[damientheomen3]

Ah, July 1st has come upon us and all teams have played 80-82 games. The results were not really to my liking, with just two starting pitchers posting sub-4.00 ERAs. I really should have tested this first, but I decided to change the stuff creation modifier back to 1.000 to counteract this. It'd seem odd for players to stop hitting home runs for a while, as it would for a huge automatic change, so I'm going to do it that way instead to set up a gradual change. Anyway, let's get to the midseason report!

 
STANDINGS
 
team                            wins     losses      win %      GB
Austin Steelers                  47        34        .580       -
Baltimore Colonels               47        34        .580       -
Detroit Maroons                  44        38        .537      3½
Tucson War Dogs                  41        39        .512      5½
Memphis Pirates                  40        40        .500      6½
Kansas City Mastodons            39        43        .476      8½
San Francisco Terror             35        44        .443      11
Charlotte Bulldogs               30        51        .370      18

It was an interesting first half, with some surprise teams surging and some other teams faltering when they were early favorites. It's usually quite the oddity when the league leader in batting average has that number be higher than the lowest winning percentage among all of the teams in the league, but that is exactly the case here. Let's look in on the teams in these first few months. Odd enough, 5th and 6th place teams Memphis and Kansas City had the best Aprils, both posting 14-11 records in the month. Memphis is 26-29 since then while Kansas City is 25-32. Austin and Baltimore have had very similar starts, with the Steelers going 13-12 in April and Baltimore going 14-12. May was a terrific month for both teams, as Austin went 20-9 and Baltimore went 20-7. The Colonels stumbled through June, however, with a 13-15 record, while the Steelers went 14-12 to tie for first at the halfway point. The only team to post an April record worse than 2 games under .500 is Tucson, at 9-16, but they have since gone 32-23 to jump up over .500 again. Charlotte wasn't terrible in their first month, going 12-13, but an 8-20 May that featured 4 losing streaks of at least 3 games, and a 10-18 June that featured a season-long 8 game losing streak has them in last by a lot of games.

The Detroit Maroons, predictably, lead the league in many offensive categories. They are first in batting average, hits, and OPS, tied for first in slugging percentage and doubles, second in runs scored, third in walks, and tied for fourth in home runs. Kansas City leads the league with an even 100 home runs, while Charlotte ranks second. Baltimore leads the league in runs scored, walks and OBP, while ranking second in batting average. The Austin Steelers are the only team in the league with a team ERA below 5, at 4.53, are the only team to hold other teams below a .300 batting average, have allowed the least runs, and have issued the third least walks. Kansas City has the highest team ERA, the highest opponents average, and the least complete games pitched, as well as the most home runs allowed.

Things are looking pretty good so far in Austin. 33rd round draft pick and surprise Outstanding Pitcher Award candidate Ralph Perry leads the league with a 3.75 ERA, along with an 11-5 record. Shortstop Ralph Wetherall ranks third in the league with a .409 batting average, while veterans Walt Hill and John Stevens lead the team with 16 home runs. Stephens also leads the team with 76 RBI. The rotation has performed terrifically, with all three starters posting sub-5.00 ERAs. The team has a hell of a first half behind them and looks to continue this success through the next three months.

As good as things are looking for Austin, they are looking even better for Baltimore. Second baseman Dennis Hewlett leads the entire top row of the league's statistics page (batting average, OBP, slugging %, OPS, runs created/27 outs and VORP). He has posted a line of .433/.522/.672/1.214. while hitting 13 home runs and pacing for over 130 RBI. As terrific as he's been, his teammate Dan Harper has come pretty damn close to mimicking such success, with a .375 batting average, a 1.000 flat OPS, 14 home runs, and 70 RBI. Harper also leads the league with 76 runs scored and is on pace for 80 walks. Starting pitcher Ronald French leads the league with 16 wins, and his 4.60 ERA is 6th in the league. The rest of the Baltimore rotation has been terrible, but the great offense will continue to pace this team unless a major injury occurs.

Well, if there is any silver lining for Charlotte, it's the fact that they rank second in the league in home runs. They are the only team in the league to hit below .300 collectively, and besides Todd Hawk's .290/.391/.579 season, with 18 home runs, the offense has been pretty bad. As bad as the offense has been, the pitching has been even worse. Every single starer in the rotation has an ERA over 7.00, but to be fair, ace Raymond Nall hasn't pitched in over 2 months, and won't pitch for at least another two months. He was 4-2 with a 3.08 ERA when he went down, and since he went down the team has gone 19-43, so their success (an 11-8 record before his loss) has to be linked to him. In fact, the team lost four consecutive games directly following his injury!

Detroit has plenty to look forward to. Their team is 3½ games back, but they look like they have a real shot at winning the league this year. They have the most explosive offense in the league, and they have gotten solid contributions from ace Sam Pickard, who won pitcher of the month in May. Overall, he's 13-5 with a 5.17 ERA. There really isn't much else to mention pitching-wise. However, there is plenty to talk about when it comes to hitting. First baseman Columbus Perry leads the league with 23 home runs, the only player in the league with over 20, while hitting .358. He also leads the league with 87 RBI. Outfielder Brendan Nixson, one of the league's few black players, is second in the league with a .423 batting average. He also has 9 home runs and 74 RBI, while shortstop Nick Beeman is fourth in the league in batting average at .383. Austin and Baltimore better watch their backs, because Detroit has improved in every month so far, and is looking to do even better than their 16-11 month of June.

Kansas City is freefalling. They started 14-11 in April, tied for first in the league, but since then they have gone 25-32, and their terrible pitching staff has to be the reason. Really, it's a decent staff, but the rotation is performing terribly, and the 'pen isn't much better. All three starters have ERAs over 6.50. Starting ceterfielder and leadoff hitter Pat Wieland is having a surprisingly strong season, as he's tied for 10th in batting average at .358, has hit 12 home runs, is on pace for over 100 RBI, and leads the league with 23 steals. Not bad from a 13th round draft pick, huh? Outfielder Alan Gibbons leads the team with 18 homers, and has hit .353 as well, with 53 walks. Jon Brownell completes the terrific outfield, and has hit 13 homers this season, along with a .345 average. If this team had even slightly decent pitching right now, they'd be contenders.

Memphis is the 'other' 14-11 team of April, and just like Kansas City, the fallout has been pretty severe from there. Starting pitcher Bobby Button is the other of the two starters in the league with a sub-4.00 ERA, his at 3.97. He also has an 11-7 record. Closer John Peters has 19 saves to go with a 0.63 ERA. Third baseman Danny Hearne has the team triple crown this far, with a .364 batting average, 14 home runs and 53 RBI. Jim Kiley also has 14 home runs. Centerfielder Dan Southerland has a .398 batting average (doesn't have enough PAs to count for the team lead in batting average apparently), and 9 homers. The team is pretty good, but the rest of the rotation needs to step it up for the Pirates to become a factor.

The Terror have been pretty terrifying to watch, but there were a few bright spots for this team. Young first baseman John Mobley leads the team in batting average with a .352 average, while centerfielder Shane Labbe leads the team in homers (13) and RBI (63), while hitting .341. 24 year old Johnny Anderson has hit .346 with 11 homers and 47 RBI, so he has also played well. Pitching-wise, it hasn't been a very pretty sight. All three starters have ERAs over 5.80, and ace Earl McCafferty has been inconsistent. The Terror had a terrible may, when they went 7-19, but can they build on a 15-12 June?

Lastly, we have Tucson. The team started terribly, but has really rebounded well in the last two months to place fourth at midseason. Starting pitcher Everett Baker won pitcher of the month in June, and is 15-9 with a 4.22 ERA overall. However, the inability of the rest of the rotation to pitch well has caused the team to be on the outside looking in right now. Third baseman Darin Bennett leads the team with a .358 batting average, and is a perfect 10 for 10 in steal attempts, while first baseman George Price leads the team with 13 home runs and 58 RBI. As you can see, this team has the offense necessary to win the league, but will the pitching follow suit?

I forgot to mention in my earlier posts, if you want me to create a player for you, PM me the player's name, facial type, and other info, including position, and I will PM you back giving you his ratings and give updates on him in my posts.