Sunday, August 15, 2021

Alt-1917: Start of the Home Stretch!

 We've just started the last quarter of the 1917 season. After a frankly mediocre July that included some awful bullpen meltdowns (and dropping Dick Redding back to the reserve list), the Yankees kicked it back up and have been playing well in August. They've been hanging 3-4 games behind the Red Sox, solidly in 2nd place but unable to get any closer. They do still have 6 games left with Boston, though, with a series at the Polo Grounds imminent!

After Oscar Charleston's incredibly hot start, he hit some serious regression and nearly dropped below .300 before a more recent recovery. During Charleston's horrific slump, the slack was more than taken up by Wally Pipp, Roger Peckinpaugh, and a resurgent Frank Baker. Peckinpaugh is easily the Yankees' leader in WAR, propped up by his defensive play at an important position but he's also doing rather well in traditional batting categories. Pipp has clearly been the best hitter on the Yanks, though, leading the team in all the Triple Crown categories as well as the triple slash categories. The Yankees pitching has been a lot more of a next-man-up kind of situation, especially since Jesse Barnes' season ended with an injury. Mogridge has picked it up and pitched well for several starts in a row, and a spot start by Dazzy Vance ended in a CGSO (against the awful Packers, but still). 


Let's look at the team stats!



UPDATE: I never quite managed to post this, so I'll do it now. We're currently in the first week of September, the Yankees are still 4.5 games back, and the Phillies and Pirates are neck and neck for the NL crown...


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