Races Shaping Up In Both Circuits
Code:
National W L GB Strk L10
Boston 28 14 - W1 6-4
St. Louis 23 13 2 W2 7-3
Chicago 21 16 4 1/2 W2 5-5
Brooklyn 20 16 5 W1 7-3
Philadelphia 20 18 6 L2 6-4
Pittsburgh 11 22 12 1/2 L1 3-7
New York 12 24 13 L1 2-8
Cincinnati 11 23 13 L2 4-6
American W L GB Strk L10
Cleveland 24 10 - W3 8-2
New York 22 11 1 1/2 W5 9-1
Detroit 19 16 5 1/2 L2 7-3
Boston 18 17 6 1/2 L2 3-7
Chicago 18 18 7 W1 4-6
St. Louis 17 22 9 1/2 W1 4-6
Washington 14 22 11 L1 2-8
Philadelphia 11 27 15 L1 4-6
As we hit the quarter-pole, it's beginning to become clear who the haves and the have-nots of 1950 are. Boston looks like the last two years were just a little blip and if it weren't for a strong showing by the Cardinals they'd be separating from the field. As you'd expect from a Boston NL club it's all about the pitching (2nd in runs allowed, 165, and 1st in Ks with 249), but they're also producing a surprising amount of runs (also 2nd with 196 in spite of just 24 HRs that rank 6th).
The Cleveland Indians, meanwhile, have shot out of nowhere, although even with their lofty record the Yankees are right there to take over if they slip up just a little. They also, as you'd expect with a team with Robert Berryman, have some great pitching (2nd, 141 runs allowed) but they've also been ripping the crap out of the ball themselves, ranking 1st in runs scored (with 216 and 2nd in HRs (with 42).
More on the individual teams in the "Around the League" section!
May Awards Are Awardy
Chicago is the May home of rookies. Ward Myers of the White Sox (4-3, 3.28) was the AL Rookie of the Month, bringing home a 4-2 record with a 2.38 ERA in 53 innings over 6 starts. The 23-year-old throws a cut fastball, a slider, and a change for strikes and has proven to be a surprising ace. His NL counterpart for May was stopper Nathan Parker of the Cubs (4-0, 1.04, 2 Sv), who won 4 games in 9 May appearances and yielded just 2 runs over 17.1 innings, all in tough relief situations.
The NL Pitcher of the Month is a familiar face on a familiar team... but not the team you'd expect. Nick Ranallo (7-0, 0.72) completed 3 of his 5 starts, won all of them, and even picked up a save in a rare relief appearance. It's the first time the 3-time All Star has taken POTM honors in his career.
In the AL, it was of course Rapid Robert Berryman (6-3, 2.02) because who else would it be? Berryman finished the month 6-2 with a 2.21 ERA and struck out 61 batters in 73.1 innings. Our stat nerds tell us he's on pace to shatter the single-season strikeout mark with over 300. Yeah, right. Like that's even possible...
Ken Hoffman (.424, 14, 38) did pretty much everything a first baseman can do and that's why he was the NL Player of the Month. The Cardinals' cleanup man blasted 10 HRs, drove home 30 runners, hit .433 with 39 hits in 90 at-bats, and even beat up Brooklyn pitcher Jerry Maiella in a classic bases-clearing brawl after the hurler threw a fastball just a little bit too inside for Hoffman's liking. Amazingly, this was Hoffman's very first POTM award.
This... was not the first POTM award for his AL counterpart, LF Ted Thurston (.388, 9, 37). In fact, this was the 14th such award for "Teddy Ballgame". Thurston hit .440 for the month, deposited 6 balls into the seats, and walked 22 times in 23 games for the otherwise struggling Red Sox.
Around the League
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Boston(N): 1B Stephen Lutes (.291, 5, 23) has started to hit. Miguel Mares who?... P Joe Brewer (7-3, 2.47) surely would have won the May Pitcher of the Month honor if it weren't for his teammates on a couple of accounts - for one, Joe Ranallo was a complete beast, for another, even though he completed 4 of 7 games and struck out 38 men in 60.1 innings, he "only" won 4 of his 7 decisions.
Boston(A): The Red Sox are in free fall, going 8-15 for the month. Everything outside of Thurston seems to be breaking down: the pitching, once... okay, I was going to say "resolute" but they've never been that... adequate currently has the 2nd worst starter's ERA in the junior circuit. Phil Baker (4-4, 4.14) might be finally beginning to show his age at 41. Offensively the team has 3 men - Thurston, 3B Mark Boutilier (.352, 5, 18), and C John Prive (.320, 0, 12) hitting better than .250.
Brooklyn: LF Sean McClure (.250, 1, 4) pulled up lame after a hard collision at second base in a loss to the Cardinals on the 16th and hasn't played since. His replacement Danny Nishimoto (.224, 1, 14) has flashed with the glove but at the plate has proven why the 29 year old has never gotten a shot at starting in the major leagues before.
Chicago (N): Lest you believed that the shoulder inflammation that spelled the end to Mike Weathers' (4-2, 1.84) season last year would also reduce him as a pitcher, rest assured that he is back and better than ever. That curve of his... it, um, curves a lot... 3B Felipe Ortega (.231, 2, 11) hit .333 last week and is hitting .375 so far this one, after finding himself below the Mendoza Line on May 21st.
Chicago (A): The White Sox carried out a blockbuster trade with the Washington Senators on the 31st. I'll go over the players they sent out in the Washington write-up but let's just say that the returns were good. The main move was getting 2B Artie Wilson out - he's been hitting well this year but was making all the players in the clubhouse angry by repeating the same tired political arguments over and over again. Anyway, the Chisox got back 3B Kyle Keener (.293, 2, 9), who takes Wilson's spot in the order - John Yoder (.274, 4, 22) will move from 3rd to play 2nd - and CL Scott Weiss (2-0, 1.29, 4 Sv). They also received a prospect in the deal. But mostly, Wilson has been officially banned from the clubhouse.
Cincinnati: 1B Ted Stanislawski's (.287, 1, 16) power seems to have completely abandoned him but he's made a point to study the little things that make a hitter help out a team instead, like hitting behind the runner, making productive outs, and so on. Okay, seriously, it sucks. The guy hit 47 dingers with 166 RBIs and this year he's on pace for... 5 and 72.
Cleveland: If this is the Indians' year, it'll be because of guys like LF Larry Sloan (.333, 10, 37), who recently hit his 100th homerun of his career. Sloan also recently slotted into 2nd base after the regular there Ethan Taylor (.297, 4, 13) broke his hand sliding into second base on a double on the 26th. In 65 innings at the position, Sloan has only committed one error; it looks like he remembers it well enough from when he came up playing the position.
Detroit: The comeback has been rocky for Adam Turchi (4-3, 5.69). The former 17 game winner has walked 30 batters in 55.1 innings, striking out just 19 in that time frame, and what's worse, he's allowed 7 homeruns. Some of that can be blamed on the cozy confines of Tiger Stadium but some of that can also be blamed on gophers...
New York (N): RF Manny Mercado (.182, 8, 11) looked like a real hot prospect last year, hitting 22 HRs in just 350 at-bats down in A ball. The Giants handed him the starting gig and... the good news is, he kept hitting dingers. The bad news is, those homers all seemed to come when nobody else was on base, and also he's struck out 40 times in 137 at-bats. Needless to say, he's riding the pine now.
New York (A): Even with Thurston's heroics, an extremely good case can be made that RF Joe Della (.354, 20, 50) should have taken home Player of the Month honors for may. Della hit 15 balls out of the park last month and is on pace to hit 93 of them with 233 RBIs. Which, yikes. The craziest part? 16 of those HRs were hit on the road.
Philadelphia (N): We expected the Phillies to kind of fall apart so it's kind of good news that they've been treading water instead. 1B Gene Cutting (.352, 5, 32) has been an ageless wonder so far. The 39 year old is once more holding down the fort in the 3 hole. On the other hand, Alex Torres (3-4, 6.92), who led the league in winning percentage last year with a 15-2 record, has already doubled last year's loss total. Like everyone else in the league, he's having control issues (30 walks in 52 IP), although a glance at his other peripherals indicates to me anyway that he's been very hit-unlucky so far.
Philadelphia (A): Yeah, the A's are just really, really bad. They do have 2/3rds of a major league outfield with LF Nelson Aranda (.313, 5, 27) and CF Matt Holbrook (.323, 0, 14) producing a lot. Our scouts claim that Holbrook is even the better player now of the two, which, good players hit dingers, nerds. Pitching-wise, Ken Yazzie (0-1, 3.86) leads the league in having an awesome name.
Pittsburgh: It really is RF Luke Spurr (.288, 15, 33) and a cast of rejects in Pitt this year. 1B Jose Aceves (.241, 2, 11) in particular has fallen way off from last year's 24 HRs, and 91 RBIs. The pitching is just... ugh. 197 runs allowed (which is somehow not dead last) and a 6.06 starters' ERA. The low-water mark belongs to TJ Simons, who had a decent enough spring and looked like a potential future cog in the rotation. Well... he had 6 starts, pitched 33 innings, and surrendered 57 hits, 18 walks, and... wait for it... 8 homeruns. That all adds up to a 10.91 ERA.
St. Louis (N): The Cards' pitching actually looks not half-bad, at least in Cardinals' terms, and relative to the league. I mean, the 4.90 starters' ERA is a thing, but they're pitching well enough to stay in games. Jason Lanier (7-0, 3.77) is continually shuffled from relief to starting but as a guy who can give you 6 innings a night every 5 days, he's super effective. On the other hand, Tony Ojeda (2-4, 8.14) has given up 40 runs in 42 innings.
St. Louis (A): It's another year, another injury for CF Suthiwat Thaisong (.400, 0, 8), who must go out of his way to walk under ladders on his way to work or something. This year he suffered a bad knee injury while running the bases in a loss to the lowly Athletics and will reportedly miss the rest of the season. Maybe baseball is just not for him.
Washington: And finally, the Senators' haul! Of course, they added 2B Artie Wilson (.377, 6, 27), which immediately gets them a guy who is only only hitting as well as anyone in the league but allows them to move on from what was going to be a truly disastrous experiment at 2B with 38 year old Eddie Gonzalez shifting there after butchering 3rd so badly in 1949. They also received SP Gregg Sumner (3-2. 6.62), who was having problems with the longball in Chicago (6 HRs in 51.2 IP) but you can allow people to hit the ball a long, long way in Griffith Stadium and they just turn into outs. The final piece - and this should tell you how keen the Chisox were to get rid of Wilson - was LF Joe Ritchie (.257, 4, 27), the 3 time Gold Glove award winner who comes into Washington already having hit more HRs than anyone there before the trade.