## Standings / Recap / Comments
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Detroit Tigers 62 40 .608 - 427 343
Cleveland Indians 55 47 .539 7 404 354
Baltimore Orioles 54 47 .535 7½ 363 321
Boston Red Sox 53 47 .530 8 357 311
Milwaukee Brewers 45 57 .441 17 327 380
New York Yankees 42 58 .420 19 313 343
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
California Angels 60 43 .583 - 364 352
Oakland Athletics 55 48 .534 5 374 397
Minnesota Twins 51 48 .515 7 373 353
Chicago White Sox 49 53 .480 10½ 357 388
Texas Rangers 46 57 .447 14 303 342
Kansas City Royals 37 64 .366 22 358 436
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Chicago Cubs 60 44 .577 - 421 428
St. Louis Cardinals 56 44 .560 2 412 371
Philadelphia Phillies 57 45 .559 2 404 377
Pittsburgh Pirates 55 47 .539 4 339 291
Montreal Expos 43 57 .430 15 321 374
New York Mets 41 59 .410 17 329 397
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Houston Astros 58 46 .558 - 358 346
Atlanta Braves 56 48 .538 2 412 374
San Diego Padres 51 51 .500 6 392 376
Los Angeles Dodgers 49 52 .485 7½ 341 368
San Francisco Giants 45 60 .429 13½ 337 343
Cincinnati Reds 41 59 .410 15 378 399
As much as I enjoyed some of the time-saving of ChatGPT as well as the goofiness, it's just not all that informative for me. I do have to say that I'm using it in my other writing and it is suuuuuper useful, so... anyway, to me all the good penant-race stories are in the NL. The Cubs have the best record in the league this year in spite of being outscored 421-428. I guess that's the general PARITY LEAGUE focus of the senior circuit: nobody this year is really all that good. I fully expect the Cards or Phillies to eventually surpass Chicago but then, I expected it to happen already. They do have the... 2nd best offense in the league (St. Louis scores sliiiiiightly more runs per game), which granted is tempered by the park that they play in but on he other hand Wrigley is also making their league-worst pitching staff look worse than it probably is. Philly meanwhile has somehow survived even with 2 major parts of their lineup from last year turning completely to crap in 2B Victor Serna (.182, 4, 18) and 3B Alex Becerra (.164, 7, 19). Those two combined for 52 HRs last year but neither were able to stay in the lineup this year. Serna's even been sent down to AAA to try to figure things out (he's hitting .176 in 51 at-bats there so it's not looking good).
The NL West is kind of more of the same. Both the Astros and Braves seem catchable except that nobody else in the division seems to have anything like what it takes to get to 85-90 wins. Houston's offense is probably better than it looks but they've been weighed down by the albatross that is OF/1B Justin Jensen (.205, 6, 30), who at least is no longer starting. The pitching outside of Tony Rivera (17-8, 2.22) seems vulnerable too. Atlanta meanwhile has got great hitting, the best stopper in the game in John Winn (2-6, 2.05, 12 Sv) and... a whole lot of questions.
The AL, I just don't thik I need to spend a lot of time on. The Tigers enjoyed a 5-2 week with series wins over the Brewers and Indians to extend their lead to 7 games in the division. I full expect that to get out to double digits soon. The Angels may not win their own division by as much but the A's are also getting outscored and not even by a little bit so it'll take a huge run by the aging Twins to make that close.
OKAY, so let's take a look at those leaderboards... like I said, no ChatGPT, although on second thought maybe I will mix that in like, every other week. These summaries feel like I'm repeating myself much less often than I do when I do it weekly.
Twins 2B Daniel Gilmet (.333, 7, 36) hit .346 this week and is now leading the league in hitting by a pretty good chunk. This would be his 3rd batting title of his career but his first since 1966. Thanks to injuries the 34 year old only has 1600-odd hits but 2000 seems reasonable to get to at least. Tigers CF Alvin Romero (.325, 1, 29) is playing through back spasms but still is just barely in front of Royals LF Tony Danza (.323, 2, 27). Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia (.296, 37, 95) is still lapping the field in HRs and RBIs with White Sox 1B/OF Alice Cooper (.243, 27, 67) and veteran Twins 1B Angelo Martinez (.229, 24, 61) still 2nd and 3rd in HRs, with Royals OF RJ Dominguez (.246, 16, 68) a diiiiiistant 2nd in RBIs. I recall him being among the HR leaders at one point but he's hit just 6 ding-dongs since June 1. The steals title is pretty much Romero's to lose with 38; at this point he could potentially win without stealing another base, as the #2 guy Ahnold (.188, 0, 12) has been sent back down to AA Tucson and Royals CF Dave Corona (.247, 9, 22) has surpassed his teammate Tony Danza with 23 as he hasn't been told to nail his foot to the bag (Danza did steal 2 bases, pulling his SB/CS ratio up to 20/22 - yes, that's 22 caughts).
Nobody in the AL has a sub-2.00 ERA this year. Cleveland's Jose Martinez (14-6, 2.08) comes the closest. He's come out of nowhere but could be be the Cy? Santos Rodriguez (10-6, 2.17) recovered from a bad start on July 31 to only allow 2 runs in 8 innings in his lone start this week and consolidate his hold on 2nd, and the Red Sox' Marco Sancez (10-10, 2.21) rounds out the top 3 with a very hard-luck season. With much less hard luck you've got the Tigers' Edgar Molina (15-7, 2.74), who somehow missed the All-Star Game but is having a career year. Martinez and Boston's Michael Pesco (14-8, 2.59) are both 14 game winers. Molina also leads the league in Ks with 174 and is a good last 2 months away from a Triple Crown. He's followed by Pesco with 164 and a tie between Martinez and the 3rd Red Sox to appear on these liests, Justin Kindberg (12-9, 2.88), with 161. And in the saves race, the A's Willis Chavez (5-2, 1.85) is a huge part of how the A's have overachieved with 22 saves in 23 opportunities, followed by the Tigers' Jim Marceau (4-4, 2.38) with 21 (although 5 blown saves and, bad news for him, Alex Madrigal (0-0, 0.00) has returned from a shoulder injury he suffered in spring training - he'll take the bulk of closer duties in Detroit now) and then new guy Travis Livingston (3-3, 1.03) of the Twins, who has 18 saves and will likely be leaned on haaaaard down the stretch.
On to the NL!
There's now only one man hitting over .300 in the NL this year: Atlanta 2B Kevin Dwyer (.318, 13, 51), who's been an absolute rock for the Braves as they try to contend. Reds LF Alonzo Huanosta (.297, 1, 43) is nexxt because somebody has to be, right? It is TBF nice to see him bounce back from a bad .261/13/57 season with the Indians last year, although it's equally too bad to see him put up these numbers for a bad Cincinnati team. Cubs 1B Antonio Lopez (.297, 20, 48) is in a virtual tie with him and otherwise is juuuust out of the leaderboards in the other big categories. In HRs the Reds' Jaden Weaver (.241, 24, 68) managed 1 HR and 3 RBI this week to stay just ahead of Dodgers 1B Justin Stone (.257, 23, 67), who had 2 and 5. Pop superstar / Padres 2B Paul McCartney (.278, 21, 69) muscled his way into this conversation with 3 HRs and 12 RBIs - coupled with a .440 BA, I'm guessing he'll be the Player of the Week. Reverse the HR top 3 for the ribbie top three! With steals, the Reds' Pedro Ortiz (.284, 1, 25) paces everyone with 29 although now that the Braves' Chris Ward (.304, 7, 20) is healthy, he's catching up with 20 of them, including 2 this week. Cubs 3B Sean Gabel (.280, 1, 27) has 19 for 3rd.
Fernando Apolonio (12-7, 1.96) is no longer even close to breaking the ERA record but he's still the last guy in either league with a sub-2.00 ERA, which puts him well ahead of the #1 guy... Expos P Frank Evans (9-7, 2.11). Like, I don't see Apolonio being able to continue at this level but I deeeeefinitely don't see Evans doing so. Jeremy Battaglia (8-14, 2.16) is the first "legit" guy on that list and is also having some terrible, terrible run support this season. Tony Rivera (17-8, 2,22) leads all major leaguers in wins and is 4th in ERA to boot; he's followed by 3 guys - Pittsburgh's Santos Arango (13-11, 2.60) and DJ Cheeves (13-6, 2.48) and the Phillies' Richard Starkey (13-8, 2.96) with 13 Ws apiece. 24 year old fireballer Roger Quintana (10-7, 2.71) of the Phillies leads all NLers with 160 Ks with Arango behind him with 138 and LA's Rogelio Salinas (10-4, 3.68) with 129. Atlanta's Roberto Ortiz (9-5, 3.75) has a combined 153 between the two leagues. Jesse Kelly (7-1, 2.12) has pulled the Cubs out of the fire all season long with a league-high 20 saves, followed by LA's Alec Cosby (4-4, 2.39) with 17 of them and 3 guys with 16.
## Major Transactions
August 1: The White Sox claim C Chris Flores (.202, 1, 13) off of waivers from the California Angels. The Angels had just traded for the 32 year old backstop and were trying to sneak him into the minor leagues. Little did they know that the Chisox have just plain nobody at the position! Flores probably leaps straight into the starting position for them.
## News
July 31: Operation Motorman begins today in Northern Ireland at 4 in the morning as 13,000 British troops roll into the "no go" areas of Belfast, Derry, Lurgan, Armagh, Prtadown, Coalisland, and Dungannon. Although violence will continue in Northern Ireland it will be greatly reduced and will never again reach the levels of July 1972.
July 31: Nine civilians are killed in the Claudy bombing in Northern Ireland when three separate bombs explode without warning at about 10:30 in the morning in that small town.
July 31: An explosion incinerates 17 employees at the Box Flat Colliery in Australia. Six were coal miners, another 8 were members of the Mines Rescue Service who had volunteered to fight a(n unrelated?) fire (man, mines are scary), and three others were working in a shed outside the entrance of the No. 5 shaft when the fiery blast occurred at 2:58AM.
July 31: George McGovern drops Thomas Eagleton from the Democratic presidential ticket.
July 31: Yet another hijacking on US soil (man, this was the era for that): Flight 841 from Detroit was hiacked by five members of the Black Liberation Army as it was approaching Miami. After receiving a ransom of $1.7M they commandeered the flight to Boston, refueled, and then flew it 5,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Algeria. All five hijackers would eventually be caught although one man, George Wright, would remain on the lam until 2011.
July 31: We've got some more new blood this week for PotW honors! In the AL the award goes to Indians CF Bobby Kaplan (.286, 3, 17), who turned around his season in one week's time with a 12-19 (.632) performance with 5 runs scored. He only played in 4 of his team's games but I mean that's enough, isn't it? Kaplan started his career out in Cleveland, was sold to the Washington Senators in October of 1970, and then, following a solid rookie year, was traded back to the Tribe in the MASSIVE Tommy Pron/Eric Godard/Jonathan House deal. This is his first hardware of any kind at the ML level, although he won the IL/AA Golden Glove in 1969.
In the NL, the award goes to 100% new blood in the form of Dodgers OF Ronney Yitzakhi (.310, 4, 11), who went 9-19 (.474), also in part-time work but also super-effective. He also had 2 of his 4 dingers and 5 of his 11 RBIs last week. Yitzahki, an 11th round pick back in 1969 who's outshone everyone's takes on him coming out of the draft, won Player of the Week twice in the minor leagues. He began this year in AAA and got the call in spite of hitting just .208/4/13 in 144 at-bats at that level, which was the furthest up he'd reached previously. He's mostly a utility guy who can play 6 positions at a plus level - everywhere except catcher and first base.
July 31: Hey, "only" 2 double-headers today, although also nobody gets today off in spite of it being a Monday. Get back to work, strikers! I guess...
July 31: It's only Monday but this might be the Game of the Week! I'll let ChatGPT, who I told to act like a bitter old sportswriter, take over:
Well, gather 'round, folks. We got ourselves a clash between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies. A real nail-biter that ended with the Phillies edging out the Buccos, 5-4, at Veterans Stadium. Now, the Pirates started with a glimmer of hope, notching a couple of runs in the third inning. But wouldn't you know it, the Phillies answered back with a four-spot in the bottom of the inning, led by Matt Highfield's two-run single. Talk about a momentum swing.
The Pirates tried to rally, plating a couple more runs, including a solo shot by Mike Jackson. But, you know how it goes, too little, too late. Richard Starkey on the mound for the Phillies held his own for seven innings, giving up just four hits, securing himself a W. Now, folks, it was a game worth watchin', even if it's just to see who'd come up short. Starkey earns the "Player of the Game" title, and to add insult to injury, the Pirates lost Greg Lake to an injury during some defensive play.
That's baseball for you, a mix of highs and lows. The Phillies walked away with the win, and the Pirates, well, they'll have to regroup and hope for better luck next time. The game's got a way of humbling even the proudest, and today, it was the Pirates' turn to feel it.
(I didn't tell ChatGPT to be a Pirates' fan but I guess when you tell it to be bitter, that's what it does naturally. Also "the Buccos" is a new one to me)
July 31: Because of the DUMB AI (read: the fact that the Cubs were completely out of pitchers yesterday) I have to recall Alex Guizar (3-2, 4.19) for one game to spot start against the first-place Cardinals. He... did surprisingly well, pitching maybe his best game of the year with 2 runs allowed in 7 innings for a 6-2 win that lowered his seasonal ERA just below 4. The Cubs have a pretty brutal schedule coming up so I think I'm gonna have to leave him on the major league roster for now.
August 1: The first article in the Watergate investigative series by reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward appears on the front page of the Washington Post, with the headline "Bug Suspect Got Campaign Funds".
August 1: 47 year old professional wrestler Ray Gunkel dies from heart trauma after defeating Ox Baker in a match in Savannah, Georgia. Initially reported to have died in the ring, a spokesperson said that "[h]e went to the dressing room, showered, dressed, and felt great... He was sitting in a chair, talking to the Savannah promoter... Then as the promoter got up to leave, he fell to the floor." Although pretty much unremembered in pro wrestling history since he did all of his work in the pre-"Rock and Wrestling" era WWF, Gunkel will still eventually be recognized in the George Tragos / Lou Thiesz Hall of Fame in 2008.
August 1: Twins IF Danny Pellot (.234, 1, 12), who has been with the team since 1965, is annoyed enough by his reduced role with the club and their lack of success that he's demanded a trade. Like, what? Dude, you're 37. Pellot still has something left with his glove but honestly it's not enough to deal with poor chemistry. I'm going to cut this guy loose; if this is the last we hear of him, he made 5 All-Star Games in the 60s and has 1,876 hits, definitely good enough for both the Tigers' and Twins' personal Halls.
August 1: And it's time for the monthly awards!
The NL Rookie of the Month goes to... a guy who just got sent down but then called back up in Cubs P Alex Guizar (4-2, 3.96). Guizar was 3-0 with a 3.56 ERA and although I thought he was the 10th best guy on the staff, he was still good enough. Guizar put together 23 Ks in 30.1 innings in July against only 10 walks. The .272 opponents' average was probably even a little unlucky. He was also the IL/AA Pitcher of the Month for May this year so... he's doing pretty well.
The AL Rookie of the Month feels a bit more... normal. Tigers 1B Nikki Lauda (.291, 11, 37) took the league by storm in July to the tune of a .314 average (32-102), 6 HRs, and 22 RBIs. He played so well, in fact, that the 22 year old was even named to the All-Star Game. Lauda was also the Player of the Week for the week ending July 16th so he wasn't just the best rookie, he was one of the best players, period.
The NL Pitcher of the Month award goes to Tony Rivera (16-8, 2.23), who did end it with a whimper, losing 3 of his last 4 starts, but that only goes to show how awesome he'd been in the first part. He finished the month 5-3 with a 2.58 ERA and 43 Ks in 66.1 IP. Batters hit just .238 against him and he continued to force hitters to beat him with singles, allowing only 3 HRs (8 on the year in 214.1 IP). If it looks like a bad month for Rivera, that's only because Rivera's kind of good. Kind of surprisingly, Rivera had never won the PotM before now.
In the AL, the Pitcher of the Month is a guy who was literally claimed off the scrap heap by the Kansas City Royals in May; they acquired this guy, Mike Lagunas (8-5, 2.18) for backup 3B Mike Ramos. Lagunas got things going just a little too late to make an All-Star appearance but 5-1, 1.84 is still pretty OK, especially for a team with as beleaguered a pitching staff as the Royals. Lagunas struck out 34 and walked 20 in 53.2 July innings and was veeeeery stingy with the hits, allowing a tiny .196 opponents' average (which, sure, is a bit lucky, but a GOOD PITCHER MAKES HIS OWN LUCK). Lagunas has never won this award before.
Penultimately the NL Batter of the Month was the Braves' superstar 2B Kevin Dwyer (.314, 13, 51), who carried his team almost all the way to first place (they're just a game behind the Astros right now) with a .362-5-18 month. He also scored 18 times, had a total of 12 extra-base hits, and slugged a monstrous .650. Dwyer, a 12-time All-Star, also somehow never won this award before now. Surprising!
And two guesses as to who the AL Batter of the Month for July was. If you guessed anyone other than Indians 1B Ernesto Garcia (.288, 35, 93), maybe you should read more of this dynasty! Garcia hit .306 with 13 - thirteen! - HRs and 35 RBIs in 31 games (which, that is a loooooot of games to play in July but I digress). The reigning AL MVP is somehow outslugging last season - .644 vs .628 in 1971 - and is back on pace to hit 60 HRs again. Will he break his own AL record of 65? It looks like a big no at this point but I wouldn't put it past him. Garcia has won this award 6 times now; he now has more of them than All-Star appearances (5). He really should get all the credit for carrying his team to a 19-12 record that puts them within shouting distance of the first-place Tigers.
August 1: Some guys who did *not* make it onto the monthly boards in July - the Minnesota Twins, who went 9-19 on the month with just 3.57 runs scored per game. I bring this up because they lost *again* today to the Texas Rangers 1-0 in a game they did not look like they were about to score runs in at all. 24 year old Billy Crystal (9-10, 2.42) looked mahvelous today (I've probably already used that but GET USED TO IT) with the 5-hit shutout for Texas, while Chris Benavides (11-13, 3.25) wasn't exactly terrible but was not, sadly for the Twinkies, perfect. The loss puts the Twins a game under .500 at 46-47, and it's really starting to look like last year's 80-80 record was not a fluke.
August 1: In what turned out to be one of the best pitching matchups of the season, San Francisco's Mike Stuckey (7-11, 2.43) and Los Angeles' Rogelio Salinas (10-4, 3.68) dueled for 12 innings at Chavez Ravine. Neither pitcher gave up much of anything in regulation; in fact, Salinas even had a no-no going into the 6th, when 3B George Harrison (.261, 5, 30) finally broke it up with a single up the middle with one out. He didn't come around to score and neither did anybody else until Stuckey finally faltered in the bottom of the 12th, allowing a leadoff double to 3B Robin Gibb (.277, 9, 35). He walked the ferocious Justin Stone (.249, 22, 64) intentionally... and then LF Paul Stewart (.259, 9, 33) sent the LA fans who hadn't already left in the 8th as LA fans do happy with a 3-run blast.
The win hopefully will help the Dodgers find their bearings after a disastrous 9-18 July that not only took them out of contention in the NL West but left them 3 games under .500 entering this one.
August 2: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi announce today that their respective nations would unite into one by September 1, 1973. "The Arabs have realized that the challenges of Zionism and imperialism can only be surmounted by a large entity with enourmous resources and capabilities. The union, which will never actually happen, would have had the ninth largest area in the world.
August 2: The Red Sox entered into this 4-game series with the last-place Yankees looking at an opportunity to sneak in some wins and try to make some ground against the first-place Tigers. A series sweep was almost expected for the reigning champs. A split would have been a disaster. So... what do you call being on the brink of getting swept? The Red Sox lost both ends of the double-header today to fall all the way to 51-45 and 7 games behind the Tigers (whom I've yet to play today). In game 1, starter Justin Kindberg (12-9, 2.88) went all the way but just didn't quite have all of his stuff he usually has and in spite of a 9th inning rally the Bosox still fell 4-3. They hoped to right the ship in the nightcap but after Brian Osborne (8-6, 3.70) got tired in the 7th he left the game to a tired bullpen, who blew open a still-close 4-2 game into a bad 9-4 loss. Boston's biggest issue all year long has been inconsistent hitting; they may be 4th in the AL in runs scored right now but man, they sure don't play like an upper echelon offense.
August 2: Twins 1B Angelo Martinez (.228, 23, 57) reached a big milestone today with his 400th career HR in a 6-5 win over the Rangers at Arlington Stadium. The 36 year old may be into the low-average slugger portion of his career but he's clearly not done yet, as his 3rd-best 23 HRs, 4th-best RBIs, and 11th ticket to the All-Star Game indicate.
August 2: This is the type of year that it is, I guess. Kansas City and Oakland went through a scoreless tie through 9 and then the A's fiiinally erupted for a single run in the bottom of the 10th to win it. Starter Carlos Torres (2-4, 3.79) is a career journeyman and minor league guy but he struck out 11 Royals tonight, so he's found something at age 34 I guess. His opponent, the young Rick Rodriguez (1-3, 2.68) pitched an excellent game himself but could only be so perfect with the punchless KC lineup failing to provide him any support at all. The win does at least get the A's to within shouting distance of the Angels at 2 1/2 games back. They will host the Minnesota Twins over the weekend in what feels like a potential elimination series for the Twinkies.
August 2: The meltdowns continue for Astros CL Jon Douglas (4-6, 3.54, 14 Sv). He didn't blow a save tonight - that was setup man Adam Eastin's (2-0, 1.67) thing tonight - but he inherited a 2-2 tie and turned it into a 4-2 loss to the lowly Cincinnati Reds thanks to a 9th inning HR by SS Dusty McCully (.272, 7, 35). Douglas has blown 6 saves since July 1, when he saved his 12th game on the year and sat at 3-2, 1.29. Since then he's allowed 17 runs in 20.2 IP for a 6.97 ERA (1 of those runs, the 2nd he allowed tonight in fact, was unearned) with 6 meltdowns in 15 appearances. Is it time to demote him, one month removed from his looking like one of the best relievers in the game?
August 3: The "diploma tax", to deter Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union, is enacted by the Supreme Soviet as Decree No. 572: "Citizens of the USSR leaving for permanent residence abroad in other than socialist countries must compensate the State for their education received from institutions of higher education". The tax, as much as 25,000 rubles (and I can't get good dollar values for rubles in '72, let alone how much that would be today), will be abolished in 1973 but not before 1,435 Soviet Jews pay it.
August 3: In an 88-2 vote the US Senate ratifies the Soviet-American Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which will last beyond the disestablishment of the USSR until it is finally abolished when the USA backs out of it in 2002.
August 3: The Yankees complete a humiliating sweep of the Red Sox with a 5-4 win at Fenway Park. Gene Lueders (5-13, 3.51) goes 7 quality innings for the win and Kojiro Nakazawa (3-6, 3.98) pitches a 1-2-3 eighth and collects himself after allowing a Sam Marks (.296, 1, 5) HR to shut things down for save #11. Boston's starter Michael Pesco (14-8, 2.59), who's looking like he might be on another Cy Young campaign, was wild today and not the good kind of wild, leaving in the 7th after having allowed 4 runs on 5 hits and 7 walks, a mark which ties his season high (he walked 7 in an 8-2 loss to the Royals on June 13). The win gets New York to 20 games under .500 at 38-58 but more importantly, they play an early August spoiler to the Red Sox, who drop to 51-46 and 4th place in the AL East race.
August 4: Arthur Bremer is sentenced to 63 years in prison after being found guilty of having shot and paralyzed Alabama Governor / Presidential candidate George Wallace and wounding three other people on a May 15 shooting. He will eventually be released from the Maryland Correctional Institution - Hagerstown in 2007 after 35 years.
August 4: Bobby Fischer reaches his highest live ELA rating of 2789.7 after a win in Game 10 of the World Chess Championship. This rating will not be surpassed for another 22 years.
August 4: I wouldn't call it luck exactly but things keep happening to leave a roster spot open for struggling PH Billy Tristan (.192, 0, 2). The 42 year old, who's played for the Dodgers since 1959, is really really looking like he's at the end of the rope but today an injury to Danny Fager (.215, 6, 19), which forced LA to shake the lineup up and move utility man Ronney Yitzakhi (.252, 1, 10) to second from CF, was also making things look like they were going to need Tristan's roster spot to drop in a backup center fielder. Instead, Fager was diagnosed with a sprained wrist and will be out until September. He was placed on the DL and Tristan's spot remains intact for now.
August 4: Hey, only one double-header today! The schedulers took a break, I see.
August 5: With the national convention long adjourned, the DNC confirmed George McGovern's sixth choice to replace VP candidate Thomas Eagleton, former ambassador to France and Peace Corps founder Sargent Shriver. McGovern previously was turned down by Ted Kennedy, Abraham Ribicoff, Hubert Humphrey, Reuben Askew, and Edmund Muskie.
August 5: So with the draft I generally just offer players initially and then let it go with that. It usually works! Even when it doesn't work, it works in its own way. This year the Indians look like they had like zero draft room and so a whole host of players went undrafted for them, including their 2nd and 3rd round picks, who they'll get compensation for next year. In fact, only one other top-3 pick failed to sign, the 3rd rounder for the Reds.
August 5: Tigers CF Alvin Romero (.326, 1, 29) has been playing through back spasms for the past week and now they've been downgraded to "unknown" duration. He's still going to stay in the lineup because, frankly, the Tigers need him. Maybe if they jump way out in front of this division that will change.
August 5: Call them the Cardiac Cubbies. Chicago (N) eked out a 3-2 win over the fading New York Mets in 11 innings today to pull 2 1/2 games up in the NL East standings, pending games by their rivals. This is in spite of the fact that the team has actually been outscored this season. How are they here, you ask? Well, they are 23-12 in one-run contests now and 9-6 when games are tied up at the end of regulation. Stopper Jesse Kelly (7-1, 2.20, 20 Sv) has certainly been a huge part of that but tonight it was all Bill Lucas (10-8, 3.83). The big 6'3" righty has had a rough time of it the past 2 years since winning 23 for this team in 1969 but he went all 11 innings today to record his 6th complete game of the season. The Cubs got their final game-winner off of old man Tom Owens (1-1, 3.86), who was recently signed by the Mets after these Cubs cut him in April.
August 6: WHY ISN'T THIS IN THE GAME at Hogan Park in Midland, Texas today, a game is called "on account of grasshoppers" whe millions of the insects swarm into the park during the second game of a doubleheader. Grasshoppers dimmed the lighting and alighted upon many of the 857 spectators. Midland wins the game the next day when it is resumed, 2-1, which answers my other question: apparently this was not in fact a Biblical omen and the city of Midland, Texas was not in fact smote.
August 6: Ginger Spice (aka Gerri Halliwell) is born today.
August 6: We are right back into it with 19 games scheduled today! Every team but two in the AL are going in for two while the NL "only" has 2 double-headers today.
August 6: In a double-header that pretty much sums up this season, the Yankees swept the Brewers by identical 1-0 scores. YUCK. In Game 1, Manny Carbajal (8-9, 3.03) "outdueled" 23 year old Omar Jiminez (5-7, 2.93); "outdueled" is in quotes because both of these offenses are punchless. Game 2 was more of the same: rookie Henning Mankell (4-2, 1.81) scattered 8 hits and got out of a bases loaded, 1 out rally in the 9th to best Joel Youngblood (6-5, 3.12). Imagine being a Brewers fan right now.
## Teams in Review
July 31: On paper I swear this team should be better. The
Kansas City Royals (34-60, 6th AL West, 21 GB) have some stars on their roster but a lot of scrubs I guess and unlike, say, the Reds, their runs scored and allowed do kind of match up with the bad record. STILL THOUGH, they've got a really nice hitting outfield... maybe that's all they've got. Dead last in baseball in ERA and 9th in the AL (16th overall) in runs scored does not get you very far. They do hit a lot of homeruns though (71, 3rd in the league). I think the team's been playing for future seasons all year long anyway so the fact that we're completely mired in last place, maybe even in line to get the #1 pick in the draft, probably won't change anything.
Rotation: I'm not a huuuuge fan of how many older guys are in the rotation right now but I guess to be fair they're also the better guys in there. 32 year old Andy Lagunas (7-5, 2.24) is basically the ace of the staff, Miguel Chavez (9-8, 4.09) is a 5 time All-Star who just had some success last season (12-11, 3.00), and they just added 29 year old Dylan Mincher (3-4, 3.53 combined) off of waivers from LA. Due to already having just made a move here when I sent down Ellison Onizuka (1-3, 4.97) I won't make any more.
Bullpen: Juan Correra (2-5, 4.43) is clearly not working out as the stopper, leading me to switch out at the position once more this year. This bullpen has been baaaaad. The job feels like an awful lot to put on 24 year old Jon Gutierrez' (2-2, 3.06) shoulders but this is what it it's going to be for the Rule V pick. I'm considering sending Correra down as he still has an option left... but there's really nobody in Omaha right now who a. looks like anything and b. I haven't already tried. So we'll mostly stay as-is, I guess.
Infield: We've tried 4 different players at catcher and it's amazing in a way how badly all of them have hit. Nobody's been anywhere close to .200; in fact, the current guys are hitting .117 and .128 respectively. I'm going to go so far as to reach out to veteran free agent Mike Perez (.164, 1, 8), who was so bad this year that the White Sox cut ties with him; that .164 would lead all Royals catchers at this point.
1B Jim Davis (.195, 11, 25) is an all-or-nothing guy at the best of times. He seems to fiiiinally be starting to hit, although even at that he's just hitting .203 for the month. That power though. If he wasn't already the creator of Garfield I'd swear he was real-life Royal Steve Balboni. He has to have a big exploitable loop in his swing against LHPs but somehow he's 4-9 against them this year so I'll keep on the notion that maybe he'll get more time against them, not less.
3B Ryan Newton (.232, 1, 21) went from stud to dud this year. I guess I should be happy that he can at least field at the position, which is ultimately the reason KC cut ties with 1970 AL Rookie of the Year Jeff Nation (now .292/12/35 with the White Sox, although he's logged only 92 innings at the third sack there). There is precious little in the minors... except I guess that last year's 3rd round pick, Uwe Kleinmann (.291, 2, 10 at AAA Omaha) jumped two levels this year and seems like he might be ready to go. You can tell from the FUNNY NAME that he's a German "footballer" (read: soccer player) in the offseason. Scouts rave about his strike zone recognition but I'm not so sure: the guy struck out 35 times in 172 at-bats in AAA. I'm guessing he'll probably stink. But hey, it's not like KC was contending anyway...
Outfield: The issue we have in the OF, really, is that we've got 4 corner outfielders and 2 spots to put them in. I've been living with 23 year old Dave Corona (.252, 9, 21) as the "center fielder" but he's been slumping lately and I'm beginning to wonder if playing a position he's just not qualified to play is hurting his confidence. He missed the All-Star Game after making it the previous 2 seasons. Displacing him would mean benching either potential BA champ Tony Danza (.320, 2, 26) or slugger RJ Dominguez (.239, 16, 62) and I'm not willing to do either right now. Also, as it is, Edwin Manchego (.290, 15, 32) deserves more PT, not less.
Oh yeah, one thing I will do is start nailing Danza's foot to the bag once he's on base. The man has got amazing speed but he is 18/40 on steals. He could be up there with Alvin Romero if he made better decisions! Oh well.
August 1: We are looking down the barrel at one hell of a pennant race with the
St. Louis Cardinals (54-40, 1st NL East, - GB) currently on top... but check back next week! They are currently, with today's game yet to be played, just 1/2 a game up on the Phillies and 1 game up on the Cubs, who beat them 6-2 yesterday to drop them to 40 losses. Unlike some of the other teams in this division the Cardinals have a pretty decently balanced team: 3rd in the NL in runs scored (4th overall) and 6th in the league in runs allowed (9th in the MLB in ERA). At that, it looks to me at least at a glance like the pitching staff itself is OK but is weighed down a bit by an error-prone defense (dead last in ZR in the NL, 2nd worst in errors). I'm not sure how much I can do about that but... we'll see, I guess.
Rotation: I guess one thing it does tell me is that I don't necessarily need to do much with the rotation or the pitching staff a whole lot at all. The worst starter is Raul Mendoza (6-9, 3.85), who was a 16 game winner for Washington last year and would still be an ace on a lot of staffs. At that, he's got a solid 119/39 K/W ratio and is allowing only a .238 OBA so I feel like he's been unlucky more than anything. That said, I don't reeeeeally think the front end of the rotation is so fantastic that I need to lean on them heavily so I'm going to expand, for now, to 5 men and work Steve Tidwell (3-2, 4.12) back in. Tidwell himself was a 14 game winner for the Cubs last year.
Bullpen: I also have a 10 man pitching staff going right now with the return of Dan Schoner (0-0, 13.50) from a torn rotator cuff injury that had kept him out since June of last year. The early returns are not positive on him but I'm hopeful he can figure it out in long relief. Otherwise, Billy Munoz (4-6, 3.50, 16 Sv) feels like more of a problem than a solution as the stopper. He just plain gets torched too much: 11 meltdowns last year and already 11 this year. Is Edward James Olmos (5-4, 2.25, 5 Sv) ready to take over the mantle? He did save 14 games for Cincy last year so sure, why not?
Infield: 2B Tom Depew (.215, 5, 20) has lost almost 100 points off of his average from last year and frankly the hitting is what made him a valuable part of this team. I'm not really in a position to sit him, at least outside of letting IF prospect / blues man Buddy Miles (.279, 2, 14 at AAA, .278, 0, 3 in 18 ABs so far in the majors) take some ABs against tough lefties. One to keep an eye on for next year I guess - and hopefully this just turns out to be a season-long slump.
SS Brian Wilcox (.195, 4, 22) came over from the Mets to be a low average good glove hitter and I guess that's exactly what he's been... but to an extreme. Wilcox is hitting for the lowest average of his career since the first season he was a starter back in 1964 and is doing pretty much nothing in terms of secondary average either with a sub-.600 OPS. On the other hand, he leads all NL shortstops in fielding percentage with a scintillating .994 and at age 30 is still competitive in terms of range (his ZR is 3rd, a mile behind Pittsburgh's Henry Villar but essentially tied with the Dodgers' Justin Henderson). Again, in spite of the low average, I just can't swap him out right now and risk ruining the team - especially given that the entire rest of this defense is bad at all the things that Wilcox is good at.
Outfield: I'm not really sure how but CF Jim James (.281, 2, 15) seems to be outplaying Sonny Burwell (.245, 4, 15) as a fielder. Kind of the whole entire point of bringing in Burwell was for the defensive upgrade and although his offensive woes are pretty well documented, this is kind of a shocker. I'm going to just move James back into the starting role - look, he's the guy who got us there last year, as far as we went, and all Burwell did in the last year and a half was lead a bad Reds team and then underperform here. The grizzled old veteran Elijah Johnson (.259, 2, 6) is going to stick around to steal some ABs with either guy given that they're both lefties and Johnson hits well against portsiders.
Casey Satterfield (.261, 16, 46) came on strong last month with a .287-5-12 July to rest worries about his bat at least. He really shouldn't be playing in RF but a. the Cards already have two 1B/LF types on this team already and b. again, I'm not making big changes like moving him off. And hey, he's still just 26 so it's conceivably possible that he could improve out there, right? Honestly, he just lacks range. He concentrates well enough and he doesn't slough off; he's just not all that fast. And, well, his arm is not the greatest.