## Standings / Recap / Comments
All right, I'm gonna try something new here with
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA RTO%
Detroit 19 12 .613 - W1 139 111 .289 22 24 3.29 3.3 5.6 .980 32.3
Boston 17 11 .607 ½ W4 144 83 .288 26 9 2.82 3.0 5.3 .978 45.0
New York 16 14 .533 2½ W1 127 141 .258 34 11 4.34 2.5 4.5 .986 36.4
Milwaukee 10 18 .357 7½ L1 119 168 .262 21 20 5.53 3.9 4.7 .981 39.1
Baltimore 10 20 .333 8½ L1 118 134 .251 24 12 3.76 3.9 5.0 .973 39.1
Cleveland 10 22 .312 9½ L4 116 167 .253 29 13 4.85 3.2 5.3 .982 26.9
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA RTO%
Texas 17 10 .630 - W1 114 91 .263 22 12 2.91 3.5 5.1 .978 38.1
Oakland 18 14 .562 1½ L1 134 120 .274 22 14 3.42 2.8 4.8 .975 33.3
Chicago 15 11 .577 1½ W1 115 101 .270 15 13 3.54 4.2 4.7 .981 42.1
California 16 12 .571 1½ L1 116 113 .252 21 26 3.76 3.4 4.7 .979 36.4
Kansas City 16 16 .500 3½ W1 162 173 .260 21 13 5.14 3.6 4.6 .991 25.7
Minnesota 11 15 .423 5½ L1 119 121 .261 32 13 4.27 3.8 5.9 .978 35.7
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA RTO%
Philadelphia 20 10 .667 - L1 168 118 .274 26 23 3.24 2.7 5.0 .979 47.8
St. Louis 19 11 .633 1 W4 126 104 .244 25 12 3.27 2.7 5.3 .984 56.0
New York 18 13 .581 2½ L3 120 121 .272 9 21 3.72 3.4 5.1 .984 46.7
Chicago 19 15 .559 3 W1 137 140 .259 29 13 3.77 3.6 4.4 .983 50.0
Pittsburgh 15 12 .556 3½ W3 100 88 .249 12 2 3.04 2.5 5.6 .983 27.8
Montreal 10 18 .357 9 L3 130 148 .261 28 14 4.61 3.4 5.2 .979 36.8
Code:
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA RTO%
Los Angeles 18 16 .529 - W1 109 113 .238 30 5 2.79 2.9 5.9 .976 35.3
San Francisco 19 18 .514 ½ L1 141 158 .249 33 23 3.83 3.3 5.2 .979 25.9
San Diego 15 19 .441 3 W1 128 126 .241 17 10 3.26 3.7 5.1 .976 55.0
Houston 14 20 .412 4 L1 148 175 .252 40 12 4.34 3.9 4.9 .965 26.7
Atlanta 12 19 .387 4½ L1 126 133 .268 26 9 3.95 2.9 5.8 .980 33.3
Cincinnati 12 20 .375 5 W1 150 159 .256 30 18 4.76 2.6 6.5 .978 33.3
We're starting tp see the wheat separating from the chaff... a little. Like, the entire AL West is pretty close, although the Rangers are getting a move on with a 5-1 week, but the East has 3 teams now who are clearly looking out of it, and in the NL the Expos at least have fallen off... I guess the Astros, Braves, and Reds have as well but the Dodgers and Giants are looking like the "top" teams in the AL West last year, barely able to keep their heads above water.
One advantage of looking at this top to bottom is you see the other weirdnesses. Like, the Pirates are really bad at scoring so far and they do 100% employ 1-run strategies but they as a team are reeeeally slow, with 2 steals in just 5 attempts all season. I took a quick look at the bench coach (who makes stealing decisions) and nope, he's below average at stealing tendencies but only below average. Mostly they're just slow. I'm also still amazed Houston's both scored as many runs and given up as many as they have in the Astrodome, and also that they're this bad one year after seriously contending. They went 2-3 vs the Expos and Reds so... it's not getting any better (I'll have a review of them tomorrow).
The Phillies swept a 3-game series at home against the Reds and then split 4 with the Cubs in Chicago; man, they are looking great, especially on offense. Speaking of great weeks, the Tigers feasted on the Royals and Brewers for a 5-1 record that established them as the cream of the East again. I guess that being said, the Red Sox were good too, splitting a 2-game series in Chicago against the other Sox and then sweeping the terrible Indians at home to go 5-1 themselves. St. Louis was the other team I hadn't mentioned who's on the upswing: they won 2 of 3 against San Francisco at the 'stick and then swept the Expos at home. How they're putting together such a good performance from their pitching staff, I can't tell you... but they are and that's what counts, right?
OKAY so taking a little gander at the leaderboards for you ROTO BALL fans out there...
White Sox SS John Johnson (.410, 1, 12) had his 22 game hitting streak end last week but is still chasing .400 early on. He's followed there by Rangers 1B Chris Seek (.392, 5, 17), who's been really putting it together after never being able to do a lot in San Francisco, and then Boston's LF Bruce Springsteen (.367, 4, 16). Ernesto Garcia (.285, 14, 29) of course leads in HRs and RBIs, followed by Twins' 1B Angelo Martinez (.270, 8, 23) with 8 HRs and 3 guys with 7, and then Alice Cooper (.314, 7, 24) and Mike Miller (.361, 7, 24) with RBIs. I guess I didn't mention the other guy with 7 dingers: that's Angels 2B Rodrigo Juarez (.228, 7, 19), who got a late start to the race, having only come to the AL on the 14th of April. Alvin Romero (.328, 1, 18) of course is still your SB man with 12 of them; he's followed by Cleveland 2B Mauricio Mendez (.243, 1, 10) with 8 and his former teammate, California SS Richard Simmons (.202, 1, 8). Simmons is out for the next couple weeks with back tightness so we'll probably see some moving there.
Phillies LF Alberto Juantorena (.389, 5, 19) is also, I guess you could say, chasing .400 in the senior circuit, with Braves C Armando Flores (.357, 0, 16), coming off a season where he hit just .235, and Icelandic Mets CF Kell Isaakson (.350, 1, 15) behind him. Reds RF Jaden Weaver (.268, 11, 35) popped a couple dingers this week to make him one of two men in baseball in double figures; he also leads in RBIs. Big George Foreman (.298, 8, 26) is 2nd in both HRs and ribbies and again we've got a logjam of guys tied for 3rd with 7 HRs. Victor Serna (.311, 5, 25) is really turning his career around in Montreal and is 3rd with RBIs. I'll probably say this so many times I'll get sick and tired of it myself, but Serna was cut by the Phillies last year after hitting just .189 in 127 at-bats, then hitting .142 in 120 AAA at-bats after getting sent down to try to correct his swing. SF's Jon Berry (.350, 4, 13) joins Alvin Romero in the double-digit SB club with 10 of them; he's followed by Sonny Burwell (.250, 1, 4) in St. Louis with 9 and good old Alberto Juantoreno with 8.
For pitching, there are appropriately enough exactly 3 guys with sub-2.00 ERAs so far: Detroit's Jimmy Goddard (6-1, 1.40), California's Gary "We Don't Talk About" Bruno (5-1, 1.68), and the White Sox' Rich Reese (3-2, 1.93). Vince Akright (7-1, 2.27) is one of two men with 7 wins; Jimmy Goddard has 6 and there's a medley of men with 5. Cleveland's Jose Martinez (1-5, 3.93) is getting no help on defense or offense but is still leading the league in Ks with 47 - he's also got an as-yet-undiagnosed injury so this could be the last we hear from him in a while. The men behind him are old stalwarts in strikeouts, Detroit's Edgar Molina (5-3, 3.03) with 43 and Boston's Michael Pesco (4-4, 2.78) with 42. And save-wise, Montay Luiso (0-1, 1.93) has saved 6 of Baltimore's 10 wins this season, and you've got to think they're going to stop using him so heavily when they're this bad. Two other ALers have 5: Cal's Tanzan Kihara (0-0, 0.00), who's also yet to give up a run in 10.2 innings, and Texas' Kojiro Nakazawa (1-1, 2.77). At least those guys play for good teams... yeesh.
Fernando Apolonio (6-2, 1.29) just tossed 8 innings of 1-run ball to basically keep his ERA even from last week. He's followed not-closely by Philadelphia's Roger Quintana (3-3, 1.82) and Cardinals ace Raul Mendoza (4-1, 2.02). Billy Ording (7-0, 2.32) has been getting all the support and is the other 7-game winner in the MLB, with 2 guys at 6: Apolonio and Ording's teammate Richard "Ringo Starr" Starkey (6-2, 3.27). Apolonio is the league leader in Ks too with 45, mostly just from throwing a lot of innings - he's only averaging 5.8/9 so far but is 2nd only to Starkey with 70 IP (Starkey's got 74.1). Atlanta's George House (4-3, 3.90) and Mendoza are right behind him with 44 apiece. House was on here the last time I looked, I think, and he's added a 1973-decent 10 in 15 innings of work so far in May. Finally, Geoff Saus (2-1, 2.84) continues to keep the Mets relevant with a league-high 9 saves in 12 opportunities (although he just blew one today in a loss to the Pirates). Travis Livingston (2-1, 2.70) has 7 of them for the Cardinals and then a number of guys have 6 including the DANGER ZONE Kenny Loggins (1-3, 3.86) who, as you can guess from the stats, has lived up to his nickname with 7 shutdowns but also 3 blown saves and 3 meltdowns so far; also he's walked 10 batters in 16.1 IP (and struck out 14; the man does throw one hard sinker).
## Major Transactions
May 8: The Royals traded minor league P Ellison Onizuka (0-2, 4.20) to the Cardinals for P Edward James Olmos (0-2, 19.89). Olmos went from being really, really effective the previous 2 seasons to getting absolutely blown up in 1973, so badly in fact that the Cards had just sent him down to the minors to work on stuff. He probably still needs to do that and the fact that the Royals are trading back minor league depth in Onizuka tells me that maybe that will happen (I mean I do control everything). Onizuka has put up good AAA numbers the last 2 years (8-6, 2.79 in '71, 8-5, 2.80 in '72) but hasn't been able to translate that into major league success so far (5-11, 5.60 lifetime). Hopefully he can figuyre things out, although he's no longer a real prospect at 27 years of age.
May 10: The Indians traded P Robbie Coltrane (2-2, 5.20) to the Rangers for P Kevin Freeman (3-0, 3.23) and minor league 1B George W. Bush (.175, 6, 13 in AAA Spokane). Freeman's been a big complainer about his lack of run support in Texas and so... he'll move to one of the few teams in baseball who are worse at scoring. Also in there is George W. Bush, who's totally a Texan through and through but didn't work out at all for this team and isn't looking so hot in the minors either. They get back Coltrane, who had a quality first full year in the bigs last year, going 10-10, 3.72 and leading the league in fewers BB/9 (1.7) but has curiously forgotten how to strike people out this year (just 11 Ks in 36.1 IP, a 2.7/9 rate).
May 11: The Brewers claimed P Willie Garcia (no record in 1973) off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds. Garcia missed the end of spring training and then the season to this date with a herniated disc in his back. He was awwwful last year (1-3, 8.46) in 4 September starts but has been a top prospect in years past and the Brew Crew is desperate for pitching right now.
May 13: The Brewers claimed P Chris Allen (0-1, 7.20) off waivers from the Yankees. Hey, I said these guys were desperate for pitching. Allen was a solid reliever last year (1-1, 2.86) with excellent control and a meh assortment of pitches that included an okay cut fastball. He also has the rep of not being good in the clubhouse, which could really hurt a team like Milwaukee, but I guess on the other hand, how much can you really hurt a pitching staff that's already this bad (bullpen era so far: 7.63)?
## News
May 7: A 71 day standoff between federal authorities and American Indian Movement activists who had been occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, ends with the surrender of the leaders of the militants. They and 13 more people are arrested, the latter after they tried to slip through the line of federal agents who had surrounded the area. 120 members and sympathizers of the movement will surrender their weapons tomorrow.
May 7: The government of Peru nationalizes the nation's fishing industry. Hey, not all stories are big.
May 7: The state of Maryland ratifies the 15th Amendment, you know, hey, only a century behind schedule. Better late than never! Now the only states to not have ratified the amendment, which is the one that prohibits citizens' rights to vote based on race, are Kentucky (who will ratify in 1976) and Tennessee (who won't ratify until 1997!). I guess to a large degree it's all symbolic by this point since Constitutional amendments only require 3/4ths of the states to ratify and that was done the same year it went through Congress, but still, this seems like a really, really basic human right.
May 7: The Washington Post is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the work by reporters Woodward and Berstein in investigating the Watergate scandal and cover-up. However, the individual prise goes to Robert Boyd and Clark Hoyt, who disclosed Senator Thomas Eagleton's history of psychiatric therapy, a discovery that led to his withdrawal as the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in 1972.
May 7: White Sox 1B Alice Cooper (.333, 5, 20) had been suffering from a power outage through April but last week he broke through, going 9-17 (.529) with 4 HRs, 11 RBIs, and 8 runs scored. Oh and also 7 walks for a .667 OBP. He's getting on base in half of his plate appearances this year. Unsurprisingly, this was enough to win him the AL PotW. He also won this award for the week ending August 15, 1971.
May 7: Not gonna lie, I was really second-guessing the decision to hit the newcomer Robin Gibb (.304, 7, 16) in the 3 hole for the Dodgers. Last week, newly protected in the lineup by Justin Stone (.364, 2, 5), who'd missed all of April a fractured rib, Gibb went 11-25 (.440) with 2 solo HRs and 5 runs scored in total. Look, he was moving guys up to get knocked in by Stone, okay? This was Gibb's very first PotW award. He did finish 3rd in Rookie of the Year voting last season.
May 7: In the interests of making this feel even more like a computer program, how about I add the weekly top 5 lists? The actual list the game gave me is WAR and what is that good for? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Instead I'll use this other advanced state, zone rating:
1. 2B Danny Fager, LAD (5.8)
2. LF Jared Ferrell, CAL (4.9)
3. 2B Paul McCartney, SD (4.8)
4. LF Lou Morgenstern, LAD (4.6)
5. CF Alvin Romero, DET (4.5)
Converted center fielders playing in left are going to have high ZRs, it's true. Otherwise, yeah, Alvin Romero is an absolute beast. Danny Fager is a guy who doesn't make very many mistakes and last year this didn't really show through all that much because nobody was making very many mistakes; now that league FAs are about back to normal, he looks like a stud again.
May 8: The government of the Sudan releases all of its political prisoners as a new constitution goes into effect which guarantees the right of a speedy and fair trial to anyone accused of breaking the law. Many of the persons freed had been members of opposition political parties who had been arrested in 1971 following a failed political coup.
May 8: Lebanon's prime minister Amin Hafez resigns shortly after fighting breaks out between Lebanese troops and Palestine guerillas.
May 8: Rangers RP Gabe Slaughter (0-1, 6.23), who's been good in the past, I swear, felt something bad in his arm when he came out on May 6 and it turns out that was bone chips. He'll have surgery to remove them shortly and will be out until 1974. He's still only 28 but hasn't had an ERA under 4 since 1970.
May 8: White Sox SS John Johnson (.427, 1, 12) isn't just chasing .400 (see last week!), he's now on a 20 game hitting streak, which he just barely held onto with an 8th inning single to left in today's 3-2 win over the Red Sox. Johnson was one of the best hitters in the league in '69 and '70 before kind of falling apart the last 2 years. Was it all a big 2 year anomaly, or did he get talent hits and then a big boost? Only the OOTP gods know for sure.
May 8: The Tigers somehow, some way, combine for a 12-hit shutout of the Royals, 4-0. Jimmy Goddard (6-1, 1.45) starts and just keeps getting out of jams inning after inning - the Royals leave 12 men on base through the first 7 innings. Finally in the 8th, shutout or no shutout, I have to take him out as he's thrown 151 pitches and also has put two more men on with a single and a walk (Goddard also walked 5 men this game). Jim Marceau came in and after allowing a passed ball, he gets Dave Corona (.301, 2, 13) to strike out looking and 2B James Ellroy (.394, 1, 6) to pop out to second base to retire the side. A scoreless (if not a LOB-less) 9th later and the man has the save.
"Clutch hitting has been a real problem," said team captain Tony Danza (.311, 3, 12), who himself was 0-3 in RBI opportunities tonight. "We'd be on top of the division if we just got those runs in. I'm gonna call this person I'm working for about it. Angela!"
May 8: The Mets haven't gotten shut down that often this year but Braves SP George House (4-3, 3.90) got it done in Shea Stadium today, pitching a 4-hit shutout to lift his team to a 4-0 victory. Mets starter John Ratzenberger (1-2, 4.70) meanwhile continued to have issues with the longball, allowing 4 of them in this game (he's allowed 9 in 38.1 IP so far and that's the biggest thing separating this year from last year's 11-12, 2.42 mark). Henry Riggs (.340, 4, 12) hit one of those blasts; he's at 549 now for his career.
May 8: On the other hand the front of the Phillies rotation *has* been shutting people down this year and that is a deadly combination when mixed with their awesome lineup. Today it was the former Brewer Danny Plaunt (3-3, 3.34) who threw both his 3rd complete game and 3rd shutout with a 6-hitter against the Reds. "I think it's starting to click," said Plaunt, mildly. He's now on a 28-inning scoreless streak, with the last run he gave up coming on April 25th against the Braves.
May 8: So I thought I was going to recap a third straight shutout - I even had a "what is this, beautiful world?" quote picked out - but Dodgers SP Ken Hansen (1-3, 3.93) held a 2-hitter into the 9th against the Pirates and then suddenly fell apart, giving up a single, a walk, and another single to load the bases. A Jason Davis (.241, 2, 11) passed ball later and the shutout was over with. I still kept Hansen in long enough to walk 3B Alex Flores (.321, 0, 9); he'd been pitching so well and was still under 100 pitches. Still, that loaded the bases. Alec Cosby (2-4, 3.38), who was sooo lights-out last year (7-5, 1.84, and a league-leading 32 saves), took the mound. He promptly gave up the GRAND SALAMI to LF Jerry Sherk (.364, 3, 8). Boom, a 4-0 shutout turned into a 5-4 Pirates lead and you know what happens when the Pirates are ahead... Paz Lemus (2-1, 0.84) threw a 1-2-3 9th for the win (he'd come in in the 8th inning - his 4th appearance in 5 days I should add).
That win not only pushes the Pirates (12-11) over .500 for the first time this year since they were 3-2 on April 12, it drops the Dodgers (15-15), who opened the season 7-0 and 11-1, to .500 for the first time.
May 8: Hey, why not just recap every game today, Syd???
The doubters were starting to really bury Padres 2B Paul McCartney (.297, 3, 19) when he went all of April without a HR; in fact, his first didn't come until May 5th. You can probably tell by the statline where this is heading... the Liverpudlian creator of such hits as "Yesterday" and "Let It Be" has now belted 3 HRs in the past 4 days. Today he hit another in the midst of a 3-5, 6 RBI day in a 15-1 rout of the Cubs at San Diego Stadium. Surprisingly the RBIs aren't a San Diego record - Alex Canales drove in 7 on September 16, 1969 - but 2 other San Diegans tied the team's runs record with 4: UT Dale Earnhardt (.303, 5, 17), who was 3-4 with 2 walks and a double, adding 3 RBIs himself, and CF Ed O'Neill (.252, 1, 7), who went 2-5 with a walk, a double, and an RBI.
"I had a real Admiral Halsey of a first month," said McCartney after the game. "Now I'm putting in a... I haven't put out 'Live and Let Die' yet but trust me, that's how good this week is."
May 9: The Soviet lunar rover encounters an accident due to a ground control mistake two days earlier that allowed dust to fall on the rover's solar cells. The batteries overheat due to this and it stops working on May 11, exactly 4 months after the January 11 launch. This will be the last time a motorized vehicle will move across the moon's surface until 2013 when China's Yutu rover will do in 2013.
May 9: I guess the Phillies' lineup won't be quiiiiite so potent for the next two months, as 3B Mike Brookes (.296, 1, 13) will be out for the nxt 7 weeks with a strained PCL. The 6 time All-Star has had some real issues staying healthy the last couple years, missing 50 and 56 games in '71 and '72 respectively. Hopefylly when he returns he'll also return with his HR stroke! The Phillies will try to make do with a platoon of veteran Cris Ramos (.241, 0, 1) and Marco Villafana (.228, 7, 30 in AAA Eugene last year).
May 9: Speaking of third base... the top 10 3B according to OSA this year:
MISSING THE CUT: Jose Ayala (.343, 7, 19) would get there if postseason heroics was a critera (also he's blasting this season). Kristian Schneider (.286, 0, 12) and Bobby K (.269, 1, 10) feel practically like the same player to me. Robin Gibb (.300, 7, 16) is also raking but the game does not like him, at least not yet (he's still only 23).
10. Sean Gabel, CHC (.330, 1, 15). Gabel's certainly playing better than the #10 guy so far although I guess he's basically a singles hitter with a history of hitting .280-.290, not so much .330.
9. Marco Perez, BAL (.183, 1, 6). Perez is mired in a season-long slump and hasn't been particularly good the last 2 years either. What does set him apart and at least into the top 10 is his defense - he's a 5 time Gold Glove award winner with an 80 grade arm.
8. Brian Maccioli, CHW (.235, 1, 8). Man, this sure isn't the "guys who are performing this year" list. Maccioli is just starting to bust out of a slump himself. I still think that .283/16/61, which is what he did in 1971, is about the high side of his ability.
7. Mike Galeana, STL (.250, 1, 12). Now that Paul McCartney has started to hit HRs, this (I guess also Mike Brookes) is the last big time power hitter who hasn't started hitting for power in 1973. He's hitting for a decent average this year, at least (compared to the .217 last season which at that only got to that point because he hit well in September).
6. Pete Little, HOU (.336, 4, 14). Hey, a guy who's hitting well and is actually rated! Although this ranking would still I think leave him out of the All-Star Game. It's also a bit over Little's established ability.
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr., SD (.303, 5, 17). Earnhardt is really doing a Tony Phillips (who?) type deal where he fills in all over the place; the actual starter here at least for the time being is 40 year old Kevin Landry (.233, 0, 3). You have to rate Earnhardt somewhere though and this is as good a place as any.
4. George Harrison, SF (.353, 4, 17). The Giants have started to fall off a bit bu not so much George "My Sweet Lord" Harrison. He's also the kind of guy who could contend for a Gold Glove sooner rather than later.
3. Bobby Ramirez, CAL (.308, 2, 6). Out of all the trades Cleveland made in the offseason, this one could hurt the most. Like, Ernesto Garcia of course but Garcia seemed like he was angling his way out of Cleveland for years anyway and they got C John Lennon back for him, at least. Ramirez, though, looks like a batting title contender again after a rough sophomore season (.241, 13, 56).
2. Mike Brookes, PHI (.296, 1, 13). Obviously the Phils feel the sting of losing him here and the game does not consider availability an ability, let alone the best ability. When he's around though he's a power hitter who can walk 100 times a year and, last year aside, can also hit for a good average. It's devastating.
1. Tommy Weiss, NYY (.367, 3, 13). The real crime here is that the Yankees had this guy stashed in their minor league system until he forced them to use him when he was 28 years old. After a .253/18/65 season that was only a slump compared to Weiss's previous career levels, he looks like an early MVP candidate.
May 9: Texas' Billy Crystal (4-2, 2.15) has had a good year in spite of some really spotty control (28 walks in 46.1 IP). Today he had just enough of it to power through a kind of bad Brewers lineup for a 2-0 shutout victory. Crystal, who struck out a relatively average 5.8 men per 9 last year, struck out 8 tonight while walking only 3. Last year, 3 was closer to his average. "My curve looked mahvelous," he said after the game. Yes, he does say that a lot, I know.
May 10: President Nixons abandons his plan to reorganize the executive branch into a "super cabinet" of three members who would oversee the heads of federal departments and agencies.
May 10: The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 102-93 in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to win the NBA Championship.
May 10: I guess nobody's paying attention to baseball tonight because the Stanley Cup playoffs conclude today as well. The Montreal Canadiens defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-4 in Game 6 of a best-of-5 series. Yes, that's what Wikipedia says. Game 6 of a best of 5... okay, upon further research the news article was a typo and this was a best-of-7 that ended in 6 games with the Canadiens winning games to 2.
May 10: I feel like every year I'm not going to have any good rookies when camp breaks and then every year someone ends up working out. Maybe this year it'll be Tigers C Joel Moise (.229, 2, 13). He hasn't been doing much at the plate but today he blew up for 5 RBIs in a 3-4 game where he was a triple away from the cycle in a 13-2 rout of the Royals (who I guess to be fair TOOOOO BEEEEEEE FAAAAAAAAAAAAAIR are bad at pitching). I think the game still says Gianluigi Farinelli (.353, 1, 4) is the better option but a. he's 5 years older, and b. don't be fooled by that average - this man his .197 last year.
May 10: We've got some early-season big division goings-on in the AL West with the White Sox (14-8) taking on the Angels (13-11) at the Big A and the Rangers (14-9) hosting the A's (17-11) at Arlington Stadium. Hey, it was a bad division last year but teams seem like they're better and also with badness comes, perhaps, a close pennant race.
Both the A's and Rangers have insane home/road splits - the Rangers have not lost a game at home yet (8-0) whereas the A's are 11-2 at home and 6-9 on the road... so I expect a sweep here. Well, Game 1 came out like I thought it would at least, although closer Kojiro Nakazawa (1-1, 2.77) sure made it exciting before getting DH Casey Satterfield (.233, 5, 17) to fly out before ending the 9th and winning it 4-3. Newcomer Robbie Coltrane (3-2, 4.67 overall) pitched into the 9th in his first outing for Texas but then gave up a leadoff double to 3B Alex Canales (.315, 4, 17). He hasn't been so great this year at getting out of jams so I popped the closer in with the score 4-1. Nakazawa allowed a single, a bunt, and a sac fly to make it 4-3 with C Texas Josh Lewis (.282, 1, 12) up and a man on 2nd. I intentionally walked the man (I'm trying out taking over pitching decisions because what the heck) to face Casey Satterfield. Nakazawa wild-pitched runners to 2nd and 3rd before getting Satterfield to fly to center on the very next pitch.
In California, the Angels have a pretty similarly large home/road split (7-3 at home, 6-8 away) and like the Rangers they take advantage in a 3-1 win. Andy Ring (2-3, 2.85) goes all the way, gives up 7 hits, striking out 6 and walking one. One piece of bad news here is that SS Richard Simmons (.202, 1, 8) hurt his back when 1B Alice Cooper (.325, 6, 22) slid into him to break up a double play. He looks to be out for the next couple weeks.
May 11: Sweden's parliament enacts the world's first computer protection law, the Data Act (Datalagen) to take effect on July 1, 1974. Also their parliament is called the Riksdag, which I'm sure is just because Swedish is very closely related to German, but COME ON YOU DON'T SEE AMERICA NAMING OUR STUFF AFTER THE REICHSTAG.
May 11: Speaking of Germany, the BUNDESTAG - see, Sweden? - votes 268-217 to ratify a treaty with East Germany that has a name that's like 30 characters long. In a separate vote, the opposition party CDU breaks ranks and joins in a 358-127 vote for West Germany to join the United Nations despite a condition that East Germany would also be admitted. Like, I'm too lazy to look this up but doesn't West Germany have a communist plant high up in their government at about this time? I think his name is Willy Brandt?
May 11: All federal espionage charges against Daniel Ellberg arising from the 1971 leak of the "Pentagon Papers" are dismissed because of government misconduct in prosecution and evidence-gathering. "The bizarre events have incurably infected the results of the case," said judge William Byrne.
May 11: Aeroflot Flight 6551 crashes, killing all 63 people on board. It's a little funny to this observer that while we are freaking out about all these instances of flaws being found on Boeing planes which then make it safely back to an airport, there were soooo many just straight up crashes 50 years ago. Some of them were hijackings, to be sure, and this one was a (probably poorly maintained) Soviet airliner, but even so... not to absolve Boeing or anything but air travel is so much safer now, it's crazy.
May 11: Lex Barker, best known for portraying Tarzan in five films, dies at the age of 54.
May 11: I figured this was inevitable but 1B Pete Jennings (.282, 2, 4), who has been splitting time at first base with the newly arrived slugger Aitor de la Rosa (.311, 4, 17), is unhappy with this role and wants to start. Look, Pete, I'll trade you off as soon as I can. In the meantime... hmm, I was just about to say I have no room but I'm gonna make room. Ryan Johnston (.091, 0, 1) is serviceable in center, where Marc Ash (.132, 0, 3) has been terrible (and he hit .183 for Montreal last year too - he might be done) and de la Rosa can play in left. This move will also allow me to get de La Rosa in the lineup daily. Thanks for being the squeaky wheel, Pete!
May 11: Bruce Rubio (2-2, 3.11) wins a pitcher's duel against the Brewers' Igacio Visco (1-1, 1.84), throwing a 6-hit shutout to win the game 1-0. Rubio looked like he was about to fall apart as seems to happen a lot in this game, I don't know... in the 9th he got the leadoff man, LF Steve Winwood (.261, 3, 10) to pop up to 3rd, then gave up a single, a walk (to slumping Adam Dittmar (.120, 1, 6) of all people) and a hit by pitch to load the bases before he fiiiiinally settled down to strike out SS Francisco Carrasco (.214, 0, 4) swinging and then get pinch-hitter Kozue Nakamura (.321, 0, 4) to hit the ball in the general direction of centerfield, which is to say a place where Alvin Romero (.314, 1, 17) could catch it.
"Clean living and a fast outfield, that's my key to success," said Rubio after the game.
May 11: The Rangers improve to 10-0 at home, taking down the A's easily 7-2. This one was close through 6 until Texas got to A's starter Carlos Torres (2-5, 5.17) and reliever Doug Ellis (0-1, 2.79) for 4 runs in the 7th off of a bunch of singles and a Roberto Hernandez (.293, 3, 17) triple. 26 year old rookie Robert McHughh (3-2, 3.77) went 8+ innings, leaving in the 9th after walking the leadoff man Casey Satterfield (.245, 5, 18).
May 11: The "home team wins" trend continues for the other big early AL West series too, with Angels SP Gary Bruno (5-1, 1.68) throwing a 7-hit shutout to erase the White Sox 4-0. Bruno did load the bases in the 9th with an unintentional intentional walk to 1B Alice Cooper (.325, 6, 22) but hey, it all went according to play when 3B Brian Maccioli (.226, 1, 8) struck out for the 4th time (Bruno had 8 Ks total) to end the game. C Shaun Dennehy (.173, 1, 6) earns the GWRBI with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the 2nd; he had a multi-hit game today and maybe he's breaking out of a... 1 1/12 year-long slump. Okay, maybe not.
May 12: Two American mountaineers and one Nepalese sherpa make the highest ascent of a mountain without using supplemental oxygen, ascending to the summit of Dhaulagiri in the Himalayan range, 26,795 feet above sea level (I think the sherpa may have used oxygen but he was 100% one of the three people who summitted and it always seems like they get short shrift in these things).
May 12: The Indiana Pacers win the ABA championship in game 7 of the best-of-7 series, beating the Kentucky Colonels 88-81 in Louisville.
May 12: Monika Ertl, the 35 year old German-born Bolivian terrorist/"freedom fighter", known for her mission to avenge the execution of Che Guevara, is ambushed and killed by the Bolivian Army.
May 12: This is last because it's listed under deaths but... the Indy 500 was held today and it was pretty bad. Art Pollard is killed during time trials after crashing at 191.4 miles per hour. David "Swede" Savage will later be killed in the race itself and then Armando Moreno, a member of one of the pit crews, will die instantly after being hit by a fire truck racing to Savage's crash site.
May 12: Marco Sanchez (4-4, 3.19) evened his record up against the hapless Indians, who I even reviewed today (see below) for a 9-0 win. Sanchez, not the most stamina'ed pitcher, threw 137 pitches because, pitch count or no, the man was throwing a shutout. This one was actually still close into the 7th when starter Jose Martinez (1-5, 3.93), down only 2-0, allowed 2 straight singles to LF Bruce Springsteen (.346, 4, 14) and RF Tom Brown (.300, 1, 15) before 1B Mike Miller (.350, 7, 22) hit a 3-run HR to put it out of reach. To add insult to injury, literally, Martinez left the game with an as-yet-undiagnosed arm injury on the play.
May 12: Yankees DH Ernesto Garcia (.293, 14, 29), who is showing no signs of stopping whatsoever in his first year in the Bronx, hit his 300th career homerun in a monster, 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI day and a 5-4 Yankees win over the Orioles, who fall to 9-19 with the loss. Garcia homered in the 4th and the 8th off of Orioles starter George Dapson (3-3, 4.04) and then figured directly into the game winner in the bottom of the 10th inning as he was intentionally walked so that reliever Heiner Flassbeck (1-1, 4.38) (Montay Luiso (0-1, 1.93, 6 Sv) was tired and the Orioles are just not playing well enough to want to abuse his arm) could face LF Aitor de la Rosa (.338, 4, 14). Flassbeck walked de la Rosa and boom, ballgame over.
"I'm not just the straw that stirs the drink," said an especially arrogant Garcia following the game. "I am the whole drink."
Just as a side note, I took a look at his ratings in the editor and what I've been saying is right - he's got league-leading but not necessarily Barry Bonds level power, but plays in a very favorable stadium just like last year. 25 even has a new feature on this screen where not only will it approximate stats in a modern environment the way it always has done, it will now do so using your LTMs too. According to those he should "only" be getting 44 dings. The fact that he's on pace for 81 and also has had 65+ over the last 2 years is park effects and luck I guess...
May 12: In Texas, the A's finally hand the Rangers their first loss at home all season and it takes a great effort by P Rick Shelton (5-1, 2.51) to get them there. Shelton pitches a 5-hitter and carries a shutout into the 9th inning; he gives up a single run to miss the line in the stat-books but still gets the CG and the W. The game was still 2-0 in the 9th when backup C Ramiro Gonzalez (.158, 0, 3, and he's only in here because Texas Josh Lewis was tired) slapped a 2-run single off of Rangers reliever Nate Kemp (1-0, 2.45). The win puts the A's back to 18-13 and a half game behind the Rangers, who are 16-10.
May 12: Meanwhile in California, Al Gore (2-4, 6.63), aka the Inconvenient Truth, has had a big problem with the longball this year, especially on the road. He's allowed 10(!) HRs already, including 8 away from home in just 19 innings. At home on the other hand... Gore not only didn't give up the longball, he scattered 7 hits in a complete-game shutout of the White Sox, 7-0, that improved his team to 16-11 on the season. "I just kept the cutter in my lockbox," said Gore, who only struck out one but benefitted from some solid defense tonight. RF Jared Ferrell (301, 3, 17) went 4-5 with 4 RBIs and prevented a run with a diving stop in the 8th inning.
Also happening today - or I guess not happening - is that White Sox SS John Johnson (.416, 1, 12) went hitless in 4 at-bats, ending his hitting streak at 22 games.
May 13: Bobby Riggs defeats Margaret Court, the #1 ranked women's tennis player, in a nationally televised tennis match, 6-2, 6-1. Riggs, 55 at the time, is 25 years Court's senior and is very much playing the wrestling heel. This near-whitewashing will lead the huge Battle of the Sexes match between him and Billie Jean King on September 20 (which, since that'll still be during the season, wait for the results!).
May 13: Man, only three weeks into his time in Atlanta, 37 year old 3B Nate Ringstad (.273, 2, 5) is already complaining that he wants to start. He hasn't started the majority of his team's games since 1966 but I guess Atlanta's 3B situation is in the air. At the same time, while Mike Morison (.347, 1, 12) isn't a super fantastic player himself, he's off to a hot start and is 6 years younger, so for now I'm just going to keep everything as-is... well, I'll work him in *slightly* more and with him also spelling Jon Hernandez (.233, 2, 11) at first vs lefties, he's practically a platoon starter now.
May 13: Orioles SP TJ Ziegler (1-6, 2.93) picks up his first win and his first shutout of the season, all at the same time, in a 4-0 win over the Yankees in the first game of a double-header. Ziegler allowed only 4 hits with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts as he tamed a powerful New York lineup. "My arm was feeling it at the end but coach kept me out there and we saw it through," said Ziegler after the game.
May 13: The White Sox avoid the series sweep in Anaheim by knocking off the Angels 6-2. Chris Messina (1-4, 4.91) pitched 6.1 quality innings to earn his first win of the season and 1B Alice Cooper (.314, 7, 24) launched his 7th homer of the year in the top of the 1st to give Chicago a lead they wouldn't relinquish. "No more Mister Nice Guy," said Cooper after the game. "It's time we took this race into our own hands."
May 13: And in Texas, they narrowly avoid an extra inning game in the face of a Monday double-header against the Twins as the Rangers rally in the bottom of the 9th to edge the A's 4-3. Billy Crystal (5=2. 2.29) went all the way for Texas, managing to get there in spite of allowing 12 hits and striking out only 3. His counterpart Ben Lamar (0-0, 3.38) was a spot-starter today and did throw a quality start. Willis Chavez (1-3, 1.76), who only seems to give up runs when the game is on the line, allowed a 2-out single to DH Jimmy Washington (.260, 4, 14) for the walkoff.
May 13: Following a 10-2 drubbing at the hands of the Braves in the first game of a double-header, the Padres picked up a 1-0 win that featured both starters leaving early because of a big rain delay. Well... "featured" might be a strong word. The lone run of the game came on a Dale Earnhardt (.283, 7, 21) homer in the top of the 9th off of Ernesto Carillo (1-2, 4.00). Colin Rose (1-1, 1.55) went 6 scoreless innings but had to leave due to said delay; Padres starter Cesar Barreras (4-2, 3.10) managed to go 8 but his arm was dead heading into the 9th so Darius Parchman (1-2, 0.51) came in to work the 9th for his 5th save.
## Teams in Review
May 12: The first "legitimate" review of the year! The Indians are 10-20, so if anything they are overdue since they started the year out at 4-17. They're actually not so bad at scoring runs so far, tied for 6th in the AL and 14th overall, but the pitching is very bad. That's just weird, man: with the cleanout over the offseason I barely touched the pitching. They're not even super-terrible defensively: the ZR is 9th and negative but there are worse teams out there, and they're only tied for 5th in errors. I guess by defensive efficiency they are legitimately 2nd worst in the AL... how much of that is luck though?
Rotation: As expected from the bad pitching report, a lot of guys are underachieving, including Robert Rivera (3-2, 4.40) and Dylan Hamilton (2-3, 4.30). That said, the worst culprit who's still on the team is Miguel Chavez (1-5, 8.44). I've been reticent to cut him entirely because he does have a history of success and even last year he was 13-9, albeit with a bloated 4.17 ERA. I'm still not going to cut him outright; instead I will move the 28 year old rookie Rocky Richard (0-0, 2.45) into the rotation for now and see if Chavez can work it out in long relief. Honestly, his walk rate's been high this year but most of the awfulness has been spurred on by a .380 BABIP so...
Bullpen: The AL really only needs 4 guys in the 'pen, especially when you're using a 5 man rotation, but everyone in there is old and so would wind up being a DFA or a minors-assignment-refusal/release. In addition to Chavez, 30 year old Miguel Hernandez (0-0, 5.06) is in danger, although he was 9-4, 1.91 for St. Louis last year. Also Gerardo Herrera (0-0, 7.27), who's "only" out of minor league options. I'm going to try to sneak him through waivers. Like, worst case scenario, we losee a guy who gave up more walks than strikeouts last year in his "good" year.
Infield: Just as I acquired 1B George W. Bush (.175, 6, 13 in AAA Spokane), Nick Hodzik (.272, 4, 11) is looking like he could be adequate. Bush will stay up as a power-hitting pinch-hitting alternative; the biggest issue here, outside of Bush's inability to hit for average in the major leagues, is that both he and Hodzik are lefties so I can't platoon. One thing I did do when I acquired Bush is drop him into 1B and Hodzik into DH; hey, maybe Dubya's power will translate in the Mistake better than it did in Arlington Stadium.
Tyler Knight (.214, 2, 4) is about what I'd expect out of a converted shortstop playing third base: good defense (I guess not great though) and an inadequate stick. I don't really see a better alternative at the moment. It looks like my minor league GM signed 3B Travis Corley (.210, 0, 4 in AAA OKC) to a minor league deal but as noted he's not even hitting in AAA right now. The other option is career organizational guy Tony Aguillon (.286, 0, 3), who isn't anything to write home about either but I guess isn't going to be any worse than Tyler Knight. I'll just start mixing him in at 3rd... and first I guess. The Indians have nobody remotely close to the majors at this position either; it's like they had 2 guys last year who could do the job but both got traded off or something.
Outfield: Right now, Richard Berman (.267, 0, 7) is out with a herniated disc in his back but otherwise the outfield looks... fine. Like, nobody is absolutely horrible at least. There aren't any stars - 2 years ago they had 3 plus players out there but they traded them all away - but for a team that could very easily lose 100, they aren't doing too badly out here. There are minor leaguers who look closer here but a. nobody that highly rated (Cleveland has all of 2 guys in the top 200 prospects list right now, both of them pitchers) and b. by "closer" I mean they still aren't all that close.
May 13: These things are about to come in droves... the
Cincinnati Reds (11-20, 5 1/2 GB) were supposed to be better than this but... they are not. Early on, it's clearly the pitching that's the culprit - 4th worst ERA in baseball, and 3rd from the bottom in the NL in runs scored. The defense is truly not helping, as they're actually 2nd in Ks. The hitting's been average, which, it was supposed to be a bit better. We'll see what needs to be changed.
Rotation: The worst culprit. Amadou Toumani Toure (1-4, 7.36) has already been sent down to the minors to work on his stuff, so I don't know, the starting pitching doesn't look terrible to me. The worst guy by ERA is Tracey Larazabal (1-3, 4.67), who, as expected, is also the 5th starter. I guess if anything the front-liners aren't quite as lights-out as they could but but that's no cause for demotions.
Bullpen: Likewise, I've already made the biggest change, which was pushing Pete Lynn (0-2, 5.25) out of the closer role in favor of Brian Yates (2-1, 3.18, 2 Sv). Yates has that mid-90s, high-K stuff that you want out of a closer so that's nice. Bastien Maurice (0-0, 7.20) has been kind of bad as the lefty specialist but he was good last year and those guys can have, like, 1 or 2 bad outings that makes everything else look bad, so he'll stay too.
Infield: C Oliver Williams (.198, 3, 11) is following up a bad year (.209, 8, 41) by struggling to hit above the Timonen line and with the young left-handed bat of Leron Lee (.296, 0, 4) right there, I think it's time to work out a platoon arrangement at the position, to be re-evaluated later.
I'm going to trrrry and see if I can work in Bobby Kraljevic (.262, 2, 14) in at 1st to spell Alonzo Huanosta (.258, 2, 12), who's now going on his 3rd straight "off year" and so maybe these aren't "off years" after all. That means more PT for Chris Moore (.222, 0, 0). Does he deserve it? Like, we'll see, Scoob!
SS Dusty McCully (.259, 2, 10), in his 2nd year with the team now, is providing mediocre offense and defense at a primary defensive position. The backup Mike Wendt (.278, 0, 2) isn't any better and there's nobody truly ready on the farm. I did tell the AAA manager to force-start IF Erico Liserio (.312, 2, 6) there, as he appears to have untapped potential at the position at 27 years of age. He doesn't look like he'll ever be a great gloveman either but he definitely looks like a better hitting option.
Outfield: CF Jake Leone (.149, 1, 4) was bought on the cheap from the Pads last November and now we can see why: he's also not that good of a fielder and he hasn't hit either. With Dennis bin Naim (.162, 0, 3 at AAA Indianapolis) stinking it up in the minors, the only other option right now is Robert Hopkins (.185, 1, 2) and it's not too great. I've already got Hopkins mixing in pretty heavily there and I'll just continue to do so for now, hoping someone will remember how to swing a bat.
Hmm... oooooooor... I know we made a giant error with The Horse Dan Issel (.191, 3, 11 at AAA Indianapolis) when we called him up too soon last year (he hit .139/2/7 in 39 games and as you can see, maybe we wrecked his confidence) but... why not make the same mistake twice? Minor league CF Manny Trillo (.246, 3, 6 at AA Trois-Rivieres) is, in this world at least, not the best CF in town but he's the Reds' #1 prospect and the #8 guy in all of baseball. This team is going nowhere so why not?