Overview
The Reds gained ground on the rest of the league, increasing their victory total from 68 to 79 and also leaping up two places in the standings. We knew it was going to be hard to get Americans behind baseball again, and it's still going to take some time. It doesn't help that Cincinnati is by far the smallest city in the League of Nations; sometimes we think that we were only given a team to keep a link with the world's first professional base ball team (because we are fond of history, we won't mention that that really should have been the Boston Braves).
The Reds are getting where they're getting due to residual baseball knowledge. Nobody in baseball gave up fewer homeruns than did the Reds because the pitchers have an instrinsic knowledge of how to pitch around the corners. Conversely, we were #1 in the A/A in homeruns *hit* because we know how to take advantage of similar situations. See? Whatever we do is smart, by definition.
Retirements
-------------
MR Bill Morgan - Probably could have been a decent player in the pre-Great War league, but as of now he was just too old.
Code:
79-83, .488 PCT 6th, 18.0 GB
Home 34-47, .420 PCT
Road 45-36, .556 PCT
X-inning games 5-4, .556 PCT
One-run games 27-26, .509 PCT
Versus LHP 10-12, .455 PCT
Versus RHP 69-71, .493 PCT
April 9-8, .529 PCT
May 15-15, .500 PCT
June 16-15, .516 PCT
July 14-17, .452 PCT
August 13-16, .448 PCT
September 12-12, .500 PCT
Batting Average .273 - 4th in AA
On-Base Percentage .321 - 7th in AA
Slugging Percentage .361 - 6th in AA
Runs Scored 714 - 7th in AA
Hits 1558 - 6th in AA
Extra-Base Hits 336 - tied for 8th in AA
Home Runs 48 - 1st in AA
Bases-On-Balls 386 - tied for 9th in AA
Strikeouts 454 - 3rd in AA
Stolen Bases 153 - 7th in AA
Earned Run Average 3.30 - 2nd in AA
Runs allowed 717 - 2nd in AA
Hits allowed 1585 - 6th in AA
Opponents AVG .274 - 6th in AA
Home Runs allowed 13 - 1st in AA
Bases-On-Balls 357 - 2nd in AA
Strikeouts 496 - 5th in AA
Pitching
There's not much that can be said about Cincinnati that hasn't already been said. These guys are just plain smart. We're talking a bunch of geniuses here. Whem Jerry Spencer quits baseball he'll probably cure cancer or at least the influenza virus. Brian Matthews is perhaps more cagey than smart but he knows the Ruy Lopez openining if you know what I mean. Woody Griffin is so named because he has found over 6,000 uses for wood. I'm not a big fan of his wood shampoo or his wood butter but it's the idea-making that's important here.
Projected Rotation
---------------------
Jerry Spencer
Woody Griffin
Brian Mathews
Cody Wright*
Robert Mitchell*
Leonard Pearson**
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA
Jerry Spencer 26 24 14 0.632 39 39 0 318.1 354 106 4 56 106 3.00
Brian Mathews 37 18 18 0.5 37 37 0 299 324 106 2 75 80 3.19
Woody Griffin 25 15 13 0.536 32 32 0 258 276 87 2 57 60 3.03
Cody Wright 27 11 14 0.44 27 27 0 195.2 236 71 2 33 95 3.27
Robert Mitchell 30 8 10 0.444 29 19 0 183 196 78 2 62 71 3.84
Bill Morgan 37 1 4 0.2 29 3 4 53.2 63 30 0 25 25 5.03
Vicente García 29 0 2 0 19 0 4 34.2 24 7 0 12 23 1.82
Leonard Pearson 23 1 4 0.2 5 5 0 34.2 46 20 1 10 19 5.19
Harry Sanders 22 1 2 0.333 13 0 0 33 36 12 0 11 8 3.27
Jesse Hughes 20 0 2 0 9 0 0 21.1 17 4 0 15 2 1.69
Wyatt Dorsey 27 0 0 0 3 0 0 8.1 13 7 0 1 7 7.56
Team Totals 27.5 79 83 0.488 242 162 8 1439.2 1585 528 13 357 496 3.30
* - throws left-handed, blank - throws right-handed
Batting
Pure, unbridled smarts do not, apparently, translate into hitting success at the League of Nations level. Well, things were decent, but in order to truly contend the Reds will have to work a bit harder with the old noggin. The men who donned the "tools of ignorance" were, fittingly, especially hurtful to the team's chances last year. Neither Ralph Forcier nor Arnie Russell were particularly good at holding runners at bay, and the pitchers were mostly calling their own pitches, so it's hard to ascertain what the catching position did do for this team. Elsewhere, Jeff Cochran was lights-out as a 22-year-old slugger who can play all three outfield positions. He may not quite have the range for center field (at least not yet) but he's bound to start somewhere.
Projected Lineup
----------------
C - Ralph Forcier*, Arnie Russel*, Cody Fabian***
1B - Michael Cobb, Jerry Mattis**, Keith Avery**
2B - Robert Taylor
3B - Bryan Hankins
SS - Rich Huber
LF - Ezra Cox*, Jeff Cochran*
CF - Lou Doyle*, Jeff Cochran*, Steven Terry**
RF - Jose Sanchez*, Jeff Cochran*
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
C Ralph Forcier 26 124 124 446 44 107 13 2 3 56 1 2 33 28 0.240 0.302 0.298
C Arnie Russell 34 56 38 131 11 32 3 2 0 19 1 0 7 12 0.244 0.271 0.298
C Reed Billington 31 4 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
1B Michael Cobb 32 85 85 324 37 88 12 7 4 46 1 0 37 22 0.272 0.350 0.389
1B Keith Avery 36 120 35 205 22 53 7 0 0 25 0 0 16 13 0.259 0.314 0.293
1B Jerry Mattis 22 42 42 147 16 41 8 2 0 12 3 4 3 18 0.279 0.298 0.361
1B Craig Lewis 28 40 0 20 13 3 1 0 0 1 5 0 0 2 0.150 0.150 0.200
2B Robert Taylor 30 156 147 633 85 181 28 9 4 54 16 8 47 77 0.286 0.339 0.378
2B Marvin Jones 22 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
3B *Bryan Hankins 23 154 149 578 105 175 28 15 10 78 43 18 62 45 0.303 0.371 0.455
SS Rich Huber 27 148 137 475 51 131 16 3 5 52 6 4 38 16 0.276 0.337 0.354
SS *Tim Duffy 27 95 50 186 19 52 9 1 3 25 0 2 13 16 0.280 0.341 0.387
SS *Howard Watson 19 81 3 73 17 19 1 2 0 7 12 4 1 8 0.260 0.267 0.329
LF *Ezra Cox 36 154 124 518 58 157 23 7 4 68 1 0 32 13 0.303 0.342 0.398
LF Jeff Cochran 22 120 82 317 37 111 17 4 5 54 0 1 13 22 0.350 0.370 0.476
CF Lou Doyle 27 127 115 441 58 116 8 7 4 32 27 9 19 44 0.263 0.299 0.340
CF *Steven Terry 27 113 42 218 44 50 4 2 1 20 31 8 12 9 0.229 0.267 0.280
RF *José Sánchez 24 133 96 383 36 112 25 4 3 59 0 0 39 32 0.292 0.359 0.402
RF #Josh Murphy 25 116 27 110 24 28 4 0 1 13 6 2 5 9 0.255 0.287 0.318
RF *Jim Tracy 26 9 0 4 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.250 0.250 0.500
Team Totals 27.3 2129 1458 5705 714 1558 220 68 48 657 153 65 386 454 0.273 0.321 0.361
Legend
------------
no stars - Starter for sure
* - On the bubble
** - Longshot to be on Opening Day roster
*** - Not a smart move.