Instead of doing seasonal updates, I'm going to try something different (sort of like the Mantle post I made above). BaTTY is unique because we're using real players who are normalized and moved to a different era (some are close to their real careers, while others are as far away, time-wise, as they can be), so there is always something cool to look at.
The Red Sox won another AL pennant this season (the World Series will be played tomorrow against the NL champion Cardinals). Interesting thing about the Sox: they've got a CATCHER who almost won the Triple Crown this season.
Yep,
Carl Sawatski was first in batting average with .388 (after flirting with .400 all season long he cooled off in September) and homers with 38 (tied with
Hack Wilson) and was second to Wilson in RBI with 136 (to the Hacker's 150). Not bad for a guy who played 11 real-life seasons (over the span of 1948-63) and only ONCE had more than 200 at-bats in a season. Oh yeah, Swats' lifetime
batting average? .242 - definitely a guy who made out like a bandit moving to the high-octane offenses of the late 20s/early 30s.
So how did
Greg Maddux do in his rookie season, you ask? Well, the Mad Dog had a decent year for the Giants in 1929 (an offset of -57 years from his
real life debut in 1986). He went 21-19 for a team which only won 65 games. He posted an ERA of 3.81 and a WHIP of 1.30. The league averages for those categories were 4.52 and 1.47 respectively. Seems like even in an era where hitters used pitchers like punching bags, Maddux does just fine. Once the Giants develop some offense to support him, he could become the Lefty Grove of BaTTY (albeit a right-handed one).