New York Giants
For all of this team's achievements - and there were many - the best part of this team's season came after a string of losses. They did not finish the season well, losing 6 straight at one point and only ekeing out the record for wins in a season by splitting a double-header on the last day of the season. And when they lost 3 of the first 4 games of the World Series to the Yankees, it was really beginning to look like the Giants were a paper tiger.
That's when they proved how great they really were. The Giants of New York outscored their Junior Circuit counterparts 16-2 in winning the final 3 games. First Ryan Rush and Fred Fleming shut the Yankees out, forcing the Yanks to leave 14 men on base in those games. Then, in Game Seven, they held a 2-1 lead into the 9th and then abused rookie Earl Race in the bottom of that frame after Nathan Behnke homered in the 9th off of John Burns to tie it up.
A great ending to the greatest season of all time.
Code:
Record overall 110-44, .714 PCT 1st, - GB
Home 60-17, .779 PCT
Road 50-27, .649 PCT
X-inning games 6-3, .667 PCT
One-run games 24-15, .615 PCT
Versus LHP 27-7, .794 PCT
Versus RHP 83-37, .692 PCT
April 5-3, .625 PCT
May 17-11, .607 PCT
June 17-10, .630 PCT
July 25-4, .862 PCT
August 22-4, .846 PCT
September 21-4, .840 PCT
October 3-8, .273 PCT
Team Batting Stats & Rankings
Batting Average .309 - 1st in NL
On-Base Percentage .373 - 2nd in NL
Slugging Percentage .474 - 1st in NL
On-Base + Slugging .847 - 1st in NL
Runs Scored 1014 - 1st in NL
Hits 1752 - 1st in NL
Extra-Base Hits 534 - 2nd in NL
Home Runs 176 - 1st in NL
Bases-On-Balls 594 - 2nd in NL
Strikeouts 477 - 4th in NL
Stolen Bases 24 - 8th in NL
Team Pitching Stats & Rankings
Earned Run Average 3.69 - 1st in NL
Starters' ERA 3.60 - 1st in NL
Bullpen ERA 3.47 - 1st in NL
Runs allowed 680 - 1st in NL
Hits allowed 1463 - 1st in NL
Opponents AVG .268 - 1st in NL
BABIP .276 - 1st in NL
Home Runs allowed 102 - 3rd in NL
Bases-On-Balls 417 - 1st in NL
Strikeouts 424 - 8th in NL
Pitching
The status of this pitching staff seems a little precarious, although saying that this team won't win 110 again in 1933 is not exactly sticking one's neck out. The Giants' pitching staff was, on par, in its prime in '32: only one major player was more than 30, but at the same time only one guy was under 26. That was John Burns, the National League Pitcher of the Year. Burns' success mirrored that of New York's. A loss to the Pirates on June 12 dropped him to 5-6 with a 3.54 ERA. From that point on, it was like the league was facing an entirely different pitcher: 24 wins, 2 losses, and 3.15 earned runs per 9 innings. That's right: he was even more effective than Fred Fleming after he came over. There is no controversy.
Lost in all that... how about Ryan Rush? This is a pitcher who, despite being a fantastic pitcher by nearly every metric, went 9 full seasons between his first 20-victory campaign in 1919 and his second in 1928. He had to pitch for the lowly Boston Braves, who lost 90 games 3 times and 100 once during that stretch. When they finally did nose their way over .500 as a ballclub, it was behind that 2nd 20-victory excursion. Although Rush is nearing the end of his career, the 331 game winner can still bring the heat, sporting a 4-seamer that sometimes hits 95 miles per hour and a two-seamer that is, if anything, even harder to hit.
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA VORP
John Burns 25 29 8 0.784 39 39 0 325.1 328 118 17 89 112 3.26 109.5
Ryan Rush 38 23 12 0.657 42 42 0 324.1 351 152 26 102 63 4.22 81.8
Li Alport 29 19 11 0.633 33 33 0 262 314 113 19 60 44 3.88 73.7
Fred Fleming 28 22 2 0.917 26 26 0 225.2 202 70 17 74 121 2.79 85.4
Jim Nardi 28 6 9 0.400 26 14 0 118 136 65 10 51 29 4.96 22.2
Tom Kelley 28 4 0 1.000 27 0 7 43.2 34 16 2 21 26 3.30 14.6
Willis Morin 35 4 0 1.000 20 0 1 40 38 9 3 8 9 2.02 17.8
Takehide Saito 33 2 2 0.500 16 0 1 39 52 22 7 8 15 5.08 6.9
Gordon Stabler 22 1 0 1.000 10 0 0 11.1 8 4 1 4 5 3.18 3.9
Team Totals 29.6 110 44 0.714 239 154 9 1389.1 1463 569 102 417 424 3.69 415.7
Catcher/First Base
Both New York teams had the Rookie of the Year award winners, but the Giants are the ones who intend to keep their champion. 1931's starter Jesus Vasquez was moved to the Yankees to free up the position for youngster John Sundberg, who had blasted the ball in the minors. He continued to belt it in the big leagues. There are some doubts as to his ability to throw runners out and call games, but the Giants pitching can just about call their own game anyway and, well, who steals anymore? It should be said that if he were to get hurt, there's a bit of a drop to the backup level, particularly since George Echols was traded.
Both Tom Hardy and Gary Shaw could probably start for any other team in baseball. For the Giants, they form an outrageously useful platoon. Hardy got just 35 at-bats against lefties and Shaw just 25 against righties all season long. That was a huge part of why they were able to combine for 108 runs scored, 37 doubles, 116 RBIs, 220 hits, and a .347 batting average.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
C John Sundberg 24 138 137 551 73 178 38 4 12 97 0 1 36 52 0.323 0.360 0.472 0.832 32.7
C George Jenkins 37 18 17 61 7 16 4 0 1 7 0 0 1 7 0.262 0.274 0.377 0.651 -1.5
C #Fabian Wieland 28 5 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 -1.1
1B #Tom Hardy 26 130 120 477 84 169 28 4 13 87 1 0 78 42 0.354 0.445 0.512 0.956 49.7
1B Gary Shaw 26 54 34 158 24 51 9 3 1 29 0 1 12 13 0.323 0.368 0.437 0.805 3.8
Infield
Britt Grim had a nice bounceback year after a disappointing 1931 (he hit .247 with a miniscule .343 slugging percentage). A big part of that comeback was that the Giants religiously kept him out of the lineup against left-handed pitching: he saw southsiders just 40 times in all of 1932 as teammate Dale Sloat took over on those days. Both of those guys were supposed to be AAAA/backup infielder fodder for this team but were pushed into starting by the sudden loss of Nate Moyer on the second of May. Moyer suffered a compound fracture of his elbow on a hit by pitch and got blood poisoning as the doctors attempted to put it back together that night. It was very touch and go for several weeks, and in the end they had to amputate part of his arm to save his life. We'd like to give our best wishes to the Moyer family.
In brighter news, Emory Jefferson was one of three - three! - Giants to hit at least 20 homeruns last year. He and Benton Wheeler were not only guys opponents feared at the plate but in the field as well. Jefferson just missed out on his second consecutive Gold Glove and Wheeler won his 3rd in 4 years as a big league ballplayer.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
2B *Britt Grim 24 90 88 341 58 97 22 3 3 38 3 4 50 19 0.284 0.374 0.393 0.767 16.3
2B Dale Sloat 29 67 57 235 49 76 15 1 5 35 0 1 23 17 0.323 0.386 0.460 0.846 19.6
2B #Nate Moyer 23 10 10 35 9 14 3 0 0 4 0 2 2 3 0.400 0.432 0.486 0.918 3.5
3B Emory Jefferson 27 139 138 555 123 193 26 5 37 133 0 0 78 39 0.348 0.425 0.613 1.038 77.6
3B *Derek Hansen 34 29 18 81 12 19 8 1 0 15 0 0 7 7 0.235 0.297 0.358 0.655 -2.1
SS Benton Wheeler 26 151 151 677 154 237 33 9 24 108 3 5 69 47 0.350 0.410 0.532 0.941 68.6
Outfield
John Montague was brought over to fill in in right field while Eddy McCrary was out. That experiment did not work out terrifically well and he ended the season on the bench. That's not a great spot for this highly-regarded prospect; look for him to be shipped out this winter. The Mason Taylor acquisition was much better: freed from the second division Washington Senators, Taylor cleared 200 hits for the 4th time in his career and the first since 1927. On top of that, he was errorless in 69 games, effectively making the transition from center field in Washington to left in Gotham.
That leaves Erik Conn. Before '32, Conn never hit more than 17 home runs in his career. That's not that odd; nobody else had ever hit more than 32. But in the Year of the Homerun, all that went out the window. He matched his personal best on June 29, set a new one on the 30th, and the hits just kept on coming. Between May and August, when the pennant race still looked somewhat in doubt, Conn hit 26 homeruns in 260 at-bats - a homer every 10 times up. With that much power, he couldn't help but bring home 91 runners during those 3 months. He followed that up by hitting the Giants' only homerun in the World Series.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS VORP
LF *Mason Taylor 29 69 69 292 53 100 13 0 9 43 0 1 45 10 0.342 0.426 0.479 0.906 24.1
LF Dale Becker 24 31 29 118 16 31 5 0 3 14 6 1 7 9 0.263 0.302 0.381 0.683 -3.7
CF Erik Conn 37 152 152 640 150 193 38 9 37 138 9 10 82 67 0.302 0.378 0.563 0.940 50.6
RF *Eddy McCrary 33 80 79 330 68 124 17 3 13 64 0 0 39 14 0.376 0.441 0.564 1.004 45.9
RF *John Montague 22 65 53 214 36 59 7 0 8 46 0 0 30 20 0.276 0.360 0.421 0.781 4.6
RF Martin Hagans 24 39 36 153 19 41 8 1 3 15 2 3 8 8 0.268 0.302 0.392 0.695 -4.2
RF Dave Echols 23 32 29 130 17 47 9 0 2 15 0 0 14 12 0.362 0.428 0.477 0.905 13.2
RF Ken Seibel 27 18 8 48 6 15 7 1 0 10 0 1 1 3 0.313 0.320 0.500 0.820 1.6
RF *Mark Wagner 30 18 7 40 11 12 5 0 3 11 0 0 5 6 0.300 0.378 0.650 1.028 4.1
Code:
Team Totals 28.2 1574 1386 5662 1014 1752 313 45 176 960 24 30 594 477 0.309 0.373 0.474 0.847 406.0