Alt-1921 at the quarter pole

We're 41 games into the Alt-1921 season, and the Yankees are playing at a 100-win pace. Whether that will be good enough to win the pennant, however, is very much an open question. The Yanks are currently sitting in second place, 3.5 games behind the surprising Philadelphia Athletics. Kansas City and Cleveland are pretty close behind New York.  Boston, expected to take the pennant by the AI, languishes in 7th place 10 games back and 4 games under .500.

While they are not in first place at the moment, I certainly wouldn't say the Yankees' title defense has gone "badly". The team's offense is humming along pretty well, and they're 1st in runs scored, hits, and WAR. They're 2nd in home runs because Babe Ruth is on a different and reasonably well-hitting team. Even the pitching, while difficult to watch at times, has ultimately been mid-pack. However, the relief pitching, particularly erstwhile closer/stopper Frank Allen, has been atrocious. The bullpen ERA is 8th in the league, and Allen has had 4 blown saves. Allen is way past his sell-by date, and I've been very tempted to unload him (though the algorithm still loves him).  The flip side of this is that I can't really tell what Philadelphia is doing right--they're mid-pack in most offensive and defensive categories, though their pitching is somewhat better than ours. They are 5 games over their Pythagorean record, so maybe the answer is they're just getting lucky--if everyone were playing at their Pythag, the Yankees would be in first place (if only just). 

I'll quickly turn to the other leagues--Our roommates (the New York Baseball Giants) are leading the NL by a game, after the Rustlers rocketed out to a very fast start. They now sit a game back, with Brooklyn just behind. The Phillies are 2.5 games back, so New York is not the only city dreaming of a Subway Series. The Maple Leafs are in a dogfight with Worcester in the International League, and are currently one game behind the Boosters. Vernon has a healthy lead for this time of year in the PCL. Tulsa and Tri-Cities are tied atop the Western League, with Milwaukee and Wichita just behind. San Antonio leads the Southern League by a half-game over Birmingham, with the 9th-place Crackers only 4 back.  New Orleans has been flirting with but never quite reaching .500 all season. And finally, New Haven leads the new American Association by a game over Hartford and Allentown. 

I'll hold comments about injuries and individual performances until the next post, but I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Harry Heilmann has been absolutely in the zone--he's hitting about .470 after 41 games and has only just had a 36-game hitting streak snapped. He's on pace for 300 hits and 190 RBI. Even if/when regression happens, it'll be (in theory) to a .400 pace since he actually hit .400 or so in reality and hit .392 in Alt-1920...