Boston Braves
Well, somebody had to finish last, and why not the Braves? After all, this is a team known for gastronomic excess and financial acumen, not actual baseball playing ability. It's only fitting that as the national economy is deep within a great Depression that this of all teams struggles the most. In any case, this wasn't even the worst finish in Braves history - the 1925 team lost a full 100 games. Unlike the Brooklyn Dodgers, who combined an okay offense with the worst defense of all time, the Braves were merely very bad on both counts.
Code:
Record overall 57-97, .370 PCT 8th, 53.0 GB
Home 26-51, .338 PCT
Road 31-46, .403 PCT
X-inning games 4-5, .444 PCT
One-run games 17-33, .340 PCT
Versus LHP 17-21, .447 PCT
Versus RHP 40-76, .345 PCT
April 3-5, .375 PCT
May 12-16, .429 PCT
June 8-18, .308 PCT
July 10-18, .357 PCT
=August 12-14, .462 PCT
September 8-19, .296 PCT
October 4-7, .364 PCT
Team Batting Stats & Rankings
Batting Average .279 - 7th in NL
On-Base Percentage .327 - 8th in NL
Slugging Percentage .411 - 7th in NL
On-Base + Slugging .737 - 7th in NL
Runs Scored 743 - 7th in NL
Hits 1536 - 7th in NL
Extra-Base Hits 470 - 5th in NL
Home Runs 96 - tied for 6th in NL
Bases-On-Balls 387 - 8th in NL
Strikeouts 487 - 5th in NL
Stolen Bases 64 - 3rd in NL
Team Pitching Stats & Rankings
Earned Run Average 5.34 - 7th in NL
Starters' ERA 5.32 - 7th in NL
Bullpen ERA 5.42 - 7th in NL
Runs allowed 939 - 7th in NL
Hits allowed 1717 - 7th in NL
Opponents AVG .305 - 7th in NL
BABIP .317 - 7th in NL
Home Runs allowed 103 - 4th in NL
Bases-On-Balls 566 - tied for 7th in NL
Strikeouts 425 - 7th in NL
Pitching
Bad as the Braves' pitching was, you can't fault the front office for not trying to find the right fit. Boston used 19 pitchers last season and often used a 6-man rotation as they found themselves giving starts to virtually anybody off the street with the stamina to throw 100 or more pitches in a game. Their top starter by default was long-time Dodgers workhorse Adolpho Buanaroti, who came back to his city of origin for one last run. He finished his career with a record of 214-253 and lots of memories.
This team's complete failure to put together a pitching staff out of their own farm system doomed them to go out and get guys like Buanoroti. They also signed future Hall of Famer Matt Snyder last offseason. Snyder was effective when he was in there but probably doesn't have the stamina anymore to last a whole season. Merlin Keyes was a scrap-heap pickup; it's amazing that he pitched as well as he did after the Washington Senators cut him with a 2-10 record and an ERA near 6. Only Bill Salyer was both effective and relatively young, and he missed half the season with a shoulder injury. It's hard to say that the worst team in the league will finish any worse than they did, but this is not a blueprint for success.
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA VORP
Adolfo Buanoroti 39 7 16 0.304 29 29 0 202.1 251 108 22 58 36 4.80 17.6
Matt Snyder 37 8 9 0.471 22 22 0 167 186 62 14 35 44 3.34 41.5
Bill Salyer 28 9 8 0.529 22 22 0 162.2 183 79 10 41 34 4.37 21.1
Alex Mossman 25 7 7 0.500 20 20 0 134 168 75 4 70 59 5.04 8.7
Merlin Keyes 38 9 6 0.600 17 17 0 132.2 161 69 13 25 28 4.68 13.8
Todd Rigsby 36 7 7 0.500 51 3 4 113 115 41 6 33 50 3.27 29.5
Bartolo Martínez 29 4 10 0.286 53 0 6 74.2 99 43 4 25 29 5.18 3.6
Clyde Cornett 25 3 5 0.375 15 10 1 68.2 94 55 6 53 8 7.21 -13.1
Matt Boley 21 1 7 0.125 19 11 0 67 96 59 3 62 30 7.93 -18.0
Bill Gainey 28 0 7 0.000 8 8 0 55 86 43 2 39 19 7.04 -9.4
Dorian Wright 21 0 4 0.000 15 4 0 49.2 84 59 3 36 28 10.69 -27.9
Hank Sheppard 29 1 2 0.333 20 3 0 46 55 22 3 21 25 4.30 6.7
Herbert Hermann 21 1 3 0.250 11 4 0 36.1 57 39 7 36 15 9.66 -16.2
Rubén López 19 0 2 0.000 11 0 1 15 26 15 2 13 5 9.00 -6.1
Iestyn Truelove 30 0 1 0.000 6 0 0 13.2 27 19 2 7 5 12.51 -10.7
Dallas Demers 31 0 1 0.000 5 0 0 9 14 9 0 3 5 9.00 -3.6
Jesús Castro 33 0 1 0.000 1 1 0 7 9 6 1 5 1 7.71 -1.6
Jim Jacobs 31 0 1 0.000 3 0 0 6 5 3 1 1 4 4.50 0.7
Pat Ollis 24 0 0 0.000 1 0 0 2 1 2 0 3 0 9.00 -1.1
Team Totals 28.7 57 97 0.370 329 154 12 1361.2 1717 808 103 566 425 5.34 35.7
Catcher/First Base
Neal James is a defensive specialist who put up numbers almost identical to his 1931 season: a little less gap power, but otherwise the same. He is what he is. The Braves picked up John Joseph off the waiver wire; he provided a solid complement to James' skill set.
Fernando Dominguez was traded on June 6 for Bill Norman and relief pitching in a white flag trade. He'd been signed for big bucks in the offseason but the front office decided, to paraphrase the stock market, to "sell high". They then turned their attention to Norm Burnett, who did not appear to be ready to handle 1B duties all by himself, and finally a platoon of Burnett and Norman. This situation yielded the team some of their best production.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
C Neal James 27 114 108 397 44 100 19 2 14 66 0 0 32 13 0.252 0.306 0.416 0.722 -3.4
C John Joseph 31 19 10 40 4 17 4 1 1 12 0 0 3 2 0.425 0.465 0.650 1.115 7.5
C Brad Brown 25 12 10 34 2 3 1 0 0 4 0 0 4 3 0.088 0.200 0.118 0.318 -6.1
1B Norm Burnett 23 74 65 263 46 76 21 0 11 45 0 0 27 17 0.289 0.355 0.494 0.849 5.0
1B *Bill Norman 21 45 45 186 34 64 21 2 5 22 0 0 21 19 0.344 0.413 0.559 0.973 17.4
1B Fernando Domínguez 35 41 41 161 29 52 9 0 5 22 1 0 18 17 0.323 0.401 0.472 0.873 10.9
Infield
Corey Parry played the whole season as the starting 2B because his issues weren't as trying as those of several other positions on the team. He's just a mediocre player who is stretched as a starter but he was good enough for now. Gary Kirkland rebounded from a tough 1931 to have a nice year with the Beantowners. That is, when he was healthy. The good news is, all his hurts were pretty unrelated so hopefully Boston won't need to give the likes of Nick Levine 137 at-bats again. Steve Jordan is a utility beast who can also play second base and right field He's probably least suited to play short, but what the heck. You have to get that bat in the lineup somehow.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
2B Corey Parry 27 106 105 418 65 112 22 6 5 47 5 4 38 39 0.268 0.328 0.385 0.713 7.1
2B Sam Prendergast 21 15 11 56 6 8 1 0 0 2 0 0 4 3 0.143 0.200 0.161 0.361 -6.3
2B Gerald Anderson 27 15 8 39 2 8 2 0 2 5 0 0 3 3 0.205 0.262 0.410 0.672 -2.9
2B Bob Brady 31 6 4 12 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 2 0.167 0.333 0.167 0.500 -1.3
3B Gary Kirkland 32 100 99 406 64 126 26 10 3 58 5 6 18 49 0.310 0.346 0.446 0.792 10.7
3B Nick Levine 31 43 38 137 16 26 5 2 2 13 1 1 13 11 0.190 0.261 0.299 0.561 -11.1
3B Bob Rose 22 32 26 104 13 27 12 1 3 20 0 0 6 6 0.260 0.297 0.481 0.778 4.1
3B *Quincy Hudson 27 23 18 80 14 27 6 0 3 17 0 0 9 8 0.338 0.396 0.525 0.921 8.0
SS Steve Jordan 27 108 105 413 54 126 27 6 6 66 13 12 10 48 0.305 0.326 0.443 0.769 2.6
SS *Henry Adams 23 54 42 188 17 52 10 7 1 22 6 2 8 15 0.277 0.310 0.420 0.730 1.1
SS Colin Richards 25 10 9 34 3 8 1 0 0 3 0 1 1 3 0.235 0.250 0.265 0.515 -3.3
Outfield
Bill Lowry was the only man on the team to qualify for the batting title. He finished well short of contending, but the point here is that this was a team in so much turmoil that they could only give one man those kinds of at-bats. Predictably, Lowry led the club in home runs, runs scored, and RBIs. The age of the outfield gives the Braves some cause for hope. Scott Molloy is the oldest of those projected to start in 1933 and he was born in March of 1906. Dave Conder was a dark horse for Rookie of the Year honors; in the end he really didn't play enough to get up there but the youngster proved he can use his speed as a weapon in the major leagues last year.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
LF *Scott Molloy 26 113 88 372 57 119 22 6 9 59 7 4 35 29 0.320 0.378 0.484 0.862 15.6
LF *Pat Prentiss 26 80 57 236 26 66 10 4 0 24 0 3 21 13 0.280 0.337 0.356 0.693 -9.6
LF *Mitch Navarrete 19 13 8 38 6 9 3 0 0 2 3 1 1 6 0.237 0.256 0.316 0.572 -3.2
LF *Dave Adams 30 5 0 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0.250 0.250 1.000 1.250 0.7
CF *Dave Conder 23 93 78 344 44 108 20 2 4 19 0 2 19 43 0.314 0.349 0.419 0.768 4.3
CF *Mal Edward 24 43 42 182 30 47 10 3 3 16 16 5 11 11 0.258 0.296 0.396 0.692 0.3
CF *Eric Luther 29 39 38 146 25 49 6 1 2 21 2 1 15 13 0.336 0.399 0.432 0.830 8.2
CF Jack Long 37 19 8 40 9 11 1 1 0 6 1 1 8 4 0.275 0.396 0.350 0.746 0.1
RF *Bill Lowry 24 124 124 523 70 162 28 5 14 61 2 9 39 26 0.310 0.357 0.463 0.820 17.5
RF *Rusty Wines 24 59 42 194 29 49 9 2 0 20 2 0 11 22 0.253 0.292 0.320 0.611 -7.2
RF Kenneth Kennedy 21 3 3 10 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.200 0.200 0.200 0.400 -1.2
Code:
Team Totals 27.3 1747 1386 5504 743 1536 312 62 96 701 64 53 387 487 0.279 0.327 0.411 0.737 69.9