Your Alt-1921 Champions: The Boston Rustlers

 I thought it would take a miracle, but in the end it just took some of the Yankees' worst traits showing up at some of the worst times. Red Faber went a historically-bad 0-3 with an 8.44 ERA, the Yankees made 3 errors in a crazy Game 1, were shut out for 20 consecutive innings, fought back from a 3-1 deficit to force a Game 7 at home...and then made 4 more errors in Game 7 to lose the series. Tillie Walker hit two home runs in Game 1 and another in Game 7 to be named Series MVP. Faber imploded in Game 1 but pitched well in Game 4 to earn the Game 7 start. But in the end, the vaunted Yankees offense couldn't do enough to dig out of the messes the pitchers put the team into in Games 1 and 7, and the pitchers couldn't pitch well enough to make up for the hitters' cold bats in Games 3 and 4. 

Credit to Boston, who did what they had to do. Art Nehf only started one game, but pitched some relief innings and ended up with an ERA of 0.00. The Yankees' pitchers other than Faber did their jobs: Dolf Luque was 2-0 with 18 innings of 2.00 ERA ball, Hendrix was 1-0 with 9 innings of 2.00 ERA ball, Rixey had an ERA of 1.12 in 8 innings (but lost the game), Rogan had an ERA of 2.25 in 8 innings. 

Offensively, Walker was the star, with an OPS+ of 249 and 11 RBI with a .385 AVG. Grimes also hit well for the Rustlers. But other than Santop, who was something of a washout, the Yankees offense did OK. The history books might point to the Yankees' manager (that'd be me) being too sentimental/unthinking in continuing to hand the ball to Faber, but things just kept getting out of hand too quickly. In Game 1, I pulled him before the 1st inning was over, and between Caldwell keeping the fire burning and a bunch of errors, the Yankees could never quite catch up. In Game 7, a bunch of unearned runs again made the difference.

So, what does all this mean for 1922? The Yankees may or may not be considered a dynasty at this point--they've won 3 of 4 pennants but only one World Series. Faber's 1922 in real life was really good, I imagine the rotation will be Faber, Rixey, Luque, and...Rogan? Vance?  There aren't a whole lot of open roster spots on the team. 1922 was Baker's last real-life year, which may or may not be true here. Peckinpaugh was good defensively in real-life 1922 but not necessarily good otherwise. The Yankees don't have a ton of great prospects working their way up, but the Maple Leafs did win the AAA championship.

I guess we'll see how it goes!