[Syd Thrift]

Major Transactions
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May 26: The Athletics sent RP Adam Cheeseman (2-0, 6.89) to the Padres as part of a conditional deal. I have no idea what other planks of the "conditions" are but at this point I think sending the 35 year old Cheeseman out is an addition by subtraction deal. I guess from San Diego's standpoint, 4 games ago Cheeseman had an ERA under 3 and has just gotten blown up in the past week and a half.

May 28: The Red Sox traded 2B Arturo Jacquez (.077, 0, 1) to the Royals for 1B/OF Sergio Sicre (.228, 1, 15). Jaquez was brought in from Detroit to push the incumbent Dwayne Fraser (.297, 0, 20) but he's barely played, so they ship him off for Sicre, who was mostly a victim of numbers (and bad fielding at 3B) in KC but who may have a chance to fill in with Boston, as Mike Miller is currently shelved with an as-yet-undisclosed injury.

May 30: The Cubs trade CL Chad Nies (2-1, 4.97, 7 Sv) to the Giants for SP Jason Sanders (6-3, 3.07). This is admittedly a bit of a stretch from the actual move, which was the one that sent Ted Abernathy to SF. Nies is a full decade younger than Abernathy was at the time of this trade so is waaay more valuable. IRL the Cubbies only got back career pinch-hitter Phil Gagliano. Here they'll receive Sanders, who seems like a full-on "sell high" guy but, you know, Chicago does need starting pitching really badly so I think this makes sense. I tried to justify expanding it further by having the Cubs throw in a shortstop but they don't really have anyone fit for the task who's major league ready and not like 36.

News
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May 25: Cleveland CF Carlos Hernandez (.305, 6, 19), acquired from the Cardinals in the offseason, won the AL Player of the Week award with 16 hits in 36 at-bats including 3 HR and 11 RBI. Quite the output for a center fielder! Cleveland itself was 5-3 last week and scored 19 runs in their 3 losses so it's safe to say the offense was on a roll in general.

May 25: Over in the NL, the Dodgers are full of old men but their token youngster, 1B Rafael Disla (.354, 7, 23), was the best player in the NL last week. He hit .423 with 11 hits in 26 at-bats, 3 HR, 9 RBI, and 5 runs scored. That's his 3rd PotW in 3 seasons.

May 25: Twins' OF Alejandro Cortez (.231, 1, 12), a 3-time All-Star and the 1966 MVP, will miss the next month with a sprained elbow. This feels like a move that hurts Cortez more than the Twins, as he was seriously struggling this year and seems to have completely lost his power stroke.

May 26: The Soviet Union launches a commercial transport jet, the Tupolev Tu-144, which is the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. Given what happened to the Concorde, I'm a little reminded of that old cosmonaut joke where they're like "America was the first to land on the Moon, well... Soviet Russia shall be the first to land... on the SUN."

May 26: Because there are no knuckleballers in this league and because I wanted to have them, I just imported Phil Niekro circa 1965 and let the game randomly rename him Colin "Knucksie" Rose. He's on the Braves now. Let's see how he does! Maybe I'll bring in his brother in a couple years. I feel like it's too late to import Wilbur Wood; as it is, "Colin" will probably play into the mid-90s the way knuckleballers age.

May 27: Man, horrible day for the diagnosis: murder. First up, the Tigers' SP Jimmy Goddard (1-1, 3.86), who won 15 games last year and this year has had 6 freaking no-decisions in 8 starts, is out for basically the rest of the season with a partially torn labrum. Detroit's kind of been scuffling so far this year in spite of being relatively injury free; this one might have been the straw that broke the ol' camel's back though. Robbie "Furball" Vaughn (0-1, 2.70) was a victim of numbers earlier in the year but looked good in 2 AAA starts so he'll come back up and play in the rotation. NOT A FAN OF THAT NICKNAME THO

May 27: Red Sox SP Marco Sanchez (4-3. 3.54) is out for the next month and a half with an oblique strain. Boston, conversely, has been hit hard by injuries to their rotation and that's keeping the AL East in play. Michael Pesco still has more than a month until he comes back. There are also 4 relievers of varying ability on the DL. Since the Bosox are now down to 3 decent starters plus Bruce Britt (2-1, 8.79) I think I've got pretty much no choice but to go to a 4 man "start highest rested" setup until people get back.

May 27: So my panic decision to pre-emptively put Indians CL Doug Ellis (2-2, 3.91, 2 Sv) on the DL didn't come around to hurt me at all, as it turns out he's also going to miss the remainder of the season with shoulder inflammation. I'd gone this far without naming a stopper in his absence but now that I know he's out Eric Godard (3-0, 3.57) (no relation to Jimmy Goddard, first up because these are all 1s and 0s but also because their names are spelled differently) will take over those duties.

May 27: He's been up for like a week but already CF John Hackett (.200, 0, 0) is complaining that he should be in the starting lineup. Really, John? Dude hit .155 in AAA and the only reason I called him up was that there is literally nobody else in the organization with Ian Everett out who can play CF. On top of that, the guy in front of him right now - Alvin Romero (.322, 1, 14) is clearly better and more popular, so this is a full on "look at me, I am selfish" move. I'm not going to straight up cut him right now because I need him but I'll rethink that in 3 weeks and/or when he goes full-on "trade me now" mode.

May 27: With a 5-3 win over the Orioles at the Mistake today that finished a series sweep, the Indians evened their record up at 20-20, a nice run for a team that was 9-15 as late as May 9. Chris Regan (4-2, 3.33) really earned his stripes today, going 11 innings and covering for a still-depleted bullpen before newcomer Deshawn Mazyck (0-0, 0.00) pitched the bottom of the 12th for his 2nd save in as many appearances. Cleveland gets a much-needed day off and then ends the month with a three-game series at Milwaukee.

May 27: Apparently I have a lot to talk about today... so I know Royals 3B Jeff Nation (.331, 4, 23) just won PotW the week before last but man, he is just plain not working out at 3rd base. He just committed his 13th error of the season and his fielding average there has dipped below .900 and into Butch Hobson territory. I'm not about to pull him from the lineup but changes need to be made. I cheated in the editor to give him some rating in left and also bump up his range/error/arm to better match what he has in the infield (one thing that's long bugged me is that those numbers don't correlate better). He's still a bad LF but probably not worse than Sergio Sicre (.228, 1, 15), who I'm sending down to AAA immediately. In his place I'm calling up AA 3rd baseman Ryan Newton (.356, 3, 19 in Elmira), who was a top pick for the Orioles who apparently landed in the Royals' organization when they added that club to their organization. ANYWAY, I'd put in someone from AAA but nobody in Omaha looks like even a AAAA quality guy at the hot corner and let's face it, the Royals are not really contending this year.

May 27: Because I'm not doing enough today (heh)... I noticed that Charlie Hough also made his debut with the Dodgers in 1970 and, well, I like knuckleballers so I brought him in too. The program changed his name to the very prescient Bryce Wilhelm. The AI decided to make "Wilhelm" the closer for the A level Daytona Beach Dodgers so it seems unlikely that he'll see action this season but he's only 22 and, well, the real life "Bryce Wilhelm" played in the majors until he was 46...

May 30: White Sox SP Daniel Roche (4-4, 2.73) is out for the season and maybe is at the end of his career after getting diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff. The White Sox are getting back into things but this will be a huge blow for them to say the least. Roche, a 3 time All-Star, has a career record of 105-91 and was 17-12 for the Pale Hose last season.

May 30: Speaking of injuries, Mets SS Brian Wilcox (.228, 4, 14) is gone until at least late September with a torn meniscus in his knee. Short is kind of a mess after Wilcox; I had Robert Williams (.286, 1, 3) in there as his backup but that was mostly theoretical / for use only in late innings after Wilcox was pinch-hit for. Williams is a bad fielder, though I should say that the bar for fielding up the middle is a little lower in this league than in your standard historical games - he's got a 40 and would not be the worst guy in the league with that rating. All that said, the Mets' two options in AAA are both being trained into SS and their AA guy is... Lorenzo Ortega (.348, 1, 10), who hit .140 in 33 games for the Mets last season. I think he's still their SS going forward barring a trade. I'll still work in Williams heavily in case Ortega still can't hit at this level or if Williams' 40 rating is the kind of 40 rating that still translates to not being a disaster (he's actually +0.4 by ZR in 40 innings at short this year and it looks like his rating there is low primarily due to range... which, granted, is bad but perhaps not the kind of bad that will cause him to commit 40 errors).

May 31: The 1970 World Cup begins in Mexico. In spite of living next door to the proceedings, the US failed to qualify; the North American clubs are Mexico (who gets an automatic berth for hosting) and El Salvador (who gets in because they have a big lizard in their backyard) (10 points for the reference!).

May 31: The first round of All-Star voting is out. I'd dump it here but there doesn't appear to be an easy way to push it into a text file where I can copy and paste it. Anyway in the AL Boston Red Sox 1B Mike Miller (.291, 10, 29) is the top vote-getter in the AL, although Yankees first-sacker Alex Cardenas (.342, 9, 26) is 3,000 votes behind. I guess fans are filling out ballots and only putting their favorite Lou Gehrig lookalike... in the NL, the #1 guy is Mets 1B Joshua "Superman" Waltenbery (.313, 8, 32), although at least here the #2 guy is not a 1B; it's Braves' 2B Kevin Dwyer (.360, 10, 29), who's having an amazing season while the rest of his team crumbles.

May 31: Cuban emigre and Cubs SP Javy Obregon (2-2, 6.13) got some bad, bad news today: he'll miss most of the rest of the season with torn ankle ligaments. This come right on the heels of the Cubbies trading their best reliever in Chad Nies in exchange for propping up the rotation in case Obregon's injury was worse than expected so needless to say, north siders are... I wouldn't want to call it breathing a sigh of relief, exactly, but breathing a sigh of being Even Steven if we want to call that a thing.

May 31: Yankees RP Chris Wilson (2-0, 2.22) is straight-up past the point of demanding to be put into the rotation and wants a trade. I'm looking back on his career now and he was actually pretty good up to around the age of 30 (in 1967) but has really not played very often or very effectively since then. He's doing okay now. though. Knowing he wants that trade I'm going to drop him into the rotation anyway, where he'll replace 24 year old Jake Powers (1-0, 2.57). Powers looks like the real deal but on the other hand the Yankees are still in the mindset that they can contend so they'll try their hand with the guy who 31-9 between 1963 and 1964.

May 31 (evening): And a look at power rankings...

1st (10th) Cincinnati 30-20 .600
2nd (1st) Houston 31-19 .620
3rd (3rd) New York 30-18 .625
4th (7th) Chicago (N) 25-19 .568
5th (2nd) Minnesota 27-18 .600

Just when you think Cincinnati is over with, they go 6-1... playing San Diego and Montreal will do that for you. Also, the top 4 team are all in the NL, which is a little scary (although this is of course based on how they're all doing in the league and there's no interleague play in 1970 so it's more that the AL has more parity). As you'd expect the Reds are the biggest risers, although the Cleveland Indians (22-21) surged from 18th to 9th as well. Oakland (23-21) took the biggest drop from 5th to 12th.

20th (16th) Kansas City 21-25 .457
21st (22nd) Atlanta 17-29 .370
22nd (20th) San Diego 21-32 .396
23rd (23rd) Milwaukee 17-31 .354
24th (24th) Montreal 14-32 .304

The bottom seems as it should be... well, other than Atlanta. The 4 expansion teams hold 4 of the 5 cellar slots.

Teams In Review
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May 25: Somehow I've avoided to look at the Kansas City Royals (20-20, 4th AL West). As the record indicates, they've actually been pretty good, but unlike last year "pretty good" hasn't been enough to actually sit on top of the AL West for any length of time. They are only 3 1/2 games out of first so you can kind of say they're contending if you don't look too hard. The offense has been only average (167 runs scored, 6th) and the pitching has been baaad (193 runs allowed, 3rd worst) so you can see that they're overachieving. On the other hand, 20 year old CF Dave Corona (.322, 6, 17) looks like a legitimate superstar in the making.

Rotation: Ryan Hicks (3-4, 7.93) was an All-Star for the Royals last year, is 34, and this is a "what have you done for me lately?" league. Also, his stamina is very bad for a starter. I think he pretty much has to go play in the bullpen for a while. I'm dropping in LH specialist Tim Banks (1-0, 1.17) to take his place for now, at least, although Banks is 36 and himself no spring chicken. My excuse is that this is an expansion team. All that said, Eddie Euceda (0-6, 4.97) has also not been good and is also well over 30 (at 35) and so he, too, will make the transition to the bullpen while I call up 29 year old minor league Jose Chavez (5-2, 1.63 at Omaha), who has been tearing up AAA and deserves a trial.

Bullpen: All the movement in the rotation necessitated sending down Nick Colucci, who was doing well in AAA but then got pasted in the majors (1-0, 8.10). I don't expect Euceda or Hicks to be given particularly long leashes.

Catcher: Jay Byers (.247, 2, 8) is kind of meh but his 45 overall at catcher is due mainly to his bad arm; he's actually got a 55 in handling pitchers, which is comparable enough, at least, to backup Chris Flores' (.212, 0, 1) at the position. I was expecting to switch them out but I... will not. They've been in a straight-up platoon, actually, and I think Byers has played well enough to earn a larger role for now (I'm still spelling him vs. lefties, as he was the LH half of that platoon previously).

Third base: I'm not doing anything with him but 3B Jeff Nation (.303, 2, 18) has been the Royals' steal of the offseason. He was the main piece they got back in trading Brian Baldwin (.176, 0, 1) to the Mets. I'm not exactly going to throw a pity party for the Gothams but man, that was a bad move for them.

Shortstop: Carlos Altmann (.267, 0, 12) is hitting around the emptiest .267 you can imagine and although he's a very good fielder, he's also 34 and certainly not a long-term answer for the Royals. To help try and accelerate things I sent down his backup Andy Steinmetz (.222, 1, 3), who hit all of .167 last year in 168 at-bats, and replaced him with prospect Nate Sita (.217, 8, 35 at Elmira), who is probably not quite ready with the stick but looks like he could do the job with the glove. I'm calling on him to play every 4th day at short and wave a glove at third when Jeff Nation needs a rest.

Left field: Sergio Sicre (.227, 1, 15) is very much still learning the position and he's not hitting well either. That said, I've already dropped him into a platoon role with Kyle Damian (.349, 1, 6) getting the nod vs. LHP and at 24 he's much more likely than a lot of these guys to be a factor on the first real Royals playoff contender.

Right field: Carlos Guzman (.231, 4, 19) hit 6 HRs in 179 at-bats last year and that made me want to try him out as a starter. Well, it's plain to see why he's never gotten a shot until now in spite of spending 15 years in the Phillies' international complex and then their minor league system. The power looks like it was a fluke, plus he can't field. To replace him, I'm calling up Cuban refugee RJ Dominguez (.331, 7, 20), who was signed in March and has done absolutely nothing but indicate he could be the Royals RF of the future. Or maybe LF; he's also not the best with the glove (though he's far better than Guzman). All of this puts 38 year old OF Brian Milton (.538, 0, 5) right on the brink of Cutsville; the only thing keeping him around right now is the solid pinch-hitting stroke he provides against LHPs.

(I just noticed that the AI sent Steinmetz all the way down to AA when I asked it to handle the minors. Wooow)

May 25: The St. Louis Cardinals (19-20, 4th, AL East) have not been ravaged by injuries this year but instead they just haven't been all that good. The run scoring in particular is weirdly average (189, 6th in the NL) whereas the pitching, even with most everyone back, has not held up (197 runs allowed, 9th). I see a team anchored by 1B Justin Stone (.304, 11, 35) and LF Lorenzo Martinez (.265, 11, 31) and I just think "this is a team that should be contending" but so far they haven't even pushed the Cubs for 2nd best. The real culprit though? The defense: dead last in defensive efficiency (.687) and zone rating (-19.7).

Rotation: The biggest problem in the regular rotation I see is that TJ Monahan (0-4, 6.15) has been with the club throughout their great run but also has barely ptiched in the past 3 years (a total of 23 starts since 1967) and now it looks like he's just not up to snuff anymore. I'm going to replace him, at least for now, with RH Dusty Collins (2-0, 0.90 in AAA Tulsa). I don't like that the AI saw fit to send him down to AA Arkansas to open the year, and I don't like that he was pretty bad in the majors last year (2-5, 6.16), but everyone else who's there are old men or have some horrific control issues.

Bullpen: Monahan is the long relief man, at least for now. I don't have a defined set-up man and that's primarily because outside of RH Adam Eastin (2-1, 1.50, 6 Sv), the bullpen has been sort of trash.

Catcher: John Stuart (.212, 2, 13) has really not worked out and I put his usage back to being pulled when he's 85% rested. I've also dropped him down in the order a bit but when everything is clicking he's the best catcher in the NL so no 2-month slump will take him out of a starting role.

Second Base: 35 year old Chris Johnson (.211, 1, 10) has been hurt a bunch this year and hasn't been effective when healthy, so I'm going to mix Luke Dunnahoe (.268, 1, 5) into that role a bit more. Dunnahoe played with Philadelphia last year and was a bad shortstop but as a second baseman he looks adequate, at least.

Third base: I'm not really sure what to do with Mike Morrison (.244, 1, 6), who's dropped almost 70 points in average from last year. I guess I'll just have to let him play through it. He's been a starter for 4 years and this is the first year he's hitting below .300. Also, he's pretty much the only plus defender in the entire lineup.

Shortstop: Tom Depew (.299, 1, 4) is not looking like he's really fit to play 2nd but he's young and unlike seemingly everyone else on this roster he's doing well with the bat. A move to 2nd is almost certainly in his future. For now, he'll stay at short: the Cards have some intriguing prospects at the position but none of them field even as well as Depew does.

Center field: Ray Herring (.275, 4, 19) is yet another guy on this roster who doesn't field well enough to play at his position but also isn't hitting super well. Here at least they've got a guy to push him: prospect Jake Leone (.357, 3, 25), a 6th round pick in last year's draft who is hitting very well in AA Arkansas. He also doesn't look like much of a fielder but he stands a (slightly) better chance to become one. For now, he'll split the at-bats vs. righties.

May 25: I kind of missed that the Cleveland Indians (18-20, 5th, AL East) lost #20 yesterday until I played today. I guess I thought I'd covered them a while ago. However, they've started to turn things around a bit - 11-9 now in May after a 7-11 April and even at that they opened up May 2-4... so they're on a 9-5 run right now (it was 9-3 before the debacle yesterday). The team as a whole is just looking mediocre statistically - 5th in runs scored with 181, 8th in runs allowed with 173 - but that's kind of what starting awful and then playing great looks like.

Rotation: The rotation is still a mess since Dylan Hamilton (3-5, 4.71) had to go in long relief yesterday. All that said, though, I think the poorer performers in the rotation - Hamilton and Andy Lagunas (4-1, 4.53) are starting to come around.

Bullpen: I think things are turned around enough that calling up Deshawn Mazyck (1-3, 2.68 at AAA Wichita) will right the ship, although even in the medium term closer Doug Ellis (2-2, 3.91, 2 Sv) is out for the next 3 weeks with... something. He was hurt yesterday with the old diagnosis: unknown (which I refer to as the diagnosis: murder) and I needed to free up the roster slot so he's pre-emptively on the 21 day DL whether it's a longer term injury or not. Otherwise, for now the Tribe is running without a stopper. I guess if Ellis does go down for a while I'll need to name one but for now I'll just try to let everything sort itself out.

Catcher: I've decided to move Jonathan House (.274, 2, 11) into a straight platoon with Jason Zimmerman (.261, 1, 4). For one thing, this should allow Zimmerman to not have to come in when House, a lefty hitter, is tired but a good RHP is due up. For another, Zimmerman is a really good defender and House is only kind of average.

First base: On the other hand I think I'm going to stick with Ernesto Garcia (.154, 9, 20) as the full-time 1B even though Kyle Kelver is definitely around (.341, 3, 10). Garcia ed the league in HRs last season but this year has gotten into that rut where he's swinging hard at everything. I expect he'll work it out, or at least I'll go with that for the next month and a half or so. Kelver was and still is working in every 3rd game vs. lefties...

Right field: I was thinking I was going to have to make a decision on Tommy Pron (.280, 1, 19) but after going through a rough stretch that saw his average dip all the way to .238 he's picked things up over the last week or so. There's still not a lot of power but I feel like that's a worry to make more sense of later, especially since by the RBI count he's still coming through in the clutch (he co-led the league in the category last year with 101, too).

May 26: The Baltimore Orioles (23-20, 2nd AL East) are running the reverse Indians route, starting out gangbusters (12-7 in April!) but then slipping apart lately. They're still right in the mix in the early going, although how exactly I'm not sure. The hitting is 8th (169 runs scored) but TBH looks a lot worse than the straight stats suggest - dead last in BA with .228, 2nd worst in OBP with .304 (very un-Earl Weaver like!)... the pitching fortunately has been better (171 runs allowed, 5th) but man, there are some big, big holes in the lineup. Which... this is a team that lost 98 games last year! Even a kind-of May strong run is more than anyone bargained for, I think.

Rotation: The rotation is really only missing one guy right now - Yen-ti Wei (2-4, 3.84) is recovering from a blistered finger - but it seems discombobulated to me. I'm going to go ahead and switch out from the 5-man rotation we opened the year with to a 4 man for as long as the O's seem to have a chance. That still puts RH TJ Ziegler (2-2, 4.88) in there, at least until Wei is back, but you've got to do what you've got to do.

Bullpen: Montay Luiso (3-1, 0.36, 9 Sv) is doing yeoman's work and kind of covering up for a 'pen that is statistically doing well but kind of... isn't. Like, I just straight up don't trust Dan Schoner (0-1, 2.61, 1 Sv) and his 8:2 BB/K ratio, but at the same time, he's doing stuff so how do I remove him? No real changes for now outside of Mike Overman (2-2, 3.52) moving back here after a start in the rotation; he's the odd man out with the move down to 4 guys.

Catcher: Jon Hernandez (.220, 5, 24)'s average is down 40 points but, like, he's hitting for power and coming through in the clutch. I think he's got to stay. He is kind of bad at handling pitchers though. The problem I'm seeing is, his backup Brent Masella (.159, 0, 1) is 36 and doesn't look like he can handle major league pitching any longer. Ugh. Still...

First Base: If only Hernandez was hitting a bit better, I'd feel more OK about moving him here. That might still happen this year. John Fleischaker (.197, 2, 2) is the "best" of an awful bunch this year. The other guy who's gotten major at-bats is Devin Cutter (.126, 3, 10), who is already down in AAA. Just, ugh. OKAY I AM DOING IT. Hernandez moves to first and Robert Keith, the 3rd stringer who, now that I look at him, was a Gold Glove award winner at catcher with the Dodgers in 1968, is the new starter there. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Second Base: Danny Fager (.366, 3, 13) literally came off the DL the same day I'm writing this up. Obviously, he's a big bat to have back. He displaces Jorge Padilla (.245, 4, 19), who hit pretty fine for a second baseman but he doesn't play anywhere else and a .297 OBP is not what the Earl Weaver team desires.

Left field: Dave Hiatt (.176, 3, 17) was... okay last year, maybe not good enough to truly deserve the shot he's gotten this year, but the O's outfield is really, really thin right now. I'd consider sending down Padilla to learn to play the outfield but to be honest he doesn't have the tools to ever be anything more than mediocre and I just think I can coax more out of these guys. For now, I'm just going to up and give the job to Edgar Colon (.244, 0, 5), who is 34 and screams mediocrity but he's a good fielder and frankly mediocre would be an upgrade right now.

Center field: Bryant Tarala (.203, 8, 16) would be an Earl Weaver darling if Earl Weaver existed in this timeline, so the fact that he's stopped hitting singles this month (.148 so far in May) will not concern me. I did move him down in the order from leadoff, which wastes his power... to cleanup. Cleanup might be overkill but hey, dingers, and Danny Fager ought to do well in the #1 slot.

Right field: Matt Nugent (.236, 3, 12) is not good but there are way worse spots to worry about here. Also he's only 23 and so kind of keeping up with business in the majors is a bonus in and of itself.

May 26: These really do come fast and furious... The Los Angeles Dodgers (22-20, 4th, AL West) have done pretty well to sit just outside of true contention. I think that basically besides CF Danny Hohman the roster has been surprisingly healthy. As you'd expect from a team playing in Chavez Ravine, the offense (176 runs, 7th) is behind the defense (167, 3rd). I still remember the preseason predictions said this team would be awful though and they're legitimately above average.

Rotation: Andy "Lizard" Ring (2-5, 6.45) is the only guy I'd seriously consider pulling from the rotation and... come on, the guy's a 4 time All Star and 1967 Cy Young Award winner. He deserves multiple chances.

Bullpen: Keith Pacheco (0-0, 2.81) seems like he's recovered from last year's weird malaise. The Dodgers use a 5 man rotation because Dodgers but also like to make heavy use of their bullpen, so they're like an early 90s team almost. The one thing I feel we're missing here is a LOOGY (LOIGY? Left-Handed One Inning GuY?), so I'm going to send Carlos Figueroa (0-0, 6.00) down in favor of Romain Schmidt (1-1, 4.72 in AAA Spokane) who has been meh in the minors and is a known Canadian but he throws from the side I'm looking for and hits the mid-90s on the gun, which for a lefty is like triple digits.

Catcher: Eddie Dimmock (.188, 3, 18) is hitting more than 70 points worse than last year and I can't help but think the left-handed batter is getting sad from too many appearances vs. LHP. His backup Mauricio Alvarez (.077, 0, 2) is a bad fielder and was supposed to provide more lefty hitting, which he's not even doing, so I'm sending him down in favor of AA catcher Jason Davis (.244, 0, 16 at Albuquerque), who is the only backstop in the high minors who isn't struggling to stay above the Mendoza Line. He's not the greatest catcher himself but Dimmock is a plus fielder so that doesn't matter as much.

Third base: Brian Maccioli (.184, 3, 8) was bad before he got hurt and landed on the DL, so 22 year old Gustavo Reyna (.243, 0, 2) will get every chance to take the position over. He hasn't really taken the opportunity but he's not terrible and carries a good glove. And also, he's not like 40 years old like half the lineup, which is always a bonus.

Center field: Nick Harper (.600, 0, 0) has had all of ten at-bats with Butch Magana (.206, 2, 4) joining Danny Hohman on the DL a few days ago. This position is a pretty major minus, to the extent that should the Dodgers continue to stay in the AL West hunt, they'll really need to trade for a stopgap here.

May 27: The Cincinnati Reds (26-20, 3rd NL West) are the poster child for the big April then falling off team. Um. I think that sentence makes sense. Anyway, they were 20-8 as of April 7, then went on a bad 1-6 run where the only win was in extras, and have been more or less .500 since. They're still right in there with Houston. It's good hitting (235 runs, 2nd) and strong front-line starting pitching (193 in runs allowed, only 8th) that's getting things going for them so far.

Rotation: I'm not at all impressed by Tom Bertan (2-3, 5.13), who is averaging less than 6 IP per start so far, but organization-wide starting pitching is on the thin side. As it is, Bertan was added from California over the offseason. Bill Vanover (1-2, 3.72) just had a really nice spot start yesterday against San Diego (8 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K) but I think Bertan will stay in there for now.

Bullpen: The 'pen is actually 3rd in the NL in ERA (2.95), which is surprising to me because Ricky Rosas (2-2, 2.49, 9 Sv) has had a pretty rocky May (1-2 4.32 ERA) and usually that is kind of an indicative, um, thing. Nevertheless I'll leave these guys mostly alone because why try to fix a thing that isn't broken in the first place?

Catcher: I only mention Oliver Williams (.312, 2, 24) here because he's been hitting so well that I'm pulling him out of the customary 8th hole in the lineup. Williams is new to the job here; Mike Perez was an All-Star for them last year but was shipped off to the Angels. Maybe there's something in that gross chili they eat there that makes catchers hit well?

Right Field: There are guys who aren't hitting super well - LF Junior Cannon (.275, 4, 17) has been a far cry from the insane half-year he had in '69, for example - but Justin Jensen (.179, 9, 22) is the only guy on the roster who's really and truly in a slump right now. Still, he's leading the team in HRs and is driving guys in when it counts, so he's most certainly still got a spot in this lineup.

May 29: I'm as surprised as anybody else that the Oakland Athletics (22-20, 3rd AL West) have been doing this well. Like, not even 75-87 levels of "improved"; these guys are legitimately contending in the AL West this year. A slightly closer look reveals that they're pretty average on both sides of the ball (6th in runs scored in the AL, 6th in runs allowed) but, like, that's still a huge, huge improvement over last year.

Rotation: The A's rotation has been mostly pretty solid; the only two guys with ERAs over 4 who have started games for the A's this year are the two options they've used as the 5th starter, 26 year old Lee Barnard (0-1, 5.50) and 30 year old Jose Rubio (1-0, 5.82). For the sake of the bigger picture I think Barnard is closer to the A's future needs than Rubio so I went ahead and swapped them back out (I believe Rubio started the year on the DL and I dropped him into the rotation in place of Barnard when he came back). I guess this really screams for a 4 man setup but I think that's taking things a bit too far with a team that lost 112 games last season.

Bullpen: No really awful parts here, at least now that Adam Cheeseman is gone to San Diego. Well... Jose Rubio was bad as a SP but does that really count? The next weakest link is LOIGY Danny Weichert (2-0, 4,58), and I do have a lot of lefties in this 'pen already, but on the other hand the guy's struck out 19 batters in 22.1 innings this year so the .360 opponents' BA he's yielding seems unnaturally high...

Second Base: Rich Potter (.225, 0, 13) has lost 72 points off of his average compared to a year ago and that makes him singularly useless at the plate. He's still a decent fielder at 2B (I was about to say "plus" but his ZR indicates he's been slightly negative this year at -1.1 runs saved). A look at the minors indicates that our 2nd best 2B prospect is in AAA and is mashing - Ruben Molina (.362, 0, 12 in Iowa) - and I can't just ignore that, I don't think. I'm calling him up and releasing backup 3B Preston Beall (.333, 0, 3), who has barely played this year. Potter seems better suited for a utility role anyway.

Third base: Chase Jones (.207, 6, 27) has been struggling a little at the plate, though he's been fine in the clutch, and perhaps more importantly he hasn't committed a single error at third base this season, which is a little amazing considering there are a couple guys in this league with sub-.900 FAs at that position.

Shortstop: I really, raelly don't like former Pilots guy Gil Wilson (.242, 2, 8) here but this is a position where the A's farm isn't quite ready to go (also, Wilson is only 27 I guess) so instead I'm going to semi-platoon Potter in at this position. Potter plays shortstop like a below average second baseman so he is not long-term viable here.

May 29: The San Francisco Giants (27-20, 3rd, NL West) have been lying in wait all season, hoping for the guys in front of them to slip a little. Thus far, the Reds have made that slip I guess but the Astros are still proving the better team. SF is built around pitching and defense (168 runs allowed, 2nd best in the NL and 208 runs scored are only 5th), although I guess at that it's primarily pitching, as by ZR they're only 7th and defensive efficiency is 2nd worst in the NL.

Rotation: They're running a 4 man rotation and it looks just fine to me. I don't know exactly what to do with Roy Holm (3-6, 3.96), who is one of the pre-eminent strikeout pitchers in the game but also gives up a lot of walks and HRs, which is why his career record is only 143-157. For now, he's good enough to stick in the rotation. Down the line? He's probably a reliever once he gets into his later 30s (he's already 34 so the clock, it ticks already).

Bullpen: The Giants traded for LOIGY Sam Williams (1-1, 7.50) 10 days ago and he has still yet to make his San Francisco debut. I mean, he seems... volatile. For now I'm leaving the 'pen intact as well, although it's certainly not in fine a shape as the rotation so far.

I'm going to slightly change the formatting up on this, in case there's, like, nothing to report on or something, I don't know...

Infield: SS Masayuki Kojima (.139, 1, 6) has done nothing this year to indicate he should be in the majors - he's not even a good fielder - but his putative backup Mario Guevara (.312, 5, 18) is 39 and an even worse fielder out there. UGH and both the AAA and AA guys at short are organizational soldiers who are also on the wrong side of 30. I really, really don't want to give the job back to Guevara but I feel I have no choice...

Outfield: Scott Lammers (.180, 5, 20) led the team in HRs last year but he still wasn't thaaat good and he isn't exactly a superstar in the field either. I think the time has come to call back OF Will Hartmann (.500, 0, 2), who'd been sent down because he wasn't getting PT in the majors, and just give him this spot. Even if he can't hit - and there's a very good chance that the 24 year old will outhit Lammers - he'll be a much, much better defender as he's a converted CF.

May 30: Like I said, these seem to come in bunches, especially when the league is going PARITY LEAGUE mode (which maybe isn't the case but then again nobody's on pace to win 100 right now)... ANYWAY, the California Angels (25-20, 2nd AL West) are so far following up a surprising 83-79 finish in 1969 with some legit good play. They're also at least slightly young; just one guy in their lineup (catcher Mike Perez (.206, 6, 17)) is over 30 and only #1 starter Dustin Beaulieu (4-4, 2.70) passes the Logan's Age barrier in the rotation. I'm a bit surprised TBH that the lineup has been so healthy (3rd in the AL with 207 runs scored) and the pitching staff, well, plays in the Big A (4th in runs allowed, 175, although dead last in Ks).

Rotation: I am sooo unsure as to what to do with Paul Kahl (4-5, 3.64). Dude is averaging 1.2 K/9 but he's been more or less league average so far because... I feel like it's smoke and mirrors but this is basically what he's done. Well... he struck out 4 batters per 9 2 years ago so not really. IRL this would scream "Kahl has an undiagnosed arm injury" but in-game he just can't miss bats I guess. Anyway, those are a lot of words to justify not taking him out of the rotation just yet. I do feel like we may transition to a 4-man though. The only thing stopping me, really, is that it's basically 5 guys who give you ERAs in the mid-3s as opposed to being at all top-heavy.

Bullpen: I do think I'm going to demote stopper Bong-ok Park (1-4, 5.64, 4 Sv) out of his role. I keep thinking "yeah, he's bad because he got ripped in the first week", which is true but it's late May now and it's safe to say that he's just gotten beat up a lot. His replacement (for now) Bubba Touchton (0-0, 1.90) isn't missing bats but does have one of the best curveballs in the game, and I'm moving his best friend Tanzan Kihara (0-0, 1.96) up to the setup role. This also allows me to shunt Park all the way down into the lefty specialist role.

Infield: The closest thing I see to someone with a tenuous hold on their job in the infield is 2B Chance Hopka (.229, 0, 11) and that's mostly because Mauricio Mendez (.294, 1, 3) was great last year and I'd like to find a spot in the lineup for him. I'll start mixing Mendez in a bit more aggressively. We'll see!

I also noticed that 3B Kristian Schneider (.326, 1, 13 with CAL) has a sub-.900 FA at third in spite of being a 60 overall there. He does have an error of just 45. Pete Jennings (.324, 4, 27) could move back there I guess except that he also barely had a plus-.900 FA at the hot corner this year. I'll keep a lookout...

Outfield: All three spots are pretty well set. Norm Hodge (.281, 4, 16) has come down a bit from a hot start but, like, league average offense plus awesome D equals an All-Star caliber player so I'm not doing anything with him.