{ After a bit of a break, I'm going to handle this thread a bit differently. If any of you are following along, update by update, those will continue to show up at https://wbl.dmlco.com/wp/ , but I'm going to make one post per game-week here, pulling from those posts. }
TWIWBL 75: Year 2, Week 18
#AWARDS
Josh Gibson of the Homestead Grays hit .409 last week–which barely moved his overall batting average of .408. That, along with 5 homers and 12 RBIs earned him the NL Player of the Week Award. In the AL, one of the surprising cogs in the Detroit Wolverines‘ machine,
Juan Beníquez, earned the Award, hitting .423 with 3 homers.
#PERFORMANCE
Your leading performers at bat and on the mound are available at
https://wbl.dmlco.com/wp/2025/07/03/...ear-2-week-18/.
Steals and Speed
Seemed a good time to check in on some oddities in running the bases.
Let’s start with some players who perhaps should be running a bit less, led by the New York Gothams‘ recently acquired
Don Buford, who has 21 steals, but has been caught 20 times. Houston’s
Craig Biggio has been even worse, with only 10 steals in 26 attempts. Chicago‘s
Eddie Collins has been gunned down 23 times, but has 45 swipes: not a great success rate, but far ahead of Buford and Biggio.
San Francisco’s
Rickey Henderson has been caught the most times in the league, but with 73 steals against 25 caught stealings, his success rate remains decent.
On the other end of the scale, Indianapolis’
Bob Bescher has only been caught 10 times in 53 attempts; Kansas City’s
Ozzie Smith is doing even better, with an 84% success rate (42 for 50 so far); and the Black Yankees’
Eric Davis has gone 37 for 42.
Ottawa‘s
Carlos Beltrán has been thrown out only once in 26 tries but, interestingly, nobody with at least 5 steals has a perfect record on the basepaths.
#TEAM OF THE WEEK
We take a closer look at the Birmingham Black Barons
here.
Birmingham was a bit of an expert’s favorite last season, selling hard at the all star break, and then making great moves in late August to slide into the playoffs. They were pretty active in the off-season, and while the jury is out on some of the moves, the Black Barons’ front office has earned some benefit of the doubt.
That said, they are 7.5 games behind, and struggling a bit for sure, and it’s not clear that trading away a an all-star arm in
Jim Whitney was the right move at the midseason break.
THE OFFENSE
It’s a bit weird. The Black Barons have a ton of power, with over 250 homers, second in the NL in that department. But that’s about it. They struggle to get on base, struggle to hit singles and doubles, and, at the end of the day, are only meh at what matters for an offense, scoring runs.
What’s Going Right
Hank Aaron continues to position himself right on the edge of superstar level, leading the team in OPS (.953), homeruns (39), and RBIs (77).
Behind Aaron,
Eddie Mathews continues to be an offensive force despite struggling to hit over .230.
Newly acquired
Ryan Braun is a monster at the plate given Birmingham a truly impressive top 3 in the lineup..
While not at the same level as those three,
Jim Pagliaroni is among the better offensive backstops in the league and
Albert Belle, brought in during the offseason to hit for power, has done exactly that.
A shade of last year:
Richie Sexson was brought in over the all star break as a throw-in to the Braun trade. Sexson has 4 homeruns in his first 10 games with Birmingham.
Gene Tenace is demanding more playing time now that he’s back from injury, with an OBP over .400 and SLG over .500 in pretty limited action.
What’s Not Going Right
Even with 31 homers,
Curtis Granderson is somewhat exemplary of what’s wrong with Birmingham’s offense overall: he’s hitting under .200 despite all those homeruns, with only 7 other extra base hits. Likewise, fan favorite
JP Arencibia keeps hitting them out–12 dingers in 127 PAs–but doing little else at the plate.
Despite being given every opportunity to lock down the 1B job,
Adrián González is not doing much. He’s performing better than last year, but an OPS under .800 is rough from a 1B in this league.
Similarly, despite
Troy Tulowitzki‘s recent improvement, neither he nor Herman Long have been able to hold onto the SS job for long.
Cupid Childs is flashy, leading the team with 28 homers and the same number of steals. But closer examination reveals some weaknesses, with his OPS hovering barely over .700 and 19 caught stealings reducing the impact of those stolen bases.
THE PITCHING
The offense is better than last year, but the record is worse: an indication that not all is great on the mound for Birmingham.
What’s Going Right
Harley Young has moved into the closer role, and the first-time all-star has continued his dominance, with 6 saves, 6 holds, and an ERA under 3.00.
Alejandro Peña and
Greg Maddux are both pitching better than their raw numbers might suggest. While both have losing records and ERA’s around 5.00, their WHIPs remain solid.
What’s Not Going Right
Even the above has caveats: Peña and Maddux have surrendered 68 homeruns combined, which is nearly unfathomable.
Juan Rincón has 12 saves, but has been pretty awful, losing his closer role and perhaps in danger of a trip to AAA–an ERA around 8.50 will do that.
While
Bruce Chen has been better of late, he still sports an ERA near 6.00, and he and Rincón are both surrendering dingers at a Peña and Maddux like rate.
Nobody else has stood up in the rotation, with
John Malarkey and
Lefty Gomez being thoroughly meh to date.
#DIVISIONAL NOTES
We have our usual detailed highlights for each of the divisions
Bill James Division
Cum Posey Division
Effa Manley Division
Marvin Miller Division