Season End Recap

As the season has come to a close and we look towards the playoffs allow me to make some final observations on season 2

  1. After all the watching and hoping we ended with no spectacular individual achievements. Batting title goes to Honus Wagner at a pedestrian .352. Wagner is also the only player to get to 50 doubles. Greenberg wins for most HRs at 45. Foxx 140 RBIs. Mays 125 runs scored. All good numbers. None will be remembered.
  2. Ruth wins the MVP…..yawn. What is truly notable is that Bill Dickey ended up 4th!
  3. Walsh wins the Cy Young……yawn. Don Sutton places 4th!
  4. Paul Waner lands on exactly his lifetime batting average at .333. The card creator is a genius!!
  5. The player who saw the least playing time is poor Kiki Cuyler. Just 3 ABs! Although he did score 3 runs as a pinch runner.
  6. Larry Doby for the Grand Rapids Trappers earns the dubious distinction of the player with the most ABs without having a hit. He ends up 0 for 15!
  7. The New Orleans Hurricanes were 4 games out with 10 to go, but end up sweeping the Vegas Agents to take the West Division crown.
  8. New Orleans also ends up with the exact same home and road record - (both 43-38)
  9. By record, all the teams in the West would fit in between the 2nd place team in the East - (Spartanburg) - and the 3rd place team in the East - (Grand Rapids).
  10. Hank Greenberg had the longest hitting streak of the season at 31 games. During this streak he also produced the longest streak for extra base hits at 9, and the longest streak for scoring a run at 13.
  11. 7 different players went 6 games in a row without getting a single hit! This list includes Nap Lajoie and Stan Musial!!

Nominees for the greatest underperformer are:

  1. Hank Aaron who hit .254 which is 51 points below his expected average. And hit only 22 HRs when he would’ve been expected to hit 38 in the 616 ABs he recorded
  2. Lou Gehrig who hit .288 which is 54 points below his expected average. And hit only 21 HRs when he would’ve been expected to hit 39 in the 629 ABs he recorded
  3. Yogi Berra who hit .230 which is 55 points below his expected average. And hit only 9 HRs when he would’ve been expected to hit 18 in the 370 ABs he recorded. (It should be noted that in the final 10 games of the season raised his average up from .219!!)

An honorable mention is Joe Dimaggio for his particular futility in hitting HRs. He managed just 11 in 473 ABs. He should’ve had 25 in that span!

Nominees for greatest overperformer are:

  1. Bill Dickey who hits .339 which is 26 points over his expected average. 18 HRs is 2 more than expected for his 508 ABs.
  2. Harmon Killebrew hit .270 which is 14 points over his expected average. His 26 HRs in 367 ABs were exactly as anticipated.
  3. Chick Hafey his .324 which is 7 points over his expected average. His 18 HRs are 1 ahead of anticipated during his 487 ABs.
  4. Tony Gwynn is expected to be a good hitter, but .349 is 11 points higher than expected.
  5. Zack Wheat is 10 points higher than expected at .327. And his 14 HRs are 5 ahead of where he would be expected at 620 ABs.
  6. Honus Wagner is also expected to be a good hitter. But not this good! His batting title winning .352 average is 24 points higher than expected! His 12 HRs are also nearly double the 7 he would be expected to hit in 693 ABs.

My nominees for….

All 1st team

C: Bill Dickey

1B: Hank Greenberg

2B: Rogers Hornsby

SS: Honus Wagner

3B: George Brett

RF: Babe Ruth

CF: Ty Cobb

LF: Frank Robinson

DH: Ted Williams

P: Ed Walsh

All 2nd team

C: Johnny Bench

1B: Stan Musial

2B: Paul Molitor

SS: Cecil Travis

3B: Mike Schmidt

RF: Tony Gwynn

CF: Al Simmons

LF: Joe Jackson

DH: Chick Hafey

P: Addie Joss

On to Season 3!!