[Syd Thrift]

Major Transactions
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November 3: The Phillies traded CF Joel Schaben (.274, 5, 35) to the Senators for minor league 1B Juan Serrano (.257, 12, 51 in AAA Denver) and minor league OF Pedro Carrasco (.239, 4, 12 between Milwaukee and Washington). This was mainly a room to dump Schaben, who'd been threatening to sit out the season if he wasn't traded.

November 30: The Braves traded IF prospect Manuel Lozano (.242, 12, 50 at AAA Richmond) to the Cubs for CL John Winn (4-4, 1.59, 23 Sv combined), who the Braves dangled on the waiver wire in September and then watched as the Cubs snapped him away. The Braves give up one of their top prospects in Lozano to get him back.

November 30: The Orioles traded RP Billy Munoz (3-4, 2.45, 10 Sv between KC and Baltimore) to the Cardinals for C prospect Chris Grider (.222, 2, 11 at AA Arkansas). The Cards need pitching badly and Grider, the #12 pick in the draft this year, could eventually plug a gaping hole in the Orioles' lineup, if not in 1971.

November 30: The Cubs traded minor league RP Mike Dolan (0-0, 6.97 at AAA Tacoma), RP Brennan John (1-0, 6.10), and minor league 1B Ivan Lopez (.285, 5, 26 at AAA Iowa) to the White Sox for CF Ryan Clements (.250, 4, 13) and minor league OF Tyler St. Hill (.249, 4, 17). A depth for depth move, that's about the size of it.

November 30: The Cubs traded CF Mark Tooley (.272, 11, 41) to the Reds for C John Kohut (.247, 3, 20). The Cubs liked what they saw out of Chance Cooper last year enough to give him the starting CF job heading into 1971. Giving up Tooley is mostly a salary cutting move, as he's set to make $220k next season. They did get a left-handed batting catcher in Kohut back but that's practically gravy. From the Reds' standpoint, Tooley figures to be a significant upgrade over Chris Wilkes.

November 30: The Angels traded SP Aidan Williams (14-8, 3.49), C Mike Perez (.165, 13, 40), and 1B Pete Jennings (.296, 16, 96) to the White Sox for 1B Willie Vargas (.323, 7, 58), 3B Jordan Wooten (.232, 17, 47), and P Luis Sanchez (5-1, 5.19). The centerpiece of this move is Vargas, who is perhaps the best young hitter in the game today, although Jordan Wooten also plugs a big, big hole for California heading into 1971. The Sox get back a serviceable 1B in Jennings, a nice young pitcher, and... Mike Perez, who is their problem now.

December 1: The Astros purchased C Ian Singleton (.237, 3, 19) from the Cubs for $500. One of the advantages of doing this weird transaction thing I do is that I can follow real-life narratives; in this case, I can follow how the Cubs, large market team that they are, are very, very cheap. Singleton is a serviceable backup but now that they've added Kohut he's no longer needed. The Astros also already have a decent backup C in Bobby Copeland but unless you're the Cubs you can never have too many.

December 1: The Red Sox traded UT prospect Josh Barone (.230, 12, 52 in AAA Louisville) and CF prospect David Cook (.222, 1, 17 in AAA Louisville) for LF Tom Brown (.273, 23, 91). Obviously for Boston this deal makes sense; with the 3-time All Star Brown they immediately turn a minus position into a plus going into 1971. The Chisox weren't quite dipping into rebuilding mode but this, coupled with the above move, signals that they are. Both Barone and Cook could see significant time in the major leagues this season.

December 1: The Braves traded OF Ruberto Yebra (.285, 5, 40) to the Mets for RP Steve Hollopeter (3-3, 2.55). Atlanta grew disenchanted with the speed Yebra and sell him on the cheap to the Mets, although Hollopeter is a good young arm to be fair to him. Adding Yebra means that New York can send Edgar Arriaga to the bench.

December 1: The Orioles traded RP Dan Schoner (2-2, 3.06), SS Paul McCartney (.319, 3, 12 and a lot of HIT SINGLES), SP Alfredo Lopez (6-8, 3.38), and P Ben Feldhusen (no record in 1970) to the Padres for SP Tim Reece (10-9, 3.07) and RP Chris Valenzuela (5-5, 3.14, 12 Sv). The O's raid the Pads' pitching staff, with the primary piece getting sent back the king of the Fab Four himself. Additionally, they get some veteran leadership in Lopez and, in Feldhusen, an interesting piece: he was a 2-time ERA leader in 1964 and 1965 but he's pitched just 3 major league innings in the past 2 seasons. If healthy, he could be the staff ace.

December 2: (whew, we are definitely in the winter meetings!) The Royals traded minor league P Franklin Medrano (2-3, 2.74 in AAA Omaha) to the Cardinals for P Ed Chavera (0-4, 6.29). Chavera is another "spin the wheel" guy for KC and St. Louis frees up space on their 40 man roster. Medrano could conceivably be an asset in the future, maybe.

December 2: The Royals traded C Chris Flores (.227, 0, 14), IF Luke Dunnahoe (.222, 12, 52 combined between STL and KC), and P Eric Tyler (8-16, 4.87) to the Pirates for P Jorge Cervantez (1-2, 2.84), C Carlos Hernandez (.250, 1, 11), and SS prospect Steve Ungar (.241, 2, 18 for A Niagara Falls). This is mostly a "rebuild" trade for the Royals, who do get a veteran catcher out of this plus a guy in Ungar who looks like he could be a solid starter in a year or two. For the Bucs, Eric Tyler looks like he could thrive on a good team and Luke Dunnahoe is a sorely needed infielder.

December 2: The Braves traded minor league 1B Ray Hawkinson (.328, 5, 24) to the Brewers for minor league P Moises Quintanilla (8-9, 4.84 for AAA Portland), OF Earl Goetz (.260, 2, 25 for AAA Portland), and OF Kenny Augspurger (.235, 4, 25). Goetz and Augspurger should compete for the LF job in Atlanta and as for the Brew Crew, Hawkinson had a nice year in AAA, albeit as a pinch-hitter, and should push both Dr. Jack Holman and Mike Ramos for the 1B job.

December 3: The Red Sox purchased minor league C Chris Bautsch (.206, 2, 12) for $500. Bautsch is pure organizational filler who had an at-bat in the bigs in 1969.

December 3: The Red Sox traded CF Ryan Johnston (.224, 5, 14) to the Cubs for OF/PH Sam Marks (.340, 3, 25). The Bosox clear a logjam in center by trading away Johnston, who'd been a starter for them from 1965 to 1969 but fell on hard times and injuries last year, and get one of the game's best pinch hitters back. The Cubs like Johnston as a guy who can push Chance Cooper in spring training.

December 3: The White Sox traded SP Gene Lueders (4-9, 5.16) to the Yankees for OF Aaron Rhodes (.331, 2, 22 in AAA Syracuse). Lueders was a Rookie of the Year candidate in 1969 who had a very bad 1970, due at least in part to bone chips in his elbow, a surgery he is still recovering from as of this writing. The Yankees hope to return him to decency and give up a decent-looking non-prospect in Rhoades to make things whole.

December 4: The Padres traded SS Akiho Fujimoto (.280, 3, 44) to the Giants for minor league P Eric Pepe (11-10, 4.38 in AAA Phoenix) and SS Ben Dowler (.225, 0, 4). Like it or not, the Padres had little use for a 32 year old shortstop, as good as Fujimoto might be, and in Pepe they get back a 22 year old who could turn into major league talent one day, plus a stopgap at the position in Dowler.

December 5: The Tigers purchased OF Bill Swan (.220, 2, 10) from the Senators for $2,500. Swan struggled last year but is still fairly young at 24 and should at least press Adam Dittmar for the 4th outfielder slot.

December 11: The Indians traded C Jason Zimmerman (.182, 1, 13) to the Dodgers for P Raul Andrade (2-9, 4.82) and RP Keith Pacheco (6-5, 3.73). Zimmerman's been a backup with Cleveland but would be a big defensive upgrade over what LA has right now at the backstop. They also trade away two disgruntled pitchers whose roles declined last season.

December 15: The Angels traded minor league P Justin Vogel (4-2, 4.22 in AAA Hawaii) to the Reds for RP William Hess (1-3, 2.35). Hess was a throw-in in the Mike Perez trade last year but the Angels want him back. They give up Vogel, who could develop into a back of the rotation starter, in this deal.

December 16: The Orioles trade CF Bryant Tarala (.218, 15, 31) to the Phillies in exchange for OF Luis Martinez (.261, 6, 24), SP George Dapson (11-14, 3.90), and 1B Omar Rodriguez (.304, 28, 86). Tarala is a lot to give up but all the injuries were beginning to be a headache for the O's front office. By creating a hole in center, they get to plug holes in the rotation, in left field, and maybe even at first base; Rodriguez looked like an MVP level talent in AAA last season.

December 30: The Expos traded IF Sergio Rojas (.188, 1, 5) to the Giants for 2B Bill Heyen (.256, 0, 40). In previous versions of OOTP, Heyen's personality would have read "being smart, doesn't always make you popular". He played a lot last year but is arguably only replacement level, and Rojas at least is cheaper. Rodrigo Juarez now steps into the 2nd base role without hard feelings (or if Heyen does have hard feelings about this, he'll be half a continent away). On Montreal's side, Heyen will replace Adri van Zanten, who really is replacement level.

December 31: The White Sox purchased P Franklin "Dirty" Davila (4-6, 5.00) from the Red Sox for $3,500. The real move here involved a guy who didn't play in the majors again until expansion in 1977. Davila will almost certainly see time in the White Sox' rotation; he was bad last year but he won 15 games in 1969 and is still only 31.

News
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(I'll probably be very light on real news in the offseason, just because I want to get through it fast)

November 10: Twins PH/1B Jon Barnes (.274, 3, 9) suddenly announced his retirement today, leaving Minnesota without their primary pinch-hitter. Barnes' 62 at-bats last year was a major league career high; he ends with just 115 of them. Barnes was only 30 and still had life left, if not as a starter, but decided to call it quits anyway.

November 22: Hall of Fame voting begins. My choices (all of whom are pretty much unknown, granted):

3B Noah "Mungo" Buchanan: A 12 time All-Star with 2,311 career hits, 12 All-Stars, 3 Gold Gloves, 6 Silver Sluggers, and an MVP award. My league starts in 1946 when he was 24 so he probably missed another year or two. Even with the time served he sure looks like an All-Star third baseman to me.

RF Pat Card: Played from 1948-1963 and had a relatively short peak with 6 All-Star Games to his credit and "only" 1,656 hits. He also has a career .323 average even though he was basically done as a starter as soon as he hit 30 (the human pattern-seeker in me says it was a mild-seeming hamstring injury in 1959 that robbed him of his speed). There's a fair amount of black ink on his record, including leading the league in hits twice, doubles twice, RBIs(!) once (in 1953 he went .355/17/100), and batting 3 times. I think you have to go with peak value here

SP Lazaro "Spanky" Hernandez: A 226-194 career record doesn't reeeeally tell the whole story, as Hernandez was an absolute workhorse for more than a decade before finally breaking down in 1963 at the age of 35. He led the league in games started 5 times and innings thrice, while pitching well enough to play in 6 All-Star Games. Maybe he's more of a fringey candidate but I don't think this league has a lot of super-great pitchers.

SS Alex "Seeker" Ortiz: Only the 1 Gold Glove but 7 All-Star appearances and what's more, the league didn't start until he was 27 years old, so he might have missed 5 full seasons due to World War II. He's one of those guys with the big secondary skills, too, instead of pure flash, although he did hit .298 for his career. He topped 100 walks twice and a .400 OBA 8 times.

1B Ruben Vazquez: Another guy who lost some years at the beginning due to World War II, Vazquez went to 7 All-Star Games and collected 7 Gold Gloves along with the 1949 AL MVP with the St. Louis Browns. He still managed to clear 2000 hits and had a career .291 average. That 1949 season was a thing of beauty: a .354 average on 202 hits, 40 doubles, 8 triples, 23 HR, 75 BBs vs just 19 Ks.

December 13: The Rule 5 Draft looked like this:

Round 1, Pick 1 - Montreal Expos: SP Franklin Medrano from the St. Louis Cardinals.
Round 1, Pick 2 - Kansas City Royals: LF Joshua Birley from the Detroit Tigers.
Round 1, Pick 3 - San Diego Padres: C Michael DeBose from the St. Louis Cardinals.
Round 1, Pick 5 - Milwaukee Brewers: 1B Kozue Nakamura from the California Angels.
Round 1, Pick 6 - San Francisco Giants: SP Moises Melendez from the Boston Red Sox.
Round 1, Pick 7 - Washington Senators: LF Jon Zimmerman from the Kansas City Royals.
Round 1, Pick 8 - St. Louis Cardinals: CF Jim James from the Boston Red Sox.
Round 1, Pick 9 - Chicago White Sox: LF Brandon Kane from the Boston Red Sox.
Round 1, Pick 10 - Los Angeles Dodgers: 2B Logan Fletcher from the St. Louis Cardinals.
Round 1, Pick 11 - Oakland Athletics: 2B Israel Gaytan from the Boston Red Sox.
Round 1, Pick 12 - New York Mets: 2B Barry Wilshire from the St. Louis Cardinals.
Round 1, Pick 13 - Baltimore Orioles: C David Delgado from the Washington Senators.

The Cards' roster got absolutely raided here; I turned these teams over during the review part and didn't see all this talent to be perfectly honest.

December 21: A big blow for the Brewers today as SS Guido Temudo crashed his vehicle after falling asleep while driving. Fortunately, he's all right; unfortunately, he broke his elbow and will miss a substantial portion of next season. OOTP players, if you're going to do stupid off the field things, try to do them *before* the Rule 5 draft, not after.

December 28: The Tigers discovered a player out of Kazakhstan, or, in the year 1971, Soviet Russia. He doesn't look like he's going to be a MLB level player but I am crossing my TCR fingers here. This man, Geysar Kucherbayev, has the potassium to win.