Mid-May Consensus
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National League Standings
Team W L PCT GB Home Away +/- XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Pittsburgh Pirates 18 3 .857 - 11-2 7-1 +5 0-0 4-1 117 W1 8-2
New York Giants 14 6 .700 3.5 3-3 11-3 +8 0-2 5-1 L1 8-2
Cincinnati Reds 13 9 .591 5.5 5-7 8-2 +1 1-0 0-2 W1 6-4
Boston Beaneaters 12 10 .545 6.5 6-5 6-5 +1 2-2 5-3 W4 6-4
Philadelphia Phillies 11 11 .500 7.5 6-4 5-7 +1 4-2 5-6 W2 6-4
Saint Louis Cardinals 8 12 .400 9.5 3-4 5-8 +1 1-0 1-4 L1 3-7
Brooklyn Superbas 6 16 .273 12.5 5-10 1-6 -9 0-1 2-2 L2 2-8
Chicago Colts 3 18 .143 15.0 0-11 3-7 -8 0-1 0-3 L4 1-9
American League Standings
Team W L PCT GB Home Away +/- XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
New York Highlanders 18 7 .720 - 9-3 9-4 +6 1-1 3-4 114 W4 7-3
Washington Nationals 16 9 .640 2.0 10-3 6-6 +3 1-1 3-4 W1 8-2
Louisville Colonels 14 11 .560 4.0 10-7 4-4 -3 1-2 3-3 W3 7-3
Boston Red Stockings 13 12 .520 5.0 5-5 8-7 +3 2-0 3-3 L1 6-4
Cleveland Blues 13 13 .500 5.5 3-3 10-10 +7 2-3 6-6 W3 4-6
Detroit Tigers 11 14 .440 7.0 7-7 4-7 -3 3-2 7-3 L3 4-6
Philadelphia Athletics 10 16 .385 8.5 5-7 5-9 -2 1-0 4-6 L4 3-7
Chicago White Stockings 6 19 .240 12.0 3-14 3-5 -11 0-2 1-1 L3 3-7
News From Around The League
Boston Beaneaters: One question that has been on every Beaneaters fan's mind this year has been, "who will be the staff ace now that Erik Pritchitt is gone?" Pritchitt, of course, left in an offseason trade to the Pirates, where he is lighting up the league. The answer to the question, at least so far, is 23 year old
Alan O'Heron, who is 4-2 with a 2.18 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 57.1 innings. O'Heron is also known around the clubhouse as the man who will get in your face when you aren't hustling like you should be. That kind of leadership can only help the Bostons.
Updates: LF Steven Corliss .289 BA in 80 AB, 3 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 15 R, 9 RBI, 16 SB
Boston Red Stockings: Granted, they were against the lowly White Stockings, but back to back shut-outs are something to be proud of.
Keith Gages started things off on the 8th of May with a 6-hitter. Then, to prove that Chicago-ing the Chicagos was no fluke,
Mike Green followed things up the next day with a whitewashing that saw him yield just 3 hits and 1 walk.
Updates: Flyboy Billy Mitchell .340 BA in 140 AB, 4 2B, 3 3B, 14 R, 18 RBI
Brooklyn Superbas: What's the matter with 3B
Terrence Swarbrick? He was and SS Devlin Shaner were the backbone of this ballclub last year but so far the two of them have combined for just 11 runs and 9 RBIs. Swarbrick is batting just .197 and is having the same glove issues that made him a mixed blessing last year (14 errors in his first 21 games). He's reportedly distraught over the team's horrendous start, but if he wants to move on to a better team he's going to need to show them a reason to trade for him first.
Updates: Jonathan Gaines 2-3 1.77 ERA 40.2 IP 16 BB 19 K
Chicago Colts: The Colts' rough start is beginning to take on historical proportions. We don't have statistics on bad starts but will can tell you this: if this keeps up it will be just the 2nd time in club history that the Colts finished 3 consecutive seasons not in first place. Pitcher
Henry H. Laughlin is already 0-6 and well on the way towards breaking Jesse "Rawhide" MacLagan's team-record 25 losses in 1897.
Updates: P Martinez Bajana Out for the season
Chicago White Stockings: Is there a contest in the Windy City to see who can field the worst team? The White Sox, facing long odds at even returning to .500, let alone contending this year, have decided that they can lose just as easily with youngsters as they can with a veteran pitching staff. Veteran hurlers Orran Meager and Bob Shank were let go and Rino Dallaliglio was sent to serve as a player-coach for the minor league club. In their place, they called up
Jim Cox, a 22 year old whose previous major league experience consisted of 8.2 innings with the 1900 Cleveland Spiders. Matt Nutt, previously the extra man on the staff, will also move into the rotation.
Updates: P Larry MacCaa 0-5 3.51 ERA 41 IP 12 BB 11 K
Cincinnati Reds: It's a wonder that the Reds have been able to stay within striking distance of the Pittsburgh Pirates considering the way they've been hitting. Their batting average of .227 is 2nd to last in the National League. One reason is SS
Drake Gates, who played through a head injury he probably shouldn't have. He's still fighting off its effects and is hitting just .240.
Updates: P Big Bill Copeland won his 250th game on May 5. 5-1 0.98 ERA 5 IP 7 BB 24 K
Cleveland Blues: Although his career is also winding down, it is readily apparent that OF
Kevin MacKeochan is not going to be a lame duck the way Nivens O'Mulvaney or Valentin Lochilosurdo were. So far, hitting cleanup for this surprising ballclub, he's hitting a respectable .279 and his experience has allowed him to coax 17 walks from opposing hitters, 1 free pass away from the league lead.
Updates: P Bill Hawkins 5-1, 1.46 ERA, 55.1 IP, 23 BB, 37 K
P Sean Nickerson 3-2, 2.00 ERA, 45 IP, 11 BB, 15 K
Detroit Tigers: In the course of 3 seasons with the Tigers, OF
Gary O'Larkin has gone from starter to occasional pinch hitter back to starter again. With the preseason injury to Dan Wilson, who played in 129 games last year, O'Larkin was forced to take over the starting center field job. He has risen to the occasion, batting .269 and scoring 8 runs in 16 games at the Detroit lead-off position.
Update: P Chris Langdon is still deceased.
Louisville Colonels: Paul Bump is a human dynamo. He can beat you any way it is possible for a hitter to beat you: laying down a bunt, pushing the ball to somewhere the infielders are not, poking the ball between the outfield and the infield, or driving it into the gaps. He now has 276 hits in 876 career at-bats, a mark that would be good for 8th best in league history if he had the plate appearances to qualify. And this despite playing in the depressed offenses of the 'aughts.
Update: Johnny Gruelle 4-2 with a 1.53 ERA, 59 IP, 7 BB, 35 K
New York Giants: What is going on with the Giants' hitting? Don't ask
Cody "The Punisher" Plummer, because whatever ailment is striking the rest of the ballclub, he does not have it. He's hitting .342 but to hear manager John McGraw, that's completely unimportant compared to what the Little Napoleon calls an "on base percentage" of .445. "Pitchers are so yellow, they'd rather give him four wide ones than pitch to him," the skipper told us.
Update: OF Ray Pearl .235 BA, 1 2B, 3 3B, 2 R, 4 RBI
New York Highlanders: One of the qualities that has allowed Von Craufurd to lead his charges to first place in the league at this point in the season is that he's been able to reclaim pitching prospects that John McGraw abandoned in his brief push to excellence. Case in point:
Fionn Kempson, who now leads the team with 5 wins and is 12-5 since Craufurd penciled him into the rotation last July. "The kid can pitch" is all the manager had to say. All we have to say is: he's no kid.
Update: C Von Craufurd .366 BA, 12 2B, 9 R, 7 RBI
Philadelphia Phillies: To everybody outside the system, it looked like the Philles were going to be releasing P
Jimmy Baker. He'd just come off of an 8-21 season, including 6-20 in the National League, and at age 32 he did not figure into the future plans of this club. Maybe it's best to always assume that this science-minded team is going to do something that doesn't jibe with established wisdom. Baker, so far, has proven his critics wrong. He's just 3-3 this year but has been quite stingy with the walks (8 in 49 innings) and runs (a 2.51 ERA).
Update: George Darbyshire .392 BA, 6 2B, 3 3B, 2 HR, 14 R, 15 RBI, 1 SB
Philadelphia Athletics: The major-league record for strikeouts in a season is 239 but don't tell
Rube Lindsley that. Actually, you can probably get away with telling him. He's not the sharpest tool in the shed. "When I heard about that, I was like, oh my god, wow!" said the Moreno Valley, California native. "That is totally tubular. Qual." Lindsley is on pace, according to our resident stat guru, to whiff 307 hitters this season. To date, he has 57 of them, which goes well with his 5-3 record and 2.72 ERA.
Update: 2B George Marshall .362 BA, 14 R, 3 RBI, 9 SB
Pittsburgh Pirates:
Jon Choate missed all of last season with torn ligaments in his ankle and was, at best, a question mark going into this season. We'll admit that we didn't agree with Pittsburgh's trading off incumbent 1B Mark Lucott off to the Beaneaters (Choate's old job, left field, was taken by the younger and more agile David Cook). Choate so far has been a cog in that powerful Pirates' machine, batting .312 with 19 runs batted in on the season.
Update: P Ken Cudlip 5-0, 1.65 ERA, 45 IP, 7 BB, 21 K
St. Louis Cardinals: The Saint Louis Cardinals will lose the services of second baseman
Woody Randles after he sustained a scratched cornea while colliding with a player at a base in today's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. When asked about the injury, he took a philosophical approach. "Worse things can happen in life," Randles said. "The key now is to stay positive." His trainer said he is expected to be sidelined for the next 3-4 weeks. Randles is batting .233 this season in 20 games with 1 home run, 12 RBIs and 9 runs scored. He has 17 hits in 73 at-bats, 9 walks and a .313 on-base percentage. Randles has played in 20 games.
Update: 1B Paul Woolcock .420 BA, 1 2B, 2 3B, 11 R, 7 RBI, 6 SB
Washington Senators: With a .385 average that ranks 2nd in the league,
Kayne McMartin has been tearing the cover off the ball. So why has he been sitting out the last few games? "He turned his ankle," said manager Rooney O'Merry. "2 years ago, we played things safe all year and you saw the results. Last year, we think we were trying to hard to win one game at the expense of the season." Kayne McMartin is completely on board with his coach on this. It doesn't hurt that his replacement, Jeremy McCullough, has 8 hits in 25 at-bats on the season.
Update: P Brian Pike 5-1, 2.06 ERA, 52.1 IP, 13 BB, 29 K