The Great American Baseball Thrift Book (1946-1970?)

[ayaghmour2]

Love the new way you're doing the team breakdowns! I'm sure its a bit more time consuming, but it gives us a nice peek at the players in your world, especially the non-Ernesto Garcia's or renamed players we don't hear as much about

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by ayaghmour2

Love the new way you're doing the team breakdowns! I'm sure its a bit more time consuming, but it gives us a nice peek at the players in your world, especially the non-Ernesto Garcia's or renamed players we don't hear as much about

Haha, thanks! To be honest, this *is* a bit more time-consuming but kind of in the good way: I get to deep-dive into every single team and come up with stories, narratives, and all that jazz. We'll see how I feel about this after 24 teams, haha.

[Syd Thrift]

San Diego Padres
73-80, 5th NL West, 7 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: Not a lot was expected of the Padres; after all, they were still heading into just the 4th year of their existence. They've got a couple of nice pieces but a couple of nice pieces do not a whole team make.

1972 In Review: San Diego surprised everyone, really, by hanging around close to .500 all season and even, however briefly, getting into the NL West pennant race in late August. Yes, they were quickly ushered out and they did finish the season 10-19 when a 19-10 finish might have kept them in the race, but it seems mean to knock them for that. Paul McCartney practically carried them THE WAY HE CARRIED THE BEATLES not really frankly John Lennon was the "carry" Beatle in the later years but, you know, maybe like he carried Wings.

1973 Outlook: If this was the mid-80s I would say the future's so bright, you gotta wear shades. Since it's not, I will choose a different metaphor.

Pitching

Rodrigo Aguilar
LHP No. 25
LL, 6'4" 190 lbs.
Born 1942-04-27

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 SD  MLB  16  13   0  3.18  33  33  12  245.2  238   92  87  90  102
1971 SD  MLB  11  10   0  3.47  27  27   5  196.2  198   83  76  68   59
1972 SD  MLB  18   9   0  3.57  32  32   7  242.0  198  100  96  89   96

Out of all of the original expansion players on all of the teams, Rodrigo Aguilar might have the best story of anyone. He actually wasn't even picked in the expansion draft; instead, the now-30 year old was released by minor league Batavia Trojans at the end of the 1968 season and signed on with San Diego looking for... a job. Any job. He went 10-12, 4.15 that year as the Pads used him all over the place - 24 starts, 10 appearances in relief, 186.1 IP. He's been in the rotation ever since then and is arguably the team's best starter.

Aguilar's game reminds me somewhat of a fake (read: real-life) Padre from the 70s, Randy Jones. He chooses to throw his 2-seam fastball in such a way that hitters make weak contact with it instead of getting lots of strikeouts. Like a lot of finesse pitchers who rely on location, Aguilar can give up HRs - he allowed the 5th most in the NL in '72, although I should point out that in both of the previous two years he was top 10 in fewest HRs per 9 innings.

I would not call this man my vision of a staff ace but he's clearly the Padres' vision.

Steven Tyler
POS No. 10
SR, 6'2" 189 lbs.
Born 1948-10-01

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CBS AA    4   2   0  1.60   6   6   5   50.1   44  12   9   15   42
1970 OKC AAA   4   9   0  4.66  14  14   5  106.0  120  62  55   34   94
1971 OKC AAA  11   7   0  2.99  20  20  13  168.1  151  74  56   73  106
1971 HOU MLB   2   3   0  3.34  23   2   0   40.1   54  19  15   22   22
1972 SD  MLB  15  14   0  3.54  31  31  12  223.1  199  98  88   75  117

This is how an expansion team makes those big steps forward. Tyler was drafted by Houston in 1970 and went straight to AA, where, as you can see above, he began to produce immediately. After a nice first half in AAA Oklahoma City he even moved into the bullpen of the big leasgue club. But he was only, I guess, very good and the Astros grew tired of both him and teammate Don Henley's penchant for songwriting when the club needed guys whose heads were always in the game and so the Astros traded both rock stars to this team in exchange for Jason Gilmer. Gilmer went 12-13, 3.48 for his new team, which is nice and all but one could make the argument that Tyler all by himself, 7 years younger at that, was better.

Tyler's out pitch is a changeup that he calls his "big ten inch" because of its break. Like Aguilar, he looks less like a power guy than someone who will get his defense in on the action, although when he's on he can put a pitch pretty much exactly where he wants it to. It's probably all of the... microphone holding. I was about to say "guitar playing" but I don't think Tyler plays much guitar. He's an outstanding hitter for a pitcher and if this was a 2-way era he might play in the field a bunch. He did play some third base and outfield in college.

All in all, while I don't think he's quuuuuuuuuite an ace in training, Tyler for sure seems like a future #2 starter on a contender.

Ben Feldhusen
LHP No. 36
LL, 6'2" 198 lbs.
Born 1938-09-09

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1971 SD  MLB  10   6   0  2.95  24  24   4  167.1  166  60  55   47   99
1972 SD  MLB   6  14   0  3.27  26  26   6  186.2  167  69  68   58   96

This team is soooo full of good stories. "Bronco Ben" Feldhusen, a former 15 game winner and 3-time All-Star, missed all of both 1969 and 1970 with a damaged elbow ligament and then a torn UCL. This would be the death knell for many pitchers but San Diego had room to give the man another shot and he's taken hold of it. San Diego is wise to closely monitor his pitch counts but he's practically got a different man's arm in place with all of the surgeries now. He did miss six weeks this past year with shoudler tendinitis.

It'd be a cooler story if Bronco Ben got the kind of run support that he deserves from this team but he got just 2.7 runs per game, which, in case you didn't know, is bad. 19 of his 26 starts were of the "quality" variety. He was never a super-huge strikeout guy, preferring to force hitters to hit his 2-seamer into the dirt. He also has a forkball that he tosses in against lefties when teams are dumb enough to put them in the lineup against him: he held lefty batters to 186/247/230 splits. Clearly, if the starting thing doesn't work out, he could simply turn into the best lefty specialist in the game.

Feldhusen's next win will be his 100th. He won't reach 200 but if he keeps getting treated with kid gloves, maybe the 34 year old could hit 150, who knows?

Don Henley
LHP No. 27
LL, 5'8" 173 lbs.
Born 1947-09-18

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CBS AA    7   7   0  2.44  15  15  10  125.1  120  38  34   36   88
1970 OKC AAA   6   5   0  3.56  15  15   3  111.0  105  49  44   30   99
1971 OKC AAA   9  11   0  3.53  23  23  11  178.1  177  84  70   52   91
1971 HOU MLB   3   3   0  4.43  10   7   0   48.2   49  26  24   18   26
1972 HAW AAA   6  12   0  2.49  20  20  11  165.2  109  47  46   36   89
1972 SD  MLB   5   7   0  2.93  13  13   4   95.0   81  35  31   23   48

The other half (well, third; minor league starter Mark Courtway was also a part of that trade) of the Jason Gilmer trade, Henley was called up in the 2nd half of last season with mixed results. He was a combined 11-19 between AAA Hawaii and the major leagues but that record in this case may not be telling the whole truth, as Henley got just 2.2 runs per game of support (speaking of, the Padres were 4th in the NL in runs scored; they just were apparently very unsupportive of a lot of guys in this rotation).

Unlike the rest of the rotation, Henley's out pitch is a big breaking curve, although like everyone else he seems to be average at best at getting strikeouts and instead relies on putting the ball where he wants it to go. Last season he held opponents to a .221 average; I'm not sure that's sustainable. It'd be a fun story if all rock stars hit well but Henley, unlike Steven Tyler, hits like a pitcher: he was 5-31 (.161) in his 13 starts.

Darius Parchman
RHP No. 37
RR, 5'12" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-01-28

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 POR AAA   0   4   1  4.57  10   0   0   19.2   26  10  10    5   12
1970 MIL MLB   0   1   0  2.93  29   0   0   46.0   44  17  15   12   29
1971 SD  MLB   6   7  17  2.46  61   0   0   84.0   63  26  23   22   75
1972 SD  MLB   4   9  23  2.61  55   0   0   86.0   79  27  25   30   61

This is Darius PARCHMAN, a fully fake player. Darius "Hootie and the Blowfish" Rucker is about 20 years too young to be in this dynasty. There's nothing you cna do about Parchman; he only wants to be with you in the 9th inning. This is a man who actually gets whiffs, which makes him a devastating change of pace from the finesse-oriented rotation. That K rate was down to 6.4 from 8.0 the year before but Parchman didn't really lose effectiveness overall in his 2nd year as San Diego's stopper. He also had a pretty great shutdown to meltdown ratio of 26-to-7. You can call him your fool.

Robbie Vaughn
LHP No. 15
LL, 6'1" 195 lbs.
Born 1945-02-17

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TOL AAA   2   0   0  1.49   2   2   0   12.0    7   2   2    2   19
1970 DET MLB   1   4   0  4.66  15   7   0   44.1   45  29  23   19   38
1971 TOL AAA  11   9   0  3.27  28  28   1  184.0  170  74  67   91  117
1971 DET MLB   0   1   0  2.25   4   0   0    4.0    5   1   1    1    3
1972 DET MLB   0   0   1  0.00   1   0   0    1.0    0   0   0    0    1
1972 OAK MLB   0   1   0 67.50   1   0   0    0.2    4   5   5    1    2
1972 SD  MLB   3   4   4  4.74  34   0   0   43.2   48  24  23   15   28

Vaughn was flipped from the Tigers to the A's and then to the Padres over the course of a week in May; in the last move that got him into San Diego he was a throw-in in the deal that sent 1B/3B Alex Canales to Oakland. Vaughn, a former top 10 prospect, had flitted in and out of the rotation during various stints in Detroit but had never been able to stick due to a general lack of stamina. The Pads took one look at him and decided he'd be a full time reliever. The results were... well, the ERA was high but honestly I'd love to know what his runners bequeathed/scored stats are because he doesn't look that bad. I guess an opponents' BA of .277 is pretty bad, and he did suffer 8 meltdowns, more than Darius Parchman had all season. Welp, I've talked myself into it: this is a make or break year for Vaughn, who, failed prospect or no, is still only 27.

Cesar Barreras
RHP No. 9
RR, 6'6" 200 lbs.
Born 1945-07-12

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 SLC AAA  14  12   0  4.27  31  31  17  223.1  230 121 106   82   86
1970 SD  MLB   2   3   0  4.64   6   6   1   40.2   46  21  21   13   16
1971 HAW AAA   9   4   0  2.57  15  15  11  125.2   94  38  36   54   33
1971 SD  MLB   2   6   0  7.91  12   9   0   58.0   78  59  51   30   29
1972 SD  MLB   8   8   0  3.11  28  22   7  179.0  140  64  62   65   64

Barreras briefly found himself on the top-1oo prospects list in 1968. Maybe even that was just expecting too much. In any case, 1972 was the first year that the 27 year old seemed like he was finally able to put everything together. Thanks to a bunch of rough cups of coffee with the Cubs and a trial by fire as a middle reliever in '69 with the Padres, he still holds a 19-32, 4.08 record even after last season. He throws a high-80s fastball that's nothing special, really, but - you guessed it! - he succeeds when he hits the corners. The Padres are stocking up guys like this as if they were... San Diegan candy. Surf boards? Whale vaginas?

Infield

Peter Gabriel
C No. 13
LR, 5'11" 186 lbs.
Born 1950-12-22

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TC  S A  0.333   21   81    9   27   4   1   2   10    6   14   0
1970 LOD A    0.247   33  113   13   28   6   0   4   19    3   16   0
1970 SLC AAA  0.428    2    7    1    3   0   0   0    1    0    0   0
1971 HAW AAA  0.279   97  369   27  103  22   3   1   42   13   35   0
1971 SD  MLB  0.306   18   62    5   19   3   0   0    7    4    7   0
1972 SD  MLB  0.266  108  371   28   99  24   0   3   45   21   43   1

Unlike with past versions of when I've messed around and done this, I really didn't have themes in mind for these teams... and yet, already themed "sets" are emerging. The Padres, for example, seem to be Music City. They're close enough to LA I guess that I can ignore that San Diego is about the most musicless city on the West Coast (like, sorry guys but San Franciso, Seattle, and Portland exist, plus LA is so big that it's everything... and they did birth the 90s ska movement).

But enough about themes! Peter Gabriel had himself a pretty solid rookie campaign, all told. Just the fact that he's 21 and is playing in the majors makes it pretty awesome in its own right but he did more than play, he was basically a league average hitter for a catcher - over the course of a full season, that's potentially Silver Slugger material. Gabriel has never hit for power and that K/BB ratio is a concern; long-term he might be a bottom of the lineup guy.

Gabriel also has decent if not great tools to play in the infield and outfield, although he's only got ratings at 2nd and 3rd. Should the Padres want to play him more often, they might want to pull a Craig Biggio with him. Personally I think he'd have to grow a lot as a hitter first to make that viable. He's actually a really good defensive catcher, really solid at handling pitchers even at his young age and blessed with a strong arm that threw out nearly 40% of baserunners last year (39.2%, 2nd in the league to Doug Connally).

The sky's the limit for this kid! Also insert all your Genesis jokes here.

Michael DeBose
C No. 5
SR, 6'0" 202 lbs.
Born 1946-02-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TUL AAA  0.181  124  396   40   72  15   0  16   65   47  145   0
1971 SD  MLB  0.241  103  323   34   78  21   2   6   51   24   73   0
1972 SD  MLB  0.212   94  198   22   42   6   0   8   29   22   30   0

DeBose was a Rule V pick out of the St. Louis Cardinals organization and honestly looking back I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking at the time (yes, among other things I manually run the Rule V). Whatever the case, it sure worked out last year, as DeBose was a pleasant surprise and stopgap for Gabriel being ready to go. This past year he kind of came down to earth. DeBose was blocked by his own propensity to strike out too much as much the present of John Stuart in ahead of him in the major leagues, and while he was able to counteract that to some degree in 1971, 1972 was probably a truer indicator of his abilities as a hitter. He did show off a lot more power than he'd shown in '71, which is nice.

Speed-wise, he's a catcher. Although he laid down successful bunts 5 times in 1971, that's not really a forte of his game. He's a good playcaller, if not quite at the level of Gabriel, but he does have struggles stopping the run, having caught just 22.7% and 27.9% of stealers since coming into the pros.

All in all, DeBose is a classic case of "if this guy is starting for you, look for an upgrade". Fortunately, he is not starting for San Diego.

Carlos Palacios
1B No. 1
LL, 6'4" 213 lbs.
Born 1946-03-18

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TAC AAA  0.358  128  474   73  170  17   3  10   71   46   18   1
1970 CHC MLB  0.473   21   19    5    9   2   0   1    3    2    3   0
1971 TAC AAA  0.328   39  143   19   47   9   1   3   22   19    9   0
1971 SD  MLB  0.332  115  436   52  145  38   1   4   65   37   28   0
1972 SD  MLB  0.260  128  488   53  127  23   2   7   46   27   48   0

It takes a special kind of player to wear jersey number 1. Some would say an egoist but that doesn't really describe Palacios. Palacios is the kind of guy who'd wear that number because he likes the number 1. Carlos Palacios is not a thinker. Carlos Palacios is a hitter. Unfortunately Carlos Palacios started slowly, hitting only .250 (17-68) in April, and never really got his game going outside of a .353 August. When Palacios is on, there's no better hitter in the game. He hit well over .300 throughout the minor leagues, not to mention, of course, last year. Historically, too, Palacios has had some nice bat control, but last year the ugly side of that reared its head, as he finished 3rd in all of baseball with GIDPs with 27.

The Padres paid a hefty price to acquire Palacios - RF Nelson Hernandez, who was .266/27/83 when they dealt him to the Cubs (granted, that Hernandez himself has not lived up to the hype of that '69 season) - and this is not what they paid for. He's only 26 so he's got a great chance to bounce back... but Palacios needs to bounce back or else he'll be wearing that #1 in the stands.

Paul McCartney
2B No. 19
RR, 5'11" 151 lbs.
Born 1949-06-18

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CMD   R  0.560   13   50   12   28   2   1    8  22    9    7   2
1970 ABD S A  0.375    3    8    2    3   0   0    1   6    4    0   0
1970 STC   A  0.486   10   37   13   18   4   0    6  14    6    5   0
1970 MIA   A  0.309   11   42    5   13   0   0    1   5    6    2   1
1970 MID  AA  0.318   20   69   11   22   2   0    3  12   11   10   0
1971 SD  MLB  0.288  151  568   88  164  24   7   26  87   62   84   4
1972 SD  MLB  0.266  151  571   96  152  15   6   32  94   75   79   6

In his 2nd big league season, the Padres kept McCartney stuck on second basee - he played a grand total of 9.2 innings anywhere but the keystone - and the lead singer of Wings, who is somehow 23 in spite of having a whole ass decade in this band called the Beatles, rewarded them with career highs in HRs (3rd in the NL) and RBIs (also 3rd). He seems like a complee lock to repeat as the Silver Slugger for 2B and is something of a dark horse for the Gold Glove as well, given that he led all second basemen in total chances. Much of that is thanks to his pitching staff but McCartney is no slouch in the field when it comes to range.

About the only thing McCartney doesn't do is steal a lot of bases, although he probably could do that if the Padres asked him to. He's not a guy you'd want to use to bunt or hit and run with but if you did either of those with this guy you ought to be fired anyway.

The old Scouting Reports have these little stamps in the upper corner of some players that say things like "BIG BREAKING CURVEBALL" or "STAFF ACE" (although I have the 1985 one open next to me and it doesn't seem to have those yet). McCartney's might say "CLEANUP GUY" or "ALL MY TROUBLES" or "SEEMED SO FAR AWAY".

Kevin Landry
3B No. 45
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1932-10-16

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SD  MLB  0.244  146  543   68  133  16   5  18  77    49   75  10
1971 SD  MLB  0.276  118  437   66  121  21   8  12  58    37   44  13
1972 SD  MLB  0.218  118  393   34   86   7   2  12  44    35   63   7

In a career that started in 1955, Landry, who just turned 40 during the World Series, seems to have lost a chunk of bat speed and now approaches the twilight of his career. In spite of such a long time in the majors, he really only ever got a chance to start daily when he joined the Padres via an April trade for relief pitcher Jesse Marshall. Marshall, who's 5 years younger than the "Swamp Fox", is long gone but Landry remains. He even made the All-Star Game in both 1970 and 1971.

If he returns next year, it will almost surely be as a backup and a pinch-hitter. It's a role he's filled in the past but... he's hit in the past and he didn't hit in '72. He's still a decent fielder, especially for a man his age, but we'd be lying to you if we told you his range is as good as it ever was. Landry is like a 3rd baseman version of Jim Dwyer, if I'm making comparisons to fake leagues.

Dale Earnhardt
UT No. 16
RR, 6'1" 199 lbs.
Born 1948-11-16

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 LOD A    0.311   16   61   10   19   4   0   4   10    3   22   3
1971 HAW AAA  0.229   59  205   26   47   5   0   2   15   33   43   3
1972 SD  MLB  0.263  125  391   52  103  19   0  12   45   50  112   2

The third overall pick in the 1971 draft, Earnhardt rose through the ranks quickly and played everywhere - I would say LITERALLY everywhere but the language NERDS would get me on that - the Padres asked him to: 49 games at 3rd, 35 at first, 25 in left, and even 8 in RF. Because of this he more or less got starting-level playing time and... we have a pretty good idea of who this guy is at 23. He has maybe not developed all of his power yet and so the Padres would be wise to not complain too much about the strikeouts... although truth be told, he did K an awful lot: 2nd most in the NL. In spite of that, Earnhardt still hit a respectable .263 and got on base at a nice .353 clip.

It should be no surprise that his best position was first base. Like come on, OOTP, that's everyone's best position. Earnhardt's arm is only average, which makes him not the greatest long-term fit for third (of course, with Landry turning into a pumpkin the Padres might not have a lot of choice in the short term) and he gets spooked too easily on the pivot, making him a less than ideal second baseman (plus, of course, Paul McCartney). He's much better suited in left than he is in right field, as his arm is a touch below average. Although Earnhardt is not a base-stealer, he is absolutely ravenous when it comes to taking extra bases on hits. If the game had an internal grit rating, Earnhardt's would be a 200.

The one concern we have of the guy is that his non-baseball profession, his hobby if you will, is race car driving. He's hardly the only speed racer in the MLB "circuit" but Earnhardt seems to take more risks than most. In pure baseball terms, he is the real deal.

Joe Wicker
SS No. 4
RR, 5'12" 181 lbs.
Born 1945-06-03

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TUL AAA  0.257   83  330   49   85  20   2   7   41   19   65  22
1970 STL MLB  0.270   53  192   25   52  16   3   5   40   19   26   6
1971 TUL AAA  0.215   40  153   21   33   3   3   3   11   20   20   7
1971 STL MLB  0.211   29   52    4   11   1   0   0    3    3    8   0
1972 TUL AAA  0.243   59  246   31   60  16   1   4   16   22   44  10
1972 SD  MLB  0.264   59  208   27   55   7   4   4   23   24   31   6

The Padres traded superfluous 2B Andy Johnston to the Cardinals for Joe Wicker on June 20, expecting the 26 year old to be their new shortstop of the future. Reality had another thing in mind, as on the 29th of June he was diagnosed with torn ankle ligaments and missed the next month and a half. When he did play, Wicker looked like everything the Padres were hoping for, and for a stretch in August, a bit more (he hit .330 for the month with 17 runs scored in 26 games). There used to be a knock against him that he struck out to much but if 1972's major league stint was any indicator, he's solved that.

Nobody's expecting Wicker to hit .330 but he's got great range at short, the kind of range that can make you a legit All-Star if you hit even .260. Wicker hit all over the lineup - mostly 8th but he even had 12 at-bats in the cleanup spot - and does... well, most of the little things you expect a guy with this profile to do. He could learn to lay down the sacrifice a bit better; he had just one sacrfice hit all of last season.

As the saying goes, the best ability is availability. We'd love to see what Wicker can do in a full season.

Ben Dowler
SS No. 42
RR, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1938-05-09

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 AMA AA   0.238   74  226   26   54   6   1   1   16   33   44   8
1970 PHO AAA  0.301   21   63    9   19   3   0   0    5    9    8   1
1970 SF  MLB  0.225   37  111    7   25   4   0   0    4    8   27   1
1971 SD  MLB  0.233   40  120    8   28   4   0   1   13    9   20   1
1972 SD  MLB  0.222   65  202   20   45   4   1   2   18   22   38   1

Now Ben Dowler on the other hand, this is not a guy who I get my hopes up about. Dowler, who's name sounds like something you'd say in a prank call if you had dyslexia, has been in the league since 1963 and is the epitome of the term "replacement level". OK, so that's sliiiiiiightly unfair; he's a really great fielder, not quite John Timonen level but close. As a hitter, he hits like John Timonen. And at 34 it's not like this old dog is going to learn any new tricks.

Armando Troncoso
SS/IF No. 26
RR, 5'12" 201 lbs.
Born 1946-11-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LOD A    0.357   11   42    9   15   1   2   1    9    9    3   2
1970 SLC AAA  0.283   41  166   26   47  16   3   0   16   11   22   7
1970 SD  MLB  0.243   10   37    2    9   2   0   0    4    3    5   0
1971 SD  MLB  0.268  129  511   59  137  24   6   4   43   30   67   8
1972 HAW AAA  0.220   12   50    4   11   1   1   2    3    4    5   2
1972 SD  MLB  0.310   44  103    4   32   5   1   0    8    4   12   0

Troncoso was the Pads' starting shortstop in 197 1and even hit pretty well, all things considered. That said, the fact that they broke camp with Ben Dowler as their starter and really only turned to Troncoso in June - and even then only for a little while - should speak volumes about this guy's defensive reputation. Every ball hit to him is an adventure. He finished with 5 errors in 156.1 innings for a .930 fielding percentage - a little down from the .953 he sported in 1971 but neither is acceptable - and in '71 got the rap for being the worst fielder in baseball bar none.

Troncoso is basically on this roster right now because a. there is a reserve clause and b. he's still only 25. You'd think he might be adequate at third base - he does have a great arm - but those hands, man. Those hands.

Outfield

Greg Cowan
LF No. 7
LL, 6'0" 202 lbs.
Born 1941-08-18

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CIN MLB  0.203   65  152   16   31   4   1   4   21   14   37   4
1971 SD  MLB  0.290   69  162   28   47  11   3   9   29   24   31   5
1971 CIN MLB  0.238   20   42    6   10   3   0   3    3    3   13   0
1972 SD  MLB  0.225  103  280   34   63  10   2  11   45   36   52   7

Cowan wound up as the leading LF in innings played with 614.2. In truth it was a left field by committee situation. He did shine when given the opportunity to platoon-start at the position in September when he hit .275 with a .510 SLG. Now 31, it's probably time to just accept Cowan for who he is: a low-average hitter with a little bit but ot enough pop in his bat who should never, ever see left-handers except at the zoo (he went 5-35 against them in 1972).

Going into 1972 he looks like more of a 4th or 5th outfielder at best, as the Padres have got a couple guys they'd surely rather use.

Junior Cannon
1B/OF No. 3
LL, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1943-12-04

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CIN MLB  0.279  121  430   87  120  14   1  28   99  100   84   1
1971 CIN MLB  0.221  137  469   65  104  14   1  18   72   74   88   4
1972 CIN MLB  0.225   55  142   22   32   8   0   5   17   24   29   0
1972 SD  MLB  0.138   20   36    4    5   1   0   1    5    9    8   0

Case in point. Cannon slumped baaaadly in 1971 after, you guessed it, a career year in 1970 - arguably his half-season in 1969 when he hit .354 and won the ROY was better - and then, when he didn't hit any better to start '72, the Reds cut him loose, partly to make a statement to the rest of the team and partly out of sheer frustration. San Diego signed him at the end of August and while I'd love to say that Cannon hit the cover off the ball for the new team, I would be lying.

Cannon still profiles for plus power, although he may not flirt with 100 RBIs again. He also walks a lot, which I am told is a good skill to have. Surprisingly enough, given his reputation for attitude, Cannon's a very good defensive first baseman and a solid corner outfielder as well, although a weak arm - yeah, that "Cannon" name is a misnomer - prevents him from being a difference-maker in right.

Chavo Guerrero Sr.
CF No. 24
RR, 5'11" 190 lbs.
Born 1949-01-13

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TC  S A  0.256   67  257   36   66   5   3   5   23   31   39  40
1970 LOD A    0.316   27  101   15   32   4   1   0   11    8   24   9
1971 LOD A    0.287   98  362   69  104  16   8   4   32   50   50  24
1971 HAW AAA  0.154   33  123    8   19   3   0   0    4   11   18   6
1972 HAW AAA  0.214   47  168   13   36   5   1   0    8   14   20  11
1972 SD  MLB  0.165   62  218   21   36   4   1   0    9   16   36   7

Obviously the Padres rushed Chavo Guerrero Sr. - the .165 average and the 36 Ks in 218 major league at-bats clinch it - and now the question is, have they ruined him for good? He has Gold Glove quality range and so it's really obvious why they called the 4th round pick from the 1970 draft up so quickly - you could even make an argument, should you squint enough, that Chavo was a net positive for the team. But if ever a .165 average has been a true indicator of where a guy is... this is it.

The Padres would be very wise to give this man the seasoning he deserved to have in 1972 in the minor leagues. Something something lucha libre.

Ed O'Neill
OF No. 29
LL, 6'1" 198 lbs.
Born 1946-05-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HAW AAA  0.233   39  133   20   31   7   5   1   12   18   17   4
1971 HAW AAA  0.233   68  240   31   56  10   5   2   22   59   33   8
1971 SD  MLB  0.290   67  186   24   54  10   3   0   21   30   24   5
1972 SD  MLB  0.242  120  424   48  103  17   5   8   35   41   71  13

In a league that literally features Bill Clinton and Bibi Netanyahu (don't get me started! I added both into the league well before all the really horrible stuff started coming out), somehow Ed O'Neill is the one who makes me think "wow, when was this guy ever young?". And yet, the future star of "Married With Children" and "Modern Family" is not only young but... he's kind of spry. The former high school fullback is a hard-nosed guy who gives it all out there. I just wish he'd not stuff his hand down his pants when he sits on the bench.

Defensively, the whole deal with potentially ruining Guerrero looks even stupider because truth be told, O'Neill looked pretty good in the 38 games he played at the position. If anything, center suits him better than right; he's got great range and a good instinct for the ball but his arm, while good, is not at elite levels. He's also a deceptively fast runner who can move runners along with the bunt when asked. Ideally you'd like him to strike out less but you know how the kids today are...

Ray Herring
OF No. 17
RR, 6'0" 197 lbs.
Born 1943-06-25

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 STL MLB  0.219   95  351   37   77  12   1   6   33   17   51   3
1971 PIT MLB  0.278   40   61    8   17   3   1   1    7    4    6   2
1971 SD  MLB  0.076   21   26    0    2   0   0   0    0    1    5   0
1972 HAW AAA  0.184   17   65    6   12   2   0   2    6    1   10   1
1972 SD  MLB  0.303  104  359   48  109  16   5  11   38   26   46   8

Herring had built up such a bad reputation for center field defense in his time in Cleveland and St. Louis that people forgot that you can put a guy like that into the outfield corners, too. It didn't help that Herring, not the brightest tool in the shed on the best of days, started to struggle at the plate as well amid all the sneers being sent his way. San Diego acquired him practically for a song, as a throw-in of a trade of two relief pitchers. Even though he even started 1972 in AAA Hawaii, Herring was called up in mid-May and wound up having his best season in the majors since his last year in Cleveland (1969, when he went .291/13/66).

Herring is what he is and even for a corner outfielder his range is now only average. That said, he rarely loses concentration afield and has got a pretty decent arm as well. If you asked me back in March if he'd be a candidate to be the starter on the next (first) contending Padres team, I'd say no way; now, I think the chances are better than even.

[Syd Thrift]

San Francisco Giants
74-81, 4th NL West, 7 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: Two straight losing seasons from 1970-71 meant that whether they liked it or not, the Giants were in rebuilding mode. San Francisco is perhaps not a team that will ever want to go full-on rebuild but the offense at least needed some big, big upgrades, the kind you need 3 to 5 years go find.

1972 In Review: The offense didn't get there - or get anywhere close to getting there - but a 2nd best pitching attack kept the the Giants... well, I won't say they were really within striking distance but I'll say competitive to the end. Things really hit rock bottom around the 6th of June, when they were 22-30 and looked like they could flip-flop with the Reds in last place at any time. They were a game over .500 from that point forward, somehow.

1973 Outlook: More amazing to me, this team actually outscored its opponents last year. I don't believe it except that the stats clearly say so. That right there tells me that they might be a lot closer than you'd think they have any right to be in a very mediocre NL West. All it would take is just a couple of breakout years, and this team is young enough for guys to break out.

Pitching

Mike Stuckey
RHP No. 6
RR, 5'11" 198 lbs.
Born 1940-12-14

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 SF  MLB  13  18   0  3.30  37  37  12  285.2  268 112  105  68  201
1971 SF  MLB  13  11   0  3.18  31  30   7  228.2  230  96   81  81  156
1972 SF  MLB  12  13   0  2.37  31  31  12  246.1  200  73   65  67  141

I really want to see Mike Stuckey succeed and it's not (just) because his name reminds me of the bowling alley in the early 2000s Ed Cavanaugh dramedy "Ed" (it was called "Stuckey Bowl", and by the way that show was great, basically "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" but with whimsy instead of musical numbers and also the main character didn't have the same level of understanding that what he did WHICH WAS THE EXACT SAME THING THAT CRAZY EX GIRLFRIEND DID was unhinged and weird). But alas, Stuckey seems destined to finish around 12-13 every season. The fact that he's only made one All-Star Game in his career qualifies as a hate crime in some countries.

Stuckey would be the powerest pitcher on the Padres if he played there. With the Giants, he's considered yet another finesse guy. He did finish 3rd in the NL in ERA this year so that's a thing.

Josh Matthews
LHP No. 34
LL, 5'11" 186 lbs.
Born 1946-03-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CLE MLB  22   9   0  2.96  39  39  11  297.2  258 111  98  118  201
1971 CLE MLB  13  17   0  3.56  35  35  10  267.1  257 118 106   99  165
1972 SF  MLB  15  12   0  3.02  30  30  13  229.0  211  88  77   83  135

Cleveland got impatient with Matthews after a single "bad" season - it's really only a "bad" season in comparison to that all-world 1970 that he had - and allowed the Giants to nab the 26 year old in exchange for Robert Rivera - a great pitcher in his own right, mind you, but 6 years Matthews' senior - and LF/PH Bobby Turner. Matthews had the same degree of success that he'd had in 1969 to 1970, although a lack of run support meant that he stalled out at 15 wins. The decline in strikeout rate is accompanied by a similar decline in walk rate: this is Matthews getting older and learning to pitch, not a premature decline.

Matthews is a good enough hitter that he won the AL Silver Slugger for the position in 1970 (not a lot of those anymore!). Last year he only hit .179, a career low, but, I mean, .179 for a pitcher is still pretty nice. All lefties seem to have a good move to first but with Matthews, guys just plain do not steal second on him, period: he had just 9 steals allowed all season long last year and the most he's ever allowed is 10.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
RHP No. 7
RR, 7'2" 222 lbs.
Born 1947-11-09

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 AMA AA    5   5   0  3.53  12  12   5   89.0   71  37  35   39   53
1970 PHO AAA   4   2   0  2.11   6   6   4   51.0   52  14  12   19   26
1971 PHO AAA  15   6   0  3.23  24  24   6  178.0  144  67  64   64   80
1971 SF  MLB   1   2   0  2.42  12   4   1   29.2   25   8   8    9   13
1972 SF  MLB  12  12   0  3.18  29  29   8  217.1  187  84  77   64  110

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an NBA superstar, a (future) actor (actually, when did "Enter the Dragon" come out? Probably about this time), and arguably one of the smartest men to ever play pro basketball. Why wouldn't he be a ballplayer? And, given that he's a ballplayer, why not be a pretty good one?

He was only a 5th round draftee and in this save, I think due to my own speeding up development, that's more like a 5th round pick in the NFL than in the MLB. Still, he came up through the ranks with a neat split-finger fastball but mostly an assortment of pitches he throws for strikes. Somehow Abdul-Jabbar made the top 100 prospects list 3 times in his minor league career so I'm not going to act like nobody saw this coming. Still, don't be fooled by the tall stature: Abdul-Jabbar is, as a baseball player, a real lunchpail guy.

Moises Melendez
RHP No. 29
RR, 6'5" 201 lbs.
Born 1948-01-24

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 GRN A     9   5   0  3.91  16  16  10  117.1  114  58  51   27   93
1970 LOU AAA   7   4   0  2.04  12  12   1   88.0   76  26  20   15   69
1971 SF  MLB  14  10   0  2.84  32  32   6  234.1  215  86  74   52  102
1972 SF  MLB  12  10   0  2.81  29  29   8  217.1  183  70  68   50  118

The Giants seem like they've really hit their mark on young pitching. Moises Melendez is essentially the same age as Kareem and a similar pitcher: fringy major-league stuff, pinpoint control. In 5 years' time, which one of these guys will we look at and say was better? I've got nothing. Melendez' bread and butter is his long, looping forkball that he, again like Abdul-Jabbar, gets a lot of leverage out of thanks to his long body. He did increase his K rate by a full strikeout per inning last year so that's a nice add.

Sam Williams
LHP No. 41
LL, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1944-05-01

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 STL MLB   1   1   0  7.49  12   0   0   12.0   14  13  10   12   10
1970 SF  MLB   7  11   0  5.21  25  18   1  124.1  120  76  72   63   93
1971 PHO AAA   2   2   0  4.20   6   6   1   40.2   41  19  19   22   19
1971 SF  MLB   9  12   1  3.81  30  23   4  172.1  166  87  73   77  115
1972 SF  MLB  10  13   0  3.63  30  26   4  195.1  167  82  79   80  105

Outside of Stuckey, Williams is the old man on the staff at the ripe old age of 28 and in 1972 he seems to have finally figured out how to pitch. This is a man who has been around the league - drafted by Philadelphia, traded to the Astros, picked up in the expansion draft by the Padres, traded to St. Louis, and then finally traded on to San Francisco. It's easy to see why so many teams have tried him - the man hits the mid 90s on the radar gun - but at the same time you can see why so many clubs have cut bait. Even last year, Williams hurt himself with 22 HRs allowed, which was a real departure from when he actually finished 9th in fewest HRs/9 in 1971. Are NL hitters beginning to figure him out? On the other hand, he's cut down on his walk rate in each of the last 3 years to the point that he's now roughly average in what used to be a big downer category for him.

I feel like you could probably call <next season> a "make or break year" for half the players in the league. Sam Williams is in that half.

John Booth
LHP No. 2
LL, 6'4" 201 lbs.
Born 1936-03-25

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 SF  MLB   4   6  21  2.49  53   0   0   72.0   58  24  20   25   32
1971 SF  MLB   7   8  23  3.29  64   0   0   90.0   88  35  33   36   42
1972 SF  MLB   6  10  19  3.31  58   0   0   81.1   76  35  30   50   29

Some people are beginning to wonder if the 36 year old John "The Assassin" Booth (no relation to the guy who shot Lincoln... or iiiiis heeee?) "assassinates" his own team out of hte game as much as he puts things away. That strikes us as unbelievably mean: since coming over from the second-run Senators in 1968, Booth has saved 15 or more games a year, every year. This year he tallied 19 vs 4 blown saves, which is pretty average overall. He did melt down 15 times but be quiet about that. ALso be quiet about the fact that his K rate fell all the way to 3.2 per 9. He made up for it by... inducing a lot of fly outs. That seems like a recipe for danger I SAID SHUT UP ABOUT THAT

Charlie Bechtel
RHP No. 27
RR, 5'12" 180 lbs.
Born 1947-01-11

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TID AAA   1   2   7  2.29  28   0   0   47.0   37  17  12   14   51
1970 NYM MLB   2   0   1  1.21  31   0   0   44.1   25   7   6   12   38
1971 NYM MLB   5   3   6  2.89  55   0   0   74.2   66  26  24   14   56
1972 NYM MLB   0   0   0  0.00   6   0   0    6.2    4   0   0    0    2
1972 SF  MLB   2   5   3  2.25  39   2   0   56.0   42  14  14   21   40

If Booth does give up the ghost this year AND HE WILL NOT BECAUSE HE IS AWESOME wait why am I sticking up for John Booth so hard? ANYWAY if that should happen, Charlie "The Test" Bechtel is right there to step in. The Giants acquired him in a white-flag trade in which they sent their star RF and #3 hitter Barry Cooper to the Mets in exchange for cash and this guy. Let's just say that Bechtel has been worth it. Position player for reliever trades seem like a bad idea but softening this blow, in addition to those fat stacks of cash, are the facts that Bechtel is really good at his job, so good that in spite of starting a grand total of 0 games in the minors he still crept onto the top 100 lists in 1967. Also, he's still only 25 but now has 2 1/2 years of accumulated time of being really good in the major leagues. He throws two pitches: a biting slider and a plus-plus cutter. That's enough. It's not really enough to start but the Giants gave him that chance anyway - he was 0-1, 3.48 with 10.1 IP in them and so that experiment is probably over.

Infield

Iggy Pop
C No. 31
LR, 6'4" 201 lbs.
Born 1947-10-05

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SJ  A    0.316   93  319   47  101   9   2  19   54   38   61   6
1970 WAT A    0.285   16   56    8   16   2   0   1    4    8   17   0
1970 ELM AA   0.384    4   13    4    5   1   0   0    5    5    1   0
1971 AMA AA   0.400   21   65    9   26   3   0   2    5    6    9   1
1971 PHO AAA  0.248   76  250   23   62   6   0   6   31   33   42   1
1971 SF  MLB  0.277   39  101   11   28   7   1   1   18   15   23   0
1972 SF  MLB  0.218  110  307   33   67   7   1   5   35   42   78   0

Iggy Pop, whose real name is Andre Iguoalda Pop, broke camp with the club and was the left-handed half of a platoon with Chris Campbell for pretty much the entire season. Pop is already 25 and has yet to really replicate that power he flashed in the low minors at higher levels, but then they don't call these the "tools of ignorance" for nothing; perhaps Pop, who fronts a band called the "Stooges" in the offseason, just needs to learn how to develop it.

He's young and has pretty OK speed for a catcher, which is to sya he's got any at all. That also means he blocks pitches well and can even fill in at first every now and then, at least in theory. It should also be noted that he was 9-27 vs. lefties; while I wouldn't extrapolate that to mean he is a rare reverse lefty, perhaps he won't be befuddled by them in extended work.

Chris Campbell
C No. 23
RR, 5'11" 209 lbs.
Born 1939-07-21

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SF  MLB  0.233  112  356   40   83   8   2   4   30   60   84   0
1971 SF  MLB  0.229   97  270   24   62  10   0   1   31   48   62   0
1972 SF  MLB  0.191   78  193   15   37   2   0   3   11   35   43   0

Campbell is a fun guy in the clubhouse and fields well and all but at 33 it seems like he's like an old bottle of milk at the grocery store: past his shelf life. You know, you ask me, the grocery store should be catching this. Cambpell didn't even get to play in the majors until he was 29 and let's be real here: even being a half-time guy with the Giants these past 3 years was a bit above his pay grade. Now the Jints have Mr. Pop. And so it goes.

Rodrigo Juarez
2B/1B No. 1
RR, 5'7" 152 lbs.
Born 1947-01-15

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 AMA AA   0.270   56  196   33   53   7   0  11   27   39   34   2
1970 PHO AAA  0.289   52  190   31   55   8   0   7   25   18   35   3
1970 SF  MLB  0.192   15   57    5   11   2   0   4   10   14   14   0
1971 SF  MLB  0.237  126  459   67  109  18   4  17   69   54   75   2
1972 SF  MLB  0.218  138  521   65  114  17   1  26   76   53  101   2

Juarez represented the Ginats in the All-Star Game this past year, which strikes me as... weird because I'm not entirely convinced he's good enough to start. I guess, adjusted for the era... he's still kind of average overall. You could argue that he's the kind of slightly above average hitter that San Fran needs more of: he doesn't hit for average at all and got on base at a whopping .291 clip but he does have good power for the league, finishing 8th in the NL in HRs, and also finished 10th in RBIs, as low a total as 76 seems. You'd think he strikes out too much to be "that guy" but OK, it's time to not rip into Juarez too much.

Defensively, Juarez made a solid transition to first base, although he is veeery undersized for the one position on the field with a bit of a height requirement. He still has the range there of a converted first baseman so in some ways that might make up for his not being able to reach for the high throws. You'd say "move him back to 2nd" but they've got a guy there now... who, say, wait a minute, DOES have that tallness about him. The problem there is that that guy is just plain a better fielder. OH RIGHT this team has a whole-ass other first baseman I completely forgot about becauase he's been out all season...

Chris Seek
1B No. 10
RR, 6'2" 205 lbs.
Born 1944-10-03

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PHO AAA  0.334   77  302   45  101  15   0   7   47   28   18   0
1970 SF  MLB  0.286   90  276   23   79  13   1   3   38   22   39   0
1971 SF  MLB  0.268  134  439   49  118  23   2   2   47   35   42   0
1972 SF  MLB  0.256  111  199   22   51   8   0   3   15   17   20   0

Seek would/could be the first base option if he had, like, any power whatsoever. The Giants tried him out there in 1971 and they just plain did not get enough. That meant that in 1972 he transitioned to pinch-hitting and then filling in a bit at first in between the loss of Justin Richens and the team deciding to move Juarez to the position.

Seek is a good, solid first baseman who actually does have the height for the position. He's got no kinds of infield tools that would lead you to ever think of playing him anywhere other than first, which limits his opportunities. He's a great bet for the hit and run but doesn't really bunt at all, and on the bases he... is a first baseman.

It's honestly hard to see exactly how Seek fits into this team next season. It all depends on how well Justin Richens is able to come back at the age of 40.

Justin Richens
1B No. 17
LL, 5'11" 193 lbs.
Born 1932-05-10

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  0.290  110  409   63  119  24   2  16   76   68   33   0
1971 HOU MLB  0.271   91  287   45   78  18   0   9   48   27   54   0
1972 SF  MLB  0.247   65  198   28   49  11   1   4   20   24   30   0

Richens, the long-time star for the Tigers who's moved all over the league the last 4 years, looks like his career may be winding to a close. This could in fact be it; if so, he'll end with 2,511 hits, 427 HRs, 1.392 RBIs, and a .297 career batting average. Those might not look like HOF numbers from the 90s but from a guy who's prime was in the 60s, I'm thinking so.

Richens signed on with the Giants right after the strike after he was released by the Reds out of spring training. Expected to provide them with middle of the lineup hitting, he certainly hit in the middle of the lineup before a torn back muscle shut him down for the season right after the All-Star Break. Even before he exited for the year though, Richens was showing a distressing lack of power: the only other time in his entire 19 year career the old slugger hit as few dingers as that was his 40 at-bat call-up in 1954.

Richens is still recuperating from the back injury but should be ready to go come spring training. It's going to be an open question as to whether or not he still has anything left, and even if he does, what the Giants will possibly do with him now that they have two other guys they're trying to use at the position.

Bob McAdoo
2B No. 20
RR, 6'9" 208 lbs.
Born 1951-09-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 VAL R    0.300    5   20    1    6   2   0   1    6    1    3   0
1970 SXF S A  0.400   29  125   21   50  12   1   3   21   10   20   0
1970 FRE A    0.375   22   88   10   33   9   0   4    9    7   18   2
1971 DEC A    0.281  120  491   45  138  32   1   3   31   29   96   3
1971 AMA AA   0.266    8   30    4    8   4   0   0    5    0    4   0
1972 PHO AAA  0.260   97  380   26   99  13   3   4   19   17   50   1
1972 SF  MLB  0.309   56  233   19   72  14   1   1   20    9   26   0

The decent showing of McAdoo in AAA ball helped make Juarez' move to first base all the more easy, especially when the tall, tall man responded well to being put in the #2 hole for most of the second half. McAdoo has shone a worrying propensity to strike out in the minor leagues, although he seemed to cut that down in the majors last year. When he does put the ball in play, he beats out more than his fair share of singles.

He was called up because of his defense. He'd be a decent shortstop if he had an arm but he does not so instead even at 21 you can see where he could win Gold Gloves for the defense. He's excellent on the pivot, already one of the best in the game at making that transition. For a guy who looks so fast coming out of the batters' box, McAdoo is surprisingly slow on the basepaths and was rarely a steal threat even in the minor leagues. He'll set down the bunt when you need him to and if the ability to avoid strikeouts continues he's a solid hit and run man, just what you need in that 2nd spot in the lineup.

There are a lot of different directions the Giants could go at first and second. I personally do not think they'll move the 21 year old McAdoo back to the minors and since I make all the decisions that is probably how it'll be.

George Harrison
3B No. 13
LR, 6'1" 179 lbs.
Born 1947-11-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 VAL   R  0.428    7   28   10   12   2   2   5   12    2    5   0
1970 SXF S A  0.300    4   10    3    3   1   0   1    5    5    0   0
1970 FRE A    0.260    5   23    3    6   1   1   0    1    0    2   0
1970 DEC A    0.298   40  151   23   45   4   0   6   30    9   16   4
1971 AMA AA   0.258   83  302   38   78   8   3   8   42   25   37   4
1971 PHO AAA  0.252   29  111   15   28   7   1   2   15   16   16   2
1971 SF  MLB  0.388   33  121   15   47  14   2   2   13    5   12   0
1972 SF  MLB  0.263  139  524   54  138  17   6   8   53   35   57   4

Even though this team finised tied for the 3rd fewest runs scored in the NL, I think it's easy to look at the infield in particular and see the beginnings of a top-class offensive attack in a few years. George Harrison is one great example: the "24" year old was plugged in at third base for the whole season and responded with a good average and the signs of good pop, not necessarily "Yesterday" level pop but "One Fine Day" level at least.

Even though the team has him pretty well set aas their third sacker, one of the biggest assets the Liverpool native has going for him is his versatility: in his short trip up through the minors, Harrison played games at second and short and all 3 outfield positions. He's got a great arm, one of the top arms in 3rd in the game, so it's obvious why he's being put there. Last year he committed only 6 errors all season long at 3B for a .984 fielding average, a big, big upgrade over Tim Mock from the season before.

Harrison finished the season batting third for this team. That seems a little ambitious, at least for now. If he hit in the bottom third of the order he'd be one of the best guys in the league in those slots.

Tim Mock
3B/IF No. 4
RR, 5'12" 194 lbs.
Born 1941-03-31

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SF  MLB  0.258  124  487   45  126  21   0  10   74   21   63   8
1971 SF  MLB  0.245  109  407   39  100  12   4   7   43   26   45   4
1972 SF  MLB  0.251   70  191   16   48   7   2   1   11   14   22   2

Mock might only still be on the team to replay the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau: the latter stuck around to acknowledge the glory of the former. Mock was supposed to be more than a stopgap; the Giants acquired him in the 1868-70 offseason (along with CF Chae-hwi Park, more about him later) in exchange for the since-retired Nick Hawkinson and SP David Camacho (who you may remember from the ALCS this year) to fill Hawkinson's shoes. They didn't need him to be Hall of Fame level or anything, they just needed to transition to someone younger who could pick it. In his first season he looked like that guy. In '71 he fell off and so in '72 the Giants had a new man for the position. Mock platooned with him over the first half of the season, transitioned to more of a pinch-hitter role, and then missed the final month with a strained medial collateral ligament.

He's 31 now and it's hard to see any way he could get starters' innings on this team. He's got a decent arm himself but range issues will always prevent him from playing shortstop. He did get into more than 100 innings apiece at 1st and 2nd; an infield backup/utility/RH pinch-hitter role could be more his speed. Speaking of speed (NICE SEGUE) Mock isn't a demon but he's fast enough to have stolen double-digit bases in the past with the Mets.

Ryan Jersey
LF/3B No. 18
RR, 5'10" 196 lbs.
Born 1944-11-05

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SF  MLB  0.253   57  158   15   40  13   0   3   19   22   30   1
1971 SF  MLB  0.272   47   99   17   27   2   1   5   13   16   17   0
1972 PHO AAA  0.222  106  387   35   86  12   1  11   31   35   62   1
1972 SF  MLB  0.236   32  110   12   26   4   0   5   14   13   18   0

If Mock doesn't have a spot on the team, Ryan Jersey reeeeally doesn't. He started the year out in the minor leagues and while I would not exactly say he hit his way into the major leauges, injuries and a need to fill positions led to a late-July call-up. Jersey was the same fine if not spectacular self he's always been and was duly sent back down. He flashed great raw power in A ball in 1968 (.301/35/94 for Cocoa) but hasn't exactly shown that ability since and at 27 it's probably time to just assume he's not going to get there.

The biggest issue with Jersey, really, is that he's nothing special at a position where the Giants are absolutely log-jammed. He also has a high quality arm but unlike the guys in front of him neither his range nor his hands are quite at the potential GG level. More than anything else, Jersey could probably use a change of scenery.

Akiho Fujimoto
SS No. 28
RR, 6'3" 198 lbs.
Born 1938-05-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SD  MLB  0.280  109  429   44  120  25   3   3   44   31   40   1
1971 SF  MLB  0.254  131  500   46  127  18   2   3   41   42   44   2
1972 SF  MLB  0.280  131  475   45  133  17   1   2   39   56   59   0

The Giants aren't really the kind of team that should in theory either need or want a 34 year old journeyman to play shortstop for them and yet, Fujimoto abides. I guess the one thing to put on the face of this is that since Fujimoto basically came out of nowhere in the offseason of 1968 and was essentially a fully formed player as early as '69, he doesn't have the same miles on him as a lot of 34 year olds do. And even with hitting down around the league, Fujimoto hit .280 or better for the third time in 4 years.

Fujimoto is held back by a pretty mediocre arm; otherwise he'd be in the conversation for Gold Glove. He's 34 and runs like a 34 year old. He's not a super great bunter, although he did lay down 7 in 1972 and 13 the year before. He's better than most at dropping one in on his own for a base hit if defenses don't pay enough attention to him though.

I don't really see any reason, barring a sudden collapse, why Fujimoto won't be the man again for 1973. It doesn't hurt that the Japanese-American community in San Francisco has taken a real liking to him.

Mario Sanchez
SS/2B No. 14
RR, 5'12" 178 lbs.
Born 1948-03-16

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SXF S A  0.344    8   32    5   11   1   0   0    5    5    6   0
1970 FRE A    0.299   50  184   25   55  12   2   5   23   23   52   5
1970 DEC A    0.266   30  109   15   29   6   3   4   18   14   19   1
1970 SF  MLB  0.241   37  133   13   32   5   2   2    9   15   25   0
1971 SF  MLB  0.231   65  208   25   48   8   3   1   23   24   46   0
1972 SF  MLB  0.245   41  110   16   27   4   0   5   14   17   17   2

And then you have to ask yourself, why isn't Mario Sanchez taking over this spot? The 24 year old actually played less in 1972 than he did in 1971. The answer is defense. Sanchez isn't Armando Troncoso levels of terrible at shortstop or anything but he's nothing special and a few ticks behind Fujimoto at the position. And sure, he's 10 years younger as well; at the end of the day, the pitching staff benefits more from having a guy like Fujimoto in the lineup more than the team's future benefits from trying to stick what's basically a square peg into a round hole just because the square peg is newer and shinier.

Still, you've got to think that the Giants need to find somewhere or at least some role for Sanchez to play. What role that is beyond "backup middle infielder", I'm not seeing.

Outfield

Jimmy Walker
OF No. 18
RR, 5'11" 194 lbs.
Born 1947-12-01

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 FRE A    0.391    8   23    6    9   3   0   0    0    3    4   1
1970 DEC A    0.326  127  472  104  154  32   8  16   92   76   93  28
1971 AMA AA   0.292   23   72   10   21   3   2   4   17   12   14   3
1971 SF  MLB  0.276  107  399   50  110  22   3  14   56   30   88  10
1972 PHO AAA  0.174   54  172   22   30   7   2   4   15   27   32   2
1972 SF  MLB  0.177   57  198   14   35   7   2   4   15   19   48   1

Walker entered the year with high hopes following a 14-HR, 56 RBI campaign in 1971. He crapped the bed so bad that SF sent him down in June; the hope was that he'd find his hitting stroke in the minors but it never did return so he stayed there. What happened? Even when he was looking like a future middle of the order guy in '71 Walker was striking out too much. Last year, he came out and just seemed to swing at anything within a foot of the zone. Walker has the rep in the clubhouse for being a very smart player and a hard worker so his inability to fix this was confusing to everyone.

Should he figure all of this out, he seems like he might be more of a high-average guy than a true power hitter, as evidenced by his 1970 season, mostly spent in Decatur. He's got good speed, if not necessarily top-of-the-lineup speed, and although this hasn't translated to the majors yet, so far in the minor leagues he's been a guy who can draw his fair share of walks. He's nothing great in the field although he's pretty sure-handed. One thing he does do well is sacrifice.

Walker is too young for '73 to be a truly "make or break" year but it wouldn't be surprising at all to see him open it in AAA Phoenix. The Giants could definitely use the bat they thought they had in 1971.

Jon Berry
OF No. 15
LL, 6'3" 195 lbs.
Born 1940-09-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CAL MLB  0.228   85  197   35   45   5   2   3   17   34   39  10
1971 MIL MLB  0.357   14   14    2    5   1   0   0    1    2    2   2
1971 SF  MLB  0.241   60  166   24   40   6   1   3   17   20   18   5
1972 SF  MLB  0.226   67  195   23   44   4   3   3   14   21   40   7

When Walker failed to put things together, the Giants turned to a platoon in left, utilizing Berry for the left-handed half of it. He looked pretty much exactly like the sort of journeyman, replacement-level outfielder he's always been. Berry's issue is that he strikes out way too much, especially for a guy who lacks real power. If he could learn to put the ball into play more, he could be a .260-.270 hitter and have a bigger role than 4th/5th outfielder. As it stands, even mostly facing right-handed pitching, he had 40 Ks in just 195 at-bats.

Berry actually led the AL in runs scored back in 1968, which seems like a decade ago. Still, it's a sign that when he does get on base, he runs about the bases really well. Even at 32 he's a competent outfielder who has a real gun if you try to advance on him. It would be very surprising to see him get as many as 195 at-bats in 1973; then again, it was surprising to see him get that many in '72 as well, especially with the production he provided.

Danny Seligman
CF No. 22
RR, 6'3" 202 lbs.
Born 1941-05-30

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SF  MLB  0.285   95  407   53  116  15   4   5   39   28   75  12
1971 SF  MLB  0.333  115  489   59  163  15   2   6   44   27   67  30
1972 SF  MLB  0.263  116  487   49  128  16   2   4   34   21   72  17

Danny the Phantom lost 70 points off of his batting average between 1971 and 1972 and while that's never great, he was still very much a positive for this team thanks to stellar defense. Seligman won the Gold Glove for both 1970 and 1971 and seems like a lock for 1972. He covers ground in Candlestick Park like very few men have ever done so in the history of Major League Baseball. Last season he had 433 total chances in the outfield, 3rd in the league in spite of the fact that he missed 39 games, and committed just one error in that time. I'm not going to bore you with NERD stats but he finished 1st in the NL in range factor (3.88), zone rating (+13.9), and defensive efficiency (1.042).

All of that is to say, there is just plain no way he's going to challenge for another batting title unless he cuts way, way down on the strikeouts. He's great at making things happen when he does put the ball into play but he just doesn't do that enough. Also, as the saying goes, availability is the best ability and this year the the main culprit was a nagging back injury that limited him to just 18 games in May and 6 in June.

When healthy, Danny is one of the true superstars of the game.

Chae-hwi Park
CF No. 25
RR, 5'10" 187 lbs.
Born 1943-11-07

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SF  MLB  0.259   49  147   15   38   5   0   3   11   12   30   6
1971 PHO AAA  0.215   59  163   20   35   4   0   1   13   22   34   3
1971 SF  MLB  0.211   33  123   17   26   3   1   7   17   11   17   3
1972 SF  MLB  0.199   44  151   14   30   3   0   7   17   12   22   1

Once upon a time, the Korean-American Park led the league in triples (14), hit 30 doubles, and made the All-Star Game for the Mets as a 23 year old. That was in 1967 and Park is now 28 and a backup outfielder who's barely hanging in the league. The last 2 years his role has been primarily to step in for Danny the Phantom when he inevitably misses time. Park failed to hit above the John Timonen line and while the sudden influx of power is interesting - he's hit 14 HRs in 174 combined at-bats over the last 2 seasons in the majors - it comes with a tendency to try and drive every pitch out of the park instead of settling for base hits. He's also a major step down from Seligman in the field, which is to be expected, but he's decidedly below average as a center fielder at this point in his career.

Park isn't really Mister Right as the backup centerfielder so much as he is Mister Right Now.

Carl Weathers
RF/LF No. 9
RR, 6'0" 172 lbs.
Born 1948-09-23

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 FRE A    0.337   50  175   32   59   8   4   6   32   41   35  15
1970 DEC A    0.337   80  276   61   93  13   6  10   55   48   45  12
1971 AMA AA   0.228   21   57    6   13   1   0   1    6    9   11   0
1971 PHO AAA  0.263   66  224   37   59  13   0   6   34   48   38   2
1971 SF  MLB  0.250   18   32    4    8   1   0   3    7    1    6   0
1972 SF  MLB  0.214  129  462   48   99  13   6  14   57   62   70   7

Weathers is yet another fresh face who looks like he'll be a part of the next great Giants team, although a horrendous end to the season - in September he slashed 172/294/333 - makes his seasonal numbers look pretty, pretty bad. Weathers did walk more often in 1972 than he ever has at any level in the minor leagues, so he did improve upon some things, and even with the .214 batting average he was an above average hitter. Don't expect a lot more power than 14 HRs though, or for that matter much gap power: the most doubles Weathers has ever hit was 19 in 1968.

Weathers likes to act in the offseason and believes he'll be a movie star one day. There have been complaints among the coaching staff that he's more interested in the silver screen than the, um, wooden bat, and truth be told the Giants would prefer this to not be Weathers' final form. He's got good range for a corner outfielder; however, he will sometimes take a play off in the field. He's got interesting speed, although his major league coaches worry that he'll get caught stealing too much and so don't send him overly much - as it was, he was a pretty average 7/11 on steal attempts last year.

Will Hartmann
OF No. 35
RR, 5'12" 188 lbs.
Born 1946-01-17

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 AMA AA   0.276   15   58   12   16   3   0   0    6    6    2   5
1970 PHO AAA  0.294    4   17    3    5   1   2   1    5    1    0   0
1970 SF  MLB  0.299  104  374   44  112  18   5   6   53   23   35   4
1971 PHO AAA  0.250   66  260   31   65  12   2   2   31   19   21   5
1971 SF  MLB  0.231   38  143   12   33   4   0   1   12    5   13   2
1972 PHO AAA  0.275   16   51    3   14   4   0   1    5    8    4   0
1972 SF  MLB  0.228   37   79    9   18   1   0   0    8    7    4   1

A starter in 1970 and very nearly a .300 hitter, Will Hartmann (not to be confused with Yankees outfielder Phil Hartman) has seen his playing time diminish over the past couple of seasons and has reportedly demanded a trade to someone who will actually use him. The former 10th overall pick deserves better than this. A couple of injuries in the past 2 seasons which coincided with injuries elsewhere on the team haven't helped but truth be told, Hartman simply wound up being outfielder number 6 in a 5 outfielder setup.

The biggest issue the Giants have with him is that he lacks the prototypical power you'd espect from a corner outfielder and while he looks like he'd be a solid centerfielder, this team has Danny the Phantom in that role. Those .228 and .231 averages he's held the last 2 seasons were poor but worse, those are some very empty averages. Maybe he'd boost those back up with more playing time. Whatever the case may be, we think we agree with Hartmann here: he should be somewhere else.

[Syd Thrift]

Los Angeles Dodgers
81-74, 3rd NL West, 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: Like the Giants, the Dodgers sure looked like they were over the hill and ready to rebuildl however, even moreso than the Giants, Los Angeles is not a city that appreciates rebuilds and the Dodgers are not a team that does them. Would this mean that they'd get stuck in 70s-win-ville throughout the 70s?

1972 In Review: A weak division gave the Dodgers a very, very outside chance at getting into the playoffs as September opened, and this team did every last thing they could have possibly done to get there. They were 25-7 from September 1 to the end of the year. That also means, though, that they were just 56-67 as of August 31 and had even fallen behind the Giants and Padres in the West. It was just too big of a hole to climb out oof although man alive did they come close.

1973 Outlook: One could argue that this team slumped throughout the first half of the year because they hadn't quite finished kicking the "elder statesmen" of the team to the curb and as such their September record is a better judge of their actual ability than their overall record is. The counter to that argument is that this team was actually outscored last year and has nothing really going for it on offense outside of 1B Justin Stone. Even with him, they finished dead last in the NL in scoring.

Pitching

Fernando Apolonio
LHP No. 23
LL, 5'10" 178 lbs.
Born 1940-12-24

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 LAD MLB  13  16   0  3.59  33  33  12  250.2  236 108 100   85  136
1971 LAD MLB  18  11   0  3.00  33  33  11  263.2  211 106  88   77  132
1972 LAD MLB  20  10   0  1.84  32  32  15  258.1  178  61  53   66  140

Apolonio looked like he was going to challenge the single-season ERA record set by Dodgers ace Jeff Borden back in 1956 (1.62) (Apolonio and Borden were also teammates, briefly, on the 1969 iteration of this team); even a 3.65 July put the kibosh on that, Apolonio still managed to lead all comers in ERA and reached the 20 win mark for the first time in his career. Needless to say, this was a career season for the left-hander from the Dominican Republic. His K rate was only 4.9 and yet was still the highest of his career. In spite of that only-average K rate, he forced hitters to swing at his splitter all season and induced lots and lots of weak groundouts - leading the league with the lowest hits/9 (6.2) and holding batters to a .195 average.

It's almost a joke to ask "is this sustainable?". Like, is one of the greatest performances by a pitcher of all time sustainable? Of course it's not. Apolonio is pretty good, to say the least, and the Dodgers signature 5-man rotation should keep him from ever getting too overworked. He's my favorite to win the NL Cy Young.

Carlos Figueroa
RHP No. 36
RR, 6'1" 197 lbs.
Born 1946-05-04

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ALB AAA   6  13   0  4.42  19  19  10  162.2  164  88  80   81  139
1970 LAD MLB   3   3   0  3.75  14   7   3   64.2   53  30  27   33   57
1971 LAD MLB  11  14   0  4.69  31  29   3  201.1  219 112 105   97  168
1972 LAD MLB   8  18   0  3.42  31  31   5  233.2  215  93  89   95  192

A fellow Dominican, Figueroa turned the corner in his second full season, even if the final wins and losses don't reflect it. After going through so many finesse-based starting pitchers, it's nice to finally see a guy who throws smoke - well, movement; Figueroa throws a cut fastball that only hits the high 80s where a 4-seamer would probably be faster, but all that said, that cutter is practically unhittable when Figueroa is on. He also improved greatly on his control and even cut down his HRs allowed from 26 in 1971 to 20 last year. He only completed 5 of 31 games but that was more a matter of the Dodgers running a quick hook than a lack of stamina. Now that he's proven that he can handle himself - that was not necessarily a foregone conclusion after 1971 - he'll probably be allowed to stay in games for longer.

Figueroa still has a lifetime major league record of 23-37 to go with an ERA of 4.08 in Dodger Stadium. Those aren't good marks but it can only get better from here.

Rogelio Salinas
LHP No. 4
LL, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1943-02-25

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 LAD MLB  16  12   0  3.05  32  32   9  239.0  190  92  81   96  205
1971 LAD MLB   9  14   0  3.85  32  30   7  224.0  199 104  96   76  190
1972 LAD MLB  14   8   0  3.56  31  31   6  222.0  174  95  88   84  185

The 1966 AL Rookie of the Year (12-5, 2.39 for Cleveland) and an All-Star in 1970, Salinas is a real enigma. He gets guys to swing and miss with both his change-up and his curve but has managed to carry a below-average ERA in each of the last two seasons because every now and then he just grooves one down the heart of the plate. He's allowed a combined 73 HRs in the last 2 seasons, including a league-worst 36 this past year. Salinas allowed a low-for-him 4 HRs in September, a month where he went 2-1, 2.86 and contributed to Dodgers' success as much as any other pitcher on the team (other than Apolonio I guess). Then he gave up 3 HRs in a single game in his last start. Go figure.

Andres Castillo
RHP No. 35
RL, 5'12" 186 lbs.
Born 1936-11-24

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 LAD MLB  14  16   0  3.14  32  32  14  249.0  211  99  87   67  196
1971 LAD MLB  15  12   0  3.01  33  30  12  232.2  229 101  78   68  176
1972 LAD MLB  10  11   0  3.34  30  30   7  226.0  193  86  84   86  175

Castillo at 35 - in fact, he'll turn 36 in a month - is the veteran leader of this rotation, a rotation that's also notable for being all-Latino. He's a fiery competitor who will absolutely brush a hitter back if he's standing in too close to the plate, and this competitiveness has really rubbed off on the rest of this staff. In addition to being as much of a strikeout artist as he was 10 years ago, Castillo also makes hitters hit his 2-seamer and 4-seamer both into the ground; he led the NL this year with a 56% groundout rate.

Over the course of his career, Castillo's record is surprisingly close to .500 - only 192-163 - and he's short on the black ink for such a good pitcher. All I can see here is that he is a 1x ERA champ (1961 - 3.42), a one-time strikeout king (1968 - 215) and led the league in wins once (18 in 1964, which, man I hate that the league totals in the 60s were so low for pitchers). With only 3 All-Star Games under his belt, too, it's doubtful that he'd make the Hall of Fame if he retired today. But he won't retire today! He's got 5 years left, right? And if he averaged just over 20 wins per season...

Alec Cosby
RHP No. 32
RR, 6'2" 194 lbs.
Born 1944-10-03

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 LAD MLB   2   3  12  2.08  47   0   0  69.0    63  25  16   35  53
1971 LAD MLB   6   7  23  2.62  62   0   0  99.1    76  35  29   33  81
1972 LAD MLB   7   5  32  1.84  66   0   0  97.2    66  22  20   35  57

Mark down 1972 as the year Alec "The Hawk" Cosby finally came into his own as a closer. Cosby led the NL with 32 saves in 41 opportunities and had 40 shutdowns vs only 9 meltdowns. He did this by not trying to strike everyone out the way he had been prone to doing in the past; his K rate of 5.3 per 9 is the lowest since his 1966 cup of coffee. A former starter, Cosby still says he wishes he was in the rotation sometimes but a. when the Dodgers tried him there he just plain lacked the stamina, completing only 3 out of 83 starts in 2 1/2 seasons in that role, and b. there is just plain no denying what he can do given a lead and a couple of innings to preserve it.

It's high time we added the 28 year old to the pantheon of great reliefs in the game - in the NL he's right up there with Pittsburgh's Paz Lemus, Atlanta's John Winn, and New York's Geoff Sauss. He only had to outperform all of those guys to get mention. As a side note, in real life in 1974 Mike Marshall pitched in 106 games and more than 200 innings in relief. I have no idea how to even try to do that but if I do, it'll probably be with this guy.

Rich Wilson
RHP No. 66
RR, 5'9" 200 lbs.
Born 1938-05-24

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ALB AAA   0   1   0  5.40   2   2   0   10.0   12   6   6    4    9
1970 LAD MLB   0   1   0  9.00   3   0   0    5.0    8   6   5    3    6
1971 LAD MLB   2   5   5  2.56  46   0   0   59.2   59  23  17   22   59
1972 LAD MLB   4   4   6  2.87  49   0   0   65.2   49  23  21   37   50

Rich Wilson is a guy who's gone from scrap heap to heaps of greatness. There's a well-worn cliche there, I'm sure. I'll probably remember it in time for a later report. Anyway, prior to joining the Dodgers organization during the the 1969 season (he was signed as a free agent after being granted his release by the Orioles), Wilson was an organizational guy who, for unknown reasons, kept getting tried out as a starter. Wilson throws sidearm. That's a bad idea. The Dodgers, to the opposite of their credit, tried doing the same with him until he missed nearly the entire season with a torn back muscle in 1970. At that point, they had a roster spot open in the bullpen and they said "why not?".

Wilson has paid huge dividends. Whatever he could or couldn't do in multiple trips through the lineup, he can absolutely do for 60+ innings a year. He's struck out 8.9 and 6.9 batters per 9 innings in his two years up and is arguably one of the top 5 non-closer relievers in the senior circuit. And he's got that easy motion that makes you think that, advanced age or not (Wilson turns 35 next year), he can keep this up for years.

Chris Valenzuela
RHP No. 16
RR, 6'4" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-04-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 SD  MLB   5   5  12  3.13  58   0   0   80.1   60  30  28   42   66
1971 BAL MLB   2   4   4  3.85  45   0   0   65.1   60  30  28   36   52
1972 LAD MLB   3   4   1  2.57  42   0   0   56.0   39  16  16   20   52

There is something seemly (meaning: the opposite of unseemly) about having a guy with the last name "Valenzuela" pitching for the Dodgers, even if it is the early 70s rather than the 80s. Chris can thank the Padres for giving him his initial chance; they traded for him in December of 1969. After working, more or less, as their closer, they actually shipped him off to Baltimore in a big trade that included, among many other guys, Paul McCartney coming back to them. The O's flipped him 9 days after they got him in the Danny Fager deal.

Wherever he may have gone in the past, that last name makes him a lifetime Dodger in my heart, and the fact that he's yet another guy who hails from the DR means that should they ever decide to push him into the rotation, he'd fit right in. He struck out almost a man per 9 innings last year so probably let's just keep him where he is.

Infield

Jason Davis
C No. 3
RR, 6'0" 206 lbs.
Born 1945-02-15

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 EP  AA   0.244   31  119   13   29   6   0   0   16   14   15   0
1970 ALB AAA  0.222    5   18    0    4   0   0   0    2    1    2   0
1970 LAD MLB  0.289   72  211   30   61   9   0   4   19   23   41   0
1971 LAD MLB  0.252  121  337   32   85  14   0   4   30   37   56   0
1972 LAD MLB  0.195  109  318   18   62  14   1   2   27   31   41   0

Davis was considered, at least prior to 1972, to be an offense-first catcher. He's not going to make anyone mistake him for fictional baseball player Johnny Bench but .289 and .252 are not averages to sneeze at. .195 is an average to sneeze at and it highlighted the other big issue with his offensive game, which is that Davis has all the pop of a shortstop. He did walk a decent amount, including 4 intentional walks (he does bat 8th), but even 31 of them with 318 at-bats only translated into a well below average .271 OBP.

Davis, frankly, needs to hit because although he's fairly agile behind the plate with good hands - only 1 error all of last season (in 699 chances), he only threw out 30% of baserunners, which is pretty much his going rate. Davis runs like a catcher - he doesn't - and he's a very good bunter for a non-pitcher. He had 10 sacrifice hits in 1971.

Davis will be given the opportunity to show he can hit again in '73 but he needs to take advantage of that opportunity if he wants to be more than a backup going forward.

Mauricio Alvarez
C No. 33
LR, 5'10" 183 lbs.
Born 1943-03-24

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ALB AAA  0.251   65  207   35   52  10   2  10   40   38   49   1
1970 LAD MLB  0.077   14   26    1    2   0   0   0    2    2    7   0
1971 ALB AAA  0.223   56  112   13   25   3   0   5   19   16   23   0
1972 LAD MLB  0.181   51  105   12   19   2   0   5   15   11   20   0

With Davis in his season-long slump, the 29 year old Mauricio Alvarez totally could have taken control of this job if he'd have just hit. He did not hit and now even his backup role is up in the air. Alvarez has shown some serious pop in the past - as many as 20 HRs in AA back in 1967 so there are reasons to like him. On the other hand, he's just shy of 30, isn't as sure-handed as Davis, and even had a lower RTO% last year (only 25%).

The Dodgers have a guy by the name of Gary McCord in the minor leagues who didn't exactly blow things away (.219/5/27) but is a much better fielder than either Davis or Alvarez and is also a lot younger. His only downside, really, is that he's a golfer in the offseason. I have no real reasons for that being a downside. The real life version of him split his during the 1984 FedEx St. Jude Classic at Memphis and exposed his bare butt to a television audience, so there's that I guess.

Jason Zimmerman
C No. 37
RR, 5'9" 196 lbs.
Born 1942-09-23

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CLE MLB  0.182   60  143   12   26   6   0   1   13   14   38   0
1971 LAD MLB  0.161   72  192   20   31   7   0   3   14   29   37   0
1972 ALB AAA  0.176   47  136   10   24   4   0   4   11   18   19   0
1972 LAD MLB  0.267   46   75    7   20   2   0   5   10    5   12   0

All of the tumult behind the plate gave Zimmerman a chance to re-insert himself into the equation after he took himself out of it by hitting .161 in 1971. He did do pretty well in the second half of the year but to paraphrase Richard Pryor, who are you going to believe, Zimm or his own lying stats?

Justin Stone
1B No. 25
LL, 6'7" 201 lbs.
Born 1939-08-04

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 STL MLB  0.299  153  591  115  177  39   6  43  117  103   93  11
1971 LAD MLB  0.293  152  564   94  165  20   1  38  112   92   82  10
1972 LAD MLB  0.257  145  538   82  138  28   4  33   95   75   82  12

Ernesto Garcia got all the pub in the American League but Stone, as much as it's possible to do any of this quietly in the City of Angels, quietly had another outstanding season in Chavez Ravine, leading his league in extra-base hits with 72 (the 10th time he's done so) and slugging percentage (.507), finishing 2nd in the NL in HRs and RBIs, 5th in runs scored, 6th in walks, and coming in 5th in OPS for you stat nerds out there. Davis is 33 but is showing little to no sign of slowing down. The dip in average? Sure, it happened but Stone was still 20 points ahead of the league.

The HOF metrics for him already show that he's a surefire HOFer if he retired today: a 56 in HOF standards (50 means you're at an all-time "average" in "real life" - in my HOF the standards average is just 44), a "Monitor" score of 324 (when Bill James created this, 100 was a sign you were a good HOF choice; now the minimum is more like 110-115 - still, 324 is a little higher). He's an 11 time All-Star and a 6-time MVP if that's even possible (it must be because here he is). The one thing he doesn't have, at least right now, is the all-time HR title: Atlanta's Henry Riggs has 545 lifetime dingers to Stone's 465. Riggs only had 22 this year and Stone's still chugging along so that might also be temporary.

Danny Fager
2B No. 29
RR, 5'9" 177 lbs.
Born 1941-10-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BA  MLB  0.266  120  492   64  131  13   5  10   47   34   39   12
1971 BAL MLB  0.293  130  498   66  146  25   4  12   60   37   52   14
1972 LAD MLB  0.226   79  288   27   65  11   3   6   24   17   32   12

Fager's first season in Dodger blue was a frustrating one both for him and for the club. The small man is well regarded as a team leader and was expected to be that guy for LA (Justin Stone, like a lot of superstars, is a man who mostly keeps to himself. Instead, he strained his Achilles tendon on the 3rd day of the season, fell into a bad slump in May after the Dodgers mostly kept him out of the lineup, and then, just as he was starting to hit again, missed almost all of August and half of September with a sprained wrist. The result was the worst season of the 31 year old 3-time All-Star's career.

They do say that defense never slumps. I'm not sure agree with "them", whoever "they" are, but in Fager's case it's definitely true that in the half of a season he did play, he was excellent. He's got super soft hands, as evidenced by his .995 fielding percentage at 2nd base (a number that would have been in the top 3 of all time had he qualified, and just off the pace of the .9956 he put up last year, which was 2nd best ever... I will say that slots 3-12 were all filled by 1972 players - something happened this year... okay, yeah, call this the Year of the Scorer because leaguewide FAs were at .988 vs a .978 in real life - last time I'll cite these then!). He won the last 2 Gold Gloves in the AL before coming over to the senior circuit and while all that missed time means he won't get his 3rd, he's really good.

Fager doesn't have the same cachet he built up with Baltimore but he'll surely get at least another entire year to prove that 1972 wasn't just a bad dream. And even if he is a .226 hitter now, he does basically everything else you want a second baseman to do.

Robin Gibb
3B No. 28
RR, 6'3" 203 lbs.
Born 1949-12-21

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 WR  A    0.284   57  229   35   65   9   2   5   28   23   34   2
1971 ORL A    0.271   19   70   11   19   3   0   1   14    7   12   3
1972 LAD MLB  0.260  145  565   67  147  28   1  13   49   39   87   3

Robin Gibb, the mostly unknown member of the Bee Gees, celebrate a good, solid rookie season after being shipped to Los Angeles over the offseason in a 1-to-1 trade for their old stalwart LF Ernie Griffin. It's clear that just one year in, the Dodgers came out way ahead on this trade. Gibb's profiled to one day be a .270 hitter, which feels like damning with faint praise given that he hit .260 in a down year for offenses. The Dodgers played him at 2nd and 3rd for most of the year. He excelled at the former and looked completely out of place in the latter, hitting .220 in 200 at-bats. Hitting in the clutch is one area where Gibb definitely does have room for improvement: he also hit .220 with runners in scoring position, a spot where most hitters do better than their seasonal averages.

Gibb has a nice arm but has the rep for being error-prone (not that you can tell by looking at this year's stats!). He also played 4 innings in right field and could move out there should the need arise. Although he stole 29 bases in college, I don't see how - Gibb has average speed at best and his 3/4 attempts are probably about what you should expect from him going forward.

Justin Henderson
SS No. 43
RR, 6'0" 192 lbs.
Born 1938-08-15

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHW MLB  0.230  140  517   55  119  16   3   8   53   53   89   7
1971 CHW MLB  0.233  115  317   23   74   9   3   0   24   27   50   2
1972 LAD MLB  0.229   88  271   23   62   4   1   1   17   33   46   1

The Dodgers swapped out both parts of their middle infield over the offseason (not shown here: 1971 incumbent 2B Billy Tristan, who retired midseason) and at least in the first year it did not work out. The 34 year old Henderson came from the White Sox at a pretty price - 3B Brian Maccioli - and he was supposed to provide the team with defense and at least a little bit of hitting from the 7th slot in the lineup. Henderson did provide the former, given his 5.8 ZR, but even for a shortstop with a poor rep for hitting, he gave the Dodgers Wayne Tolleson levels of "power" and on top of that was on pace to lead the league in Ks when he was replaced in the lineup by... well, see below.

Henderson's a 3 time Gold Glove award winner and a popular player so it'll be hard to keep him out of the lineup. Not as hard as it would have been in Chicago, of course, which is possibly why they let him be had at all. It's a decision that's a lot easier to make when you have all of 6 extra-base hits in 271 at-bats.

Tommy Martin
SS/3B/2B No. 22
RR, 6'0" 187 lbs.
Born 1946-12-30

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SHR AA   0.237   78  278   36   66  15   4   2   31   16   34  16
1970 RIC AAA  0.222   50  180   19   40  10   2   1   11   12   40  12
1971 RIC AAA  0.228  137  474   58  108   8   1   2   42   47   57  13
1972 LAD MLB  0.233   85  258   18   60   6   1   0   19   15   34   6

Martin was plucked out of the Braves' organization in the 1971 Rule V Draft to be the team's backup utility infielder. Originally a 4th round pick by the Braves back in 1968, they just didn't seem to have a good place for Martin, even after he won the IL/AA combined Gold Glove. Now he's a Dodger. It's no coincidence that the team's best run came after he took over SS duties for the 9-years-older Henderson. Martin is a hard worker and got right down to learning the tendencies of hitters in the major leagues.

He is never going to be a great hitter or for that matter a top-notch defender - at shortstop, at least, a weakish arm keeps him from the highest levels. He's still really, really good at fielding though, and as a defense-first guy he does do the "little things" well - he laid down 9 bunts, he stole 6 bases in 9 tries (and attempted 23 steals in AAA last year), he'll take that extra base more often than not.

Luis Solis
SS/LF No. 20
LR, 6'1" 188 lbs.
Born 1948-12-13

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BAK A    0.310   18   71   15   22   2   1   3   15   11    5   3
1970 EP  AA   0.303   43  152   32   46   7   1   2   20   18    6   9
1970 ALB AAA  0.286    3    7    0    2   0   0   0    0    1    0   0
1970 LAD MLB  0.324   89  346   47  112   7   5   7   42   25   24  14
1971 LAD MLB  0.283  140  554   79  157  20   4  12   54   28   51  19
1972 ALB AAA  0.208   24   96    5   20   2   1   1    2    5   15   1
1972 LAD MLB  0.249   61  197   13   49   2   2   1   14   10   19   7

Solis throws a real monkey wrench into what the Dodgers are trying to do, but not necessarily in a bad way. He was the starter at short in 1971 but lost it because he was very bad - 30 errors bad. This year he slotted into more of a backup infielder / left field role. His production slipped because he didn't get regular play and LA will want to change that situation going forward for the 23 year old. But for who? He hit really well for a shortstop but both 2nd and 3rd are taken and last year, whatever you want to say about the lack of PT, he just plain did not do what you need a LF to do.

This may sound sacrilegious to say about a guy who was a top Dodgers prospect and at one point in time the #55 rated guy in baseball but perhaps, even at the young age of 23, it's time to move on from him and see what veteran help they can get back.

Outfield

Paul Stewart
LF No. 21
LL, 6'3" 198 lbs.
Born 1943-03-03

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PHI MLB  0.298  130  526   70  157  24   1  14   62   34   80   2
1971 EUG AAA  0.375   18   64   11   24   3   1   2    8    8    4   2
1971 PHI MLB  0.238   39  143   13   34   2   1   0    8    6   25   1
1972 LAD MLB  0.262  125  465   49  122  12   1  12   50   36   49   2

Following a breakout 1970, Paul Stewart missed most of 1971 with a torn triceps and then when he did come back proved to be mostly ineffective. This allowed the Dodgers to pick him up over the offseason for an as-yet-unnamed minor league outfielder (maybe he'll get a call-up, maybe he won't, I don't know!). Stewart didn't quite reach the .298 average of '70 but the Dodgers are very happy with the production they did get out of him and now, 2 years removed from that injury, he ought to be back better than ever.

Stewart's not really the rangiest guy in the world so he does need to hit to stay in the lineup. He's got below average speed but he at least does not run his team out of innings. A naturally slow guy, Stewart nevertheless works as hard as he can to improve on his hitting, which is why the team believes so hard that he'll return to the land of .300.

Ben Ernst
CF No. 15
LL, 5'11" 191 lbs.
Born 1946-06-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 EP AA    0.322   42  152   29   49   2   1   1   11   24   21   6
1970 ALB AAA  0.244   29  119   15   29   7   3   1   16   13    7   4
1971 LAD MLB  0.267  103  412   46  110  13   7   5   45   43   56   8
1972 LAD MLB  0.229  108  397   52   91   9   5   1   24   55   66   8

I feel like I've been talking up this team a lot. Look, this is the first club with a winning record I've been able to recap. That said, this was also the worst offense in the NL. You want a glimpse of why? Well, here you go. Hope you're happy! Ernst was pretty OK in 1971 although even then he was clearly out there for defensive rather than offensive purposes. Enrst started slowly, hit .324 in June, and then stunk in July before a series of nagging injuries (maybe he was playing with them before???) sapped his abilities from July onward.

The leg issues - Ernst also missed almost 2 months in 1971 with a hamstring injury - seem to have robbed Ernst of the speed that at one point made him look like a top quality defensive centerfielder. He's just not that guy anymore. Neither is he the same threat to steal the way he looked when he stole 29 for Bakersfield in the California League in 1969. In fact, he might be a backup this year to...

Ronney Yitzhaki
OF/SS No. 13
RR, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1946-09-10

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BAK A    0.220   72  254   43   56   6   2  15   37   38   57  12
1970 DB  A    0.303   33  145   17   44   6   4   1   15    6   17  12
1971 BAK A    0.278   19   79   10   22   7   0   3   10    4   13   2
1971 EP  AA   0.241  110  378   48   91  20   8   6   32   24   65   9
1972 EP  AA   0.293   21   75   15   22   5   0   2    9    9   10   4
1972 ALB AAA  0.208   38  144   13   30   5   2   4   13   13   23   4
1972 LAD MLB  0.272   82  298   30   81  19   2   9   29   19   41   5

Yitzhaki proooobably isn't a long-term solution either; he's all of 3 months younger than Ernst and has much of the same skillset. That said, he hit in the majors this year where Ernst did not and he's got some interesting pop in his minor league resume as well. He also has plus-plus speed although this is tempered by a record of poor decision-making on the bases. I should be clear though that this is not due to a lack of effort: if anything, Yitzhaki tries to hard in the field and could wind up with the same kind of talent-sapping injuries that Ernst has.

Yitzhaki also played 28 games at shortstop in the minor leagues this year. He really doesn't have the arm for that position although that speed could allow him to hold up at the position for a season or two. Yitzhaki is, if nothing else, the Dodgers' Israeli Swiss Army Knife.

J.D. Heil
CF/LF No. 24
RR, 5'9" 176 lbs.
Born 1945-09-13

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LAD MLB  0.225   59  213   19   48   8   2   3   15   13   30   4
1971 ALB AAA  0.231   41  156   29   36   6   0   8   22   14   21   6
1971 LAD MLB  0.288   47  153   23   44   4   2   7   21   11   25   4
1972 LAD MLB  0.200   51  140   14   28   3   1   1    9    7   22   5

Heil, only 27 years old himself, has been with the team long enough to have a World Series ring for 1968. He's been their 4th outfielder for the past 3 years, basically, although he's played less and less as the years progress. Heil got his shot at the end of May when injuries took Ernst out of the lineup for the first time. He hit .182 that month (6-33) and followed that up with a .167 start to June that ended when he wound up on the disabled list with an injured knee. Upon coming back, he had a 10-50 July and from then on the Doogs pretty well forgot about him.

I'd call this another one of those "make or break" type years but frankly I think 1972 already broke him.

Ray Costa
RF/LF No. 5
RR, 5'11" 186 lbs.
Born 1945-11-28

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ALB AAA  0.269   58  212   34   57  12   0   6   18   36   32   3
1970 LAD MLB  0.309   47  139   18   43   7   2   5   24   26   28   0
1971 LAD MLB  0.228  149  548   69  125  24   3  20   75   68  103   6
1972 LAD MLB  0.208  118  423   30   88  14   4  10   50   38   77   2

Costa, a native Angelean, followed up a promising if flawed 1971 with the kind of season that ends careers. Asked to work on his strikeouts over the offseason, Costa instead came to training camp swinging at everything that moves - I guess the hope being that he'd put the ball into play at some point before whiffing. Instead, he hit only .185 in the spring and popped out of April hitting just .196. A .268 May fooled the team into thinking he'd figured something out but then Costa literally failed to hit over .200 in any month after that point as he got worse and worse and worse: .190, .190, .165, 160. The cap came when the Dodgers went on their big run in part by sitting Costa entirely in favor of an outfield with both Ernst and Yitzhaki in it.

Even though he had just 2 baserunner kills to his name in 1972 (IME the game gets way too scared of strong-armed outfielders), Costa has the reputation for a very good arm. Indeed, had he had another 20-HR campaign, we might even be talking about Gold Glove hardware. Maybe. Probably not. He has decent speed, though he doesn't get on base enough to show it.

The best news about Costa is that he still doesn't turn 27 for another month. He'll need to fight for a starting job in spring training.

[Syd Thrift]

Houston Astros
80-73, 2nd NL West, 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: For the past three years the Astros were the constant bridesmaids in a division that saw the Braves and the Reds advance past them. Following a... let's just say controversial trade of Jaden Weaver, a move that was done, according to the pundits, to drop a bad attitude from the roster, they believed that they were in a better-than-ever position even if the fans didn't exactly agree. For one thing, they'd replaced the 37 HRs of Weaver with 42 from Justin Jensen. What wasn't to love!

1972 In Review: This year wound up being perhaps the most agonizing season in Astros history. They actually sat up on top of the division in June, 4 games ahead of the Braves at one point, but you have to play the entire season and a 28-29 record between July and August got the Braves not only back into the race but a little bit ahead of them. They still could have salvaged things with a relatively light 24 game schedule in September but they won only 10 of those games, including going 1-5 vs the Dodgers (2-2 against the Braves so call those 2 series a push) and finished just a half-game back at the end of the year.

To be fair (TOO BEEEEEEEE FAAAAAAAAAAIR) the Braves lost their final game of the season because they chose to rest starters so it wasn't really a scheduling glitch that left them behind. Blame this on... it's hard to evaluate exactly because of the park. Is the 6th best offense good for the Astrodome or not good enough for a contending team? Was only 90 HRs playing to their park? On the other hand, is 4th in runs allowed good or kind of not?

1973 Outlook: Those questions carry into 1973. It's clear that they now have a gaping hole in the lineup where Jaden Weaver used to sit and one has to assume this team will try and do something about that. I personally thought they bolstered their rotation going into the season by adding Ernie Alvarez and Jason Gilmore and (maybe most of all) jettisoning The Mullett. The numbers seem to disagree with me.

Pitching

Tony Rivera
LHP No. 13
LL, 6'0" 196 lbs.
Born 1943-07-31

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 HOU MLB  19  11   0  2.72  38  38  14  290.2  240  93  88  108  208
1971 HOU MLB  25   9   0  3.20  42  42  13  328.2  307 124 117  128  207
1972 HOU MLB  23  13   0  2.57  41  41  20  328.2  275  99  94  106  189

Rivera has been a real workhorse for the Astros over the past three years, a lot like Tracy Mosher was with the Yankees a couple years before. Perhaps that should be a cautionary tale, as Mosher has not looked at all like the staff ace that he once was. Rivera has been 1, 1, and 2 in games started over the last three seasons and 3rd, 1st, and 2nd in innings pitched. Nobody works more than he does, although maybe a couple people work about as often. And he did have a pretty rough September (3-4, 3.16) right when the team needed him to carry the load the most. That said, Rivera was if anything more effective over the course of the entire year than he was in 1971; he dropped his walk rate a bit without sacrificing much in raw stuff. Indeed, his curve looked as as impossible as ever to lefties.

Am I burying the lede here? Rivera also completed a monstrous 20 games with 9 shutouts. The 20 CGs are a high water mark since Matt Pippin completed 23 in 1958 (18-14, 3.01 that year) and the shutouts tie the league record. When he was good, he was unstoppable. His September is a pretty decent microcosm of both his greatness and his problems:

September 2: (NYM) 9 IP, 3 ER, L
September 7: (@SF) Complete game shutout, W
September 11: (@LAD) 7 IP, 2 ER, L
September 15: (LAD) 6 IP, 3 ER, L (the old "technically this is a quality start" game)
September 19: (@ATL) 7 IP, 4 ER, W
September 23: (CIN) Complete game 2-hit shutout, W
September 27: (SF) 4.1 IP, 7 ER, L

Just very up and down and of course two of those complete game performances came against last place teams. I haven't run the old algo on the NL Cy Young yet but my non-stathead brain says he doesn't deserve it.

Ernie Alvarez
RHP No. 7
LR, 6'4" 190 lbs.
Born 1944-07-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PIT MLB   3   3   0  3.72   8   8   2   58.0   61  25  24   15   23
1971 STL MLB  16  18   0  4.40  39  38   6  263.2  286 140 129   81  139
1972 HOU MLB  14   9   0  3.04  37  37   9  272.1  246  94  92   92  138

Houston was Alvarez's 3rd stop in 3 years but based on his 1972 numbers he seems to have found a home. His biggest issue in St. Louis, arguably, was a propensity to lose focus and give up dingers - 27 allowed, 7th most in the NL - but the roomy confines of the Astrodome meant that even when he did have a mental lapse it often just resulted in a loud out. Alvarez used to be one of the biggest workhorses out there, completing 13 games in back to back seasons in '68 and '69, but might have lost that stamina on the operating table when he missed most of the 1970 season with a biscuit meniscus.

Although Alvarez has the reputation for being a groundball guy. Maybe that's just people looking at the numbers and assuming. In reality the 50% grounder ratio was his highest since 1968 and even then he induced a not-outstanding 17 double plays, well off of his career bests. Speaking of career bests, though, even with the Astros monitoring his usage game-to-game somewhat, Alvarez set a new career high in innings pitched, finishing 5th in the AL in that category.

The big thing the Astros would love out of him is more decisions. I really think that comes more down to the offense not supporting him and a shaky bullpen but hey, we like to blame these things on the starters in 1972 so I will.

Jason Gilmer
RHP No. 4
RR, 6'1" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-08-08

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 DET MLB   4   8   0  4.00  17  17   3  121.1  128  59  54   50   80
1970 SD  MLB   7   6   0  3.28  14  14   8  109.2  114  45  40   43   67
1971 SD  MLB  14  16   0  3.69  31  31  13  231.2  233 104  95   93  116
1972 HOU MLB  12  13   0  3.48  38  38   6  271.1  270 115 105  129  141

Speaking of starters bouncing from team to team... Gilmer came up in the Detroit system and looked like he might be The Guy early, making the All-Star Game in 1965 and leading the league with 3 shutouts that year. He never quite came through on all that promise and eventually he was sold to the Padres in midseason of 1970. The Padres just let him pitch without caring about what he might do and as a result they had helped to restore Gilmer's confidence enough - and the league's confidence in him - that they were able to ship him off to Houston for a boatload of prospects.

It's easy to look at the San Diego end of that haul, especially Steven Tyler, and complain about what might have been. In this case at least I think Astros fans should be happy with what they got. There was a terrible, terrible trade in the offseason but this wasn't it. Gilmer had his control troubles last season and wound up 2nd in the NL in walks but even this was an improvement over what they used to get out of Josh Mullett and the reality is that Gilmer was a perfectly decent middle of the rotation guy.

Caleb McDonald
RHP No. 22
SR, 5'8" 189 lbs.
Born 1941-05-24

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 HOU MLB  14   7   0  2.92  40  26   3  209.0  187  74  68   60  112
1971 HOU MLB  16  10   0  4.06  37  37   8  243.1  241 120 110  106  103
1972 HOU MLB  10  14   0  3.82  29  24   4  176.1  183  81  75   68   85

Houston was pretty injury-lucky when it came to their starting rotation last year. McDonald, who missed the last 3 weeks of the 1971 season, missed starts not because of any injury but because he just wasn't all that good for large chunks of the year. He was downright awful in May, for example - 2-4, 6.04 - and he found himself pitching in long relief in July and August before picking things up in September - well, being the 4th starter with all those days off, he only pitched in 3 games but was 2-0, 1.88 in that time.

McDonald is a pure fastball guy who is sometimes guilty of throwing instead of pitching. He's been guilty in the past of giving up dingers, although weirdly enough, even though he was awful on the road this season (2-9, 5.83) it was because of control issues (32 BB in 66.1 IP), not homeritis. As the native of Hurst, Texas gets into his 30s he'll need to prepare himself for the times when the heater doesn't hit the low 90s on the radar gun anymore. McDonald was largely ineffective as a relief pitcher this year (0-2, 4.91 in 11 innings over 5 appearances) but he's been useful in that role in the past.

Vince Bump
RHP No. 36
RR, 6'5" 202 lbs.
Born 1945-07-05

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ELM AA    0   0   0  1.03   6   0   0    8.2    6   2   1    6    5
1970 OMA AAA   4   4  10  3.64  29   0   0   42.0   41  19  17   23   48
1970 KC  MLB   1   1   0  4.15   7   0   0   13.0   11   6   6    9    8
1971 OMA AAA   2   1   9  0.90  26   0   0   39.2   24   4   4   25   33
1971 KC  MLB   3   2   2  4.08  31   0   0   39.2   41  20  18   20   28
1972 OKC AAA   2   1   5  5.09  13   0   0   17.2   19  10  10    6   17
1972 HOU MLB   4   5   3  2.06  33   0   0   52.1   35  14  12   19   36

It is very premature to anoint the 27 year old Bump as the reliever of the future but it's also easy to understand why Astros fans are so soon to do so. It's really less about Bump than it is about Jon Douglas (more on him in a second!), though at that Houston baseball fans should be at least a little bit wary of the 2 blown saves in 5 opportunities (also 1 hold) and the over-5 ERA he had in AAA prior to joining the big league club. On the other other hand, 36/19 is practically a 2-1 K/W ratio and that's very nice and I personally enjoy sinker-slider relievers even if they are classic 3/4 delivery guys like Bump instead of sidearmers.

Jon Douglas
RHP No. 29
RR, 6'1" 202 lbs.
Born 1942-05-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 HOU MLB   4  11  30  3.72  70   0   0   89.1   73  38  37   37   74
1971 HOU MLB   5  11  28  3.25  62   0   0   91.1   68  39  33   33   78
1972 HOU MLB   4   9  18  4.33  56   0   0   72.2   62  37  35   34   53

If you think the Astros pulled the plug on Jon Douglas the closer too early, you clearly have not been paying attention the last few years. Even when he was pitching well, Douglas lost a combined 28 games in relief between 1969 and 1971 and last year he'd have surely gotten to double-digit losses for the third straight season if I hadn't switched him into lower-level situations. Indeed, even with that, his average pLi was 2.04, the 2nd highest of his career, and he blew a total of 10 saves last year.

Douglas' biggest issue is giving up bombs on the road - 8 HRs allowed in 39.1 IP outside of Houston - and while part of me says "okay, just have him be a home closer then", bullpens don't work that way and besides I would forget. Douglas also had a bit more issues with the bases on balls. The totals look consistent but bear in mind that he threw 19 fewer innings in 1972. I'd call him a trade candidate but let's be honest: Douglas seems like he'd flop anywhere that doesn't have a gigantic stadium to pitch to.

Adam Eastin
RHP No. 34
RR, 6'0" 202 lbs.
Born 1939-12-03

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 STL MLB   5   1   9  2.00  27   0   0   40.1   31  11   9   19   21
1970 HOU MLB   1   0   3  0.74   6   0   0   12.0    6   2   1    4    7
1971 OKC AAA   0   0   0  0.00   3   0   0    3.0    1   0   0    1    1
1971 HOU MLB   1   1   1  4.82   7   0   0    9.1   11   5   5    2    4
1972 HOU MLB   3   3   5  2.86  42   0   0   53.1   44  17  17   20   26

Eastin tore his flexor tendon in his elbow in September of 1970 and as a result barely played at all in 1971. The former White Sox and Cardinals closer needed to prove that he still had something left last year. Results were... mixed, I'd say. I like the ERA but the walks and Ks aren't super fantastic and he pretty well imploded down the stretch for this team - 1-1, 5.56 in August and 0-2, 4.82 in September -when they really needed someone to step up in place of Jon Douglas. Eastin's biggest issue might be that his sidearm throwing motion leaves him too vulnerable against lefties: he allowed them to hit .270 against them with only 9 strikeouts in 74 at-bats. He really needs a guy like Roberto Escobar out there to help him and this is kind of not the era for single-inning relief specialists.

Roberto Escobar
LHP No. 20
RL, 6'6" 200 lbs.
Born 1946-12-28

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CBS AA    6   7   0  3.46  15  15   3  101.1   86  41  39   49   86
1970 OKC AAA   2   2   0  0.81  14   0   0   22.0   14   2   2   15   39
1971 HOU MLB   3   2   0  2.99  45   0   0   51.0   45  20  17   26   59
1972 HOU MLB   3   3   2  3.19  38   3   0   56.1   40  23  20   33   47

I have an internal rule with these write-ups to limit myself to 7 pitchers - 4 starters, 3 relievers, generally - but Escobar is too big a part of this team to leave off. He's their lefty specialist. I'd call him a LOOGY but he's rarely in to get just one out, this being the early 70s and all. In fact, Escobar was a starter in college (probably like most pitchers but I don't have feeder leagues on) and really only transitioned into relief in 1970 with the AAA team. He even pitched in 3 games as a starter this year. To be fair (TOOO BEEEE FAAAAAAAAIR) all those 3 starts really did was cement the fact that Escobar helps the Astros best as a relief pitcher (he was 2-1, 5.60 with 14 walks allowed in 17.1 IP). As a reliever, he throws a lot of forkballs that are tough to hit but also tough for Escobar to control. Lefties hit just .179 against him. Batters as a whole only hit .199.

Infield

Dan Rigdon
C No. 46
RR, 6'3" 211 lbs.
Born 1943-08-23

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  0.247  126  457   40  113  31   3   4   52   40   74   0
1971 HOU MLB  0.268  128  496   58  133  36   3   6   52   33   81   0
1972 HOU MLB  0.193  119  378   27   73  14   1   3   38   30   64   0

What happened to Dan Rigdon this year? Sure, it was the Year of the Fielder but above and beyond that, Rigdon's average dived by 70 points and his runs scored and doubles fell to less than half of what they were in '71. In the course of one season he went from All-Star to no-star.

Rigdon's still a good, solid defensive catcher. He's maybe not the All-World type guy you'd need to be to justify a lineup spot with a sub-.200 average but he did throw out 36.4% of attempted stealers, good for 4th in the NL. Houston really just has to consider 1972 a year-long slump. If this is permanent... the Astros do have 1972 year old first round pick Steven van Zandt (who, I just learned this week, was Silvio Dante in The Sopranos) but he's at least a couple years away.

Nate Williams
C No. 15
SR, 5'12" 204 lbs.
Born 1946-01-23

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OKC AAA  0.272  118  412   41  112  22   2   2   43   26   52   0
1971 OKC AAA  0.241   54  170   14   41   9   0   1   12    7   14   0
1971 HOU MLB  0.267    6   15    2    4   1   0   0    2    2    0   0
1972 HOU MLB  0.197   55  132    9   26   4   0   0   10    7   18   0

Nate Williams is the non-McDonald's hamburger from that bit in Eddie Murphy's stand-up comedy special "Raw" where young Murphy said he wanted McDonald's and mom said she could make him McDonald's at home. Even there though there was a sense that adult Eddie Murphy would have loved that burger; Nate Williams is just disappointing to everyone. He might have hit .272 in the minor leagues in 1970 but that's pretty much the only place he hit that well. As a defender he's also just not that good. Mostly he was just there. The Astros do have former Cardinals backup Jose Medina, acquired in a trade last November; it seems like a much better idea to use him in the future even if he is a couple years older.

Justin Jensen
1B/OF No. 33
RR, 6'3" 202 lbs.
Born 1935-07-21

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CIN MLB  0.226  138  460   84  104  12   1  42   96  101  147  0
1972 HOU MLB  0.206  106  326   29   67   8   1   7   33   58  103  0

Of course Jensen was a big disappointment. In fact, maybe the biggest issue with him, in fact, is that he underperformed so badly that one forgets how terrible the trade to acquire him was in the first place. One year in, here's the deal:

Houston gets:
------------
Jensen
Nick Miller
Bobby Beaulieu

Cincinnati gets
-------------
Jaden Weaver
LF Javy Perez
SP Josh Mullett
RF Fred Grandy
1B Justin Richens

Locker room cancer or no, trading Weaver for those 3 guys alone would have been a bad deal. The logic, such that it was, was that Jensen would be their new right fielder and even if for some reason he'd lost it in the entire year he'd missed with injury, they had a new outfielder and first baseman from Cincy anyway. Mullett and Richens were both salary-cutting / "we don't want to cut a fan favorite so we'll leave another team to do it" moves. Grandy isn't really expected to do a whole lot.

This wound up teeeerrribly and the Astros lost the division by half a game. You do the math.

Okay, so what about Jensen? Does he have anything left in the tank>? He was a big strikeout guy who made up for it with power when he was healthy, which is already not a good fit for a team that plays half its games in the Astrodome. Scouts think he still has that power potential. Does it matter at this point? It seems very, very doubtful that Houston will find a trade partner for Jensen and that means either giving him another year to possibly be a giant suck on the team's chances or admitting that the trade stunk and cutting him loose altogether.

Nick Miller
1B/OF No. 19
LL, 5'9" 178 lbs.
Born 1945-05-25

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CLE MLB  0.266   98  169   31   45   5   4   3   19   26   19  14
1971 CLE MLB  0.278   14   18    4    5   2   0   0    2    2    2   0
1971 CIN MLB  0.269  106  301   37   81  11   3   6   33   33   50  16
1972 HOU MLB  0.250  108  312   35   78  12   1   5   38   34   47  16

Miller's really the one part of the above trade that did work out for the Astros... all right, getting out from underneath the locally popular Mullett and the aging Richens were probably fine as well, but in terms of actual on-field production for Houston, Miller turned out to be a pretty decent player, all else being said. He doesn't have prototypical first baseman power but his profile probably suits the Astrodome a bit better than that. He was a bit wasted being used in the 4 and 5 slots in the order, where he had 196 of his at-bats in 1972.With his ability to draw walks and his speed, he's probably more of a top or bottom of the order guy.

It'd be, in fairness, hard to put him in the 2 hole because he strikes out an awful lot. The walks are nice but I'd be afraid of him getting into bad counts if he had to protect base stealers too much,. Miller himself could probably steal 20 or so bases if he was given a full season of at-bats to do so. In the right setting, he's a guy who will, once he gets on base, convert those opportunities into runs pretty often. He'd really help himself out by learning to bunt for a hit or, really, bunt at all: he's had a grand total of 1 sacrifice since joining the NL. You'd also expect a man with his speed to excel in the outfield but in reality he often looks lost out there and as such first base might be his ideal position.

Jordan Green
2B/SS No. 1
RR, 5'11" 203 lbs.
Born 1945-10-22

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  0.275   63  236   25   65  12   1   4   23   24   26   0
1971 HOU MLB  0.277  140  527   64  146  23   1   9   60   48   87   0
1972 HOU MLB  0.258  144  551   71  142  20   0  10   57   58   65   0

Green was moved late in the season from leadoff to cleanup. No offense to the 26 year old but he's not a good fit for either slot. As a cleanup guy he hit .279 but drove in just 19 runners in 147 at-bats; as a leadoff man his on-base percentage was .317 - above average but still not actually good - and he failed to finish in the top 10 in runs scored in spite playing for a full year. The former #26 prospect in all of baseball has turned into a decent but not hitter who can play in the middle infield. It's fine but it has to be seen as a bit of a disappointment.

Green has a really, really good arm and would probably be one of the best 3rd basemen in the game if he was moved there. The Astros already have a good hot corner guy though so Green will likely stick where he is. He's just straight up not a good baserunner, like, at all, which further makes the question of where to put him problematic.

Jon Sherron
PH/2B No. 24
RR, 5'11" 197 lbs.
Born 1943-02-14

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OKC AAA  0.345   86  328   43  113  19   4   4   38   26   47   3
1970 HOU MLB  0.000    7    5    0    0   0   0   0    0    1    0   0
1971 HOU MLB  0.286   36   98   12   28   2   1   1   12    3   13   0
1972 HOU MLB  0.340   54   97   13   33   3   1   3   17    7   10   0

Sherron is a real enigma. It's easy to watch him take batting practice and see why you'd want him in your lineup, and if you aren't convinced by that you can look at his play in Oklahoma City in 1970. One look at him in the field and it becomes easy to see why he's not: he is a singularly awful second baseman who "contributed" -3.7 runs via zone rating in less than 80 innings at the position. He's such a good hitter, though, that maybe he could slot in at first base. He wouldn't be the worst pairing with Nick Miller there. As it stands, in 1972 he was the team's #2 pinch-hitter to Nate Ringstad and could be their #1 for '73.

Pete Little
3B No. 43
RR, 5'10" 188 lbs.
Born 1944-11-14

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  0.262  139  543   66  142  28   3  10   74   52   81   0
1971 HOU MLB  0.230  138  499   64  115  19   1  15   69   58   92   1
1972 HOU MLB  0.283  143  519   45  147  25   1   6   62   63   78   3

1972 was a very tough year for several third basemen in this game. The same cannot be said for Little. His age-27 season wasn't the off-the-charts age-27 year you sometimes see, it's true. He hit for a solid average, his best since '69's .299, drew a fair number of walks, and while the loss of power is a concern - Little has hit as many as 21 HRs in a season - this was nevertheless a year where Little really seemed to come through on the potential that had him as the 3rd overall pick in the draft in 1966.

Little has got one heck of an arm. He'd be a shortstop if he had just a little bit more range. He doesn't, in large part because he just doesn't have a lot of speed out there. He does enjoy hitting line drives but his career high in triples is only 3 and he's had a grand total of 2 in the last 2 years. I'm sure Strat-o-Matic players replaying this season will put him at 3rd in the order instead of his customary 5th. I should note though that SOM doesn't handle CLUTCH and Little hit just .244 in RISP situations.

Nate Ringstad
PH/3B/1B No. 21
RR, 6'1" 203 lbs.
Born 1935-11-09

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  0.233   91  163   17   38   6   0   6   24    9   30   0
1971 HOU MLB  0.292  112  195   24   57  15   0   3   42   15   14   0
1972 HOU MLB  0.245  104  159   17   39   6   0   4   17   12   25   0

Ringstad, a 12 year veteran and putatively the top clutch hitter on the team, evaporated right when the club needed him the most. After going 1-3 on July 31 his average stood at .304 and he looked to pretty much everyone like the top pinch-hitter in all of baseball. Then he went 0-25 in August with 9 strikeouts and 1-13 in September. He was working through back spasms in a lot of that but still... as much as the bullpen meltdowns, the inability of Ringstad to produce anything whatsoever was a huge part of why they fell just short.

He's 36. His days of playing with any regularity in the field are behind him. Lately the local papers have been roasting him pretty hard for his poor play and he even demanded a trade late in the season. It's hard to see how anyone else could love him as much as Houston has over the past half-decade; at the same time, that love affair is clearly over.

Masanori Hattori
SS No. 6
RR, 5'12" 203 lbs.
Born 1945-10-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OKC AAA  0.260   85  339   51   88  18   2  10   40   22   87  24
1970 HOU MLB  0.240   51  179   12   43   8   2   2   13    5   34   1
1971 HOU MLB  0.290   78  252   31   73   9   1   7   41   20   34   3
1972 HOU MLB  0.223  126  376   44   84  14   7   9   26   42   59   3

As a .290 hitter, Masanori Hattori is a guy the Astros wanted to get in the lineup as much as possible. As a .223 hitter, it's another story. Hattori has legitimate power for a middle infielder and also walks a lot. All told, even his slump-ridden 1972 (Hattori hit .194 for June and then .203 for September) was pretty close to league average, which, again, is nice for a shortstop.

The problems come when you look at the defense. Fine, last year nobody committed errors. Hattori would have had a rough time of it if that were the case, as he lacks great hands. He also cares too much about his own future - and specifically his future earning power - to hang in on the pivot when a runner is charging at him on a potential 4-6-3 double play. Shortstop requires a certain attitude and Hattori doesn't have it. He does have the ability, in theory if not used last year, to play at any position in the field, so if he can't recuperate his average then maybe utlity-man is Hattori's future job description.

Alejandro Chairez
2B/SS No. 3
RR, 5'8" 160 lbs.
Born 1939-02-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  0.296  124  486   81  144  24  12  12   52   24   81   3
1971 HOU MLB  0.210   88  314   38   66   8   3   6   25   20   46   8
1972 OKC AAA  0.293   50  191   22   56  13   1   3   26    9   37   7
1972 HOU MLB  0.190   36   84    9   16   1   1   2    9    7   16   1

Chairez opened the year in AAA and didn't join the big league club until June. Then the guy who as recently as 1970 flirted with .300 in the major leagues couldn't hit in the sporadic opportunities that he got. At age 33, it might be finally time to cut ties with the 7-year Houston veteran (that's veteran with Houston; he played another 5+ years in Baltimore). He's got an All-Star Game, and, unbelievable as it might seem now, a Gold Glove under his belt. Time comes for every man though, and rumors abound that Chairez doesn't even want to be here anymore.

Outfield

Jesse Lockhart
LF/RF No. 32
RR, 5'10" 201 lbs.
Born 1943-10-23

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  0.325  155  628   91  204  33   4  16   84   47   43  15
1971 HOU MLB  0.293  105  416   52  122  27   0   6   47   31   56   3
1972 HOU MLB  0.231  142  571   59  132  21   4   8   49   45   68   9

Nobody felt the sting of losing Jaden Weaver more than Jesse Lockhart. The 5th year veteran had previously never hit worse than .300 since joining Houston; without Weaver hitting behind him and protecting him from breaking pitches and the like, Weaver's average tumbled 62 points and he set a new career high in strikeouts. Also conspicuously absent was his power; sure, the Astrodome exists but even when it comes to hitting line drives in the gaps, Weaver's raw numbers have fallen from 37 non-HR extra base hits in '70 to 27 in 1971 to 25 this year. Batting 3rd in the order for most of the season, the 28 year old drove in just 49 runs. That's baaaad.

Lockhart is not going to wow you with the glove. He's ou there every day because he's a .300+ hitter - well, he was before this past year. He lacks burner speed but does surprisingly well for himself on the basepaths, with 9 steals in 2 tries in '72. I'd say hey maybe hit him higher in the order - and he did have 136 at-bats as the #2 man (he hit .257 - still not where the 'Stros want him to hit but better). What he needs to do is get back to that .287 career average of his.

Tommy Scott
LF/RF No. 30
LR, 5'9" 184 lbs.
Born 1940-06-13

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OKC AAA  0.220  130  455   62  100  22   2  14   59   60  101   4
1971 OKC AAA  0.245   60  204   28   50   9   0   5   27   37   27   1
1971 HOU MLB  0.357   32   28    4   10   1   0   1    5    2    7   1
1972 OKC AAA  0.368   12   38    7   14   0   1   1    4    8    6   0
1972 HOU MLB  0.240   60  125   14   30   6   1   1   12   16   18   1

Tommy Scott is the baseball equivalent of a can of mushroom soup. You added it to your pantry for some probably good reason way back when but you never ever actually used and now, years later, you're looking at cleaning house and you're wondering why you have a can of damn mushroom soup in your pantry. Scott was 8-28 as a pinch-hitter, which is nice, but that also means he was 22 for 97 doing everything else, which is not so nice. He's flashed 20 HR power in the distant past in the minors and does, for the most part, walk as much as he strikes out. This is not a fully formed hitter though, and he is an adequate at best outfielder.

George Foreman
CF No. 31
SR, 6'4" 225 lbs.
Born 1949-02-08

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CBS AA   0.280   84  321   50   90  14   3   4   31   43   61  16
1970 OKC AAA  0.189   21   74   13   14   3   1   0    3   12   17   7
1971 OKC AAA  0.309   94  320   61   99  23   9   5   45   73   29  14
1971 HOU MLB  0.380   56  208   42   79  16   5   9   39   24   27   8
1972 HOU MLB  0.313  144  553   90  173  33   3  19   76   74   54  20

Obviously, Foreman was never going to hit .380 again this year. Once you get past that and past the fact that he couldn't carry the team all by itself, it becomes clear that Big George is now the clear backbone of this lineup and the cornerstone of this franchise for the next decade or more. It took the team 2/3rds of the season to figure out that he's not a #2 hitter, he's a #3 hitter; credit, however, is due to Big George for hitting .350 in that role and .303 for September when everything around him was falling apart. He wound up leading the league in doubles and finished 2nd in both average and on-base percentage (.399).

Foreman's a solid if not spectacular centerfielder. He shouldn't have to move off the position any time soon. Although he has the reputation in his boxing side career for being something of a big lummox, Foreman is one of the smarter Astros players in a baseball sense. He's also fast enough to hit leadoff should Houston want that. He has a reputation for pushing his luck when it comes to advancing on base hits. That aggressiveness led him to finish 3rd in the league in runs scored but also created a fair few outs.

John Lopez
RF/CF No. 9
LL, 5'8" 173 lbs.
Born 1940-10-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  0.290  154  639  116  185  17  10  18   59   74   55  28
1971 HOU MLB  0.269  148  605   89  163  15   3   8   57   66   52  31
1972 HOU MLB  0.201   63  209   20   42   4   2   4   23   20   25   3

Moving Lopez out of center in favor of Foreman was supposed to free the 31 year old "Little John" up to concentrate more on his hitting, which had taken a dive in '71. Also, he gave up a whole bunch of doubles into the gaps. However, what happened in '72 was that Lopez had an iffy spring, was shunted out of the lineup altogether as the team broke camp with Justin Jensen in right field, and then, when he was finally given the job back in August, hit .197 and .190 in the last 2 months.

Right field suits Lopez much better than center; he's got a nice arm (no assists last year, come on, OOTP) and the amount of territory he's comfortable covering is fine for a corner guy if not an up the middle one. He's maybe not the same baserunner he was when he stole 38 bases in 50 tries in 1966; he did steal 31/41 in '71 though and the 3/6 showing he made last year could be chalked up to never getting settled in enough.

Lopez has as good a chance at anybody at being the starter in right this year. He'll need to show he can at least hit how he hit in 1971; I guess that's a thing everyone competing for the RF job has to show though.

Bobby Beaulieu
RF No. 11
SR, 6'0" 195 lbs.
Born 1946-10-25

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 IND MLB  0.214    9   14    1    3   0   0   1    2    2    6   0
1971 IND AAA  0.314   45  156   26   49   5   4   7   22   28   20   3
1971 CIN MLB  0.266   83  278   46   74  15   8   8   44   38   55   6
1972 OKC AAA  0.246   31  114   12   28   7   3   3   21   10   29   4
1972 HOU MLB  0.178   72  197   20   35   9   5   3   19   28   58   8

Beaulieu could have saved the Justin Jensen trade and therefore the season if he'd have hit anything like the way he did for the Reds in their lost 1971 season. He did not. Ks were an issue in '71 but Beaulieu seemed to be able to overcome that with speed down the first base line when he did make contact. All that speed was still present in '72. The hits seemed to leave his bat like New Yorkers going to Florida for the winter. He also didn't show the power he'd had the year before but at this point it feels like mentioning that is ading insult to injury.

Beaulieu was finally kicked off the roster more or less for good until OKC's season ended and he got his callup back. I'd love to tell you that he went back to hitting well after that but I'd be lying: he was 2-7 in 7 games with 1 double. I guess that looks good on paper if you ignore the fact that it's 7 at-bats. When in the minors Beaulieu actually kept his batteries charged by playing in center instead of right; at the very least, he should be able to back up both in the majors.

Right is going to come down to which player out of the 3 candidates can actually hit. You hate to see actual spring training competitions like this but... it is what it is.

[Syd Thrift]

Atlanta Braves
81-73, 1st NL West, Lost NLCS 3-0

1972 Outlook: Atlanta had just gotten off of 2 division titles in 3 seasons but the team looked like it was starting to age. They were headed for some downtimes, surely; at least a return to the 82-80 level that they'd "achieved" in 1970. Other than George House and John Winn, the pitching staff didn't seem like much. The team's top 2 hitters - Henry Riggs and Kevin Dwyer - were both over 32 years of age. Defensively it felt like the club was already starting to fall apart at the seams.

1972 In Review: What the league didn't count on was that nobody else in the NL West was ready to step up and be the new guys. The Braves jumped out to a 10-5 start, slipped to 21-15 by the end of May, and then just kind of held in place, just above .500, for the rest of the year. They were once again good on offense in spite of losing Riggs for almost 2 months all told and the pitching was... just good enough. They eked out a close race for the division and then, as predicted, went down quick in the NLCS.

1973 Outlook: This team isn't getting any younger and I wouldn't say the pitching is getting any better either. Atlanta's going to have to make some tough decisions on some great players soon.

Pitching

George House
RHP No. 7
RR, 6'6" 199 lbs.
Born 1942-11-17

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ATL MLB   1   1   0  5.99   2   2   0   12.0   17   9   8    1    5
1971 ATL MLB  23   9   0  3.11  38  38   9  277.2  259 114  96   69  195
1972 ATL MLB  14  10   0  3.16  31  31   8  219.0  187  84  77   56  149

For the past 4 years House has alternated being lights-out, Cy Young Award levels of good with being a lesser guy. In 1970 it was because he missed the entire season with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. This year. he also missed a month with a torn hamstring. At least it wasn't an arm injury. The end result was that House's ERA held steady in a year where ERAs plummeted throughout the rest of the league. He did make his 3rd All-Star Game so there's that at least.

House throws 4 pitches for strikes, including a great curveball. The game lists him as a finesse pitcher but he's well above average in terms of getting guys out (the league averaged about 5.4 and of course it's less than that for starters). The peripherals if anything look like he was exactly the same but we know a decline when we see it! One thing House isn't great at is working late into innings; the Braves probably hurt that old ERA of his by pushing him into the late innings as often as they do. From the Braves' standpoint, what else are they supposed to do?

Felix Carranza
RHP No. 31
RR, 6'0" 183 lbs.
Born 1944-04-21

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ATL MLB   9   8   4  4.40  46  15   3  147.0  155  74  72   53  107
1971 ATL MLB  16   9   0  3.92  35  32   8  238.2  247 108 104   75  138
1972 ATL MLB  16  11   0  3.14  35  35  11  257.1  236 104  90   75  155

Even though Carranza led the team in wins, complete games, innings pitched, strikeouts, and (technically) ERA, it was House who was asked to pitch in Game 1 of the NLCS and, probably, it'll be House who will throw on Opening Day in 1973. Carranza's the #2 starter; that's just how it is. He is, legitimately, a finesse guy where House is more of a power guy. He's got 6 pitches in his arsenal and in spite of a fastball that reaches the low 90s, nothing really and truly fools hitters the way one of the greats can.

Credit where credit is due though: Carranza pushed his ERA down by almost a run last season. In large part that was due to being less prone to allowing balls to go over the fence at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, colloquially referred to as the Launching Pad. Carranza was still a "road warrior" inasmuch has he pitched to a 2.64 ERA away from home ass opposed to a 3.69 in Atlanta, but 11 of his 21 HRs allowed were on the road this year and overall the HRs represent a 7-dinger dip from when he finished 8th worst in the NL in 1971.

Carranza is in the prime of his career. He's won 16 games in the last 2 seasons and even if the Braves can't reach the playoffs again, 16 wins in 1973 seems about right as well.

Julio Sandoval
RHP No. 97
RR, 6'0" 204 lbs.
Born 1942-01-17

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 NYM MLB   2   9   0  5.67  15  15   0   84.0  114  59  53   41   33
1970 ATL MLB   8   4   0  2.48  16  16   2  116.0   92  42  32   38   62
1971 ATL MLB  13  15   0  3.87  37  37   7  253.0  289 127 109   72  101
1972 ATL MLB  10  12   0  3.25  28  28   7  199.0  195  96  72   65   72

There's an old saying by Napoleon that goes like "never interrupt your opponent when he's in the middle of a mistake". In 1970 the Mets, fresh off their first and so far only World Championship, were flailing and in particular Julio Sandoval, fresh off of going 18-7 and leading the NL in ERA, was looking really bad. Never mind that he'd also had an ERA under 3 in both '67 and '68, he was 2-9 with an ERA near 6 and New York needed to make a change NOW. So they sold Sandoval off to the Braves - no players attached, just money, and Sandoval immediately went back to the pitcher he'd used to be.

In the last couple seasons he hasn't quite been the ERA-leader type; he does play in a park that's not nearly as kind to ERAs as Shea Stadium is, after all. Sandoval on paper also might not be the best fit for this team: he's not a strikeout guy at all, Atlanta's regular lineup is aging and lacks the range of a lot of teams, and while he did complete 11 games in '69 he doesn't really have the kind of 20-CG stamina that a team with a suspect bullpen would prefer. As a back of the rotation starter though, Sandoval's kind of great with it. He pitched into the 10th inning in the Game 3, 5-2 loss to the Pirates that ended the NLCS; it was hardly his fault that he couldn't keep going.

Colin Rose
RHP No. 14
RR, 6'1" 182 lbs.
Born 1944-04-01

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ATL MLB   8   8   0  4.52  34  15   3  125.1  124  69  63   59   49
1971 RIC AAA   5   5   0  3.92  11  11   7   91.2   82  43  40   27   31
1971 ATL MLB   2   1   0  4.94   6   3   0   23.2   27  14  13   11    6
1972 ATL MLB  11  11   0  3.55  27  27   8  202.1  175  86  80   64  107

I'm just gonna keep it a buck here: Colin Rose is Phil Niekro. As in, I literally imported Phil Niekro into the game and then changed his name because at the time I was in the mind of being full-fictional (since then I've brought in Kent Tekulve and I think Frank White is in the Royals' organization as well). I've also manually bumped his Stuff up a couple times because, this being a fictional league, the Stuff rates are a little higher than if this was a historical season. Also, I brought him in several years after his actual debut, which was in 1964, so with luck he'll pitch into the 90s should I keep the league going that long.

As you might have figured out then, "Rose" is a knuckleball pitcher. Every game is an adventure. He juuuust missed being in the playoff rotation last year and even though he's already 28 the knuckler takes a long time to figure out and understand and so he might still be on the improvement jag. Since he throws the dancer, Rose has got all the stamina in the world. He's taken out of the game when he starts to get lit up, not when he's "tired". He missed more than half of the 1971 season with a torn meniscus in his knee but looked better than ever in '72. I'd say don't expect a guy who looks like a beer league pitcher to ever with a Gold Glove but truth be told, "Knucksie" is not that bad with it. Expect this guy to be a stalwart of this rotation for the next decade.

Roberto Ortiz
RHP No. 18
RR, 6'2" 187 lbs.
Born 1946-01-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 OAK MLB  12  10   0  3.74  33  33   2  221.0  175 100  92  141  245
1971 OAK MLB  13  17   0  3.70  36  36   5  242.2  19  111 100  164  260
1972 OAK MLB   5   3   0  3.66  15  15   2  108.0   78  45  44   71  104
1972 ATL MLB   5   7   0  4.45  18  14   2  103.0   94  55  51   62   93

The Braves traded away their starting shortstop Jon Reid in order to acquire Ortiz, who they figured would be hard-throwing foil to the relative soft-tossers in the rest of the Braves' rotation. Instead, Ortiz was pretty bad, so bad that he fell out of the rotation by season's end. Ortiz's issue, as it has been since his rookie year with the Kansas City A's in 1967, is control. He gets Ks because nobody, including Ortiz himself, knows where his pitches are going to land. That arsenal by the way includes a fastball that regularly hits the mid to high 90s and has been rumored to once get over 100, although reports are unreliable.

Is a move to the bullpen in order? It really seems a waste in this era to move guys who can start into non-starting roles, but in 4 relief appearances Ortiz threw 7 innings and struck out 8. He did walk 6. That's more of a argument that you use him to open up an inning, though, than one to put him back into a pretty jam-packed rotation.

John Winn
RHP No. 28
SR, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-07-15

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ATL MLB   3   4  23  1.53  51   0   0   76.1   66  14  13   19   75
1970 CHC MLB   1   0   0  2.99   4   0   0    3.0    2   1   1    1    2
1971 ATL MLB  10   4  31  1.32  62   0   0   102.0  73  18  15   21   98
1972 ATL MLB   5   7  19  1.95  59   0   0    87.2  67  20  19   22   88

John "Scorpion" Winn is the backbone of this team, way more than any starter is. That 3 inning stint in Chicago is from my whole "fake players. real transactions" thing where the Braves were... let's be honest, kind of dumb in real life, and also their relief ace in 1970 was a 37 year old Hoyt Wilhem, not an in-his-prime fireballer. STILL, the Braves just plain left waived him in 1970, had the shocked Pikachu face when the Cubs picked him up, and even needed to give up a prospect to get him back (fortunately for the Braves, the man they gave up - 2B Manuel Lozano - went 4-31 in the major leagues and hit .212 in AAA this year).

He came back without too much complaint - Winn is a nose to the grindstone guy and is too busy working on his craft to worry about that sort of thing - and has saved 50 games in 2 seasons. At that, he was slowed down this year by elbow tendinitis in spring training that led the team to treat him pretty lightly all season long. He still struck out more than a man per inning and had 27 shutdowns and a sub-2 ERA. Some real haters might point to his 1-1, 2.91 July as part of the reason why the NL West was so close but come on, man, how can you say that Winn of all people was holding anyone back at all?

Jake Cari
RHP No. 23
RR, 5'12" 187 lbs.
Born 1944-09-16

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ATL MLB   7   7   0  3.99  23  23   3  135.0  131  67  60   52   99
1971 ATL MLB  11  12   0  3.55  29  29   3  197.1  200  88  78   71  105
1972 RIC AAA   2   3   0  4.42   5   5   0   38.2   39  19  19   12   34
1972 ATL MLB   8   4   0  2.15  22  13   3  117.0   89  30  28   37   77

In a season where there were lots of snubs of pretty darn good players in the selection to the Midsummer Classic, Jake Cari's appointment to the All-Star Game has to be one of the most bizarre selections in the history of the league. Hey, sure, he pitched well this year, aside from the 4.50 ERA in 3 appearances in April that led to his temporary demotion to AAA. He was always a back of the rotation guy or a long reliever. Even when Mikhail Baryshnikov went down with the torn UCL that proved to be a career-ender, Cari didn't climb into the bullpen and in fact he didn't even appear in the postseason for this team.

Cari was still very, very solid, and should be a pretty decent trade chip for someone who wants to promote him into a larger role. I've got a really hard time seeing how he breaks into this team as-is, AS appearance or not.

Infield

Armando Flores
C No. 19
RR, 5'10" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-07-23

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 WAS MLB  0.290  128  524   49  152  24   0   4   60   25   62   2
1971 WAS MLB  0.290  120  497   47  144  23   2   7   65   15   68   0
1972 ATL MLB  0.235  120  425   26  100  11   3   6   47   23   58   0

After being basically catcherless for 2 seasons in more Braves Braveyness, Atlanta traded away their hot-hitting backup at the position Andres Gamez, for this man. Gamez flourished in his new surroundings but if I'm being honest Atlanta can't be sad about this deal. Gamez is more of a lead-by-example guy but lead by example he did and to be honest he fits in with the vets on this team better than the somewhat goofy Gamez (hey!) ever did.

Flores doesn't have a really good arm but he is great with the pitching staff. He really slumped at the plate last year, it has to be said. Given that he hit .290, .290, and .278 the previous two years with Washington, we think that he'll be right back up there once he figures out NL pitching. The gap power should return as well.

Christopher Guest
C No. 8
RR, 6'2" 209 lbs.
Born 1948-08-03

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 REN A    0.287   29  101   15   29   2   0   4   17   14   18   1
1970 CHA A    0.188    9   32    5    6   0   0   1    5    7    7   1
1970 SAV AA   0.336   29  116   24   39  10   0   2   27   14   17   0
1971 SAV AA   0.304   51  181   23   55   9   1   6   28   15   22   1
1971 RIC AAA  0.296   70  226   27   67   9   0   3   27   37   42   2
1971 ATL MLB           2    0    0    0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0
1972 ATL MLB  0.225   49  120   10   27   9   1   1   12   14   27   0

Another big factor that led to the team deciding to trade for the veteran Flores was the rapid rise of 1970s' first round draft pick (last man picked in the first, actually) Christopher Guest. It's hard to draw a bead on exactly what kind of player Guest will be in the majors just because he hasn't stuck around in any one place for long enough to build up a large statline. Scouts think he's worth around a .270 average with 20-25 doubles and a solid walk rate. Last year his K/W ratio was not great. The guy's still 24 though, come on.

Guest has a better arm than Flores but doesn't have the same defensive reputation. That might be just fine with Atlanta, who's always been more about scoring runs than preventing them from being allowed. He did have a CERA almost a run lower than Flores - 2.67 to 3.50 - although that to me speaks more to how iffy CERA is as a tool to evaluate catchers than anything else. The fact that his speed is only below average makes him practically a speed demon in catcher terms. Somehow he even stole 15 bases in his senior year at New York University; if he steals 15 bases in his major league career I'll be surprised.

It's really not a matter of if but when Guest takes over that starting job and "when" could be as early as 1973.

Dante Chairez
1B No. 27
LR, 5'11" 191 lbs.
Born 1944-03-28

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ATL MLB  0.294  147  528   91  155  29   1  35  102   80  115   2
1971 ATL MLB  0.267  158  589   89  157  25   3  25   92   72  110   1
1972 ATL MLB  0.226  139  505   63  114  11   2  28   68   53   97   3

Chairez spent his 3rd full season as the Braves' starter as a man in desperate need of a platoon partner. In 144 at-bats against lefties in 1972 he hit just .167 with 4 HRs. He's always been able to hit them before but for whatever reason they just plain had his number and the Braves for their part just plain could not find a dance partner for him. As a result his aerage, runs scored, and RBIs all dipped precipitously even though he did lead the team in HRs (and finished 8th in the NL in that category). The easy diagnosis is, he strikes out too much. In years past that was a side effect of him taking a lot of pitches until he found the one he wanted, but in '72 he just whiffed a lot - his walks were also at a 3 year low and as a result of all this he was actually a tick below average in on-base percentage (.300 vs the league average of .301).

Chairez is fine at first, nothing great, maybe a little too short for the position. He's got no speed whatsoever although somehow, some way he attempted 6 steals last season. He's not bright enough to ever be a team leader although the fans love the cool breeze he creates with his huge cuts he takes each at-bat.

Franklin Martinez
PH/1B No. 5
RR, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1935-03-23

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ATL MLB  0.241  103  232   22   56  14   0   4   29   15   41   1
1971 ATL MLB  0.250   94  104   12   26   5   1   4   15    3   20   0
1972 ATL MLB  0.223   78   94   15   21   3   1   7   21    7   15   0

The 37 year old Cranklin could have / should have been that platoon mate but a combination of a strained PCL muscle that kept him out half of July, all of August, and most of September and general ineffectiveness kept him from being that guy: Martinez started just 8 games at first all season long. When he did play, he continued to mash lefties: .255 with 5 HRs in 37 at-bats for a .638 SLG - but he was also only 9-47 vs righties. The right-handed half of a platoon needs to hit righty pitching to some degree so this was a problem.

A mainstay of the team, mostly as a pinch-hitting specialist, since 1960, time is drawing near an end for Martinez both in Atlanta and, probably, in the major leagues.

Kevin Dwyer
2B No. 2
RR, 5'12" 192 lbs.
Born 1939-02-17

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ATL MLB  0.333  146  595  108  198  38  10  30   95   54   51   2
1971 ATL MLB  0.314  125  509   89  160  29   5  19   77   44   47   1
1972 ATL MLB  0.329  137  516   91  170  29   4  18   77   65   49   2

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? At the ripe old age of 33, Dwyer led the league in hitting for the 2nd time in 3 years in doing so set a new career high in walks, resulting in also leading the NL in on-base percentage with .402. Even as the league around him forgot how to hit, Dwyer's clutch numbers - runs and RBIs - stayed pretty much exactly where they were in '71.

He's nowhere near retirement of course but I have to say this: everyone talks about Henry Riggs as the superstar / future HOFer on this team but maybe web should start including the 12 time All-Star Dwyer in that conversation. He's at 84 in the HOF Monitor with a 45 in Standards so far. Fine. He'll have to play for a few more years. Dwyer has 2,041 career hits, including 1,958 as a 2nd baseman, a number that's just 31 behind 50s and 60s Giants' star Jeff Beckwith (in fact, I had the game generate him as a superstar as kind of a Willie Mays analog, although Beckwith was never near Mays in terms of ability) for the most in MLB history. He's already the all-time leader among 2B in total bases and doubles and could conceivably pass Yankees legend Ty Stover (who just retired this year) in that category: Stover hit 335 of his 412 HRs at the position; Dwyer has 205 of his 216 at the second sack). Barring a catastrophic injury he'll be the clear GOAT at the position.

David Oddsson
2B/1B/OF No. 13
RR, 6'2" 184 lbs.
Born 1948-06-24

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SHR AA   0.276   99  279   40   77   6   5   6   43   41   42  10
1971 SAV AA   0.258   28   97   13   25   1   2   3   11   11   23   3
1971 RIC AAA  0.339   73  221   31   75   9   1   9   46   19   26   1
1971 ATL MLB  0.400    3    5    2    2   1   0   0    1    0    1   0
1972 RIC AAA  0.300   51  160   27   48   6   0   7   24   13   37   1
1972 ATL MLB  0.200   36   95   13   19   1   0   4   13   12   18   4

Oddson, a scouting discovery by the Braves organization out of the decidedly non-baseball-playing Iceland in 1965, played 2nd base in the minor leagues but is clearly blocked by Dwyer at the position so instead they tried him out as the platoon partner for Dante Chairez that Cranklin could not be. It didn't work out. Oddson started out OK, hitting .245 in July (13-53), though even then I think the 12 strikeouts should have been a harbinger of things to come. "Things to come" were aveages of .153 and .133 in diminishing playing time over the last two months of the season.

Oddson might have 10ish HR power and hit .339 in AAA in 1971; he could still be of value to someone if he can cut down on the whiffs. Although he's an adequate 2nd baseman, a downright below average arm means he will never be able to play on the right side of the infield. That leaves the outfield corners, where that arm restricts him mainly to left. Oddson probably has a place in the league but I'd be hard-pressed to see how that place is with the Braves.

Vicente Luna
3B No. 22
RR, 6'1" 185 lbs.
Born 1936-05-18

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ATL MLB  0.289   70  301   46   87   5   1  14   41   20   33   4
1971 ATL MLB  0.260  119  504   64  131  17   3  12   58   34   62   6
1972 ATL MLB  0.248  142  581   67  144  17   1  15   69   41   70   5

The 37 year old Vicente Luna is a 6 time All-Star but the last time he went to the old Midsummer Classic was 1968. At this point in his career he's basically an average third baseman. For a team like the Braves, it means they basically don't have to think too much about the position. They might have to start thinking about it pretty soon though. Luna was once a regular .300 hitter but he hasn't hit over .300 in 4 years and 1972's .248 was the lowest average of his career. His Ks, meanwhile have continued to climb: 70 was a career high. You'd think that would allow the increasingly slow Luna to stop clogging up the basepaths but he also set a not-great career high with 22 GIDPs.

A quick look at the minor league system tells me that the Braves simply do not have anyone who looks like they're ready to challenge him. The Braves will invite Canadian rocker Bill Wallace to training camp on the basis of a .335 average in Richmond last year but the scouts say he's reeeeeeeeally bad at third base so don't expect much of a competition. In all probability Luna will get at least one more chance to show he can be the high-average stud he was in the 60s.

William Jefferson Clinton
SS/IF No. 6
RR, 5'11" 199 lbs.
Born 1946-05-20

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HAW AAA  0.571   3     7    5    4   0   1   1    2    4    1   2
1971 RIC AAA  0.256  65   223   34   57   9   3   2   29   34   30   3
1971 ATL MLB  0.250  28    60    4   15   4   0   0    7    3    5   0
1972 ATL MLB  0.229  93   288   27   66   6   7   3   24   33   56   4

The Braves liked what they saw in the rangy, shady Clinton enough that they traded away their incumbent starter Jon Reid in June to give him the job. Early returns on "Slick Willie" are that he's about what they already had in Winn: a good but not great hitter who's adequate but nothing special in the field. Clinton did finish 2nd on the team in triples in the slightly over a half-season that he did play and the game describes him as a "go getter", although I'll be honest: I don't want to know what, exactly, he is going and getting.

Clinton can't consider his spot secure; he'll be pushed in spring training by the next guy on the list and Kenny Ortega, an 11th round pick in the draft who looked really good in A ball and who, my crystal ball says, will eventually become a Hollywood director with such classic hits as "Hocus Pocus" and "High School Musical".

Pedro Almodóvar
IF No. 10
RR, 5'9" 164 lbs.
Born 1949-09-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 SAV AA   0.324   41  139   16   45   7   1   3   23   11   18   2
1971 RIC AAA  0.256   36  121   17   31   5   2   2   21   12   16   3
1972 RIC AAA  0.238   89  344   33   82   9   1   5   33   18   58   1
1972 ATL MLB  0.191   26   68    4   13   0   2   0    6    7   13   0

Normally so far I cut these off at about 100 at-bats but Almodóvar figures to play a prominent role in Atlanta's plans in 1973 so here he is. Out of the 3 guys set to compete for the shortstop job, Almodóvar, a 3rd round pick last year out of Spain, is far and away the best fielder of the bunch. The 23 year old is good enough to win multiple Gold Glove awards, starting immediately. The worst thing about his fielding tools is his "only" plus arm; everything else - range, hands, and recklessness on the pivot - are graded 70+ on the 20-80 scale.

His issue is hitting. Almodóvar struck out 58 times in 344 innings in AAA, which is pretty high for a guy who is not a big threat to hit it out of the park. If he can get that under control, he stole 30+ bases in each of his last 2 years in, um, Spanish baseball. Okay maybe that's not the best comp. He has decent speed but needs to learn better instincts.

Outfield

Chris Ward
LF No. 37
LL, 5'9" 184 lbs.
Born 1946-05-21

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 RIC AAA  0.336   43  149   19   50   7   3   3   18   18   21  24
1970 ATL MLB  0.255   71  200   25   51   7   5   2   17   23   24  12
1971 ATL MLB  0.296  124  456   86  135  13   7  12   47   50   67  56
1972 ATL MLB  0.267  107  438   69  117  15  12  11   35   36   58  35

Even missing 6 weeks of the season with a broken hand and being slowed down for another month with a groin strain, Ward led the league in steals for the second consecutive year. So why are the Braves unhappy with the 26 year old speed demon? A few reasons. First and foremost, Ward is quickly building the reputation for being a locker room cancer. He's very "me first" and is usually the last person to arrive at the stadium and the first one to leave, though I guess to his credit he isn't easily angered.

But when your work ethic is low, it really puts all of your weaknesses on full display because you aren't working on them. For Ward, that really shows up in his fielding, where, in spite of being legitimately one of the fastest players in the league, he's barely adequate in left field. He's just straight up lackadaisical out there at times. He's got a strong enough arm to maybe move into left field once Henry Riggs retires but then you think of him running at half-speed to chase a grounder down the right field line and you just start thinking of triples and inside the park homeruns.

The Braves had a guy hit really, really well for them when Ward and Riggs were out (coming up next!). It would not surprise me in the least if they move on from Ward this offseason.

Wolf Blitzer
RF/LF No. 67
LL, 6'4" 201 lbs.
Born 1948-03-22

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 REN A    0.312   91  276   56   86  15   2  15   49   54   71   5
1970 SAV AA   0.261   22   46   12   12   3   0   1    6   11    6   1
1971 SAV AA   0.277   56  159   22   44  13   4   7   26   29   34   0
1971 RIC AAA  0.223   54  166   17   37   6   1   0   28   32   29   2
1972 RIC AAA  0.314   76  274   35   86  10   0  17   52   28   44   1
1972 ATL MLB  0.322   49  115   18   37   4   2   7   23   11   20   0

I AM SICK AND TIRED OF THESE CORNY GAME GENERATED NAMES Wolf "The Situation Room" Blitzer is the reason why the Braves might move on from Ward. He hit a combined 24 HRs between AAA and the major leagues with a batting average well over .300. Scouts think that maybe an average in the .320s with 20+ HR power is on the high side but he should be well above average in both categories. Additionally, he works very hard where Ward, frankly, does not, and so teammates are a bit more forgiving of his own liabilities in the field (he is a corner outfielder after all).

I do see guys like this just suddenly forget how to hit all the time. Bliter's only 24 and has done this in the past, particularly in A-ball Reno in 1970. Giving him the job would be a risk. Life is full of risks.

Josh Damon
LF/CF No. 39
RR, 5'11" 197 lbs.
Born 1940-10-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ATL MLB  0.261  117  257   26   67   7   0   7   38   18   37   2
1971 ATL MLB  0.259  122  459   61  119  18   1  18   61   44   67   3
1972 ATL MLB  0.261  115  387   48  101  12   3  13   47   37   42   2

Damon's been on the team since 1963, going back to their time in Milwaukee. If he sticks around, it's probably as a backup at this point. Damon wound up being, technically, a starter last year for the second consecutive season. He's... solid, like the dictionary definition of solid. Good power for a centerfielder, a good average, good speed, good bat control, good defense... solid. There's surely places on lots and lots of teams in the starting lineup for a guy like this - if not literally in center then in this kind of "fill in wherever" role the Braves had him in in the second half of the season.

As implied, since Damon is pretty good at a lot of things, he doesn't have any major weaknesses either. He doesn't bunt for a hit, does that count? I think it doesn't. I see him coming back easily and he'll probably find work in Atlanta, somehow, somewhere.

Michael Lee Aday
CF/LF No. 3
LL, 5'10" 187 lbs.
Born 1947-12-01

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 GRW A    0.253   50  182   30   46   6   4   1   12   24   32  26
1970 SHR AA   0.198   25   81    7   16   3   0   1   14    8   20   4
1971 SAV AA   0.247   88  275   35   68  14   5   2   22   27   59   8
1971 RIC AAA  0.246   17   65   10   16   0   1   1    7   15    5   5
1971 ATL MLB  0.000    7    7    1    0   0   0   0    0    0    2   0
1972 RIC AAA  0.266   31  109   16   29   5   0   4   12   13   19   5
1972 ATL MLB  0.281   93  349   38   98  17   3   2   32   33   50  13

The fact that Meatloaf and Wolf Blitzer are basically the same age is one of those facts that makes zero sense until you think about it and then makes perfect sense. I guess one should say "were" because the real-life Michael Lee Aday died of COVID complications. In-game, your favorite future star of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is a slap-hitting, speedy center fielder born to run(! I think that's Springsteen though) and be at the top of the lineup. He's not as fast as teammate Chris Ward - who is? - but he's still a good bet for that leadoff slot if Ward goes bye-bye.

Meatloaf, too, is a plus centerfielder who'd be a Gold Glove guy if he could just pay a little more attention in the field. The man has side gigs. It's only natural that he doesn't always have his mind on the game. He's still just 24 but if everything comes together he could inhabit both of those roles into the 1980s for this team.

Jose Gomez
CF/RF No. 15
RR, 6'0" 200 lbs.
Born 1940-12-30

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TAC AAA  0.298   12   47   15   14   2   2   3   10    7   6   5
1970 CHC MLB  0.125   11   16    3    2   0   0   0    2    5   4   1
1970 ATL MLB  0.260   49  173   32   45   4   3   9   22   14  39   7
1971 ATL MLB  0.247   59  162   29   40   7   1  10   19   18  22   5
1972 ATL MLB  0.217   72  152   18   33   5   2   7   20   26  36   4

If Damon is getting pushed out of a job by the youth movement, Jose Gomez is reeeeeeeally being pushed out of a job. The 1968 All-Star with the Cubs was sold to Atlanta in the early part of the 1970 season and has been a pretty solid backup ouftielder and, lately, pinch-hitter. He was actually godawful as a pinch-hitter - 3 for 26 - so it would seem that he's best used as the right-handed half of a platoon. That could happen in left, if you consider Aday and Damon sharing CF and Chris Ward moving on... but those are a lot of parts that have to move just right to see Damon keep a job here. More than likely, the 31 year old will be on the move once again.

Gomez is a decent outfielder, perhaps not your ideal man in center but he won't embarrass you at any of the three positions. When he's gotten the chance to play he's shown signs of being around a 15-20 HR guy who in the past at least has hit in the 250s and 260s (he has a lifetime BA of .250 even). Like Damon, there's nothing overwhelming in there, but I would call him a bit less than Josh Damon in just about everything.

Henry Riggs
RF No. 32
LL, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1935-09-28

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ATL MLB  0.278  153  553  110  154  28   3  41  108  109   71   0
1971 ATL MLB  0.299  149  559  112  167  35   1  43  119   93   78   0
1972 ATL MLB  0.263  105  396   57  104  18   0  22   59   59   65   0

Was 1972 a sign that Riggs is slowing down at age 37, or did he just, you know, get hurt> Complicating this story and perhaps moving the narrative to the first point is that it wasn't really just one injury, though a strained hamstring did cause him to miss all of August and chunks of July and September, but also a couple of other shorter-term hurts to his quads and back that sapped his strength early in the season. All that said, The Hammer had 7 HRs in September (for only 15 RBIs but blame his teammates for that) with another 3 in 3 games in October (4 in 6 games if you count the playoffs); rumors of the demise of his power are greatly exaggerated.

One thing that he doesn't have so much anymore is any kind of range in the field. Riggs won a Gold Glove in 1970 based purely on his arm but now, just 2 years later, it's hard to classify him as anything but a net negative in the field. He's also graded pretty slow in speed and hasn't stolen a base since 1968.

I haven't had the chance to explore these guys' careers much but... Riggs, who is NOT Henry Aaron but a "generic" superstar level added player from the early 50s, is currently the lifetime leader in homeruns with 545. It's interesting at least to me that he's gotten there in a very similar fashion to the actual Hank Aaron: he's led the league in HRs just twice, 1959 (with 37) and 1971 and he's got a relatively low amount of black ink for an inner-circle HOFer (42 black ink points; right now the HOF average is 37 with the league just getting old enough to start to have some full-career guys in there). His grey ink is off the charts (292!) as is his HOF Monitor score (223). I'd guess he'll still have the HR record when he retires and it'll even, most likely, be over 600. He is 47 HRs behind the real Aaron at the same age (Riggs is also 2 years younger than real-life Hank Aaron) so I'm not sure we'll see 700... at least not from him.

[Syd Thrift]

New York Mets
67-89, 6th NL East, 26 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: The last two years had been unkind to the Amazin' Mets team that won 104 games out of nowhere in 1969: two years sitting right around .500. The team is very stars-and-scrubs and the stars seem to be getting older and older but still... you think that one or two good breaks and the Mets can get right up there with the kings of the division again.

1972 In Review: The Mets started out sort of mediocre-like, with 5-7 and 17-23 records after the first two months. Things never get going well and by July they're fighting the Expos for the NL East cellar. It's pretty much a team effort: NY finishes 3rd worst in both runs and runs scored and in particular the guy they always counted on in the middle of the lineup, Josh Waltenbery, slips to a .245 average with 24 HRs and 78 RBIs. The starting pitching was baaaad, worse than the 3.74 ERA (9th in the NL) suggests.

1973 Outlook: This team is bad and doesn't really have a great outlook for the near future. It's past time to pack it in and rebuild.

Pitching

John Ratzenberger
RHP No. 20
RR, 6'0" 187 lbs.
Born 1947-06-13

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TID AAA   4   8   0  3.34  18  18   1  113.0  107  48  42   32  105
1971 TID AAA   4   8   0  4.20  16  16   1  102.2  116  53  48   35   50
1971 NYM MLB   5   5   0  4.57  16  15   1   98.1   94  50  50   37   67
1972 NYM MLB  11  12   0  2.41  32  32   9  227.0  184  74  61   70  122

Ratzenberger is a weird guy who will tell you facts such as "dust is 70% human skin" when you talk to him. To us, it's friendly weirdosity; apparently it's very off-putting to his teammates. On the field, there's no denying his talent: Ratzeberger, or, as his nickname goes, "Cliff Claven" is the clear top man in the Mets starting rotation. He led starters in all the good categories: wins, complete games (nobody else on the team had more than 3), ERA... I guess the Wild Thing Ernesto Carillo beat him out in Ks but those Ks come at a cost (more on him later).

Ratzenberger turned the corner from a rough rookie season. Mostly he just stopped trying to strike everyone out and accepted life as the finesse righty that he is, with a nice cut fastball that creates some weak outs. He's 25 and will be called on to put in this kind of work for a while. On a good team he'd be a mid-rotation guy. He is not on a good team.

Ernesto Carrillo
RHP No. 15
RR, 6'6" 205 lbs.
Born 1944-01-31

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 NYM MLB  20  12   0  3.75  37  37   8  266.1  249 119 111  150  267
1971 NYM MLB  21  10   0  3.16  39  39   8  289.2  219 109 102  156  252
1972 NYM MLB   9  15   1  4.02  32  30   3  208.0  160 105  93  145  186

Carrillo is basically Nolan Ryan and I'll be honest, I just plain chickened out and sent David Camacho to the Angels over the offseason instead of this guy. The OOTP gods did not like this and took the man's control from bad to worse: even though he led the league in Ks per 9 innings with 8.0, he allowed a career-high 6.3 walks per 9 which meant that even with a much lower innings pitched total, Carrillo led the league in walks for the second consecutive season.

"The Wild Thing" is, as you might have guessed, one of the hardest throwers in the league and is absolutely unhittable when he's on. That's kind of the issue: when he's even a little bit off, his pitches, which include a devastating cut fastball, are unlocateable too. Carrillo also had 22 wild pitches, his 2nd time in 3 years he topped 20 and also the 2nd time in 3 years he gave up that many (he threw 26 of them in 1970). As a result of all of this, he carried an ERA over 4 pretty much the entire season. Even at that, it's tempered somewhat by only allowing 1 run in 8.2 IP in October (1 start, 1 game in relief).

Carrillo also has a reputation for not being too bright. Maybe this is just people seeing a guy who throws nothing but fast (to be fair, he has learned some slow-ball pitches over the years including a circle change); we've heard from his teammates that no, he's actually kind of dumb.

Trevon Dean
RHP No. 10
LR, 6'2" 187 lbs.
Born 1942-02-28

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ATL MLB  15  13   0  4.78  34  33   6  229.2  239 139 122   99  129
1971 ATL MLB   8   7   0  4.47  32  19   2  148.2  145  78  74   57   62
1972 NYM MLB   5  11   0  4.25  22  20   2  137.1  141  69  65   50   44

This is how desperate things got for the Mets last season. Dean, who has pretty much always been a guy who got wins with the Braves in spite of high ERAs, was cut by the club out of spring training. It was the Mets who reached out to him at the end of May and he did pretty much what he'd done with the Braves for the previous 4+ years, only this time without the run support that got him all those cheap wins. Somehow this still made Dean the 3rd best starting pitcher on the staff.

Dean is another guy who, like Ratzeberger, doesn't make a lot of friends for himself in the clubhouse. If you ask him, everyone is against him, and if you ask his teammates, nobody wants to be around him, especially when he loses. And for a guy who likes to blame anyone but himself for those losses, he sure relies on his defense a lot to bail him out: last year he struck out just 2.9 men per 9 innings, a career low.

At this point the Mets will probably keep him around because he's about all they have. I can't see him being a long-term answer for this or any other ballclub.

Josh Mullett
RHP No. 65
RR, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1944-05-29

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 HOU MLB  14  11   0  4.21  35  35   6  228.1  222 119 107  127  115
1971 HOU MLB  15  14   0  4.44  39  30   4  220.2  242 124 109  111  107
1972 CIN MLB   1   4   0  6.79  13   6   1   51.2   51  39  39   41   25
1972 NYM MLB   3   1   0  3.24   5   5   1   36.0   26  13  13   12   14

Speaking of desperation signings... Mullett was released by the Reds in mid-June after getting off to a start even worse than the ones he'd gotten off to in Houston previously. Like Dean, Mullett is a guy who made his name off of being on a team who liked to score runs behind him. He's probably got a bit more stuff left in the tank than Dean, just based on last season. Unlike Dean, Mullett, aka "Party in the Back" (note: the name in this case is OOTP generated; the Bermanisms are always my own) has had a really tough time with control in the past, leading the league in BBs in 1969 with 145 and allowing more than 100 of them in each of his three full seasons as a starter in Houston.

If you can get past that - although, why would you get past that? - you've got a guy who gets a lot of worm-killers with his 2-seam fastball and knuckle curve. He had a pretty decent 5 starts after the team signed him in September, possibly showing signs of getting his control under... control (then again he walked 7.1 batters per 9 in the 2 months that Cincy gave him). There's also the fact that Mullett just accepts what is coming to him - he abides, if you will. On a roster with several guys who, to put it plainly, don't do that, he might get a longer leash than you'd expect.

Geoff Saus
RHP No. 17
RR, 5'10" 200 lbs.
Born 1941-07-09

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 NYM MLB   3   3  28  3.75  71   0   0   98.1   94  44  41   35  109
1971 NYM MLB  11  12  34  2.91  75   1   0  117.1  102  44  38   43  112
1972 NYM MLB   8   5  27  1.58  74   0   0  119.1   66  21  21   28  100

Although he earned the "Hercules" nickname when he was throwing darts for an as-yet-unheralded Mets team in the mid-60s, at 31 that nickname has never been more accurate. Much like the mythical strongman, Saus toils in quite desperation for an increasingly bad Mets team. He led the NL in games pitched in each of the last 2 years and now has more than 600 of them for this team in his career. In '72 he had an excellent shutdown-to-meltdown ratio of 37 to 7 but for what? To get his team to 67 wins instead of 62?

It's like this: he's an asset, the team is bad, and they need to trade him. Doing so will make the local fanbase scream in pain and horror and boy oh boy will the bullpen feel it, but we all know that this is something that has to be done.

Roy Holm
LHP No. 36
LL, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1935-09-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 SF  MLB   7  10   0  3.77  22  22   3  162.1  146  83  68   71  165
1970 NYY MLB   7   5   0  4.99  15  15   1  101.0  110  60  56   40  106
1971 NYY MLB  10  11   0  4.07  40  22   3  174.1  142  88  79   79  158
1972 NYM MLB   5   6   0  3.27  12  12   2   88.0   73  33  32   38   90
1972 NYY MLB   0   0   0  4.50  19   0   0   20.0   21  11  10    8   28

On paper it looked like a great idea: Roy Holm is a guy who brutalizes lefties, or at least should brutalize them, and if you use him an inning at a time you should be able to hide his big weakness, which is that he occasionally will leave one out over the plate for someone to groove. The Mets signed him in August after the Yankees released him - yeah, this team was desperate - and gave him 19 games to show what he could do in that situational lefty role. Holm wound up being about even vs lefties and righties and gave up 3 HRs in 20 IP.

Chances are the 37 year old will get another chance simply because the Mets do not have a lot of options. This is a team that gave the 40 year old Tom Owens, a man who hasn't been a consistent starter since 1967, 6 starts down the stretch this year (which, he somehow threw 2 shutouts): what I am saying is, the chances that Holm will get still another chance after all of this is still high.

John Mash
RHP No. 35
SR, 5'12" 180 lbs.
Born 1937-03-25

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 NYM MLB  12  10   0  3.00  28  28   9  200.1  188  76  67   53  115
1971 NYM MLB   9  18   0  3.93  36  36  10  253.2  258 116 111   86  136
1972 NYM MLB   5   9   1  3.75  28  16   2  117.1  111  51  49   23   45

I'll end the pitchers' write-ups on... I won't say this is a high note but perhaps it is an encouraging note. Or, if the team trades Geoff Saus away like I expect them to, a "oh no, why did this happen" note. Mash was the 1st overall pick in 1958, never quite cashed in on his potential in Milwaukee/Atlanta, and was shipped off to the Mets in the offseason of 68-69 for speedster Ruberto Yebra. Mash responded to this by pitching the best season of his career in '69 (15-10, 2.93) and was coming off his second consecutive All Star Game appearance when he was laid up with bone chips in his pitching elbow. In spite of a successful surgery to remove them he was simply not effective in '71 and in '72 he was just not winning a lot so he got switched out to the bullpen in July.

So... here's where I expected to say "hey, he really turned his season around" but no, the opposite of that. Mash was 3-8, 3.40 as a starter and had a 6.43 ERA as a relief pitcher, including 3 HRs allowed in 14 innings pitched. He completely wilted in high-leverage situations, allowing 21 hits in 58 IP (.362) with 4 HRs and 24 RBIs. Needless to say, his future is in the rotation. I'd rewrite this but hey, you know, I like to get my thought processes down on "paper" to help me make determinations like this.

Infield

Jason Bushon
C No. 9
RR, 5'12" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-07-07

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 NYM MLB  0.243  127  449   53  109  19   4  11   44   68   75   3
1971 NYM MLB  0.219  124  416   57   91  15   2  14   57   70   77   1
1972 NYM MLB  0.245  120  433   53  106  16   6  19   71   58   68   2

Bushon is another guy on this team whom the fans adore but wise pundits know they should be shipping off. Bushon is among the best catchers in the game and at 29 is still young enough to be a regular on the next good Mets team, assuming that happens in 3-5 years. He's also a big, big asset the team could use to acquire younger talent and, without falling in love with prospects here, seems to have a guy behind him in the organization who could also fill the role.

Bushon's quietly been improving his power since he came into the league and in 1972 hit a career high 19 HRs. That plus hitting 5th in the order for most of the season meant that he also set a career high in RBIs as well. He would be the Alvin Romero of an all-catcher league; his 6 triples were 8th in the NL and while he doesn't steal bases often, he does steal them, even getting a high of 7 thefts in 1969. Bushon is calm and collected behind the plate, a trait that works well on pitchers (well, not this pitching staff but then nothing works well on bad pitching). His one Achilles heel last season was throwing guys out: only 23.3% CS rate. A lot of that might have been the team telling the myriad veterans they signed over the course of the season to concentrate on the pitching and not the guys on base.

Bushon is a bit of a "me first" guy who, in spite of being a lifetime Met (he was drafted 5th overall in 1965), isn't likely to show them any loyalty if the players get their way and have "free agency". Why should these Mets show him loyalty in return, I ask? WHY?

Gerry Adams
C No. 49
RR, 5'11" 192 lbs.
Born 1948-11-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BRK R    0.281    8   32    9    9   0   0   5    7    1    3   0
1970 VIS A    0.274   86  223   24   61  10   0  11   29   13   36   0
1970 PB  A    0.121   20   66    2    8   0   0   0    3    5    9   0
1971 MEM AA   0.268   70  261   29   70  13   2  10   39   12   34   0
1971 TID AAA  0.303   32  119   11   36   7   0   3    9    7    6   0
1971 NYM MLB  0.302   17   53    7   16   3   0   1   10    3    5   0
1972 NYM MLB  0.297   46  138   13   41   6   0   4   21    8    8   0

One possible reason to keep Bushon in town - I mean, outside of the fact that the New York fanbase can and will riot at the news of his departure - is that his backup and heir apparent is... volatile at best. Gerry Adams insists he is not a member of the terrorist organization known as the Irish Republican Army, but the British government seems to disagree, interning him on the HMS Maidstone this past year (the organization got a special dispensation from the British government to allow him to play here... but will they do so in the future?).

Enough of the off-the-field stuff though. Adams looks like a legitimate high average hitter with a .298 major league batting average stretched across 2 seasons. He works hard and gets along with everyone, reputation or no reputation. Only stupid people would expect him to be another Jason Bushon, but he surely can be the team's #1 for a few years.

Joshua Waltenbery
1B No. 81
LL, 6'2" 204 lbs.
Born 1940-08-05

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 NYM MLB  0.296  156  571   83  169  42   3  19   83  111   96   1
1971 NYM MLB  0.313  154  588  112  184  41   4  25   99   91   75   0
1972 NYM MLB  0.245  149  518   71  127  18   1  24   78   96   79   0

The man Mets fans call "Superman" turns out to have found his own kryptonite: losing. That final statline doesn't look so bad but you should take into account that Waltenbery had a monster month of September with 10 HRs in 104 at-bats. Prior to that point it looked like he was going to hit around .245ish with the lowest HR output of his career. He snapped his consecutive All-Star Game total at 9 when he was not selected this year. After leading the league in doubles each of the past 2 seasons, Waltenbery couldn't even manage 20 in 1972.

Out of anyone who had a bad season in '71 on this team, Waltenbery has to be considered first in line for a rebound. He's still as good as ever at taking a pitch when it isn't perfect - this in spite of NY sportswriters getting on his case for not swinging enough when the game is on the line - and the 10 HR month, coming in garbage time as it was, is still proof that power still exists in the 32 year old's bat. He's slow as molasses but has great instincts on singles to the outfield when he's on base to the extent that he runs well above his weight... that just sounds like he runs like a fat guy. He's better than you'd think, let's leave it at that.

The Mets would love for Waltenbery to get back to the levels he at as recently as 1971. At the current level of production he's still an above average first baseman.

Bill Heyen
2B No. 23
RR, 5'11" 195 lbs.
Born 1943-08-31

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SF  MLB  0.256  144  589   75  151  16   8   0   40   44   84  10
1971 MON MLB  0.281  148  616   72  173  26  15   2   55   35   95  11
1972 NYM MLB  0.219  137  525   53  115  10  11   3   26   41   57  10

Heyen, on his 3rd team in 3 years, seemed to have forgotten how to hit once he arrived in New York in an offseason trade with Montreal (they sent back a trio of players including semi-prospect Danny Waters). After hitting .163 in April, Heyen got his average back up to .250 as of May 29, but then hit .224, .143, and .220 before semi-salvaging the season with a .258 September. The only plus for him, I guess, is that Heyen managed to keep his job throughout all of this. He's a very good defensive second baseman and he does a lot of the "little things" but more to the point, his backup was Adri van Zanten (.200/0/4), a guy the team had specifically moved away from because he's a really bad defender.

This seems blasphemous to say but one thing that accompanied Heyen's fall last year was a big dip in strikeouts. We like the added bat control and hit and run possibilities this presents but... maybe he should go back to his old whiffing ways? If he can't, one way or the other, find his old hitting stroke, the Mets had themselves a very interesting season in AA from 1969 13th round pick Mark Spitz (.268/3/38 with a .400 OBP at that level). It might be too soon for the 23 year old but this at least is a position where they do have some pressure.

Mark Hamill
3B/2B No. 14
RR, 5'11" 183 lbs.
Born 1949-06-09

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 VIS A    0.378   11   45    6   17   3   1   1    7    1    8   0
1971 PB  A    0.264   15   53    3   14   1   1   0    5    3    5   1
1971 MEM AA   0.250    3   12    1    3   1   0   0    1    3    2   0
1971 NYM MLB  0.250   67  268   30   67  17   3   1   15   16   36   0
1972 NYM MLB  0.258   98  322   31   83  19   2   5   37   14   44   1

What kind of stupid nickname is "Luke Skywalker"!? It sounds like he's some kind of space alien or science fiction hero. The boyish Hamill, the 12th overall pick in the 1971 draft, was rushed to the major leagues because Nick Hawkinson aged in a big hurry (well, to be fair TOOO BEEEEEE FAAAAAAAAIR Hawkinson was 42 at the time Hamill was called up for the first time; I would not call that "a big hurry" except that I just did). In spite of having just 29 games of professional service, he looked OK in 1971, like a man who deserved to be in the majors at least, and started the year in a time-share with the elder statesman.

Hamill hit .194 in April of this year and, after a promising May, hit an empty .214 in June. Then, just as he was getting his season going in July, he missed a month and a half with a strained hamstring. He did come back to hit .274 in September and over the course of the season raised his average from a low-water mark of .193 on June 16th to the perfectly adequate .258 he ended up at.

Hamill's still at the point in his career where just looking competitive is enough in terms of promise. He need to cut back on the strikeouts to have continued success and a .289 OBP is not exactly making the stat nerds leap for joy. Scouts insist he's got good HR power but we've yet to see it in his limited time in the bigs. Defensively he's a good third baseman although not a good candidate to move leftward. Teammates say that even at 23 he possesses the kind of moxie that could lead to him doing things like learning telekenesis from a 900 year old green man and then accidentally killing his father. What am I talking about?

Danny Pellot
3B/IF No. 18
RR, 5'11" 180 lbs.
Born 1934-12-20

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  0.257   77  214   18   55   8   4   3   25   18   45   2
1971 MIN MLB  0.285   71  200   20   57   9   3   2   12   20   30   1
1972 MIN MLB  0.234   39  107   10   25   3   2   1   12    9   18   3
1972 NYM MLB  0.298   19   57    7   17   4   0   1    8    5    8   0

The normally laid-back Pellot demanded a trade from the Twins, a team he'd been a member of since 1965, and instead they cut him loose. The Mets, because this is what the 1972 Mets did, signed him 10 days later and used him mostly as a replacement when Hamill was out. After Hamill returned, he got into only 12 games and 30 at-bats in September and October. He's reportedly not super-happy about the situation. As a 37 year old longtime vet, the demands we're hearing - he thinks he should be starting - are a bit misplaced but it's clear that this is not the time or the place for the guy. Pellot did show that he still can hit and get on base so while I doubt he'll get another chance to start, someone out there with a better shot at glory will surely want to use him as a backup.

Chris Adams
SS No. 25
RR, 6'4" 204 lbs.
Born 1940-11-11

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CAL MLB  0.295  154  579   69  171  28   8  19   97   36   70  11
1971 CAL MLB  0.222  148  553   63  123  10   4  15   68   45   75  22
1972 NYM MLB  0.245  126  485   46  119  12   2   9   50   26   65  14

Chris Adams bounced back a little bit from a very disappointing 1971 season but the Mets were expecting a lot more, namely a return to that top of the lineup form he had in '69 and '70 when he hit .272 and .295. The verdict in '71 was that he'd fallen in love with the homerun and the chance to get 100 ribbies. '72 saw him make a better attempt at putting the ball in play, which cut his HRs down but did raise his BA to 9 points above the league average.

Adams was never more than a decent shortstop in his prime and at 31 he's beginning to slip. I'd say he should move to 2nd but the Mets already have a vet there. In the meantime, he's got a guy who wants to push him but... well, see the next entry

Rick James
SS/2B No. 11
RR, 6'0" 196 lbs.
Born 1948-02-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 VIS A    0.265   38  151   19   40  11   0   5   16    6   36   1
1970 PB  A    0.224   27   98    8   22   0   3   0   11    8   24   1
1971 PB  A    0.341   10   44    8   15   1   0   1    2    3    4   1
1971 MEM AA   0.242  108  368   35   89  15   6   7   34   19   79   5
1971 TID AAA  0.300   12   40    3   12   2   1   0    5    2    2   0
1972 TID AAA  0.319   39  144   19   46  10   0   7   29    7   16   2
1972 NYM MLB  0.168   33   95    8   16   1   1   2    7    8   11   1

James was anything but mighty mighty and while he has a reputation for letting it all hang out, that was not enough last year. The 3rd round pick in the 1970 draft looked really nice in 39 games in AAA, nice enough to get a long look late in the season, but he hit well below the Timonen line. Scouts think he's more of a .270 hitter, so split the difference between his 1971 showing in AAA and what he did in Tidewater the last 2 years (and just ignore the majors I guess). As a fielder he's only roughly equal to Adams; there is a *little* room to improve but it's clear he'll ever have the range to be a glove wizard.

Outfield

Ethan Keesee
OF No. 22
LL, 6'1" 201 lbs.
Born 1947-07-22

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ARK AA   0.338  126  497   79  168  21  11   6   42   42   40  20
1971 ARK AA   0.351   14   57    9   20   3   1   1    6    4    9   2
1971 TUL AAA  0.261   68  249   27   65   6   1   2   19   15   21  10
1971 STL MLB  0.358   43  106   15   38   3   2   0    8    6    6   9
1972 NYM MLB  0.258   97  302   36   78   7   2   5   24   25   36  11

Keesee was never going to repeat the .358 average he hit in 106 at-bats for the Cardinals last year; in fact, he pretty well established himself as a guy who'd hit in the .250s from the get-go. It was still pretty OK, all told, especially for a team with gaping holes elsewhere on the roster. He's decent with the contact and I guess to be fair TOOO BEEE FAAAAIR he has a history of hitting in the .300s in other stops along the way. The Mets platooned him for all last year but the small sample size of 27 at-bats indicates that maybe he's worth playing full-time.

Keesee's big selling point is his speed. He stole 20 bases for the Arkansas Travelers in 1970 and could get up there with playing time in the majors. He's got the bat control to hit 2nd in the lineup. Keesee knows how to lay down a bunt and can get his way on base with them as well, which might make his power numbers look not as exciting as he's capable. In the field that speed doesn't really translate into good enough range to play center although he's a plus at either corner position (his hitting might get in the way of playing in LF or RF longterm though).

Keesee is still only 25 and while I think at this point what you see is what you get, it's more than possible that he's got some contact potential waiting to be hit.

Gabe Martinez
PH/OF/1B No. 24
SR, 6'3" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-06-15

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MON MLB  0.265  124  325   27   86  14   2   2   31   19   57   4
1971 MON MLB  0.282  101  170   16   48  10   2   1   16   14   24   2
1972 NYM MLB  0.260  102  169   15   44   8   0   1   18    6   26   2

Martinez is back with his original team after 3 years away. He has a history now of hitting in pinch roles well enough to make his parent club think he's ready to start or at least to enter into a platoon setup, only to disappoint in a bigger role. At that, when he hits in that .260-.280 range it's kind of an empty .260-.280, which is really good in late and close situations where you're hitting for the pitcher and everyone just wants you to get a base hit, but not so great if you're in the lineup every day. This year Martinez didn't play a lot against lefty pitching but hit .286 against them, which further complicates the case for platoons.

Martinez can use his height to get long throws at first base but if you put him at first you've got other issues, quite frankly. He's decently fast as a runner. That does not translate into any kind of outfield range and at this point in his career he's just a liability whenever he plays anywhere in the field except first.

Expectations are low for the 30 year old. The Mets may not be in a position to want to give up a roster slot to a luxury such as a full-time pinch-hitter.

Curtis Hope
CF No. 21
LR, 6'0" 190 lbs.
Born 1945-10-16

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 NYM MLB  0.259  146  567   93  147  17  13  18   79   89  163  21
1971 NYM MLB  0.287  152  565   80  162  33   8  22   85   67  109  11
1972 NYM MLB  0.211  145  508   55  107  21   4   7   46   56  130  22

Hope had what everyone hoped would be a breakout season at age 26 in 1971 when he set career highs in average, HRs, and RBIs, and seemed to have overcome his issue with the strikeout to become the superstar people thought he could be. The Ks came back with a vengeance in 1972 - he led the league in the category - and with them, his average tumbled by 66 points. The Mets even toyed, if briefly, with the Swedish decathlete Kjell Isaakson; that experiment came to a pretty abrupt end when Isaakson hit .149 in 67-at bats.

Hope covers a lot of ground and is a good centerfielder. In spite of the fact that he hit 5th or 6th for most of the year, Hope is very fast and wound up 5th in the league in stolen bases and 3rd in triples. He's shown a great ability to take balls in the past but started swinging at the first pitch more often last year and the tradeoff - fewer walks but also fewer strikeouts - did not swing back all the way when the Ks returned. Hope is a guy who prefers to have a set role and the moving around in the order so much (he had 110 at-bats in 5th, 181 in 6th, but another 220 everwhere else from 2d to 8th) might have gotten under his skin.

The Mets are very hopeful - some would say desperate - for Hope to return to his '71 form. If he can't, his long-term future with the club might be in jeopardy.

Barry Cooper
RF No. 5
LR, 5'11" 183 lbs.
Born 1943-07-20

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SF  MLB  0.319  158  653   95  208  35   7   8   62   45   39  29
1971 SF  MLB  0.258  109  445   44  115  14   2   3   34   27   59  20
1972 SF  MLB  0.340   14   53    5   18   4   2   0    6    7    4   3
1972 NYM MLB  0.259  128  514   48  133  17   5   5   44   24   60  15

When incumbent Jimmy Washington went down with a torn PCL in his knee in early May, the Mets, not considering themselves to be out of the race just yet, acquired Barry "The Ritz" Cooper from the Giants in exchange for Charlie Bechtel and a whooole lot of cash. Cooper had hit .300 or better for 4 consecutive years before slumping to .258 on a bad team where he was being asked to be everything and everyone. The Mets paid the price thinking that he'd be able to get back to those former levels; instead, he showed that 1971 might just be his true level of talent.

Cooper still has all the speed he had when he stole 29 bases in 1970. It's the getting on base that's the issue. He's got decent enough bat control but for a guy with his kind of speed he sure hits a lot of weak popups. The Mets will be working with him to recapture that stroke; if he can't find it, that opens up a spot for old Jimmy Washington.

Jimmy Washington
RF No. 32 LL, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-04-25

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 NYM MLB  0.257  148  572   68  147  34   1  19  100   44   80   0
1971 NYM MLB  0.254  119  456   62  116  22   1  17   66   29   69   0
1972 NYM MLB  0.100   17   50    3    5   0   0   1    1    8    4   0

Washington had always chafed at being known as Joshua Waltenbery's sidekick, his Jimmy Olsen if you will. In 1972 he blew the cover off the ball in spring training - 8 HRs in 91 at-bats and announced to the world that he was going to be the leading man in 1972. Instead, he got off to a terrible start, hitting just 5-50 in his first 17 games, and then on May 9 went down for the season with a leg injury. Now his entire career is in doubt.

Before the injury, Washington was a big RBI man, drivig in more than 100 men in '69 and '70 and getting to 95 in 1967. He's exactly what you want from a middle of the order hitter - well, generally you'd like more power, but when you bring home those runners, that makes you the man. He missed 40 games in 1971 or else he'd have been right up there with those totals again. Speed-wise, he's more of a guy who drives you in rather than the other way around. His arm is why he plays in right field and should the team decide to break camp with both him and Cooper in the same outfield, "The Ritz" is the more likely bet to move over into left.

[Syd Thrift]

Montreal Expos
70-86, 5th NL East, 23 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: The Expos set a francise record in wins in '71 with 68, which is to say: they were merely bad and not terrible. The upcoming season looked like more of the same, with at best a very small "dead cat bounce".

1972 In Review: Montreal started out horrendously, carrying a 2-11 record as of May 1st. From there they kind of alternated being okay and terrible from one month to the next, the worst swing coming from July to August where they followed up a promising 14-11 record with a 12-18 - which, 30 games in August, come on now, schedule wizards. All in all, they finished with 70 wins, a new franchise record! and even climbed (just) out of the cellar for the first time in team history.

1973 Outlook: I feel like the expansion teams who are making big steps forward - San Diego and Kansas City - have a bit of an identity to them. It's hard to glean such an identity from Montreal. They were about league average in runs scored with 541 (7th) and 5th in HRs (124) so there's that to grow on. The pitching looks not great, with a bad rotation (10th in starters; ERA) being somewhat bailed out by a good top-end bullpen (overall 5th in relief ERA).

Pitching

Frank Evans
RHP No. 32
RR, 6'1" 183 lbs.
Born 1948-02-10

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 JAX AA    1   2   0  5.95   3   3   2   22.2   29  15  15   13   15
1970 PEN AAA   5   6   0  3.15  14  14   9  119.2  115  48  42   35   77
1970 MON MLB   0   0   0  4.99   2   2   0    9.0    8   5   5    1    5
1971 PEN AAA   9  10   0  2.68  22  22  13  191.1  160  70  57   83   79
1971 MON MLB   3   4   0  3.89   9   9   1   62.1   61  33  27   21   29
1972 MON MLB  14   9   0  2.73  32  28   7  214.0  188  71  65   85  102

Someone has to be the ace of this staff and it may as well be the 23 year old Evans. Evans doesn't have the blinding stuff that you normally expect from a guy who's raced through the minors the way Evans has (he was originally a 3rd round pick in the 1970 draft and saw time in the majors that same year). Quite the opposite, in fact: Evans is a knuckleballer(!). Apparently the splitter, which is one of the pitches in his arsenal, doesn't count as a fastball (note: I know it doesn't; fastballs in the game are the 4-seamer, the 2-seamer, and the cutter).

So far he's not been super great at getting strikeouts or control but you can never be sure with a knuckleball pitcher. Evans marches to the beat of his own drummer, for better or for worse. A lifetime of not listening to anyone telling him to try to throw a normal pitch has led him to not listen to anyone about pretty much anything. All this makes him not the most well-liked player in the locker room. As long as he can pitch like this, he can have his enemies.

D.J. Fletcher
RHP No. 6
RR, 6'6" 200 lbs.
Born 1948-01-21

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 OKC AAA   4   3   0  3.32  11  11   0   70.1   70  29  26   19   73
1970 HOU MLB   0   0   0  4.05   6   0   0    6.2    6   3   3    3    6
1970 PEN AAA   2   1   0  2.56   6   6   0   38.2   34  11  11    5   35
1970 MON MLB   4   4   0  2.70  11  11   2   76.2   69  27  23   24   55
1971 MON MLB  12  11   0  2.90  32  32   7  232.2  197  89  75   72  139
1972 MON MLB  10  15   0  3.68  30  30   5  212.2  185  93  87   96  107

Depending on how much you trust the dancer, maybe fellow 24 year old DJ Fletcher is your staff ace. Fletcher has his issues as well, namely that a terrible lack of consistency. Despite throwing 4 shutouts last season, including 3-hitters against the Phillies and Cardinals, Fletcher had a disastrous September (0-4, 6.49) and finished with a below average ERA. He has an excellent sinker and forkball but can't always locate them for strikes. Perhaps that's the real issue: all of his pitches except for a cutter that's only kind of average break down.

The downward break did cause 53% of outs recorded against him to be groundballs. Fletcher has 42 double plays turned behind him over the past 2 years, so that's a major part of his game. Although reputation-wise he's got a decent pickoff move, in practice he has been very, very bad at holding runners since he got into the majors, allowing 17 out of 20 guys to steal off of him in 1972 and giving up 28 steals total over the last 2 years. Fletcher hit .250 with 3 doubles this year, which seems way better than what he's capable of.

Who's the #1 for 1973? Your guess is as good as mine.

Jeff Graton
RHP No. 33
RR, 5'9" 191 lbs.
Born 1939-10-14

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 HOU MLB  13  11   1  3.94  44  21   3  169.0  162  87  74   59  102
1971 HOU MLB   6   5   4  4.03  46   8   2  109.1  114  56  49   45   64
1972 MON MLB   8  11   0  4.17  39  20   4  163.2  169  79  76   39   73

Ever since getting his first chance to play in the major leagues in 1969 at the age of 29 (he had previously been stuck in the Pirates' minor league system), Jeff Graton has been a good Swiss Army Knife type pitcher for the Pilots, Astros, and now Expos, starting when he needs to start, playing short and long relief when that need arises. If he was more effective, he'd have a role. He's not massively effective and one cause for concern is the way his ERA has climbed in each of his 4 seasons in the league when the general shape of batting has gone in the other direction.

In 1972 Graton was a decent if not great starter (8-7, 3.87) and just plain bad in relief (0-4, 6.75, 27 hits allowed in 17.1 IP). The relief appearances came mainly in the 2nd half of the year... and speaking of that, did sandwich a really effective September (10 appearances, all in relief, with 2 ER in 10.1 IP) so he remains a bit of an enigma. Graton's got good control so he's a guy you bring in when you don't want a walk. NL batters seem to have keyed into his slider so it's no longer much of an out pitch. In 1972 he had real issues with the longball - 22 HRs allowed - although in 1970... well, he played in the Astrodome. If you go back to his other non-big stadium year, you'll see that he finished 4th in the AL in HRs allowed, so this is probably an issue for him.

Graton will surely find a spot on the roster. If that spot is in the back of the bullpen, it's a sign that the Expos are doing well. If it's their #3 starter, maybe not so much.

Kenny Loggins
RHP No. 23
LR, 5'10" 179 lbs.
Born 1948-08-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 WPB A     0   0   2  0.00   3   0   0    3.1    3   0   0    0    6
1970 JAX AA    1   2   2  2.99  10   0   0   12.0    7   4   4    5   15
1970 PEN AAA   2   0   1  0.96   6   0   0    9.1    3   1   1    2   13
1971 QUE AA    0   0   2  1.35   7   0   0    6.2    5   1   1    3    6
1971 PEN AAA   2   3   7  2.99  28   0   0   42.0   30  16  14   25   42
1971 MON MLB   0   0   3  0.70  20   0   0   25.2   11   2   2   10   18
1972 MON MLB   8   4   3  2.67  46   9   1  124.1   92  38  37   55   74

Loggins seems like he's made for relief. He combines a low-90s sinker with a 12-to-6 curveball that just devastates batters for an inning or two. Fans even took to calling him "Danger Zone" when he entered into the game, usually in a setup role, and the part-time singer/songwriter has indicated that maybe he'll eventually write his own walk-in music. The Exapos being who they are nevertheless tried him as a starter from last August to the end of the season. He wasn't even that bad: 4-2, a 2.86 ERA, but he lacks the stamina you'd want from a top-flight guy, and worse, he kind of stopped getting Ks when he was used like that: he struck out almost a batter per inning in relief (51 Ks in 55 IP) but that went way down to 23 in 69.1 IP.

If Montreal is smart, Loggins will be back to doing short relief in the near future, perhaps even taking over the closers' mantle. That would be just about the most awesome thing ever. HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE

Erik Schnipke
RHP No. 36
LR, 5'11" 198 lbs.
Born 1942-10-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 SD  MLB   5  15   5  4.76  36  18   4  128.1  122  76  68   84  102
1970 NYM MLB   2   3   0  2.47   7   6   1   43.2   38  14  12   20   36
1971 NYM MLB   6   5   0  3.42  35   7   0   84.0   80  33  32   35   66
1972 MON MLB   4   6  23  2.94  67   0   0   97.2   63  36  32   46   70

If the DANGER ZONE wants to be the Expos' closer he'll have to get past Erik Schnipke, who salvaged his career with a move into short relief, first with the Mets last year and now, following a trade (the Expos gave up an as-yet-unnamed minor league right fielder who is toiling in A ball at the age of 24 so probably will not earn a name but you never know), Montreal. Schnipke throws hard and mixes in a curveball that's as hard to hit as it is to control on his off days. He had a huge issue with dingers last year - 11 in all - but he had a knack for only giving them up when the bases were empty so it's probably not an issue.

From the looks of it, Schnipke, as a one year closer, doesn't really have anything - well, aside from that one really nice year - that speaks to him standing in the way of the DANGER ZONE. Let's pencil in Loggins as the early favorite for that job with Schnipke fighting with Ernesto Hernandez (next!) for setup duties.

Ernesto Hernandez
RHP No. 5
RR, 6'2" 194 lbs.
Born 1944-08-30

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 BUF AAA   3   0   6  1.58  19   0   0   28.1   18   6   5    6   31
1970 MON MLB   2   3   7  3.96  45   0   0   61.1   71  30  27   27   39
1971 MON MLB   5  13  22  3.66  63   0   0  105.2   95  45  43   41   61
1972 MON MLB   2   3   3  2.32  39   9   0  100.2   69  28  26   28   72

Credit where credit is due: the Expos have done a fine job of cobbling together a good bullpen out of scraps. Hernandez was claimed off of waivers from the Yankees' organization; previous to his time in Montreal he'd pitched a grand total of 20 games and 29.1 innings pitched in the big leagues as, mostly, a guy who was just plain buried in the LA Dodgers' organization. The Dodgers let him find greener pastures and so he signed with the Yankees in '69 but an absolutely disastrous campaign in AAA (3-2, 7.67 in 20 games) led to his release in all but name. Montreal picked him up and, following a strong 19 game stretch to start 1970, inserted him into the bullpen. He was the closer in 1971 but melted down 16 times and lost that job to Schnipke in spring training. He was the setup man for most of the year, even starting 9 games himself, which, like Loggins, was a mixed bag: he was 1-3, 2.93 as a starter with less than 7 IP per start but had a 1.37 ERA in 30 relief appearances.

When Hernandez pitches in short relief, batters don't have a shot at keying in on his low-90s fastball and change of pace. This really isn't a big era for relief specialists beyond your single stopper but this is clearly where the 28 year old Venezuelan needs to pitch to be effective. Possibly his best value is with another team, though it's hard to imagine the Expos will get a lot of takers for him.

Richard Craven
RHP/DAD No. 10
RR, 5'8" 152 lbs.
Born 1948-05-04

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 WAT S A   2   1   0  7.28   8   8   0   42.0   64  41  34   14   27
1970 WPB A     1   1   0  2.47   5   5   1   36.1   26  13  10   23   18
1971 QUE AA   10   3   0  1.52  14  14  11  124.0   91  28  21   32   90
1971 PEN AAA   7   4   0  3.55  16  16   1  109.0  110  49  43   48   75
1972 PEN AAA   7   4   4  3.57  18  13   4  100.2  100  41  40   18   84
1972 MON MLB   2   7   0  4.07  15  13   2   92.2   94  43  42   23   57

I wasn't going to play favorites here but MY DAD yes this is my dad got just in under the gun for me to review. Craven had a beast of a season in AA in 1971 which put him on the radar, even getting as high as being named the #58 prospect in the game. His time in Montreal was not as good as it could have been: he a lack of run support led to a 2-7 record but also truth be told MY DAD didn't pitch super well either. He gave up dingers at a rate that the real-life version gave up bad jokes: 13 in 92.2 innings last year. He throws in the low 90s and has pretty good control but, like a lot of control pitchers, misses over the plate sometimes when he tries to pitch too fine.

I've got him penciled in as the 3rd starter. That could be DADSASTROUS (sorry, Dad, although you passed away in 2010 so you won't be readihng this) but fingers crossed, the dingers will be less of an issue. The bad jokes and weird pet names for all the kids will always be an issue.

Infield

Norman Engelman
C No. 17
RR, 6'0" 206 lbs.
Born 1943-12-20

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MGM AA   0.279   44  140   13   39   4   0   1   23   25   29   0
1970 TOL AAA  0.176   59  193   22   34   5   1   5   22   22   54   0
1971 TOL AAA  0.258  115  364   47   94  15   0   6   49   59   70   0
1972 MON MLB  0.249  122  390   33   97  12   1   6   34   44   86   0

Every year there seems to be at least one Rule V draft pick who hits big. In 1972 that guy was Norman Engelman. Buried in the Tigers' minor league system (he even had a cup of coffee in 1969 before making it through waivers and being left unprotected last year), Engelman was the 2nd pick in the December draft and was immediately thrust into a starting position. And he just plain hit. The numbers don't show it so much because of a really bad second half precipitated by the team trying to utilize him as their #3 hitter (Engelman hit .195 in that role) but at one point in late July he was carrying splits of 282/356/351.

It's nice to say that you'd like to see power coming from him in the future but pretty much anything a guy like Engelman gives you is pure gravy. He's basically warming the seat for the future starter who might not even be in the organization yet (I do see a couple guys in the low minors but nobody in the top 200 or who's ready to show up on the team top prospect list at all). Expos will just have to live with a new fan favorite for a couple-few years.

Sam Rahn
C No. 28
RR, 5'12" 199 lbs.
Born 1941-02-07

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PHI MLB  0.288  104  372   41  107  15   1   8   37   30   72   0
1971 PHI MLB  0.261  125  448   47  117  19   2   5   52   34   79   0
1972 EUG AAA  0.167    9   30    1    5   0   0   0    1    3    7   0
1972 PHI MLB  0.070   25   71    6    5   2   0   0    3    8   18   1
1972 MON MLB  0.172   30   87    8   15   0   0   4   13    8   19   0

Rahn suffered through a tumultuous season in 1972. After winning the catchers' job in Philadelphia at age 29 in 1970 (with just 22 games of major league experience before that) he looked like one of the beltingest backstops in the league for two years... and then seemed to have completely forgotten how to hit in 1972. The Philies did not give him a lot of chances because there are slumps and then there is hitting .070 for a team that's chasing a pennant, and after a stint in AAA, where he also failed to hit, Montreal acquired him for their own backup catcher, Roberto Carranco, in June. Rahn never found his stroke in the new city either, hitting only 3-24 to close out the season.

Rahn is a guy who really needs to hit to justify a job in the major leagues. While Engelman is no great shakes behind the plate, he's still superior to Rahn, who has a below average arm. He tries hard and has a good rep in the locker room. Not so good is that he seems to have forgotten where he came from and has stated publicly that he should be starting ahead of Engelman. A 3rd team in 2 years is a high possibility for the guy.

Willie Morales
1B No. 15
LL, 6'2" 196 lbs.
Born 1944-02-06

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PEN AAA  0.267   91  356   43   95  25   1  16   60   30   84   2
1970 SYR AAA  0.323   28   99   19   32   3   0   4   22   10   21   2
1970 MON MLB  0.261   22   23    2    6   1   0   0    2    2    6   0
1971 MON MLB  0.268  142  533   62  143  32   1  27   89   34   94   0
1972 MON MLB  0.242  138  505   56  122  17   1  17   58   33   76   1

Morales had a real sophomore slump last year after looking like a future All-Star and cleanup man of the future for the Expos in 1971. He did hit cleanup for a plurality of at-bats in '72, in fact, although he was slightly better hitting 5th (.252 wih 6 HRs and 26 RBIs in the 4 hole, .263 with 8 HRs but only 20 RBIs at #5). A .224 June and a .190 July where his average dipped as low as .234 at one point even led to a temporary benching.

The biggest red flag here was the loss of all that power Morales flashed in 1971. Power hitters like to have hot streaks and Morales just plain didn't have one in 1971: his high water mark in HRs in a month was 5 for August. He did hit 2 in the team's final 6 games so that's nice. Morales is tall enough to be a good first baseman and can just about play left field if you really need someone there. The Expos started him in left in 1971, in fact, though he only played at first base in '72. He was a real speed demon in college, stealing in the 30s all 3 of his seasons there, but any semblance of that speed seems to be long gone now.

Morales, like a lot of scrap-heap guys (the Expos acquired him in exchange for reverse-lefty pitcher Nate Herod, who has since retired) is not young at 28. Montreal will put him back in the lineup for another year or two but continued performances like this will not endear him to the manager.

Danny Waters
2B/3B No. 18
LR, 5'10" 191 lbs.
Born 1946-01-26

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PB  A    0.246   61  211   41   52   8   3   3   18   60   37   1
1970 MEM AA   0.288   40  118   16   34   7   3   4   22   20   27   4
1970 TID AAA  0.375    2    8    2    3   1   0   0    0    0    2   1
1970 NYM MLB  0.295   36  122   15   36   8   1   3   20   15   24   0
1971 NYM MLB  0.224   92  254   34   57  16   2   5   25   34   56   1
1972 PEN AAA  0.302   20   63   10   19   7   0   2   16    6   13   0
1972 MON MLB  0.187   72  171   22   32   2   1   6   14   21   38   2

The Expos wound up running second base by committee in 1972, giving 6 different players at least 100 innings in the field. Waters, also known as "Mister Nice Guy", was expected to be the starter after the Expos traded away the incumbent Bill Heyen hours before the strike hit for him and two other players (outfield prospect Arsene Wegner and LF Ruberto Yebra, who has since been released after failing to hit with the new club). Waters had hit well in a short trial for the Mets in 1970 and the Expos were ready to help him bounce back from a rough 1971. Instead, he got into the manager's doghouse in April and didn't really get a chance at starting for Montreal until late May. A .115 June and a .150 July told them all they needed to know; Waters was limited to just 19 at-bats from September 1 onward.

The knock on Waters going into the season was that he just wasn't that good of a defensive second baseman and you'd really need him to hit somewhere around .295 to justify his place in the lineup. He has not gotten any better, with subpar range. He's got a strong enough arm to warrant some consideration at third base but the Expos kind of already have a guy there. Waters was 8-20 as a pinch-hitter; perhaps that's a better role than you'd expect for him going forward.

Adam Owens
3B No. 30
RR, 6'1" 197 lbs.
Born 1947-05-08

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MON MLB  0.273  132  520   68  142  29   2  17   43   44   93   0
1971 MON MLB  0.303  128  498   60  151  31   3  12   54   45   74   0
1972 PEN AAA  0.321   36  134   24   43  11   0   7   29   14   15   0
1972 MON MLB  0.201  106  388   24   78  23   2   3   40   29   56   0

It was a real tale of two halves for Adam Owens. After a slow start turned into a horrible slump, Owens' average had fallen to .157 when he was sent down at the end of June to find his strike. Luckily for everyone, he found it, hitting .342 in August, .250 in September - not up to the .300 hitter level he'd shown in 1971 but a whooole lot better than anything he'd done at the outset of the season - and then .308 again in 6 games in October. The big adjustment, from what it looks like, is that Owens started getting a lot more selective at the plate: he struck out 17 times in 97 at-bats in his .124 June but whiffed a grand total of 21 times after coming back for the final month and a half of the season.

He's only 25 so there's a lot of hope that this was just a half-season blip on what was otherwise a pretty fine record (Owens even represented Montreal in the 1971 All-Star Game). Owens seemed to lack confidence in his power when he returned, or else he was just trying to not get into another slump; he'd hit just 1 HR before going down but only 2 upon return.

Owens getting back into form for 1973 could be the difference between Montreal shooting for .500 and another 90 loss year.

Hudson Watts
SS/3B No. 27
RR, 5'10" 181 lbs.
Born 1947-05-17

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 JAX AA   0.329   64  216   33   71  11   4   4   32   31   37   6
1970 BUF AAA  0.273   20   77   15   21   2   3   0    7   11   17   4
1971 WIN AAA  0.293   26   99   10   29   3   1   0    7   16    9   4
1971 MON MLB  0.230   51  174   14   40  10   4   1   11   16   34   6
1972 PEN AAA  0.302   16   53    6   16   3   0   3   12   13   12   3
1972 MON MLB  0.257  123  471   61  121  23   3  11   48   63   60  11

Watts was the first overall pick in the 1970 draft because he was a guy with a high ceiling and a high floor who looked like he could contribute immediately. The results so far have been underwhelming. On the plus side, Watts represented the team in the All-Star Game this year and showed decent power and good speed for a guy who looked like he barely belonged in the league in 1971. The Expos are looking for more than "decent". They want "outstanding". I don't think they're going to get it. Even the scouts think he's merely above average.

Obviously in baseball terms this is nowhere near "bust" levels. Making matters worse, Watts doesn't project to be able to keep playing shortstop. He had a -2.6 ZR last season that will only get worse once errors occur in 1973 again. Last year Montreal used him there with George Yarbor over at 2nd in the last couple months primarily because Yarbor knows how to play 2nd and Watts, rushed to the majors as he was, never got training there. He'll surely go into spring training attempting to learn the position.

George Yarbor
IF No. 7
SR, 5'11" 194 lbs.
Born 1946-06-05

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MON MLB  0.259  123  429   44  111  15   8   5   47   49   88   4
1971 MON MLB  0.249  124  438   51  109  18   2   6   41   48   70   7
1972 MON MLB  0.227  110  365   38   83  13   3   6   29   39   57   6

Yarbor is a classic utility infielder who's been pushed into a starting role by a lack of organizational talent. He's a plus fielder at short, second, and third and can wave a glove in left field, at least in theory; he's played a total of 7 games there in his 3+ seasons in the major leagues. As a hitter, his value is mostly as a fielder, although a return to the .250s would make him something of a positive contributor for a guy who can play anywhere like him. Surprisingly for a guy with his skillset, he's not a good bunter, laying down only 4 sacrifices in 1972 in spite of hitting 6th or 7th for most of the year. He does have good speed, enough to have stolen 20 in West Palm Beach in 1969.

Yarbor will almost certainly start at short next year; the only thing really keeping him from that is some kind of catastrophic injury or an inability for Watts to learn 2nd base in time for the regular season.

Outfield

Matt Williams
RF/LF No. 20
RR, 6'2" 196 lbs.
Born 1939-01-09

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MON MLB  0.281   59  196   40   55   8   4  13   34   43   36   1
1970 CHC MLB  0.000    2    2    0    0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0
1971 MON MLB  0.281   98  313   47   88   8   4  19   48   45   59   7
1972 MON MLB  0.253   95  320   43   81   9   3  16   42   49   62   4

The Expos have tried to keep the 33 year old Williams in the lineup, they really have. He's just gotten injured a loooot for this team. Williams even made the All-Star game in 1970... and then broke his kneecap days later, playing his final game that year on July 18. He's played less than 100 games in each of the last 2 seasons thanks to a variety of issues - back stiffness/spasms/tightness does show up a lot so t hat's a big cause for concern.

When he's on the field he's the best power hitter on the team. Technically Willie Morales led the Expos in HRs but Williams was right behind him with almost 200 fewer at-bats. He's still a pretty darn decent outfielder; you'd expect all those injuries would have killed off his speed, but they haven't. Speaking of speed, he stole 14 bases for Chicago in 1969 and while he's never gotten close to that in Montreal it's mostly because the Expos as a team don't run a lot (9th in the NL in steals with only 58). If he could just stay healthy for a full season...

Willie Ortega
LF/1B No. 9
RL, 6'4" 201 lbs.
Born 1943-12-28

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 IND AAA  0.286   35  133   21   38   5   0   9   24    7   22   0
1970 CIN MLB  0.296   22   71   11   21   2   0   4   12    2   11   0
1970 MON MLB  0.236   96  386   42   91  10   2  12   38   13   74   0
1971 WIN AAA  0.209   67  177   17   37   2   1   4   22    6   26   0
1971 MON MLB  0.171   27   76    5   13   3   0   2    4    3   13   0
1972 PEN AAA  0.307   50  163   23   50   4   0  12   33    4   29   0
1972 MON MLB  0.265   51  147   18   39   4   2   8   21    6   18   0

The free-swinging Ortega has that issue common to many players on expansion teams: as the team around him as gotten better, he's been increasingly out of a job. Ortega puts up atrocious K/W ratios for the era. The power is interesting - a combined 20 HRs between AAA Peninsula and the major leagues in about 300 at-bats. That .254 average he had after being called up in July might be a mirage though: Ortega has a .236 lifetime BA with the Expos, which is more of what you ought to expect from a guy who swings at everything that moves like he does.

Ortega is not about to help himself in the field or on the bases. What you see above is pretty much the extent of his value to a team. He is a nice guy to have in the locker room, even if he's prone to get a bit of the "R.A." (red ass, a "Ball Four" era slang term for guys who get mad a lot). He doesn't really have the right mindset at the plate for pinch-hitting so his path to the majors at this point is finding a lefty platoon mate at first or left - or to hope that Matt Williams gets hurt again.

Jose Maldonado
LF/1B No. 3
RR, 6'0" 196 lbs.
Born 1943-12-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PHO AAA  0.294   87  327   56   96  15   4  16   62   41   51   8
1970 SF  MLB  0.091    7   11    2    1   0   0   1    1    2    1   0
1971 PEN AAA  0.270   40  100   23   27   1   0   9   26   26   13   2
1971 MON MLB  0.167   12   36    6    6   1   0   1    2    6    5   1
1972 PEN AAA  0.283   25   92   18   26   1   0  10   19    8   19   0
1972 MON MLB  0.198   41  111   14   22   4   0   7   22    9   26   1

If Ortega was bad last year, I don't even know what to call Maldonado. The 28 year old had nice pop - 7 HRs in less than 100 at-bats works out to like 35 over a full season - but struck out almost once every 4 at bats. My rule of thumb is, if a guy's K rate is high for the modern era, it's straight up unacceptable for 1972. Maldonado is a bit faster in the field than the aforementioned Ortega but if you have to pick between the two of them, you go with Ortega every day of the week.

Anton Mendoza
CF/LF No. 34
RL, 5'11" 178 lbs.
Born 1945-08-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PHO AAA  0.367    7   30    4   11   3   0   1    6    0    1   2
1970 MON MLB  0.314  112  440   43  138  14   4   9   37   17   32  11
1971 MON MLB  0.288  103  386   41  111  17   4   7   40   14   29   4
1972 MON MLB  0.216  114  408   31   88  10   5   6   24   26   40   5

Mendoza hit leadoff for most of the season for the Expos and ended with a paltry 31 runs. That's so far below adequacy that it probably breaks a league record. His average dipped terribly, which exposed a huge weakness for a leadoff man: Mendoza doesn't walk and so the only way he gets on base is via the single. Last year his OBP was .263. He did come on a bit in the 2nd half, hitting .281 in August and .257 in a September where he split at-bats with prospect Arsene "Arsenal Arsenal" Wegner; that also means that at one point, July 19 to be exact, Montreal's leadoff hitter was batting .175 with a .237 average. Also he's a bad defender. It's a great combo.

At this point, the 27 year old's future as a starter is dependent mostly on whether or not Wegner is ready to go. He didn't have enough PAs to qualify for a report but since Mendoza is kind of bad I'll describe him: excellent fielder, hit .242 at AAA Peninsula, not a great base stealer but pretty fast in the field. Wegner grades out as a "second division starter", which is still an upgrade over Mendoza.

Paul Kahl
LF/RF No. 21
RR, 5'11" 170 lbs.
Born 1944-04-16

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HAW AAA           3    0    0    0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0
1970 SD  MLB  0.214    7   14    2    3   0   0   2    3    0    4   1
1970 CAL MLB  0.354   20   48    5   17   4   0   2    7    1    7   0
1971 HAW AAA  0.000    7    2    0    0   0   0   0    0    1    0   0
1971 SD  MLB  0.273   34   33    1    9   3   1   0    1    1    8   1
1972 MON MLB  0.247  130  457   65  113  19   7  11   44   52   76  11

Kahl was a 2-way player - basically the 2-way player - in the league when I decided that no, I wasn't going to have 2-way players in this league, at least not yet. The numbers are small because up into 1971 teams were trying him as a pitcher. At his last stop in San Diego he went 6-10 with a 4.60 ERA. At the end of the line with that, the Expos decided to try him out as a hitter and he was a lot better. I wouldn't call him great by any stretch but Kahl is a solid, above average hitter who's a plus defender in either outfield corner. The Ks could use some work but I'm not about to rip on that when Montreal has so many players who are just plain bad at hitting.

Kahl is fast enough on the bases to have finished 7th in the league in triples this year and also in spite of hitting lower in the order for most of the season, get into double figures in steals. In fact, he led the Expos in runs scored and tied for the team leage in stolen bases with Hudson Watts. He even had 106 at-bats as the team's cleanup hitter; yes, he's grossy underqualified for that, but that's not his fault and anyway he hit .321 (34-106) there.

At one point I was going to have Kahl sign in Japan (don't ask me how it exists ooOOOOooo). Instead, it looks like he's legit found a home in Canada.

Johnny Vargas
PH/OF No. 19
LL, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1948-02-09

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 QUE AA   0.290   19   69    8   20   3   1   2   17    9   10   3
1971 WIN AAA  0.293   56  167   22   49  13   4   2   15   28   25   9
1971 MON MLB  0.204   36   54    4   11   2   0   0    5    3    9   0
1972 PEN AAA  0.000    2    1    0    0   0   0   0    0    3    1   0
1972 MON MLB  0.243   97  202   21   49   7   1   6   24   29   36   3

Vargas is a 24 year old kid who came out of nowhere 2 years ago and looks like he could be a solid starter for this team, especially if Arsene Wegner needs another year in the minors. Vargas could stand to hit for a bit more power but he'd have been 3rd on the team in hitting if he qualified - granted, a .243 average should not make you 3rd on any team in hitting but we live in interesting times. He's got better bat control than a lot of outfielders I've mentioned, although I would not put him first in line to work a hit and run play. He did have good enough contact to appear 49 times as a pinch-hitter: that really showed that it's a bad idea to use younger players in that role, as he hit .182 (8-44). As a starter he hit .261 with all of his power, so that's where he should be.

Vargas got into 10 games in center last year and put up a -0.2 zone rating. He could wind up being one of the worst fielders in the league if he had extended service there or he could be semi-adequate, the jury is still out. He's much better suited for an outfield corner. He's got plus speed and really great instincts as a baserunner, though you wouldn't necessarily know that from this 3/5 stealing rate last year.

The scouts think Vargas's development is more or less complete. As it stands, he seems like an asset and a good candidate to break camp as a starter.

[Syd Thrift]

St. Louis Cardinals
77-79, 4th NL East, 16 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: The year after they traded away their longtime superduperstar Justin Stone, the Cardinals took a relatively weak NL East in 1971 and played an on-paper far superior Red Sox team to a close 7 game World Series loss. This is a veteran team but also an old team so there was always that chance for a big regression, but that Stone move did have the upside of freeing up the defense - not that Stone is bad defensively but his presence at first meant that they needed to use Lorenzo Martinez in left.

1972 In Review: Instead, they just plain got old. The Cardinals were 20-18 at the end of May and that proved to be a big hole to dig out of... which they even managed to dig out of, it seemed, in late July: as of the 28th they were just 1/2 game behind the Cubs. Then the Pirates and Phillies got hot and the Cardinals, 51-39 at the time, went 26-40 the rest of the way. The hitting was merely above average and the pitching was not helped by the worst defense in the NL by zone rating (-31.7 runs "saved").

1973 Outlook: Although only a year removed from a pennant and still carrying a guy or two - it might only be Lorenzo at this point - from their 60s dynasty (4 World Series championships in 5 years!), this team looks like it's ready to go on a rebuild. It looked like they were down for that option last last year when they traded off some key pieces, particularly RF Casey Satterfield and SS Brian Wilcox, both of whom went off to Oakland in separate trades. This could be a rough year for everyone other than Martinez and Mike Galeana.

Pitching

Roger Quintana
LHP No. 27
LL, 5'11" 166 lbs.
Born 1947-09-25

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PHI MLB  13  13   0  3.44  34  34   7  230.0  225 106  88   73  182
1971 PHI MLB  17  14   0  3.38  39  39  11  287.0  271 121 108   85  223
1972 STL MLB  13  14   0  2.69  34  34  10  271.0  221  88  81   84  231

You can't really tell it from the wins and losses but Quintana really put things together as a pitcher last season. He led the league in strikeouts for the first of what figures to be many times and will undoubtedly make the Phillies rue the day they got bored with him and traded him away for Vince "The Eligible" Bachler this past February.

Quintana throws smoke and a lot of it. His fastball hits the mid-90s on some days and he's got a snappy slider to complement it. He's what the kids today - well, the kids in 30 years - call a "tryhard". One issue he had in Philadelphia, in fact, was a tendency to try a little bit too hard on some pitches and as a result give up homers - he was 5th in the NL with 30 allowed in '71. The change to a new venue meant that Quintana had his lowest HR rate since he came into the league in 1969.

Like a lot - perhaps most - power pitchers, Quintana's not a guy who will help himself at the plate, and an awkward pitching motion leaves him in a bad position to field most ground balls. He dislikes people who try to steal on him; runners are just 14 for 28 on him over the last 2 years. Somehow that doesn't hurt his concentration on the hitter: he allowed just a .213 average with a runner on 1st and in the ultra-rare situations where opponents got runners on the corners on Quintana, they were just 4-24.

Quintana's a stud and with any kind of run support at all he'll be a safe bet for 20 wins.

Raul Mendoza
RHP No. 16
RR, 6'1" 193 lbs.
Born 1943-01-04

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CHW MLB  14  14   0  3.78  34  34   8  254.2  243 116 107   60  204
1971 WAS MLB  16  11   0  3.44  34  33  13  242.2  216 116  93   55  165
1972 STL MLB  10  13   0  3.27  33  30   7  233.2  192  99  85   55  186

After a run at superstardom in his early 20s that included the 1967 AL Cy Young (15-7, 2.26... ugh NOT ENOUGH PLAYING TIME), Mendoza has settled down to become "merely" a top #2 starter who'd be the #1 on half the teams in the league. Mendoza technically throws even harder than Quintana, though Quintana's angle is sneakier. Not that Mendoza is any slouch. He's also got some great stuff, highlighted by a forkball that hitters can't help but swing over for strikeouts and groundouts. His DPs were down this year but blame that on some iffy defense by this team.

Mendoza was on his 3rd team in 3 years and there were worries that his lack of a good work ethic would rub off poorly on Quinana; instead, if anything it's provided the Cardinals' star with a sense of balance. If he can stay out of trouble in the locker room - that's been a problem in the past - he could find St. Louis to be a loving home filled with rabid baseball fans who appreciate what he provides to a team.

Ricardo Gomez
RHP No. 30
RR, 5'11" 181 lbs.
Born 1941-05-17

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 MIL MLB  13   7   0  3.16  30  29   9  199.1  212  85  70   41  111
1971 MIL MLB   6  10   0  4.04  20  19   5  138.0  157  68  62   28   70
1971 STL MLB   7   3   0  2.38  11  11   2   86.2   82  24  23   12   40
1972 STL MLB  12  10   0  3.97  30  30   5  201.2  193  98  89   50  108

You know, for a below-.500 team especially, this team has pretty good front-line starting pitching. You can do a lot worse than having Gomez as your #3 man. The Cardinals acquired him from Milwaukee in June of 1971 for a package that included a bunch of vets - Milwaukee's been infected with the notion that veteran leadership, not talent, wins you games (more on them later though). He pitched well for the Cards down the pennant stretch. Although his ERA ballooned this year to almost 4, underneath it all he's basically the same finesse/control man he's always been.

Gomez will never be a guy who completes a lot of games - even the 9 he had with Milwaukee seems excessive. On a team with a better bullpen that would not be seen as a huge detriment, as he's effective enough when he does play. You get the sense that he'd be happy anywhere on the team as long as he's playing a good amount.

Mario Garcia
RHP No. 31
RR, 6'4" 184 lbs.
Born 1946-11-12

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 STL MLB   9  13   0  3.76  32  32   9  224.2  198 102  94   75  155
1971 STL MLB   6   5   0  4.03  19  19   2  116.0  106  57  52   42   80
1972 TUL AAA   2   5   0  4.67   7   7   1   52.0   51  29  27   14   37
1972 STL MLB  11   8   0  2.67  23  23   4  168.1  131  60  50   43  136

Garcia rounds out what honestly looks to me like one of the better starting rotations in the league. The Cards did utilize a 5-man for much of last year, which is why their top guys didn't finish among the league leaders in starts. Garcia had a bad 1971 and started the season out in AAA and in spite of not really doing much there to show the Cardinals he'd improved, a sore elbow by Raul Mendoza hastened his trip back to the big leagues and Garcia made the most of it. He throws a low-to-mid 90s fastball and has stuff that you can only avoid calling "electric" if you compare him to Quintana. This team as whole just plain beats you down with velocity.

Garcia takes all he can out from his arm and doesn't have a huge amount of natural stamina. That could be something he improves upon as he gets older and more established in the league. His stuff definitely looks like it's the kind of stuff that could last through the 3rd or 4th time through an order.

Edward James Olmos
RHP No. 34
SR, 5'11" 175 lbs.
Born 1947-10-18

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ASH AA    1   1   0  3.49   3   3   1   18.0   15   7   7    7    8
1970 IND AAA   9   6   6  3.33  36  11   0   94.1   74  42  35   39   82
1971 IND AAA   1   3   7  2.34  25   0   0   38.1   30  10  10   19   22
1971 CIN MLB   3   5  14  2.50  39   0   0   64.2   61  22  18   21   43
1972 STL MLB   5   3  15  1.94  58   2   0   92.2   72  21  20   28   50

I keep going down the road of this team thinking "you know, the pitching was kind of meh, so we're gonna get some bad ones soon" but... this guy was pretty great, actually. The Cardinals acquired Edward James Olmos, an actor in his spare time who looks more like a high school principal (well, maybe he will in 15ish years), from the Reds in a trade that sent out starting SS Dusty McCully. McCully did kind of well in his new uni but the Cards are plenty happy with the return. Whatever else happened to the team last year, Olmos was very good in first the setup and, as the season progressed, the closer role. He finished with 23 shutdowns vs only 3 meltdowns: the lack of those, along with his 1.58 pLi, is a good indicator of his slow transition from medium leverage guy to the go-to guy in the bullpen.

Olmos doesn't have amazing stuff; other than a pretty OK slider he mostly relies on control to get the job done. It's a strange mix for a short reliever but it works for him. He worked as a swingman in the minors before kind of falling into losing with the Reds last season; while I'm not sure that either his pitch selection or his god-given stamina are enough to get him to complete games consistently, he can go in for the occasional spot start as the Cards did with him last season (he was 1-1, 3.86 so, you know, meh).

Olmos celebrated his 25th birthday today (I'm writing all of these up on October 18, 1972 by the league clock), so he's quite young enough to be the Cardinals' top relief pitcher going into the 1980s.

Billy Munoz
RHP No. 35
RR, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1941-06-11

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 KC  MLB   1   2   7  2.07  23   0   0   30.1   23  10   7   11   33
1970 BAL MLB   2   2   3  2.63  37   1   0   58.0   47  19  17   20   52
1971 STL MLB  10   6  24  2.69  67   0   0  100.1   86  30  30   35   80
1972 STL MLB   6   6  17  3.29  57   0   0   87.1   76  39  32   39   50

The Cardinals have had a bit of a road to finding relief help and Munoz has had a bit of a road to staying in the majors so they're, like, made for each other or something. Munoz was an expansion pick with the Royals, way back in the 26th round in spite of leading the Cleveland Indians with 13 saves and posting a pretty decent 2.42 ERA. You'd think he'd have been protected or at least drafted earlier. Anyway, he missed half of 1969 with radial nerve compression, then came back and pitched well enough to find a taker in the Orioles, who traded away since-retired SS Steve Saunders for him. Just five months later the Orioles sent him to St. Louis for prospect / con artist Frank Abagnale.

Munoz finished 3rd in the Rolaids Relief Award "voting" (I'm like 90% positive they used a simple algorithm back then: 2 * wins + saves, and that's what I do, too) but had a pretty rocky start to his 1972 season and conceded the big job to Olmos. Munoz definitely has better stuff than Olmos, with his out pitch a really strong slider. He lacks Olmos' control and last season hitters were making too much contact with the old Mr. Snappy. I know a 3.30 ERA doesn't look so bad but a. it's 1972 and b. with that came 24 shutdowns and 14 meltdowns. That's... a lot.

Munoz is 31 and has the rep of a guy who will keep doing a bad thing until he's absolutely forced to stop. For example, he fell in love with his iffy-at-best change last season, especially in the month of July when he posted an ERA of 3.86 and recorded 2 of his 8(!) blown saves on the year. It wouldn't at all be out of the ordinary if the Cards moved on from him in spite of the recent success.

Steve Tidwell
RHP No. 28
LR, 5'9" 190 lbs.
Born 1941-02-14

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1971 CHC MLB  14  11   0  4.18  31  31   9  212.2  232 108  99   89  139
1972 OAK MLB   3   4   0  4.67   9   7   0   52.0   57  29  27   27   21
1972 STL MLB   5   8   0  3.90  19  15   4  108.1  111  47  47   41   46

When you look at Tidwell, your first thought is "huh, I guess the Cardinals are making their groundskeepers wear uniforms" or perhaps "there must be some special promotion going on today where they invited the jockeys from the local racetrack". Then you learn that he is an actual baseball player and there is much ribaldry to be had. Tidwell is gutty. Gritty, I believe is what the kids say. He tore his rotator cuff in September of 1969, missed all of 1970, and, in spite of no longer having an arm, finished 2nd on the Cubs in wins and innings pitched in his comeback season. That won him a trip to the A's in exchange for oft-injured CF Alex Vallejo. You'd think with all that sunk cost the A's would have been more into the guy but nope, they sold him off to the Cards in early June.

At this point it's probably fair to say that whatever Tidwell was going to get back from before, he's gotten back. And honestly it's not like he was exactly murdering the league before his arm blew out. His role on the Cardinals right now is one of a swingman. The Cardinals have set up a child-sized swing for the purpose (okay, I'll stop now).

Dan Ballard
LHP No. 38
LL, 5'11" 189 lbs.
Born 1934-11-02

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 NYY MLB   3   8   0  5.02  22  12   1   95.0  105  54  53   40   64
1970 SF  MLB   8   5   0  3.01  14  14   5   98.2   86  38  33   28   59
1971 SF  MLB   7   8   1  4.05  38  11   4  117.2  114  57  53   40   64
1972 SF  MLB   0   3   0  4.10  12   3   0   30.2   25  14  14    5   12
1972 STL MLB   0   5   0  4.63  25   6   0   56.1   51  29  29   13   24

While Ballard's career is clearly winding down, there's still a chance that he could stay in the league for a few more years as a lefty specialist. Last year was maybe especially illuminative of this: as a swingman last year with the Giants and the Cardinals he was absolutely horrible as a starter (0-7, 5.70) but pretty great as a reliever (0-1, 1.67 in 27 innings over 28 games). By straight up average, Ballard wasn't hugely better vs lefties than righties (.229 vs .241) but he was extremely stingy in allowing same-sided batters to reach base by anything other than base hits - just 4 walks in 105 at-bats.

Ballard seems to be taking the new role in stride. The 37 year old isn't necessarily the kind of guy to go in and rally the troops when they need it - frankly, who's going to listen to a middle reliever anyway? - but instead leads by example. Maybe he'll be a pitching coach when he retires. For now, terrible ERA aside, there's a good, solid chance that he could be effective in 1973.

Infield

John Stuart
C No. 32
RR, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-04-16

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 STL MLB  0.222   55  216   17   48  14   0   2   15   19   66   0
1971 STL MLB  0.294  104  384   50  113  17   2  12   59   38   65   0
1972 STL MLB  0.263  103  396   41  104  14   2  15   52   36   73   0

In spite of missing an entire month with a concussion (yikes!), Stuart made his 1st All-Star Game as a Cardinal and 5th of his career. He's the 2nd best offensive catcher in the league behind the Mets' Jason Bushon, although he was definitely affected by the leaguewide drop in batting average last season. His main opponent for #2 is Greg Darrow of the Cubs (we'll see him next). Stuart, nicknamed "the Lumberjack" for the hacks he takes at the plate, has cut down on the whiffs from his salad days in Philadelphia but one big difference between then and now is that in the 60s he was able to stay healthy a bit more. It seems mean-spirited to downgrade a guy for getting hit in the head with a pitch but something seems to happen to Stuart at some point in the year.

Stuart isn't out there for his defense but he holds his own behind the plate. Pitchers appreciate his leadership and ability to settle them down and while he doesn't get great grades for his arm he did throw out a roughly league average 34.4% of stealers. Stuart does have some utility with the sacrifice but his offensive game is such that he's been credited for exactly one in his entire 9-year career.

He's maybe a little too injury-prone to outright call him a player you build the team around but Stuart is right there in that next tier.

Jonathan Hyde
C No. 23
RR, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1948-05-01

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LEW S A  0.000    4   15    0    0   0   0   0    0    0    3   0
1970 MOD A    0.280    9   25    4    7   1   0   3    6    8    7   0
1970 CR  A    0.223   26   94   11   21   5   0   1    9   12   21   0
1970 STP A    0.242   37  128    7   31   5   0   1   15   12   31   1
1971 CR  A    0.204   94  314   30   64   8   1   4   30   34   71   0
1971 ARK AA   0.241   17   58    3   14   4   0   0    8    5   13   0
1972 TUL AAA  0.297   47  155   19   46   6   1   4   16   19   27   0
1972 STL MLB  0.213   41  141    7   30   6   0   1   12   12   25   0

Hyde, an 11th roound pick in the 1970 draft, has raced through the minor leagues and now... is stuck behind John Stuart. Hyde is an Australian who has this sense about him that makes you think he'd be a great English butler in around 20 years. He's moved through the ranks so quickly that it's hard to draw a good bead on his game. Scouts say he's got good strike zone recognition, and it's true that he posted a .388 OBP in the minors before he was called up last year to replace the struggling Lance Hall (who was hitting .164 early on - since he won't be profiled, I'll note that that's how he finished in the majors although he did hit .280 in AAA Tulsa after he was sent down),

Hyde's arm is marginally worse than Stuart's, which is already not super great. He's got a real drive to succeed although lacks the commanding presence that the starter does. Even though he's a full 7 years younger than Stuart, Hyde's future with this team are likely either as a backup or as trade fodder.

Lorenzo Martinez
1B No. 8
LR, 6'2" 202 lbs.
Born 1938-04-21

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 STL MLB  0.251  146  499   91  125  12   2  44  108  124   96   0
1971 STL MLB  0.265  145  498   99  132  14   1  37  100  113   78   0
1972 STL MLB  0.233  127  438   74  102  13   0  24   60  106   71   0

The good news: Lorenzo Martinez has successfully made the transition to first base. The bad news: Martinez sprained his knee in spring training, suffered a setback, and didn't play his first game until May 3. The worst news: when he did play, his average dropped (like everyone else's) and his power was way, way down from previous seasons. Martinez is never a guy who gets a lot of at-bats due to his propensity to foul off anything that's not a high fastball and accept walks where pitchers give them to him, but even so, his 438 were a 3-year low and the RBIs were his lowest total since 1968, when he missed a month and a half with a hip strain. Let's not overstate this: Martinez missed the All-Star Game due to missing all that time early in the year but he's still one of the best hitting first basemen in baseball. It was just a not great year by Lorenzo Martinez standards.

This is another guy along with his former teammate Justin Stone who is way up there in the HR ranks. He's got 467 in his career and held the single-season record before Ernesto Garcia tied it last year and then broke it this year. It's possible that his career is winding down but he seems like a safe bet to break 500 at the very least. He's currently 2 HRs ahead of Stone, though I expect that Stone will pass him for good in '73. He's also 13th all-time in RBIs with 3 active players ahead of him (technically 4 because Matthew Levario, who hit .087 with Texas this year, hasn't figured out that he's done yet). Stone's trade means that he'll be the all-time Cardinals leader in homers for at least the next generation. The Cards' all-time hits leader, by the way, is Nate Welch, who played his entire 1947-1969 career in St. Louis and finished with 2,356 of them. Martinez isn't reaching that.

Declining or no - and injuries aside, the jury is still out on that - Martinez is still the team's cleanup man whenever he's healthy. This is non-negotiable.

Tom Depew
2B/SS No. 15
LR, 6'0" 201 lbs.
Born 1945-07-01

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 STL MLB  0.271  147  584   61  158  17   3   7   44   41   35   8
1971 STL MLB  0.311  139  562   72  175  23   8   2   46   30   41   7
1972 STL MLB  0.215  125  433   41   93  12   3   6   23   34   38   8

Coming off of his first All-Star appearance in 1971, Depew looked like a prototypical #2 hitter coming into 1972: high-average, excellent bat control, good speed, and a middle infielder (conventional wisdom being that you bat a middle infielder 2nd to split them apart from the other guy so you don't have to pinch-hit for both in the same inning). Instead, Depew suffered the worst year of his 4 year career and put his entire Cardinals future in doubt. Depew continued to avoid strikeouts but he appears to have lost a bit of speed from a couple years ago; as a result, he hit a lot of popups (to his credit, Depew only had 9 GIDPs last year).

Depew tends to keep to himself. On another team this would be a detriment, as guys with this profile are often called on to be team leaders or at least be the resident firestarter. Since the Cards already have John Stuart to fill that role, it's notso bad here. Although I listed Depew as a SS and he played 2 games there, he is flat-out not a candidate for playing a lot over there. His range is OK-ish for 2nd but certainly not for short. With a decent arm he'd probably make a decent 3B if he was moved there but that position carries with it a power requirement that Depew simply does not meet (also, it's filled). Even with the loss of speed, Depew is well above average, though he has a bad habit of taking dumb chances on steals and when taking extra bases.

The Cardinals have a guy Victor Rodriguez who hit .312 for Tulsa last year and who will challenge Depew in spring training. I think Depew still wins based on defense and being a better locker room fit but it's very possible he could be relegated into a backup infielder role as early as next season.

Mike Galeana
3B/1B No. 13
RR, 6'2" 202 lbs.
Born 1944-09-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ARK AA   0.250    1    4    1    1   0   1   0    0    0    0   0
1970 TUL AAA  0.257  127  440   91  113  10   0  37   89   78   80   4
1970 STL MLB  0.360   22   75   17   27   2   1   7   17   15   12   0
1971 STL MLB  0.238  122  382   63   91   9   2  30   80   66   77   0
1972 STL MLB  0.217  144  515   76  112  12   3  32   87   89   73   2

For much of the 1972 season it looked really touch and go whether or not Galeana would finish the season below the Timonen line. He hit just .170 ihn April, slowly worked his average up to .228 by the end of July, then forgot how to his in August and was hitting as low as .195 on the evening of September 1. Then he... I can't say he went on a tear but he did hit .269 in September and went 6-13 in October (I guess that counts as a tear). Through it all he did keep his power, at least, setting new career highs in HRs, RBIs, and walks and making the All-Star Game in spite of that average.

Galeana is a classic mistake hitter. He did his best work a little down in the order - the Cards flipped him with John Stuart from 5th to 6th. He seems like a guy whose bat you want in the heart but the stats don't like: he hit .180 with 10 HRs as a #5 man and .247 with 19 dingers hitting 6th. He won't embarrass you in the field, although his glove is not and never will be the reason why he starts games. Galeana worked hard to adjust his swing last year and, average issues aside, should be given a lot of credit for cutting down on his K rate while keeping the power.

Buddy Miles
3B/UT No. 21
RR, 6'1" 201 lbs.
Born 1947-09-04

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 STP A    0.229   85  319   35   73   4   5   3   36   27   64   8
1971 MOD A    0.279   62  229   32   64  12   3   8   24   31   49   1
1971 CR  A    0.310   50  158   24   49   6   2   3   14   24   17   4
1971 STP A    0.236   19   72   12   17   2   0   4   15   11   13   1
1972 ARK AA   0.265   40  136   14   36   8   2   1   19   25   11   5
1972 TUL AAA  0.279   36  129   17   36   4   1   2   14   14   25   1
1972 STL MLB  0.227   35   97    8   22   4   2   0   11    7   15   2

Future BLUES LEGEND Buddy Miles (the real-life version of him has a nightclub named after him right down the road from where the author currently lives) played all 4 infield positions and left field between Arkansas, Tulsa, and the major leagues last year. In the pros he split his time equally between 2nd and 3rd. Utility is probably the biggest thing that Mules as going for him. Before he hit the majors he seemed like a guy who could also hit for a decent, if empty average but struck out way too much for that to be a thing in his time last year.

Don't look for Miles to play much shortstop at all. He's played time in right in the minor leagues, too, not that you'd want to use him there with any regularity unless he adds a whole lot of offensive skills. He's got natural speed but has the instincts of a guitar player both on the bases and in the field (by which I mean, they're not great... it occurs to me that a guy with guitar player instincts might actually be kind of good so I needed to clarify). He's a guy who would be called on to bunt a lot except that he doesn't lay them down well. It's something he's worked on for a bit but his brain is just not attuned to baseball-related things, it seems.

Jason Williams
SS/UT No. 3
RR, 6'1" 203 lbs.
Born 1945-04-06

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CR  A    0.316   40  152   24   48   9   4   0   20   13   14   8
1970 ARK AA   0.331   83  311   42  103  11   3   1   28   21   26   8
1971 ARK AA   0.300   41  150   10   45   4   0   0    8   12   20   9
1971 TUL AAA  0.252   86  329   35   83  10   1   1   21   33   23   6
1972 TUL AAA  0.259   47  158   17   41   5   0   1   17   14   21   2
1972 STL MLB  0.220   67  118    8   26   3   1   0    8   11   14   0

With Brian Wilcox shipped off to Oakland, Williams is the guy on the team with the most innings at shortstop last year, and, with the #3 and 4 guys ineffective, the odds-on favorite to win the starting SS job next year. Williams is a backup, replacement-level middle infielder. Nothing against him; just, at 27 that's what he is. No power at all, not a good contact hitter, not even that great in the field, although once the error thing shakes out next season he'll be able to distinguish himself with soft hands.

OOTP likes to say "if this guy is your starter, you should look for an upgrade". That's exactly what Williams is.

Angelo Serrano
SS/3B No. 22
RR, 5'12" 195 lbs.
Born 1946-05-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BIR AA   0.261  116  402   37  105  16   4   3   33   22   67   3
1971 IOW AAA  0.286   74  217   16   62   7   4   2   33   16   21   1
1971 OAK MLB  0.308    6   13    2    4   2   0   0    3    0    2   0
1972 IOW AAA  0.258   20   66    7   17   5   0   0    9    4   19   1
1972 OAK MLB  0.213   27   47    3   10   0   0   0    4    2    6   0
1972 STL MLB  0.082   21   61    3    5   0   0   0    2    5    9   0

The A's and Cardinals made a lot of deals between each other but this one wasn't exactly one of them. Serrano was plucked off the waiver wire in early September; the A's tried to sneak him through but St. Louis was just too desperate to find anyone at the position. He came to St. Louis and when I say he didn't hit, I don't mean "he hit poorly". I mean, he went 0 for his first 46 at-bats with the team. He entered September as a candidate to challenge Williams for the starter job and ended it with his future career in doubt.

Serrano's tools profile him more as a third baseman except that his bat limits him to the middle infield. It's not a great combination. He will need to show a lot, probably in AAA next season.

Outfield

Rafael Disla
LF/1B No. 25
LL, 5'9" 173 lbs.
Born 1944-05-27

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LAD MLB  0.330  156  642   93  212  22   2  19   80   49   46   0
1971 STL MLB  0.314  131  525   76  165  32   2   9   58   38   55   0
1972 STL MLB  0.274  145  583   74  160  25   2  15   59   50   52   1

Disla was the cornerstone of the trade that dealt Justin Stone away. Nothing against Stone, of course, but he's a completely different kind of hitter than the slugging first baseman: Disla's got line drive power, good bat control, and normally hits for a high average. It did fall to .274 last season; still, there's no reason why that won't bounce right back. His numbers were still good enough to merit a trip toe the All-Star Game, his 4th. If/when he gets his batting stroke back, he's the same man who led the league in batting and hits twice; if you look up "#3 hitter" in the dictionary you will see this man's face.

It's hard to diagnose exactly what went wrong with Disla last year - outside of the league as a whole not doing the whole hitting thing - but this is our theory: Disla suffered from back tightness early and we think it might have flared up in the last 2 months of the season when he hit .234 and .230 respectively. Before the season-ending slump, Disla was hitting .301.

Disla's not really any better of a fielder than Martinez in left but, potential back issues aside, he's much less prone to get hurt out there than Lorenzo had been. You'd expect a guy who hits for this kind of average to be fast but nope, Disla's more of a Steve Garvey or Bill Buckner type. His 3 steal attempts this year - he was successful on just one - was a career high. He also loves to crowd the plate and led the NL with ll hit-by-pitches last year. He's pretty even-keeled and unflappable, personality-wise, although he's also not a guy who players tend to turn to when they have problems.

All in all, I expect a good bounce-back year from this man in 1973 and, with it, a return to the upper echelon of 3-hole hitters.

John Rohrbough
PH/1B/OF No. 33
LR, 5'11" 188 lbs.
Born 1947-09-08

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CBS AA   0.294   33  119   16   35   7   3   1   16   17   18   4
1970 OKC AAA  0.308   29  104   10   32   6   4   1   15    7   24   4
1970 HOU MLB  0.212   38   52    2   11   5   0   0    3    3   11   0
1971 OKC AAA  0.264   22   87   12   23   4   3   2   19   13   10   1
1971 HOU MLB  0.280   86  257   38   72  16   5   2   35   30   39   4
1972 STL MLB  0.204   71   93    4   19   3   2   2   10    6   11   0

Pinch-hitting is not really a role you want a 24 year old to be in (Rorbough just turned 25 last month). A guy at his age is still developing and needs regular playing time, if not in the majors then in AAA. The Cardinals utilized him as a pinch-hitter and he did not cut it.

Rorbough demonstrated some kill as a slap-hitting left-handed hitter last year. Sure, if the man's 10 years older, go ahead and pinch-hit with him all you want. He didn't walk much and he's a very aggressive hitter at the plate. Scouts insist that he has 10 HR power if you let him play a full year but we haven't seen it. With right field open in 1973, perhaps Rohrbough can fit into the mix there: in spite of only getting 9 starts all last year, he's got a good rep for defense in both outfield corners.

Jim James
CF/LF No. 18
LL, 5'11" 188 lbs.
Born 1945-12-18

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LOU AAA  0.349  124  438   71  153  38  10  11   63   23   63  19
1971 STL MLB  0.286   82  332   40   95  17   6   9   29    9   51   3
1972 STL MLB  0.262  106  370   46   97  13   4   4   24   12   53   6

Why and how did the Red Sox leave this man available in the Rule V draft in 1970? He hit .349 in AAA! I know they had their man but jeezola, you add this guy to your 40-man roster. James has, I guess to be fair TOOO BEEEEE FAAAAAAAAIIIIR to the Red Sox not been a batting crown guy - the poor pitch selection puts the kibosh on that - but James has been pretty decent over the past two seasons. Their starter in center before James was Ray Herring, who, hey, more power to him now but he was turrible bad defensively.

The game thinks James is a solid to plus level defender (per the scouting report blurb) but I'm not sure I see it. I see a guy with good range based on a lot of speed but he negates it some by committing a few lousy errors a year. His speed is also a little problematic as he is very error-prone on the bases. James stole only 6 bases in 12 attempts and even that was an improvement over his 1971 mark of 3 for 9. (in AAA in 1970 he was 19... for 41!). He strikes us as a guy who will play for the highest bidder should free agency ever arrive; fortunately for the Cardinals in the near future, it ain't there.

James is OK. He's not going to lead them to a pennant but neither is he going to be the guy standing in the way of one.

Elijah Johnson
OF No. 7
SL, 5'7" 178 lbs.
Born 1933-12-19

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PIT MLB  0.288   73  292   41   84  11   2   2   23   18   38   6
1971 STL MLB  0.237  122  388   44   92   9   3   4   32   26   67   8
1972 STL MLB  0.234   77  167   17   39   6   0   3    9   16   24   4

Elijah Johnson's career is winding to a close but he's got that heart that just will not quit. After a .288 average in his swan-song season in Pittsburgh, he's settled back into the .230s, which is right around where he's hit his entire career. There's still some use for him, particularly as a platoon partner and pinch-hitter against left-handers: Johnson hit .270 vs lefties in 1972.

The downside is, well, it's just unfortunate to have to say this about the guy but... Johnson was the pre-eminent centerfielder of the National League from the late 50s to the late 60s. He has 11 Gold Gloves in center field to his name. All of this is a leadup to the fact that at age 38 he's just not much of a centerfielder anymore. His range has gone into a great decline along with his speed. I should note that he still has that veteran guile left on the basepaths that kind of hides the slowing down. He's not a great bunter but did lay down 5 of them last year anyway.

The biggest thing Johnson contributes to this time, aside from anything he does on the field, are his intangibles. He's a born leader and works hard to make the most out of his abilities. With only 1 All-Star Game to his credit and only 1880 hits so far, he's... I'd call him a Bill Mazeroski type Hall of Fame candidate, meaning he probably gets in after his initial 15 year window is closed.

Sonny Burwell
CF No. 10
LR, 6'0" 184 lbs.
Born 1948-07-14

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 FRE A    0.227   51  185   40   42   4   2   3   12   34   49  35
1971 AMA AA   0.352   28   91   14   32   4   0   1    8   13   17   7
1971 PHO AAA  0.297   13   37    8   11   4   0   0    0   16    6   4
1971 SF MLB   0.600    2    5    1    3   1   0   0    2    0    1   1
1971 CIN MLB  0.299  109  432   64  129  24   4   4   42   52  101  33
1972 CIN MLB  0.214   29  112   13   24   5   0   0    4   17   17   6
1972 STL MLB  0.250   59  176   24   44   3   4   4   16   21   38   9

Burwell fell long and hard off of a 1971 that saw him flirt with .300 and make the All-Star Game for the Reds. Even then I suppose the writing should have been on the wall: speed or no speed, 101 Ks are a lot of Ks for a man with no amount of power. I guess the Reds were thinking the same thing because after he got off to a slow start they traded him to St. Louis for Chris Cooper. In the new environs the Cardinals tried him out alongside Jim James for a while before deciding that the 24 year old who, through it all, is still a babe to this league, wasn't ready. He mostly just sat on the bench and used a roster spot: from August 1 to the end of the year, Burwell appeared in just 15 games, mostly as a pinch-runner.

Burwell has top of the line speed and could easily lead the league in steals if he gets his contact in order. Unlike your typical speedster, he's a dead-pull hitter who likes the inside pitch. That seems like something that ought to be trained out of him. If the Cardinals are serious about the youth movement, they'll give Burwell a lot of the at-bats that Elijah Johnson got last year... although there's the issue there that Burwell's not a great platoon partner in center. Maybe he can hit well enough to be Casey Satterfield's replacement. I feel like it's more likely that he'll start the year in the minor leagues, but who knows?

Gilles Villeneuve
OF No. 20
RR, 6'0" 171 lbs.
Born 1950-01-18

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MOD A    0.298   96  369   48  110  21   2  14   52   43   56   5
1970 CR  A    0.298   25   94   10   28   1   1   1   12   10   13   1
1970 STP A    0.267    9   30    9    8   1   1   2   11    3    1   2
1971 MOD A    0.319   53  182   20   58   8   1   2   17   25   22   1
1971 CR  A    0.274   47  168   21   46  10   1   5   26   21   24   1
1971 ARK AA   0.300   34  130   10   39   6   0   4   21   11   13   1
1971 TUL AAA  0.308    3   13    1    4   1   0   0    0    1    1   0
1972 TUL AAA  0.351   67  242   35   85  12   1  12   44   28   35   3
1972 STL MLB  0.259   56  189   18   49  15   1   4   18   22   19   0

My sense of baseball properness screams that this man should be a Montreal Expo: he's a native of Berthierville, Quebec and in his off-time he is a race car driver... well, right now he's having issues with that so he is, and I swear to God I am not making this up, making money racing snowmobiles. Is there anything more Canadian than that? As a ballplayer, after spending 1969 to early '71 all over A ball he's risen through the ranks quickly and earned a call-up to replace the departed Casey Satterfield by hitting .351 in the first half of the season. Of course he was never going to replicate that in the majors but hey, .259 in '71 is not so bad.

Villeneuve is a far better fielder than Satterfield ever was. Satterfield "saved" -5.3 runs in right this year and was under -10 in the previous two seasons. A league-average fielder would be an improvement and Villeneuve is a plus RF who played a lot of center in the minor leagues. He flashed a strong enough arm to get 3 baserunner kills in his 56 games in the majors.

In order to really and truly earn this job full-time, Villeneuve is going to need to find that double-digit power stroke he flashed at several locations in the minor leagues and a higher average would not hurt either. Only 22 years of age himself - the Cards drafted him straight out of whatever the Canadians call high school (probably something like "moose queue") - he still has a lot of time to grow into a great player.

[Syd Thrift]

Chicago Cubs
84-71, 3rd NL East, 9 GB

1972 Outlook: The Cubs took a major step back in 1971 after finishing in 2nd place with 90+ wins for 2 consecutive seasons. The offensive core of the team was still really young but man, that pitching... it was bad, even for a team that played in Wrigley. .500 seemed about right.

1972 In Review: In spite of being outscored this year, the Cubs ran a surprisingly good bullpen corps and a lot of clutch to being within a shot of the NL East for most of the year. As of July 1, they were just 1/2 game behind the Pirates with a 40-27 record. They fell off that month to a 15-16 record (yes, in July! With the All-Star Break!) and sent Jason Workman packing, indicating they were out of the race. Still, they weren't terrible, finishing 30-28 from August 1 on.

1973 Outlook: It's really hard to draw a bead on this team. Antonio Lopez and Jeremy Taylor are in their prime and make a great 1-2 punch, but the pitching is really, really bad: Chicago finished dead last in the NL in runs allowed. It feels like they can only go so far with the "win every game 6-5" strategy.

Pitching

Bill Lucas
POS No. 23
LR, 6'3" 190 lbs.
Born 1937-09-14 in Farragut, TN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CHC MLB  12  17   0  4.42  38  38   7  266.2  292 141 131  114  155
1971 CHC MLB   8  15   0  5.17  31  31   4  196.2  216 129 113   94  104
1972 CHC MLB  17  10   0  3.84  34  34  10  250.1  241 114 107  107  112

Bill Lucas rebounded last season from 2 straight years of ERAs over 4. Things were still high but this at least was within the realm of Wrigley Field acceptability. Lucas is 35 now and so will likely never achieve the heights he got to in 1969, when he went 23-13, 3.27. Lucas throws five pitches for strikes and throws hard, hitting the mid-90s on the radar gun, but none of his pitches are super hard to locate. He's kind of not got the greatest control either and Wrigley will make you pay for the tiniest of mistakes, so he's allowed 30+ HRs in each of the 4 full seasons he's been with the club. In 1972, that was 30 even, "good" for 4th worst in the league.

Lucas' best ability, then, is availability. He's willing to come in every 4 days and do what he can to help the team. With the sluggers on this club, that's usually enough.

Scott Coffey
LHP No. 14
LL, 6'1" 190 lbs.
Born 1942-07-12 in San Jose, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TAC AAA   7   6   0  4.08  14  14   8  108.0  115  56  49   27   65
1970 CHC MLB   8   7   0  3.80  22  19   6  139.2  132  61  59   53   93
1971 TAC AAA   2   7   0  4.57  17  17   2  114.0  115  65  58   48   63
1971 CHC MLB   7   5   0  3.99  16  16   4  112.2  111  53  50   36   76
1972 CHC MLB  13  10   0  3.68  34  33   5  244.1  246 105 100   80  152

If Lucas was the staff workhorse, then Scott Coffey, I guess, was the staff ace, at least of the rotation. After several years of being not quite good enough to play in the big leagues for a full season, Coffey finally got a chance to show what he can do from Opening Day to October and he made the most of it. Sporting a hard fastball that hits the low to mid 90s on the gun and a nice slider, Coffey struck out an above average number of guys per 9 innings while keeping hitters from getting on too terribly much via the bases on balls. He did allow 27 HRs but what do you expect? Overall though Coffey gets groundballs, which is a pretty decent way to pitch in Chicago.

Coffey lacks super great stamina; even if the Cubs didn't have Jesse Kelly finishing games for them, it's unlikely that Coffey would get too far above 10 CGs. As you'd expect from a guy who's come back from being written off by his original club (the Detroit Tigers, who drafted him in 1964) and now has to battle for everything, Coffey has a good work ethic and does the little things well.

Javy Obregon
RHP No. 85
RR, 6'0" 200 lbs.
Born 1939-11-25 in Cabaiguan, CUB

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TAC AAA   0   1   0  5.40   1   1   0    6.2   10   5   4    2    2
1970 CHC MLB   4   3   0  4.04  15   9   1   62.1   64  30  28   32   23
1971 TAC AAA   5   1   0  1.74   8   8   4   67.0   49  18  13   21   33
1971 CHC MLB   5   9   0  5.66  22  19   0  130.1  155  86  82   51   58
1972 CHC MLB  16   8   0  3.90  32  32   7  221.1  214 100  96   79  114

In his 4th season with the team, the Cuban defector Javy "El Conde" Obregon finally had the kind of season the team expected him to have. Obregon is a relatively soft tosser who won games in 1972 by getting the defense involved. You'd think this would mean he played his best when John Timonen was out there but really the height of his season was when he went a combined 6-2 in August and September with a 2.35 and 3.48 ERA. Somehow Obregon allowed only as many HRs at home (13) as on the road and even pitched better in Wrigley (3.58 to 4.20), which made him practically unstoppable (7-2, compared to 9-6 away from home). Note to self: start this man at home whenever possible.

Obregon is a smart guy both in the baseball sense and in the actual sense; he built his own boat to take him across the gulf into the United States. He's also not a big stamina guy but like Coffey he doesn't really need to be. This rotation is old but I don't know, they don't look like they're going to break down in 1973 at least.

Jose Torres
RHP No. 7
RR, 6'1" 193 lbs.
Born 1947-10-04 in Hinesville, GA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 COL AAA  11  10   0  3.32  31  31   6  219.0  185  95  81   67  230
1971 CHR AAA  16   3   0  1.69  22  22  14  180.1  121  40  34   59  150
1972 CHC MLB   9  14   0  4.77  32  29   6  205.1  195 111 109   97  150

Much was expected out of Torres after a 16-3, 1.69 campaign in AAA Charleston. Perhaps expectations should have been tempered; the Cubs were able to select Torres, after all, in the Rule V draft. Yes, Pittsburgh is chockablock with pitching but those are... nice numbers and the peripherals back them up.

As it turns out, there was reason to worry. While Torres did spend the entire team on the Cubs' roster, he finished 8th in the NL in losses, 4th in HRs allowed, and his 4.77 ERA was the worst in baseball among all qualifying starters, 30 points worse than #2 (Cincinnati's Joe Hagan had a 4.48). Torres gets outs swinging with a 5-pitch mix, and he does deliver a good deal of ground balls, but as implied by the HR total he was guilty of trying to throw his way out of trouble at times. While this served him well in AAA, you just can't do that in the major leagues.

Torres is a hard worker and smart and if anyone can figure out those issues, it's him. If so, it'd be nice for the Cubbies to not have literally the worst starter in the game in their rotation.

Jesse Kelly
LHP No. 9
LL, 5'11" 193 lbs.
Born 1937-10-15 in Philadelphia, PA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 NYY MLB   9   5  26  3.01  66   0   0   98.2   95  45  33   20   91
1971 NYY MLB   8   7  12  4.89  48   0   0   68.0   75  38  37   10   50
1972 CHC MLB   8   5  28  2.75  69   0   0  111.0   99  35  34   31   85

The Yankees wrote Kelly off after a disastrous 1971 season but he didn't write back. Traded to the Cubs in January in exchange for CF Ryan Johnston, Kelly said "haha no" to Wrigley's reputation as a pitcher-killer and posted his best ERA since his 9-8, 2.02, 21 save campaign in 1968. Kelly did blow 7 saves in 35 chances, which is still a good ratio. Also good: 40 shutdowns vs 10 meltdowns. One cause for alarm, I suppose, is the fact that he threw his best ball in the first half of the season, with ERAs of 0.00 in April (5 games, 6 IP), 2.78 in May, and 0.82 in June. From July onward Kelly didn't have an ERA under 3.29 in any month.

Kelly's pitches occasionally hit the low 90s but he moves them about well; last year saw a small uptick in his K rate from 6.6 to 6.9. Historically he induces a lot of grounders but that wasn't so much the case last year. That's probably a trend to want to reverse. He's one of the first pitchers to show up to practice in spring training and in pregames, which is saying a lot given the hard-working demeanor of this staff.

Kelly turned 35 a couple days ago but looks like he could keep this up for another 5 years.

Freddy Uscanga
LHP No. 31
LL, 5'11" 182 lbs.
Born 1945-08-10 in Blanchard, LA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 OAK MLB   4   3   6  2.97  27   0   0   33.1   29  18  11   19   21
1970 CHC MLB   4   2   8  4.74  35   0   0   43.2   45  24  23   33   35
1971 CHC MLB   5   8  13  4.09  61   0   0   92.1   93  47  42   51   72
1972 CHC MLB   2   4   2  4.47  45   0   0   54.1   60  27  27   30   35

It's about time we admitted that, 2 1/2 years into the Freddy Uscanga experiment, he's just not a fit for Chicago. Acquired from the A's for Alex Vallejo (a steep price but hey, we got him back!), Uscanga's not been very good at all since he came over at all. The scouting poop on him is that he's got a great change and cut fastball; the reality has been that he doesn't locate either pitch all that well and last year he didn't even generate that many swings and misses. Weirdly enough for a guy who's been pretty bad and who's played in Wrigley, HRs have not been an issue for him: he's allowed a pretty-normal 16 in his 190.1 career innings for the Cubs.

Uscanga did hold lefties to a lower average than righties, but we're still talking .259 vs .300. The Cubs finished the season with him as their lefty specialist and it's really hard to see them doing much more with him going forward; a trade or even a release of the 27 year old seems more likely.

Suk-min Moon
RHP No. 20
SR, 5'9" 196 lbs.
Born 1935-11-05 in Gunpo, KOR

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CHW MLB   2   3   3  3.48  37   0   0   49.0   51  21  19   18   41
1970 CHC MLB   0   0   0  1.03   7   0   0    8.2    5   1   1    2    9
1971 CHC MLB   4   3   2  2.33  51   0   0   73.1   59  21  19   34   54
1972 CHC MLB   4   6   1  3.22  44   0   0   58.2   54  21  21   19   46

Like Uscanga, Moon is an AL transplant, haviing been acquired from the White Sox in Decembrer of 1970 for minor league 3B Mike Perry (who looks like he's about to be "former minor league 3B Mike Perry" as he hit .162 in AAA at age 28 but I digress). Unlike Uscanga, Moon has been pretty good for Chicago. A two-time All-Star and former closer for the Twins, at 36 Moon throws the same arsenal as Uscanga does - a change-up and a cutter - that he does put over the plate for strikes. He was a touch worse this year after being lights-out in 1971, which gave young reggae artist Eddy Grant (0-0, 0.64 in 11 appearances) a shot to take over the setup job this September and perhaps beyond.

Moon should still be good and solid, if not lights-out like he was at times in the 60s. He's never started a game in the majors and that will not start now, no matter how desperate Chicago gets: he just doesn't have the right kind of stuff for it.

Infield

Greg Darrow
C No. 33
RR, 5'10" 205 lbs.
Born 1943-12-09 in Shreveport, LA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHC MLB  .329  128  480   66  158  23   2  12   71   26   31   0
1971 CHC MLB  .256  130  507   42  130  32   0  13   75   23   71   0
1972 CHC MLB  .247  122  433   43  107  13   4   6   43   27   46   0

In spite of playing a position that involves getting balls knocked around your person on a daily basis, Greg Darrow's rarely been hurt in the major leagues. We raise this to quell rumors that he was playing hurt last year: no, he just wasn't all that good, at least in comparison to seasons past. Darrow's average fell 9 points from an already-disappointing .256 the year before in spite of cutting his strikeout rate down to a level that was closer to what it was in 1970. Maybe the .329 was flukey then; in order to get back to that level, it's surely the case that he needs to be a low-strikeout guy again. His gap power just completely flew the coop; I guess in fairness doubles especially were down league-wide but that's still a place where he's got to get better.

Darrow still made the All-Star trip for his 3rd straight season. He's a plus defender behind the plate who - and you might not think it, considering his slow Louisiana drawl - enhances his skills with a deep knowledge of the game and opposing hitters. He also managed to throw out 37.9% of would-be basestealers good for 3rd in the NL. He won the Gold Glove in 1971 and is the favorite to repeat. Darrow is slow and won't steal. He has a grand total of 0 steal attempts in his major league career. In spite of making so much contact, Darrow has a reputation for using his big body to break up double plays.

Darrow is 28 and in the prime of his career. His numbers were pretty respectable for a catcher last year. Cubs fans would like more.

John Kohut
C No. 41
LR, 5'10" 202 lbs.
Born 1939-09-17 in Miami, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CIN MLB  .247   46  146   14   36   5   1   3   20    7   35   0
1971 TAC AAA  .233   16   43    4   10   2   0   2    4    7    6   0
1971 CHC MLB  .133   19   60    3    8   3   0   1    6    9    6   0
1972 CHC MLB  .224   47  152   12   34  11   0   0   15   12   36   0

Kohut is a good foil for Darrow: he hits from the opposite side, in the past he's been a veteran to Darrow's youth (although Darrow's no longer a young buck, really). You normally want your backup catcher to be a good defender but in Chicago's case the starter is a good to great defender so that's not really so much of an issue. Chicago would nevertheless prefer that Kohut improve upon the 31.6% CS rate from last year.

Kohut's 33 but was trapped in the minor leagues prior to expansion. He first broke out in Cincinnati and then was acquired from the... whatever Cincinnati's nickname is (oh right, the Queen City, which I don't remember because it makes no sense) for since-retired backup OF Mark Tooley. If we're being honest, he's maybe a bit too complacent for what he is, and 1971 was a good example of how he can sometimes get frustrated with himself and get into a prolonged slump, but as long as he performs even to the meager extent he did in '72, he'll be fine for another couple years.

Antonio Lopez
1B No. 10
LL, 6'3" 200 lbs.
Born 1945-11-16 in San Francisco de Macorís, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHC MLB  .302  159  632  104  191  32   5  29  114   82   82   0
1971 CHC MLB  .312  161  631  105  197  34   2  42  125   67   92   0
1972 CHC MLB  .290  152  576   79  167  28   2  27   68   81   95   2

Whatever else happens in Chicago, you can count on Antonio Lopez to produce. Lopez, who I believe I nicknamed "Walrus Gunboat" because I took over the league at about the time "Come Together" was released as a single by the Beatles, has made 4 All-Star trips in 5 years, somehow getting snubbed in 1971, a year where he led the NL in hits. His production slipped this year as it did throughout the league but a closer look indicates that Lopez is the same old guy he's always been. Which, he's 26: he doesn't need to be called "old" in any context.

Lopez is not fast - his 5th-best doubles mark was a result of lots and lots of line drives. With the offense down around the league, it's probably the case that Lopez pressed a bit too much in RBI situations: he hit only .219 with runners in scoring position and his RBIs almost halved. A return to run normalcy will likely help push that back up. He did set a career high in strikeouts and that mark has been increasing over the years. There's a solid chance that he'll go into his 30s as more of a low-average slugger than the top-of-the-line #3 hitter that he currently is unless he stops that trend. Lopez also doesn't field particularly well: he can reach up for high throws but that's about it.

I spent the last paragraph sort of slamming the guy but the truth is, Lopez can be a key member of this team for long enough that future fans won't know where his nickname is from.

Juan Perez
2B No. 6
LR, 6'2" 198 lbs.
Born 1938-06-04 in La Victoria, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHC MLB  .262   88  340   42   89  12   0   9   43   24   60   1
1971 CHC MLB  .248   67  202   20   50   4   1   6   27   22   30   0
1972 CHC MLB  .286  122  454   66  130  16   3  26   72   45   66   3

One huge component of the Cubs' bounce-back season was that Juan Perez managed to stay healthy - at least relatively healthy - for the first time in 3 years. While it's true that he sprained his knee in spring training and didn't play for the first time until May 2nd, the 122 games he did get into was his highest total since the 149 he had in 1968 (in the interests of not making that sound too incredible, he did play in 121 games in '69). And being in the lineup, he was as good as he's ever been as a hitter, matching his career high in HRs (he also hit 26 in 1962) and even making the All-Star game for the first time in 6 years.

It's probably too much to ask for Perez to avoid injuries like this for another season. Defensively, he's actually really, really good out there - it's a little amazing that he's never won a Gold Glove. I would even consider switching him over to short, 34 years of age and everything, if it weren't for the fact that he's so injury-prone. Perez is slow but has good instincts on the basepaths. He also loves to lean into the plate and get hit by pitches - he had 9 HBPs last year - and while I'd love to tell him to knock that off, I do not have a way of doing so short of editing his ratings, which I am not going to do.

If Perez stays healthy again, which is one huge if, a 7th All-Star Game is not out of the question. He has the power and clutch abilities of a corner outfielder.

Rich Potter
2B/LF No. 55
RR, 5'12" 184 lbs.
Born 1943-03-18 in Chicago, IL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OAK MLB  .222   70  284   26   63   9   1   0   17   17   19   3
1971 OAK MLB  .320   14   25    3    8   0   1   0    2    0    3   0
1971 CHC MLB  .314   46  105   12   33   3   3   1   13    5    9   1
1972 CHC MLB  .171   47  111    7   19   2   2   0   12    6   13   0

I imagine Rich Potter must have thought he'd be playing a lot more in the Windy City after the Cubs purchased him from the A's in June of 1971, but with Perez actually being healthy he didn't need to. It should also be noted that the slap-hitting Potter, who was the A's All-Star representative in 1969 as he hit .297 that season, had a poor season at the plate when he did fill in for Perez in April and during the times when assorted aches and pains kept the incumbent out of the lineup.

Potter got the "Lucky" nickname when he was in college but never is it more apt than it is now: he gets to play in his hometown for his childhood team, a team that has as solid a chance as anybody to contend next year, and he even gets to play for them a fair bit. Potter's a guy who would play for these Cubbies for free if he could. Surely he'll bounce back.

Sean Gabel
3B/1B No. 3
RR, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1944-05-11 in Palmer, MA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHC MLB  .324  149  641   98  208  29  15   0   67   37   40  30
1971 CHC MLB  .290  144  601   80  174  26  10   0   46   19   61  30
1972 CHC MLB  .280  148  626   71  175  30   4   2   38   19   60  28

I know this changes with the outfield but at least infield-wise this team got very, very lucky with injuries in 1972. Gabel, it should be noted, rarely misses time, but that, too, is at least partly lucky. In his 5 years in the majors he's never played fewer than 144 games. This year, he led the league in hits in spite of hitting only .280 - leading the league in at-bats will do that - and also appeared towards the top in PAs (667, 3rd), doubles (3rd), steals (3rd), and average (8th). Gabel is hurt when it comes to All-Star chances by not having that requisite power that a third baseman is supposed to have - his 2 HRs actually doubled his all-time total and were the first 2 bombs he's hit since his 2nd year in the majors, 1969 - and naysayers will say that this was the worst season of his career. It's... still a pretty great season.

Gabel has won Gold Gloves every season since 1971 and looks like the odds-on favorite to make this 5 in a row. There are guys who can cover more ground than he can but few who have softer hands and none who have a stronger arm. As implied by the steals, Gabel has plus-plus speed and will exploit that on the bases. He can sometimes be a bit reckless in trying to score from second on a single. He's easy-going and shows up early to practice as much to jaw with his friends on the team as to take in extra BP, although he does a lot of the latter as well.

Gabel's in the prime of his career and should also see a decent bounce-back, assuming offense is back to semi-normalcy in 1973.

Charles Bradley
SS/1B No. 2
RR, 6'1" 194 lbs.
Born 1948-11-11 in Gainesville, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHC MLB  .324  149  641   98  208  29  15   0   67   37   40  30
1971 CHC MLB  .290  144  601   80  174  26  10   0   46   19   61  30
1972 CHC MLB  .280  148  626   71  175  30   4   2   38   19   60  28

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 STC A    .289   21   90    7   26   1   3   1    8    5   24   1
1971 MIA A    .246   52  175   24   43   5   1   2   13   23   33   8
1971 MID AA   .125    4   16    0    2   0   1   0    2    0    6   0
1972 ROC AAA  .286   30  105   17   30   5   1   7   20   13   19   1
1972 BAL MLB  .308   43  107   14   33   4   0   2   12    9   13   2
1972 CHC MLB  .221   41  136   15   30   0   0   5   18   14   27   1

So I enjoy keeping the fiction that this OOTP world is actually the real world but I also enjoy breaking the fourth wall so here goes: this is a name I added. Bradley was a blues/soul singer who had a run in the 60s and 70s but got a bunch of popularity in the early 2010s with a cover he did of Black Sabbath's song "Changes":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi49...DaptoneRecords

For whatever reason, Wikipedia doesn't list this even though it's a huge, huge part of why anybody knows who he is (and also, Ozzy is lowkey one hell of a songwriter). He was featured in a documentary about the SXSW music festival in Austin. Shortly after the album with "Changes" on it, he canceled a Canadian tour due to illness; he died of stomach cancer in 2017.

The Cubs acquired Bradley for LF Jason Workman, which now that I look at it looks like less of a "rebuild" trade and more of a lateral position-for-position move, although it also made the Cubs a lot younger: Workman is 12 years older than Bradley (and also has a far larger history of success). As much as anything else, this move was a sign that the Cubs' choice to move Jeremy Taylor to right field will be permanent. He didn't hit super well after coming over but it was still miles better than what Timonen did.

Bradley's a solid defender, not a Gold Glove quality guy but in 1972 he took at-bats away from two Gold Glovers, which is a sign that he's good enough. Scouts insist that the 5 HRs we saw in 136 at-bats is for real. His average speed means he'll probably always be a bottom-of-the-order hitter.

The Cubs will need for him to hit more like he did in Baltimore than he did in Chicago to consider him a mutli-season starter at short. Even somewhere in the middle would be a level they'd be more than happy with.

John Timonen
SS/2B No. 37
RR, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-12-19 in St. Petersburg, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  .190   99  263   24   50   8   1   5   17   23   82   0
1971 CHC MLB  .189   36   90   11   17   4   1   1    5    2   16   1
1972 CHC MLB  .136   51  103    8   14   8   0   1    7   10   28   0

Timonen's name is synonymous with Mario Mendoza's in this league. I guess a more apt comparison given the era might be Ray Oyler. Timonen has always been a top-flight fielder, managing to start enough games over the years to earn 5 Gold Gloves, but he also has a lifetime .181 batting average. Perhaps a .200 average is even too high a bar for comparison to this man. The rationale with the Cubs this past year was that if they put Jeremy Taylor in right, surely a .190-hitting Timonen could still save enough runs with the glove to make up for the bad bat. Instead, Timonen hit .136 and forced Chicago to trade for a new starter - it was either that or move Taylor back, and that seems like going too far.

It's hard not to like Timonen, who makes himself available at press conferences. He hasn't really been in Chicago for long enough to become a fan favorite but he's absolutely the kind of guy who could. I feel like it's really, really unlikely he'll be around for too much longer; the man literally hits like a pitcher.

Outfield

Chance Cooper
OF/SS No. 26
LR, 6'1" 189 lbs.
Born 1947-08-18 in Chatham, NJ

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SA  AA   .324   14   37   14   12   3   1   1    9   22    4   3
1970 TAC AAA  .259   62  205   46   53   8   2   8   28   55   32   9
1970 CHC MLB  .255   71  216   49   55   9   2  14   30   69   69   5
1971 TAC AAA  .239   24   67   12   16   2   0   2    7   26    8   2
1971 CHC MLB  .248   59  153   24   38   2   1   8   22   31   35   3
1972 WIC AAA  .280   73  271   55   76  10   4  27   64   47   63   5
1972 CHC MLB  .202   61  193   29   39   4   2  10   26   34   37   5

Cooper is no stranger to the Cubs and the 27 HRs he hit in AAA Wichita in the first half of 1972 told them that it was time to move on from Jason Workman and just hand over the keys to left field to this guy. What happened, unfortunately for everyone, was that after a hot July .280 with 5 HRs and 16 RBIs in 50 at-bats - Cooper hit .175 the rest of the way and then missed the last 2 weeks of the season with a separated shoulder. He's a man who loves to look at a lot of pitches every at-bat but in order to rebound he'll probably have to start swinging at more of them earlier in the count, although truth be told the scouts are much more sanguine about his eye than they are about his power.

Cooper played 119 innings at shortstop in AAA this year and demonstrated that he is not a guy who's ever going to play there in the major leagues except as a late-inning replacement. He's got good speed but it doesn't really translate into range in the outfield either; it's clear that the corners are where he's destined to play in his time to come. Cooper is a very hard worker who sees baseball as a career. He's sacrified 3 times for the Cubs in his career, although none last season - why he'd ever do this, I have no idea except that he's good at it.

Pencil Cooper into the starting LF job for 1973 although it's not totally beyond the realm of possibilities that someone has a hot spring and knocks him into a 4th OFer role. What's clear is that he'll break camp with the team and stay there this year.

Aurelio Rodriguez
UT No. 30
RR, 5'11" 188 lbs.
Born 1947-12-28 in Cananea, MEX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 WAT S A  .375   19   64   12   24   4   0   4   15   15    6   0
1970 WPB A    .294   50  201   31   59   9   5   1   23   28   21  11
1970 JAX AA   .218   23   87    9   19   2   1   2    9   10   13   3
1971 REN A    .354   23   82   20   29   5   1   2   16   16   13   5
1971 JAX AA   .206  107  393   42   81  10   2   8   39   46   69   4
1971 WIC AAA  .229   12   35    6    8   0   0   0    3    8    6   0
1972 WIC AAA  .290  111  404   62  117  19   0  13   47   47   71   6
1972 CHC MLB  .298   16   47    7   14   0   1   1    6    2   10   2

My rule of thumb when I decide to name a player after someone who actually played in the major leagues is that they have to have a completely different role/player type than they did in real life. Bert Blyleven is a shortstop, Reggie Jackson is a scrappy middle infielder, and so on. Rodriguez isn't about to be anyone's choice for best defensive third baseman of the 70s but for all I know he'll be similar iffy as a hitter so I guess we'll see.

Rodriguez is waaay below the standards I set for including guys in these write-ups but he did do well in the final couple weeks of the season filling in for Cooper and has a great chance of winning left field in spring training. I'm not sure how well the average will hold up given his lack of bat control but hey, weirder things have happened and "Chi Chi" did hit .290 through 2 levels last season. He has middling power and most of what Cooper has over him is Cooper's great pitch recognition. He'll play pretty much any position in the field you ask him to, save catcher, but isn't super great at any of them. He's a real jack of all trades.

Alex Vallejo
CF/RF No. 12
LL, 5'11" 183 lbs.
Born 1943-06-28 in Caracas, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OAK MLB  .295   50  200   21   59   9   0   1   21   16   21   8
1970 CHC MLB  .333   28   96   17   32   4   3   3   17    8    8   0
1971 OAK MLB  .301   66  249   40   75   9   1   5   23   27   25  10
1972 CHC MLB  .315   88  349   46  110  17   8   8   33   35   36   9

Few players are more frustrating to report on than Alex "Wako" Vallejo (the wako is an animal spirit in Venezuelan folklore; the game gave him the nickname "Godzilla" but that's not really appropriate for a South American). He's by all accounts a great teammate, a hitting force, and an outstanding fielder, but it's that last bit that makes it hard to know what to expect from him. Simply put, Vallejo has a bit of the Pete Reiser Disease: he goes all-out in everything he does and that means he'll miss time. Last year he lost a month to a sprained knee he suffered at the end of May and then was shut down for the year in mid-September with back tightness. In between were lots and lots and lots of day-to-day hurts, some of which kept him out of the lineup, some of which hindered his ability to play.

If he could somehow avoid running into walls in 1973, Vallejo could legitimately contend for the batting title. He's got good but not world-class speed and that will prevent him from ever being a Gold Glove candidate in center, no matter how hard he tries, but the man has an absolute cannon for an arm - 8 baserunner kills in center last year - and would probably be a yearly winner in right (again, assuming he'd stay healthy, which is assuming too much - these are all hypotheticals). If teams named captains, they would name Vallejo, and if they named co-captains it would be Vallejo twice.

Fingers crossed he stays healthy this coming year and has just one season in which he demonstrates exactly what he's capable of.

Mike Schurke
OF No. 24
SR, 5'10" 192 lbs.
Born 1947-06-14 in Aurora, IL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OAK MLB  .290  138  521   52  151  26   5   7   50   38   38  13
1971 CHC MLB  .368   10   38    6   14   4   0   0    4    2    2   1
1971 OAK MLB  .280   54  189   19   53   9   2   1   21   13   23   3
1972 WIC AAA  .216   34  111   16   24   6   0   0    7   11    6   3
1972 CHC MLB  .209   39  110   18   23   4   2   2   12    9   11   1

As a .290 hitter as he was with Oakland in 1970, Schurke is a guy whom you can just about excuse for all the things he doesn't do. As a .209 hitter, all the deltas become much more prominent. Even though he played center for the A's in '70 and '71 as well as during Vallejo's first absence in 1972, Schurke just doesn't have the range you need from the position. He hit a pretty empty .290 and his average was just as empty this past year, too. Schurke has above average speed but often gets bad leads and tries to steal anyway: the year he stole 13 bases, it took him 26 attempts to get there. One key to his hitting as well as he did in '70 was that he rarely struck out. His K rate has been up in the past 2 seasons, making him a not-great option to hit and run with.

It feels mean to put all this on him, as Schurke does try to eke the most out of meager talent. If he was just a little bit better as an offensive guy he'd be known as a hustle guy who ignites the team with his positive attitude. It's hard to ignite a team by grounding out hard to short.

Jeremy Taylor
SS/RF No. 19
RR, 5'10" 190 lbs.
Born 1944-08-14 in Miami, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHC MLB  .235  156  614   96  144  18  11  27   89   64  157  12
1971 CHC MLB  .268  145  537   82  144  13  16  29   85   51   99   9
1972 CHC MLB  .246  145  561   84  138  19   5  35  100   46   99  16

The move from short to right is almost certainly permanent: Taylor was baaad at the 6 last year - a -12.1 ZR in 79 games - and there were worries that the bad press was beginning to affect his play. Indeed, as of August 1 the normally slug-happy Taylor had just 18 HRs following a 2 HR July. He got on a big HR tear in September and October to finish with an NL-high 35 of them along with 100 RBIs; he was the only man in the National League to hit the century mark in ribbies in '72. Will that be enough for him to win MVP honors this year? It's too soon to tell.

In the outfield, Taylor's weaknesses as a shortstop are mostly masked and he looks like if anything a plus defender with a great arm. The outfield also allows him to get away from a less-than-great first step and utilize his good speed. 1972 was the first time in Taylor's 4 year career that he failed to reach double digits in triples, although he was back into double-digit steals again after getting only 9 (in 15 attempts) in '71. He's a quiet guy who lets the natural leaders on the team do their thing while he simply drives everyone home.

Taylor's in the prime of his career at 28. He's got 143 HRs so far in his career, which began relatively late for a superstar: he wasn't a full-time starter until age 24. As such he might top out at "only" 400 HRs. For the time being, figure him to be one of the great cleanup men in the game for the next 5 years at least.

Steve Fenney
OF No. 35
RR, 5'11" 199 lbs.
Born 1941-02-16 in Citrus Park, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HOU MLB  .296   67   98   13   29   4   2   1   12   10    8   3
1970 CHC MLB  .077    4   13    0    1   0   1   0    1    0    1   0
1971 CHC MLB  .269   43   78   10   21   1   0   2    5    8   11   1
1972 CHC MLB  .234   82  197   26   46   6   2   4   13   16   20   4

Penciled in as the Cubs' PH vs. LHP and 4th outfielder going into the season, Fenney wound up doing a lot more of the latter and for that reason a bit less of the former. Results were mixed. A .234 average in 1972 terms is roughly average but Fenney combined it with not a lot of power and a .298 OBP. These are adequate marks for centerfield, maybe, but Fenney played a lot more corner, for a while trying to be a platoon partner with the struggling Chance Cooper in left, and the above won't cut it in the corners.

Fenney's got solid speed for a man entering his 30s and defends the corners well. In that respect he's probably a better bet for the Cubs as a 4th or 5th outfielder than one of the prospects the Cubs have at the positions. Even at that, though, should the need arise for a replacement because of a long-term injury, you have to think that the team will go with someone like the 25 year old Sammy Hagar (.317/9/33 in AAA Wichita) or the 24 year old Terry Pratchett (.251/7/31 between 2 levels).

Steve Casio
PH/OF No. 4
LL, 5'12" 201 lbs.
Born 1937-04-03 in Xalapa, MEX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TAC AAA  .292   81  185   28   54   7   2   4   28   19   26   0
1970 CHC MLB  .250   13   12    1    3   0   0   0    1    2    3   0
1971 CHC MLB  .297  106  145   27   43   7   0   6   20   19   32   0
1972 CHC MLB  .248   96  133   17   33   3   0   4   14   10   20   0

Sportswriters call Casio the Watchman because of his reliability as a pinch-hitter. Just kidding, it's because of his last name. Boy, sportswriters are dumb, right? Casio's average slipped last year and he kind of wasn't what you'd call reliable, mixing in solid months with a 3-21 June and a 1-16 August. Sometimes this happens to pinch-hitters.

At 35, Casio is unlikely to do a lot else other than pinch-hit. He started only 15 games last season and that number might be high compared with what he'll get in '73. 100% a guy who only got the opportunity to play in the major leagues due to expansion, Casio's a good teammate and a fun guy to have in the clubhouse.

[Syd Thrift]

Philadelphia Phillies
89-67, 2nd NL East, 4 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: Philadelphia finished just 3 games back in 1971. With a bounceback season from Victor Serna and a consolidation on what he did from Alex Becerra, they looked like they could/should be the favorite for the division title in '72.

1972 In Review: Both Becerra and Serna fell apart but after overcoming a 19-21 start the Philles were in contention throughout the summer. As of September 1 they were a game and a half up in the standings over the Pirates and Cubs; however, the Phillies only finished the year 19-14, which would have been good enough in many circumstances but the Pirates got red hot over the final month. The Phillies were built pretty much entirely on offense; in fact, it was the loss of their #2 starter Richard "Ringo Starr" Starkey that left them without a decent #2 guy and left them to only be merely above average instead of great down the stretch.

1973 Outlook: This has been a regular thing for the Phillies as of late, who still have a young core with Tony Shannon and Nate Rowe but it ain't getting younger. It's now or never.

Pitching

Marius Gaddi
RHP No. 32
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-07-28 in Caracas, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PHI MLB  27   5   0  2.30  37  37  17  292.1  233  88  75   67  225
1971 PHI MLB  16  20   0  3.46  40  40  12  298.1  286 125 115   92  233
1972 PHI MLB  11  16   0  3.95  36  36   6  257.1  232 122 113  102  168

Gaddi has been very very hard to figure out. In the two seasons since he tied the modern record with 27 wins, he's gotten progressively worse in terms of ERA. Last year he started the season poorly but the Phils found a bit of stasis with him down the stretch: he went 3-1, 2.81 in August and 1-3 but 3.08 with a shutout in September, during which time he appeared to find at least some of his old stuff (he averaged 6.2 K/9, well above his season average). It's hard to ignore the poor play at the beginning of the year, not to mention the flatness of his fastball.

Gaddi also had only 6 complete games last season as, let's be completely honest, managment stopped believing in his ability to get them late in games. This quick hook did have a good effect, as he only pitched late when he was effective and held opponents to a .253 average from innings 7+ with just 1 HR allowed in 182 at-bats. He's not a guy who will figure out what's wrong himself and so he needs help from his catcher or the manager. The catching situation has surely not helped.

Much as we hate to say it, perhaps it's time to give the 30 year old Gaddi a shot somewhere else.

Richard Starkey
LHP No. 36
LL, 6'2" 180 lbs.
Born 1949-05-29 in Liverpool, ENG

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 KOP R     2   0   0  2.25   2   2   1   16.0   17   5   4    1   15
1970 WAL S A   1   0   0  3.99   1   1   1    9.0    8   4   4    1    5
1970 REA AA    2   1   0  3.27   3   3   2   22.0   20  12   8   17   13
1970 EUG AAA   1   6   0  4.45   8   8   5   62.2   77  36  31   25   35
1971 PHI MLB  19   8   0  3.51  36  36  10  258.1  237 111 101   68  139
1972 PHI MLB  18   9   0  2.91  30  30  11  231.1  200  81  75   72  125

On September 6, Starr left the game at St. Louis in the 6th inning with a twinge in his elbow. Doctors never did figure out exactly what the issue was, beyond the fact that it was inflamed, but he didn't pitch again in 1972. Even with the 6-3 loss, the Phils were 75-56 and tied with the Pirates for the division lead that day; they'd go just 14-11 from that point forward. Philadelphia finished so far back that at this point it's hard to truly blame the injury for losing the pennant: Starkey would have had to pitch lights out in that final month to have kept them in it, and while he was coming off of a 5-0, 1.74 August where he picked up 3 of his 6 shutouts, it's hard to argue that he's the kind of pitcher who can do that.

Starkey's definitely improved upon what he did in his first year in the league: he now has a genuine outpitch - the foshball - that forces as many groundball outs as it does strikeouts, and it forces a decent amount of strikeouts. He's got good control and will keep you in games. On a team like Philadelphia, having a guy you can reliably count on to give up 2 or 3 runs in 7 innings will give you a lot of wins, which Starkey's 37-17 record in the major leagues indicates.

The biggest issue with moving on from Gaddi is that you'd then be asking too much of guys like Starkey or Billy Ording (see him soon!). Ringo is an ideal mid-rotation starter, not an ace.

Tim Natalie
LHP No. 16
LL, 6'6" 199 lbs.
Born 1946-03-20 in Rensselaer, IN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TUC AAA   2   2   0  2.04   5   5   3   44.0   37  14  10   11   27
1970 CHW MLB   2   4   0  5.72  10   6   0   39.1   39  27  25   20   22
1971 EUG AAA  10  10   0  2.85  27  27  15  205.0  177  74  65   84   61
1971 PHI MLB   2   1   0  2.80   5   3   0   25.2   22  10   8    6   11
1972 EUG AAA   2   2   0  1.80   4   4   4   35.0   20   7   7    8   11
1972 PHI MLB  11  10   0  3.68  29  29   6  200.1  198  84  82   57   93

There are two types of people who evaluate Tim Natalie's 1971 season: those who see the ERA and complete games and think "future ace", and those who see the underwater K/BB ratio and think "future cannon fodder". Okay, the third type exists, too: those who don't look at minor league stats because who cares about minor league stats? And finally, the fourth: those who look at the wins and losses and think, ".500 pitcher". The fourth type of... those two types turned out to be the right one. Natalie worked on his timing and without necessarily improving the pitch quality, he struck out enough guys to be effective as a control artist in 1972.

Natalie walks a fine line with that control and he hasn't always had it in the past. When it goes, he's just not a very good pitcher. It's nice that he didn't show a huge propensity for the longball last year - 9 HRs on the year for a 6th best 0.4 HR/9 - but he's a flyball/finesse pitcher and we're a bit pessimistic that that stands going forward.

Natalie was the 17th best prospect in the league coming out of college in 1968, which I'm finding a little hard to believe. The downside of turning ratings off is that I basically can only see velocity, which has actually climbed for him since that point in time, but generally speaking I don't really think of lefty control artists as big-time, top 20 prospects. He seems pretty much ordained, young or no, as a back of the rotation guy.

Billy Ording
RHP No. 38
RR, 6'2" 197 lbs.
Born 1943-10-16 in Huntington Beach, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 EUG AAA   7   2   0  4.61  12  12   3   93.2  105  51  48   34   48
1970 PHI MLB   7   4   0  2.89  19  17   3  118.0  111  46  38   49   89
1971 PHI MLB  10  15   0  4.21  33  33   4  213.1  208 105 100   87  121
1972 PHI MLB  11   6   0  3.72  30  22   3  169.1  166  72  70   63   97

I feel like I've been slamming the Phillies a bit so far and to keep it a buck as the kids say (since this is 1972 I guess they'd say "to be groovy" or something similar) they did finish 8th in the NL In starters' ERA with a 3.63. That's just not that good for a team that won so many games. But credit where credit is due: they found guys who worked out well enough. Case in point: Billy Ording, who rebounded from a rough first full season to give the Phillies a spot in the rotation from where they could win more than they lost.

Ording doesn't have swing-and-miss stuff; it's more drive-the-ball-in-the-dirt stuff. His two best pitches are a circle change and a forkball. The former doesn't smooth out his splits as much as you'd hope - lefties hit .308 against him - but the latter for sure makes people hit a lot of grounders against him. In 1971 60% of his outs in play came via the groundball. Last year it was a more pedestrian 51% but at that, Ording actually led the league in HR rate with 0.2. He needs that to be effective since his control is only average.

The real semi-hidden talent of Ording and the reason why the Phillies continue to use him as a starter in spite of a relative lack of stamina is his hitting. Last year he hit .393 with 4 HRs and 16 RBIs in 61 at-bats and in his major league career he's slashing 298/342/409, good enough numbers that in a more modern era someone might try him as a DH on his non-pitching days. In the NL in 1973, having 9 guys who can hit instead of the normal 8 is a pretty decent advantage.

Wins and losses aside, Ording is a back of the rotation guy, someone you use to attack someone else's bad pitching to get some cheap wins (not that, like, Ording is cheap, I mean "cheap wins" in the sense of a win without a quality start - Ording had 9 games last year where he did not have a QS).

Tom Grohs
LHP No. 33
LL, 6'0" 188 lbs.
Born 1942-09-18 in New York, NY

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PHI MLB   9   5  20  2.41  61   0   0   89.1   73  30  24   28   81
1971 PHI MLB   9   7  20  3.54  67   0   0   86.1   84  41  34   25   60
1972 PHI MLB   6   4  20  2.25  55   0   0   80.0   63  22  20   21   63

The loss of the Baseball Hippie, Tom Grohs, in the last month of the season to a torn rotator cuff was the 2nd big blow to the Phillies' pitching staff and might have been bigger than the loss of Starkey - Omar Sanchez (see below) did a good job of filling in but then who filled in for Sanchez? I guess on the flip side of that, losing Starkey meant Philadelphia had to drop Manley Carter (6-5, 4.61) into the rotation and he was not good.

Grohs' carefree attitude - he famously stopped striking guys out so much because, as he told reporters, he thought "the pitchers' mound shouldn't be a dictatorship, man" - had gotten him into hot water in 1971 but to his credit he came back in '72 as strong as he's ever been. The Ks rebounded somewhat and he cut his HRs almost in half compared to 1972 (11 vs 6). Scouts say that he has issues with righties but the stats say otherwise: last year he held them to a .175 BA and it was actually fellow lefties who threw him for a loop with a .308 BA allowed.

Grohs is not expected to be back until April or May and will probably need a rehab stint in the minor leagues after that. Also, the torn rotator cuff is not an injury anyone should take lightly: that's the pitcher-killer. If he comes back at 100% the Phillies have themselves their closer again.

Omar Sanchez
RHP No. 29
LR, 6'5" 199 lbs.
Born 1942-06-10 in Stony Brook, NY

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PHI MLB   7   4   4  4.17  48   0   0   77.2   83  37  36   14   64
1971 PHI MLB   4   1   1  2.70  42   0   0   56.2   46  20  17   10   40
1972 PHI MLB   6   1   6  2.24  54   1   1   76.1   56  20  19   13   51

Sanchez, now 30, has been with the team since 1965 and in fact was the team's closer before Grohs. He was demoted in 1970 because of a bad season and has been a very effective middle man ever since. So when the Phillies asked him to take up his old role again in September, he was up for the task, getting 6 saves in 7 opportunities on the year including 4 down the stretch. The issue wasn't so much with him as it was with the rest of the bullpen crew: Steve Hollopeter (1-4, 4.70), Roger Evans (2-0, 5.83), and Robby Mournier (6-2. 3.38) were all mediocre to downright terrible last year when it counted.

Sanchez throws 2 different kinds of fastballs - a 2-seamer and a cutter - and opposing hitters see nothing but low to mid 90s speed. This is still super-effective for an inning or two at a time, although somehow he got a shutout in his only start of the year, a 6-0 win over the Cardinals on July 1st. That was literally Sanchez's first start of his major league career, encompassing 8 years and 494 appearances; don't expect a permannent move. That said, if things had to clear out, he's got the rubber arm to pull a Mike Marshall for someone.

Sanchez will keep the closer's job at least into the beginning of the year as Tom Grohs continues to recuperate from that rotator cuff injury. He's thrown as many as 82 games and 151.1 innings in the past so he can carry a bullpen if need be.

Vince Bachler
RHP No. 31
RR, 5'11" 199 lbs.
Born 1946-08-29 in Gill, MA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TUL AAA   2   0   0  1.60   4   4   0   28.0   13   5   5    9   35
1970 STL MLB  11  12   0  3.38  28  28   3  181.0  180  80  68   82  149
1971 STL MLB  14  15   0  3.43  35  35   7  233.0  218 110  89  102  148
1972 PHI MLB   7   5   0  2.90  17  17   5  127.0  110  44  41   62  100

"The Eligible" Bachler was acquired in a rare challenge trade with the division rival Cardinals for Roger Quintana and... this is why challenge trades are rare. Bachler was, let's be fair to him, having a career year when he left his start against the Padres on July 7th. He was diagnosed with the same shoulder inflammation "injury" that Starkey was - geez, Philadelphia, find a better trainer, at least someone who knows how the arm works - and didn't pitch again. Meanwhile, Quintana's looking like the staff ace in St. Louis.

If fans will allow Bachler to live down the fact that he's not Roger Quintana, he looks like hey'll be a pretty good pitcher in his own right. Before he went down he was well on pace to set a new personal record in strikeouts with a new and improved forkball in his arsenal. He still has issues with his control and that will be something the Phillies will be watching when he works in spring training. If he can put it all together, perhaps this is the man who makes Marius Gaddi expendable.

Infield

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB

Lee Citro
C No. 13
RR, 5'10" 197 lbs.
Born 1938-05-26 in Wayland, MA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PHI MLB  .224   64  228   29   51   6   3   3   16   20   37   1
1971 PHI MLB  .254   49  134    9   34   7   0   0   12   17   25   0
1972 PHI MLB  .251  102  327   41   82  14   0   6   47   34   56   0

Citro has always been a guy who, to put it charitably, believes strongly in himself. The Cardinals moved on from him in October of '69, getting back John Stuart in a multi-player trade, in part because of this. Philadelphia figured they could handle him in relatively small doses. However, the sudden inability of Sam Rahn to hit at all (he went 7-70 for the Phillies before they traded him to Montreal) meant that they were essentially forced to use Citro as their full-timer.

Citro blocks the plate decently but his biggest issue is that he's a bit of a loudmouth and prone to getting into as many arguments with pitchers as he is to calming them down. He was roughly league average by OPS+ (99) last year, which is nice for a catcher, but there are grumblings on the staff that he's the primary reason why the staff ERA was so high (personally, we would chalk it up to injuries and a general lack of talent but hey, you do you).

All this being said, it's hard to see how Philadelphia uses anyone other than Citro as their starter in '73 barring a trade. The man they got back for Citro, Roberto Carranco, is backup material (see below) and professional wrestler / heel / 25 year old "prospect" Nikolai Volkoff is a pure defense guy.

Roberto Carranco
C No. 10
SR, 5'11" 199 lbs.
Born 1942-02-07 in Barquisimeto, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MON MLB  .233   92  258   23   60  10   0   8   33   15   64   0
1971 MON MLB  .202  109  342   25   69   6   1  10   35   25   74   0
1972 MON MLB  .260   21   50    9   13   1   1   6   12    5   14   0
1972 PHI MLB  .185   34  108    3   20   4   0   2   15    9   27   0

Don't let the fact that Carranco was Montreal's starter from 69-71 fool you: he's got backup catcher skills. Chiefly, he can't hit. He smacked 10 HRs in 1971 and 18 in '69 but but that power comes with a low-.200s average and, in spite of being a catcher, not a great deal of plate discipline. He's quiet on and off the field and works hard; the fact that he doesn't mess with the pitchers he works with has made him a favorite with them, which is nice, but again, these are things you ask from a backup catcher. Frankly, he's only a "defensive" option compared with Rahn and even at that, Rahn is better at blocking pitches in the dirt.

Carranco seems pretty well in place as a backup. Anything more than that is a reach.

Josh Coffey
1B No. 14
RR, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1943-06-20 in Ontario, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PHI MLB  .311  157  639   81  199  40   4  15   83   47   67   0
1971 PHI MLB  .302  156  632   85  191  26   0  18   76   59   67   1
1972 PHI MLB  .261  154  610   63  159  22   1  14   79   59   57   0

As of June 27, Coffey was hitting .304 and seemed like a dark horse to win a batting title in this offense-deprived season. Then he went into a real tailspin of his own, hitting .204 in July .259 in August, and then .222 in September to his average all the way down to .253 on the morning of the 29th. At that point the Phillies were pretty much out of it: the fact that he went 11-25 over the final 6 games of the season is interesting but doesn't make up for that.

Coffey isn't your standard 25+ HR type first baseman and really needs to hit around .300 to be considered All-Star caliber the way he was in 1971. He's really slow and one downside of that in conjunction with his penchant for putting the ball in play is that he tends to hit into a lot of double plays. Last year he "led" all of baseball with 29 of them (St. Louis' Rafael Disla was 2nd with 25) and he's hit into as many as 31 in the past (1970). He's not a very rangey first baseman, although he works with what he can. He's one of the captains of this team, which made his 2nd half slump all the more painful.

Coffey gets at least another year, probably a couple more, to prove that he can be that .300 guy again. Relative to the league, what he did is still somewhere around what, .280ish levels? Come to think of it, maybe this doesn't even count as an "off" year, all told.

Nate Rowe
2B/3B/LF No. 24
RR, 6'1" 202 lbs.
Born 1945-03-20 in Cape Coral, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 EUG AAA  .360  128  467   91  168  33   2  16   80   66   55   3
1970 PHI MLB  .238   20   63    5   15   3   0   0    3   10   11   0
1971 PHI MLB  .337   80  276   39   93  13   3  11   54   20   35   1
1972 PHI MLB  .254  150  595   63  151  17   3  16   70   56  103   0

Row, a utility guy his first year+ in the league, found a regular home at second base last year in the second half when the long-time incumbent Victor Serna (.189, 4, 18 and not listed here because he was released) just plain stopped hitting (the team sent him to AAA where he hit .142(!)). Rowe didn't hit .337 the way he had in '71 but in retrospect that seemed like a thing that wasn't going to happen anyway given his strikeouts. Even with them, though, he's a guy who'll hit for a good average, have some power, if not Victor Serna levels of power, and not kill you defensively.

Going into the season the Phillies considered themselves to have had one of the best situations at 2nd in the game. I'd say they bailed on Serna too early but as noted, he was just plain godawful; I'm reminded of Glenn Davis with the Orioles the one year in the early 90s. Now they're back to having, if not an ideal guy for 2nd, a solid guy who's just now entering his prime.

Francisco Carrasco
2B No. 6
RR, 5'9" 171 lbs.
Born 1945-02-09 in Chillum, MD

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PHI MLB  .261   50   69   16   18   6   1   5   17   16   20   0
1971 PHI MLB  .305   45   59   15   18   5   1   1    6   11   18   0
1972 PHI MLB  .214   92  215   25   46   9   2   7   21   29   58   2

Before handing the keys to the keystone (HA I KILL ME) to Rowe the Phillies kicked the tired on Serna's long-time caddy at second base in Francisco Carrasco. He looked an awful lot like a replacement level player. He walks a decent amount but man, those strikeouts. If you're going to strike out at a league-leading rate, you've got to have plus-plus power and that's just not Carranco's game. He also doesn't have a huge amount of utility to back up anywhere other than second: he's got an OK enough arm to train 3rd but lacks any kind of the range to play short except in small spurts.

The scouts like him more than I like his role on this team so maybe Philly can find a taker...

Matt Highfield
3B/LF No. 15
RR, 6'0" 189 lbs.
Born 1947-03-22 in Chicago Heights, IL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SPA A    .329  115  423   64  139  20   2  10   75   46   22   8
1970 REA AA   .171   21   82    8   14   2   1   1    8    4    7   0
1971 REA AA   .313  128  485   60  152  29   3   5   50   57   27   2
1971 EUG AAA  .182    3   11    1    2   0   0   0    1    1    0   0
1972 EUG AAA  .221   58  131   10   29   3   0   1   12   13    9   0
1972 PHI MLB  .303   78  274   33   83  15   4   1   28   20   26   0

Highfield took over in the 2nd half for Roberto Becerra, who also played his way off the team with a sub-.200 average; the Phillies both took longer to bail on him and had a shorter leash going into the year because of Becerra's previous issues with errors. Highfield is also a guy who might have issues with his hands in the future, although of course nobody committed errors in 1972. He's otherwise a complete opposite to Becerra as a hitter: no power (although he's shown some ability to hit for it in the minors), a high average built off of strong wrists, and an expert at getting the ball into play. He hit .303 with the big league club last year which is about where he'll need to hit to remain a contributor.

If Highfield can't handle 3rd he has the tools to be a very good corner outfielder; his arm translates extremely well. That would put an even bigger burden on his bat though.

Cris Ramos
PH/3B No. 18
LR, 5'12" 198 lbs.
Born 1938-01-21 in Atemajac, MEX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 KC MLB   .250   39   60    5   15   7   0   0    8    2    8   0
1971 EUG AAA  .211   18   57    5   12   1   0   2    8    4    4   0
1971 PHI MLB  .262   49  130   19   34   7   0   6   20    9   15   0
1972 EUG AAA  .295   20   44    7   13   2   0   2    8    6    3   0
1972 PHI MLB  .226   68  106   12   24   6   0   2   17   12   10   0

Ramos, a long-time Mexican League veteran, was Alex Becerra's caddy in 1971 and filled the same role for Matt Highfield last year when he was not serving as the team's primary pinch-hitter. His major league hitting record is spotty at best - a .249 career average, maybe 10 HR power if you total up all the years - but it's better than most pitchers vs right-handed pitching so there is that role available for a vet such as him. Just, you know, don't expect him to start or anything.

Tony Shannon
SS No. 1
RR, 6'1" 204 lbs.
Born 1945-07-06 in Waseca, MN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PHI MLB  .285  126  477   68  136  28   8   8   57   84   85  16
1971 PHI MLB  .330  150  575  100  190  30   4  14   76   92   79  39
1972 PHI MLB  .281  122  469   68  132  19   4  12   43   83   66  26

People who complain that Tony Shannon didn't contend for a batting title the way he did in 1971 are missing the point: he is a superstar who can do most anything with the bat: hit for average, for decent power - okay, maybe he won't lead the league in HRs but the mid-teens in HRs is great for a shortstop - get on base, and generate runs with his feet. Even with the 49 point drop in BA, Shannon finished 3rd in the NL in OBP (.391) thanks to being 4th in walks, and also finished in the top 10 in steals (4th), intentional walks (8, 6th), batting average (6th - yeah, not a great year for hitting), and, for you NERDS out there, OPS (807 - 8th).

The biggest knock on Shannon, who came up with in the Cubs' system along with Jeremy Taylor, is that he doesn't have a great arm for a shortstop. It does seem likely that he'll have to move to 2nd in a few years. He's not the complete disaster that Taylor was last year at the position though and if you can get this kind of all-around production out of your 6, you live with the D.

Shannon's position through 1973 is solidified by the fact that they don't really have anyone on the farm ready to move up. Cecil Womack had a September cup of coffee but looks to be no better than Shannon in the field and significantly worse as a hitter, and there's another as-yet-unnamed guy in the minors who's got a better glove but hit .215 in AAA after earning a promotion from AA Reading. Also, Jose Singleton tried his hand at short and hit .165 for Philly in 31 games and 79 at-bats. And he's not any better than Shannon afield.

Outfield

Alberto Juantorena
LF No. 23
LL, 6'4" 197 lbs.
Born 1950-11-19 in Santiago de Cuba, CUB

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 FL  A    .309   68  269   40   83  12   5   1   38   19   12   7
1970 WH  AA   .266   70  282   36   75  10   2  10   41   18    7   2
1971 ASH AA   .260   43  169   15   44   5   1   5   22   14   12   0
1971 TUC AAA  .277   93  350   54   97  23   4   5   47   39   30   6
1972 EUG AAA  .264   93  292   37   77   9   1  12   42   39   30  27
1972 PHI MLB  .330   67  276   54   91  12   3  21   55   25   23  21

Juantorena, who defected from Cuba in 1967 at the age of 16, has for whatever reason bounced around the minor leagues a bit but the inability of the Yankees, Red Sox, and White Sox to see what this kid was capable of allowed Philadelphia to swoop in and acquire him for minor league C Zack Delisle, a trade that will be looked upon as one of the worst trades in history. Juantorena had an absolute beast of a half-season, the kind that gets you ROY awards and, wyen you're still only 21 years of age, puts you on the short list of future superstars. He actually finished 6th in the league in steals in spite of playing only 67 games and just missed the top 10 in HRs as well.

There's just no way Juantorena can hit like that next year... or can he? He's got top of the line speed; the only thing keeping him from hitting leadoff is all of that power. WHich, he's got a ton of power too: 33 HRs and 97 RBIs combined last season. And if you're expecting to find an Achilles heel on defense, the answer is no to that. Juantorena doesn't have training in right and lacks the natural sense of where balls go to be a great centerfielder, but he'll be more than good enough in left. About the only thing he doens't do well is sacrifice, and frankly, if you're using Alberto Juantorena to bunt you should be committed to the loony bin.

Juantorena will be in the middle of the Phillies' order for the next decade. If you told me he was still playing in the 90s I would not be surprised.

Bryant Tarala
CF No. 41
LR, 6'0" 196 lbs.
Born 1942-01-12 in Torrance, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BAL MLB  .218  106  376   71   82  12   3  15   31   86  101  26
1971 PHI MLB  .224  123  446   81  100  13   4  17   58   87   96  24
1972 PHI MLB  .233  101  326   46   76  17   3  14   37   54   73  11

If you're a lifetime .223 hitter you've got to be PRETTY good at something to make it to 7 All-Star Games. Tarala's skill is defense. A lot of second-half injuries plus the presence of Norm Hodge in the AL kept him from winning more than 2 Gold Gloves (both of the ones he got came from '69 on, when I stepped in and started awarding the GG to the top 3 outfielders) but he's as good a centerfielder as anyone in the National League and that's saying something. Last year left-handed pitchers at Tarala alive, holding him to 10 hits in 80 at-bats; his future might be in a platoon role, although even at that, you can probably live with poor production in exchange for all of those hits converted into outs.

The real issue that keeps Tarala from playing more is that he plays too hard for his own good and gets hurt in the field, like, a lot. He badly sprained his ankle going after a fly ball last year and missed all of August and most of September, leaving the team to start Brandon Anderson in his place (more on him soon). The Phillies, surely, would love him to play every day, but how do you chase the grit out of a guy like Tarala? Answer: you don't.

John Belushi
RF No. 4
LL, 5'6" 208 lbs.
Born 1949-09-04 in Chicago, IL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970  SPA  A   .271  88  295   61   80  16   7   7   46   61   49  22
1971  SPA  A   .265  23   83   15   22   2   4   3   12   15   22   2
1971  REA  AA  .316  81  307   52   97  15   1   7   38   39   43   8
1971  PHI  MLB .333  21   66   16   22   4   3   2    5    7    9   0
1972  PHI  MLB .263 122  414   63  109  19  10  15   58   54   78   9

Belushi doesn't make a lot of friends with his off-field antics. It turns out, food fights are a lot less fun in real life than they look in the movies. We hope this won't overshadow Belushi as a player; he's a guy who at 23 is a little good at everything rather than being great at any one thing. He hit for a good average last year because of his speed - his portly body belies a great deal of agility - even though the K's were a bit high. If he improves on those he could be a .300 man. He finished 3rd in the NL in triples in spite of only becoming a full-time starter in late July.

Belushi's speed is maybe not good enough to consistently steal 20+ a la his tour in A-ball Spartanburg in 1970, but he does have double-digit steal speed in him. He's a good if not great corner outfielder and could even theoretically lay down a mean bunt if you wanted him to; more common, he was known to lay one down in the minors when the infield was napping.

Brandon Anderson
OF No. 2
RR, 6'1" 198 lbs.
Born 1948-07-31 in Norton Shores, MI

Yr   Tm  Lvl    Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970  SPA  A   .373   26  102   17   38   7   2   3   19   11   12  12
1970  REA  AA  .236   50  195   26   46   5   2   2   18   24   24  12
1971  EUG  AAA .344   43  160   27   55  11   4   2   21   22   18   8
1971  PHI  MLB .274  112  368   52  101  19   4   8   46   57   71  10
1972  PHI  MLB .243   96  276   37   67   6   5   9   35   47   37  11

Anderson's looking like he's going to be a victim of too many outfielders in 1973. His role looks to be the right-handed half of the platoon with Tarala. The 11th overall pick in the 1970 draft surely wants more than this but to his credit he's saved his angry spells for the batrack after a bad strikeout (which, thankfully, there are not too many of). Anderson had a lot of problems hitting righties last year - .204, although with a .333 OBP - and he'll do well to not get typecast as a guy who can't hit northpaws.

He'd be fine as a CF but is not close to having the awesome abilities that Tarala does (or, so far, his proclivities to get hurt). He doesn't always get the best jump off the ball in center - perhaps he's still learning the position a little bit - but he makes up for it with really solid speed. A guy who walks as much as Anderson does and has his speed could conceivably finish in the top 10 in steals if he gets the at-bats.

The Phillies would love, love, love to get this man those at-bats. Where on Earth does he get them?

Bobby Corley
OF/1B No. 22
RR, 6'0" 195 lbs.
Born 1943-03-21 in Bay St. Louis, MS

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 EUG AAA  .283   53  166   34   47   6   2   7   30   22   25   6
1970 PHI MLB  .263   36  114   12   30   4   2   7   14    8   25   0
1971 PHI MLB  .167   12   24    4    4   2   0   0    1    3   10   0
1972 PHI MLB  .237   74  211   32   50   8   2  10   23   29   43   0

IF Anderson doesn't have a spot on this team, what does that say about Bobby Corley? Somehow Corley set career highs in games and at-bats in the major leagues. His best month was July when he managed to start 19 games and hit .250 (15-60) with 4 HRs and 10 RBIs. He's a mistake hitter; try to send a slow fastball over the plate against Corley at your own risk. He's never played more in large part becuase he has no range in spite of decent natural speed.

Corley could be a pinch-hitter next year; otherwise, any time he gets will be because someone - probably two people - got hurt.

[Syd Thrift]

Pittsburgh Pirates
93-62, 1st NL West, Won NLCS 3-0, Lost World Series 4-1

1972 Outlook: After winning 92 games and making the playoffs for the first time in the history of this beleaguered franchise, the Pirates slumped to 82-80 in '71. All the issues they had with injuries and with a lack of offense came home to roost. 1972, if I'm being honest, felt like it was going to be more of the same: lots of 2-1 games, half of them losses.

1972 In Review: Instead the offensive woes hit everyone and if anything Pittsburgh was able to capitalize because of the strength of their pitching. They scored exactly 2 fewer runs in '72 than the year before which actually means they were very slightly better offensively given the fewer number of games played. I can't say that the offense put it together, exactly, but they proved to be good enough throughout the season as well as more consistent than their slugging opponents in the league. They wooshed past a top-heavy Braves team and then lost to the Tigers in a closer-than-it-looked 5 game series that featured 3 close games in there.

1973 Outlook: The hitting is like laughably bad and so there's no possible way to go there but up, right? At the same time, you can't expect the pitching to be this healthy 2 years in a row. Still, it's a sucker's bet to predict anything but continued success for the Bucs, who are in line to be the Team of the 70s already.

Pitching

Santos Arango
LHP No. 21
LL, 6'0" 182 lbs.
Born 1943-03-31 in Maturín, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PIT MLB  19   9   0  2.80  34  34  12  266.1  230  90  83   69  190
1971 PIT MLB  24   8   1  2.50  41  40  16  316.1  255  96  88   75  227
1972 PIT MLB  20  15   0  2.63  42  42  17  331.1  273 101  97   82  197

Arango has been one of the most consistent pitchers in the league over the last 3 years, which is okay if you're consistent and average but when you're consistent and a Cy Young contender, that's... awfullly nice. Arango throws three pitches, including a circle change that's nasty and perhaps as hard to hit by righties as lefties and a low to mid 90s fastball that looks about 5 MPH faster coming from his arm. Hitters can't help but hit the ball into the dirt and set up his infield for lots of double plays - 26 of them last year. They swing and miss at those offerings as well. Arango was 2nd in the NL in Ks last season.

He was only 20-15 because some atrocious run support. It was bad even by Pirates standards: 2.6 runs per game. The Pirates weren't fooled by this: Arango led the league in games starts and won the innings pitched trophy for the secohnd time in his career. In fact, no man has ever thrown as many as the 331.1 IP he threw in the modern era. Arango's arm has shown no signs of stopping either: the 29 year old has started at least 32 games every single season he's been a starter in this league, a streak dating back to 1966.

He's a gamer, a man you want on the mound whenever you possibly can. With just a little more run support, he can win 25 for you.

Jeremy Battaglia
LHP No. 36
LL, 6'5" 197 lbs.
Born 1943-04-14 in Barinas, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PIT MLB  18   9   0  2.74  35  35  14  282.1  222  92  86   67  163
1971 PIT MLB  22  14   0  2.61  39  39  14  316.2  293 104  92   61  164
1972 PIT MLB  16  15   0  2.10  39  39  15  321.0  242  83  75   61  154

Someone should find the river in Venezuela where all the great Pirates pitchers drank from as children because it sure seems to produce some lively arms. Don't be fooled by Battaglia's record: the lanky lefty finished 2nd in the NL in ERA and was only .500 because somehow he got even worse run support than Arango did (just 2.2 RSG). In spite of this and the 3rd highest in the NL losses it produced, Battaglia has a real stat nerd case for the Cy Young this year.

Even though he has a swing-and-miss change of pace, Battaglia's game is mostly about making it so that the only way that teams can beat him is through long rallies. He doesn't anyone or give up HRs - he was 2nd in the NL in both categories on a rate basis (1.7 BB/9, 0.3 HR/9). While the first thing in everyone's memory is the fact that the Tigers managed to do exactly that in Game 5 of the World Series - Battaglia was knocked out in the 5th after having allowed 6 runs on 9 hits - such innings were exceedingly rare in the Year of the Fielder.

This is pretty much who Battaglia is at this point. On a lot of teams he'd be the ace of the rotation. With the Pirates he's their 2nd or 3rd starter.

D.J. Cheeves
RHP No. 11
RR, 6'1" 196 lbs.
Born 1940-05-16 in New York, NY

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PIT MLB  12  15   0  3.83  34  34   7  244.0  224 114 104   94  190
1971 PIT MLB   7  16   0  3.71  31  31   8  218.0  207 100  90   77  143
1972 PIT MLB  22   9   0  2.48  37  37  13  290.0  221  85  80   91  184

"Old Money" DJ Cheeves finally had a big breakout year in 1972 after season after season of turning in .500 or worse records. In some terrible alternative timelines that might lead a guy like this to go and sell his services to the highest bidder. In the REAL WORLD, Cheeves, the scion of a family that originally made its fortune selling beaver pelts in what was then New Amsterdam, has no need for such worldly things and would rather stay with the eastern Pennsylvania team who gave him an opportunity to pitch in the big leagues.

The 32 year old has arguably the best strikeout stuff in the rotation, which is saying a pretty good amount. His out pitch is a 12 to 6 curve; he also throws a fastball that hits the mid-90s at times. In the past, he's never quite been able to locate the curve or his other pitches consistently but last year he was all over it: his 2.8 BB/9 was the lowest mark of his career since 1966 (15-10, 2.69), when he had a 2.0. As a result, he made his 3rd All-Star Game and first since 1967, and, to show he wasn't finished, went 9-4 in August and September to finish with 22 victories, 2nd in the league.

This great year meant that he only evened his career record up at 120-120; it's been a hard road for the Harvard graduate. That and lingering worries that he could pack it in at any time in favor of a world cruise have kept the Pirates from naming him their ace. They shouldn't worry about the latter; baseball, or as Cheeves likes to call it, "the game of base", is in his blood.

Danny Perez
RHP No. 22
RR, 5'9" 179 lbs.
Born 1945-07-10 in San Cristóbal, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CHR AAA   5   4   0  3.17  10  10   2   73.2   71  31  26   22   69
1970 PIT MLB  11   6   0  3.18  20  18   5  133.0  124  50  47   59   74
1971 CHR AAA   6   7   0  3.53  18  18   6  135.0  121  62  53   72   60
1971 PIT MLB   3   3   0  3.69  11   7   2   56.0   62  25  23   23   38
1972 PIT MLB  15   8   0  3.03  25  25   4  177.2  158  70  60   72   84

The 4th man in the rotation all season long, Perez was the man who was often shunted off in favor of getting the ball in the hands of Santos Arango and Jeremmy Battaglia every 4th game and he barely pitched in the postseason - his lone appearance was the 5.2 IP in long relief of Cheeves when he left Game 1 of the World Series with back spasms in the first inning. Perez was still awfully good. He doesn't have either the stuff or the command of his pitches that the men in front of him do. In fact, he struggled occasionally with control, as the 9th place finish in wild pitches (9) will demonstrate. Still, even when his control was not there, he was an absolute model of consistency: 22 of his 25 starts were of the quality variety, the highest percentage (88%) in the NL. More than anyone on the staff, he's the guy who gives you 6-7 good innings and then exits stage left in favor of Paz Lemus.

Perez considers himself a groundball guy but his pitches tend to disagree and last season he only had 49% of his outs go that way. He still had 17 DPs in 25 starts so he clearly got enough of them. He'll be back as the #4 again; in fact, since it seems like it would be winning the lottery for the rotation to be so healthy for the second straight year, Perez could very easily see an uptick in play.

Paz Lemus
RHP No. 18
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-02-27 in Cape Coral, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PIT MLB   8   8  26  2.09  79   0   0  120.1   92  35  28   57  109
1971 PIT MLB  11  12  25  3.69  75   0   0  114.1  115  56  47   49   83
1972 PIT MLB   9   4  25  2.31  71   0   0  108.2   71  28  28   41   66

Normally you call a guy "Sparky" because he ignites rallies; Lemus stops them dead in their tracks. Still, he's a real high-energy guy and a fan favorite: he sprints to the mound from bullpen whenever he comes in and once his number has been called he practically demands to stay in until it's done. His fastball is not what I'd call "sparky", only getting into the mid to high 80s, but he throws it with a deceptive motion and it's on you before you know where it came from.

"Sparky" Lemus has the kind of rubber arm you hope any reliever would have. He's thrown more than 70 games in each of the last 5 seasons and at age 29 already has more than 550 in his career. He finished 2nd in the NL in that category last year after finishing #1 in both '70 and '71. He's been 4th in the league in saves each of the past 2 years; the way the Pirates' frontline pitching goes, they often don't need him to bail him out when they're pitching well and so he'll commonly enter the game with the team tied or losing or in an impossible situation, as happened 12 times in 1971 and 14 times in '69.

At 29, Sparky is in the absolute prime of his career. Expect 70 games pitched, 100 innings in relief, and 25 saves again next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.

Brian Bruno
RHP No. 3
RR, 5'10" 197 lbs.
Born 1942-07-16 in Lockport, IL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 WAS MLB   8  11   0  3.69  28  21   6  168.0  157  79  69   36  100
1971 PIT MLB   7   7   0  3.42  31   9   0  102.1  102  44  39   20   68
1972 PIT MLB   6   5   2  2.60  35   5   0   76.0   59  23  22   20   69

With a lot of these teams, I get to 7ish pitchers and I feel like I still want to do a couple more; with the Pirates, I'm 6 guys in and already feeling like I'm reaching the dregs. Brian Bruno is a veteran who came to Pittsburgh from the Senators for cash and a low-rated prospect. He was a .500ish pitcher who has a similar profile to Battaglia and Arango: a guy without the kind of stuff that gets you on the cover of The Sporting News but who changes speeds well and locates the ball, too. In 2 seasons with the team he's been their swingman, which has afforded him little opportunity to show whether he's capable of a larger role on the team or not. That said, the past couple seasons he has really, really started bearing down on hitters. He struck out a kind of insane for 1972 8.2 men per 9 innings last year and held hitters to a .213 BA.

Last year he had a 2.25 ERA in his 5 spot starts, with 38 Ks in 40 innings. That alone should bring him some attention in spring training - perhaps he'll win the #4 job away from Danny Perez. If not... the Bucs keep saying words to the effect of wanting to give Lemus a partner so they don't wear him out but they never follow through on it. Maybe Bruno is finally that guy.

Kent Tekulve
RHP No. 81
RR, 6'4" 184 lbs.
Born 1947-03-05 in Cincinnati, OH

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 SHE AA    1   2   2  3.44  15   0   0   15.2   12   8   6    5    7
1971 SHE AA    3   0   1  0.67   8   0   0   13.1    7   1   1    3    9
1971 PIT MLB   0   1   1 13.50   2   0   0    2.0    5   3   3    1    1
1972 CHR AAA   0   0   0  2.70   5   0   0    6.2    8   2   2    1    3
1972 PIT MLB   0   3   0  2.91  23   0   0   34.0   32  13  11    9   14

Hey, this guy legit came in as #7! Yes, I did straight-up import Tekulve because I liked him in the 70s. I'll import Dan Quisenberry too. I did goose Teke's stuff (actually just now) to get him in line with the pitchers here although he wasn't IRL a dominant K guy at all. What he was, was one of the few guys for whom that "pBABIP" rating actually makes sense. He's not a one-pitch specialist a la Mariano Rivera or knuckleball pitchers, but his pitches come from a weird place and he did over the course of his career BABIP around 12 points better than expected.

He's in the league 2 years earlier than expected, which is fine by me. Maybe he'll become a Hall of Famer! Or maybe not. He's definitely a guy I'll keep looking at because he's Kent Tekulve, man.

Infield

Doug Connally
C No. 19
RR, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1944-08-21 in Jacksonville, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PIT MLB  .237  129  447   57  106  25   1  12   50   78   97   0
1971 PIT MLB  .264   87  314   39   83  15   2   8   34   53   54   1
1972 PIT MLB  .223  120  394   39   88  19   2   9   56   55   86   0

Fans hoping that Doug Connally had finally remembered how to hit late in the season were not enthused with his 4-24 postseason. Connally had just plain stunk things up for much of the season, hitting as low as .195 in early July. He still only hit .222 for August but it was better than he'd previously been, and then in September, when the Buccos needed him the most, he hit .293 with 13 RBIs and 15 walks, by far his seasonal bests.

When he's hitting well, which he was was not for most of the year, Connally sees the ball well and is as likely to draw a walk as he is to get a base hit. In 1971 he seemed to have overcome his issues with not protecting the plate well enough with two strikes but those issues came back with a vengeance last year. He's not really rated to have the best arm in the league by any stretch but he worked really well with the Pirates' pitching staff last season in holding runners and wound up throwing out a league-high 44.7% of players who tried to steal on him. A gaudy number like that might earn him a Gold Glove.

With his backups Brent "Data" Spiner (.121, 0, 3) and Miklos Nemeth (.198, 2, 13) proving to be ineffective at the plate, Connally still looks like an easy favorite to be the Pirates' starting catcher in '73 and beyond. Let's see him get a better first half in.

Jack Holman
1B No. 35
LL, 6'4" 233 lbs.
Born 1942-03-31 in Newport, RI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 DEN AAA  .296   13   27    3    8   1   0   1    5    4    7   0
1970 MIL MLB  .251  119  414   39  104  16   1   7   50   39   80   0
1971 PIT MLB  .274  121  307   43   84  16   0   8   32   40   64   1
1972 PIT MLB  .232  115  336   39   78  10   1   4   30   48   57   0

I admit, this guy is a personal favorite of mine because of the name. Back in the 90s I listened to a lot of the radio show "Loveline", which was basically an advice show hosted by Dr. Drew and Adam Carolla. Carolla was a big fan of calling people "jackholes" because it was a mix between two not-for-radio words ("jack___" and "__hole"), and at one point he created a character he liked to call in emergencies named Dr. Jack Holman. So when the game generated a man with this name, I admit it, I giggled.

It is to my great disappointment that Dr. Jack Holman is not much of a player. Milwaukee had used him for 414 at-bats in 1970 and he was pretty ineffective. Fine, I figured, he's a platoon guy. In that platoon role the last two seasons, he just hasn't lived up to his jackhole promise. He lacks first base power and although he hit a solid .274 in '71 he followed that up with a below-average .232 last season. Pretty much, he walks a fair amount and that's it. He's not smart enough to understand the people are making fun of him when they say "paging Dr. Jack... Dr. Jack Holman" and for a guy who can only play first base, he's exactly going to win a Gold Glove there any time soon.

It's time the Pirates moved on from Dr. Jack. It was a fun ride - not really - but at this point they could pick someone up off the street who'd slug better than .304 at first base.

Abílio Valdivia
1B No. 31
RL, 6'5" 200 lbs.
Born 1932-05-18 in Caracas, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PIT MLB  .282  130  490   69  138  17   2  12   57   45   41   0
1971 PIT MLB  .298  101  302   32   90  13   2   5   27   34   37   1
1972 PIT MLB  .245   42   98    6   24   5   0   1    6   11   11   0

Valdivia is a guy who, over the course of an 18 year career, had clear Hall of Fame talent could never stay healthy for long enough to put up numbers year after year. Now that his career is winding to a close and in fact may well be over with, I'm stuck wondering whether or not he's good enough.

The case for him is: a career .321 average as the Pirates 1B whenever he was ready to go throughout the 60s. That's kind of it. He didn't get the chance to start until he was 28 - he'd been the team's primary pinch-hitter for the 3 seasons before then - and then he got all of 2 seasons where he managed to play in more than 131 games. He has 1,801 hits and at age 40 it seems really unlikely he'll get to 2,000. Because of all that missed time, his black ink is low: led the league in hitting twice, hits once, and doubles once. He didn't evne make the All-Star Game all that often for a guy of his caliber: 4 times, the last of which was in '69. Granted, he was in the same league as Lorenzo Martinez and Justin Stone all of that time, but to me that's an argument that he was just very good, not great.

It feels only fitting that the Pirates got the closest they've ever gotten to World Series glory in a year where his season ended in June with a fractured knee. I'd call it ironic but Valdivia basically gets hurt in any year ending with a number. It's also sad that he didn't get at least a final victory tour, assuming this was it (he hasn't officially retired yet although as of this writing Valdivia is still recovering from that broken knee).

Tyler Webster
2B/IF No. 14
LR, 5'9" 189 lbs.
Born 1944-07-23 in Wichita, KS

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PIT MLB  .229  126  442   72  101  24   7  16   57   75  109   1
1971 PIT MLB  .240   69  217   17   52   6   3   6   27   32   40   0
1972 PIT MLB  .254  119  370   51   94  15   2  18   57   45   84   2

The Pirates tried to make up for their lack of marquee hitters by platooning all over the place. Second is one place where maybe they overthought things. Tyler Webster was considered a bit of an enigma when he was the Bucs' starting shortstop; however, when they flip-flopped him and then-2B Henry Villar in 1971 things seemed to click into place for the stocky Midwesterner. No longer having to try too hard to make up for a natural lack of range, Webster was able to concentrate more on his hitting and especially his power. This past year he set a new career high in homeruns and finished 2nd on the team in the category. Pittsburgh even batted him 3rd for a few games this year when Brian Jackson was out.

Although he needed to get moved off of short, Webster's range issues aren't quite as pronounced at the second sack and he's able to employ the other things he does well in the field instead. He has nice hands and a solid arm. He rarely plays at third base but you get the sense that tools-wise he could fit in at that position. He'll just plain not get out of the way of the runner on the pivot. Detractors say that he doesn't realize how much danger he's putting himself into but the end result is that he turns more than his fair share of DPs.

Webster might see an uptick in play in '73. Although he only got 47 at-bats against lefties in 1972, he slashed a solid 254/340/468 against them; he seems like he could handle southpaws in a longer look. He does carry a lifetime average of .191 against them but, you know, guys mature.

Luke Dunnahoe
2B/SS No. 2
RR, 5'9" 193 lbs.
Born 1942-02-18 in Vassar, MI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 KC  MLB  .205   75  298   35   61  11   1  11   45   44   55   3
1970 STL MLB  .284   28   81   10   23   4   1   1    7   11   10   0
1971 PIT MLB  .272   69  180   24   49  10   1   3   25   21   20   0
1972 PIT MLB  .241   68  187   18   45  10   0   2   18   25   31   2

Dunnahoe's game just screams "backup infielder" but the Pirates keep playing him more than that. He's gotten in roughly a full season's worth of games now with Pitt and the statline looks like a decent-average hitter (a .256 average) with average at best pop for an infielder and some ability to work the count and coax out a walk. That working the count also carries with it a penchant for seeing too many balls go by for strike three for Dunnahoe to be a consistent top-of-the-lineup hitter.

Defensively he lacks the arm to play short with any regularity, although the Pirates did use him at the position when Henry Villar was out with the variety of arm injuries that made him miss small periods of time last year. He's an average baserunner who will sometimes try to do too much in the effort to start a rally. Teammates look up to him, at least as much as you can look up to the backup middle infielder.

If Webster plays more, Dunnahoe plays less. That's the basic math of the position.

Alex Flores
3B No. 33
RR, 5'11" 185 lbs.
Born 1944-04-11 in Telica, NCA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SHE AA   .236   26   89   12   21   0   0   2   10   21   12   3
1970 CHR AAA  .197   65  183   16   36   6   0   5   14   22   49   9
1970 PIT MLB  .000    6    3    0    0   0   0   0    0    1    1   0
1971 CHR AAA  .245   42  155   25   38   2   4   1   17   22   23   2
1971 PIT MLB  .271   46  133   18   36   6   1   4   14   12   25   1
1972 PIT MLB  .215  107  302   24   65   9   0   3   30   48   48   0

Flores hit well enough in 1971 that the Pirates felt that they could move on from long-term starter Roberto Prieto; even if they wanted to stick with him, the aging vet was clearly washed, got just 3 hits in 44 at-bats, and retired in mid-June. Flores, as it turned out, was not going to be The Guy and even by the end of the year the team had moved on from him in favor of Hank Williams Jr.

Flores has good plate discipline and in 1971 seemed like he could use his speed to leg out some base hits. A longer look indicated that said speed, while possibly good enough to get him 10 steals in a full year, was not going to be enough to make up for the Ks, and while a lot of guys who see as many pitches as Flores does will eventually see a mistake and turn on it, the most that eventually happens with Flores is that sometimes he'll poke one down the left field line for an extra base hit. He's got a great arm at third but not much else. He only hit .224 against lefties, in case you're thinking maybe he could stick around as a pinch-hitter.

He'll for sure get time in spring training, mainly as insurance in case Williams falls apart. That said, since he's a failsafe in case the new kid does what Flores actually did in 1972, it would take a big, big regression for Alex to get his old job back.

Hank Williams Jr.
3B/2B/LF No. 25
LR, 5'8" 180 lbs.
Born 1949-05-25 in Shreveport, LA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ML  R    .270   39  115   34   31   8   1   9   24   18   45   0
1970 NF  S A  .278   21   72    8   20   6   0   1   11   14   20   0
1970 SAL A    .283   16   53    5   15   3   0   1   12    8   12   0
1971 SAL A    .340   14   53   10   18   2   0   2   10    6   12   1
1971 GAS A    .296   69  230   37   68   8   1   9   30   44   56   1
1971 SHE AA   .250    6   12    0    3   0   0   0    0   10    1   0
1972 SHE AA   .208   57  149   19   31   5   0   6   15   29   31   0
1972 CHR AAA  .325   24   83   10   27   5   0   1    9   12   11   0
1972 PIT MLB  .250   61  164   20   41   9   0   6   19   42   36   0

Williams Jr., the son of the famous country western star and a pretty solid singer in his own right, moved up 3 levels in 1972 and spent the final 2 months of the year in the big leagues. The results weren't exactly astounding, at least not until he hit 2 HRs and drove in 5 men in the NLCS to win the MVP for that series. Williams profiles as a guy who over the course of a full season could walk like Alex Flores, hit for a higher average, and have 15-20 HR power. Early returns, too, seem to indicate that even with the poor offensive environment of '72 he will probably hit for more contact than Flores, although in order to do that he'll need to learn major league pitching.

Williams only played 2.1 innings at second base in the major leagues last year but seems like he could probably back up there if needs must. He's a solid third baseman with a nice arm. He doesn't have a huge amount of range but even in his short time in the league he positioned himself well vs. opposing hitters. He could probably do a passable job in the outfield corners assuming his arm translates.

Third base is Williams Jr's job to lose in 1973.

Henry Villar
SS/2B No. 26
LR, 5'11" 190 lbs.
Born 1943-03-29 in Magnolia, NJ

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PIT MLB  .400   12   40    5   16   2   0   0    4    8    5   1
1971 PIT MLB  .274  151  580   74  159  20   4   3   34   59   84   4
1972 PIT MLB  .236  141  526   51  124  15   4   0   26   59   92   2

In April of 1970, Villar was hit in the head by a pitch and missed the entire season. I am happy to say that he has been able to pretty well bounce back from that the past two sasons and I didn't have to get dark in my timeline at all. Villar was a top flight second baseman in '69 who was paired with a not quite adequate SS in Tyler Webster. I'm not sure why the game decided to set guys up like this but I flip-flopped them. That didn't get to play out until '71 but it's worked out well.

Villar doesn't have a great arm, which I'm sure is why he played second, but at his best he hits like a good shortstop and at his worst, he's just a shortstop. He hit for a decent average in '71 but that went away last year. Either way it's accompanied by far too many strikeouts, not very much power at all, and some ability to wait out a poor-control pitcher at the bottom of the order. This skillset as a second baseman gets you replaced. As a shortstop, Villar at 29 could keep doing this for several more years.

Outfield

Justin Lawson
LF No. 9
RR, 6'4" 200 lbs.
Born 1941-02-16 in Moore, OK

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PIT MLB  .280  154  600   72  168  31   3  21   93   59   99   0
1971 PIT MLB  .250  147  576   59  144  24   1  24   98   43   71   0
1972 PIT MLB  .272  147  570   78  155  27   2  19   84   63  100   1

A lot has been placed on Lawson's broad shoulders over the past few years. This past season he kind of blew up what was otherwise looking like a possible MVP campaign when he hit just .179 with 5 HRs and 13 RBIs in September (the RBIs were a season low for a month, excepting the truncated April). Fortunately for the Pirates, although I guess not fortunately enough to win the World Series, Lawson rebounded in the postseason with a .273 average (9-33) and 5 RBIs, which isn't a lot but nobody was really getting those.

Lawson is a clutch demon: he hit .340 in close/late situations last year and even though his RBIs were the lowest they've been since 1969 they were still good for 6th in the NL. Lawson has a long, looping swing. Strikeouts have been an issue for him his entire career, although thankfully he's never come close to the 124 he had back in '67. His power regressed a little last year after it was beginning to look like he might have turned into a low to mid 20s HR guy. He's in left for a reason: while he's certainly not the worst corner outfielder out there, he's not super great either. He's slow all around and doesn't like to run.

Pencil in Lawson as the team's cleanup hitter for the next couple years at least. How long will he be able to keep this up? He's good but not great but has been fairly well a picture of consistency over the years.

Justin Hearl
CF/RF No. 28
LL, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-09-02 in Bakersfield, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PIT MLB  .278  113  371   62  103   8   7   0   34   49   61  17
1971 PIT MLB  .261  150  578   62  151  13   8   3   49   66   84  31
1972 PIT MLB  .251  100  374   44   94  12   1   1   32   25   71  10

The 29 year old Justin Hearl got a chance to play full-time in 1971 but he was only kind of average so the Pirates, looking for an offensive advantage wherever they could get it, went back to trying to platoon with him again. Results were mixed. Hearl actually outhit lefties compared to righties last season (.263 to .249) and in his career only hits them about 9 points worse than his regular average. The bigger issue is, Hearl didn't really do a lot in general to help the team win. He's a solid centerfielder, although no Elijah Jackson. He doesn't hit for power and although in '71 he'd shown a nice ability to wait out pitchers and give the guys behind him a good look at a man's stuff, he reverted to his free-swinging ways last season.

Also, Hearl just didn't steal as much last year as he had in the past. Steals were a little down leaguewide but success rates were up and Hearl regressed in both: he was successful only 10 of 17 times. He's one of the best non-pitcher bunters in the game, finishing 8th in the NL in that category (in fact, that's the only thing he finished in the top 10 in). He's a hard worker and, like a lot of Pirates players, has a fiery "win at all costs" demeanor that the fans love.

It's hard to really draw a bead on the guy because in spite of the hustle he's just somewhere between mediocre and above average at everything. That was obviously good enough to get the Pirates to a World Series but a guy like this can fall off at any moment.

Michio Kaku
CF/2B No. 13
RR, 5'8" 168 lbs.
Born 1947-05-14 in San Jose, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 GAS A    .309   37  139   20   43   9   1   6   28   16   27  10
1970 SHE AA   .172   45  151   16   26   2   2   2   18   19   25   2
1971 SHE AA   .348   20   69   10   24   7   0   1   15   10   6    1
1971 CHR AAA  .313   61  208   28   65  10   3   3   26   29   41   5
1971 PIT MLB  .281   56  221   25   62  10   2   5   17   18   48   6
1972 CHR AAA  .160   34  119   12   19   6   0   1   13   14   35   0
1972 PIT MLB  .192   54  214   13   41   5   1   1   17   13   48   5

1972 was a disaster for astrophysicist cum centerfielder Michio Kaku, who followed up a promising .281/5/17 1971 in the majors with... well, you see the numbers above. Sent down in July, Kaku only got worse in AAA and as of this writing the Pirates have him sitting in AA. What happened? Even when he looked like a player, Kaku has abysmal pitch recognition, especially for someone with his high level of intelligence. He presents a naturally small strike zone but that doesn't mean much when you swing at pitches a foot over your head. What little power he displayed in '71 also seemed to disappear as well.

Kaku looks like a better second baseman than a centerfielder to me. As a CF he's very sure-handed but only average in terms of reaching balls hit in his direction - he's got a habit of letting the balls play him rather than the other way around. His speed seemed top-notch coming out of Harvard University but even that, in practice, has been flawed - Kaku was caught 7 times in 12 attempts in the majors and his manager at AAA Charleston nailed his foot to the bag, not even letting him attempt a base while he was there.

It's a real puzzle as to where Kaku goes now. One bad season is too soon to write a guy off but man, things are not promising like they were a year ago.

Frank Menner
OF No. 42
RR, 6'2" 192 lbs.
Born 1943-04-06 in Seattle, WA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 COL AAA  .221  101  344   48   76  15   2  17   47   43  116  10
1970 PIT MLB  .200    4    5    1    1   0   0   1    1    1    2   1
1971 CHR AAA  .225   10   40    4    9   1   0   1    3    5    5   1
1971 PIT MLB  .189   15   37    2    7   0   0   1    4    6   10   0
1972 PIT MLB  .228   55   92    6   21   2   1   2    9   14   20   2

There was a whole slew of guys who either tried to take Justin Hearl's job or who were at least used as a platoon partner with him, a group that also includes the unlisted Carlos Carrera (.215, 2, 10) and George Macchia (.196, 0, 1 in the majors). Menner, a native of the GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD, is the guy who was on the team at the end of the season, although he played sparingly in the postseason - just 3 games and 2 at-bats (he did get a hit in Pittsburgh's only win of the World Series, a 11-0 shellacking of the Tigers). Menner showed good power with AAA Columbus in 1970 but with that came a worrying propensity to strike out. In his 55 games played in '72 he still struck out too much, although thankfully not at the once every 3 at-bats rate he'd shown in the past. The power, sadly, seems not to have translated into the majors either.

Menner isn't a particularly good centerfielder and so you get the "tweener" conundrum with him: a good corner outfielder who can't hit like one (also the Pirates are pretty well set in the corners), probably an OK offensive centerfielder who can't field like one. Given the complete inability of anyone else in this organization save Justin Hearl to both hit and play the position, Menner will surely get more chances in '73.

Brian Jackson
RF No. 16
RR, 5'11" 203 lbs.
Born 1944-06-28 in Calverton, MD

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PIT MLB  .324  145  577   69  187  30   8   5  101   52   42  10
1971 PIT MLB  .285  114  473   59  135  20   6  10   50   35   43   8
1972 PIT MLB  .267  131  524   65  140  19   9   9   50   45   38  10

Sometimes when a key player goes down, the rest of the team rallies around the loss. It's no shot at the player. This is what happened with Brian Jackson last September. He wound up missing 4 weeks with an elbow injury he suffered in mid-September. The Pirates were 76-59 and 2 games behind the Phillies at the time; they closed out the season 17-3 and then swept the Braves in the NLC before Jackson returned for them in the World Series.

Jackson himself was having a... solid season before the injury. He made his first-ever All-Star Game but slumped in the 2nd half of July, finishing that month with a slash of 243/314/346. He came back in August and was back in another slump in September when the elbow cut things short. Overall, the man who finished 2nd in the NL in hitting in both 1968 and 1970 had the lowest BA of his career, although weirdly his RBI total stayed the same - in fact, he's hit exactly 50 ribbies 3 times in his career now.

Jackson's a solid right fielder. He did commit 7 errors in the field last year, which is kind of a looot for what took place in '72, so we'll be looking out for that. He has decent speed that he has used to steal as many as 13 bases in the past. He also finished 4th in the NL in triples.

My hope here is that as the league returns to normalcy in '73 - because it can't get any worse than this, right? - Jackson will return to at least a high 280s-290s average and perhaps even be a guy who can make a run at future batting titles. He's just entering the prime of his career at 28.

[Syd Thrift]

Kansas City Royals
70-84, T-5th, AL West

1972 Outlook: It's an expansion team. Little is expected. The Royals did finish 76-85 in '71 behind some really nice young hitters. In fact, if the pitching was even average they might have had an above .500 record. The Royals were still running with, basically, an expansion roster when it came to the pitching staff, so expectations have been low.

1972 In Review: The Royals seemed like they had taken a big, big step backwards early in the season, falling to 12-25 after May and 22-42 after June. Things began to look up with a 13-15 August and then, playing their hearts out against some of the "best" teams in the AL West, the Royals were the real spoilers of the division, finishing the year 22-9 from September 1 on and going from having a seeming lock on the AL West cellar - maybe even the AL cellar - to finishing tied with the White Sox.

1973 Outlook: There's a lot to like here, even though there's a huge amount to dislike on the pitching staff. The Royals had the batting champ and near-lock for ROY in Tony Danza, a late-blooming HR and RBI man in Edwin Manchego, and a potential future MVP in Dave Corona. Their pitching can't conceivably be worse than it was last year and their lineup is very, very young. The AL West should be wide open and there's no reason to believe the Royals can't contend with the best of them.

Pitching

Andy Lagunas
RHP No. 15
RR, 6'4" 200 lbs.
Born 1941-03-02 in Baitoa, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CLE MLB  19   9   0  3.81  36  36   7  233.1  222 102  99   94  174
1971 CLE MLB   8  16   2  4.82  38  29   6  203.1  213 120 109   69  144
1972 CAL MLB   0   0   0  9.00   1   0   0    1.0    3   1   1    0    2
1972 KC  MLB   9  11   0  2.78  26  26   7  194.0  158  69  60   78  116

Kansas City acquired Lagunas, a former 21 game winner with the Indians, for a song: backup 3B Mike Ramos, who got hurt shortly after the trade and missed the entire season for his new team, the Angels. Lagunas, meanwhile, can be charitably said to have played well above his weight last year. Even when the 31 year old Dominican was winning games for Cleveland - 40-19 between '69 and '70 - he was doing so more due to the strength of their offense than with truly great pitching on his own. He slumped to 8-16, 4.82 and found himself involved in 2 trades in 7 months.

Lagunas throws hard, sometimes getting into the high 90s on the radar gun, but in his time in the AL hitters have been able to figure him out more and more. That trend continued in '72, which is worrying, but Lagunas got back on the right track by choosing to miss off the plate instead of over the middle. His walk rate jumped back to the level it was at in '70 but along with that came him shaving his HRs nearly in half, from 23 in '71 (and 24 in '70) to just 12 last season. Once considered a power guy, Lagunas' game is now all about forcing double plays.

By default and because of his past record of success, Lagunas is the Royals #1 starter going into 1973. Something like a return to form with his stuff could see him go right back to 20 wins given the offensive firepower of this team.

Miguel Chavez
LHP No. 34
LL, 5'11" 176 lbs.
Born 1939-08-09 in Arraijan, PAN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 KC  MLB   8  14   0  4.90  26  26   2  167.0  174 109  91   87  125
1971 KC  MLB  12  11   0  3.00  33  33   7  245.2  208  90  82  110  186
1972 KC  MLB  13   9   1  4.16  31  24   4  177.0  169  90  82   87  130

The bottom fell out for Chavez after a promising 1971 and the left-hander pitched out of the bullpen for the Royals' September push. Chavez has been with the Royals ever since they expanded - he was the 3rd overall pick in the expansion draft out of Minnesota, where he'd been a respectably 99-67, 3.09 - and was named the club's Opening Day starter in '72. His control, though, which has always been an issue, bit him extra hard in May, when he went 2-2 but with a 4.45 ERA and 16 walks in 30.1 IP, and following a June in which he seemed to bounce back (4-1, 3.41), he just plain sucked in July and August and was relegated to left specialist duties the rest of the way, pitching in just 6 games and 9.2 innings from September 1 onward.

Walks have been and will always be an issue for Chavez. He led the league in the category in 1969 and would probably have done the same in '72 had the Royals kept using him as a starter. He did hold lefties to a .189 average and he does have some great stuff, but that control leads you to think that he's more of a guy suited for long relief or, at best, starting out an inning than someone who could consistently kill rallies.

Chavez is also not young and although he's striking out as many guys as he ever has, he's at an age where stuff will often start to drop off. I don't really see a backup plan for him if this happens, outside of motivational speaking.

Chris Regan
RHP No. 18
RR, 6'1" 202 lbs.
Born 1940-11-02 in Baltimore, MD

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CLE MLB   6   6   0  3.35  16  16   2  123.1  137  57  46   34   76
1971 CLE MLB   5   4   0  4.82  33  14   1  115.2  149  68  62   29   57
1972 TEX MLB   7   9   0  3.43  19  18   4  139.0  123  54  53   43   73
1972 KC  MLB   6   1   0  3.39   8   8   3   61.0   65  23  23   14   28

The Royals seem to be collecting members of the 1970 Cleveland Indians, at least in their pitching staff. As strategies go, it's a little weird: that team went 94-69, it's true, but much more on the basis of pitching than hitting. Regan was claimed by KC when the Rangers - who acquired him in the Jonathan House trade - tried to slip him through waivers in August. Regan was pitching OK for them at the time, although I guess a 3.43 ERA in 1972 is not the same 3.43 in other years, but they'd simply run out of room for the 31 year old. The Royals took advantage and he was arguably their best starter down the stretch and, thanks to that performance, has got himself a new job.

Regan is easy to overlook because he doesn't throw strikeouts. He's got a good cut fastball and a solid slider but those pitches mainly serve to make hitters hit the ball into the ground instead of swinging and missing. Like a lot of finesse pitchers, though, Regan won't miss his spots much but when he does he's as likely to miss over the plate as out of the zone. He gave up 17 HRs in 200 innings last year and 7 in 61 with KC.

Regan is kind of in it for himself, which is maybe not ideal for a #1 starter but he's nowhere near their #1. In spite of the 13-10 record and the fact that he pitched the most innings in the majors out of everyone currently on KC's roster, Regan's a mid-rotation starter even on this team.

Rick Rodriguez
RHP No. 24
LR, 6'0" 183 lbs.
Born 1947-05-29 in Miches, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 ELM AA    5   0   0  1.39   5   5   5   45.0   30   8   7   14   40
1970 OMA AAA   8   5   0  3.49  20  20   3  136.2  134  61  53   45  136
1970 KC  MLB   1   1   0  5.14   3   3   1   21.0   26  12  12    7   13
1971 OMA AAA  12  12   0  3.26  27  27   9  204.0  173  88  74   76  137
1971 KC  MLB   3   3   0  3.69   6   6   2   39.0   42  17  16    7   28
1972 OMA AAA   5   6   0  4.08  12  12   2   90.1   81  42  41   20   95
1972 KC  MLB   6   6   0  2.74  20  17   5  131.1   97  42  40   53   93

All smoke, all the time. That's Rodriguez' thing. If anything, the 25 year old out of the Dominican Republic tinkers a little too much with his pitches instead of just going up there and using his God-given talent to blow the ball by people. Now that he seems to be in the majors to stay, maybe he'll throw more and pitch less.

Rodriguez' heater gets into the mid-90s occasionally and it digs in on right-handed pitching. That coupled with a slider that's nearly impossible to track allowed him to hold right-handed batters to a .157 average against him last year. He's an all-or-nothing guy and sometimes that means there are some spicy meatballs left out over the plate. That's just a part of Rodriguez' game the Royals will need to live with.

Rodriguez throws so hard that his stamina isn't the greatest, although he did complete a total of 7 games in 29 starts last year. If the starting thing doesn't work out he would probably be a lights-out short reliever. He's young enough to get a few more chances at the former.

Jorge Cervantez
RHP No. 21
RR, 5'11" 169 lbs.
Born 1945-07-14 in Encinitas, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PIT MLB   1   2   0  2.84  25   0   0   38.0   34  13  12    4   15
1971 KC  MLB  11  11   0  3.81  34  23   4  174.2  198  80  74   44   56
1972 KC  MLB   5   7   7  3.24  45  12   3  133.0  118  50  48   48   47

The Royals used the 27 year old Cervantez all over the place last year. By season's end he was the team's designated stopper. That's not at all conducive to Cervantez' game but when your pitching staff is full of prospects and castoffs the way Kansas City's is, sometimes bad pitching makes strange bedfellows.

At the best of times Cervantez' repertoire doesn't have enough movement to strike batters out. He did have a tiny uptick in his K rate last year thanks to a 4.8 K/9 rate aas a relief pitcher but that wasn't enough to keep his K/BB ratio from going underwater. That said, Cervantez was really effective in relief: 3-0, 1.83 ERA, 7 Sv. He's a groundball guy who would rather miss the plate altogether than miss high and as a reliever he actually didn't give up a single HR in 39.1 innings last year. His platoon splits aren't even too terrible: 251/304/319 vs lefties, 229/309/322 vs righties.

You know, the more I look at the numbers, maybe casting Cervantez in short relief isn't such a bad idea after all. We'll see how it suits him in a full season, I guess.

Howard Rollins
RHP No. 11
RR, 5'9" 153 lbs.
Born 1950-10-13 in Baltimore, MD

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 OP  R     0   2   0 10.21   3   3   0   12.1   18  15  14    4   12
1970 WAT A     1   5   0  9.00   8   8   0   35.0   50  38  35   26   23
1970 SJ  A     1   0   0  1.12   2   2   0   16.0    8   4   2    7    8
1971 SJ  A     7   7   0  3.60  17  17  11  140.0  125  59  56   53  124
1971 ELM AA    2   3   0  4.28   5   5   2   35.2   31  20  17   20   24
1971 OMA AAA   0   5   0  4.64   8   8   1   52.1   56  28  27   17   22
1972 OMA AAA   7   4   0  3.17  16  16   0  105.0   94  42  37   29  112
1972 KC  MLB   6   4   0  3.29  17  17   6  123.0  110  49  45   57   95

The 22 year old Rollins had a sudden talent spurt between 1970 and 1971 that got him onto the major league roster in midseason of last year. Rollins, like Rick Rodriguez, is a power guy. He doesn't throw quite as hard as Rodriguez, although he does throw hard, but he has a Sidney Poitier-like presence about him on the mound that makes him nearly unflappable. Meanwhile, his curveball comes in faster than you'd expect a curveball to go and buckles the knees of right-handed hitters.

Rollins practically forced the Royals to call him up by striking out more than a man per inning in AAA Omaha. He's got impressive stuff, the kind of stuff that could cause him to lead the league in strikeouts more than once and then parley an excellent baseball career into a stint from 1988 to 1994 as detective Virgil Tibbs on a television adaptation of In The Heat of the Night. In fact, while we're spitballing here, why not star Carol O'Connor, TV's Archie Bunker, alongside him?

Juan Correra
RHP No. 3
RR, 6'3" 198 lbs.
Born 1944-08-04 in San Pedro de Macorís, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 LOU AAA   7   6   0  4.24  16  16   1  104.0  115  58  49   29   95
1970 BOS MLB   1   3   0  7.39   7   4   0   28.0   35  23  23   16   18
1971 OMA AAA   0   0   1  0.00   2   0   0    2.0    2   0   0    0    1
1971 KC  MLB   4  11   0  4.71  30  21   2  137.1  167  85  72   52   59
1972 KC  MLB   5   7   4  3.50  41   6   1   97.2   92  40  38   28   43

Hey, finally a guy from San Pedro de Macoris! OOTP treats it as just another town in the DR because how could it otherwise but in the 80s and 90s especially this relatively small town produced a lot of major league players including Tony Fernandez, Joaquin Andujar, and Sammy Sosa. This particular man from "Baseball City" is a gritty gamer type who has been a back-of-the-staff ability but makes the most of it. At best he can be a guy who won't kill your chances in a game all by himself and is best in middle to long relief.

Infield

Jonathan Escobar
C No. 22
RR, 6'2" 202 lbs.
Born 1942-02-05 in Duluth, GA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OAK MLB  .254  126  437   49  111  19   0  10   61   64   97   0
1971 OAK MLB  .180   19   61    6   11   2   0   1    4    9   13   0
1971 WAS MLB  .240   29   96   14   23   5   0   1    9   14   25   0
1972 KC MLB   .144   58  146   12   21   4   0   2   18   34   29   1

KC's pitching staff sure wasn't helped out by the catching situation - the Royals gave 5 different players at least 100 innings at the position - but what are you supposed to do here? They opened the season with 1971 starter Nick McIntyre but when he hit just .134/0/5 in 31 games he got his ticket punched to AAA Omaha. Escobar, meanwhile, had been released by the Rangers out of spring training and the Royals gave him a call in late May. As a 4-year starter for the A's, he was a safe, low-ceiling bet, right? Wrong. Escobar hit almost as poorly as McIntyre and was the backup from the All-Star Break on.

Escobar has always had problems with off-speed stuff that looks like a fastball and then dives off the plate. He took a lot of those pitches in '72 but maybe that was just a volume issue, as he swung at a lot of them too. He's really slow; to hit even at a league average rate he'd need to cut way back on the Ks. Defensively he's won 2 Gold Gloves in his career but I'm not seeing that level of ability if I'm being honest, and last year he threw out a career low 25% of steal attempts. Some of that was on the pitching staff but you can't blame all of that on him.

Escobar's probably going to have to show that he can still hit quality pitching in spring training in order to not move on from his 3rd team in 3 years. At 30 years old, his career could be over.

Mike Perez
C No. 16
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1938-07-07 in Caracas, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CAL MLB  .165  110  352   40   58  10   1  13   40   49  136   0
1971 CHW MLB  .234  109  380   48   89  18   1  18   58   61   97   0
1972 CHW MLB  .164   42  110   13   18   7   0   1    8   11   33   0
1972 KC  MLB  .229   48  140   15   32   9   0   6   25   25   37   0

Mike Perez has always been a threat, if that's the right word, to just suddenly lose it and hit .160. That's what happened to him in 1970 and while '71 was a nice story - he recuperated enough to even make the All-Star Game - the White Sox were quick to cut bait when the mega-strikeouts and the correspondingly low average returned. KC picked him up and he wound up starting for them the rest of the way.

Perez has gigantic holes in his swing and at 34 it's way too late to ever think he's going to iron them out. He struck out 70 times in roughly half a season of play last year. Even in '71 when he cut the Ks down, he still would have gone well over 100 if he hadn't have missed nearly 2 months with a hamstring strain. When he does make contact he's got fantastic power and that, more than anything else, has been what's kept him in the league so long in spite of a career .204 average.

Defensively, Perez is another former Gold Glover whose best years are clearly behind him. He got a lot of flak in Chicago for not helping out their young pitchers enough but that's probably more of an attempt to justify cutting a man who was reportedly making more than $150,000 loose than an actual gripe. His arm, which was once strong enough to have thrown out 40% or more stealers for 5 years straight, is now average at best. He played for two teams in the bottom half of the league in terms of steal attempts and he threw out only 22% of runners.

Perez will likely get the nod to start at catcher in '73. There just anyone else in the organization. Their #3 guy is Mike Fenley (.155, 2, 7), who combines the hitting "prowess" of the first two guys with the fielding abilities of... a guy who can't field.

Edwin Manchego
1B/LF No. 29
LL, 6'3" 200 lbs.
Born 1944-11-16 in Río Chico, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OMA AAA  .248  124  343   63   85  21   1  24   67   75   91   8
1971 OMA AAA  .244   99  336   59   82  13   2  21   59   63   51   0
1971 KC  MLB  .248   38  117   18   29   9   0   9   27   20   19   1
1972 KC  MLB  .276  139  416   55  115  19   2  27   77   55   56   3

Manchego is the first of a whole host of sweet hitting young outfielder/first basemen on this roster. A late bloomer, or at least a guy whose talents Kansas City didn't recognize until lately, Manchego made the All-Star team in his first full season in the major leagues, finishing 4th in the AL in home runs and RBIs and 6th in the league in extra-base hits. He's a dead pull hitter who will turn on a fastball that gets even a little too high and out over the plate like nobody in the league save Ernesto Garcia. He does have issues against lefties, which is why he didn't take over the full-time job until late May, but even with those issues, if he's properly protected in the lineup, look out.

Manchego has average speed but lacks the instincts to be anything other than an adequate outfielder. The Royals have enough guys like that so the transition down to first base was an obvious one. He's got even less range as an infielder but at least he's tall enough to serve as a big target for throws from other infielders. Menchego's not the best locker room interview, even taking into account the fact that he only speaks a little bit of English, but his teammates seem to get along with him well.

A full year should see Manchego clear 30 HRs and a plethora of targets in front of him ought to see him chase 100 RBIs. He is loyal to the team who signed him off the scrap heap after the Dodgers decided he wasn't going to be their guy in 1969 and now he's reaping the rewards.

Jim Davis
1B No. 4
LL, 6'3" 200 lbs.
Born 1945-06-11 in Marion, IN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ELM AA   .167    3    6    2    1   0   0   1    2    5    1   0
1970 OMA AAA  .236   91  148   32   35   3   0  14   32   29   61   0
1971 OMA AAA  .229   66  205   40   47   8   0  14   41   50   60   0
1971 KC  MLB  .207   69  213   37   44  12   1  13   30   57   67   0
1972 OMA AAA  .250   17   44   10   11   2   0   4   13    7   21   0
1972 KC  MLB  .164   85  159   26   26   5   0   8   14   31   63   0

This wasn't just a case of the Mondays, nosiree Bob. Even before 1972 Jim Davis had the rep of a free-swinging, all-or-nothing guy. This past year, he dipped into catcher levels of hitting and it was painfully obvious that this wasn't just poor luck, either; that 63 Ks in 159 at-bats is terrible in 2023 terms, let alone 1972 ones. Now he's been usurped at first base and even though he was used in the role 50 times last year, he's flat-out not the kind of guy you ever want pinch-hitting.

He has a job... for now but it's probably time he goes back to drawing pictures of cats.

James Ellroy
2B/1B No. 44
RR, 5'10" 185 lbs.
Born 1948-03-03 in Los Angeles, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 SJ  A    .286   27   98   17   28   2   0   5   17    9   20   1
1971 WAT A    .279   26   43   10   12   2   0   3    3    4    8   0
1971 ELM AA   .311   25   90   11   28   6   1   1   13   10   15   1
1972 ELM AA   .321   58  193   23   62   9   1   6   27   13   34   2
1972 KC  MLB  .270   86  371   39  100  18   2   5   41   19   66   4

Ellroy was drafted all the way down in the 17th round of the draft in 1971. Rumors are that he wouldn't stop talking about Old Hollywood during the interview portion. He wants to be a writer but I'll be frank with you: I've read some of his writing and it's... weird. Like, it feels an awful lot like he's deliberately imitating the style of old Tinseltown gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper. Whatever floats your boat, I guess. As a baseball player, Ellroy overcame a lot of Ks to hit for a nice, solid average almost entirely from the 2-hole. He'll really need to cut down on the Ks if he wants to stay at the top of the order but at 24 (which, look, I was as surprised as anyone else to learn that Ellroy is younger than people like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump) it's possible that he could.

He works hard and digs in on defense, although he lacks the arm to play on the right side of the infield except in small spurts. He played a decent amount of first base at AA Elmira before the Royals called him up; he can certainly field the position and could conceivably be the guy to spell Manchego against tough lefties if it comes to that. For now though the Royals are content to put Ellroy out there every day and see what he can do.

Ian Coleman
2B No. 10
RR, 5'8" 183 lbs.
Born 1942-05-07 in Los Angeles, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 KC  MLB  .231   96  355   48   82  12   8   7   38   34   55   4
1971 KC  MLB  .254  141  507   49  129  17   6   7   57   50   85   6
1972 KC  MLB  .211   64  190   14   40   5   3   5   22   19   30   1

When you look at the guys who started on Opening Day for this team, it becomes more and more obvious why they struggled so much in the first couple months of the season. Ian Coleman returned from a decent if not spectacular 1971 and lost one of the only things he really had going for him, an ability to hit seeing-eye singles in spite of a lot of strikeouts. Coleman hits to all fields and theoretically gives poorer infields problems with above average speed but last year we just didn't see a lot of that. Ks seem like a recurring issue. Someone should have a word with hitting coach Kevin Simon, who's been with the club since they started existing. To his credit, he doesn't think Coleman should be starting either.

You'd think with that profile that Coleman is a whiz on defense but you would be mistaken. With 4 years under his belt as a starting second baseman, he just doesn't understand how to position himself against different hitters. He's got bad hands for a second baseman - trust us on this one - and about the only thing he's good at on D is not bailing out on the pivot. He's always around for an encouraging word in the locker room, so intangibles could keep him on the club as a backup if he can figure out how to play more positions.

Ryan Newton
3B No. 7
LR, 5'11" 196 lbs.
Born 1945-08-03 in Cheyenne, WY

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ELM AA   .347   49  199   41   69  16   1   4   23   18   22  11
1970 OMA AAA  .111    5   18    2    2   0   0   1    2    2    5   0
1970 KC  MLB  .231  104  377   29   87  15   3   2   38   21   72  16
1971 KC  MLB  .302  114  371   47  112  27   1   7   47   28   49  13
1972 KC  MLB  .232  130  435   41  101  21   2   4   36   24   71  10

Look, I know you can't just pretend an entire month never happened, but if you could... Ryan Newton started the season with a .153 average (9-59) in April and hit a solid .245 the rest of the way. There were hopes he could be an upper-lineup hitter with his average and speed but the Ks put the kibosh on that - he hit 6th and 7th for much of the second half. Newton's real issue is that from his closed stance he doesn't see lefties very well at all. He hit just .175 against them last year after hitting .274 against them in '71 (which was still nearly 40 points lower than how he hit RHP that season). He's a guy in need of a platoon mate.

He's a solid third baseman, quick enough in the field that you could hold your nose and start him at short for a week or two if the starter's out. He doesn't read pitchers well but he's aware of this limitation and leaves things up to the base coaches to tell him when to run or not. They gave him the "go" signal enough to get double-digit steals in each of his 3 years in the majors. He's also one of the best bunters in the league, finishing 4th in the league in successful sacrifices; should he find his way back into the top of the lineup again, he could move up a few places now that AL pitchers will no longer be called upon to hit.

Newton looks to make up half - maybe 2/3rds - of the 3B situation in 1973. He'll battle in camp with the next guy to see exactly what the proportions look like.

Uwe Kliemann
3B/IF No. 98
RR, 5'9" 167 lbs.
Born 1949-06-27 in Berlin, GER

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 REN A    .232   45  177   23   41   5   2   3   20   22   36  15
1971 CHA A    .263   29  118   18   31   5   4   0   10    9   24   6
1971 JAX AA   .200    5   15    2    3   0   0   1    1    0    1   1
1972 ELM AA   .220   30  109   16   24   1   4   4   16   16   12   4
1972 OMA AAA  .291   46  172   20   50   6   0   2   10   18   35   2
1972 KC  MLB  .226   42  133   17   30   5   6   0   12   10   22   8

Kliemann, a 3rd round draft pick in 1971, seemed overwhelmed after arriving in Kansas City in late July. That's well to be expected: this is a guy who'd had just 91 minor league games prior to the call-up. He projects to having good plate discipline but that isn't there yet, and to make matters worse Kliemann had really bad reverse splits last year, hitting just .162 (6-37) against lefties.

The thing that will keep Kliemann in the league is his versatility. A soccer player in the Bundesliga in his off-time, Kliemann has a soccer player's footwork and can play anywhere in the infield. In fact, he could be called the best player in the game in terms of nimbleness in avoiding runners on the pivot. He has plus speed and the natural intelligence to one day know exactly what to do with it.

Kliemann is probably at least 2-3 years away from being a real impact player. If he can just reverse those platoon splits he'll be in a great position to help the Royals out next year.

Mike Dawson
SS/3B No. 8
RR, 6'2" 187 lbs.
Born 1947-07-28 in New York, NY

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SJ  A    .281  128  469   72  132   9   5  14   53   73  110  30
1970 WAT A    .250    1    4    0    1   0   0   0    0    0    1   0
1971 OMA AAA  .202  137  501   67  101  13   3   8   36   92   81  19
1972 KC  MLB  .233  128  408   51   95  14   5   7   37   53   79  21

Dawson is one of those players you love to have on your team and hate to see with the other guys. He's a scrappy player who has a little too much power for his own good: sometimes he gets into stretches where he tries to hit a HR every time up and overall he will try to pull everything. He's got decent pitch recognition though and scouts think that once he learns AL pitchers he could be a 90 walk guy in the majors. He also hasn't quite yet started leaning into pitches to get on base that way but I wouldn't be surprised if that became part of his game, too.

Defensively he's a plus shortstop and would be a plus-plus third baseman if you had to put him there. He's got top-of-the-order speed if he can ever hit well enough to justify that. Last year the Royals used him mainly in the 6 and 7 holes in the lineup: he tried to be too much of a power guy at 6 (.157, 5 HRs, 10 RBI in 102 AB) but looked like a different man at 7 (.301, 2, 18 in 183 ABs).

Dawson's 25 and still has room to grow as a hitter. He should get a chance to show what he can do over the next couple years.

Nate Sita
SS/3B No. 14
SR, 6'1" 197 lbs.
Born 1946-01-12 in Brushy Creek, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ELM AA   .217   42  138   27   30   6   3   8   35   33   24   2
1970 KC  MLB  .183   84  230   27   42   7   1  10   31   37   65   1
1971 KC  MLB  .225  149  507   56  114  12   3  15   52   60  122   4
1972 KC  MLB  .165   62  158    7   26   6   2   2   16   16   45   2

Sita's yet another Royal who hit his way out of a job in 1972. After hitting .128 in April and .180 in May, the Royals pushed Dawson into the job to stay and he got just 19 starts the rest of the season. Even when he was starting in '71 he was very strikeout prone and doesn't have the power that can make up for 120 Ks (really, the only shortstop in baseball who does moved to right field this year - talking about the Cubs' Jeremy Taylor). Last year the bottom dropped out the way it can for high-K players.

Defensively Sita's maybe a touch better than Dawson with his forte being soft hands. If he can cut down on the whiffs he could be a platoon partner with Ryan Newton over at third, although I'm not sure I'd trust his arm over there in a starting role. He has good speed but hasn't been able to figure out how to translate it to on-field play. He's a guy who will light a fire under his teammates in the locker room if he feels that folks aren't giving their all. He's a bit of a hothead but not in a bad way.

Sita wants to start and doesn't seem like he'll be happy playing in a utility role. It might take a change of scenery to get him to see the light.

Outfield

Tony Danza
OF No. 28
LL, 5'11" 186 lbs.
Born 1948-06-26 in Muskoka Lakes, CAN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 SJ  A    .250    1    4    1    1   0   0   0    0    1    0   0
1971 ELM AA   .364    7   22    2    8   2   0   0    1    7    5   0
1971 OMA AAA  .316   65  231   35   73  10   3   1   17   45   37   8
1971 KC  MLB  .400    6    5    1    2   1   0   0    0    0    1   0
1972 KC  MLB  .338  139  527   89  178  28  17   7   50   80   68  34

Danza did it all last year. He led the league in average, hits, triples, and on-base percentage and finished in the top 5 in total bases (4th), steals (3rd), runs (3rd), and even slugging percentage (.495, 3rd). He made the All-Star Game in July and is pretty much a lock to win the Rookie of the Year Award. All this from a guy with all of 6 games and 5 plate appearances in the major leagues prior to 1972. He hit leadoff for most of the season but made the transition to 3rd late in the year and took his hitting to a whole new level, hitting .434 (33-76) in that role. That's probably where he'll stay going forward, as he is clearly one of the top 2 or 3 best hitters in the game right now.

Danza is known around the clubhouse as "the Boss" because he just radiates leadership wherever he goes. While he's got great speed, one aspect of his game that gets overlooked is his ability to be selective with pitches. He walked 80 times last year and it wouldn't be surprising to see him get to 100 in that category in the future.

Danza's rawness really showed through in two areas: his defense in the outfield, where he committed 8 errors in 95 games in right, and his baserunning. Danza's a guy who will try to make things happen on the bases and too often he got caught out trying to be too aggressive. He was also caught stealing 30 times; he was told to cut down the running in the 2nd half, leading to him "only" attempting 24 steals from August 1 onward: he was successfull in 16 of them (which, yes, meant that he had an under-50% success rate before then). That as much as anything else is a thing that makes him a better deal, at least for now, at 3rd: with men on base ahead of him, he won't clog the bases as much.

At this point, you don't even project stardom with a guy like Danza. He's a star right now. The only question is, how bright will he shine.

Terrence Hicks
OF/1B No. 5
RR, 6'3" 208 lbs.
Born 1944-12-26 in Memphis, TN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ELM AA   .262   82  122   14   32   3   2   3   19   30   18   1
1971 OMA AAA  .277   84  148   14   41  11   1   2   21   24   15   0
1972 OMA AAA  .431   18   51   11   22   4   0   5   15    6    3   0
1972 KC  MLB  .286   68  112   15   32   3   1   1   17   14   25   0

Hicks's stated goal in baseball is to stay in the game long enough to earn a big payday. This is probably not the right era for it and Hicks is probably not the right player. He fit in in a 4th/5th OF role and pinch-hitter but even with the added DH rule on its way, he doesn't figure to see his role expand all that much. Hicks hit for a good average in spite of striking out a fair amount - man, that is a common refrain on this team, and by the way, yes, they did lead the major leagues in strikeouts with 963 of them - but he doesn't really do a lot else. As a pinch-hitter, that's fine; as a guy who would ever take away at-bats from the likes of Manchego, Danza, or Corona, it's not.

It's hard to say how much of a role a pinch-hitter will have in the AL next year but whatever that is, that's Hicks.

Dave Corona
CF/LF No. 19
LL, 5'11" 173 lbs.
Born 1949-05-29 in San Pedro de Macorís, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 KC  MLB  .301  157  611  108  184  34  18  18   66  113   59  47
1971 KC  MLB  .288  152  546  113  157  28  14  13   63  137   87  52
1972 KC  MLB  .262  137  507   71  133  27   7  14   47   87   75  40

At the age of 23, Corona is practically the grizzled veteran of this outfield with 3 years of experience. His numbers slipped across the board thanks in large part to a horrible slump he got into in July - .155, 2 HR, 5 RBI - and that led to other Royals taking his place on the All-Star Team (Corona had been selected in both '70 and '71), but he was otherwise the same old Dave Corona and a late-season move to the leadoff slot heralded a possible new chapter in his development.

Corona somehow doesn't run as often as Danza but he is far, far more effective when he does: he stole 40 in 52 tries, which was second only to Alvin Romero in the entire AL (and all of baseball for that matter). He walks a ton - 87 walks, 3rd in the league - and gets on base at a great clip as a result, even when he's only hitting .262 for an entire season (.371 OBP, 4th in the AL). Although he sees a lot of pitches, like practically everyone else on this team Corona can still fall prey to a good breaking pitch with 2 strikes so that's an issue. He seems to have settled into a 15-20 HR type power role, which makes it easier to push him to the top of the order.

The blot on Corona's resume, if you can call it that, is that when you look at his speed you immediately think "center field" and that is simply not who he is. Corona has a habit of letting the ball play him and in center he'll let too many balls drop for extra-base hits in spacious Royals Stadium. On the other hand, he has an absolute gun for an arm and only hasn't played in right field because of a lack of experience. He'll spend spring training learning the new position.

Corona's star was outshined by Danza's this year but don't be fooled: both of these guys are stars.

Allen Scurry
OF No. 20
RR, 6'1" 199 lbs.
Born 1945-11-30 in Hanson, MA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ELM AA   .298  100  362   68  108  14   3  12   61   63   48   7
1970 OMA AAA  .281   38  128   14   36   4   1   2   11   17   29   6
1971 KC  MLB  .242  131  425   54  103  12   6  13   57   66   68   7
1972 KC  MLB  .222   76  176   20   39   8   0   4   21   26   26   4

Still only 26 years old, Scurry was a B-level prospect who got playing time in 1971 but was mostly passed over last year in favor of the A-level guys. Scurry's a guy you can fit into a lot of places fairly well. He was hurt by a lack of regular playing time and even when he did play more, his contact is below average, but he's got decent power and very good speed, although he hasn't been able to translate the latter into something he can exploit in actual games. Defensively he can play center, if not full-time for a contender, and he'd be a Gold Glove candidate if you decided to give him the RF job.

Scurry also is a bit on the arrogant side for a 4th/5th outfielder and alienates his teammates with that attitude. It hasn't reached the point to where he's demanding at-bats over the likes of Corona and Danza... yet, but if it ever gets to the point, it's Scurry who's going to get kicked out, not the actual stars.

Charles III
CF No. 9
RR, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1947-11-13 in London, ENG

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TR  R    .267    5   15    5    4   1   0   2    4    2    5   1
1970 WAT S A  .281   33  121   37   34   4   4  10   43   25   24   2
1970 WPB A    .214   59  210   30   45   7   8   2   15   19   54  14
1970 JAX AA   .148    9   27    1    4   0   0   0    0    3    9   0
1971 REN A    .257   39  144   15   37   5   4   3   22   15   32   6
1971 JAX AA   .218   98  353   41   77  17   0   6   27   23   71  10
1972 OMA AAA  .241  106  398   56   96  14   3  16   45   38   81  11
1972 KC  MLB  .258   24   97   17   25   6   1   4    9   12   15   3

The aforementioned Scurry might see an uptick in his PT after all. It all depends on how well young Prince Charles works out. He's 24 but is still really learning the game and made huge strides in the past year in that regard. He's still having problems remembering how many strikes there are and so on but the fact that he can get his bat on the ball at all is something and he even has a fair bit of power when that happens: 20 HRs combined between Omaha and Kansas City last season.

He's a really, really good defensive centerfielder, good enough that KC will probably accept a minus bat in that role. He's got natural speed - rumors abound that Queen Elizabeth conducted research on the stubby-footed corgis so that her son might be able to outrun any of them (yes, that is my story and it makes COMPLETE SENSE shut up) - and he uses that to chase down balls well. He still hasn't figured out the finer points of stealing bases or advancing on hits. In an effort to be "just one of the guys", Charles has little of that kingly bearing in the dugout, for better or for worse.

If he can keep his average up to some extent, Charles could be in the league for another decade. Or whenever his mom dies and he has to take the throne, whichever comes first.

R.J. Domínguez
OF No. 17
RR, 6'0" 201 lbs.
Born 1944-12-10 in Manzanillo, CUB

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OMA AAA  .331   36  136   25   45  12   0   7   20   26   24   1
1970 KC  MLB  .241   88  294   47   71  21   0  13   40   79   66   0
1971 KC  MLB  .284  150  518   99  147  24   1  26   85  124   91   2
1972 KC  MLB  .251  113  394   49   99  20   2  19   77   62   72   3

Dominguez missed the last month plus of the season with elbow inflammation he started suffering from in late August. He wasn't quite having a season like he'd had the year before at the time, but honestly few players should ever be expected to repeat the kind of 1971 that this man had. He's got good enough power that pitchers are afraid to throw him a lot of good pitches and he's got good enough plate recognition that he can work a lot of bases on balls out as a result of that. His walk rate was way down but the upside of that is that he was well on pace to set a personal RBI record when he went out for the year.

Dominguez looks like he's going to be the team's DH next year. He lacks the speed of Danza and Corona, although truth be told he might be the former's equal in left since he is much, much better at playing the hitters - it doesn't help that he's got the kind of arm that batters don't want to test in right field, let alone left. He's quickly become a fan favorite with his heady play and Cuban sayings.

If Dominguez can get back to 500+ at-bats again, which ought to be easier now that he won't have to play in the field, make it a lock that he makes a personal RBI record. He could even hit the century mark.

[Syd Thrift]

Chicago White Sox
70-84, T-5th, AL West

1972 Outlook: The Sox won 91 games in 1969 but '71 saw a second straight bad season and the ownership decided to blow everything up instead of trying to compete for resources with the Cubs in the Windy City. Out the door went their top starter Aidan Williams, their first baseman (Pete Jennings), and shortstop (Justin Henderson). 1972 would give the Chisox a chance to take a long look at the younger guys.

1972 In Review: Chicago got off to the bad start as expected and were 15-23 by the end of May but they kind of weren't too terrible for a while. As of August 31 they were 60-63 and, due to a very mediocre division, only 5 1/2 games out of the lead. From there on they fell apart, finishing the year 10-21. It was if ever so briefly a taste of what they could accomplish.

1973 Outlook: The White Sox have the best power hitter not named Ernesto Garcia in either league in Alice Cooper and that goes a long, long way to cure anything else that might ail a team. They had a lot of problems hitting and getting on base outside of Cooper. The pitching finished 3rd from the bottom in ERA and that wasn't due to bad fielding either: no AL team struck out fewer batters than the White Sox' 764 and they surrendered the third most HRs (actually tied with the A's). In short, they weren't as good as their record and could have a real drop this season.

Pitching

Obke Olthof
RHP No. 3
RR, 6'4" 201 lbs.
Born 1945-04-01 in Amsterdam, NED

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 NYY MLB  21  11   0  3.27  36  36  10  261.1  256 104  95   61  182
1971 NYY MLB  12  13   0  3.85  37  37   8  252.1  273 119 108   63  169
1972 CHW MLB  13  12   0  3.74  31  31   8  235.2  215 100  98   61  152

The 27 year old Dutchman Olthof traveled to a new team last year but the results were pretty much the same as with the old one: good control, a few too many hits, and a middling performance. The White Sox traded away Pete Jennings, a first baseman still very much in his prime, for Olthof hoping that he'd get back to that 1970 form, helping him, perhaps, by not forcing him to pitch as often as he'd done with the Yankees. Olthof continued to post a high-ish ERA and a .500 record; this year, he also gave up a few too many HRs, 23 of them in all.

One positive note for Olthof is that with the team falling apart around him he managed to go 3-1, 1.52 in September and in fact brought home 40% of the team's wins from September 1 onward (he was 1-0 in 1 start in October). This lowered his ERA nearly 50 points from 3.74 and put him back in line to maybe be the team's Opening Day starter again.

Chris Messina
RHP No. 13
RR, 5'11" 191 lbs.
Born 1941-03-28 in Houston, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 BOS MLB   8   9   0  2.68  37  20   2  174.0  152  61  52   50   70
1971 CHW MLB  11  15   0  3.74  31  30   5  216.0  210 105  90   64   92
1972 CHW MLB  10  15   0  3.41  30  30   4  213.2  184  92  81   85   94

At 31, Messina is the elder statesman of this young pitching staff. He's a natural groundball guy whose pitches got up an awful lot last season - his GB rate was 48%, the lowest of his career - but somehow he managed to avoid homers and was effective enough to stay in the rotation all season long. This did mean that he finished in the bottom 10 in losses for the 2nd straight year but losing is nothing new to Messina, who now has a 10-15 record.

The worrying trend here was his control: As you'd expect, Messina's a guy who needs good control to survive in this league and last season he barely struck out more men than he walked and on top of that, threw 11 wild pitches (5th most in the AL). Ideally he keeps his fastball and forkball down; too often, "down" meant in the dirt last season.

Messina profiles as a guy who the White Sox will probably want to take out of the rotation eventually in favor of the kids. The kids are not all right, though, not just yet, and so the pitch-to-contact man may well get another 30 starts in 1973.

Mick Fleetwood
RHP No. 23
RR, 6'5" 204 lbs.
Born 1947-11-13 in Redruth, ENG

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TUC AAA   6  12   0  5.06  21  21   8  145.2  151  84  82   80   97
1971 TUC AAA  11  12   0  3.17  32  32   8  246.2  188  93  87  142  166
1971 CHW MLB   1   0   0  5.99   2   2   0   12.0   13   8   8    6    5
1972 TUC AAA   0   1   0  4.50   1   1   1    8.0    7   4   4    4    4
1972 CHW MLB   7  16   0  4.02  28  26   4  181.0  165  88  81   82  110

Fleetwood has a band in the offseason, although it's not anywhere near as good as some of the other acts we've covered so far. In fact, Fleetwood's career looks a little like his band's career at the moment: just as they need a guitarist and a lead vocalist or two, so, too, does Fleetwood need a little more: another pitch, perhaps, or at least better control of the ones he does have. As it stood, he spent most of 1972 in the major leagues but finished with an ERA of over 4 in a season when a 4+ ERA is bad. And in fact, he got to there by wrapping up the year with a 6.20 ERA in his final 4 starts: 24.2 innings, 21 hits, 17 earned runs, 21 walks, 8 strikeouts. That is not the kind of finish you want out of your young starters.

Fleetwood throws a good slider and might eventually get Ks with his stuff. He hasn't figured that out yet. He's also got decent stamina although he hasn't gone far into games because the White Sox haven't shown a lot of trust in him yet (plus of course the existence of Malcolm Post). He has a penchant for bringing various musical instruments into the locker room and playing them when others are trying to focus, which has made him some enemies within the clubhouse.

Fleetwood might ultimately not stick around with the White Sox: he's really looking to play ball to supplement his musical career and so may prefer to take a bag of money. As the Sox are notoriously skinflint, this is a bad combo. For the time being, though, Fleetwood needs to prove that the final month of the year was just a fluke and not a sign of things to come.

Tim Anderlik
RHP No. 6
SR, 5'9" 188 lbs.
Born 1944-04-29 in West Bloomfield Township, MI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TUC AAA   4   1   0  3.55   5   5   4   43.0   43  18  17   15   20
1970 CHW MLB  15   9   0  3.02  30  30   7  220.0  196  92  74   89  137
1971 CHW MLB   9  15   0  4.94  30  30   4  200.1  253 112 110   62  115
1972 CHW MLB   6  12   0  3.99  34  24   4  173.1  170  83  77   71   91

Anderlik had his 2nd straight losing campaign after a solid-looking rookie season in 1970 and by season's end he had been pulled from the rotation in favor of newer and younger blood. His stint in the bullpen, however, was a complete disaster - a 4.82 ERA in 10 games, including 3 HRs allowed in 9.1 IP - and so it looks like if he wants to stick with this club it might need to be in the bullpen. On the other hand, he's looking at about the 6th starter in a projected 5 man rotation.

"Swingman" might well be the best role for Anderlik. He's reportedly unhappy but that seems to have less to do with the role and more to do with being annoyed by guys like Fleetwood. In spite of a couple of solid front-line pitches, Anderlike is not a strikeout artist, at least not as a starter. He's showed some promise in that regard in his early career in the minors but it just doesn't look like that's panned out.

A change of scenery might be the best option for Anderlik's future career. It's hard to see how many takers there are going to be for a guy with straight stuff who's looked an awful lot like a replacement-level pitcher the past two seasons.

Malcolm Post
RHP No. 1
RR, 6'1" 182 lbs.
Born 1946-03-21 in Veenendaal, NED

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CHW MLB   7   8  16  2.39  59   0   0   82.2   70  27  22   32   76
1971 CHW MLB   7   4  24  2.22  60   0   0   97.0   82  24  24   38   73
1972 CHW MLB  10   5  18  2.13  62   0   0   92.2   81  26  22   28   72

It's fun and all that Post and Olthof are both from the Netherlands (and in fact form 50% of all Dutch players who played in the big leagues last year, the other 2 being reliever Job Cohen of the A's and shortstop prospect Bert Blylevel of the Red Sox) but the White Sox aren't really in a place to benefit from a top of the line stopper like Post is. Some fans would even tell you that by winning close games, he keeps them out of the high draft picks that truly bad teams can accumulate. We think this is going too far but it's certainly true that the White Sox can find someone who can help them in exchange for the 26 year old Post.

Post throws gas and on top of that his fastball, which is somewhere between a 4-seamer and a 2-seamer in the grip, sinks heavily. He's also got a grade A slider and really, the only thing keeping him from starting is the lack of a 3rd decent pitch: he has a change he'll occasionally trot out but it's still a work in progress. Post had only 18 saves mostly because the Sox didn't put him into great situations: he did blow 8 save chances but this is the kind of thing that happens when you're called in to preserve a 1 run lead with 0 out and a runner already in scoring position (August 19, a game in which the Sox did go on to win 7-6).

There's a thought in here that maybe Chicago should absolutely use up Post over the next couple of years in search of a cheap AL West title. I don't think Chicago is close enough for that.

Steven Chu
RHP No. 18
RR, 5'12" 182 lbs.
Born 1948-02-25 in St. Louis, MO

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TUC AAA   3   8   0  5.46  14  13   5   87.1  108  58  53   28   47
1971 TUC AAA  13  10   0  2.70  30  30  10  229.2  201 101  69  110   97
1972 TUC AAA   7   1   0  0.92  11  11   7   88.0   56   9   9   13   42
1972 CHW MLB   9  11   0  3.49  24  24   6  167.1  147  67  65   62   78

Chu is what Bostonians would call "wicked smaht". What would they call a guy like this in Chicago? "Unlikely to put the ketchup on a hot dog"? "A man who knows how to spruce up a frunchroom"? I don't know. Whatever he is, Chu is currently pursuing a graduate degree at Cal-Berkeley and is paying his way through school via baseball. He has a 4-pitch arsenal that, like other guys on this team, ought to deliver grounders but kind of didn't this year. If that'll iron itself out and he can keep the ball down, he might be able to live on only-OK stuff.

Chu also may not be a long-term solution given his desire to get that bag to pay those huge tuition rates - California is I think still free at this time to residents but Chu, who was born to Chinese immigrants in Missouri, is not a resident of the state. He started strong but tailed off a bit, although not nearly as badly as Mick Fleetwood did. Let's see if he can turn that around as well.

Jerry Blackwell
RHP No. 28
SR, 5'9" 472 lbs.
Born 1949-04-24 in Stone Mountain, GA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 DEC A     4   1   0  4.32   7   7   4   52.0   72  35  25   16   19
1970 AMA AA    4  10   0  4.66  19  18   5  119.2  150  73  62   45   38
1971 DEC A     2   1   0  2.36   5   5   2   38.0   33  12  10    6   16
1971 AMA AA   11  11   0  2.62  24  24  13  202.0  190  66  59   46   93
1972 CHW MLB   6   9   0  3.20  31  16   5  143.0  120  58  51   40   51

Blackwell, aka the Crusher, aka the Mountain of Stone Mountain, is a large, large man. A pro wrestler, Blackwell is listed in those books at 470 pounds which strikes me as an impossible amount of weight to put on a 5'9" frame. Nevertheless, man's big. He started the year in the rotation, pitched his way out of it in May with a 2-3, 5.19 record, and then did a good enough job in long relief that he got 8 more starts at the end of the season, where he was much better. His fastball is average at best and Blackwell needs to spot it to be effective, and when he does miss he's as likely to miss over the plate as outside of it.

Blackwell is also only 23 years of age and so could very much still be a full-on member of this rotation. On the other hand, he stayed in the majors all year because he was a Rule V pick last year: a trip to the minors to study a new pitch might be the best move here.

Infield

Chris Flores
C No. 20
RR, 5'10" 201 lbs.
Born 1940-03-30 in San Marcos, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 KC  MLB  .227   97  300   23  68  12   0   0    14   22   53   2
1971 CHR AAA  .242   72  236   21  57   9   0   0    23   36   19   0
1971 PIT MLB  .185   27   81    4  15   2   0   0     5    5   16   0
1972 MIL MLB  .202   45   94    7  19   5   0   1    13   13   12   0
1972 CHW MLB  .233   42  133    9  31   5   0   0     4   15   15   0

Flores is one of those vaguely replacment-level catchers who just float around from team to team for a decade or more. They rarely start - although Flores landed on the expansion Royals, not to mention a couple of bad Cincinnati teams he got 200+ ABs for in the late 60s - but are just kind of... there. Flores managed to start a total of 66 games between Milwaukee and Chicago last season, 7 off from his career high. Chicago snagged him off waivers from California, who tried to stash him in their minor league system after acquiring him from the Brewers on July 28. The team was horrific around him but Flores was... fine.

Like other guys in this role, Flores is a good defender who can block pitches in the dirt and play the bunt well. He's a little hot-headed and got visibly frustrated at all the slackers on this team last year at times. He wound up playing the most innings out of any catcher for the White Sox last season, thanks to their jettisoning of Mike Perez. That seems unlikely to repeat itself in 1973, although if for some reason it did, there are worse guys to handle a pitching staff.

René Arnoux
RHP No. 19
RR, 5'10" 200 lbs.
Born 1948-07-03 in Pontcharra, FRA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 ASH AA   .299   62  211   22   63  14   0   3   24   16   31   0
1971 TUC AAA  .273    3   11    1    3   2   0   0    1    0    4   0
1972 KNO AA   .286   27   91   12   26   1   0   2   11   15    8   0
1972 TUC AAA  .192   58  193   11   37   8   0   2   21   16   29   0
1972 CHW MLB  .224   28   85    8   19   2   0   0    5    6   15   0

The Frenchman Arnoux is a man who likes things that are fast: fast cars, fast women, fastballs, you name it. He had to be trained off of flashing the "1" when giving signs. You get the idea. He's young but lacks the kind of skills you really want out of a person who occupies any position in a lineup - poor contact, too many Ks, no power, not a lot of plate discipline. His saving grace and the thing that might keep him in the league as opposed to racing F1 cars (well, he could do that too) is that he has a nice arm, which he used to throw out 47% of steal attempters in AAA Tucson last year.

Arnoux looks like a lifetime backup. Given the state of the union in Chicago, he's got a really strong chance to start - it'll likely come down to him or fellow prospect (well, "prospect" but catchers sometimes grow up later) Claudio Padilla (.278/1/7 in 54 ML at-bats).

Alice Cooper
1B/LF No. 38
LL, 6'2" 192 lbs.
Born 1948-05-01 in Detroit, MI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TAM A    .262   33  126   16   33   9   2   2    6   18   29   5
1970 ASH AA   .235   86  307   34   72  19   1   8   31   41   74  10
1971 TUC AAA  .293   81  270   59   79  16   5  14   58   65   55   7
1971 CHW MLB  .275   64  211   42   58  10   2  20   47   41   52   1
1972 CHW MLB  .261  140  495   84  129  14   2  44   96   92  115   6

Cooper is the real deal. Nobody in the league outside of Cleveland has his kind of power and at 24 he's already figured out that this means that pitchers won't give him a lot of good things to hit. He will swing at the high hard stuff but will lay off of off-speed pitches that don't graze a corner of the plate, which is a lot more than a lot of young sluggers can do. The big equalizer, though, is that Cooper can hit one out any time, anywhere. He missed the last 3 weeks of the year with back tightness; otherwise he'd have easily eclipsed 100 RBIs, which is saying a lot in this offensive context.

Cooper is never going to be a guy known for his defense, not with those bombs, but truth be told he's not too bad at either position he played in '72. He's tall enough to reach for wayward throws and although he doesn't move particularly well to his right, he isn't a statue out there either like so many old, slow guys who are tasked with playing the position. In left field, the only thing really keeping him from being out there regularly is an arm that's fair at best. He has good natural speed that has translated into double-digit steals in minors in past years and in the 39 games he played in the outfield this year that showed through.

Cooper will play every day and hit cleanup. Whether that's at first or left is to be determined and ultimately depends on who the White Sox decide to stash at DH on any given day.

Jeff Nation
1B/3B No. 5
RR, 6'3" 205 lbs.
Born 1945-08-15 in Texarkana, AR

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 KC  MLB  .292  146  571   72  167  31  10  21   84   43   76   7
1971 CHW MLB  .241  139  518   55  125  15   5  12   48   33   84   4
1972 CHW MLB  .264  113  326   42   86  12   3  17   52   22   49   1

Following an off-year in 1971, his first with Chicago, Nation found himself without a regular position at the beginning of the year. In fact, through the end of May he had a grant total of 21 games played and 8 starts. He still did pretty well, largely as a the right-handed half of platoons at first and third, and then got his only real opportunity to play every day in September when Cooper went down. Nation struggled that month - .221/1/5 - but the overall body of work indicates that he should be in line for more appearances next season.

Nation could stand to learn a little bit of plate discipline from Cooper. He's only above average when it comes to contact; strikeouts have been an issue for him in the past, although they weren't so bad last year. The 21 HRs he hit with KC in 1970 might be a high water mark. He's probably not the ideal guy for third: he makes all the plays and has a solid arm, but he doesn't move to his left super well and his bulky frame makes it hard for him to dive for hard smashes. He's much better at first but, like most teams, the White Sox have a bit of a logjam there.

Chance Hopka
2B/SS No. 21
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-10-29 in Los Angeles, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CAL MLB  .238   89  344   54   82  16   6   1   27   31   88   7
1971 CHW MLB  .253   25   91    7   23   3   1   0    6   10   21   3
1971 CAL MLB  .232   35   99    5   23   5   0   1   10    5   19   1
1972 CHW MLB  .217  114  383   42   83   9   6   2   28   28   75   3

The White Sox are Hopka's 3rd team in 4 years now. Going into the year some people were asking why this guy isn't a starter somewhere. Chicago plugged him in at second and... now we know why. Hopka has always struggled to hit but it seems that at the age of 29 he's also lost the tiny amount of gap power he expressed in St. Louis and for the one season in Cal. What's left is a guy who still tries to pull too many pitches and who as a result strikes out way too much for a hitter of his caliber.

He's a guy who will work extra-hard on his fielding and as a result, even with just 92 games and 89 starts, it's not out of the question that Hopka will win the Gold Glove award at the position this year. He was worth +12.4 ZR there. He also played a bunch of shortstop and could very well open the season there if Chris Morgan doesn't show signs of bouncing back or the prospects - particularly political pundit PJ O'Rourke (.231, 1, 3 in 52 September at-bats) don't look like they're ready to go by the end of spring training. He's quick enough on the bases that the White Sox got fooled into using him the majority of the time at the 2 slot in the order. Frankly, his bat is a drain there and he's a poor hit and run choice to boot.

Yukio Hatoyama
2B/IF No. 8
LR, 6'3" 190 lbs.
Born 1948-02-04 in Tokyo, JPN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BUR A    .400   13   50    6   20   4   0   0   10    3    9   0
1970 BIR AA   .262   81  324   41   85  10   5   0   22   29   51   4
1971 BIR AA   .263   42  156   17   41   5   0   2   13    8    9   3
1972 IOW AAA  .347   44  170   31   59  11   2   2   25   17   24   7
1972 SD  MLB  .200   10   15    0    3   0   0   0    1    0    1   0
1972 CHW MLB  .272   60  191   16   52   6   2   1   23   25   28   4

Hatoyama is a bit of a card who uses his (ostensibly) poor command of the English language to say things like "I want to join the circus" or "one day I will be Prime Minister" to reporters in postgame interviews. The players love him for this; we... will keep our mouths shut until we know who he is in the league. At this point he's a 24 year old prospect who seems like he's going to be the opposite of Hopka in every way: good contact, a willingness to go with outside pitches, a decent enough eye for a guy with middle-infield power... and not the best range.

He should still be able to hit his way into playing second base. The big question is going to be how the power develops with regular playing time. If he can even get to the 5-8 HR range, he could be a regular in this league for some time to come.

Brian Maccioli
3B No. 49
RR, 6'0" 201 lbs.
Born 1945-08-23 in Raleigh, NC

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LAD MLB  .236  124  474   43  112  20   0  12   51   54   72   0
1971 LAD MLB  .283  151  584   68  165  30   1  16   61   47   74   0
1972 CHW MLB  .252  139  512   57  129  21   3  15   63   57   84   0

Maccioli came back from the Dodgers in exchange for SS Justin Henderson and their #1 starting pitcher in 1971, Aidan Williams. He was just one of a bunch of guys in LA and Chicago plugged him into the #3 slot, hoping he'd continue to hit for a high average with decent power. The decent power remained... well, fine, it's 1972, the league average was .236, and I guess the contact was "decent", if not the quality that makes you want to hit a guy 3rd. He's 27 and in the prime of his career but that also means that what you see is what you get out of this guy.

Maccioli has a gun for an arm and seems like he's overcome past issues with its accuracy (although again, it's hard to tell with the way the league worked). He made his first All-Star Game because he's a complete player. Pretty much the only thing he doesn't do is run, although he's a big guy who will roll into the pivot to break up the double play when it suits him to do so.

Maccioli is surely the 3rd baseman for 73 and probably the next 5 years. Beyond that, who knows? Maybe I'll decide to go fishing.

Chris Morgan
SS/IF No. 22
SR, 5'11" 184 lbs.
Born 1947-11-12 in Camden, NJ

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 GAR R    .381   16   63   12   24   5   0   5   14    2   11   1
1970 D-S S A  .227   24   88    7   20   3   0   0    9    5   16   0
1970 APP A    .246   68  240   25   59   6   2   0   16   23   42   7
1970 MOB AA   .250    9   32    6    8   1   1   0    3    1    5   1
1971 ASH AA   .260   79  235   23   61   9   2   6   26   15   31   2
1971 TUC AAA  .283   35   99   10   28   8   1   0    9   10    9   1
1971 CHW MLB  .209   24   67    7   14   2   0   1    9   11    7   1
1972 CHW MLB  .206  112  339   19   70   8   0   0   20   14   47   2

Probablh the worst thing about Morgan's season is, nobody in their right minds could have expected any better. Handed the starting job out of spring training, where he hit an entirely adequate-looking .269 with 4 RBIs, Morgan showed none of the above average contact he'd displayed in the minors but all of the power and pitch recognition, which is to say none. He's scouted as a very good shortstop who has no particular weaknesses in the field, which is why he got the nod, after all. Even his defense only graded out at merely above average (+1.5 ZR) which is not at all what you want with a guy with his kind of production.

Morgan has the tools to be a utility guy in this league and may yet start in 1973 is the aforementioned O'Rourke or Timorese bishop-in-training Carlos Filipe Ximines Belo (.170, 0, 6 in his own trial) aren't good to go, so perhaps it's best that I don't knock him down too much, lest you think the Sox are making a mistake by putting him out there for another season.

Jim Fiederlein
SS No. 46
RR, 6'1" 203 lbs.
Born 1943-08-19 in Raytown, MO

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MOB AA   .215   20   65    7   14   2   0   1    6    3   17   0
1970 TUC AAA  .189   57  180   11   34   3   2   0   16   12   33   0
1970 CHW MLB  .139   22   72    3   10   0   0   0    3    2   19   0
1971 CHW MLB  .191   83  183    8   35   6   1   1   18    6   46   0
1972 CHW MLB  .214   42   98    8   21   1   0   0    7    9   19   0

It's not that Fiederlein isn't smart, it's just... no, it's exactly that he isn't smart. The 29 year old organizational soldier for Chicago has the tools to be a utility guy but just hasn't ever figured out how to do the job anywhere but his native shortstop. This is going to be an issue for him staying in the league because quite frankly he does not hit like a starter and he doesn't have any of that John Timonen style range that makes you overlook a lack of hitting either.

With all the youth at this position, Fiederlein could be anything from a play-him-every-few-games backup to the 25th man on the roster to a spring training cutdown.

Outfield

John Marsden
LF No. 16
LL, 5'11" 201 lbs.
Born 1943-04-14 in St. George, UT

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OAK MLB  .344   53  215   30   74   8   0   7   18   26   21   0
1970 MIL MLB  .279   70  265   31   74  16   1   3   29   32   30   0
1971 SYR AAA  .000    6   10    1    0   0   0   0    0    1    0   0
1971 MIL MLB  .198   47  177   14   35   4   1   4   17   16   24   2
1971 NYY MLB  .196   30   92    9   18   5   1   1   13    6   13   0
1972 CHW MLB  .210   99  276   28   58   9   1  10   39   28   42   0

Marsden's been riding the .344 average he carried for half a season with the A's in 1970 for 2 1/2 years now and it's probably time that teams realize that he's not that guy. He's also not the .190s hitter he was in '71 but now that we look at it, maybe he's not a whole lot better. The HRs were nice and scouts do think that that sticks, but even in a normal environment he's a guy who might get you, say, 15 HRs with an average in the .240s, and that's as a part of a platoon - Marsden only had 13 at-bats all season vs. lefties as Chicago largely spared him those at-bats.

He's nothing special defensively or as a baserunner. He's fine in the locker room, though not any kind of a leader, and responds poorly to change. As such, it's probably best to make a decision on him early - keep him in left, playing only against RHPs, place him on waivers (he's out of options, as you'd expect a 29 year old to be), use him as a power-hitting PH (not saying that's a good option, just that it is one) - and then stick with it.

Ian Everett
CF No. 17
LL, 6'0" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-09-13 in Cleveland, OH

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 WAS MLB  .271  104  380   44  103  12   3   7   46   32   85  12
1971 CHW MLB  .264   90  333   27   88   8   3   2   18   18   74   8
1972 CHW MLB  .209  106  326   22   68   5   2   2   26   30   64  11

Everett, a starter in the league since 1964, mostly for the 2nd-run Senators, opened the season as the White Sox' starter in 1972 before a .169 May led them to try other options. Those options did not pan out and by September Everett was back in the starting role again. Because it was this kind of September for Chicago, he hit .208 that month, too, and center is now a big gigantic question mark for the team.

Reeder is still youngish at 30 and in the prime of his career but you can't help but think his best seasons are behind him. He hit 10 HRs in 1965; that seems like an outlandishly high total for him now, although in thr back of his mind he's still got that power and as such he goes through stretches where he tries to pull everything. That long swing also generates a lot of strikeouts, which completely negates his speed in terms of generating hits. The last time he got more than 400 at-bats - 1967 with Washington - he struck out 142 times. You could argue that his contact has improved since then but you can improve a lot on terrible and still be really bad.

He can still pick it in centerfield, although not at the level that won him the Gold Glove in 1965, so he's still got a place in this league. That said, if I were the Sox I might just promote one of the youngsters, ready for the majors or not, and live with the results.

Mohamed Abdelaziz
OF No. 24
LL, 6'1" 201 lbs.
Born 1947-08-18 in Marrakech, MAR

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SJ  A    .264   81  318   62   84  12   4  13   38   31   66   52
1971 TUC AAA  .311   17   61   10   19   4   2   1    7    7    9    9
1972 TUC AAA  .240   93  333   35   80  11   2   7   29   33   43   23
1972 CHW MLB  .249   62  241   22   60   9   4   3   16   21   39    9

The 5th overall pick in the 1970 draft, the Sox acquired Abdelaziz from the Royals in March of last year for C Nick McIntyre. As things stand now, even though McIntyre hasn't worked out too well for KC, you can understand how they felt he was expendable given all of their young outfielders. I bring this up because there's a really good chance that that trade's going to look all kinds of awful in 5 years. Abdelaziz has got speed that can land him in the top 5 in the league in steals. He's got some holes in his swing but is working to iron those out. As a future leadoff guy he seems more of a guy who's going to slap at the ball than give you towering shots that land on the warning track, which is a plus.

As a fielder he has a fair arm that's still a little scattershot. As tempting as it must have been, the White Sox didn't completely replace Everett with him because of that and his only average range. He also was held out pretty much completely against LHPs after joining the ballclub in mid July.

This is a guy who needs to start somewhere in 1973. Where? That's the $64,000 question.

Dave Concepcion
CF No. 11
RR, 6'0" 194 lbs.
Born 1948-06-09 in Ocumare del Tuy, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 APP A    .600    3   10    2    6   2   0   0    3    2    2   1
1971 ASH AA   .257   68  265   32   68  10   4   3   27   25   47  18
1971 TUC AAA  .100    3   10    1    1   0   0   1    5    2    1   0
1972 TUC AAA  .236   33  123   12   29   1   0   3   12    7   19   8
1972 CHW MLB  .200   56  155   19   31   6   0   0    7   19   31   8

When I rename a player to someone who actually played in the majors I try to make them into something completely different from what they were IRL. The real-life Concepcion was a defense-first shortstop. The in-game Concepcion is... a defense-first centerfielder. Sue me. In game, he was also clearly rushed too hard: the Sox' second round pick in 1971, he jumped 3 levels in a year and a half to hit the Timonen Line for 56 games. He's got great speed and good instincts on defense but he really, really needs to learn the game better on offense, probably in the minor leagues for at least another year.

Josh Wade
LF/RF No. 76
RR, 5'11" 202 lbs.
Born 1943-11-08 in Tucson, AZ

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHW MLB  .296  150  597   71  177  31   9   8   64   21   75   4
1971 CHW MLB  .279  115  427   44  119  22   3   2   32   10   66   5
1972 CHW MLB  .276   99  344   41   95  14   6   4   40   17   48   4

Wade has his fair share of detractors, who look at his sweet swing and think he could be a multi-time batting champion and hits leader if he just applied himself a little bit more. This criticism has chased him from Boston, where he came up, and now Chicago after he came here in exchange for fan favorite Jun Kim. Those people might be right but they're also overlooking who he actually is: a good, if streaky, hitter who can hit close to .300 for you when you give him regular PT. Wade didn't get that playing time until August and he hit .324 over the final two months of the season.

He swings at everything he sees and is a slap hitter, not a power guy, so he really does need to hit for average in order to benefit his team. He still is a sucker for the high fastball; a guy with his power ought to lay off of it but he'll hit balls to the warning track all day if pitchers throw him that pitch. As a baserunner, he's never been able to express the speed he showed in the low minors in the major leagues and at 28 it's probably safe to say that in MLB terms he's not one of those guys. He still gets down the line to first quickly though and will take a base if an outfielder is napping.

You can blame the overall turmoil for Wade not starting last season. He's clearly the best hitter in the outfield, at least if the team doesn't decide to place Cooper in left, and at the absolute worst ought to be put in there every day so that the team can get trade value for him.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
RF No. 14
LL, 6'0" 186 lbs.
Born 1947-06-13 in Thalgau, AUT

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 WH  A    .344   16   61   14   21   1   0   0    7   15    8  17
1970 GRN A    .284   23   88   17   25   4   2   2   11   11    8  11
1970 LOU AAA  .222   41  167   29   37   7   1   1   17   12   43  33
1971 TUC AAA  .240  135  462   79  111  18   8   6   39   81   70  42
1971 CHW MLB  .321   28  112   21   36   5   2   0    6   19   17  10
1972 TUC AAA  .213   26   89   11   19   3   1   1    3   19   12   7
1972 CHW MLB  .186   85  295   35   55   8   2   0   14   44   55  24

You would think that a man with Schwarzenegger's physique - the man looks like he could be on the cover of a bodybuilding magazine, or perhaps, with just a little bit better command of the English language, become an action movie star - would be a power hitter but nope, Ahnold is a slap hitter. Speaking of, the conventional wisdom as of the early 70s is that for baseball players, working out too hard makes you "musclebound" and slow. Ahnold is not slow: even though he only started 78 games last season and hit poorly when he did, he finished 7th in the AL in steals.

He would have struck out more than 100 times if he'd played a full 162 game season and he needs to cut down on that. He can coax out a walk, using his muscly wrists to check swings so hard that sometimes he breaks bats doing so, but in 1972 that only made him slightly below average at getting on base (a .292 OBP). He's just going to need to figure out opposing pitchers and learn to use that speed to get to first base if he wants to be a regular in the major leagues. If he sticks at right field, which, you generally want a guy who can hit for power there, he'd be one of the best RFs in the league. CF seems a more interesting future role for him.

Like Concepcion the best bet for him might be regular time in the minor leagues to work things out the rest of the way. Schwarzenegger is a full year older than Concepcion, however, and the Sox might consider that even at 25 the Austrian is what he is.

[Syd Thrift]

Minnesota Twins
76-78, 4th AL West, 2 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: Fresh off of two straight playoff appearances, the defending World Champion Twins slipped to .500 in 1971 and finished 10 games behind the A's. The team was getting old and the pitching in particular wasn't what it used to be. So... try again and try harder, right, guys?

1972 In Review: The Twins chose to retool rather than rebuild and basically treaded water in 1972. For a while they looked like they might have done better but this was a very, very up-and-down team. They were on top of the division and looking pretty solid through May - even by the end of the month they were 23-12 with the 2nd best record in all of baseball. Then they let the Angels pass them in June by going 14-15, fell apart in July with a 9-19, and then managed to climp out of 3rd place and 46-46 with an August that left them... well, fine, still in 3rd but now with a 63-58 record, 1 1/2 games back, and the only team in that trio who'd actually outscored their opponents. As you'll remember, they then lost 10 of 11 from September 5 to the 13th, a stretch that included a sweep at the hands of Texas and a 3-1 series loss to the A's (the other series in there was a sweep from the Royals). This dropped them to 67-70 and effectively knocked them out of the race, as cheap as the eventual win would have been.

1973 Outlook: The only thing, really, keeping the Twins from blowing it all up is a dogged insistence that the club is still basically the same team that won the Series in 1970. Well, that and the fact that the division is awful. That's two things. The Twins did outscore their opponents, unlike the A's and Angels: three. It's still a lot to do: bucking the tide and improving while hoping that the 3 teams who finished ahead of you all take a step back. It wouldn't be the craziest thing in the world for Minnesota to jump back in the driver's seat in this highly mediocre division but I would not exactly expect it at this point either.

Pitching

Chris Benavides
RHP No. 7
RR, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-07-23 in Akron, NY

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 MIN MLB  18  14   0  2.61  41  41  15  313.2  272 108  91   96  222
1971 MIN MLB  19  17   0  3.25  41  41   8  295.2  309 119 107   87  178
1972 MIN MLB  14  19   0  3.02  41  40  10  294.2  274 111  99  105  185

Benavides won 20 games in 1969 and ever since then he's been the Twins' workhorse starter. He's probably put up better numbers if he wasn't asked/required to pitch 8 innings every 4 day but that's what the Twins have required of him and he'll do it without argument. In fact, he quietly led the AL in losses and only didn't get to 20 because Minnesota, by then out of the race entirely, held him out of the rotation for the final week of the season.

Benavides throws absolute gas. His K rate might be artificially low because of how often he's forced to pitch later in games without his usual great stuff but believe me when I say that his fastball can hit the mid-90s and is considered to be one of the hardest pitches to hit in the league when he's on. In spite of the riser being his out pitch, he gets a lot of grounders off of an elite level slider and a curve that drops as much as it sweeps. His 13 HRs allowed last year matched his career high, which should give you an idea.

Benavides, like a lot of power pitchers, has a pretty extreme windup that leaves him out of position to field grounders back up the middle and bunts. He's also had a better pickoff move in the past but all the usage has led him to concentrate more on the hitters to the detriment of stopping the running game. Runners attempted 29 steals on him in 1972 and were successful 24 of those times. As recently as 1970 those numbers looked like 28 attempts and 12 caught in 19 more innings.

Going forward, Benavides is probably the #2 starter on this team, which, ironically, if this allows him to put in fewer innings, could cause him to pitch like a #1 again.

Mike Larsen
RHP No. 24
RR, 5'11" 187 lbs.
Born 1940-03-03 in Highland, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 MIN MLB  11  10   0  3.04  28  28   8  201.0  189  75  68   73  108
1971 MIN MLB  14  12   0  4.01  34  34   8  239.2  283 116 107   69   96
1972 MIN MLB  17   8   0  2.85  35  34   9  262.0  243  89  83   71   91

With Benavides getting ground down to averageness, it was Mike Larsen, a member of this team's rotation for an even decade now, who emerged as the team's #1 starter. Larsen is prett much the complete opposite of Benavides as a pitcher: he has a below average fastball but throws a wide variety of junk that manages to induce a lot of groundballs if not strikeouts. He led the AL in lowest HR rate in 1971 (0.3/9) and finished 3rd in that metric last season, a far cry from when he first entered the league and finished 4th in HRs allowed with 23. He hasn't even given up double-digit taters since 1966. He doesn't miss over the plate and he doesn't miss much outside of it either. He's a nibbler but he's a very good nibbler.

Larsen helps himself out with good defense in the field. He makes the plays he's given and knows who to throw to. He'll be one guy who'll be very happy with the new DH rule, as he hit just .107 last season.

Larsen finished the year 7-1 in 12 starts. Entering his 11th year in the league it seems unlikely that Minnesota will call on him to give them 300 innings the way they've asked Benavides to do recently but I guess you never know, especially if times start getting desperate.

Angelo Ramos
RHP No. 44
SR, 6'0" 198 lbs.
Born 1935-06-22 in Estelí, NCA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 MIN MLB  20   2   0  2.41  29  29  12  224.0  210  66  60   40  152
1971 MIN MLB  13  19   0  3.95  41  41  11  302.1  331 138 133   69  199
1972 MIN MLB  11  12   0  4.01  30  30   5  208.2  213 103  93   53  106

The 9-time All-Star and 4-time 20-game winner Ramos was overworked in 1971 the way Benavides was last year and simply did not rebound with a lighter schedule. At the age of 37 he might have permanently lost a few miles out of his arm. He still gets into the low 90s with the heater but hitters have increasingly been able to get around on it and to make matters worse his once pinpoint control has now degraded just enough to where it's now merely above average, and he misses over the heart of the plate more and more. His 19 HRs allowed were the most he's given up since allowing 23 in 1959.

Ramos might be getting towards the end of his career. He currently carries a lifetime record of 229-145 and would need a major return to his dominant ways of the late 50s and early 60s to have a chance at 300. That being said, no pitcher has come close to 300 Ws. The lifetime leader is Andy Harmon, who pitched from 1946 to 1962 with the Giants and wound up with a 247-137 lifetime record. One more 20 win season gets Ramos, who as it stands is currently 5th all time in victories, atop that list (incidentally the #1 active guy in wins is Octavio "Papa" Vargas with 234, who was cut loose by the Mets at the end of September after a 2-4, 3.90 campaign as a long reliever and spot starter and is a longshot to return in 1973).

For 1973 he's got enough stuff to be a middle guy in the rotation. He's 2 wins away from being the only player in MLB history to win 100 games with 2 teams (Ramos was 131-88 with the Rodgers before they traded him to Minnesota in 1966). I looked this up and only one other guy came at all close: Jose Lugo, now in the Hall of Fame, who won 230 games overall, 135 with Cleveland and a mere 93 with the Red Sox in career that ran from 1946 to 1961 (he was 23 in the first year so probably didn't lose that much to history).

Rich Whetzel
RHP No. 42
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1945-01-31 in Lakewood, CO

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 EVA AAA   1   3   0  3.53   7   7   1   35.2   41  19  14   14   30
1970 MIN MLB   3   3   0  3.60   9   7   1   50.0   51  29  20   18   28
1971 MIN MLB   8   5   0  3.39  22  22   1  135.0  126  56  51   62   57
1972 TAC AAA   2   4   0  2.87   8   8   3   62.2   49  20  20   29   30
1972 MIN MLB   7  12   0  3.99  21  21   3  142.0  132  74  63   63   76

Whetzel at 27 is the youngest man in the rotation but is also a pure AAAA / back of the rotation type. Don't look at him to be any kind of a savior for the Twins. The man he's most similar to according to the game at age 27 is Brian Bruno, who is now a middle reliever for the Pirates. With his out pitch a split-finger fastball, he's a finesse-oriented guy who tries to get everyone to hit the ball into the dirt. His control is not the greatest in the world but, like his teammates, when he misses, he tends to miss low rather than high.

Somehow he got onto some top 100 prospect lists when he was younger, topping out at #47 in 1967. That looks like the year after he was drafted; he had good college "numbers" (which, with no feeder leagues, everyone does) and then played all of 3.2 innings before getting shut down for the year with back spasms. Anyway, I really, really don't see "top prospect" out of this guy at all. He's got #4 starter written all over him.

Travis Livingston
RHP No. 31
RR, 5'12" 183 lbs.
Born 1947-03-13 in New Port Richey East, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 LOD A     2   2   0  1.10  10   0   0   16.1   13   5   2  12  30
1970 SLC AAA   2   0  12  3.12  32   0   0   40.1   40  15  14  10  33
1970 SD  MLB   0   0   0  0.00   6   0   0    7.2    4   0   0   5   7
1971 CAL MLB   7   4  14  2.17  53   1   0   82.2   68  20  20  49  64
1972 MIN MLB   8   7  24  2.10  58   0   0   85.2   62  21  20  31  65

Livingston was a co-closer for the Angels in 1971 and the Twins liked what they saw enough to trade away middle of the order hitter Lou Morgenstern for him straight-up. The Angels had issues in the middle of their lineup and at left field but they still have to be happy with what they got. Livingston is not only one of the few actual young pitchers in this team's immediate future, he's actually pretty good, arguably one of the top 5 stoppers in the AL. He throws a cut fastball and a slider from the sidearm position and last year managed to fool lefties as much as he did righties (.206 to .205).

He did wear down a lot as the season progressed and had a 5.89 ERA with 3 blown saves and 4 losses in relief in September. That's an argument against using him the way Pittsburgh uses a Paz Lemus or Baltumore uses Montay Luiso. He's still young and his arm may still grow into it.

Victor Ruiz
RHP No. 51
SR, 6'1" 184 lbs.
Born 1937-09-17 in Guaynabo, PUR

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 MIN MLB   9   8   0  4.84  27  26   0  174.2  161 100  94  102  151
1971 MIN MLB   9   8   2  3.46  43  10   2  117.0  104  51  45   60   90
1972 MIN MLB   3   2   0  4.14  30  14   0  121.2   96  57  56   69   97

Ruiz has played for the Twins ever since they were the original Senators but at 35 it looks like his time on the team might be at an end. He's slipped into the role of swingman the past couple of seasons. The results in '72 were, to say the least, not great. As a starter he was more or less average but had a knack for leaving games before he could get decisions - he had 9 NDs in all. As a reliever... it's a good thing the Twins didn't use him in very high leverage situations because he was absolutely terrible - a 6.66 ERA in 24.1 IP with 5 of his 15 HRs allowed in relief. Ruiz still gets guys to miss on his low to mid 90s heater and a great slider but his control has really gone south since he adjusted his delivery to account for a sore back late in the 1969 season.

Ruiz is a good presence in the locker room who can still, surely, find a role somewhere as a veteran presence. That role's got to be somewhere other than the Twins.

(note: as a result of this review, really, and the fact that I need the roster spot, I've since cut Ruiz)

Ricky Rosas
RHP No. 38
RR, 6'1" 177 lbs.
Born 1942-11-02 in Santo Domingo, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CIN MLB   7   9  31  3.27  65   0   0   88.0   77  37  32   35  106
1971 CIN MLB   7  13   9  4.93  47   9   0  107.2  106  62  59   55   80
1972 MIN MLB   7   7   3  4.80  48   0   0   63.2   64  39  34   31   53

Baseball optimists figured that the 29 year old Rosas just needed a change of scenery; the skinny was that the sudden change in fortunes in Cincinnati had gotten to him. The Twins traded their own troubled closer, Pete Lynn for him and... things were not great. Rosas didn't lead the league in relief losses again but if anything he was worse in Minnesota than he'd even been his final year in the Queen City. He still showed all of that swing-and-miss capability with his 4-pitch mix that includes a low-90s fastball, but the homeritis that, frankly, has always been a problem but became a dealbreaker in 1971 was even worse in the smaller Metropolitan Stadium; he allowed 13 HRs in just 63.2 IP.

Although he largely pitched his way out of the highest of leverage situations with a 0-3, 4.91 (7 games, 11 IP) May, the chickens really came how to roost right after the All-Star Break, when the Twins decided that he could share the closer load with Travis Livingston some. He was 2-3 with one save and a 3.14 ERA as of August 15th; following a 12-5 loss to Cleveland where he was the primary reason - 8 runs, 4 of them earned, in 0.2 IP - he was 3-6 with a 5.40 mark. He recovered his season somewhat with a 2.63 ERA in September in relatively low leverage situations (1.08 pLi but given that Rosas was supposed to set up Travis Livingston, this should have been a lot higher). The results were... no.

Rosas has been bad for 2 years in a row now but only one with Minnesota and besides with Pete Lynn doing kinda well in Cincinnati, there's got to be some sunk cost fallacy involved here. He'll get a job doing short to middle relief until/unless he shows he can't handle it anymore.

Infield

Brad Reed
C No. 3
RR, 6'3" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-06-09 in Mukwonago, WI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .238  121  433   53  103  27   2  18   66   66  101   0
1971 MIN MLB  .239  118  398   41   95  18   2  12   54   55   85   0
1972 MIN MLB  .216  118  379   35   82  10   0  10   47   49   82   0

Reed is a hit-first catcher who has been hitting less and less over the past 3 seasons. It's reaching the point to where the Twins should move on; the only thing stopping him, really, is a relative lack of decent prospects in the minors... but at that I've noticed the NATURE BOY Ric Flair in AAA who hit .242 with 10 HRs there. It's not exactly impressive but hey, it's better than what Reed's done the last couple years. Reed has long been a guy whose average was expected to be on the low side but who'd make it up to you with good power from the catcher position. He's a model of durability compared to most catchers, although at least some of that the past couple years has been due to the Twins choosing to never play him tired since he kind of doesn't give them a lot unless he's 100%.

Reed sloughs off at defense, which is not an attribute that you'd prefer out of a catcher. He's slow to track down grounders in front of him and he's got a bad arm that's slowly getting worse. Last year he threw out 26.2% of would-be stealers, his lowest rate as a starter and 3rd worst among AL catchers with at least 80 games started.

I don't think Flair has superstar potential, at least not on the diamond (the wrestling ring is another story WOOOOOOO); I still expect a heated competition come spring between those two.

Matt Theroff
C No. 23
RR, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1941-02-24 in Bryan, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .268   47  142   16   38   2   0   1   11   24   37   0
1971 MIN MLB  .214   55  145   15   31   4   0   2   16   21   34   1
1972 MIN MLB  .190   52  121   13   23   2   0   5   19   22   28   0

Whoever wins the catching competition, Theroff should be in line to be their backup. The team's starter in '67 and '68, Theroff has become a classic backup catcher: a bad hitter, strong defensive skills, and a solid guy in the clubhouse. Theroff doesn't seem to be one of those captainy "rah rah" types who has future manager written all over him, although who knows what the future will hold. There are rumors that he wants to be a starter again but Twins fans will remember the .178/247/215 splits he put up in '68 and know that that is just not a direction they need to take.

Angelo Martinez
1B No. 41
LL, 6'1" 203 lbs.
Born 1936-01-13 in Villarpando, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .276  156  642   99  177  28   3  35   96   59   99   2
1971 MIN MLB  .268  154  616   86  165  24   2  23   91   74   90   1
1972 MIN MLB  .251  149  561   72  141  26   1  36   98   71   95   1

Martinez is like a Timex watch: he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. That's not fair: Martinez, even as he approaches his late 30s, doesn't get himself hurt. He's transformed over the years from a line-drive hitter who was a constant threat to win a batting title in the 60s to a low(er) average power hitter. At that, his career high in RBIs came when he was 25 years old; still, 11 years later, those 98 ribbies were 2nd in the AL only to the great Ernesto Garcia.

It's probably time we started talking about Martinez' legacy as a hitter. He's the Twins' lifetime leader in homeruns with 413 and given that he's showing no sign of slowing down seems like a good bet to reach 500. He's also got himself 2,400 hits. The Twins had a guy in their history - Fernando Rohca - who came just baaaaarely short of 3,000 (2,916 overall, 2,903 of them with Washington and Minnesota... and this is a guy who'd have cleared 3000 for sure if the league recorded history before 1946) so even with 2,400 of his own he seems unlikely to break that mark (especially if the switch to pure power guy is complete). He's hurt by playing in the same era as Justin Stone and just after David Decker but let's be real here: if he eclipses 500 HRs, it doesn't matter if there were 5 great 1B who could be listed as contemporaries; Martinez is still going into the Hall.

For 1973, he's got an easy grip on the cleanup spot. He's nothing special in the field so expect at least some DHing for him but given how durable he's been (plus the fact that he's not a disgrace out there), I'd have to think he's got at least another couple years as the team's #1 first baseman before the team makes him take the first baseman's mitt off for good.

Daniel Gilmet
2B No. 21
RR, 6'0" 201 lbs.
Born 1937-12-26 in Napili-Honokowai, HI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .291   85  351   59  102  18   4   5   33   31   16  23
1971 MIN MLB  .300   84  333   38  100  16   2   2   19   24   25  14
1972 MIN MLB  .321  133  542   70  174  21  12   9   60   42   34  11

One guy who is a really good bet to see a lot of time at DH is Daniel Gilmet. "Aloha Dan"'s 133 games represented the most he's played in a season since 1966 and even that included missing 3 weeks with knee tendinitis. When he did play he proved that he's still one of the best hitters in all of baseball, finishing 3rd in the AL in batting and hits, 2nd in triples, 6th in on-base percentage, and even 7th in slugging.

It's honestly not as though moving him to DH will lose the Twins all that much in the field. Gilmet has never been a great defender but his bad knees have made him a liability in the field. He's smart enough to mostly get out of the way of guys sliding into him at the pivot but long-term, is that what you want out of your second baseman? Speaking of his knees, Gilmet led the league in steals 3 times in his youth but is absolutely not that guy any longer. He's extremely smart on the bases but his 11 steals in 15 attempts feels about right for him going forward.

Fingers crossed, a move to DH will at least allow Aloha Dan to gete 130+ games again. Maybe cross all your toes too.

Pietro Palmarocchi
2B No. 29
RR, 6'1" 191 lbs.
Born 1943-08-13 in Ciudad Bolívar, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TUL AAA  .275   79  291   42   80  16   0   5   28   33   54  13
1970 STL MLB  .147   11   34    5    5   1   0   0    0    4    7   0
1971 MIN MLB  .273   86  260   33   71  10   1   3   26   23   41   4
1972 MIN MLB  .263   59  118   12   31   5   1   3   16   11   28   2

When the Twins traded for Palmarrochi in October of 1970 they might have oversold his new role a bit. You can't blame them too much: who knew Gilmet was going to be so healthy this year? At the same time, Palmarocchi was a 3 year starter at 2nd for Pittsburgh (4 if you count the 62 starts he made for them in '69) and you can understand why the 29 year old would expect to get back to that kind of role, particularly since he appears to have solved some of the hitting woes that plagued him in his early 20s.

Right now the game plan is to give Pietro that starting gig he wants; the question is whether or not the Twins have already taken to long in handing it out. He's a great second baseman who, in sharp contrast to Gilmet, is completely fearless when it comes to standing up to runners on possible double plays. He didn't win any Gold Gloves because the NL had Brian Wilcox and Justin Henderson at the time but he's that caliber of fielder. Like I said earlier, he also got the rap for being a good-field, no-hit guy but there, too, he's hit very well for the Twins the past two seasons and even hit well for the Cardinals' AAA squad in his one season with that organization.

It's maybe not the common approach to just anoint a guy who's nearing 30 and has been a backup for you as the new starter at a position but the Twins are very, very thin in terms of middle infield prospects, at least in terms of players who are close. This team has a very deep minor league system as well and is content to give prospects time to develop. Palmarocchi should get at least a season to prove that the newfound ability to hit for contact is no fluke.

Mike Brookes
3B No. 34
SR, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1938-11-28 in Houston, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .267  151  510  102  136  27   3  39  112  140   87   3
1971 MIN MLB  .275  112  400   73  110  22   2  27   72   73   61   1
1972 MIN MLB  .204  106  362   39   74  12   3  13   34   68   76   4

If it weren't for Gilmet, I'd say that Brookes ought to be the team's new DH. Brookes, a 3-time MVP with the Twins, missed 49 games with a variety of back and elbow issues and looked like a shell of his former self when he did play. Brookes hit just .136 in June and from that point on skidded around the Timonen Line all season. More distressing even than the low average was his lack of power. Pitchers noticed this too and as a result Brookes, who was 2 walks away from setting the all-time single-season mark in 1970, actually struck out more often than he drew a base on balls for the first time in 6 years.

Brookes can still pick it at third base when he's healthy. He had a negative ZR in 1972 but, well, he wasn't healthy (also a lot of his ability as a 3B comes from good hands and as I've noted, something got screwy with the infield error ratings). He's never been a huge threat to steal but the 20 base thefts he got combined in 67-68 seems like a distant memory now. He's known for keeping the clubhouse light and - this is one good point in his favor - he doesn't get down on himself too hard.

Nobody wants a return to form more than Brookes. Frankly, he'd still be a fine third baseman if this was his new level of play but he's capable of so much more.

Justin Ramey
SS No. 26
RR, 6'1" 201 lbs.
Born 1939-05-24 in Montclair, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 WAS MLB  .275  125  477   66  131  24   2  10   58   74   87  16
1971 WAS MLB  .222    9    9    1    2   0   1   0    1    1    0   1
1971 MIL MLB  .246   13   57   12   14   0   0   2    6    2   10   0
1971 MIN MLB  .263   32   99   11   26   3   2   0    4   20   17   1
1972 MIN MLB  .247  139  493   55  122  17   1  10   49   69   86  13

The perennially cheap second-run Washington Senators cut Ramey loose early in the 1971 season and spread rumors that he had turned into a clubhouse lawyer. Nobody paid any special mind to this - Ramey's a quiet guy, completely not the kind of person to stand up in the locker room for any reason - and when the Brewers snapped him up and put him in their lineup, the Twins saw an opportunity and traded away false teenager 2B James Hong for the right to his services. Ramey promptly got hurt and missed most of the second half of the year but in '72 he was handed the shortstop job once again and held it from pillar to post.

Ramey is a plus fielder, although in a league that includes Oniji Handa he's never going to get a Gold Glove nod. Over past few seasons he's also turned into a solid contact hitter, hitting .280 and .275 in his 2 full years with Washington. He didn't do that last year and all the strikeouts indicate that he might not do that in the future but what he did give the Twins was nice middle-infield power and some really nice pitch recognition that led to his finishing with the 9th most walks in the league. He's also a really good bunter, finishing 10th in the AL in sacrifices and almost certainly will move up in that with pitchers no longer hitting.

The thing that really caused Washington to release Ramey is that he knows how valuable he is and reportedly negotiated a contract of close to $200,000 with his new club. For Washington, they had a guy they figured was just as good but younger; for Minnesota, even though the team as a whole fell short he was a great fit as a veteran presence on an already contending team.

Outfield

Jeff Franks
LF/3B No. 30
RR, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1946-03-25 in Hollywood, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHL AA   .276   16   58    6   16   2   0   0    2    8    9   6
1970 EVA AAA  .335  117  439   78  147  23  11  10   70   58   49  54
1971 POR AAA  .349   58  229   42   80  15   6   7   44   27   20  13
1971 MIN MLB  .352   46  162   20   57  11   3   6   28   12   17   9
1972 MIN MLB  .276   94  352   63   97  12  10  14   50   33   45  22

Franks, who teammates call "Tarzan" because he loves to scream things like "AOOOOO LET'S GO" in the locker room and the dugout, finally got a chance at substantial playing time and showed himself to be a guy who can help you in a lot of different ways. He's showed batting-champ levels of contact in the minor leagues (also in 46 games in 1971); while long slumps in May (.206 average in 17 starts) and August (.190 in 18 starts) kept him from reaching those levels last year, a .276 average in 1972 is nothing to sneeze at. His speed was enough to finish in the top 10 in triples (4th) and steals (8th) in spite of not playing every day. And even his power proved to be pretty decent given everything else he does.

Franks came through the minors as a third baseman but could never quite figure out the position. So far, the move to outfield isn't looking much better. Franks works hard and is a smart player but in the field he just looks lost sometimes. You'd really think that speed would translate better in the field. It doesn't. He does get along with his teammates - you ask me, that whole Tarzan yelling thing would get old in a big hurry but I am not of the age where I'd find that amusing, I guess.

Franks is about to enter the prime of his career and, especially given the state of this Twins' roster, should really be starting daily from here on out. The Twins have no excuses.

Mike Grigg
PH/LF No. 14
RR, 5'11" 202 lbs.
Born 1933-12-09 in Columbus, GA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .299  127  304   41   91  17   1   4   31   24   34   1
1971 MIN MLB  .286  127  262   30   75  11   1   4   22   17   46   0
1972 MIN MLB  .209  111  148   15   31   8   0   3   13   15   24   0

Griggs has excelled in the 4th outfielder/pinch-hitter/clubhouse leader role since expansion opened up a role for him in 1969. Unfortunately, as often happens with 38 year olds, he seems to have lost it. He can no longer play the field and hit just .200 as a pinch-hitter in 1972. Perhaps somewhere someone will want to try him out as their DH but Minnesota already has two guys they'd rather use at that spot and Griggs did nothing to suggest he could hit well enough to be a factor there.

Alejandro Cortes
LF No. 20
LL, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1937-10-11 in Santo Domingo, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .259  117  444   76  115  15   1  24   70   42   92  21
1971 MIN MLB  .218   83  266   34   58  15   3   9   32   31   39   8
1972 MIN MLB  .247   56  146   16   36   8   1   3   15   16   28   3

Cortez is yet another guy on this team who has an interesting pedigree - in his case he won the MVP in 1966 by carrying a 96-win Twins team on his shoulders, and he's made 3 All-Star teams - who is getting up in years and isn't playing nearly as much as he used to. In Cortes' case this is not so much injuries - well, it's a little bit that; he missed 2 months with a sprained ankle and he's pretty prone to them now - as it was the team having different, younger options in left field.

Cortes is a .266 hitter who slumped to .218 in 1971. He's definitely not that bad but the .247 he worked out last season might be his true level of value as a contact hitter. He's shown the ability to hit for a ton of power in the past, leading the league in HRs (43), runs scored (122), and RBIs (107) in that lightning-in-a-bottle 1966 season, but he hasn't even gotten to double digits in the last 2 years. He's still got a lot of the speed that helped him finish in the top 10 in the league in steals 5 times in the 60s and he uses it well enough in the outfield. Although he's got a real cannon for an arm, Cortes has never played in right field in his career.

This is another guy who the Twins could trade for parts if they were really and truly interested in rebuilding. It's hard to say how much they'd get back but unless this division stays mediocre it's very unlikely that Cortes will be a part of the next contender in Minnesota.

Jose Villasenor
CF No. 12
LL, 5'11" 201 lbs.
Born 1945-11-14 in Fair Lawn, NJ

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .274  103  379   47  104  16   1  12   36   28   54   3
1971 MIN MLB  .306  153  654   78  200  30   3  16   65   47   87   7
1972 MIN MLB  .208  104  384   24   80   8   1   3   24   30   68   7

The 26 year old Villasenor was supposed to spearhead a new youth movement for this team. Instead, the same guy who hit .306 and collected 200 hits in 1971 had the kind of year in '72 that loses you jobs. It's really hard to prescribe what happened here. Villasenor suffered a complete power outage, not just HR power but he lost the ability to hit line drives into the gaps for extra base hits last year too. He was hampered over the first half of the season with a hamstring injury and didn't even hit above .200 for a full month until he hit .333 in August. That still only raised his average to .205 and the Twins had had enough at that point, handing most of the CF starts in Septemer to Ronnie Hellstrom (more on him in a second).

The other big issue with Villasenor is that he's not a good fit for center. When you're getting 100 hits or winning the ALCS MVP award 2 years running, this is fine; when you hit .208 it becomes a big, big problem. Even if the Twins give Villasenor another shot, it probably shouldn't be there.

Ronnie Hellström
CF/RF No. 2
RR, 6'0" 187 lbs.
Born 1949-02-21 in Malmö, SWE

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 EVA R    .333    3   12    1    4   1   1   0    1    1    3   1
1971 QUI A    .295   23   95   10   28   4   2   1    9    7   22   3
1971 SA  AA   .295   28   95    8   28   6   0   1    8   10   28   7
1972 CHL AA   .286   23   91   14   26   1   0   2    9    7   12   5
1972 TAC AAA  .230   69  269   30   62   9   7   7   22   30   41  11
1972 MIN MLB  .304   64  257   43   78  12   2  10   23   24   43   8

A team as youth-starved as the Twins doesn't just push a guy like Villasenor out for no reason. They turned to the shifty Swedish goalkeeper Ronnie Hellstrom in midseason. He hit .304 in half a year and more importantly beat the pants off of Jose in terms of playing D. The scouts think Hellstrom can legitimately be a .300 hitter over a full season; I'm going to have to see that to believe it, although truth be told he's got a nice combination of speed and power that should translate once he gets his Ks down.

In the field Helltrom takes good routes to balls and that accentuates his already high-rated speed. Although he started 2 games in the majors at the position I'm not sure you'd want to stick him in right with his only-average arm but that's his biggest weakness out there. Hellstrom doesn't speak much English yet but he seems like a nice enough guy. Guys like this fail to make the grade all the time but then, they also just do great in their sophomore season and we never really talk about those guys in this context.

Ernie Griffin
RF No. 17
LL, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1937-12-08 in Picayune, MS

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LAD MLB  .267  148  561   83  150  16  13  27   91   81   82   2
1971 LAD MLB  .246  133  484   61  119   9   7  18   61   44   60  16
1972 MIN MLB  .217  118  387   56   84   3   7  16   43   51   54   6

Griffin was brought in to replace Lou Morgenstern's bat in the lineup and provide some power from the right side of the plate. He was underwhelming, got hurt a lot, and now the Twins have yet another aging former superstar who can't stay healthy that they have to account for somehow. Griffin went 10-40 in April with 2 HRs. People figured hey, you have to start somewhere; who knew that this would be the highest monthly average would hit for all season?

For a guy with his level of plate patience, Griffin doesn't actually strike out a huge amount, which, you would think would cause him to hit into a lot of GIDPs but somehow that's not the case: he hit into just 5 last year and even that was way more than the *2* he hit into in 1971. That's about all the good that can be said about his contact. He's always had the ability to hit line drives into the gap and then leg those out for triples much of the time but last year Griffin got just 10 such opportunities. That power that saw him hit 27 HRs in 1970 and which had him hit 65 dingers between 1962 and his MVP season of 1963 appears to not really be around anymore, although he can still get around on the high fastball enough to hit 20 or so HRs if his shoulder allowed him to play for a full season.

The shoulder also seems like it's had an effect on his once-powerful arm (although if memory serves, OF assists trended waaaay too high in OOTP when I started this save). He used to be rangy enough to play center; Griffin is now, at 34, an average at best right fielder.

The Twins have an issue, perhaps, of having more bats than corner outfield spots. This isn't the worst situation in the world for Minnesota as a whole. It's not a great situation for Griffin, who will at best be managed heavily in 1973.

Kyle Ship
OF/1B No. 22
SR, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1942-12-26 in Nashville, TN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .240   55  154   15   37   5   0   5   21    8   11   2
1971 MIN MLB  .227   70  110   14   25   6   0   0   10    8   17   1
1972 MIN MLB  .232   84  224   26   52   6   1   3   20   18   33   8

Since coming up in 1969, Shipp has basically been the #2 pinch-hitter on the roster behind Mike Grigg. With Grigg looking like he's about done, logic would entail Shipp moving into that role. Instead, his me-first attitude and, perhaps more tellingly, a bat that's never shown the promise of a 1968 season in Charlotte where he went .312 with 15 HRs and 74 RBIs, is leading Minnesota towards not extending him a spot on the roster in 1973.

Ship has good speed and, it was thought in the past, the tools to be a good contact guy. In reality he falls in love with his warning-track power at times and tries to pull the ball too much. He does put the ball into play, which is a good attribute for a pinch-hitter to have, but the end result is a lot of fly outs to center field.

Ship is only 29 and still has good speed and solid corner-OF defense; you could see a bad team giving him a chance to play everyday if you squinted hard enough. The small chance he has of repeating past minor league glory comes with a cost. It's far more likely that Ship winds up as a cutdown somewhere next March.

[Syd Thrift]

Texas Rangers
77-77, 3rd AL West, 1 1/2 GB

1972 Outlook: Following a decade plus of mediocrity, the Washington Senators finally bit the bullet and moved to Texas, halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth. With that move they were expected to immediately contend in a re-aligned AL West (they switched spots in divisions with the Milwaukee Brewers), which looked ripe for the taking with the slow aging of the Minnesota Twins, an A's team who'd won 90 but had been outscored by their opponents, and an Angels team that had a lot of the pieces but wasn't considered ready just yet.

1972 In Review: Instead, the Rangers christened their new building by being baaaad. The pitching was still there as it had been but the hitting was terrible. The Rangers hit .177 for the month of April, extended that to .228 with a .314 SLG in May, and for the first part of the season they looked like a really great bet to break the modern MLB record for futilitythat was 429 runs scored in an entire season (this same team, actually, in 1967). Then the Rangers, unbelieveably, actually started to hit. They still finished up the year pretty bad but not record-breakingly so and, crazily, not even last in the AL at the end of the day (that honor went to Milwaukee). The hitting was just good enough, in fact, to get them to .500 and, since the AL West proved to be even more mediocre than wags predicted, put them into the playoff race into the final week of the season.

1973 Outlook: Texas swapped out practically their entire lineup from April to August. The second-half guys looked a lot better than the first-half ones, but how much of that is sustainable will be the real question mark. With the DH, the offense has to improve to the point that they aren't literally scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of AL history. It's hard to look at this lineup and see how, exactly, they could even be above average. As of this writing, if the pitching stays where it is - another big if - they might not need above average offense to contend again.

Pitching

Chad Daugharty
RHP No. 35
RR, 6'4" 201 lbs.
Born 1945-03-01 in Economy, PA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 WAS MLB  17   8   0  2.44  32  32  10  250.2  179  81  68   83  175
1971 WAS MLB  16  14   0  3.46  36  36   8  273.0  245 112 105   88  164
1972 TEX MLB  18  10   0  2.36  34  34  15  266.0  223  74  70   77  144

The "Dog" put together a nice season that, if he'd just gotten a little bit more run support, could have seen him in contention for a Cy Young Award. As it was, Daugharty led the AL in complete games and shutouts (8) and, great for him, ground ball percentage (57%). He's definitely made the transition from deceptive thrower to pound-it-in-the-ground pitcher. With a good infield defense behind him, Daugharty could keep this up for years.

He's got just enough stuff with a plus change of pace and a mid to high 80s cut fastball to not feel that he has to nibble at the plate all the time. It seems like Daugharty's gotten a lot of help from the BABIP gods over the years - he led the league in lowest BABIP in 1970 and had a pretty low .259 this year (which actually I think was about the league average) - but if you can sustain that over the course of multiple seasons, you have to call that a skill.

Daugharty made his first All-Star Game since 1969 last year because he went 5-0, 2.44 in May and 5-0, 0.96 in June. The latter of those months won him his 2nd-ever Pitcher of the Month award. He had to be lights-out to get wins all season long because his team averaged just 2.8 runs per start for him. After going 3-6 in July and August with a relatively low 3 complete games in 12 starts and a relatively high 3.76 ERA in that span, Dog got back down to dog business with a 4-2, 1.26 September.

Daugharty is a lock to be the Rangers' Opening Day starter and, fingers crossed, a Cy Young contestant in 1973.

Billy Crystal
LHP No. 23
LR, 5'11" 188 lbs.
Born 1948-07-01 in New York, NY

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 BIR AA    4   2   0  2.68   7   7   6   57.0   62  20  17   19   26
1970 IOW AAA   6   4   0  3.41  12  12   6   92.1   78  36  35   38   71
1971 IOW AAA   9  17   0  3.35  27  27  15  217.0  193  97  81  102  106
1971 OAK MLB   0   1   0  6.89   4   2   0   15.2   17  14  12   11   12
1972 TEX MLB  13  15   0  2.85  34  34  10  255.0  197  85  81   94  164

Texas took real advantage - some would say unfair advantage - of the A's pursuit of a 2nd straight division title when they acquired the then-23 year old Crystal for Vince Akright (they also got Doug Ellis in that deal, who I'll probably cover). Akright, a career 91 game winner for the new-old Senators, couldn't stay above .500 while Crystal made a big step forward and jumped right into Akright's old slot in the rotation.

As recently as last season, Crystal was still having major issues keeping his arsenal of pitches in the strike zone. One of the chief offenders was his forkball, which is an incredible pitch that comes in looking almost exactly like his fastball (which, admittedly, is slow and a bit on the straight side) before diving out of the stike zone. In 1971 pitchers were laying off of that pitch and getting walks. Crystal arrived at spring training with a newfound ability to hide his pitches better and soon, hitters were swinging and missing at the forkball instead.

Crystal, like the staff ace Chad Daugharty, also finished in the top 10 in groundball percentage (53%, 9th), and like Daugharty, was the victim of very poor run support. The Rangers should be nicknamed the "Very Poor Run Support". Slot him in as the #2 man. He's still just 24 years old and if he takes another step this spring, look out, American League.

Kevin Freeman
LHP No. 7
LL, 5'9" 172 lbs.
Born 1942-07-15 in San Antonio, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 WAS MLB  11  15   0  3.39  32  32  11  249.1  239 105  94   79  121
1971 WAS MLB  11  15   0  3.26  33  32  10  239.2  221 102  87   63  126
1972 TEX MLB  10  14   0  3.29  33  26   9  202.0  177  81  74   56  118

Freeman's a guy who's never made many friends in Senators/Rangers management with his "me-first" attitude but truth be told, in spite of getting yanked around and even being transformed into a swingman in the final 2 months of the season, Freeman seems to be pleased as punch to now be able to pitch in his native Texas.

Freeman, now 4 years into his time with the team, continues to be a bit of an enigma on the mound. Managers get snippy with him because he just doesn't seem to generate as many Ks as you'd expect from a fastball that approaches the mid-90s. He's able to place the pitch well, just missing the top 10 in BB/9 this year after finishing 10th in the category last season. That pitch arsenal leads him to give up more flies than grounders, which, when you have a guy like Norm Hodge in your outfield, is not a bad thing at all. Freeman has had problems in the past with the ding-dong but his 17 allowed last season were a 3-year low.

Freeman also doesn't get support although he never helped his own case with the constant complaining about this fact or, for that matter, his own hitting: Freeman's a lifetime .138 hitter with a single HR in 246 career at-bats. Assuming he gets back into the rotation, Freeman will be delighted with the new DH rule.

Bernd Eichinger
LHP No. 24
LL, 5'10" 175 lbs.
Born 1949-04-11 in Donaustauf, GER

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1971 AND A     4   3   0  2.79   9   9   6   74.0   68  23  23   15   66
1971 BUR A     5   1   0  2.15   7   7   3   54.1   52  14  13   21   30
1972 PFD AA    8   7   0  1.97  16  16  14  141.1  117  35  31   27   77
1972 DEN AAA   8   1   0  2.74  11  11   6   88.2   73  31  27   22   56
1972 TEX MLB   4   3   0  2.44  10  10   4   77.1   62  24  21   31   47

Eichinger, a recent graduate of the University of Television and Film Munich, will compete for the 4th and presumably last spot in the rotation with Robert McHugh (not listed). Eichinger, a German national, has fallen in love with a variety of different and varied pitches and needs to concentrate on 3 of them if he wants to be a worthy starter in the major leagues (hey, just like in real life! This is the guy who directed the original "Fantastic Four" movie; he also did a CGI Resident Evil movie as well as "Downfall", a film which is now probably best remembered for the "screaming Hitler" meme). He's had good control in the minor leagues although it was decidedly average in his 77.1 August and September innings in 1972.

Is Eichinger, who was rated the #34 prospect in baseball in July, ready yet? We'll see, faithful readers, we'll see.

Ron Shepherd
LHP No. 17
LL, 6'0" 193 lbs.
Born 1943-03-12 in Cheviot, OH

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 WAS MLB   2   4   0  2.66  38   0   0   50.2   47  21  15   29   36
1971 WAS MLB   2   2   0  3.03  31   0   0   32.2   34  14  11   12   20
1972 TEX MLB   5   6  11  2.56  47   0   0   59.2   51  22  17   20   33

Shepherd is half of a very successful lefty/righty closer combo, I think one of two I've managed to put together in the entire game (Oakland is the other one). He held batters to a .229 average last year, the lowest BA he's allowed since joining the team in 1969. He has the Kaz Sasaki fastball-splitter combo, which he's successful with in spite of not actually getting a lot of groundball outs. I guess hitters are more fooled by the fastball, which they pop up, than the splitter? I will say that an upside of this is that Shepherd does not allow HRs - just 8 career dingers allowed with the Senators and Rangers.

I'm expecting more of the same from this guy in 1973.

Doug Ellis
RHP No. 2
RR, 6'0" 200 lbs.
Born 1945-05-21 in Smiths, AL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CLE MLB   2   2   2  3.90  17   0   0   25.1   31  15  11    6   18
1971 WIC AAA   0   0   2  0.00   3   0   0    4.0    0   0   0    3    1
1971 CLE MLB   2   3   1  2.81  10   0   0   16.0   13   6   5    5   11
1971 TUL AAA   0   1   1  2.34  12   0   0   15.1   11   5   4    9    8
1971 OAK MLB   0   0   0  0.00   1   0   0    2.1    2   0   0    0    1
1971 STL MLB   1   0   0  2.18  11   0   0   12.1   10   3   3    1   12
1972 TEX MLB   3   0   7  1.18  46   1   0   60.2   41   8   8   22   38

Ellis has really been around the league over the last 4 years. Originally a product of the Washington system, he was traded away to Cleveland after finishing 3rd in the AL in saves in 1969 (26). From there he's gotten hurt a lot and just keeps getting moved around and around. The latest move saw him get packaged as a throw-in in the move that sent Vince Akright to the A's.

Back with the organization that drafted him, Ellis stayed healthy for the first time in years. I guess the downside of this platoon arrangement at closer is that nobody winds up doing that 70 game, 120 inning thing that ace stoppers did back in the day, but this works out well for Texas in two ways: one, Ellis's arm probably won't hut up to that kind of strain, and two, Texas has a bevy of starters who prefer to stay in the game until late if they get removed at all. The game thinks he could be a starter but the game is wrong: Ellis's stamina is decidedly below average and he has started a grand total of 2 games in his major league career.

50ish games and 70 or so innings seems like a good mark for Ellis to hit in 1973. More than that could wear him out; less than that is likely because he got hurt.

Kojiro Nakazawa
RHP No. 18
RR, 6'1" 190 lbs.
Born 1946-06-12 in Yokohama, JPN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 LOU AAA  12   6   0  3.10  20  20   3  159.1  138  64  55   19  173
1970 BOS MLB   3   0   0  3.02   8   5   0   38.2   31  14  13    9   29
1971 BOS MLB   5   3   2  3.21  28   6   0   75.2   65  30  27   14   54
1972 NYY MLB   3   8  11  4.47  41   0   0   50.1   55  26  25   13   35
1972 TEX MLB   1   0   0  2.25   4   0   0    4.0    4   1   1    0    3

Nakazawa is an interesting fly in the old ointment on the Rangers' staff going forward. Afteer an outstanding season with Louisville in 1970, the Red Sox promoted him to the big leagues and the fireballer out of Yokohama, Japan did a solid job in long relief and spot starting. Because they're a team that's trying to win now, they traded Nakazawa to the Yankees in exchange for since-released OF Frank Meneses and middle infield prospect <name redacted>. The Yankees tried to use him as a closer but Nakazawa proved to be not ready for the limelight, allowing 11 HRs in 50.1 innings of work with New York and blowing 3 saves in 14 opportunities.

The Rangers picked him up in exchange for their own swingman, Jim Kenner, at the end of August (I guess the trade deadline wasn't completely a thing back then). Nakazawa pitched sparingly for his new club. He enters 1973 as a guy who still looks to me at least like he could start. Will he get that chance with this team? It's hard to say. He can compete for a job but since he's out of minor league options, losing out will mean that he'll need to go back into that long relief / swingman role that Boston used him in.

Infield

Andres Gamez
C No. 33
RR, 6'3" 199 lbs.
Born 1948-07-16 in Catia La Mar, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SHR AA   .193   27   83    6   16   1   1   1    8    8   12   0
1970 RIC AAA  .294   67  221   24   65  13   0   6   30   16   57   0
1970 ATL MLB  .136   23   66    4    9   3   0   0    5   10   13   0
1971 ATL MLB  .318   81  173   22   55   6   1   5   32   15   30   1
1972 TEX MLB  .278  121  449   41  125  16   1   5   44   20   73   0

When your catcher leads your team in at-bats, that's usually a sign of some big-time turmoil. And nothing against Andres Gamez, who is a perfectly fine young backstop, but he's not that John Stuart / Texas Josh Lewis type "put him in the lineup every day and forget about it" type of guy. He was just an Opening Day starter who, unlike almost everyone else, didn't crap the bed and as such got to play through the season.

In fact, "Goofy" Gamez did better that get away with it. He's shown signs of hitting for good contact in the past and so the .278 average was right in line with expectations. In terms of power and speed, he's still a catcher, so don't expect much, but he's still a few years away from his prime and no matter how down the scouts seem to be on the guy, he'll only get better in time.

Gamez has got a nice arm - he led the AL in RTO% with a 39.7% - but isn't so great at getting up out of his stance to track down balls hit in front of him. The Rangers did have the 4th lowest wild pitch total in the AL but that might be more due to a control-oriented pitching staff than anything special Gamez does to block them.

Texas traded away their old starting catcher in Armando Flores to get their new one in Gamez. Flores wound up being a 5-year starter with an All-Star game appearance for the old/new Senators; Gamez could easily have the same kind of run for the Rangers.

George W. Bush
1B/OF No. 42
LL, 6'2" 204 lbs.
Born 1946-04-25 in Houston, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 DEN AAA  .197  138  458   76   90  18   1  28   86  107  150  15
1971 DEN AAA  .185   80  248   47   46   8   3  17   46   86   49   1
1971 WAS MLB  .281   74  253   47   71  24   1  13   40   47   38   2
1972 DEN AAA  .250   52  180   36   45   7   0  14   29   35   38   2
1972 TEX MLB  .172   63  192   24   33   2   1   4   15   36   54   1

The Rangers had high hopes for Texas "native" George W. Bush (he was born in Houston but his dad is a career politician / head of the CIA and as such is more of a Beltway guy; Bush Jr. eschewed fine Texas institutions such as Rice in favor of the Ivy League) but things just did not work out according to plan for the 26 year old. He failed to hit in April (.154) or May (.188) and was sent down to AAA Denver in early June. After getting back to socking minor league pitching the team called him back up in August, where he went right back to not hitting (.178). A fractured hand he suffered on August 22nd effectively put a kind end to this horrific season.

Bush still has a powerful swing and as such will more than likely get another chance in the DH/1B/OF pipeline. He was fed a steady diet of off-speed pitches in the majors last year and while he bit on far, far too many of them, he was still able to coax more than his fair share of walks. He's a better than average first baseman with Presidential height, and he's not too bad in the outfield either, though his only-fair arm limits where you can put him. For the son of a career politician, Bush Jr., aka "Dubya" seems like less of a leader of men and more the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with.

Phil Stevens
1B/2B No. 5
SR, 6'2" 195 lbs.
Born 1947-08-24 in Poughkeepsie, NY

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 GEN S A  .265   38  132   24   35   6   0   5   18   26   23   3
1970 BUR A    .265   46  166   25   44  13   2   5   31   31   28   2
1971 AND A    .276   35  116   28   32   7   0   3   13   30   25   3
1971 PFD AA   .248   92  322   41   80  18   1   6   42   55   56   4
1971 DEN AAA  .300    7   10    3    3   0   0   0    0    4    1   0
1972 PFD AA   .211   42  142   16   30   5   0   5   24   20   26   2
1972 DEN AAA  .286   57  147   30   42   9   0  12   32   25   31   2
1972 TEX MLB  .200   37  130   16   26   6   0   6   25   28   29   1

Phil Stevens is one of 3 players the Rangers handed time to at first base and the one who finished the season at the position. He graphs out as something of a Dubya-lite: a good ability to draw walks, less power than Bush but stoll solid, big holes in his swing that he needs to fix. If you look just at September and nothing else you can see a guy who hit 221/382/442, which looks more than enough to hold down the position; however, he was also 7-44 in August and October and you can't just ignore that.

One thing that Stevens has over Bush is that the 25 year old has experience at second base (Bush, a lefty, couldn't play the position even if he wanted to). It's not necessarily *good* experience - he's slow and doesn't move well in either direction - but you could slot him in as a backup. His ideal role looks like it's as a right-handed platoon partner with someone like Bush or, failing that, just generally in that 1B/DH mix.

Jesse Lancaster
1B No. 71
RR, 6'0" 199 lbs.
Born 1945-06-10 in Cedar Hill, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BUR A    .125   13   32    2    4   0   0   0    0    7    9   0
1970 AND A    .317   50  145   22   46   6   0   3   23   19   18   0
1970 PFD AA   .000    2    1    0    0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0
1971 PFD AA   .252   54  159   28   40   7   1   6   26   18   25   0
1971 DEN AAA  .261   24   46    7   12   2   0   2    4   13    7   1
1972 DEN AAA  .305   28   59    8   18   1   0   2   10    6   13   0
1972 TEX MLB  .185   36  124    5   23   5   1   0   10   13   30   0

Lancaster, the third of the three Rangers to split time at first base, is most intriguing because of his own very different skillset. A long-time organization man, Lancaster has been a backup 1B and pinch-hitter throughout the minors because he hits for good if light contact. In the major leagues, though, all of that ability to avoid strikeouts and put the ball in play disappeared and he hit sub-.200. Since he's a guy who needs to hit well over .270 to be of any use, it almost goes without saying that he was a particularly bad fit for Texas in 1972.

He finished the season in AAA and although I've stuck him back on the 40 man, Lancaster is a guy who's going to have to really show something in spring training if he wants to remain with the team. At 27, he's simply not worth keeping around and stealing at-bats from other, potentially better players.

Reggie Jackson
2B/3B No. 21
RR, 5'10" 181 lbs.
Born 1946-11-19 in Philadelphia, PA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PFD AA   .281  113  370   67  104  19   0   6   39   71   44  11
1970 DEN AAA  .220   23   91   12   20   6   0   0    9    7   21   3
1971 PFD AA   .329   21   70    8   23   3   2   2    4    7   11   2
1971 DEN AAA  .201   79  224   22   45   8   2   0   18   36   38   0
1971 WAS MLB  .212   16   33    4    7   1   0   0    2    5   13   0
1972 DEN AAA  .263   30   95   14   25   5   0   1    6   15   19   0
1972 TEX MLB  .219   89  260   23   57   9   0   1   23   34   45   2

All-or-nothing slugger with the nickname "Mr. October" because of your clutch exploits, meet your Thriftlon equivalent, a slap-hitting middle infielder who is nicknamed "Mr. October" because that's when he gets to go back home to his native Pennsylvania and... well, he'll still brag about being as good as anyone around since it's still Reggie Jackson.

You'd love to see this particular Jackson hit for any power at all. It's the single biggest thing keeping him from being a long-term regular. Jackson pulls the ball as if he's a big power man but too often he just cuts and misses at high fastballs and when he does hit them they turn into lazy flies to left field. He does have solid pitch recognition for a guy his age and if he can protect the plate better he'd carried some nice BB/K ratios in the minor leagues in the recent past.

He's not really going to wow you with his defense but it's good enough to play at both 2nd and 3rd. His speed, which is only average, prevents him from being a good shortstop but he doesn't make mistakes on the basepaths at least. He puts in his time at BP - it's not a lack of a work ethic that keeps him from hitting, just a lack of ability. He is unfortunately as prone to be a part of a long malaise as the rest of the team, and a .120 July really, really killed his chances of looking like a productive player.

Jackson went back down to AAA Denver in the last month of the year and looked a lot like the guy the Rangers were hoping for. He'll be in the mix at second in 1973.

Donald Fagen
2B/IF No. 14
RR, 5'12" 191 lbs.
Born 1948-01-10 in Passaic, NJ

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CB  S A  .311   25   90   11   28   1   0   4    9   16   16   1
1970 BUR A    .297   45  138   21   41   4   0   1   13   23   28   0
1971 BIR AA   .270   59  233   28   63  13   0   3   19   22   32   1
1971 IOW AAA  .226   86  261   32   59   5   0   2   25   41   31   0
1972 BIR AA   .296   24   81   13   24   1   0   1    7   20    9   1
1972 IOW AAA  .294   32  109   16   32   5   0   2   12    9   18   0
1972 OAK MLB  .237   30   93    7   22   2   0   0    7   13   13   0
1972 TEX MLB  .217   42  143   17   31   4   1   1   12   18   18   0

This is the team where, frankly, I'm finding myself second-guessing my own management the most. I think I can justify this: I had a gameplan for them, they absolutely stunk on offense, and after I more or less forfeited the season by calling up youngsters and making "white flag" trades, they new guys outplayed the old guys and put the team back into contention. I still wonder if maybe I should have kept guys like Jackson on the roster instead of newer blood like Donald Fagen, who, at the end of the day, wound up not really doing much that "Mr. October" couldn't do.

The Rangers acquired Fagen in a 5-player deal that involved them shipping out two starters - 3B David Salinas and SS Tyler Knight. Fagen had already been called up by Oakland and was doing... fine and he took over the 2B job after a .262 August. Then he forgot hot to hit in September - 172/262/190 for the month - and we're back where we are now.

Both Jackson and Fagen are righties who don't complement each other super well. Fagen's the better defender and also has hte veratility to play in the outfield, too, though you'd never want his bat out there. The scouts don't think he's got a lot of room to grow with the contact and so as a 24 year old, Fagen looks a lot like a guy who's going to make a name for himself with some cool jazz/rock, not necessarily with anything baseball related.

Dennis Green
3B/LF/HC No. 10
LR, 6'1" 208 lbs.
Born 1949-02-06 in Harrisburg, PA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 AND A    .312   77  292   42   91  13   0   9   45   28   73   2
1971 PFD AA   .375    5   16    2    6   0   0   0    3    5    3   0
1972 PFD AA   .328   35  119   16   39   4   0   8   18   10   19   0
1972 DEN AAA  .323   45  167   27   54  13   0   6   23   23   36   1
1972 TEX MLB  .248   65  210   27   52  13   0   7   35   37   44   0

What Green did in the second half at third base looks like superstar performance compared to the rest of this infield. Unlike basically everyone else, the 23 year old actually delivered on the promise he'd shown in the minor leagues and looks like he'll be a productive regular for years. Green has got a nice power stroke but unlike so many putative power hitters on this team he knows how to go with the pitch and will happilly send an outside fastball into left field. He still strikes too much, but he's still a recent draft pick (1971 out of the University of Iowa, a school known more for their football program than their baseball one) and that could improve. He's got the arm to play third but his lack of lateral movement and baseball speed - a little surprising for a college running back - will keep him from being one of the greats at the position.

Green has an aura of confidence about him that just plain exudes leadership. He's occasionally prone to yelling at guys who aren't pulling their own weight but that's just part of his leadership style. You hear this man say that the opponents are who you thought they were but you let them off the hook, you want to do better.

Green took over the 3rd base job after the Rangers traded away Salinas and ran with it. He should be a middle of the order threat for several years with this ballclub.

Michael Luna
SS No. 25
RR, 6'3" 204 lbs.
Born 1947-11-05 in Westport, CT

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 GEN S A  .476    6   21    7   10   1   0   2    6    4    1   0
1970 BUR A    .242   72  265   39   64  10   0   8   25   32   52   5
1971 PFD AA   .241   68  228   34   55  13   6   4   21   34   45   1
1971 DEN AAA  .255   63  216   28   55  15   0   3   27   33   37   1
1971 WAS MLB  .203   25   74    6   15   5   0   0    8   10   16   0
1972 TEX MLB  .230  136  440   43  101  14   4   7   38   47   86   2

Although Gamez led this team in at-bats, it was actually Luna who led them in plate appearances with 500. The game doesn't think this was enough to qualify for the batting title but.. it was. Not that Luna was anywhere near that. Luna kind of exemplifies the team in many ways: a low-average, defense-first player, Luna walks enough to be right about average at getting on base (.305 OBP last year which was actually 4 points above the league average of .301). He's firmly a bottom of the order hitter, although somehow, some way, the man had 15 at-bats in 4th and 18 at 5th. He was the team's lone hitter at the All-Star Game this year and believe me, nobody was more surprised than Luna when he got the nod.

Luna's got soft hands at shortstop, a skill that will surely be more valuable in 1973 than it was in '72. The Rangers liked him enough to send Tyler Knight packing; Knight was, in turn, the guy they liked enough to tell vicious lies about Justin Ramey.

Ramey just keeps his head down and plays. He's quietly become the defensive key of the infield and a mainstay of the starting lineup.

Henry Rodriguez
SS No. 12
RR, 5'9" 173 lbs.
Born 1948-10-17 in Puerto Cabello, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BUR A    .273   10   11    3    3   1   0   0    1    1    1   0
1970 AND A    .279  110  412   52  115  14   5   3   48   52   60   9
1971 DEN AAA  .295   46  173   23   51   8   2   5   27   20   27   1
1971 WAS MLB  .255   41   55    7   14   4   1   1   10    3   10   0
1972 TEX MLB  .250   50  104    8   26   3   0   2   18    8   23   0

Rodriguez managed to stay in the major leagues all year last year, mostly as a caddy for Luna. He's no threat to Luna's job but he's got value on this team because he can do something that few players on the roster can do: hit. Luna got into 27 games as a defensive/offensive replacement for the lighter-hitting Luna. He hit just 4-31 vs lefties and 4-20 as a pinch-hitter, which wasn't so great, fine. He did hit .265 as a starter.

Maybe Rodriguez' best fit is with another team. The Rangers don't really have a bevy of shortstops behind Luna and if I'm being honest I don't think othe rteams are going to look at his infield defense and want to turn him into a starter. If he wants to stay in the league, he's going to need to figure out how to come in cold and deliver.

Outfield

Ramon Goyco
OF No. 13
LL, 5'11" 169 lbs.
Born 1944-01-05 in San Juan de la Maguana, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 DEN AAA  .224   67  143   21   32  13   0   3   14   21   39   2
1971 WAS MLB  .218   57  110   21   24   2   0   1   10   12   24   2
1972 TEX MLB  .267   77  131   18   35   6   2   5   23   17   17   1

Goyco bucked the league-wide and the Rangers-wide trend by actually outhitting his 1971 performance. He's always been a very hot and cold hitter - he's got seasons in his past where he hit .288 as well as .178 ones right against each other - and last year he happened to be hot a bit more often. He's only 28 but realistically his present as well as his future with the team is as a pinch-hitter and 4th outfielder. He could maaaybe platoon a bit in left and DH if need be; if that happens, Texas needs to hope they get the good Goyco again.

Elijah Wright
OF No. 22
LL, 5'12" 195 lbs.
Born 1947-04-28 in San Jose, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BUR A    .287  130  456  100  131  25   4   2   41  107  103  25
1971 BUR A    .300    5   20    4    6   0   0   0    0    4    5   0
1971 BIR AA   .260   63  223   35   58   5   7   4   15   33   51   5
1971 IOW AAA  .239   30   67    7   16   1   1   0    6    9   17   2
1972 BIR AA   .289   14   38    5   11   0   0   0    1   10    7   4
1972 IOW AAA  .306   22   49    8   15   1   0   1    7   10    8   2
1972 OAK MLB  .246   25   61   10   15   1   0   1    5   12   14   3
1972 TEX MLB  .107   37   56    8    6   1   0   0    2   13   17   0

The Rangers used Wright as a pinch-hitter and sometimes-OF vs right-handed pitching after acquiring him from the A's. He completely forgot how to hit with his new club anad now the 25 year old's future is in jeopardy.

One thing that's clear is that it's rarely a good idea to use a youngster in an irregular role like pinch-hitter and that just plain proved to be the case with Wright. He was 5-26 as a pinch-hitter last year, including his time in Oakland, and got worse as his time in Texas went on. He's shown some tremendous ability to wait out pitchers in the past but was hacking at everything in Texas.

Wright should probably get sent back down to rediscover his swing and most of all the plate discipline that made him an interesting enough prospect to trade for in the first place. As of this writing, I think the Rangers *do* have corner outfield pieces they can slot in to make this possible.

Norm Hodge
CF No. 4
LL, 6'0" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-10-18 in Brisbane, AUS

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CAL MLB  .260  152  619   63  161  17   5   8   44   42  122   32
1971 CAL MLB  .232  138  488   52  113  11   4   9   48   36   75   21
1972 TEX MLB  .206  116  437   38   90   7   3   2   20   26   71   15

No matter how great a fielder you are, you still need to hit at a certain level to stay in this league. That even applies to the acrobatic Australian Hodge, who probably played enough to win his 8th Gold Glove but with that offensive output, #8 could very easily be his last. Hodge didn't just hit for a career low .206, the hits that did come off of his bat were nearly always weak singles up the middle. He's shown double-digit power in the past and enough ability to hit line drives into the gaps that his speed can get him 20-25 doubles and 5 to 7 triples a year. There was none of that in 1972, and in spite of the fact that the Rangers hit him leadoff for pretty much the entire time he was in the lineup, he amassed a very low .254 on-base percentage and scored just 38 times the entire season.

Hodge is still a great centerfielder. His zone rating, weirdly, doesn't show it so much this year - only +3.4 - but trust us on this, that aspect of his game has not fallen off at all. He even had 9 baserunner kills this year, 2nd only to Cleveland's Bobby Kaplan (former Senator Bobby Kaplan!) in that category. He's also got all of his speed although he made a loooot of outs on the bases this year - those 15 steals came in 29 attempts - and this has been a side effect of his aggressive play in the past as well.

The Rangers turned to Bill Iverson in the final month or so of the year in 1972. There's a good chance that Hodge will win the CF job again in '73, as Iverson isn't exactly a superstar himself (coming up!). Expect him to get a much, much shorter leash on the job.

Bill Iverson
CF No. 26
RR, 5'11" 181 lbs.
Born 1945-01-10 in Pelahatchie, MS

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 AND A    .317   16   63   12   20   1   1   0    8   13    8   8
1970 PFD AA   .267   86  270   41   72   7   7   0   23   48   43  27
1971 DEN AAA  .269  124  443   50  119  10   3   2   38   49   60  12
1971 WAS MLB  .167    4   12    1    2   0   0   0    0    1    3   0
1972 DEN AAA  .289   52  197   31   57   8   4   4   17   17   24   9
1972 TEX MLB  .240   52  171   18   41   3   1   1   13   18   28   5

Iverson at 27 years of age got his first real taste of the big leagues and... for all the talk I just made of Hodge not being enough, it sure doesn't look like Bill Iverson is anything like a worthy replacement. Iverson hit for a (slightly) higher average than Hodge did but had the same lack of power and unlike Hodge his career history indicates that bloop singles are pretty much all he's capable of.

You'd expect, as well, a guy who's as speedy and who makes tough-looking plays like Iverson does to be more of a sparkplug in the locker room but if anything he's one of the last guys to get onto the field in spring training and before games. Given that and given that he's already 27, this is probably the peak of his abilities. Iverson's a great candidate to ride the AAAA shuttle in 1973.

Devin Bucciarelli
OF No. 46
RR, 6'1" 199 lbs.
Born 1946-02-14 in New Hampton, IA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 PFD AA   .246  117  422   73  104  20   9   8   48   47   77  46
1970 DEN AAA  .149   15   47    7    7   1   1   0    1    4   14   7
1971 DEN AAA  .300    5   20    2    6   0   0   0    1    1    1   1
1971 CAL MLB  .204   49  162   23   33   6   1   1   12   12   37   5
1972 TEX MLB  .231   47  117   10   27   5   1   2   12   15   29   0

Bucciarelli is the extreme example the other way in the Rangers' centerfield continuum of defense to offense. "Booch" also hasn't hit in the majors but he does, unlike both Iverson and Hodge, have a fairly recent history of gap power in the high minor leagues. He's got great speed, maybe not so great that he can equal what he did in AA Pittsfield in 1970, but he's easily able to steal 20+ if he gets on base and do that without getting caught half the time. Unfortunatley, he's also the least defensively inclined of the trio and that doesn't sit well with a team that prides itself on pitching and defense. He wouldn't be a liability out there by any stretch; it's just, when you go from a guy like Hodge, anyone else is going to look bad in comparison.

Bucciarelli can't help but fit in on this team, at the very least as a late-inning offensive upgrade for Hodge but perhaps more than that if Hodge can't hit.

Philippe Toussaint
OF No. 11
LL, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1949-06-25 in Brussels, BEL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 W H A    .243   50  185   19   45   5   4   5   21   25   36   5
1971 GRN A    .223   28  103   10   23   4   1   1    6    8   18   0
1972 DEN AAA  .360   24   86   11   31   3   3   2   13   11   15   2
1972 TEX MLB  .268  103  332   43   89  13   7   8   38   41   56   4

The Belgian native Touissant, who golfs in his spare time, has been promoted aggressively since being a 3rd round pick in the 1971 draft, but so far it looks like he's been able to handle things. He hit .268 in the depressed 1972 environment and scouts think he'll be a .290ish hitter as he develops. That plus an already impressive ability to wait out off-speed pitches should make him a good bet to carry a .360+ on-base average. If he can just cut down on the whiffs a little - in his case only a tiny bit - he should be able to carry a high-order spot.

Touissant was used a lot in the 3rd position of the batting order last season. This seems like a stretch for him but the Rangers were that desperate. He's got decent speed but it doesn't really translate well enough to consider him a leadoff guy so 2nd seems like more of his future slot. That said, he's unfamiliar with the game and doesn't lay down bunts, so he'll need to rely on bat control to do well there.

Touissant seems like a good bet to be slotted in to do things beyond his pay grade on this team. That kind of thing often gets you unfair labels in the press. If people accept Touissant for who he is, everyone's going to be happy.

Guillermo Thompson
OF No. 9
RR, 6'1" 204 lbs.
Born 1943-03-13 in Falmouth, MA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 DET MLB  .296  146  663   73  196  30  13   1   59   20   61  33
1971 TOL AAA  .200    1    5    0    1   0   0   0    1    0    1   0
1971 DET MLB  .241  126  497   59  120  22  10   1   45   22   59  11
1972 DET MLB  .179   13   39    3    7   1   3   0    4    3    4   0
1972 TEX MLB  .269   89  312   36   84  11   2   3   25   19   33  17

Thompson hit .290 or better from 1968-70 but slumped in '71 and, following a bad start to 1972, found himself shipped to Texas for 27 year old AAAA pitcher Richard Pulido. Thompson did better this year - in some ways, a .269 average in 1972 is like a .290 in normal years - and the 29 year old looks like a solid veteran presence to put in the middle of the lineup. He lacks the power of a middle of the order guy. Texas plays in a big park and they'd prefer their 3-hole hitter to keep pushing guys forward with base hits and productive outs rather than power, necessarily. That's what Thompson gives them; additionally, as a guy who does not strike out a lot, some think that contact could rub off on the younger guys.

Thompson has good enough speed to steal 20 if he plays the whole year. The Rangers didn't give him the starting job until mid-June, which is why he didn't reach that plateau in 1972. He's not a really great fielder and definitely not someone you want in centerfield. Left is probably more Thompson's speed.

I look at him and think that this is a guy who isn't necessarily Mr. Right for the Rangers but can for sure be Mr. Right Now.

Bubba Wilson
RF No. 12
LR, 6'0" 207 lbs.
Born 1944-10-23 in California City, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TOL AAA  .308   45  172   33   53   5   2   2   20   15   30  20
1970 DET MLB  .268   73  265   27   71  15   3   3   30   22   45  10
1971 WAS MLB  .292  150  603   78  176  26   7   3   45   53   91  11
1972 DEN AAA  .320   60  228   36   73   9   1   6   25   26   39  10
1972 TEX MLB  .212   58  212   16   45   7   3   1   14   23   34   6

The Rangers had high hopes for Wilson following a breakout 1971 season with the ballclub. They slotted him in at #3 and in right field on Opening Day, expecting him to keep doing what he did in '71. Instead, he hit .152 coming out of the gate, never hit higher than .268 in any month, and was sent down in early July to work on his swing. Although early reports from Denver are that he did get it back he did not return to the major league club, which had by September found other options in the outfield corners.

Wilson is more of a slap hitter who doesn't really have that makeup for the middle of the order. He's got good speed, bunts well, and has shown bat control in the past to hit a decent 2nd. At this point the big question becomes, where does he play at the major league level. Touissant and Thompson are the starters, it would seem, which would lead Wilson to battle with Goyco and Booch for the 4th outfielder job. Part of his issue last year was a compolete inability to hit lefties - 3-31 on the season - which leads one to think that a platoon or pinch-hit role might suit him the best. Another possible role is Best Mustachio. His is keen.

[Syd Thrift]

Oakland Athletics
78-77, 2nd AL West, 1 GB

1972 Outlook: The A's had just almost succeeded in the impossible: in spite of being outscored all year, they finished with 90 wins and gave the eventual World Series Champion Red Sox a real run for their money in the ALCS, eventually losing 3-2. After, well, an entire lifetime of losing in Philadelphia and Kansas City and a rocky start to their time in Oakland with consecutive 100-loss seasons, it sure looked like, for the first time ever, this team was legitimately going to contend for playoff berths.

1972 In Review: The A's got off to a strong start with an 8-3 April but even by the end of May they were sitting at 20-17 and 3rd in the division behind Twins and Angels teams who just plain looked more put together. June saw more of the same, but a hot 19-12 July coupled with a complete collapse by the Twins saw them rise into 2nd and just 3 games out by the end of the month. There was all kinds of hope at that point; sadly the team finished just 25-33 the rest of the way. Even that was very, very nearly enough to steal the pennant from the Angels: after losing 2 of 3 to the last-place Royals, all the A's had to do to force a playoff was sweep the Angels in a 2-game series. They won game 1 but couldn't put together any kind of offense in game 2 and lost the season 1-0.

1973 Outlook: Over the past couple years the A's have mortgaged their future to push into and possibly through the playoffs and now they no longer have a team that's young everywhere. The new mix of youngsters and veterans still has some big holes, and while the pitching staff did lead the AL in strikeouts, 104 of those came from the since-departed Roberto Ortiz. If this team was in the East, I'd write them off from Day One. They aren't in the East so, you know, hope springs eternal and all that.

Pitching

Vince Akright
RHP No. 2
SR, 5'9" 183 lbs.
Born 1943-06-06 in East Lake-Orient Park, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 DET MLB  11  14   0  3.61  34  34   5  241.2  223 109  97   99  173
1971 WAS MLB  18  13   0  2.25  37  37  13  295.1  234  88  74   86  195
1972 OAK MLB  14  17   0  2.95  35  35  10  256.0  220  88  84   91  201

Akright, nicknamed "the Stone" for how heavy his fastball plays, pitched for his 3rd team in 3 years with the A's and emerged as the staff ace. He threw a career high 201 strikeouts, completed 10 games, and if he had a losing record it was more due to poor support (2.4 RS/G), especially down the stretch. Akright sat at 14-12, 2.85 on September 12 but went 0-5 the rest of the way in spite of still pitching the same as he'd ever been.

He throws 4 pitches for strikes and only sometimes clears 90 on his fastball but in spite of that he has a deceptive delivery that makes his stuff very hard to track. He also keeps the ball down and works mainly by locating his pitches and changing the speed on his pitches. His 17 HRs were also, it should be noted, a career high, although of course 17 is still not at all "high".

It's a little unbelievable, if I'm being honest, that Akright got snubbed from the All-Star Game. He's easily one of the top 3 or 4 pitchers in the West.

Lee Barnard
LHP No. 10
LL, 6'2" 202 lbs.
Born 1943-07-19 in Dothan, AL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 IOW AAA   1   1   2  3.85   5   3   0   18.2   22   8   8    4   19
1970 OAK MLB  11  10   0  3.53  27  26   4  180.2  183  78  71   59  106
1971 OAK MLB  11  13   0  3.45  35  35   8  250.0  240 112  96   80  150
1972 OAK MLB  15  12   0  2.61  35  35   6  255.0  207  79  74   67  153

Even though "Batty" Barnard throws some heeeeeeat - he can reach the mid-90s with his cut fastball - his stuff has never had a lot of bat-fooling movement in the major leagues and so the former #57 prospect has had to learn to actually pitch. In 1972 he had a career-best 2.4 BB/9, good for 9th in the AL, which also led to a 10th best 2.28 K/W ratio. As a result of this, nobody was more consistently good on the season - 91.4% of his starts were of the quality variety - than Barnard was.

The pitching renaissance could not have come at a better time, as Barnard, who was one of those guys who got a roster spot in large part due to the '69 expansion, was at a bit of a crossroads. He'd been only an average starter for the A's before; now, instead of fighting for a job in the back of the rotation, Barnard is projected as a solid #2 man behind Akright.

Carlos Torres
LHP No. 6
LL, 6'6" 201 lbs.
Born 1938-06-07 in Esperanza, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PIT MLB  13   7   0  3.75  30  23   4  177.1  176  87  74   54  127
1971 PIT MLB   0   1   1  4.67  17   0   0   17.1   22  10   9   12   12
1971 OAK MLB   3   0   0  4.50  13   1   0   18.0   23  13   9    4   11
1972 IOW AAA  10   5   0  3.85  16  16   8  126.0  127  56  54   27   88
1972 OAK MLB   6   9   0  3.32  20  19   7  146.1  121  60  54   40   91

There's that saying that politics made strange bedfellows; well, how about pitching staffs? The A's had purchase Carlos Torres, a 13 game winner with the Pirates in 1970, from the Bucs for a pittance, as he was not working out for them as a middle innings guy. He didn't any better for the A's and nobody claimed him when the team put him through waivers in the offseason. Then. somehow, he was actually effective in the minors and the A's, now short on quality pitching, brought him up. Wins and losses aside, Torres was roughly a league average pitcher last season, which is pretty OK for a back of the rotation guy.

You can see why on paper he'd be effective as reliever: he's a lefty with good pop to his fastball and a devastating slider. In practice, he seems to be a guy who needs to read and react to the hitters as much as they do to him. This is a common refrain, but... he's going to enjoy not having to hit next year. Torres went 4-40 with 21 Ks and even that's better than his lifetime .081 batting average. Torres will be in a better spot to lead from the back if he's not asked to look foolish in 2-3 at-bats per game.

Torres is 34 and so can't have that many years ahead of him. Still, he seems like a safe enough bet for the A's rotation in 1973.

Chris Wilson
RHP No. 22
RR, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1936-07-08 in St. Louis, MI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 NYY MLB   5   3   0  2.86  31  11   2  100.2   85  38  32   42   78
1971 OAK MLB   6   0   4  1.69  43   4   0   85.0   54  18  16   40   68
1972 OAK MLB   9   9   1  3.95  39  16   1  136.2  119  61  60   74   80

Wilson was called upon to do the same spot starter / long reliever work he'd been doing so effectively the previous 2 seasons with the Yankees and A's but the wildness, which had long been an issue in his past, came back to haunt him and now the A's are left wondering if the 36 year old has a role on the team at all going forward.

Even though Wilson's bread and butter is a circle change, he still has a pretty pronounced split - lefties managed to hit .265 off of him compared to a .212 against righties. Maybe that was the underlying issue? The A's used him 23 times as a relief pitcher and he was only kind of effective with a 3.73 ERA. If we're looking for blame here, we should also not that he had a 3.68 ERA as late as August 28 before a 1-3, 5.66 September - 3 starts, 4 appearances in relief - did him in. In case there wasn't enough to be worried about, Wilson's HR total climed to double digits for the first time since 1968.

Wilson has stuck around in the league for a long, long time, first as a staff ace for a less than great Braves team in the 60s - he went 73-40 over a 5-year span from 1963-67 - and now as that enigmatic swimgman. He's surely got another year left in him. Will it be with the A's?

Willis Chavez
LHP No. 25
LL, 6'1" 199 lbs.
Born 1939-01-04 in Juan Griego, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 WAS MLB   3  10  20  2.48  62   0   0   83.1   81  30  23   46   44
1971 WAS MLB   1   0   3  0.00   7   0   0   10.0    7   1   0    3    7
1971 OAK MLB  10   5  18  2.33  56   0   0   77.0   70  27  20   36   34
1972 OAK MLB   7   4  27  2.74  67   0   0   95.0   86  34  29   45   66

If you want to know why the A's are overachieving in terms of wins and losses, look no further than their closer Willis Chavez. In slightly under 2 years as the team's closer, Chavez has saved 45 games in 56 chances with a 17-9 record in relief and a 2.56 ERA. In 1971 it seemed like sometimes he was effective almost in spite of a shaky command of the strike zone. Last year he got hitters to swing and miss at his 12-to-6 curve a whole lot more and the results were straight up legit.

And in terms of legitimacy, how much more legit do you want than a league-leading 67 games in relief and 27 saves? Maybe 33 shutdowns vs only 12 meltdowns will do it for you? You expect a closer to come in and blow people away, which isn't really Chavez' style: he's more of a guy who's going to fool you, where you think you're going to hit him only to look up and see that he's pitched 3 innings of shutout ball against you.

Chavez of course will return as the closer in 1973. At 33, he's found his home.

Ben Lamar
RHP No. 20
RR, 5'12" 189 lbs.
Born 1947-07-12 in Provo, UT

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 TUC AAA   4   0   5  0.00  17   0   0   25.1   15   1   0    7   29
1970 CHW MLB   2   1   9  3.32  35   0   0   43.1   33  17  16   23   40
1971 CHW MLB   3   4   4  2.51  51   0   0   64.1   51  22  18   25   59
1972 OAK MLB   6   1   6  2.42  53   1   0   78.0   49  21  21   30   56

The historical cheapness of the White Sox organization really served to help the A's out with Lamar. During the 2-week strike, Lamar, the Sox' representative, had worked really hard to keep the players in line with the union. Chicago reportedly did not like that one bit and the first thing they did when the strike ended was release him. Lamar was almost immediately swiped up by the A's and he picked up right where he left off in 1971, serving as the rignthand man to the closer Chavez and even filling in for him on nights when he was too tired to work.

Lamar's a pure two-pitch guy - a low to mid 90s fastball and a change that drops bats dead - who shouldn't ever be called on to start except in absolute emergencies. Those pitches are strong and they get outs but to even thinmk about moving into the rotation he'd have to pick up a breaking pitch. Since he's doing just fine as it is, this feels like it'd be meddling with a good thing, something something the golden goose. Eventually Lamar might succeed Chavez as the closer on this team; that seems more his speed.

Rick Shelton
RHP No. 16
LR, 5'11" 185 lbs.
Born 1940-12-09 in San Diego, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 OAK MLB  13  17   0  3.88  35  35   7  247.2  219 126 107  141  180
1971 OAK MLB  15  15   0  3.71  36  36   6  259.1  227 125 107  144  174
1972 OAK MLB   5   6   1  4.43  35  15   0  130.0  124  66  64   62   94

Shelton's kind of a personal favorite of mine. He was a AAA star - a 5-3 lifetime record in the major leagues - who was drafted by the Pilots and wound up being their best pitcher until they shipped him off to Oakland for two now-forgotten pieces. Since coming to Oakland he was a solid middle-of-the-rotation guy with the stuff to be more than that if he could ever tame his control. You wanted more but even so, what you got was a .500ish starter and that's nothing to sneeze at.

Then last year happened. Shelton didn't make the rotation out of the gate thanks to a really bad spring training (1-3, 7.11) but instead played in long relief instead. He didn't do well at all: through the end of June he was 1-3, 5.98 with 13 relief appearances and 2 starts. He did calm down in the second half and even got a lot more starts in the second half of the year, including 6 in September, but he never got things quite right.

Shelton throws a low to mid 90s fastball that is hard enough to hit when he's on and couples that with a plus slider and split-fingered fastball. By the numbers his control actually improved; in practice, batters just started getting singles and doubles off of him instead of walks.

I haven't said this for a few teams so I'll say it now: this is a CROSSROADS year for Rick Shelton. He could right the ship and stick around for another few years or this could be the end. It all depends on what he does about the single-itis.

Infield

Josh Lewis
C No. 5
SR, 6'4" 199 lbs.
Born 1948-08-23 in Houston, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 IOW AAA  .362  120  389   69  141  28   2  13   62   68   35   3
1970 OAK MLB  .198   26   96    5   19   1   0   0    4    6   15   0
1971 OAK MLB  .293  128  508   62  149  31   1  14   66   35   49   0
1972 OAK MLB  .288  119  480   58  138  19   1  18   73   39   32   3

Nothing to see here, just Texas Josh Lewis proving that he was worth all the hype of the #1 overall pick in 1971. Lewis spent the whole year as the A's starting catcher and #3 hitter, made his second All-Star Game, and finished in the top 10 in the AL in HRs (7th - yeah, I know), RBIs (8th), and average (.287). In a normal year he'd be a .300-20-100 guy even as a catcher. Lewis puts the ball in play like a good #3 man should. Will he hit .362 in the majors the way he did with Iowa in '70? Maybe not but I wouldn't count him out.

Lewis is not fast for a catcher but gets out of the batter's box quickly enough and even stole 3 bases last year. He doesn't exactly have the profile you'd really expect from a top-flight defensive catcher but a. he's still learning, and b. he sure does like throwing runners out. He finished 2nd in the AL In both runners thrown out percentage (39.5%, riiight behind Andres Gamez of the Rangers) and assists at catcher (67, 2nd to Gamez). He's a bit on the bland side and probably won't be leading parades any time soon (well, not on purpose - he's the kind of ballplayer who might accidentally start one on his own just walking down the street - but I digress) but the pitching staff has no complaints.

Lewis is 24 years old and looks like he'll be the A's man for the next decade, easily. It's way too early to say this is a Hall of Fame career in the making, but... well.

Ramiro Gonzalez
C No. 23
SR, 5'12" 201 lbs.
Born 1940-03-14 in Santiago, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 WAS MLB  .205   37  127   13   26   7   0   1    9   19   27   0
1971 DEN AAA  .277   26   83   13   23   5   0   0    7   16   13   0
1971 WAS MLB  .250    5   16    0    4   2   0   0    2    3    2   0
1971 OAK MLB  .211   20   57    8   12   1   1   1    2   13   11   0
1972 IOW AAA  .216   28   88    8   19   4   0   1   10   12   22   0
1972 OAK MLB  .238   37  122   12   29   4   0   0    9   20   31   0

Gonzalez is a good, solid complementary player to Lewis. He isn't anything super great as a hitter - he's a backup catcher - but he is competent enough and a good defensive guy who allowed the A's to use Lewis the way you'd like to use a normal catcher and not, like, overuse him and wear him out at the age of 24. The one thing Gonzalez doesn't have is a great arm: it's fair, and he doesn't miss the bag a lot, but he only threw out 27.8% of runners last year, in sharp contrast to what Lewis accomplished with the same group of guys.

He's 32 now and his career got off to a pretty late start - he's yet another guy who took advantage of newly opened roster spots with the 1969 expansion. These kinds of players still have good value on a team and if you told me Ramiro Gonzalez was still suiting up in 1977 I would not be surprised.

Alex Canales
1B/3B/LF No. 38
SR, 6'1" 201 lbs.
Born 1945-03-01 in Guayama, PUR

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SLC AAA  .333   12   36    7   12   1   0   1   10   11    4   0
1970 SD  MLB  .256   48  172   24   44  10   0   6   25   19   37   0
1971 SD  MLB  .260  144  572   73  149  24   0  14   72   43   79   0
1972 SD  MLB  .296   23   81   11   24   2   0   3    7    6    8   0
1972 OAK MLB  .263  120  422   35  111  18   7   7   54   51   46   2

The A's acquired the slick-fielding Canales last year in late June after their main guy Ray Hawkinson went down and he kept a hold of hte job all season long. That's sort of his thing: you don't necessarily go into the season expecting him to be a middle of the order hitter and first baseman every day but he does his job and pretty soon, boom, he's your man. Canales is a career .271 hitter and cut way down on his strikeouts last season, leading one to believe that maybe he can take another step forward as he enters the prime years of his career. He's got good gap power and last year maybe fell victim of the BABIP monster with the A's.

Canales won 3 Gold Gloves between 1968 and 1970 in the NL at first base, including one for a year he played in only 48 games Sure, say "Rafael Palmeiro" all you want (who?) but he's that good at first base. Last year he was worth almost 10 runs via ZR and also played a good chunk of 3rd and left field, where he's better able to use his arm. Canales is not fast by any stretch of the imagination; if he was, he'd probably be playing second or shortstop. He's a really solid bet to win his 4th GG this year.

The A's have a logjam at this position now with the return of Ray Hawkinson but what do you know about that, they have a new position they can stick a hitter. Canales is way too valuable in the field to go there but at least there should be no doubts about playing time.

Ray Hawkinson
1B No. 36
LR, 5'12" 199 lbs.
Born 1942-10-03 in Lewisville, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 RIC AAA  .328   85  125   17   41   7   1   5   24    9   23   3
1971 MIL MLB  .333   26   45    4   15   4   0   0    4    2    5   0
1971 OAK MLB  .369   51  179   28   66  11   5   7   33   11   24   3
1972 OAK MLB  .250   66  132   11   33   3   3   2   15    9   19   0

A longtime member of the Braves organization, the 30 year old Hawkinson never had a problem hitting; his issue was more that he pretty much only plays first base and Atlanta had a guy there already in Dante Chairez. The Brewers extracted him in December 1970 from Atlanta in a trade of minor league non-prospects (Atlanta got 3 guys back, only 1 of them is still playing) and, 26 games into his Brew Crew career the A's purchased him. Hawkinson was an absolute beast for the A's down the stretch and it looked like a shrewd move.

Unfortunately, Hawkinson's sophomore season with the Athletics did not go as planned. He sprained his knee at the end of April and missed almost all of May and June. By the time he came back the A's had acquired and installed Canales at the position and Hawkinson was mostly used as a pinch-hitter in the second half: 51 games played, only 13 starts. He did pretty well, all told, in that role - 10-34 - but anyone hoping he's hit .370 or even .300 for them were disappointed.

Hawkinson really ought to hit around .300 if he's able to play. He's got a long, long history of knee and back injuries and so, aside from the fact that he's a "meh" fielder at first, a move to DH might be what's best for him. He's a guy who needs to hit for average in order to benefit a club though: his career high in HRs in the minors was 18 and he's got that Bill Buckner (who?) never-walk, never-fan profile. Like Buckner (who?) he'll never let it be doubted where he stands on issues like playing time and so on. I guess to be fair TOOO BEEEE FAAAAAAAAIR to him he seemed OK in the pinch-hitting role as long was for a good cause.

Like I've been saying in there, look for Hawkinson to DH next year, perhaps as part of a platoon situation, perhaps not.

Israel Gaytan
2B No. 12
RR, 5'11" 175 lbs.
Born 1947-07-16 in Santo Domingo, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 WH  A    .356   60  219   31   78   8   1   2   21   20    9   2
1970 GRN A    .325   67  265   50   86   7   3   4   39   15    9   5
1971 OAK MLB  .291  147  602   67  175  34   2   6   51   15   56   1
1972 OAK MLB  .292  111  421   45  123  12   0   7   47   19   30   1

The scouts are pretty down on the 25 year old Gaytan: he doesn't move well around the bag like a middle infielder should, he'll sometimes lose concentration and make some wild throw to first, and unlike a lot of great second basemen he's not one of those guys who will yell and motivate a team into giving their all. But, to paraphrase President Lincoln on General Grant: the man hits. He hit .291 in 1971, hit .311 and .337 in April and May before a weak June and first half of July led the A's to trade for Tyler Knight, and then hit .390 in September once Oakland came to their senses and gave him his job back (by scooting Knight to short).

Gaytan's a slap hitter who's gap power went way, way down in 1972, but look for that to go back up. He'd have finished 6th in the AL in hitting if he'd had the at-bats to qualify. Like Hawkinson he has a gigantic strike zone and he makes contact with everything, if not the first time he sees it then the second time for sure.

You might look at the average and think Gaytan's a speedster but nope, that's not him. The game tools puts his best comp for his age at Tom Depew, who was not good this year but was, before this point, a fine guy to have on your team. Your shortstop will need to cover for Gaytan a bit more than Depew's man will but otherwise, I don't care what the scouts say, this man is a gamer. He is the Jose Lopez (who?) of the Thriftlon Reports, only (hopefully) without the sudden loss of ability.

Tyler Knight
IF No. 44
RR, 5'10" 194 lbs.
Born 1941-08-12 in Los Angeles, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 TEX MLB  .173   79  231   13   40   4   0   1   18   21   49   2
1971 TEX MLB  .266  149  482   53  128  21   0   6   69   57   89   4
1972 OAK MLB  .194   62  222   17   43   3   1   1   15   26   43   2
1972 TEX MLB  .231   54  173   19   40   5   0   3   14   16   41   1

Knight played 60 games at second base, 40 at 3rd, and 14 at shortstop (most of that in September). Yeah. "Infield" is the best descriptor of his positions. He's a three-time Gold Glover, although all of those awards were at second base and as the league begins to regroup after the low-hitting 60s, Knight's bat hasn't picked up with it, so he's most valuable at short. He's still a plus fielder there and you don't have to ask as many questions about the way he'll go after high and inside fastballs he has no business chasing.

Knight with Gaytan make a very lowkey middle infield: neither of them are captains but neither are exactly clubhouse laywers either. They both just kind of keep to themselves. Also Knight went to the University of Washington which immediately makes him AWESOME GO HUSKIES FOREVER PAC 12 CHAMPS

Chase Jones
3B No. 17
RR, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-10-09 in Brooklyn, OH

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OAK MLB  .240  117  445   56  107  20   3  17   69   57   98   2
1971 OAK MLB  .268  153  567   80  152  15   2  31   83   66  102   0
1972 OAK MLB  .199  119  422   25   84   9   1  11   39   49   68   0

What in the freaking heck happened to Chase Jones? Maybe we shouldn't have expected a repeat of the 31-HR, 83 RBI 1971 but he lost all of his gains and more. He fell into a huge slump to open the year 9-45 in April and never really snapped out of it. He didn't hit over .200 until August (.233), by which time the A's had mostly moved on to David Salinas or Alex Canales at the position.

Salinas does strike out too much but he struck out too much in 1971, too. The big difference there was that high fastball that he was able to golf out of the Oakland Coliseum now landed all too often in the mitts of left fielders. Was it just psychology or did he lose bat speed? Only time will tell. Jones won the Gold Glove last year and committed only 1 error this season - high-ass fielding percentages or no, that's incredibly good. You could theoretically slot him into the position even if he kept hitting like this if he kept that up.

Jones is 30 and wasn't been this bad as a hitter since 1966. He'll get another shot in 1973 for sure. The hook might be a bit quicker this time though.

David Salinas
3B/1B No. 45
RR, 6'0" 201 lbs.
Born 1935-08-05 in Jimaní, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 DET MLB  .273  114  373   40  102  10   4   3   23   32   30  12
1971 WAS MLB  .292   88  312   41   91  12   3   3   32   26   37   6
1972 TEX MLB  .202   62  188   12   38   5   3   1   11   12   29   5
1972 OAK MLB  .269   35   93    8   25   3   0   2   12   10   10   4

Salinas was never given the shot he deserved early in his career - he didn't take over the 3rd base gig with the Yankees until he was 27 - and so it's understandable that he's not quite ready to give it up now. Happily for him, where 1972 was looking like a swan song, he resurrected it with a solid 35 games in August and September for his new team.

Salinas still wants to start. If Jones continues to not hit, he might get his wish. Even if he does, he could slip in as the right-handed half of a DH platoon. The latter might be better for his long-term career, as Salinas' back is a good bet to keep him out of a lot of games even if handed a starting job. He's also not near the quality of fielder he was when he won 2 Gold Gloves in the 60s. His arm is still as good as ever but he's no longer able to move to his left as well and if his back is flaring up he won't dive for balls at all.

In the best of times, Salinas was a .320s hitter who hit for a .320 average worth of singles and, occasionally, triples. Now, you're hoping for something closer to .290 and without a lot of gap power at all. He's progressed from being a naturally fast baserunner who was prone to making mistakes in the field to a guy who will steal often enough to keep pitchers holding him but not enough to create outs on the bases. He was a combined 9/12 on thefts in 1972, including 4/5 with his new team.

Does this old dog have new tricks? I mean... no. Can he still be productive in a particular role or other? Sure, maybe, why not?

Jon Reid
SSS No. 27
RR, 6'0" 191 lbs.
Born 1945-07-11 in Escondido, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 RIC AAA  .295   68  261   26   77  16   2   3   19   15   87   2
1970 ATL MLB  .249   56  197   14   49  10   0   2   14   16   61   0
1971 ATL MLB  .267  145  559   62  149  27   1   6   63   35   99   0
1972 IOW AAA  .222   11   36    2    8   3   0   0    5    3    6   0
1972 ATL MLB  .204   55  167   13   34   8   0   1   12   15   28   0
1972 OAK MLB  .230   57  178   16   41   8   0   3   13   16   39   0

Well, you can't blame the A's for trying. Maybe you can blame them for trying too hard. Jon Reid came over from Atlanta in exchange for fireballer / wild man Roberto Ortiz in late June. He failed to do the one thing he'd done in abundance in Atlanta in 1971, which is hit, and by September the team had moved on to using Tyler Knight out there.

Strikeouts were always going to keep Reid from being a top-flight contact guy but in '71 at least it looked like the Calfornian had started to hit the ball a bit more squarely than he had in the past, producing not necessarily homers, although the 6 he hit that year were the 2nd highest total of his professional career, but lots and lots of doubles and hard singles. He hit the ball into the ground an awful lot in 1972, at least when he wasn't striking out.

Reid lacks the foot speed to leg out a lot of infield singles and as a baserunner just doesn't do much other than advance one base at a time. He's got good range at short that's negated to an extent by a scattershot arm. Last year he missed time in spring training with a strained back that he never really took time out to recover from; though that had't been an issue in the past, he seemed affected by it his entire time in Oakland.

Reid is in the mix for the starting job, at least. The A's gave up too much for him to not give him at least one more extended look.

Matt Evenson
SS/2B No. 11
RR, 6'2" 202 lbs.
Born 1946-02-21 in Edmonton, CAN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BIR AA   .105    6   19    2    2   1   0   0    1    1    2   0
1970 IOW AAA  .267   63  165   21   44  11   2   0   22   25   49   0
1970 OAK MLB  .219   71  224   24   49  10   0   3   12   32   50   0
1971 OAK MLB  .257  125  381   23   98  17   0   5   44   41   76   0
1972 IOW AAA  .250   10   32    6    8   2   0   1    4    2    7   0
1972 OAK MLB  .271   41   96    6   26   5   1   2   12   13   18   0

Evanson was the team's starter in 1971 but had two major strikes against him: for one, he's a known Canadian - what do these people do, rub beaver juice on their mitts? - and for two, he was pretty bad in the field in both 1970 and 1971. So after he tore ligaments in his ankle at the end of May, the team began to look elsewhere, mostly outside of the organization, for help. As of this writing it looks like Tyler Knight has the inside track to take over at short with Brian Wilcox right behind him. That puts Evenson as the 3rd best SS on the team at best. Even when he came back, Evenson played in 22 games with just 9 starts from August on.

Scouts insist he's got skills to be an "acceptable" starter at short but I think he looks more like a future backup middle infielder. If he can hit as well as he has the past 2 years - season and a half - maybe I'll change my mind about that.

Brian Wilcox
SS No. 3
RR, 5'10" 185 lbs.
Born 1942-03-15 in Wichita, KS

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 NYM MLB  .228   47  136   19   31   5   0   4   16   13   32   6
1971 NYM MLB  .230  110  365   36   84   8   2   8   31   31   67   5
1972 STL MLB  .182  109  302   24   55   5   5   4   26   29   50   8
1972 OAK MLB  .093   22   43    1    4   0   0   0    1    4   10   1

Wilcox is a singular fielder, probably the 2nd best shortstop behind John Timonen in the National League when the A's acquired him. That said, he was available as he was so late in the year because he's a lifetime .212 hitter who's beginning to look like his best hitting days are behind him. Wilcox hit a combined .171 betwen both teams with just 14 extra-base hits to go with a .243 on-base percentage. I was surprised to find that his most comparable player isn't Timonen but Orioles shorstop Jon "Lucky Number" Blevins. The profile is the same though.

Even though he was in an AL uniform from September onward, there is a decent chance that Wilcox will still win the NL Gold Glove at short. That would be his 3rd. Nobody has softer hands in all of baseball and he has no real weakness in the field. He's worth at least one highlight reel play a week. He's a decent threat to steal when he gets on the bases and tries to make the most out of his limited chances on base hits to the outfield.

Wilcox even hitting .230 would be an asset, perhaps even a starter. I give him around a 30% chance of hitting that well in 1973.

Outfield

Adam Groves
OF No. 21
RR, 6'3" 198 lbs. B
orn 1940-09-09 in El Paso, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHC MLB  .259  133  409   70  106  14   4  17   52   79  111   8
1971 CHC MLB  .264   93  277   50   73  11   3  11   39   48   60  10
1971 OAK MLB  .326   26   95   20   31   7   0   5   18   14   19   1
1972 OAK MLB  .211  120  379   62   80  11   3  12   41   58   80  14

Scouts think Groves is a "premier left fielder". Are we looking at the same person??? He looked like one after the A's acquired him from the Cubs last August for CF Mike Schurke, sure, but how is a .211 average and 12 HRs elite anything? They rave about his eye. Well, guess what, scouts, eye is not a TOOL. Tell me more about TOOLS. All that eye does is make him clog the basepaths and avoid RBI opportunities (note: this is 1972 Syd Thrift speaking. To 2024 Syd Thrift, these kids of players are among his favorites).

Groves is a solid if not spectacular runner who only steals when he's sure of success. You could hit him leadoff and not kill yourself. He gets down the line quickly and that combined with all the Ks means he only grounded into 4 double plays last year. His arm is only average so he's a better fit in left than in right but he's not a disaster out there and even started 17 games at the "9" for the A's last season.

OKAY FINE I guess my biggest gripe is that Groves hit .211 last year. He'll be given the opportunity to hit better. He's a career .236 hitter; I think the .260s is probably a more accurate landing spot for his average.

Casey Satterfield
OF No. 39
RR, 5'12" 210 lbs.
Born 1946-02-24 in Westbrook, ME

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 STL MLB  .264  149  572   75  151  22   3  17   73   54  105   1
1971 STL MLB  .302  144  526   72  159  30   4  13   70   71   80   2
1972 STL MLB  .270  110  440   57  119  14   0  18   56   45   53   0
1972 OAK MLB  .219   34  128   12   28   3   1   2    9   19   22   0

With Groves doing what he was doing, the Cardinals brought in young Cardinals right-hander Casey Satterfield a few days before the Brian Wilcox move. This one cost them both Jah Lloyd, who started half the season for the A's in center field, and minor league pitcher Vince Rothacher; for that price, they needed him to produce. He did not. He did match his career high in HRs with 20 but only 2 of those were hit after he came to the AL. Perhaps he'll improve upon that as he learns the pitchers better.

A big part of what made him expendable even though he was still quite a productive player in the lineup and still only 26 years of age is that he's not a good outfielder, like, at all. The A's moved him into left after he spend the season in St. Louis in right; he posted a negative ZR at both positions. In fact, he was worth a combined -22.4 runs between 1970 and 1971, making him one of the worst defensive outfielders in the National League.

So it looks like a move to DH, right? Well, like you've seen now, the team already has Ray Hawkinson and David Salinas expecting at-bats there, not to mention pinch-hitting specialist Raul Bueno, who has flat out demanded a trade but could be convinced into staying if he DHes too. That's 4 bats for one position: good odds for the A's, not good odds for any one guy who wants playing time.

Raul Bueno
PH No. 8
RR, 6'3" 197 lbs.
Born 1938-06-18 in Turmero, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 OAK MLB  .214   64  112    8   24   4   2   1   14    2   10   5
1971 OAK MLB  .278   67   90   19   25   3   4   3   21    4    9   6
1972 OAK MLB  .291   97  127   15   37   3   3   2   16    4   12   7

Bueno has been with the A's forever, going back to their time in Kansas City, and while it's understandable that the 34 year old Venezuelan would want to go somewhere where he might get a chance to start or at least not be the 15th option in left field, it's still a saddening turn of events.

Bueno has the profile of a good pinch-hitter: lots of singles, lots of balls in play. When he's been asked to fill in in the outfield or at first base in the past, he's proven to be a .280s+ hitter without a huge amount of power. That lack of power might prevent him from getting a lot of starting jobs elsewhere but if he's willing to pinch-hit with a new team, yessiree Bob. Bueno's got fantastic speed and in another world might be the Maury Wills (who?) of this save. As it stands, he'll steal early and often when he has first base open, a situation he's not often in with Oakland since he hits so much with runners already on base.

I'll do my best to send him where he think he's wanted. Raul, it's okay! You're wanted here!

Zackery Hadley
CF/LF No. 18
RR, 5'8" 196 lbs.
Born 1939-01-04 in Jonesborough, TN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 SD  MLB  .240  113  459   53  110  10   6   1   36   40   87  38
1971 SD  MLB  .254   95  362   47   92   8   3   1   25   27   62  30
1972 SD  MLB  .273   67  176   22   48   1   3   2   10   15   32  19
1972 OAK MLB  .385    9   26    6   10   0   1   1    5    3    6   8

The best thing about "Hoss" Hadley is that the A's gave up basically nothing at all for him: just the remainder of his salary plus an extra couple grand for expenses. Hadley led the league in steals 3 times in his career, including swiping a then-record 69 of them (nice!) for the expansion '69 Padres. Although Hadley'd been in the outfield mix with the Reds for several years before the Pads plucked him in the expansion draft, playing him daily and starting him in center was one of those odd experiments that expansion teams do. He also led the NL in strikeouts in '69 with 145 of them and let's just say that as a centerfielder, Hoss looked like a left fielder.

We're 4 years removed from that and at this point the 33 year old Hadley's ideal role is as a 4th or 5th outfielder and pinch-runner. He still has all of the speed and when he's able to get on base, as he did at a .351 clip last year, he's still a real threat at the top of a lineup. He hasn't been able to make consistent contact in the past and has absolutely no power whatsoever.

Really, my bet would be to ship Hoss off to someone who has a gaping hole in left field and who thinks Hadley can fill it. Hint: he can't.

David Mesa
CF No. 30
LL, 6'0" 192 lbs.
Born 1948-05-04 in San Antonio, TX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 IOW AAA  .333    7   27    4    9   2   0   0    1    1    3   1
1971 OAK MLB  .282   67  252   32   71  18   2   1   25   16   45   9
1972 OAK MLB  .231  100  407   46   94  21   1   4   17   23   66  14

Mesa, the A's 2nd round pick in the 1971 draft, moved up quiiiiiiick because they needed help in center. Just 7 games into his pro career he found himself donning Athletic kelly green and just a year later he's now a veteran with a full season of starts under his belt. There are hopes that now that he's here to stay, he'll work a bit more on his swing. Mesa, aka "Black Mesa" aka "Aperture Science" aka "Mister we do what we must because we can" has a worrying tendency to swing at anything that moves. So far it hasn't just held him to a low average, it's deprived him of on-base opportunities to utilize his 70 grade speed. He'll bunt his way aboard, which probably hurts his overall power numbers but any way he can get a hit is OK with us.

The reason why the team called him up is that every last bit of that speed translates into center field play. He was still adjusting to the role last year but made some incredible plays. He makes the nigh-impossible balls possible and the hard ones easy. He sometimes lost concentration on the easier ones but that will come in time.

Mesa's got a worrying reputation for loafing sometimes and isnt' the smartest guy out there. He'll need to be coached and closely watched, and to be reminded to keep on trying 'till we run out of cake.

Richard Berman
RF No. 9
RR, 5'10" 184 lbs.
Born 1945-10-22 in Cedartown, GA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIL MLB  .317   55  218   21   69  14   5   0   27   14    6   8
1970 OAK MLB  .297   57  229   31   68   9   3   2   23   25   11   5
1971 OAK MLB  .285  137  527   72  150  36   5   2   39   38   42  17
1972 OAK MLB  .276  128  492   52  136  17   8   3   40   43   41  10

Man, the A's love them some low-strikeout slap hitters. Richard Berman is maybe not the ideal choice for a right fielder: he's got warning-track power and although he's got a nice arm, it's not accurate. What he brings to the A's, day in and day out is contact hitting. Berman finished 6th in the league in triples and somehow pitchers were scared enough of him in the 5 hole where he hit for most of the year that he was intentionally walked 7 times, also good for 6th. Berman makes the most out of his RBI opportunities - you could take a lesson, Adam Groves!. He hit .302 with runners in scoring position and that clutch hitting was a big part of why the team played above its weight.

Berman is nicknamed "Bulldog" not so much because of his tenacity on the field but because he's a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs, a team he grew up rooting for from his hometown of Cedartown, GA, and his alma mater. He's got good speed - unlike Hoss Hadley, it's not blazing, but also unlike Hadley he consistently gets on base so he can use it. He also, I should not, missed the last week of the season with a biscuit meniscus in his knee. He's expected to recover fully by the time spring training rolls around.

[Syd Thrift]

California Angels
79-76, 1st AL West; Lost ALCS to the Detroit Tigers, 3-0

1972 Outlook: The Angels, following a kind of bad expansion-team plan where they tried to contend immediately and then suffered through their 100+ loss season in 1964 rather than right out of the gate, had taken a step into modern Seattle Mariners (who?) land with a shot at winning 54% of their games. They still have never reached that mark, don't get me wrong, but from 1968-70 they won between 83 and 87. They slipped ever so slightly to 81 last year but, it was felt, give the kids and the pitching another year or two and 90 wins and playoff contention seemed like a possibility, maybe even a probability.

1972 In Review: The wins didn't come but the contention did anyway. Following a 26-15 start including a 19-9 May the Angels were just half a game in back of the surging Twins. Then the Twins, as I've noted in at least 2 other team reviews, fell apart. The Angels... I would not say they did not fall apart. They definitely didn't rise to the occasion with a 15-12 June and 15-14 July but they were still 56-41 at the end of that month. They were 23-35 the rest of the way. Normally we'd be talking about the second half collapse but the entire division collapsed along with them. The Angels needed to win 1 out of their last 3 games to avoid a playoff with the A's and they got it on a Ken Hansen shutout on the very last day of the regular season. The fact that they were quickly dispatched by the Tigers seemed like the most inevitable thing ever.

1973 Outlook: Will this Angels team ultimately be hurt rather than helped by the higher expectations instead of allowing their kids room to grow? Or was this the taste, as back-doory as the playoffs were, of glory that will propel them into greatness? Only time will tell. I want to say things like "if the Angels want to repeat they need to X" with X being "hit" or "find a slugger" but the AL West is wide open right now and by wide open I mean nobody in it is any good. Someone's got to grab the brass ring in this division. It might as well be these guys.

Pitching

Andy Ring
RHP No. 27
RR, 6'0" 203 lbs.
Born 1939-11-19 in Palmdale, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 LAD MLB   3   8   0  5.48  17  17   1  111.2  134  77  68   47   77
1970 CAL MLB   7   7   0  2.93  17  17   7  129.0  102  53  42   50   84
1971 CAL MLB  18  10   0  2.72  32  32  10  240.2  191  83  73   97  172
1972 CAL MLB  15  11   0  2.90  35  35  11  269.1  217  91  87   83  192

Ring's bad first half of 1970 when the 1967 Cy Young Award winner looked like he might be washed up is a distant memory now. Ring's 40-28, 2.85 for his new team. In the annals of bad trades, this wasn't even a "trade" per se; the Dodgers simply cut bait on him and traded him for "future considerations". He hasn't reached the All-Star Game as an Angel yet but certainly deserved the honor the last two seasons. He was even 3-1, 2.75 in September while the team around him was doing its level best to crash and burn.

Ring is totally not nicknamed "Lizard" because he's been caught in the past sneaking a lick on his slider or his change of pace, which has an awful lot of movement, before he throws them, nosiree. It's for other reasons. Ring's fastball dives in on right-handed hitters and reaches the low 90s. He's very hard to hit and 1972 marked the 8th season he's finished in the top 10 in his league in strikeouts.

After going on and on about all these guys who were going to be happy to see the DH come, Ring might be a little sad about the demise of pitchers' hitting in the junior circuit. Ring hit a career-high .235 last year and has a shot at winning his 2nd Silver Slugger. If he stays in the AL it would of course be his last. Ring needs to get off the mound well because when he doesn't strike guys out, they ground out a lot. He's good at that - getting off the mound, I mean.

Ring has a career record of 167-128. It's premature to talk about him as a Hall of Famer but hey, you know, he's 2 more good years away from 200 wins and that would still make him only 34 years of age at that point. Is 300 possible?

Ken Hansen
POS No. 28
RR, 5'12" 188 lbs.
Born 1946-04-14 in Penrose, CO

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 HAW AAA  19   6   0  2.85  27  27  21  233.0  220  91  74   62  147
1970 CAL MLB   2   0   0  2.82   6   3   2   28.2   25   9   9    9   20
1971 CAL MLB  12  11   0  3.09  37  31   9  241.1  210  93  83   86  144
1972 CAL MLB  14  16   0  2.46  33  33  15  266.2  199  81  73   86  160

Imagine playing baseball in Southern California and your AAA team is in Hawaii. Do you see why we hate you, Angels fans? OOH LOOK AT ME I CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO STAY AT THE GAME PAST THE 7TH INNING so as I was saying Ken Hansen took a nice leap at the age of 26 from thrower to pitcher. This man throws some gas - mid-90s on the gun - and came into the league thinking he could just throw that stuff past people. Even in the Big A, that didn't work super great in 1971. In '72 it all came around. The K numbers aren't high but Hansen finished 3rd in the AL in lowest opponents' average with a .207 mark. He was equal to lefties (.206) as righties (.209), which was kind of huge because teams really liked to load up on the lefties with him. His career numbers indicate that a .226 vs righties vs a .237 vs lefties so, you know, don't go crazy with this guy thinkng you're going to platoon with him.

Hansen also has really great stamina. In spite of only starting every 5th day and therefore getting 33 starts instead of the 40+ that 5 guys in the league got, he finished tied for first in the AL in complete games with 15. Only Marco Sanchez of the Red Sox, who missed a month with a strained oblique muscle in his back, had a higher complete game percentage. Hansen also finished among the leaders in losses (5th but it was bad run support), innings (8th), total batters faced (9th, again in spite of being in a 5 man rotation), WHIP (4th but a know nerd stat), and shutouts (6, 4th).

This is Hansen's time to shine. Andy Ring will be the Opening Day starter barring some kind of injury but already Hansen is making a case in Angels fans' hearts, their cold, cold hearts.

Gary Bruno
RHP No. 35
RR, 5'8" 173 lbs.
Born 1945-09-04 in San Diego, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CAL MLB  16   8   0  2.80  33  31   9  237.1  221  88  74   60  103
1971 CAL MLB  14  14   0  3.27  38  38  11  277.2  284 111 101   75  111
1972 CAL MLB  11  14   0  2.99  32  32   8  240.2  228 103  80   59  109

The Angels' 3rd starter Gary Bruno was their #1 guy back in 1970. He hasn't really regressed so much as he just fell behind the former Dodger and the young flamethrowing prospect. Bruno is also much more of a finesse pitcher than the first two guys in the rotation. His 4.1 K/9 rate was actually a career high for the stocky San Diegan. Mostly, though, he excels in making guys put the ball on the ground. He finished 8th in the AL in groundball percentage.

Because he's a finesse guy who has to nibble at the corners, Bruno sometimes misses out over the plate and the results are pretty much what you'd expect. That said, thanks to playing in breezy Anaheim Stadium, Bruno's HR rates are still fairly average. He's allowed 21 HRs apiece in each of the last 2 seasons. Keeping the ball down was, strangely, harder for Bruno this year at home compared to on the road: 12 of his 21 HRs allowed happened in Anaheim and that plus the complete lack of support he had on his home turf (2.2 RS/G) led to a 4-10 record when he got to use his own shower.

Bruno would surely like to get things right at home. If he just pitched 2 road halves he'd have finished 14-8, 3.01, albeit with only 4 complete games. The Angels won't want to have to use him in Game 1 of the ALCS again, should they get that far, but knowing that he's available to be that 3rd-best pitcher on the staff is enough.

Al Gore
RHP No. 6
RR, 6'3" 186 lbs.
Born 1948-11-28 in Washington, DC

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PHO AAA  11  10   0  4.37  29  29  14  209.2  218 110 102   74  127
1971 SLC AAA   8  12   0  3.46  24  24  12  194.2  189  86  75   58  110
1971 CAL MLB   5   3   0  3.47   8   8   1   54.1   55  22  21   14  35
1972 CAL MLB  11  10   0  3.23  28  25   6  183.2  155  72  66   67  119

It's a real "inconvenient truth" for Bruno that the Angels discovered Al Gore; in his first full season in the major leagues, he showed the stuff that could supplant Gary as the #3 man and therefore a playoff starter in the rotation. The "Tennesee" native (his dad's a politician so like George W. Bush he's a Beltway insider) came up with San Francisco, was moved to the Padres, and then shuffled around to California with the, um, change of minor league teams (look, these things happen). He was at one point the 4th highest prospect in the league heading into 1971. Sometimes I don't understand how OOTP grades this stuff out: his minor league record looks fine, don't get me wrong, but it looks like the record of a high-stamina guy. I guess the game sees that velocity and thinks he'll turn into a power pitcher?

Gore throws hard but straight and the quality of his pitches aren't super great, although he does throw a lot of them. He's shown pinpoint control in the minor leagues in the past but didn't quite have that last year. Still, as a 23 year old he showed he belonged in the big leagues, and that alone is saying a lot. He did finish 8th in the league in wild pitches with 10; he'll need to concentrate a bit more in the future.

Gore got into 2 games and 2.2 IP in the ALCS and didn't allow a run. I wouldn't say he's ready for prime time yet but he's definitely ready to resume that back of the rotation position. If that heater (well, he cuts it but it still gets into the low to mid 90s) can find just a little bit more movement, look out, American League.

Tanzan Kihara
RHP No. 24
SR, 6'2" 199 lbs.
Born 1940-09-20 in Tokyo, JPN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CAL MLB   1   2   2  2.38  53   0   0   68.0   57  20  18   12   64
1971 CAL MLB   2   7  10  3.49  54   0   0   77.1   78  33  30   18   71
1972 CAL MLB   8   8  18  3.69  54   0   0   70.2   62  30  29   28   57

Normally, when you prick a team that overachieved its projected record, a dominant bullpen bleeds. But nope - the Angels' pen was led by the very, very up-and-down Kihara for the second straight year and with the second straight kind of results. Kihara in fact was pretty good through June, positing a 4-2 record, 7 saves, and a 1.20 ERA through July 2. Then... the wheels came off, culminating in a 7.94 ERA and 3 blown saves in 6 chances in September.

Kihara throws hard, just like you want a closer to do. His Ks were down but still really high, relatively speaking. The issue for him has been that he loves to challenge hitters maybe just a bit too much. Kihara has allowed 27 HRs in 148 innings over the last 2 seasons. This past year that rate was slightly down although still too high (he gave up 10) but the pinpoint control he'd displayed from 1969 to 1971 left and the result was his highest ERA since 1967.

Kihara's now 32 and the only thing keeping him in this job, it would seem, is the lack of someone to take his place in the organization.

Luis Flores
RHP No. 41
RR, 5'6" 172 lbs.
Born 1943-12-23 in La Crosse, WI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 BOS MLB   2   2   1  3.63  22   1   1   34.2   30  21  14   19   24
1971 SLC AAA   2   0   0  2.65   3   3   0   20.1   21   6   6    5   12
1971 CAL MLB   6   6   3  3.85  34  10   0   91.0   95  44  39   33   55
1972 CAL MLB   2   4   9  4.11  43   0   0   54.2   61  33  25   31   36

Flores is... frustrating to say the least. The one-time AL leader in ERA (1967, when he went 12-6, 1.83 as a rookie) has a wide but shallow repertoire of pitches, which would lead you to think he'd be a good fit as a starter, but he tends to crap out before he hits 100 pitches. The Angels have used him as a swingman and then pretty much entirely in relief last year and can't be too happy with the results. Like Kihara, too, he struggled late, although his truly awful month was a 1-2, 6.35 July where blowing 2 saves in 5 chances put the kobosh on an attempt to hand over the closer reins to the 28 year old.

His success in Boston, when he had it, was mostly tied to his ability to keep the ball down in the zone and gete people out with a nice change-of-pace off of a high 80s fastball. Last year saw him allow 7 HRs in 54.2 IP; not good for anyone, especially someone who gets to play half their games in Anaheim.

Flores probably won't find himself out a job in the big leagues any time soon - even if the Angels tire of him, someone will surely try to see if they can recapture the magic he had in '67 - but he might be done with the Angels.

David Camacho
LHP No. 22
RL, 6'7" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-07-25 in Tejupilco, MEX

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 NYM MLB   7  12   0  3.77  33  24   6  181.1  173  84  76   45   108
1971 NYM MLB  12  10   0  3.81  34  31   4  217.0  222 104  92   58   141
1972 CAL MLB  10   7   0  3.40  23  23   5  164.0  147  63  62   45    95

Camacho was the primary piece coming back in the trade the Angels made with the Mets last year for SS Chris Adams. While it was (arguably) a good idea to send the 7 year Angels' veteran out, the returns they got were not what one could call amazing. Camacho most of the final 2 months of the season with shoulder tendinitis which may have been affecting him before, as the 31 year old had the lowest K rate since his rookie year in 1963. He still had his good control but in 1972 in this part a 3.40 ERA is not actually very good.

There are thoughts of moving him into the bullpen: if he doesn't have to worry about trying to mix in his only-average change of pace and throws nothing but his low-90s fastball he throws with a couple of different grips, he could get back to whiffing a lot of batters again. The Giants used him as a swingman in 1968 and he wasn't very effective (8-10, a 3.70 ERA, 6 Sv) but now, 5 years on, maybe he's learned how to pitch well enough to be "that guy". Also, he'd be the only lefty in a bullpen that sorely needed one last year.

Right now it would seem that the biggest thing keeping Camacho out of a lefty out artist / short reliever role is the lack of quality starting pitching behind Al Gore. That's still 4 starters though, technically all they need.

Infield

Shaun Dennehy
C No. 18
RR, 5'10" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-12-09 in Cleveland, OH

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 RIC AAA  .260   21   73    8   19   4   0   1    6    5   20   0
1970 ATL MLB  .243   80  292   26   71   7   0   4   28   34   66   0
1970 CAL MLB  .247   23   77    6   19   3   0   0   11    8   17   0
1971 CAL MLB  .248  126  408   45  101  12   2   7   39   63   78   0
1972 CAL MLB  .196  121  321   32   63   9   1   2   28   52   66   0

In 2 years as the Angels' starting catcher, Dennehy has been pretty much what the doctor ordered: a no-frills guy who can play good defense and... well, okay, I was going to say "not hurt you with the bat" but he descended into "hurt you" territory last year. He seems to be pretty content with life as a defense-first catcher, even if that means eventually become a defense-first backup. When he does show up early to practice, which isn't terribly often, it's usually to work with pitchers on a nifty new pickoff move he thought up or a new way of signalling pitches.

Dennehy's slow the way catchers are. There are worse guys in the league when it comes to striking out but it's definitely true that when all you can produce is 2 HRs, you need to K less than he did. He once hit 12 HRs in the minors and overall 2 looks to be very, very low even for him, but I'd be surprised if he hit even 10 HRs in a single season. He's not a terrible bunter and has laid down 7 sacrifices in his last 2 years. He is scouted as having a plus arm but the Angels like to tell their pitchers to ignore the running game and so he only threw out 30.3% of baserunners, a decidedly middle-of-the-pack 4th for qualifiers, although thanks to the backups the Angels as a team were 3rd in RTO% with 34.4%

Tsui Hark
C No. 46
RR, 6'1" 199 lbs.
Born 1950-02-14 in Ho Chi Minh City, VIE (um that is not the preferred nomenclature we still call it Saigon)

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BND S A  .287   52  164   28   47   8   0   4   27   50   33   2
1970 QC  A    .270   21   63   10   17   4   0   2   15   12   14   0
1971 QC  A    .298   34  114   22   34   7   0   2   15   24   22   0
1971 SHR AA   .289   54  194   22   56  10   0   4   14   25   33   1
1971 SLC AAA  .313    5   16    2    5   1   0   0    1    4    2   0
1972 SLC AAA  .274   79  237   40   65  11   3   7   30   41   32   0
1972 CAL MLB  .327   34   49    9   16   2   0   2    8   16    4   0

I normally have a 100 PA cutoff for including guys but Hark is the exception since he finished the season and probably goes into 1973 as the backup catcher. Hark, originally signed out of Hong Kong in 1968, has shown up in top prospect lists for years, although recently his prospect star has dimmed as it's been revealed more and more than he's not a good defensive catcher. His offensive skills are more or less in place, even at age 22. Maybe he won't hit .327 in his career but .290 is doable. If the Angels can get his bat in the lineup every day he'll also give you 15 HRs or so and a clutch ability that precludes his hitting 8th. He was even used 11 times in the majors as a pinch-hitter.

Somehow he threw out 54% of baserunners last year, I guess because teams had heard so much about his popgun arm and wanted to test it. It was a far more pedestrian/mediocre 27.5% in the minors last year. As a baseball player, his mind is clearly occupied with other things. Cinematography, for instance.

Usually when you have a good offensive guy who's an iffy defender and a good-glove/arm/poor hitter, it's the offensive guy who winds up starting much of the time. With Shaun Denney's bad 1972, Hark will definitely be in that mix.

Willie Vargas
1B No. 7
RR, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1944-09-12 in Santiago, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHW MLB  .323  132  520   75  168  32   3   7   58   56   31  23
1971 CAL MLB  .281  135  552   67  155  30   5   5   46   36   50  32
1972 CAL MLB  .277  145  559   58  155  21   8   9   61   46   59  29

Vargas finished in the top 5 in average in '69 and '70 with the White Sox but hasn't gotten close to that .320-.350 range since. Nevertheless, he was still the team's top hitter, leading the Angels in runs, RBIs, and doubles and losing out only to Carlos Hernandez in hits and average. He has good speed to first and on the bases and that plus his ability to make consistent contact leads scouts to believe that the last 2 years have been outliers in terms of average. He hit .226 in April and basically spent the rest of the season trying to make up for that. His best month was September: with the rest of the team doing its best... let's face it, 1995 Angels (when?) job, Vargas hit 307/390/525 and could have won a Player of the Month award had a certain Cleveland first baseman not been even hotter.

Although he's only 28, Vargas has already moved down the defensive spectrum to first base and a further move to DH might happen soon. He works hard at what he does, especially in the batting cage, but he has poor instincts and an inaccurate arm in both the infield and outfield. Normally a guy like this - Vargas led the league in steals in 1969 with 38 and has stolen at least 23 in every year he's been in the big leagues - can make up for that but as a left fielder Vargas took such crazy angles that his teammates began to call him Mounds (because sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't I guess?).

Nobody wants to return to the land of the .300 average more than Vargas does, and if he can then boom, right there the Angels have a big old shot in the arm. He would truly become their Almond Joy.

Mauricio Mendez
2B No. 14
RR, 6'0" 187 lbs.
Born 1946-09-01 in Barcelona, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CAL MLB  .291   99  371   60  108  14   6  12   48   31   54  18
1971 CAL MLB  .273  113  400   53  109  10   3  10   44   30   54  21
1972 CAL MLB  .227  112  410   47   93  12   3   8   29   42   47  22

Every year - 4 years running now - it seems like Mendez loses his grip on the 2nd base job and then wins it back over the course of the season. Usually it's because of the team getting tired of his iffy range at second base. This past year his actual hitting came under fire - after a .150 April he got things mostly on track until he had another bad month in July, and with him down to .255 at the All-Star Break the Angels gave 21 year old prospect Kurt "Snake Plissken" Russell a chance. He wasn't ready and so, with the playoffs on the line, Mendez got the job back... and hit .170 in September and 2-13 in October, lowering his overall average to what you see above.

Mendez' bat should certainly rebound but the loss of bat speed over the years is a real issue. His first year with Cal he hit .322 and his average has gotten lower and lower every year since that point. With plus contact and power, scouts think he could be one of the best 2B in the league overall as he enters his prime years, but the glove's going to hold him back.

It wouldn't be outrageous to see the still-only-26 Mendez shopped during the offseason if the Angels can get enough back for him.

Kurt Russell
2B/SS No. 20
SR, 5'11" 177 lbs.
Born 1951-03-17 in Springfield, MA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 QC  A    .269    6   26    2    7   0   0   0    1    2    5   1
1971 SHR AA   .299   23   87   11   26   3   0   0    6   11   16   5
1971 SLC AAA  .358   13   53    3   19   3   0   0    5    6    6   0
1972 SLC AAA  .249  107  414   52  103  13   2   3   36   44   72  10
1972 CAL MLB  .234   36  128   10   30   8   0   0    5   12   22   3

Fun fact: Kurt Russell actually played minor league baseball; his dad, Bing Russell, owned the Angels' minor league affiliate in Bend, Oregon and he was even not too bad with them, which is a little crazy considering he was like, I don't know, the Jeannette McCurdy of his day: a child actor who only didn't have a long-running sitcom because back in those days the kids made recurring silly movies like "The Horse In The Gray Flannel Suit" and "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes". IRL he tore his rotator cuff at a collision at second base; this alternative reality ponders, what if he hadn't (and also what if James Hong, his nemesis in "Big Trouble In Little China", was his on-field nemesis)?

This version of Russell is a great defensive second baseman, so good that some kind of meh hitting ability still propelled him into being the #32 ranked prospect in all of baseball at the end-of-season 1971 rankings. His hitting looked unrefined and incomplete but the scouts insist he'll eventually hit well enough to hold down a major league job for a number of years.

The question really becomes then, if eventually then why not immediately? And if immediately, what do you do with Mauricio Mendez?

Travis Corley
3B No. 2
RR, 5'11" 190 lbs.
Born 1944-10-26 in Bloomfield Township, MI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HAW AAA  .282  127  468   62  132  17   3   9   51   47   63  12
1970 CAL MLB  .314   15   51    7   16   4   0   1    6    6    6   0
1971 CAL MLB  .268  144  514   78  138  16   4  16   76   63   86   7
1972 CAL MLB  .201  109  368   36   74   6   0   3   32   42   73   3

Corley's fall from grace was less publicized than that of the A's Chase Young only because he didn't have as far to fall; nevertheless, Corley followed Young's path of 1971 All-Star to 1972 no-star. Like, he did nothing last year - that .201 average came with a pitchery .242 slugging and just 9 base-hits in 410 plate appearances. I guess he did an OK job with drawing walks, at least until pitchers realized he was no threat to hit anything hard. Like Mendez he lost his job late in the summer and like Mendez he got it back in September when the replacements didn't hit either. He hit .242 in the final month but with just 1 double; even the improved Corley was not up to the task.

Corley is a solid if not spectacular third baseman. He'd got average speed, although it's a shadow of what he once had in the minors when he stole 21 bases for AA El Paso in 1969. He doesn't make dumb decisions on the bases and makes the most of what speed he's got left at 27.

The best thing that Corley has going for him is that his replacement, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was completely not up to the task last season (see below). Scouts think the power will return. I am... skeptical.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin
3B/SS No. 36
LR, 5'10" 172 lbs.
Born 1948-08-02 in Poitiers, FRA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 GRW A    .264   14   53    7   14   3   1   0    8    6   12   4
1970 SHR AA   .300   63  243   34   73   9   4   4   36   15   42   1
1971 QC  A    .212   24   85    7   18   4   1   4   18    6   19   0
1971 SHR AA   .236   52  199   24   47   7   0   9   21   27   33   1
1971 SLC AAA  .260   53  181   20   47  10   1   3   19   20   32   0
1972 SLC AAA  .244   95  295   34   72  12   0   9   46   29   51   1
1972 CAL MLB  .169   41  136    9   23   6   1   1    5    7   23   0

You might look at the name and think "oh no, what are the Angels doing starting known Canadians in their infield?", but no, dear reader, the reality is far worse than that. Raffarin is a Frenchman, and not one of those almost-Frenchman like the Belgian Phillippe Toussaint but an actual Frenchman from Poitiers. No, Poitiers isn't the home city of movie star Sidney Poitier - and in spite of what the name implies, no, there are not multiple Sidney Poitiers there - but an actual city in actual croissaint-eating, stripey-shirt wearing, unicycle riding France.

Raffarin wasn't super great in AAA and as a 1st round pick in 1970 (don't think about this too much, OK?) he really needed some more development time in the minors. With Travis Corley hitting like a pitcher, they called him up anyway, and... wait, did I say Travis Corley hit like a pitcher? At least Corley hit like a good hitting pitcher. Raffarin hit like a French pitcher. The only offense he created was his stinky garlic breath.

Even with Raffarin's high pedigree, it's looking increasingly like his future in the majors is going to be in a utility role; he can play both second and short, although not to a plus level. A .240s average with 15-18 HR pop like he showed in AAA might be enough to supplant Corley, at least in the short term.

Richard Simmons
SS No. 5
LR, 5'12" 188 lbs.
Born 1948-01-25 in New Orleans, LA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LOD A    .281   25   89   16   25   7   0   1    5   10   16  10
1970 SLC AAA  .210   29  100    9   21   1   1   2   10    9   13   5
1971 SLC AAA  .306   86  327   36  100  14   5   5   45   47   45   5
1971 CAL MLB  .261   52  199   30   52  11   2   4   21   26   32   3
1972 CAL MLB  .234  136  441   47  103  15   5  10   44   58   77  10

Richard Simmons, future gay icon to 1980s American housewives, had first full year that I can actually say "hey, for the season and for the position, that's pretty darn good" without lying to myself. The double-digit power is legit and so is hit ability to wait out an at-bat for a pitch he likes and take a walk if he never gets it. You wish he wouldn't try to pull every damn thing but I guess turning on the high fastball works for him and it's not like he's a threat to beat out a lot of hits with his speed anyway.

The speed is fine, don't get me wrong, just not speedster levels. Simmons is smart on the bases and stole 10 of 13 last year. Those who see his 38/43 rate in college should not be reading too much into college numbers and just accept him for who he is. Simmons is a former fat kid who has turned into an absolute fitness NUT and who loves to get everyone, players, management, the wives of managment, to do aerobic exercises with him.

Simmons would be an ideal #2 hitter if he could get his strikeout rate under control. As he is now, he made the All-Star game last year and made it legitimately.

Ivan Perez
SS/2B No. 45
RR, 5'11" 188 lbs.
Born 1944-06-02 in San Cristóbal, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HAW AAA  .203   46  153   24   31   4   1   6   18   20   44   0
1970 CAL MLB  .167    6    6    0    1   1   0   0    2    1    2   0
1971 CAL MLB  .238   23   63   11   15   1   0   3    9    7   14   0
1972 CAL MLB  .186   51  102   11   19   5   1   3   14   11   27   1

Perez has the reputation, perhaps not altogether well-earned, as an iffy defensive shortstop who can hit pretty well, and so for the first half of the seaosn he got a decent amount of playing time as a platoon-mate with Richard Simmons. He hit just .160 on the year against left-handed pitchers and got just 4 starts and 11 games from August 1 onward as it became clear that no, he's not much of a hitter after all.

Perez hit .269 with 12 HRs in Hawaii in 1969. That was 4 years ago now and it seems unlikely that at age 28 someone is going to want to see if he can do that in a full season, especially now that he looks like someone who can handle second base at best - he posted a 0.2 ZR in 143.1 innings at short. He seems willing to continue on in the backup middle infield role if that's all that's there for him.

Outfield

Lou Morgenstern
LF/RF No. 39
RR, 5'11" 200 lbs.
Born 1939-10-14 in Sydney, AUS

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIN MLB  .239  129  510   77  122  24  11  19   72   77  113   2
1971 MIN MLB  .247  149  559   73  138  24  12  19   69   74  100   3
1972 CAL MLB  .228  140  504   57  115  18   7  11   60   68   96   8

The Angels traded for Morgenstern, giving up closer Travis Livingston in the bargain, with the idea that they could insert the 1963 AL Rookie of the Year and 4-time All-Star into the lineup every day at the cleanup spot and get 20-ish HRs worth of production. They did not count on him failing to hit for power at home, pressing badly in April (5-33), and then struggling to get his average up for the rest of the year. I guess to be fair TOOOO BEEEEEE FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIA he got it all the way up to .247 as of September 8 but a .165 September dropped it into replacement range.

Morgenstern puts up all the numbers you'd expect from a middle-of-the-order slugger - a low average, lots of walks and strikeouts - except for the actual homeruns. He still finished 2nd on the team in RBIs although 60 is really bad for a cleanup hitter. He's a man who will do all the work of looking for the right pitch to hit and then fall in love with high fastballs, all too often either swinging straight through them or lifting them into left field for easy outs.

Morgenstern came up as a centerfielder and, while he was unbelievably awful out there at that position, had been a defensive plus for the Twins ever since they moved him into right and then left starting in 1969. That trend continued his first year in California. At 33, he still has much of the natural speed that he came up with and what he's lost in that regard, he's made up for by knowing where to stand for a given hitter. He will steal on a napping pitcher and is a big man who likes to break up the double play.

Morgenstern will get another shot out there in 1973 because the Angels don't have a lot of options in left field.

Jared Ferrell
LF/RF No. 9
LL, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1946-05-18 in Rathdrum, ID

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 ELM AA   .305   60  203   53   62   6   1  15  38    55   33   2
1970 OMA AAA  .271   77  258   40   70  11   2  10   35   39   83   0
1971 DAN A    .000    1    4    0    0   0   0   0    0    0    2   0
1971 EVA AAA  .315   33  111   18   35   5   0   7   18   18   18   0
1971 MIL MLB  .287  104  279   46   80  16   2  19   49   40   47   1
1972 MIL MLB  .202   30  114   11   23   6   0   3   10   13   19   0
1972 CAL MLB  .260   70  181   15   47   7   0   5   24   18   36   0

Ferrell got off to a rough start for Milwaukee last year, which led the Brewers to give him up to the Angels in exchange for Jordan Irons, a former member of the Angels' rotation who was a victim of numbers in California. Once Ferrell came over, he got his average back up, played a lot in both outfield corners against only right-handed pitching, and even pinch-hit 26 times. What didn't return was that prodigious power that he showed last year. I guess if he had, he wouldn't have been available for so cheap.

For a power guy, Ferrell can go the other way with a pitch and hit the outside fastball into left field. The 19 HR rookie year has made him prone to swing at anything high and lefties can get him out by throwing him practically anything off-speed. He won't kill you in the outfield although his relative lack of athleticism shows both there and on the bases.

As a fourth outfielder and platoony guy there and at DH, Ferrell's got a spot on an Angels team that is kind of desperate for power.

Sam Marks
PH/OF No. 4
LR, 5'11" 202 lbs.
Born 1942-10-30 in Lester Prairie, MN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CHC MLB  .340   93  197   24   67  11   1   3   25   13   14   1
1971 BOS MLB  .325  100  243   33   79  19   0   4   33   20   22   0
1972 BOS MLB  .277   59   83    7   23   6   0   1    5   10   12   1
1972 CAL MLB  .192   30   52    3   10   3   0   0    3    3    9   1

The Angels decided they needed Sam Marks and the Red Sox decided they did not, so the Halos were able to pick him up for pretty cheap, costing only minor league OF Andy Dulin in return. Marks then stopped doing the thing they brought him over for, culminating in a .156 September, right when the Angels needed him the most.

Marks was ued a bit as a fill-in OF with California; he's actually not a bad fielder and could continue in that type of role. All of that, of course, depends on the hitting. Marks has never been a big power guy and is more of a put the ball in play guy. With Cal, he seemed to press and struck out half as many times in September (6) as he had with the Red Sox the whole year. That's got to stop and to be fair TOOOO BEEEE FAAAAAIIIR the scouts think he's got that in him still.

Marks can ride a variety of different roles with this club, depending on how much he impresses in spring training as well as how close some of the younger players are. Last year a couple guys who probably should have gotten more seasoning in the minors got significant at-bats in the corners.

Carlos Hernandez
CF/RF No. 11
RR, 5'10" 195 lbs.
Born 1942-03-18 in Havana, CUB

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CLE MLB  .296  150  669   88  198  31   8  13   57   41   42   4
1971 CLE MLB  .279   51  179   16   50   6   0   3   15    8   23   2
1972 CAL MLB  .281  137  565   53  159  16   7   9   61   30   53   8

While he was in Cleveland, Hernandez was accused by Ernesto Garcia of pulling a gun on him. This shocked kind of everyone, including Hernandez himself, who was one of the few players on the team who got along with the mercurial slugger. The Indians had little choice but to side with the HR champ and so Hernandez was suspended from the team for the rest of 1971 and then shipped off to California in a trade that sent 2/3rds of California's starting OF - Norm Hodge and Nelson Vargas - to the Forest City (which I'm pretty sure is NOT what Cleveland was called by the 70s but STILL). Hernandez came over to California and looked pretty much exactly who he was with his former team - a little less power in a much bigger stadium, maybe, but otherwise pretty much the same guy.

Hernandez is kind of a night and day difference from Norm Hodge - not only does he not have Hodge's range, he committed 7 errors out there as well. His future is clearly in the outfield corners as he's not the kind of guy to work through issues like this via practice. He's got a good enough arm that he could play a good right field for several years. He's got plus speed but doesn't have great instinct on the bases; those 8 steals he got came in 16 attempts and the Halos would do well to nail his foot to the bag in the future.

At least for 1973, Hernandez will get put into the lineup in centerfield in ink pen. Beyond that, as long as he keeps hitting he's surely got a spot on this team somewhere.

Jaco Pastorius
OF/2B No. 15
LR, 6'0" 190 lbs.
Born 1948-09-29 in San Jose, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 QC  A    .000    1    3    0    0   0   0   0    1    0    0   0
1971 SHR AA   .359   11   39    8   14   3   3   1    6    6    5   3
1971 SLC AAA  .289   55  204   23   59  13   3   4   20   20   42   3
1971 CAL MLB  .321   29   78    6   25   7   0   0   13    6   18   4
1972 CAL MLB  .199   86  221   31   44  14   1   2   19   22   50   6

Pastorius was the #15 overall pick in the draft in 1971 and has been rushed baaaadly. He'll be the GOAT of bass players (if you don't know the guy, look him up - he made a solo album that's insane in a "how do you do that with that instrument" way) but he won't be the GOAT of players if the Angels keep using him like this. He did, I guess to be fair, have a good half-season up in AAA before the Angels gave him a debut-year cup of coffee, then convinced themselves that he was going to be their guy out of spring training. He did spend the entire year with the big league club, which I'm not sure was a good or a bad thing.

The scouts project Pastorius to have good contact skills but in his rookie year he showed anything but. He'd have easily eclipsed 100 Ks if the Angels had kept him in the lineup and not pretty well given up on him from the All-Star Break forward (he had just 6 starts after August 1). He needs that contact because one thing Pastorius does not have, not even in college, is power. He's got plus speed but it's not blinding: if he can figure out the hitting, he should be able to man center just fine even if long-time fans of the Angels might look at him and decide that he'll never be Norm Hodge.

Really, all signs point to the 24 year old Pastorius getting sent down to the minors to start 1973. You never know, though: if he hits, or even if other guys fall apart, he could be back up very quickly.

Chris Tyree
RF No. 16
RL, 5'12" 197 lbs.
Born 1943-11-04 in Ozark, AL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CAL MLB  .326   75  288   34   94  12   7   4   38   12   31  10
1971 CAL MLB  .326   98  396   39  129  19   5   2   45   10   29  13
1972 CAL MLB  .289   57  228   25   66  11   2   2   26   10   23  10

1972 was rough for Tyree. He struggled out of the gate with a .220 average in April, then looked like he put everything together with a .385 May, only to miss 4 weeks with a strained rotator cuff. He came back in July and was initially struggling but he'd had 5 hits in his previous 3 games when a torn meniscus in his knee ended his season on the 19th. Well.. his regular season, anyway: Tyree came back to start all 3 games of the ALCS and went 4-13.

Tyree is a pure singles hitter but he's one of the best contact guys in the game when he's healthy. The health is a big issue though, as Tyree has missed time in each of his 4+ seasons in California. Defensively he covers a lot of range but only has a fair arm; left is probably better suited for him than right, although OOTP's ask for range in right means he's probably the guy you want to put out there anyway - that is, if you're not trying to save his knees at DH. Tyree could still, even with the injuries, steal 20 bases a year if he ever got to play a whole year.

I'm beginning to talk myself into using Tyree as the DH... the issue I've got is, I think a lot of his ability comes with the fact that he's a good defensive corner outfielder. If he hits .326 again then he'd still be a fantastic fit for DH; that's a lot to ask for.

Minzengo Pinda
RF No. 29
SR, 5'11" 187 lbs.
Born 1949-08-10 in Mpanda, TAN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BND S A  .453   20   75   16   34   3   1   1   17    9   10  17
1970 QC  A    .277   45  177   26   49   6   3   6   25   26   33  14
1971 SHR AA   .283   37  138   15   39   6   1   3   20    9   28   9
1971 SLC AAA  .204   72  250   16   51   8   3   1   20   33   39   3
1972 SHR AA   .363   25   80   16   29   1   1   2   10   19    5   3
1972 SLC AAA  .265   10   34    5    9   0   2   1    5    6    4   3
1972 CAL MLB  .222   73  185   10   41   4   1   1   11   15   35   3

Pinda's another guy who you'd maybe like to see get a full year in AAA, in his case just to figure out exactly who he is as a ballplayer. The scouting discovery out of Tanzania has been playing in the organization since 1968 but has never had more than 257 at-bats at any one level as the Angels keep promoting him mid-season. The scouts think he's another contact guy in the image of a Chris Tyree. That sure didn't translate to the majors last year. Neither did the plus speed; Pinda simply didn't get on base often enough to steal. He had 33 appearances as a pinch-hitter, which is not a great role for a kid and seemed like a particularly bad role for Pinda: he hit just .167 (5-30; he also had 3 walks). Similar to Pastorius here, the Angels stopped using him down the stretch, as he had all of 11 games and 4 starts from September 1 onwards.

The tool that will get Pinda into the majors to stay is his off-the-charts arm. Already in the major leagues, runners just straight up refused to go on it. He's the kind of guy who might one day lead the country he hails from and this shows in the way he's a leader of men in the clubhouse, too.

Pinda did basically nothing at the plate. A contending team cannot put out an outfielder who hits like a shortstop, no matter how great their arm is.

[Syd Thrift]

Milwaukee Brewers
60-96, 6th AL East, 35 GB

1972 Outlook: As an expansion team, the Brewers have not exactly been world-beaters. They'd managed to avoid 100 losses in each of their first 3 years but not by much: in '71, their worst season to date, they lost 97. So... you've got a moribund team. What you're doing isn't working. You... dump the vets and see how far you get with the kids, right? Not if you're Milwaukee: instead, over the offseason they acquired "veteran leadership", most notably RF Jun Kim, and expected to... I'm not sure what exactly. A .500 record would have been nice.

1972 In Review: Not gonna lie, they had me in the first half. Milwaukee went 3-7 to start but then finished May 15-19 and an 18-11 June even took them over .500 at 33-30 at the end of the month. And then the bottom dropped out: 11-21 in July, 8-21 in August, 7-21 in September, and even 1-3 in October until the season finally and mercifully ended. The Texas Rangers had opened the year looking like they might break the record for futility in terms of runs scored; by season's end, the Brewers' offense was even worse. They did manage to finish out of the worst 3 offenses of all time: they scored 478 runs; the 3rd worst team (the 1966 Washington Senators) scored 466 (the ATW were the Sens of '67 who scored just 429). I was about to say that the pitching, which had been a strength in '71, was fine but then I looked at the numbers. It was not fine: the worst ERA in all of baseball, 3.96. The starters weren't great and the bullpen had the 2nd worst save percentage in the AL at 66.7% (only the Yankees were worse).

1973 Outlook: Well, they can't possibly get worse, can they? They played .250 ball during the second half of the season. Maybe it's possible. I'm still doubtful. You can't possibly play below replacement level ball for a season and a half. Can you? Can you?

Pitching

Danny Plaunt
RHP No. 45
RR, 6'3" 198 lbs.
Born 1944-10-25 in Summit, NJ

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 MIL MLB   7   5  14  2.62  67   2   0   96.0   67  36  28   35   78
1971 MIL MLB   6   6  23  3.42  67   0   0   97.1   88  38  37   28   70
1972 MIL MLB  15  10   0  3.08  32  32   9  236.1  204  87  81   90  132

Moving Plaunt back out of the bullpen, where he'd been a top closer in the AL the past two seasons, into the rotation was one of the few positive moves Milwaukee made last year. Plaunt had shown promise with a 14-14, 2.88 record in the Year of the Pitcher before a 4-15, 4.23 1969 campaign put him first into long relief and then on the trading block, where the then-Seattle Pilots acquired him in exchange for their own swingman Dale Parks (currently a free agent after Washington resigned him and then cut him out of spring training). The fact that Danny Plaunt actually finished in the top 10 in winning percentage (9th with .600) on this team is a testament to just how good he is.

Plaunt lives and dies on his slider and mostly nowadays lives on it. In the past he'd been held back by a less than great circle change but he seems to have brought the pitch along well enough that he can still get outs in his 3rd and 4th time through an order. Although Plaunt leaned much more heavily on his low 90s cut fastball as a reliever to get strikeouts, as a starter he's much more of a finesse guy who keeps the ball low in the strike zone and forces groundouts. His control was also not quite as great as it was in '71.

I still believe that, even at only 27 years of age, Danny Plaunt is an asset better used to trade for a multitude of youth instead of a guy the Brewers should stick with. His current best comp at his age is Chris Regan, who's shown flashes of greatness of his own but who has also bounced around a lot, even finding his way to his current team, the Royals, by means of waivers. It just goes to show how mercurial pitching can be.

Chris Olivares
RHP No. 20
RR, 5'11" 189 lbs.
Born 1947-01-13 in Santiago, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 MIL MLB   8  11   0  3.87  38  23   5  190.2  184  94  82   49  104
1971 MIL MLB   9  15   0  4.17  32  30  10  217.2  219 112 101   73  125
1972 MIL MLB   8  19   0  3.45  31  31  12  234.1  228  92  90   64  137

I'm not saying Olivares is good by any stretch but nobody deserves this. The 25 year old Dominican has lost 34 games over the last 2 years, more than anyone else in baseball save Marius Gaddi (who's gone 27-36), and Gaddi at least is playing for a contender who needs to use him every 4th day. Olivares was part of a 5 man rotation all year, through thick and through thin, was completely unsupported by the Brewers' meager offense all year (2.1 RS/G), and saved his worst for last, following a 3-1, complete game win vs Cleveland that raised his record to 8-17, 3.03 with a 0-2, 8.83 ERA over his final 3 starts, the last of which was a game in which he was knocked out of the box in the 6th by the almost-as-low Yankees after having allowed 6 runs against them.

Olivares has good stuff and solid control. He was really good at keeping the ball down last year, much better than he'd been in his previous 3 seasons in the major leagues, with just 0.3 HR/9 (9 overall), less than half of what he'd done prior to this. I hate to say it but this looks like luck going the other way for him. He's got solid stamina and mixes 4 pitches including a good 12-to-6 curve that got him 16 GIDPs last year. In fact, He finished 5th in the AL in complete game percentage, finishing 38.7% of his starts. He wasn't nearly as good at holding runners last year, giving up 16 steals in 25 attempts (in '71 runners went 8/17 against him) as he concentrated on the hitter a lot more.

You'd love for things to turn around for Olivares but maybe "losing pitcher" is his baseball identity. He's 25 and so still a couple years away from his prime seasons.

Jonas Youngblood
RHP No. 24
SR, 5'7" 165 lbs.
Born 1942-03-15 in Kendall West, FL

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 PEN AAA   1   1   2  4.50  10   2   0   20.0   16  11  10   12   20
1970 MON MLB   2   5   0  4.64  19  10   1   81.1   81  47  42   42   42
1971 PEN AAA   3   3   2  4.62  17   1   0   35.0   35  19  18   21   24
1971 STL MLB   0   0   0  6.75   2   0   0    5.1    7   4   4    3    4
1971 TUL AAA   0   2   0  4.43   4   4   0   24.1   25  16  12   20   17
1971 MIL MLB   6   2   0  4.16   9   9   0   58.1   61  27  27   25   26
1971 EVA AAA   0   0   0  3.08   2   2   0   11.2   12   4   4    5   11
1972 MIL MLB   6  12   1  3.24  31  23   4  183.0  154  67  66   77   88

When you see a guy named Youngblood, you think you're going to watch a man with a fiery fastball and maybe even firey-er temperament. The actual Jonas Youngblood is a junkballing right-hander who nibbles and nibbles all game long. He's got a good forkball that he can get groundouts with but that's about the sum total of his positives. His "fastball", which rides in on right-handed hitters, can only be called "high 80s" on the best of days. A guy like this has to be pinpoint with his control and Youngblood misses a good amount, both off of the plate and out over it (15 HRA last year). And one thing that really mitigates all those groundouts is that his pickoff move is just about the most predictable move in the game: last year runners were 22/26 on him.

It's not hard to see why Youngblood never had more than 81.1 IP at the major league level before this season. You'd think it's doubtful he'll get any more... and yet, he was kind of successful with this team. Expect the Brewers to keep riding him in the middle of their rotation until he turns into a pumpkin, which could come quickly.

Omar Jimenez
RHP No. 28
LR, 5'9" 143 lbs.
Born 1949-02-14 in Santo Domingo, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CHL AA    1   0   0  3.37   1   1   0    8.0    4   3   3    7    2
1970 EVA AAA  10   9   0  4.47  29  29   0  167.0  143  93  83  111  132
1971 DAN A    20   1   0  1.45  21  21  14  179.1  136  37  29   46  214
1971 EVA AAA   5   1   0  0.87   8   8   2   62.0   47   6   6   14   54
1971 MIL MLB   1   1   0  4.26   2   2   0   12.2   10   6   6    5   10
1972 EVA AAA   4   3   0  2.54  11  11   1   85.0   58  24  24   33   92
1972 MIL MLB   7  11   0  3.45  23  23   3  156.1  125  62  60   67  127

When a guy has the kind of year Jiminez had in A-ball in 1971, he's going to get called up quickly, no two bones about it. The irony(?) is that the fireballer had actually been sent down to Danville after a touch 1970 season in AAA that saw his walk rate explode. Whatever he was doing wrong in the high minors, he sure fixed in the low minors and, following a little September cup of coffee and then a solid 11 games in '72 where proved it wasn't just one good year, Jiminez found his way into the major leagues, where his change and his split-fingered fastball continued to generate strikeouts to back up that fastball of his, which, the radar says it only occasionally hits the mid-90s. That's still awwwwfully fast.

Compounding matters for hitters - hopefully not for Jiminez himself - is that all that speed and movement come from such a small frame. Balls just kind of come out of his tiny hands and zip, they're on you. His control was slightly below average in the majors but come on, slightly below average is a huuuuge upgrade over what he was 2 years ago.

Jiminez will fall off this list once it's published due to no longer qualifying but he was the #11 prospect in the league according to the 2nd-half Baseball America list. He'll be the ace of this Brewers staff sooner rather than later.

Matt Brock
RHP No. 34
RR, 5'12" 197 lbs.
Born 1939-12-27 in Pasadena, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 BOS MLB   7   6  30  3.31  67   0   0   92.1   79  44  34   31   82
1971 BOS MLB   9   7  25  3.78  59   0   0   90.1   81  38  38   34   77
1972 MIL MLB   8   6  18  2.53  61   0   0   81.2   66  23  23   40   60

Brock was one of 3 key pieces the Brewers acquired from the Red Sox in that blockbuster trade from last October, Jun Kim and 2B Dwayne Fraser being the 2 others. The 32 year old Brock was pretty much the same guy he'd been with the Red Sox, a high-risk, high-reward short reliever. It was hoped that a move to a bigger ballpark would help curb his increasing gopherball tendencies - Brock allowed 10 HRs in both '70 and '71 - and to some extent it helped, as he dropped to 7. At the same time, he found it harder to keep his slider over the plate and in the second half of the season hitters stopped swinging at it: his worst 2 months of the year were August (1-1, 4.2) and Stpember (2-0, 3.72).

Brock should come back to play the same role because what else is he going to do on this team? He could be traded again, I guess, if someone else wants a guy who could strike out the side or give up 2 walks and a bomb depending on whether or not he's able to place the breaking pitch on a given day.

Abraham Sarmiento Jr.
LHP No. 4
LL, 5'11" 172 lbs.
Born 1950-06-08 in Manila, PHI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 EVA R     1   2   0  4.26   4   4   0   25.1   25  13  12    6   31
1970 HUR S A   3   2   0  3.37   7   7   0   42.2   41  16  16   19   37
1971 QUI A    12   5   0  3.97  27  22   7  163.0  153  77  72   58  154
1972 SA  AA    4   3   0  3.73   9   9   6   72.1   54  31  30   31   48
1972 MIL MLB   3   2   1  6.41  44   2   0   47.2   51  34  34   17   41

Hey, give the Brewers credit for trying... or don't? Give them credit for possibly ruining a prospect by pushing him too quickly? Following a solid but not really spectacular start in AA San ANtonio, the Brewers promoted Sarmiento all the way to the major leagues and made him their lefty specialist. He... was not good, starting with an 8.44 ERA - 10 runs allowed in 10.2 IP in July, then settling down a liiiittle in August - 0-1, 5.52, although that includes his 0-1, 7.84 record over 2 starts so the 6 games in relief he had were OK - and then getting absolutely destroyed in Setpember to the tune of 0-1, 12.86.

Sarmiento Jr. has a nice slow curve that he pairs with a fastball with good movement, that is, when everything is working OK. When it's not, everything finishes up in the zone and hitters blast everything they see out of the park. He did hold lefties to 203/263/391, which really only shows how awful he was against right-handed batters: 316/377/590. Out of that, yeah, theoretically you could still make him a situational guy, but a situational guy who turns opposite-handed hitters into Ernesto Garcia is not really a guy who needs to be at this level.

Sarmiento Jr. is still just 22 years of age and has a bright future ahead of him (ed. note: he does not; in reality, Sarmieno was an outspoken critic of Ferdinand Marcos amd died young after a 7-month imprisonment where, among other things, he was deprived of his asthma medication). He could reeeeally use another year in the minors to put things together though.

Victor Marin
RHP No. 8
RR, 5'11" 177 lbs.
Born 1941-04-09 in Hamden, CT

Yr   Tm  Lvl   W   L  Sv   ERA   G  GS  CG     IP    H   R  ER   BB   SO
1970 CHC MLB  11  11   0  4.85  27  27   6  168.2  182  95  91   65   87
1971 CHC MLB   5  10   0  4.19  36  15   3  150.1  161  83  70   53   93
1972 MIL MLB   4  14   1  3.94  38  18   6  150.2  157  73  66   49   83

Where all DJ Khaled (who?) does is win, win, win no matter what, all Victor Marin does is lose, lose, lose no matter what. He's now a combined 9-24 in the last 2 years and once lost 19 games for the Cubs. It adds up to a career 78-97 record. Now 31, if you squint enough you can see how Marin could be an okay back of the rotation guy for a good team: in spite of throwing only slow, slower, and slowest, Marin still gets K's OK and has good control. He gave up a loooot of HRs towards the end of his time in Chicago but that's almost to be expected out of a finesse pitcher pitching in Wrigley. Milwaukee County Stadium is more his speed.

Marin is 31 years old and you don't usually put vets into the swingman role that he's now sat in for 2 years running, especially when you aren't getting results out of it. Marin was better as a starter (4-12, 3.80) than as a reliever (0-2, 4.76) but was not in truth very good at either. His making the team in '73 comes down to how many of the kids are ready to go.

Infield

Adam Brown
C No. 1
LR, 5'10" 184 lbs.
Born 1948-07-12 in New York, NY

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 GB  R    .360   25   75   24   27   3   0  11   24   18   13   1
1970 NEW S A  .300   30  100   24   30   5   0   9   24   17   15   0
1970 CLI A    .319   91  270   59   86  17   2  10   39   89   50   0
1971 MIL MLB  .240   93  246   33   59  13   3   7   33   35   49   0
1972 MIL MLB  .208  111  312   33   65  12   1   8   36   65   64   0

Brown's second year as the Brewers' starting catcher was... fine, if a little disappointing. The 23rd overall pick in the 1969 draft, Brown at this point looks like more of a platoon half - he hit just .167 in 36 at-bats vs LHPs last year - than a full-timer and he's not anything special defensively to boot. That said, he does have decent power and maybe his biggest skill is his ability to transfer his catching knowledge to great pitch selection and from that an ability to draw a lot of walks. Although Brown carried an average of only .208 he got on base at a .347 clip and only 6 of his 65 walks were intentional.

Brown thinks he has more power then he actually has so he'll swing for the fences and miss a bit too much. When he isn't trying to do that he's got some ability to go the other way with a pitch. Scouts are not exactly sanguine on any projected ability to solve that issue though. As noted, Brown is only an average fielder with a fair arm that only threw out 27.7% of would-be stealers last year. He's more of a guy to go in and do his job than a team captain that catchers often become. He also has an outsized opinion of himself as a player, which may get him into trouble as he comes into his prime.

Brown's still only 24 and since catchers do develop more slowly (note: I don't think this is a thing in OOTP but it's conventional wisdom and I am going with that), he could still add something to his game. It's not like he has a huge amount of competition for the position at the moment.

Eddie Dimmock
C No. 12
LR, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-05-17 in Reading, MA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LAD MLB  .197  101  320   30   63  17   0   5   40   47   89   0
1971 CAL MLB  .214   41  117   11   25   4   1   1   13   15   24   0
1972 CAL MLB  .205   41   83   12   17   3   0   1   12   14   16   0
1972 MIL MLB  .185   18   54    2   10   1   1   1    7    5   13   0

On July 28, Dimmock replaced Chris Flores as the Brewers' backup. Dimmock was a starter with the other LA team for several years before moving to Cal and at 30 he thinks he can still start. He needs to hit for that to happen though: he hit .260 in '69 but hasn't come close to that since, and to make matters worse he's also a lefty. The club called up minor leaguer Ken Hall at the end of the year to coax a platoon again and although that was not fruitful either - Hall did go 5-21, which isn't terrible, I guess, but he hit .185 in AAA so I don't think that's sustainable - it's hard to imagine this team heading into 1973 with two left-handed catchers.

Sergio Sicre
1B No. 7
LL, 6'1" 202 lbs.
Born 1946-02-04 in Bayamón, PUR

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 LOU AAA  .316   90  253   56   80  19   1  13   38   28   42   0
1970 KC  MLB  .228   41  136   14   31   6   0   1   15   12   16   0
1971 LOU AAA  .256  116  390   53  100  21   0  10   62   51   36   0
1971 BOS MLB  .200   10   10    1    2   0   0   0    0    2    1   0
1972 EVA AAA  .280   42  125   11   35   6   0   5   23   10   11   0
1972 MIL MLB  .281  103  356   40  100   9   1  12   38   27   39   0

A throw-in in the Jun Kim trade, Sergio Sicre wasn't really expected to do much. Maybe he could be a solid AAA bat and a guy who could fill in in case of emergency. Then Kozue Nakamura completely forgot how to hit and left the Brewers with practically no choice but to recall Sicre and see what he had. He made the most out of the opportunity; in spite of not even being on the roster until June 6, Sicre finished 3rd on the team in HRs, 4th in RBIs, and 3rd in hits.

The Royals tried to make him a left fielder in 1970 but the Red Sox gave up on that and made him into a full-time first baseman. That was a position he was going to be blocked at by Mike Miller so the move to Milwaukee was great for him. Sicre looks like he's got the lumber to hold his own at the position and hit in the middle of the order for most teams. With Wilwaukee that meant 3rd for a good chunk of the year. He's a slowpoke but at first base that doesn't matter so much; in fact, he can use his height to good purpose in the field even if he doesn't move to his right well.

Sorry, Kozue Nakamura, your job's probably gone. Sicre has it now to keep.

Kozue Nakamura
1B No. 13
RR, 5'11" 203 lbs.
Born 1942-04-18 in Moriguchi, JPN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 HAW AAA  .333  114  393   57  131  24   1   2   55   37   16   0
1971 MIL MLB  .313  150  565   60  177  29   2   4   65   46   56   0
1972 EVA AAA  .320   36  128   17   41  10   0   1   10    7   11   0
1972 MIL MLB  .174   41  132   10   23   5   0   2   13    8   21   0

A Rule V draft pick out of the California organization in December of 1970, Nakamura was one of the feel-good stories of the year, going from minor leaguer to All-Star. He even finished 3rd in the AL in hitting and 4th in hits in that storied season. Then, following another solid spring training that showed no signs of what was to come, Nakamura just plain stopped hitting. He hit .140 in April and .160 in May until the Brewers decided they had to do something. By June, the 1B job was Sergio Sicre's alone and other than a small stretch in which he was called back up in August to pinch-hit and do a little of backing up (he never actually played at first though), Nakamura was in the minors for the rest of the year.

The good news is, he did appear to recapture his hitting stroke. The better news is, the DH opens up a spot for both him and Sicre. Nakamura isn't anything great at first base either so it's a coinflip as to who actually plays the position. There's also the possibility of using him as a platoon bat although truth be told, Sicre handled lefties well enough in 1972.

James Hong
2B No. 26
LR, 5'12" 166 lbs.
Born 1953-02-22 in Minneapolis, MN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1971 NEW S A  .409    6   22    2    9   2   1   0    3    2    1   2
1971 DAN A    .302   44  172   33   52  10   0   5   19   22   31   1
1971 LYN A    .000    1    3    0    0   0   0   0    0    1    1   0
1971 WR  A    .400    1    5    0    2   1   0   0    2    0    1   0
1971 CHL AA   .268   11   41    4   11   1   0   2    4    5    2   0
1971 EVA AAA  .326   12   43    7   14   1   0   2    8    8    4   0
1972 EVA AAA  .263   52  198   31   52   6   2  12   30   19   48   1
1972 MIL MLB  .255   92  322   40   82  15   1   8   28   48   52   7

Look, nobody actually thinks that Hong is 19. I swear I saw him in an epsiode of Kung Fu playing an older guy. But he insists that that's his real age and scientists have studied his body and say that it is the body of a 19 year old. All we know for sure is, in a world with Snake Plissken, you cannot do without Lo Pan.

If Hong truly is 19, just being able to play in the league at that age means he's going to really be something. He was more than just a guy who was vaguely able to play though. He's got good pop for a second baseman and the kind of batting practice hits that make you think he can do a lot more than that. He's already shown himself to be a guy who knows how to wait for his pitch, although he's also been very, very susceptible to the high fastball. About the only thing holding him back from being a perennial All-Star in the making is his actual defense at second: Hong has a bad arm, which is why he's here and not, say, short or third, and on top of that is only OK at moving to his left and right. He's an intelligent guy who will improve as he learns how to play the batters. He's a plus fielder, no threat to lead the league or finish in the top 10 in steals but 10-15 steals over a full season sounds about right.

Hong should be in the lineup somewhere for the Brewers for a long time to come. He's going to make big trouble in the little Chinas all over the country, by which I mean opposing stadia and I'm not sure how that applies.

Dwayne Fraser
2B/3B No. 35
RR, 5'11" 194 lbs.
Born 1945-03-23 in Prince George, CAN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BOS MLB  .314  153  573   64  180  40   4   2   63   53   45   5
1971 BOS MLB  .308   56  169   21   52   9   3   3   25    7   22   1
1972 MIL MLB  .238   96  244   22   58  10   0   3   21   19   35   1

Dwayne Fraser surely feels hard done by and who could blame him? After finishing 7th in the AL in average and 3rd in doubles in 1970, he watched as the Red Sox brought in the surer handed Brian Long to play the position instead. After a season acting as Long's caddy he was shipped off to the Brewers, who were not going to be contending for anything but promised the then-26 year old the starting job. Fraser started slow but wasn't, like, horrific or anything, but the Brewers as a team were flailing and so they called up their "19" year old phenom they'd recently picked up from the Twins, James Hong, and handed him the gig. Fraser immediately went to the bench, and outside of a 2 week stretch in August when Hong was sidelined with a foot injury didn't start again until the last game of the year.

Now 27, Fraser is definitely more of an offense-minded keystoner than a defensive one, and that also means he's unlikely to move anywhere else in the infield. I listed him as a 3rd baseman because he started a game there but he just plain doesn't have the arm for that posiiton, and if you ask him to play shortstop he's going to embarrass you. Fraser got to pressing really bad in his time in Milwaukee last year and struck out almost as often in 244 at-bats as he did in a full season in 1970. He's ever been a guy who Ks much so perhaps a change of scenery will help him there.

At the end of the day, it would be very, very surprising if Fraser is wearing Milwaukee blue and gold on Opening Day. He doesn't want to be there and the Brewers don't have a place for him. And somebody will surely have a spot for a high-average doubles machine, range or no range...

Francisco Martinez
3B No. 23
LR, 5'11" 178 lbs.
Born 1947-02-09 in Monción, DOM

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 MIL MLB  .306  149  569   60  174  35   2   5   58   29   39   0
1971 MIL MLB  .252  103  373   34   94  11   1   4   35    9   35   0
1972 EVA AAA  .368    5   19    3    7   2   0   0    3    1    2   0
1972 MIL MLB  .224  102  335   27   75   5   0   6   24   13   30   1

After hitting .306 in 1970, Martinez had one of those seasons that makes you think, "why is this guy in the league, exactly?". Somehow, perhaps because Milwaukee was interested in seeing just how bad he could be, he was given another year at the hot corner and managed to somehow be even worse. Martinez is a contact guy - he sure looks like a .300 hitter on paper with his lack of strikeouts and ability to spray the ball all over the field. He's never shown much power anywhere but in 1970 he at least showed an ability to drive the ball into the gaps in the outfield. The last couple years he hasn't and in 1972 outfielders just came in on him, knowing he had little ability to knock anything over their heads.

Martinez is a decent enough fielder. Last year he had a fielding average of .945 which probably would have been really bad if the league had anything resembling a normal error rate. That's his weak point. As a third baseman he's got a good enough arm and can dive for balls hit to his left. He's very slow - even in his big 1970 season he grounded into the double play 25 times - and is no real threat to steal first or any other base for that matter. One nice thing about him is that he generally keeps an even keel, though the Brewers' hitting coaches have been bugging him a lot about his stance and it's reportedly beginning to wear.

You can't think that Martinez will go into 1973 as the Brewers' 3rd baseman, not with the last 2 seasons under his belt. And yet... who else do they even have?

Pat Jones
3B/2B No. 5
LR, 5'11" 197 lbs.
Born 1937-05-02 in Williamston, MI

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 NYY MLB  .254  113  299   43   76  16   4   6   42   27   26   2
1971 NYY MLB  .274   43   84    8   23   7   0   1    9    6    8   1
1971 MIL MLB  .316   53  155   21   49  15   2   2   16   11   18   0
1972 EVA AAA  .214    6   28    0    6   0   0   0    2    1    4   0
1972 MIL MLB  .234   45  107    7   25   5   0   2    7    5   16   2

Now 35, Jones suffered a broken hand at the end of spring training and in the process probably killed the last chance he'll ever get at starting regularly. He did come back in July and started for mostt of that month, but when you're an older guy hitting .237, there's precious little to keep you in the lineup and when a bout with back tightness kept him out of the lineup for most of August, the Brewers simply didn't bother to put him back into the job as season's end.

It is a really open question of who starts at third in 1973. I put Eric Biron there for the time being but Biron has a poor arm. He does have soft hands, which is kind of a big deal for 3rd basemen in the early 70s, and unlike a lot of guys in the mix he's shown the ability to hit at the major league level (although he only got 27 at-bats in '72 so he doesn't get his own review). Dwayne Fraser has similar hangups. Frank Louderback is a 29 year old farmhand who can field OK but has the hit tool of a 29 year old who's still in AAA. The only thing I can say for sure is, Milwaukee's not going back to a 35 year old to help them lose 100 games.

Guido Temudo
SS No. 11
RR, 6'2" 189 lbs.
Born 1946-10-26 in Guarenas, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CLI A    .230   25  100   12   23   3   0   0   15   14   12   1
1970 POR AAA  .222   47  162   18   36   3   0   0    9   19   21   1
1970 MIL MLB  .257   67  206   19   53   9   0   3   12   14   33   0
1971 EVA AAA  .176   4    17    1    3   1   0   0    1    1    2   0
1971 MIL MLB  .203   64  192   15   39   5   2   1   16   24   25   1
1972 MIL MLB  .191  127  388   23   74  10   1   2   12   34   59   3

Temudo wasn't very good in 1971 but boy oh boy was he bad on offense last year. Anything you want a position player to do, Temudo didn't do it. He didn't hit at all, he struck out a lot, he had zero power... I guess he walked an OK amount but his hitting was so bad that he was still well below average at getting on base (.262). This is not the first time I've said this about guys on this roster but you can't think he's going to get this many at-bats again.

What Temudo does bring to the table is good defense: a plus arm, probably the best arm a shortstop has in the AL coupled with nice hands. He's got below average speed and doesn't move well in the infield, which is why he won't be in the Gold Glove mix (also the existence of Oniji Handa). He's OK as a bunter and if he starts again (ugh) he'll probably finish in the top 10 in sacrifice hits.

It's not enough! Find something better, Brewers!

Andrew Yeater
SS/IF No. 18
LR, 5'11" 192 lbs.
Born 1947-02-10 in Pasadena, CA

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CLI A    .267   98  303   49   81   7   2   0   30   65   64  12
1971 MIL MLB  .212   61  151   16   32   2   0   2   17   12   31   3
1972 MIL MLB  .165   55  139   13   23   0   1   2    9   16   32   1

OK, so when this is your backup, suddenly Temudo doesn't look so bad. Yeater put up a decent-ish season in A ball and that earned him a spot in the majors the last 2 years. He showed a lot of ability to draw walks back then but when your average is in the realm of the pitchers you can half 100 BB abilities and it won't matter. Not that Yeater has shown that anyway.

He's a good fielder who is game enough to play anywhere the team wants him to. His teammates like him. It's too bad he can't hit. Man, this team is desperate for shortstops. Look for the Brewers to try and fill this void in the Rule V or via trade.

Outfield

Jacquot Mazzucato
OF No. 25
LL, 5'10" 182 lbs.
Born 1948-08-27 in Petare, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BUR A    .253   28   91    8   23   7   0   3    9   10   18   1
1970 AND A    .280   43   82   13   23   4   0   3   18   16   14   0
1971 PFD AA   .235   64  183   26   43   7   1  12   28   25   37   2
1971 DEN AAA  .291   51  134   23   39   8   0  13   44   18   20   0
1972 MIL MLB  .229  121  362   38   83  16   0  18   57   39   77   3

Montreal's Norman Engelman was clearly the Rule V pick of the year last year but Mazzucato is #2 for sure. Plucked from a Rangers (I guess Senators at the time) system that was chock full of first basemen and left fielders, Mazzucato was stuck into left field against right-handed pitchers and got the job done, leading the team in HRs and RBIs. That's probably a bigger indictment about the rest of the team than actual greatness from Mazzucato but he did fine. The average is a little lower than it could have been thanks to a .165 July when the team decided to try him full-time (he went 4-40 against LHPs on the season). Still, he even saved his best month for last when he was about the only guy on the team to do anything in September: 292/395/585 with 4 HRs and 14 RBIs in 65 at-bats.

Mazzucato is your classic mistake hitter. He's fooled by all sorts of breaking pitches but the second a pitcher leaves one of those or tries to sneak a fastball up in the zone past him, boom, good bye baseball. He's hit for power in the past as well (although man, the Rangers organization did not like using him - that's a red flag). Don't expect contact from him. He's an adequate fielder at age 24, which means he probably won't be at 30 so he'll need to go full Ken Phelps(who?) to stay in the big leagues.

Out of all the positions on the team, left field, against RHPs at least, is set for 1973.

Steve Winwood
OF No. 55
LL, 5'9" 180 lbs.
Born 1948-05-16 in Birmingham, ENG

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 CB  S A  .365   74  285   70  104  20   2  24   94   46   45   3
1971 BUR A    .274   39  135   17   37   5   1   7   21   20   18   0
1971 BIR AA   .218   85  303   33   66  13   2   9   29   35   48   1
1971 IOW AAA  .244   12   41    5   10   4   0   0    2    4    7   0
1972 BIR AA   .212   25   85   16   18   3   0   4   18   13   13   0
1972 IOW AAA  .260   24   77   17   20   4   0   4   14   16   17   0
1972 OAK MLB  .150    9   20    2    3   1   0   1    2    1    4   0
1972 MIL MLB  .261   64  138   19   36   5   1   7   16   18   27   1

Winwood was a casualty of the A's "win now" mentality last year, being pushed out to the Brewers in exchange for Antonio Arredondo in June. Arredondo looked major league ready at 29 whereas Winwood looked overwhelmed in 20 at-bats. WELP. This is why you don't judge people based on 20 at-bats, because Winwood stayed up for the rest of the season on this bereft Brewers team and would have led the team in hitting had he qualified. He showed 20 HR power back in 1970 and that's very much on the table for the English singist, who is still only 24.

He's not a very good fielder even at his age and DH might be his primary position. The Brewers probably didn't do much to his future potential by using him the way they did: evne though he's well short of his prime, he's at the "what you see is what you get" point of his (baseball) career. He's a guy who you just look at and roll with it, baby.

Ross Poynor
CF No. 31
LR, 5'12" 201 lbs.
Born 1943-06-08 in Cedar Hills, OR

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 NYY MLB  .281   84  171   17   48   3   2   7   29    7   44   2
1971 NYY MLB  .220   40   91   10   20   2   0   4    9    5   18   0
1971 MIL MLB  .257   79  284   31   73   5   7   7   27   20   39   8
1972 MIL MLB  .252  118  457   49  115   7   3  12   37   39   77  17

Poynor led the Brewers in hitting! He was also the only guy on the team to qualify for the hitting race. Poynor was one of those approximately 10 thousand Yankees outfield prospects from '69 and '70. Most of them didn't work out. Poynor... it's hard to really say where he sits in that. A .252 average is pretty OK in 1972 terms but otherwise he had meh power, was only slightly above average at getting on base in spite of the average, and all in all was basically a league average player. When you're on Milwaukee and you can play centerfield, you play basically every day. Poynor missed 3 weeks with back tightness; otherwise that's exactly his profile.

Poynor is pretty out of place in center. He's not the complete disaster we've seen at the position in recent years but neither is he a guy a team that's any good would be putting out there. That said, the team doesn't really have a lot of other options here and so there's a really good chance they'll just keep trotting Poynor out there until he ages all the way out of the position. He does help himself with his speed; his 17 steals were a career high and even though they came in 30 attempts, even that marks an improvement in his own base-stealing skills (in 1969 for example he was 9/22).

Yeah, write Poynor's name in the lineup daily. Is he actually good? Meh, he's fine. "Fine" gets you 600 at-bats (barring injury at least) for a team like this.

Fernando Ceballos
CF No. 2
RR, 6'1" 200 lbs.
Born 1943-06-29 in Cumana, VEN

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 POR AAA  .297   30  111   13   33   5   0   1    8    6   13  11
1970 MIL MLB  .230   90  326   34   75  14   3   4   23   14   74  13
1971 MIL MLB  .225  136  520   54  117   7   5   3   23    9   75  14
1972 MIL MLB  .206   61  180   14   37   6   1   0    7    7   32   5

Ceballos won the Gold Glove in 1971 but there's only so far that great defense can take you and a .239 OBP meant that Milwaukee was willing to deal with Ross Poynor's decidedly subpar D instead. Ceballos still managed to start 31 games last year thanks to Poynor getting hurt / the Brewers briefly deciding to try him as the right-handed half of a platoon. Somehow Ceballos managed to post an even lower OBP - .235. He played quite a bit in August and September but did not exactly make the most of it, hitting .162 and .167.

Yeah, he's still a great fielder with great range and all that. This is not a guy a serious team or even a half-joking team starts.

Jun Kim
RF No. 15
LL, 6'0" 197 lbs.
Born 1938-09-26 in Seoul, KOR

Yr   Tm  Lvl   Avg    G   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB   SO  SB
1970 BOS MLB  .249  150  575   75  143  23   3  18   66   51  105  10
1971 BOS MLB  .283  111  396   43  112  12   4  11   43   37   60   7
1972 MIL MLB  .247  113  421   47  104   9   5  13   47   40   74   8

The worst that could be said about Kim, I guess, is that he didn't match his career year of 1971 at the plate. He was otherwise the same Jun Kim you get every year: great, potentially Gold Glove level defense in right, a decent amount of pop for a right fielder, and a role as team captain. He tried hard whenever he was out there; it's not his fault that there was almost no talent around him. He did only hit .216 after coming back from a strained back that forced him to miss all of Julyl He was slashing 279/341/428 and would have been a shoo-in to be the Brewers' All-Star rep.

The injuries, unfortunately, are probably part of what to expect out of Kim at this point. He's played in 140 or more games just twice in the last 7 years (that may be cutting it close; he did play in 139 in 1969... but I mean, even that includes a couple injuries that kept him out of the lineup for around 3 weeks total). At 34 you certainly don't expect it to get any better. ALl that said, he'll be a regular in Milwaukee's lineup until he proves he can't be; they simply do not have anyone else to play here.