Alt-1917: All-Star Break

 It's July 9, 1917. The Yankees followed their 15-12 April and 17-11 May with an 18-10 June!  And followed that up with a 2-5 July so far. It's a 94-win pace for the whole year and nothing to sneeze at, but it leaves them 5 games behind Boston right now, and they had been tied for first relatively recently. So that's a bit frustrating. Plus a few games got away from us including one where Babe Ruth hit a 9th-inning 3-run home run to take the lead (which won it) and another where we couldn't hold a 7-0 first-inning lead. 

Still, we sit at the All-Star Break first in most of the batting categories that matter. Our pitching stats are mediocre, though. And while Dick Redding was Rookie of the Month in June, his last three starts have been disasters and I've sent him back to the reserves at least for now. 

As noted, it's the All-Star break, and we're getting ready for the inaugural game at Philadelphia's Shibe Park in just a couple of game days. Five Yankees made the team, all finishing first in "voting": Pipp, Baker, Peckinpaugh, Charleston, and Pennock. Charleston pulled ahead of Speaker at the last voting update, though to be honest Charleston has been in a pretty bad slide (as has Speaker, actually).  The Browns, Packers, and Peppers lack any representatives on the team. The National League All-Stars include former Yankee Ernie Krueger, who we traded for Chief Bender last year. So it goes. All 10 National League teams are represented on the team. If it goes with the fan vote, it'll be Cooper vs. Leonard as the starters. I'm going to let the AI play it out.

Post-break we go on a 9-game road swing through St. Louis, Chicago, and Newark. We're 13-13 aggregate against those clubs, which are 119-122 otherwise, so we really should hope to do better in these upcoming series. We're 5-5 against the Red Sox, so have plenty of games left to try to regain the lead if it's to be done. 

Alt-1917: Start of June

It is the close of play on 1 June, 1917--I meant to do this a day earlier but got excited. ;)  

The Yankees followed up a 15-12 April with a 17-11 May, and find themselves in second place, 1.5 games behind Boston. Not a bad place to be, though I remember them having a pretty good May in 1916, too... But the top four teams in the AL are all the same and all still within 4 games of one another.

The top NL teams are still the surprising (to me anyhow) Pirates and the Giants, still separated by 1 game. But the Cardinals and (to a lesser degree) Terps have fallen off the pace and the Phillies have stepped up. Don't count out the World Champions either, as the Rustlers followed up a 10-18 April with a 16-10 May. 

But back to the Yankees. As we'll see in a moment, the whole team has been hitting like crazy, but a few players in particular have really been pushing the team.

Oh, you know. Just holding down multiple spots in the top 7 for batting average, home runs (all of the top 3!), RBI (#1 and #2!), OBP, slugging, OPS, WAR (#2, #3, and #5!) etc. etc.  Oscar Charleston won't start the All-Star Game because Tris Speaker has been amazing, but I wouldn't trade him for anyone right now. He's been on a crazy tear, and so has Wally Pipp. Heilmann started slow but hit something like .600 for over a week and is now flirting with .300. Even Baker has been in a zone. Miller doesn't appear on any of these lists, but he's chipped in with big hits. Nunamaker is at .300. Just great stuff. I also picked up Dobie Moore as a free agent, and he's waiting until I get sick of Luke Boone and bring him up. 

The Yankees pitching has been fine, but nothing to write home about. They're getting the job done, letting the hitters mash, and (mostly) not blowing big leads. I also was aggressive about bringing up players who I think will do well and trading some who I haven't liked much--I pulled off a Ray Fisher for Jesse Barnes trade, which I think will help us now and later. I brought up Dick Redding from the reserves, and he was Rookie of the Month for May. Adams and Russell have been fine. Pennock and Reuther have been good out of the pen (Pennock may make the ASG as a reliever), and Bender and Ragan have been good enough out of the pen, mostly.

For completeness, since I still haven't been following the NL much, here are their leaders. As with last year, the AL is more hitting-heavy or at least has better offensive numbers than the NL.

And here are the team stats--I had to cut off the top line to fit the totals at the bottom, but the categories can be seen in the red NL bar and read upward as well as downward...  The Yankees haven't quite caught the Red Sox in OPS but seem likely to, and their pitching is lower-middle of the pack, but closer to the middle than the bottom...