[Syd Thrift]

Actually, weekly feels about right. My big thing here is to not get myself into a situation where I have given myself a writing assignment before I can play more OOTP but wind up not wanting to do it. This, well, I just make some notes while I'm playing and I move on. And, as noted with the big reports dump at the beginning of the year, these help me organize my thoughts about stuff (there's even a moment in here where I realize I should be starting a player!).

Major Transactions
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April 22: The Cubs traded RF Matt Williams (.000, 0, 0) to the Expos for minor league SS Jonathan Cruz. Williams had just 2 at-bats to date with Chicago and had been pushed out of the backup corner OF slot by Adam Groves, who missed all of 1969 with an injury but hit .268 and led the NL in RBIs in 1968 (really, the more I look at him, the more I realize that he should actually be starting). Williams hit 39 HRs for Chicago almost a decade ago in 1961 and the Expos would love to see if he could still do something like that. The chip the Cubs got back is minor league depth and little else.


News
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April 20: I'm not sure how you'd quantify this in terms of records but Cleveland Indians stopper Doug Ellis, acquired in a trade with the Washington Senators in the offseason in a move primarily designed to allow them to move away from last year's man Todd Theisen, gave up with 6th HR in 8 appearances. What blows me away is that his ERA is still as low as 7.27 (I'm writing this in the middle of the game); the latest jack came with 2 outs and all of the runs were unearned because the inning was extended on an error by 2B Chris Grube. Anyway, I'm sure his FIP is scary bad (I don't have that stat on tap on purpose) but his ERA is not quite high enough for me to want to replace him just yet... (and fyi Ellis actually lowered his ERA to 5.73 in this game; he went 3 innings - 70s stoppers, y'all - and didn't technically allow any earned runs)

April 22: The first Earth Day is celebrated in the US.

April 23: Terrible news for the Pirates, as starting 2B Henry Villar (.400, 0, 4) suffered a bad concussion colliding with Astros second baseman Alejandro Chairez in a play at that base (Villar was ruled safe with a double) yesterday. Today it was announced he'd miss the entire season and frankly, you'd have to think that such a thing could impact his career. We, um, wish the best for Villar moving forward. Arturo Martinez, a 26 year old semi-prospect, will be called up to replace Villar as best he can.

April 23: With Villar out, Pirates SS Tyler Webster (.282, 3, 7) ties a Forbes Field and a National League record with 3 HRs in a single game. He's the first Pirate to reach that mark (it's a tie held by lots and lots of people throughout the league to be honest) since Roberto Prieto did it in 1966.

April 26: The Astros beat the Cubs tonight 19-4. A pretty damn ugly game if you ask me. A pretty ugly series for Cubs' pitching, though they somehow managed to win 2 of 3 in this series: they won the first game 13-12 and the second 3-2 before dropping this one. Wrigley Field in the 70s, man...

April 27: Detroit Tigers 2B Danny Villegas had a beastly week to earn the AL honors. He was 8-19 with... 6 HRs. Somehow this only got him 8 RBI and 6 runs scored but blame the rest of the Tigers for that.

April 27: Speaking of le dinger, Houston Astros' 1B Justin Richens is getting started out well with his new team. Richens went 9-23 las week with 4 homeruns, 10 runs, and 10 RBI.

April 27: And onto the power ratings...

1st (1st) Cincinnati 15-5
2nd (2nd) New York Mets 11-5
3rd (3rd) Detroit 10-5
4th (4th) Boston 10-5
5th (5th) Chicago Cubs 9-5

Minnesota (10-6) is 6th, Cleveland (5-9) is 20th, and the Atlanta Braves (5-13) are actually all the way in dead last right now. Their entire pitching staff has been even worse than anyone thought they'd be so far. It's not panic time yet but it's close...