Standings / Recap / Comments
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We are officially back into the deadball era - well, sort of. The league ERAs are at 3.27 and 3.67 in the AL and NL, down from 3.66 and 3.86, respectively. As such, the game this year is more influenced by speed and pitching than ever before.
In the AL... Washington still leads the East after a huge start. They're led by pitchers Raul Mendoza (4-0, 1.25) and Vince Akright (2-2, 1.36), both of whom are new to the team. They're #2 and #3 in the league in ERA, respectively, with Mendoza tied with A's hurler Roberto Ortiz (1-4, 2.63) with 38 strikeouts. Right behind them, the Red Sox are riding a 5 game winning streak to vault into 2nd - thank newcomer 3B Kristian Schneider (.328, 4, 15), who's leading the AL in RBIs.
The West is currently a 2 team race between the A's and Angels with the Twins licking their wounds with injuries to key pieces of their lineup. In addition to Ortiz above, the A's are also riding the arm of unlikely staff ace Rick Shelton (3-0, 3.03), who has 37 Ks in 38.2 innings, two seasons from establishing himself in the big leagues as a control-oriented 28 year old rookie. His slider is jumping like it never did before but he no longer has the control he used to. Could he be doctoring the ball? The Angels are right there, too - I'd love to say that Circus Vargas is leading the way but only 1B Willie (.338, 0, 8) is hitting right now. Everyone expects LF Nelson (.185, 0, 4) to hit but it hasn't happened yet.
On to the NL... with everyone expecting the Phillies to take over or maybe the Cubs to turn 2 consecutive 2nd place finishes into a 1st, it's the '69 champs the Mets who are out on top. It's all been pitching - they're 2nd in the NL in ERA with a 2.76, paced by Ernesto Carillo (1-1, 3.44), who, in spite of a bad outing today, still leads the NL in Ks with 31. The Phillies are still close and of course it's still early. They're actually #1 in the league in ERA (2.40) thanks to a great start by the back of their rotation, with slowballer Billy Ording (2-0, 1.64) and Ringo Starr (2-0, 0.39) combining for 4 wins.
Similarly to last year, the Astros have gotten off to a big start while the Reds have scuffled a little. Houston's 2nd in the NL in HRs in spite of playing in the cavernous Astrodome; RF Jaden Weaver (.236, 6, 16) is one of 4 NLers with 6 HRs so far. And what is happening in San Diego? Surely it's all smoke and mirrors but this young team is enjoying every minute of it. In particular, I'll point to CF Zackery Hadley (.365, 0, 8), who's 2nd in the senior circuit in both average and steals (5).
Code:
AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
Washington Senators 12 5 .706 -
Boston Red Sox 11 5 .688 .5
Baltimore Orioles 10 5 .667 1.0
Cleveland Indians 7 8 .467 4.0
New York Yankees 7 9 .438 4.5
Detroit Tigers 6 10 .375 5.5
West W L PCT GB
Oakland Athletics 13 7 .650 -
California Angels 11 7 .611 1.0
Minnesota Twins 9 8 .529 2.5
Kansas City Royals 6 12 .333 6.0
Milwaukee Brewers 5 11 .312 6.0
Chicago White Sox 4 14 .222 8.0
NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
East W L PCT GB
New York Mets 11 3 .786 -
Philadelphia Phillies 9 6 .600 2.5
St. Louis Cardinals 10 9 .526 3.5
Chicago Cubs 8 10 .444 5.0
Pittsburgh Pirates 7 11 .389 6.0
Montreal Expos 4 8 .333 6.0
West W L PCT GB
Houston Astros 13 6 .684 -
San Diego Padres 11 6 .647 1.0
Atlanta Braves 10 7 .588 2.0
Cincinnati Reds 7 9 .438 4.5
Los Angeles Dodgers 8 12 .400 5.5
San Francisco Giants 4 15 .211 9.0
Major Transactions
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April 22: The Brewers traded OF Ryan Ashbaker (.294, 0, 1) and minor league P Mike Lopez (1-1, 5.25 at AAA Evansville) to the Phillies for LF Andrew Powell (.290, 1, 5). Powell started for the Phils last year but hit a pretty empty .290 so they felt he was tradeable. They get back Ashbaker, who can take up some of that slack in left, as well as Lopez, who threw 44.2 innings in the major leagues for Detroit last year and has some utility.
April 24: The A's purchased 1B Kyle Kelver (.000, 0, 0) from the Indians for $10,000. Here's the replacement for Matt Levario. Josh Lewis (.226, 0, 3) hasn't gotten off to a great start so it'll be good to take a little heat off of him. Kelver was a good cog in the Tribe's apparatus but with Ernesto Garcia (.288, 5, 6), they simply have no place for him.
News
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April 19: Charles Manson is sentenced to death for the Helter Skelter murders. AND NOW HE PLAYS BASEBALL just kidding I'm not making Charles Manson a baseballist.
April 19: The first players of the week! The AL entrant is Twins veteran 1B Angelo Martinez (.318, 3, 7), who went 9 for 24 with all of his HRs and RBIs to pick up the award. This was the 35 year old's 18th PotW and probably won't be his last.
April 19: In the NL the Player of the Week is also a veteran: Braves 2B Kevin Dwyer (.319, 3, 6), who belted all 3 of his HRs, drove in 5 guys, and scored 6 times with a .407 average (11-27). Dwyer himself has won this award 8 times now.
April 20: National Public Radio airs its first broadcast.
April 22: In his 3rd major league start, Ringo flirted with history. Phillies SP Richard Starkey (2-0, 0.39) carried a perfect game into 2 outs into the 9th inning when St. Louis C Jose Medina (.333, 0, 0) rapped a line drive single into right field. He was stranded and Starkey and the Phillies hung on to win 4-0. "You know, it don't come easy," said the former drummer turned hurler. "I'm just chuffed that it was a clean dibbledy-doo and not a squibbedly-goober."
April 23: Royals RP Kevin Quinn (0-3, 7.27), who was following up a rough 1970 campaign with a terrible start to 1971, was diagnosed with a badly pinched nerve in his arm. He'll be out for a while, maybe even the All-Star Break.
April 23: Expos CF Anton Mendoza (.143, 1, 1), only 4 games back from an injury that kept him out all of spring training and the beginning of the season, will miss the next month with a strained oblique muscle.
April 24: An estimated 200,000 people in Washington, DC and a further 125,000 in San Francisco march in protest of the Vietnam War.
April 25: Alejandro Cortes (.216, 1, 7) can't stay healthy. The Twins' left fielder has been plagued by arm issues all year and today had to be taken out with undisclosed elbow soreness in a 4-2 loss to the Yankees. It's bad enough that he was immediately placed on the disabled list. Mike Grigg (.375, 0, 2) will try to fill his shoes as he did for the 50-odd games that Cortes missed last year, but with Brookes already out this just gets tougher and tougher.
April 25: SUNDAY GAME OF THE WEEK: NY Mets (11-2) at Chicago Cubs (7-10): The Mets' 9th inning rally fell just short as they dropped this matchup between the '69 NL East pennant chasers, 8-7. This was a game defined by the stadium, as the Cubs belted two homeruns (by CF Ryan Johnston (.228, 3, 13) and 1B Alfredo Lopez (.268, 6, 20)) and New York countered with 5 doubles and 7 walks (I guess walks aren't really a stadium factor but STILL). Jason Sanders (3-2, 4.91) picked up a technical quality start for the win (8 IP, 4 R 2 ER, 5 BB, 3 K), with Freddy Uscanga (0-0, 5.02) relieving ineffective middle man Dan Foster (0-0, 22.50) after he faced only 3 batters to pick up his 6th save.
Teams in Review
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Obviously it's too early for this but I'll want to add this section before I forget.