The Caribbean Winter League has concluded (congrats to the champion Jacksonville Red Caps and to league MVP Rogers Horsnby), and all the players have had time off to recuperate (or in Hornsby's case to stare out the window and wait for spring). Now they've all gathered in their training camps, with the first games about to start.
OOTP, for whatever reason, has some limitations with how it runs its spring training. Rather than teams defining a spring training home, there's a common stadium used for all. And rather than playing any interleague games, only games against in-league teams are scheduled. I could go in and hand-derive a schedule or see if there's one to download, but last year I just ran with it and I probably will again this year. But these are minor quibbles.
Once again, rather than having the Yankees (and thus, any of the AL teams) have a single ST home, I'm taking them on tour. Last year started in Havana and worked its way through Tampa, New Orleans, Hot Springs, Louisville, and Indianapolis. This year we're going to start in California and work our way east. I'm planning the five weeks of ST to be spent in two cities per week: SF and LA; Tucson and Waco; Galveston and Memphis; Birmingham and Atlanta; Richmond and Atlantic City. All of these except Birmingham are originals, all but Richmond are done (and Richmond is close).
I've tried to improve the Yankees over the course of the winter, at least a bit. I took advantage of my crystal ball and traded away Roxy Walters for Herb Pennock, which hopefully will help my pitching. I had to re-sign Cannonball Redding after the AI dropped him (I took over that particular AI duty afterward). I focused on drafting actual known MLB players, which included Pat Collins (who'll make up for trading away Walters) and Dutch Reuther. I also signed Lefty O'Doul, though that's looking a bit down the road (and of course he'll be a hitter not a pitcher).
The real-life 1917 Yankees won at a .464 clip, which would give them 75 wins in a 162-game season. I'm reasonably confident we'll outplay that team. Their offense was 12% worse than average, not helped by an abysmal season at 2B by Fritz Maisel (who we traded to Brooklyn last year). Our 2B situation isn't great, but hopefully it's better than the OPS of 50 that Maisel gave that team. Our outfield should be substantially better, with Heilmann and Charleston in place of Tim Hendryx (who was actually pretty good that year) and Hugh High (riding the bench for us).
Their pitching was about league average, and that's still our problem spot. Two of the OTL Yankees rotation aren't on my ATL Yankees at all: Bob Shawkey (good year) and Nick Collup (bad year). I'll have Alan Russell (good year) in the rotation rather than the pen. I'm hoping ST can sort out/help develop Dazzy Vance some more, but he looked terrible in Pensacola. Dick Redding started off well but had a few clunkers. Babe Adams is one of the pillars of the rotation right now, and in real-life 1917 he was in a random minor league. In fact, we're heading toward uncharted (for me) waters--real life WW1 took a bunch of people away from the game, but I'm playing with the development engine so they should keep playing. Whether the absences are seen as injuries or what, I don't know.
Looking around the league: The OTL White Sox handily won the pennant over Boston. Here, Chicago is looking for their 3rd straight pennant. Their pitching looks to be mostly what it was in real life. They're missing Chick Gandil (not a big deal) and Joe Jackson (very big deal), but they'll clearly be the team to beat again. They added Pops Lloyd at shortstop and Fred Anderson, who won 20 games for Buffalo in 1916 but neither seems like a long-term solution. On the other hand, they're rich and don't show signs of getting less so. The Red Sox' pitching OTL was their main strength, and that looks to be completely intact in ATL. They also look like they're moving Babe Ruth to be their everyday first baseman in addition to taking a pitching turn, so they're going to be pretty formidable as well. They also still have Tris Speaker.
So, the Yankees may need a miracle to get anywhere near first place. But hopefully we can at least finish above .500 and/or take advantage of what might come our way...
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