[Syd Thrift]

Major Transactions
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Not sure what went on with June 15, 1970 IRL but there were a bunch of moves (mostly purchases)...

June 15: The Cardinals purchased minor league 3B Jonathan Jiminez (.286, 8, 31 in AAA Salt Lake City) from the Padres for $2,000. Jiminez looks pretty decent actually but he's only the #3 3rd baseman on the Pads' roster and so is pretty much organizational depth. SD could use some cash.

June 15: The A's purchased RP Josh Howard (1-2, 3.90) from the Brewers for $3,000. The A's are kind of on the periphery of contending for the AL West if the Twins fall apart, I guess, and the Brewers seem intent on getting rid of everyone and everything associated with the Pilots.

June 15: The Padres purchased minor league RP Jake Callaway (1-0, 2.70, 6 Sv for AAA Tulsa) for $1,500. Callaway was briefly in the majors this year but got bombed to the tune of 6 runs allowed in 2.1 innings. The Pads still need basically everything they can get though.

June 15: This looks like the big one... the White Sox trade RP Elias Sanchez (1-0, 2.74) and CF Chris Fonseca (.310, 1, 5) to the Indians for SP Bob Reyes (2-4, 3.07) and RP Vicente Hernandez (0-1, 5.09). I had a lot of trouble making this work out. Fonseca is probably the best player in this deal, at least potentially, although I guess Reyes is the best right now. Cleveland does have a glut of starting pitching so moving a guy off the back end of it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

June 15: The Orioles traded SS Steve Saunders (.000, 0, 0) for RP Billy Munoz (1-2, 2.08, 7 Sv). Saunders is little more than organizational filler but Munoz is reportedly unhappy and wanted out of KC (apparently because he didn't like all the slackers on the team, but hey, it's easier to move the angrier guy). Also, he was making $41k this year and that's not money the Royals need to be spending on relief pitchers.

June 15: The Reds traded minor league LF Willie Ortega (.296, 4, 12 at Cincinnati earlier this season) to the Expos for LF Jerry Martinez (.284, 4, 12). Ortega was a bit of a project but now that Cincinnati's actually pretty good, they need a guy they know who can do the job. Jerry Martinez is that man.

June 15: The Orioles traded 1B John Fleishacker (.197, 2, 2) to the Brewers for minor league RP Steve Guarino (5-2, 2.59 at AAA Portland) and minor league SP Adam Clark (0-5, 6.43 in a stint at Milwaukee earlier this year). Fleishacker started the season as the #1 1B in Baltimore but had fallen so far out of favor that he was sent down to the minors. Now he's off to the Brew Crew to see if they can salvage that career.

June 15: The Brewers trade RP Tom Owens (0-0, 4.26, 5 Sv) to the Expos for LF Jorge Andres (.200, 1, 4). The Brewers continue to scrub their roster of Pilots and the Expos, well, Andres started for them last year but is barely playing for the team this year. Both players are over 35 so either way, futures are limited.

News
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June 15: The NL Player of the week is young Phillies SS Tony Shannon (.271, 3, 21), who went 11 for 20 to earn that mark. He was the first overall pick in 1968 but couldn't break into a really strong Cubs lineup last year so made his way to Philadelphia. This is his first of what could be many of these (although I feel like early returns seem to indicate he's going to be merely good rather than incredible).

June 15: In the AL, Yankees SS Ty Stover (.298, 13, 42) missed the entire weekend after being ejected for starting a brawl vs. the Royals, but apparently he did so much in the first 5 days that the league didn't care and gave him PotW anyway. To be fair, Stover did go 10-14 in those games. This was his 9th PotW award.

June 15: Kansas City's losing streak reaches 17 as they get blown out by Boston 10-1. Today it was Tim White (5-7, 4.46) who took the L, getting knocked out of the box in the 6th. His ERA has spiked more than 2 runs from the 2.44 mark that it was the morning of May 27.

June 16: And the Red Sox' season takes another hit. Franklin "Dirty" Davila (4-6, 5.00) is going to miss most if not all of the season with biceps tendinitis. He joins Marco Sanchez (4-3, 3.54) and Michael Pesco (3-0, 0.87) on the DL. Somehow the Sox are still in first, tied with the Yankees, but that will probably change soon.

June 16: That said, as bad as the Sox' luck has been lately, it's not so bad that they'd lose to the Royals. They beat KC 11-6 to extend that losing streak to 18 games.

June 17: The Royals' streak extends to 19 games with a shutout loss to the Red Sox. Justin Kindberg (10-4, 2.39) blanked Kansas City on 6 hits, striking out 10 in the process. This is also the loss that finally puts the Royals into the AL West Cellar, half a game behind the Brewers.

June 17: Meanwhile, the LA Dodgers aren't stringing all their losses together in one big group so it's not as newsworthy but since a 13-7 April they've gone 11-17 in May and... 2-13 so far in June. They got blown out 8-1 today in Dodger Stadium to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Andres Castillo (5-7, 4.94) picked up the L for the city of Angels and we are getting very close to going into full-on rebuild mode I think.

June 18: In the UK, the Conservative Party wins and Edward Heath becomes the new Prime Minister. The Labour Party had won the previous two elections and this was a bit of an upset, all things considered.

June 19: Dodgers 2B David Parsons (.103, 1, 2) announced he's hanging up the cleats at the end of the season. He played around half the year for LA last year and hit for a high if empty average but has barely played so far this year. I am not optimistic that he'll actually finish the season with this team.

June 19: Kansas City FINALLY breaks out of their slump, taking down the Oakland Athletics 4-2 at Royals Stadium. Miguel Chavez (6-7, 4.21) picks up the first victory for the Royals all month. LF Jeff Nation (.308, 6, 29) hit a 2-run triple in the 4th that got things going right for KC. "It's always nice to be on the winning side, but we take nothing for granted", he said after the game (yes, that is what OOTP said he said). After 19 straight Ls, I can't blame ya, Jeff.

June 19: Expos CF Anton Mendoza (.412, 0, 5) tied an Expos record with 5 hits in a 14-inning 4-3 victory over the Pirates. The all-time NL record holder for hits in a game, by the way, is Andy James, a career backup OF for the St. Louis Cardinals who rapped 7 hits in an extra-inning game on July 12, 1953.

June 21: AL All-Star voting update:

CATCHER
1. Jon Hernandez, Baltimore Orioles: 381,969
2. Armando Flores, Washington Senators: 372,825
3. Brad Reed, Minnesota Twins: 349,549

FIRST BASE
1. Mike Miller, Boston Red Sox: 539,836
2. Alex Cardenas, New York Yankees: 524,184
3. Angelo Martinez, Minnesota Twins: 427,301

SECOND BASE
1. Danny Villegas, Detroit Tigers: 453,451
2. Danny Fager, Baltimore Orioles: 416,078
3. T.J. Pritchett, Cleveland Indians: 396,625

THIRD BASE
1. Marco Perez, Baltimore Orioles: 495,187
2. Mike Brookes, Minnesota Twins: 491,774
3. Tom Weiss, New York Yankees: 481,701

SHORTSTOP
1. Ty Stover, New York Yankees: 524,241
2. Oniji Handa, Boston Red Sox: 452,054
3. John Johnson, Cleveland Indians: 416,944

LEFT FIELD
1. Alonzo Huanosta, Cleveland Indians: 478,873
2. Willie Vargas, Chicago White Sox: 448,055
3. Matthew Levario, Oakland Athletics: 447,548

CENTER FIELD
1. Bryant Tarala, Baltimore Orioles: 433,992
2. Tom Brown, Chicago White Sox: 407,720
3. Norm Hodge, California Angels: 373,228

RIGHT FIELD
1. Alvin Romero, Washington Senators: 458,976
2. Frank Meneses, New York Yankees: 436,076
3. John Marsden, Milwaukee Brewers: 386,640

STARTING PITCHER
1. Chris Benavides, Minnesota Twins: 237,870
2. Tracy Mosher, New York Yankees: 235,623
3. Sandy Hinojosa, Boston Red Sox: 220,460
4. Josh Matthews, Cleveland Indians: 217,947
5. Justin Kindberg, Boston Red Sox: 212,436

RELIEVER
1. Montay Luiso, Baltimore Orioles: 242,272
2. Pete Lynn, Minnesota Twins: 218,736
3. Alex Madrigal, Detroit Tigers: 207,812
4. Todd Theisen, Minnesota Twins: 176,497
5. Matt Brock, Boston Red Sox: 175,287

Jon Hernandez continues to increase his AS catcher votes... by playing first base. Hey, he's listed as a C on the ballot! The big race to me looks like Marco Perez vs. Mike Brookes at 3rd. Both of them will make the team but it seems like it's neck and neck as to who will be the starter...

And in the NL:

CATCHER
1. Jason Bushon, New York Mets: 419,131
2. Greg Darrow, Chicago Cubs: 361,703
3. John Stuart, St. Louis Cardinals: 361,702

FIRST BASE
1. Joshua Waltenbery, New York Mets: 609,743
2. Justin Stone, St. Louis Cardinals: 523,136
3. Antonio Lopez, Chicago Cubs: 503,427

SECOND BASE
1. Kevin Dwyer, Atlanta Braves: 615,023
2. Pedro Ortiz, Cincinnati Reds: 567,590
3. Billy Tristan, Los Angeles Dodgers: 420,464

THIRD BASE
1. Bobby Kraljevic, Cincinnati Reds: 455,598
2. Pete Little, Houston Astros: 427,831
3. Sean Gabel, Chicago Cubs: 419,614

SHORTSTOP
1. Jeremy Taylor, Chicago Cubs: 427,272
2. Tyler Webster, Pittsburgh Pirates: 356,044
3. Akiho Fujimoto, San Diego Padres: 347,711

LEFT FIELD
1. Jason Workman, Chicago Cubs: 532,362
2. Barry Cooper, San Francisco Giants: 492,680
3. Ernie Griffin, Los Angeles Dodgers: 480,154

CENTER FIELD
1. John Lopez, Houston Astros: 446,968
2. Curtis Hope, New York Mets: 419,692
3. Mark Tooley, Chicago Cubs: 388,592

RIGHT FIELD
1. Jaden Weaver, Houston Astros: 588,886
2. Nelson Hernandez, San Diego Padres: 492,451
3. Henry Riggs, Atlanta Braves: 445,994

STARTING PITCHER
1. Robert Rivera, San Francisco Giants: 223,091
2. Steve Waiters, Cincinnati Reds: 220,959
3. John Mash, New York Mets: 218,745
4. Fernando Apolonio, Los Angeles Dodgers: 196,175
5. Tony Rivera, Houston Astros: 191,712

RELIEVER
1. John Winn, Atlanta Braves: 311,007
2. Geoff Saus, New York Mets: 221,533
3. Paz Lemus, Pittsburgh Pirates: 216,587
4. John Booth, San Francisco Giants: 208,367
5. Adam Eastin, Houston Astros: 198,986

Man, the Braves are still soooo top heavy... they're now pretty established as terrible and yet they have the top overall vote-getter and John Winn is the "starting" stopper. Also, of course, Henry Riggs, in spite of a really bad June, is still 3rd among right fielders.

June 21 (end of day): And now, time for some POWER RANKINGS!

At the top... I should maybe go back and look at the past few weeks but at least compared to the week ending June 14 things are pretty topsy-turvy:

1st (4th) Houston 42-26 .618
2nd (6th) Cincinnati 41-26 .612
3rd (3rd) New York (A) 39-27 .591
4th (5th) Boston 38-24 .613
5th (2nd) Minnesota 39-25 .609

So now not only are the Astros and Reds, and also the Yankees and Red Sox, competing with each other for the top spots in their respective divisions, but they're also 1-4 in the power rankings. I'm really not sure how Boston's been keeping up, to be honest, although it looks like 2 top starting pitchers - Michael Pesco and Marco Sanchez - are due back soon (Pesco in a week, Sanchez in 2). As of right now 2 of the top 4 teams would actually miss out on the playoffs though, so yeah... otherwise, the one division leader not in the top 5 is Chicago (N), who dropped all the way from 1st to 7th after a 3-4 week. They're still a game and a half up on the Mets, who dipped to 9th after a 1-3 week (rainouts!) themselves.

Oakland was the big riser-upper, going from 16th to 8th. They are a very up and down team this season. The aforementioned Cubs were the biggest losers.

And at the bottom:

20th (22nd) Milwaukee 26-41
21st (20th) Atlanta 25-39 .391
22nd (23rd) Montreal 22-42
23rd (21st) Los Angeles 27-40
24th (24th) Kansas City 22-41

KC lost their last 2 games of the series with the A's after breaking that 19 game losing streak in the opener, so they're now 1-21 in their last 22. I realize now that I haven't done a deep dive on them for 40 losses; I'll take care of them and the Dodgers tomorrow. Atlanta was actually 4-3 last week, including a series tie against the Astros (2-2) over the weekend. I keep thinking they're about to finally turn it around but then they start giving up 10 runs a game for a week and prove me wrong, and I am expecting more of the same.

Teams In Review
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June 16: The Milwaukee Brewers (21-40, 6th AL West) have the ignominious distinction of becoming the first 40-loss team I'll look at. The Expos (who I'll also cover today) actually reached the mark first but a combination of catching up over the last couple games and the fact I play out the AL before the NL means the Brew Crew are first. They're just not a good team, period - 11th in runs allowed, 12th in runs, 11th in zone rating. They've just about succeeded in ridding the entire roster of Pilots, so there's that at least.

Rotation: The recently acquired Chris McGranahan (4-7, 3.45) is now the team's "ace". If he can stay healthy, which has been an issue for him all of his career, the Brewers' rotation looks like it's full of guys who can at least be around league average for 6 or 7 innings. They're also a bit on the older side for a team that should be building but it's a start.

Bullpen: The 'pen is a bit all over the place with the trade of Tom Owens to the Expos. Danny Plaunt (1-2, 3.79) the guy who is in my mind at least best known for starting 1969 1-11 (he finished 4-15) is their stopper now. He's been better in relief than he was as a starter last year so there is that. I'm not massively impressed by anyone else in here but they at least are young - nobody of the 4 is over 28. It seems workable for now.

Infield: Man, so many holes... I have Dr. Jack Holman (.252, 3, 13) as the starting 1B and haven't swapped him out mainly because at some point you just have to decide on somebody. Holman seems about the same level as Jon Fath (.248, 2, 10) and I think that overall you need your first baseman to hit a bit better than .250 with middling power.

2B Estaban Rios (.138, 0, 2) is hitting more than 100 points lower than last year, when he was a vaguely decent middle infielder. As of now basically the only reason I haven't cut him outright is that he's only 24 years old. Nevertheless, he's pretty well lost his job to Marcos Escobedo (.302, 1, 7), who is on the wrong side of 30 but come on man, there are limits.

Outfield: The outfield has been basically remade with trades in the past couple days. The new corner guys are Kenny Augspurger (.143, 0, 2), previously a Giants organizational guy. His resume includes a couple of minor league Gold Gloves but even at 27 now he looks like a below average LF to me. The new RF, replacing Richard Berman (.317, 0, 27), is John Marsden (.344, 7, 18). Marsden is 4 years older than Berman but I think the Brewers may have gotten the better player in that deal.

Center though is where I do want to make a change. Dylan Dockery (.229, 0, 5) has that starter experience on his CV, having done the work for Oakland last year, but Oakland was terrible and Dockery doesn't really do anything that you want your starting CF to do. So insteead I am turning to Fernando Ceballos (.318, 0, 3), who has been raking a little in 44 at-bats in 1970 but mostly is a top caliber defender in center.

June 16: Yeah, the Montreal Expos (18-40, 6th NL East) are just bad too. One thing I've noticed is that in this league at least, these expansion teams are often in that vague "not great" level their first year and then really bottom out in their 2nd. The Angels, who went 86-75 in their inaugural season of 1961 and then fell to 69-93 in their second are the first team that comes to mind. The Expos "avoided" this by going 48-114 last year, the worst record in MLB history, but look just as bad in 1970 with no real prospects for long-term improvement. In a piece of good news, it looks like they've signed all of their draft picks! That's actually saying something given that the Brewers and Royals are both allowing multiple players to go unsigned.

Rotation: I'm dumping Phil Farr (1-10, 4.26) into the bullpen, not because he's legit the worst starter on the team or even close to it but because the Expos simply have no reason to give him that much PT. He went 7-21 last year and was the first man to 10 losses this year, and he's 34. He's not very good. What is left to prove? For similar reasons, I gave Cole Pritchard (1-2, 8.69) a couple starts but I think that's all we needed to see from the 33 year old.

Bullpen: The changes above put Mike Scott (0-1, 5.73) and Brian Figeuiriedo (3-3, 5.09) into the rotation, Figgy for the 2nd time this year. They don't look great but they're bad and under 30 at least. Tom Owens (0-0, 4.26, 5 Sv) is a new addition to the team, at least for this year.

Infield: I don't know what's wrong with Brent Putnam (.176, 2, 10), who's a 3 time All-Star and the Cubs' starting backstop last season, so I'm going to just leave him be. Roberto Carranco (.278, 4, 9) is there as the 1969 starter for the Quebeckers but it's not like he's going to be a long-term solution himself.

1B Armando Martinez (.251, 10, 28) hasn't looked anywhere near like that long bright spot / dark horse MVP candidate of last year but, like, what do you do? Even with a below-average bat in 1970 (his OPS+ is 91) he's still one of the best hitters on the team.

Outfield: The Expos literally just, as in they haven't had a chance to use, former Reds LF Willie Ortega (.296, 4, 12). He's not really a prospect at 26 but was blocked in Cincy so maybe he'll turn into something with an every day job, who knows?

Gabe Martinez (.250, 0, 8) looked really nice in April so I gave him a starting job. He responded with a .206 June. He's bad but, like, who's going to replace him? Anton Mendoza (.359, 0, 3) maybe once Jeff Byce (.199, 1, 6) comes back from a hand contusion... but I think Mendoza might be better off as a super-sub, filling for both players regularly. Looking at it, though, I'm realizing I've also mostly forgotten about Matt Williams (.238, 8, 16), who was a half-time 4th outfielder for the Cubs last year before getting shuffled out of there. Okay, this is the replacement and Martinez can go back to pinch-hitting.