It's Opening Day for Alt-1921, so it's time for a quick look forward! In real 1921, the Yankees won their first pennant and were bested by the New York Giants in the World Series. Here, the Yankees are looking to win their third pennant in four years and repeat as champions, while the Giants haven't been to a World Series since 1913 (I suppose Alt-1913 = 1913 as far as the algorithm is concerned, though there are obviously huge differences in all sorts of things since baseball was integrated in 1915 if not earlier, which is a whole other philosophical/world building rabbit hole).
The algorithm thinks the Yankees will follow up their 115-win season with a 103-win campaign, with them finishing in 2nd place, 5 games behind Boston.
It sees Heilmann flirting with .400 again, but Ruth with another gargantuan year and presumably an MVP. It sees Eddie Cicotte as a 31-game winner, with Dutch Leonard close behind with 27. No Yankees make the list of predicted best pitchers, though the best hitters list is littered with them.
Over in the NL, it's the Brooklyn Robins who are predicted to come in first place with 97 wins, comfortably ahead of the apparently-resurgent Boston Rustlers. The Orioles are predicted to come in a strong 3rd. The Robins are expected to be led by Zach Wheat and Casey Stengel at the plate, and Burleigh Grimes and Lefty Williams at the bat. The algorithm is bearish on the Cardinals, penciling them in at 85-77.
Of course, who knows what all this means. Rogers Hornsby is notably absent from the list of predicted top hitters, presumably because he's currently on the IL and not expected to return until May. If he has another MVP-style season, he could get the Cardinals much closer to the top. Similarly, Peckinpaugh is on the IL for the Yankees, and if one added his usual WAR, they might catch Boston. I guess we'll see.
I discussed where the Black Sox will be starting their Alt-1921, so here's a look at where the top performers of real-1921 by b-WAR will be on Alt-1921 Opening Day:
- Babe Ruth: was famously on the Yankees in real life, but famously remains in Boston here.
- Red Faber: White Sox mainstay is the ace of the Yankees' staff.
- Hornsby: on the Cardinals, as in real life.
- Urban Shocker: on the Browns in reality, is currently on the Athletics (and is basically their ace).
- Bullet Rogan: in segregated reality he was on the KC Monarchs, but he's on the World Champion New York Yankees in Alt-1921.
- Burleigh Grimes: In real life he didn't get to Brooklyn until 1918, but here he joined the Robins in Alt-1916.
- Carl Mays, one year removed from killing Ray Chapman with a beanball, was on the real-life Yankees. In Alt-1921 he's in Cincinnati as a middle reliever.
- Beauty Bancroft, the NL MVP in Alt-1916 and runner up in each of the following two years, is on the Phillies here. In real life he was traded from the Phillies to the Giants during 1920.
- Sad Sam Jones won 23 games for the real-life Red Sox in 1921, but finds himself sad indeed on the free agent list without a team here in Alt-1921. Cleveland just dropped him today.
- Finally, Jose Leblanc was on the Cuban Stars West in real 1921, Alt-1921 finds him a middle reliever for the White Sox.
