Modern Rules in a Post Civil War U.S.

[szathkey]

Jan 1, 1871


At 7am CST the Chicago White Stockings named 15 year old Montgomery Ward worker Dean “Deacon” Newsome their first GM. The move came not a moment too soon as the inaugural draft for Major League Baseball was scheduled for 12pm EST the next day.


The announcement came with little fanfare as Chicagoans are not excited to spend their hard-earned tax dollars on the newly built Union Base-Ball Grounds, particularly since there is not much confidence that the newly formed League will survive the year. Nor are they happy that their representative in this fledgling league would be a 15 year old that got the job through a bit of circumstance and luck.


“Selling a man a suit is no qualification to run our team,” said one obviously irritated fan.


At any rate, the owner George Gage hopes that Newsome will bring the same “can do attitude and enthusiasm to the team that he brought to the Men’s department at Montgomery Ward. He is a very fine young man, and if he is old enough to have served in the War of Secession he’s old enough to run my ballclub.”

At Newsome’s first staff meeting he discussed his draft strategy. “I need everyone to be on the same page. Pitching and defense, fellas, pitching and defense. That’s what we’ll draft, and that’s what we’ll be known for. Draft order was purchased gentleman, and since we’ve got the least amount of money, we’ll be drafting last. We’ve got to make every pick count. Now I suggest one of you fellas put on a pot of coffee, we've got a lot of scouting reports to go over."

[szathkey]

The draft is over and the results are in. Here are the preseason picks for the 120 game season as reported by the Chicago Tribune...Once again, the draft slots were bought, not awarded by lottery. The draft was completed straight up and not serpentine, giving those with money even more of an advantage.

American League
The AL has has been pegged as the stronger of the two leagues with Philadelphia and Cleveland fairly close in terms of strength. The bigger hitters are in this league. Philadelphia is the early favorite to win the World Series.

Philadelphia Athletics - drafted 1st
The Athletics are lead by the first pick in the expansion draft SP Jim Devlin 80/80. In the following rounds they chose RF Long Levi Meyerle 80/80, LF Dick Higham 63/66, C John Bass 80/80, and Utility player Fred Waterman 59/76. All are under the age of 25 and provide the Athletics with a very bright future as well as a seemingly certain World Series ring for Manager Fabiano Bellan. The only question mark on this squad is at 3B. Only time will tell if rookie Warren White 25/38 will play well enough to hold on to his job.

Opening Day:
Lineup
CF Gat Stires
1B Jim Foran
RF Levi Meyerle
C John Bass
LF Dick Higham
SS Davy Force
2B Steve Bellam
3B Warren White

Rotation
RHP Jim Devlin
RHP Joe McDermott

Relief
LHP John McMullin


St Louis Brown Stockings - drafted 2nd
The Brown Stockings should expect a good year out of veteran LF Steve King 80/80 and phenom SS George Wright 80/80 and are very deep with hitting. The question over the season will be how the rotation of Asa Brainard 42/45 and rookie Tricky Nichols 23/71 holds up.

Opening Day:
Lineup
2B Bill Craver
C Dave Birdsall
SS George Wright
LF Steve King
RF Nate Berkenstock
CF Harry Wright
1B Charlie Gould
3B Robert Ferguson

Rotation
RHP Asa Brainard
RHP Tricky Nichols

Relief
LHP John Greason


Cleveland Forest Citys - drafted 6th
Cleveland will be paced by the steal of the draft SP Al Pratt 80/80. Pratt will make those that passed on him (he went in the 10th round as a RF) sorry that they did so. The Lineup will be solid with Fred Treacey 80/80 patrolling LF and Ross Barnes 80/80 at 2B. Cleveland should contend if SP Cherokee Fisher 22/22 can hold up his half of the teams starts and if youngster RF Jim Holdsworth 25/72 gets off to a good start.

Opening Day:
Lineup
LF Fred Treacey
3B Clipper Flynn
2B Ross Barnes
1B Ed Beavens
CF Tom Berry
SS Pony Sager
C Sandy Nava
RF Jim Holdsworth

Rotation
RHP Al Pratt
RHP Cherokee Fisher

Relief
RHP John Greening

Baltimore Canaries - drafted 4th
With a trio of 19 year olds (2B Jimmy Wood 73/73, 3B William Barrett 67/80, and SP Bobby Mathews 45/78) Baltimore's best days seem to be in front of them. However, with a gaping hole at 1B and the unexplained benching of young SS Dickie Flowers 64/64, they don't look like they'll contend this year.

Opening Day:
Lineup
C Paddy Quinn
LF Frank Norton
2B Jimmy Wood
3B William Barrett
RF Art Allison
CF Fred Cone
1B Denny Mack
SS Ralph Ham

Rotation
RHP Bobby Mathews
RHP Morrie Critchley


National League
The NL seems to be the weaker of the two leagues and is more stacked with pitching and defense. Brooklyn should win, losing to Philadelphia in the Series.

Brooklyn Atlantics - drafted 3rd
With SP Candy Cummings 80/80, 3B Ezra Sutton 73/80, and an outfield that boasts CF Lip Pike 80/80 the Atlantics will be difficult to beat. The play of the rest of the outfield will be under intense scrutiny however, as the big bats of LF Andy Leonard 80/80 and RF Count Sesenderfer 64/64 have been benched in favor of defense. They are deep there, but how long will the front office bench two potential stars nearing the prime of their careers?

Opening Day:
Lineup
LF Jack Remsen
1B Joe Start
CF Lip Pike
3B Ezra Sutton
C Doug Allison
RF Nealy Phelps
2B Henry Burroughs
SS James Snyder

Rotation
RHP Candy Cummings
RHP Hugh Campbell

Relief
RHP Bill Stearns


Chicago White Stockings - drafted 8th
GM Newsome hopes that veteran 1B Al Reach 75/75 will bring a level head to a very young team and that star C Deacon White 58/80 will calm the pitching staff. SP Al Spalding 71/80 hopes to prove himself worthy of having been Chicago's first round pick, and the success of the platoon at 3B between the big bat of slugger Mike Brannock 67/80 and the defense of Frank Selman 59/69 will be critical.

Opening Day:
Lineup
CF Dave Eggler
LF George Hall
1B Al Reach
RF George Bechtel
C Deacon White
2B Joe Quest
SS Chick Fulmer
3B Mike Brannock

Rotation
RHP Al Spalding
RHP Frank Fleet


Boston Red Stockings - drafted 7th
The success of the Red Stockings, in large part, depends on the strong right arm of SP Rynie Wolters 80/80. Rookie LF George Ewell 73/80 will infuse some youth into an older team lead by veteran C Fergy Malone 54/54. They are weakest at CF where Dick Hunt 25/32 patrols and weak almost everywhere else.

Opening Day:
Lineup
SS John Radcliffe
RF Bob Addy
LF George Ewell
C Fergy Malone
1B Charlie Bierman
2B Charlie Hodes
3B Red Woodhead
CF Dick Hunt

Rotation
RHP Rynie Wolters
RHP Dick McBride

Relief
LHP Al Bauers
RHP Cy Bentley


Cincinnati Reds - drafted 5th
The Reds have a suspect pitching staff, but they gambled that the bat of 1B Cal McVey 80/80 and the glove of SS Francis Abercrombie 65/74 would make up for that. Utility man Joe Battin 68/69 should contribute with his wood no matter where he is on the field.

Opening Day:
Lineup
CF Ed Pinkham
3B Harry Schafer
1B Cal McVey
SS Francis Abercrombie
LF Tom York
C Mike McGeary
RF George Bird
2B Albert Martin

Rotation
RHP George Zettlein
RHP George Snyder

[szathkey]

March 1, 1871

The Chicago Tribune has just announced its preseason award picks.

American League
Diamond King Award: SP Jim Devlin - Philadelphia Athletics
Silver Slugger Award: RF Levi Meyerle - Philadelphia Athletics
Rookie of the Year Award: 2B Jimmy Wood - Baltimore Canaries
MVP Award: RF Levi Meyerle - Philadelphia Athletics

National League
Diamond King Award: SP Rynie Wolters - Boston Red Stockings
Silver Slugger Award: 1B Cal McVey - Cincinnati Reds
Rookie of the Year Award: 3B Mike Brannock - Chicago White Stockings
MVP Award: RF Lip Pike - Brooklyn Atlantics

...and the top 10 prospects.
1 SP Bill Stearns - Brooklyn Atlantics
2 SP Bobby Mathews - Baltimore Canaries
3 SP John Greason - St Louis Browns
4 1B Cap Anson - St Louis Browns
5 RF Orator Shaffer - Cincinnati Reds
6 LF Pete Gillespie - Cincinnati Reds
7 2B Jimmy Wood - Baltimore Canaries
8 3B William Barrett - Baltimore Canaries
9 SS Ted Sullivan - Chicago White Stockings
10 LF Tom York - Cincinnati Reds

[szathkey]

March 6, 1871

After the first week of Spring Training the White Stockings stand at 4-0.


GM Newsome has been very clear about his goal during this spring training: a lot of playing time for the prospects/reserves. These young players are off to a slow start, carrying a .180/.260/.237 batting line so far, so Newsome is putting a lot of pressure on Skipper Robinson Cramer to help them improve.

Rookie 3B Frank Selman .333/.333/.583 has been the lone bright spot in the lineup so far. With a superior glove, if Selman keeps hitting like this people are likely to start talking about him receiving more playing time over early ROY favorite 3B Mike Brannock.

The pitchers of the White Stockings have been the real story. Al Spalding and Frank Fleet are both 2-0 having both pitched 2 complete games a piece. There is no doubt that this 1-2 combination will prove itself one of the best in baseball.

[szathkey]

March 13, 1871

The first semi-major injury of the season occured this week for the White Stockings. While playing the Brooklyn Atlantics, CF Harry Little caught a long fly ball hit by 2B Charles Smith. He damaged his meniscus when he planted and threw to keep C Doug Allison from advancing. Little will be out for 3-4 weeks, so could be back for the season opener against Boston.

The White Stockings went 3-4 this week, so stand at 7-4 during the preseason. Pitching and defense still seem to be the mainstays for this team. Spalding and Fleet both have an ERA under 1.00, but are showing signs of fatigue. Selman's bat has cooled, so now Newsome's squad owns an even more unfortunate batting line of .161\.227\.190 Hitting Coach Bruce Thompson will be working through these issues all season. If any of the Chicago youngsters has to fill in due to injury, the White Stockings could face a much more difficult season.

In news from other teams...Cincinnati CF Ed Pinkham pinched a nerve in his neck and will be out for the season.

[szathkey]

March 20, 1871

The White Stockings stand at 10-7 and are in second place in the preseason standings (behind Boston). The bat of 3B Ed Green .200/.333/.275 is really heating up. His patience at the plate has been rewarded as he is now tied for 2nd among all hitters in OBP and is tied for the league lead in runs. This is causing some controvery as to who should be starting out the season at 3rd. Coach Cramer refuses to comment on the battle and no official word has been sent from the office of GM Newsome. No matter what happens the White Stockings seem to be deep at the hot corner and some interesting trade opportunities could present themselves before season's end.

On a separate note, Al Spalding and Frank Fleet continue to excel with ERAs below 1.00 and the lead in strikeouts and IP respectively.

[szathkey]

March 27, 1871

Well, Spring Training is over folks, and we learned a lot. Here are the final standings.

American League
Cleveland Forest Citys 15-9
Philadelphia Athletics 13-11
Baltimore Canaries 12-12
St Louis Brown Stockings 8-16

National League
Boston Red Stockings 16-8
Chicago White Stockings 13-11
Brooklyn Atlantics 11-13
Cincinnati Reds 8-16

The standings obviously indicate that Cleveland and Boston may be better than the preseason polls indicated.

The Athletics own the two top performers so far. Levi Meyerle was hitting at a frenetic pace compared to the rest of the league with a .324/.333/.485 batting line and Jim Devlin went 8-0 over the preseason.

In the NL Cincinnati SP George Zettlein pitched a no-hitter in a losing effort yesterday and Brooklyn 3B Ezra Sutton will be out for the first month of the season with a strained bicep.

As far as the White Stockings go, it was business as usual last week. All pitching and defense. GM Newsome is happy with the results so far, but hopes coach Cramer will build on their preseason success with some shrewd lineup changes.

[szathkey]

April 1, 1871

Its 8am on opening day and the morning papers are being read everywhere. There were no major trades prior to today, so teams are walking into today with their original rosters minus injuries.

After some spring training results Baseball America released the new Top 10 Prospects List...(* denotes League Leader)

1 SP Bill Stearns - Brooklyn Atlantics (5-4 1.59 ERA .159 OpAVG)
2 SP Mike Golden - Cleveland Canaries (2-4 1.74 ERA 5.57 H/9)
3 SP Bobby Mathews - Baltimore Canaries (6-6 1.13 ERA 103.2 IP)
4 SP John Greason - St Louis Browns (1-7* 1.85 ERA 5.69 K/9)
5 SP Joe McDermott - Philadelphia Athletics (5-3 5.09 H/9* .152 OpAVG*)
6 1B Cap Anson - St Louis Browns (.160/.160/.280)
7 RF Orator Shaffer - Cincinnati Reds (.136/.208/.136)
8 LF Pete Gillespie - Cincinnati Reds (.250/.333/.250)
9 2B Jimmy Wood - Baltimore Canaries (.188/.232/.281)
10 SS Ted Sullivan - Chicago White Stockings (.150/.271/.183)

As far as the White Stockings are concerned, they'll be opening up against the Boston Red Stockings. Al Spalding and Rynie Wolters will be the starters.

[szathkey]

April 10, 1871

Two shutouts have been thrown already after the first full week of the season. Tricky Nichols of the St Louis Brown Stockings blanked Cleveland 6-0 and Bill Stearns of Brooklyn went the distance to shut out Cincinnati 7-0.

In addition, Cleveland's starting catcher Sandy Nava went down for the rest of the season. Nava tore his ACL while stretching a 2nd inning hit against the Canaries into a triple.

AL Player of the Week
RF Levi Meyerle haunted Philadelphia's opposing pitchers hitting .433 (13/30) with a home run and 8 RBIs.

NL Player of the Week
SP Al Spalding posted 3 wins, 15 strikeouts, and a 0.33 ERA last week for Newsome's White Stockings.

Spalding and LF George Hall have been Chicago's only bright spots. With a record of 4-5 they are tied for 3rd.

[szathkey]

April 17, 1871

AL Player of the Week
Cleveland's SP Al Pratt notched 2 wins with 9 strikeouts and an ERA of 0.00. He also held his opposition to a .111 average. In 5 starts this season he has registered a 3-1 record and a 1.67 ERA for the Forest Citys.

NL Player of the Week
SP Cy Bentley of the Boston Red Stockings tallied 2 wins, 11 strikeouts in 18 innings, and a 0.00 ERA for the week.

In local news, the White Stockings were swept by the Red Stockings and went 2-4 on the week. This dropped them to last place in the National League. They now sit at 6-9, 4 games behind the Red Stockings.

[szathkey]

April 24, 1871

Cleveland rookie sensation Mike Golden threw a 2 hit shutout this week against the Baltimore Canaries, registering 5 strikeouts and no walks. He stands at 2-5 on the year.

Cleveland continues to suffer injuries. Fred Treacey strained a hamstring while running the bases against St Louis, and so joins C Sandy Nava on the DL. Treacey should be back within 3 weeks.

Also, Cincinnati fans will be disappointed to learn that backup RF Billy Arnold dislocated his shoulder after colliding into the wall on a George Bechtel fly ball. The out may prove too costly as he will be out for 2-3 months.

AL Player of the Week
SP Jim Devlin has proved dominant. The Athletics hurler rang up 11 strikeouts in 27 innings, compiling an ERA of 1.33 and posting a 3-0 mark. To date, Devlin is flawless with a 7-0 record in 7 starts.

NL Player of the Week
On the strength of a 5 hit, 2 home run game CF Lip Pike of the Atlantics was named NL POTW. All told he cracked 9 hits in 32 AB to put up a .281 average. He also collected 3 home runs, 8 RBIs and scored 8 runs last week. Pike has 5 HR and a .312 batting average on the year.

The White Stocking climbed out of the cellar this week, going 4-3, but lost ground in the NL race, falling to 6 games behind Boston.

[szathkey]

May 1, 1871

Its the end of the month and two more shutouts have been recorded: one by Morrie Critchley of the Baltimore Canaries and another by Dick McBride of the Boston Red Stockings. They are 8-6 and 6-2 on the year respectively.

AL Player of the Week
SP Critchley propelled himself to the award posting 2 wins, 13 strikeouts and a 0.90 ERA last week. On the year, he has hurled 62 strikeouts in 128 innings with an ERA of 1.34

NL Player of the Week
Chicago hurler Frank Fleet rang up 14 strikeouts in 27 innings, compiling an ERA of 0.33 and 3 wins.


The big awards were also given out on the month...

AL Batter of the Month
Levi Meyerle, the 25 year old RF for the Philadelphia Athletics, hit .360 with 4 home runs, 23 RBIs, and 32 runs scored through the month of April.

AL Pitcher of the Month
Jim Devlin, also of the Athletics, racked up an impressive 9-0 record in 9 starts. He has fanned 38 batters in 81 innings and sports a 0.67 ERA.

NL Batter of the Month
CF Lip Pike was one of Brooklyn's offensive leaders with a .283 average. He also racked up 6 home runs, 24 RBIs, and 22 runs scored

NL Pitcher of the Month
Boston SP Rynie Wolters mowed his way through hitters in April. He chalked up a 9-0 record with a 0.79 ERA while surrendering only 53 hits in 80 innings. He also struck out 41 and walked 2.


It has become very clear over the course of this month that this is not a hitters league. The batting line for the AL and NL combined is .186/.217/.246. The league's batters are being dominated in this pitching friendly atmosphere, and are frankly starting to become frustrated. Run production is high however, since the fielding doesn't seem to be that great and errors are made quite frequently.

Finally, your Chicago White Stockings stand at 13-15, 8 games out of first place behind Boston. GM Newsome couldn't be happier with the play of cleanup hitter RF George Bechtel, who is among the league leaders in SLG%, triples, and VORP.

American League Standings

Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10 Philadelphia Athletics 20 8 .714 - 19-9 1 10-3 10-5 0-0 4-1 87 L1 6-4 Baltimore Canaries 14 14 .500 6.0 12-16 2 9-6 5-8 1-0 2-3 W2 6-4 Cleveland Forest Citys 11 17 .393 9.0 13-15 -2 5-8 6-9 1-1 2-2 L2 2-8 St. Louis Brown Stockings 11 17 .393 9.0 12-16 -1 8-7 3-10 0-1 0-2 W1 6-4

National League Standings

Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10 Boston Red Stockings 21 7 .750 - 19-9 2 10-3 11-4 0-2 6-2 85 W5 8-2 Chicago White Stockings 13 15 .464 8.0 14-14 -1 7-8 6-7 1-0 2-4 L2 5-5 Brooklyn Atlantics 12 16 .429 9.0 14-14 -2 4-9 8-7 1-0 1-3 L1 4-6 Cincinnati Reds 10 18 .357 11.0 10-18 0 4-11 6-7 1-1 2-2 W1 3-7

[szathkey]

Major League Baseball 05-01-1871 Team Power Rankings

Rank Last Week	Team	Points	Tendency	Record	PCT	AVG	ERA	Pyt.Rec	Diff
1st (2nd)	Boston	146	+	21-7	.750	.206	0.90	19-9	2
2nd (1st)	Philadelphia	130	-	20-8	.714	.214	1.09	19-9	1
3rd (5th)	Baltimore	94	+	14-14	.500	.169	1.38	12-16	2
4th (3rd)	Chicago	82	-	13-15	.464	.184	1.38	14-14	-1
5th (4th)	Brooklyn	74	-	12-16	.429	.174	1.57	14-14	-2
6th (7th)	St. Louis	74	+	11-17	.393	.176	1.78	12-16	-1
7th (6th)	Cleveland	63	-	11-17	.393	.191	1.96	13-15	-2
8th (8th)	Cincinnati	61	o	10-18	.357	.171	1.59	10-18	0

[szathkey]

League Leaders AVG L. Meyerle - PHA .360 2 E. Beavens CLE .296 3 D. Force PHA .289 4 C. Flynn CLE .288 5 T. Pratt BSN .287	League Leaders HR L. Pike - BRO 6 2 L. Meyerle PHA 4 3 G. Ewell BSN 3 4 A. Allison BLC 2 4 5 more tied with 2	League Leaders RBI 2 tied with 24 1 L. Pike BRO 24 1 T. Pratt BSN 24 3 L. Meyerle PHA 23 4 3 tied with 17
League Leaders W 2 tied with 9 1 J. Devlin PHA 9 1 R. Wolters BSN 9 3 M. Critchley BLC 8 4 F. Fleet CHI 7	League Leaders ERA G. Zettlein - CIN 0.31 2 B. Stearns BRO 0.34 3 C. Bentley BSN 0.48 4 J. Devlin PHA 0.67 5 R. Wolters BSN 0.79	League Leaders K A. Spalding - CHI 84 2 F. Fleet CHI 69 3 B. Mathews BLC 63 4 M. Critchley BLC 62 5 A. Brainard SLB 45

[szathkey]

May 8, 1871

Brooklyn LF Andy Leonard fractured his ankle and went down for the year on a Bob Addy flyball. Leonard will be difficult for the Atlantics to replace in LF, so Brooklyn has opted for a three headed platoon featuring Charlie Pabor, Doug Allison, and Nealy Phelps.

Deacon Newsome reports that rookie 3B Frank Selman will be going on the disabled list for a strained bicep muscle. He will be replaced in the starting lineup by the big bat of Mike Brannock. Brannock, the preseason NL ROY favorite, has seen limited playing time so far.

The Athletics also suffered some bad luck this week, as C Fred Waterman goes down with dead arm syndrome for 2 weeks.

The biggest story this week, however, was the disturbance in Cleveland. GM John Elkins fired manager Dale Harris after an 11-20 start. 40 year old Eric Kane was hired to replace Harris. Kane has no managerial experience whatsoever, but had spent the beginning of the season as the assistant GM and was instrumental in the drafting of ace Al Pratt in the 10th round.

AL Player of the Week
Levi Meyerle of the Philadelphia Athletics earned himself his second POTW award. He had a lofty .367 average last week, collecting 2 home runs, 4 RBIs and 5 runs scored.

NL Player of the Week
Cincinnati SP George Snyder notched 3 wins and finished the week with 13 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.00 while holding his opposition to a .179. This year Snyder has worked 169.2 innings en route to a 7-11 record.