[Syd Thrift]

Major Transactions
----------------------------
April 4: The Giants purchased C Chris Campbell from the Red Sox for $15,000. The Giants desperately needed a catcher and in Chris Campbell they get a guy with a good rep as a defensive player who hit .260 last season as a backup. Boston had acquired Sid Bartoszek in the offseason and only one of those two guys was going to make the Opening Day roster anyway.

April 4: The Phillies traded SS Eric Biron and minor league RF Richard Berman to the Brewers for 3B Bobby Ramirez and CF Alex Sanchez. The Brewers take on two players who could very easily start for them in 1970 and in exchange the Indians raided their shallow farm system. Ramirez was named the #20 prospect in baseball according to OSA but is still probably at least a year away from the major leagues. Sanchez is nowhere near as bright a prospect although he did win a minor league Gold Glove in 1968.

April 5: The Brewers purchased RF Eric Greeno from the Reds for $5,000. Milwaukee continues to supplement their roster with guys who didn't quite make the roster of other clubs. The 27 year old Greeno had a cup of coffee with the Reds last season and should be a decent pinch-hitting / 5th outfield option for them in 1970.

Preseason Predictions!
------------------------------------
I almost don't want to look at these because they might be too much information but what the heck, I'll forget about these in 2 weeks worth of game time and I think they're pretty interesting...

AL East: The Red Sox will win 100, with defending champs Cleveland falling all the way back to 4th in the division. Surprisingly the Baltimore Orioles are predicted to finish 2nd and make a 25-win turnaround to 89 victories in 1970. Good luck with that! The Senators are predicted to hit the cellar in the East with a 67-95 record.

AL West: The Twins should hold off the White Sox for a repeat playoff berth. They're predicted to win 92 with Chicago finishing 2nd and being the only other team in the AL West with a winning record with an 85-77 record. The Royals will bring up the rear with a 67-95 mark. I'm very surprised at how good the game thinks the A's and Brewers will be: both clock in with 75 expected victories.

AL MVP and Cy Young races: They've got Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia hitting 62 HRs, which would be an AL record and which would be kind of awesome. I'm super surprised at how good the game thinks Rick Berman will be for Milwaukee. As you can see above they just traded for this guy, who spent all of 1969 playing for their AAA affiliate after spending time in '68 as a pinch-hitter for them. They say he'll hit .338 with 74 RBIs. OK.

Mike Pesco, Mike Sanchez, and Angelo Ramos are all predicted to win 20, which, if the Red Sox win 100 games this year, I can definitely see that for the first two guys. Pesco's also predicted to put up 271 Ks in 262.2 innings.

NL East: The game actually has the Cubs beating out the Mets this year with a 98-64 record; in fact, they have the Mets falling all the way down to 3rd in the division and the AI thinks they'll have to hold off a furious run by a 96 win Philadelphia Phillies team. Not gonna lie, that would be fun to watch. The Cards figure to drop to 64-98, which surprises me given that the game doesn't factor injuries into its predictions, and the Expos as expected are as bad as ever and will lose 110.

NL West: The Reds will kick-start the Big Red Machine this year... what??? That would surely come from out of nowhere. The game has the Braves falling all the way to 76-86, which, given the state of their pitching staff, could be in play I guess. The Dodgers will fall all the way down to 62-99 with that depleted roster of theirs.

NL MVP/Cy races: Henry Riggs, if healthy, will hit 58 dingers. That would be awesome although if he does that for a mid-70s win team it would be bittersweet. Justin Weaver's also projected to break the 50 HR mark with Justin Stone of STL and reigning MVP Antonio Lopez dropping more than 40.

For Cy stuff, Houston's Tony Rivera is predicted to go 22-8 but in 42 starts, which seems unlikely. He definitely has the makeup to win 20 though. Philadelphia's Roger Quintana projects to a 20-10 record, which could happen if he stays healthy. Santos Arango will lead the league in ERA with a 2.23 mark and speaking of Pirates pitchers, OOTP predicts big thing for reliever Paz Lemus: an 11-5 record, 23 saves, and a 1.97 ERA in an environment where in real life ERAs throughout the league creep closer and closer to 4 (3.88 in actual 1970).