SHL Expansion Two–Fingers Waxes Opposition

Rollie Fingers may have lost his trademark mustache, but his slider has lost none of its bite. Fingers has paced a strong Milwaukee staff that has kept the Brew-lots on top since opening day. Milwaukee has one of only four winning records across the weak Expansion Divisions.

Fingers has five saves and a win and provides color in a division that is struggling to establish itself. Excellent pitching has marked Milwaukee’s (8-7) games including two of their losses where the weak hitting Brew-lots were shut out. David Cone was the first to blank Milwaukee–one of the Royals few wins–then Carl Hubbell repeated the trick a week later by an identical 1-0 score. Milwaukee hitters looked like they had never seen the Hubbell screwball before.

The weak Milwaukee offense has not many runs, averaging only 4.3 per game. Prince Fielder, Paul Molitor and Gorman Thomas have paced a timely attack, but it is the strong late inning performances of unsung heroes like Bob Wickman, who has pitched effectively in almost all of the Brew-lots games. Dan Plesac and Francisco Cordero that have made late inning leads stand up as well. C.C. Sabathia and Teddy Higuera have anchored a rotation that has been near the top of the Expansion Divisions.

Padre Island: San Diego (7-8) has the offense to go with Milwaukee’s pitching. The Padres are scoring runs in bunches–6.1 per game and are near the SHL lead with a .308 batting average. Roberto Alomar (.340) and Tony Gwynn (.323) are off to very strong starts and are part of the reason the Padres lead the SHL in total hits–175. Gene Richards is off to a surprising start, but there is no reason to think it will last. It is realistic to think that the Padres pitching may improve enough for them to push the Brew crew over the long term. Bruce Hurst has two wins and a team best 3.24 ERA. Jake Peavy has been effective at times, but Randy Jones will pitch better than he has shown.

Minor leaguer Andy Ashby has looked good for Portland, with four strong starts. He may prove an attractive alternative to GM/owner Geoff Young if the starting rotation continues to hold back the strongest expansion offense.

Doormat City: Perennial cellar dwellers, the Washington Expats (6-9), wasted no time in establishing themselves at the bottom of the division. They have bounced back, however, in the last week. After winning the opener against the Padres, Washington lost six straight and the story line was bad pitching. It is hard to imagine a worse showing than the 7.23 ERA the Expats’ starters posted for the first two series of the season. Jeff Fassero’s 11.57 runs per nine innings took the lead on a bad staff, but management has stayed with the left-hander–for now.
Road weary, the Expats found hometown crowds an elixir, taking three of the first four in the friendly confines of RFK. Vlad Guerrero has been one of the best hitters in the SHL, starting with five-for-seven opening day and following it with an eleven game hitting streak.  Rusty Staub, Le Grand Orange, has been even hotter with eight RBI.

The worst Expat loss was a heartbreaker to the Yankees by a score of 10-9. After getting to Red Ruffin and Goose Gossage for eight runs in the first four frames, Joe DiMaggio went deep twice and the Yanks scored four times against Mel Rojas in the sixth. Guerrero, Gary Carter and Jose Vidro have been on fire, but a clubhouse shakeup may be in the works if the staff cannot find someone that can pitch.

Royalty Dethroned: The Kansas City Royals (3-12) landed in the cellar early and look remarkably comfortable there. David Cone is part of what should be an impressive Royal staff featuring Bret Saberhagen and Kevin Appier. Cone has been disappointing and the bullpen needs re-working. After a strong initial outing in Milwaukee, Cone’s second start in San Francisco was undone by three of the best African Americans ever to play the game: Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, and Willie McCovey. All of them took Cone deep in a 11-3 Giants romp. Carlos Beltran has been a lonely bright spot on the offensive side.