APBA Tournament: Wagner Bracket Preview (Part 2)

Part 2 of the Wagner Bracket Preview

WAGNER BRACKET

1931 Philadelphia Athletics (3)

Vs.

1960 Pittsburgh Pirates (14)

Connie Mack's second dynasty featuring Hall of Fame super-stud sluggers Jimmie Foxx and Al Simmons against Roberto Clemente & the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates (who shocked the baseball world with their upset of the New York Yankees) -- in a battle of Pennsylvania! Problem is, will it be much of a battle? or will Pittsburgh be taking Cinderella to the second round?

Philadelphia's Simmons won the 1931 American League Batting Title with a .390 clipping, with 22 HR's and knocking in 128 ribbies. Not only will Pittsburgh have their hands full with Simmons, but they'll have to deal with Foxx (.291, 30 HR & 120 RBI) & HOF catcher Mickey Cochrane, who batted .349, with 17 HR & 89 RBI! The rotation is anchored by Lefty Grove (Grade A&C-XZ), who went led the league with 31 wins, a 2.06 ERA & 175 K's in 288.2 Innings. George Earnshaw (B-XZ) and Rube Walberg (B-Y) show their solid ability as #2 and #3 SP's by pitching in 281.2 Innings and 291 Innings respectfully (Walberg led league in IP); with aging Waite Hoyt as a probable #4 starting pitcher.

The Pirates do a lot of mixing and matching by platooning a lot, first baseman Dick Stuart led the Pirates in Home Runs (23) despite getting only 438 at-bats, his backup Rocky Nelson hit 7 HRs in 200 at-bats. Rocky's OPS of .852 would be higher than Stuart's .796. Smokey Burgess (.294 Avg, .768 OPS) and Hal Smith (.295, .859 OPS) will platoon for the tournament at catcher. Don Hoak (Ex-Tiger) is the team's star 3B with a .282 average, 16 HRs & 79 RBI. A balanced lineup with Bob Skinner (.273, 15, 86) and Hall of Fame Clemente (.314, 16, 94) rounding out the outfield. Their top three starting pitchers are really dependable: Bob Friend (18-12, 3.00 ERA & 183 K's), Vern Law (20-9, 3.08 ERA) & Bill Mizell (14-8, 3.50 ERA) all are grade B's and have over 200 innings each. The bullpen drops off after Roy Face and Freddie Green though.

#21 - The great Roberto Clemente.

The team's offense are actually similar overall, the A's have most of their offense come out of three to four players in which the Pirates whole lineup contributes little by little consistently. The teams are close in AVG, OPS, HR, very little steals, and pitching ERA -- the difference was the run differential and winning percentage. The A's ran away with a 232 run differential, and a winning pct of .704 by winning 107 games; while the Pirates were not as dominant with 141 runs differential (which led league) and a league best .617 winning percentage (95 wins).

PREDICTION: Connie Mack's boys will win the series 3-1, the cool thing for the Pirates is that they won a World Championship in their represented season, the A's lost to the Cardinals (who haven't gone by the "Gas House Gang" yet.

The "G-Men" : Goslin, Greenberg & Gehringer of the 34' Tigers.

1934 Detroit Tigers (6)

Vs.

1917 Chicago White Sox (11)

The 1934 Detroit Tigers led by the "G-Men": Hank Greenberg (.339, 26 HR & 139 RBI), Charlie Gehringer (.356, 11 HR & 127 RBI) & Goose Goslin (.305, 13 HR & 100 RBI); while manager by catcher Mickey Cochrane (.320, 2 HR & 76 RBI) and another player with 100 RBI's (to go with the "G-Men") in shortstop Billy Rogell (who only had 3 HR's). History will show that this Tigers team will go on to lose the World Series to the "Gas House Gang" St. Louis Cardinals (who are playing the 1954 Indians in the same Wagner bracket/Part 1), but will rebound against the Chicago Cubs in 1935 to win the World Title. So the 34' Tigers could get revenge on the Cards, if both teams are capable of getting to the "Elite Eight"... but the Tigers will have to get past one of MLB history's most notorious teams, the "Black Sox"!

The 1917 Chicago White Sox, the last glorious highlight before their transformation into the "Black Sox", they first got the nickname when they continued to wear their dirty uniforms in protest against their money-pinching owner Charles Comiskey charging them laundry fees on top of their pay. Most of the players were underpaid for the success the team has brought to the owner, which would lead to the 8 players involved in "throwing" the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. The team though, did win the World Series against the New York Giants in 1917.

The "Black Sox" defendants with their lawyers.

All eight of the (eventually) banned players are on the 1917 Sox team: They are Eddie Cicotte, Happy Felsch, Chick Gandil, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, and Claude "Lefty" Williams.

Now let's get away from the Baseball history lesson, and look at this match-up, the problem is that the 17' White Sox have the same problem as most "dead-ball era" teams, they simply can't hit.. and that will probably lead to early exits for most of these styled teams. They also didn't have much depth, and the teams usually had no more than a total of 7 to 8 pitchers. With many of these teams, they really had no bullpen, and were not used in the same ways that the teams of today are used.

The 34' Tigers will do it with their bats, since their pitching is a team ERA of 4.06! They do have a good one-two punch at the top of their rotation with Tommy Bridges (22-11, 3.67 ERA & 151 K's) & Schoolboy Rowe (24-8, 3.45 ERA & 149 K's). The White Sox have them beat in team ERA with the second-best team ERA in the tournament with 2.16 (second only to 1906 Cubs' 1.75!) -- but their weak OPS (of .655) is the lowest!

PREDICTION: The Detroit Tigers of 34' will go on to the second round to play a team from it's era in the 1931 Philadelphia Athletics.

Mays & Williams: When planets align! 

1954 New York Giants (7)

Vs.

1946 Boston Red Sox (10)

Looking at this match-up, I'm wondering if I didn't give the 1954 New York Giants enough credit, or if I gave the 1946 Boston Red Sox too much credit. Well, it's an intriguing match-up no matter what happens.

Not only do we simply have a New York vs. Boston scenario here (which we already have the 37'Yankees/14' Braves match-up in the Wagner Bracket), but the fact it's also between two franchises that had a bit of history between 1900-1920, and were part of the creme of the crop with two other franchises during this era in the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago Cubs.

We also have the head-to-head match-up of two amazing Hall of Fame superstars in the Giants' Willie Mays (.345, 41 HR & 110 RBI, 1.078 OPS) and the Red Sox' Ted Williams (.342, 38 HR & 123 RBI, 1.164 OPS)!

The teams are very similar across the board in many areas, the only difference is that the Giants have significantly more Home Runs and a few more top notch relievers.

PREDICTION: This is going to be incredibly close, I really do like what I see from Boston's rotation 1-4, but I think the Giants have an edge with nearly 234 innings combined by their two relievers Marv Grissom and Hoyt Wilhelm. Part of me really wants to go with Boston, but I'll go with the Giants in 5!

1995 Cleveland Indians (2)

Vs.

1967 Boston Red Sox (15)

The 1995 Cleveland Indians may go down as one of the top 5 teams in MLB history, not to win a World Series. The team won 100 games in it's shortened 144 game season (a winning percentage of .697), while the only team with a higher OPS than the Indians' .843 OPS was the 1927 New York Yankees (an OPS of .872)! The Indians (207 HR's) are one of only eight teams with 200 or more Home Runs in the tournament.

The 1967 Boston Red Sox season would have two memorable moments that would define it's season other than the World Series against the Cardinals, one a great memory, the other being a bad memory. Until Miguel Cabrera sealed the deal with a Triple Crown, 1967 would serve as the last time that any player in Major League Baseball won the elusive Triple Crown (League Leader of all three major categories: Batting Avg, HR & RBI's) -- and that man was Carl Yastrzemski, or known to fans as "Yaz"! Yastrzemski batted .326, 44 HR & 121 RBI's, while also leading the league in Runs, Hits, On-Base Percetage, Slugging Percentage & OPS (On-Base + Slugging)!  The bad memory would be the unfortunate pitch that got away from the Angels' Jack Hamilton that would bean Tony Conigilaro in the face. The damage sustained was a linear fracture of the left cheekbone, dislocated jaw, and severe damage to his left retina -- his once promising career would never be the same. Shortly after the protective ear-flap on helmets would become standard. Conigilaro would not return, until a season & half later. The Red Sox lost the World Series to the Cardinals, 4-3 -- who knows what would have happened if they had Conigilaro for that series.

The fortunate thing is that the Red Sox will have Conigilaro for the tournament, but their first test will not be an easy one. Although the Red Sox led the American League in slugging percentage and OPS, it was during a time of pitching dominance, and compares relatively low to the rest of the tourney, especially to the 95' Indians! The Red Sox have only two full-time players ("Yaz" and George Scott) with OPS's of over .800, compared to the tribe's 6 players in their starting lineup!

PREDICTION: The Red Sox rotation may be slightly better, but the Indians bullpen may have the edge. The Indians line-up is a total superior mismatch towards the Red Sox' weak .715 OPS. It's up to "Yaz" and Conigilaro to try to carry off an upset. Indians will win, 3-1!