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08-04-2022, 04:18 PM
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#81 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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October 12-13, 1970 (World Series Game 3)
Team Overviews
--------------------- WORLD SERIES BABYYY ------------------------ The bloom is off the rose. The Reds dropped Game 2 late and are now deadlocked with the Twins at a game apiece. The Twins do feel like this is their turn after dropping a close 7 game series to the Mets last year; however, like last year the Reds were the better team during the regular season. Major Transactions --------------------- October 12: The Cubs trade SS Mark Weber (.276, 6, 48 at AAA Tacoma) to the Astros for SS John Timonen (.190, 5, 17). Timonen is the Ray Oyler of this league - fantastic fielder (he could win the Gold Glove this year even though he only got into 99 games this year), terrible hitter. The Cubs potentially have use for Timonen as a late-inning replacement for 26 year old SS Jeremy Taylor (.235, 27, 89) and Weber, a solid if not a great prospect, was pretty well blocked in Chitown. He's potentially blocked in Houston, too, by SS Jordan Green (.275, 4, 23) but Green missed 99 games this year with injuries and Houston needs to set up in case this becomes a recurring issue. October 13: The White Sox trade 1B Josh Lewis (.234, 10, 54) and LF Josh Coldiron (.149, 0, 0) to the Royals for LF Jeff Nation (.292, 21, 84) and P Nick Colucci (1-0, 8.10). Nation's clearly the biggest piece in this trade; the Royals were dissatisfied with his fielding but the White Sox go in thinking they might be able to train him into not being a complete disaster at third base (he played 43 games there and fielded .897). If not, they've got room for him at first base or left field. The Royals get back Josh Lewis, a former #77 prospect who wore out his welcome in Chicago after he lost 67 points in batting average this year. The Royals have a guy at first already but Yahashi Ono (.286, 11, 72) is 39 and there's no telling when his Cinderella story will come to an end. Also included in this deal is Josh Coldiron, a 23 year old for the 1970 season (he just turned 24 on October 5th) who, frankly, was rushed to the big leagues after hitting .336 in AAA Tucson. He's a phenomenal outfielder who could win multiple Gold Gloves if he can figure out how to hit major league pitching. News -------------------- October 12: President Richard Nixon announces the US will withdraw 40,000 more troops from Vietnam by Christmas. October 13: In Lebanon, Saeb Salam is appointed Prime Minister for the fourth time. Game Infos -------------------- Reds @ Twins Pregame: It's clear skies and - what is this? - 70 degrees in Minnesota. Joe Hagan pitched like an ace in his last game, scattering 10 hits in the NLCS-clinching 8-0 shutout of the Pirates. I expect things get harder from here. Angelo Ramos, like I said earlier, is 2 wins away from tying the modern record for postseason wins. Of course, the guys in front of him all got theirs during the World Series but I don't believe in asterisks. He has a lifetime postseason record, by the way, of 4-1 with a 2.59 ERA and 45 Hs in 62.2 IP. Top 1st: Ortiz does the leadoff man's job of letting the rest of the team look at some pitches as he grounds out to third after a 10 pitch at-bat. Wendth grounds to third. Kraljevic, who by the way was 4th in the NL in runs scored in 1970 (109), pops out to short. Reds 0, Twins 0 Bottom 1st: Hagan strikes out Morgenstern. Pellot sends a base hit the other way into right. Martinez works a 9-pitch at-bat into a walk. Brookes hits a hard grounder to first, which is picked up and thrown to second by 1B Stephen Clark, but SS Mike Wendt is unable to complete the DP. Pellot advances to third on the play. Cortes flies out to right. Reds 0, Twins 0 Top 2nd: Cannon singles into center. Jensen Ks, his 9th strikeout of the postseason in 22 at-bats. Williams also goes down on strikes. Clark hits a flare into center that CF Jose Villasenor makes a diving stop of. Reds 0, Twins 0 Bottom 2nd: Villasenor lays down a nice bunt that catches Bobby K off-guard. He's not able to field it in time and Jose beats out the infield hit. Reed walks. Mendel works the count to 3-2 before flying out to right field; the ball is not hit deep enough to advance Villasenor. Ramos drops down an excellent bunt of his own; this one serves its purpose and moves both Villasenor and Reed into scoring position with two out. Morgenstern flies to right. Reds 0, Twins 0 Top 3rd: Wilkes grounds to first. Hagan flies out to shallow center. Ortiz grounds out to shortstop. Reds 0, Twins 0 Bottom 3rd: Pellot grounds to 2nd. Martinez grounds to short. Brookes grounds out 3-1. This is shaping up to be a pitchers' duel. Reds 0, Twins 0 Top 4th: Ramos hits Wendt with a 2-2 changeup. Kraljevic walks. Junior Cannon takes advantage of the wildness and cranks a homerun to the left field alley, his 2nd of the postseason. Jensen grounds to third. Williams doubles off the right field fence. Clark makes a productive out, grounding to second and allowing Williams to get to 3rd. Wilkes flies to center. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 4th: Cortes strikes out swinging at a fastball that was outside of the strike zone. Villasenor grounds out to short. Reed flies to left. Reds 3, Twins 0 Top 5th: Hagan hits a weak grounder to short and goes down 6-3. Ortiz singles past 2B Marty Mendel. Wendt flies to center. Ortiz runs for second on a 1-0 pitch and gets in easily. Kralcevic strikes out to retire the side. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 5th: Mendel grounds out to short. Ramos strikes out looking at a 91MPH fastball. He's a pitcher, Joe, give him a break! Morgenstern hits a ball into center that CF Chris Wilkes misplays into a double. Pellot grounds out to first. Reds 3, Twins 0 Top 6th: Cannon grounds out to short. Jensen pops out to 1B Angelo Martinez. Williams hits his second double of the game, this one into the right-center gap. Clark flies out to left. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 6th: Martinez strikes out on 3 pitches. That's 4 for Hagan. Brookes grounds out 5-3. Cortes slaps one to Ortiz but he can't come up with it. It's ruled a base hit. Villasenor gets way ahead of an 0-2 changeup and Ks. Reds 3, Twins 0 Top 7th: Wilkes lines out to right. Hagan singles to right. Ortiz gifts Ramos with the pitcher's best friend, a 5-4-3 DP. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 7th: Potential big decision coming up this inning... Reed flies to right. Mendel grounds out to shortstop. Okay, so maybe not; with 2 outs, it's probably better to reset the lineup here anyway, given that this is not a 1 run game, and Ramos has pitched well outside of the wild stretch in the 4th. He hits a pitcher's groundball to second. Reds 3, Twins 0 Top 8th: Wendt grounds out to Mike Brookes at third. Bobby K is called out on a 2-2 change-up that, to be honest, missed the plate. He's having none of it. He jaws with the ump a bit too long and he's been thrown out of the game! Cannon strikes out, too, but makes sure he gets a cut in. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 8th: 1B/3B Fidelio Guerrero (.268, 1, 8) will take over for Bobby K at the hot corner. A backup corner infielder, he didn't see a lot of time after being called up midseason, but he's an adequate fielder, I guess. Morgenstern flies to center. Pellot belts one off the right-centerfield wall and slides in with a double. That's only the 4th hit allowed by Hagan today. Martinez strikes out on a changeup that might have just nicked the zone. Makeup call? Brookes hits one into left but it's right at LF Junior Cannon. The Twins are down to their final 3 outs. Reds 3, Twins 0 Top 9th: Ramos strikes out Williams looking, his 3rd straight strikeout. Williams is all like "uh uh" and makes contact with the first pitch he sees; he pushes it into center where CF Jose Villasenor gloves it for the out. Clark also hits the first pitch and drives it into left field for a base hit. Wilkes strikes out to retire the side. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 9th: Hagan's kind of shutout-locked at this point. He doesn't have a lot left but I would be angering the baseball gods if I took him out now. Cortes walks to lead it off. Villasenor doubles into the gap in right-center. The tying run comes to the plate in the person of Brad Reed. I'm going to go ahead and pull him for Matt Theroff for the second time in the postseason. He hits a ball into right that just does drop in front of Jensen. So... now that the shutout's gone, I think it's clear that Hagan is done. Time to bring in Ricky Rosas, making his first appearance in a week. Mendel, who's hitting just .174 in the postseason, is an obvious pinch-hit replacement for, um, Mike Grigg. The wording is weird. Grigg hits it to medium to deep center but the Twins' third base coach decides it's not quite deep enough to send Villasenor home. That's one out. In for Ramos is Jon Barnes, who has a 2 run pinch-hit HR already this October. I should stop typing stuff like this. He hits ANOTHER HOMERUN TO LEFT IT IS GONE THE TWINS WIN IN TWINTOWN FINAL: Reds 3, Twins 4
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08-05-2022, 10:57 AM
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#82 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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October 14, 1970 (World Series, Game 4)
Team Overviews
--------------------- WORLD SERIES BABYYY ------------------------ Wow, what a comeback! With one swing of the bat, Jon Barnes completely changed the course of this entire series. Now the Twins are back out on top and can put the Reds on the brink with another win today. Also, should the series go seven games, it looks like Daniel "Mister X" Gilmet should be recovered from his strained groin just in time to get out there. This news is heartening to the mysterious keystoner as much as it is to the Twins, as Gilmet, a regular on this team since 1963, missed the previous two postseason opportunities with various injuries and so that would be his very first playoff appearance of his career. You could say that Mister X is an X factor... Major Transactions --------------------- None (wow, thanks league). I should note that if the Reds or Twins were involved in a trade I would postpone it until after the Series; I should say, really, that that would mean the Twins because IRL the Reds were actually here, just facing the Orioles instead (who, at that, had to dispatch the Twins in the real-life ALCS - art imitates life). News -------------------- October 14: A Chinese nuclear test is conducted in Lop Nor. October 14: Orioles CF Rich Kemm (.219, 1, 12) comes up to me while the nation is watching the World Series and demands a trade. These guys. I guess he wants to call it a career without saying it's a career. I'm happy to oblige him. Game Infos -------------------- Reds @ Twins Pregame: The penultimate game at the Met is another balmy, hot Minnesota October afternon: 68 degrees, with the wind blowing out to right. We saw the wind blowing out yesterday but it looked like it didn't matter... until Jon Barnes hit that THREE QUARTER SALAMI. So... maybe there will be homeruns today. The worst part of Steve Waiters starting today is that the Reds know that he'll only be ready to go 1 more start after this one. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Waiters is 2-0 this postseason with 14 Ks in 17 innings and a 1.59 ERA. Chris Benavides is the Twins' sacrificial lamb. He's used to pitching with no run support this year so it's all good. Top 1st: Ortiz launches a screaming line drive down the left field line for a double. Wendt grounds out to first, with Ortiz advancing to second. Kralcevic hits a hot grounder to 2B Marty Mendel but he can't convert; it's a base hit and Ortiz scores. Cannon walks. Jensen singles to load the bases with one out. The slowpoke Williams bails out Benavides by hitting a hard ground ball to short. Two throws later, it's a 6-4-3 double play and the inning is over. Reds 1, Twins 0 Bottom 1st: Morgenstern strikes out. Pellot flies to center. Martinez grounds out to short. Reds 1, Twins 0 Top 2nd: Clark watches a 1-2 pitch miss the zone, but Brad Reed framed it into strike three. Wilkes hits a hard one deep to right-center. It hits the wall and Wilkes achieves a double. Waiters hits a line drive right at SS Danny Pellot. Ortiz flies to center. Reds 1, Twins 0 Bottom 2nd: Brookes whiffs. Cortes singles up the middle. Villasenor hits a hard grounder to short. Cortes breaks up the double play but he's injured and has to come out. BUOYED BY THE AMAZING PLAY Reed flies out to center. Reds 1, Twins 0 Top 3rd: Mike Grigg takes over in left field. This is his 7th appearance in 8 Twins postseason games. Wendt flies to center. Kraljevic grounds to short. Cannon goes down swinging on a nasty slider. Reds 1, Twins 0 Bottom 3rd: Mendel watches a changeup float by him for strike three. Benavides singles up the middle. Morgenstern flies out to center. Pellot walks on a pitch so low, not even Oliver Williams can make it look like a strike. Martinez flies to left. Reds 1, Twins 0 Top 4th: Jensen singles into left. Williams grounds to first; 1B Angelo Martinez gets the out at first, then tries to catch Jensen at second but the throw is just late. Clark, with a man in scoring position no less, pops out to shortstop. It was a clutch popout though. Wilkes hits it hard to third; 3B Mike Brookes rushes the throw and Martinez can't handle it! Wilkes motors into second and Jensen scores. Waiters singles past 2B Marty Mendel, scoring Wilkes. Ortiz grounds out 3-1. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 4th: Brookes grounds to short but gets to second base on the throwing error by SS Mike Wendt. Waiters punches out Grigg for his 4th K of the game. Villasenor strikes out on three pitches. Reed grounds out to second. Reds 3, Twins 0 Top 5th: Benavides hits Wendt in the chest with a curveball. Wendt gets his revenge in the time-honored way: by stealing second. Bobby K flies out to Mike Grigg in left field. Cannon whiffs. Jensen flies out to center. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 5th: Mendel grounds out, 3-1. Benavides reaches on a miscue by 2B Pedro Ortiz. Morgenstern is caught looking at an 0-2 curveball. Pellot also strikes out, giving Steve Waiters 7 for the game and 21 for the entire postseason. Reds 3, Twins 0 Top 6th: Williams reaches on the error by 2B Marty Mendel. That's the 4th error in this contest - kind of an ugly game. I think Mendel heard me because Clark hits a ground ball to him that he converts into a 4-6-3 double play. Wilkes flies out to center. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 6th: The Twins really need to start coming up with answers for Steve Waiters. Martinez flies to left. Brookes grounds out to second. Grigg grounds out 4-3. Reds 3, Twins 0 Top 7th: Benavides strikes Steve Waiters out. That's his 4th. Ortiz grounds out to second; Mendel's throw was off the mark but Martinez roped it in. Wendt whiffs on an 85 MPH fastball. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 7th: Villasenor grounds out to 2nd. Reed grounds out 5-3. Mendel flies out to center. Top 8th: Benavides has thrown 118 pitches and doesn't have a lot left, but he's been pretty effective. I'll leave him in, knowing that he'll be pulled first-thing for a pinch-hitter at the bottom of the inning. Bobby K whiffs at the heater. Cannon grounds out 4-3. Jensen flies out to shallow left. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 8th: Two-time playoff HERO Jon Barnes is in to pinch-hit for Benavides. His October stats: 2-3, 2 HR, 5 RBI, also 1 walk. He gets caught looking at a 1-2 sinker. Morgenstern hits a lazy fly to left. Pellot grounds out. The Twins are down to their final three outs, although they do have the heart of the order due up in the 9th. Reds 3, Twins 0 Top 9th: Pete Lynn enters the game because, you know, he's the best reliever the Twins have. Williams grounds out 5-3. Clark grounds out to second. 1B/PH Alonzo Rivera (.292, 3, 14) makes his first appearance this postseason. Yeah, that's how much in control the Reds have been: they haven't had to use their best pinch-hitter until now. Rivera's only 22 and using him the way Cincy used him - 65 at-bats in 58 games following a May call-up - might have retarded his development, but flags fly forever and all that. Rivera singles up the middle, bringing up Steve Waiters. I'm not pulling Waiters as he's in the midst of throwing a 2-hitter. He grounds into a 5-4 fielder's choice. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 9th: Ben Menke takes over as a defensive replacement in CF for the 2nd time in the postseason. Martinez flies to left. Brookes flies to fairly deep right. Grigg grounds out to second. FINAL: Reds 3, Twins 0. The Reds wrest control of this series back from Minnesota. All they have to do to take home World Series gold is win both of their remaining home games, one of which would have the nigh-unstoppable Steve Waiters if we go to 7 games. That also means that the Twins almost have to win the next 2 to have any chance.
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08-06-2022, 01:16 PM
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#83 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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October 15, 1970 (World Series Game 5)
Team Overviews
--------------------- WORLD SERIES BABYYY ------------------------ Steve Waiters dominated Game 4 to even the series and give the Reds a decent roadmap for victory - a win tonight or on Game Six, then Waiters comes back to do his thing again. On the Twins' side of the ledger it's kind of all bad news - reverse the above for a Twins statement but on top of that Alejandro Cortes got hurt. Mike Grigg is taking over for him and while he's not a really huge downgrade, this does deprive Minnesota of their best pinch-hitter (2 post-season walkoffs by Jon Barnes aside). Major Transactions --------------------- None News -------------------- October 15: A section of the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses, killing 35 construction workers. October 15: In Egypt, a completely legitimate referendum supports Anwar Sadat 90.04%. October 15: The IL/AA ended their season today and with that a bunch of people announced their retirement. Chief among them was CF/2B Jeff Beckwith, a player I auto-added as "Willie Mays" (I even called him the Say Hey Kid), although I just had the game create a superstar CF instead of actually importing Mays. He had a pretty fine career - 9 All Star appearances, 2116 hits, and a career .305 average. From the looks of it. he had a pretty fine career until it was derailed by injuries at age 35 in 1966. I tried to resurrect him as a second baseman with the expansion Padres last year but it wasn't really happening - he hit .264 with only 23 XBH and 28 walks and I released him at season's end. At the end of the day I don't think he's quite at the Hall level (and the metrics agree with me - his HOF Monitor score is 56, where 100 means you've got a good shot) but he's definitely a member of the Giants Hall of Fame. Game Infos -------------------- Reds @ Twins Pregame: It's the final game of the year at Exhibition Stadium and the weather's finally starting to cool down: 57 degrees, although the wind's still blowing out to right at 9MPH. One thing I keep forgetting to mention - and hey, it's literally the last chance now - is that the Twins were weirdly not good at home this year. They were just 41-39 at home and 51-31 on the road. They've performed differently in the postseason but it's... weird, okay? The Reds are a much more normaller 55-26 at home and 43-38 away from Riverfront. Tom Bertan's had an on-the-surface good postseason - 1-1 record with a 2.25 ERA - but he's got a 7/8 BB/K ratio and that .145 OBA, frankly, looks lucky. Will the Twins be the team to solve him? On the Minnesota side, Mike Larsen followed up a bad start vs. the Yankees with a quality start that ended in a no-decision (and eventual Reds win). For a third starter, I think he's pretty competitive with Bertan. The real life World Series game 5 is here, by the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdEV...inalBroadcasts IRL this is as far as things went - the Orioles downed the Reds 9-3 to win the series 4 games to 1 (SORRY SPOILERS FOR A 52 YEAR OLD WS GAME). Interesting to see the announcers at least for me - two long-dead guys who were pretty big names for their time, Curt Gowdy (who I remember being in a whole lot of Hall of Shame type books for his malapropisms although he was way before my time as a baseball fan) and Chuck Thompson, probably most remembered as the guy who called games for the O's before Jon Miller as well as the guy who called the Maz walk-off in the 1970 World Series. Back then, the leagues were OK with using non-players/managers to provide color commentary. Tony Kubek is there, too, but he's providing Tony Siragusa-style on-field commentary and interviews. Top 1st: Ortiz flies to center. Wendt hits a bloop single up the middle. Kraljevic flies to left. Cannon grounds out 1-3. Reds 0, Twins 0 Bottom 1st: Morgenstern grounds out to 3rd. Pellot hits a slow roller to 2nd that Ortiz just eats for the infield hit. Bertan lets a 1-2 fastball get away way inside - it goes to the backstop for a wild pitch. Martinez flies to shallow-medium center. Brooks takes a swing at a 95MPH fastball and comes up empty. Reds 0, Twins 0 Top 2nd: Jensen draws a leadoff walk. Williams Ks - that's Larsen's 10th strikeout in the playoffs this year. Clark flies to left. Wilkes hits a scorcher that looks like it's going to get past Pellot but he does get to it... and then drops it, giving the Reds CF a base hit. Bertan helps out his own cause with a bloop single into left. That loads the bases with 2 outs. Ortiz sees the ducks on the pond and... hits them with a bat? A 2-run single breaks the game open. Wendt flies out to right. Reds 2, Twins 0 Bottom 2nd: Not related to the game directly but as I've got the actual 1970 WS on while I'm playing this, I figured I'd comment on that, too. They just played the national anthem on TV, which struck me as weird in two ways: one, it was a marching band playing it as opposed to someone singing a capella, and two, it was on TV at all. I ran the sound board for the Seahawks for 2 years in the early 2000s and occasionally sat in on the Mariners' broadcasts, and by then it was customary to go to a commercial break during the playing of the anthem. Not sure when that started, but clearly it was later than 1970. Grigg, getting his first start of the playoffs, grounds out to short. Villasenor flies to right. Reed skies one to medium left field. Reds 2, Twins 0 Top 3rd: Bobby K sends a forkball on the outside part of the plate into center field for a base hit. Cannon strikes out looking. Jensen singles to right; Cannon only moves up 90 feet. Williams singles right past SS Danny Pellot and into left field. Everyone moves up another 90 feet. Very station-to-station this inning. Clark's eyes open wide with the bases drunk and clutchily hits a clutch sacrifice fly to left. Wilkes grounds out 6-3. Reds 3, Twins 0 Bottom 3rd: Just watched Pete Rose beat out a double for the real-life Reds. My mind's vision of Rose is as an OK manager who for some reason kept putting himself in the lineup even though Rose the hitter was all kinds of awful; it's a little weird to see the actual HOF-caliber player play. Mendel leads off with a walk. Larsen sacrifices Mendel on to 2nd, 2-3. Morgenstern drops a flare into right-center for a base hit; Mendel holds up at 3rd base. Pellot hits a hard ground ball to short but Morgenstern breaks up the double play, allowing Mendel to score on the play. Martinez grounds out to shortstop. Reds 3, Twins 1 Top 4th: Bertan grounds out 6-3. Ortiz pops out to shortstop. Wendt flies out to shallow centerfield. Hey, a 1-2-3 inning! Reds 3, Twins 1 Bottom 4th: Brookes walks to lead off the inning, his 5th of the postseason. I was going to see how many postseason walks Henning Rasmussen had... Grigg flies to right. He's 1-12 in the playoffs this year. Villasenor hits a grounder down the first base line that Stephen Clark handles and throws to second for one out, but SS Mike Wendt can't quite get the relay off in time to complete the 3-6-3. This proves meaningful as Brad Reed launches a 3-2 fastball into the left field stands to TIE THE GAME! Mendel singles past 2B Ortiz. Larsen hits a grounder that SS Mike Wendt picks up on the outfield grass and then gets to second base in time for the fielder's choice. Reds 3, Twins 3 Top 5th: Bobby K grounds out 6-3. Cannon walks on a forkball that misses low. Jensen flies to left. Williams flies to right. So... watching the game and this is clearly the broadcast feed, as they didn't cut to a commercial break between innings (the organ player is playing "You're Too Good To Be True" by Frankie Valli; remember organists?). Now I'm unsure whether or not the anthem was televised. Hard-hitting commentary, I know. Reds 3, Twins 3 Bottom 5th: Morgenstern walks, Bertan's 3rd BB of the night and 10th in the playoffs. Pellot lays down a sac bunt that's absolutely perfect, so good in fact that when 1B Stephen Clark picks it up he has to make the Bugs Bunny throw to Pedro Ortiz covering first in order to make it not in time. Angelo Martinez hits a base hit into left, scoring Morgenstern. The animation is not to be trusted of course but I can't help thinking that someone with a better arm than the ironically named Junior Cannon would have nailed Morgenstern at the plate. Anyway, the Twins lead. Brookes watches a 1-2 curveball nip the plate for strike three and the first out of the inning. Grigg slaps one right past SS Mike Wendt for a base hit that scores Pellot from 2nd. Villasenor drops one into center. It's a hit-fest this inning! Bertan's only thrown 87 pitches. He's not long for this game but I can't bring him out yet. Maybe that was a bad choice because Brad Reed has a mammoth at-bat, working the count to 3-2 and lasting 8 pitches before launching his 2nd HR of the game into the LF stands. 9-3! It is at this point that I realized that I quit the game in the pregame screen and when you restart a saved game it changes your AI settings. Here, it turned off substitutions. I was about to pull Bertan anyway but I'm not sure I was going to use Bullet Bill Vanover (10-8. 3.35). Oh well. He's as good a man as anyone. Vanover was the team's 4th starter and sometimes long reliever this year. The 29 year old has a career 77-99 record and led the AL in losses twice while pitching for the Senators. He throws a low to mid 90s fastball that's a bit on the straight side. That said, he picks his spots excellently; he led the league with the lowest BB/9 for the 4th time in his career in 1970. Mendel gets to a 3-2 count on Vanover - practically a walk! - and then singles into left. Larsen sacrifices him to 2nd. Still only the 2nd out of the inning and the Twins have batted around. Morgenstern grounds out back to the mound. Reds 3, Twins 9 Top 6th: Clark singles up the middle. Chris Wilkes is hitting .333 (8-24) in the postseason. I'll leave him in, why not? He hits into a 6-4-3 DP. Pinch-hitting for Vanover is catcher John Kohut (.247, 3, 20). Kohut hit .226 vs right handers but the sample size is small and he did hit .272 overall at AAA last year. He grounds out to second. Reds 3, Twins 9 Bottom 6th: Zach Hale (0-0, 2.78) has not seen action in the postseason so far. The Reds started employing him as a LH specialist around halfway through the season and he was a complete beast in that role: 48 Ks in 32.1 IP and an OBA of .135. He's one of those guys who, if OOTP allowed you to generate glasses, would be wearing thick Coke bottle ones. He also walked 6.4 men per 9 innings. Pellot swings through a 2-2 slider. Martinez flails away at an 0-2 slider. Brookes strikes out on a slider to make it 3 Ks by the old nickel curve. Reds 3, Twins 9 Top 7th: Ortiz strikes out. Wendt strikes out looking. Bobby K flies to left on a 1-2 pitch, the first batter to not K in almost a full inning. Is this 2021? Reds 3, Twins 9 Bottom 7th: Grigg manages to put a ball in play off of Hale but it's only a ground out to short. Jon Barnes comes in to pinch-hit and replace the left handed hitting Villasenor. He walks on four pitches. Reed Ks, looking for HR #3 tonight. Mendel also Ks. Reds 3, Twins 9 Top 8th: Zach Dempsey takes over in center field. Cannon singles into left. Larsen's... fine, but he's also thrown 118 pitches and the Twins are way up, so don't need him to be a hero today. I'll pull him if the Reds get anyone into scoring position. Jensen hits into a 5-4-3 DP. Williams bloops a single into right. If I don't take Larsen out now, he won't pitch the 9th - he's due up in the bottom of the inning. Clark flies to deep left. Reds 3, Twins 9 Bottom 8th: Pinch-hitting for Larsen is 5th outfielder Kyle Shipp (.240, 5, 21). Shipp's a solid corner outfielder who has what the players call "the red ass", meaning he loves to fight and be contentious. He hit just .150 as a pinch-hitter this year. He flies to left. Hale walks Morgenstern. Why is he still in there? Hale is actually not tired at all in spite of having thrown 33 pitches, but as the Twins don't have a lot of left-handed hitting, I'm going to go ahead and pull him anyway. Greg Shrewsbury makes his 2nd postseason appearance. Pellot grounds into a 6-4 fielder's choice. Shrewsbury picks Morgenstern off of first base. Reds 3, Twins 9 Top 9th: Melvin Melena threw in 2 games against the Yankees but hasn't pitched in more than a week; I put him in to shake some rust off in case he's needed later this series. Alonzo Rivera comes on to pinch-hit for Menke. He grounds out 4-3. Pinch-hitting for the pitcher is OF Greg Cowan (.204, 4, 21). The 29 year old Cowan is a career .237 hitter who the Reds tried in a platoon role in the past but he's probably on his way out now. He's a decent if not spectacular fielder at the corner spots and, more importantly to this at-bat, he's a lefty. Cowan flies to center. Ortiz grounds out 3-1 to end the game. FINAL: Reds 3, Twins 9 This feels like the Twins just plain got it done. This may have been the pivotal game in the series, as Minnesota's own unstoppable ace, Angelo Ramos, pitches in 2 days.
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08-07-2022, 11:26 AM
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#84 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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October 17, 1970 (World Series Game 6)
Team Overviews
--------------------- WORLD SERIES BABYYY ------------------------ The Twins now lead 3 games to 2 heading back to Cincinnati and more importantly their starting 2B Daniel Gilmet is back and ready to go. It's not all good news, however; Alejandro Cortes was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain that will keep him out of the rest of the World Series. Steve Waiters is technically available today but only at 60%. The Series is on the line here so... had the Reds won yesterday I'd have no problems sitting Waiters for another day but as it stands, he's coming in on 3 days' rest. Major Transactions --------------------- October 16: The Yankees trade minor league 1B Mike Jackson (.293, 20, 56 at AA Manchester), minor league CF Bryan McKenzie (.209, 3, 8 at AA Manchester), and minor league 1B/OF Arturo Ganzalez (.305, 5, 38 at AA Manchester) to the Pirates for minor league C Hector Miramontes (.250, 2, 18 at AAA Columbus), minor league P Nick Escabar (12-8, 2.55 at AAA Columbus), and SS Luis Cardenas (.196, 2, 10). BBRef of course only tracks transactions involving at least one major leaguer so I probably miss out on a ton of these kinds of minor league moves. In this case, the Yankees get catcher depth that will allow them to cut ties wth Jason Mooneyham (.213, 1, 10), which won't be popular but probably needs to be done. They also get a potential replacement at shortstop if they want to move Ty Stover back to 2nd next season, and the pitching prospect is a guy who's lost in the Pirates' system but pitched pretty well last year. Pittsburgh gets two guys to challenge Albilio Valdivia (.282, 12, 57), who missed the last month but even before that was not at the level he's been at previously. October 16: The Pirates trade 1B/OF Mario Fernandez (.227, 0, 3) to the Brewers as part of a conditional deal. We saw a lot - too much - of Fernandez in the postseason and now he's off to Milwaukee, where he'll compete for the 1B job. News -------------------- October 16: The Canadian government declares a state of emergency and outlaws the Quebec Liberation Front. October 17: A cholera epidemic breaks out in Istanbul. Game Infos -------------------- Reds @ Twins So LIKE AN IDIOT I clicked on the "Quick Play" button instead of the "Manage Game" button. Waiters could only get into the 4th until he got slammed (at least this didn't end with the AI pulling him after throwing a shutout through 5, which was my initial fear). The Reds' bullpen didn't give up a single run the rest of the way but the 5 that Waiters allowed turned out to be all the runs the Twins needed here. THE TWINS WIN THE WORLD SERIES!
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08-07-2022, 01:14 PM
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#85 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
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1971 Team Recaps: Baltimore Orioles (80-82)
So... I'm just going to screencap the relevant part of the team screen instead of printing all that other stuff out by hand. Probably works better for the reader and it's definitely less time consuming for me!
Recap: A big comeback year for Baltimore. They just missed finishing .500 but it was pretty nice after losing 98 the year before nonetheless. History: Baltimore's lone World Series berth came in an amazing 103-59 season in 1963. Otherwise, they've always been also-rans. They carried their 1963 success through 1968 but they fell way off in '69 and the 1970 team has little in common with the old guys. Outlook: The Orioles look to me like the nightmare version of those classic Earl Weaver teams from the 70s and 80s. The pitching is all finesse-based, but completely lacking in power pitching. The fielding is fine, perhaps not as full-on committed to avoiding mistakes like the Weaver teams but they do prop up the hitting pretty well. Offensively, they're all walks and homeruns, but kind of badly: the team strikes out a *lot* and that hurts their average, and they don't really get on base or hit for enough power to make up for it. All in all, they're not super young either so I'm not sure where their future lies to be honest. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Ziegler, T.J. 23 RR 10 13 .435 3.09 28 28 0 4 2 0 192.1 141 79 66 6 110 4 120 1.305 6.6 0.3 5.1 5.6 Giron, Hector 29 SR 13 6 .684 2.89 26 26 0 10 1 0 190.0 186 72 61 17 43 4 98 1.205 8.8 0.8 2.0 4.6 Wei, Yen-ti 36 RR 7 10 .412 3.68 23 22 0 5 0 0 149.0 156 68 61 16 55 4 62 1.416 9.4 1.0 3.3 3.7 Lopez, Alfredo 36 RR 6 8 .429 3.38 21 20 0 3 1 0 130.1 126 56 49 10 58 0 61 1.412 8.7 0.7 4.0 4.2 Villalpando, Carlos 35 RR 5 8 .385 5.74 24 17 1 1 0 0 122.1 138 85 78 16 59 2 42 1.610 10.2 1.2 4.3 3.1 Overmann, Mike 32 RR 7 8 .467 4.32 31 16 6 1 0 0 116.2 116 65 56 12 31 1 49 1.260 8.9 0.9 2.4 3.8 Torres, David 28 RR 6 6 .500 4.59 15 15 0 2 1 0 86.1 92 46 44 2 38 3 23 1.506 9.6 0.2 4.0 2.4 Colon, John 26 RR 4 4 .500 4.33 11 8 0 0 0 0 60.1 59 31 29 5 40 1 32 1.641 8.8 0.7 6.0 4.8 Contreras, Alfredo 27 LL 1 2 .333 5.55 5 5 0 0 0 0 24.1 29 19 15 4 12 2 11 1.685 10.7 1.5 4.4 4.1 Bazzano, Mark 23 RR 1 2 .333 3.00 3 3 0 1 1 0 21.0 16 9 7 1 15 0 12 1.476 6.9 0.4 6.4 5.1 Yen-Ti Wei was a rock in the rotation until he tore his rotator cuff in late September. He'll miss most if not all of 1971 and that will put his entire career in jeopardy. His co-veteran Alfredo Lopez also missed a lot of time with injuries but unlike Wei he should be good to go to compete for a back of the rotation spot in spring training with guys like 26 year old John Colon, who hopes to rein in his control next year, Mark Bazzano, who struck out 152 batters in 130 innings at AAA Rochester, and David Torres, the 1966 All-Star with the Kansas City A's who seemed to lose the ability to miss bats last season. Bullpen Code:
Luiso, Montay 32 LL 9 6 .600 1.81 73 0 62 0 0 27 114.2 84 25 23 4 26 3 98 0.959 6.6 0.3 2.0 7.7 Schoner, Dan 30 LR 2 2 .500 3.06 40 1 18 0 0 1 61.2 57 23 21 6 20 1 13 1.249 8.3 0.9 2.9 1.9 Munoz, Billy 29 RR 2 2 .500 2.64 37 1 23 0 0 3 58.0 47 19 17 1 20 2 52 1.155 7.3 0.2 3.1 8.1 Bowman, Phil 23 RR 3 2 .600 3.00 36 0 6 0 0 1 63.0 45 22 21 2 19 1 34 1.016 6.4 0.3 2.7 4.9 Lee, Sung-jin 33 RR 0 0 .000 1.47 33 0 0 0 0 0 30.2 26 5 5 1 11 1 19 1.207 7.6 0.3 3.2 5.6 Albertson, Dermott 23 LL 2 0 1.000 1.06 10 0 2 0 0 0 17.0 7 3 2 1 8 0 18 0.882 3.7 0.5 4.2 9.5 Christie, Blaine 26 RR 0 0 .000 4.91 2 0 0 0 0 0 3.2 4 2 2 2 0 0 4 1.091 9.8 4.9 0.0 9.8 Scott, Joe 25 RR 0 1 .000 3.86 3 0 1 0 0 0 2.1 2 1 1 0 2 0 3 1.714 7.7 0.0 7.7 11.6 Deras, Jeremy 24 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Dermott Albertson was a late-season callup but I like him moving forward as a lefty specialist (that's a role I personally did not use enough last year for any team). Phil Bowman is your standard Orioles pitcher: lots of groundballs, not the best stuff in the world (although a sinker that induces groundouts is a sinker that's doing its job, I guess), decent control. He's also 24 and so still has some room to improve. Sun-Jin Lee was waived in mid-August and claimed by Atlanta. I'm scratching my head over that one too. Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Keith, Robert 32 RR 79 254 20 47 12 0 4 22 24 74 0 0 7 .185 .262 .280 2 DiGirolamo, Ted 23 LR 61 158 16 45 8 0 1 13 18 24 0 0 6 .285 .354 .354 2 Masella, Brent 36 RR 23 64 4 13 4 0 0 5 5 18 0 0 3 .203 .261 .266 2 Infield Code:
Hernandez, Jon 27 LR 147 532 69 123 32 2 16 78 83 137 1 1 15 .231 .334 .389 3*2 Cutter, Devin 29 LL 29 87 9 11 2 0 3 10 7 32 0 0 0 .126 .204 .253 3 Fleischaker, John 27 RR 30 71 5 14 3 1 2 2 9 22 0 0 1 .197 .288 .352 3 Cutler, Andrew 33 SL 17 24 3 4 1 0 2 6 6 6 0 0 0 .167 .333 .458 /39 Fager, Danny 29 RR 120 492 64 131 13 5 10 47 34 39 12 12 7 .266 .315 .374 4* Padilla, Jorge 28 RR 84 214 20 57 13 0 6 28 13 39 1 0 4 .266 .307 .411 4/63 Perez, Marco 26 RR 154 597 73 201 24 7 17 91 71 41 36 13 15 .337 .406 .486 5* King, Dave 27 RR 28 63 5 17 4 0 1 7 9 13 0 0 0 .270 .361 .381 /563 Blevins, Jon 29 RR 151 575 54 133 14 5 7 39 43 94 5 7 17 .231 .282 .310 6* Clark, Dustin 26 RR 8 20 1 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 .150 .261 .150 /6 Saunders, Steve 29 RR 5 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /65 Danny Fager is a real "dirt dog", highly regarded by other players throughout the league. If he could only get, say, 10-15 more doubles a year he'd be a perennial All-Star. As it stands, he does have 2 of them (in 1967 and 1968). On the defensive side of the ledger, he's never won a Gold Glove but he's got to be close; this year he committed just 9 errors in 718 total chances, a .987 fielding average. Jorge Padilla filled in when Fager was hurt and also served as the team's primary pinch-hitter vs. left-handers; he was actually handcuffed by lefties (.181 BA) so that might not be the best way to use him in the future. Marco Perez, as the Brooks Robinson of this team, okay, is not Brooks Robinson. He's got a gun for an arm and he's won the last 3 Gold Gloves but he's not that generational, 80/80 type guy at the position. He's a way better hitter than Robinson, though; he finished 3rd in the AL in batting average an his 91 RBIs were a team high. Jon "Lucky Number" Blevins is a classic good field no-hit shortstop, basically the Mark Belanger of this team except that the AL has a complete stud in Boston's Oniji Handa, so Blevins has just one Gold Glove to his name. He's not a great hitter but he's better than the Jon Timonems of the world at least. Outfield Code:
Jenkins, Jamal 26 RL 79 274 39 64 10 1 19 42 32 68 6 6 5 .234 .314 .485 7/9 Hiatt, Dave 30 LL 78 183 17 36 7 5 6 28 13 46 0 1 0 .197 .251 .388 7/9 Colon, Edgar 34 RR 78 145 10 30 5 0 0 15 13 29 2 0 6 .207 .265 .241 7/89 Ibarra, Hector 33 LR 5 11 1 3 3 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 .273 .273 .545 /7 Tarala, Bryant 28 LR 106 376 71 82 12 3 15 31 86 101 26 11 2 .218 .369 .386 8/3 Kemm, Rich 37 RR 41 105 19 23 6 1 1 12 21 24 2 0 2 .219 .346 .324 8/9 Nugent, Matt 24 LL 132 445 54 92 14 3 13 45 62 99 23 8 4 .207 .303 .339 9*8 Baca, Mario 32 RR 76 241 35 70 6 3 13 45 23 38 2 1 7 .290 .356 .502 987 Riessen, Justin 26 RR 20 65 6 15 4 0 2 7 6 12 2 1 1 .231 .288 .385 9/37 Seidenberger, Jason 32 RR 30 50 5 6 1 0 1 3 13 14 0 0 0 .120 .292 .200 9/37 Duarte, Jose 33 RR 4 9 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 .222 .300 .222 /9 Bryant Tarala has some real issues hitting that don't really matter quite as much when he plays center field. The issue the Orioles have here is not he can't handle centerfield. It's kid of the opposite, in fact: he plays every game as if it was his last, which is a nice thing to say but it means that he's constantly crashing into walls and getting himself hurt. He missed 46 games last year and 99 the last two seasons combined. The Orioles don't really have anyone good to replace him with, which is kind of a double problem. Matt Nugent, even though I mentioned him as a platoon guy, actually didn't hit lefties that much worse than righties last year (.200 vs .210). That may have been a little bit lucky, as 30 of his Ks came in his 130 at-bats vs LHP and his on-base percentage was 82 points higher against opposite-handed pitchers (.325 to .243). On the other other hand, dude's still 24 years of age. Mario Baca had an excellent season as a 4th outfielder. I'm reticent to push Nugent and him into a platoon because I think Baca's true form is as a league average corner outfielder, but now that I talk this through, "league average" would be a significant upgrade over what the Nuge did against lefties.
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08-07-2022, 07:06 PM
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#86 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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1971 Team Recaps: Boston Red Sox (93-69)
Recap: The Bosox got red hot in August (20-10) but then, just as the pennant race was really and truly heating up, they cooled off, finishing the year 17-14 and blowing what would have been a great chance to capture some World Series glory. They did have to make do in the second half without their ace Michael Pesco but they were otherwise kind of healthy down the stretch; they've got little to blame except for themselves.
History: Boston took home the final single-division pennant in 1968, albeit with a 93-70 record, but have been bridesmaids in the two years since. There was a lot of badness before that but, lest anyone thinks that the Curse of the Bambino is still active (did the Bambino exist in this universe? I can't answer that), they did win the Fall Classic of 1948. Outlook: Boston's still decently young and there's not a lot about this team that makes me think they're going to fall off. They do need some help on offense, particularly in the outfield, but they aren't "how are they in the playoffs" bad like the Pirates were this year, they're just "a division winner needs to be more balanced". On the other hand, even without Pesco the team finished 2nd in all of baseball in ERA and 5th in Ks, so they must be doing something right. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Kindberg, Justin 25 LL 23 13 .639 2.43 38 38 0 12 9 0 289.1 263 92 78 8 105 3 257 1.272 8.2 0.2 3.3 8.0 Hinojosa, Sandy 35 RR 21 11 .656 2.87 36 36 0 10 2 0 275.2 263 117 88 26 77 4 211 1.233 8.6 0.8 2.5 6.9 Sanchez, Marco 23 LR 12 11 .522 3.21 29 29 0 8 1 0 213.0 207 89 76 20 48 4 193 1.197 8.7 0.8 2.0 8.2 Messina, Chris 29 RR 8 9 .471 2.69 37 20 5 2 1 0 174.0 152 61 52 13 50 4 70 1.161 7.9 0.7 2.6 3.6 Davila, Franklin 30 RR 4 6 .400 5.00 12 12 0 1 0 0 81.0 93 50 45 11 17 0 36 1.358 10.3 1.2 1.9 4.0 Pesco, Michael 26 LL 5 2 .714 2.38 9 9 0 5 0 0 64.1 53 18 17 5 19 0 56 1.119 7.4 0.7 2.7 7.8 Nakazawa, Kojiro 24 RR 3 0 1.000 3.03 8 5 2 0 0 0 38.2 31 14 13 3 9 1 29 1.034 7.2 0.7 2.1 6.8 Britt, Bruce 28 RR 2 1 .667 10.61 7 5 0 0 0 0 28.0 48 35 33 7 22 1 15 2.500 15.4 2.3 7.1 4.8 Correra, Juan 25 RR 1 3 .250 7.39 7 4 1 0 0 0 28.0 35 23 23 7 16 0 18 1.821 11.3 2.3 5.1 5.8 Basically, once Pesco returns, everyone else is fighting for the final starters' slot. That includes Marco Sanchez, who fell off from going 29-9 between 1968 and 1969 to barely cresting .500 last season. In fact, even that took a late-season surge, as he was 7-10 with a 3.71 ERA following a no-decision on August 29; he finished the year 5-1, 1.95 to win Pitcher of the Month for September. Franklin "Dirty" Davila started cold, was diagnosed with biceps tendinitis in June, and wasn't used all after being activated from the DL in mid-September. He was a 15 game winner for this team in 1969 but now seems like he's on the outside looking in. Chris Messina, a throw-in in the Justin Kindberg trade, had the best season of his career shuttling between the back end of the rotation and the bullpen. He'll probably be doing more of the latter than the former this year but that's good news for Boston, as he had a 2.20 ERA in relief and allowed a .191 OBA in that role. Also, just in case Boston needed even more pitching, they acquired Shunichi Zeniya from the Brewers for LF Jared Fields. Zeniya didn't pitch for Boston in 1970 but figures to compete... somewhere. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Brock, Matt 30 RR 7 6 .538 3.31 67 0 60 0 0 30 92.1 79 44 34 10 31 2 82 1.191 7.7 1.0 3.0 8.0 Bryant, Terrance 32 LL 4 0 1.000 1.63 34 2 14 1 1 0 49.2 39 9 9 0 11 1 29 1.007 7.1 0.0 2.0 5.3 Sanchez, Eddie 34 RR 0 3 .000 1.93 26 0 11 0 0 1 37.1 31 10 8 4 14 1 30 1.205 7.5 1.0 3.4 7.2 Flores, Luis 26 RR 2 2 .500 3.63 22 1 11 1 0 1 34.2 30 21 14 3 19 1 24 1.413 7.8 0.8 4.9 6.2 Boyce, Lamar 27 LL 1 0 1.000 1.16 18 0 11 0 0 1 23.1 12 9 3 2 16 0 17 1.200 4.6 0.8 6.2 6.6 Matson, T.J. 23 RR 0 2 .000 6.38 11 1 7 0 0 2 18.1 24 14 13 4 11 2 15 1.909 11.8 2.0 5.4 7.4 Brumfield, Tom 23 LR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 3.1 4 4 0 1 1 0 1 1.500 10.8 2.7 2.7 2.7 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Dolak, Jeremy 31 RR 95 330 31 92 17 0 5 39 22 28 0 0 5 .279 .329 .376 2 Garza, Estevan 30 RR 41 148 11 40 10 1 2 22 9 22 0 0 8 .270 .308 .392 2 Bartoszek, Sid 30 RR 34 104 5 19 5 0 1 6 11 37 0 0 4 .183 .261 .260 2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Miller, Mike 26 LL 158 615 96 185 42 4 31 93 79 96 1 1 17 .301 .385 .533 3* Fraser, Dwayne 25 RR 153 573 64 180 40 4 2 63 53 45 5 2 19 .314 .371 .408 4* Ward, Jonathan 36 RR 40 80 7 11 3 0 3 11 6 22 1 0 4 .138 .195 .288 4/6 Magoni, Mauro 31 RR 103 370 44 93 17 1 9 45 37 71 0 2 14 .251 .316 .376 5/3 Madriles, Edwin 23 RR 65 210 27 55 19 0 7 33 25 54 1 2 6 .262 .340 .452 5 Jaquez, Arturo 27 RR 4 13 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 .077 .077 .077 /5 Handa, Oniji 26 RR 155 662 97 191 35 3 24 91 23 48 0 1 23 .289 .313 .459 6* Carmer, Troy 26 RR 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 It's beginning to look like TJ Pritchett might be the answer to an obscure Boston sports trivia question, which is: who was the Sox' second baseman before Dwayne Fraser? Fraser looked astounding in his first full season in the majors. He was a model of consistency, hitting over .290 every month while also hitting at least 7 doubles every month other than April. All that's really left for him to improve into All-Star level is to increase his range at second base a bit. Mauro Magoni has been a big disappointment in each of the last 2 seasons after hitting .293 in the Year of the Pitcher, 1968, and now he finds himself out of a job. Magoni's average fell to .235 last year as he started swinging for the fences, and although he took his coaches' advice on shortening his swing, the 8 HRs he lost only caused his BA to go up to .251. Word in the clubhouse is that sometimes Magoni tries a little too hard to get things right and that's kept him from blossoming into a star. In any case, the new guys is Kristian Schneider, a 2 time All Star (1964, 1969) who hit .304 with 6 HRs and 58 RBIs combined with Washington and California last season. The lack of power may be a concern (though Schneider did hit 15 HRs at RFK back in 1969) but if he can keep up the average, it won't be a big one. Edwin Madriles is a solid prospect who will push Schneider for the starting job in 1971. He could theoretically play a passable shortstop if the next guy gets hurt. Oniji Handa isn't just an annual Gold Glove lock, he's basically the Ozzie Smith of this dynasty. He had a 25.4 ZR which was 8.2 points better than the next best fielding shortstop in the AL, Matt Mullen of the Detroit Tigers. He's an absolute beast in the field, and now imagine you had Ozzie Smith with the glove combined with Nomar Garciaparra at the plate. The Red Sox dropped him down in the order from 2nd to 4th midway through last season, and though he struggled at first (overall he was .275/11/45 hitting cleanup vs .299/13/46 in the 2 hole), he really accepted the role in September, when he stopped trying to hit everything out of the park and hit .312 with 4 HR and 17 RBI. Handa is a guy who can hit any pitcher at any time, no matter how wild or electric they might be that night. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Teague, Josh 28 LL 98 357 49 82 6 4 17 51 15 101 15 4 5 .230 .259 .412 7/9 Wilson, Matt 34 LL 55 196 32 52 13 0 4 26 22 27 1 0 9 .265 .344 .393 7 Puig, Ramon 32 SL 80 100 17 24 7 0 3 13 13 19 0 0 3 .240 .328 .400 /73 Pitt, Josh 34 LR 26 50 6 11 3 0 0 6 7 8 1 0 1 .220 .305 .280 7/8 Miller, Cody 26 RR 14 41 7 10 3 0 1 8 4 10 0 1 1 .244 .304 .390 7 Kane, Brandon 27 LL 3 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .667 .667 .667 /7 Glynn, Jon 25 RR 123 483 63 119 17 5 6 37 30 77 27 6 4 .246 .287 .340 8* Johnston, Ryan 28 LL 64 210 32 47 13 2 5 14 44 56 4 1 0 .224 .361 .376 8/7 Kim, Jun 32 LL 150 575 75 143 23 3 18 66 51 105 10 3 5 .249 .309 .393 9*/7 Baldwin, Jon 31 SR 25 37 6 7 0 0 1 8 4 15 0 0 1 .189 .262 .270 /97 Jon "Astronaut" Glynn doesn't quite look like he's going to be the budding superstar that caused Boston to take him with the 7th overall pick in the 1968 draft. He's a good fielder and has top of the line speed but has very little power, even for center field, and doesn't get on base nearly enough to be a workable option leading off. He's still a fat lot better than Ryan Johnston, who lost the starting gig last year. Johnston looks like the part out there but he often pulls up on line drives that get too close to the fences. He might benefit from moving to... I'm going to say right field, because there he wouldn't have to deal with the Green Monster. The Sox kind of already have a guy there though and I'm not sure Johnston can hit well enough to warrant playing in a corner spot. The right field option is Jun Kim. Kim came to Chicago along with Sandy Hinojosa. They expected Kim to provide them with middling power and an absolute cannon for an arm and they got even more than that. Kim not only set a career best in HRs, he doubled his old mark of 9 (which he reached 4 times in Chicago) and on top of that he became a real presence in the locker room, especially during that hot stretch in August. One possible cause for concern in 1971 is that Kim hit 13 of his 18 HRs before July 1.
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08-08-2022, 10:18 AM
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#87 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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1971 Team Recaps: California Angels (87-75)
Recap: For the first time in their history, the Angels contended for the playoffs into September. Even though they were only a half game better than they finished in their inaugural 1961 season, the vagaries of divisional play meant that California was still fighting for the playoffs in mid-September. They were never particularly up nor particularly down all season; they just stuck around.
History: The Angels have now had a winning record for 3 consecutive years after breaking out of their expansionosity. Outlook: This is still a young team that lies in wait of the Twins slipping. They'll surely win a division title some time in the near future. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Bruno, Gary 24 RR 16 8 .667 2.81 33 31 0 9 4 0 237.1 221 88 74 14 60 4 103 1.184 8.4 0.5 2.3 3.9 Beaulieu, Dustin 33 LL 10 13 .435 4.34 31 30 0 5 1 0 197.0 208 108 95 14 86 5 97 1.492 9.5 0.6 3.9 4.4 Irons, Jordan 25 LL 12 7 .632 2.56 30 29 0 10 2 0 182.2 167 55 52 6 67 0 87 1.281 8.2 0.3 3.3 4.3 Williams, Aidan 27 LL 14 8 .636 3.49 26 26 0 2 1 0 188.0 181 87 73 17 65 4 113 1.309 8.7 0.8 3.1 5.4 Ring, Andy 30 RR 7 7 .500 2.93 17 17 0 7 3 0 129.0 102 53 42 11 50 0 84 1.178 7.1 0.8 3.5 5.9 Kahl, Paul 26 RR 0 0 .000 6.14 19 19 0 0 0 0 48.1 65 38 33 7 39 4 9 2.152 12.1 1.3 7.3 1.7 Hansen, Ken 24 RR 2 0 1.000 2.83 6 3 0 2 1 0 28.2 25 9 9 2 9 1 20 1.186 7.8 0.6 2.8 6.3 Sudler, Amir 25 RR 0 1 .000 15.43 1 1 0 0 0 0 4.2 7 8 8 0 7 0 4 3.000 13.5 0.0 13.5 7.7 There should be a decent fight around the back half of the rotation. Aidan Williams seems kind of locked in as the #3 guy but you never know... his ERA was up by more than a run from '69 but he did lead the league in ERA then so there was room to go up. Perhaps more concerning was the fact that he was able to complete just 2 games in 26 starts pitching for a team whose bullpen was sometimes volatile. Angels brass reportedly wishes he'd bear down more when the going gets tough; instead, he tugs on his jersey and waits to get brought out. Jordan Irons, then, might have an inroad, although I'm not a fan of those peripherals. He is still young and OOTP likes to add on to the Stuff of young pitchers so there could still be room for improvement. And there's always Dustin Beaulieu, who leads the league in the hardest to pronounce name, if nothing else. Dustin eats innings. Once upon a time he went 19-8 for the Braves but at this point he just kind of is who he is. If that's who you have in the back of your rotation, you aren't doing too badly. Should someone in here fall (and likely the Angels will go with a 4 man rotation so it'll take two people going down to injury), California does have a couple of decent prospects in AAA, including Parker Leonard (7-5, 3.26 at AAA Hawaii), who rocketed up 2 levels in 1970 after spending the first seven years of his minor league career in rookie or A ball. Like a lot of non-prospects who wind up working out well, he's more of a control guy than a strikeout guy. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Touchton, Bubba 26 RR 8 6 .571 3.55 63 0 46 0 0 9 91.1 90 40 36 3 49 6 50 1.522 8.9 0.3 4.8 4.9 Kihara, Tanzan 29 SR 1 2 .333 2.38 53 0 34 0 0 2 68.0 57 20 18 8 12 1 64 1.015 7.5 1.1 1.6 8.5 Yates, Gavin 30 RR 6 3 .667 2.67 40 0 17 0 0 0 60.2 52 20 18 5 13 1 38 1.071 7.7 0.7 1.9 5.6 Park, Bong-ok 35 LL 1 7 .125 6.02 22 4 14 0 0 4 43.1 45 31 29 8 28 3 16 1.685 9.3 1.7 5.8 3.3 Lagos, Ed 26 RR 2 2 .500 2.47 22 0 3 0 0 0 51.0 57 16 14 4 4 1 25 1.196 10.1 0.7 0.7 4.4 Mounier, Robby 34 RR 1 1 .500 4.15 16 2 3 0 0 0 30.1 33 14 14 3 13 1 17 1.516 9.8 0.9 3.9 5.0 Richey, Scott 27 RR 0 1 .000 2.79 13 0 4 0 0 0 19.1 10 7 6 0 16 1 13 1.345 4.7 0.0 7.4 6.1 Lafler, Parker 31 RR 1 0 1.000 2.00 4 0 1 0 0 0 9.0 9 4 2 0 6 0 3 1.667 9.0 0.0 6.0 3.0 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Perez, Mike 32 RR 110 352 40 58 10 1 13 40 49 136 0 0 9 .165 .266 .310 2* Dennehy, Shaun 26 RR 23 77 6 19 3 0 0 11 8 17 0 0 1 .247 .310 .286 2 Cavazos, Juan 35 LR 25 68 3 13 3 0 1 12 10 21 0 0 2 .191 .291 .279 2 Tamez, Javier 28 RR 18 41 2 2 0 0 0 2 6 13 0 0 1 .049 .167 .049 2 Thaxton, Ryan 29 LR 9 17 2 4 0 0 0 0 3 6 0 0 0 .235 .350 .235 /2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Jennings, Pete 29 RR 157 632 85 187 37 1 16 96 50 56 1 5 20 .296 .346 .434 3*5 Skelton, Jon 41 LL 17 67 10 19 3 0 2 10 5 6 0 0 7 .284 .333 .418 3 Mendez, Mauricio 24 RR 99 371 60 108 14 6 12 48 31 54 18 3 7 .291 .341 .458 4 Hopka, Chance 27 RR 89 344 54 82 16 6 1 27 31 88 7 1 14 .238 .297 .328 4/6 Schneider, Kristian 30 LR 97 361 55 114 21 4 6 55 35 60 4 4 7 .316 .377 .446 5 McSparren, Wayne 27 RR 62 142 17 25 5 1 4 17 14 28 1 1 7 .176 .240 .310 5 Corley, Travis 25 RR 15 51 7 16 4 0 1 6 6 6 0 0 0 .314 .417 .451 5/9 Esbenshade, Mark 29 RR 9 21 1 3 0 0 1 2 3 6 0 0 1 .143 .240 .286 /5 Peternek, Reilly 29 SR 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Adams, Chris 29 RR 154 579 69 171 28 8 19 97 36 70 11 2 10 .295 .332 .470 6* Perez, Ivan 26 RR 6 6 0 1 1 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 .167 .286 .333 /6 The Angels reside in a large market with a lot of pressure placed on them and sometimes it seems like they don't recognize good talent that comes up through their organization. That at least is the excuse I'll give for them overlooking Mauricio Mendez after a blazing .322/9/55 campaign in 1969. They elected to start the year with defense and Chance Hopka instead. To their credit, they recognized the issue and swapped him in around halfway through. Hopka remains on the team as the backup middle infielder; for now, he seems to be content enough in that role but that's a situation we'll need to monitor. There was nothing wrong with Kristian Schneider per se; in fact, he did a fine job at 3rd and allowed Jennings to move off the position. That said, California had a young hotshot waiting in the wings and when Travis Corley did exactly what scouts thought he was going to do in his September call-up, it was clear that it was time to hand over the reins. Even though Corley hit .314 last year, he's more of a defense-first third baseman who can probably hit around .280 in the majors but without a ton of power. Wayne McSparren is also on the roster but who knows for how long; he was asked to work pinch-hitting duties against lefties but hit just .103 vs. southpaws in 1970. Chris Adams quietly added a couple of new dimensions to his hitting - his previous high in HRs was 13 and the clutch differential was even bigger, as the most RBIs he'd ever hit were 79 in 1969. The Angels responded by moving him into the heart of the order during the season and he wound up leading the team in both of these categories. He responded to his All-Star snub - he's gone 2 times in his career - with the best month of his life, going .381/8/26 in July and winning his first ever Batter of the Month award. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Vargas, Nelson 27 RL 148 586 94 183 26 11 12 81 56 63 22 16 20 .312 .370 .456 7* LaChance, Mike 30 LL 25 24 5 6 1 0 0 4 5 5 1 0 1 .250 .379 .292 /7 Hodge, Norm 29 LL 152 619 63 161 17 5 8 44 42 122 32 16 5 .260 .307 .342 8* Coleman, Jim 27 RR 35 61 12 19 2 0 2 10 7 13 6 7 0 .311 .371 .443 8/7 Tyree, Chris 26 RL 75 288 34 94 12 7 4 38 12 31 10 6 6 .326 .353 .458 9 Leriche, Barney 28 RR 83 221 33 60 9 4 15 43 18 56 3 6 4 .271 .316 .552 97/83 Berry, Jon 30 LL 85 197 35 45 5 2 3 17 34 39 10 2 7 .228 .343 .320 9/37 Pierce, Josh 23 SL 12 47 7 12 2 1 1 2 3 12 1 2 0 .255 .300 .404 9 Romero, Alvin 24 LL 12 22 4 6 2 0 0 1 2 0 4 0 0 .273 .360 .364 /9 Dulin, Andy 27 RR 3 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .500 .600 .500 /9 Speaking of Norm Hodge, the 5 time Gold Glover was as good as ever in the field and we see no reason why he shouldn't pick up number 6 this year. He also led the team in steals with 32 but the Angels kind of soured on using him in leadoff as the season progressed. Hodges actually hit much, much better in the leadoff slot (.267, 8, 34) than 7th, where he was dropped (.224, 0, 9). Even a .224 hitting Hodge, though - and that's the worst case scenario - is a net positive due to the glove. Right field is absolutely jam-packed right now and it's hard to tell who's going to emerge in front. Will it be Chris Tyree, who hit for lots of average but basically no power? Or Barney Leriche, who came close to leading the club in HRs in just 221 at-bats? Maybe it'll even be Josh Pierce, the 13th overall pick in 1969 who got all the way to the major leagues last year and who has now hit .312 in two September call-ups.
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08-08-2022, 04:07 PM
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#88 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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1971 Team Recaps: Chicago White Sox (76-86)
Recap: Chicago followed up a run at the AL West division title in 1969 with their worst finish in 9 years. They started poorly and never quite had the kind of run that would have put them back into contention. The trades they engineered during the offseason and into this one were the trades of a team that was looking to rebuild without calling it a rebuild (note: the real-life White Sox were dead last in the AL so this might have had something to do with it) and as a result, theirs was a highly mediocre finish.
History: As noted, the White Sox had been at least in that "pretty good" level since 1961 but only got truly close in 1967, so maybe it was time to pack it in after all. Try telling that to White Sox fans though. Outlook: Maybe they bottomed out; I'll have to see what trades they engineer. Right now they look like a 70-75 win team. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Mendoza, Raul 27 RR 14 14 .500 3.78 34 34 0 8 3 0 254.2 243 116 107 31 60 6 204 1.190 8.6 1.1 2.1 7.2 Anderlik, Tim 26 SR 15 9 .625 3.03 30 30 0 7 2 0 220.0 196 92 74 24 89 4 137 1.295 8.0 1.0 3.6 5.6 Reyes, Bob 30 SR 10 7 .588 3.40 21 21 0 5 3 0 145.2 151 60 55 12 42 5 80 1.325 9.3 0.7 2.6 4.9 Lueders, Gene 24 LL 4 9 .308 5.16 23 17 0 2 1 0 120.1 144 77 69 15 54 0 80 1.645 10.8 1.1 4.0 6.0 Martinez, Jason 26 LL 5 7 .417 5.34 15 14 1 1 0 0 87.2 97 57 52 11 33 0 23 1.483 10.0 1.1 3.4 2.4 Roche, Daniel 32 RR 4 4 .500 2.73 9 9 0 2 0 0 59.1 56 31 18 2 23 0 34 1.331 8.5 0.3 3.5 5.2 Natalie, Tim 24 LL 2 4 .333 5.72 10 6 0 0 0 0 39.1 39 27 25 2 20 1 22 1.500 8.9 0.5 4.6 5.0 Reese, Rich 25 RR 0 1 .000 6.97 2 2 0 0 0 0 10.1 8 9 8 2 11 0 6 1.839 7.0 1.7 9.6 5.2 Bob Reyes joined the White Sox from Cleveland in June. The Indians were using him mainly in relief but he adapted well to starting and will most likely begin the season in the White Sox' rotation. The very back is a bit of a mess right now; Gene Lueders opened the year in the rotation following a fine 12-10, 3.39 season in 1969 but played his way into AAA where, 3 starts into his play down there (he was 2-1, 3.91) he came up lame with bone chips in his elbow. Perhaps that was what was bothering him all year long? He's not going to even start throwing until around the time spring training starts. The Sox tried youngsters Tim Natalie and Jason Martinez late but neither were particularly effective. You'll see Daniel Roche listed sbove as well; he tore his rotator cuff in late May and won't be back until the 2nd half of 1971. He did go 17-12 for this team in '69 and his loss was keenly felt. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Post, Malcolm 24 RR 7 8 .467 2.40 59 0 53 0 0 16 82.2 70 27 22 4 32 5 76 1.234 7.6 0.4 3.5 8.3 Moon, Suk-min 34 SR 2 3 .400 3.49 37 0 17 0 0 3 49.0 51 21 19 4 18 2 41 1.408 9.4 0.7 3.3 7.5 Lamar, Ben 22 RR 2 1 .667 3.32 35 0 26 0 0 9 43.1 33 17 16 4 23 1 40 1.292 6.9 0.8 4.8 8.3 Venegas, Manny 29 LL 0 2 .000 3.05 35 0 15 0 0 0 38.1 35 16 13 3 15 1 28 1.304 8.2 0.7 3.5 6.6 Truss, Jim 25 LL 3 9 .250 4.73 20 17 1 3 2 0 112.1 120 70 59 25 44 0 61 1.460 9.6 2.0 3.5 4.9 Sanchez, Luis 26 RR 5 1 .833 5.19 16 6 4 1 0 0 60.2 72 35 35 3 32 1 34 1.714 10.7 0.4 4.7 5.0 Hui, Kien-lung 27 LL 2 5 .286 5.84 16 5 4 1 0 0 49.1 44 32 32 8 35 1 50 1.601 8.0 1.5 6.4 9.1 Sanchez, Elias 32 RR 1 0 1.000 2.74 17 0 5 0 0 0 23.0 18 7 7 1 10 2 9 1.217 7.0 0.4 3.9 3.5 Chavez, Pedro 27 RR 0 0 .000 2.25 11 0 2 0 0 0 20.0 8 5 5 3 5 0 19 0.650 3.6 1.4 2.3 8.6 Rowell, Calvin 36 LL 0 1 .000 7.56 3 1 1 0 0 0 8.1 11 8 7 1 6 0 4 2.040 11.9 1.1 6.5 4.3 Hinkson, David 29 LR 0 0 .000 3.86 5 0 3 0 0 0 7.0 7 3 3 1 0 0 4 1.000 9.0 1.3 0.0 5.1 de la Crus, Jesus 24 RR 0 1 .000 9.00 4 0 0 0 0 0 6.0 10 7 6 1 3 1 5 2.167 15.0 1.5 4.5 7.5 Hernandez, Vicente 26 RR 0 0 .000 17.36 4 0 0 0 0 0 4.2 9 9 9 4 2 0 5 2.357 17.4 7.7 3.9 9.6 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos McIntyre, Nick 27 LR 116 286 48 76 16 1 20 54 44 72 0 0 10 .266 .361 .538 2 Coyle, Danny 34 RR 46 124 13 19 6 0 3 14 26 39 0 0 2 .153 .290 .274 2 Leduc, Dave 28 RR 40 133 10 29 7 0 1 16 7 25 0 1 8 .218 .248 .293 2 Munger, Randy 35 RR 9 16 3 3 1 0 1 2 2 3 0 0 0 .188 .278 .438 /2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Lewis, Josh 29 RR 138 398 40 93 11 2 10 54 35 67 0 0 9 .234 .295 .347 3 Coldiron, Josh 24 LR 24 74 5 11 1 0 0 9 8 14 4 3 1 .149 .235 .162 3/7 Long, Brian 28 RR 152 632 66 171 43 6 7 74 33 107 0 0 9 .271 .308 .391 4* Wooten, Jordan 39 LR 124 349 51 81 11 0 17 47 70 60 0 0 6 .232 .356 .410 5 Dominguez, Omar 29 RR 77 224 24 50 11 0 5 23 24 56 0 1 4 .223 .301 .339 5/3 de Velasco, Ivan 29 RR 35 79 8 15 2 0 2 12 12 11 0 0 2 .190 .304 .291 5/4 Henderson, Justin 32 RR 140 517 55 119 16 3 8 53 53 89 7 7 12 .230 .305 .319 6* Fiederlein, Jim 27 RR 22 72 3 10 0 0 0 3 2 19 0 0 1 .139 .173 .139 6 Crandall, Rob 27 RR 11 20 5 2 0 0 1 4 6 7 0 0 1 .100 .308 .250 /64 Brian Long made his 3rd All-Star appearance in 4 years by being a solid all-around player. He's not a guy who's going to wow you with anything - well, maybe doubles - but he's going to hit between .270 and .280, hit 5-7 HRs a year, and come through with some clutch hits. He actually finished 2nd on the team in RBI, which may be more of an indictment of the middle of the order than goodness for Long, but it's still an indicator of what he's capable of. Jordan Wooten has fashioned a 16 year major league career by being a good and sometimes great third baseman. The years of reaching mid-20s HR power are behind him, largely because he can't play in the field every day, but he doesn't seem to be done yet. Nevertheless, the White Sox are determined to try out Jeff Nation at the hot corner this year. Nation was singularly awful at third last year - 14 errors in 43 starts for an .897 fielding average - but the Sox think they noticed some bad mechanics in his throwing motion they think they can fix. At this point it's not like it's costing them much... Justin Henderson did what was expected of him in his 2nd season in Chicago. He's a 3 time Gold Glover for the Dodgers but a. at second base, and b. even if he is a very good fielder at short, this is the league with Oniji Handa in it so it's not happening anyway. Henderson did set a career high in HRs and extra-base hits, although we aren't quite willing to call that a new part of his game. He'll go into training camp being pushed by Ian Reeder, who spent the whole year in AAA after his former team the Baltimore Orioles gave him a cup of coffee in 1969. Reeder isn't the fielder that Henderson is but sometimes those middle infielders fall apart suddenly. Also, if Nation proves unable to play the hot corner, Reeder main shortcoming as a shortstop is a lack of top-end range; he projects as a solid to good 3rd baseman. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Vargas, Willie 26 RR 132 520 75 168 32 3 7 58 56 31 23 10 17 .323 .392 .437 73 Brown, Tom 31 RR 150 604 85 165 29 5 23 91 41 85 15 10 14 .273 .323 .452 879 Weyenberg, Eric 22 LL 56 203 31 46 8 2 0 8 27 30 9 3 0 .227 .311 .286 8 Clements, Ryan 27 RR 33 96 13 24 5 1 4 13 8 19 4 0 2 .250 .305 .448 8/97 Veneziano, Sebastiano 33 LL 15 57 5 16 1 1 1 7 8 14 0 1 0 .281 .369 .386 8/7 Wade, Josh 26 RR 150 597 71 177 31 9 8 64 21 75 4 5 13 .296 .324 .419 9*7 Daly, Kyle 32 RR 31 69 6 10 1 0 1 3 5 14 0 0 2 .145 .213 .203 /97 Fonseca, Chris 23 LR 23 42 8 13 2 1 1 5 7 3 1 2 1 .310 .408 .476 /98 Sebastiano Veneziano went from the penthouse to the doghouse in the space of one year with the Washington Senators. In 1969 he made the first All-Star Game of his career at the age of 32 and finished the year .304/17/71. Last yeaer he started slowly with a .232 April and never got in stride either with the average or the power: when the Sens placed him on waivers in September, he was hitting just .227 with 7 HRs and had been relegated mostly to pinch-hitting duties. Two good weeks in Chicago has convinced the White Sox that he deserves another shot. They also used him in centerfield, which doesn't seem like a great use of his abilities, but the thinking there is to allow Tom Brown to concentrate on hitting. The wildcard in here is 1970 3rd round pick Terry Gibbons, who jumped straight from college to AA last year and could be ready to go as early as next year. Josh Wade is unlikely to make anyone forget Jun Kim in right field - his arm is OK but not great, and he's nowhere near the team captain that Kim is - but he's a good, solid player in his own right. He actually managed to collect more hits than Willie Vargas for the team lead; that was mostly because of Vargas missing time but Wade is a career .309 hitter in 2 full seasons, it must be said.
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08-09-2022, 12:11 PM
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#89 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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1971 Team Reports: Cleveland Indians (94-69)
Recap: After a long, long season, the Indians were unable to convert the one-game playoff to win their second consecutive AL East title. They fell to the Yankees 5-4 in a one-game playoff. It came almost as a relief, as the team's bullpen had been ravaged all season long and they were forced to play the final two months without their best power hitter in Ernesto Garcia. Losing to the hated Yankees is always a bitter pill to swallow, however.
History: The Indians had been upset in the 1969 ALCS by the Twins and were the favorites to win going into 1970. This is why you play the games though. Prior to this, Cleveland had themselves a dynasty in the late 40s and early 50s; needless to say, nothing remains from that besides memories. Outlook: Cleveland still has some good young players and they can't possibly suffer as many injuries to the bullpen as they did in 1970. I have to predict them to win the 1971 Al East trophy and see what happens from there. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Matthews, Josh 24 LL 22 9 .710 2.96 39 39 0 11 4 0 297.2 258 111 98 19 118 2 201 1.263 7.8 0.6 3.6 6.1 Lagunas, Andy 29 RR 19 9 .679 3.82 36 36 0 7 1 0 233.1 222 102 99 24 94 3 174 1.354 8.6 0.9 3.6 6.7 Hamilton, Dylan 27 RR 17 15 .531 3.84 37 36 0 10 1 0 260.0 249 126 111 20 91 2 150 1.308 8.6 0.7 3.2 5.2 Regan, Chris 29 RR 6 6 .500 3.36 16 16 0 2 1 0 123.1 137 57 46 12 34 1 76 1.386 10.0 0.9 2.5 5.5 Diaz, Benito 30 SR 3 4 .429 3.35 16 11 3 2 0 1 83.1 72 39 31 7 37 1 61 1.308 7.8 0.8 4.0 6.6 Johnson, Malik 24 RR 4 4 .500 3.63 13 11 0 4 0 0 74.1 65 31 30 9 20 0 56 1.143 7.9 1.1 2.4 6.8 Martinez, Jose 25 RR 1 1 .500 2.56 8 7 0 1 1 0 38.2 31 12 11 3 10 0 52 1.060 7.2 0.7 2.3 12.1 Dylan Hamilton was also asked to do a lot for this team, perhaps too much. He's never going to be the equal of Boston's Justin Kindberg, for whom he was traded in April of 1969, and people need to stop getting on him for that. One thing he should work on is holding runners: he prefers to use a full windup with runners on base and last year that caused him to give up 39 steals in 50 attempts. Malik Johnson goes into 1971 as the front-runner for the last starter job: he's been putting up unbelievable K numbers in the high minors the last couple years and he showed flashes of that in extended time in the majors last year. Jose Martinez will challenge him; he struck out 155 men in 95.2 innings in AAA Witchita last year. There are questions as to whether or not he has the stamina to stay a starter in the major leagues but is reported to have been working on stretching his arm out this offseason. Chris Regan, who led the league in starts from 1966 through 1968, is now on the outside looking in at this rotation after missing the second half of the year with a torn meniscus in his knee. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Godard, Eric 29 RR 0 0 .000 1.00 15 0 10 0 0 8 18.0 14 3 2 0 6 0 17 1.111 7.0 0.0 3.0 8.5 Whittier, Landon 25 LR 7 6 .538 3.50 46 0 27 0 0 6 64.1 57 30 25 4 49 2 44 1.648 8.0 0.6 6.9 6.2 Brda, Joe 26 RR 2 2 .500 4.45 27 3 18 0 0 7 54.2 48 27 27 10 28 2 43 1.390 7.9 1.6 4.6 7.1 Sanchez, Elias 32 RR 0 2 .000 2.55 25 0 14 0 0 5 35.1 29 10 10 3 13 0 21 1.189 7.4 0.8 3.3 5.3 Reyes, Bob 30 SR 2 4 .333 3.07 19 2 8 1 1 0 41.0 42 18 14 5 8 0 23 1.220 9.2 1.1 1.8 5.0 Mazyck, Deshawn 28 SR 1 2 .333 4.68 18 0 10 0 0 4 25.0 34 17 13 3 14 2 15 1.920 12.2 1.1 5.0 5.4 Ellis, Doug 25 RR 2 2 .500 3.91 17 0 11 0 0 2 25.1 31 15 11 7 6 2 18 1.461 11.0 2.5 2.1 6.4 Strong, Chris 29 RR 3 0 1.000 3.74 7 1 1 0 0 0 21.2 19 9 9 0 11 0 10 1.385 7.9 0.0 4.6 4.2 Becker, Chris 25 RR 1 1 .500 1.40 13 0 2 0 0 1 19.1 16 3 3 1 14 0 14 1.552 7.4 0.5 6.5 6.5 Castillo, Danny 26 LR 1 0 1.000 0.51 12 0 6 0 0 0 17.2 7 1 1 0 2 0 8 0.509 3.6 0.0 1.0 4.1 Elliott, Tim 23 RR 3 0 1.000 3.55 9 0 3 0 0 0 12.2 13 5 5 3 4 0 7 1.342 9.2 2.1 2.8 5.0 Lopez, Ramon 26 LL 0 0 .000 2.38 12 0 2 0 0 0 11.1 6 3 3 1 2 0 11 0.706 4.8 0.8 1.6 8.7 Hernandez, Vicente 26 RR 0 0 .000 2.70 14 1 0 0 0 0 10.0 12 3 3 2 4 0 4 1.600 10.8 1.8 3.6 3.6 Seoane, Carlos 23 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 5.0 2 0 0 0 6 0 5 1.600 3.6 0.0 10.8 9.0 Graham, Cody 37 RR 0 0 .000 12.46 6 0 0 0 0 0 4.1 9 6 6 1 4 3 7 3.000 18.7 2.1 8.3 14.5 So down the stetch they were forced to turn to youngsters Joe Brda and Landon Whittier. Whittier, the 5th overall pick in the 1965 draft, continued to show the control issues that have kept him from achieving his full potential. He'll be called on for sure in 1971 but he remains an enigma. Brda finished the season as the closer if only by default. He doesn't really have that killer instinct you look for in a short reliever and word on the street is that he's not the brightest cracker in the barrel, but aside from some problems keeping his 90+ 4-seamer down (he allowed 10 HRs in just 54.2 innings), he was basically a positive. on the roster. Aside from Deshawn Mazyck, who was traded away to the Brewers in September, there are a lot of arms on the above list who are probably better off in AAA. That was the lot of the Indians in 1970. Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos House, Jonathan 28 LR 130 435 47 106 13 0 10 46 37 105 0 0 16 .244 .303 .343 2* Zimmerman, Jason 28 RR 60 143 12 26 6 0 1 13 14 38 0 0 6 .182 .256 .245 2 Mexia, Cesar 29 RR 7 18 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 1 .111 .200 .111 /2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Kelver, Kyle 31 RR 120 375 45 109 19 1 16 73 44 71 0 1 13 .291 .369 .475 3 Garcia, Ernesto 26 LL 81 301 50 64 6 0 33 79 29 59 0 0 9 .213 .280 .561 3 Brull, Jason 40 LL 25 24 5 2 1 0 0 0 8 8 0 0 0 .083 .313 .125 /3 Pritchett, T.J. 34 RR 148 487 64 125 15 0 18 64 100 79 3 1 11 .257 .385 .398 4* Aguillon, Tony 25 RR 53 108 10 31 4 0 3 17 5 4 0 0 9 .287 .325 .407 4/5 Grube, Chris 28 LR 20 53 3 7 1 0 0 3 2 13 0 0 1 .132 .161 .151 4/6 Hernandez, Roberto 28 RR 152 616 68 162 28 3 15 66 15 50 0 0 28 .263 .280 .391 5* Ramirez, Bobby 22 LR 12 20 4 4 2 1 0 6 3 4 0 0 0 .200 .304 .400 /5 Johnson, John 26 RR 152 673 115 229 33 9 7 60 25 34 18 8 23 .340 .369 .447 6* Velasquez, Leo 35 RR 8 35 2 5 0 0 1 2 0 7 0 0 1 .143 .167 .229 /6 TJ Pritchett had another unglamorous yet effective TJ Pritchett season. He may never receive accolades for his work (well, he did win 2 Gold Gloves earlier in his career, I guess) but he fields a solid second base, has good pop for a middle infielder (last year's 18 HRs were a career high) and has always found a way to get on base (last year being the first time Pritchett has ever reached the century mark in walks). He is getting to that age where players stop being able to handle the middle infield but reports so far are that he's as lively as ever, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Roberto Hernandez was having another good, solid Roberto Hernandez season through the end of August - a .282 average, 14 HRs, 63 RBIs - until things went sideways in the last month. He's always been a guy who likes to swing at the first pitch and is one of the harder players to strike out in the league. In September and October alone, though, he whiffed 16 times in 28 games. Did the pressure get to him, and if so, why now and not in years past? The Indians do have the 27th best prospect in baseball, Bobby Ramirez, ready to push him in spring training; baseball is an unforgiving business. If you're a fan of great shortstops, the AL in the late 60s and early 70s is a great time to be alive. John Johnson, in his 4th year as a starter, blazed new trails, leading the league in at-bats, runs, hits (tied with Willie Vargas, actually), and finished 2nd in the league in average for the 2nd consecutive season. There was some worries last year that he'd regress after his average shot up more than 100 points from the year before but nope, it looks like this is who Johnson is now. American League beware. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Huanosta, Alonzo 29 RR 139 585 87 202 37 2 20 92 37 52 3 1 15 .345 .384 .518 7* Miller, Nick 25 LL 98 169 31 45 5 4 3 19 26 19 14 0 2 .266 .371 .396 7/9 Whitney, Travis 26 LL 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 .000 .667 .000 Hernandez, Carlos 28 RR 150 669 88 198 31 8 13 57 41 42 4 8 12 .296 .333 .425 8*/9 Fonseca, Chris 23 LR 19 47 6 19 4 0 1 4 2 5 1 0 0 .404 .429 .553 /89 Pron, Tommy 28 LR 133 509 63 168 35 0 8 70 63 37 0 1 19 .330 .401 .446 9* Sanchez, Jorge 27 RR 45 130 15 32 2 1 3 16 6 30 6 1 3 .246 .275 .346 9/87 Valdez, Danny 27 LL 13 15 2 3 0 0 1 1 3 4 0 0 1 .200 .333 .400 /9 Kaplan, Bobby 23 RR 4 14 0 6 2 0 0 2 3 1 0 0 0 .429 .529 .571 /98 The Cardinals cut bait on Carlos Hernandez because they were overloaded at the corner outfield positions and wanted a guy who was proven as a centerfielder. That led them to send Hernandez to Cleveland in the offseason in exchange for Ray Herring. Herring wound up being a disaster for St. Louis whereas the Indians simply taught Hernandez, who escaped Fidel Castro's Cuba in 1968, to play center. He wound up being a better CF than the man he replaced - not that that's a high bar - and where Ray Herring regressed badly offensively last season, Hernandez was just as good in 1970 as he was in his "rookie" season of '69 if not better. Hernandez just missed being the 4th regular on the team to hit .300 - in fact, he was hitting .300 even as late as September 11. Tommy Pron missed a month with injury and perhaps more distressing to the Indians seems to have lost his power hitting stroke last year. In '69 he set career highs with 19 HRs and 101 RBI; last year he didn't hit his 3rd HR of the season until August 23. On the upside, he did finish the season with 2 HRs in 2 games, including a solo shot in the 5-4 playoff loss to the Yankees. It's hard to fault a former batting champion who set a career high in average, but these small differences are the things that can make up a game or two in the standings over the course of a whole season. Jorge Sanchez is listed here because he was the fill-in while Pron was out; he was pretty much a replacement level 4th outfielder and if he plays less in 1971 that would be a good sign.
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08-10-2022, 10:42 AM
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#90 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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1971 Team Recaps: Detroit Tigers (70-92)
Recap: The Tigers had a surprising season in 1969 that unfortunately only allowed them to be the 3rd best team in the AL East. Then the bottom dropped out last year. Detroit wasn't expansion-team bad, although they did finish the season with a worse record than the Milwaukee Brewers, but they were plenty bad enough, mediocre in all facets of the game.
History: Detroit is the red-headed stepchild of the American League. Their best ever finish is 3rd and the closest they've ever come to a pennant is 5 games back, way back in 1956. Outlook: Early signs, particularly the trading of Vince Akright, indicate that Detroit is once again blowing everything up and rebuilding. We hope for the sake of the fans in Detroit that this time the rebuild will take. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Molina, Edgar 25 RR 13 16 .448 3.69 34 34 0 12 2 0 258.2 226 115 106 31 94 8 238 1.237 7.9 1.1 3.3 8.3 Akright, Vince 27 SR 11 14 .440 3.61 34 34 0 5 0 0 241.2 223 109 97 13 99 11 173 1.332 8.3 0.5 3.7 6.4 Merino, Juan 23 SR 7 9 .438 4.86 20 20 0 3 0 0 139.0 141 80 75 18 61 6 119 1.453 9.1 1.2 3.9 7.7 Gilmer, Jason 28 RR 4 8 .333 4.01 17 17 0 3 2 0 121.1 128 59 54 12 50 3 80 1.467 9.5 0.9 3.7 5.9 Goddard, Jimmy 30 SR 2 2 .500 3.21 11 10 0 1 0 0 73.0 62 31 26 4 30 1 49 1.260 7.6 0.5 3.7 6.0 Bryan, Danny 29 SR 4 2 .667 2.67 13 7 3 1 0 0 54.0 34 16 16 4 36 1 46 1.296 5.7 0.7 6.0 7.7 Pulido, Richard 24 RL 1 1 .500 2.05 3 3 0 1 1 0 22.0 19 5 5 1 4 0 15 1.045 7.8 0.4 1.6 6.1 The question of who steps into the number two role now is a good one. The front-runner would appear to be one of the men they got back for Akright,Kent Coffey (10-9, 2.65). However, Coffey is still recovering from a bad shoulder that caused him to miss the final two months of the season and it's an open question of whether he'll be 100% by April. They'll also have Bruce Rubio in the mix following an excellent campaign where the 22 year old rookie whent a combined 14-8 for AAA Denver and Washington. Rubio is one of those guys who likes to learn how to throw every pitch that he's shown, and last year he demonstrated he could throw all of them for strikes at the major league level. Jimmy Goddard will almost certainly be in there as well; the 15 game winner in 1969 missed the last 2/3rds of the year with a partially torn labrum and then a strained oblique. When his change is cooking, he's still got the potential to be a better than average guy out there. And perhaps don't sleep on 23 year old Juan Merino, who still has a lot to learn but if he can keep the ball down, that curveball of his can miss a lot of bats and perhaps chase Molina for the team strikeout lead. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Madrigal, Alex 30 LR 3 13 .188 3.96 66 0 55 0 0 26 86.1 97 41 38 8 39 5 59 1.575 10.1 0.8 4.1 6.2 Hilbert, Larry 27 RR 4 4 .500 4.06 52 0 26 0 0 4 75.1 81 36 34 8 28 4 46 1.447 9.7 1.0 3.3 5.5 Schmidt, Ben 29 RR 8 6 .571 3.95 36 13 7 2 1 1 120.2 116 55 53 20 42 3 109 1.309 8.7 1.5 3.1 8.1 Abeyta, Gus 35 RR 1 1 .500 4.50 20 0 10 0 0 0 28.0 31 15 14 7 18 2 22 1.750 10.0 2.3 5.8 7.1 Sweetapple, Douglas 31 LL 1 5 .167 4.15 17 8 5 1 0 0 60.2 60 36 28 5 33 1 65 1.533 8.9 0.7 4.9 9.6 Lopez, Mike 27 RR 2 3 .400 4.63 16 4 4 0 0 0 44.2 46 28 23 5 42 1 44 1.970 9.3 1.0 8.5 8.9 Vaughn, Robbie 25 LL 1 4 .200 4.67 15 7 4 0 0 0 44.1 45 29 23 1 19 0 38 1.444 9.1 0.2 3.9 7.7 Vacanti, Chris 26 RR 2 3 .400 4.19 13 5 4 0 0 1 43.0 56 28 20 5 9 0 18 1.512 11.7 1.0 1.9 3.8 Godard, Eric 29 RR 3 0 1.000 3.57 12 0 5 0 0 0 17.2 18 7 7 0 12 3 11 1.698 9.2 0.0 6.1 5.6 Lopez, Tony 30 LR 1 1 .500 2.16 14 0 8 0 0 1 16.2 13 4 4 1 3 0 9 0.960 7.0 0.5 1.6 4.9 Krug, Niklas 29 RR 1 0 1.000 0.73 9 0 2 0 0 0 12.1 12 4 1 0 3 0 9 1.216 8.8 0.0 2.2 6.6 Momot, Art 30 RR 1 0 1.000 3.48 5 0 0 0 0 0 10.1 11 4 4 0 10 1 7 2.032 9.6 0.0 8.7 6.1 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Farinelli, Gianluigi 29 RR 124 486 48 125 27 2 11 50 32 117 0 0 22 .257 .307 .389 2* Forgey, Trey 28 RR 26 100 7 22 4 1 1 16 8 12 0 0 3 .220 .284 .310 2 Woodcock, Scott 36 RR 16 51 4 11 3 0 1 3 5 12 0 0 4 .216 .286 .333 2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Ayala, Jose 29 RR 144 587 75 161 26 2 19 63 43 103 0 1 24 .274 .323 .422 3*/5 Stokes, Ryan 28 LR 27 39 0 3 0 0 0 4 7 9 0 0 2 .077 .234 .077 /3 Villegas, Danny 33 RR 144 525 84 149 22 4 35 90 75 70 5 0 19 .284 .370 .541 4* Ortega, Alex 39 RR 49 67 11 17 4 1 0 7 9 12 2 0 0 .254 .346 .343 4 Salinas, David 35 RR 114 373 40 102 10 4 3 23 32 30 12 15 7 .273 .329 .346 5 Daughtry, John 27 RR 71 190 17 39 3 2 5 21 26 45 0 0 3 .205 .300 .321 5/3 Reynolds, Tim 30 RR 12 40 3 8 1 0 1 2 4 14 0 0 0 .200 .273 .300 /53 Mullen, Matt 29 RR 151 563 50 150 23 6 0 43 31 114 3 4 13 .266 .304 .329 6* Rose, Josh 25 RR 42 88 10 21 2 0 0 7 9 14 2 1 1 .239 .309 .261 64 Amidst the losing and the turmoil, Danny Villegas continued to produce big numbers in the middle of the lineup. He finished 2nd in the AL in HRs - his 2nd straight year in the top 3 - was third in slugging percentage, and at times seemed like he was the only offensive output on the team. The only downside to the man who is so cold under pressure that the local media calls him "Icebox" is that he walks a little bit too often for a guy with his level of power (note: that's 1970 Syd speaking, not This Is An Accurate Assessment Of This Guy Syd). He also looks like he might be only a year or two removed from having to move off of second, and he doesn't have the arm to play third. OK, and also his 144 games played last year were a 4 year high. David Salinas is now at the journeyman stage of his career - after overcoming John Daughtry to reclaim the starting 3B role, he was shuffled off to Washington as part of the Vince Akright trade. He was a decent and solid fielder and 2-hole hitter during his year plus in Detroit. It's not hard to see why the Tigers wanted to move on, though (and one wonders what Washington is trying to do right now... but more on them later!). If Ayala can field the position, most of the worries about his bat will be quieted. If not, they did acquire 22 year old Rob Curran, who was Washington's starter last year. Curran is a very fine 3rd baseman and shortstop who failed to make contact way, way too often last season. He's still very, very young and scouts think he can learn to make better contact. Matt Mullen is the best defensive shortstop in the league who isn't Oniji Handa. Last year he committed just 9 errors in 714 chances (.987 FA) and it's not like he wasn't constantly diving for balls either. He also might be the most popular player on this Tigers club. If he played in the NL he'd have multiple Gold Gloves; instead, in Detroit, he's a fan favorite on a relatively unknown team. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Dittmar, Adam 28 RR 103 342 50 76 7 7 11 34 61 64 18 7 10 .222 .342 .380 7/9 Valdez, Danny 27 LL 86 209 33 61 11 1 16 37 38 41 1 1 7 .292 .403 .584 73/9 Wilson, Bubba 25 LR 73 265 27 71 15 3 3 30 22 45 10 6 5 .268 .321 .381 8 Thompson, Guillermo 27 RR 146 663 73 196 30 13 1 59 20 61 33 15 8 .296 .317 .385 879 Irwin, Bob 27 RR 60 130 19 36 3 1 7 14 6 18 2 0 3 .277 .309 .477 8/3479 Contreras, Chris 26 LL 112 466 54 144 31 2 7 43 22 45 1 0 11 .309 .341 .429 9* Hall, Sean 29 LL 50 58 3 10 0 1 1 7 8 16 1 0 2 .172 .284 .259 /976 Cortez, Javy 33 RR 29 34 1 4 1 0 0 1 3 15 0 1 0 .118 .189 .147 /97 Bubba Wilson hit well enough to get sent off to the Senators and the Tigers got back what might be the jewel of that deal, Alvin Romero. Romero played right field for Washington last year and so is yet another guy the Tigers will try to move backwards across the defensive spectrum this year but here I'm very confident that the speed demon can handle it. Romero led the league - lapped the field, really - in steals with 72 and also hit a combined .321 between California and Washington but teams seem to keep underrating him somehow. Is it the way he always refers to himself in the first person? In spite of what sportswriters might think about his perceived arrogance, he's reportedly a great clubhouse guy. Guillermo Thompson played 68 games in center last year and wasn't so hot. He's been pretty well displaced as both the CF and the leadoff man by Romero, which could cause the generally unmotivated Thompson to push himself a bit harder. Chris Contreras has a somewhat similar skillset but has nowhere near the speed that Thompson possesses so he hit lower in the order. He was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1969 because he hit .340 and he followed that up with a .309 average last year, so perhaps the best place for him is 3rd.
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08-10-2022, 02:03 PM
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#91 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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1971 Team Reports: Kansas City Royals (60-102)
Recap: Kansas City suffered through a bad, if typical, second year expansion season. They were actually 11-8 in April but that really only serves to point out how awful they were the rest of the year. Things truly bottomed out in June (7-19) and again in August (7-22) but things were never that good for the Royals. The best that can be said is that they have at least a piece and perhaps a couple pieces who might be a part of a future winning team.
History: The Royals are an expansion team entering their third year. It's pretty bleak. KC also hosted the A's from the late 50s through 1967; that team was also pretty awful, although they did have a couple of 80 win years to give the Midwest a tiny taste of decency. Outlook: It doesn't look super great going forward, if we're being honest. KC is at least 3 years away from doing anything. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Tyler, Eric 30 RR 8 16 .333 4.87 32 32 0 9 1 0 221.2 253 140 120 30 80 17 142 1.502 10.3 1.2 3.2 5.8 White, Tim 29 LL 10 15 .400 4.38 30 30 0 9 3 0 207.2 235 119 101 23 83 12 114 1.531 10.2 1.0 3.6 4.9 Chavez, Miguel 30 LL 8 14 .364 4.90 26 26 0 2 0 0 167.0 174 109 91 15 87 8 125 1.563 9.4 0.8 4.7 6.7 Chaves, Jose 29 RR 7 13 .350 4.05 24 24 0 6 0 0 171.0 166 83 77 22 51 12 146 1.269 8.7 1.2 2.7 7.7 LaPointe, Jason 31 RR 7 3 .700 3.72 13 13 0 3 1 0 84.2 86 37 35 7 29 2 50 1.358 9.1 0.7 3.1 5.3 Marrero, Mario 29 RR 1 2 .333 5.77 8 5 0 1 0 0 39.0 36 28 25 9 21 0 16 1.462 8.3 2.1 4.8 3.7 Zuazua, Jose 24 RR 1 2 .333 6.04 5 5 0 1 0 0 22.1 25 15 15 2 7 0 9 1.433 10.1 0.8 2.8 3.6 Rodriguez, Rick 23 LR 1 1 .500 5.14 3 3 0 1 1 0 21.0 26 12 12 1 7 0 13 1.571 11.1 0.4 3.0 5.6 Gutierrez, Edgar 25 LL 0 0 .000 3.68 2 2 0 0 0 0 7.1 9 3 3 0 4 0 4 1.773 11.0 0.0 4.9 4.9 Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Munoz, Billy 29 RR 1 2 .333 2.08 23 0 19 0 0 7 30.1 23 10 7 2 11 0 33 1.121 6.8 0.6 3.3 9.8 Euceda, Eddie 35 RL 3 11 .214 4.18 49 9 17 3 0 0 114.0 114 67 53 12 43 9 68 1.377 9.0 0.9 3.4 5.4 Quinn, Kevin 35 RR 3 3 .500 4.62 46 0 19 0 0 4 60.1 58 34 31 2 51 6 40 1.807 8.7 0.3 7.6 6.0 Banks, Tim 36 LL 2 6 .250 3.67 30 7 14 0 0 1 68.2 71 34 28 6 32 4 34 1.500 9.3 0.8 4.2 4.5 Reyes, Victor 28 RR 1 6 .143 5.94 29 0 16 0 0 4 47.0 58 33 31 6 20 3 29 1.660 11.1 1.1 3.8 5.6 Hicks, Ryan 34 RR 3 4 .429 6.97 23 6 7 0 0 0 60.2 83 52 47 6 37 3 44 1.978 12.3 0.9 5.5 6.5 Gonzalez, Ismael 25 RR 0 0 .000 3.28 19 0 8 0 0 1 24.2 29 12 9 0 14 1 16 1.743 10.6 0.0 5.1 5.8 Fitzgerald, Glenn 35 SR 0 0 .000 3.43 16 0 6 0 0 0 21.0 21 11 8 0 15 3 10 1.714 9.0 0.0 6.4 4.3 Nies, Chad 26 LL 1 1 .500 7.17 14 0 9 0 0 3 21.1 28 17 17 1 11 2 23 1.828 11.8 0.4 4.6 9.7 Colucci, Nick 28 SR 1 0 1.000 8.10 9 0 0 0 0 0 16.2 24 15 15 4 6 0 9 1.800 13.0 2.2 3.2 4.9 Bump, Vince 24 RR 1 1 .500 4.15 7 0 1 0 0 0 13.0 11 6 6 1 9 1 8 1.538 7.6 0.7 6.2 5.5 Lopez, Ramon 25 LR 0 0 .000 1.46 7 0 0 0 0 0 12.1 14 4 2 2 9 0 10 1.865 10.2 1.5 6.6 7.3 Byrne, Danny 30 SR 0 1 .000 8.49 9 0 6 0 0 3 11.2 16 11 11 4 2 1 10 1.543 12.3 3.1 1.5 7.7 Mendez, Jose 30 RR 0 1 .000 8.38 6 0 3 0 0 0 9.2 13 9 9 2 10 1 10 2.379 12.1 1.9 9.3 9.3 Wood, Arthur 34 SR 1 0 1.000 8.10 3 0 2 0 0 0 3.1 4 3 3 0 1 0 0 1.500 10.8 0.0 2.7 0.0 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Byers, Jay 29 LR 94 282 28 51 12 0 6 28 61 90 1 0 8 .181 .319 .287 2 Flores, Chris 30 RR 97 300 23 68 12 0 0 14 22 53 2 0 12 .227 .282 .267 2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Ono, Yahashi 39 RR 159 625 82 179 28 4 11 72 94 73 3 2 24 .286 .378 .397 3* Coleman, Ian 28 RR 96 355 48 82 12 8 7 38 34 55 4 3 10 .231 .297 .369 4 Dunnahoe, Luke 28 RR 75 298 35 61 11 1 11 45 44 55 3 1 7 .205 .303 .359 4 Hearn, Rick 29 RR 13 16 2 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 .188 .222 .188 /46 Jaquez, Arturo 27 RR 2 5 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 .400 .400 .400 /4 Newton, Ryan 25 LR 104 377 29 87 15 3 2 38 21 72 16 4 4 .231 .267 .302 5 Ramos, Cris 32 LR 39 60 5 15 7 0 0 8 2 8 0 0 2 .250 .270 .367 5 Sita, Nate 24 SR 84 230 27 42 7 1 10 31 37 65 1 2 2 .183 .295 .352 65 Altmann, Carlos 34 SR 88 201 14 41 7 2 1 21 18 31 7 2 5 .204 .271 .274 6/5 Saunders, Steve 29 RR 40 117 7 21 4 1 0 6 4 38 0 0 4 .179 .207 .231 6 Steinmetz, Andy 29 RR 15 23 2 4 1 0 1 3 3 4 0 1 1 .174 .259 .348 6/5 At second, the Royals stuck with another castoff for most of the season - Luke Dunnahoe, who played 154 games for the Phillies as their starting shortstop in 1969. He'd been traded off to St. Louis, who didn't have a place for him and re-sent him to Kansas City in exchange for a career minor-leaguer. He missed the final month of the season with a herniated disc in his back and didn't look particularly amazing before that point. As such, Ian Coleman, who hit .316 in the expansion season but fell into a 7 for 55 hole right as Dunnahoe entered the scene, may compete for the role in spring training. Ryan Newton, a second round pick by the Orioles whom the Royals acquired in an offseason minor league deal (which really means: he was on a farm team that was switched from the O's to the Royals at some point), was pretty solid in the field but looked a bit overwhelmed at the plate. In the long-term, he's going to need to turn some of those strikeouts into base hits if he's going to stick around in the major leagues. Cris Ramos, a longtime veteran of the Mexican League, exists in case this doesn't happen or if Newton regresses in the field. Shortstop is also kind of a mess right now, although Nate Sita's power is intriguing. It'd be more intriguing if he didn't whiff so much. He needs to shorten his swing to really stick. Still, he at least has a chance at being better, which is more than can be said about, say, Carlos Altmann. I guess that's unfair; Altmann's actually a very good defensive shortstop even at age 34. He was never more than a backup before the Royals nabbed him off of the Cubs in the expansion draft, and that's probably the best place to put him even now. One player to watch out for is Mike Dawson, the Royals' 1st round pick in 1969 (22nd overall) who hit a solid .281/14/53 for the single-A San Jose Bees last year. BNN thinks he might arrive in the major leagues next season. I'm not going to rush him by putting him on the spring training roster but we'll see. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Nation, Jeff 25 RR 146 571 72 167 31 10 21 84 43 76 7 6 17 .292 .350 .492 75/3 Damian, Kyle 30 RR 87 182 17 47 12 0 4 16 5 26 0 0 6 .258 .299 .390 7/358 Sicre, Sergio 24 LL 41 136 14 31 6 0 1 15 12 16 0 0 7 .228 .289 .294 7 Corona, Dave 21 LL 157 611 108 184 34 18 18 66 113 59 47 28 5 .301 .408 .504 8* Riley, Dave 30 LL 63 78 10 17 3 1 1 8 11 12 1 2 0 .218 .311 .321 8/9 Hull, Tom 29 RR 17 14 2 2 0 0 0 7 2 4 0 0 0 .143 .211 .143 /87 Domi*nguez, R.J. 25 RR 88 294 47 71 21 0 13 40 79 66 0 2 4 .241 .405 .446 9 Milton, Bryan 38 RR 102 189 20 49 9 4 0 15 31 23 4 2 7 .259 .351 .349 9/7 Guzman, Carlos 31 RR 50 163 17 37 3 0 4 22 13 40 0 0 5 .227 .288 .319 9 The person who's making the move possible, well, other than Corona's sheer inability to play center field at a major league level, is the newly acquired Josh Coldiron. Coldiron wore out his welcome with the White Sox by hitting .149 in a late-season call-up. The Royals see a leadoff hitter and great fielding center fielder in his future. Should he continue to struggle at the plate, I probably won't turn back to Corona; a possibility might be Allen Scurry, an independent league discovery by the Royals in 1969 who hit well in both AA and AAA last year (.294/14/72 combined). RJ Dominguez is a Cuban refugee who missed the final 3 weeks of the year with a torn hamstring. As of press time it looks like he should be back in time for spring training. He's only 25 (or at least that's what his birth certificate says) but he had the patience (105 walks in AAA and the majors combined) and power (20 HRs combined over 430 at-bats) of a seasoned veteran. His absence prompted the Royals to use Bryan Milton in his place but the Royals would much rather he stick with his position as the team's #1 pinch-hitter for 1971. He hit .279 as a pinch-hitter last year with 9 walks in 60 appearances; the fact that the team lost a lot of close games was not his fault. Here, too, the Royals have young depth in the form of Jared Ferrell, who hit .286/25/73 in AA Elmira and AAA Omaha in 1970. He's not as fast as some of the other prospects, but boy, that power...
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08-11-2022, 10:31 AM
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#92 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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1971 Team Recaps: Milwaukee Brewers (72-90)
Recap: On the morning of July 30, the Brewers looked up - way up - at the standings. They were 50-80 and more likely than not to finish with 100 losses. Then they went on an insane run, going 22-10 the rest of the way and playing the spoiler role against both the A's (4-2 against them in September) and the Angels (5-1). As a result, Milwaukee leapt over the expansion team 70 win mark in their 2nd season and managed to finish ahead of both the 100-loss Royals and the Detroit Tigers.
History: The Brewers are also an expansion team; in fact, days before the 1970 season started they uprooted from their rightful home in Seattle and into Milwaukee. It's a sure sign that the commissioner does not play favorites that their players didn't all mysteriously turn into trash. Outlook: I'm not sure where Milwaukee came up with that big final push. The stathead in me points out that their Pythag was 66-96, so it was mostly smoke and mirrors. However, I'm supposed to keep that part under check so, like go Brew Crew! Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Gomez, Ricardo 29 RR 13 7 .650 3.16 30 29 1 9 2 0 199.1 212 85 70 16 41 4 111 1.269 9.6 0.7 1.9 5.0 Vardaman, Jeremiah 31 RR 13 11 .542 3.75 34 27 2 4 2 0 184.2 204 82 77 19 61 4 87 1.435 9.9 0.9 3.0 4.2 Olivares, Chris 23 RR 8 11 .421 3.87 38 23 6 5 1 0 190.2 184 94 82 18 49 5 104 1.222 8.7 0.8 2.3 4.9 Zeniya, Shunichi 32 RR 9 7 .563 3.55 21 20 0 4 2 0 139.1 144 66 55 6 55 8 59 1.428 9.3 0.4 3.6 3.8 McGranahan, Chris 32 RR 6 6 .500 4.68 19 19 0 3 0 0 98.0 108 56 51 13 34 1 44 1.449 9.9 1.2 3.1 4.0 Izquierdo, Alex 21 LL 3 5 .375 2.87 13 11 0 3 2 0 84.2 71 29 27 3 43 2 65 1.346 7.5 0.3 4.6 6.9 Kratky, Jake 27 RR 1 8 .111 5.12 11 11 0 3 1 0 65.0 73 44 37 10 20 2 34 1.431 10.1 1.4 2.8 4.7 Pierson, Pat 24 LL 0 2 .000 9.72 3 2 0 0 0 0 8.1 15 12 9 0 9 0 1 2.880 16.2 0.0 9.7 1.1 Clark, Adam 27 LL 0 0 .000 7.20 5 5 0 0 0 0 5.0 8 4 4 0 4 0 3 2.400 14.4 0.0 7.2 5.4 Chris Olivares spent the season shuffling in and out of the rotation; while he was in, he looked like another good-control, low-stuff guy. He is young and he does have a low-90s fastball so he's got the chance to get better. Alex Izquierdo was the Brewers' first round pick in 1970 and rose through the ranks so quickly that he managed to get 11 starts in the big leagues by season's end. He may have been pushed a bit quickly, but then again he was arguably the team's most effective starter last season, so maybe he just developed very quickly. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Plaunt, Danny 25 RR 7 5 .583 2.63 67 2 42 0 0 14 96.0 67 36 28 4 35 3 78 1.063 6.3 0.4 3.3 7.3 Zapata, Dave 28 LL 1 2 .333 3.94 40 0 15 0 0 1 45.2 43 26 20 5 22 1 27 1.423 8.5 1.0 4.3 5.3 Parchman, Darius 27 RR 0 1 .000 2.93 29 0 9 0 0 0 46.0 44 17 15 3 12 1 29 1.217 8.6 0.6 2.3 5.7 Howard, Josh 27 RR 1 2 .333 3.90 24 0 11 0 0 2 30.0 26 15 13 3 10 4 34 1.200 7.8 0.9 3.0 10.2 Owens, Tom 38 LL 0 0 .000 4.26 22 0 14 0 0 5 25.1 30 13 12 0 12 0 17 1.658 10.7 0.0 4.3 6.0 Garcia, Julio 27 RR 1 4 .200 5.66 15 4 2 0 0 1 41.1 47 27 26 9 11 0 28 1.403 10.2 2.0 2.4 6.1 Hernandez, Miguel 27 RR 1 3 .250 8.36 18 0 6 0 0 0 28.0 33 29 26 5 16 1 30 1.750 10.6 1.6 5.1 9.6 Rivera, Jose 28 RR 2 2 .500 3.81 10 3 2 0 0 0 28.1 29 13 12 4 19 0 20 1.694 9.2 1.3 6.0 6.4 Mazyck, Deshawn 28 SR 2 2 .500 2.51 9 2 7 1 1 1 28.2 24 9 8 0 8 1 16 1.116 7.5 0.0 2.5 5.0 Hernandez, Luis 30 LL 0 0 .000 7.67 11 4 0 0 0 0 27.0 36 22 23 4 11 1 15 1.741 12.0 1.3 3.7 5.0 Pettijohn, Elliot 23 RR 0 2 .000 3.75 8 0 1 0 0 0 12.0 8 5 5 0 8 0 10 1.333 6.0 0.0 6.0 7.5 Rasmussen, Sean 30 RR 1 0 1.000 5.23 9 0 3 0 0 0 10.1 4 6 6 1 14 0 6 1.742 3.5 0.9 12.2 5.2 Berrum, Alex 28 RR 1 1 .500 7.56 8 0 2 0 0 0 8.1 13 7 7 0 8 0 2 2.520 14.0 0.0 8.6 2.2 Ramos, Dave 25 LR 0 0 .000 4.91 5 0 0 0 0 0 7.1 7 4 4 1 7 0 8 1.909 8.6 1.2 8.6 9.8 Paiva, Bill 28 RR 0 0 .000 3.38 3 0 2 0 0 0 5.1 5 2 2 0 4 0 6 1.688 8.4 0.0 6.8 10.1 Garcia, Willie 22 LR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 1.0 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 3.000 9.0 0.0 18.0 9.0 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Victoria, Jonathan 29 SR 109 326 33 61 13 0 11 36 50 122 2 0 5 .187 .292 .328 2* Sanchez, Ivan 23 LR 43 117 15 21 3 1 2 14 18 33 0 0 1 .179 .290 .274 2 Jenkins, Jordan 27 RR 38 96 5 18 6 0 1 7 10 24 0 0 4 .188 .278 .281 2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Holman, Jack 28 LL 119 414 39 104 16 1 7 50 39 80 0 0 9 .251 .315 .345 3 Ramos, Mike 33 LR 59 150 16 40 8 2 2 25 10 16 2 2 3 .267 .315 .387 3/54 Fath, Jon 33 LR 62 126 23 34 9 0 3 13 8 23 1 0 3 .270 .316 .413 3/98 Mendez, Luis 28 RR 20 51 7 19 4 0 0 4 2 4 3 2 0 .373 .396 .451 3 Oetting, Jeff 30 RR 13 23 3 5 1 1 1 3 1 6 0 0 1 .217 .250 .478 /359 Goetz, Earl 30 RR 6 6 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .167 .167 .167 /3 Escobedo, Marcos 31 RR 94 372 54 114 11 10 5 28 41 50 26 3 3 .306 .373 .430 4/3 Rios, Esteban 24 RR 46 140 10 20 4 0 0 4 10 28 2 1 6 .143 .200 .171 4/8 Colvin, Ryan 43 RR 37 91 12 23 3 0 4 18 16 8 0 0 1 .253 .364 .418 5 Martinez, Francisco 23 LR 149 569 60 174 35 2 5 58 29 39 0 1 25 .306 .338 .401 5*/46 Biron, Eric 23 RR 124 380 43 93 10 4 11 43 48 85 7 1 7 .245 .327 .379 64 Temudo, Guido 23 RR 67 206 19 53 9 0 3 12 14 33 0 0 4 .257 .317 .345 6 Escobesco, Tony 27 LR 39 85 5 16 4 0 1 9 5 32 0 1 1 .188 .242 .271 6/4 Luhman, Dustin 32 RR 9 15 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 5 0 0 0 .200 .333 .200 /64 The Brewers plan on going into spring training with the second base job open and Eric Biron and Marcos Escobedo poised to fight for it. Biron co-led the team in HRs last year in just 380 at-bats while mostly playing shortstop. He doesn't have the arm for the position but might excel at second base. As long as he keeps playing in the middle infield, critics who talk about his inability to make consistent contact can mostly be quieted. Escobedo played the position for most of the season and a look at his offense coupled with the fact that he's competing for a job with a failed shortstop should tell you all you need to know about his defense. Moving forward, the Brew Crew has a lot of finesse pitchers on their roster and could really do with some better up-the-middle D than what they got last year. Francisco Martinez is a rare Milwaukee player who enters 1971 without having to compete for a job. The 23 year old will never be a top-level third baseman - he has the arm for it but lacks the range and the hands - and the lack of power will probably prevent him from playing in an All-Star Game, but the 23 year old might very well be the Brewers' answer at the position for the next decade. Guido Temudo hit 35 points higher in the major leagues last year than he did in AAA Portland. That isn't expected to continue. What is expected to continue is plus-plus defense. Temudo might have the best arm at SS in all of baseball. The one thing he lacks that would make him a complete defensive gem is range but the Brewers believe they can train him up for that. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Simmons, John 34 RR 52 202 21 36 11 1 2 12 12 40 2 1 7 .178 .221 .272 7/3 Barlow, Terry 26 LL 72 265 35 70 16 3 7 28 42 56 4 6 1 .264 .371 .426 79 Augspurger, Kenny 28 LL 55 170 23 40 6 2 4 25 23 45 1 1 5 .235 .327 .365 7 Andres, Jorge 36 LL 39 47 10 14 1 1 3 11 6 7 0 0 0 .298 .389 .553 /73 Arredondo, Antonio 27 RR 21 48 6 10 2 1 1 6 3 14 0 0 2 .208 .255 .354 7/9 Carrasco, Pedro 27 LL 18 37 8 10 3 1 3 9 2 9 2 0 0 .270 .300 .649 /7 Ceballos, Fernando 27 RR 90 326 34 75 14 3 4 23 14 74 13 6 3 .230 .262 .328 8/97 Dockery, Dylan 27 RR 72 251 32 50 6 0 5 23 35 57 4 2 6 .199 .302 .283 8/9 Harbison, Jonathan 29 SR 33 140 10 29 3 1 0 8 8 8 4 5 2 .207 .245 .243 8 Haskell, Jason 29 LR 15 12 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 7 0 0 0 .083 .077 .083 /87 Marsden, John 27 LL 70 265 31 74 16 1 3 29 32 30 0 1 9 .279 .354 .381 9 Berman, Richard 24 RR 55 218 21 69 14 5 0 27 14 6 8 4 7 .317 .361 .427 9 Greeno, Roger 28 RL 10 14 0 5 2 0 0 3 1 5 0 0 1 .357 .438 .500 /9 Fernando Ceballos is a defense-first center fielder who landed in the Pilots' organization after being released by the Giants over the '68-'69 offseason. He's not a great hitter at all but he saves a ton of runs on defense, and nobody else on the current roster is anything more than roughly adequate. That said, the Brewers' 2nd round pick in 1970, Damian Kerchner, hit .318 at single-A Clinton, was called up to AAA Portland soon enough to get into 6 games at that level, and if he continues to hit, might be ready to break into the major leagues by the All-Star break. The Brewers received John Marsden along with SP Chris McGranahan in exchange for Richard Berman on June 14th of last year. Berman looked like a budding star but Milwaukee thinks Marsden is at the apex of his career already and they were a bit down on Berman's lack of power at a corner OF position. Marsden's not fantastic but it is, at least nominally, double-digit pop - he hit .308/10/47 combined with both teams, and even that was with him breaking his thumb at the All-Star Game and missing the next month as a result. The team also acquired Mario Fernandez from the Pirates during the playoffs to push Marsden. He pinch-hit for the Bucs down the stretch, more as a necessity than anything else, but he applies an intensity to the game that is lacking on this team.
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08-11-2022, 02:56 PM
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#93 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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1971 Team Recaps: Minnesota Twins (92-70)
Recap: The Twins started their magical season strong (14-6), got pulled down into mediocrity for a little bit (14-15 in August), then ended strong (18-11 from Sept 1 onward). They then took down a depleted Yankees team 3 games to 1 in the ALCS and somehow dispatched a heavily favored Reds club in the World Series.
History: This was the 1st ever World Championship for the Twins in Minnesota; the franchise had previously won in 1950 as the Washington Senators. This Twins team has also won 92 or more games every season going back to 1963; with the advent of divisional play, they're the only club now to win two division titles. Outlook: Look for more of the same in 1971. This team might be the most talented team in the AL, it's hard to say, but they're certainly the most talented team in the AL West by a large margin. The one thing they aren't is particularly young. This is very much a team in the middle of a window. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Benavides, Chris 28 RR 18 14 .563 2.61 41 41 0 15 6 0 313.2 272 108 91 12 96 3 222 1.173 7.8 0.3 2.8 6.4 Ramos, Angelo 35 SR 20 2 .909 2.41 29 29 0 12 5 0 224.0 210 66 60 10 40 3 152 1.116 8.4 0.4 1.6 6.1 Magdaleno, Ricardo 32 LL 8 16 .333 4.78 31 27 0 2 0 0 186.1 221 111 98 16 53 1 99 1.470 0.8 2.6 4.8 Larsen, Mike 30 RR 11 10 .524 3.04 28 28 0 8 4 0 201.0 189 75 68 8 73 1 108 1.303 8.5 0.4 3.3 4.8 Ruiz, Victor 32 SR 9 8 .529 4.84 27 26 0 0 0 0 174.2 161 100 94 21 102 0 151 1.506 8.3 1.1 5.3 7.8 Whetzel, Rich 25 RR 3 3 .500 3.60 9 7 0 1 0 0 50.0 51 29 20 6 18 0 28 1.380 9.2 1.1 3.2 5.0 Lewis, Bryan 25 RR 0 0 .000 9.64 1 1 0 0 0 0 4.2 10 5 5 2 1 0 3 2.357 19.3 3.9 1.9 5.8 Mike Larsen had 6 tough losses himself. For clarification's sake, a tough loss is a loss you pick up when you pitch a quality start (6+ IP, 3 ER or less). Larsen was, then, an above average pitcher who only looks average due to the wins and losses. As you all saw, he had a pretty awful first start in the playoffs but then settled down. Ricardo Magdaleno somehow didn't show up in my statistical report at all (actually, he was in there but only for 2 games in relief). That is... really, really annoying. The numbers above, I pulled from his player card. Anyway, he was really, really bad in 1970. It's not often you see a starter on a division champion go 8-16 but Magdaleno managed to do it. At 33, his 27 starts last year were also a career high. I would be surprised if he gets anywhere close to that again. One arm on the rise is the Cuban 23 year old Santiago Serrano, who struck out 198 men in 175 innings in AAA last year. His control still needs work but he could walk into the rotation next year as a guy who could be in the middle of the rotation for most teams. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Lynn, Pete 24 RR 10 9 .526 3.33 60 0 49 0 0 18 94.2 83 42 35 6 40 5 93 1.299 7.9 0.6 3.8 8.8 Melena, Melvin 37 RR 2 1 .667 3.67 35 0 17 0 0 1 41.2 50 24 17 2 16 1 25 1.584 10.8 0.4 3.5 5.4 Eason, Pete 30 RR 1 3 .250 4.26 33 0 19 0 0 1 38.0 43 25 18 4 13 0 35 1.474 10.2 0.9 3.1 8.3 Theisen, Todd 30 RR 7 1 .875 2.98 27 3 15 1 0 4 54.1 55 19 18 5 12 0 42 1.233 9.1 0.8 2.0 7.0 Murry, Cameron 25 RR 0 0 .000 3.63 12 0 4 0 0 1 17.1 18 8 7 0 13 0 9 1.788 9.3 0.0 6.8 4.7 Kenner, Bob 26 RR 0 0 .000 4.91 5 0 1 0 0 0 7.1 8 4 4 2 4 0 10 1.636 9.8 2.5 4.9 12.3 Zamora, Manny 26 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.1 1 0 0 0 3 0 1 1.714 3.9 0.0 11.6 3.9 Marceau, Jim 29 RR 0 0 .000 13.50 1 0 1 0 0 0 2.0 4 3 3 0 0 0 2 2.000 18.0 0.0 0.0 9.0 Colletti, Marquise 26 RR 0 0 .000 5.40 2 0 0 0 0 0 1.2 2 1 1 0 1 0 1 1.800 10.8 0.0 5.4 5.4 The back of the 'pen, at least as of right now, stands to include Pete Eason, a 3rd round pick way back in 1958 who's gone from back of the rotation starter to his current role in middle to long relief. He's still only OK in this role and you usually expect this to be filled by younger players so his time with the team may be close to an end. Also there, and perhaps with a less tenuous grasp, is old man Melvin Melena. Melena's opponent batting average climbed 20 points, and he'll need to work on that, but he also stranded 18 of 23 inherited runners, making him a great person to bring in from the 5th to 7th innings. Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Reed, Brad 29 RR 121 433 53 103 27 2 18 66 66 101 0 1 13 .238 .337 .434 2* Theroff, Matt 29 RR 47 142 16 38 2 0 1 11 24 37 0 0 7 .268 .369 .303 2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Martinez, Angelo 34 LL 156 642 99 177 28 3 35 96 59 99 2 0 18 .276 .339 .492 3* Barnes, Jon 30 RR 63 62 6 17 2 0 3 9 8 13 0 0 1 .274 .361 .452 /3 Samuels, Brandon 39 RR 13 19 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 .158 .200 .211 /3 Gilmet, Daniel 32 RR 85 351 59 102 18 4 5 33 31 16 23 4 7 .291 .336 .407 4/6 Pellot, Danny 35 RR 77 214 18 55 8 4 3 25 18 45 2 1 7 .257 .307 .374 46/5 Malphrus, Nate 27 RR 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 /4 Brookes, Mike 31 SR 151 510 102 136 27 3 39 112 140 87 3 5 10 .267 .432 .561 5* Sladewski, Chris 31 RR 38 90 8 15 4 1 2 10 9 27 1 0 4 .167 .250 .300 54/6 Mendel, Marty 27 RR 124 471 49 120 23 1 0 38 33 48 10 0 9 .255 .311 .308 6*/4 Park, Dong-hak 29 LR 55 156 14 31 2 1 1 12 15 24 1 0 5 .199 .269 .244 64 Baek, Jun-ho 31 RR 10 22 4 4 1 1 1 6 5 7 0 0 0 .182 .333 .455 6 Daniel "Mister X" Gilmet is a guy who isn't able to stay healthy and at this point in the 32 year old's career, this is something they have to take into account. He's also maybe not quite the top-flight player he was in the early 60s when he won the ROY (1961), MVP (1963) and made the All-Star Game 3 times ('63, '64, and '65). He's still pretty great when he's not suffering the now-perennial back injury. Danny Pellot has done a nice job filling in for both Gilmet and Mendel at shortstop over the years, although he reportedly wants to start somewhere (or in Minnesota, but that's no happening). He used to be an All-Star level middle infielder with the stick; that has not been the case since he joined Minnesota in 1965 but, should the Twins make his dreams come true, he can still be league average or better at short or second while getting the job done with the glove. I kept forgetting to look at this, but in 1955 Henning Rasmussen had 3 walks in the postseason, giving him 145 for the calendar year. Mike Brookes had 140 for the regular season, so technically Rasmussen still holds the record, but 7 after the regular season ended. While that isn't the highest total ever - the Mets' Joshua "Superman" Waltenbery walked 10 times last year and 3 other players, including Minnesota's own Brad Reed last year too, walked 8 times in a postseason - it is in fact enough to vault Brookes into the #1 slot for a calendar year. There is of course no place to track that in the game but STILL. Pitchers were very wary to pitch to Brookes, and he took full advantage. Even when they did give him stuff to hit, he led the league in HRs, RBIs, OBP, SLG, and my own favorite 80s era stats, RC and RC/27 (that's runs created, a multiplicative value similar-ish to WAR, but only for offense, not adjusted for position, and compiled at a level similar to RBIs - Brookes had 133.6 - and runs created per 27 outs, which is essentially how many runs per game a lineup composed of 9 Marty Mendel is a guy who'd probably get himself replaced if he didn't happen to be the shortstop of record for 2 playoff teams. He "knows how to win". He also has zero power whatsoever and will hurt you in pretty much every lineup position outside of 8th. He also missed 38 games last year and that led the Twins to try a couple of Korean nationals - Dong-hak Park and Jun-ho Baek at the position (Park also played a good amount at second). Neither of them hit at all but Park at least was useful enough to see time in the World Series as a backup middle infielder. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Cortes, Alejandro 33 LL 117 444 76 115 15 1 24 70 42 92 21 5 4 .259 .323 .459 7* Grigg, Mike 36 RR 127 304 41 91 17 1 4 31 24 34 1 0 13 .299 .349 .401 79 Maldonado, Guillermo 28 LL 3 3 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 .333 .500 .333 Villasenor, Jose 24 LL 103 379 47 104 16 1 12 36 28 54 3 4 4 .274 .321 .417 8/9 Dempsey, Zach 26 LL 90 236 25 55 11 2 5 25 30 59 7 3 6 .233 .318 .360 8/79 Acosta, Ricky 24 RR 8 9 2 1 0 0 0 2 1 3 0 0 0 .111 .200 .111 /8 Dees, Brian 31 LR 8 5 1 1 0 0 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 .200 .429 .200 /8 Morgenstern, Lou 31 RR 129 510 77 122 24 11 19 72 77 113 2 3 6 .239 .338 .441 9*/8 Ship, Kyle 27 SR 55 154 15 37 5 0 5 21 8 11 2 3 2 .240 .273 .370 9/783 Jose Villasenor has surprisingly average speed for a center fielder. If only it was better, and if he was a little bit better at pitch selection, he could be a leadoff guy. That's just not his game, though. He is what he is: a slap hitter who can put a pitch into play from anywhere in the strike zone and who occasionally will drive a ball out of the park. I usually use Daniel Gilmet in the 2 hole but he's kind of the protypical #2 hitter the more I think about it. For a guy who puts so many balls into play, too, he has a surprisingly low amount of GIDPs: just 8 in two-plus seasons in the majors. Zach Dempsey got a good deal of PT last year for the first time ever and fairly well established himself as a below average hitter who plays good D in the outfield. Somewhere else, he'd probably get asked to play 150 games and people would complain that he doesn't work hard enough and will never come through on his potential. In Minnesota, he's a 5th outfielder. Lou Morgenstern was the team's leadoff hitter in 1970. He lost 57 points of average compared to 1969 (.297) and while BA isn't everything for a player like this, it did mean that the walks he draws made him roughly average at getting on base rather than one of the better in the game. He did set a career high in HRs but did so at a cost: not only were 113 Ks also a career high, they were 29 more than his previous high. The Twins would be ecstatic if he went back to the 8-10 rate he'd established the 3 years prior if it meant a corresponding rise in average (which, in '67-'68 he hit .251 and .239 so perhaps that's asking too much). Arguably, he no longer has the speed to lead off either, although in practice who on the Twins does?
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09-06-2022, 01:36 PM
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#94 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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OKAY... so I did get bogged down a little by this but mostly I had a bug in my report compiler where it was sometimes replacing pitcher seasons with their postseason totals. I believe I've fixed that now so I can MOVE ON.
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09-06-2022, 02:16 PM
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#95 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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New York Yankees (95-68, T-1st, AL East)
Recap: New York fought back from a 9-12 start and through a 15-15 September/October to post the best record in the American League and dispatch the Indians in a one-game playoff. Unfortunately for them, they had to get there without the heart of their team, SS Ty Stover, in the lineup, and they were straight-up unable to keep up with the Twins in the ALCS. It didn't help that outside of starter Tracy Mosher they just plain lacked the front-line starters who win games for you in the postseason. Knowing the Yankees, they'll find a way to remedy that.
History: To say that the Evil Empire allowed the wealth to be spread a little more in this version of baseball is not entirely accurate. It's more applicable to say that they started late. The Bronx Bombers didn't make their first World Series until 1955, the 10th year of this league, and didn't win one until the next year. That said, from 1955 to 1967 they only missed the postseaso 3 times; their recent playoff "drought" of 1968 and 1969 ties their longest since '55. And just when they looked like they were done, which, to be fair, even in the previous two years they won 85 and 88 games, they pulled a little bit from deep down and got themselves right on back into October. Outlook: The Yankees are still aging and still have a rotation built on Tracy Mosher and a bunch of nothing. Will this be the year they really and truly regress? I wouldn't count on it. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Mosher, Tracy 31 LL 25 12 .676 2.67 40 40 0 20 6 0 323.2 282 106 96 22 64 2 243 1.069 7.8 0.6 1.8 6.8 Olthof, Obke 25 RR 0 0 .000 2.80 36 36 0 0 0 0 163.2 138 56 51 5 26 2 112 1.002 7.6 0.3 1.4 6.2 Caneas, Danilo 34 RR 17 13 .567 4.22 35 35 0 8 1 0 245.0 259 124 115 32 57 2 125 1.290 9.5 1.2 2.1 4.6 Holm, Roy 34 LL 7 5 .583 4.99 15 15 0 1 0 0 101.0 110 60 56 10 40 0 106 1.485 9.8 0.9 3.6 9.4 Powers, Jake 25 SR 2 4 .333 5.50 12 6 1 0 0 0 52.1 66 33 32 6 29 1 36 1.815 11.4 1.0 5.0 6.2 Ballard, Dan 35 LL 3 8 .273 5.02 22 12 4 1 0 0 95.0 105 54 53 11 40 0 64 1.526 9.9 1.0 3.8 6.1 Danilo Caneas was the #3 guy throughout the regular season and the playoffs, but there's a big, big drop-off from 2 to 3. He led the league in BB/9 in 1969 and was still pretty effective control-wise; however, he went from allowing a solid 14 HRs in 192.2 IPs to leading the league in homeruns allowed last year with 32. This is a new and distressing aspect to the 35 year old's game. Speaking of guys who give up a lot of HRs, the Yanks traded off the largely ineffective Dan Ballard for Roy Holm, who in the second half was the same Roy Holm everyone knows: fantastic stuff, iffy control, and a predilection for the longball. Holm allowed 10 in 101 ABs with the Yankees, which is actually slightly below (0.9 HR/9) his career rate (1.0). You would expect his OBA to go down from .253 so at least there's that. One guy who won't be in the team's plans for 1971 is Jake Powers, who suffered a torn flexor tendon in his elbow while pushing the AAA Syracuse Chiefs to the Minor League World Series. He will miss the entire season and who knows what he'll be like in 1972. The next highest ranked prospect who's got any chance of making the show is Noah Cooper. Cooper was 6-6 in AA and seems more likely for 1972 than 1971 and that's if he can stick in the rotation. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Kelly, Jesse 32 LL 9 5 .643 3.01 66 0 59 0 0 26 98.2 95 45 33 17 20 3 91 1.166 8.7 1.6 1.8 8.3 Hinkson, David 29 LR 0 0 .000 4.89 40 0 22 0 0 4 49.2 55 30 27 9 10 2 44 1.309 10.0 1.6 1.8 8.0 Herod, Nate 35 LL 4 2 .667 2.96 34 1 12 0 0 1 51.2 57 26 17 10 13 2 16 1.355 9.9 1.7 2.3 2.8 Wilson, Chris 33 RR 5 3 .625 2.86 31 11 11 2 1 0 100.2 85 38 32 7 42 0 78 1.262 7.6 0.6 3.8 7.0 Carbajal, Manny 27 RR 1 5 .167 6.64 14 6 4 1 0 0 40.2 54 34 30 8 7 0 28 1.500 12.0 1.8 1.5 6.2 Hardin, Brent 37 LL 1 0 1.000 1.86 11 1 1 0 0 0 19.1 14 4 4 2 6 0 9 1.034 6.5 0.9 2.8 4.2 Cabrera, Armando 26 RL 0 0 .000 0.00 8 0 0 0 0 0 3.0 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 1.000 9.0 0.0 0.0 3.0 Ramirez, Oscar 31 LR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 2.0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1.000 9.0 0.0 0.0 4.5 Greene, Matt 27 LL 0 0 .000 9.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 2.0 2 2 2 1 0 0 1 1.000 9.0 4.5 0.0 4.5 Covarrubias, Gabriel 23 LR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 2 0 0 0 1.2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.600 5.4 0.0 0.0 5.4 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Tabb, Khalil 25 RR 122 454 58 121 22 1 7 64 34 85 1 0 22 .267 .319 .366 2* Mooneyhan, Jason 38 LR 67 155 12 33 6 1 1 10 13 21 0 0 9 .213 .277 .284 2 Paige, Josh 26 RR 22 50 5 12 1 0 0 7 5 5 0 0 2 .240 .298 .260 2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Cardenas, Alex 37 LL 159 643 107 191 35 2 31 98 71 66 0 1 22 .297 .364 .502 3* Berg, Bobby 30 RR 53 49 12 14 1 0 3 7 13 11 0 0 0 .286 .422 .490 /3 Yi, Wing-fung 26 RR 113 366 50 76 10 4 4 39 65 45 14 8 15 .208 .326 .290 4/6 Jones, Pat 33 LR 113 299 43 76 16 4 6 42 27 26 2 0 15 .254 .312 .395 4/56 Weiss, Tom 31 RR 156 591 104 179 31 4 22 80 118 79 2 1 13 .303 .418 .481 5* Stover, Ty 37 RR 140 492 98 135 30 1 28 97 115 110 0 1 12 .274 .413 .510 6*/4 Armand, Mike 30 RR 31 70 7 15 4 1 1 8 13 21 1 0 3 .214 .337 .343 6/4 Ybarra, German 23 RR 6 5 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 .200 .333 .400 /6 The Yankees struggled through most of the year with 2nd year starter Wing-fung Yi, finally turning to former White Sox star Pat Jones in the second half. The 33 year old Jones proved he still has a decent amount of gas left in the tank. Going forward, the Yankees have to be thinking about moving Ty Stover to this position but in order to do that they need to find a replacement at shortstop first. Yi gave them a lot of hope that he'd eventually just be their guy at this position with a .302/6/48 season in 1969 but he opened the year with a .171 average in April, was still hitting .191 as late as May 20, and never really got his season on track. Jones at this point is who he is; if anything, his league-average performance last year was a little more than what he's produced over the last few years, and he's much better suited as a utility guy and short-term injury replacement. Tom Weiss has been with the team for years but never really got an opportunity to show what he could do in a full season. Blame it on the constantly stacked nature of a large-market team. Getting career highs in games and at-bats, Weiss finished 5th in the AL in runs and 2nd in walks. He's too slow to bad 2nd (hey, by 1970 standards) but you've got to consider him to be a major spot in the middle of the Yankees' order for at least the next 5 years. The Yankees keenly felt the absence of their franchise cornerstone Ty Stover, who missed the last 2 weeks of the season and the entire ALCS with a broken foot. The pessimist in me sees this as a good way for Yankees fans to begin to accept the reality that the end is much closer than the beginning for Stover, although it should be said that even missing 22 games, he still finished 2nd on the team in both HRs and RBIs. As a fielder he's never been a top-notch shortstop and now, we hate to say it, he could be the worst defensive regular in baseball. Their best prospect at this position is German Ybarra, who was called up as a late-season defensive replacement thanks to his work in AA Manchester; his 26 at-bats in AAA Syracuse (.154/0/2) indicates that he's probably not going to be ready to go as of the beginning of 1971, however. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Field, Dan 26 RR 157 607 64 179 36 0 19 87 46 77 0 0 23 .295 .347 .448 7* MacMillan, Micah 26 LR 137 577 93 146 19 4 14 61 57 96 15 7 4 .253 .321 .373 8* Murphy, Jeff 26 SL 21 62 9 13 0 0 3 7 5 6 2 1 0 .210 .268 .355 8 Meneses, Frank 33 LL 129 414 90 109 8 7 32 91 103 113 7 3 4 .263 .407 .548 9*/7 Poynor, Ross 27 LR 84 171 17 48 3 2 7 29 7 44 2 4 1 .281 .304 .444 98/74 Ash, Marc 27 RR 57 117 15 29 2 2 4 12 27 24 5 3 3 .248 .405 .402 9/87 Rhoades, Aaron 26 RR 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 .000 .400 .000 /98 Micah MacMillan did what was asked of him in center field. He's never going to win a Gold Glove out there with his D and on offense he's not at all flashy. He just works hard, has a motor beyond belief, doesn't make mistakes in the field or on the basepaths, and last year had the privilege of hitting ahead of a powerful Yankees lineup that allowed him to just about crest the century mark in runs scored. His stated backup at the start of the season, Jeff Murphy, got squeezed out of PT so much that he was sent down to Syracuse, so at this point his backup, more or less, is 4th OF Ross Poynor. Frank Meneses lost his job late last year but then gained it back this year by doing nothing but hitting homeruns and walking a lot. He's one of those OOTP players with good enough speed to leg out triples but virtually no gap power (or, apparently, enough speed to turn singles into doubles), although even at that his 8 doubles last year were his lowest total since 1963, when the Yanks were using him primarily as a pinch-hitter (and he still got 8 2-base hits in 156 at-bats). The starter turned backup turned 4th OF is Ross Poynor, a man who'd likely start for at least half of the rest of the American League. He's reportedly not super happy with the situation and may also find himself traded (although probably not, given that he's only 27 and still very effective, cut). Marc Ash filled a similar backup OF/PH role for the Yankees last year but, perhaps because of lower expectations, he's apparently satisfied in his role.
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09-06-2022, 03:36 PM
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#96 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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Oakland A's (78-84, 3rd AL West)
Recap: It's hard to know what to make of this A's team. Should we expect the club that contended for the AL West into September? Or should we consider them to be the club that fell apart in September to the tune of an 8-23 record, not only blowing their chances at stealing the West crown but also their first winning record since 1967 (surprised it was only 3 years ago)? One thing is clear, which is that the A's pitchers packed a ton of heat: A's hurlers struck out more than 1,000 batters last year and finished 2nd in the league in that mark.
History: These A's, at least over the past couple years, were the laughingstock of the American League, and when they brought in a couple of vets to try and bolster their roster last offseason, more than a few critics rolleyed their eyes. To be fair, though, they're at a point in time where they need to make their fans believe in something: over their entire history, between Philadelphia, Kansas City, and now the Bay Area, not only have they never made the postseason, they've only been within 10 games of it 3 times. Last year was also only the 3rd time in the past decade where they'd managed to bring in more than a million fans, so perhaps those moves (plus the move to a larger market) were positives after all. Outlook: Are these guys dark horse AL West contenders, or are they destined for another hundred loss season? Nobody really knows for certain. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Shelton, Rick 29 LR 13 17 .433 3.89 35 35 0 7 1 0 247.2 219 126 107 23 141 11 180 1.454 8.0 0.8 5.1 6.5 Ortiz, Roberto 24 RR 12 10 .545 3.75 33 33 0 2 0 0 221.0 175 100 92 25 141 8 245 1.430 7.1 1.0 5.7 10.0 Barnard, Lee 26 LL 11 10 .524 3.54 27 26 0 4 0 0 180.2 183 78 71 21 59 10 106 1.339 9.1 1.0 2.9 5.3 O'Neal, Ryan 29 RR 7 7 .500 4.39 32 18 4 1 1 0 151.2 172 84 74 15 59 7 76 1.523 10.2 0.9 3.5 4.5 Lancaster, Nate 28 LL 4 6 .400 3.78 16 16 0 2 0 0 97.2 107 46 41 13 43 9 73 1.536 9.9 1.2 4.0 6.7 Harris, Mike 22 LL 5 7 .417 3.90 15 14 1 0 0 0 85.1 84 44 37 6 39 3 63 1.441 8.9 0.6 4.1 6.6 McGranahan, Chris 32 RR 4 6 .400 2.97 11 11 0 3 0 0 69.2 62 28 23 6 15 2 30 1.105 8.0 0.8 1.9 3.9 Dolezal, Nate 31 RR 1 2 .333 1.19 6 4 1 0 0 0 30.1 20 6 4 1 26 2 13 1.516 5.9 0.3 7.7 3.9 Rubio, Jose 30 RL 0 0 .000 5.40 8 4 0 0 0 0 16.2 29 11 10 4 7 4 7 2.160 15.7 2.2 3.8 3.8 It's hard to say at this point what the back of the rotation will look like. Mike Harris had a nice second half in the majors following an 11-4, 3.04 first half in AAA Iowa and looks like he might have the inside track at the #4 starter slot. The fact that he failed to complete a single game in the majors is slightly alarming. Two Nates - Nate Lancaster and Nate Dolezal - could compete for the final slot, assuming the A's go with 5 men to open the year. Dolezal's 30 innings pitched last year were, frankly, smoke and mirrors, but he did get results. The main argument against Lancaster would be that the back end of the rotation is loaded with left-handers. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Ramirez, Carlos 27 SR 3 7 .300 2.99 61 0 46 0 0 22 87.1 79 34 29 11 22 1 80 1.156 8.1 1.1 2.3 8.2 McCourt, Aaron 32 RR 3 2 .600 2.53 50 0 20 0 0 2 67.2 57 24 19 4 28 7 44 1.256 7.6 0.5 3.7 5.9 Howard, Josh 27 RR 3 4 .429 4.26 43 0 17 0 0 2 61.1 53 30 29 11 21 2 62 1.207 7.8 1.6 3.1 9.1 Uscanga, Freddy 24 LL 4 3 .571 2.97 27 0 24 0 0 6 33.1 29 18 11 3 19 3 21 1.440 7.8 0.8 5.1 5.7 Duckett, Jake 25 LL 3 0 1.000 1.44 27 0 11 0 0 0 31.1 20 5 5 0 13 1 39 1.053 5.7 0.0 3.7 11.2 Weickert, Danny 36 LL 2 2 .500 4.78 23 0 11 0 0 0 32.0 45 21 17 0 19 2 26 2.000 12.7 0.0 5.3 7.3 Cheeseman, Adam 36 RR 2 0 1.000 6.89 14 0 1 0 0 0 15.2 20 12 12 2 11 2 7 1.979 11.5 1.1 6.3 4.0 Allen, Chris 26 RL 0 0 .000 0.79 8 0 3 0 0 0 11.1 10 1 1 0 4 0 3 1.235 7.9 0.0 3.2 2.4 Tudor, Andy 28 LL 0 1 .000 6.75 2 1 0 0 0 0 8.0 6 7 6 0 10 1 3 2.000 6.8 0.0 11.3 3.4 Yost, Neil 24 RR 0 0 .000 7.71 4 0 2 0 0 0 4.2 5 4 4 1 1 0 3 1.286 9.6 1.9 1.9 5.8 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Escobar, Jonathan 28 RR 126 437 49 111 19 0 10 61 64 97 0 0 16 .254 .345 .366 2* Culliton, Jeff 27 LR 93 156 9 35 4 0 0 11 8 21 0 0 8 .224 .263 .250 2 Malone, Sean 27 RR 14 28 7 8 3 0 0 5 10 9 0 0 1 .286 .474 .393 2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Decker, David 42 RR 123 473 80 136 25 0 28 80 55 55 2 0 16 .288 .366 .518 3* Lewis, Josh 22 SR 26 96 5 19 1 0 0 4 6 15 0 0 1 .198 .240 .208 3/2 Moore, Chris 30 RR 90 364 41 83 18 2 11 42 31 74 1 1 14 .228 .288 .379 4 Potter, Rich 27 RR 70 284 26 63 9 1 0 17 17 19 3 0 6 .222 .272 .261 46 Molina, Ruben 23 RR 29 108 7 26 9 2 0 13 7 22 2 0 3 .241 .291 .361 4 Jones, Chase 28 RR 117 445 56 107 20 3 17 69 57 98 2 1 11 .240 .325 .413 5* Vallin, Jose 36 RR 39 134 17 35 3 3 4 14 12 21 2 3 1 .261 .318 .418 53 Beall, Preston 35 RR 12 12 0 4 0 0 0 3 1 1 0 0 0 .333 .400 .333 /5 Evenson, Matt 24 RR 71 224 24 49 10 0 3 12 32 50 0 1 10 .219 .312 .304 6 Wilson, Gil 28 LR 75 230 12 55 5 0 3 20 21 40 0 0 9 .239 .299 .300 65/4 Owen, Kellen 29 RR 80 154 19 50 12 0 2 18 13 19 0 0 3 .325 .375 .442 65/43 Chris Moore had just about the most out-of-sync All Star nod I've ever seen. He was acquired from Houston's organization in June, where he'd been hitting .342 for Oklahoma City, and then hit well enough in 30+ games from there that the American League saw fit to name him as an injury replacement. He got to keep the 2B job the rest of the way and absolutely plummeted, hitting .165 in August and .219 in September. I'm as perplexed as anyone here. He'll go into 1971 fighting it out at the position with Rich Potter, whose own .223 mark as of the end of May is what led the A's to seek out a pennant-race replacement, ahd Ruben Molina, who hit .347 in AAA himself last season and, unlike Moore, is an actual prospect. Before Chase Jones missed the final month of the 1970 campaign with a herniated disc in his back, he had been doing pretty much exactly what he'd done in Houston the previous season - a middling average, mid to high teens in power, a fair amount of clutch hitting, and steady if unspectacular play at third base. If fans were disappointed that he never hit the way he'd hit in two stints between 1967 and 1968 (.325 and .335 respectively), they were probably asking too much, or else they were just sore over the way longtime A's third sacker Ryan Colvin was treated (to be fair, though, it's not like Oakland fans had a long time to get to love Colvin). Just in case Jones gets hurt again, the A's have 36 year old former Mets guy Jose Vallin available. The A's ended the year with 24 year old Matt Evenson as the shortstop. He may have shown just enough to break spring training as the starter, although he'll certainly be pushed by Gil Wilson. Wilson might be the better fielder of the two but not by much. He's also proven to be a guy who hits an empty .240 whereas Evenson had a combined 26 extra-base hits last year between Oakland and AAA Iowa (where he hit .267/0/22 with 11 doubles and 2 triples in 165 at-bats). For him, cutting down on strikeouts will be a big factor. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Levario, Matthew 37 SR 146 542 84 129 15 2 24 71 88 99 3 1 11 .238 .344 .406 7* Bueno, Raul 32 RR 64 112 8 24 4 2 1 14 2 10 5 7 2 .214 .224 .313 7/34 Harbison, Jonathan 29 SR 8 8 2 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 .375 .500 .375 /78 Schurke, Mike 23 SR 138 521 52 151 26 5 7 50 38 38 13 13 15 .290 .340 .399 8*/9 Vallejo, Alex 27 LL 50 200 21 59 9 0 1 21 16 21 8 2 5 .295 .347 .355 89 Harrison, Jeremy 24 RR 18 38 9 10 0 2 3 6 7 11 3 0 1 .263 .378 .605 /897 Dockery, Dylan 27 RR 5 6 1 3 0 0 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 .500 .625 1.000 /8 Berman, Richard 24 RR 57 229 31 68 9 3 2 23 25 11 5 1 2 .297 .372 .389 9 Marsden, John 27 LL 53 215 30 74 8 0 7 18 26 21 0 1 6 .344 .413 .479 9 Henricks, Jordan 30 RR 82 205 17 46 6 2 0 13 17 31 3 1 9 .224 .285 .273 93 Mike Schurke hit all over the lineup except for the position he might be best qualified to fill, which is the leadoff slot. Schurke is one of those guys who's constantly looking for an edge and sometimes that leads to unnecessary outs on the basepaths. Sometimes, too, it leads to heady, aggressive rallies, and his sparkplug nature is a big part of why the team was so competitive in the first half. Nobody was more upset when everything fell apart in September; Schurke reportedly went so far as to get into a shouting match with C Jeff Culliton when the latter failed to run out a ground-ball on one of his many failed pinch at-bats. The A's also have Alex Vallejo, a former All-Star who was the victim of a numbers game with the Cubs last year, who has to start somewhere. Moving Schurke because he's unhappy with the clubhouse seems like a thing bad teams do but then, Vallejo has to get into the lineup somewhere. The A's expect the 24 year old Richard Berman, acquired from the Brewers for John Marsden and pitcher Chris McGranahan in June, to be a top right fielder for years to come. We're not convinced. He doesn't have the power you want in a corner OFer and while he's got a decent arm, he lacks the instincts and consistency you'd want from a good fielder. What Berman does do is hit. He got on everyone's radar by hitting .372 for AAA Portland in 1969 and in spite of being tasked with figuring a whole new set of pitchers out last year, he hit a combined .306 between Milwaukee and Oakland. He struck out just 17 times in 447 at-bats; this was not some fluke of BABIP.
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09-06-2022, 04:45 PM
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#97 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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Washington Senators (76-86, 5th AL East)
Recap: In kind of a mirror image season to the A's, the Senators were in or around last place in the AL East all season long but finished the year a hopeful 16-14. They really leaned into their home park by the end of the season and finished the year 2nd in the AL in runs allowed (621) but only 10th in runs scored (629). As you might have guessed from those run totals, they underperformed their Pythag by 6 games; perhaps they are a .500 (or better!) team who just had a run of bad luck.
History: Washington's just plain been bad ever since they were inaugurated in 1961 as the old Senators left town for Minnesota. 76 victories actually tied their 2nd highest win total ever - they had an incongruous expansion year where they won 87 and finished in 3rd - and the 5th place finish, even in divisional play, was also tied for their highest since '61. Outlook: The big news coming out of Washington is, unfortunately for DC baseball fans, not about the on-field play. The owner Robert Scott, a Nebraska native, reportedly wants to move the team somewhere closer to home. Rumors are Texas and Dallas, Texas at that. Will the turmoil send this team to pieces? Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Freeman, Kevin 27 LL 11 15 .423 3.39 32 32 0 11 2 0 249.1 239 105 94 26 79 5 121 1.275 8.6 0.9 2.9 4.4 Daugharty, Chad 25 RR 17 8 .680 2.44 32 32 0 10 6 0 250.2 179 81 68 10 83 7 175 1.045 6.4 0.4 3.0 6.3 Coffey, Kent 25 SR 10 9 .526 2.65 22 22 0 10 4 0 169.2 143 59 50 9 65 1 107 1.226 7.6 0.5 3.4 5.7 Bruno, Brian 27 RR 8 11 .421 3.70 28 21 2 6 2 0 168.0 157 79 69 17 36 4 100 1.149 8.4 0.9 1.9 5.4 Marrone, D.J. 24 LL 3 10 .231 5.20 16 16 0 2 0 0 97.0 112 66 56 16 32 1 48 1.485 10.4 1.5 3.0 4.5 Dukes, Jaden 29 LR 5 5 .500 3.65 14 11 0 3 2 0 86.1 80 37 35 18 20 0 56 1.158 8.3 1.9 2.1 5.8 Rubio, Bruce 22 RR 7 3 .700 2.10 11 11 0 4 0 0 85.2 74 29 20 7 28 1 58 1.191 7.8 0.7 2.9 6.1 Cellini, Aaron 26 RR 3 2 .600 3.06 6 6 0 2 1 0 47.0 31 17 16 6 30 2 41 1.298 5.9 1.1 5.7 7.9 Morales, Ramon 22 RR 1 0 1.000 4.22 3 3 0 0 0 0 10.2 9 6 5 1 8 1 7 1.594 7.6 0.8 6.8 5.9 Richard, Rocky 25 RR 0 0 .000 4.50 2 1 1 0 0 0 8.0 6 4 4 1 3 0 7 1.125 6.8 1.1 3.4 7.9 The last (or 5th, too) position looks up for grabs between Aaron Cellini, who's shown flashes between St. Louis and Washington but gets into bad control funks, newly acquired Richard Pulido, a 25 year old who spun a shut-out in 3 September appearances with the Tigers, and Jaden Dukes, the oldest member of this trio and the one with the best control but also a tendency to groove his mid-80s fastball on the road (he gave up 15 HR in just 49 road innings last year). Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Chavez, Willis 31 LL 3 10 .231 2.48 62 0 47 0 0 20 83.1 81 30 23 5 46 8 44 1.524 8.7 0.5 5.0 4.8 Terry, Tyler 26 RR 2 6 .250 3.71 38 0 19 0 0 2 51.0 46 29 21 3 36 6 31 1.608 8.1 0.5 6.4 5.5 Shepherd, Ron 27 LL 2 4 .333 2.66 38 0 18 0 0 0 50.2 47 21 15 2 29 7 36 1.500 8.3 0.4 5.2 6.4 Parks, Dale 32 LL 2 2 .500 4.95 24 6 8 0 0 0 60.0 53 35 33 4 27 1 35 1.333 8.0 0.6 4.1 5.2 Slaughter, Gabe 24 RR 1 1 .500 3.00 15 1 8 0 0 0 21.0 18 7 7 0 7 2 7 1.190 7.7 0.0 3.0 3.0 Mojica, Danny 35 LL 1 0 1.000 6.97 9 0 6 0 0 0 10.1 13 11 8 0 6 0 10 1.839 11.3 0.0 5.2 8.7 Rivera, Andres 29 RR 0 0 .000 5.87 6 0 3 0 0 0 7.2 7 5 5 2 4 0 10 1.435 8.2 2.3 4.7 11.7 Kenner, Jim 29 SL 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 2.1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 0.429 0.0 0.0 3.9 11.6 Terrell, Jaden 24 SR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 1 0 0 0 1.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.000 0.0 0.0 0.0 10.8 Randall, Ethan 26 LL 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 1.0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.000 18.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Willis Chavez is the stopper... for now, but he was very, very volatile last season. He lost 10 games, blew 9 saves for a save rate of only 69%, and also allowed 14 of 28 inherited runers to score. On the other hand, he seems to have been especially effective in multi-inning appearances. Perhaps the track for him is to let someone else put out fires and then bring in Chavez to put the game into cruise control. No, that's a stupid way to run a bullpen that will never become popular. The Senators had a lot of success using Ron Shepherd in a situational relief role; expect that to continue unless the team gets so frustrated with Chavez that they force him into a larger role. Speaking of guys who could see bigger roles, there's Terry Tyler. He's kind of the opposite profile compared to Chavez, inasmuch as he put up very iffy looking numbers (a 3.71 ERA in RFK is not really all that great) but was perfect in his own save opps (as the only Senator outside of Chavez to earn one of them) and only allowed 9 of his own 24 inherited runners to come around. Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Flores, Armando 28 RR 128 524 49 152 24 0 4 60 25 62 2 0 26 .290 .324 .359 2* Gonzalez, Ramiro 30 SR 37 127 13 26 7 0 1 9 19 27 0 0 8 .205 .306 .283 2/7 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Skelton, Jon 41 LL 124 439 56 127 27 0 21 75 71 43 1 1 13 .289 .388 .494 3* DeBoer, Nick 38 RR 85 208 24 56 8 1 7 36 35 31 0 0 4 .269 .372 .418 3 Wolcott, Marty 31 RR 5 8 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .125 .125 .125 /3 Crudup, Nick 26 LL 7 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 .000 .143 .000 Rawski, Frandszk 35 RR 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Nyman, Joe 29 RR 101 368 39 84 17 3 4 31 24 79 2 3 10 .228 .283 .323 46 Knight, Tyler 29 RR 79 231 13 40 4 0 1 18 21 49 2 2 5 .173 .243 .203 456 Hernandez, Jose 23 RR 50 176 21 42 5 1 9 25 13 44 0 0 4 .239 .295 .432 4 Rzepka, Jeremy 33 RR 13 25 3 8 2 0 0 3 4 5 0 0 0 .320 .400 .400 /46 Curran, Rob 23 LR 116 390 44 90 15 5 4 33 62 109 2 1 3 .231 .340 .326 5*/6 Pope, Aaron 30 RR 22 83 6 20 6 0 0 6 5 11 1 2 4 .241 .308 .313 5 Schneider, Kristian 30 LR 15 54 3 12 0 0 0 3 5 12 1 1 2 .222 .288 .222 5 Ramey, Justin 31 RR 125 477 66 131 24 2 10 58 74 87 16 6 8 .275 .369 .396 6* Park, Sung-min 34 RR 4 12 2 3 0 0 1 2 0 5 0 0 0 .250 .250 .500 /6 Washington installed Jose Hernandez at 2B for the last third of the year and liked what they saw enough to bet on him going forward. Maybe it's more accurate to say that they didn't like what they saw in incumbent Joe Nyman. Nyman's now been in the league for 2 full seasons and has pretty well proven himself to be a .230 hitter who strikes out too much to hit anywhere but the bottom of the order. Tyler Knight was the 1969 starter - he's easily the best fielder of that trio, having won the Gold Glove the past 3 seasons - but there's only so far that a glove can take you, and hitting .173 is not there. After shipping Schneider off, the Tigers lasted the rest of the year with Rob Curran, who played well enough to get shipped off to the Tigers in the Vince Akright trade. The replacement is David Salinas, who has bounced around from the Yankees to the Tigers and now Washington over the past 2 years. He's 35 and clearly isn't the player he once was but he hit a solid .273 for Detroit last year should help the lineup score runs a lot more than Curran did. Justin Ramey is a good, solid, not-quite-AS level player who could be the best overall player in the Senators' lineup now that Alvin Romero is gone. He's a good fielder, a .275 hitter, has 10 HR pop from a middle infield position, and is one of those guys who will work a pitcher to death in an at-bat. The only knock on him is that he's not really a team leader in the clubhouse. He's not a cancer or anything, just a guy who keeps to himself and does his thing. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Veneziano, Sebastiano 33 LL 114 362 37 82 11 8 7 52 23 72 6 1 5 .227 .274 .359 7 Swan, Bill 24 RR 64 246 28 54 3 2 10 18 20 48 7 0 5 .220 .286 .370 78 Fath, Jon 33 LR 29 78 4 14 1 0 1 7 7 12 2 0 3 .179 .244 .231 7 Hackney, Matt 25 RR 49 57 4 13 1 0 1 6 3 3 0 0 0 .228 .274 .298 /7 Carrasco, Pedro 27 LL 17 30 6 6 1 0 1 3 8 9 1 0 0 .200 .359 .333 /789 Everett, Ian 28 LL 104 380 44 103 12 3 7 46 32 85 12 12 5 .271 .333 .374 8 Allen, Mike 32 RR 50 160 16 41 9 4 1 9 12 34 1 0 6 .256 .308 .381 8/97 Hackett, John 35 RR 19 39 4 8 0 2 1 4 9 12 0 0 1 .205 .354 .385 /897 Romero, Alvin 24 LL 137 576 106 186 31 13 5 40 53 32 68 16 1 .323 .378 .448 9*8/7 Alvarez, Manuel 36 RR 36 122 8 25 5 0 0 12 6 18 0 1 5 .205 .250 .246 9 Brown, Kyle 24 LL 7 16 2 4 0 1 0 2 2 3 0 0 0 .250 .333 .375 /9 Ian Everett is the lone returning starter in OF. He recovered well from a .214/2/25 campaign in 1969 and reminded the Senators of what he can be if everything goes right: a roughly league average hitter with a very good glove (he won the GG in 1965, although that is unlikely to happen again). Washington liked him enough last year that they cut loose Mike Allen, who'd been brought in to challenge Everett before the 1969 season, in August. In the long run, the team likes 1969 1st round pick Devin Bucciarelli at this position, although a .149 stint in AAA at the end of last year says he's probably unlikely to be ready to compete with Everett by Opening Day. Alvin Romero is one of those guys where I guess you pay so little for him, relatively speaking, that you never quite realize what you had until he's gone. Romero was a throw-in more or less in the Kristian Schneider trade, but the second he got to Washington he turned into the best leadoff hitter in the game, an absolute thorn in the side of opposing pitchers and catchers both. Even with the Senators' offense as a whole sputtering, Romero finished 2nd in the AL in runs scored and his 72 stolen bases set a new modern record, breaking Zach Hadley's 1969 mark. Now he's gone, off to Detroit, as the centerpiece of a trade to bring Vince Akright back, perhaps, but he was still an awful lot to give up. Washington got back Bubba Wilson in that trade. Wilson is pretty fast on his own, as 37 steals at AAA Toledo in 1969 would attest to. He's of course not electric the way Romero was - nobody else in the league is - but maybe that will be enough? If not, Senators fans will be hating that deal for decades to come (assuming there are Senators fans in decades to come).
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09-07-2022, 10:49 AM
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#98 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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Atlanta Braves (82-80, 3rd NL West)
Recap: The Braves fell and fell hard early on - 6-15 for April, 11-14 in May - and were looking like they were going to pull the dubious first-to-worst drop. As late as May 31, they were dead last in the division with a 17-29 record. Then they started to turn things around - just a bit, and not nearly enough to hope to catch up to Cincinnati and Houston - and somehow, some way they won their 81st game of the season on September 26th, then clinched a winning record on the final day with an extra innings 5-4 win against the Reds. It wound up being a big, extreme hitters' year for them, as they allowed more runs than any other NL team save one.
History: The Braves of course just won the division in 1969. That was their first and so far only trip to the playoffs. Last year then was kind of a return to normal. Outlook: This is not a young team and it's very hard to see how they in their current form can catch up to the Reds and Astros. More than likely we'll spend 1971 watching Henry Riggs achieve milestones (480 career HRs, 2,586 career hits) and looking up in the standings at the true contenders. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Dean, Trevon 28 LR 15 13 .536 4.78 34 33 1 6 1 0 229.2 239 139 122 25 99 6 129 1.472 9.4 1.0 3.9 5.1 Sanchez, Vinny 33 RR 9 14 .391 4.50 34 24 4 4 2 0 176.0 199 99 88 15 46 2 64 1.392 10.2 0.8 2.4 3.3 Cari, Jake 25 RR 7 7 .500 4.00 23 23 0 3 1 0 135.0 131 67 60 12 52 3 99 1.356 8.7 0.8 3.5 6.6 Sandoval, Julio 28 RR 8 4 .667 2.48 16 16 0 2 2 0 116.0 92 42 32 7 38 1 62 1.121 7.1 0.5 2.9 4.8 Morales, Tony 22 RR 7 3 .700 4.55 20 11 2 2 0 0 97.0 98 53 49 13 49 0 88 1.515 9.1 1.2 4.5 8.2 House, George 27 RR 1 1 .500 6.00 2 2 0 0 0 0 12.0 17 9 8 1 1 0 5 1.500 12.8 0.7 0.7 3.8 Seja, Damian 27 RR 1 0 1.000 1.04 1 1 0 0 0 0 8.2 7 1 1 0 2 0 3 1.038 7.3 0.0 2.1 3.1 Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Carranza, Felix 26 RR 9 8 .529 4.41 46 15 20 3 0 4 147.0 155 74 72 24 53 4 107 1.415 9.5 1.5 3.2 6.6 Winn, John 27 SR 0 0 .000 1.26 51 0 0 0 0 0 43.0 35 7 6 0 10 1 49 1.047 7.3 0.0 2.1 10.3 Rose, Colin 26 RR 8 8 .500 4.52 34 15 8 3 0 0 125.1 124 69 63 15 59 6 49 1.460 8.9 1.1 4.2 3.5 Pennock, Kevin 36 RR 6 7 .462 5.43 33 13 10 0 0 1 124.1 143 87 75 20 50 3 48 1.552 10.4 1.4 3.6 3.5 Cokely, Seth 29 RR 1 4 .200 4.66 32 0 14 0 0 0 36.2 38 20 19 6 24 1 14 1.691 9.3 1.5 5.9 3.4 Rivera, Andres 29 RR 0 0 .000 5.20 25 9 0 0 0 0 53.2 57 36 31 10 11 0 33 1.267 9.6 1.7 1.8 5.5 Lee, Sung-jin 33 RR 4 0 1.000 0.45 14 0 8 0 0 3 20.0 8 4 1 0 6 0 9 0.700 3.6 0.0 2.7 4.1 Reyes, Victor 28 RR 0 0 .000 6.60 17 0 0 0 0 0 15.0 16 11 11 2 6 0 9 1.467 9.6 1.2 3.6 5.4 Takahashi, Chuugo 25 RR 0 0 .000 2.79 9 0 5 0 0 0 9.2 8 3 3 1 4 0 11 1.241 7.4 0.9 3.7 10.2 Hashbarger, Adam 25 RR 0 0 .000 6.00 3 0 1 0 0 0 6.0 6 4 4 1 3 0 3 1.500 9.0 1.5 4.5 4.5 Blackwell, Dylan 22 SR 0 1 .000 4.76 4 0 2 0 0 0 5.2 7 3 3 0 4 0 2 1.941 11.1 0.0 6.4 3.2 Shattuck, Rick 28 RR 0 1 .000 5.79 5 0 1 0 0 0 4.2 3 3 3 1 2 1 0 1.071 5.8 1.9 3.9 0.0 Borgman, Craig 26 RR 0 0 .000 4.15 4 0 1 0 0 0 4.1 2 2 2 1 1 0 2 0.692 4.2 2.1 2.1 4.2 Ortiz, Carlos 28 RR 0 0 .000 21.21 2 0 0 0 0 0 4.2 10 11 11 2 4 0 3 3.000 19.3 3.9 7.7 5.8 Evans, Roger 26 SL 0 0 .000 2.70 4 0 2 0 0 0 3.1 6 1 1 0 0 0 2 1.800 16.2 0.0 0.0 5.4 Martinez, Jorge 22 RR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 0 0 0 0 2.1 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.714 15.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Dennehy, Shaun 26 RR 80 292 26 71 7 0 4 28 34 66 0 0 21 .243 .319 .308 2 Rey, Pablo 36 RR 53 127 11 21 1 2 0 6 8 16 0 0 5 .165 .232 .205 2 Molina, Pat 39 RR 31 119 8 24 3 1 2 12 4 16 0 1 8 .202 .224 .294 2 Gamez, Andres 22 RR 23 66 4 9 3 0 0 5 10 13 0 0 4 .136 .256 .182 2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Chairez, Dante 26 LR 147 528 91 155 29 1 35 102 80 115 2 1 9 .294 .383 .551 3*/9 Holden, Jeremy 25 RR 28 58 6 11 1 1 1 4 12 4 1 1 1 .190 .329 .293 3/4 Dwyer, Kevin 31 RR 146 595 108 198 38 10 30 95 54 51 2 1 15 .333 .389 .582 4* Lozano, Manuel 24 LR 7 28 4 6 2 0 0 2 2 9 1 1 0 .214 .281 .286 /4 Naranjo, Danny 35 RR 10 11 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 .182 .250 .182 /4 Luna, Vicente 34 RR 70 301 46 87 5 1 14 41 20 33 4 3 7 .289 .329 .452 5/3 Medford, Mike 28 RR 75 236 28 59 4 1 8 28 20 57 3 2 8 .250 .312 .377 5/896 Martinez, Franklin 35 RR 103 232 22 56 14 0 4 29 15 41 1 0 5 .241 .291 .353 5/3 Dietrich, Ryan 31 RR 98 318 26 70 9 2 4 29 19 54 3 1 11 .220 .273 .299 6 Reid, Jon 25 RR 56 197 14 49 10 0 2 14 16 61 0 0 2 .249 .307 .330 6 Villegas, Roberto 29 RR 40 69 4 13 1 1 0 4 2 10 1 0 1 .188 .219 .232 6/495 Patton, Elijah 32 RR 15 38 4 8 1 0 0 1 2 4 0 0 5 .211 .238 .237 6 It's hard to believe that Kevin Dwyer is only 31. It seems he's been around forever. He does have 10 All-Star nods so it might be that. Last year Dwyer set new career highs in HRs and walks while also just happening to lead the NL in hitting. He's a scary hitter who has somehow managed to add a brand new wrinkle (power) to his game. Vicente Luna has missed significant time in 3 of the last 4 seasons and perhaps he's entered the part of his career where he needs a caddy. When healthy, he's still very productive at the plate and he's a decent fielder, so the Braves probably aren't ready to pull the plug just yet. It also doesn't help that their two best third base prospects are John Davis, a 21 year old who hit .213 in AA ball last year, and Manuel Lozano, who did get a September call-up last year but who only hit .241/12/50 in AAA last year himself. Jon Reid has the draft pedigree - he was the 15th overall pick out of Arizona State University in 1968 - but so far the results have been fairly mixed. The Braves would love for him to produce more at the plate than he did last year. Defensively he is merely adequate and might not profile into the position long-term. He's still got the inside track to the starters' job; Ryan Dietrich has been the incumbent there since 1963 but is a career .225 hitter (with a career .289 OBP for stat nerds) who, at 31, is no longer quite the top-of-the-line fielder who can justify that bat. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Yebra, Ruberto 28 RR 106 435 55 124 9 8 5 40 38 57 29 16 2 .285 .344 .377 7/3 Ward, Chris 24 LL 71 200 25 51 7 5 2 17 23 24 12 10 1 .255 .335 .370 7/9 Backes, Kevin 24 LR 19 18 1 2 1 0 0 0 3 7 1 0 0 .111 .238 .167 /78 Damon, Josh 29 RR 117 257 26 67 7 0 7 38 18 37 2 1 7 .261 .301 .370 87 Gomez, Jose 29 RR 49 173 32 45 4 3 9 22 14 39 7 1 1 .260 .304 .474 8/79 Dees, Brian 31 LR 41 131 16 21 0 0 6 14 13 40 6 2 0 .160 .247 .298 8 Baugher, Bill 25 LL 37 113 11 18 4 0 2 11 20 26 2 4 3 .159 .289 .248 8/79 Panizzi, Franco 25 LL 30 63 6 9 0 1 1 3 10 13 1 0 1 .143 .257 .222 8/9 Riggs, Henry 35 LL 153 553 110 154 28 3 41 108 109 71 0 2 14 .278 .395 .562 9* Josh Damon appears to be the center fielder by default, as prospect Bill Baugher couldn't catch up to major league fastballs and on top of that doesn't seem to have the range to carry the position on a regular basis. Damon has never lived up to the promise around his being drafted 3rd overall in 1962; fortunately for him, current Braves fans don't remember that far back and just think of him as a backup outfielder who's finally getting his chance. Jose Gomez, who somehow made the All-Star Game with the Cubs in 1968, may also fit into the equation somehow. He does have some interesting pop, so there is that. Through it all, the Braves' mainstay in right field has been Henry Riggs and he's showing no signs of slowing down at age 35. The list of accolades he's won is impressive: 3 MVPs, 15 All-Star appearances, 11 Silver Sluggers in right field, the batting champion in 1960, and a 2-time HR champ (a surprisingly low number for a guy approaching 500 homers but the NL has been sort of loaded with power hitters). His range is eroding a bit and eventually he'll need to move to left field or first base, but that's a problem for the Braves of the future; for now, whatever he might give up in the field, he more than makes up for at the plate.
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09-07-2022, 12:14 PM
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#99 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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Chicago Cubs (91-71, 2nd NL East)
Recap: The Cubs asked and answered the question, "how far can you get on pitching alone?". The answer? Pretty far. In spite of a 3.91 ERA that was 8th in the NL, the Cubs pushed hard all season long, even carrying a 5 1/2 game lead in the NL East standings (6 games over the eventual champion Pirates) as of September 1. Then everything bad caught up with them and they finished the year 12-17 and wound up in second place for the second straight year.
History: What curse of the goat? These Cubs won World Series titles in both 1955 and 1961. Sorry, Billy Goat Tavern, you'll just have to stick with being the cheezborger cheezborger place (and also for some reason the favorite "dining" spot of longtime columnist Mike Royko) (actually, I know exactly why Royko went there so much; the Billy Goat just so happens to be literally in the basement building I work in, which is in turn across the street from the old Chicago Tribune building) (also by the way, I would not exactly confuse it with La Frontera if you catch my drift). Outlook: I think you have to give the Cubs a fighting chance in 1971 if for no other reason than that it is really, really hard to see the Pirates repeating what they did last year and the Mets having fallen way off after a magical - some would say miraculous - 1969 season. They've definitely got the hitting. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Lucas, Bill 32 LR 12 17 .414 4.42 38 38 0 7 2 0 266.2 292 141 131 34 114 12 155 1.523 9.9 1.1 3.8 5.2 Marin, Victor 29 RR 11 11 .500 4.86 27 27 0 6 3 0 168.2 182 95 91 22 65 8 87 1.464 9.7 1.2 3.5 4.6 Coffey, Scott 27 LL 8 7 .533 3.80 22 19 2 6 3 0 139.2 132 61 59 11 53 8 93 1.325 8.5 0.7 3.4 6.0 Sanders, Jason 30 RR 8 4 .667 3.14 17 17 0 5 0 0 114.2 101 43 40 9 43 4 93 1.256 7.9 0.7 3.4 7.3 Zarate, Jose 21 LL 11 3 .786 1.96 18 17 1 6 4 0 128.2 105 34 28 3 25 7 64 1.010 7.3 0.2 1.7 4.5 Obregon, Javy 30 RR 4 3 .571 4.04 15 9 1 1 1 0 62.1 64 30 28 8 32 7 23 1.540 9.2 1.2 4.6 3.3 Wilbers, Mike 31 RR 3 3 .500 3.26 10 10 0 1 0 0 58.0 51 23 21 4 21 3 39 1.241 7.9 0.6 3.3 6.1 Jones, Nigel 30 RR 0 0 .000 3.60 1 1 0 0 0 0 5.0 4 4 2 0 0 0 2 0.800 7.2 0.0 0.0 3.6 Jose Zarate should return as the #3 man after a great rookie season. It's misplaced to call anyone who only hits the high 80s on his fastball a true staff ace but he's got pinpoint control and forces you to beat him over time instead of all at once. Scott Coffey and Victor Marin should compete for the final spot with Javy Obregon also in the mix. Coffey, formerly a failed prospect in Detroit, delivered 3 shutouts in 19 starts last year but everything about his game screams AAAA player. Marin was a workhorse for the Cubs between 1966 and 1969, even leading the league in games started in '67 (also losses though). He missed time with a strained hamstring last year but on top of that he's had increasing problems with the longball the last couple years, and "problems with the longball" is not a thing you really want to have on your resume if you play half your games at Wrigley Field. Obregon is a Cuban ex-pat so the advanced age isn't as big of an issue as one might think; what is an issue for him is poor control combined with the lack of a good out pitch. One big wild card there is Mike Wilbers. He was limited to just 10 starts and 58 innings pitched before tearing his labrum, and as of this writing he doesn't look like he'll be ready in time for spring training, but he's carried an ERA in the low to mid 3s over the past 2 seasons and could eat some innings if the Cubs are lucky. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Martinez, Antonio 34 SR 3 3 .500 2.54 51 0 30 0 0 10 74.1 56 27 21 7 35 5 51 1.224 6.8 0.8 4.2 6.2 Paulus, Nick 29 RR 3 3 .500 3.93 43 0 20 0 0 3 73.1 76 40 32 10 40 8 38 1.582 9.3 1.2 4.9 4.7 Uscanga, Freddy 24 LL 4 2 .667 4.74 35 0 30 0 0 8 43.2 45 24 23 4 33 7 35 1.786 9.3 0.8 6.8 7.2 Castro, Frank 29 RR 7 3 .700 3.31 30 5 6 0 0 0 68.0 61 28 25 12 17 3 31 1.147 8.1 1.6 2.3 4.1 Jones, Kenny 28 SR 8 8 .500 4.82 27 17 4 3 2 0 125.0 121 69 67 12 53 3 86 1.392 8.7 0.9 3.8 6.2 Nies, Chad 26 LL 2 1 .667 4.97 21 0 19 0 0 7 29.0 29 16 16 3 12 3 33 1.414 9.0 0.9 3.7 10.2 Gurley, Ryan 32 SL 5 2 .714 4.97 18 0 2 0 0 0 29.0 28 17 16 3 12 0 21 1.379 8.7 0.9 3.7 6.5 Foster, Dan 28 LR 0 0 .000 4.15 11 0 4 0 0 0 13.0 13 7 6 1 4 2 8 1.308 9.0 0.7 2.8 5.5 Montejo, Ricky 28 RR 0 1 .000 6.35 5 1 3 0 0 1 11.1 11 13 8 4 11 0 9 1.941 8.7 3.2 8.7 7.1 John, Brennan 27 LL 1 0 1.000 6.10 5 1 2 0 0 0 10.1 12 7 7 3 1 1 7 1.258 10.5 2.6 0.9 6.1 Moon, Suk-min 34 SR 0 0 .000 1.04 7 0 1 0 0 0 8.2 5 1 1 0 2 0 9 0.808 5.2 0.0 2.1 9.3 Sorongon, Mike 25 RR 0 0 .000 3.00 4 0 0 0 0 0 6.0 7 3 2 0 3 0 2 1.667 10.5 0.0 4.5 3.0 Winn, John 27 SR 1 0 1.000 3.00 4 0 2 0 0 0 3.0 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1.000 6.0 3.0 3.0 6.0 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Darrow, Greg 26 RR 128 480 66 158 23 2 12 71 26 31 0 0 14 .329 .361 .460 2* Singleton, Ian 36 RR 37 114 13 27 6 1 3 19 19 39 0 0 3 .237 .346 .386 2 Martinez, Jose 28 RR 2 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 .167 .222 .333 /2 Putnam, Brent 34 RR 2 7 2 1 1 0 0 3 1 2 0 0 0 .143 .333 .286 /2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Lopez, Antonio 24 LL 159 632 104 191 32 5 29 114 82 82 0 0 25 .302 .385 .506 3* Palacios, Carlos 24 LL 21 19 5 9 2 0 1 3 2 3 0 0 0 .474 .524 .737 Ruckel, Robby 34 RR 3 3 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .667 Brettell, Matt 32 LL 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Williams, Matt 31 RR 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 Perez, Juan 32 LR 88 340 42 89 12 0 9 43 24 60 1 3 5 .262 .317 .376 4 Holcombe, David 23 LR 50 161 21 38 14 2 5 27 26 34 1 0 0 .236 .339 .441 4/7 Mantero, Tim 30 RR 24 61 6 12 3 0 0 6 3 12 0 1 3 .197 .227 .246 4 Owen, Kellen 29 RR 16 50 3 10 3 0 1 3 7 8 0 1 7 .200 .310 .320 4 Gabel, Sean 26 RR 149 641 98 208 29 15 0 67 37 40 30 16 10 .324 .361 .417 5* Maroney, John 33 RR 47 92 15 24 5 0 3 13 16 15 0 0 1 .261 .370 .413 5/34 Taylor, Jeremy 26 RR 156 614 96 144 18 11 27 89 64 157 12 6 12 .235 .309 .432 6* Avalos, Gene 33 RR 16 30 2 8 1 0 1 6 5 5 0 0 0 .267 .371 .400 6/4 Juan Perez is a 5 time All-Star but has had issues beign healthy the last couple years and it also appears that the injuries may have eaten into his production. He was no better than league average as a hitter last year and that period where he seemed like a lock for 20-25 HRs a season seem to be gone now. David Holcombe filled in well during Perez's absence; while he is nowhere near the fielder that Perez, a former shortstop, is, he's also a full decade younger and looks to be on the upside rather than the downside of his career. On a team built around power and in spite of playing at a traditional power position Sean Gabel defies all odds. He's simply one of the best pure hitters in the league. Nobody in the NL has gotten more hits than Gabel over the past 3 seasons and he's finished in the top 5 in BA both last year and this one. He's even an excellent fielder at third who seems like a lock to win his 3rd straight Gold Glove. And he's a pest on the bases. As you'd might expect, the fans adore him. Jeremy Taylor took a big step back from a .277/47/140 campaign that saw him lead all of baseball in HRs and RBIs but honestly, 27/89 is still pretty amazing for a shortstop. Unlike a lot of middle infielders who hit this well, too, Taylor doesn't give back a lot in the field - he's no more than an average defender, but he's by no means terrible. The one thing management would love for him to do is cut down on the whiffs - only two players in the major leagues struck out more. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Workman, Jason 33 LL 150 581 98 181 26 3 44 135 29 37 0 0 12 .312 .342 .594 7* Gomez, Jose 29 RR 11 16 3 2 0 0 0 2 5 4 1 0 0 .125 .304 .125 /78 Littleton, Sincere 27 RR 8 21 3 3 0 0 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 .143 .182 .429 /79 Tooley, Mark 34 RR 94 394 66 107 18 4 11 41 48 88 9 7 2 .272 .350 .421 8 Cooper, Chance 23 LR 71 216 49 55 9 2 14 30 69 69 5 4 2 .255 .433 .509 8/9 Jung, Hee-gon 33 LL 18 35 6 10 1 0 0 3 1 4 2 0 1 .286 .297 .314 /89 Groves, Adam 30 RR 133 409 70 106 14 4 17 52 79 111 8 2 4 .259 .383 .438 9*/7 Marks, Sam 27 LR 93 197 24 67 11 1 3 25 13 14 1 1 6 .340 .380 .452 97 Vallejo, Alex 27 LL 28 96 17 32 4 3 3 17 8 8 0 1 0 .333 .385 .531 9/8 Casio, Steve 33 LL 13 12 1 3 0 0 0 1 2 3 0 0 0 .250 .357 .250 /97 Fenney, Steve 29 RR 4 13 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 .077 .077 .231 /9 The Cubs installed the 6th overall pick in the 1969 draft Chance Cooper in center field in the second half. He did a lot of great things: he flashed major league power at the tender age of 23, he got pitchers so scared of him that he walked 69 times against 216 at-bats, and he even showed a fair amount of speed. The one real thing he didn't show was the kind of range you want from a center fielder. For now, the Cubs look like they're content to live with trading runs in the outfield for everything Cooper provides and is expected to provide at the plate but eventually he'll need to move into one of the corners. The team does have Mark Tooley there if their pitching staff complains too much. Tooley has been the team's starter in center since 1963 and made 2 All-Star games in that time. Many would feel hard done by with this set of events but Tooley, a former 1st round pick himself, seems to be going with the changes for now. Adam Groves coming back from a nasty, potentially career-ending concussion he suffered during spring training of 1969 was definitely not something the Cubs were counting on at all. In many ways, his return was a huge complication for the team, as they already had acquired Alex Vallejo from the Phillies and had Sam Marks, who hit .328/3/29 in half a season as a rookie in '69, waiting in the wings as well. But Groves came in and did what he had been doing from 1966 to 1968: provided solid power, wore out opposing pitchers, found ways to get on base, and had deceptive amounts of speed on the basepaths once he did get there. As a result, Marks became a top perfoming pinch-hitter and Vallejo was sent off to the A's to help shore up their bullpen. One thing Chicago does hope Groves does less of is lean into pitches: he led the league in 1968 and it's no coincidence that it was a beaning that led him to miss all of '69.
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09-07-2022, 01:40 PM
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#100 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 10,091
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Cincinnati Reds (98-64, 1st NL West)
Recap: The Reds came from basically out of nowhere to win the most games in baseball, dispatch an overmatched Pirates team in the NLCS, and then falter to a more experienced Minnesota Twins team. This season should be seen as anything but a disappointment, however: the Reds played well from pillar to post and simply refused to lose from July 29 to the end of the year (40-20, and that includes a meaningless October 1 contest against the Braves), overcoming a 3 game gap to the Astros to win the division by 3.
History: The Reds also won the pennant in 1960, falling to the Yankees in 6 games, but this team was a much, much better team. This was the winningest team in Reds' history and in only 1 other year - 1967, when offenses were still in hibernation - did they yield a lower ERA than last year's 3.39. Outlook: Nothing about this team makes me think they're going to fall off at all. They have a great pitching staff led by, arguably, the best pitcher in baseball and a good young lineup that has just 2 starters over the age of 30. If we wake up in 1980 and the 70s was the Reds Decade, I would be completely unsurprised. Rotation Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Waiters, Steve 26 LL 25 6 .806 2.47 37 37 0 15 8 0 298.1 234 85 82 20 80 2 267 1.053 7.1 0.6 2.4 8.1 Hagan, Joe 29 RR 20 12 .000 3.53 36 36 0 8 2 0 249.1 235 122 118 31 98 2 214 1.281 8.4 1.1 3.5 7.7 Bertan, Tom 27 RR 20 9 .690 3.69 36 36 0 6 1 0 256.0 227 120 105 36 69 2 169 1.156 8.0 1.3 2.4 5.9 Vanover, Bill 29 SR 10 8 .556 3.35 31 26 2 5 2 0 196.0 192 87 73 15 27 4 111 1.117 8.8 0.7 1.2 5.1 Johnston, Mike 33 RR 5 5 .500 3.78 15 15 0 1 0 0 102.1 91 48 43 12 38 4 73 1.261 8.0 1.1 3.3 6.4 Panarello, Graham 25 RR 5 3 .625 3.15 13 8 2 3 0 0 68.2 65 25 24 2 26 0 57 1.325 8.5 0.3 3.4 7.5 Williams, David 29 RR 0 1 .000 4.76 1 1 0 0 0 0 5.2 6 3 3 0 2 0 0 1.412 9.5 0.0 3.2 0.0 The last spot in the rotation should see a battle between "Bullet Bill" Vanover and Graham Panarello. Vanover should have the inside track, as he's a 2 time All-Star with Washington and carried the #4 starter spot for most of the season last year. They call him "Bullet Bill" because he throws bullets; however, his low-90s fastball is on the straight side and his stuff is not electric; he stays in games by refusing the give up easy walks. Panarello is a former Angels prospect, brought over in what now looks like a terribly unbalanced trade for catcher Mike Perez (the Reds also got Tom Bertan back in that deal; they did give up OF Nelson Vargas, who has produced well for California) who never quite cashed in on the promise that saw him as the #14 prospect in baseball as of spring training 1967. He was a combined 11-7, 3.13 ERA between AAA And the major leagues last year; previously he struggled massively with control but last season he looked like he was able to stay in the zone a lot more. Bullpen Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 Rosas, Ricky 27 RR 7 9 .438 3.27 65 0 56 0 0 31 88.0 77 37 32 10 35 3 106 1.273 7.9 1.0 3.6 10.8 Shrewsbury, Greg 28 RR 4 4 .500 2.69 57 0 35 0 0 5 73.2 69 31 22 6 14 1 56 1.127 8.4 0.7 1.7 6.8 Hale, Zach 24 LL 0 0 .000 2.78 30 0 11 0 0 1 32.1 15 11 10 4 23 1 48 1.175 4.2 1.1 6.4 13.4 Elser, Garrett 27 RR 1 3 .250 2.89 23 1 10 0 0 0 37.1 34 15 12 4 31 0 39 1.741 8.2 1.0 7.5 9.4 Lopez, Pete 27 RR 1 2 .333 4.43 16 0 6 0 0 0 20.1 17 10 10 3 8 2 17 1.230 7.5 1.3 3.5 7.5 Hall, Andy 28 RR 0 1 .000 2.03 6 2 0 0 0 0 13.1 9 3 3 0 5 0 7 1.050 6.1 0.0 3.4 4.7 Rosanova, Cory 26 RR 0 1 .000 8.22 6 0 1 0 0 0 7.2 10 7 7 0 8 1 6 2.348 11.7 0.0 9.4 7.0 Yates, Brian 25 SR 0 0 .000 8.10 1 0 0 0 0 0 3.1 4 3 3 0 1 0 3 1.500 10.8 0.0 2.7 8.1 Labbe, John 29 RR 0 0 .000 9.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 1.0 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 3.000 27.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Catcher Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Williams, Oliver 26 RR 123 438 61 120 23 1 6 64 59 70 0 0 18 .274 .363 .372 2* Kohut, John 31 LR 46 146 14 36 5 1 3 20 7 35 0 0 2 .247 .277 .356 2 Day, Jarrod 26 LR 4 12 0 2 1 0 0 2 2 3 0 0 0 .167 .286 .250 /2 Infield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Clark, Stephen 32 LL 154 614 69 155 29 1 16 84 33 41 0 0 18 .252 .294 .381 3* Rivera, Alonzo 22 LL 58 65 12 19 3 2 3 14 13 6 0 1 0 .292 .413 .538 /37 Madison, Johnny 37 RR 5 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 .250 .400 .250 Ortiz, Pedro 27 RR 154 656 98 201 26 12 6 56 69 39 26 22 7 .306 .369 .410 4* Kraljevic, Bobby 27 LR 152 563 109 167 29 3 14 89 123 51 0 3 21 .297 .421 .433 5*/6 Guerrero, Fidelio 24 LR 16 41 5 11 2 0 1 8 7 7 2 0 1 .268 .375 .390 /53 Ramos, Mike 33 LR 7 10 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .100 .100 .200 /5 Wendt, Mike 26 RR 154 576 102 152 18 12 15 71 47 136 31 5 11 .264 .326 .415 6* Downing, Matt 36 RR 52 91 5 22 4 1 0 9 8 14 1 0 0 .242 .291 .308 64/5 Pedro Ortiz played second and hit second all season long, made his 4th consecutive All-Star Game, and turned in yet another season as a fan favorite. He even led the league in at-bats, which you do when you hit that high in the order and don't walk a huge amount, and finished in the top 10 in the NL in hits (5th), triples (5th), steals (7th), runs (9th), and average (10th). In a league where availability is the best ability, Ortiz has also played in at least 136 games in all 4 years he's been a starter. Bobby Kralcevic excelled in his first full season as the Reds' starter, leading the league in on-base percentage and finishing 2nd in walks. This also led him to get 109 runs mostly batting 3rd. As a third sacker, his arm is exemplary, perhaps the best in all of baseball. There really seems to be nowhere to go but up with this guy. So, one thing that could keep the Reds from repeating next year is that going up and down the lineup it's clear that they stayed very, very healthy last season. A lot of this is I think due to the relative youth of the roster - these guys haven't been in the league long enough to get injury-prone - but you also have a team here where the starters by and large just plain played the whole season. Mike Wendt is a great example of that. He's a good defensive shortstop who also puts up a lot of value in a variety of ways - mid-teens homerun pop, a lot of speed, some gap power, and a surprising amount of clutch hitting for a middle infielder. There's nothing wrong with him but do you really expect a guy who gives up his body as much as Wendt does to play 154 games? I guess when he's 26 that's still reasonable, I don't know. Outfield Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos Cannon, Junior 26 LL 121 430 87 120 14 1 28 99 100 84 1 1 10 .279 .413 .512 7*/93 Martinez, Jerry 37 RL 45 103 10 23 3 0 4 10 16 13 0 0 3 .223 .331 .369 7 Ortega, Willie 26 RL 22 71 11 21 2 0 4 12 2 11 0 0 5 .296 .333 .493 7/3 Patterson, Matayahu 34 LL 36 32 1 3 1 0 0 2 3 13 0 0 0 .094 .167 .125 /7 Wilkes, Chris 27 RR 152 564 80 139 10 4 3 49 81 103 16 10 11 .246 .338 .294 8* Menke, Ben 29 RR 31 54 5 11 3 1 1 12 9 16 2 3 2 .204 .317 .352 8/79 Beaulieu, Bobby 23 SR 9 14 1 3 0 0 1 2 2 6 0 1 0 .214 .313 .429 /89 Jensen, Justin 35 RR 138 460 84 104 12 1 42 96 101 147 0 0 11 .226 .367 .530 9* Cowan, Greg 29 LL 65 152 16 31 4 1 4 21 14 37 4 1 1 .204 .269 .322 9/738 Colon, Manuel 26 LR 2 2 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.500 /9 Chris Wilkes patrols the Riverfront Stadium center field well but if theres anywhere this team could use an upgrade, it's there. He's now been the Reds' CF for two seasons and has posted a slugging average under .300 in both of them. The bases on balls and speed lead one to think that maybe he could work as a leadoff man but even leadoff guys need to threaten to hit the ball into the gaps every now and then and Wilkes doesn't do that. Look for the Reds to challenge Wilkes in spring training with 1969 7th overall pick Bobby Beaulieu. Beaulieu profiles as an even better center fielder and what's more, he looks like the ball jumps off of his bat - he had 52 extra base hits (27/13/12) in 399 at-bats in AAA Indianapolis last season. Justin Jensen is the old man of this team. He's not exactly the kind of guy who leads either by yelling a lot or by example. When you knock 42 dingers and walk 101 times, you can stand to have some writers complain about your "lack of work ethic". I guess the main point of caution is that sometimes guy like this fall apart quickly and should that happen, the Reds' cupboard is pretty empty in terms of right field prospects - right now the top guys listed are Russ Deuser, who's really a center fielder and who seems to hit like a center fielder (.226/6/26 at AAA Indianapolis last year) and Rich Jasso, who looks like he has middling power at best.
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