I'm one month in to the 1917 season, and things are going better for the Yanks than I had hoped, if not as well as they could be. They remain their streaky selves but put a longer winning streak together than their losing streaks. Let's look at the predictions that the algorithm made just as the season was about to begin:
This assumes no injuries etc., but shows the Yankees as a 90-win team, within striking distance of the top if things break well. It also imagines us as having the best offense in the league by far, with middling pitching. As far as individual performances, it has Pipp leading the league in HR again, with Baker not far behind (and tied with Ruth for possibly the last time before the latter presumably catches fire). It has Babe Adams winning 28 games! It also forecasts the White Sox becoming a mediocre team and the Athletics becoming terrible.
At this point, we're 2.5 games behind the leaders (Cleveland and Boston). The AL player of the month was Oscar Charleston, who's up around .420 right now. Pipp also got off to a hot start, and he and Charleston are 1-2 in a lot of categories and are both in the top 5 of a lot of others. Baker and Heilmann are off to pretty slow starts, though. The pitching has in fact been iffy, and we've blown a few games we probably should have won. Still, at this point it's hard to complain too much. Let's see how the next few weeks go.
For completeness, here's the NL:
In reality, it's the Pirates and Cardinals who are battling for the top spot (with the Giants) while the Cubs are languishing. As usual I'm not paying super-close attention to the NL, at least as of now. But the predictions clearly think the Rustlers' reign is going to end this year, due to a truly anemic offense. I suppose we'll see...
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