It's a little less than a week until the All-Star Game, and a little bit more than halfway through the 1919 season. The Yankees are playing at a 100-win pace, but unfortunately the Red Sox are playing at a 112-win pace and have a comfortable lead. Over in the NL the Phillies lead the Pirates by 1 1/2 games as Pittsburgh is experiencing their annual mid-season fade.
Some bullet points!
- As I noted, I thought I made the Yankees stronger. Maybe I even did! I worked a couple of trades with the White Sox to get Eddie Collins for Heine Zimmerman and Red Faber for Alex Ferguson (who?). Collins and Faber are both a bit older, but both played well into the mid-1920s in real life while a mediocre 1919 was Zimmerman's last year and Ferguson certainly never was a household name. I did the usual January import of Negro League players who played that year but didn't appear in the draft, and made off with Charlie Blackwell. Blackwell started the year with the Yankees while Charleston was hurt and has stayed on the team as the 4th outfielder.
- Having the minor leagues has been an interesting addition. Toronto started the season terribly, but are now sitting in 3rd in the International League (and were briefly in 2nd). They've got really good hitters, with Terry, Collins, and Hale doing very well. Bernardo Baro was also playing well before sustaining an injury that will keep him out for a while. Frank Gilhooley was sent down when I decided to keep Blackwell up, and he's up at .387 for Toronto. It's been hard to figure out how to balance the roster right--Gilhooley was out of the majors after 1919 but played pretty well in the minors after that. Still, it's hard to rationalize keeping him down there. But I'm not going to send Birdie Cree (though I might hope that he retires soon) or Elmer Miller down. I've also got 11 pitchers, when I probably get away with just 9-10. But it's not obvious which pitchers to send down, either. Babe Adams has had a few clunkers in a row, but had a great 1919-1920 in real life and I'm not sure I could send him down anyhow. Bender has the worst WAR on the staff but he had great years 1919-1922, but they were in the minors and, again, I'm not sure I could send him down.
- The minor league races have been fun to follow. The Western League in particular has been very close and had a lot of ups and down. Part of the interesting dynamic, of course, is that good players get called up--Worcester was running away with the IL, and then their top players got brought up to the Robins and they fell back to the pack. I'd like Toronto to win the pennant, but if the Yankees need Bill Terry I won't hesitate to bring him up. I'm trying not to let the morale of players have any real role (since I have it turned off it shouldn't affect anything) but it's hard not to feel a bit bad that I've got Gilhooley toiling in Toronto after his years on the big league team.
- Offense feels like it's up, or perhaps pitching is down. The gap between the leagues has narrowed to it's smallest gap since I started playing--the NL ERA has been between one-third and one-half a run lower than the AL ERA, but so far this year it's only a quarter of a run. This mostly seems to have been due to better hitting in the NL. We are also apparently hitting and fielding as well this season as we did in 1918, just getting somewhat unlucky this year vs. lucky last year? Apparently our Pythagorean winning percentage is the same. But Boston has kicked it up a notch in both hitting and pitching...
Update: I've played a few more games since starting this post, and was offered Ty Cobb by Detroit while trying to see what I could get for a couple of no-name relievers. So now the outfield logjam has gotten a bit worse, but I'm going to stop here and play some more. :)
