Standings
---------------
Code:
AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Cleveland Indians 64 42 .604 -
Boston Red Sox 58 45 .563 4.5
New York Yankees 57 47 .548 6.0
Baltimore Orioles 50 55 .476 13.5
Washington Senators 48 57 .457 15.5
Detroit Tigers 47 57 .452 16.0
West W L PCT GB
Minnesota Twins 61 45 .575 -
Oakland Athletics 55 45 .550 3.0
California Angels 53 52 .505 7.5
Chicago White Sox 52 56 .481 10.0
Kansas City Royals 42 63 .400 18.5
Milwaukee Brewers 41 64 .390 19.5
NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Chicago Cubs 60 45 .571 -
Philadelphia Phillies 58 45 .563 1.0
New York Mets 54 50 .519 5.5
Pittsburgh Pirates 55 51 .519 5.5
St. Louis Cardinals 44 61 .419 16.0
Montreal Expos 38 68 .358 22.5
West W L PCT GB
Houston Astros 65 40 .619 -
Cincinnati Reds 62 46 .574 4.5
San Francisco Giants 58 46 .558 6.5
Atlanta Braves 50 55 .476 15.0
Los Angeles Dodgers 45 59 .433 19.5
San Diego Padres 42 65 .393 24.0
Power Rankings
----------------------
Code:
1st (2nd) Houston
2nd (5th) Cleveland
3rd (8th) Boston
4th (9th) Philadelphia
5th (10th) Chicago (N)
Man, that NL East race... the Cubs came back to play just in time for the Phillies to catch right up to them. The Cubs have all the offense but the Phillies have defense plus, frankly, luck (Chicago is 5 games below their Pythag W/L whereas Philadelphia is overshooting theirs by 3). Say what you will about them but you've got to play out those games. Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston were all the biggest mover-uppers, too, jumping 5 places compared to last week. The biggest dropper was Oakland, who was somehow 1st last week but are now 8th.
Code:
20th (23rd) San Diego
21st (19th) St. Louis
22nd (24th) Milwaukee
23rd (18th) Kansas City
24th (22nd) Montreal
The Dodgers are all the way up to 14th now. I don't know what to do with them. Throw in the towel? Kind of, but they've been stuck at 59 losses for, like, ever. They just dominated the Expos in a 5 game series, winning 4 of them (after losing the first). Yes, I will grant you, it's the Expos. Meanwhile, the Cardinals (see below!) have seen the bottom pretty much drop out. It's clear now that the 1967 magic is gone.
Major Transactions
------------------------
July 29: The Cubs acquire OF Steve Fenney (.296, 1, 12) from the Astros for cash. Fenney was being used a lot as a pinch-hitter but was getting a little tetchy in that role and in Chicago he figures to play full time in right given that Adam Groves (.234, 10, 35) is not the same player he was before he missed all of 1969. It's a tough world, this baseball.
August 2: The Tigers acquire 3B Tim Reynolds (.351, 3, 10) from the Expos for cash. The Expos have a Rule V guy in Adam Owens (.277, 14, 33) who's due back in a week and this was more or less a move to get back a little for a guy who has zero future with them. For the Tigers, this marks the end of the year-long experiment with 3B John Daughtry (.205, 5, 21). David Salinas (.243, 0, 12) likely gets the job back - for now - but Reynolds will likely spell him a bunch.
News
-----------------------
July 27: Twins 1B Angelo Martinez racked up 11 hits in 23 at-bats to earn the AL Player of the Week honors. At the time of this writing, per the news report (I forgot to note this down at the time) he was hitting .289 with 21 HR and 66 RBIs. Pretty good!
July 27: The NL POTW was Braves 2B Kevin Dwyer, who got 17 freaking hits in 32 at-bats. I was thinking he missed some time with injury but no, that was just everyone else on the Braves team.
July 28: Pirates CF Elijah Johnson (.288, 2, 23) will miss the rest of the season with a torn labrum. Johnson is 36 and an 11 time Gold Glove award winner who probably won last year on reputation, but he's still pretty decent out there. That said, prior to this season he was a real minus on offense. The replacement Justin Hearl (.254, 0, 7) could win multiple Gold Gloves himself if he's left in the lineup, so we'll see if he can hit well enough to carry the position through the end of the year.
July 28: Cleveland RF Tommy Pron (.328, 2, 41) had his 25 game hitting streak end in just about the worst way possible. Pron was officially charged with 0 hits in 1 at-bat but he also walked three times and was on deck when 1B Kyle Kelver (.315, 6, 21) hit into a game-ending double play. "I'm more down that we weren't able to pull out the win", said a dejected Pron after the game. "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing."
July 28: It's not pitching if you don't get hurt, I guess. Cy Young candidate - I should say Cy Young favorite - Angelo Ramos (17-2, 2.51) felt a sharp pain in his shoulder today. He pitched through it and recorded his 5th shutout of the year but the training staff realized he strained his rotator cuff in the process. Just as a precaution (yeah, right!) Ramos is going on the DL with hopes of seeing him again by the playoffs.
July 29: It took the Reds to their last out but they managed to extend Steve Waiters' (19-1, 2.15) win streak to 11 games. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and runners on 1st and 3rd, LF Justin Jensen (.200, 21, 49) walked off of Pirates' ace Paz Lemus (5-4, 1.86, 5 blown saves now) and then C Oliver Williams (.289, 4, 46) slapped a single into right field to give his team a 4-3 win. "All that extra time in the cage is really paying off," said Williams after the game. "Oh yeah, Steve pitched pretty well, too." Waiters' last and so far only loss of the season came on May 26 at San Diego. More importantly to the Reds, the victory, coupled with the Astros' loss in Chicago, brings the Reds to 3 games back in the NL West.
July 30: 3B David Salinas (.249, 0, 11) of the Tigers asked to be traded. Here I can't say that I blame him; he's a multi-time All-Star and is straight up outhitting the guy Detroit is giving at-bats to at his position (John Daughtry (.211, 5, 21)). Daughtry is 8 years younger and Detroit's going nowhere and, well, the trade demand means we're past the point of placating Salinas anyway. For now I'll put him on the trade block but if he doesn't get moved I'll probably cut him in the offseason.
July 30: Kevin Freeman (8-9, 3.41) of the Washington Senators just made history. The squat left-hander no-hit the AL West leading Minnesota Twins en route to a historic 10-0 blowout. The no-no was the third this *year* (although first since I moved over to the new version, just to note), tying the league record set in 1968 and 1946. Teammate Chad Daugharty (9-6, 2.80) actually got the last one on May 3rd. "Yeah, Chad and I have a little bet going about who's going to win more games this year," Freeman said after the game. "Ball's in your court, Dog."
July 30: Big day for pitchers today, I guess. Brewers SP Alex Izquierdo (1-0, 0.00), the #4 pick in this year's draft, made his major league debut today with a splash with an 8-hit shutout of the Boston Red Sox. Izzy struck out 6 and walked just one in this, his 9th game as professional pitcher. Who knows how many wins this young man will wind up with.
July 31: Tigers LHP Douglas Sweetapple (0-0, 0.00), a 31 year old who hadn't pitched in the majors since 1967 before the Tigers took a chance on him, is now getting a grumpy on because he's not starting. I guess to be fair (TOOO BEEEE FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIR) he had a 3-year run from 1962-1964 where he made the All-Star Game 3 times and... was only 5 games below .500 (25-30) for an Astros team that was losing 108 or 109 games a year. In spite of myself and his high walk rate, I think I'm going to give him a bit of time in there. Ben Schmidt (6-6, 4.58) is the odd man out for now.
July 31: The Reds split a double-header against the Cubs today but that's not the newsworthy bit so much as is the fact that this allowed them to finish 18-14 for the month. Yes, the month. The Reds played 32 games this month in spite of the All-Star Break, and that means they played 4 double-headers and had literally zero off-days outside of the ASB. Looks like August will be a real vacation for them; only one double-header vs the Mets and 3 whole off days (although one of them is the 31st and the next day off they get is the 10th), which adds up to 29 games total. Scheduling in the late 60s and early 70s was insane.
August 1: Jason Mooneyham, the 11-time All-Star who is currently the Yankees' backup catcher, is not happy with his role, although his overall morale says he's Good. Glad he's not in full mutiny because he's not getting his job back.
August 1: Cubs CF Chance Cooper (.268, 7, 13) just had 3 HRs over a double-header yesterday and I guess that was enough to win him NL Rookie of the Month honors. Called up to replace Mark Tooley (.275, 10, 33), Cooper made his debut as a pinch-hitter on June 30th and was in the lineup for pretty much the entire month of July. I don't think he profiles as a CF but at age 22 he's still got some room to grow so who knows?
August 1: The AL Rookie of the month was Royals LF Jeff Nation (.317, 11, 53), who hit .311 with 11 doubles, 4 HRs, and 18 RBIs. He's looking to me like the odds-on favorite to take home the 1970 ROY, especially now that the disastrous stint at third base is long in the past.
August 1: Twins SP Chris Benavides (12-10, 2.71) has gotten some tough look this year (see the record!) but for July he went 5-2, 2.05 with 43 Ks against just 42 hits in 57 innings. This is actually Benavides' second Pitcher of the Month award; he won it for his performance in October 1968 as well. Too bad about that record because he otherwise looks like a Cy Young candidate. Maybe he'll inherit all the good luck Angelo Ramos (see above) sustained this year before having some pretty bad injury luck...
August 1: For the senior circuit, Reds SP Steve Waiters (19-1, 2.15) remained unstoppable and earned the July award with a 6-0 record in 7 starts with a 1.48 ERA. I'm hard-pressed to see anyone else winning the CYA in the NL but, well, we do still have two months to go.
August 1: Braves RF Henry Riggs (.270, 28, 75) has had one topsy-turvy year. This was his second NL Batter of the Month, as he hit .304 with 10 HRs and 27 RBIs last month. In between, he hit .213 with 7 HRs and 19 RBIs in June and I may have been worried that he fell off a cliff. Not so! Riggs has 467 lifetime HRs and barring that collapse figures to break the 500 mark some time next season.
August 1: California Angels SS Chris Adams (.294, 14, 69) was something of a surprise Batter of the Month award winner, given that he'd been snubbed from the All-Star Game this season. All Adams did was hit .381 with 8 of his dingers and 26 RBIs in the month as California experimented moving him into the power part of their order. Those 14 HRs are already a career high.
August 1: I just noted above that I didn't know who could chase Steve Waiters for that NL Cy Young crown. Well, I forgot about Phillies' phenom Marius Gaddi (17-2, 2.26), who just extended his winning streak to 11. He didn't actually pitch all that well - 7 innings, 4 earned runs on 8 hits - but he got enough support (the Phils won 6-4) and, well, it's 1970 so wins and losses matter. Waiters is still very much in front but even if he goes like 4-4 the rest of the way I could see Gaddi pulling it out.
Speaking of which, Rob Neyer and Bill James did a Cy Young Prediction stat with their Guide to Pitchers. Since it's descriptive rather than prescriptive it's based on stuff like wins and losses and shutouts and so on. Anyway, here's the top 10 for each league. The one thing I didn't add was the 12 point bonus a pitcher gets for winning their division, since the divisions haven't been decided yet. Also I don't think it makes much of a difference in this case:
Code:
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- +
| last_name | first_name | throws | team | w | l | Sv | era | ip | bb | sho | so | CYP |
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- +
| Waiters | Steve | R | CIN | 19 | 1 | 0 | 2.15 | 201 | 44 | 5 | 193 | 196.7 |
| Ramos | Angelo | L | MIN | 17 | 2 | 0 | 2.51 | 193 | 33 | 5 | 129 | 167.0 |
| Gaddi | Marius | L | PHI | 16 | 2 | 0 | 2.15 | 180 | 37 | 4 | 145 | 165.1 |
| Kindberg | Justin | R | BOS | 14 | 8 | 0 | 2.35 | 187 | 73 | 8 | 158 | 144.1 |
| Matthews | Josh | R | CLE | 15 | 5 | 0 | 2.86 | 182 | 71 | 3 | 121 | 136.2 |
| Mosher | Tracy | R | NYY | 14 | 10 | 0 | 2.52 | 203 | 34 | 3 | 143 | 134.7 |
| Stuckey | Mike | L | SF | 13 | 7 | 0 | 2.75 | 196 | 45 | 3 | 141 | 127.6 |
| Benavides | Chris | L | MIN | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2.71 | 206 | 65 | 5 | 149 | 121.9 |
| Hinojosa | Sandy | L | BOS | 12 | 7 | 0 | 2.56 | 168 | 50 | 2 | 138 | 116.8 |
| Battaglia | Jeremy | R | PIT | 12 | 6 | 0 | 2.68 | 174 | 33 | 2 | 103 | 115.2 |
| Rivera | Tony | R | HOU | 11 | 6 | 0 | 2.77 | 185 | 71 | 2 | 137 | 113.2 |
| Luiso | Montay | R | BAL | 4 | 3 | 21 | 0.90 | 70 | 17 | 0 | 55 | 107.0 |
| Olthof | Obke | L | NYY | 12 | 6 | 0 | 3.26 | 160 | 34 | 3 | 124 | 104.2 |
| Coffey | Kent | L | WAS | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2.44 | 158 | 60 | 4 | 98 | 100.9 |
| Mash | John | L | NYM | 11 | 6 | 0 | 2.80 | 151 | 40 | 2 | 86 | 100.1 |
| Giron | Hector | L | BAL | 10 | 5 | 0 | 2.75 | 147 | 33 | 1 | 77 | 94.1 |
| Lagunas | Andy | L | CLE | 13 | 4 | 0 | 3.92 | 133 | 52 | 0 | 95 | 93.8 |
| Bruno | Gary | L | CAL | 9 | 4 | 0 | 2.63 | 147 | 45 | 3 | 61 | 92.7 |
| Beane | Joe | R | NYM | 10 | 5 | 0 | 2.56 | 119 | 52 | 2 | 92 | 91.8 |
| Daugharty | Chad | L | WAS | 9 | 6 | 0 | 2.80 | 154 | 59 | 3 | 108 | 91.6 |
| Rivera | Robert | R | SF | 9 | 10 | 0 | 2.86 | 182 | 32 | 3 | 133 | 91.2 |
| McCauley | Jimmy | L | STL | 12 | 8 | 0 | 3.60 | 157 | 79 | 1 | 96 | 89.2 |
| Molina | Edgar | L | DET | 11 | 9 | 0 | 3.63 | 168 | 57 | 2 | 163 | 88.9 |
| Booth | John | R | SF | 4 | 5 | 20 | 2.34 | 65 | 22 | 0 | 28 | 85.4 |
| Lemus | Paz | L | PIT | 5 | 4 | 14 | 1.86 | 67 | 29 | 0 | 60 | 85.2 |
+ -------------- + --------------- + ----------- + --------- + ------ + ------ + ------- + -------- + ------- + ------- + -------- + ------- + -------- +
It's all starters at the top, which is to be expected given that nobody is saving a million games this year (the formula awards 2.5 points for each save and a guy with, say, 110 IPs and a below-2 ERA will also get a lot of points from that). And actually, assuming Angelo Ramos falls away due to being out until mid to late September and Justin Kindberg and Josh Matthews continue at their current rates, whichever one of them wins their division will wind up with that victory. Tracy Mosher too for that matter if the Yankees wind up taking the AL East. Steve Waiters seems like he's got the NL Cy Young pretty much wrapped up though, even with Gaddi pitching as well as he is.
I originally had this set to the top 10 but I ddid want to see if there were any relievers in range of the Cy Young so I expanded it to 25. The top reliever is Montay Luiso, although he melted down today (these stats are based on my database output, which I updated as of the end of July 31 - those numbers are what you'll see in the post above this one) and that will probably push him out of there (also, Baltimore has itself fallen apart and I expect Luiso only gets a shot if his team gives him the 12-point division title bonus, which is not going to happen). Anyway, John "The Assassin" Booth and Paz Lemus also have outside shots. Also interesting to see Robert Rivera, who has a losing record, up there (I mean, the Assassin does too but he's not a dark horse because of wins and losses) (although I think that in order to have any chances he's going to need a few vultured Ws and a surprise Giants division title).
I'm having trouble finding an equivalent for MVPs outside of, like "just use WAR, JEEZ". I found one that is pretty simple: 1 point each for leading the league in average, RBI, or HRs, driving in 100 runs, hitting .300, playing for a division or league winning team, and playing an up the middle position for the same. I might wind up using that one, although it would be a pain in the butt to set up directly from the DB. There's one that Baseball Prospectus designed in like 2011 that assigns 10-7-5-etc. scores to finishers in a variety of categories, which would also be a PITA to set up in the DB, and they don't expressly release the formula. I'd love to see something that works like the HOF Monitor or, well, the CYA Monitor that just adds things up.
August 1: So with the above TOTALLY burying the lede today, the Phillies just swept the Giants at old Connie Mack Stadium and that, coupled with a Cubs loss, has pushed Philadelphia into a tie for first in the NL East. The Phightin' Phillies have won 8 straight now; the Cubbies have lost 2 in a row and 3 of their last 4.
August 2: Literal days after acquiring him via trade, the Cubs learned that OF Steve Fenney (.270, 1, 13) will miss the rest of the year with a torn rotator cuff. This doesn't feel like a necessarily season-ender for a position player, although in this case since Fenney is an outfielder and the Cubs are pretty set at 1B he'd be a pure pinch-hitter if he'd stay on. And also in real life I think Gorman Thomas missed most of a season with this injury. In any case, I'd noticed I'd kind of overlooked OF Sam Marks (.371, 3, 18) when I'd had the Cubs acquiring Fenney to replace RF Adam Groves (.231, 10, 35), but now it feels like a Roy Hobbs situation and I've got virtually no choice except to stick the 27 year old Marks in right every day and see what he can do through the end of the year.
August 2: Senators SP Chad Daughtry (10-6, 2.64) responded to his rival Kevin Freeman's no-hitter with a 2-hitter of his own. "In my opinion, if you don't give up many hits, you win some games," Daughtry said in the postgame interview. Let's forget for a moment that he was facing the punchless Milwaukee Brewers.
August 2: Speaking of those Cubbies, they stopped Steve Waiters' win streak (19-2, 2.15) at exactly the right time today. 21 year old rookie Jose Zarate (4-2, 1.92) got the Sunday spot start today and, frankly, pitched his way into the rotation by scattering 6 hits in a complete game 2-1 win over the Reds. Cincinnati is in a similar "every win counts" situation - okay, it's early August so maybe it's not quite so dire, but they're a full 4 games in back of the Astros - and they'd been looking forward to an opportunity to steal a series at Wrigley.
Teams In Review
-----------------
July 28: Time for the
Cleveland Indians:
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Cleveland Indians 59 40 .596 L1 - 488 107 .288 23 3.33 0.8 3.2 6.1 .983 -2.8 868,153
Man, one thing Cleveland does not do is steal bases. They also had the slowest player in the league in Ernesto Garcia (.213, 33, 79) but he's out for the year and possibly more now. He also played first so it's not like having him out of the lineup is going to increase steals. ANYWAY, it doesn't so much matter since Cleveland is leading the AL in runs scored, average, and HRs (losing Garcia, who is still leading the league in that category as of this writing, will hurt that though). The Tribe has the best starters' ERA in the junior circuit with a 3.29 and the bullpen, which was going to be the iffy part of the team coming in given the trade of Todd Thiessen, has been... average, 7th with a 3.48.
Rotation: The rotation, frankly, is pretty well set once the fireballing youngster Jose Martinez (1-0, 1.65, 44 Ks in 32.2 IP) comes back from a strained rotator cuff. That will be around a month but that's still plenty of time before the playoffs start. For now, the #4 spot is minor league vet Benito Diaz (1-1, 3.33), who is... fine. It's good enough to not want to switch things around for switching's sake.
Bullpen: The Judge Elias Sanchez (1-2, 2.47, 3 Sv) saved 58 games from 1965 to 1967 so he hasn't exactly come out of nowhere, but he's been a really nice addition this year. Mostly I think the bullpen woes have figured themselves out and that's a huge part of why the team's been 37-19 since June 1. No changes here either.
Infield: I'd really prefer a better battery-mate to Jonathan House (.278, 8, 33) than Jason Zimmerman (.194, 1, 9), but it is what it is. House is a lefty who is sat a lot against LHP but when Zim is in there, he doesn't provide a lot more, frankly, than good defense. I think it's time to just let House play as often as he's able and forget the platoon for now.
The loss of Garcia meant calling up Jason Brull (1 at-bat in 1970), who's 40 and somehow still in the league in spite of not getting significant PT in the big leagues since 1964. I don't really expect him to be anything more than an emergency guy and pinch-hitter here either. Kyle Kelver (.317, 6, 21) has hit pretty well in his own right this year and last and should allow Cleveland to keep going without skipping a beat.
Outfield: There's nothing that needs to be updated in the outfield. Tommy Pron (.329, 2, 41) has had a strange power outage this season and so I'll drop him to 5th but it's not like he's not still hitting well overall...
July 29: And it's yoooour
Kansas City Royals:
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Kansas City Royals 40 60 .400 L1 19 411 65 .249 53 4.71 0.9 3.9 6.1 .975 -45.7 963,988
Well, they're (probably) better than the Brewers, at least. KC has the worst defense in the American League and are only a few rungs up from the bottom (8th) in runs scored. Despite all that, they do look like they've found a CF and leadoff hitter of the future in Dave Corona (.326, 12, 45) and a solid middle of the order guy in LF Jeff Nation (.323, 11, 52). They've also made a lot of, um, experiments in the field throughout the year and once they get it together their ZR won't be nearly as bad as above. By the peripherals they're pretty much league average in walks and Ks allowed, although that HR rate is troubling given how large Kansas City Municipal Stadium is. But it's an expansion team! Relax!
Rotation: I've been tinkering with this rotation all year long and as such I don't think there's any special second half magic I need to pull. The rotation is still trending pretty old and doesn't have any prospects in it right now, but I checked and KC's got nobody really ready on the horizon anyway.
Bullpen: This is likely the last stop for Victor Reyes (0-5, 8.65, 1 Sv) and it's not starting out well: through 10.2 innings he has an ERA of over 10 for the Royals to date. I'm not pulling the plug on him just yet though. His stopper-mate is the equally (well, maybe not *equally*) fallen Chad Nies, who himself has an ERA over 5 with KC. Otherwise the team has some old men in the 'pen but again, there's not a lot else going on on the farm. It seems like trying to get the top of the 'pen to restart itself is a decent priority for now.
Infield: Nate Sita (.164, 0, 2) isn't hitting at shortstop but neither is the guy they signed to take his at-bats, former Oriole Steve Saunders (.165, 0, 5) and Sita is at least young enough at 24 that maybe he'll be better in time.
Outfield: Jeff Nation is still in search of a position. My guess is, it's going to wind up being first base. Right now he's solidly below average in left (-4.5 ZR) but at least he doesn't have an embarrassing fielding percentage at the position. He stays in the lineup because he's arguably the best hitter on the team (it's probably down to him and Yakashi Ono (.282, 8, 50)).
July 30: The
Houston Astros have been playing out of their minds this year but hey, everyone loses 40 eventually:
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
Houston Astros 61 40 .604 L2 - 500 104 .266 32 3.82 0.7 3.8 5.8 .985 24.3 1,030,508
It's been a truly amazing year for a team whose highest victory total prior to last season's 84 wins was a 73-89 1967. Despite playing half their games in the Astrodome, Houston is 3rd in the league in hitting (and somehow 4th in homeruns). The pitching, well, has been a bit propped up by the cavernous home park, but still... this attack has been enough to lead the division and it shows no signs of stopping.
Rotation: The easy choice for an odd man out should the Astros feel the need to make a change is Josh "Party in the Back" Mullett (10-8, 4.66), who's seen his ERA climb by almost a run. He's still winning games, mostly from run support, but hey, there's a place for a guy who can give you around 7 innings, give up 3 or 4 runs, and keep you in it most of the time.
Bullpen: I'd prefer to have someone a bit less volatile than Jon Douglas (2-7, 3.58, 11 Sv) as the stopper but the Astros just don't have a guy like that. Indeed, the bullpen in general right now is not in great shape and the guys who are playing well in AAA Oklahoma City didn't do well when given a chance earlier in the year. For now, I'm mostly going to stand pat... although I just now noticed that Danny Weickert (2-2, 4.78), who had a combined 3.00 ERA last year with the Phillies and A's but was apparently a numbers casualty this year, is on the market, so I'll sign him and then probably send down the struggling Mike Bryant (0-0, 9.39, 8 ER in 7.2 IP).
Infield: C Dan Rigdon (.230, 3, 36) has lost 63 points off his average to date this year but he's the guy that brought them this far and it seems like a bad idea to just make a change for change's sake at such an important defensive position.
With Jordan Green (.292, 4, 20) out, Houston's gone with their old reliable John Timonen (.208, 3, 8) at shortstop. Well, reliable on one side of the field. I guess both in the sense that he's also a reliable out. Timonen might be the best defensive SS in the NL but those numbers he's putting up represent the best hitting he's done in his career. Well, he did mash 15 HRs in 1966 to go with an average of just over .200 like this year but that seems to be the issue: every since then, the guy seems to think he's a power hitter and as a result he just whiffs a lot. Anyway, he's performing just well enough to stay in the lineup until Green gets back some time in September.
Outfield: Outfield is pretty well set, so set in fact that the Astros felt it was fine to ship off 4th OFer and pinch-hitter Steve Fenney (.287, 1, 12) to the Cubs for cash. That leaves Nate Ringstad (.198, 4, 15) as the team's primary pinch-hitter, although really they're planning on running whoever has a hot hand and/or matches up well.
August 2: With a record of 44-60, the
St. Louis Cardinals are next on my list:
Code:
Team Name W L % STR GB R HR AVG SB ERA HR/9 BB/9 K/9 PCT ZR Att
St. Louis Cardinals 44 60 .423 L2 15½ 431 97 .253 23 4.55 0.8 3.9 5.6 .979 -31.4 917,054
The Cards are in a spot where it's clearly time to more or less wrap it up for the season and I guess the only/biggest question is, how far do I wrap things up? The lineup is still led by a couple of big bruisers in 1B Justin Stone (.304, 27, 72) and LF Lorenzo Martinez (.262, 29, 76), but I feel like practically everyone else is reviewable. The team position rankings seem to agree with me; every single other position except for catcher (where John Stuart is out for the year anyway) is listed as below average. The cupboard is kind of bare on the farm, as you'd expect from a team that up until this year was still trying to tell itself it was a couple steps away from contention. Yeah, I guess we'll see...
Rotation: I'm not sure what the trade gods have in store but this team looks like they could definitely flip a few assets. For the time being, the top rated minor league starter, Robert McHugh (6-10, 4.47 in AAA Tulsa) wasn't doing all that well in the high minors and now is out for the next month with chronic back soreness. The #5 guy, Ed Chavera (0-4, 7.61) is up but has been terrible this year in 5 starts, although he was fine in AAA (4-4, 3.15, 59 Ks in 65.2 IP) so I might give him a sliiiightly longer leash. AAA in fact is littered with guys I gave time to but were very, very bad in the major leagues. There's a trend here, I'm noticing. I've otherwise promised 33 year old Jason Stinson, he of the 4-13 record, a spot in the rotation for now... why am I doing this? It's not like high draft picks in baseball are meaningful. Meh. I'm sticking with it for now.
Bullpen: One move I did have to make was to release Calvin Rowell (0-0, 6.52), a 36 year old hanging around in long relief. One, I can surely find a younger player to be that bad. Two, and I didn't even see this, but Rowell was a clubhouse lawyer during his time in St. Louis. Dude was a career 14-23 pitcher with a 4.87 ERA, with most of his major league time coming in the early 60s. My main question is: why was he here in the first place?
Infield: I think for the most part I've already made the moves for the second half. I'm not a super fan of Dusty McCully (.204, 2, 16), who has played short better than his ratings would suggest (a .985 FA and a +3.8 ZR during his time in St. Louis), I guess. Still, the organization also gave Joe Wicker (.258, 7, 41) a lot of time last year at the position and he looks like he'd be roughly league average as a fielder there, at least. And as you can see from the team ZR, these guys need better fielding, like, yesterday.
Outfield: Speaking of fielding up the middle, I think I'm pretty much done giving Ray Herring (.225, 6, 30) any more time in center. 24 year old Jake Leone (.203, 3, 19) isn't really hitting well enough to keep this position long-term but Herring was a brutal -11.4 in the field this year and, as things go, he's no longer hitting like a guy who can play in the corners. That said, the Cards' 2 corner OFers both look like 1B/LF types. I guess that makes a need for a guy like Leone even more dire. Speaking of which, though, I really have to find a spot for 24 year old RF Casey Satterfield (.261, 14, 50), even if it's on another team. He's given up almost as many runs in right as Herring did in center (-9.5 ZR) and there's no way he's ever going to hit well enough to displace Stone or Martinez. He stays in the lineup for now because he's still not *bad* as a hitter.