[John C]

May 1901

Circuit: St. Louis (32-24) leads by a half-game over Cleveland, while the Stars (29-26) and Philly (28-27) sit a couple back. Brooklyn (33-22) is a half-game up on Boston, two up on New York, and three up on Philadelphia.

Congress: Milwaukee and Kansas City (30-25) sit atop the league, while St. Paul is a half-game back. Minneapolis and the Houston Colts are two back at 28-27. Salt Lake City (35-20) are 4.5 up on the surprising Denver Bears, and five on San Francisco and Oakland.

Dave Conley leads the Bears with a 10-4 mark, and a 2.54 ERA), which also puts him tied atop the leaderboard with a pair of Bees, Mark West (10-4, 2.71) and Peter Woodard (10-4, 2.61). Louisville's Boyd Parker leads the NBC with a 2.12 ERA, and sits 9-5 on the year. SLC's Simpson is 8-4, 2.13. So, right now, this is what you see in Salt Lake:

Simpson: 8-4, 2.13
Woodard: 10-4, 2.61
West: 10-4, 2.71
Richard: 5-6, 3.90

That 1-3 is as good as it gets, and is why SLC has the best record in the country as of now.

Gary Jones of Oakland is considered to be, at this time, the highest-rated position player in the NBC. He is hitting .369 with 16 doubles, six triples, 35 RBI, and 23 steals. He has a .934 OPS, and has scored 42 runs in 54 games. Other players worth noting at this time are SLC's Koonts (.388-6-37, 45 runs, .966 OPS), Minneapolis SS Lou Cochrane (.315, 11 doubles, 4 homers, 47 RBI), and Denver 1B Francisco Fuentes, who came over via trade from Houston after a week. Since the move, he is hitting .390 with 41 runs and 32 RBI.

In the ABC, Greeson is continuing a phenomenal season, hitting .425 (94-for-221), with 15 doubles and 37 RBI. He has a 1.017 OPS and a 4.3 WAR right now. He is the only player above a 1.000 in OPS in the country. He leads in average, OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, WAR, hits and total bases, is third in doubles and runs scored, fourth in XBH, and fifth in RBI. Very impressive.

Other players of note include Cincy's Tim Cook (.318-6-43, 15 SB), Brooklyn's Tim White (.378, 14 doubles, 28 RBI), and Davey Davis of Philly (.365, 32 runs, 20 XBH, 15 steals).

Pitching-wise, Timothy Glover is showing his experience by leading all pitchers with a 1.46 ERA for the NY Gothams (NA).

Now, this needs considering:

Pitcher A: 120 IP, 119 hits, 2 HR, 74 K, 19 BB, .295 BABIP
Pitcher B: 118 IP, 120 hits, 2 HR, 54 K, 18 BB, .286 BABIP

One of these pitchers is 10-3, the other 4-10. Pitcher A is Terrible Berry (yes, the #1 OA pick in the dispersal draft), who is 10-4 for the Grays. Pitcher B is Jeff Brown of the Washington Feds, who may be the hard-luck pitcher in the game right now. He hasn't been great, but he's gotten 24 runs of support in his 10 losses. If you take two of those losses out, he's had 13 runs in eight losses. When he was 0-3, his ERA was 1.69.

The amazing thing here is, Washington's defense has 32 less errors than the Grays. The Grays have a .925 fielding mark; the Feds are at .941, which is middle of the pack. Washington does have the NA's worst offense, while Philly is second. There's your difference.