The Bucs Start Here - A Pirates Do-Over

[luckymann]

The all-time leader is, of course, Walter Johnson with his almost mythical 500 on the dot.

[luckymann]

One of the more frenzied offseason trade and FA markets after a couple lulled years. The Dodgers move is a real head-scratcher, letting Campy go then paying top-dollar for Garagiola, clearly his inferior. But the big boys were all over it and those salaries are certainly creeping up to the point where six figures will soon be a regular occurrence.

• C Roy Campanella: Red Sox, 6 years / $516000
• C Joe Garagiola: Dodgers, 7 years / $424800
• 2B Billy Goodman: Yankees, 5 years / $377000
• OF Andy Pafko: Giants, 6 years / $374000
• P Larry Jansen: Cubs, 5 years / $355000
• 1B Ferris Fain: Yankees, 4 years / $348000
• P Joe Dobson: Giants, 3 years / $195000
• 1B Mickey Vernon: Braves, 3 years / $177000
• OF Hank Sauer: Reds, 3 years / $144000
• P Dave Koslo: Senators, 3 years / $143200
• C Wes Westrum: Senators, 4 years / $125000 (extension)
• OF Willard Brown: Reds, 2 years / $110000 (extension)
• SS George Strickland: Senators, 5 years / $109800 (extension)

• 1B Marv Blaylock from Giants to Browns for 2B Grady Hatton
• OF Don Lenhardt and SS Bud Thomas from White Sox to Cubs for OF Jim Busby
• P Bob Kuzava and 1B Tony Bartirome from Reds to Red Sox for 2B Daryl Spencer
• OF Jim Rivera and OF Jay Porter from Cubs to Browns for OF Bob Nieman
• P Mike Clark and P Bobby Tiefenauer from Senators to Cardinals for 2B Jerry Priddy (retaining 65%)
• P Ned Garver from Browns to Dodgers for OF Bill Tuttle
• 3B Sid Gordon from Cardinals to Yankees for 2B Skeeter Kell
• P Julio Moreno and P Ike Delock from Browns to Cubs for SS Billy Klaus

ALL TRANSACTIONS


An 11-7 ST with just a couple niggles to guys who are slated to start at AAA anyway has us primed and ready to go. BNN sees a Yanks-Dodgers WS with us competitive but in arrears of our Brooklyn buddies.

FULL PRESEASON PREDICTIONS

[luckymann]

As per usual, our team page can be accessed HERE.

The BNN boffins are right to have us a few steps behind the Dodgers - if I'm being totally honest, I think they're being a bit too optimistic on us. We've got the pieces in place for a good run at it, but not just yet. The executive decision has been made to put those pieces into their predicated roles now and just let the unit evolve from there. For the most part, at any rate. We're leaving House, Law, Face and Miller down at AAA for now. The rest are up top for OD.

[luckymann]

The mighty Rube Waddell's 2.078 is the current low mark.

[luckymann]

It would seem the lads' consideration for the ongoing health and wellbeing of my heart have not improved over the break as they put me through the wringer for our first win of the year. Still - it beats losing!

[luckymann]

Well, I guess we can't be accused of playing boring baseball...

[luckymann]

Pulling this move a bit earlier than I would have liked, thereby leaving us with no trade tix remaining behind the glass to use in case of an emergency, but nor did I want to not get anything for Carl Erskine who is in his walk year and looking for bucketloads more denarii than we consider him worth.




With Frank House ready to go and a fair jump in payroll on the cards over the next few years, it was time to move Matt Batts on, while neither Al Aber nor Bobby Del Greco were essential pieces for us and got this deal over the line.

In Haddix we get an elite front-end guy and hopefully one whom we can keep for the majority of his career. O'Connor fills the immediate post-Joost gap around the diamond in a backup role and should do so for a few seasons at least.

[luckymann]

Ted Williams becomes just the 6th player to reach the 400 home run plateau, and you'd have to think he's the biggest threat yet to Gehrig's all-time record of 571. IRL he hit just under 200 from this point until he retired in 1960, and with 3-year recalc on here he might squeeze in an extra couple seasons. No guarantee but it will be close and must-watch viewing indeed.

[luckymann]

Considering all the changes we've made to our squad, for them to put together a winning first section is bordering on miraculous. Messy in parts as you'd expect, but we are very happy with how things are going. As you can see from the metrics in the shots below, all facets of our game are looking strong in these early parts.










Another tight one in store if these first few weeks are any indication. Plenty of jockeying for position in the AL, with both the Tribe and Browns enjoying long win streaks to sit nicely-placed entering June.




Monthly Award Winners

April

American League

• Batter – Ted Williams (Red Sox): 411 / 3 HR / 12 RBI
• Pitcher – Billy Pierce (White Sox): 4-0 / 2.20 / 16 K / 32.2 IP
• Rookie – Frank Sullivan (Red Sox): 2-1 / 2.56 / 24 K / 31.2 IP

National League

• Batter – Eddie Mathews (Braves): 443 / 7 HR / 16 RBI
• Pitcher – Jim Wilson (Cardinals): 4-0 / 1.35 / 13 K / 33.1 IP
• Rookie – Johnny Podres (Pirates): 3-0 / 1.86 / 13 K / 19.1 IP

May

American League

• Batter – Ted Williams (Red Sox): 374 / 8 HR / 22 RBI
• Pitcher – Bob Lemon (White Sox): 5-1 / 2.40 / 28 K / 56.1 IP
• Rookie – Billy Hoeft (White Sox): 4-0 / 2.05 / 16 K / 26.1 IP

National League

• Batter – Stan Musial (Cardinals): 394 / 5 HR / 23 RBI
• Pitcher – Walt Masterson (Braves): 4-1 / 3.16 / 25 K / 42.2 IP
• Rookie – Frank Thomas (Cubs): 333 / 10 HR / 24 RBI

News and Leaders

• The freshly-relocated Milwaukee Braves lose their first game at Cincy 5-1, with Eddie Mathews belting their first home run. They lose their home opener, too, 10-3 to the Cards. They finally earn their first victory back in Cincy a few days later, with Mathews going yard twice.
• The White Sox lose offseason pickup Lou Boudreau just a handful of games into his tenure there, with a kneecap break set to keep him out of action for 5 months and Cubs OF Bill Howerton has his season cut short by the same injury. Yankees SP Allie Reynolds will miss 3 months to an elbow strain and the Pinstripers also lose rookie reliever Dean Stone for the year after he suffers a UCL tear.
• The Cards will have to do without Harry Brecheen for the remainder after a shoulder injury ends his season, as will the White Sox when shoulder inflammation curtails Hal Newhouser’s 1953 campaign.
• Ted Williams and Stan Musial are putting on an absolute hitting clinic so far this year - can either or both hit .400?

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[luckymann]

We have also locked down some key pieces for next year and beyond, including Wertz on a 4+1 / 275k deal, Runnels on a 3/70 and Stobbs on a 4/120. We've got a fair whack of payroll coming off the books at the end of the year with Kellner, Vollmer, Joost, Westlake, Ostrowski, Konstanty and Thompson all moving on and so our finances and salary sheet looks like this moving forward:






Sievers remains the one unsigned on a long-term deal that we'd like to, unless we can find a better alternative. Burgess will become too ritzy for our tastes in a couple years so we're happy to just roll him over on S/T deals until we trade him or let him walk.

[luckymann]

Most Innings without a No-Decision

[luckymann]

This'll make the Red Sox title defence just that little bit more challenging to say the least. Such a shame, too, with Ted in rare form indeed this year.

[luckymann]

A big jump for us with nine making the cut this year, including a couple real surprises in the 1-6 / 5.32 Bill Wight and the 2-4 / 5.08 Chuck Stobbs.




Hank Thompson knocks off rookie Frank Thomas 22-17 to win the HR Derby, while Gil McDougald leads the AL to a 2-0 ASG win, their first since 1949.

[luckymann]

Circumstances, injuries, and a wildly-overplayed hand by yours truly have all conspired to nullify our chances of success this season. I'm not sure however, were the latter two not in evidence, that we'd have enough to rein in a Dodgers outfit that - even having lost Campy - looks properly determined to make up for last year's WS loss, with a primed Jackie Robinson and rookie sensation Junior Gilliam leading the charge. We enter the stretch run at 57-50 and 9 games out of first.





As you can see from those metrics, we are - with the exception of our BA and bullpen performance - playing some decent-enough baseball. 32-28 these past two months, however, pales next to Brooklyn's 38-16 over the same period. I'll make the call now, however, that we'll be lucky to finish with a winning record. I'm thinking 74-80 or thereabouts.




The Runnels add has been a spectacular one for us, while Jimmy Piersall also looks to be getting amongst it before he is felled by injury. He'll be back with us later this week after a quick rehab jaunt, and hopefully that just gives us our shape back. Boone has had a nice rebound and Kiner is his usual RBI machine self. In fact, all of our position players have been contributors.




Despite the outstanding efforts by Haddix and Podres, it is our pitching that has been the source of most of our woes. Both Friend and Raschi being lost for the year to injuries has exposed a soft underbelly, mainly due to my having made it so with, in hindsight, some rather injudicious trading away of arms. Still, I anticipated neither the utter collapse in form shown to this point by Chuck Stobbs and - albeit to a lesser extent - Bill Wight, nor the delay in development of Vern Law. Add in those injuries, which admittedly do need to be accounted for in advance as they are part and parcel of every season, and we've really struggled to keep the runs down, especially against the better sides. That, for the most part, is on me and I'll be busy in the offseason trying to get the spirit level back between the plumb lines.




The White Sox are making a good fist of it over in the AL, but can never be too comfortable with both the Red Sox and Yanks still within striking distance should they falter.


News, Leaders and Top 20s








Monthly Award Winners

June

American League

• Batter – Al Rosen (Indians): 392 / 5 HR / 22 RBI
• Pitcher – Bob Lemon (White Sox): 4-0 / 0.88 / 21 K / 51 IP
• Rookie – Frank Sullivan (Red Sox): 3-0 / 3.72 / 26 K / 38.2 IP

National League

• Batter – Mickey Vernon (Braves): 398 / 4 HR / 21 RBI
• Pitcher – Sal Maglie (Giants): 5-0 / 2.36 / 28 K / 49.2 IP
• Rookie – Johnny Podres (Pirates): 3-0 / 1.24 / 16 K / 29 IP

July

American League

• Batter – Mickey Mantle (Yankees): 394 / 8 HR / 24 RBI
• Pitcher – Billy Pierce (White Sox): 4-2 / 0.95 / 45 K / 56.2 IP
• Rookie – Jack Harshman (Browns): 4-1 / 3.19 / 32 K / 42.1 IP

National League

• Batter – Jackie Robinson (Dodgers): 398 / 4 HR / 28 RBI
• Pitcher – Karl Drews (Phillies): 6-0 / 1.39 / 18 K / 45.1 IP
• Rookie – Jim Gilliam (Dodgers): 336 / 1 HR / 20 RBI

Milestones and Observations of Note

• 300 HR: Monte Irvin
• Mickey Mantle looks set to give the AL batting Triple Crown a real push.
• The Sens lose veteran outfielder Guy Curtright for the year with a fractured knee and torn labrums prematurely end the seasons of Athletics infielder Roy Smalley jr and relievers Steve Roser of the Dodgers and the Giants’ Jim Mains.

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[luckymann]

Worst 100 RBI seasons by OBP (Scaled to 95 for this league)

[luckymann]

We have to wait until the final stretch to get our first no-hitter of the year, with Detroit's Mickey McDermott dominant against a White Sox side that is hitting the wall - and not the ball, it would appear - just at the worst possible time.

[luckymann]

Well I'll gladly tip my cap to the lads, with little on the line they played tough until the very end to finish with 84 wins and a second-place finish.

But...

At the risk of damning with faint praise, for mine the most important stat of this season by far is this one:




And until we get this figure back to 500 give or take, the 11 games separating ourselves from the Brooky boys will be incredibly difficult to broach.




Other than that, there are plenty of positives to be taken away from this season and I do remain confident we are headed in the right direction.




Some really encouraging signs from new young adds Runnels, Groat and Piersall to go with continued excellence from Kiner (who reaches 300 career HR in the final week of the season), Burgess, Wertz et al. The rebound of Boone has also been a real positive and we need that to hold or preferably even continue its upswing.




My previous mea culpa about overplaying my hand and some undeniable problems in our BP notwithstanding, what I take comfort from here is that we still managed to locate almost all of our pitching metrics near the top. Haddix and Podres have been superb for us, and with Friend hopefully fully recovered and Law better for a late-season stint back with us, guys like Stobbs and Wight can hopefully be returned to their much more suitable relief roles, in turn allowing us to send down some of the guys ill-suited to big-league requirements.


As the Dodgers are cruising to their fourth NL pennant in six years, there is drama aplenty across in the AL as the White Sox once again fail to withstand the late pressure and succumb to a charging Red Sox outfit by two games. For a while it seems the Yanks are going to chime in, but they run out of fixtures and finish six back.




A banner year for Mickey Mantle, who wins the AL batting Triple Crown while also leading both leagues with 129 RBI and 39 HR (tied with Hank Thompson). It comes down to hundredths in the NL batting title, with Milwaukee's Don Mueller edging out Brooklyn's Richie Ashburn at 342.

Among the pitchers, Bob Lemon has the low ERA with 261, while Mel Parnell and Harvey Haddix finish with 20 wins apiece. Vinegar Bend Mizell is the King of K with 195, while the saves leader is Hoyt Wilhelm with 25.


Final Top 20s and Leaders







Monthly Award Winners

August

American League

• Batter – Mickey Mantle (Yankees): 366 / 9 HR / 31 RBI
• Pitcher – Warren Hacker (Tigers): 4-0 / 2.83 / 19 K / 47.2 IP
• Rookie – Billy Hoeft (White Sox): 3-2 / 2.50 / 23 K / 39.2 IP

National League

• Batter – Hank Thompson (Giants): 365 / 9 HR / 26 RBI
• Pitcher – Early Wynn (Dodgers): 5-1 / 3.58 / 29 K / 50.1 IP
• Rookie – Tom Umphlett (Cardinals): 365 / 1 HR / 7 RBI

September

American League

• Batter – Dick Kokos (Browns): 360 / 4 HR / 15 RBI
• Pitcher – Jim Hearn (Senators): 4-0 / 1.56 / 8 K / 34.2 IP
• Rookie – Al Aber (Indians): 2-0 / 0.00 / 3 SV / 5 K / 11.1 IP

National League

• Batter – Duke Snider (Dodgers): 404 / 6 HR / 24 RBI
• Pitcher – Saul Rogovin (Cubs): 3-0 / 1.89 / 17 K / 33.1 IP
• Rookie – Jim Gilliam (Dodgers): 315 / 4 HR / 13 RBI

Milestones and Observations of Note

• 100 Saves: Lou Lucier
• Cubs OF Bob Nieman’s season ends early after he suffers an ACL tear and he is later joined on the sidelines by rookie Ernie Banks, while the Tigers lose Vern Stephens – only recently acquired from the Indians and a pending FA – for the remainder to a calf injury.

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[luckymann]

Brooklyn Dodgers (95-59) v Boston Red Sox (88-66)
Best-of-seven, Red Sox with the home-field advantage.


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The Roy Campanella storyline alone makes this Series unmissable viewing, but it will also give us another window into the different effect the easy win and the dour struggle can have on a playing group. Do all those must-win situations sharpen or dull you? What about all those meaningless rubbers and lack of urgency that has almost certainly crept into the individual and collective mindset? Obviously, the result of a single series can’t be seen as conclusive. That doesn’t make it any less interesting.

The other big news is the timely return of Ted Williams for the Red Sox. I still think the Dodgers have their measure at the moment, but his presence substantially oscillates the needle back toward the perpendicular. Even more so if he and Campy – fresh off one of his best seasons including a career-high 34 HR and 92 RBI – and their teammates catch fire.

But, as I said, I just feel Brooklyn is a better side with too many weapons at their disposal for this Red Sox team, especially given their not-so-great pitching. I think they’ll take this in six.

[luckymann]

Game 1 in Boston

Mel Parnell (20-8, 3.94) v Early Wynn (18-11, 4.32)

Two top-notch and equally-matched pitchers get us underway as 20-game winner Mel Parnell faces Early Wynn. A home game with their ace going makes this a must-win for the Sox.

Both pitchers are exemplary but it is the Dodgers who prevail in a tight one, scoring 2 off Tex Shirley in the 9th and hanging on for a 3-2 final. Wynn and Parnell only allow 4 hits between them, and the latter can feel aggrieved at not getting the W after pitching 6 scoreless.

Game 2 in Boston

Frank Sullivan (12-13, 4.36) v Ned Garver (15-10, 3.93)

Dodgers lead series 1-0

Highly-regarded rookie Frank Sullivan gets the big assignment today with the pressure already well and truly on his Red Sox. You’d have to think that, if Ned Garver and his Dodger cronies can take a 2-0 lead back to Ebbets then this one is nearly in the bag.

And that’s precisely what they do with a disciplined 3-1 win behind another outstanding performance by their SP, as Garver allows just one run on three hits over six. Not much offence from the Brooky bats either, but they do just enough to really take control of this series heading home for three, if it goes that long.

Game 3 in Brooklyn

Bob Turley (2-2, 3.79) v Ken Raffensberger (13-11, 4.56)

Dodgers lead series 2-0

Desperation time for the BoSox here, given the Dodgers’ clear superiority at the bottom of the rotation. Sophomore tyro Bob Turley, who possesses plus stuff but can get wild, faces veteran Ken Raffensberger in a game in which I suspect we’ll see a bit more offence than we have in the two games so far.

Indeed it is a wild one as the two sides combine for 20 runs on 23 hits and the Dodgers take a seemingly unassailable 3-0 lead. Campy does all he can against his former club, belting 2 homers and driving in 3, but the Brooklyn bats wake up big time and simply have too much firepower, with Furillo and Robinson each knocking in 3 runs.

Game 4 in Brooklyn

Don Newcombe (12-10, 4.83) v Lew Burdette (12-7, 4.23)

Dodgers lead series 3-0

Preacher Roe was originally pencilled in for this start, but the Dodgers have decided to go with Newk instead, while Lew Burdette is the man responsible for prolonging Boston’s season.

And not for the first time, Newcombe fails to get the job done as the Sox get to him early then hang on for dear life as the Dodgers come storming back, only to fall short by a run. Once again it is Campanella who almost single-handedly lifts his team with 2 more homers and 3 RBI, while Elliott is also fantastic for the victors.

Game 5 in Brooklyn

Mel Parnell (1-0, 7.71) v Robin Roberts (0-0, 4.50)

Dodgers lead series 3-1

And just like that, this series finally has a bit of life to it. We all know full well that a win here would heavily shift the momentum heading back to Beantown, and therefore almost counts for double. The Game 1 combatants are back for a second go.

Ahh, no dice I’m afraid, Red Sox Nation. Their boys try hard but this is Brooky’s year as they close it out at home with a tenacious 5-2 win with Wynn going the distance in another fine display. Campy goes 2-for-4 to cap an amazing series on a losing cause, but the MVP award goes to his great friend Jackie Robinson all the same.

BROOKLYN WINS SERIES 4-1

SERIES MVP: Jackie Robinson (Brooklyn)

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[luckymann]

Our AAA boys make it back to another WS but come up short against Ft. Worth, giving the Cats their 3rd title. A rash of injuries may have played a part, but no excuses.