John and Tom's1979 NL Baseball APBA Replay |
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May 31, 1979
5/31 NL East: It’s a tight race in the NL East compared to the West. Only 5 games separate the top 5 teams. Lowly Montreal lags behind at 10 ½ games back. Parity is the name of the game here as until recently, the first place team was only a few games over .500. St. Louis Cardinals: Pitching is the key here. Pete Vukovich leads the league in ERA (1.79) and wins (8). John Fulgham is 5-1 with a 2.51 and after a rough start of the season, Silvio Martinez is 4-3 with a 3.99 ERA. The Cards still lack power though as George “Stork” Hendrick leads the team with 7 homers. Keith Hernandez (.327) and Lou Brock (.317) help set the table. Pittsburgh: The Pirates started out slow but have worked themselves up in the standings thanks to Willie Stargell’s league leading 20 homers and a .310 average. Omar Moreno leads the league in the Steals with 27. Phil Garner has a .327. Bruce Kison (1.98, 5-2), John Candelaria (4-2, 3.32) are solid starters. Don Robinson (2-3, 2.92) and Bert Blyleven (3-4, 2.96) have been hard luck pitchers. New York Mets: The Mets have surprised everyone by staying in second place for most of the season. Only recently have they moved down a spot. Joel Youngblood (.356, 9 hr, 43 rbi) is the big bopper for the team. Lee Mazzilli is hitting .328 with 37 runs. Pete Falcone surprisingly is second in the league in wins with 7. Tom Hausman continues his winning ways (6-1, 3.18) Philadelphia: Two players are the key to the Phillie offense. Mike Schmidt has 17 homers, 49 rbi, and 41 runs. Even more amazing is Pete Rose. He leads the league with a .412 batting average. He also leads the league in OBP (.489) and hits (89). Gary Maddox supplements with a .317 and 8 homers. The pitching is not as good as expected with only Steve Carlton (5-2, 3.80) and Nino Espinosa (5-2, 4.20) having decent seasons. Randy Lerch has stunk up the Vet (1-5, 5.35) Chicago Cubs: What happened to the Cubs?? They dominated the East until they suffered through a horrendous second half of May. One reason may be their league high 5.23 ERA. Ricky Reuschel (6-6, 2.82) is among league leaders in wins AND losses. The surprise on the staff is Dennis Lamp who is 5-0 with a 2.66 ERA. On the hitting side, Dave Kingman is second in the league with 20 homers. Ivan DeJesus is hitting .303 with 14 sb. Montreal Expos: The Expos have improved as of late but still haven’t been able to climb out of last place. Larry Parrish leads the team in homerus (9), doubles (15), runs (27) and hits (56). More typical of the team is Rodney Scott (.178) and Tony Perez (only 2 homers and 9 rbis). No one can complain about Montreal’s pitching though (team ERA 3.93). |