We sit at the All-Star Break, with ninety games played and seventy-two more to go. In the American League, the Yankees are playing at a 120-win pace and have a 10.5-game lead over the Kansas City Packers. Over in the NL, the Giants are playing at about a 100-win pace (just a bit worse than the Packers, actually), and have a comfortable 7-game lead over the Rustlers. While crazy things can happen, the pennant races look like they're going to be decided early, if you don't consider them already decided.
The Yankees have been excelling thus far in all aspects of the game. They are first in practically every important offensive category, as usual. They're only 7th in strikeouts, and they're all the way up in 9th in stolen bases--I decided to hand over my offensive strategy to the AI in addition to the baserunning as a way to be a bit more "realistic" or at least period realistic, but mostly as a way to try to deal with the fact that other teams could run on the Yankees pretty regularly, and I could never steal bases even with people and in situations where it should be easy.
Anyhow, the Yankees are also benefiting from great pitching, and are first in many of those categories as well, including ERA (starters and bullpen), runs allowed, WAR, walks, and strikeouts. This has been the work of a very balanced crew, who were a very good 16-11 in April, and a bananas-good 46-10 between May and June. The team could easily be better, too, since they are 1-5 in extra innings and only 8-10 in one-run games. They're playing a couple of games above their Pythagorean record, but not a bunch. For comparison, the Giants have been better in hitting than pitching, but are pretty good in both. They're playing 6 games above their Pythag, though, and "should" be in a close race with the Rustlers and Cardinals, and even the Pirates.
With all of this, it's hard to come with anything other than A+ all around for the Pinstripes. Oscar Charleston was hurt and out for several weeks, but the outfield logjam let us handle that without missing a beat. Biz Mackey has largely been a bust so far and went down to Toronto (where he's hitting around .225). Frank Baker's defense has deteriorated to the point that he's not getting many innings in unless it's a blowout. The pitchers don't feel dominant, and it's felt like I've had to go with a lot of quick hooks this year. But the stats don't lie, and they're clearly doing fine. Vance is having the year I was waiting for since 1915. Williams is at/near the league lead in home runs, Cobb is leading the majors in batting average, with Rogan second and Moore 5th. Collins is leading the majors in OBP, with Cobb 2nd and Heilmann and Rogan in the top 8. Heilmann leads the majors in RBI, with him, Moore and Williams 1-2-3 in the AL. Cobb leads the majors in runs scored, with Heilmann, Collins, and Williams 3-4-5 in the majors with only Hornsby breaking up the run. Heilmann, Collins, and Moore are 1-2-4 in the AL in Win Probability Added. So, it's all been pretty dominant.
Looking at the farm teams, the Maple Leafs roared out for their first 10 games, sputtered for a while, and now find themselves in a 4-team race with Montreal, Worcester, and Toledo. Sacramento, who are Washington's AAA team, has a pretty commanding lead in the PCL. Des Moines and Minneapolis are dueling in the Western League, with other teams not too far behind, and the Pelicans are having their best-ever season and sit above .500, though aren't really threatening to take the Southern League pennant at this point. Buzz Arlett is playing out of his mind for Toronto and is looking like he's likely to win the Triple Crown, so he'll clearly need to come up to the majors next year. Not that the Yankees have room for him. :\
As for the All-Star Game itself, it will be at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis and hosted by the Browns, who in one of the most Browns-y moments of all time are the only MLB team lacking a representative on the 28-person AL roster (counting the injured and replaced Axel Lindstrom of the Packers). Lou Gehrig, the phenom from Buffalo, led all candidates in voting. Babe Ruth has been down most of the year with a strained medial collateral ligament, and has only made 40 plate appearances, so he won't be playing. We can imagine old-timer Bobby Wallace or past All-Star (and current regular) George Sisler will throw out the first pitch, or something. Despite the Yankees' dominance in the standings, only Heilmann and Williams made the starting 9 for the AL, which is the same as the Tigers and the Senators. Looking at all the players on the active All-Star roster, though, the Yankees put in a good showing: Heilmann and Williams, plus Luque, Vance, Rixey, Santop, Moore, and Cobb. The lack of Rogan is a bit of a snub, but he's listed with pitcher as his primary position and he hasn't been good on the mound this year.
I'll be managing the AL squad since we won the pennant. I'm 3-0 in All-Star Games, hopefully I can keep that streak going!
