## Standings / Recap / Comments
AMERICAN LEAGUE
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Detroit 69 40 .633 - W3 509 366 .280 85 93 3.08 2.9 5.8 .983 48.9 47.8
Boston 60 49 .550 9 W1 485 391 .274 81 53 3.41 3.1 5.6 .981 44.6 40.0
New York 58 55 .513 13 L5 492 547 .251 112 36 4.50 2.7 4.9 .980 -7.9 36.4
Baltimore 45 61 .425 22½ L1 441 498 .254 90 50 4.19 3.9 5.1 .978 -11.1 40.0
Cleveland 48 64 .429 22½ W3 410 467 .248 89 40 3.97 3.5 5.3 .982 7.0 31.4
Milwaukee 46 63 .422 23 L3 444 514 .260 75 74 4.23 3.5 4.9 .980 -18.5 32.4
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Chicago 66 45 .595 - W2 476 423 .258 92 66 3.48 3.6 5.1 .983 41.0 36.7
Texas 64 45 .587 1 L2 415 342 .258 68 63 2.85 3.2 5.2 .982 44.0 32.9
Oakland 58 53 .523 8 L3 444 456 .261 75 44 3.73 3.0 5.0 .979 9.9 37.1
California 54 54 .500 10½ W5 480 465 .267 80 70 3.91 3.3 4.8 .981 30.7 39.2
Kansas City 50 63 .442 17 W1 526 562 .256 87 58 4.55 3.6 4.7 .982 7.3 30.2
Minnesota 41 67 .380 23½ L1 403 494 .242 86 55 4.15 3.4 5.2 .977 -1.7 31.7
NATIONAL LEAGUE
LEAGUE STANDINGS EAST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Philadelphia 68 44 .607 - W3 533 404 .250 98 80 3.19 3.0 5.4 .981 35.5 52.9
St. Louis 65 46 .586 2½ W1 471 452 .260 104 33 3.43 3.2 5.8 .979 6.6 43.2
Chicago 55 56 .495 12½ L4 411 423 .253 83 58 3.54 3.4 5.0 .985 43.3 43.3
Pittsburgh 51 58 .468 15½ L3 348 366 .232 52 27 3.14 2.8 5.8 .982 10.8 39.7
New York 50 58 .463 16 L1 363 416 .251 47 66 3.37 3.2 5.2 .979 14.9 47.2
Montreal 43 66 .394 23½ W5 442 530 .244 85 41 4.14 3.7 5.1 .977 -11.2 33.3
LEAGUE STANDINGS WEST
Code:
Team W L Pct GB STR R RA AVG HR SB ERA BB/9 K/9 FA ZR RTO%
Houston 62 52 .544 - W1 477 452 .256 99 50 3.46 3.6 6.0 .977 5.5 32.0
Cincinnati 61 52 .540 ½ L1 481 444 .253 94 43 3.64 3.0 5.8 .981 7.3 29.7
San Diego 58 52 .527 2 W6 428 362 .254 68 44 2.92 3.4 5.4 .981 52.0 36.9
Atlanta 60 56 .517 3 L4 445 404 .249 82 33 3.14 3.1 6.0 .983 5.4 36.5
San Francisco 48 62 .436 12 W1 388 463 .248 79 63 3.68 3.3 5.5 .980 0.3 28.9
Los Angeles 46 65 .414 14½ L1 345 416 .244 89 51 3.29 3.0 5.4 .979 34.4 36.1
And so we dip into August and we've still got 2 neck and neck division races with a 3rd still within one good series of turning over. Starting with the only non-close race first... the Detroit Tigers won the World Series last year and are sure looking like the favorites to repeat. Especially with the playoffs now it's never time to just say that kind of thing outright but Detroit's going to have nearly two months to prepare... or get complacent? In the other East, the Phillies do have the 2nd best record in all of baseball but the Cardinals are right there after them with #4 and, in spite of no DH rule, are one of two teams in double digits in HRs right now. I think the Phillies have the better pitching and are no slouches on the power side of things themselves but hey, baseball is baseball, you know?
Otherwise, I went into the individual series in the logs below but man oh man this was a big weekend for both Wests. Chicago slipped in front of Texas with a big home series against the Rangers. Oakland I guess you could say is still sitting right t there too but a weekend series sweep to the Angels did not help their cause much. It's a little crazy how the Al West went from the AL Worst to... a pretty good, competitive division all in one year. And then of course the HATED Astros salvaged a 2-2 weekend series split with the Reds to maintain the tiniest of leads in the NL West, with San Diego right there and on a 6 game winning streak.
San Diego in fact are the Yuppies of the Week, with a 9-place shift from 14th to 5th in the standings thanks to a perfect 6-0 week including sweeps of the Giants and Braves. Who had the Pads being the dark horse contender out of California on their bingo cards? Behind them are the Mets, who moved up 5 spots in spite of dropping 3 out of 4 to the Cards over the weekend (that's a maaaassive series that still has 2 games remaining) and the Expos, who had themselves a dead-cat-bounce 6-3 week that included a 2-2 split with the Cardinals and a sweep at home vs the fading Cubs.
One thing I like about looking at the yuppies and hippies is that I'm usually just not replaying the actual standings. For instance, the clear hippies of the week are the Pirates, whose moribund offense - they scored 4 runs exactly once this whole week - led to a 2-7 record and a fall from 12th to 21st in the power rankings. Hard to believe this same exact team made the playoffs last year. Also falling hard were the Yankees, who had themselves a season-defining week vs the Red Sox and Tigers and went 1-6 to fall from 9th to 14th in the rankings, and those Cubbies, whose playoff chances seemed dim coming into the week and got a lot dimmer after 2 wins in 8 games.
## Major Transactions
July 30: The White Sox claimed RP Daniel Roche (3-3, 3.20) off of waivers from the Expos. Roche is not young, which is why the Expos cut him, but he has a spot with Chicago as they chase the pennant. He'll swap in for 22 year old Sergio Alvarado (4-2, 3.26), who was nominally successful in the first half as a middle reliever but he walked 22 guys in 38.2 IP so a fall from grace was due.
July 31: The A's purchased CF Andy Kaufman (.170, 2, 10) from the Astros for $15,000. You'd want more than money for a guy like this but hey, he wasn't going to be playing any time soon with Big George Foreman (.303, 17, 63) holding down center and so far Kaufman's looked like a guy who hits like an 8. For the A's, they have David Mesa coming back soon but need depth in center.
July 31: The A's also purchased RF Brian Jackson (.258, 3, 27) from the Pirates for $25,000. Jackson, an All-Star in 1972, had pretty well played himself out of a job in Pittsburgh with that team going nowhere fast. Scouts think he can still hit for enough average to hold up a corner outfield slot. I'm a little skeptcical but he's bound to be better than Zackery Hadley (.233, 4, 19) has so far...
## News
July 30: Following an 11 year court case, 20 million pounds sterling were paid out to the victims of Thalidomide. 11 years!
July 30: Eighteen coal miners are killed at the coal mine near Stavely in the United Kingdom when the break mechanism on their elevator fails as they were descending underground.
July 30: The strangled body of 20 year old Ronnie Wiebe is found beside an entrance ramp to the 405 Freeway, two days after the young man disappeared. He will later be identified as one of the victims of serial killer Randy Steven Kraft, aka the Freeway Killer. The 70s are pretty much the serial killer decade and 1973 seems like it's the year for it...
July 30: The Phillies' crowded outfield is a liiiitle less crowded for now, as RF Nelson Vargas (.321, 1, 14) will now miss 5-6 weeks with a partially torn labrum. Vargas, a .296 career hitter, had been fighting Greg Lake (.300, 12, 53) for a job already and this... well, it looks less good for the man's future.
July 30: The Al Player of the Week is a bit of a zero-to-hero story. Yankees RF Phil Hartman (.243, 10, 40) had hit .228 and .229 in May and June following a solid April and was staring down a third straight rough month. An All-Star representative in his 1972 rookie year, he didn't make it back this year and rumors were swirling that the impatient Yankees brass was already looking to replace him. Enter an 8-15 (.533) week with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs. It probably won't completely quiet those New York boo-birds but it'll help! This was also Hartman's first PotW.
July 30: On the other hand, the NL PotW is a slugger who just had yet another sluggerific week. Cincinnati Reds RF Jaden Weaver (.258, 27, 82) went 7-21 (figure it out!) with 4 HRs and 6 RBIs, allowing him to close in on last year's 32 HR, 88 RBI season. Weaver, who came up with the Astros back in 1965, won his 5th Player of the Week and his first since June 12th of last year. Unlike Hartman he did make the AS Game this year; this was #7.
July 30: SYD THRIFT'S NEATO STAT OF THE WEEK! We've been doing historical ones for a bit (and the one the game gave was all-time wins, which I think I've looked at recently) so... how about one from this year? Who are the lefty-killers in the league, i.e. the (qualified) players with the highest SLG? The answers may surprise you (probably not)!
5. 1B Alice Cooper, CHW (.297, 28, 74), .564... when you have a .586 SLG overall, even if you're a lefty, you're liable to be up amongst this leaderboard, right?
4. 3B Jose "Joker" Ayala, DET (.332, 17, 61), .569
3. RF Brandon Anderson, CLE (.305, 15, 51), .569... and just imagine if Cleveland hadn't gotten cheap this offseason. Maybe Anderson wouldn't have gotten a job then, who knows?
2. DH Jeff Nation, CHW (.265, 17, 69), .595
1. 2B Geoffrey Rush, TEX (.301, 7, 33), .818. Rush somehow only has 55 at-bats vs LHP this year. I don't know how that happened! I guess teams are already just not putting lefties in against the Rangers. In any case, I did notice that I was having Donald Fagen spelling him, which... not anymore.
July 30: All good things must come to an end and so, too, ends Tigers SP Jimmy Goddard's (19-2, 1.85) 15 game winning streak. Goddard allowed homeruns to Orioles 2B Kurt Russell (.285, 3, 27) and C Frank Abagnale (.271, 11, 54) and Baltimore's pitching staff held the Tigers to 2 runs for a 5-2 upset. "Yeah, I'm bummed," said Goddard following the game. "Two mistakes. Two stupid mistakes." The last time - the only other time - Goddard recorded a loss this season was on April 29, when he got knocked out of the box in the 5th against the Royals, allowing 5 runs in 4.2 innings and at that time dropping his record to 4-1.
July 30: Baseball... is a funny game sometimes. Heading into their weekend 4-game series, the A's were just 1 game above .500 at 51-50 and 12 1/2 games in back of the division leading Rangers. Welp... Oakland completed a 4-game sweep with a nail-biter of an 11-inning 3-2 to put them at 55-50 and 8 1/2 behind. "We're not out of it yet," said RF Tommy Pron (.309, 7, 47), who went a fairly uneventful 1-4 tonight but who is considered the leader of this Athletics lineup. "We just have to string together some more Ws like this one."
July 31: Delta Air Lines Flight 723, with 89 souls on board including 83 passengers, strikes a sea wall to the right of the Logan Airport (Boston) runway. All but one passenger dies instantly; the one survivor is seriously injured and passes away several months later.
July 31: Militant Unionist protestors disrupt the first sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
July 31: London's Tower Bridge is shut down by police after a stockbroker's clkerk flies an airplane twice between its towers, below a pedestrian walkway and 15 feet above traffic. After two hours of "buzzing" motor vehicles and high rise buildings in the area, the pilot Peter Martin, who had in the morning told his wife he intended to commit suicide, got what he wanted when he dived his plane into a forest near Keswick, Cumbria.
July 31: Cubs SP Gordon "Sting" Summer (7-6, 2.69) had one of those games that Baseball Prospectus (who?) will be calling a career-ender in another 25 years or so. Summer threw an 11-inning, 11-hit, 8-walk shutout against the Phillies - a 1-0 win - in which he threw 189 pitches. Look. He had to get out of jam after jam after jam but he was still striking guys out in the 11th. Vince "The Eligible" Bachler (8-3, 1.91) pitched well for Philadelphia and got up to 140 pitches himself but finally allowed the only run of this game in the top of the 11th off of a single by Cubs 1B Antonio Lopez (.274, 8, 39).
"Me arm feels like it's about to fall off," said Summer after the game. "That's me bass-playin' arm."
August 1: Sheriff TJ Flournoy, um, reluctantly leads his deputies in closeing "Edna's Fashionable Ranch Boardinghouse" in La Grance, Texas, which had been a house of prostitution since 1844, before Texas was a part of the USA. The state governor had informed Flournoy that if he didn't do it, the Texas Rangers would. Flournoy speaks sto reporters on the matter, saying "it's been there all my life and all my daddy's life and never caused anybody any trouble. Every large city in Texas has things 1,000 times worse." This was the inspiration for the 1982 movie "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", as well as the ZZ Top song "La Grange".
The Caribbean Community and Common Market is inaugurated by the nations of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
August 1: William E. Colby is confirmed as the new director of the CIA after promising not to use his powers within US borders.
August 1: The US extends South Vietnam a loan of $50M for the purchase of industrial machinery. Something tells me they aren't getting that money back...
August 1: Aaaaall riiiiight, new month means it's time for the ___ of the Month awards! Starting here with the NL Rookie of the month, it's the Dodgers' SP Mahfuzur Rahman Khan (3-3, 0.87), who was 2-0, 0.82 this month. The 24 year old cinematographer played in 6 games, starting 2 of them, with a complete game shutout and a 12/6 K/W ratio in 22 innings of work. As he was only called up in June, a ROY campaign seems a bit out of reach but he's off to a great start.
August 1: The AL counterpart is another pitcher, Yankees SP Archie "Super" Manning (5-3, 2.95). Manning, another June call-up, followed a 1-3, 4.01 start with a 4-0, 2.23 record in July with 2 complete games in 5 starts, including 1 shutout, and a solid 11/5 K/W ratio - yeah just 5 walks in 24.2 IP. The Ks were also a bit low as Manning elected to pitch to contact but hey, this is a football-first guy who's come to baseball kind of as an afterthought; we'll take what we can get.
August 1: The NL Pitcher of the Month is last year's Cy Young guy, Astros SP Tony Rivera (16-6, 2.34). He went 7-1 with a 1.48 ERA in ramping up his game to league-leading levels while the entire rest of his team fell apart (in non-Rivera starts Houston went 8-13 in July). This is the second time Rivera's won PotM, the other time being for July of last year. A harbinger of awards to come?
August 1: The AL man is Texas' Robbie Coltrane (16-5, 2.48), who's been absolutely lights out since being traded to the Rangers. In July he was 7-1, 1.20 with 6 complete games in 8 starts and a sparkling 41/8 K/W ratio in 67.2 IP. Coltrane's already got 11 CGs in 24 starts on the season. This is actually Coltrane's 2nd award, as he won the AL Rookie of the Month for September of 1971.
August 1: And the NL Batter of the Month: the Reds' RF Jaden Weaver (.258, 27, 82), who... hit .286 with 9 HRs and 23 RBIs. I mean, that's good and all, especially with the power, but it doesn't pop out at you? I guess a slightly deeper look shows a 182 OPS+ with a .383 OBP. Yeah, he's pretty good I guess.
August 1: In the AL, Yankees LF Adam Groves (.313, 10, 38) came into the month fighting for at-bats in a crowded outfield and ended it with a trip to the All-Star Game and a lock on that left field job. Groves hit .391 with 3 HRs, 11 extra base hits overall, and 22 RBIs. He also collected an OBP of .480(!). This is Groves' first ever Batter of the Month. He did win the NL Silver Slugger back in 1968, his other All-Star season (he also finished 3rd in MVP voting with a .268/24/78 year with the Cubs which, trust me, was good for 1968).
August 1: I know I don't give Mets SP Josh "Party in the Back" Mullett (8-7, 3.27) enough credit. When he was with the Astros he felt like a disaster waiting to happen and yet over a 4 year period from 1968-1972 he was 48-41 for them as a back of the rotation starter. Mullett's issue is twofold: he's finesse guy and groundball specialist who walks too many people. He led the NL in walks in 1969 with 145 of them vs just 97 Ks last year.
You can see where this is headed, right? Tonight, Mullett, now with the Mets, threw a complete game shutout and 4-hitter where not only was he pretty dominant - 7 Ks! - he actually allowed no walks. An absolutely amazing performancce for this man! Looking back, too, following a completely disastrous start on the 13th against the Reds (3.2 IP, 6 R, 3 ER, and 9 BB) he's allowed just 3 bases on balls in 26 IP over 3 starts. Has this man suddenly mastered his control? I doubt it but we'll see!
August 2: A flash fire kills 50 people at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas on the Isle of Man. The "centre", which is definitely not a park, is a single, 4-story building that had 4,000 people inside attending a rock concert. An additional 80 are seriously injured; the structure will eventually be demolished in 1975 after never having re-opened.
August 2: In a scandal completely unrelated to Watergate, Vice President Spiro Agnew is notified by a federal prosecutor in Baltimore that he is under investigation for bribery, conspiracy, and tax fraud arising from the receipt of "kickbacks" from persons who benefited from his help. In another 5 days - we'll probably cover it but you never know! - the Washington Post will break that he has been accused of federal crimes.
August 2: The nine-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1973 opens with prime ministers of 32 British Commonwealth nations, hosted at Ottawa by Pierre Trudeau. On the first full day of business the leaders vote 31-0 to ban atomic testing. On the 9th, they will vote unanimously in favor of black majority rule in Rhodesia.
August 2: Indians SP Robert Rivera (10-11, 3.64) has pretty much had a career defined by hard luck. Today the 33 year old learned that he has the biscuit meniscus and will miss the remainder of the year with it. In spite of a career 3.09 ERA, Rivera, who played for the Giants before arriving in Cleveland before the 1972 season, has a career record of just 123-122 and led the NL in losses in 1970. Rivera... hurt himself tying his shoe. Just... wow.
August 2: Dodgers RP Alec Cosby (3-6, 5.00), who was the best reliever in the NL and arguably all of baseball last season but has stuuuuuuunk this year, is mad and wants to start. He did originally come up through the minors as a starter. With the way this season is going, why not give him a shot? It's not like he's pushing anyone worthy off the rock (he replaces 26 year old Chris Falls (6-8, 3.16 at AAA Albuquerque)). He's probably still trade bait at season's end but hey, what if he finds his stuff again as a starter?
August 2: You can probably figure it out from the statline but Braves SP Bob Geldof (1-0, 0.00) had himself a great debut. The former 1st round pick and #35 rated prospect in 1971 (he hasn't appeared at all on the top 100 the last 2 years in spite of going a combined 27-11 in AAA Richmond the last two years) throw a 3-hit shutout with just 1 walk and 6 strikeouts. The Ks in particular were a good sign as the Irishman had been held up largely because his stuff seemed to stop being able to miss bats the last couple years in the high minors (5.3 K/9 in '72, only 4.9 this year).
He actually had to pitch every bit this well in this game vs the Reds because the Henry Riggs-less Braves continued to struggle to score runs. It was a scoreless tie heading into the 9th, in fact still scoreless with 2 outs when Reds SP Rodrigo Aguilar (9-11, 4.36) gave up a single to 3B Mike Morrison (.317, 3, 33) and then a game-ending 2-run HR to cleanup hitter 2B Kevin Dwyer (.271, 10, 53). The Cincy loss puts the Astros in a position to retake 1st in the NL West with a win today; the Braves, meanwhile are just half a game back, offensive issues or no.
August 2: In Houston, the Astros got that W to retake the division lead but it took them 10 innings against a new-look Dodgers squad. Roberto Ortiz (5-7, 3.85) pitched 9 solid innings but got removed for a pinch-hitter to try and keep the game from going into extras, tied up 2-2. Fortunately for the Astros, even though Ken Hansen (7-9, 3.52) pitched a good game himself, LA's relief pitching is baaad this year and tonight it was 35 year old Rich Wilson (0-3, 5.40) who gave up the ghost with a game-ending bases-loaded walk to RF Justin Jensen (.269, 14, 51).
August 3: Four residents are killed and 12 injured when the old Grand Central Hotel in New York City collapses. The hotel, opened in 1870, was at that time NYC's most elegant lodging and the largest hotel in the US but by the time of the collapse it had been turned into a residential apartment building called the University Hotel. The eight-story, 400 room building falls shortly after 5 in the afternoon. Most of the 308 persons registered get out in time but 16 fail to heed warnings to get out.
August 3: Because it's the 70s... a 13 year old becomes the final victim of serial murderer Dean Corll. The boy had left his home on a bicycle and telephoned his parents to tell them he was staying at an all night party. Man... I hated that my parents' generation got soooo damn helicopter-ish (I mean, not mine because both had to work) but it seems like there were thousands of guys like this in this decade.
August 3: Braves PH Nate Ringstad (.228, 4, 223) is I guess understandably frustrated at his own performance and wants a bigger role. Hey, it's a bit paradoxical but humans gonna human amirite??? I'm not going to touch his role for the moment; these Braves are contending for a spot but Ringstad just isn't playing like a guy I want to give significant at-bats to.
August 3: A's CF David Mesa (.258, 1, 20), who I'd been counting on to come back next week, suffered a setback and will not be back until late August now. Oakland (58-50) is just baaaarely still in this race and they really could have used him; I guess all that being said, 25 year old prospect Cat Stevens (.278, 3, 12) has filled in pretty well in his stead.
August 3: The schedule-makers have the Red Sox and O's going at it in a double-header for the 2nd time in a week. CRAZY.
August 3: The White Sox and Rangers are playing a super-important weekend series here: the 1 and 2 spots in the division at good old Comiskey Park. This one opens with the two aces: Chad "Dog" Daugharty (10-13, 3.39) of the Rangers lining up against the Sox' Rich Reese (12-5, 2.78). Reese outduels Daugharty for a 5-1 win with 1B Alice Cooper (.294, 29, 77) continuing to look like the AL MVP with a 1-2, 2 RBI, 2 walk game that included the eventual game-winning RBI in the first. SS Josh Johnson (325, 5, 45) and RF Josh Wade (.298, 7, 42) both had 3-hit games against Daugharty, who never quite looked right.
These guys will be playing 3 more times over the next 2 games - a single game tomorrow and then a Sunday doubleheader - and already... I did not notice this but Texas has FLOUNDERED recently and these two teams are all tied up! Yeah, wow... they went 2-4 last week and then have been just 1-4 so far this week, including a 0-3 start to August. The White Sox for their part are 8-2 since the All-Star Break. 7 of those games have come against the Twins and Royals (the Rangers meanwhile played the A's and Angels) but hey, you've still got to win those games...
August 3: On the flip side of the AL West standings, we've got a good old-fashioned Battle of the Crap this weekend between the Royals and the Twins and boy oh boy did this one get crap-started. The Royals traveled to Minnesota and played just about the worst guests possible, winning a barn-burner 16-13. There were 5 HRs hit, including 3 off of Twins closer and loser Ricky Rosas (4-9, 5.23), who entered the game with a 13-10 lead and a man on base. LF Alonzo Rivera (.321, 4, 50) went 4-5 with 4 RBIs today for KC and for Minnesota's part 1B Alonzo Martinez (.269, 22, 74) went 4-5 himself with 3 ribbies.
August 3: Man, it's a weekend of the West I guess. Well, "west" since the matchup we've got on the NL side is between the Astros and Reds at Riverfront. How is an Ohio team in the western division again? It's opening up with the Reds in a real hole, as a recent massive block of games has them putthing out two spot starters... game one went even worse than imagined, as Astros' ace Tony Rivera (17-6, 2.24) had a perfect game going into the 7th and still only faced 2 batters over the minimum for an easy 7-0 win to put Houston a game and a half up going into game 2.
Game 2 was a rout the other way, with Bastien Maurice (2-0, 4.93) making a strong case for moving into the rotation full-time with a 10-K game for a 10-2 Reds win. Astros spot starter Caleb McDonald (2-4, 7.01) got KOed in the 3rd and effectively played his way off this team. Reds 1B MC Gainey (.293, 7, 27) went 2-5, slugging 2 HRs and driving in 5 men in this one.
August 4: Argentina's Justicialist Party nominates former president Juan Peron and his wife Isabel as candidates for President and Vice President of the country in advance of their election scheduled for September 23.
August 4: The Pekan Olahraga Nasional Games open in Djakarta, Indonesia. Begun in 1938, this week-long event happens in the country every 4 years to "coordinate existing sports associations including the Football Federation", whatever that means.
August 4: Sam Katzman, a movie producer known for campy but economically successful films as well as being a name thrown around as a threat on the Columbia Studios lot ("if you don't shape up, we'll put you in a Katzman production") died today. He's the uncle of TV producer Leonard Katzman as well as the great-great uncle of Ethan Klein, half of the H3H3 Productions comedy podcast with his wife Hila (which is also a hilarious show and sure, I'm a bit of an H3H3 head).
August 4: Game 3 of the big weekend Rangers-White Sox series comes down to Texas' Robbie Coltrane (16-5, 2.48) going up against Chicago's Chris Messina (8-12, 4.18). Obviously the 24 year old Coltrane looks like he's got the big advantage over Messina, a cagey veteran with a declining fastball.
Unfortunately for White Sox fans, this one ended more or less as I'd feared. Messina (8-13, 4.19) was okay but not lights-out for 6.1 innings, leaving with a 3-1 deficit, and then for some reason Chicago's bullpen - which is normally pretty good - absolutely blew up in the 9th and turned this into a 9-1 laugher. Coltrane (17-5, 2.37) improved his Rangers record to 15-3, 1.78 and completed his 11th game in 20 outings for the team. The HEARTBREAKER RF Tom Petty (.389, 1. 6) went 3-4 with 3 RBIs, 2 of them coming on a 9th inning triple off of Jesus de la Cruz (4-1, 2.63 and that's even after allowing 4 runs in 0.1 IP tonight).
We head into Sunday's game with the White Sox needing a win to tie the division back up.
August 4: For the NL West showdown, we've got Astros' #2 man Ernie ALvarez (11-11, 3.36) going up against the Reds' ace, at least historically speaking, in Steve Waiters (11-9, 3.53). Waiters hasn't quite had the results he's gotten in the past but he's a 2 time 21 game winner and 5-time All-Star (although he missed the Midsummer Classic this year). Alvarez doesn't have that kind of pedigree but did turn in a solid 14-0, 3.04 performance last year.
Against a tired Astros lineup (3 guys had mild fatigue going into this), Waiters (12-9, 3.37) looked like the Cy Young contender of old, striking out 10 in 8 innings before getting removed for a pinch-hitter in an easy 6-1 win (I pulled him because as it was, he'd thrown 127 pitches and the game wasn't close). Embattled CF Jake Leone (.164, 1, 5) chased 'Stros starter Jason Gilmer (11-12, 3.56) in the 5th with an RBI double - he went 2-3 tonight - and 1B MC Gainey belted (.294, 8, 29) his 8th HR of the season.
The Reds are back up by half a game with the Braves due to play 2 today.
August 4: The Braves had a chance to get right into this NL West race but they are an incomplete team right now with LF Henry Riggs (.323, 16, 41) and 3B Mike Morrison (.319, 3, 33) both out with injuries, and their opponents today, the San Diego Padres, aren't entirely out of this race themselves. So to some degree it wasn't a huge surprise that the Padres walked into Atlanta and completed a 6-4, 3-0 sweep. Game 1 took 10 for the Padres to win, with Ron Shepherd (2-7, 4.64) allowing the winning runs in his 3rd inning of work with a 1B Carlos Palacios (.311, 2, 46) triple being the huge catalyst. In Game 2, Cesar Barreras (9-12, 3.26) didn't even have his best stuff tonight, as his 5 walks and 2 Ks would suggest, but he coerced the Braves to hit into 2 double plays and a lot of "atom" balls for his 3rd shutout of the year. RF Phil McGraw (.299, 2, 34) incidentally set a Padres record for hits in the 2nd game with 5.
Now suddenly the expansion Padres (57-52) are tied with the Braves (60-55) for 3rd in the division, only 2 1/2 games back.
August 5: The USSR launches the Mars 6 probe from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The craft will reach Mars seven months later on March 12 of 1974, releasing a lander which will return data for 224 second before crashing on the surface. Much of the data transmitted will be unusable. We always talk about dumb mistakes in the US program; where's the talk of this one!?
August 5: The Black September terrorist group throw a hand grenade into a crowded passenger lounge at the Athens airport, killing 3 and injuring 55.
August 5: In Iceland, a group of Norse worshipers revive the tradition of the violent blood sacrifice to Thor known as the "blot". The ritual had been outlawed in the year 1000.
August 5: Vander Broadway, an American female impersonator, high-wire performer, and trapeze artist, commits suicide by an overdose of painkillers. Broadway, popularly known as Barbette, had stopped performing in the 1930s and had since their retirement had served as the artistic director and aerialist trainer for a number of circuses, including Ringling Brothers and the Shrine Circus, and apparently had been suffering from chronic pain since the later stages of their career.
August 5: Brewers SS Anatoly Karpov (.329, 4, 22), who was giving Milwaukee fans some hope with his chessmaster-level smarts and great play at shortstop, learned that he'll miss the next month and a half with a hamstring injury. The loss of Karpov means the team will go back to Guido Temudo (.125, 0, 3), who, hey, hit .278 in 13 games in AAA Evanston after looking like a complete disaster in the major leagues over the first half of the year when he wasn't nursing a big injury of his own (bone chips in his elbow, which caused Temudo to miss most of May and June).
August 5: The Rangers and White Sox wrap up their series with a double-header. In Game 1, what looked like a Rangers advantage going in turns into crap as Billy Crystal (14-11, 2.44) is victimized by a bad error by CF Norm Hodge (.257, 5, 25) and eventually gets knocked out of the box in the 4th after allowing just 1 earned run (6 total runs though). 3B Carlos Filipe Ximines Belo (.360, 2, 9) goes 3-4 with a fateful 3rd inning RBI double.
Game 2 is, as these things go, a battle of spot starters: Amir Sudler (1-2, 5.00), recently acquired by the Rangers from the Cardinals, goes up against Sergio Alvarado (5-2, 3.26), who's making his second start of the year. Alvarado (5-2, 3.35) does everything the Sox ask of him, going 7 innings for one of those "technically this is true" quality starts and the White Sox break through in the 6th for all 4 of the runs they'd score in the bottom of the 6th off of Sudler (1-3, 5.14). CF Alan Parsons (,333, 1, 9) slapped a 2 out single in that inning to bring home the game-winner.
The sweep and 3-1 series win puts the Sox a game up on Texas now. Obviously there is a tooon of time left in this season, although these two only play one more time: a little 2-day, 3 game series on Labor Day (September 3) and the day after. That also means they've played each other 13 times already: Texas still leads the series 7-6. Texas is playing AL East teams for pretty much the entire rest of the month before hosting the Twins on the 30th, although they're avoiding Detroit in that time. Chicago on the other hand has 8 games vs the Tigers during that period... which, it looks like we're going on a full 3-week "East vs West" jaunt in this league. I have no idea if this is normal or not with regards to scheduling.
August 5: The Cardinals lost the opener of their double-header vs the Mets 8-2 which is bad enough but... in the game, SS Barry Bailey (.246, 3, 12) committed his *20th* error in 42 games. Normally I'd wait for the 20-loss reviews to pull a guy for something like this but this is like the equivalent of hitting .125 in 80 at-bats, that is, it's untenable. Bailey was even hitting decently, at least for a shortstop, but there's just noooo way. I'll have to replace him with Angelo Serrano (.288, 0, 4), who is hitting this year at least. Last year he went 5-61 after arriving via trade with the A's so I'm not expecting much... well, other than not committing an error literally every other game.
August 5: In Cincinnati, the Astros edge the Reds 4-3 to go back on top of the NL West. 23 year old archbishop (NOT Mr. Bean)(who?) Rowan Atkinson (11-4, 3.48) pitches 6+ and then the Houston bullpen with Jason Gilmer (3-6, 5.09) and Adam Eastin (4-4, 2.94, 13 Sv), the latter of whom was pitching his 3rd game in 4 days and so was deeeeead tired, wrapped it up. CF George Foreman (.303, 17, 67) did have to lead the game with a strained hamstring in the 6th but it's not reported to be serious - and even if it was, Foreman would probably just play through it.
August 5: And in Atlanta, San Diego waraps up a sweep over the Braves with a 4-2 win behind ace/Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler (10-6, 2.90). Tyler went all the way, allowing 5 hits and giving up both HRs on solo shots by LF Chris Ward (.291, 9, 33) and RF Wolf Blitzer (.252, 5, 20). Atlanta has prooooblems on offense right now. 2B Paul McCartney (.285, 14, 57), coming off of a .194 July, had a 3-hit night in the winning effort.
## Teams in Review
July 30: The
Philadelphia Phillies (63-40, - GB) are doing pretty well but the Cards are riiiiight there - 3 games back - and somehow in spite of the record they're only 26-28 on the road. They've got to balance things out! I don't know. The Vet is kind of a neutral park. It's a liiitle bit of a HR park but not like hugely. ANYWAY, what do we do? Riding things out is probably enough but well, that's the point of these things...
Rotation: The Phils have the 4th best rotation ERA (3.12) in the NL but the 2nd worst bullpen ERA (4.19). That's probably a place to improve. Yeah, the rotation's in great shape. I might move Billy Ording (10-7, 3.91) into the bullpen... at some point because he doesn't have a lot of stamina but as a 4th starter he's doing fine and, like, don't switch horses in midstream and all that.
Bullpen: Here I'm moved to make changes just to have arms available after a brutal 6 games in 4 days stretch... down goes Paul Shaffer (7-4, 3.45 at AAA Eugene) after 1 whole game with minor league journeyman Pat Pierson (5-3, 1.65 at Eugene) in his place. Philadelphia bought him over the offseason; maybe the 27 year old with 19 major league games to his credit finally has things figured out? Otherwise the bullpen as it stands now, with the recent release of Robby Mournier (2-0, 6.47) at least, is all at the "mediocre but I'm reticent to swap them out with someone who could be outright bad" level pretty much.
Infield: I've already swapped out 1B Josh Coffey (.264, 3, 41) for the most part with prospect Ed Begley Jr (.375, 2, 5 in 4 games; .327, 17, 55 at AAA Eugene in the first half) after Begley tore apart the PCL. Coffey has been... fine but not really hitting the way you want a first baseman to hit and so, veteran presence or no, he's already provided a nice kick to the lineup.
2B Nate Row (.221, 4, 39) is clearly not the same guy who hit .337 in 1971 but again, it seems like a bad idea to just bench him in favor of someone who might be even worse. Even worse than a .292 OBP though? Screw it, Bryant Gumbel (.300, 0, 40 at Euguene) is 4 years younger and has hit .300+ his past 2 years in the minors. Worst case scenario he'll hit as badly as Rowe and I'll go back to the vet in September.
Meanwhile SS Tony Shannon (.263, 6, 39) is not looking like a guy who can his position at all but his bat carried him to his 3rd All-Star Game so he has to stay in somewhere. Gumbel can't play short at all and Rowe is liable to be just as bad as Shannon so there's no relief there. Nope, nothing to see here!
Outfield: All 3 starters out there made the All-Star Game. Suffice it to say, we don't need to make changes out here.
July 31: Speaking of good teams, it's the
Texas Rangers (62-40, - GB)! This seems AHISTORICAL for them to be this good but hey, when the alternative is the White SUX, you do what you do. These Rangers, like their old Senators counterparts, still don't hit (10th in the AL in runs scored) but they've got the best pitching in the league by a longshot and it's bolstered by the best fielding. Still, it's always possible I've been overlooking something...
Rotation: This rotation is just plain monstrous. The #1 guy Chad Daugharty (10-13, 3.26) could actually be the worst of the bunch; the other 3 guys are all 26 or younger and all are at 12+ wins and ERAs lower than 3.50. No changes here, obviously.
Bullpen: The 'pen does feel a little... castoffy with both former Angel Tanzan Kihara (1-2, 3.18, 16 Sv) and MR Billy Munoz (4-1, 3.15, 4 Sv) filling large roles in here. If there's one thing we're missing, it's a lefty specialist but due to age and cast-offishness anybody I'd try to send down would need to clear waivers and I doubt any of these guys do that.
Infield: C Andres Gamez (.196, 1, 10) has seen his hitting completely crater and even though he's only 25, the Rangers have another 25 year old who switch-hits. He's also not hitting but... Led Zepellin drummer John Bonham (.198, 1, 6) is about as good this year and maybe I can coax some more production here. And if Gamez starts hitting like he used to, I can always give the full-time job back to him.
1B Roberto Hernandez (.265, 10, 54) is a guy who's kind of spent the last 5 years losing his job to 3B Bobby Ramirez (.326, 7, 36) and that's, like, continued this year. At this point I'm sticking with Hernandez because the average-ish production he's giving (not really even average at this point, as he's got an Isolated Walks of .012) is better than cratering at the position so for now / through the end of the year I'm going to have to live with it.
Ramirez meanwhile is rated low in that "I should find a new guy" area of overall ratings at 3rd but by the numbers he's pretty OK and I think this is just a matter of the game underrating his actual abilities (good but not fantastic arm, average range / hands, bad turning DPs but who cares about DPs at 3rd). I still might think strongly about pushing him over to 1st in the future, although man, talk about a guy who doesn't have the power for the position...
I'm really not sold on SS Michael Luna (.235, 3, 27) but again at this point he's... fine and the Rangers aren't really in a position to take chances at a prime position like this. There are some interesting guys in the minor leagues but they'd be a step down from Luna defensively.
Outfield: LF Josh Damon (.255, 6, 33) has had the entire first half to prove he's better than average and he just hasn't been. It's time to pave the way for the HEARTBREAKER, 22 year old Tom Petty (.298, 9, 33 at AAA Spokane), at least against righties. Hey, maybe a steady diet of lefties only will coax some production out of Damon...
I'm not super sure that CF Norm Hodge (.253, 4, 23) is quite at the "death to flying things" level that he's been in throughout his career but he's still extremely good in the field and he's hitting for his best average since 1970. Curtis Hope (.213, 1, 11) is a good solid backup here, history of his own Gold Gloves or no.
August 1: And we're back to bad teams! The
Kansas City Royals (48-60, 17 1/2 GB) were doing well at one point before they went 9-19 last month including that long losing streak - 14 games so if you pretend that that didn't happen they were 9-5 last month. Anyway, this team loves to score runs although the lineup is top-heavy and they also love to allow them. Do we have stuff on the farm that's ready to go? I guess we'll see...
Rotation: I called up Jason LaPointe (2-1, 3.28) for a one-game spot start and now he's refusing to be demoted. I don't like giving into TERRORISM but it's not like I'm displacing good players here. Down goes Edward James Olmos (1-6, 6.52), who's been better in KC (1-4, 4.57) than in St. Louis (0-2, 19.89) but still hasn't been, you know, good. There is a starter angle to this! It's that I'm also swapping in lefty specialist Brian Garaves (2-1, 3.81) and swapping out Josh Willie (2-2, 4.57) after 2 starts. Yeah, he's not very good.
The remainder of this rotation is really bsad. I don't exactly have solid replacements in the minors but everybody deserves a chance! First and foremost Israel Rascon (2-7, 4.85) still has an option year left and more importantly has been wiiiild: 63 BBs in 94.2 IP. This gives us the opportunity to take a look at Michael "Dr. Sax" Brecker (4-11, 3.71 at AAA Omaha). Like I said, not exactly a solid replacement but the game likes his workhorseishness.
Bullpen: The other 3 guys in the pen have all been really good to be honest - all 3 have sub-3 ERAs. That was enough changes!
Infield: I'd love to find a replacement for C Mike Perez (.172, 10, 32), as the 35 year old is now doing basically nothing but hitting the occasional homerun, but the cupboard is barer than bare. Jonathan Escobar (.148, 0, 0) has followed up a .144/2/18 1972 with... this. I've extended an offer to Jeff Culliton, who was last seen last year in the Mexican League (he went .220/2/24 for Veracruz so don't expect too much) and has a reputation for being not the best locker room guy but he also has a career BA of .260, which sounds unbelievably high for this team. Unfortunately too KC has noooobody close to being ready in the minors: the top 3 catching prospects, none of whom are in the team's top 20, are in rookie or A ball. We're probably more likely to snag the eventual future guy in next year's draft...
He won't be playing much 1B with 24 year old Christopher Durang (.324, 3, 8 in 71 at-bats) installed there full time but we've got another basketballer in this league and it's 24 year old forward Dave Cowens (.251, 17, 44), who will be taking DH time away from Edwin Manchego (.216, 18, 66), who has followed up a promising .276/27/77 season with... forgetting how to hit. I'd say he's been a rare "miss" but, like, catcher and shortstop on this team. Terrence Hicks (.324, 3, 23) has been DHing against LHPs lately, with 22 starts now, and he'll continue to do so for the forseeable future.
Shortstop is the other ugggh position in the infield with Mike Dawson (.186, 0, 14) cratering after a pretty decent 1972 (.233, 7, 37) and Uwe Kleimann (.200, 0, 9) not looking like he's ready to carry the bag there. The only other high-level guy I've got is Nate Sita (.216, 14, 40 at AAA Omaha), who's hit for good power in the minors I guess but I'd prefer someone who can also hit over .200. Against my better judgment I'm going to extend an offer to the classic good-field, no-hit man of this save, John Timonen (.135, 0, 5 with 2 clubs) in the hopes that he can hit to... some level in Omaha. The 5 time Gold Glover can still pick it at age 30 but at his best he is a career .180 hitter so I'm not exactly optimistic.
Outfield: I moved Alonzo Rivera (.320, 4, 48) into left to make room for Durang and now Dave Cowens. Rivera fields in left like a converted 1B, which is to say not well. You can't keep that bat out of the lineup though. Dave Corona (.277, 9, 36) is back from an injury in 3 days so I guess I'll have to do something. A nice problem to have? Corona used to play CF but he was never very good at it and I suspect he'd be an absolute disaster out there now.
CF is the other spot where we're not getting a lot of production. Hey, it's the 3 most important defensive slots so I guess that's to be somewhat expected. I'm talking myself into using Corona in CF over Prince Charles (.206, 8, 32), not because I think it'll work for the future or even the present but like why not? The object of the game is to score more runs than your opponent and this is definitely a strategy. On the other hand, Corona made 112 starts in CF - 1004 innings - in 1972 and had a ZR of -11.3. In 1970 that was -35.6! Yeah... that will be a... bumpy ride.
August 1: Man, when it comes to these things, they come all at once... the
Milwaukee Brewers (43-60, 22 1/2 GB) actually split a double-header yesterday with the Tigers but I don't like doing these in the middle of those things so we're doing it TODAY instead. These guys are no longer in danger of setting futility records on offense - even with the DH this team is now 8th in the AL in runs scored, not dead last by a mile - but of course they're a long ways off from actually being, you know, good. They do have 2 guys in the OSA top 10 for the future! Both are teenagers. Anyway, it'll be a few years; in the meantime, what can we do?
Rotation: Marius Gaddi (5-13, 4.36) did not in fact turn his career around in Milwaukee but I'm not going to pull him from the rotation until/unless he gets close to the 20 loss mark (and hell, maybe not even then - we need the starts out there). This looks mostly like a rotation where either I've already made second-half moves (like calling up Luther Vandross (5-2, 2.55 at AAA Evanston in the first half)) or, like, nobody's quiiite bad enough to dump. NO CHANGES
Bullpen: I also here just made some changes, notably recalling Bubba Touchton (1-0, 9.90), who has been unbelievably terrible for the Brew Crew (1-2, 12.38 in 12 relief appearances) but has a history of being a decent setup guy / middle reliever with the Red Sox and Angels. I also know that 32 year old Victor Marin (2-1, 3.79) wants ot start - he did start 18 games last year but he was 4-14 - so he could be playing his way to a trade or something so we'll see there, I guess. For now though no further changes.
Infield: C Sam Rahn (.267, 3, 28) made his first All-Star Game this year which is more about how bad catching is right now than anything else. I'm not seeing him as a long-term option, but given that the top guys are in short season A or the international complex, the 32 year old will probably spend some time as the starter.
1B Sergio Sicre (.266, 5, 37) got the entire first half to show what he could do in the majors and... he's a league averasge hitter as a 1B/DH type. Here I'm very constrained by the major league roster but hey Sincere Littleton (.243, 10, 39 in AAA Evanston) is another failed prospect who's never quite gotten a big major league chance so I'll start mixing him in at the position, especially against LHPs. We'll see! And if it's bad, hey, higher draft picks!
Outfield: I've already scooched Peter Jenni (.303, 3, 15 in 38 games at AAA Evanston) in in front of Fernando Ceballos (.234, 2, 28), who as of this date still has a higher batting average than OBP (.231). Ceballos is the better fielder and of course has less of a chance to implode but where's the fun in that? Also Ceballos is awful, no offense.
In RF Jun Kim (.240, 3, 29) is basically keeping this gig based on reputation and "veteran leadership". He is I guess still a top flight RF at 34 years of age so there's that too. I'm going to start mixing him out hard against LHPs, in part to counteract this crazy lefty-skewed lineup; former Cub Nelson Hernandez (.251, 2, 21) is the beneficiary at least until roster expansion comes along.
August 3: Hey, the last 40-loss team! The
Detroit Tigers (66-40, - GB) are preeeetty good and really look like they're about to wrap up the AL East; as of this writing and following the Bosox' double-header split in Baltimore, they're 7 1/2 games up. Both the pitching and the hitting are really great so I don't anticipate doing much but hey, I guess we'll see...
Rotation: The rotation is pretty locked. If I wanted to get fancy I might think about moving Edgar Molina (17-11, 3.54) and his 37 HRs allowed down but meh, he was a 21 game winner last year - in fact he was 40-25 combined the previous 2 years - and even this year with the gopher issues he's been a functional game-winner.
Bullpen: The 'pen I guess is only a little above average with a 5th-in-AL ERA of 3.44 (vs the starters' ERA of 2.99). I've already made the changes I think I was going to make though. Todd Theisen (0-2, 3.49) is back from the torn flexor tendon he suffered last July. 35 year old Chris McGranahan (3-4, 3.02) has basically made himself a career post-expansion from being a 5th starter / long reliever and he's chugging along in that role. 24 year old Simon Crean (0-0, 11.12) has looked... yikes as the team's lefty specialist so there's that I guess. I'm going to let him take his lumps; like, someone has to (right???) and also he was 7-5, 1.92 in AAA Toledo in the first half so it's not like he's got no pedigree here.
Infield: C Armando Flores (.248, 5, 42) has been baaaaaad since coming from Atlanta - .196/5/26 in the AL. Bad enough to replace him with Joel Moise (.255, 2, 22)? I'm going to go with no. For one thing, man's thrown out 61.9% of base-stealers(!). I mean, that's the main thing. Flores has completely shut down opposing running games where Moise's arm is average at best (12 RTO, 30.8%).
1B Nikki Lauda (.254, 13, 42) has pretty well taken the 1B job but this is more about his backup / intended platoon mate, Tim Suman (.232, 2, 8). This guy has neeeever looked any good in the pros. I'll send him down because we have the roster space and he has options left but man, I think he's done. I'll call up Manny Duran (.297, 0, 3 in AAA Toledo), who missed the entire first half with a torn calf muscle he suffered in spring training but who also looked fine in a rehab assignment. Since both he and Lauda bat lefty, Lauda's now the full-time starter with Duran fitting in mainly as a pinch-hitting specialist, which is something the Tigers really badly needed.
SS Matt Mullen (.296, 3, 14) has I think played himself back into a larger role. He'll be platooning with Rob Curran (.246, 2, 23), who took over the job last year. Mullen is right now a slightly better fielder, although both are plus defenders, and as you can see he's been hitting.
Outfield: Outfield looks pretty great, all things told. The worst that can be said is that their 5th OF and backup CF Bob Irwin (.193, 1, 7) isn't very good and... that's not really saying much. 2 of their top 3 CF prospects are in AAA but neither one of them are hitting, and their #1 guy, Christopher Cross (.294, 4, 20 at A Anderson) is a long ways off. Which, this doesn't matter! The incumbent is Alvin Romero (.295, 3, 40) and I'm looking for someone to fill in for the like 15 games Romero misses a year.
August 3: And back to bad teams again: the
San Francisco Giants (47-60, 11 1/2 GB) have been playing for the future for most of the year now so it's possible I won't have much to do. I do see that the historically solid pitching staff has pretty well fell apart: 3rd worst in runs allowed with a 3.58 starters' ERA that's 9th in the league. Anyway, who knows? Maybe I'm missing something BIG.
Rotation: With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (0-0, 3.72) finally back, if not pitching into games (he hasn't made it past the 5th in either of his 2 starts so far), the rotation itself looks pretty well set. I wouldn't call it great and I wouldn't say a lot of these guys have a rock-solid hold on jobs but for now and probably into September this looks fine. Well, not fine but... OK?
Bullpen: Sam Williams (6-9, 4.54) is in the bullpen because he pitched his way out of the rotation; as a 10-game winner last year (10-13, 3.64) I'm not about to cut the 29 year old loose though. Wow, he's beeen bad in relief: 4 ER in 5 IP thanks to 4 HRs. Well, still. I will say that Jason Sears (0-1, 3.79) hasn't looked super fantastic with 18 walks allowed in 19 IP and so for the sake of trying new things out I'm calling up 23 year old future Hollywood hunk Don Johnson (6-6, 2.88), who was being used as a starter in AAA but I don't think has the stamina for it (as seen by his 9 no-decisions in 21 starts, not to mention the single complete game). Let's see how he shakes out in middle to long relief...
Infield: 1B/OF Elijah Joyner (.133, 0, 3) has not been hitting at all in the major leauges in spite of a solid looking first half in Phoenix (.311, 2, 12). Also there is a guy in the minor leagues named Havok Anderson (.214, 1, 8 at AA Amarillo)... man, no, he looks completely overmatched in AAA, let alone the majors. How about... 1968 NL steals leader Ruberto Yebra (.282, 4, 25 at AAA Phoenix)? Yeah, somehow this guy's still around. He hit .184 with Montreal last year so I'm expecting nothing.
Outfield: CF Danny "The Phantom" Seligman (.260, 1, 12) is a really great defensive CF with Gold Gloves in each of the past 3 years and he's a .260ish hitter. That's the sum total of his talents. The flip side of that is that he's got all of 6 extra-base hits in 181 at0bats and an OBP under .300 (.289). I think it's time to give this job away to 24 year old Panos Michaloplous (.321, 19, 59 in AAA Phoenix). He is definitely not a future CF but if his first half is any indication he's got the power to be a mainstay in the middle of a good team. I say that but then I noticed that Mads Vindig (.300, 3, 18), who's been playing in RF over the past month or so, is a plus defender in center. He'll move there with the Greek man going into right. This also means that somehow, some way OF Frank Meneses (.198, 13, 39) still has just enough utility to not get cut.