1946 Season Recap:
Final 1946 Standings:
1946 New York Yankees Leaders & Rankings:
1946 Year In Review: So obviously my expectations for the 1946 Yanks were wildly optimistic. The 97 losses is the most the Yankees/Highlanders franchise has had since I started the dynasty in 1903. The scary thing is that according to the pythag record, we weren't even this good.
The season started out poorly and by May 1st it was already clear that we were in for a tough year. Then when Joe DiMaggio was lost for the season on July 7th with a thigh injury, I knew we were in danger of having our worst season ever, especially considering that DiMaggio only hit 4 homers the whole season before the injury. I have no idea where his power went. It better come back next year or I'm in big trouble.
While our pitching staff did finish with the worst ERA in the AL, I actually think we were pretty good there. My top 3 pitchers, Feller, Ferris, & Drews all had ERAs near 3.00. Spahn was also showing a little promise with a 3.95 ERA on the season before he was lost for the year with an arm injury on the same day DiMaggio was hurt.
The problem was the young hitters just aren't ready. While Yogi may well win another Gold Glove, his bat hasn't shown any improvement yet and he still struggled to hit .200. The same goes for Doby, Fox, and Minoso, who all barely managed to break the .200 barrier. If I drop those kids down to AAA, the game tells me none of them are even ready for AAA. So I may just let them spend a year in the minors, sign some scrubs for next season, and suffer through another losing campaign. At least we get the #1 pick in this year's draft.
Around the league: Josh Gibson won another batting triple crown. The 34 year old picked up his 2nd straight and 3rd career batting, home run, and RBI titles playing for the Cubs. During the season Gibson became the 2nd player in MLB history to pass 500 home runs. He finished the season with 504. Satchel Paige outplayed my expectations. He won 19 games for the Reds. In his final game, the last game of the season for the Reds, he picked up his 300th career win, beating the Pirates 4-2. Ted Williams hit .302 and won the AL home run and RBI titles with 31 and 107. Former Yankee Willard Brown hit just .243, but he finished 2nd in the NL in homers and RBI with 30 and 100. And remember Leon Day? He was part of the 1943 trade that brought Yogi to the Yankees. Well Leon went 17-13 for the White Sox and led all of baseball with 244 strikeouts.
1946 All Star Yankees: P Cliff Chambers was selected to his 1st AS game. He responded by missing most of the rest of the season with arm injuries.
1946 New York Yankees Transactions:
July 29, 1946: Traded 1B Dick Sisler, P Jess Dobernic, & RF Ken Wood to the Cubs for LF Luke Easter & P Art Houtteman
After DiMaggio went down I needed someone who could hit a home run. Easter can barely hit his body weight for averge, but he can hit the ball deep. He hit 9 homers in 54 games after I re-acquired him. If you extrapolate that out, he would hit 27 for a season. I may keep him around for next year and let DiMaggio protect him in the lineup. Houtteman is a promising young SP prospect. Sisler deserved to start somewhere, and he was the player the Cubs wanted in the deal.
July 31, 1946: Traded P Hank Wyse, 3B Jimmy Outlaw, P Sam Nahem, P Sal Maglie, OF Vince DiMaggio, SS Pee Wee Reese, P Dick Koecher, & $27,000 cash to the Giants for LF Fred Singleton, P Duane Pillette, SS Sammy Meeks, and P Lum Harris
Harris was the guy I was after in this trade. He's a good young pitching prospect. Singleton is an expensive veteran, and I plan to let him go to free agency, but may change my mind if I'm going to have all the youngsters in the minors next year. The other 2 were throw in prospects. Wyse & Maglie never showed much promise, and Outlaw, Nahem, and DiMaggio were veterans who were begging for trades. I hadn't intended on trading Pee Wee, but he never played up to his potential in pinstripes, and I had a young SS prospect named Vic Barnhart was pushing to be a starter and was a target of a lot of trade offers. After trading Reese I let Barnhart play the rest of the year and he hit .249 and put up a .976 fielding percentage. Not sure if I'll stick with him next year or not. Probably will.
August 9, 1946: Claimed P Sonny Dixon & P Ben Wade off waivers from Cincy & Cleveland respectively
Dixon was a real life Yankee and a good young relief pitcher. I took Wade because of his strikeout potential. A 5 stuff rating is pretty high for this era of baseball.
World Series Matchup: The '40s are quickly becoming the decade of the Red Sox and Phillies. For the Sox it's the 4th World Series in 5 years, and 8th in team history. For the Philadelphia franchise it's the 3rd straight World Series appearance, 4th since 1940, and 7th in team history. The Red Sox are after title #4, while the Phillies are trying to win their 5th.
The teams split the first 2 games in Boston. The Red Sox went into Philly and won 2 out of 3 to send the series back to Boston with a 3-2 Red Sox lead. The Red Sox won game 6 by a 4-3 score.
The Boston Red Sox win their 4th World Series!