 14, 52), who hit .321 with 5 HRs, 21 RBIs, and 25 runs scored. Cincinnati had/has a really rough year but they really turned it around in August, finishing the month 18-11. Gomez was a huge, huge part of that. September 1: I don't expect the AL MVP award to go to a leadoff hitter but if it did there are worse guys out there than Tigers CF Alvin Romero (.339, 8, 43), who won the August Player of the Month award by hitting .404 with an unleadoffy 5 HRs and 27 runs scored - a run a game! He's currently slowed down by a strained abdominal muscle so he might just not get the counting stats you might need to win the MVP - he'd need 43 more hits to get 200, 12 doubles to get to 40, even 14 runs to reach 100 might be tough - but he's truly one of the toughest outs in all of baseball (and of course when he does work his way onto the basepaths, he's 44/54 in steals, good for 2nd in the league and 3rd in all of baseball). September 1: And FINALLY (on my side, I spent a couple hours expanding every team's rosters, so this definitely feels like a FINALLY to me), let's take a look at the Cy Young race. For the AL" Code:
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + | last_name | first_name | throws | team | w | l | Sv | era | g | gs | cg | sho | ip | bb | so | CYP | + -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + | Kindberg | Justin | R | BOS | 21 | 5 | 0 | 2.20 | 34 | 34 | 15 | 6 | 266 | 84 | 193 | 220.9 | | Akright | Vince | L | WAS | 18 | 11 | 0 | 1.98 | 32 | 32 | 13 | 5 | 259 | 73 | 169 | 192.0 | | Mosher | Tracy | R | NYY | 19 | 13 | 0 | 3.24 | 34 | 34 | 13 | 6 | 255 | 52 | 181 | 158.7 | | Sanchez | Marco | L | BOS | 15 | 9 | 0 | 2.16 | 26 | 26 | 12 | 3 | 204 | 32 | 128 | 150.0 | | Benavides | Chris | L | MIN | 18 | 16 | 0 | 3.22 | 35 | 35 | 8 | 4 | 251 | 75 | 153 | 142.2 | | Pesco | Michael | R | BOS | 17 | 14 | 0 | 3.39 | 35 | 35 | 13 | 3 | 263 | 99 | 212 | 141.8 | | Ring | Andy | L | CAL | 15 | 8 | 0 | 2.65 | 26 | 26 | 8 | 5 | 193 | 87 | 134 | 140.4 | | Molina | Edgar | L | DET | 17 | 12 | 0 | 3.08 | 30 | 30 | 10 | 2 | 222 | 74 | 152 | 140.0 | | Hinojosa | Sandy | L | BOS | 14 | 9 | 0 | 3.04 | 30 | 30 | 6 | 3 | 224 | 69 | 154 | 130.3 | | Luiso | Montay | R | BAL | 10 | 6 | 22 | 2.78 | 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 87 | 12 | 58 | 129.2 | + -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + On to the NL: Code:
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + | last_name | first_name | throws | team | w | l | Sv | era | g | gs | cg | sho | ip | bb | so | CYP | + -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + | Arango | Santos | R | PIT | 22 | 5 | 0 | 2.19 | 34 | 34 | 15 | 4 | 271 | 62 | 185 | 226.0 | | House | George | L | ATL | 22 | 5 | 0 | 2.70 | 32 | 32 | 9 | 3 | 243 | 55 | 161 | 200.4 | | Waiters | Steve | R | CIN | 20 | 9 | 0 | 2.53 | 34 | 34 | 11 | 2 | 266 | 79 | 181 | 191.9 | | Battaglia | Jeremy | R | PIT | 20 | 11 | 0 | 2.56 | 34 | 34 | 13 | 5 | 277 | 57 | 139 | 189.5 | | Rivera | Tony | R | HOU | 21 | 8 | 0 | 3.12 | 35 | 35 | 9 | 2 | 273 | 110 | 172 | 183.0 | | Winn | John | L | ATL | 10 | 4 | 26 | 0.88 | 51 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 82 | 17 | 73 | 160.6 | | Carrillo | Ernesto | L | NYM | 17 | 9 | 0 | 3.31 | 32 | 32 | 6 | 1 | 236 | 129 | 205 | 146.2 | | Saus | Geoff | L | NYM | 11 | 11 | 25 | 2.55 | 60 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 98 | 36 | 96 | 140.9 | | Quintana | Roger | R | PHI | 15 | 11 | 0 | 3.00 | 32 | 32 | 9 | 1 | 237 | 68 | 175 | 136.2 | | Sanders | Jason | L | CHC | 16 | 10 | 0 | 3.33 | 29 | 29 | 9 | 0 | 221 | 90 | 137 | 128.2 | + -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------ + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + September 1: This will be a bigger deal on the 2nd and 3rd but I will forget by then so... the A's and Twins, currently 1 1/2 games apart, have a huge series coming up this weekend in Minneapolis. Also, the Mets and Phillies, who themselves were tied for the NL East lead coming in to today, have a big *5* game series of their own starting on the 2nd and extending until Sunday the 5th. Both teams, interestingly (at least to me), have a series at the other team's stadium the following weekend. September 2: The United Arab Republic is renamed to the Arab Republic of Egypt. This was basically a name change to reality, as the "united republic" between Egypt and Syria had ceased to be a thing 10 years ago. September 2: 43 year old 1B David Decker (.235, 12, 38) wants to start for the Senators but he's not going to, not with 25 year old George W. Bush (.245, 9, 29) pretty well outhitting him. Given the way these things are going, and given that Washington has essentially no chance at the AL East title, this translates into "screw it, I'm retiring". Decker finishes his career with 2,672 hits, 417 HRs, 1,522 RBI, and a .291 average. He won the NL MVP back in 1957 when he hit .319 with 35 HRs and 113 RBIs and made the All-Star Game a total of 12 times. This guy is a a shoo-in for the Hall, I think. September 2: With a 10-9 loss to the Tigers the Cleveland Indians (60-77) became the first team in the American League to be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. This loss, while inevitable, put a final exclamation point on a bad, bad year for Cleveland, who was expected to contend this season but instead sees themselves 5 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the AL East cellar. 1B Ernesto Garcia (.264, 53, 124) collected his 53rd HR in the 10-9 loss, which saw the team come back from a 4-1 deficit to take an 8-4 lead which the bullpen promptly squandered. Tigers stopper Alex Madrigal (8-5, 2.31, 14 Sv) got the somewhat vultured victory after he allowed the Indians to break open an 8-8 tie in the top of the 9th only to be the pitcher of record when Malik Johnson (1-1, 5.09) melted down in the bottom half of the inning. Cleveland, unsurprisingly, is dead last in the AL with 634 runs allowed and starters' ERA of 4.31. September 2: This series could be for all the marbles. The Phillies and Mets opened up a 5-game series at Veteran's Stadium that could break up the logjam in the AL East. Today the winners were the Phillies, 5-4, behind their ace Marius Gaddi (14-17, 3.23), who threw a couple of mistake pitches to Mets 1B Joshua "Superman" Waltenbery (.322, 19, 81) but otherwise navigated through 7.1 innings before giving the ball to lefty specialist Josh Willie (2-2, 2.47) and stopper Tom "Hippie" Grohs (9-5, 3.47), who picked up his 17th save to close this one out. September 3: Cubs P Victor Marin (5-10, 4.36) wants back into the rotation that I kicked him out of for ineffectiveness. At 30, I'd say Marin is too young to force-retire (and he's not at a point of demanding a trade anyway) but this is a guy who at his best was a mid-rotation innings eater. The past 3 years he's hasn't even really been that: that 4.36 ERA is his lowest during that span. In a nutshell, I'll ignore him but stick him on the trading block in case I remember to ever use that. September 3: Royals P Joe Field (4-1, 2.83) went a step further and *did* demand a trade. He's had a good year with KC but let's be realistic here: that good season came after Milwaukee waived him in May. Here though I think I will go ahead and stick him in the rotation if for no other reason than the fact that the Royals' rotation right now is really bad. He is a 3 time All-Star, so that's nice. His last ASG was in 1965, so not so nice, but maybe he can put together a couple of good starts and, like, fool someone into thinking he's back. September 3: The big A's-Twins series opens with Oakland coming back from a 4-2 deficit to win, 5-4. CF Alex Vallejo (.305, 4, 22) issued the key hit in the 7th that first closed the gap to 4-3 and then, when he came around to score, tied it up, and then grizzled veteran 1B John Skelton (.239, 4, 17) launched the game-winner over the center field fence off Twins starter Mike Larsen (11-11, 4.21). Roberto Ortiz (12-15, 3.72) was his normal wild self but kept it together for 7 innings to earn the victory. September 3: And with an easy 9-4 win in the nightcap, the A's leap out to a 3 1/2 game lead and drive the Twins all the way down to .500 with a record of 67 wins and 67 losses. Pundits now give the Twinkies about a 1 in 8 chance to threepeat the AL West title. RF Richard Berman (.277, 2, 29), a former .300 hitter, went 4 for 5 tonight to lead the A's attack. It wasn't all good news for them, though, as their #1 starter Mike Harris (14-9, 3.04) left the game in the bottom of the 3rd inning with an as-yet undisclosed injury. Notable in the 2nd game, too, was that Twins 3B Mike Brookes (.262, 21, 55) failed to reach base for the first time in a game since June 29. OK, so he was hurt for some of that time, but still, that's 52 consecutive games on base. You wouldn't know it from the average, I guess, but then again Brookes did collect the second-highest amount of walks last season and is already 15th all time in that category at the still-youngish age of 32. September 3: Cleveland 1B Ernesto Garcia (.262, 54, 125) had just one hit in tonight's game against the Red Sox but it was a long one. His solo HR off of Sandy Hinojosa (14-9, 3.14) in the 2nd inning tied the American League record set by Beau Dooley in 1961. In classic Indians fashion, they wound up tying the game up and sending it to extra innings, where they lost 10-9, although in not classic Indians fashion it took 16 innings for the bullpen to finally expire. September 3: In the NL, the Phillies opened their own huge series vs the Mets in a way that gave their fans a heart attack, getting down 5-2 in the 6th, tying the game in the 8th off of a solo HR by 3B Alex Becerra (.245, 26, 63) and then winning the game outright when CF Bryant Tarala (.221, 17, 58) belted a walk-off grand slam HR in the bottom of the next inning. Somehow they did this all against Mets stopper Geoff Saus (11-12, 3.06, 25 Sv), who blew his 7th save of the season and saw his ERA lurch upwards by 50 points. "I was fortunate to get a pitch I could hit," said Tarala after the game. "It was one heck of a game and I'm just gonna say this now: we're gonna be the world champs!" September 3: Elsewhere in the NL East, the Pirates knocked off the Expos 7-6 with a 5 run 9th and the Cardinals' bullpen also very nearly gave up a 10-2 lead, winning 10-9. As of now the Phillies (73-64) and Pirates (74-65) are now a single percentage point apart and essentially tied for the division lead with the Cardinals (73-65) 1/2 game back and the Mets (70-65) slipping to 2 games behind. <note> This is about the time I figured out the big OOTP showstopping bug for fictional leagues, which is that players rated 0 in BABIP are actually rated "worst possible BABIP" instead of "default". I've gone ahead and modified hits all the way down to .790 to account for this statistically (using the numbers I've got so far for September, which include an insane .322 BABIP). I'll see how this plays out going forward and I do have the original going-into-24 ratings if OOTPD ever acknowledges this bug and fixes it. September 4: A Boeing 727 crashes into the side of a mountain near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board. This is the first fatal flight of an Alaskan Airlines plane and still as of 2023 the worst air disaster in Alaskan history. September 4: The Free State of Christiana is founded in the middle of Copenhagen, Denmark. September 4: The Twins get one back at home. They ride starter Victor Ramos (12-17, 3.84) to an easy 8-2 victory to get back to 2 1/2 games back. Minnesota was helped along with homeruns by C Brad Reed (.232, 11, 50), RF Lou Morgenstern (.252, 16, 62), and LF Darrel Bump (.317, 1, 5), not to mention *9* walks issued by A's starter Rick Shelton (12-14, 3.67), who was tagged for 5 runs in 6 innings to get the loss. Remember when he was a relative control guy with the Pilots in 1969? OK in retrospect that was never the case (even in '69 he averaged 4.2 BB/9) but it sure feels like the wildness in Oakland is contagious. September 4: The Mets hang on to win the first game of today's double-header vs the Phillies, 5-4. Starter Ernesto Carillo (18-9, 3.36) carried a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the 8th but gave up a 3 run homerun to RF Brandon Anderson (.269, 6, 36). That chased him from the game but fortunately for the Mets their setup man Charlie "The Test" Bechtel (5-2, 2.76, 6 Sv) was able to slam the door shut the rest of the way. The nightcap featured two spot starters going at it: Joe Beane (9-12, 4.53) for the Mets and Dale Parks (0-1, 2.05) for the Phillies. Both of them were chased in the 6th inning. With the score thus tied at 7 apiece in the 8th, Mets SS Brian Wilcox (.254, 7, 28), not exactly a paragon of power, launched one over the Veterans' Stadium center field fence to give the Mets a lead that they would not relinquish. New York stopper Geoff Saus (11-12, 3.03, 26 Sv) came in tired, loaded the bases with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th, and still managed to escape on pure guile. With a Pirates loss to the Expos and an 8-4 Cardinals win at Busch Stadium, it's now St. Louis who's on top of the NL East: Code:
Cardinals 74-65 - Pirates 74-66 1/2 Mets 72-65 1 Phillies 73-66 1 September 5: It's not often that I get to report on good injury news so here you go! Reds 1B prospect Alonzo Rivera (.304, 1, 3), who broke his knee back in April, has been cleared to play. I'm immediately putting him back into the lineup because the Reds have nothing to lose. September 5: The A's got a bases loaded double from RF Richard Berman (.282, 2, 33) in the 9th inning off of beleaguered closer Pete Lynn (6-8, 3.28) to win the game 5-2 and the series 3 games to 1. In fact, not only are the Twins back to .500 with this loss, but an 8-4 Angels romp over the Brewers means that California is now in 2nd place in the AL West. Oddsmakers now give Oakland a 71.5% chance to make it to the playoffs with the Angels at 18.5% and the Twins suddenly on the outside looking in with a 8.5% shot. September 5: The NL West is suddenly turning into a race to the bottom. The Astros only managed to split a doubleheader at San Francisco but even that was enough to gain ground on the Braves, who lost their 5th straight as San Diego completed a series sweep at home. Oddsmakers still give Atlanta an 88% chance of winning the division but they have to start winning games again for that to happen. In fact, next week we're going to get a huge 2-game midweek series between the Astros and Braves at Atlanta. Should Houston win both of those, the West is right there for the taking. These two teams then have one more 2-game midweek series between each other on the 15th and 16th. Atlanta leads the season series 8-6 so far. September 5: The Phillies wrap up their big series with the Mets with a 4-3 win in 11 innings thanks to an RBI double by pinch-hitter Cris Ramos (.236, 3, 12). The win means Philadelphia won 3 out of 5 games and they're still 1 game back in a tight, tight NL East division (see the standings at the top of this recap!). Teams in Review ------------------------- We're getting close to the end of the season, meaning I'm getting close to not doing these anymore for most teams. We'll see! September 1: I literally just looked at the Baltimore Orioles (69-60, 3rd AL East) but then I guess I literally just looked at everyone. They're pretty much out of the race even though they're also 9 games over .500 so I started transitioning them to trotting out the young'uns. I don't think there's a lot to do here above and beyond the call-ups but we'll see... Rotation: I made the rare (in 1971 terms) move of expanding the rotation all the way to 6 men; this works here because the O's have a really, really wide but also flat rotation and I didn't think it was worth putting the top starters TJ Ziegler (7-13, 3.20) and Hector Giron (12-12, 3.68) into the bullpen until they get at least 30 starts. Probably both will finish the year in the rotation because they're good enough. The guy I added was Zachariah Fallon (3-7, 3.67 at AAA Rochester), acquired from the Yankees back in late May for Mike Overmann (3-3, 2.40, 6 Sv in New York). Overmann's turned into their stopper, at least this year; given that, I felt it was a good move to kick the tires on Fallon, who was pretty solid for the Red Wings in spite of what the wins and losses might say. Bullpen: Other than just bringing everyone up - these rosters get bloated with pitchers because the author has a 90s grindset - no huge changes here. Montay Luiso (10-6, 2.78, 22 Sv) is still technically in the Cy Young mix, I guess, although it would take a massive month by both the O's and Montay himself. Infield: One big change I did was that I noticed the existence of 23 year old Frank Abagnale (.249, 5, 37 in AAA Rochester), who may or may not be a catching prospect. He certainly likes to stretch the truth about other things (and, I'm told, he likes kiting checks and in fact is playing for the O's farm system on work release). Either way, he's as good a fielder as anyone on the team save Robert Keith (.244, 3, 12), which is not saying much, so we'll kick the tires on him. Outfield: At the other end of the humanity spectrum, newly promotoed LF Sergio Viera de Mello (.327, 2, 28 at AAA Rochester) got installed at the position for the remainder of the month. You can't find a nicer guy or a better person, and he seems like he might be a good hitter to boot. September 1: Likewise I'm not sure how much I'll actually change around the Detroit Tigers (74-60, 2nd AL East), who are not really in the pennant chase either. I should note that this has already been a fantastic year for Detroit baseball fans; the owner's directive of "don't suck completely" should give you an idea of how bad this team looked last year. Rotation: I'm still working with the 4-man for now, at least until the Tigers get mathematically eliminated. That means no changes here. Bullpen: Likewise, there are a bunch more relievers up but aside from promoting Jim Marceau (2-3, 2.65, 9 Sv) into the setup role, a move I did mainly just to differentiate him from all the other guys in the bullpen right now, everything's the same. Infield: 1B Niki "Formula One" Lauda (.314, 17, 61) was sooooo good in the minors. It's too bad that the guy playing 1st right now is Tim Suman (.335, 5, 33), who has been great; for that matter even Suman is only warming the spot for Danny Villegas (.287, 21, 58), who is out for another 2 weeks with a torn flexor tendon in his hip. I forsee trades happening. Outfield: No changes; I'm sitting CF Alvin Romero (.339, 8, 43) while he recovers from a strained abdominal muscle as a precaution. I really really want to play him though. September 1: Hey, the Montreal Expos (52-80, 6th NL East) were kind enough to lose their 80th last night, just in time for me to do NOTHING with them. We'll see! Rotation: I'm giving TJ Matson (1-3, 9.27) another hitch in the rotation because why not? Well, the why not is that he's been terrible, but the guy I wanted to use, Armani Pinkney (0-0, 3.00) is not ready so I'll probably just one-and-done him. Or else, you know, pull Melvin Navarro (3-11, 5.46) into the bullpen. Navarro entices with his stuff but you just can't trust a guy who's given up 99 walks in 128.2 innings. So far he's nominally been a lot better out of the 'pen anyway (2.65 ERA vs 5.88). Bullpen: I sent a lot of Expos down earlier this year because they were really bad and most of them are back up again. This should be... fun is not the word I'm looking for. Infield: There's not a lot I'm changing here... I guess one thing I did was I had SS George Yarbor (.257, 6, 38) spell a little with prospect and heavy metal singer Klaus Meine (.282, 3, 15 at AAA Winnipeg). There will be Gorky Park puns coming in the future, I'm sure. Outfield: Even less to do here. The team has 4 OFers I'd like to use but of course just 3 spaces. Hmm. Teams usually burn the 1B in those situations, don't they? OK... yeah, 36 year old Armando Munoz (.264, 17, 67) was great in '69 but kind of meh the last two years, so I'll just drop Willie Morales (.256, 20, 70) down there for the last month of the year and play the speedy Anton Mendoza (.292, 6, 26) in that position instead. That doesn't need to be how things look in 1972 but it could be... September 3: Again, probably won't do much with the Milwaukee Brewers (54-80, 6th AL West) since I just did look at them, although I guess most of the above reviews are more or less looking at what I already changed, so... Rotation: I'd do a 6 man rotation here but the Brewers lacked people I wanted to take a look at in September so I still have a relatively short (at least in September terms) 11 man staff. So, like, no changes out here. Bullpen: Also no real changes. Dave Zapata (9-5, 3.35, 13 Sv) will get another chance to get lefties out - he was sent down earlier after allowing 8 earned runs in 5 innings - but that's pretty much it. Infield: I'm not sure when exactly I did this but I deided to give 2B Wing-fung Yi (.245, 0, 8) the reins at second for the remainder of the season. This is sure to anger Pat Jones (.321, 0, 11), but Jones is 34 and really doesn't have a long future with this club. Also it'll have the effect of having like 42 guys on the roster with 150 at-bats each but whatever, this is still an expansion team trying to find its footing. Speaking of, SS Guido Temudo (.208, 1, 10) has not been a good hitter in 120 at-bats but he'll nevertheless start for the rest of the year owing to the fact that he's the Brewers' best fielder at shortstop, and while Andrew Yeater (.219, 1, 15) was supposed to have a better stick, that never materialized. Temudo might get 200 at-bats! Outfield: The major move here was pushing 1B/OF Josh Zalaznik (.288, 5, 25 at AAA Evanston) into left field vs. LHPs and making Ross Poynor (.251, 9, 34) a righties-only guy for the rest of the year. Poynor's been a bit of a disappointment; Milwaukee was hoping he'd hit like he did in '69 (.298, 8, 41), when he looked like a nice late blooming prospect for the Yankees. Even with an uptick in his game after coming to Milwaukee (he hit .220 in 91 at-bats to open the season in New York before the trade that brought him here), he just looks... average. September 3: The Houston Astros (77-60, 2nd NL West) did drop their 60th but they're right there. The early 70s Astros aren't cheaty jerks so hey, if they do catch up to the Braves it'd be fine... Rotation: They're down to trying 23 year old Don Henley (0-1, 6.75; 9-11, 3.53 in AAA Oklahoma City) and using Josh Mullett (13-12, 4.48) in the back of the rotation but, assuming Garcia doesn't suck, I don't have a massive amount of leeway here. Bullpen: Adam Eastin (0-0, 0.00) has been injured all year but he's been dumped straight into a high-leverage setup role because Jeff Graton (5-4, 4.22) has been kind of bad. Graton could be the guy to jump back into the rotation if Henley can't cut it. Infield: A common refrain on this team: 39 year old 1B Justin Richens (.250, 7, 38) played his way out of the lineup but now a ton of injuries have pushed him back into it. I just don't see him sticking around long-term; he seems to have seriously declined this year. Right now, he's all that the Astros have. SS Jordan Green (.271, 9, 52) is barely adequate at his primary position when he's healthy and he's nursing a sprained wrist, so I've got him playing 2nd until he gets better. I'm a little on the fence on just benching him entirely, as he's not a particularly good 2B either. For now, he is who he is, and Nick Webber (.233, 7, 39 at AAA OKC) is the current shortstop. Outfield: John Lopez (.264, 6, 48) at least so far is looking adequate in right field, which is a huge upgrade from his "maybe the worst in the league" levels he put up in center. I'm still not huge on the lack of power but what else are you gonna do? OF Jesse Lockhart (.293, 6, 47) is out for the year with a broken hand and even when RF/1B Jaden Weaver (.307, 34, 96) returns it's probably at first base.
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04-28-2023, 03:29 PM
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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September 6-12, 1971 PENNANT RACE BAY BEE
## Standings / Recap / Comments
WE'RE COMIN TO American League Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA Boston Red Sox 92 55 .626 - 636 489 Detroit Tigers 81 65 .555 10½ 603 559 Washington Senators 77 66 .538 13 602 506 Baltimore Orioles 73 66 .525 15 544 512 New York Yankees 70 75 .483 21 614 615 Cleveland Indians 62 83 .428 29 614 688 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Oakland Athletics 78 67 .538 - 547 565 Minnesota Twins 72 71 .503 5 594 597 California Angels 73 73 .500 5½ 574 554 Kansas City Royals 69 76 .476 9 615 685 Chicago White Sox 63 82 .434 15 535 584 Milwaukee Brewers 57 88 .393 21 477 601 Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA Philadelphia Phillies 79 67 .541 - 638 555 St. Louis Cardinals 78 68 .534 1 629 630 Pittsburgh Pirates 76 71 .517 3½ 552 539 New York Mets 74 70 .514 4 596 576 Chicago Cubs 67 78 .462 11½ 648 698 Montreal Expos 59 84 .413 18½ 550 668 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Atlanta Braves 86 61 .585 - 716 579 Houston Astros 80 66 .548 5½ 654 643 San Diego Padres 70 76 .479 15½ 597 611 Cincinnati Reds 70 78 .473 16½ 602 632 San Francisco Giants 69 77 .473 16½ 566 592 Los Angeles Dodgers 67 79 .459 18½ 595 620 Code:
Rank Team Pts Td Record PCT AVG ERA Pyt.Rec Diff 1st (1st) Boston 112 o 92-55 .626 .271 3.00 91-56 1 2nd (8th) Philadelphia 106 ++ 79-67 .541 .255 3.50 82-64 -3 3rd (7th) Atlanta 105 ++ 86-61 .585 .261 3.51 88-59 -2 4th (3rd) St. Louis 102 - 78-68 .534 .271 3.87 73-73 5 5th (9th) Oakland 102 ++ 78-67 .538 .263 3.44 70-75 8 6th (2nd) Detroit 101 -- 81-65 .555 .259 3.38 78-68 3 7th (6th) Washington 100 - 77-66 .538 .261 3.01 83-60 -6 8th (4th) Houston 96 -- 80-66 .548 .263 4.00 74-72 6 9th (10th) Baltimore 94 + 73-66 .525 .254 3.22 73-66 0 10th (16th) Minnesota 92 ++ 72-71 .503 .260 3.78 71-72 1 11th (5th) California 91 -- 73-73 .500 .253 3.36 75-71 -2 12th (14th) Pittsburgh 88 + 76-71 .517 .253 3.19 75-72 1 13th (11th) New York 87 - 74-70 .514 .246 3.73 74-70 0 14th (13th) Kansas City 87 - 69-76 .476 .242 4.45 65-80 4 15th (17th) Los Angeles 87 + 67-79 .459 .252 3.59 70-76 -3 16th (19th) New York 86 ++ 70-75 .483 .250 3.86 72-73 -2 17th (15th) San Francisco 85 - 69-77 .473 .250 3.59 70-76 -1 18th (12th) San Diego 84 -- 70-76 .479 .256 3.79 71-75 -1 19th (18th) Cincinnati 84 - 70-78 .473 .246 3.93 71-77 -1 20th (21st) Montreal 79 + 59-84 .413 .256 4.23 59-84 0 21st (20th) Chicago 77 - 67-78 .462 .262 4.33 68-77 -1 22nd (22nd) Chicago 75 o 63-82 .434 .248 3.73 67-78 -4 23rd (23rd) Cleveland 72 o 62-83 .428 .257 4.23 65-80 -3 24th (24th) Milwaukee 68 o 57-88 .393 .241 3.65 57-88 0 I've started going into the pennant races game by game so I won't exhaust that here. I'll just leave it at this: the AL West seems to be closing up which leaves only the NL East as a truly close pennant race. That's more than enough racing for this league though! The East leading Phillies are your yuppies of the week, speaking of, tied with the Minnesota Twins, who... moved up 6 places by going 4-3? Yeah, I don't know. They dropped 2 out of 3 vs the A's that just about KO'ed them in the race and before that they won 3 out of 4 against a bad White Sox team. The dirty hippies are the Angels, who came in with a great opportunity to leapfrog the Twins and be the 2nd place team in the AL West and failed, and the San Diego Padres, who can't figure out if they're a .500ish team or not. ## Major Transactions None this week! It is September after all. ## News September 6: The Billboard Hot... 5 for the week: 1. Go Away Little Girl, Donny Osmond (top 5 creepiest song title of all time?) 2. Spanish Harlem, Aretha Franklin 3. Smiling Faces Sometimes, The Undisputed Truth 4. Ain't No Sunshine, Bill Withers 5. Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey, Paul "and Linda" McCartney So hey, two bangers in here at least, and Uncle Albert looks like it's on its way out. I'm seeing "I Just Want To Celebrate" by Rare Earth (which is not a song I recall) on its way up along with the Joan Baez version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and the Rod Stewart classic "Maggie May". I'm not the biggest Rod Stewart fan but that is... a song that lasts roughly 3 minutes. September 6: The Phillies rode an outstanding performance by 3B Alex Becerra (.248, 27, 65), who picked up the Player of the Week award for the NL by hitting 11 for 29 (.379) with 5 HRs and 9 RBIs. This was Becerra's very first PotW award in his 9 year major league career. September 6: The American League awarded Cleveland 1B Ernesto Garcia (.266, 54, 126) the Player of the Week for tying the AL homerun record. Garcia had a pretty good week overall though, hitting .394 (13-33) with 7 dingers and 16 RBIs. A monster week! This is Garcia's 3rd career PotW and 2nd this season. September 6: Soooo many doubleheaders today, 18 games in all... the way Memorial Day ushers (ushered?) in the summer with all of its doubles, so does Labor Day mark the end of real summer with a zillion games. September 6: Red Sox ace Justin Kindberg (23-5, 2.09) gets the day started out with a bang by throwing his 7th shutout on the season in a 2-0 win against the Yankees. Kindberg, who just set the modern baseball record in shutouts last year, now has an outside shot at beating it. I mean, 4 shutouts in one month seems unlikely but you never know. The loser in this game was Tracy Mosher (19-15, 3.22), who's been the "other guy" in a lot of these games this year. 15 losses equals the 32 year old's highest loss mark of his career (he went 18-15 in 1969) and that, at least, seems like a personal record that is about to be broken. The Yankees' Obe Olthof (11-13, 3.97) retaliated in the nightcap with a shutout of his own. He's had a really bad year, one year removed from 20 wins, but did pick up his 2nd shutout of the season with that. Nonetheless, that first loss officially knocked them out of the playoff race; granted, they'd have had to win out over the last 3 weeks of the year anyway. September 6: Senators hurler Lee Evans (1-0, 0.00), an Olympic record-holder in the 400 meter dash and the 4x400 meter relay, made his 2nd start of his major league career count, shutting down the mighty Detroit Tigers 6-0 on 4 hits and 12 strikeouts. "My fastball isn't as fast as my legs," said Evans after the game. "But it's fast enough I guess." September 6: Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia (.267, 55, 127) has a 10-pitch at-bat in the 8th inning of the first game of 2 vs the Orioles and launches the ball into the Memorial Stadium seats. It's number 55 of the year for him, a new American League record! The all-time mark is 65, so it seems unlikely that he'll get there, but maybe he'll get 60 and from there, who knows what could happen? Cleveland won this game 9-2 thanks to having Josh Matthews (12-16, 3.62) on the mound, who is known to not implode. September 6: Speaking, too, of Labor Day doubleheaders, the Phillies were handed an absolutely brutal schedule. They just played two on Saturday against the Mets and now they're tasked with the same. They're still in Philadelphia at least! The real-life Phillies finished with 95 losses so I think that, like the Expos, this was the league screwing over a bad team IRL. Well, they should have known that 50 years later some nerd would be playing through the season with fake teams! This particular Phillies team split the doubleheader, handing Marius Gaddi (14-18, 3.23) yet another tough loss in the opener - I guess it technically wasn't a tough loss as he gave up 4 ER in 8 innings, but it's baaasically a tough loss - 4-3, and then winning the nightcap 4-2 behind a solid showing by Tim Natalie (1-0, 2.35), who made his first appearance for the Phillies after spending the entire year in AAA Eugene. Savvy fans might remember him playing very poorly for the White Sox last year (2-4, 5.72 over 10 games and 6 starts). Meanwhile, the Mets edged the Expos with 3 runs on just 2 hits in a 3-2 win and that plus a doubleheader split by the Pirates vs. the Cubs puts the Cardinals in sole possession of 1st place, 1 game up on the Philies. September 7: The Phillies' road to the playoffs just got a lot rougher as today they learned that CF Bryant Tarala (.224, 17, 58) will miss the rest of the season with a sprained knee. It was always a matter of when rather than if with the oft-injuried Tarala. The Phils do have 2 other potential starting OFers on the DL and due back soon so my solution of moving Brandon Anderson (.267, 6, 36) into center and platooning John Belushi (.227, 1, 2) and Ryan Ashbaker (.266, 1, 15) will probably be pretty short-term... at least in RF. Anderson has barely played in center this year but has plus-plus range; if it wasn't for Tarala's Gold Glove quality defense at the position, he'd have likely played there anyway. September 7: The A's Roberto Ortiz (12-15, 3.59) had his stuff going tonight like we've never seen before. Unfortunately for him, it was so good that he couldn't keep it over the plate. Ortiz tied the major league record with 16 strikeouts but also walked 7 in 10 innings of work. The A's were stymied throughout this game by Angels ace Andy Ring (16-8, 2.56), who kept the game at 2-2 in a more standard fashion, getting out of jams and otherwise only making one mistake that resulted in a 2 run bomb by 1B Kyle Kelver (.242, 6, 34). Happily for Oakland (and I guess unhappilly for the Angels, who are still dark horse contenders in the West), they finally pulled this one out with a 13th inning solo shot by 3B Chase Jones (.271, 27, 68). September 7: Braves stopper John Winn (10-4. 0.82) did what so many stoppers haven't been able to do this year and that's preserve a 1 run victory against a pennant contender over 2 innings of work. Winn came on to face the Astros in the 8th with a man on at 2nd and nobody out and proceeded to strike out the side, and then, aside from a 2 out base hit by pinch-hitter Jordan Green (.270, 9, 54), worked a completely clean game. The win gives the Braves a little 2-game sweep of their rivals and sticks them 5 1/2 games up in the NL West. "I get in there and I just start grinding, that's all there is to it," said the workmanlike Winn following the game. September 8: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's "Mass". September 8: The A's learned that CF Alex Vallejo (.301, 5, 23), who's already missed half the year with injuries, will be out for the next month with a fractured wrist. The timeline means that he could theoretically be healthy in time for the World Series, assuming the A's make it that far. September 8: Astros PH Nate Ringstad (.288, 2, 34), who's 35, wants to start and we all know that's just not going to happen. I'll try and remember this because I'm going to start manually retiring guys who are 35+, don't have a real shot at playing, and are unhappy where they are. September 8: The A's might have knocked the Angels out of contention today and they did so in about as convincing a manner as possible. First they knocked California's starter Ken Hansen (10-10, 3.14) out of the box in the 3rd with a lopsided 8 run inning, then Rick Shelton (13-14, 3.68) carried a no-hitter into the 9th inning. In the end, Shelton let his wildness get the best of him and delivered a grand slam to deny himself the shutout but it was too little, too late as the A's still won 10-4. Oakland swept the 3-game series against the Angels and now are 4 games ahead of the Twins, who lost the final game of their own series against the White Sox. The two AL West contenders play themselves for the final time this season over the weekend in Oakland. September 8: The Phillies didn't play today but they've got a bit of a schedule quirk I wanted to point out because it'll probably make a huge difference in the pennant race: of their 19 games remaining, 12 are against the Expos and the Cubs. You may think this is unfair but then again, they weren't able to play all those games against those cellar-dwellers earlier in the season. That's why, even though they're tied with the Cardinals for the NL East lead with identical 76-67 records, the odds give the Phightin' Phils a 40% chance at winning the division to St. Louis' 26%. September 9: John Lennon releases his second studio album, "Imagine". September 9-13: The Attica prison riot occurs in Attica, New York. It ends with the New York state police and the National Guard storming the facility and 42 people killed, 10 of them hostages taken by prisoners. September 10: Red Sox SP Justin Kindberg (24-5, 2.02) has been a true ace for his team this year. Today he was tasked with breaking a 4 game losing streak by the first place Sox against the 2nd place team the Detroit Tigers and he delivered with a 6-hit shutout. Granted, the Sox bats also came alive and won the game 8-0 but perhaps this, too, was because they didn't have to press knowing he wasn't going to give up much today. "I actually didn't have my best stuff today," said Kindberg, who only struck out 3 tonight, 2 in the final inning. "I just let my fielders behind me do the job." The win drops Boston's magic number to single digits: 8 with 17 games to go. September 10: The A's and Twins opened their most important series of the season in about as close a fashion as possible. The A's tied the game at 5 in the bottom of the 9th - in retrospect I probably left SP Chris Benavides (19-16, 3.25) in too long but I do not trust that Minnesota bullpen - and then won it in the 11th on an Israel Gaytan (.274, 5, 44) single off of Pete Lynn (6-9, 3.19). Also, the pregame screen looked reeeeeeally ugly, like the game favors the Twinkies at every spot in the lineup save one. Good luck, A's! September 10: Phillies SP Roger Quintana (16-12, 3.07) just missed getting his 4th 10 K game of his career but still pitched more than well enough to down the Mets 8-2 at Shea Stadium. Quintana finished with 9 strikeouts; all 3 of his 10 K games so far have come in September or October. Whether that's because of bad September rosters or because he is CLUTCH is hard to say. What's easier to say (SEE WHAT I DID THERE???) is that with a Cardinals loss to the Expos, the Phillies are now in sole control of the NL East. September 11: "The Jackson 5ive", a Saturday morning cartoon based on, you guessed it, the Jackson 5, premiers on ABC. September 11-12: The Avandaro rock festival takes place in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, with an estimated attendance of 300,000. I'm not seeing this called the Mexican Woodstock anywhere but... it was the Mexican Woodstock. According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, they expected about 25,000 fans to show up so needless to say the town was swamped this weekend. September 11: As expected, Brewers 2B Pat Jones (.303, 1, 21) demanded a trade today. Even though he's 34 I don't think I'll retire him, as he had a really good year as a part-time 2B and pinch-hitter. Instead, I'll look to either grant his wishes early on or release him to find a new team. September 11: The A's edge the Twins 4-2 in the middle game of their series and now sit 6 games up, dropping Minnesota into a tie with the Angels for 2nd pending California's game with the Brewers later today. Today it was 29 year old fireballer Nate Lancaster (7-3, 3.70) pitching like a monster until suddenly falling to pieces in the 8th. He struck out 12 batters for the 3rd 10+ K game of his career; 2 of those have come against the Twins. Willis Chavez (8-4, 2.04, 14 Sv) wound up loading the bases after taking over for Lancaster and even walked in a run before settling down to close things out, then pitching a perfect 9th for the save. SS Matt Evenson (.262, 5, 41) hit the game-winning RBI single in the 6th. "I know Wets (Twins starter Rich Whetzel (8-5, 3.45)) likes to throw that fast forkball so I just looked for a pitch down low", he said after the game. And hey! Look at that, the Angels easily took down the Brewers 9-2 to move back into 2nd place, although truth be told it's kind of looking like the AL West race is closing up. Andy Ring (17-8, 2.51) gave California 8 solid innings and his teammates knocked out Milwaukee starter Brian Osbourne (7-17, 3.43) out of the box in the 4th to win this one going away. 3B Travis Corley (.272, 15, 74) put Osbourne to bed with a 2-run single. "I'm just happy to help the team," said the unlikely cleanup hitter after the game. The A's now have a 96.8% chance of winning the division with the Angels taking up most of the rest of those chances. Following the final game of the series tomorrow, Oakland goes on their final road trip of the season, a 7-gamer that has them face the dregs of the West: Kansas City, Chicago, and Milwaukee. September 11: Speaking of the West, the Braves put another nail in the coffin for Houston's hopes this year as Julio Sandoval (13-12, 3.62) threw a 4-hitter and led Atlanta to a 4-1 win over the Giants while the Astros lost 8-3 to the Reds. That game was a real heartbreaker for the 'Stros, as they pulled into a 3-1 lead after a 2 run 7th inning, only to see starter Caleb McDonald (16-10, 4.05) and then stopper Jon Douglas (4-10, 3.31) melt down in the bottom of the 7th and 8th innings. Reds LF Carlos Gomez (.258, 20, 73) launched his 20th HR of the year and 18th with Cincinnati to put the icing on the cake. The Braves now have a 98.1% chance of winning the NL West. September 11: And in the NL East, the Phillies put the Mets on the brink of getting swept at home with a 7-2 win at Shea Stadium. Ringo Starr (17-7, 3.62) pitched well before tiring suddenly in the 7th but by then the damage had been done. The rookie/drummer has an outside chance of joining the 20 win club this year. 3B Alex Becerra (.247, 29, 70) belted his career-high 29th homerun of the year to break this one wide open in the top of the 7th. "He makes mistakes on defense, he pounces on mistakes on offense," an anonymous source from within the clubhouse said about Becerra after the game. It should be noted that so far this year Becerra has kept the defensive mistakes to a minimum; he's committed only 14 errors in 952 innings for a .937 fielding percentage that's miles ahead of the .907 (with 31 errors) that he put up last year. Undated but muy importante: Beach Boys musician Daryl Dragon meets singer Toni Tenille and they begin to perform together as Captain and Tenille. MUSKRAT SUZY AND MUSKRAT SAM Also undated and confusing: Ann Wilson "joins" Heart, which... Heart is pretty much the two sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, with Ann as kind of the clear frontwoman (like, Nancy sings lead on a lot of the songs too but, like, Ann held the lead vox on "Barracuda" for example). Also... they move to Vancouver, BC. What the heck, Heart? YOU ARE THE PRIDE OF BELLEVUE WASHINGTON ACT LIKE IT September 12: Red Sox SS Bert "Be Home" Blyleven (.282, 3, 26 at AAA Louisville) has his 1971 season end after 1 game and 4 at-bats as he's diagnosed with a torn ACL that will keep him out of action possibly through spring training next year. Blyleven already had a pretty tough road given the presence of perennial Gold Glover Oniji Handa (.234, 3, 51) and now it just got a lot harder. September 12: The Twins manage to avoid the series sweep vs. the A's with a 5-2 win. At that it took them until the 9th inning to finally get to starter Rick Shelton (13-15, 3.71), who left with the bases loaded, and setup man Chris Wilson (6-0, 1.76), who gave up a grand slam homerun to backup 2B Pietro Palmarocchi (.281, 2, 21). The Angels also lost to the Brewers today, 10-9 in extra innings, so Minnesota is back to being in sole possession of 2nd in the division. The odds are still very, very much against them, however; 2.4%, and the weekend comes to a close with Oakland having a magic number of 14. September 12: Braves SP Felix Carranza (16-7, 3.73) gets the tiniest amount of support at the Launching Pad - a solo HR by RF Henry Riggs (.305, 41, 113) in the 2nd inning - but he makes the most out of it, shutting out the Giants 1-0 on 7 hits. They threatened heavily in the 9th with two singles to open the inning followed by a sacrifice by SS Akiho Fujimoto (.251, 3, 38) that put the go-ahead run in scoring position but Carranza settled down to strike out C Chris Campbell (.223, 1, 30) and get PH Carl Weathers (.250, 0, 3) to ground out to 2B Kevin Dwyer (.306, 15, 67) to secure the win. Besides officially kicking the Giants and the Cincinnati Reds out of the playoffs, the victory puts the Braves 6 games up on the Astros pending their game today. With a Houston loss, their magic number drops to 10. Houston, however, is not on board with this scenario; they knock Reds ace Steve Waiters (20-11, 2.72) out of the box in the 6th and cruise to an 8-1 win. September 12: With a 4-2 win over the Mets, the Phillies complete the sweep and put themselves into the catbird seat in the NL West. Marius Gaddi (15-18, 3.19) lost his shutout in the 9th but rallied to get New York's leadoff hitter SS Lorenzo Ortega (.269, 5, 15) to get underneath a ball on a 2-1 pitch and fly out to right fielder Ryan Ashbaker (.253, 1, 15) to end it. The Cardinals did edge the Cubs 2-1 in Chicago to keep this close but as for now it appears to have turned into a 2-horse race with the Pirates and Mets both more than a series behind the lead. ## Teams in Review Probably just about done with these. Even last week's were basically a recap of what I'd already did on September 1... September 6: Cleveland lost 80 and as I said I just looked at them 4 days ago. I'll let it RIDE. September 6: The Atlanta Braves (82-60, 1st NL West) also just lost their 60th but I feel like I should just go over them really quick anyway given how they've kind of fallen apart lately. At that, they haven't played well since Junem, going 14-13 in July and 15-13 in August leading into the 0-4 September to date. Rotation: No changes to the rotation. I really really want to put Colin Rose (5-5, 3.93 at AAA Richmond) because he's the knuckleballer but there's just no reason to do so. Bullpen: Down the stretch the team's got to just absolutely lean on John Winn (10-4, 0.89, 26 Sv). I think I will officially demote Steve Hollopeter (3-6, 4.89) as the setup man in favor of the ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov (1-0, 1.12) but mostly I just have to use Winn early and often. Infield: Andres Gamez (.306, 5, 28) is clearly outhitting Danny Coyle (.207, 9, 42) but I can't just change horses in midstream. Neither of them are particularly good at actually catching and both have a RTO% under 30 so... this is about just staying with what brought you there. Gamez will continue to relieve Coyle when they need a bat. Likewise, the 35 year old Vicente Luna (.262, 10, 48) seems to be showing his age - his average is down 50 points from 2 years ago and 27 points from last year. The question of replacing him is a 1972 question though, not a Septembe question. Outfield: Speaking of, with CF Josh Damon (.264, 16, 56) out for another 2 weeks, I'd been platooning Chris Ward (.283, 9, 38) in left with Andy LePera (.292, 2, 19) to try and generate offense. Ward should ge the bulk of starts. Ward isn't exactly a fantastic fielder but he's got 45 range which right there is way more than the slowpoke LePera, who looks like a great candidate for that proposed DH rule. September 7: The White Sox dropped #80 but... yeah, no.
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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## Standings / Recap / Comments
WE'RE COMIN TO American League Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA Boston Red Sox 97 57 .630 - 670 514 Detroit Tigers 88 67 .568 9½ 650 586 Washington Senators 80 70 .533 15 631 546 Baltimore Orioles 75 73 .507 19 567 554 New York Yankees 74 79 .484 22½ 645 645 Cleveland Indians 65 88 .425 31½ 658 732 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Oakland Athletics 83 69 .546 - 574 593 Minnesota Twins 77 74 .510 5½ 627 629 California Angels 78 75 .510 5½ 615 575 Kansas City Royals 70 83 .458 13½ 637 721 Chicago White Sox 64 88 .421 19 563 626 Milwaukee Brewers 62 90 .408 21 517 633 Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA Philadelphia Phillies 85 68 .556 - 688 579 St. Louis Cardinals 81 72 .529 4 657 663 New York Mets 80 73 .523 5 632 608 Pittsburgh Pirates 78 76 .506 7½ 569 567 Chicago Cubs 70 83 .458 15 684 745 Montreal Expos 62 89 .411 22 582 703 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Atlanta Braves 89 66 .574 - 753 626 Houston Astros 84 69 .549 4 688 678 Los Angeles Dodgers 74 80 .481 14½ 630 635 San Diego Padres 73 80 .477 15 624 632 San Francisco Giants 72 81 .471 16 585 624 Cincinnati Reds 72 83 .465 17 628 660 Code:
Rank Team Pts Td Record PCT AVG ERA Pyt.Rec Diff 1st (1st) Boston 116 o 97-57 .630 .272 3.02 95-59 2 2nd (2nd) Philadelphia 114 o 85-68 .556 .258 3.49 88-65 -3 3rd (6th) Detroit 107 ++ 88-67 .568 .261 3.34 85-70 3 4th (5th) Oakland 103 + 83-69 .546 .264 3.43 74-78 9 5th (8th) Houston 100 ++ 84-69 .549 .265 4.04 78-75 6 6th (3rd) Atlanta 99 -- 89-66 .574 .262 3.63 90-65 -1 7th (11th) California 99 ++ 78-75 .510 .253 3.34 81-72 -3 8th (15th) Los Angeles 98 ++ 74-80 .481 .253 3.49 76-78 -2 9th (10th) Minnesota 98 + 77-74 .510 .261 3.75 75-76 2 10th (13th) New York 97 ++ 80-73 .523 .247 3.71 79-74 1 11th (7th) Washington 95 -- 80-70 .533 .261 3.11 85-65 -5 12th (4th) St. Louis 93 -- 81-72 .529 .271 3.91 76-77 5 13th (9th) Baltimore 88 -- 75-73 .507 .252 3.29 76-72 -1 14th (16th) New York 86 + 74-79 .484 .252 3.85 77-76 -3 15th (18th) San Diego 85 ++ 73-80 .477 .255 3.75 76-77 -3 16th (12th) Pittsburgh 84 -- 78-76 .506 .254 3.22 77-77 1 17th (17th) San Francisco 82 o 72-81 .471 .250 3.60 72-81 0 18th (19th) Cincinnati 81 + 72-83 .465 .247 3.91 74-81 -2 19th (20th) Montreal 76 + 62-89 .411 .255 4.25 63-88 -1 20th (23rd) Cleveland 75 ++ 65-88 .425 .256 4.25 69-84 -4 21st (24th) Milwaukee 74 ++ 62-90 .408 .245 3.68 62-90 0 22nd (21st) Chicago 73 - 70-83 .458 .262 4.42 71-82 -1 23rd (14th) Kansas City 72 -- 70-83 .458 .242 4.47 68-85 2 24th (22nd) Chicago 69 - 64-88 .421 .249 3.79 69-83 -5 The A's are also wrapping things up, with a magic number of just 6 as well. So much for late-September pennant races this year! To be honest, it feels like when these happen, half the time it's because everybody in a division is just kind of mediocre. I'm OK with this! Anyway, the Braves are the true dirty hippies of the league but by the standards of the laegue it's the Kansas City Royals, who fell all the way from a middle-of-the-pack 14th to 23rd this week. Yikes! They had a shot at playing the spoiler and they pretty well failed, getting swept in series against the A's and Twins and picking up their only win in a 2-game series split with the Angels. That leaves the yuppies as, crazily enough, those Dodgers who just swept the Braves. They're out of the playoffs, trying out scrubs in the rotation and the lineup, and probably won't even finish .500, but they went 7-1 last week and that's pretty good! There's very little space between 3rd and 6th in the NL West but they have as good a shot as anyone to be the 3rd place team this year. ## Major Transactions September 13: The Cardinals purchased RP Ramon Lopez (0-0, 2.57) from the Royals for $1,000. This feels like half a "let's kick the tires" move and half a "our bullpen's a little banged up" move; I wouldn't be surprised if Lopez is returned next month (wink wink). September 15: The Mets traded 3B Tatsuzo Hirano (.500, 0, 5) to the Cardinals for minor league 2B Ricardo Valladares (.198, 6, 31 at AAA Tulsa). Hirano is a longtime AAAA veteran at the end of his career but who could still be effective as a pinch-hitter and backup third baseman, and the asking price for him was pretty low: Valladares is a 27 year old non-prospect who couldn't break the Timonen Line in AAA this year. He'll be in the Mets' mix in spring training. September 18: The Expos claim minor league RP Andy Tudor (1-3, 4.75 at AAA Tulsa) from the Cardinals. This was a 4 man roster move for the Cards, who purchased Tudor in late June in hopes that they'd be able to turn the former #24 prospect around a bit. He'll get probably his last real shot in Montreal. ## News September 13: Billboard's Top 5 for the week: 1. Go Away Little Girl, Donny Osmond (creepy song of the week although there is competition) 2. Spanish Harlem, Aretha Franklin (hey 19, that's 'Retha Franklin) 3. Ain't No Sunshine, Bill Withers (look, I like this song and I don't like a lot of songs from this era... but "oh, I've gotta leave the young thing alone" did not age well) 4. Maggie May, Rod Stewart (just not a Rod Stewart fan but at least it's not the if you want my body song) 5. Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey, Paul "and Linda" McCartney (HANDS OUT OF THE TOP FIVE) Smiling Faces Sometimes dipped to 6th, with Maggie May swinging in all the way from #10. Joan Baez' paean to Civil War nostalgia "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is still climbing and itself might make it into the top 5 soon. To be honest, I accept The Band's version because of the background vocals but... that song is problematic. "Superstar" by the Carpenters is also moving up... actually, that's a medley with "BLess the Beasts and Children", along with the McCartney's song as well as "Maggie May", which is all medleyed up with "Reason To Believe". When I think of medleys I think of that sketch that Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer did on SNL in the 90s where they did medleys of top 90s hits. I'm sure that's exactly what these artists had in mind, too. September 13: His career might be winding down but Astros 1B Justin Richens (.264, 8, 43) had a nice... part of the week to earn the PotW honors for the NL. Richens went 8 for 13 with 1 HR and 5 RBIs. It seems... scant? for a Player of the Week but let's just call this one a lifetime service award. Richens, who's earned 15 Players of the Week (along with 6 Batters of the Month and 10 All-Star selections) in his career, is sitting on 2,455 hits right now and a career .298 average. He'd have to agree to hang on to next season to get to 2,500 and I think he'd have to do that with someone other than Houston so it seems likely that he'll be among guys choosing to retire at season's end, but we'll see I guess. September 13: The AL PotW was also a first baseman; however Red Sox superstar Mike Miller (.296, 15, 76) not only actually played the whole week but I don't have to couch this news in terms of whether or not he'll play next year. Miller went 13 for 31 (.419) with 4 HRs, 6 RBIs, and 8 runs scored as his team strugggled to a 3-5 record last week. Miller won the AL MVP in 1968 but had not hit well over the first half of the year. However, he's hit .304, .295, and currently .415 the last 3 months to put himself back into the MVP conversation. This was his 7th PotW award of his career but his first so far in 1971. September 13: The Twins and Angels split a doubleheader in two games that were about as far apart in style as you'd see. In game one, veteran finesse man Mike Larsen (13-11, 4.07) outdueled veteran finesse man Gary Bruno (12-14, 3.37) for a 2-1 win with 3B and reigning MVP Mike Brookes (.266, 24, 65) belting a 2-run HR in the 9th to take it home. In the second game, Brookes homered again but the Angels put up 8 runs on spot starter Jesus Cosme (1-1, 3.57) and cruised to a 9-4 victory. OF Josh Teague (.272, 9, 34) wielded the big bat for California in this one, going 2 for 5 with 3 RBIs, including a bases-clearing double in the bottom of the 3rd. Meanwhile, Oakland rallied to beat the Royals 3-2 with a single by 2B Israel Gaytan (.274, 5, 45) in the 9th to move ahead by 1/2 a game on both teams. Their magic number has fallen to 12. September 13: The Wild Thing, Ernesto Carillo (20-9, 3.21) threw his 2nd shutout of the season against the Expos tonight in an easy 8-0 win for the Mets. Carillo had decent control tonight, issuing only 2 walks - he averages 4.8 per 9 innings - and allowed just 2 Montreal hits. He's really established himself as the staff ace at the ripe old age of 27. September 13: With their backs kind of up against the wall, the Cardinals rallied in the bottom of the 8th to take down the Phillies 5-4 in the first game of a 2-game series. CF Dylan Dockery (.392, 1, 14), who's really come on in September as a fill-in for the injured Jimmy James (.296, 9, 28) landed the game-winning single off of Phillies stopper Tom "Hippie" Grohs (9-6, 3.52), who was charged with his 13th blown save on the season. The win puts the Cards into a tie with Philadelphia, which is especially important because following this series the Phillies don't play another over-.500 team again until they square off against Pittsburgh in a 2-game brace to end the season. September 14: Cleveland 1B Ernesto Garcia (.271, 60, 135) is really finishing up this season with a bang. He belted 3 HRs in a doubleheader against Washington which, because his team's pitching sucks, they only managed to split in spite of the offense generating 19 runs. Game 1, which featured just the one Garcia dinger, was won by the Tribe 9-2; game 2 they lost in extra innings 11-10 as the Senators rallied against setup man Elias Sanchez (6-5, 2.83). With the ding-dongs, Garcia has become just the second man in modern MLB history to hit 60 or more HRs in the year. This run, which includes 9 HRs in 12 September games, unbelievably puts him back on pace to break the all-time record. which of course is held by Cardinals slugger Lorenzo Martinez, who hit 65 in 1962 as a 24-year-old. Cleveland has 15 games left for Garcia to crack 6 to tie: 2 coming up against the Red Sox, 4 in Yankee Stadium, which is well-suited for his left-handed bat, 3 at spacious RFK Stadium,and then the remainder back at their home park, Cleveland Municipal, aka the Mistake on the Lake, aka, should he break the record, the House that Ernesto built. September 14: The Phillies won the 2nd game of their 2-game series vs the Cardinals 7-6 and they're really, really in the driver's seat now. Starter Roger Quintana (16-12, 3.15) didn't have his best stuff today but his team rallied in the middle innings, topped off by a C Sam Rahn (.270, 5, 47) 2-run bomb in the 6th. Then The Hippie Tom Grohs (9-6, 3.48, 19 Sv) came in in the 9th, allowed the tying run to get to 3rd base in the form of 1B TJ Tortorella (.417, 0, 2) with one out. Things looked especially dire as SS Tony Shannon (.331, 14, 71) dropped a playable ground ball for an error that loaded the bases. Cards 2B Tom Depew (.311, 1, 43), enjoying a 4-hit night, lifted a fly to center that looked like a sure game-tying sacrifice fly... and then CF Brandon Anderson (.269, 6, 40) threw Tortorella out at home to end the game! "I'm no Bryant <Tarala, the Phillies' regular CF, who is out for the season with a sprained knee> but I do what I can," said Anderson after the game. "Man thought he could run on me. He won't make that mistake in the future." This was actually Anderson's first baserunner kill in 28 starts in center all season; even though he's only 23, the word is already out that he's got a good arm. And as for his team, even though they're only 1 game up in the standings, they now have 70% odds to win the division. September 15: Orioles OF Mario Baca (.218, 7, 22), who had a good year last year but who's been pretty awful this year... wants to start? Come on, man. It's September and even if he comes back, I don't see how he has a future with the club. Bye! September 15: The A's are, of course, having a great year in A's terms and if nothing else, they split a double-header today with the White Sox that ensures they'll finish at least .500 for their first time since moving to the Bay Area in 1968. They came close last year with 78 wins but this year, even if they do completely collapse, will be the year they got over that hump. September 15: Blame it on the expanded rosters but Memorial Stadium in Baltimore saw one heck of a pitcher's duel between two not exactly ace pitchers. The O's George Dapson (11-11, 3.32), who's averaging just 5 Ks per 9 innings this year (which, okay, is only slightly below average) struck out 9 today and scattered 7 hits and just one run. Unfortunately for him, that was one run too many, as Yankees youngster John Carpenter (1-1, 2.62) tossed a 5 hit shutout to take the Yanks home 1-0. Carpenter, a former 3rd round pick by the A's whom the Bombers acquired for OF Dan Field, was named the #24 prospect in the majors at the halfway point this year and earned a late-season call-up. Carpenter fashions himself a movie director in the offseason but during the regular season he's shown a nice change of pace and a good 2 seam fastball. September 15: I thought the OOTP gods were punishing me for calling a semi run of the mill shutout by having a big pitchers' duel in the very next game I played... but. With a scoreless tie heading into the 9th, Tigers SP Juan Merino (12-12, 3.72) fell apart, giving up 4 runs before getting pulled. That left Senators ace Vince Akright (18-11, 2.14) to earn his 6th shutout of the year... except that he also fell apart and not only was he charged with 4 runs too but his replacement, setup man Raul Ortiz (1-1, 4.91) (stopper Jake Duckett (2-6, 2.98, 14 Sv) is experiencing back tightness and also threw 43 pitches yesterday) gave up the ghost, handing the Tigers a 5-4 win. If nothing else, this prolongs Detroit's pennant chances by another day; Boston won today and their magic number over the Tigers is now 4. Also, Ernesto Garcia (.274, 61, 138) belted yet another HR in that Boston win and is now needs just 4 in the Indians' final 14 games to tie the all-time record. September 15: I have no idea why the AI is batting him cleanup with LF Jimmy Washington (.261, 15, 58) out with a bruised foot - okay, he did have a good half-season in AA (.271, 14, 34 with a .371 OBP) but the Mets' LF Brad Wagner (.187, 2, 7) became the second Met to walk 4 times in a game in today's 5-2 win over the Cubs. To date, Wagner has more walks (16) than hits (14). He's only 22 and the 2nd round pick in the 1969 draft was probably moved up too quickly but hey, at least he's got that plate recognition. September 15: They're going to need a lot of help but the Astros won their first game of a 2-game series vs the Braves today, 8-7, to keep their magic number at 9 and pull to within 4 1/2 games of the NL West lead. It was a surprisingly high-homer game for the Astrodome, with 5 guys jacking bombs over the wall. Houston opened the lead up from 6-4 to 8-4 in the bottom of the 8th with one of those dingers, a 2-run shot by light-hitting utility man Masanori Hattori (.312, 6, 38), and then need every last run as setup man Adam Eastin (0-1, 6.14, 1 Sv), a former closer with the White Sox and Cardinals who just came back after missing an entire calendar year with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow (feel like in real life 1971 terms that would be a career-ender), gave up 3 runs in the top of the 9th on homeruns by 1B Dante Chairez (.268, 25, 86) and PH Jeremy "Grab 'Em And" Holden (.393, 1, 7). The series concludes tomorrow and from then on both Houston and Atlanta play a bunch of sub-.500 teams in the West. In spite of the loss the Braves still have a 97.5% chance to win the division. September 15: In yet another September pitching duel, Dodgers 1B Justin Stone (.287, 33, 100) accounted for every run in a 2-0 victory over San Diego. 26 year old rookie Brian Johnson (1-1, 1.64) pitched very well for the Pads and made just the one mistake, a 2-run Stone HR that also put him over the century mark in RBIs for the 10th time in his 11-year career. Rob Reiner (1-1, 2.22) got the W for the Dodgers with a 5-hit shutout. The win also ties the Padres and Dodgers in the standings at 70-79; it seems like pretty much everyone in the West outside of the contenders wants to finish 75-87. September 16: Time's up for the Washington Senators, who blew a 5-0 lead but still won in the 9th against the Tigers. However, the Red Sox also won, taking down the Indians 7-6 in 10 innings, to mathematically eliminate the Sens in what is looking like their final pennant chase in the nation's capital. Incidentally, Ernesto Garcia (.273, 62, 141) homered yet again for the Tribe and it looks like his breaking the record is no longer a matter of if but when. Also, Detroit's loss in the above game means that their magic number vs the Red Sox is now 2. We're about to see our first champagne celebration of the season, folks! September 16: If the Cardinals do come back to win the NL East, they'll need to thank midseason acquisition Ricardo Gomez (13-11, 3.31), who improved to 7-1 as a St. Louiser today with a 5-0 shutout against the Pirates. Gomez, who's sporting a 1.89 ERA with the Cards, scattered 7 runs over 9 innings and threw a massive for him 7 strikeouts. "I'm really just trying to pitch the way I always do," he said after the game. "I've just, I don't know, gotten a bit luckier." I'd say that Gomez can also thank a solid St. Louis defense but truth be told, St. Louis' defense is kind of bad - dead last in the NL in zone rating, 3rd worst in defensive efficiency, and 4th from the bottom in errors. September 16: That second game of the Astros' 2 game series vs the Braves did not go as planned, as the Braves yielded an 8-3 lead only to win it with a 2-run HR by 2B Kevin Dwyer (.312, 17, 72) in the 9th inning. I'm a little bit at a loss as to why offense has gone through the roof this month but as I've already made 2 LTM adjustments in midseason I'm just going to let this ride. In any case, whatever's happening to the rest of the league, Braves stopper John Winn (10-4, 0.88, 30 Sv) isn't experiencing it: he hasn't given up multiple runs in a month since July and is sporting a 0.90 ERA in September to date. Could he win the Cy? September 16: Since the Phillies have kind of a cupcake schedule remaining and the rest of the NL East does not, I wanted to post the team vs team records here to try and see if Philly just got lucky with the schedule configuration: Code:
PHI v STL 12-6 PHI v PIT 9-7 PHI v NYM 12-6 STL v PIT 9-6 STL v NYM 8-7 PIT v NYM 6-6 Just for funsies... ATL v HOU 11-7 September 17: Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black retires as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the USA after serving for 34 years, which as of 1971 was the record for longevity. Black will pass away 8 days later. In a parallel to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Black was a (mostly) liberal justice who died in office (not technically but basically true) during a Republican administration. His replacement was Lewis Powell, who, to Nixon's credit, wound up being a center-to-right leaning justice who was one of the 7 votes to legalize abortion nationwide in Roe v Wade. September 17: The Phillies' road to the World Series will have to come without their cleanup hitter, as 3B Alex Becerra (.248, 30, 72) will miss the rest of the season and all of the playoffs with a broken collarbone. Becerra set a career high in HRs this year and almost certainly would have passed last season's best of 83 RBIs. More than anything else though, he'd just come off of a horrific campaign in the field in 1971 where he committed 30 errors just barely posted a fielding average above .900 (.907). Critics said he needed to be moved to either first base or the bench; he surprised everyone by fielding .948 this year. He won't win a Gold Glove but his D was downright passable. The Phillies kind of have no choice but to try and make do the rest of the way with a combination of Cris Ramos (.242, 5, 15) and converted 2B Francisco Carrasco (.320, 0, 5) at the hot corner, with 2B Victor Serna (.202, 17, 61) batting 4th. September 17: The road to Cleveland being a contender once again lies in them fixing a pitching staff that got it horribly wrong this year (dead last in starters' ERA in the AL with a 4.35 and overall runs allowed with 714). One possible key to that is prospect Robbie Coltrane (3-3, 4.20), who threw his first major league complete game and shutout in a 3-0 win over the Yankees. Coltrane, a loud Scotsman who can't be understood by his teammates half the time, had things to say after the game but we were unable to figure them out enough to put them down to paper. Something about a "wee lad"? Speaking of Cleveland and a double-header, 1B Ernesto Garcia (.273, 62, 141) went 2 for 8 but neither of his two base knocks was a HR and so he sits at 62 with 11 games left to play. September 17: Tigers P Jimmy Goddard (17-8, 2.67) faced long odds this year after missing the 2nd half of 1970 with a partially torn labrum. First he had to work his way out of the bullpen and then he had to convince Detroit brass that he was good enough to keep there. Since August 1 he's basically been the ace of the staff, going 10-1 with ERAs of 2.09 and 2.39 in those two months. And today, the 31 year old set a new career high with his 4th shutout, besting the Orioles' TJ Ziegler (8-14, 3.16) in 1-0 pitchers' duel. Even with the double-header sweep of the O's, however, the Red Sox' 4-2 win over the Senators brings their magic number down to 1. The next Tigers loss or Red Sox win clinches the AL East. September 18: Crack open the champagne! The Red Sox took down the Senators 6-2 today to become the first team to clinch a playoff berth. Justin Kindberg (26-5, 2.03), who's kind of quietly set himself up as the heavy favorite for the AL Cy Young, pitched 7 strong innings and 1B Mike Miller (.292, 17, 84) helped things along by raking a 3 run homerun off of Senators stopper Jake Duckett (3-6, 3.30) in the top of the 7th - Duckett had been called in much earlier than usual due to an injury to starting pitcher / sprinter Lee Evans (1-1, 3.50) in the 3rd inning. This is the Red Sox' first playoff berth of the newly minted playoff era. They've won the pennant twice, in 1948 and 1968, winning the World Series in '48 (sorry, no Curse of the Bambino in this dynasty!). Miller was actually league MVP when Boston clinched that pennant, leading the league in hits (182), at-bats (607), homeruns (23), and RBIs (86) during the Year of the (Relief) Pitcher. September 18: Roger Quintana (17-12, 3.05) struck out 13 Cubs in an 8-0 shutout victory. He was 1 K off of tying the Phillies' record that he set, well, tied last year. This is already the 4th 10 K game in Quintana's career, not to mention his first 1-hitter. It came at a fantastic time, too, as the Cardinals were upset by the Expos today, 11-3, and that puts the Phillies 3 games up in the only race that's still at all competitive. September 18: He's no longer any threat to break Marius Gaddi's win record but Pirates hurler Santos Arango (24-8, 2.45) kept the Pirates' dim playoff hopes alive with a 3-0 shutout of the Mets. This was done in your standard Arango fashion, which is to say a solid 8 K performance that still left his fielders to do some work and 7 hits scattered over 9 innings. "I'm just happy to get on the winning side again," said Arango, who had previously been on a 3 game losing streak, after the game. "The curve was dipping, guys were getting out in front of the change, and it just felt good." September 18: Meanwhile, though, the NL West race is tightening up just a bit. The Astros' ace Tony Rivera (24-9, 3.29) threw a 3-hitter in a 3-0 win over the Reds while the Braves' own star pitcher George House (23-9, 3.14) pitched 6 not super effective innings and then watched as the Dodgers put up 4 insurance runs the inning after he was removed for a pinch hitter. The Braves wound up losing 8-3. The loss pushed the Astros to 4 1/2 games back and holds the magic number to 6. The Astros currently have a 0.9% chance, in part because following tomorrow's double-header, the Braves' final 7 games are all at home and all against sub-.500 teams. September 19: An Australian firm called Trams in Ballarat, which ran... trams in Ballaarat in Victoria closed down its line. I guess they're back around today as a tourist attraction. Look, this is a headline in Wikipedia. September 19: Brewers 2B Pat Jones (.322, 1, 14) complained again about not starting. I'll have to remember this for Old Man Day although I don't think he deserves to get retired following what was a very nice season. September 19: He took until his final at-bat in the final game of the series but Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia (.271, 63, 144) didn't just close to 2 HRs behind the modern record, his 4-bagger tied the game vs. the Yankees at 6-6. The hit came off of Yankees' stopper and eventual loser Mike Overmann (5-6, 4.39), who I have to say has cratered since being handed that job (11.91 ERA this month). Cleveland has a 3 game series at Washington - don't expect to see the record broken in huge RFK - and then play their final 6 games at home, where the Mistake on the Lake has been one of the nicest parks to HR hitters this season. 38 of Garcia's HRs have come at Cleveland Municipal vs 25 on the road (2 of them at Yankee Stadium, although Garcia's a lefty and a dead pull hitter at that so the cavernous left field doesn't really matter much to him). As an aside, there's this weird deal with hypertextuality where it's so, so easy in OOTP to go down a giant, Wikipedia-style aside just looking up players and events and associated players and so on. I sort of started to do it above when I looked at Mike Overman. Anyway, one of the fun things about dynasties, not to mention one of those things you kind of lose, I guess, when you're just reading about them... September 19: Coming into the 9th to rescue a victory that his pen-mate Charlie Bechtel (5-3, 2.97), Mets stopper Geoff Saus (11-12, 3.08) picked up his league-leading 31st save which also places him into a tie for the 2nd most all time. I mean, we aren't exactly in Save Era USA so the record is only 34 of them (Montay Luiso in 1964) but it's still pretty good. Saus has shown signs of wear this season with a 0-1, 7.30 month of September (still 6 saves though!) but at least for tonight he was perfect. ## Teams in Review It's September. EXPECT NONE OF THESE
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
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September 20-26, 1971 --- PENNANT RACE GLORY or crappy NL teams you be the jury
## Standings / Recap / Comments
WE'RE COMIN TO American League Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA Boston Red Sox 100 59 .629 - 691 528 Detroit Tigers 90 70 .562 10½ 668 607 Washington Senators 81 75 .519 17½ 644 574 New York Yankees 79 80 .497 21 677 668 Baltimore Orioles 75 80 .484 23 581 585 Cleveland Indians 72 88 .450 28½ 685 740 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Oakland Athletics 89 70 .560 - 614 614 Minnesota Twins 79 78 .503 9 649 652 California Angels 79 80 .497 10 638 612 Kansas City Royals 75 84 .472 14 664 739 Chicago White Sox 69 90 .434 20 598 650 Milwaukee Brewers 62 96 .392 26½ 536 676 Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA St. Louis Cardinals 85 74 .535 - 688 684 Philadelphia Phillies 85 75 .531 ½ 709 621 New York Mets 83 76 .522 2 656 633 Pittsburgh Pirates 80 80 .500 5½ 593 594 Chicago Cubs 75 84 .472 10 715 770 Montreal Expos 67 91 .424 17½ 615 727 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Atlanta Braves 91 69 .569 - 771 652 Houston Astros 89 70 .560 1½ 718 695 Los Angeles Dodgers 78 81 .491 12½ 666 654 San Francisco Giants 75 84 .472 15½ 611 646 San Diego Padres 74 84 .468 16 637 655 Cincinnati Reds 73 87 .456 18 644 692 Code:
Rank Team Pts Td Record PCT AVG ERA Pyt.Rec Diff 1st (1st) Boston 119 o 100-59 .629 .272 3.00 99-60 1 2nd (4th) Oakland 111 + 89-70 .560 .266 3.41 80-79 9 3rd (5th) Houston 106 + 89-70 .560 .266 3.98 82-77 7 4th (3rd) Detroit 102 - 90-70 .562 .261 3.36 87-73 3 5th (6th) Atlanta 99 + 91-69 .569 .261 3.66 92-68 -1 6th (12th) St. Louis 99 ++ 85-74 .535 .270 3.89 80-79 5 7th (20th) Cleveland 95 ++ 72-88 .450 .255 4.11 74-86 -2 8th (10th) New York 95 + 83-76 .522 .247 3.74 82-77 1 9th (8th) Los Angeles 93 - 78-81 .491 .255 3.49 81-78 -3 10th (14th) New York 92 ++ 79-80 .497 .254 3.84 80-79 -1 11th (22nd) Chicago 90 ++ 75-84 .472 .261 4.39 74-85 1 12th (23rd) Kansas City 90 ++ 75-84 .472 .241 4.40 72-87 3 13th (9th) Minnesota 89 -- 79-78 .503 .260 3.75 78-79 1 14th (11th) Washington 87 -- 81-75 .519 .259 3.15 86-70 -5 15th (16th) Pittsburgh 87 + 80-80 .500 .254 3.28 80-80 0 16th (17th) San Francisco 87 + 75-84 .472 .252 3.59 75-84 0 17th (2nd) Philadelphia 85 -- 85-75 .531 .256 3.62 90-70 -5 18th (24th) Chicago 83 ++ 69-90 .434 .248 3.77 73-86 -4 19th (7th) California 82 -- 79-80 .497 .252 3.44 83-76 -4 20th (19th) Montreal 79 - 67-91 .424 .256 4.20 67-91 0 21st (15th) San Diego 78 -- 74-84 .468 .253 3.77 77-81 -3 22nd (18th) Cincinnati 76 -- 73-87 .456 .247 3.99 75-85 -2 23rd (13th) Baltimore 72 -- 75-80 .484 .250 3.34 77-78 -2 24th (21st) Milwaukee 58 -- 62-96 .392 .244 3.82 62-96 0 The yuppies of the week are the Cleveland Indians, who are riding Ernesto Garcia's historic season to kinda sorta hike their way out of mediocrity. I mean, they're still 12-13 for the month, which goes to show how awful things were before they kicked off this 8 game winning streak that they're currently on. The Cards moved up 6 spots for their part, which, you know, ain't bad. It'll be interesting to see who emerges in the East. In the West, it's looking more and more like Atlanta's going to back into it but whether Houston slips past them or not, I don't give either of those teams a lot of chances in the postseason - both of those pitching staffs are bad, with the Braves' being maybe only playoff team bad but Houston's is like expansion team "how is this even possible in the Astrodome?" levels of bad. ## Major Transactions September 21: The Reds returned P Pat Pierson (0-0, 1.59) to the Orioles following his purchase in June. Pierson had good results in his September call-up but didn't strike out anyone in 5.2 innings and the O's decided they wanted him after all. ## News September 20: Billboard's Top 5: 1. "Go Away Little Girl", Donny Osmond 2. "Maggie May / Reason to Believe" Rod Stewart 3. "Ain't No Sunshine", Bill Withers 4. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", Joan Baez 5. "Spanish Harlem", Aretha Franklin Pretty close to unchanged, with the pro-Confederacy ballad making it into the top 5 and finally knocking that crappy Paul "and Linda" song out. I'm not a super huge fan of the message but hey, The Band did a really nice version of it so I'll give "Dixie" that. Otherwise, yeah, my dislike of Rod Stewart has been noted and at least there are 2 1/2 bangers on that list. September 20: Speaking of bangers - nope, not a good segue - the Phillies will have to bang through October without starting pitcher Billy Ording (10-15, 4.22), who will miss the next 3 weeks with a calf strain. That miiiiight get him back in time for the World Series but I am doubtful. Ording to be fair was pretty solidly the #4 starter anyway with the emergence of Ringo Starr (19-7, 3.50) as an effective winner on this team. With the 4 man rotation leading the way the Phillies can probably get away with a 3-man rotation in the playoffs. For now, veteran Dale Parks (0-1, 3.90), who spent most of the season in AAA after splitting time between Washington and Montreal last season, will get that last start or two as the bottom man on the totem pole. September 20: Not so much an injury update but a downgrade: Houston's 2B/SS Jordan Green (.275, 9, 56) has been nursing a sprained wrist, with the 'Stros still pushing him into the lineup because he's still the best man available. That injury has now devolved into a chronic one. In all probability he'll have plenty of time to rest it in a week and a half. In the long term, Houston has a really thin pitching staff whose badness is masked by the Astrodome and their defense, particularly up the middle, is not helping matters much. September 20: And we're down to the final week! Well, the final full week anyway. 3 of the 4 races have yet to be decided but it's well within the realm of possibility that all of them will be over with by Sunday. All three remaining leaders have at least a 98% chance of winning, too. September 20: Guess who won the AL Player of the Week? Yeah, it was Ernesto Garcia (.273, 63, 145) again. That's his 2nd PotW in the last 3. He clobbered 6 more HRs with 12 RBIs and hit .343 overall for a sad-sack Indians team. At least the fans have a reason to go to games in the Forest City. Surprisingly, this was only his 4th career PotW. September 20: In the NL, it was another slugging first baseman who won the Player of the Week award: the Dodgers' Justin Stone (.291, 36, 108). There was a period of time in May when it looked like Stone wasn't acclimating well to the bright lights of LA but he's come on lately whether you want to call that in the clutch of September or after the games stopped mattering for his team. In any case. Stone hit .406 last week - 13 for 32 - with 5 HRs and 12 RBIs. He's now 3rd in the NL in both of those latter two categories as well as OPS+ for the stat nerds. This is Stone's 3rd PotW this year and 22nd of his storied career (which means that I won't be showing baseball cards for either guy -- wow). September 20: The Twins got a W from Angelo Ramos (13-19, 3.92) today, which I wanted to bring up because he's getting wildly close to going from 20 wins to 20 losses in one year. I haven't checked to see if that's ever been done before but I'm going to guess no. Even here with my own self at the wheel, a 20 loss season is not going to be super common; you need a pitcher who either is having extraordinarily bad luck (which isn't really the case for Ramos; he has an ERA+ of 96, which, the Twins support guys a bit better than that but that's not a number you'd expect to get a winning record out of) or else a guy with a history of pitching well from whom his team needs starts. I've shut down a bunch of guys already but Ramos, who was 21-2 last year and could have been the Cy if he'd pitched the whole season, is definitely in the 2nd group (and even there I'll probably shut him down once the Twinkies get eliminated). September 21: Pakistan declares a state of emergency, although Wikipedia is unclear as to what for, exactly. There was a big, um, civil issue that encroaches on genocide going on within its borders but at the time but I'm not sure that's it. September 21: It feels bad that Red Sox SP Michael Pesco (20-14, 3.21) is up among the league leaders in complete games the year after he missed all but 9 starts with a combination of two major injuries, but if the man's pitching well, what do you do? Tonight the 2 time Cy Young Award winner threw a 6-hit shutout, striking out 9, to win the game 7-0 against the recently eliminated Detroit Tigers. "Mister Snappy was snapping," said Pesco after the game, referring to his trademark curveball. "and I just had to let him eat." Pesco also managed to win his 20th game for the 2nd time in his career - somehow, he won the Cy in 1968 in spite of "only" winning 17 (17-8, 2.00 in the Year of the (Relief) Pitcher). The Red Sox now sit at 98-57, just two wins away from 100. They've already set a franchise record for wins so anything more is gravy at this point (they went 93-70 in their pennant-winning season of 1968, which included a 1-game playoff), so anything from here on out is gravy. September 21: The Expos played a big, big spoiler role today and in doing so clinched losing less than 100 games for the first time in franchise history. That's kind of a big deal considering how hopeless they looked at times the past 3 years. In any case they jumped on 1970 Cy Young winner Marius Gaddi (16-19, 3.34) for 5 runs in 6 innings en route to a 6-2 win and then 29 year old minor league veteran Andy Tudor (1-0, 2.25) made his 3rd career major league appearance and 2nd career start a great one, scattering 4 hits over 8 innings before giving the ball up to stopper Ernesto Hernandez (5-12, 3.42) for his 21st save of the season. Montreal is now 64-89 so even if they lose out - and for some reason a rainout that they aren't expected to make up gets played - they can't finish with more than 98 losses. Philly meanwhile falls to 85-70 and gets the Cardinals, whose game hasn't finished as of this writing, to within 3 games of the lead. The Pirates, however, had other things in mind. Jeremy Battaglia (22-14, 2.61) shut the Cards down for 8 innings and Paz Lemus (11-11, 3.55) slammed the door shut for save number 25 as Pittsburgh took down St. Louis 4-2. The Bucs have the tiniest glimmer of hope right now at 79-76; basically they need to win out the rest of the way, the Phillies have to lose out (I guess they can win 1 game the rest of the way) and then they need a bunch of help with the Mets and Cardinals. So I'm saying they have a chance! September 21: Meanwhile in the NL West race the Astros got a lot of help from both the Padres and their own opponents the Giants in pulling to within 3 games of the Braves. First, the Braves ran into a young-ish starter playing for a major league job in Brian Johnson (2-1, 1.55), who pitched 7 innings of 1-run ball and picked up a 4-1 win. Then, the Astros, down 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th, benefitted from a complete Giants meltdown in the field - 3 errors - and came back to win 5-3. Robert Rivera (13-15, 3.03) picked up the toughest of tough losses for San Francisco, striking out 10 but allowing 5 runs (3 of them earned). That loss also pushes his all-time record to 1 game below .500 - 100-101. September 22: Justin Kindberg (26-6, 2.07) got outpitched tonight by Jimmy Goddard (18-8, 2.60) and now has at best a chance at tying the wins record but more importantly - and SHAME ON ME for not noticing this! - this also broke a 17 game win streak which has got to be the MLB record. Kindberg's last loss was a 6-0 shutout at Washington on June 18th that dropped his record to 9-5. What a season. September 22: Even when they win, the Braves are struggling. Tonight it took a solo shot by SS Jon Reid (.268, 6, 61) in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game at 2-2 and then some extra-inning heroics by OF Chris Ward (.292, 11, 46), who came in to pinch-hit for Mikhail Baryshnikov (2-0, 3.38) and delivered an RBI single off of Padres stopper Darius Parchman (6-7, 2.51). The win breaks a 6 game winning streak and, well, dying off or not, the Braves are still 3 1/2 up on Houston with 7 left to play. September 22: In an 8-2 win over the Reds, Dodgers 1B Justin Stone (.288, 37, 110) reached a major milestone, picking up his 2,000th major league hit with a 2 run homerun in the 5th off of starter Manny Rivera (2-1, 1.98). "It was awesome to reach that point," said Stone after the game. "I hope to get my 3,000th with the Dodgers too." The hit also put him ahead of Ben McPhail, a middle infielder with the Cubs from 1946 to 1962, into 28th in the modern era. McPhail retired with 1,999 hits and to be fair he barely hit over .200 his last 4 years in the league so the Cubbies gave him plenty of opportunities to get over that hump. September 23: Time is officially up for the Angels, as they lost game number 77 today 4-2 to the Chicago White Sox. Chicago put out 23 year old debutant Mick Fleetwood (11-12, 3.17 in AAA Tucson) on the mound and he stymied California for 7 innings, allowing 8 hits but only 2 runs. Malcolm Post (5-4, 2.32) then shut the door for his 24th save to play the spoiler role for these guys. With 6 games to play, the 79-77 Angels still hae a great chance at earning a +.500 record for the 4th time in 5 years. I don't know if this would be soothing but the A's came back from a 4-3 deficit to blow out the Brewers late, 10-4. Even if the Angels had won today they'd have been KO'd, as the A's are now 86-70. Incidentally the A's record for wins in a season is entirely reachable; they won 89 games in 1964 while they were still in Kansas City. That season they still finished a full 14 games behind the pennant-winning Baltimore Orioles, so this is definitely their most competitive year. Going down the old rabbit hole, their best position player that year was the recently retired 1B Alex Cardenas (.366, 30, 90 and an MVP award) whereas their best pitcher was Bill Lucas (18-11, 3.89 and his only All-Star appearance), who is currently pitching his way off the Cubs' roster. September 23: The Phillies are reeeeeally backing into the playoffs now. They just got swept in Jarry Parc by the Expos. Tonight's big loser was closer "Hippie" Tom Grohs (9-6, 3.71), who inherited a 3-1 deficit, got the first out in the bottom of the 8th, and then proceeded to give up back-to-back-to-back homeruns to 3B Andy Owens (.305, 12, 53), 1B Willie Morales (.265, 26, 86), and RF Matt Williams (.284, 18, 46). They've suddenly gone from the hottest team in the senior circuit to a club where I'm kind of rooting for the Cardinals to overtake them because at least then we'd have a non-cratering team in the playoffs. Speaking of St. Louis, starter Vince Bachler (14-15, 3.44) had to be removed in the 3rd with a blister on his finger, leaving the bullpen to pick up the slack. They did... well enough, with stopper Billy Munoz (10-6, 2.78) picking up the vultured victory after squandering a 2-0 lead in the 8th (his 5th blown save of the season) thanks to a RF Casey Satterfield (.303, 13, 67) homer in the bottom of the 10th. The win over the Pirates keeps the Phillies' magic number at 5 games and perhaps more importantly pulls the Birds to a game and a half behind the leaders with a 3-game weekend series against those Expos in Busch Stadium. Montreal can be the biggest poops in the world this week... Oh and also that Cardinals win officially knocked the Pirates, last year's NL East winners, out of contention, as they fall to 79-78 with the loss. Frankly it was a little amazing they got this far, as they seemed woefully undermanned in the second half. September 23: And man, it's a good thing the Braves didn't play today because today was Upset Thursday, at least in the NL. Houston also lost to the Giants 4-1 thanks to the first career complete game by San Francisco hurler / Milwaukee Bucks center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1-2, 2.45), who just changed his name from Lew Alcindor this past July. The loss to the man whose name means "the noble one, servant of Allah" puts the Astros 3 1/2 back with a tragic number of 3. September 24: Britain expels 90 KGB and GRU officials, 15 of whom are not allowed to return. September 24: The American Association and International League both ended their season yesterday and with that came a spate of retirements. Mostly these guys were career minor leaguers but there are a couple names I remember AND THEREFORE YOU DO TOO: LF Brian Milton: Milton was a lifetime farmhand for the Cardinals before being selected by Kansas City in the expansion draft. He provided a roughly league average bat for KC for two years, the first as a platooned right fielder, the second mostly as a pinch-hitter. He was released by KC after last season and toiled in the Twins' system for a year before calling it quits. 1B John Chapman: Chapman was the Yankees' starting first baseman throughout the 60s, making 4 All-Star Games and winning 3 Gold Gloves. He aged quickly and in 1968 he fell to .244/10/57, which prompted first a move to part-time / pinch-hitting duties as the Yankees searched for better bats at that spot and then in 1970 he was released out of spring training and signed with the Padres, where he hit .181/5/16 in 138 at-bats. Still only 33 that season he tried to get his swing back in the minor leagues but could not, hitting only .248/1/11 for Portland's AAA squad. Chapman retires with 1,199 hits, 148 runs, 592 RBIs, and an OPS+ of 119. He's by no means a Hall of Famer but could find himself in the Yankees' Ring of Honor. CF John Hackett: Another guy who was a solid starter in his 20s, this time with Cincinatti, who aged really quickly and found himself out of the league. In Hackett's case, he was never a very good hitter, with a career .198 average, but was maybe the face of offensive futility in 1968 when he hit just .147 for the Reds. In spite of that he started 114 games for them. He was exposed in the expansion draft and the Expos used him for about a month in center but decided to move on. Hackett led the league in Ks 3 times in his career; the more I look at it, the more I wonder why he ever got as many opportunities as he did. SP Justin Jones: Jones was mostly a farm guy / 7th starter for the White Sox organizxation. He had basically 2 seasons in which injuries or what have you allowed him the opportunity to play lots of games in the majors: 1962, when he went 11-12, 4.21, and 1967, when he went 13-2, 2.21. Amazingly, at least to me, the Chisox just plain sent him right back down to AAA following that performance and he spent essentially the entire season in AAA before signing with the Giants in the offseason. By then 34 years old, he was still pretty effective in the 7 starts they gave him in '69 but they weren't looking for old man reclamation projects so they released him and that's the last Jones saw in the majors. He finishes with a lifetime record of 36-22, mostly as a starter, with a 3.35 ERA which is even a little bit above average. You have to wonder what could have been... September 24: The Twins just got dealt what's probably a death-blow to their playoff chances, as 3B and reigning MVP Mike Brookes (.275, 27, 72) was diagnosed with a strained PCL that will leave him out for the rest of the season. Brookes avoided the injury bug last year, playing in 151 games but now he's missed significant time in 2 of his last 3 seasons. Man, you'd really hope with a guy like this that some kind of rule change is made in which a guy gets to, like, be a designated hitter for the pitcher or something... September 24: BURIED DEEP IN THE NEWS, I figured that hey, since I already have cards out for both of the Players of the Week this week, I'd use a couple guys from teams I (probably) haven't represented this year just so people can see Silvam's great unis on fully fictional players. For the AL I'll choose the Milwaukee Brewers and 1B Kozue Nakamura (.317, 4, 63) who made the All-Star game this year but hasn't quite managed to win a PotW award. From the NL I'll choose Expos 3B Adam Owens (.305, 12, 53), also an All-Star and also with no PotWs this season (he did have one last year). That Brewers' jersey is still very reminiscent of the old Pilots' unis but hey, they'll switch it up some time, I guess, maybe after they move to the AL East. September 24: After going 0 for Washington (well, he had hits, just not the kind that count), Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia (.269, 63, 145) failed to homer today as well in today's double-header against Baltimore (the Tribe won both games via shutout, 3-0 and 2-0) and so now he has 4 games left to break the MLB record of 65. He already holds the all-time AL record and as I'm sure I've stated he's one of 2 players in modern history with more than 60, but who needs AL records when the MLB one is right there for the taking? September 24: The A's won the 2nd game of their 4-gamer vs Milwaukee 6-4 to put the Twins on the brink of elimination. Minnesota has a twin doubleheader series against the Royals starting tomorrow and, with a magic number of 2, they could mathematically eliminate themselves tomorrow. 1B Ray Hawkinson (.364, 7, 31) went 3 for 4 with 2 runs and 3 RBIs, including a 6th inning triple off of Brewers loser Joel Youngblood (6-2, 4.17). September 24: Phillies "stopper" Tom Grohs (9-7, 3.81) gave up his 4th HR in 2 days and 0.2 IP to send the Phillies down to the Cubs 3-2. The HR was by, of all people, Helio Salgado (.171, 2, 4), a minor league vet who was hitting .156 heading into this game. And to top it off, the Cardinals once again used their entire bullpen to eke out a 5-3 win over the Expos. For the 2nd straight day their starter - now Franklin Medrano (0-0, 3.38), who'd also been pulled early in his only other appearance this season, retired after just 1 inning. All the Cards did was use *6* pitchers the rest of the way - September rosters, huh? - including an actual non-meltdown by Todd Thiesen (3-3, 6.00 and 2-0, 7.04 with STL), who earned his 1st save as a member of the Cardinals after getting blown up in his previous 5 appearances with the club. St. Louis is just a half game behind Philly now. The odds still say Philadelphia has a 73.5% chance of winning but the odds do not know what momentum is. I guess on the other hand the odds don't know what a starting rotation is and isn't taking into account the fact that St. Louis kind of doesn't have one right now. September 24: And instead of Upset Day, maybe it's just Upset Week. The Dodgers continued their red-hot performance, downing the Braves 10-4 at the Launching Pad, and the Astros swept a doubleheader against the Padres to pull to within 2 games in the NL West. The odds guys still give the Braves a 97% chance and a look down the schedule makes me agree with them for once: Houston gets just one more game at San Diego before closing out the season with a 3-gamer vs. those same Dodgers while the Braves, who are by no means in a position to call any series "easy", face the Reds at home after this weekend. Also Houston has like no starting pitching and was down to using 24 year old Don Henley (2-3, 4.93) tonight. Henley did deliver a good enough start to give Houston the W but it wasn't great - 4 runs in 6 innings, 3 walks, 3 Ks - and it's emblematic of the Astros' pitching struggles this year in general. This team has the 3rd worst defense in the NL - 694 runs allowed and a team ERA of 4.00 which they've only done worse than in one season, their inaugural year of 1962 (5.23 that year, plus of course it was played in Colts Stadium) in spite of playing half their games in the Astrodome. Like, I'm still rooting for the Braves here, not just because the Astros are Team Evil in real life but also because man, that pitching staff and for that matter the guys playing behind the pitcher on defense do not deserve a postseason berth. Also the Braves have the best run differential in the NL with +119; that's also #2 in all of baseball (Boston is +157) whereas Houston's is just +18. September 25: In more "man, there should be a storyline about this" news, IRL the Tigers push a kid named Les Cain out for 6 innings in a 10-7 loss to the Yankees. He later contends that manager Billy Martin forced him to pitch with a sore arm in this game, ruining his career. He went on to sue Detroit; the Michigan Bureau of Workman's Compensation orders the Tigers to pay Cain $111 a month for the rest of his life (although apparently they eventually settled on a lump-sum payment). September 25: The Twins gave it a hard run but they were swept in the doubleheader today vs. the Royals to bow out of the playoff race. In Game One, their hitters just could not get to 24 year old fireballer Rick Rodriguez (3-2, 3,.55), who's been solid after spending most of the year in AAA Omaha (12-12, 3.26). They lost 5-1 and even that 1 run came on a solo shot with 2 outs in the 9th inning by RF Lou Morgenstern (.249, 19, 69). In the nightcap - and boy was it a nightcap - starter Angelo Ramos (13-19, 3.96) was throwing a 1-hitter into the 7th but faded quickly and suddenly it was a 4-2 Royals lead. I was thinking "oh no, Ramos is going to get loss #20 like this". Then the Twins rallied against Royals stopper Victor Reyes (4-4, 4.86), who blew his 4th save in 14 chances, to tie it at 4-4. That was the score at the end of regulation and Minnesota leaned on the arms of closer Pete Lynn (6-9, 3.38), who threw 3 shutout innings, and Victor Ruiz (9-8, 3.50), who aaaaalmost did the same but surrendered the game-losing single to 3B Ryan Newton (.292, 5, 45) in the bottom of the 13th inning. In real life that game surely would have been suspended, although the game says the game time was only around 4 1/2 hours so maybe not? As it turns out, too, and as a side effect of my playing out every game, that nightcap loss was moot anyway as the A's won an easy one against Milwaukee today to clinch. Nate Lancaster (10-3, 3.11) delivered a 7-hit complete game as Oakland took down Milwaukee 7-1. 1B Ray Hawkinson (.379, 7, 31) was a big hero in this one, going 4 for 4 with 2 runs scored, and 2B Israel Gaytan's (.288, 6, 50) 2-RBI double in the 5th inning chase Brewers starter Edwin Garcia (1-0, 10.80) in the 5th inning and put the A's out to a comfortable 6-1 lead. The victory secures the American League Division Series; Boston, playing in their first playoff since 1968, will play Oakland, who've kind of been the laughingstock of the AL but who nevertheless will play in the postseason for the first time in franchise history. September 25: Ernesto Garcia (.269, 64, 146) finally got off the schneid. After going 5 games and 6 days without a HR, the Cleveland first baseman belted a solo HR in a 5-1 win over the collapsing Baltimore Orioles to put him 1 away from the record with 3 games to play. "It's true," Garcia said after the game. "I'm the greatest player in history and soon everyone will be forced to admit it." September 25: The sliding continues for the Phillies, as Marius Gaddi (16-20, 3.47) gives up a 2-run HR in the 8th to lose to the Cubs in Wrigley, 7-6. You can argue that I'd left Gaddi in too long in the past this year what with that record but today, even after that tater, he finished the game with only 103 pitches. In any case, the loss puts Philadelphia into a virtual tie with the Cardinals with their game yet to be played today. For their part, the Expos, who'd just beaten the Phillies like a drum in the previous series, played their part tonight in spoiling the Cardinals' chances, rallying in the 9th to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 win. St Louis has their work cut out for them, as they have to play an extra game compared to the Phillies (hence the half-game difference in the standings) and that extra series comes against the Mets, who are not mathematically eliminated yet themselves. September 25: Meanwhile the NL West continues to tighten up with the Braves falling once again to the surging LA Dodgers 7-6 and the Astros finally picking up some good pitching in the form of Jeff Graton (6-5, 4.03) in a 6-1 win over the Padres. Graton, the putative ace on the 1969 Pilots staff, has been in and out of the rotation for this team over the past 2 years. He's had 8 starts this year, with 2 of them going all the way; maybe the rotation was the best place for him all along. The victory puts the Astros just 1 game in back of the Braves, whose situation is beginning to look truly dire: they are just 8-13 for the month with a starters' ERA of 5.37. September 26: Ernesto Garcia (.269, 65, 147) has officially tied the major league record in homeruns! And it's not even an expansion season (although to be fair Milwaukee is still pretty bad)! Today's hit was a solo shot off of former Mets prospect Dave McNicholas (0-1, 2.53) that also turned out to be the difference-maker in a 2-1 win. One thing that comes back around in favor of Garcia is that Cleveland Municipal is an extreme HR park this year: 93 of the Indians' 153 homeruns hit this year have come at the Mistake on the Lake. Garcia gets two more chances to break the record, both at home, against the Tigers. Incidentally, Garcia also has the 3rd highest RBI total in modern history, although he's got no chance of moving into first (Justin Stone drove in 164 batters in 1964 off of 58 HRs and a .371 average. That season he also set a modern record with 238 hits). September 26: And the Braves fiiiiiiinally crack the Dodgers, winning 4-3 thanks to a strong outing by Trevon Dean (8-7, 4.48), a 21 game winner in 1969 who's fallen on hard times this year. CF Josh Damon (.259, 17, 59) launched a solo HR that put Atlanta in the lead to stay. With Houston's series somehow complete against the Padres, they aren't playing today (wonder how and why that happened? Baseball Chronicle is mum) and so the Braves' lead sits at 1 1/2 going into the final series of the year. (I figured out why they didn't play and why the extra game had been rescheduled into a doubleheader over the weekend: the Kansas City Chiefs were in town to play the Houston Oilers and they were using the Astrodome as their venue. I guess even in the early 70s the NFL took precedence over mere baseball.) September 26: But over in the East, the Phillies' collapse has reached epic proportions, as they lost 8-7 today to the Cubs in a very Wrigley-esque game. Starter Roger Quintana (17-14, 3.39) had an uncharacteristically bad control night, allowing 6 walks in 6.2 innings, and what's worse, he missed over the plate *4* times against a Chicago team who, bad record or no, will make you pay for doing that. St. Louis meanwhile more than got the job done against the Expos, 11-1, and so now, unbelievably, they lead the NL East by half a game. Philly has lost seven in a row. They still have the plurality chance of winning, according to the odds, but it's under 50% for the first time all September, it seems. ## Teams in Review It's September. EXPECT NONE OF THESE
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1971 - the big SEASON ENDA
## Standings / Recap / Comments
WE'RE COMIN TO American League Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA Boston Red Sox 102 60 .630 - 708 542 Detroit Tigers 92 70 .568 10 681 610 Washington Senators 83 76 .522 17½ 659 589 New York Yankees 80 82 .494 22 692 683 Baltimore Orioles 76 82 .481 24 595 602 Cleveland Indians 72 90 .444 30 688 753 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Oakland Athletics 90 71 .559 - 621 622 California Angels 81 81 .500 9½ 650 620 Minnesota Twins 80 80 .500 9½ 657 664 Kansas City Royals 76 85 .472 14 672 746 Chicago White Sox 70 92 .432 20½ 608 676 Milwaukee Brewers 64 97 .398 26 562 686 Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST Team W L WPct GB R RA St. Louis Cardinals 88 74 .543 - 704 691 Philadelphia Phillies 85 77 .525 3 713 630 New York Mets 83 79 .512 5 663 649 Pittsburgh Pirates 82 80 .506 6 602 598 Chicago Cubs 77 85 .475 11 737 785 Montreal Expos 68 93 .422 19½ 630 749 LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST Team W L WPct GB R RA Atlanta Braves 93 69 .574 - 783 657 Houston Astros 91 71 .562 2 736 702 Los Angeles Dodgers 79 83 .488 14 673 672 San Diego Padres 77 84 .478 15½ 652 662 San Francisco Giants 75 87 .463 18 618 661 Cincinnati Reds 73 89 .451 20 649 704 I'll go into those matchups a little more in my next post! Team Hitting AL Code:
Team R/G R G AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO SB AVG OBP SLG OPS Boston Red Sox 4.4 708 162 5635 1535 295 31 121 439 757 62 .272 .325 .400 .725 New York Yankees 4.3 692 162 5511 1400 254 35 133 636 934 32 .254 .333 .385 .718 Cleveland Indians 4.2 688 162 5626 1437 209 40 154 539 859 76 .255 .321 .389 .710 Detroit Tigers 4.2 681 162 5541 1447 232 35 125 490 953 98 .261 .323 .383 .706 Kansas City Royals 4.2 672 161 5290 1276 214 52 131 704 1003 105 .241 .331 .376 .706 Washington Senators 4.1 659 159 5422 1411 247 33 96 495 924 57 .260 .323 .371 .694 Minnesota Twins 4.1 657 160 5450 1415 240 36 136 589 882 54 .260 .333 .392 .725 California Angels 4.0 650 162 5542 1397 192 52 113 469 867 152 .252 .313 .367 .680 Oakland Athletics 3.9 621 161 5417 1445 256 31 106 425 767 55 .267 .323 .384 .707 Chicago White Sox 3.8 608 162 5481 1360 197 35 119 514 978 73 .248 .313 .362 .675 Baltimore Orioles 3.8 595 158 5376 1345 225 34 126 486 934 89 .250 .314 .375 .689 Milwaukee Brewers 3.5 562 161 5466 1339 200 36 94 415 827 56 .245 .300 .346 .646 TOTALS 4.0 7793 1932 65757 16807 2761 450 1454 6201 10685 909 .256 .321 .378 .699 AVERAGE 649 161 5480 1401 230 38 121 517 890 76 Code:
Team R/G R G AB H 2B 3B HR BB SO SB AVG OBP SLG OPS Atlanta Braves 4.8 783 162 5575 1457 248 32 182 555 889 79 .261 .330 .415 .745 Chicago Cubs 4.5 737 162 5570 1454 225 51 186 497 917 82 .261 .325 .420 .745 Houston Astros 4.5 736 162 5573 1484 267 28 130 475 854 62 .266 .325 .394 .719 Philadelphia Phillies 4.4 713 162 5444 1393 221 33 142 636 982 91 .256 .336 .387 .723 St. Louis Cardinals 4.3 704 162 5572 1508 229 44 132 525 817 39 .271 .335 .399 .734 Los Angeles Dodgers 4.2 673 162 5567 1418 196 35 147 544 856 75 .255 .324 .382 .705 New York Mets 4.1 663 162 5474 1351 248 35 128 559 936 48 .247 .318 .375 .693 San Diego Padres 4.0 652 161 5480 1394 246 47 100 474 854 85 .254 .315 .371 .686 Cincinnati Reds 4.0 649 162 5477 1349 226 47 129 583 976 113 .246 .319 .375 .695 Montreal Expos 3.9 630 161 5527 1417 238 44 135 445 937 60 .256 .314 .389 .703 San Francisco Giants 3.8 618 162 5568 1400 227 31 90 479 864 89 .251 .311 .352 .663 Pittsburgh Pirates 3.7 602 162 5535 1398 217 43 102 561 909 66 .253 .322 .363 .684 TOTALS 4.2 8160 1942 66362 17023 2788 470 1603 6333 10791 889 .257 .323 .385 .708 AVERAGE 680 162 5530 1419 232 39 134 528 899 74 AL Code:
Team R/G R G CG SHO SV ERA IP HA HRA BB K WHIP OAVG BABIP Boston Red Sox 3.3 542 162 52 20 31 3.03 1479.1 1298 114 472 1042 1.20 .236 .270 Washington Senators 3.7 589 159 47 13 29 3.18 1435.2 1276 125 453 876 1.20 .238 .261 Baltimore Orioles 3.8 602 158 33 16 33 3.39 1419.0 1349 113 475 775 1.29 .253 .275 Detroit Tigers 3.8 610 162 30 11 36 3.34 1462.1 1345 140 538 929 1.29 .245 .271 California Angels 3.8 620 162 37 13 27 3.42 1464.2 1397 125 532 836 1.32 .251 .274 Oakland Athletics 3.9 622 161 33 8 40 3.42 1435.1 1276 112 657 1056 1.35 .240 .277 Minnesota Twins 4.2 664 160 30 13 29 3.75 1434.2 1491 73 497 886 1.39 .270 .307 Chicago White Sox 4.2 676 162 28 12 29 3.83 1451.1 1436 146 489 800 1.33 .262 .281 New York Yankees 4.2 683 162 38 16 22 3.86 1450.0 1433 143 438 962 1.29 .259 .290 Milwaukee Brewers 4.3 686 161 37 7 25 3.81 1434.2 1429 93 592 794 1.41 .262 .290 Kansas City Royals 4.6 746 161 28 16 31 4.38 1426.1 1530 135 541 834 1.45 .277 .303 Cleveland Indians 4.6 753 162 32 12 29 4.14 1464.0 1547 135 517 895 1.41 .272 .301 TOTALS 4.0 7793 1932 425 157 361 3.63 17357.1 16807 1454 6201 10685 1.33 .256 .284 AVERAGE 649 161 35 13 30 1446 1401 121 517 890 Code:
Team R/G R G CG SHO SV ERA IP HA HRA BB K WHIP OAVG BABIP Pittsburgh Pirates 3.7 598 162 44 19 32 3.25 1476.1 1388 117 420 922 1.22 .248 .276 Philadelphia Phillies 3.9 630 162 37 5 27 3.59 1440.1 1354 117 443 958 1.25 .249 .281 New York Mets 4.0 649 162 28 11 40 3.76 1451.2 1367 131 563 987 1.33 .251 .283 Atlanta Braves 4.1 657 162 30 8 40 3.64 1455.1 1465 139 450 853 1.32 .262 .285 San Francisco Giants 4.1 661 162 37 8 33 3.63 1464.1 1414 133 491 860 1.30 .256 .279 San Diego Padres 4.1 662 161 31 7 31 3.74 1444.0 1428 115 559 759 1.38 .260 .281 Los Angeles Dodgers 4.1 672 162 41 7 31 3.51 1475.2 1372 135 505 1033 1.27 .245 .276 St. Louis Cardinals 4.3 691 162 24 8 34 3.86 1445.0 1426 117 530 896 1.35 .259 .287 Houston Astros 4.3 702 162 31 13 35 3.94 1454.0 1447 114 646 861 1.44 .262 .288 Cincinnati Reds 4.3 704 162 29 7 29 4.02 1450.0 1448 152 511 874 1.35 .261 .285 Montreal Expos 4.7 749 161 19 4 33 4.26 1440.1 1386 191 621 895 1.39 .254 .270 Chicago Cubs 4.8 785 162 31 7 26 4.41 1451.1 1528 142 594 893 1.46 .273 .300 TOTALS 4.2 8160 1942 382 104 391 3.80 17448.1 17023 1603 6333 10791 1.34 .257 .283 AVERAGE 680 162 32 9 33 1454 1419 134 528 899 ## News September 27: Hirohito becomes the first reigning Emperor of Japan to go outside of the nation, taking a 3 week trip to the USA and Europe. September 27: UK Prime Minister Edward Heath hosts a closed meeting with Irish Republic PM Jack Lynch and Northern Ireland PM Brian Faulkner to try and untangle the crisis in Northern Ireland (aka the Troubles). September 27: Wilhelm Simon, a convicted war criminal and administrator of the Buchenwald concentration camp, dies at 71. After serving a 9 year sentence for his crimes, Simon lived his life out in obscurity as a salesman. September 27: And Billboard's Top 5: 1. Maggie May / Reason To Believe, Rod Steward 2. Go Away Little Girl, Donny Osmond 3. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Joan Baez 4. Superstar / Bless the Beasts and Children, The Carpenters 5. Ain't No Sunshine, Bill Withers "Spanish Harlem" fell out of the top 6 to 7th without quite hitting #1. Oh well. I remember being weirdly into the Carpenters when I was in high school. I make no excuses for that. They were corny then too. September 27: The Dixie Association's season ended and while it's only AA there were... a couple? One? guys in there I wanted to look at... Jorge Chacon, P, Phillies: Chacon was something of a mainstay in the Phillies' rotation throughout he 60s and topped out at 224.2 innings pitched in 33 starts in 1968. He fell off a huge cliff just in time for my taking over the league in 1969, with a 3-7, 5.91 record in 26 games (11 starts). That's pretty much all she wrote for Chacon, who finished with an 89-89 record, an All-Star appearance as a 23 year old rookie in 1960 who finished with an 11-7 record, 16 saves, and a 3.19 ERA, and a career 3.76 ERA. C Ian Singleton was a part-time / semi-starter behind the plate for the Pirates between 1964 and 1969. A late bloomer who didn't really crack into the majors until he was 30, Singleton was a classic good-field, no-hit guy, throwing out 40% of attempted basestealers in his career but hitting just .205. September 27: The Braves, should they limp into the postseason, will have to do so without their #2 starter Felix Carranza (16-9, 3.92), who sprained his elbow in a 7-6 loss to the Dodgers on Saturday. He was... fine, I guess? He finishes the season with a career high in wins and complete games and overall was a good control guy with somewhat average stuff who relied a bit too much of flyball outs last year for a guy who plays half his games at the Launching Pad. September 27: (kind of hitting this a day ahead of time of the actual story but whatever) Indians CF Carlos Hernandez (.284, 3, 15), who was suspended by the team in June after allegedly brandishing a firearm in the locker room, was ordered to be reinstated by an arbitrator due to the sheer lack of evidence of the allegation. It was always 1B Ernesto Garcia's word against his and when Garcia failed to show up to the hearing, things were sealed. The Indians have been forced to pay Hernandez' back pay and they've placed him on the roster for the last couple games of the season. September 27: The FINAL AL Player of the Week is A's 3B Chase Jones (.271, 31, 83), who eclipsed the 30 HR mark for the first time in his career this past week with 2 of them in 24 at bats and also 10 hits (a .417 average) and 6 RBIs. This was his first ever PotW, which caps off a Cinderella season in which Jones set career highs in every major category. September 27: Meanwhile in the NL, the Griller, Big George Foreman (.384, 8, 37), an outfielder for the Houston Astros, won this week with a monster .583 average (14-24) and 7 RBIs. Foreman also won the award back in August so I won't reprint his card. There's a good chance he'll finish in the money for Rookie of the Year voting, too, even though the 22 year old has only played in 53 major league games this season. That's what a .384 average and a .446 on base percentage will do for you... September 27: In the only game scheduled today, a pitching duel between the Cardinals' Ernie Alvarez (16-18, 4.40) and the Mets' John Mash (9-18, 3.94) turned into a showcase for Cardinals superstar 1B Lorenzo Martinez (.269, 37, 100), who accounted for all of St. Louis' runs in a 3-1 10-inning victory. The Mets loss mathematically eliminates them from the postseason and, for the first time I've seen, gives the Cardinals a better than 50% chance of playing in October themselves (now at 63%). September 28: Cardinal Josef Mindszenty, who had taken refuge in he US Embassy in Budapest since 1956, was allowed to leave Hungary for the first time in almost 15 years. September 28: All 32 people on Cruzeiro do Sul Flight 332 were killed when the Brazilian DC-3 airliner suffered an engine failure shortly after takeoff from Sena Madureira. September 28: Dr. Amalia Fleming, a physician and widow of Alexander Fleming (the guy who discovered penicillin), was sentenced to 16 months incarceration Athens, Greece for her part in a conspiracy to help a would-be assassin attempt an escape from prison. She will serve a month of this sentence before being deported to Britain. September 28: Nate Herod (0-1, 6.60), last seen with the Yankees this year before being released in May, retired today with the end of the Eastern League (AA) season. Herod was a lefty who threw the screwball, which made him really hard to use correctly; however, he was really good as recently as last season, when he went a combined 5-2, 2.70 with 5 saves between NY and Montreal. Herod also started for several years... somehow (as of his retirement he threw only 2 pitches) and was one of the few 20 game losers in league history, "earning" that mark in 1962 with the second-year Washington Senators. He retires with a record of 90-92 and an ERA of 3.70. September 28: Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia (.271, 65, 147) had 2 hits in today's 3-1 loss to the Tigers but neither one went over the fence and so now the star slugger has just one game left to break the homerun record. He's tied it, in case you haven't read the last 5371513 updates, and 65 ding-dongs is enough for the most in AL history, but one more and it's all of the marbles. September 28: The Braves got the job done but man, they keep losing members of their rotation to do it. Julio Sandoval (13-15, 3.88) was pulled from the game in the first inning, requiring Atlanta to use up their entire bullpen in a 3-2 win over the Reds. The good news is, they did get the win at least. Stopper John Winn (10-4, 1.25) entered into the 8th inning with the bases loaded and nobody out and induced a weak fly ball and two strikeouts to deliver his team from perdition. A 1-2-3 9 later and he earned his 31st save. I doubt he'll be up there in the Cy Young voting but if any reliever deserves that award, it's him. September 28: The comeback is complete, folks! The Cardinals took down the Mets 8-2 in Shea Stadium and then the Pirates played the ultimate spoiler, eking out a win over the Phillies in 15 innings, 4-3. 1968 Olympic silver medalist James Ryun (.500, 0, 1) got a hit in his 2nd major league at-bat in the top of the inning, scoring 2B Henry Villar (.276, 3, 34), and the Pirates handed the ball to none other than their ace, Santos Arango (24-8, 2.50), who struck out the side to earn his first save since 1964 (when he was a 21 year old used primarily in relief). "It felt good, dashing their hopes and dreams," said Arango after the game. "But I think I'll leave the closer job to Paz [Lemus (11-12, 3.70), who pitched 3 scoreless innings himself in this one]." That was also the Phillies' 8th straight loss and if ever a team deserved to get bounced from the playoffs... man. I guess we should have seen it coming when they got swept by the Montreal Expos last week... September 28: With their backs against the wall, Astros' SP Tony Rivera (25-9, 3.20) did what he's done all season: he put the, um, backs that were against the wall on his own back and carried them through. Rivera scattered 9 hits in a 7-0 victory over the Dodgers, who lost consecutive games for the first time since September 9th. It was also Rivera's 4th shutout of the season, one short of his career high he set in 1968. "Not gonna lie to you all," said Rivera after the game. "We needed this. I needed this. Now all we have to do is win out." The latter is not entirely true: the Braves also need to lose their final game of the season, which will be on the 30th against the Reds at home. Their ace starter George House (23-9, 3.11), who hasn't pitched since September 22 because of a sore back, might be ready to play in that game, although obviously the Braves would rather save him for the playoffs at this point. September 29: Julio Hirschfeld Almada, Mexico's Federal Aviation Director and a millionaire industrialist, is released by kidnappers after his family posted a $240,000 ransom. September 29: Spain holds symbolic elections for the Spanish unicameral (one-party) Parliament for the final time in General Francisco Franco's regime. No, ladies and gentlemen, General Franco is not dead. September 29: With a 5-4 loss to the Angels, the Twins will be .500 or worse for the first time since 1962, when they finished 79-83 in their second season in Minnesota. Life's been good since then, with 8 consecutive 90-win seasons, 3 postseason berths, and 2 World Series titles, but the end of that Twins dynasty might be at hand. September 29: Oakland, meanwhile, breaks the 90 win mark for the first time in franchise history in their final game, a 4-3 victory over Kansas City. Nate Lancaster (11-3, 3.05) pitched into the 8th and then setup man Chris Wilson (6-0, 1.69) wrapped things up for his 4th save. Oakland's previous record was 83 wins. A little bird tells me that they were also outscored this year, 620 to 622, but I'm not going to allow that to dampen Oakland's enthusiasm. Kansas City, speaking of which, wound up having a pretty solid season themselves: they set their own franchise record with 76 wins and at 76-85 they avoided 90 losses for the first time in their young history. September 29: There were homers aplenty at Cleveland Municipal Stadium today - 6 in all - but they were pretty much all hit by Tigers and, most notably, Ernesto Garcia (.270, 65, 147) went homerless in 5 at-bats in a 10-2 loss to finish the season tied for the major league record. "It sucks," he said after the game. "A tie is like kissing your sister. And I don't like my sister like that." Garcia had plenty of chances against Tigers starter Jim Goddard (19-8, 2.59) and reliever Jim Marceau (5-3, 2.22), who pitched the final inning. In fact, in that 9th frame, he got into a bit of a jam and had to face Garcia with 2 outs and runners on first and second. Garcia took a big swing but got over the pitch, pounding it into the dirt for an easy 6-3 groundout to end it. "I'm gonna be honest with y'all," said Goddard following the game. "I asked Coach to put me in. Nobody on this team like Ernie, and nobody's better than old Jimmy at keeping balls in the park." Goddard, bravado and all, did indeed allow just 12 HRs in 226 innings pitched and it's also true that Garcia has a lifetime average of .226 against him (7-31), although it should also be noted that 3 of those 7 hits by Garcia off him are homeruns. The win, incidentally, caps off a very nice season for the Tigers, albeit one that only puts them in place as also-rans in a stacked division. Detroit set a franchise record in both wins and winning percentage this year and their 22 game improvement over last season is surely the best in all of baseball. September 29: I wouldn't exactly want to put the ball in the hands of Josh Mullett (15-14, 4.45) with the game on the line but that's what it came down to with the Astros. Did he come through? I'd say not exactly but at the same time he kind of did what you expect Josh Mullett to do - he went 6 innings, gave up 5 runs, and kept the Astros in the game. In the end, though, he didn't quite keep them in the game enough, as Houston lost this one to the Dodgers 5-4 to allow Atlanta to back in to their 2nd NL West title in 3 years. Credit where credit's due, Houston even got a rally going against Dodgers stopper Alec Cosby (6-7, 2.63), putting runners on the corners in the bottom of the 9th with just one out. However, at that point Cosby's clutch and mostly his devastating forkball took over, as he induced C Dan Rigdon (.270, 6, 52) to hit into a game-ending, season-ending (technically there's still one game left but you get the gist), and hope-ending double play. .344 The Dodgers (79-82) have been 34-20 since August 1. Had they got onto this hot streak just a month earlier, perhaps they and not the Braves would be popping open the champagne tonight. September 30: The US and USSR signed The Agreement on Measures to Reduce the Risk of a Nuclear War in Washington. Basically, it said that if either side had some kind of nuclear accident, they'd notify each other. Stuff like this really brings that whole "we are inches close from wiping out all sentient life on the planet" thing into clear view. September 30: Japan's largest chemical company, Showa Denko, paid compensation totalling $810k to representatives of 77 victims of Niigata Minamata disease, which had been caused by mercury poisoning from industrial waste by the corporation. This is kind of the Japanese Love Island. September 30: The tallest structure... in Pittsburgh is dedicated, the 65 story US Steel Tower, standing 841 feet. Actually, at the time it was the tallest building in the US not in New York or Chicago. September 30: The last day of the season! This is sort of my favoritest and also least favoritest day of the year. All the games are academic but hey, it's one final time to get in touch with players on 20 of these teams (less than that since not everyone's playing on the final day but you get the idea). September 30: It's the final day of baseball in the nation's capital and perhaps the final day forever as the Senators' move to Texas is all but a foregone conclusion. Even though the official attendance is only 9,617, the security guards at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC leave early and thousand of fans enter, swelling attendance to an estimated 25,000. They watch the Senators win 9-6 over the Yankees with 24 year old 2B Jose Hernandez (.229, 25, 86) putting a cherry on top with a 2-run blast off of New York's Jesse Kelly (8-7, 4.90). IRL the fans rushed the field in the 9th looking for souvenirs but in my dynasty we play out the games so the win stands. Which, speaking of, the Senators' record of 83-76 is, bittersweetly, their 2nd best record since they were reformed in 1961 (their expansion season they somehow managed to go 87-74). September 30: Now that the season is in the dust, it's official that Cleveland 3B Bobby Ramirez (.344, 15, 67) is the AL's leading hitter, carrying the league with 177 hits in 515 at-bats. The 23 year old also has to be the odds-on favorite to win Rookie of the Year but we'll wait until the postseason for that to be official. What's clear is that Roberto Hernandez (.252, 4, 25), who was the Tribe's starting 3rd baseman from 1968 to 1970, is the new Wally Pipp. September 30: In the National Baseball League, the batting champ is also a first-timer, although in the case of Giants CF Danny "The Phantom" Seligman (.333, 6, 44), it was a long time coming. Seligman's issue has always been that he gets hurt a lot and this year was no different - he missed almost 50 games this year with a strained PCL. That said, he was able to get in just enough plate appearances - 528 by my count - to qualify for the title and on top of that the career .282 hitter used his speed and slap-hitting ability to deliver hits all year long. He's 30 and there's a good, solid chance that this was his career year. Enjoy it, Danny! October 1: It's time for the final Player of the Month Awards for 1971! NL Rookie: It's Astros OF George Foreman (.380, 9, 39), of course. He did his level best to carry the team into the postseason with a .433/5/19 month. It wasn't enough but man, that was one hell of a good 2 months. If it weren't for Cardinals 3B Mike Galeana (.238, 30, 80) and his 30 dingers he'd be the easy, easy favorite for NL RotY. AL Rookie: 21 year old Indians P Robbie Coltrane (5-3, 3.34) will have a long career in this league if September is any judge. He finished 4-1 with a 1.86 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 38.2 innings. Cleveland's picking up a potential staff ace right when they need it, too: they fell off this year in large part because the pitching just kind of collectively up and died. NL Pitcher: Wow, didn't expect to see an Expo anywhere in here but there you have it: Montreal SP Javier Olvera (16-9, 3.27) cemented a very strong season with a great September that saw him go undefeated: 5-0 with a 1.17 ERA and 29 Ks in 38.1 innings. He even collected the game-winning hit and sole RBI in a 1-0 win against the division champion Cardinals on Septembe 19. Only 22, he now has 2 full seasons under his belt and the future looks bright. AL Pitcher: Boston had pretty much locked up the AL East but that didn't stop Justin Kindberg (27-6, 2.06) from going on an absolute rampage last month. He went 6-1 with a 1.36 ERA in 7 starts. That studly month even allowed him to tie Marius Gaddi's 1970 season for the most victories in the modern era. This for that matter was his 2nd consecutive Pitcher of the Month award and if he doesn't win the Cy I'll eat my hat. NL Hitter: Dodgers 1B Justin Stone (.293, 38, 112) led a surprising run by LA last month. They finished the month 18-9; he finished the month with a .351 average, 14 HRs, and 29 RBIs, reminding everyone why he's considered one of the pre-eminent power hitters in baseball. That was his 2nd Batter of the Month award and the 21st of his career. Only 32, he already has 432 homeruns; you've got to figure that whatever number Braves RF Henry Riggs reaches (he's at 523, although TBF he hit 5 more dingers than Stone did this season), Stone will eventually surpass it. AL Hitter: Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia (.270, 65, 147) had really put himself in a hole at the beginning of the month, needing a full 14 HRs just to tie the all-time homerun record. Well, guess what? He hit exactly 14 of them, hitting .303 and driving in 28 runners in the process, and for that he's an easy choice for Batter of the Month. This was his 2nd BotM of both 1971 and his career; he won it in June as well. In honor of his season, Garcia requested that his uniform number be changed to 65. ## Teams in Review It's September. EXPECT NONE OF THESE
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05-26-2023, 04:27 PM
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Join Date: May 2004
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Let's take a look at the matchups in the League Championship Series...es. I guess I'll save my overall predictions for the end.
Red Sox vs A's --------------------- Catcher: Red Sox guy Jeremy Dolak (.249, 6, 45) is kind of the epitome of your bog-standard catcher. I'd say "league average" but I guess he's kind of not - a 2-time All-Star and a decent if not super great fielder who has a Gold Glove on his resume. For the A's, Josh Lewis (.293, 14, 66) is the team's #3 hitter and best overall guy for average in Oakland. I *think* he's eligible for ROY (he had 96 at-bats in 23 games in an extended September call-up last year) and if so he's definitely the favorite. Doesn't have the defensive rep that Dolak does, I guess, but at this point in their careers he's probably the superior one. Advantage: A's. First base: Mike Miller (.292, 20, 92) had kind of an off year for the Bosox but he's still a 4-time All-Star at the age of 27 who won the MVP in 1968. The A's have a guy in Ray Hawkinson (.369, 7, 33) who had a monster half-season after the A's purchased him from the Twins, but there's no way I'm stacking up 51 good games against a guy like Miller. Advantage: Red Sox. Second base: The A's Israel Gaytan (.291, 6, 51) is... fine. He's not the best fielder in the world but he swung a nice stick and was one of several nice surprises on this team, which, you'll remember, is still just 2 years removed from a 112 loss season. That said, Brian Long (.283, 9, 46) was a perennial All-Star with the Angels and White Sox and he continued that with the Red Sox. The raw numbers look similar I guess but Long is, unlike Gaytan, a plus defender. Advantage: Red Sox. Third base: The Red Sox acquired Kristian Schneider (.278, 8, 58) in the offseason to shore up a position that had been a weak spot in 1970. Schneider was good when he played, although the 31 year old missed 3 weeks plus with shoulder inflammation and a strained back dropped him into a temporary platoon role in September. Oakland's third sacker Chase Jones (.268, 31, 83) was the power hitting cleanup man in a breakout season. Advantage: A's. Shortstop: Matt Evenson (.257, 5, 44) is another guy for the A's who was OK, maybe not your first choice to start for a division winner but nobody expected the A's to be where they are right now. He lacks the arm strength you need for a shortstop but was decent enough with the stick, I guess. Oniji Handa (.243, 4, 54) hit .330 in September to transform an awful 1971 into a merely mediocre one at the plate. In the field he's still the pre-eminent defender in all of baseball. Advantage: Red Sox Left Field: The Red Sox' Tom Brown (.301, 17, 89) is another guy they scavenged off the cash-strapped White Sox this past offseason and arguably had a career year with his new club, setting a career high in average and just missing the mark in RBIs (91 last year). He's been a good enough fielder to go into center when someone's injured. Adam Groves (.280, 16, 57) was picked up from the Cubs at the (unofficial) trade deadline and fit in wonderfully with his new team, so well that you have to wonder why Chicago decided he was surplus to their plans. Advantage: Red Sox, but closer than you might think. Center Field: This is a real wild card spot, as the A's current guy - David Mesa (.282, 1, 25) is solid but nothing spectacular. That said, Alex Vallejo (.301, 5, 23), who's been out with a fractured wrist since September 4, *is* something spectacular. When he stays healthy, which admittedly is a problem, he's a potential All-Star. The Red Sox have John "The Astronaut" Glynn (.268, 13, 53), who's a prototypical leadoff man. Advantage: Red Sox for sure until Vallejo's ready, maybe a push after. Right Field: The Red Sox juuuust got Jun Kim (.283, 11, 43) back from a strained hamstring that had laid him up since mid-August. Like, literally he played in the team's final game on the 29th. When healthy - and I guess he is now - he's a perennial Gold Glove with the best arm in baseball. On offense, he was having a career year before the injury. Richard Berman (.285, 2, 39) had a somewhat disappointing year after the 25 year old hit .306 between the Brewers and A's in 1970. He still managed to finish 2nd in the AL (behind Mike Miller) in doubles with 36. Advantage: Red Sox. Bench: Outside of David "Aperture Science" Mesa I don't really expect the bench for the A's to do much outside of the pinch-hitting tandem of John Skelton (.234, 4, 19) and Kyle Kelver (.241, 6, 34). Neither were particularly great this year and this playoff series may very well be Skelton's swan song as he's 42 years old and not getting any better. The Red Sox have a couple of pieces that should help them out, particularly pinch-hitter / 4th outfielder Sam Marks (.325, 4, 33) and middle infielder Dwayne Fraser (.308, 3, 25), the latter of whom was the Sox' starting 2nd baseman last year before the team brought Long in. Advantage: Red Sox. Starter 1: Justin Kindberg (27-6, 2.06) is an easy, easy choice for AL Cy Young and had, honestly, one of the best seasons a pitcher has had in modern MLB history, period. The A's plan on using Nate Lancaster (11-3, 3.05) as their "#1" based on an awesome 2nd half of the season. Lancaster is probably better than he's gotten credit for but come on, you can't stack him up against Kindberg. Advantage: Red Sox. Starter 2: The A's #2 guy is Lee "Batty" Barnard (11-13, 3.46) a bit of a control guy on a team with some big time strikeout artists. He's more of a back of the rotation type on a truly great team. Boston's #2 is Michael Pesco (20-14, 3.20), who missed most of last season (only 9 starts in 1970) but was the Red Sox' workhorse, leading the league in games started, completing 15 of them, and equalling his league-leading 254 strikeouts from '68 (he finished 2nd to the A's Roberto Ortiz this year). Advantage: Red Sox. Starter 3: Sany Hinojosa (14-11, 3.33) is no slouch even though he's the #3 guy for the Bosox. He was a 21 game winner for this team last year and overall has gone 35-22 for Boston since arriving in the December 1969 trade that also netted this team Jun Kim. At 36, he's the veteran presence on this staff. After a fair bit of dithering I decided to go with the 1971 strikeout king in Roberto Ortiz (13-17, 3.71) instead of the former Pilot Rick Shelton (15-15, 3.71). Ortiz is... Nolan Ryan: lots and lots of whiffs, lots and lots of walks (a league leading 164), and generally a guy who will beat himself rather than allow you the honors. Still just 25, if he can develop that control he'll be a monster. Advantage: Red Sox. Stopper: The A's Willis Chavezx (10-5, 2.34, 18 Sv) took over the full-time role in place of homer-prone Josh Howard (2-4, 5.00, 14 Sv). He was very effective but that 41/34 K/BB ratio makes me wonder if it's smoke and mirrors. Boston's Matt Brock (9-7, 3.79, 25 Sv) suffered through a baaaaad August (0-2, 5.74) and September (3-3, 4.86) to nevertheless lead the AL in saves. If he's back into form, bye bye 9th. As it stands... Advantage: A's by a hair. Bullpen: Boston's got two guys in Bubba Touchton (5-3, 2.67) and Kojiro Nakazawa (5-3, 3.21) who can certainly pick up the slack if Brock still has the yips, plus a guy in Marco Sanchez (16-10, 2.41) who'd be a #1 starter for most teams in the league. The A's, outside of Chavez, rely on 35 year old Chris Wilson (6-0, 1.69, 4 Sv) and the aforementioned Josh Howard. Advantage: Red Sox Overall: I'll go ahead and say Sox in 4 although if you told me they sweep, I wouldn't doubt you. Cardinals vs Braves ---------------------- Catcher: The Braves did some weirdness last year, dumping a perfectly good catcher in Shaun Dennehy (now with the Angels) and picking up the 35 year old backup Danny Coyle (.218, 10, 46) to handle the duties. He did much better than anyone expected, which is to say the position was still a bit of a minus. The Cardinals' John Stuwart( .294, 12, 59) bounced back from a very bad 1970 season (.222, 2, 15 before missing the second half with an injury) and is if nothing else the Silver Slugger at the position. Advantage: Cardinals. First base: Trading Justin Stone away to the Dodgers allowed St. Louis to move the 33 year old Lorenzo Martinez (.265, 37, 100) out from left field, where he'd increasingly become a defensive liability. Sometimes guys suffer when you switch positions but Martinez was as good as he's ever been. Dante Chairez (.267, 25, 92) is also a slugging first baseman but just is not in the perennial MVP candidate level that Martinez is. Advantage: Cardinals. Second base: Kevin Dwyer (.314, 19, 77) has been to 11 All-Star Games with the Braves and it's probably time to recognize him as the best 2nd baseman in NL history. He's still only 32 so hopefully has lots of ground left to cover. The Cardinals used Tom Depew (.311, 2, 46), who looked like a potential .400 hitter in April and May before falling way off in the summer and then resurrecting himself with a .303 August and .337 September. Advantage: Braves. Third base: Mike Galeana (.238, 30. 80) was handed the third base job in early June and just kept hitting dingers, to the extent that the Cardinals even felt emboldened enough to trade away the incumbent Mike Morrison, a 2-time All Star, away to Milwaukee. The Braves' Vicente Luna (.260, 12, 58), a .311 career hitter, hit for a career low in average in 1971 although it should be said that even with a .260 average he's solid. Advantage: Cardinals. Shortstop: Atlanta's Jon Reid (.267, 6, 63) provided solid offensive production for a shortstop but he committed 21 errors for a .960 average in 117 starts, which took some of the bloom off his plus range. St. Louis's Dusty McCully (.253, 9. 58) is more of your standard good-field, no-hit shortstop, though he had nice power for a middle infielder in his first season as a starter. Advantage: Atlanta. Left Field: Rafael Disla (.314, 9, 58) is the guy the Cards got back for Justin Stone and while he was never going to match Stone's hitting, the Cardinals aren't unhappy with what he did do. His RBIs were a career low (outside of his rookie year of 1967 when he only had 124 at-bats) in large part because the hitting of Casey Satterfield pushed him down in the lineup, and he didn't quite lead the league in hitting, but he did finish 4th. The Braves found the leadoff hitter they'd been looking for for years in Chris Ward (.296, 12, 47) who led the NL with 56 steals in 78 tries, only grounded into one double play all season, and scored 86 runs for the champs. Advantage: Push? Veteran bias makes me say Cards but I like Ward's filling of that role... Center Field: Josh Damon (.259, 18, 61) isn't anything special in the field but when a center fielder hits 18 HRs and drives in 61, you take notice. St. Louis's 1970 was shot down in large part because of horrendous defense from center field and they floundered for a big chunk of the year this year, too, before alighting on Rule V pick Jim James (.286, 9, 29 in 82 games). James took over for Elijah Johnson (.237, 4, 32), the 11-time Gold Glove Award winner for the Pirates whom the Cards hoped to eke out one more good year from, but it wasn't meant to be. Advantage: Atlanta. Right Field: Casey Satterfield (.302, 13, 70) entered the season for the Cards at a bit of a crossroads, having hit a career low .264 in 1970 and looking like a guy who didn't have the lock on the position they thought he would have when they called him up in 1969. He responded with a career high in BA and a solid 70 RBIs after moving into the 3 hole in August. The Braves of course have the all time great Henry Riggs (.299, 43, 119) in right and Riggs had an all-time great season, leading the league in HRs for the 2nd time in his career and making his 16th All-Star Game. The clock may be ticking on Riggs, who just turned 36 on September 28th, but the, um, bell isn't chiming yet. Bench: The Braves' main PH "Cranklin" Martinez (.250, 4, 15) wasn't super great but they got a really awesome second half from Jeremy "Grab Em And" Holden (.389, 1, 7). Other highlights off the bench include Jose Gomez (.247, 10, 19) who functioned as a 4th outfielder and late-inning defensive replacement for Riggs for much of the year, and 23 year old Michael Lee "Meatloaf" Aday (.000, 0, 0), who is on the postseason roster as a pinch-runner and defensive sub. The Cardinals have a guy off the bench in OF Ethan Keesee (.358, 0, 8) who looks like he deserves to find a regular home somewhere, plus Johnson, who is still useful. Advantage: Braves. Starter 1: The Cardinals really struggled with pitching this year, at least until they acquired Ricardo Gomez (13-13, 3.41) at the deadline in the deal that sent Mike Morrison to Milwaukee. Gomez went 7-3, 2.39 down the stretch for this team and became the unlikely ace they needed. Atlanta's got George House (23-9, 3.11) back from a sore back just in time for the playoffs. He went from 1969 Cy Young to missing all of 1970 (with an injury suffered the last day of '69) to potential Cy Young in '71, so this was pretty big for Atlanta. Advantage: Braves. Starter 2: With Felix Carranza (16-9, 3.92) out for the playoffs and Jake Cari (11-12, 3.56) still nursing a sore elbow with an uncertain return date, the Braves turn to Trevon Dean (8-7, 4.48), a former 20-game winner himself who's been pretty, pretty bad the last 2 seasons. He wasn't exactly amazing down the stretch, either, with a 1-0, 4.60 mark in September in 2 starts and one long relief outing (he wasn't hurt, he'd just been relegated to the back of the bullpen). The Cardinals' Vince Bachler (14-15, 3.44) is kind of the epitome of a mid-rotation starter but that's still a fair bit better than what Atlanta's tossing out there. Advantage: St. Louis. Starter 3: Jimmy McCauley (12-12, 3.91) saw his hit rate soar this year although he still struck out as many guys as he had in the past. He's also kind of a bog-standard middle to back of the rotation guy. Atlanta is going with 27 year old knuckleballer Colin Rose (2-1, 4.94), who looked decent on the final day of the season and that's going to have to do. Advantage: St. Louis. Stopper: Billy Munoz (10-6, 2.69, 24 Sv) is a very good stopper and in practically any other matchup in the league I'd give him the advantage. John Winn (10-4, 1.32, 32 Sv) had the kind of shutdown season that gets you Cy Young votes even when you only threw 102 innings all season long. Advantage: Braves. Bullpen: Atlanta will really need Winn to carry them once their starters are done, as the rest of the bullpen is iffy. Mikhail Baryshnikov (2-0, 3.00, 1 Sv) looked OK in September but he's a 22 year old kid and not ready for the limelight. Steve Hollopeter (4-6, 5.26, 3 Sv) was awesome with the Mets last year (3-3, 2.55) but just plain couldn't contend with the Launching Pad, allowing 22 HRs in 78.2 innings. Again, like the rotation, the Cardinals' bullpen isn't amazing but it's at least not in tatters. Doug Ellis (1-0, 2.19) looked good in September after missing most of the last 2 seasons with injuries. Rick Legere (7-4, 2.55, 8 Sv) served as Munoz' caddy all season long and could probably close for most teams. Advantage: St. Louis Overall: This series will probably go further but I think St. Louis' superior - by which I mean, not moribund - pitching staff will eventually emerge in this one.
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05-26-2023, 05:19 PM
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#150 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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NLCS - Game 1
NLCS Game 1
--------------------- Ricardo Gomez takes the mound against George House this afternoon (the NLCS kicks off with a Saturday afternoon matchup). This is incidentally House's first crack at the postseason: he led the Braves to October in 1969 but got hurt at the end of that season and missed the playoffs (also, almost all of 1970). It's partly cloudy and 70 degrees at Fulton County Stadium, with a wind blowing in from left at 9 mph. Top 1st: George House gets things started off well, striking out Jim James with a curveball. Tom Depew also Ks on another slow, slow House curve. Casey Satterfield is the first Cardinal to put the ball in play; he flies out to CF Josh Damon to retire the side. 0-0. Bottom 1st: LF Chris Ward works a walk out of Gomez. On a 3-0 count, Vicente Luna gives Gomez a pitcher's best friend, a 6-4-3 double play. Kevin Dwyer strikes out on a 2-2 splitter. 0-0. Top 2nd: 1B Lorenzo Martinez gets the first hit for either side, a blooper into center that falls in. Catcher Danny Coyle loses the first pitch House throws to Rafael Disla in the dirt. It's a wild pitch and Martinez moves up to 2nd. House recovers to strike out Disla. He then K's Mike Galeana - 4 strikeouts already! Maybe that's a good thing because man, he's getting nickel and dimed to death; John Stuart beats out a chopper back to the mound for a 2 out infield hit. Dusty McCully pops out into foul territory where 1B Dante Chairez clutches it for the out. 0-0. Bottom 2nd: Henry Riggs grounds out 6-3. Dante Chairez hits a single up the middle of his own, the Braves' first hit. LF Rafael Disla catches the easy fly off the bat of Josh Damon for out number 2. SS Dusty McCully makes a bang-bang play on a slow roller from John Reid to retire the side, 6-3. 0-0. Top 3rd: Ricardo Gomez becomes George House's 5th victim. House incidentally struck out 195 batters in 277.2 innings in the regular season. That's above average but not like this. Jim James gets a hold of a 1-0 pitch and rips it into right-center for a double. Tom Depew flies to left. House walks Casey Satterfield on 4 pitches. He then gets Lorenzo Martinez on yet another sloooow curve to end the small rally. 0-0. Bottom 3rd: C Danny Coyle of all people puts the first run on the board, hitting a solo HR to left-center. Coyle had 10 HRs all year, 6 in Atlanta, so it's not, like, completely unexpected I guess. George House lines a single into left. Chris Ward grounds out weakly to second, so weakly in fact that 2B Tom Depew has no choice but to get the sure out at first. House gets into scoring position with 1 out. Luna hits one the other way that looked like it had a chance for a second but drops safely into RF Casey Satterfield's hands. Dwyer walks on 4 pitches to bring up Henry Riggs, a man you do not want to have up with 2 men on base. Gomez also walks Riggs to load the bases and bring up Dante Chairez. Fortunately for Gomez, Chairez bails him out a little, swinging at the first pitch and grounding out 4-3 to end the inning. Braves 1, Cardinals 0. Top 4th: Disla flies out to right. Mike Galeana dribbles one back to the mound that George House handles easily for the 1-3 groundout. Stuart goes down 4-3. 1-0, Braves. Bottom 4th: Damon grounds out to 3rd. Reid tries to go with the pitch on a cutter but only flies harmlessly to right. Danny Coyle hits what looks like an out to center that Jim James misplays into a double. Another 2 out rally for Atlanta! Well, except that the pitcher is up next. He flies to short right to retire the side. 1-0, Braves. Top 5th: Dusty McCully slaps one back through the box for a leadoff single. Ricardo Gomez tries to lay down a sacrifice bunt but he puts into into the air and 1B Dante Chairez races in to catch it for out number 1. Jimmy James hits a dribbler back to House and this time House is able to turn around and get the lead runner on a 1-4 fielder's choice. Tom Depew flies to left. 1-0, Braves. Bottom 5th: Ward grounds out 4-3. Luna flies to left. I was about to say that Gomez looks like he's getting into a groove but on the first pitch Kevin Dwyer socks one past Mike Galeana and down the left field line for a two out double. Henry Riggs finds one to thit this time and goes with it, taking the outside pitch into left field. Dwyer scores from second and it's a 2-0 game! Chairez grounds out to 3rd, which officially goes 5-4 as Galeana doesn't go... the looooooooooong way. 2-0 Braves. Top 6th: House strikes out Casey Satterfield, his 7th K of the game. The last time he had 10 or more Ks in a game was May 15, 1969. A 1-2 cutter that fools Lorenzo Martinez makes it 8 strikeouts. Disla foils House's attempt to strike out the side by swinging at a changeup that was low and outside and turning it into an easy fly to RF Henry Riggs. 2-0 Braves. Bottom 6th: Damon flies to right. Jon Reid hits a Texas Leaguer to left for a 1-out single. Danny Coyle pops one to left that Rafael Disla - not exactly a man known for his range - races for and catches in foul territory. House flies to right to end it. 2-0 Braves. Top 7th: Mike Galeana makes it one run closer by belting one to left-center - the same place, more or less, that Danny Coyle put his - for the HR. It's 2-1, Braves on top. Stuart flies to right. Dusty McCully grounds out to short. Ricardo Gomez is not ready to be taken out just yet - only 87 pitches so far - and he even goes against the pitcher grain with a single to left. Jim James goes the other way with a long fly to left to retire the side. 2-1, Braves. Bottom 7th: Gomez has still managed just the one strikeout tonight. He does get Chris Ward to hit an easy fly ball into center on an 0-2 splitter. Luna grounds to short. Kevin Dwyer deposits a 2-2 pitch into right field for a 2-out base hit. Riggs comes up once more with runners on and once more comes through... well, sort of. He doubles to left-center, with Atlanta's 3rd base coach putting the "hold" signal on Dwyer. This allows Dante Chairez to be the new hero - he slaps a single into right that scores both men and which chases Ricardgo Gonez from the game. The new pitcher, Doug Ellis, completes his warmup and gets Josh Damon to hit a soft liner to short to retire the side. 4-1, Braves. Top 8th: George House has himself only thrown 89 pitches and isn't looking tired in the least. With a 3-run lead, the Braves have a cushion to let him get into some trouble before they pull him. Of course, that assumes trouble happens. Tom Depew grounds out to first. Satterfield flies to center. Lorenzo Martinez fans for the 3rd time today as the Cards go down 1-2-3. One more chance! 4-1, Braves. Bottom 8th: Doug Ellis continues to go for the Cardinals. The Braves bring in Jeremy Holden to pinch-hit for Jon Reid, secure in the knowledge that ace fielder Ryan Dietrich is available off the bench. He grounds back to first. Danny Coyle stays in, singles to left, and now is a triple away from the cycle! Granted, a Danny Coyle triple is just about the most unlikely event in baseball, but hey, he did have one in the regular season... on August 8 vs the Mets. Unfortunately I can't look up box scores or game logs during another game so I don't have any more info than this. House, now up to 102 pitches, stays in to hit, and by "hit" I mean "lay down a bunt", which works to perfection, as the 1-3 putout moves Coyle along to 2nd. I have Andres Gamez available to take over if I wanted to pinch-run for Coyle but as Coyle is definitely the better fielder, I'll leave him out there. Doug Ellis comes out in favor of lefty specialist Kevin Kading (2-1, 5.00), who's 40/20 K/BB ratio indicates he's better than the raw numbers make him look. He throws a wild pitch on his 2nd pitch of the game, moving Coyle to 3rd. Ward then cracks a double into right-center so in fairness to catcher John Stuart Coyle would have scored even if he'd manage to get a hold of that ball. Kading stays in and induces the right-handed Vicente Luna to ground out to 2nd to retire the side. 5-1, Braves. Top 9th: As expected, SS Ryan Dietrich (.178, 0, 8) comes in to play short. I also pull Jose Gomez (.247, 10, 19) to take over for Henry Riggs in right field. And as George House is the man who brought us here, he stays in, although John Winn is throwing in the pen (note: I don't use the warmup rule so that is what we call "flavor text"). Disla belts the first pitch he sees over the fence in left-center to cut the lead to 5-2. Galeana pounds a 2-1 curve into the ground for the first out of the inning, 4-3. Stuart singles up the middle. Ethan Keesee comes on in to pinch hit for the shortstop Dusty McCully. House fans him - his 10th K of the game! - for the 2nd out. That brings up Elijah Johnson, the veteran outfielder. He proves that he still has at least one hit left in his bat as he singles into right, Stuart advancing to 2nd. Jim James hits a pretty hard smash but it's right at 1B Dante Chairez for the final out. The Braves take #1, 5-1! All in all I guess it's not super surprising that House would win. I still think the Cards emerge here but if House can pitch like this in Games 1 and 4, all it takes is one other guy getting the job done...
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05-26-2023, 06:28 PM
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#151 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
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ALCS - Game 1
The first game of the ALCS features Nate Lancaster vs Justin Kindberg. I'd never in a million years predict Kindberg to lose this one but then, the A's have been defying the odds all season long. Boston hosts and we've got a beautiful Sunday in October: 65 degrees and the wind blowing in from right at 12mph. Top 1st: David Mesa, still in there pending the return of Alex Vallejo, cracks one into the right-center gap for a leadoff double. Israel Gaytan follows with a liner to right that just falls in front of Jun Kim. He gets it in quickly enough that even the speedy Mesa won't run on it. It's an early jam for Kindberg, runners on the corners with nobody out. Josh Lewis flies to center, not quite deep enough to score Mesa. Chase Jones hits a grounder to short and Oniji Handa has to trade the run for the out with a 6-4 fielder's choice. The A's draw first blood! Adam Groves hits a flare into center that CF John Glynn has to dive for, but he does come up with it. 1-0, A's. Bottom 1st: John Glynn, his jersey still dirty from the previous play, flies out to center field. Brian Long grounds out to short. Mike Miller flies to left to retire the side. 1-2-3 in the first. 1-0, A's. Top 2nd: Ray Hawkinson swings and misses at a 2-2 curveball for Justin Kindberg's first strikeout. Richard Berman flies to center. Matt Evenson works the count and draws a 7 pitch, 2 out walk. It's for naught, though, as Nate Lancaster grounds back to the pitcher. 1-0, A's. Bottom 2nd: Tom Brown hits a Baltimore Chop that gets past the pitcher and, by the time 2B Israel Gaytan is able to come up with it, can result in nothing but a base hit. Kristian Schneider raps one down the right field line that just barely stays in fair territory. It goes for extra bases! Tom Brown scores from first base to tie the game at 1 apiece. Jun Kim ends a 7 pitch at-bat with a groundout to 2nd. Nate Lancaster plunks Handa to put runners on the corners. I'm sure it wasn't intentional! Jeremy Dolak flies to left but it's just a little to deep to drop in for a single and not deep enough to score Schneider from 3rd. Nate Lancaster drops a 2-0 pitch to Justin Kindberg in the dirt, which gets by C Jeremy Dolak and all the way to the backstop. The wild pitch puts the Sox up 2-1, and moves Handa into scoring position. That's where he'll stay, though, as Kindberg flies softly into right. 2-1, Red Sox. Top 3rd: Mesa flies out to center field. Gaytan hits a hot shot to 1B Mike Miller that he scoops up and takes to first himself for the U3 putout. Josh Lewis' at-bat ends much the same way, with another U3. 2-1, Red Sox. Bottom 3rd: John Glynn grounds out to Matt Evenson at shortstop. Brian Long belts one past 3B Chase Jones and down the left field line for a one-out double. I'd mentioned a couple other guys' doubles in the preview; well, Long led the league in the category last year and hit 30 of them in 1971 (good for 8th). Mike Miller creates a somewhat productive out, grounding out 6-3 but pushing Long to 3rd. It's a little moot, though, as Tom Brown belts one over the Green Monster to give the Sox a 4-1 lead. Schneider grounds out 6-3 but the damage has been done. 4-1, Red Sox. Top 4th: Chase Jones belts a ball into left that hits the Green Monster. He's in at second before LF Tom Brown can chase it down. Groves flies to left. Hawkinson also tattoos the Monster; the double he hits scores Jones and brings the score to 4-2. Berman grounds out 6-3. Matt Evenson becomes Kindberg's 2nd K victim of this game to end the rally. 4-2, Red Sox. Bottom 4th: Kim grounds out 5-3. Handa hits an 0-2 pitch deep to center but David Mesa chases it down for out number 2. Dolak hits one towards the hole at short but Evenson nabs it and throws to first for the final out. 4-2, Red Sox. Top 5th: Lancaster hasn't been fantastic but he's kept the team in the game, somewhat, and he's only thrown 54 pitches so I'm going to keep him in. He strikes out. Mesa grounds to 2nd. Gaytan scorches a 2-2 splitter down the line in left for a 2 out double. Josh Lewis hits one to short that might have had a chance if anyone other than Oniji Handa was sitting at that position. It's a 6-3 groundout to retire the side. 4-2, Red Sox. Bottom 5th: Lancaster strikes out Justin Kindberg, his first K of the game. He hasn't walked anybody but, well, the lack of any punchouts is a concern. Matt Evenson bobbles a ball hit right at him for his 1st error of the postseason and 18th overall. Jon Glynn is on at 1st with 1 out. Make that second, as the Astronaut steals second on Josh Lewis. Glynn had 37 thefts in the regular season, good for 3rd in the AL. He's not done yet! Glynn slides into 3rd for another steal. From here, all it takes is Brian Long hitting a high fly to center field that brings Glynn home well ahead of the throw. 5-2! Mike Miller rips one to center that looks like sure double but Dave Mesa leaps in and robs him of it for out number 3. Red Sox 5, A's 2. Top 6th: Jones flies to left. Adam Groves pops out to Mike Miller at first base. Ray Hawkinson slaps a two-out base hit just past Miller into right. Berman hits one that again looks like it has a chance but again is hit in the general vicinity of Oniji Handa, which means it does not. 6-3 and the side is retired. 5-2, Red Sox. Bottom 6th: Lancaster gives up a line drive base hit by Tom Brown into left field. Brown is 3 for 3 today with a HR, 2 runs, and 2 RBIs. Also, that's going to be it for Lancaster, who went 5+, allowing 4 ER on 5 hits, walking nobody and striking out 1 man. Carlos Torres (3-1, 4.58), who had 12 relief appearances and 1 start in the regular season, takes the mound to try and take care of the lefty hitters Kristian Schneider and Jun Kim. He goes one better with the first guy, inducing a 4-6-3 double play out of Schneider. Kim strike out to retire the side. 5-2, Red Sox. Top 7th: Evenson leads it off with a fly to center. In for the pitcher is RH pinch-hitter Raul Bueno (.278, 3, 21), who played in 67 games for the A's this year. He's a guy who loves to put the ball in play, with only 9 Ks and 4 walks in 100 PAs. He also has surprising power, which he puts to good use here as he rips a 1-2 pitch over the Green Monster to cut the lead to 5-3. Kindberg walks Mesa and even with him only 97 pitches in, the end might be near. Gaytan flies to right. Lewis hits one up the middle for a 2 out base hit, moving Mesa to 3rd. Runners on the corners for Chase Jones, 2 outs - a classic clutch situation. Unfortunately, Jones hits into the black hole that is shortstop to retire the side, 6-3. 5-3, Red Sox. Bottom 7th: Setup man Chris Wilson takes the mound for the A's. He combines nice control with a positively evil circle change to get outs. Handa flies to center. Dolak laces a one-out single to left. Justin Kindberg is going to come out in favor of pinch-hitter Matt Wilson (.353, 2, 11). He threw 7 strong innings with 2 walks, 3 Ks, 8 hits, and 3 earned runs. It's not the kind of electric outing he's had the past 2 months but so far it's been good enough. Matt Wilson hits into a double play, 6-4-3, to end the inning. 5-3, Red Sox. Top 8th: It's clearly time for stopper Matt Brock to take the mound. As noted in the preview, Brock's been struggling as of late but when he's one, he's got a fastball-slider combo that's very, very hard to track. Adam Groves hits a soft fly into right for the first out. Hawkinson lines one into right for a base hit. Berman walks and puts the tying run on base. Oh boy. This is the bad Matt Brock. Gil Wilson (.271, 2, 15), a shortstop who's a better hitter than Evenson but sticks on the bench because of Evenson's superior glove, comes in to pinch-hit and hits into a 4-6 fielder's choice for the 2nd out. That brings up pinch-hitter John Skelton coming in for Chris Wilson. The veteran takes Brock on a 6-pitch ride but eventually strikes out on a called fastball that quite frankly might have been a little outside for strike 3. 5-3, Red Sox. Bottom 8th: Willis Chavez enters the game for the A's. He's a kitchen-sink lefty who somehow had pretty huge reverse splits this season. Probably good news, at least for tonight, since he'll be facing 2 right-handed batters before he sees his first left. Jon Glynn strikes out to lead it off. Brian Long swings at the first pitch and hits a liner towards 3rd that 3B Chase Jones dives for and grabs in the air for out #2. Mike Miller singles up the middle - reverse splits! Tom Brown hits one to third that Chase Jones is just barely able to make a play on for out #3. 5-3, Red Sox. Top 9th: It's hang-on time in Fenway! The 1-2-3 batters are up for Oakland. David Mesa gets things rolling right away with a 3-2 double into left field. What looks like a sure single and probably a 5-4 game is turned into a diving catch by RF Jun Kim and the first out of the inning. Josh Lewis hits one straight up, almost, that's eventually caught by 2B Brian Long for out #2. It's not over yet, though! Chase Jones slaps one into right for his 2nd hit of the night. The go-ahead run comes to the plate in the form of Adam Groves. Groves belts a double into left, which scores Jones all the way from first. It's a tie game! Hawkinson hits one that looks like it has a chance for a second but hangs up and is caught by CF Jon Glynn to retire the side and send this one into the bottom of the 9th. 5-5. Bottom 9th: Schneider hits one hard into left that Adam Groves catches at the base of the wall. Kim grounds out 3-1. Handa lines one into left field for a 2 out base hit. Dolak stays in and hits a hot liner that's unfortunately right at Chase Jones at third base. We're headed to extra innings! 5-5. Top 10th: I'll leave Brock in as he's due up first next inning. Man, he's not been great lately though. Richard Berman has a hit taken away from him by 2B Brian Long. Score it L4. Gil Wilson also hits an atom ball, this time right at 3B Kristian Schneider. Out number 2. Chavez is due up and... with the bases empty, I'll let him reset the lineup. Brock duly strikes him out to retire the side. 5-5. Bottom 10th: I, um, might have accidentally just left Brock in. Hey, it's his game to win! That's it! He flies to center. Glynn also flies out to David Mesa in center field. Brian Long lines one just past Gil Wilson at shortstop and into left field for a base hit. Mike Miller delivers in the clutch... to an extend, hitting a single into right that moves Long all the way over to third base. Can Tom Brown deliver a game-winning hit? The answer is no, no he can't; he grounds out to Gil Wilson to retire the side. 5-5. Top 11th: Welp, Brock's in for his 4th inning. He's been fine, right? I mean, outside of blowing the save in the 9th. David Mesa grounds to 2nd. Israel Gaytan belts one into right that just barely clears the short RF porch. The A's lead, 6-5! Also that's finally it for Brock. Bubba Touchton, who served as part of a closer by committee situation with California in 1970, arrives to relieve Brock. Lewis grounds out to short. Chase Jones Ks. The damage, however, it has been done. 6-5, A's. Bottom 11th: Chavez insists he's still OK to pitch and who am I to judge? It doesn't hurt that he's facing 2 lefties - reverse splits or no, lefty on lefty action is the best. Schneider grounds to 2nd. Kim singles up the middle, bringing up Oniji Handa. Handa also singles, getting Kim on over to 3rd, and I think it's time to pull Chavez. The 'pen is starting to run dry, so 4th starter Rick Shelton comes in. Shelton had some turrrrrible control this year - 144 walks in 259.1 IP - that unfortunately impacted an otherwise decent season. How will he fare in relief? Sam Marks (.325, 4, 33), who surprisingly only hit .267 as a pinch-hitter this year, is in for the catcher Dolak. He hits an absolute smash towards first... that Ray Hawkinson picks up and turns into a game-ending 3-6-3 double play. FINAL SCORE: 6-5, A's. Wow, what a game! Maybe Oakland has a chance after all?
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05-26-2023, 11:54 PM
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#152 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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NLCS Game 2
Aaand we're on to Game 2 of the NLCS. Game 1 did go as expected but I'm realizing more and more that the Cardinals' edge in non-ace pitching is rather tenuous: if Trevon Dean keeps his guys in the game juuust enough in one of his outings, boom, Atlanta's in the World Series. Anyway, today features Dean against Vince Bachler. Both of these guys, by the way, were baaad vs their opponents this year: Bachler was 0-3, 6.75 whereas Dean started 2 games, pitched one in relief, and had an overall record of 0-1 with a 10.47 ERA thanks to giving up 8 runs in 2.2 innings in one of those starts (he actually earned a quality start in the other - a 3 runs in 6 innings QS but a QS nonetheless). Top 1st: Dean strikes out Jim James to lead things off. SS Jon Reid just barely nips Tom Depew for the 6-3 putout. Satterfield walks on 5 pitches. Lorenzo Martinez also walks, which is, um, good news and bad news: Martinez is no longer at the plate but now Dean has to face Rafael Disla, a lifetime .417 hitter (20-48) against him. Aaaand he gives up a wild pitch. Runners on 2nd and 3rd now, 2 outs. Disla grounds out weakly to Dante Chairez over at first base, so its a whole lot of smoke and no biscuits. 0-0. Bottom 1st: Ward hits a liner right at 1B Lorenzo Martinez for out #1. Vicente Luna picks up his first hit of the series off a forkball that he pushes into right. Dwyer grounds to SS Dusty McCully, who goes the short way to 2nd to make it 2 down. Riggs flies to right. 0-0. Top 2nd: Mike Galeana leads things off with a base hit up the middle. That brings up John Stuart, who fouls out to Henry Riggs in right field. Dusty McCully decides to make Riggs work a little - well, only a little - as he hits a soft fly into right field too. Vince Bachler has a 9 pitch battle with Trevon Dean that ends in a called 3rd strike. 0-0. Bottom 2nd: Chairez gets a leadoff single back through the box. Josh Damon slaps one at Mike Galeana at third, who goes to first for the easy out. It does move Chairez up into scoring position with 1 out. Jon Reid, who hit .432 against the Cards this year, grounds out weakly to shortstop. Danny Coyle flies to right to retire the side. 0-0. Top 3rd: Jimmy James drives the ball deep into the left-center gap and use his plus speed to motor all the way into 3rd base for a leadoff triple! Two pitches later, Depew hits a line drive up the middle for an easy base hit and RBI. Welp. We kind of knew Dean wasn't going to shut anyone out. Satterfield hits a hard grounder but right at Casey Satterfield. SS Jon Reid initiates a 6-4-3 double play. This proves to be... fortuitous, as Lorenzo Martinez goes yard for his first time in this series. It's only a solo HR at least. Disla slaps one into right and now Dean's kind of getting hit up a bit. Even the out was a hard hit ball. The pain for Atlanta continues as Mike Galeana belts one into the right-center gap for a triple. Martinez is held to third base... for now. Dean can still get out of this with an out. He gets it, as John Stuart bounces one to SS Jon Reid. 2-0, Cards. Bottom 3rd: Dean leads off. I briefly consider replacing him but this is the 70s, not the 2020s, so I don't. He grounds out to second. Ward also bounces out to second baseman Tom Depew. That brings up Vicente Luna, who makes it 3 weak groundouts with a 6-3 putout. 2-0, Cards. Top 4th: Dusty McCully hits a ground towards first base that Dante Chairez is able to scoop up and take to the bag himself for out #1. Bachler hits the ball all the way out to CF Josh Damon, who squeezes it for the out. Jim James hits a hot grounder behind the bag. Chairez gets to it and races to the bag in time for the final out of the inning. 2-0, Cards. Bottom 4th: Dwyer puts a decent enough charge into a 3-1 pitch but RF Casey Satterfield is there, just short of the warning track, to make the catch. Riggs hits a somewhat hottish ground ball to first, where Lorenzo Martinez turns it into a 3U groundout. Chairez Ks, Bachler's first of the game, to end it. 2-0, Cards. Top 5th: Depew pounds one back through the box, the 7th hit Trevon Dean's allowed in 4+ innings. That bad control that haunted him in the first but then seemed to be accounted for comes back, as he muisses on a 3-2 curve to Casey Satterfield to put runners on 1st and second with feared slugger Lorenzo Martinez at the plate. Martinez finished 4th in the NL in HRs (37) and 5th in RBI (100). He takes a big, nasty cut on a 2-2 changeup but makes no contact. That's the first out. Disla flies to short left field. Will Dean get out of this jam too? The answer is yes, as Mike Galeana hits a weak fly to right while proecting the plate on a 1-2 count. 2-0, Cards. Bottom 5th: Damon grounds out 5-3. He's yet to get a hit in the series. Jon Reid flies weakly into left. Danny Coyle walks on 4 pitches. I'm once more tempted to pull Dean, who's now at 88 pitches, but he's pitched kind of well, well enough to see the 7th I think (see: words that will come back to haunt me). He grounds out 3-1 to retire the side. 2-0, Cards. Top 6th: Yep, I just kneeeew it. John Stuart gets a hold of a 1-0 cutter and launches it over the fence to make it a 3-0 game. Dusty McCully whiffs following a 6-pitch at bat: that pitch is also a cut fastball. At least he's not abandoning that pitch, I guess. Vince Bachler's throwing a shutout so of course he stays in. He flies pitcherly to center. Jim James flies out slightly less weakly to the same man, CF Josh Damon. 3-0, Cards. Bottom 6th: Chris Ward mashes one towards the third base line. Mike Galeana picks it up, recovers, and makes an on-target throw for an excellent play at first and a 5-3 putout. Luna grounds to first, although Galeana doesn't have to work nearly as hard for this one. Dwyer hits one into center that looks like out number 3... except that CF Jim James misplays it into a double! That brings up Henry Riggs, a man who loves to feast when there are runners on base and the game is on the line. Bachler goes to his windup, stops, and then winds up again. Or something. It's a balk in any case with Dwyer moving to 3rd. Riggs swings through a fastball in the lower part of the zone for out #3. 3-0, Cards. Top 7th: Depew hits a flare to center but gets under it just enough to allow CF Josh Damon to make a play on it for out #1. Casey Satterfield Ks, which is Trevon Dean's 5th. Credit where credit is due: he's getting Ks. Lorenzo Martinez hits a soft ground right back to Dean which may as well be a K. It goes down as a 1-3 groundout. 3-0, Cards. Bottom 7th: Dante Chairez leads off with a single into left field. Josh Damon, a lifetime .200 hitter against Vince Bachler, hits one decently into center that Jim James does manage to track down for the first out. SS Jon Reid gets a grounder that he tosses to second but Chairez is in there quickly enough to break up any chance at the double play. Danny Coyle flies out to right anyway. 3-0, Cards. Top 8th: Dean's up to 113 pitches and has only been OK today. With LHB Rafael Dislap up, it's time to go with Roger Evans (3-1, 2.65), the Braves' lefty specialist who got into 49 regular season games this year. Disla's his target and he gets him to fly to center field. I'll leave him in though just because. Mike Galeana hits a 1-2 change to Vicente Luna who drops the ball for an error. Luna's not regarded as a great 3rd baseman but he's normally pretty sure-handed, with only 10 errors all season long. That brings up John Stuart, who coaxes a walk on 5 pitches. That brings up Ethan Keesee to pinch-hit for Dusty McCully. Yes, he's a lefty, but he's also a good hitter, ok? Evans throws a wild pitch. That's the third wild pitch in this game, right? He does get Keesee to swing and miss at a 3-2 sinker for 2 outs. Bachler's got the shutout going so he's not going anywhere. He hits a groundout to 2nd that Kevin Dwyer picks cleanly and throws to first for out #3. 3-0, Cardinals. Bottom 8th: Joe Wicker (.212, 0, 3), who was McCully's caddy in the second half of the season, takes over at shortstop. Pinch-hitting for Roger Evans is Cranklin Martinez. He drops one just past the outstretched glove of the new SS Wicker for a leadoff base hit. Ward lines one into right for a base hit and Cranklin gets into 3rd just ahead of the Casey Satterfield throw. The tying run, she is at the plate! Jim James makes a diving catch of a dying quail by Vicente Luna. It's an out but Martinez manages to score on the play. Dwyer flies to left for two out. Riggs also tests the LF Rafael Disla, who secures it for out #3. Cards 3, Braves 1. Top 9th: John Winn, who had an overwhelming 1971, comes in to keep it close. James hits one towards the hole at second base but not towards the hole enough as Dwyer throws him out, 4-3. Depew hits one near the same location; this time it's Dante Chairez who grabs it and Winn races to the bag in time to get out #2. Satterfield strikes out, as Winn is contractually required to do once per inning. 3-1, Cardinals. Bottom 9th: Can they do it? Vince Bachler looks like he's out of gas so the Cards will turn to their own ace stopper Billy Munoz. Dante Chairez leads off the inning with a single into center field. Damon follows with a walk on a 3-2 pitch to put the tying run on base. They're gonna let SS Jon Reid hit. He hits what looks like a possible double play ball to short but Josh Damon crashes into 2B Tom Depew to break it up. Danny Coyle comes out in favor of Jeremy Holden, who's really taken a shine to the pinch-hitting role. This time around he flies out harmelessly into center field and the Braves are down to their final out. Pinch hitting for the pitcher will be... backup catcher Andres Gamez (.318, 5, 32), who's had a great year at the plate. And of course there's a *fourth* wild pitch. Chairez scores so it's 3-2 now with the tying run at second. That's where he stays though, as Gamez flies to left to end it and tie everything up at 1 game apiece.
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05-27-2023, 11:32 PM
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#153 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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Good news for the A's going into this one, as oft-injured CF Alex Vallejo (.301, 5, 23) is ready to go. Although a downgrade defensively from the Gold Glove level David Mesa (.282, 1, 25), Vallejo is several times the hitter. Game 2 sees "Batty" Barnard up against Michael Pesco as Boston tries to even up the series and keep themselves from getting too far down. It's another clear, beautiful October afternoon, with the wind once again blowing in from right field (which didn't seem to stop the dingers all that much the first time out). Top 1st: Vallejo, taking his first at bat in exactly one month, grounds out to SS Oniji Handa. Pesco strikes out Israel Gaytan on 3 pitches. Josh Lewis grounds to third to end an easy 1-2-3 inning. 0-0. Bottom 1st: The Astronaut grounds out 5-3. Brian Long hits one into left field for a base hit, the first one of the night. Mike Miller hits one into right that makes Richard Berman have to run a little for it but he's got it for out number 2. Tom Brown hits one deep into the right-center corner, where it caroms off the wall in a weird way and, by the time CF Alex Vallejo can chase it down and throw it into the infield, Brown is in at third base with a standup triple! 1-0, Sox! Kristian Schneider comes through in the clutch, easily scoring Brown with a single to right. 2-0. Kim hits one into right center that looks for a very brief moment like another base hit but Vallejo manages to track it down for #3. 2-0, Red Sox. Top 2nd: Chase Jones strikes out looking on a 1-2 curveball. Adam Groves, who is not a man averse to the base on balls, walks on four pitches. That's followed by a base hit up the middle by Ray Hawkinson and the tying run is on base just one out. Richard Berman gets a hold of the first pitch he sees - a curveball that gets just a little too much of the plate, and loops it into right field for another base hit, scoring Groves from 2nd, although Hawkinson can only advance 90 feet on the play. It's a 2-1 game. Matt Evenson walks and that loads the bases. Lee Barnard, a decent hitter for a pitcher, slaps one back through the box for a base hit that scores 2 and now all of the sudden it's the A's who have the lead, 3-2! Vallejo flies to left. Gaytan hits it to moderately deep CF to retire the side. 3-2, A's. Bottom 2nd: Handa skies it to CF Alex Vallejo for out #1. Jeremy Dolak also hits it towards center but Vallejo's able to track it down easily for the 2nd out. Mike Pesco, who is *not* a good hitter, pitcher or otherwise, flies weakly once more to Vallejo in center. 3-2, A's. Top 3rd: Can Michael Pesco settle down? That's the big question going into the 3rd. Early results say... maybe not, as Josh Lewis works a 7 pitch at-bat into Pesco's 3rd walk of the game already. Make that 4, as Chase Jones also walks as Pesco's 3-2 cutter misses very low. Pesco catches Adam Groves trying to make this a 6-2 game by making him swing through a cutter for the first out of the inning. Pesco's a strikeout guy but he also gets a pretty high groundball rate and had 23 GIDPs to his name this year. Hawkinson hits a grounder to first that juuuuust misses becoming a 3-6-3 DP, but Jones is at least out at 2nd on the 3-6 forceout for 2 down. Berman grounds out to 3rd to retire the side. 3-2, A's, in spite of getting a guy into scoring position with less than 2 out. Bottom 3rd: Glynn grounds out to Matt Evanson at shortstop. Brian Long picks up his 2nd hit of the night, also a single up the middle. That brings up Boston's king of the order, Mike Miller, although truth be told, Batty Barnard gives him fits (he's lifetime 5-30). Make that 6-31! Or don't if you don't want to count the postseason. Anyway, Miller belts a double off the Monster and advances to third as the throw from LF Adam Groves comes in too late to do any good. It's a new ballgame! Well, worse for the A's than a new ballgame, given that Miller seems almost a surety to score. Tom Brown comes through on a 2-1 pitch, hitting a blooper in between SS Matt Evenson and LF Adam Groves. 4-3, Red Sox. Tom Brown tries to turn the heat up by stealing 2nd and is thrown out by C Josh Lewis for his troubles. Lewis is not known for a super strong arm but he did take down 44.9% of would-be basestealers this year. Kristian Schneider ends his newly low-leverage at-bat by grounding out to first base. 4-3, Red Sox. Top 4th: It'd be nice to see Pesco, a 2-time Cy Young Award winner who finished 2nd in the league in wins and strikeouts this year, settle down, but we'll see I guess. It helps that he's facing the 8-9-1 hitters, probably. Matt Evenson hits one in the general vicinity of Oniji Handa and that is pretty much always an out, 6-3. Lee Barnard continues to torment Pesco at the plate. This time he walks. That's Pesco's 5th walk of the game. He recovers by striking out Alex Vallejo looking - 4 of those, at least. Gaytan gets a 2-2 pitch to go just past the glove of 2B Brian Long for a base hit, with Lee Barnard moving all the way to 3rd on the play. Pesco's able to get out of yet another jam as Josh Lewis flies to left. 4-3, Red Sox. Bottom 4th: Jun Kim walks to lead things off; that's Barnard's first walk, in fact, the first man he's faced who hasn't put the ball in play. Oniji Handa singles up the middle. He really went from zero (bat) to hero in the last 2 months and so far in the series he's 3-6 so TOHKUTGW. Jeremy Dolak hits a solid single into center which scores Kim from second base and puts the Bosox ahead 5-3. Michael Pesco's thrown 90 pitches already but come on, he's Michael Pesco. He can at least go 6. He lays down an excellent bunt that Barnard can only field and throw to first, so there are two runners in scoring position for leadoff man Jon Glynn. Glynn delivers! He raps a double into left that drives in both runners and boom, it's 7-3. And I think that's going to be it for Barnard. Coming in for him is Rick Shelton (15-15, 3.71), who threw the final 2/3rds of an inning in the opener. The hits just keep on coming! Brian Long singles but the super speedy Glynn pumps the brakes at third: no point in making the final out when you've got your guys on the ropes. Mike Miller whiffs on a 2-2 splitter, the first K for an A's pitcher all game long, for 2 out. Wow, 2 straight Ks to end the inning. The damage has been done, though. 7-3, Red Sox. Top 5th: Pesco's been struggling pretty hard himself; this game still feels within reach for Oakland. Chase Jones lines a single up the middle to lead things off. Tom Brown catches a ball by Adam Groves with his back practically against the Green Monster for the first out. Hawkinson also flies to center - the last 2 at-bats have both been a single pitch, so at least Pesco's not super adding to that pitch count, which is now up to 96. Berman floats a 2-1 pitch to center but it carries too much and Jon Glynn is able to squeeze it for out #3. 7-3, Red Sox. Bottom 5th: Schneider strikes out. Shelton has now K's all 3 men he's faced. Jun Kim grounds out to second. Handa continues his torrid pace, hitting a bloop double down the left field line. With the pitcher coming up and first base open, Shelton intentionally walks Dolak. Pesco's now at 100 pitches even but I'm not going to pull him just yet. Fate decides to laugh at my decision making; Shelton tosses a wild pitch that puts both runners into scoring position. Make that a SECOND wild pitch. It's an 8-3 game! In spite of 2 gift balls, Pesco does strike out to retire the side. 8-3, Red Sox. Top 6th: Evenson flies to center to lead it off. There's just no reason to keep Shelton in; the A's have a couple guys more than ready to go in relief. Raul Bueno comes on in to hit. Bueno kind of does what Raul Bueno does: after Pesco throws 3 pitches out of the strike zone, he makes contact with the first pitch over the plate. Unfortuantely for the A's it goes right back to the pitcher, who flips it to Mike Miller at 1st for the out. Vallejo Ks, evening up Pesco's walk and strikeout totals at 5 apiece. 8-3, Red Sox. Bottom 6th: I'm bringing in Josh Howard (2-4, 5.00, 14 Sv) to relieve on the Red Sox. Howard is kind of in the A's doghouse due to his penchant for the gopher ball but hopefully he can start to get it right in a lower leverage setting. Glynn hits a roller in front of the plate that C Josh Lewis pounces on and throws to first for out #1. Brian Long singles the other way into right. Mike Miller also goes the other way with a 1-1 pitch, sending it into left, where it bounces off the Monster before Adam Groves can toss it in. It's a double and Brian Long is on at 3rd base. Tom Brown puts a decent charge into one but it hangs in deep right. Long chooses not to challenge the arm of Richard Berman and stays at 3rd. Schneider grounds out 6-3 and the Red Sox fail to score for the first time in 4 innings. 8-3, Red Sox. Top 7th: OK, so Pesco's done for the night. Coming on for him is Kojiro Nakazawa (5-4, 3.21), who throws a low-90s fastball from a very extreme angle. This makes him absolute death to righties, who hit just .178 against him this year. Israel Gaytan is the first victim; he flies weakly to right. Josh Lewis, a switch hitter, hits a hard grounder towards first that Mike Miller is able to field and toss to Nakazawa for the out. Chase Jones manages to get a hold of a 1-2 Nakazawa slider and deposit it into the right field seats! 8-4! Groves sends a 2-1 pitch to the warning track in left but Tom Brown is able to catch up to it for the out. 8-4, Red Sox. Bottom 7th: Jun Kim grounds out to Matt Evenson at shortstop and with Josh Howard in for multiple innings. It's not that weird in 1971. Handa flies to left. Jeremy Dolak isn't ready for this inning to end; he drops one into the left field corner for a 2 out double. With a pretty full bullpen I'll pinch-hit for Nakazawa (who, besides, gave up a dinger. You can't reward that kind of behavior) with Sam Marks. Howard walks him on purpose to set up the double play. Which, good luck with that: Jon Glynn hit into 6 DPs all season long. Oh right, there are two outs anyway. Welp. Glynn Ks to retire the side. 8-4, Red Sox. Top 8th: I'll pull in Eddie Sanchez (2-2, 4.72) to pitch the 8th and, depending on how things go, maybe the 9th. Sanchez throws hard, hitting the low to mid 90s, but the 35 year old had a lot of problems this year getting hitters to swing and miss at his stuff; he K'd just 17 batters in 40 regular season innings. In 1971 you can still be a relatively decent pitcher with a low K rate like that but as you can see from the ERA, Sanchez had a rough year and is mostly on this roster because of reputation. Ray Hawkinson grounds out to first base, 3U. Richard Berman makes enough contact with a 1-2 slider to push it to Oniji Handa, who sends it to first for out #2. I guess to be fair, a grounder to Handa is practically a strikeout. Matt Evenson is hitless so far this series and I'll do what I did last night, which is replace him with SS Gil Wilson. He also grounds out to 1st to retire the side. 8-4, Red Sox. Bottom 8th: I'll pull Howard after 2 innings and bring in lefty specialist Chris Allen (1-1, 4.35) to give him some work, although he'll be facing R-L-R for his first 3 guys. Brian Long socks the first pitch he sees into left field, where Adam Groves gives up his body to make an excellent diving catch towards the foul line. There is not a lot of foul territory at Fenway so I mean he was really giving up his body. Mike Miller tattoos a 1-2 cutter into right-center for a double - in fact, that's a new AL playoff record 3rd 2-base hit tonight for Miller! Tom Brown gets walked intentionally so that Allen can go after the other 2 lefties in this lineup. Schneider flies out to right and it's juuuust deep enough to let Mike Miller tag up and get to third ahead of the throw. I'll pull Jun Kim out for a pinch-hitter to take advantage of platoons: Carlos Rodriguez (.360, 1, 9), who was on fire for 50 late-season at-bats. He keeps scorching it; a single up the middle makes it 9-4 and I think also means Allen is outta there. Carlos Torres (3-1, 4.58) threw an inning last night but he shouuuuld be able to get one stinking out, right? He does, as Oniji Handa whiffs. 9-4, Boston. Top 9th: Tom Brown moves over into right field as Rodriguez is the new left fielder for the final frame. Sanchez remains in because why not. Pinch hitting for Carlos Torres is old man John Skelton, a lifetime 1-12 hitter against Sanchez and only 10-52 on the season as a pinch-hitter. Of course, after all that foreshadowing, he walks. That said, all the walk does is allow Sanchez to kill two birds with one stone, as Vallejo hits a hard grounder to Brian Long, who starts up a 4-6-3 DP. Israel Gaytan pops out to 2nd to end the game. 9-4, Red Sox win! The A's are still kind of in the driver's seat but this was a much-needed victory for Boston, who now only need to split games 4 and 5 in Oakland to get a shot at winning this series back here in Fenway Park.
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05-28-2023, 01:41 PM
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#154 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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And we head to St. Louis for Game 3. I'm down to using Colin Rose (2-1, 4.94), a 27 year old knuckleballer who was hurt most of 1971, for Atlanta in this one (although TBF I may have goosed his stats recently because dammit I want knuckleballers in the 70s). He's facing Jimmy McCauley (12-12, 3.91), who's no great shakes himself but he did at least pitch the whole season. He's got an elite curve and a decent splitter. We've got a packed stadium, clear skies, and the wind blowing left to right at 9 MPH this afternoon (man, a weekday afternoon LCS game, OK I guess). Top 1st: Chris Ward gets things started off right for the Braves, belting a 1-2 curveball back to the wall in center for a leadoff triple. Vicente Luna flies to medium to deep left, which is deep enough for the speedy Ward to tag up and score on the play. 2 batters in, it's a 1-0 game! Kevin Dwyer grounds out harmlessly to 2nd. Henry Riggs pops out to Lorenzo Martinez at first. The Braves draw first blood and lead 1-0. Bottom 1st: James hits a weak grounder to Rose, who goes to first for the easy out. Depew is fooled by 3 straight dancers. Casey Satterfield lines a single into right field for the two-out hit. Lorenzo Martinez flies to center to retire the side. 1-0, Braves. Top 2nd: Dante Chairez lines one past McCauley and into centerfield for a leadoff hit. Josh Damon follows with a high chopper to the right side of the infield that McCauley grabs but can't get to first in time. The Braves have runners on first and second with no out. That was Damon's first hit the entire series, too. Jon Reid keeps up the pressure, dropping one into short right for a 3rd base hit in 3 batters and loading the bases. Danny Coyle continues the nickel-and-dime parade with a single up the middle. That scores Chairez but only manages to move everyone up 90 feet. That brings up the pitcher, Colin Rose, who somehow also places a ground ball just past SS Dusty McCully and into center. Nothing's been hard hit so far but it's a 3-0 game with no outs and the bases loaded. How does this keep happening? Chris Ward hits yet *another* soft single, this time into left field, and it's 4-0. Luna fiiiinally directs a soft hit at someone, SS Dusty McCully, who throws him out 4-3 and which allows another runner to score. McCully hurt something on that play and has to be taken out of the game. He only missed 13 games all season; this could be bad. Joe Wicker takes over at shortstop. I'm not really about to pull Jimmy McCauley because in spite of all the hits, nobody's actually hitting him hard. That said, Kevin Dwyer slaps yet another soft single up the middle and it's a 6-0 game now as Rose scores from third. Henry Riggs whiffs at a 1-2 splitter. Dante Chairez, batting around, also strikes out to retire the side. 6-0, Braves, thanks to a bizarre display of "fielding". Bottom 2nd: Rose walks the leadoff man, Rafael Disla. He's been sitting for a while and I guess has gotten a little tight. Mike Galeana hits a single into center field; there are now runners on first and second. John Stuart also hits one to center but this one hangs up enough for Josh Damon to catch it for out number one. Joe Wicker (.212, 0, 3) is in to take his cuts as the backup shortstop. He can't handle the knuckler and strikes out. I'll leave McCauley in, though I may regret it, and he flies out to left field. 6-0, Braves. Top 3rd: Damon hits yet another soft, Texas League style single up the middle to lead things off. That's 9 hits off of McCauley so far. Reid strikes out. So does Danny Coyle. If you've got to get outs, get them yourself, I guess. Colin Rose hits a slow grounder that new SS Joe Wicker just does get to in time to throw him out. 6-0, Braves. Bottom 3rd: James singles the other way into left field to lead it off. Rose has allowed 3 hits now himself. Tom Depew follows with a hard-hit ball that gets over Henry Riggs in right field and which pushes Depew all the way over to third base. It's a triple and a 6-1 game! Casey Satterfield flies out into short to medium center field and Depew chooses not to test Josh Damon's arm. Lorenzo Martinez flies to left. This time Depew does decide to test LF Chris Ward's arm and... Ward passes the test! Depew's tagged out at home by C Danny Coyle to retire the side. 6-1, Braves. Top 4th: McCauley punches out Chris Ward on 3 pitches. That's his 5th K. You'd think just by the peripherals that McCauley was spitting fire tonight but nope, that second inning. Vicente Luna belts one into the left-center gap for a double and, by my count, the first truly hard-hit ball off of Jimmy McCauley today. Kevin Dwyer torments McCauley with yet another bloop single which nevertheless moves Luna to third. Henry Riggs hits a hard-hit ground ball - hey, another hard hit! Does it count? - to second base and the ensuing 4-6-3 DP ends the inning without fanfare. 6-1, Braves. Bottom 4th: Disla goes down 5-3 to open up the inning. Mike Galeana walks, Rose's 2nd of the game so far. Stuart strikes out. When the dancer is actually forcing hitters to miss, that's a bad sign. Joe Wicker hits one to SS Jon Reid for the 6-4 forceout to end the inning. 6-1, Braves. Top 5th: Dante Chairez hits a slow roller to Joe Wicker that he can't handle in time. It's the 12th base hit off of McCauley, who is looking like he's getting roasted in the box score. He is up to 89 pitches and so might get pulled soon anyway. Chairez by the way is hitting .636 (6-11) in the series thus far. Guess what happens next? Another weak single up the middle. That brings up Jon Reid, who absolutely smashes a Jimmy McCauley fastball and launches it into the left field seats. It's 9-1 and that is very, very much all she wrote for McCauley, who goes 4+ innings, gives up 9 runs, all of them earned, on 14 hits, no walks, and 5 strikeouts. Miguel Hernandez (1-2, 5.23) is in to probably only pitch the one inning since he's due up in the bottom of the 5th. He's a 28 year old who was awwwful in Milwaukee last year and only generally mediocre in St. Louis in '71, following an excellent season in Tulsa as the closer there (3-1, 2.14, 13 Sv). He's a fastball-slider guy who, when he's one, gets both Ks and groundouts. Danny Coyle lines one into right, which, at least it's a hard hit ball. Colin Rose sacrifices Coyle over to 2nd base, 1-3. Chris Ward grounds out to Tom Depew at 2nd. Vicente Luna hits one into center that for once doesn't fall. 9-1, Braves, and boy it does not look good for the home team. Bottom 5th: Pinch-hitting for Hernandez is utility OF Elijah Johnson. The veteran's got no time for Rose and, after taking a dancer off the plate, swings at a ball that I guess counts for Rose's fastball (note: it's listed as a slider) and lines it down the left field line for a leadoff double. Jimmy James takes back some of that Atlanta hit-luck with an infield single; Jon Reid is unable to throw him out in time. Tom Depew slams one down the right field line, scoring both runners! The score is 9-3 and the rally is on! Satterfield flies to left field, not nearly deeply enough to get Depew over to 3rd. Lorenzo Martinez is OK with that, though, as he lines a curvy knuckler up the middle for an RBI single. 9-4! Disla flies to right field for out #2. Mike Galeana belts his 2nd home run of the series and by gods, the Cardinals are back in this one! 9-6! Jon Stuart also singles into left and that's going to have to be it for the knuckleballer. UGH. Tomny Morales (0-0, 1.43) enters the game. Morales spent the entire season at Richmond (13-13, 3.18) and was only added late as the injuries started to mount. He's got good stuff, including a low to mid 90s fastball with some bite to it, but he's also young, at 23. Joe Wicker lines one into left - the 26th hit already tonight. Elijah Johnson, on a 2-2 pitch, does a very veteran move, swinging through a ball in the dirt. It's recorded as a strikeout and a wild pitch, with everyone moving up. That includes the man on 3rd so it's 9-7 now! Jimmy James fiiiinally hits one at the third baseman Luna, who throws him out to end the inning. 9-7, Braves. Top 6th: With Henry Riggs on deck and Dante Chairez in the hole, lefty specialist Kevin Kading makes his 2nd appearance of the series for the Cardinals. Kading beats out an infield single to first baseman Lorenzo Martinez. This is beginning to get annoying, all the cheap hits. Riggs flies to center field. Chairez socks one deep to center field for an RBI double - in fact, he even takes third on the throw to the plate. 10-7, Braves. Kading walks Josh Damon, 3-3 on the night, on purpose to face Jon Reid, who's only 2-3 tonight, albeit with the 3-run HR. He's clearly looking for his 2nd dinger of the game and Kading makes him pay for it, striking him out. Danny Coyle hits a pretty hard hit ball into right that is caught by Satterfield for the final out. 10-7, Braves. Bottom 6th: With him due up at the top of the next inning, I'm going to go ahead and leave Morales in for now. Depew flies to center. Satterfield hits one into deep right that the old man Henry Riggs has to chug down for a well-earned out. Martinez walks. Morales makes a big mistake against Rafael Disla, which he deposits into the right field seats. 10-9! Galeana doubles to right - he's 3-3 tonight and .545 for the series. Stuart Ks to end this one but man, it's an ugly game so far. 10-9, Braves. Top 7th: Rick Legere (7-5, 2.55, 8 Sv), who was Billy Munoz' right hand man all season long, take the mound to try to keep this game close and let his guys overcome yet another deficit. Cranklin arrives to pinch-hit for Tony Morales. He flies to left field. Chris Ward belts a double down the right field line, Atlanta's 17th hit in this game. At least they're hard hit balls now, I guess. Luna flies out to Rafael Disla in left field for two down. Mike Galeana steals a base hit and probable RBI from Kevin Dwyer to retire the side. 10-9, Braves. Bottom 7th: Steve Hollopeter (4-6, 5.26) was supposed to fill a role similar to the one Legere did in St. Louis this year but it didn't really work out. Nevertheless. John Winn can't be asked to go 3 innings so he'll be asked to pitch the 7th. The backup freaking shortstop Joe Wicker ties the game on the first pitch, a forkball, which he sends into the bleachers in left. 10-10! I'm going to leave Legere in on account of he's a good pitcher and man, good pitching seems hard to come by today. He Ks. Jim James grounds out to Jon Reid at short. Tom Depew also strikes out to retire the side but amazingly it's a brand new game. 10-10. Top 8th: Riggs hits a grounder to second that's turned into a 4-3 putout. Chairez lines one into right - his 4th hit of the night. Damon flies out to left. Reid whiffs to retire the side. 10-10. Bottom 8th: I'll leave Hollopeter in but his big issue is that he can look good and then make a dumb mistake that turns into a HR. Guess what? On a 1-1 pitch to Casey Satterfield, he makes a dumb mistake that turns into a homerun. The Cardinals lead 11-10, and Roger Evans, the resident lefty specialist, enters the game. Lorenzo Martinez flies to right. Disla grounds out to second. Those are the two lefties but I'll leave Evans in just in case the Braves can score in the 9th and allow me to use John Winn to close it out or take it to extras. Mike Galeana obliges by grounding out 6-3. 11-10, Cardinals. Top 9th: Pinch-hitting for Danny Coyle is the backup catcher Andres Gamez (.318, 5, 32), who, I have to say, is miles better as a hitter than Coyle. I left Legere in for him but that'll be the final guy he sees, as Gamez singles up the middle - 20 hits for Hotlanta today! The new guy is, you guessed it, stopper Billy Munoz, looking for his 2nd save of the series. Jeremy Holden is in to hit for the pitcher. Munoz catches Holden looking on a 2-2 change for out #1. Chris Ward hits a roller to first that Lorenzo Martinez scoops up easily and takes to the bag for the out. One out away! Vicente Luna whiffs to retire the side. The Cards win! 11-10. That was an uuuuuugly game to say the least. Both teams combined for 35 hits. Insanity. Now the Cards can win the series at home if they just find a way to take one from George House. If they hit like they did tonight... anything is possible.
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05-28-2023, 03:49 PM
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#155 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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Game 3 of the ALCS! We travel to Oakland and the Oakland Coliseum, many decades removed from being called "the o.co". Sandy Hinojosa goes up against 1971 strikeout king Roberto Ortiz, who is the #3 starter and not the #1 because he also led the league in walks with 164 of them. Oakland wrested home field advantage away from the Sox in Game 2; can they continue their outrageous luck against the odds-on favorite to win it all? The way the weather is going lately it seems like it's a foregone conclusion to say it's a nice day in the 60s. The wind is blowing in so maybe we won't see a MASSIVE homerun game... and, well, I could do without another 35 hit outburst but that's just me... Top 1st: Jon Glynn grounds out to Matt Evenson at short and we're under way! Long whiffs on 3 pitches. Matt Miller is also victimized, getting caught looking on a 2-2 change. 0-0. Bottom 1st: I should point out here that Sandy Hinojosa is no slouch; he was only 14-11 this year but carried a K/BB ratio of almost 2/1 (179 Ks, 94 BB in 272.2 innings) and although Boston chose not to force the 36 year old to finish a lot of games (only 6 CGs in 37 starts), it was more to keep him well-rested all year than any letdown in stamina. Vallejo grounds out to Handa. Hinojosa gets Gaytan to swing and miss at a 3-2 fastball. Josh Lewis flips what looks like a Texas League single into right but Jun Kim charges in and makes a shoestring catch for out #3. The game calls it a 3-star play (which I think means it's a 50/50 ball) although I know IRL those lower-velo flies to right have an insane BABIP (I think I saw .600, although that's of course in the modern day). 0-0. Top 2nd: Ortiz walks Tom Brown to lead things off. Kristian Schneider kind of goes against the grain, swinging at the first pitch, and kind of almost makes something of it, hitting a fly into right center that gets pushed back in for out #1. Jun Kim hits a shot to 3rd that Chase Jones picks up and sends to 2nd for the force out. It didn't get hit nearly hard enough for an around the horn double play, though, so Kim's safe at 1st with 2 down. Oniji Handa skies it into left-center and CF Alex Vallejo is able to come underneath it for the final out. 0-0. Bottom 2nd: Chase Jones, whose 31 HRs rated 2nd - a diiiiiiiiistant 2nd - in the AL this year, flies out to short center field. Adam Groves pops out to 2B Brian Long. Ray Hawkinson can't come up with a knuckle-curve on a 1-2 pitch and strikes out to retire the side. 0-0. Top 3rd: Dolak flies out to right. Hinojosa hits an easy grounder to SS Matt Evenson for out numero dos. The Astronaut socks one, but it's to the deepest part of the park and that plus the wind means it's just a loud out to CF Alex Vallejo. 0-0. Bottom 3rd: Berman walks to lead it off - the first baserunner for the A's today. Berman's not really a picture of discipline, or at least hanging in and taking a lot of pitches, with just 38 bases on balls in 527 at-bats this year. I guess this is his 2nd walk of the series though. Matt Evenson swings and misses at a 3-2 change for the first out. Ortiz tries to lay down a bunt but he pops it in the air and Sandy Hinojosa is able to pull it down easily for the out. Alex Vallejo slaps a Texas Leaguer up the middle for a hit - the first for either side today. Richard Berman gets all the way to third on the play. He's got good speed for a guy hitting down in the order. Israel Gaytan follows up with a base hit of his own and just like that, the A's are on the board! Vallejo pulls up lame as he slides into 3rd and has to be replaced. It's not a bad looking injury but he'll be replaced by David Mesa as a precaution. Gaytan skies it to center for out #3. 1-0, A's. Top 4th: David Mesa takes over in center for Vallejo, as expected. Brian Long flies out to LF Adam Groves. Mike Miller does the same; in fact, this time Groves barely has to move to catch the long pop-up. Tom Brown, who's 5-9 with a HR and 4 RBIs so far in the series, grounds out weakly to SS Matt Evenson to retire the side. Roberto Ortiz isn't getting Ks but he has to be happy with the results so far. 1-0, A's. Bottom 4th: Chase Jones flies out to CF Jon Glynn. Adam Groves hits a blooper to left field for the 1-out base hit. He then manages to steal 2nd! Groves isn't necessarily the first guy you think of when you think of speed in this league but he was 11 for 13 on thefts in the regular season, including a perfect 1/1 with the A's. Hawkinson drives an 0-2 fastball into left center that Tom Brown cuts off before it goes for extra bases and, as it happens, before Adam Groves can get a good enough jump to attempt to go home. That puts runners on the corners with 1 out. Berman then makes the worst move in the AL, which is to say he hits a hard grounder in the general direction of Oniji Handa. As he did 84 times in the regular season, he turns that into a double play to retire the side. 1-0, A's. Top 5th: Schneider flies to center. Kim whiffs on a 1-2 forkball. Theeeere's the K. Handa follows up by getting caught looking at a 2-2 forkerino for the final out. 1-0, A's. Bottom 5th: Matt Evenson hits a routine ground ball to Kristian Schneider, who completes the 5-3 groundout. Roberto Ortiz, a .226 career hitter who was not very good this season (only .178), hits a slightly less routing groundball to Schneider, who nevertheless still does his job with it. David Mesa, with his first PA of the game, hits a hard shot towards first that Mike Miller has to dive for. He does get to it and tosses it to Sandy Hinojosa covering first... but Hinojosa drops it! The pitcher is charged with an error on the play and Mesa is safe at first. Mesa decides to up the chances of getting home by stealing second, and C Jeremy Dolak drops the ball while making the transfer so he gets a free stolen base. Mike Miller ends the little drop-fest by catching a mile-high popup to first for out #3. 1-0, A's. Top 6th: Jeremy Dolak doubles down the right field line for the Red Sox' first hit of the night. He's 4-9 (.444) for the series with 2 extra-base hits. That brings up Hinojosa, who tries to bunt, and that bunt ends up doing the same thing that Ortiz' bunt did in the bottom of the 3rd: he pops out to 1B Ray Hawkinson. Glynn hits one hard out to center, which David Mesa is able to track down, but it's so deep that even slowpoke Dolak is able to advance to 3rd on the play. Brian Long, 0-2 for the game but 6-11 in the series, walks up to the plate. He outfoxes the young fireballer Ortiz in a 6-pitch at-bat and takes the walk. Ortiz recovers to strike out Mike Miller looking. 1-0, A's. Bottom 6th: Lewis, who has all the makings of a future batting leader, tries to use the opposite field but it only results in an easy flyout for Tom Brown. Chase Jones wastes a 7 pitch at-bat, striking out swinging. Adam Groves knocks a 2-1 pitch into right for a base hit to bring up Ray Hawkinson, who's also having a nice series (5-11). He hits a roller to second base that Brian Long dispatches successfully to retire the side. 1-0, A's. Top 7th: It's a tight, tight game but Boston needs to start generating offense. Tom Brown slaps a 2-2 pitch to 2B Israel Gaytan that he converts into a 4-3 putout. Ortiz Ks Kristian Schneider. That's Ortiz' 6th of the night. Remember when it seemed like he wasn't generating a lot of them? Jun Kim, who's only 1-10 so far in the ALCS, gets on base by looking at 4 pitches. He tries to steal 2nd but is thrown out easily by Josh Lewis, who, as noted, is better than the league thinks he is at doing that. 1-0, A's. Bottom 7th: Berman grounds out to Handa, 6-3. Matt Evenson is hitless so far but with the score tight like this, I'm gonna want to keep him in the game for his glove. Plus, if the 8-9 guys go down, we just reset the lineup for the 8th anyway. Evenson thwarts my attempts at dead-ball evenness by walking on 4 pitches. That's only Hinojosa's 2nd walk and he's still under 100 pitches (96). Ortiz is at 99 pitches himself but the man is throwing a 1-hitter so of course he stays in. He tries to bunt on 2-2 and straight-up misses for the K. Mesa drops one into right field for a 2-out single, with Matt Evenson only getting to 2nd. Israel Gaytan hits one in the general direction of Oniji Handa, which of course is an out and that ends the rally. 1-0, A's. Top 8th: The Sox are using their 7-8-9 hitters and are running out of chances. I'm going to leave Handa in to hit on account of the last 2 months and the fact that before this year he was a pretty consistent .290s level hitter (well, career .283 average but you get the drift). He rewards me with a solid single into left. Jeremy Dolak, however, while good with a stick for a catcher, hit .249 with a .278 OBP and I think we can do better: Sam Marks is called in to pinch-hit. He hits one hard towards the left field line but Chase Jones gets to it and begins an excellent 5-4-3 double play! If you told me he's the 1971 AL GG at 3rd I would not be shocked. I'll leave Hinojosa in now, on account of he's still pitching well and plus, resetting the lineup and all that. Hinojosa Ks to retire the side. 1-0, A's. Bottom 8th: Sid Bartoszek (.259, 9, 33) has been Jeremy Dolak's caddy all season long and he makes his first appearance in the ALCS behind the plate. Sandy Hinojosa's only at 106 pitches so may very well stay in even if the Red Sox rally... I mean, assuming he gets out of this inning alive. Josh Lewis works him for 9 pitches until he hits into the black hole at short. 1 down. Chase Jones finds a 1-2 fastball and rips it into left field. Tom Brown manages to chase it down before it gets to the wall but Jones still manages to slide in at 2nd on the throw. Adam Groves hits a long fly into left, which Tom Brown is able to chase down for the out, but Chase Jones, running very aggressively this inning, tags up at 2nd and manages to sneak in under the tag by 3B Kristian Schneider. Ray Hawkinson is unable to convert on the 2 out clutch opportunity and we're heading into hang-on time. 1-0, A's. Top 9th: Roberto Ortiz, ironically, is probably still not tired because he's "only" thrown 7 Ks so far... and also just 3 walks. He'll keep the ball to try to pick up his first postseason shutout. Jon Glynn hits a murderous groundball towards Matt Evenson that the shortstop can only eat for a leadoff infield single. Brian Long lays down a nice bunt to advance the Astronaut to 2nd base. Long had 13 of those in the regular season, which I think might be tops among position players. That brings up Mike Miller, who draws the unintentional intentional walk to set up the double play but also put the go-ahead run on base. Tom Brown hits a little roller in front of 3rd, which Chase Jones just plain can't get out of his glove. Score it another infield hit. Is Ortiz going to get nickel and dimed into doom tonight? Schneider hits a fly ball to left that Adam Groves catches. Speedy Jon Glynn tries to tie the score... and is thrown out at home! The ball game is over! The A's win, 1-0! OK so wow, that, in contrast to that 11-10 thing yesterday, that was one heck of a game. Also the 102-win Red Sox are now on the brink of getting Red Soxed right out of the playoffs.
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05-30-2023, 12:12 PM
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#156 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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NLCS Game 4
With Dusty McCully still out today, Joe Wicker starts at shortstop, although the Cardinals are now very, very thin up the middle. Tom Depew is essentially the backup shortstop now but nobody's left on the roster who can reasonably play second. Should the Cardinals advance and McCully still be unavailable, they do have UT Jerominmo Argumendo (.212, 0, 1), a 31 year old minor league journeyman and September callup, who can play the middle infield passably. For the time being though, Ricardo Gomez (0-1, 5.40) will try to pitch better at Busch Stadium than he did at Fulton County and, in doing, the Cardinals will see if they can get to George House (1-0, 2.00) and avoid having to return to Atlanta. And if they can... they even get an extra day off heading into a World Series where the opponent is still very much up in the air. Speaking of "the air", we've got our worst weather game yet! It's not too bad. 54 degrees with the wind blowing out to right. Hope the fans are wearing sweaters! Top 1st: Chris Ward grounds out 3-1 to lead off the proceedings. Ricardo Gomez has the reputation of a guy who gets grounders, as you'd expect given that his out pitch is a split-fingered fastball (which didn't technically exist in 1971 but I mean, pitchers have thrown pitches in their own special way since the dawn of time). That said, he only had a 49% GBO rate in St. Louis this year. Vicente Luna, 2-14 this series so far, strikes out swinging. Kevin Dwyer on the other hand keeps up his hot hitting in the postseason (now hitting .538) and 1971 in general (he was 3rd in the NL in average with .314) by poking a 2-out single to right field. Henry Riggs follows up with his own single up the middle, putting runners on 1st and 2nd. No dice, though, as Dante Chairez hits into a 5-4 fielder's choice for the final out. 0-0. Bottom 1st: Jim James flies harmlessly to right. Tom Depew lifts one over 3B Vicente Luna's head and into right field, where he's able to get into 2nd base easily as LF Chris Ward's throw is off the mark. He runs on a 1-0 count and is safe, sliding into 3rd with his 1st steal of October! Casey Satterfield hits a ground ball to 2B Kevin Dwyer, who looks the runner back to third before throwing his man out, 4-3, for the second out. Lorenzo Martinez belts one to the deepest part of the park. Chris Ward can't catch up to it before it lands and bounces off the wall. By the time he gets it in, Martinez is on at 2nd and Depew scored about 4 hours ago. 1-0! Disla grounds out 4-3 and that retires the side. 1-0, Cardinals. Top 2nd: Damon flies to left and right at Rafael Disla for out #1. John Reid hits one towards first base; Lorenzo Martinez scoops it up and Ricardo Gomez races to the bag in time to take the short toss for the out. Danny Coyle, 5-10 with 2 RBIs so far on the series, strikes out to retire the side. 1-0, Cardinals. Bottom 2nd: Mike Galeana flies to right. Jon Stuart hits a fairly hard hit ball right to 2B Kevin Dwyer who converts it into a 4-3 putout for out #2. Joe Wicker, who had just 52 at-bats the entire regular season, grounds out to Mike Galeana at 3rd to retire the side. 1-0, Cardinals. Top 3rd: George House lofts a fly ball into left; Disla's got it for the first out. Chris Ward hits a liner up the middle that Ricardo Gomez is just barely able to stick his glove out in time to catch. Right place, right time. Out #2. Luna singles up the middle and (because I must have hit the escape key) we immediately go to Kevin Dwyer, who hits into a 6-4 force to end the inning. 1-0, Cardinals. Bottom 3rd: Gomez whiffs. That's George House's first strikeout tonight after a 10 K performance in the opener. Jim James grounds weakly to second base. Tom Depew hits a 2-out single into center field. That brings up Casey Satterfield, who pops out into short center field. 1-0, Cardinals. Top 4th: Riggs is caught imitating a statue on a 0-2 slider that... sure as heck looks to me like it missed down and away, but I'm not the umpire I guess. Dante Chairez hits what looks like a routine groundball to short but Joe Wicker bobbles it and he reaches first base for free. Ricardo Gomez is having none of that and picks Chairez off. That's two. Damon hits one towards the hole at second base but Tom Depew is able to rein it in and throw to first in time for the final out. 1-0, Cardinals. Bottom 4th: Lorenzo lines one into right field for a leadoff base hit. That's followed by an 8 pitch at-bat that ends with a bloop single to left field by high-average guy Rafael Disla (who does, to be fair, lead the Cards in HRs this postseason with 2). Martinez does not even try to get to 3rd and so it's runners on 1st and 2nd, nobody out. Oh right, he and Mike Galeana were tied. Also, Galeana is up and he also works George House into a long count that this time ends in a walk that loads the bases. It's House's first base on balls but it could not come at a worse time. Jon Stuart flies to left field. The third base coach waves Lorenzo Martinez home and he's out by a mile! Both Disla and Galeana move up but suddenly there are 2 outs and the 8 hole hitter due up. You can only guess what happens next: that's right, Joe Wicker is walked to face the pitcher, Ricardo Gomez, career .136 average and all. You can tell where the luck is going today because Gomez hits a weak ground ball that somehow crawls all the way to the deep infield and Kevin Dwyer at 2nd. Everyone is safe and it's a 2-0 game! Jim James flies out to retire the side. 2-0, Cardinals, in an inning where it seemed like a lot more was possible but damage was done anyway. Top 5th: Jon Reid hits a solid base hit to left to lead off the inning. That's the 4th allowed by Ricardo Gomez tonight. Danny Coyle continues to find open spaces in the field to a much greater extent than he did in the regular season, when he hit just .218. This time it's a bloop single to right field. Jon Reid moves up 90 feet. George House is now up, somehow an even worse hitter than Ricardo Gomez with a .076 career average and 103 Ks in 264 career at-bats. He tries to sacrifice but instead pops it up. C Jon Stuart pulls it down for out number one. Stuart then allows a low and outside pitch to get by him and hit the backstop. Both runners advance and it's ruled a passed ball. Chris Ward works the count to 3-2 (the passed ball came on a 1-2 count) and hits a towering fly into center field that is nonetheless deep enough to bring in Reid for Atlanta's first score of the game. 2-1! Vicente Luna then hits a line drive single to right that allows Danny Coyle to lumber in from second base ahead of the Casey Satterfield throw and we are all tied up! 2-2! Kevin Dwyer chases a 2-2 splitter to retire the side. 2-2. Bottom 5th: House walks the leadoff man Tom Depew on 5 pitches. Casey Satterfield then jumps on the first pitch he sees, socking it into right center where it hits the wall for the RBI double. St. Louis is back in the lead, 3-2! George House is now starting to look more than a little bit wild: he walks Lorenzo Martinez, which does at least set up the double play ball. It also means he's thrown 93 pitches already and it's only the 5th. Disla gets it to a 3-1 count himself before bailing out House by swinging at ball four and flying out to Chris Ward in left. Mike Galeana hits one down the left field line that Chris Ward is able to get to quickly, but it does bounce and everyone moves up 90 feet. The sacks are filled with birds with one out. And then the Atlanta defense really comes through: Jon Stuart hits a hard groundball to Vicente Luna at 3rd, who goes home to Danny Coyle for the force-out, who then fires to first base in time to catch the opposing catcher. Somehow, some way George House emerges from the inning with a single run allowed. 3-2, Cardinals. Top 6th: Henry Riggs grounds to Lorenzo Martinez at first base, who takes it to the bag himself. Dante Chairez, 9-15 heading into this at-bat, gets his first base hit of the game... and also hit first homer of the series, as he launches one over the right field fence! It's tied up again, 3-3! Josh Damon grounds to third base for the 2nd out. Jon Reid hits it to the shortstop Joe Wicker, who this time is able to convert it into an out to retire the side. 3-3. Bottom 6th: George House is laboring but he is after all the staff ace so I'll try to use him through this inning and then replace him with a pinch-hitter in the 7th. It doesn't hurt that he's facing the 8-9-1 guys. Joe Wicker puts a 2-2 pitch in play - House still only has 1 K to his name tonight - and flies to left field for out #1. Ricardo Gomez makes it a 2-2 night with a bona fide line drive single into left. Chris Ward singles up the middle and in spite of what I said, I think that has to be all she wrote for House, who's gone 5.1 innings, allowed 10 hits, walked 4 (one intentional), and struck out 1 for 3 runs, all of them earned. The new guy is Mikhail Baryshnikov (2-0, 3.00, 1 Sv), the Russian (Latvian) ballet dancer who got called up in September to try and be the man Steve Hollopeter proved unable to be this season. He throws three pitches and could be a starter should the Braves want to use him that way; for now, they're enamored with his dazzling circle change that he's named after some kind of crazy Russian ballet move. He's tasked with putting out this fire and that starts with facing Tom Depew, who only adds more fuel to it with a single to left. With Ricardo Gomez as the lead runner, nobody is able to move more than 90 feet and so now the bases are loaded for the 2nd consecutive inning. Casey Satterfield flies out to CF and Johnny Damon's throw is just a hair too late to catch Gomez sprinting home from 3rd. It's a 4-3 game! Speedy leadoff hitter Jim James advances to third on the play. Lorenzo Martinez also flies out to retire the side. 4-3, Cardinals! Top 7th: I'll leave Danny Coyle in just on account of he's had the Cardinals' number all series long. He obliges me by striking out. Gomez' 5th tonight, by the way. That brings up the pitcher slot; Cranklin will get the nod (and so that 2/3rds of an inning Baryshnikov threw might be his only appearance this entire series). He also whiffs on a 1-2 change. 2 down. Chris Ward hits a hard grounder to Mike Galeana at third. Galeana is able to make the throw but it catches 1B Lorenzo Martinez a bit off guard, I guess, as he's unable to catch the throw cleanly. Ward reaches first on the E3. Luna hits one to Joe Wicker at shortstop and when he makes his throw, Martinez is this time able to catch it for the final out. 4-3, Cards. Bottom 7th: Time is running out and in order to give Atlanta any chance whatsoever of moving on to Game 5 I've got to bring in shutdown ace John Winn. Rafael Disla grounds out to second base against him to lead things off. Mike Galeana gets ahead in the count 2-0 and finds a hittable enough pitch that he places into right for a base hit. Winn incidentally allowed just a .195 BA in the regular season. Jon Stuart flies to center. This would normally be a great place to pinch hit for the shortstop but Joe Wicker is the last man standing so he's got to stay in. He hits a half-bunt roller to third that Vicente Luna cannot get to in time! It's a base hit, putting a runner into scoring position for the pitcher's... spot. Gomez has gotten the job done tonight but it's time. Ethan Keesee comes in to hit for him amidst lots and lots of applause. That said, John Winn bears down and strikes the youngster out. 4-3, Cards. Top 8th: No question who's in for Ricardo Gomez: it's the Cardinals' own shutdown closer, Billy Munoz. It's already Munoz' third appearance this postseason and he faces the heart of Atlanta's order. He walks #3 hitter Kevin Dwyer to lead it off. Then Henry Riggs takes a couple of monster cuts but eventually strikes out. The Hammer is hitting just .188 in October. Dante Chairez makes poor contact for one of the only times this postseason and fouls out to the first baseman Lorenzo Martinez. Josh Damon flies out to center field and now the Braves are down to their final 3 outs. 4-3, Cardinals. Bottom 8th: The Cardinals would love some insurance here... but good luck getting it against John Winn. Jim James grounds out to second. Tom Depew, 3-3 on the night, hits an easy roller to Kevin Dwyer that he turns into a 4-3 putout. Casey Satterfield never has a chance, swinging and missing badly at a 1-2 slider for out #3. 4-3, Cardinals. Top 9th: It's hang-on time! And the Braves are putting out their 7-8-9 guys at that. Leading it off and pinch-hitting for SS Jon Reid is Jose "He Will Never" Vallin (.265, 1, 9), purchased from the A's in mid-August to provide some pinch-hitting help and maybe help out a little at third base. As it happened, he started just one game and had only 6 other appearances as he was kind of shuffled to the end of the bench. He goes down on strikes for out #1. In for Danny Coyle is Andres Gamez, who's already appeared in this role twice so far in October. Just when it looks like Munoz is going to get his 2nd K, Gamez slaps an 0-2 pitch back through the box for a base hit. That brings up John Winn, or, rather, Jeremy "Grab 'Em And" Holden, who's hitless so far in 3 attempts this series. Munoz also gets him to 0-2 before he hits a hot shot to Tom Depew that he relays to SS Joe Wicker for the first out... and Gamez upends him before he can complete the throw to first. Atlanta lives for one more at-bat. It's a slow grounder to second. Depew picks it up, shakes it off, and fires to first. St. Louis is heading to the World Series! Man! I can't say I was MASSIVELY surprised by the result, although I thought Atlanta would win both of the George House games. In the end, I probably didn't use John Winn enough. Oh well. Atlanta was awwwwwwwwful in the last month to month and a half and backed in as it was. Let the better team win!
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05-30-2023, 02:56 PM
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#157 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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ALCS Game 4(!)
Justin Kindberg was OK but certainly not his regular season great self in Game 1 and Boston needs him to be that guy in order to take the series back to Fenway Park for Game 5. Man, these short series can be rough. For Oakland, I'm going to swap in Batty Barnard to oppose him here in Game 4; he got ripped apart in Game 2 but was the A's most consistent starter during the regular season and should be the guy they count on for their best chance at taking this series. It's partly cloudy and 61 today, with the wind blowing in from center at 9 MPH. Let's... play ball! Top 1st: Jon Glynn is 2-22 lifetime against Barnard but the man is one of the best leadoff hitters in the AL, finishing 3rd in runs scored with 98 and 4th in steals with 37. He leads off with a weak grounder to shortstop Matt Evenson. Brian Long then lines out to 3B Chase Jones and we're at 2 out. Mike Miller strikes out swinging to retire the side. 0-0. Bottom 1st: Vallejo grounds out to 2B Brian Long. Israel Gaytan hits a grounder right at 1B Mike Miller who takes it to first for the unassisted putout. Josh Lewis hits an easy grounder to Oniji Handa. 0-0. Top 2nd: Tom Brown drops one in front of the plate and beats out the weakest infield single you'll ever see. Kristian Schneider flies to center. Jun Kin strikes out - the veteran right fielder looks like he's still trying to get untracked after missing most of September, as he's hitting just .091 for the series. Oniji Handa raps one back through the box for a base hit. C Jeremy Dolak hits a comebacker to the mound, which Batty Barnard is able to pick up and throw to first for the final out of the inning. 0-0. Bottom 2nd: Chase Jones strikes out looking on a 1-2 fastball. Groves hits a high fly into center that CF Jon Glynn camps under for the out. Ray Hawkinson scores Oakland's first hit of the night, an 0-2 shot up the middle for a clean single. Richard Berman, however, goes down swinging on a 2-2 splitter. 0-0. Top 3rd: Justin Kindberg loops one into left that gets down for a base hit. Jon Glynn hits a nice bunt that carries all the way to the second baseman Israel Gaytan, who's just able to nip Glynn at first base for the successful sacrifice. Matt Evenson steals a single from Brian Long with a diving stop up the middle. Kindberg's foot stayed fixed to the bag so there was no chance to double him up. Barnard strikes out Mike Miller looking to end the threat. 0-0. Bottom 3rd: Kindberg nips Matt Evenson in the shin with a curveball down and in; the shortstop takes first. Obviously that was unintentional. Barnard lays down an intentional sacrifice that gets the job done; the play goes 1-3 and Evenson motors into 2nd. Kindberg strikes out Alex Vallejo swinging. Israel Gaytan flies to center. 0-0. Top 4th: Brown hits it harder than he did in his last at-bat, if only because he had to, but the results are worse: Israel Gaytan throws him out 4-3. Kristian Schneider slaps one right past Gaytan and into center field for his first hit of the night (and Boston's 4th). Jun Kim flies out to Richard Berman in right field. Barnard loses his control for a moment and drops one in the dirt and behind the hitter Oniji Handa. The ball rolls all the way to the backstop for a wild pitch. He recovers, winds up working Handa to a 3-2 count, and then gets out of the inning by inducing a 1-3 groundout. 0-0. Bottom 4th: Josh Lewis flies to short left field. He's now hitting just .067 for the series. The young stud will surely have more postseasons in his career but he's looking overwhelmed in this one. Chase Jones hits it towards SS Oniji Handa and there are two outs. Adam Groves drops a 2 out 0-2 pitch into left for a base hit. Ray Hawkinson skies one into center for the final out of the inning. 0-0 and Oakland hasn't looked particularly close to scoring yet. Top 5th: Jeremy Dolak singles up the middle; he's hiting .455 for the series now. Justin Kindberg is 18 miles away from being taken out, with a 2-hitter to his name and 51 pitches thrown. Instead he lays down a bunt that Josh Lewis gets to and throws to first for the 2-3 sacrifice. Jon Glynn pops it up to second baseman Israel Gaytan and now there are two out. Brian Long hits one that looks like trouble for a second but RF Richard Berman is able to make a running catch to retire the side. 0-0. Bottom 5th: Richard Berman hits one into left field and directly at Tom Brown for out #1. Matt Evenson grounds out to his counterpart at shortstop, 6-3. He's 0-7 in the series now. Batty Barnard is also throwing a shutout, although he's had to work out of a couple jams to get there. He's also only thrown 65 pitches so is not headed anywhere. He hits one towards Brian Long, who handles it on the outfield grass and throws to first for a 4-3 putout. 0-0. Top 6th: Mike Miller leads off; he's 0-2 with 2 Ks so far and is a lifetime 5-30 hitter against Barnard. I provide some veeeeeeery bad luck when I read those statlines out; Miller goes the opposite way with a single to left on the first pitch he sees. Tom Brown bloops one in to center in front of Alex Vallejo, who's playing him deep to respect his power. Mike Miller advances to 2nd. Kristian Schneider swings and misses at a low cutter... and Josh Lewis can't hang onto it! It gets behind him and both Miller and Brown move up 90 feet. 2 balls and a foul later, Batty Barnard Ks him on a cut fastball for the first out of the inning. Will Barnard wiggle out of this one? No, the answer is no. Jun Kim's bat fiiiinally comes alive as he scorches one down the left field line for a bases-clearing double. 2-0, Red Sox! The A's choose to walk Oniji Handa and face Jeremy Dolak who, good October or no, hit .249 with a .287 OBP in the regular season and also hit just .200 on the road. He manages to drop one into center just in front of Alex Vallejo and it's a 3-0 game! I'm going to leave Barnard in but any more issues and he gone. It doesn't hurt that Justin Kindberg is up, although truth be told Kindberg might just win the AL Silver Slugger at pitcher; he hit .262 this year with 12 RBIs. He whiffs. Barnard does have 5 Ks tonight. That brings up the Astronaut, who's just 2-16 for the series. Make that 2-17 as he flies to Adam Groves in left to end the inning. The damage, as they say, has been done. 3-0, Red Sox. Bottom 6th: Kindberg racks up his 4th K, making Alex Vallejo almost hit the deck and then swing weakly at a 2-2 curve that hit the inside of the plate. Israel Gaytan socks one into center that looks like extra bases... but Jon Glynn makes a diving stop! Glynn is no Gold Glover out there - that's the Angels' Norm Hodge's job to lose - but he gets the job done. Josh Lewis keeps Glynn working with a flare to center that the CF has to run in on but catches standing up. 3-0, Red Sox. Top 7th: Batty Barnard is still only at 83 pitches and the rally notwithstanding, I think I'd rather leave him in for another inning at least. He gets Brian Long to ground out. This next batter is why: Mike Miller had a fairly large split for a good-average hitter: he hit .300 vs RHPs but only .269 against lefties like Barnard. And of course he's still 6-31 (though the game I guess only considers regular-season appearances for the vs. table so it's still 5-30 which at that means at least 6-32 and more like I think 6-34 given this series). Miller puts a charge into a 1-1 cut fastball but he hits it up the middle and he got a bit too under it: CF Alex Vallejo squeezes it a few feet in front of the warning track for the 2nd out. Tom Brown collects his 3rd hit in 4 at-bats with a 2-out single up the middle. Is this danger? This can't be danger yet, and Barnard's at 94 pitches so still has plenty of gas in the tank. Schneider hits one into right-center but also got a bit too much under it, as RF Richard Berman is able to chase it down for the out. 3-0, Red Sox. Bottom 7th: The A's come in with the power part of the order this inning, their 4-5-6 hitters. Chase Jones belts it deep to center field. It's going, it's going, it's... caught at the wall by CF Jon Glynn! Right in front of the 400 foot mark. That was a lot of smoke with no barbecue. Kindberg jams Adam Groves on a 1-0 fastball, which he hits weakly to Tom Brown in left. Ray Hawkinson singles up the middle with 2 out. That's only the 3rd hit Kindberg has allowed all night and the 4th runner overall. Richard Berman hammers one down the left field line for a two out double, although, perhaps fatefully, the A's third base coach keeps Ray Hawkinson at third. Matt Evenson is due up but, lefty-lefty matchup or not, it's time to bring in Gil Wilson and his veteran bat. This looks like a greeeeat play as Wilson belts it into the left-center gap... and Tom Brown makes a diving catch! Three outs! 3-0, Red Sox! Top 8th: Wilson takes over at shortstop. I'm going to leave Barnard in to face the lefty Jun Kim but I've got someone warming up in the 'pen for the next batter. Barnard does get the easy 1-3 putout but that's still going to be all for him: 7.1 innings, 10 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, and 5 Ks, and he did well to pitch out of lots of jams this afternoon. Taking the mound is Josh Howard, who should theoretically be OK for 2-3 batters, given than neither Handa nor Jeremy Dolak are huge HR threats. Handa hits a weak flyball into left for the second out. I'm going to pinch-hit for Dolak here, as backup C Sid Bartoszek is a bit better defensively anyway. Sam Marks takes his cuts for the 3rd time this series. And for the third time, he fails to get a hit, grounding out to Ray Hawkinson unassisted. 3-0, Red Sox. Bottom 8th: As noted, Sid Bartoszek takes over behind the plate. This is his 2nd appearance in the postseason; he got into 53 games in the regular season with, actually, a lot of power for a backup receiver. With any luck he won't have to hit tonight but it's good to note. Justin Kindberg is cruising along at 81 pitches thrown so far. Pinch-hitting for Josh Howard is Raul Bueno, the longtime A's pinch-hitting specialist and one of the last remaining links to the Kansas City team. He flies out to left field. Alex Vallejo, 1-10 for the series with 4 Ks, is up next. Maybe he's starting to remember how these things work? He walks on 4 pitches. That's a weird and sudden lack of control for Kindberg and his first walk all night. Israel Gaytan blasts one towards second base. Brian Long gets to it but drops the transfer while on his knees trying to convert it and it's ruled an infield hit. The A's have a rally! Josh Lewis hits one towards first baseman Mike Miller, who sends it to Oniji Handa covering first but the throw coming back is juuuuuust a little bit late. First and third now, 2 out. And Chase Jones breaks up the shutout with a line drive into short left! 3-1! Adam Groves hits a high chopper that looks like yet another cheap hit but Justin Kindberg is able to catch it and sling it to first juuuust in time for out #3. 3-1, Red Sox. Top 9th: In at pitcher is stopper Willis Chavez, making his 2nd appearance this series. I should bring Kindberg out but I do not trust Matt Brock with the entire season on the line, so I'm leaving him in. He Ks for 1 down. Jon Glynn hits one to short and Matt Evenson throws him out by half a step for out #2. Brian Long forces Evenson to go into the hole and make a nice play on a ball for out #3. 3-1, Red Sox. Bottom 9th: It's hang-on time now, although fortunately "only" against the A's 6-7-8 hitters. Ray Hawkinson chases a curveball that missed inside for out #1. Richard Berman, coming off of a double in his previous at-bat, grounds out to Oniji Handa at shortstop. Gil Wilson flies out to center. We're playing Game Five! In retrospect, yes, I am very happy I didn't pull the plug on Kindberg. It still remains to be seen whether or not I trust Brock to take the ball late for game 5 if it comes to that, but the Red Sox live to fight another day.
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05-30-2023, 03:03 PM
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#158 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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A little bit of leaguewide accounting heading into Game 5: Dusty McCully is not seriously injured and should be ready to go by Game 1 of the World Series. That said, the Cardinals see the wisdom of having an extra backup middle infielder and swap in Jeronimo Argumendo in favor of backup 3B and right-handed pinch-hitter JD Street, who didn't appear in the NLCS anyway. Also, Mike Galeana was the NLCS MVP and... I'll just attach the NLCS screen so you can see it for all its glory.
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05-30-2023, 04:07 PM
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#159 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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ALCS Game 5
And it's on to Game 5! Lee Barnard wasn't bad in Game 4 but that was a steep, steep uphill climb. Who goes for this one for the A's, surprise Opening Night guy Nate Lancaster or Rick Shelton? I think I'm going to go with the latter player. At the end of the day, you've got to go with the guys who got you there. Shelton's a 30 year old who led the league in losses last year with 17 and who even this year kind of played a little above his weight, with 5 walks allowed per 9 innings and 144 of them the entire season, which is 3 more than the total that caused him to lead the league in that category last year (he'd have led this year, too, but teammate Roberto Ortiz had 164). The Red Sox counter with 20 game winner and 2-time Cy Young Award winner Michael Pesco, who wasn't quite at his normal Cy levels but then, the man missed almost all of 1970; what more do you want? It's clear skies today but a lot cooler than it's been so far, with the temperature at 51 degrees. The wind is also blowing in from right, presaging a pitchers' duel (watch this game end in another 11-10 debacle). Top 1st: Michael Pesco wipes out Alex Vallejo on a 2-2 change. Israel Gaytan slaps the first ball in play of the game in between 2B Brian Long and 1B Mike Miller for a base hit. Pesco misses way inside with a 2-1 curve that Jeremy Dolak is just able to keep from going to the backstop. He recovers to strike out C Josh Lewis but Gaytan, running on the pitch, sneaks into second with his first steal of October! Chase Jones hits a high fly towards deep right but the wind gets under it and turns it into a routine fly out. 0-0. Bottom 1st: Jon Glynn grounds out to 3B Chase Jones to lead things off for the Sox today. Brian Long also hits it to third and Jones handles that one, too. Mike Miller hits one towards short right field that Richard Berman is easily able to track down for the out. 0-0. Top 2nd: Pesco walks Adam Groves on 4 pitches. Groves is lowkey a very dangerous mistake hitter and Pesco's not the only guy in the league to nibble against him. That's also Groves' second walk of the series. The A's as a whole are pretty good at not striking out: they had the 2nd fewest Ks as a team to these Red Sox. For pitchers who rely on the whiff for outs like Pesco, that can be pretty huge. On the other hand, the Red Sox have 4 Gold Glovers in their lineup, including the greatest gloveman at short of all time in Oniji Handa. In any case, Ray Hawkinson flies to right. Richard Berman hits a one-hopper to Handa, who has to go the looooooong way to first to retire him. Groves moves into scoring position with 2 out. Matt Evenson goes down on strikes to retire the side. 0-0. Bottom 2nd: Tom Brown grounds out 6-3 to lead off the inning. Kristian Schneider works a 7-pitch at-bat into a walk, the 2nd already for Rick Shelton. Shelton does strike out Jun Kim; that's 2. Oniji Handa hits it into the air in short right-center and Richard Berman makes a long run to chase it down for out number 3. 0-0. Top 3rd: Richard Shelton flies to short center. Vallejo hits it between 2B Brian Long and actual second base. Long snags it on the outfield grass and throws it to Mike Miller in time. Alex Vallejo's now just 1-12 this series and I'm starting to wonder if I should have just let David Mesa stay in. Nah. Israel Gaytan slaps one that hits the dirt in front of the plate and kind of dies. Jeremy Dolak scoops it up and throws him out by a step to retire the side. 0-0. Bottom 3rd: Jeremy Dolak flies to left. Michael Pesco pulls a 3 hopper to Ray Hawkinson, who takes it to first base himself for the 2nd out. Jon Glynn skips one to 2B Israel Gaytan and that'll do it in the 3rd. 0-0. Top 4th: Josh Lewis gets underneath a 2-2 curve and pops up to short CF and Jon Glynn. He's 1-19 for the series now. Chase Jones hits it to Oniji Handa at shortstop with predictable results (2 down). Adam Groves grounds out 5-3 to end the inning. 0-0. Bottom 4th: The A's needed something special tonight if they were going to get past Michael Pesco. Is this it? Well, I'm not going to say it out loud because it's bad luck but there is a lack of some certain thing through 3. Shelton walks leadoff hitter Brian Long. Mike Miller hits one at 1B Ray Hawkinson, who shoots the ball to shortstop Matt Evenson covering 2nd base but he can't relay it to first for the DP so it goes as a 3-6 forceout. Brown flies to left. Kristian Schneider dribbles it to 1B Ray Hawkinson, who races to the bag in time for the final out. 0-0. Top 5th: Ray Hawkinson slaps a line drive over the head of 3B Kristian Schneider... which he leaps up and grabs! Hawkinson hits a hard grounder to Oniji Handa, who... what is this? He drops the ball for an error! He committed just 14 of those in more than 1300 innings in 1971 for a .980 average. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Matt Evenson flies out to right field and Jun Kim. Oniji Handa takes another shot, this time from the pitcher Rick Shelton, and converts this one for the final out. So... the A's do reset the lineup so that's a thing. 0-0 and both teams have 1 hit between themselves at the halfway point. Bottom 5th: Jun Kim hits a line drive on a 2-0 fastball just over the head of Matt Evenson at shortstop... but, like Kristian Schneider the inning before, he grabs for the out! There's no question about this one: Oniji Handa drops one down the left field line for an easy double, breaking up the NO HITTER and putting a runner into scoring position with less than 2 out. Jeremy Dolak smashes one in the ground to second base and this time it's the A's turn to bobble it. I guess the grass was extra dewy this morning. Dolak is safe at 2nd on the E-4 although Handa is unable to move up. It's a given that Pesco is staying in. He lays down a bunt back to the mound that I swear to god winds up as a fielders' choice to 3rd like 90% of the time it happens in late innings... but today, it's your bog-standard SH with both runners advancing and giving Jon Glynn a shot at coming through in the clutch. He's a .305 hitter with 2 outs this year but only .261 with runners in scoring position. 4-11 with runners on 2nd and 3rd though! Shelton strikes him out to retire the side. 0-0. Top 6th: Top of the order due for the A's. Alex Vallejo pops out weakly to Schneider at 3rd. The other thing about Mesa is that he's also a lefty so there wasn't really a good choice for the platoon. The other choice would have been backup 1B/LF Dan Field (.240, 8, 47) but that would have meant doing something foolish like push Adam Groves into center. Gaytan K's; that's 4 strikeouts for Pesco now. Josh Lewis hits a line shot at Kristian Schneider, who makes a nice play to stab it for the final out of the inning. 0-0. Bottom 6th: Brian Long leads off the 6th with a walk, Shelton's 3rd. You just get the feel that if the Red Sox make a couple of small adjustments, they can blow this game wide open. Mike Miller cracks one into right for the Sox' 2nd hit of the night. Brian Long, not exactly a speed demon, is able to get all the way to third base as the throw is cut off. Tom Brown flies to center, which doesn't look deep enough to bring Long home... except that he's running on it anyway and just beats the throw from Alex Vallejo! 1-0! The first pitch goes in low and away and Josh Lewis can't get to it. That was a catchable ball! The scoring booth agrees and calls it a passed ball. Mike Miller gets to 2nd and the A's lose the double play. Schneider walks unintentionally/intentionally, which makes some sense for this PA but it's also Shelton's 4th free pass. Jun Kim lines one into right but directly at Richard Berman for out #2. That brings up Handa, who's 7-17 for the series (.412) though he's yet to drive in a runner. He pounds one in front of the plate. Josh Lewis runs out to get it and Ray Hawkinson scoops up the low throw to retire the side. 1-0, Red Sox. Top 7th: Chase Jones, #2 in the AL in HRs this year, hits a ball into right that gets held up by the wind and winds up being not even that deep for the first out. Pesco paints the inside corner and catches Adam Groves looking on a 1-2 cut fastball. Hawkinson grounds out easily to 2B Brian Long. 1-0, Red Sox. Bottom 7th: Dolak hits one to 3B Chase Jones that he's able to pick up and throw 3 steps ahead of the runner for the out. Pesco's hurling a 1-hitter and is at 89 pitches through 7; needless to say, he's staying in. He flies out to CF Alex Vallejo. Jon Glynn, only 2-21 this series, whiffs to retire the side. 1-0, Red Sox. Top 8th: Richard Berman hits a blooper into right that Tom Brown races in... and dives... and catches! That's out #1 and Berman kicks the dirt as he heads back to the dugout. Matt Evenson grounds to 2nd. With the bases empty and 2 outs and Rick Shelton pitching so well, I'm going to leave him in and take my chances in the 9th. He Ks and now the A's are down to one final inning to try and get something done. 1-0, Red Sox. Bottom 8th: Brian Long flies to center. Rick Shelton by the way is sitting at 104 pitches. He completed only 6 of 36 starts in 1971 but that's primarily because he got himself in trouble with the bases on balls so much. When his control is there - which isn't necessarily the case today but isn't, like, not the case - he's more than able to finish what he started. Mike Miller singles past Matt Evenson. A league average SS would have gotten to that ball. Tom Brown drops one into right that's a single pretty much anywhere. Mike Miller cruises into 3rd on the play. Kristian Schneider, who's 3-19 for the series but a career .300 hitter against Shelton (in the regular season), works the count to full and then sends one deep to center. As it's already done a couple times, the wind pushes it back into fair territory but it's hit so deep that Mike Miller is able to tag up and score ahead of the Alex Vallejo throw. 2-0! Jun Kim grounds to Chase Jones, who goes to 2nd for the final out of the inning. 2-0, Red Sox. Top 9th: This is it! The A's do get the top of the order here so there's that at least. Alex Vallejo hits a smash towards first - maybe his hardest hit ball of the series - but Mike Miller is able to get it over the bag and step on first for out #1. Israel Gaytan might be a PH opportunity... but the 24 year old hit .291 in the regular season and I don't think the A's actually have anyone better than that on the bench. He flies out and now, suddenly, it's up to Josh Lewis to break out of his slump... or is it? I'm going to bring in Kyle Kelver (.237, 6, 34), the former sort-of platoon mate for Ernesto Garcia in Cleveland, to take the cut here against the lefty Pesco. Kelver had a very disappointing season and lost the 1B job to Ray Hawkinson but this is what they hired him for. He grounds out towards the middle but also towards short and there's only so much you can expect a baseball to do when Oniji Handa is nearby. He throws to first in time for the out and it's over! The Sox come back from a 2-1 deficit to win this one. Not gonna lie, I thought the A's were going to pull it out, if not in the last game than in the middle innings today. At the end of all of this, though, the fact of the matter is that the A's were never able to get through the Red Sox' starting pitching after the first game and now in retrospect it feels like they never really had a chance.
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05-30-2023, 04:10 PM
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,612
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As noted in the previous box score. Tom Brown was a deserving ALCS MVP, although either Justin Kindberg or Michael Pesco could have take it just as easily. The A's managed just 2 runs in the final 3 games after scoring 9 in the first 2. That's a paddlin'.
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