[Syd Thrift]

Major Transactions
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May 11: The Brewers trade LF Pedro Carrasco (.270, 3, 9) to the Senators for 1B Jack Holman (.296, 1, 5 in AAA Denver) and 2B Marcos Escobedo (.408, 3, 11 in AAA Denver). Carrasco wasn't breaking into the lineup but was interesting enough for the Senators to send out a couple of unneeded parts for him. Dr. Jack Holman unsuccessfully challenged Nick DeBoer for a job last year and is now surplus to their needs with the acquisition of John Skelton. Marcos Escobedo is 31 and thus not close to a prospect and is blocked at second base twice over by Joe Nyman (.270, 2, 8) and Tyler Knight (.150, 0, 6 but he won the AL GG last year).

May 12: The Cubs trade C Brent Putnam (.143, 0, 0) to the Expos for C Ian Singleton (.109, 1, 2). This is almost a mercy trade for the Cubs, as Singleton looks pretty well completely done. Putnam was their starter in 1969 but hasn't been playing at all with Greg Darrow (.355, 2, 15) and he wasn't complaining but he's too nice of a guy to not have a job in this league. (note: in real life the Expos picked up Boots Day for the equivalent, Boots being a young CF who was at least somewhat of a prospect. However, the other side of that trade involved a guy who was actually useful and not done, so as it is that's probably too much to give out)

May 15: The Expos purchase P Josh Young (1-3, 5.83) from the Cardinals. Young looks completely washed to me but if there's any team who has the room to figure that out for sure it's Montreal.

May 15: The Expos trade CL Nate Herod (1-0, 1.80, 4 Sv) to the Yankees for minor league 1B Willie Morales (.323, 4, 22 in AAA Syracuse). Herod is not young (35!) and the Expos now have their share of mid-30s pitchers with the acquisition of Young. Also, Herod seems useful in the short term, which makes him expendable. Morales, meanwhile, is blocked in NY so wasn't getting PT any time soon. He's slightly less blocked in Montreal although of course a guy who does nothing but hit has to do a lot of the hitting in order to find work.

May 16: I was trying to set up an equivalent for the Donn Clendenon trade (where the Expos traded the 1B to the Mets for a sack of youngsters) but then realized that trade was from 1969, not 1970. I then freaked out, thinking I had the wrong year up on BBRef but nope, they got the year wrong themselves for that particular deal. GAME BORKEN I QUITE anyway nothing happened today.

News
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May 11: Bad - well, at least mixed - news for San Diego as LF Davin Henderson (.250, 4, 9) injured his shoulder trying to throw a runner out from left field today. I say it's mixed because it does give the Padres the opportunity to finally give 1B/LF Carlos Gomez (.333, 2, 7) a chance to show if he can hit in a string of starts. Gomez was used as a pinch-hitter and occasional backup last year and this one but never found a way to crash into the lineup in spite of being arguably San Diego's best pure hitter since the inception of its franchise. Also, I hadn't noticed this but San Diego had signed 1B John Chapman (.241, 5, 20), the 4-time All-Star who lost his job with the Yankees last year and then was cut coming out of spring training this year. He'll be half of a platoon with incumbent Diego Garcia (.243, 3, 7) going forward.

May 11: SS Marty Mendel (no record in 1970) is back from a fractured ulna and so the Minnesota Twins end their experiment with the all-Korean middle infield. Jun-Ho Baek (.211, 1, 6), recently acquired from the White Sox, goes to the bench; Dong-Hak Park (.179, 1, 6) stays at the keystone for the sake of continuity but his days as a starter are numbered, as Daniel Gilmet (.323, 1, 5) is a lock to reclaim that spot once he returns from his own injury.

May 12: The 1976 Winter Olympics are awarded to Denver, Colorado (note: they will withdraw in 1972 and those Olympics will be played in Austria instead).

May 12: The 7-21 Braves win 2 in a row and take the series against the Cubs with a 7-6 win in 11 innings. Both of these things are feats that have now been accomplished twice by Atlanta this season. Also, Henry Riggs belted 2 HRs; happily, he's no longer in the midst of a huge power outage and I don't have to worry if he's going to get stalled in the mid-400s in homers (he has 444 in his career).

May 13: Twins 1B Brandon Samuels (.158, 0, 0) is demanding a role in the starting lineup. Samuels only plays first base, is 39 years old, and is backing up the reigning MVP. You can go look for a starting job in Tidewater or somewhere, Brandon. Good luck in your journey!

May 13: Dodgers 3B Brian Maccioli (.184, 3, 8) goes down for the next 3 weeks with an oblique strain. It's almost a mercy injury, as Maccioli has been completely outclassed hitting cleanup this year. 22 year old Gustavo Reyna (.253, 0, 6 at Albuquerque) wasn't really lighting up AA but he seems like the best man in the organization right now and, well, he can't possibly do worse than Maccioli so far...

May 15: Cleveland Indians reliever Bob Reyes (0-3, 5.28) is complaining about his usage. As with Samuels, I feel like this is a guy in need of reality therapy. I guess in his case there aren't amazing players in front of him in the bullpen, but... very little about him indicates to me that he should be in the starting rotation as he wants to be. Maybe I'll give him a spot start or two if someone gets hurt.

May 15: Red Sox P Marco Sanchez (4-2, 3.51) went 10 innings and tied the AL extra-innings record with 13 strikeouts in that time. Predictably, the Red Sox were barely able to scratch up enough run support for him all game long and he left with a no-decision (the Sox won eventually after Bob Reyes (see above!) lost his 4th game in relief this season in the 14th.

May 16: Speaking of reality therapy, Braves 2B Danny Naranjo (.182, 0, 1) asked for a trade, which, given that he's 35 and has zero value, is getting "traded" to the circular file.

May 16: Yikes! A second Braves player is demanding a trade and a second Braves player is just going to get cut for his troubles. SS Elijah Patton (.211, 0, 1), who was brought in to challenge incumbent Ryan Dietrich (.230, 0, 0) but only proved to be a poorer hitting and fielding version of him, has asked his way out of the team and will get his wishes. The Braves are also eating roughly $70k in payroll to dump those guys (reserve clause!) but man, you've got to do what you've got to do about clubhouse chemistry and, let's face it, the team doesn't need mid-30s middle infielders the way this season is going.

May 16: And Padres 1B John Chapman (.182, 2, 3), who's been on the roster all of a week, wants to start. This guy at least has a point. Okay, John, the universe has cut enough old men today. You can be the one who gets to prove himself.

May 16: Orioles stopper Montay Luiso (2-1, 0.46, 7 Sv) gave up his first run allowed all season... on a walk-off bases loaded single by the Senators pitcher Gabe Slaughter (1-0, 0.00). Talk about tough luck. Baltimore has now lost 3 in a row.

May 16: This isn't exactly an achievement per se but I wanted to point out that after going the first month and a half of the year in a homerun drought, Twins 3B Mike Brookes (.262, 3, 17) has now hit 3 in his last 4 games. The probability gods, they are fickle.

May 16: Is it too early to watch the pennant race? The NL West saw the Cincinnati Reds jump out to a huge early start. Well, now they've lost 6 out of their last 7 and the Astros just squeaked ahead of them by half a game at 22-14 (Cincy is 21-14). Houston's magic number is now... 127. Yes, it is too early to watch the pennant race...

May 17: Washington 2B Jeremy "The Vowel" Rzepka (.320, 0, 3), who couldn't hold onto the expansion job in Seattle last season, is so fed up with the lack of playing time that he's demanding to be released. Well, he's demanding to be traded but you know what that means... I'd even consider keeping him on until they find a buyer but a. nobody wants to buy Rzepka, and b. the clubhouse is probably only content because I apparently accidentally turned off chemistry at some point this year. Anyway, Rzepka was 33 and surplus to requirements anyway.

May 17: Cubs OF Alex Vallejo (.349, 0, 2) wants to start and has a pretty decent case for it. He was Philly's starter in right last year and the Cubs' guy this year, Adam Groves (.193, 3, 8) is struggling. Still, Groves was a beast in 1968 before he missed all of 1969 with a concussion and I think it's still his job to lose at this point. That said, I'm going to start working Vallejo into the lineup a bit in both CF and RF to show those boys I mean business! Which, the Cubs' lineup is definitely not their issue this year but the more guys with at-bats, the more potential trade chips for a starting pitcher or something.

May 17: Thor Heyerdahl, the Kon-Tiki guy, is at it again. The professional adventurer, who sailed across the Pacific Ocean in 1947 in a raft to prove that it was possible for people from Asia to migrate by sea to the Americas, sets off from Morocco on a boat called Ra II to prove a similar point with the ancient peoples of the Mediterranean and the American supercontinent. As you might guess from the name, this is their second attempt; the first failed when their boat took on water and broke apart around 100M before they reached the Caribbean Islands.

May 17: Weird schedule today, with 3 doubleheaders (that part isn't weird since it is a Sunday) but only 5 games in the AL (including 2 of the doubleheaders) and 6 in the NL (with the other one). That adds up to a third of the teams in the league getting an unexpected day off. I was able to find out that NYC had half an inch of rain on this day, so I guess there was some kind of big storm that hit the Northeast but I wasn't able to find any specific articles on the subject. Anyway, this is TBH part of why I prefer playing the as-played schedules to the original ones. I don't plan things like rotations out in advance - too much micro when I'm GMing the entire league - so these occurrences pop up in these relentless schedules like a bad swimmer resurfacing for a second to take a gasp of air before falling under water again. On the other hand, these games will be made up, which means someone's August is going to have like 33 games in it...

May 17 (evening): Power rankings galore!

1st (1st) New York (N) 23-11
2nd (5th) Cincinnati 23-14
3rd (8th) California 20-15
4th (11th) Minnesota 20-14
5th (7th) Boston 19-13

20th (6th) Kansas City 16-18
21st (17th) Cleveland 12-17
22nd (14th) Milwaukee 15-21
23rd (23rd) Montreal 11-22
24th (24th) Atlanta 12-23

Cincy was struggling but righted the ship at the end of the week - playing Atlanta (this year) will do that for you - and wrapped up as the 2nd best team. California and Minnesota leapt waaay up; the converse of that were the two AL West expansion teams having the biggest drops (Milwaukee was 14th last week but fell to 22nd and KC had an even bigger drop, going from 6th to 20th). Actually I take that back... the Chicago Cubs fell from 4th to 16th, so the former Seattle Pilots had "only" the 3rd biggest plunge.

Teams In Review
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May 11: Washington (9-20, last in the AL East) just missed losing 90 games for their 5th straight season, so it's not a huge surprise that they're going to need a review so early. Their badness is pretty much on all fronts: dead last in the AL (and I'm sure in baseball) in runs scored, 3rd from the bottom in runs allowed. The defense has been OK though (5th in ZR, 4th in defensive efficiency, 5th in errors).

Rotation: Washington has a couple of youngsters who look more or less ready to go in AAA so it's time to cut bait on a couple of the older guys in there. If you're over 30, why are you pitching for this team? First up, LHP Dale Parks (1-2, 5.49) was a swingman for the expansion Pilots last year and so far as a starter is looking a lot better as a lefty specialist. For now, I'm going to choose to stick with RHP Brian Bruno (0-5, 6.37) on account of him still being just a year removed from posting a 2.88 ERA for this team. He's also only 27 so there's at least some reason to think he'll bounce back and/or improve. The team also has 24 year old LHP DJ Marrone (no record in 1970) just starting out a rehab assignment after missing almost a calendar year with a... stretched elbow ligament (really?). He was good in 1968 (5-8, 3.28, which, fine, is average for the Year of the Pitcher but DO THEY KNOW THIS!?) and solid enough at AAA Buffalo last season (4-4, 3.03) that he'd surely have earned a call-up if he hadn't gotten hurt. Anyway, he'll probably displace someone once his time rehabbing is done.

Bullpen: LHP Danny Mojica (1-0, 6.97) has not been good this year and is too old for the team to wait for him to sort things out. He gone. The rest of the bullpen is at least somewhat young-ish and Mojica is really the only member who's gotten bombed. The bullpen ERA is middle of the pack at 3.07; these guys look more like potential trade chips than people to shuffle down to AAA.

First Base: I'm sorely tempted and am giving in at least somewhat to the temptation of granting Nick DeBoer (.324, 4, 15) a bigger share of the 1B time after winning that Player of the Week award. John Skelton (.288, 4, 17) is still the regular starter vs. RHP but DeBoer is cutting into that a bit now. This arrangement should have them splitting 1B at-bats about 50/50.

Third Base: Given that the team is going nowhere and they just traded off their franchise 3B, it's time to bring up some prospects. Rob Curran (.297, 2, 9 for AA Pittsfield) was the team's 9th overall pick last year and is hitting well enough in AA that I think he deserves a chance. And I mean it's not like the team's going to be hurting if he's not quite ready yet. Scouting reports indicate that he's already a better shortstop than Justin Ramey (.400, 1, 2 in 3 games since coming back from an injury) but Ramey's the incumbent, he can't play third, and the team also paid dearly for him last season.

Right Field: Manuel Alvarez (.208, 0, 9) is a 3 time All Star who played 152 games for the Senators last year. The problem is, he's 35, the last of those All-Star appearances was 5 years ago now, and he's not anywhere near good enough as a fielder to justify the bad corner-OF numbers he's been putting up the last season and a half. Alvin Romero (.333, 0, 8) needs to play somewhere and at least CF Ian Everett (.091, 0, 2) can play the field at Gold Glove levels of quality.

May 12: Unbelievably, Montreal (8-20, last in the NL East) is only the 3rd team I've done a review on. It's not for lack of trying, as they are dead last in the NL with 3.5 runs scored per game and 3rd from the bottom with 5.6 allowed (St. Louis and Atlanta are worse; you've seen Atlanta and I'm sure I'll be getting to St. Louis soon). That said, I'm not actually sure there's much to do with this team. They're an expansion club and there's not a great deal of talent in the organization at large.

Rotation: Javier Olvera (2-1, 3.52 at AAA Buffalo) got called up like a week ago and I just forgot about him. This is (part of) why I do these things. He'll jump into the rotation in place of Kareem Robinson (0-5, 7.16), who barely got into it into the first place and was new levels of bad this year. Phil Farr (1-5, 4.81) has been pretty bad himself and is also 34 but he was also the closest thing the team had to a staff ace last season (which, he was 7-21 and by "ace" I mean his ERA was slightly below 4) so he'll get a few more starts to try to work things out.

Bullpen: Cole Pritchard (0-2, 7.27) was acquired in a trade last week but I completely forgot he had a major league contract so I let him go through the DFA time without putting him on waivers so I could send him down. Instead, even though he doesn't deserve it, he'll get a few appearances in the majors for his new team, I guess. There are a couple guys in there - LH stopper Nate Herod (1-0, 2.08, 3 saves) and RH setup man Trevor Munro (0-0, 2.19) - who are actually pitching pretty well (well, superficially, which is the best type of officially!) and so I expect to lean on them / try to move them for something that might help in the future.

Catcher: I've mostly already made this transition but C Ian Singleton (.109, 1, 2) has been terrible in 55 at-bats since coming over from San Francisco and so Montreal turns back to last year's guy Roberto Carranco (.233, 2, 5). Singleton's been an improvement defensively, having thrown out 48% of runners trying to steal so far this year, but there's only so far that an arm can take you.

Outfield: 1B/OF Gabe Martinez (.342, 0, 3) has been doing his best Carlos Gomez impression in Montreal but while he's been getting a little bit of PT with injuries I just don't see him cracking into the lineup at the moment. He's reportedly already angry, although I haven't seen him demand a job or a trade just yet.

May 14: These always seem to come in bunches... anyway, the Chicago White Sox (10-20, last in the AL West) nearly had themselves a Cinderella season last year but so far this year they're just plain terrible. The pitching has been very, very bad (2nd worst in the league in runs allowed) where it was kind of supposed to be a strength, and the offense, which wasn't great last year, has fallen further (now 8th in the AL).

Rotation: There may not be a huge amount of change here because I've already shuffled things around a bit... right now the biggest question mark I see is that Gene Lueders (2-3, 6.26), the 24 year old finesse pitcher who was 12-10 with a 3.39 ERA last season, has been very, very bad. In fact, he just got knocked out of the box in Detroit yesterday, which all by itself raised his seasonal ERA by almost a run. He's weirdly striking out a lot more people than last year (6.7 K/9 compared to 3.9 in '69) but that's being outweighed by horrible control (4.8 BB/9) and a lot of dingers (7 HR in 41.2 IP). Still, I think I'm going to leave him in there for now in the hopes he finds his control. He's on watch, though!

Bullpen: LH Kien-Lung Hui (1-3, 4.38) filled in the rotation a lot so far (5 starts, equalling last year's total) and he's probably the first guy back in the rotation if Leuders or recent call-ups Rich Reese (0-1, 16.20) and Tim Anderik (0-1, 4.15) get bombed. Mostly the bullpen's struggles seem to come from the top, where 24 year old Malcolm Post (1-4, 5.28, 3 Sv) has been blowing up on the regular. Like Leuders, I'm reticent to drop him because he was really good last year - a 2.21 ERA in 105.1 innings and 28 saves, the 2nd highest total in the AL - but he's also on my list.

Catcher: Danny Coyle (.127, 1, 7) was supposed to replace Mario Moreno when the long-time catcher retired after the season. He has been in a bad slump and while these happen, it's gone on for too long and the White Sox need production. Nick McIntyre (.259, 0, 2) had been slowly moving into being the lefty half of a platoon out there and now it's official.

Third base: Jordan Wooten (.205, 3, 7) looks like he's lost his way, which happens to 38 year olds. 29 year old Omar Dominguez is the closest the team has to a young alternative at the position. He'll start from here on out. I expect that will not make Wooten or his platoon-mate Ivan de Velasco (.094, 0, 1) happy, but... if they complain, they can always retire.

Right field: The Sox traded for RF Josh Wade (.274, 0, 8) expecting him to be enough of an offensive upgrade over Jun Kim to overcome Kim's Gold Glove quality fielding. Instead, he's hit an empty .274. I don't see anything good to pull him out of the lineup yet per se (also he's relatively young at 26) but I will start to mix OF Chris Fonseca (.375, 0, 2) and OF Kyle Daly (.143, 1, 1) a bit more into the mix at that position. Given that the other two positions in the OF are manned by White Sox mainstays Willie Vargas (.347, 2, 22) and Tom Brown (.292, 3, 18), this is the only way either of those guys are going to get regular playing time.

May 15: It's time to review the San Diego Super Padres! Well, fine, they're not all that super, although offensively they actually haven't been that bad (4th in the NL in runs scored, thanks in large part to being first in the senior circuit in homeruns). Pitching and defense... is another matter (2nd worst in the NL in runs allowed, 10th in starter ERA, dead last in errors).

Rotation: LH Alejandro Rodriguez (1-1, 5.00) and LH Ji-man Im (4-2, 4.44) have not pitched well so far and the Pads are still in "trying to figure out who's any good" mode, so they're remanded into the bullpen. Taking their place in the rotation are RH Erik Schnipke (0-0, 0.47), who's been lights-out as their stopper this season and LH Francisco Ortega (0-0, 2.93). Let's see what sticks.

Bullpen: So, um... the bullpen is leading the NL in ERA right now with a 2.47 mark. What? The proper response to this is to move people who can start out of this place and use them to shore up the ol' rotation. Chris Valenzuela (1-0, 2.87) has pitched well this year and was pretty decent in middle relief last year as well so he'll be the new stopper. I'll set Ji-man Im as the designated left-handed out getter based on being a little above replacement level for like 60% of the season in 1969.

Catcher: Adam Bakke (.188, 0, 4) hasn't hit at all but he's pretty far and away the best defensive catcher in the organization and defense is an issue right now so he keeps his job.

Center Field: I am not a fan of much of any aspect of Tyler Mitchell's (.222, 5, 15) game, from his iffy defense to the lack of average or on-base ability, but there is basically nobody else in the organization right now who is ready to play regular center field in the major leagues. Cody Slater (.229, 3, 5), last year's backup, is the closest but he's an even worse fielder than Mitchell (Mitchell is rated 55/80 in CF but does have a -2.4 ZR; Slater is a 45/80, which is generally below my threshold to start a player at a primary defensive position).