(note: I switched out to 23 on around July 22, so if EVERYTHING BREAKS FROM THERE you will understand why)
Standings
---------------
For now I've been using the detailed bits only in the team reviews. I figured out to convert tabs to 4 spaces so there should be less weirdness in the code-tagged areas as well...
Code:
AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Cleveland Indians 59 40 .596 -
New York Yankees 55 42 .567 3.0
Boston Red Sox 53 44 .546 5.0
Baltimore Orioles 48 51 .485 11.0
Washington Senators 45 53 .459 13.5
Detroit Tigers 42 56 .429 16.5
West W L PCT GB
Minnesota Twins 58 41 .586 -
Oakland Athletics 52 41 .559 3.0
California Angels 50 49 .505 8.0
Chicago White Sox 50 52 .490 9.5
Kansas City Royals 40 59 .404 18.0
Milwaukee Brewers 37 61 .378 20.5
NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Chicago Cubs 56 42 .571 -
Philadelphia Phillies 52 44 .542 3.0
Pittsburgh Pirates 53 47 .530 4.0
New York Mets 50 47 .515 5.5
St. Louis Cardinals 41 57 .418 15.0
Montreal Expos 36 63 .364 20.5
West W L PCT GB
Houston Astros 61 38 .616 -
San Francisco Giants 56 40 .583 3.5
Cincinnati Reds 58 42 .580 3.5
Atlanta Braves 47 52 .475 14.0
Los Angeles Dodgers 41 56 .423 19.0
San Diego Padres 39 62 .386 23.0
Power Rankings
----------------------
Code:
1st (9th) Oakland 115 ++ 52-41 .559 .264 3.52 50-43 2
2nd (1st) Houston 112 - 61-38 .616 .267 3.77 57-42 4
3rd (5th) San Francisco 109 + 56-40 .583 .268 3.17 57-39 -1
4th (6th) Minnesota 108 + 58-41 .586 .256 3.50 57-42 1
5th (2nd) Cleveland 106 -- 59-40 .596 .288 3.33 60-39 -1
Look out, Twins! There's a new contender in town. The Oakland A's went 6-1 this week to pull within 3 games of Minnesota and take home the top ranking in the league. The difference is entirely 6 wins picked up by the Twins as well, which, considering the way the A's are playing right now, doesn't seem like much. Incidentally, they play each other in a 3-games-in-2-days series on August 3rd and 4th.
All of the races have the #2 team 3 or 3.5 games out, now that I look at things. The Indians feel further ahead but that's mainly because they started slow and have been gangbusters since May. Also Houston for the opposite reason: they've been on fire all year long and have the best overall record in all of baseball. Had the Giants not moved out of New York, they'd be a division leader as well (and who would be in the West in their place? St. Louis? And break up the Chicago/St. Louis rivalry? Perhaps there'd be an expansion team in San Fran).
The bottom feeders / expansion teams:
Code:
20th (18th) Detroit 74 - 42-56 .429 .256 3.96 44-54 -2
21st (14th) Baltimore 73 -- 48-51 .485 .232 3.54 48-51 0
22nd (22nd) Montreal 65 o 36-63 .364 .245 4.78 34-65 2
23rd (24th) San Diego 64 + 39-62 .386 .235 4.32 44-57 -5
24th (23rd) Milwaukee 62 - 37-61 .378 .248 4.60 35-63 2
Actually the Royals moved out of the bottom rungs this week; they're 18th thanks to a 4-5 week that included 2 double-headers in 3 days vs the Indians (they did lose that series but only 3 games to 2) and a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. The New York Mets, incidentally, fell 5 places to "win" the worst fall of the week. They started poorly by wrapping up a 4 game series with the Giants with a loss, then only managed to split the Padres before getting swept by the lowly Dodgers, who also, incidentally, moved out of the bottom 5 to jump all the way up to 15th. That is... unsustainable. That said, if it weren't for the A's, the Dodgers would be the biggest upward jumpers.
Major Transactions
------------------------
July 20: The Yankees trade LHP Dan Ballard (3-8, 5.02) to the Giants for LHP Roy Holm (7-10, 3.77). This is a trade of two pitchers who are underachieving for their teams; Ballard's been so bad that he was kicked out of the rotation, but he seems to still have decent peripherals (6.1 K/9, 3.8 BB/9). Holm is the pre-eminent strikeout artist in the senior circuit, having led the league in Ks in 3 of the past 5 years, but has been a test case for how far stuff and stuff alone can take you. He's 147-161 in his career with a career ERA of 3.65 that is pretty much exactly league-average. The Yanks hope that his propensity for the longball - his 314 HRs allowed is the 4th highest of all time - will be negated in their spacious home park. For the Giants, if Ballard can return this his 1968 form - 14-11, 2.65 ERA - they think that could be enough to push them past the Astros.
News
-----------------------
July 20: Yankees C Khalil Tabb (.272, 4, 40) took over catching duties this year and today was awarded his very first AL PotW award. Tabb had 11 hits in 19 at-bats, good for a .579 average, with 1 HR and 5 RBIs.
July 20: The Montreal Expos are having a very bad season but here's one little bright light: 3B Adam Owens (.277, 14, 33) won the NL PotW with 8 hits in 16 at-bats, 3 HRs, and 6 RBIs. This is also his first such award.
July 20: Since I have the Fab Four on a shortlist, OOTP wanted to let me know that George Harrison (.429, 5, 12 at Vallejo) won the Player of the Week award for his league, the NL Rookies. He's off to a good start...
July 21: I upgraded the league mid-save to 23. Yes, not a great idea. I'm going to do it anyway! One thing I noticed is that the game now takes flyball rates into account when figuring out Movement, so that means that players like Roy Holm, who's super HR prone but also gets a ton of GB outs, will now only be sort of HR happy instead of HR insane.
July 21: The updated season gets off to one horrific start for the Red Sox and Michael Pesco (5-2, 2.38), as the word has come in that he tore his flexor tendon in his elbow and will be out until spring training of next season. I feel like the Bosox really needed Pesco to have any real chance of catching the Indians and Yankees, so this I guess is it. This seems like a good a point as any to call up Japanese prospect Kojiro Nakazawa (11-5, 2.95 in AAA), who's been striking out more than a batter an inning at Louisville.
July 21: Speaking of injury prone guys, Orioles CF Bryant Tarala (.196, 11, 23) had his injury status degraded to the dreaded "Unknown". He's already on the DL and ready to be forgotten about. Tarala's a guy who at 28 years of age really needs playing time to figure out how to not strike out so much. It's looking more and more like he's just not going to get that kind of time, which, I guess to be fair he's still a 5-time All Star in spite of that low, low average (he is a career .221 hitter).
July 22: And in even more injury-prone-guy news, Cubs SP Mike Wilbers (3-3, 3.26), who'd already missed some time earlier this season with a partially torn labrum, appears to have re-torn it but something bad this time around. He'll miss the rest of the season and won't even be ready to start pitching against live opposition until some time during spring training of next year.
July 23: A rare bit of good injury news for the Dodgers, as RP Mike Wilson (no record in 1970), who's been out since early March with a torn back muscle and had the dreaded "Unknown" injury length applied, received word from team doctors that he should be ready to pitch in around a week. Wilson was one of the team's better relievers last year, carrying a 2.31 ERA in 17 relief appearances and 2 starts, allowing just 3 walks in 35 IPs last year.
July 23: In less great news, Padres SS Armando Troncoso (.243, 0, 4) was diagnosed with a broken hand that will cause him to miss the rest of the season. Maybe this is worse news for Troncoso, who had a less than clear path to a lot of playing time; at this point, the Pads can default to Akiho Fujimoto (.299, 1, 25) a guy who was signed by the Cardinals out of Japan last year but traded away for peanuts at the end of spring training.
July 24: The Red Sox' Justin Kindberg (13-8, 2.47) squared off against Angelo Ramos (16-2, 2.58) today. I bring this up for two reasons: Ramos' 12 game winning streak was snapped here, and also, the two men entered the game with 11 shutouts between them (6 for Kindberg, 5 for Ramos). As you'd might expect, one of these guys picked up yet another one. Kindberg scattered 5 hits over 9 innings to pull this bad boy out and keep the Red Sox afloat in the East.
July 24: Roy Holm's (7-11, 4.16) Yankees debut could have been better: he allowed 9 runs on 9 hits against the lowly Milwaukee Brewers before being pulled in the 5th. I am not going to lie: I make moves for the Yankees as if they were the Yankees - high priced stars join the team and they're going to be more willing to take on payroll than most - but when a deal like this blows up in their faces, it does not make me sad. Of course, this is literally just one outing...
July 25: The Mets' chances of repeating are... I'd say they're on life support now that P Joe Beane (10-5, 2.56) has been laid up on the DL with elbow inflammation. He should be back some time around late August but, you know, the Mets need him right now...
July 25: So, see below where I said that Jason Sanders (10-5, 2.61) is not only the ace of the Cubs' staff but arguably the only above-average pitcher... well. He's out until September with a strained elbow. With the Mets faltering and now 5 games back, Chicago at least doesn't have to worry about them. However, the Pirates (3 1/2 back) and Phillies (4 GB) are right there instead. It's going to be a crazy August in the NL East.
July 25: Meanwhile, Reds SP Steve Waiters (18-1, 2.11) picked up his NL-leading 10th consecutive win with a 4 hit shutout of the St. Louis Cardinals in Riverfront Stadium. "To be honest," Waiters said after the game, "I was having problems getting my curve over, so I tried to get guys to put the ball in play instead". Waiters, who is striking out 8.8 batters per 9 innings, "only" had 6 Ks tonight but you wouldn't know it from the box score (I mean, except that's exactly where I'm getting this information).
July 26: And so much for the Cubs being able to breathe a little sigh of relief with Victor Marin coming back next week. He's been downgraded to "Unknown", so he'll be back when he gets back, and the Cubs will have to make do with a roster full of AAAA guys in the meantime.
July 26: Hey, catastrophic injuries can happen to hitters too. Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia (.213, 33, 79), the AL leader in homeruns and a guy who was just starting to get non-HR hits this month, will be out for the rest of the year and well into next year as well with a ruptured MCL. How does a guy that slow even notice when he ruptures his MCL?
July 26: A little update on the Fab Four:
- Ringo is all the way up in AA now but is struggling a little bit, with a 1-1 record, a 4.15 ERA, and 9 BB vs 6 K in 13 innings pitched there. Still, he's the only Beatle to make it that high in the minors so there's that.
- John Lennon split his first week with the Yankees between Kingston in the Carolina League (.429, 0, 1) and Fort Lauderdale in the Florida State League (.182, 0, 0). Both clubs are A ball and the Yankees have a lot of A ball teams for some reason.
- George Harrison similarly has been all over the minors now, having played at three levels already. He's currently in single-A Fresno, where he's 2-9 in 2 games.
- It actually looks like none of the Fab Four are in the rookie league anymore, as Paul McCartney is up at Stockton in the California League, where he has 0 hits in 4 at bats but 2 walks. Incidentally, Fresno travels to Stockton for a 4 game mid-week series from August 10th to 13th. Mark your calendars! The two teams will wrap up their seasons in Stockton as well, so if Paul and George are still around that should really ring out the year in style.
Teams In Review
-----------------
July 20: The
Cincinnati Reds have really just been okay since a really great April (15-7). Now they're 54-40 and despite being 2-4 out of the break I guess it's hard to really think of them as disappointing. They were after all 10 games under .500 last year and it's a little nice just to see them in the race in the West. Still, things can be done to improve them. The offense (3rd) is ahead of the defense (4th, although their bullpen ERA of 3.49 is 2nd). Actually, the pitching side has been powerful - 1st in Ks - but the fielding is only average (6th, although a couple teams in the NL are hoooooooooorrible so the cardinal number might not paint the whole picture).
Rotation: The Reds have a long run of games coming up but they just played the only double-header in that long series of games played today. I think that signals that it's time to go to a 4-man and use Graham Panarello (2-1, 3.90) as a spot starter and long reliever. It was a little down to him and vet Joe Hagan (10-11, 4.74) as to who'd be relegated to the bullpen until Hagan threw a 7 hit shutout today to break a personal 6 game losing streak.
Bullpen: Ricky Rosas (5-4, 3.08, 17 Sv) is only good where there are other electric stoppers in the league but he's the guy the Reds have. They'll look to lean on him a bit more in the second half, along with set-up man Greg Shrewsbury (3-2, 3.61, 3 Sv), especially if they stick with the short rotation. I'd call the weak man of the staff the lefty specialist Zach Hale (0-0, 5.11), who throws smoke (15.3 K/9!) but also gives up a lot of walks and dingers (7 and 4 respectively in 12.1 major league innings). The Reds would love to use him more but at 24 he seems not ready for prime time yet.
Infield: The only real change I'm making in here is I'm flipping 1B Stephen Clark (.260, 9, 52) down to 6th in the order to try and take more advantage of RF Justin Jensen's (.207, 20, 46) power. Clark has led the league in hitting twice so is liable to break out at any time so we'll see how long this arrangement lasts...
Outfield: I also don't really see a lot of opportunities for the outfield. The aforementioned Jensen is down 41 points in average from last year but he's also leading a team that, frankly, needs the power in HRs. Alternatively Junior Cannon (.271, 14, 49) isn't hitting like the next Babe Ruth like he was last year, and maybe walks too much to hit cleanup, but that's a better conversation to have if/when Jensen can get his average up to a reasonable amount. I don't really want to pull anyone here just straight-up out of the lineup.
July 20: Trying out something new for the
New York Yankees:
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
New York Yankees 53 40 .570 L1 2½ 476 106 .265 27 3.55 0.9 2.4 6.1 .983 5.1 1,014,615
We'll see, I guess? The Yankees here look to me to be in full-on "win now" mode, trying to get one last pennant for the aging Del Webb. That run-scoring is actually the best in the AL. Del is apparently unhappy that the Yankees don't run more but I'm not sure I'm going to do anything aobut that, like, ever. This is the Yankees, Del. Since when do the Yankees run? Anyway, the team ERA, which is 4th in the AL, is paced mostly by the league-leading 2.42 bullpen ERA, so moving forward we'll definitely need to lean on them more.
Rotation: The Yankees just pulled off a blockbuster deal with the Giants to bring starter Roy Holm (7-10, 3.77) into the fold. He's definitely a guy who the, um, baseball gods may have recently favored in terms of perhaps not allowing as many dingers as he may used to have. Also of course just playing in Yankee Stadium means that right-handers who try to go yard on him do so at their own peril... and I just noticed that it looks like the game re-did all the park factors I'd manually set up at the beginning of the year. Welp, better I discover this now than later on...
...and I'm back. It looks like it wasn't all of the stadia, just the ones that are still active in the modern era (it looks like the game replaced the 3D models for those with the built-in ones as well). Which, technically Yankee Stadium is inactive but that's the name the new stadium is using as well I guess. ANYWAY, Holm pushes Jake Powers (2-4, 5.48) out to the bullpen, which is probably a better place for the young right-hander anyway, at least for now.
Bullpen: When I say league leading bullpen, it's really just Jesse Kelly (7-2, 1.87, 9 Sv). The rest has been really up and down but not so much that I feel the need to make big changes. I mean, this is still the pen that got them this far.
Infield: I'd really rather have a better defensive catcher - all three of the current options are 40 overall - but I also don't think the team needs to switch horses midstream, so pass for now.
I've already moved Pat Jones (.289, 2, 12) into the lefty half of a platoon at second with Wing-fung Yi (.202, 4, 34). Yi is only 25 and hit .302 last year but now is not the time to stick with a youngster and hope he can find his stroke, especially not when you have a guy on the roster like Jones, who has a career .270 BA and was a starter for the Chicago White Sox for 6 years. Yi is totally free to compete for the full-time job again in spring training, that is if the Yankees don't push Stover into that slot.
At short. Ty Stover is getting too old for shortstop at 37 but that's also a problem for the future Yankees. For now, he's the best hitting shortstop in all of baseball and that makes up for his eroded range.
Outfield: All the positions are pretty well set now that Frank Meneses (.280, 14, 49) has won his starting job back. The odd man out is clearly Ross Poynor (.205, 3, 11) but as with Yi a pennant chase in New York city is neither the time nor the place to use slumping youngsters.
July 22: The
Montreal Expos:
Code:
Team Name W L % STR MAG GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Montreal Expos 34 60 .362 L1 20½ 352 94 .248 13 4.68 1.0 4.6 5.5 .978 -5.6 650,455
As bad as they are, they're ahead of their 1969 pace, so there's that at least. At this point it's really a matter of finding decent players and young players and giving them all of the appearances.
Rotation: Josh Young (6-9, 4.35) is the only person in the rotation older than 30 (Young is 35) but he's also the closest thing the staff has to an ace. He even has a sub-4.00 ERA with Montreal (3.90 since the trade from St. Louis)! Anyway, he's staying in. I'm not so sanguine on Mike Scott (2-3, 5.48) and with the presence of 22 year old DJ Fletcher (2-1, 2.56 at AAA Buffalo) in this organization, Scott seems surplus to team needs. I've stuck him in th bullpen.
Bullpen: The true casualty of the above move was that Cole Pritchard (2-4, 6.08) was released. He's 33 and was awful this year so I don't see much in the way of redeeming qualities. The bullpen in general can be described as short on redeeming qualities. The best players in the minors though are all emergency replacement types (or they're far, far away from ML ready), so there's little reason to not stick with what's there, more or less.
Infield: Brent Putnam (,172, 6, 18) appears to have left his bat in Chicago when he moved to Montreal in the off-season. I'm mixing Roberto Carranco in heavily now but I'm reticent to just give the gig away entirely because Putnam still handles pitchers well and has thrown out 52% of would-be basestealers so far.
Outfield: I'd stuck Ben Aldridge (.130, 0, 3) in as the full-time RF with Matt Williams (.281, 13, 34) out for the season but... is he really that good? I'm switching this over to a platoon of him and Gabe Martinez (.265, 0, 11). Martinez doesn't have a lot of power, as you can see, but he has some extreme platoon splits (.115 vs. LHP, .331 vs RHP) and Montreal ought to take advantage of that. And it's not like Aldridge was exactly lighting up the minor leagues before this call-up (.255, 5, 25 at Buffalo, albeit with a lot of walks).
June 22: And le
San Diego Padres:
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
San Diego Padres 37 60 .381 L4 24 394 91 .234 42 4.36 1.0 4.4 5.1 .980 0.3 938,941
San Diego on the other hand is *not* playing at the level they did last season, although it's my experience that these expansion teams very commonly do kind of well in the first year and then completely bottom out in the 2nd. In any case, they are really, really not good. Well, they do have decent power - those 91 dingers are good for 5th in the NL - and runs allowed is 9th as opposed to, like, 11th or 12th, so there's that at least. This isn't a good team but they do occasionally win games on solo homeruns and mediocre pitching...
Rotation: As with the Expos I seem to have mostly purged the older players from the starting rotation, at least. There's no real youngsters in there right now - Tim Reece (5-3, 3.64) is the youngest at 26 - but nobody's older than 29 as well. A quick look at the high minors and the prospect lists indicates that there's nobody really out there to take over any time soon, so it is what it is at the moment. At least they aren't just completely horrible a la the Braves or the Cardinals!
Bullpen: Chris Valenzuela (4-4, 4.20, 2 Sv) is already only nominally the stopper. The biggest issue I see is that there's not really anyone on this roster who's actually pitching well who I feel like I could rely on, like, at all. Here there are kiiiind of guys in the high minors, like Jon Teague (7-1, 2.42 at AAA Salt Lake City) but we used him earlier in the season and he walked 24 batters in 26 innings so he can go ahead and keep working on that control (which has been fine in SLC, granted). The game insists that 23 year old Travis Livingston (1-0, 4.07, 6 Sv at SLC) is ready to go in the majors but I'm not sure his own ERA agrees with that assessment. Jose Flores (1-1, 1.99) looks good but... why can't he beat out Livingston for the closer role down there if he's so ready to go? Again, lots of words to say "I will do nothing here".
Infield: 1B John Chapman (.205, 5, 15) hasn't exactly looked amazing but last year's starter Diego Garcia (.177, 3, 14) has been completely useless. So useless, in fact, that I'm going to allow him to seek job opportunities elsewhere, perhaps selling real estate. This allows me to call up 27 year old Ron Mangini (.324, 5, 54 at SLC), who's been blowing away AAA. He's no kind of prospect but he does have a chance at least of ceasing the revolving door at this position. Sitting vs. most right-handers could also help the right-handed Chapman find his stroke. Once upon a time this guy was a 4-time All Star.
I've already lamented about the complete lack of options at 2B on this team. Now the AI is saying that Jake Gray is ready to be promoted back to the majors. This is the same Jake Gray who hit .126 in 119 at-bats this year with 35 Ks, so color me skeptical.
Outfield: Zachery Hadley (.247, 0, 23) is clearly the weak link in the outfield, combining subpar defense (40 in CF, -2.2 ZR) with an empty .247 average. Cody Slater (.229, 3, 9) has basically the same problems and so, for the sake of change, I'm going to call up 24 year old Tyler Mitchell (.311, 6, 20 at SLC), who didn't really hit in an earlier trial with the team this year (.232, 5, 16) but who's been raking in the minors since then. If nothing else, he'll be a substantial upgrade on defense, and if almost nothing else, Hadley has a career OBP of .305 and you have to think that Mitchell can improve upon that.
July 24: I got ahold of the
Chicago Cubs a game too late...
Code:
Team Name W L % STR MAG GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Chicago Cubs 54 41 .568 L2 66 - 529 113 .287 37 3.86 1.0 3.7 5.6 .981 7.9 833,012
The bullpen in particular has been just plain bad this year (4.24 ERA, 3rd worst in the NL). Like, the starting pitching is nothing to write home about - you really don't want middle of the pack when you're supposed to be contending - but clearly the bullpen is dragging them down something fierce. They're still 3 games up on the Phillies, granted, but this does kind of feel like a team that's going to fizzle out in October unless they can figure this out.
Rotation: With so many guys out with injury, Jason Sanders (10-5, 2.08) is the only proven above average starter on the roster. I guess that's unfair to Mike Wilbers (8-10, 4.04) but it's not untrue. Right now they're on a 4 man but that's mainly because Victor Marin (7-4, 3.31) is out for another week with a sprained hamstring. That will help, at least.
Bullpen: I think I've jettisoned the truly bad performers from the 'pen for the most part. I'm not super happy with LH Freddy Uscanga (6-3, 3.35, 10 Sv), who's had an ERA of 4.08 since joining the Cubs and just feels very volatile whenever he's on the field. For now I think I'm going to promote Antonio Martinez (0-2, 2.72, 4 Sv) to a right-handed co-stopper. He was setting up Uscanga and, before him, Chad Nies and the "Sugar Bear" does have at least some history of pitching in higher leverage situations. Ryan Gurley (5-2, 5.40) is mostly still on this roster because he carried a 2.81 ERA in 73.2 innings of relief work for these Cubs and I want him to be that guy again.
Infield: I'm not very fond of 23 year old David Holcombe (.236, 5, 25) getting substantial playing time on this roster. The scouts say he'll mature into a league average 2B but he's not there yet either with the bat or the glove. He's also mostly a placeholder there until Juan Perez (.301, 6, 25) is ready to return but with Perez having the dreaded "Unknown" status next to his name, the Cubs could be forced to keep using Holcombe like this. The one thing I will do a bit more of is use Tim Mantero (.207, 0, 6) there against lefties. Mantero has been hitting even worse than Holcombe but perhaps between the two of them they can get a little bit of production.
Outfield: In retrospect maybe it was Adam Groves (.232, 10, 33) who should have been traded off... I'm still waiting for him to equal the .268/24/78 form he put up in '68 before missing all of last year, but maybe that's just not going to come. In his current state he's... fine. Sam Marks (.360, 3, 18) has been doing too well as a pinch-hitter to not get at least occasional time in the field, and Groves does look like the best guy to take time away from, so I'll get that going at least.
July 25: The
Minnesota Twins means I've done a 40-loss breakdown for almost everyone.
Code:
Team Name W L % STR MAG GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Minnesota Twins 57 40 .588 L1 65 - 449 99 .256 35 3.45 0.7 2.9 6.4 .978 -2.9 925,926
So yeah... the Twins have had a little bit of adversity this year but they're pretty far and away the best team in the AL West. Not a huge fan of the defense up the middle. What do you do? Those guys are performing offensively and helped the Twinkies win the pennant last year. The pitching is actually 1st in the AL in runs allowed in spite of having only the 3rd best starters' ERA (3.43) and 8th best bullpen ERA (3.53, also one of the few teams with a worse bullpen than starter ERA). How that happens with the 8th best ZR is beyond me. Luck? Whatever. THERE IS NO LUCK. THERE IS ONLY THE TWINS.
Rotation: Ricardo Magdaleno (5-11, 4.74) is the only guy who should really consider his job being unsafe in the rotation and he was 13-8 last saeson so... it's not.
Bullpen: I see that Caleb Howard (0-3, 3.71 in 1968) is due to come back from a looooong injury but I have zero confidence that he can still pitch so at the very least I'll expect him to make a few appearances in a rehab stint before bringing him up. Otherwise, Pete Lynn (4-3, 3.23, 9 Sv) is only OK as the stopper and everyone behind him is not quite OK - in fact, Eason's the only guy currently in the bullpen with an ERA under 4. No, wait, it's him and Melvin Melena (1-1, 1.96). I'd say that Melena deserves a bit more high-leverage usage so I'll flip-flop him and (now former) setup man Pete Eason (1-2, 4.24).
(note: Melena melted down the game after I went through the team; his ERA is now also over 4 at 4.18 so he can be a happy member of the Twins Bad Bullpen Boys)
Infield: Brad Reed (.218, 8, 38) has been really bad with the bat but the game still thinks he's one of the best catchers in the league and I mean, he's only 29 so it's not like he's going to fall off of a cliff.
I'm really going to have to switch out the double-play tandem of Daniel Gilmet (.295, 5, 28) and Marty Mendel (.283, 0, 20), lest the pitchers mutiny - they have a combined ZR of -10.2 and that's with both parties having missed around a month of the season apiece. Still, the time to do that is definitely not in the middle of a pennant race, and the main guy who'd replace one of them, IF Danny Pellot (.329, 1, 8) is a 35 year old man who fields up the middle well for a 35 year old man but that's not exactly the kind of replacement I'm looking for.
Outfield: LF Alejandro Cortez (.260, 8, 34) has hit 5 of his 8 HRs this month, which has propelled him up to around league average level. I'm still not sure if that's really enough but on the other hand - and sorry if I repeat myself - this is a former MVP who made the All-Star Game as recently as 1968 and so deserves the benefit of the doubt.
The Twins also don't get great defense from their center fielder Jose Villasenor (.263, 10, 28) but... well, see my comments above on Gilmet and Mendel. One thing I am noticing with him is that as a left-hander he really does not hit LHP well (.222/.300/.321) so I'm going to mix Kyle Ship (.237, 4, 16). As a center fielder, Ship is... right handed with the potential to some day be semi-adequate.
July 25: Man, covering a lot of teams this week. Your
San Francisco Giants:
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
San Francisco Giants 54 40 .574 L2 4 420 67 .266 33 3.13 0.9 2.9 6.7 .979 15.8 890,650
The Giants are just, like, right there, one good series away from really being in the NL West race. Their attack is built pretty much entirely on that awesome pitching staff. Even without Jason Sanders and now Roy Holm, they're tops in the league in ERA and unlike a couple teams I could mention they're also getting a great deal of help from their defenders. Which is good, because not all of those guys can hit and the Jints are only 5th in runs scored overall.
Rotation: Dan Ballard (3-8, 5.02 with NYY) is scheduled to make his first start for the Giants today. He's the biggest question mark on the staff, really, but he's also an extreme ground ball pitcher who was victimized this year by, quite frankly, an aging infield defense in New York. Now that he's away from those "zeroes" and down with the "heroes", we expect a difference. Swingman Sam Williams (5-5, 4.24) swings to long relief now that San Francisco has a string of games without doubleheaders and moves to a 4 man rotation.
Bullpen: I could talk about not liking John "The Assassin" Booth's (4-5, 2.55, 18 Sv) lack of punch-out ability (only 4.0 K/9), but the man is getting results. He still hits the upper 90s on the radar gun so I expect those Ks to increase. As we get into the dog days of summer, I expect the Giants to lean on him earlier and oftener. Other than Sam Williams being the new long man / spot starter, I'm making no changes to a bullpen that's largely working.
Infield: The game is not high on Chris Campbell (.255, 2, 23), calling him the 3rd worst starting C in baseball, but he's a good pitch caller and benefits from having a staff that holds runners close. And it's not like SF has anything I can put in there, not in the middle of a pennant race.
San Francisco is going to have a big decision to make next week when 1B John Everhart (.295, 14, 47) comes off the DL, because 25 year old Chris Seek (.366, 1, 14) is hitting the cover off the ball. At a glance I think Everhart has to keep that job since Seek just doesn't have the power you look for in a corner infielder but that kid could contend for multiple batting titles in his future. I can shuttle players around the field and basically put this decision down to Seek vs. RF Will Hartmann (.317, 4, 32) instead but that's not exactly an easy choice to make either, as Hartmann is himself only 24 and holds a .310 career average in the majors already.
It's... weird that a team that's this good on defense is so bad at shortstop. Mario Guevara (.237, 6, 22) hits fine, I guess, but he's 39 years old and his Gold Glove quality D is long gone. The thing is, Masayuki Kojima (.191, 2, 14) is only marginally better at short and is 32 years old himself. All of this is to justify calling up minor league veteran Ben Dowler (.302, 0, 5 at AAA Phoenix) and plugging him into this position. Hot month aside I have no illusions about Dowler's stick. He is however a 70/80 fielder at short, which is a massive upgrade.
Outfield: Other than the Hartmann situation, I see no reason to do much of anything to the outfield. The three starters are all hitting over .300 and also very, very rangey in the field.
June 26: And now it's time to look at the
Milwaukee Brewers for the third time this year:
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Milwaukee Brewers 37 60 .381 L1 20 360 56 .248 42 4.59 1.0 3.2 5.2 .976 -26.8 861,397
The Brewers also got completely hosed by the draft this season, missing out on signing their 3rd, 4th, and 5th round picks (all of whom broke off negotiations beacuse they wanted way more than slot and the Brew Crew had negative money to give them) as well as the 10th and 11th round picks (both high schoolers who would only have signed for more money than they were worth). I am not going to lie that seeing the Brew Crew wilt on the vine makes me somewhat happy but I do notice that I dumped a good deal of money in their coffers and updated their market size/fan loyalty so that should be pretty temporary I think.
ANYWAY, on to the team itself. No, they are not good at all. As bad as they were last year, they definitely are bottoming out this season before perhaps putting together an actually competitive squad. The only position that's above average per OSA is the bullpen (well, and the closer but does that count in 1970?). A couple of positions looks like they have a chance of being league average-ish in a couple years but that doesn't exactly seem hopeful. The best news is, their 1969 1st round pick C Adam Brown (.326, 10, 39 at A Clinton) and the 1970 1st rounder P Alex Izquierdo (5-1, 3.22 at AAA Portland) both seem to be progressing well. Izquierdo even has a 1970 ETA, which could mean he gets called up sooner rather than later...
Rotation: So step one here is definitely giving Alex Izquierdo a spot in the rotation immediately. He's definitely being fast-tracked (note: I have development set to 1.3, so this is not out of the ordinary) (I also have TCR at 130 so guys dropping off or getting boosted mid-career is not abnormal either) but he also looks like he can handle it and my scout thinks he's an ace in the making. Jeremiah Vardaman (7-7, 3.77) is the guy who is the odd man out. He's pitching fine, I guess, but let's not go crazy here: he was 4-16 last season and at 31 is unlikely to be more than fodder for this team.
Bullpen: The game thinks Danny Plaunt (4-4, 3.94, 4 Sv) is one of the best stoppers in baseball. I don't see it but OK I guess. He's definitely doing better in the role than he was as a starter last year, when he was 4-15 for the Senators. The rest of the bullpen is honestly not great, with two guys out there with +5 ERAs, but outside of Vardamann everyone's under 30 and I feel like I've already been using this as a revolving door so I'm going to keep it as-it for the time being.
Infield: I've gone ahead and called up C Ivan Sanchez (.253, 3, 41 at AAA Portland) and put him in the starting role in place of Jonathan Victoria (.203, 10, 30). Victoria has some pope for a catcher and that's about all he provides this team. He led the AL in strikeouts last year and should not play as much as he's been playing. Sanchez is 23 and according to OSA still at least a year away from really hitting it but there are hopes he can be something around league average with the bat. Long-term, Sanchez is a lefty and so Victoria, a switch-hitter who can't hit lefties to save his life (.157 with 27 Ks in 41 at-bats this year) is not a good choice for his backup, but long-term I suspect Sanchez may not stick anyway.
Dr. Jack Holman (.266, 6, 31) was a guy who lit up AAA last year and got an extended chance in Washington. He wasn't a bad dice roll for the Brewers but he's clearly a replacement level player and not much more. There's not really much going on at this position in the minors, however, and so it's also not a terrible idea to just let Holman prove himself to be whatever he is at least through August.
Esteban Rios (.143, 0, 4) was a decent enough player last year but he seems to have completely forgotten how to hit, losing more than 100 points off of his average. He's only 24 so I'm sending him down to the minors with the knowledge that he could one day return. That means that Marcos Escobedo (.322, 3, 19), the 31 year old veteran of the Mexican League, is locked in as the starter at least through the end of the year.
I earlier decided to call up Guido Temudo (.189, 1, 4) to play shortstop in the second half, and while his bat is clearly not ready for prime time yet, he's a much better fielder than any of the guys the Brewers had been using there in the first half and as you can see from ZR this is a team that badly, badly needs more defense. Eric Biron (.213, 6, 22) was the main first half guy but not only has he not hit but he's not cut out for shortstop.
Outfield: Dylan Dockery (.217, 5, 22) was Oakland's starting center fielder last year and based on that he filled the same role for the Brewers this year. Looking at him, though, there are zero things aside from major league experience that tell me he's at all better than Fernando Ceballos (.290, 1, 5), who had a stint in the majors earlier but for some reason was sent down. He's hit well in the minors (.297, 1, 8 at Portland) so... yeah, he's starting now in center.