My previous post explained the premise of the project that involves four Federal League Baseball teams that joined Major League Baseball in an alternate simulation timeline that I am labeling as the 'Alt-Federal Timeline' via Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP).
Now onto what took place in the Majors during this alternate 1916 season.
Preseason Predictions
The predictions by Out of the Park had the 1916 Chicago White Sox winning the American League Pennant, winning the league by 12 games over the defending World Champion Boston Red Sox. Finishing 3rd was the New York Yankees followed by the Detroit Tigers.
OOTP predicted that the 1916 National League Champions would be the Boston Braves, winning the league by 6 games over the defending National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies -- with the Cincinnati Reds (17 GB), Brooklyn Dodgers (18 GB) & the New York Giants (18 GB) finishing behind them.
Going into the simulated 1916 season, I felt the top MLB contenders were the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Boston Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds & the New York Giants. I also believed it was possible to have a World Series rematch between the Red Sox & Phillies. Although I didn't think the Pittsburgh Pirates would be contenders, I felt they could challenge more than their projected last place finish in the N.L.
I also believed the pennant races (which they usually are) more competitive than the predictions provided by OOTP.
Season Results
The American League was highly competitive all season long. If I remember right, the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox were the top two teams during April & May. The races would really tighten up in September though. The Tigers would wane a little bit, but start getting traction as September approached. The White Sox were consistently strong.
September 17th
The New York Yankees surprised me a bit, I knew they had a pretty decent rotation, they added a pitcher during the preseason in Frank Allen. Prior to 1916, Allen had decent numbers in small parts in the Majors. During 1915, he made a name for himself with the Federal League's Pittsburgh Rebels, putting up strong numbers (22-14, 2.58 ERA, 134 K & a 4.8 WAR). So the Yankees added him as a potential-plus pitcher who can eat up innings, and won big with adding him to their roster.
For the Yankees, Allen (as the 3rd man in the rotation) led the American League with 24 Wins, 159 strikeouts, plus a spectacular 1.83 ERA to win the ERA title -- all while pitching 333.2 innings. He also lead the league in Quality Starts (32), Complete Games (29) & Shutouts (7). He might very well be the automatic for the A.L. Cy Young Award.
On September 17th, five American League teams were all separated by 3 games, bringing out whispers to the real life finish of the 1967 American League Pennant chase. The amazing thing for Boston they were doing this during a period that Tris Speaker was on the Disability List.
The Boston Braves were near the top throughout the season as predicted by OOTP, but they found themselves in a tight battle with the Cincinnati Reds (1 game back) instead of the Philadelphia Phillies who were starting to slip out of the race at this point.
The New York Giants were always around, but always seemed to be lacking something. The loss of Christy Mathewson for the season, seemed to have sucked out the team's soul. The starting pitching was still pretty solid, led by starters Jeff Tesreau (25-11, 2.02 ERA) & Art Fromme (25-9, 2.27 ERA) who had excellent seasons. Rube Marquard (3.07 ERA) & Pol Perrit (3.08 ERA) had losing seasons for the Giants, but pitched good enough to give their team a chance to win.
Before we get to the Reds' pitching (which we will get to later in the post), let's talk about their big bat at the plate in Ken Williams. Many of us who know our baseball, knows Williams for his time with the St. Louis Browns, but we often forget that he was a Cincinnati Red first. At age 27, and just cracking past the rookie status, you have to wonder what his career numbers would have been if he had broke out much earlier, or was he just a late bloomer? Not to also mention being drafted into the Army, and missing nearly between 1916 and 1918. You are talking 7 solid years at least that he missed from the time his baseball career at age 23 (playing for the Regina Red Sox) until the end of his MLB career in 1929 (in which he batted .345 through 74 games at age 39). He finished his career with a lifetime batting average of .319, an on-base percentage close to .400, and a solid .924 OPS. This guy with a full career could have been a Hall of Famer maybe. One of baseball's bigger what-if's.
Now onto his 1916 alt-Federal season...
Williams batted .300 with 12 HR & 88 RBI for his first full season as a starter in the bigs. He also led the National League with a .452 slugging percentage (which included 27 doubles & 10 triples), while producing a 136 OPS+.
Now moving along...
September 27th
Good news for the Chicago White Sox, they are in first place with about 4-5 games left for everybody. Bad news, C Ray Schalk is done for the season, joining his teammates SP Eddie Cicotte and SS Buck Weaver. Also if OOTP or myself caught the 'Shoeless Joe' Jackson mistake, the White Sox may have clinched already. Don't worry White Sox fans, you'll at least qualify for some compensation during the offseason.
But don't look now, but the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees & St. Louis Browns are nipping at the White Sox' heels (no pun intended), while the Detroit Tigers picked the very worst time to go on a 5-game losing streak.
The Red Sox may have the league's best pitching staff:
- Dutch Leonard (22-16, 1.95 ERA) - Led A.L. with 203 K's & 342.1 innings pitched.
- 'Smokey Joe' Wood (19-10, 2.28 ERA) - pitching nearly twice as much compared to last season.
- Babe Ruth (17-11, 2.18 ERA & 3.4 WAR in 251.2 IP)
- Ernie Shore (23-10, 2.39 ERA & 124 ERA+ in 327.2 IP)
The Boston staff would end up accounting for 91% of the teams wins totals.
Over in the National League, it's now down to a two-team race, while all the other teams are disqualified. The New York Giants lost 7 of their last 10 games, while the Philadelphia Phillies won't be able to repeat as National League Champs.
The heart of the Boston Braves' lineup accounted for 27 HR (which was a lot between 3 players). A much bigger contrast to that of their 1914 World Championship team. Red J. Smith had 6, Joe F Connolly had 8 HR (despite missing 30+ games) & Dutch Zwilling (added in the offseason) led the team with both 13 HR & 78 RBI.
The Braves also had a strong rotation in Tom L. Hughes (24-13, 2.07 ERA), Dick Rudolph (18-12, 2.67 ERA), Lefty Tyler (24-10, 2.29 ERA) & Art Nehf (16-18, 3.08 ERA).
The Finish to the Regular Season
American League action -- The Boston Red Sox took 2 of 3 from the Chicago White Sox at the end of the season, while the New York Yankees couldn't pull off the 3-game sweep against the Detroit Tigers -- winning two games, and losing the 3rd game, 2-1. The game was the Tigers' lone win during their last 10 games, finishing in 5th place. If the Yankees won the final game, they would have forced a 1-game playoff, since Boston lost the final game to the White Sox. The St. Louis Browns would leapfrog the Tigers to finish in 4th place. The Philadelphia Athletics who had a bad mid-section to the season, finished strongly with a winning record (winning 8 of their last 10 games). The Kansas City Packers finished in last place, they started the 1916 MLB Season losing their first 14 games.
The New York Giants defeated the Boston Braves, 4-0 on the strength of a 5-hit shutout by Jeff Tesreau on the final day, while the Cincinnati Reds defeated a struggling Indianapolis Federals team, 4-1. The Reds' Rube Benton allowed only 2 hits in the Pennant-clinching complete game. The Federals (the strongest of the Federal League teams) were playing pretty good during the 1st half of the season, placing as high as 4th place, and getting as close as only 6 games out of 1st place. The Feds though would end up with a losing record at 73-81, losing 9 of their last 10 games.
The Reds' rotation was amazing during the season...
- Rube Benton (22-11, 2.06 ERA) - led the N.L. with a 0.970 WHIP.
- Fred Toney (21-15, 2.53 ERA) - Won 38 games the past two seasons, 122 ERA+ in 1916.
- Red Ames (13-17, 2.31 ERA & 134 ERA+)
- Phil Douglas (26-6, 1.62 ERA, 164 K's & 191 ERA+) - Probably a lock for N.L. Cy Young.
The four starters above accounted for 88% of the teams' victories.
Two strong teams in the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, which should make a great 1916 World Series.
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