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Old 04-12-2013, 01:38 PM   #1
Eckstein 4 Prez
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Infinite Universes: My Trip Back in Time to Baseball's History

I first met the Wright brothers on a gloomy day in late May, 1871. Not the airplane-flying ones – Orville wasn’t even born until later in 1871, and Wilbur was a four-year-old child at the time. No, I mean the important Wright brothers – the baseball-playing ones. Harry, the captain of the legendary 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, and George, the team’s star shortstop.

I should back up. The first time I went back in time was… well, when was it that I discovered I could visit other times? I guess it was in the 2013 preseason: my beloved Angels were just about to start the season with Mike Trout fresh off his 10 WAR season, and high-priced free agents Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton in the middle of the lineup. That last week in March was when they explained that travel to any other time I wanted was possible.

“You mean time travel?”

“Time travel is fictional. This is real. You aren’t going back in time; you are visiting other possible universes at the moment they diverged from the one you know.”

“Uh… okay.”

I suppose I should explain who “they” were as well, only I don’t really know. It was the scientists, that much I know – and I think they must have been working for the government, or for something even bigger. Everything was top secret. Only they’d already determined that they couldn’t affect our timeline before they came to me. I get the sense they were willing to let me play around with the machine to see if I could find anything useful to do with it, but they didn’t really expect I’d be able to.

Meanwhile, once I realized you couldn’t use the thing to go back and kill Hitler or make sure the dinosaurs survived or anything, I figured I’d do the next best thing: I’d go back and see all of baseball history. Or at least, all of professional baseball history. I didn’t go all the way back to Jim Creighton and the Knickerbocker club – I figured 1871 was a good starting point. And of course, before going I printed out everything I could think of from baseball-reference.com; I would need it to help follow the league’s stats.

I figured the games would unfold pretty much like they did in real life, and so I expected to just watch baseball history as it happened and keep a low profile. And so I went to Hamilton Field in Fort Wayne, Indiana on May 4, 1871, to see the first major league game. The one that ended up 2-0 in an era when teams routinely scored 20 runs or more, and was called the greatest game ever played.

I didn’t have the real box score from the game with me, so when Cleveland scored in the top of the second I figured that was supposed to happen. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember which team was supposed to win 2-0. But that didn’t matter for long – by the end of the second inning the Kekionga club was off to a 5-1 lead and I knew there was something off about this universe.

How could it be? I had only been in this world for a few hours. I hadn’t even talked to anyone but the ticket-taker; there was no way I had done this. But what else could it be? The scientists had told me the only changes in this universe were the ones I made. I mean, I’ve heard all that nonsense about a butterfly in one part of the world making a hurricane somewhere else, but that just seemed like crazy talk. Yet here I was, watching Forest City erase a 4-run deficit to win a sloppy 12-9 game. This wasn’t the world I knew.

Anyway, the Wright brothers. I knew that after the Cincinnati Red Stockings fell apart in 1870, Harry and George Wright took part of the team to Boston, while the rest of them joined the Olympic club in Washington, D.C. I knew Boston, Athletic, and the ill-fated Chicago club had fought a three-way battle for the pennant, and the end result was officially a win for Athletic, but in reality it had forever been disputed. I decided I would watch Harry Wright’s club for a while to see how the best baseball of the 1870s was played.
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Old 04-12-2013, 03:04 PM   #2
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It was obvious there was something wrong in Boston. Luckily, I had printed up their real-life schedule from bb-ref before heading back to 1871, so I knew they were supposed to win three of their first five games. Nevertheless, I had just watched them get trounced on their home field by Olympic in a 15-6 blowout. The entire Boston club had managed just seven hits, while Harry Berthrong of Olympic came within two of that all by himself. I had watched five Boston games – all of them losses. I couldn’t understand it. I hadn’t spoken to a single Boston player – or a single opposing player. I had just sat quietly on the wooden benches watching the games. How could I be affecting them?

As I slowly filed out of the bleachers following the game, I heard a voice from behind me. “You there! What are you doing here? On the make, or what?”

I turned, and found Harry Wright himself addressing me. “Um, excuse me?”

“What are you doing here? Big crank who nobody knows just sitting watching. George told me there was a shady galoot in the crowd every game, and sure enough. So what is it?”

“I just enjoy the game, is all. I don’t want any trouble.”

“Yeah, and a few weeks ago you were enjoying it in Washington, and after that in Troy. You’ve been following the club around the nation, but no one saw you on the train. You’re a big fellow – someone would have seen.” I am not a big guy by modern standards – 5’10”, could maybe stand to lose a few pounds at 190, but by 1870s standards I’m a brawler. Not many of the players are my height, and even fewer are my size.

Anyway, I had to decide what to tell him. I could make up some story, but what good would that do? I was afraid I’d be blackballed from the field, and the whole reason I was here was to watch some early baseball. I decided to take a chance.

“I can tell you, but I’m afraid you won’t believe me. It’s going to sound crazy.”

“Give it a try.”

“Okay. I am from the 21st century, and have traveled back to see the beginnings of professional baseball.”

There was a long pause, then Harry Wright threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Ah hah hah HAH – well, as long as you’re not a moon man or anything I guess that will be fine. So, 21st century, what can you tell me? Why aren’t we winning? These boys were the same ones as beat all and sundry in Cincinnati.”

“Well, I don’t exactly know. In the world I know, you won three of five and will win the two games next week with Rockford too. This doesn’t make any sense.”

“And how would you ever know that?”

“Oh, the inter- I mean, people saved newspapers from 1871 and used them to keep the results. I may actually have one here.” I dug through my things, and found a May 10 newspaper from the day they’d beaten Troy (in our world) to go to 2-0. “Here you go. A 9-5 victory over Troy.”

“Now, what the devil is this? It’s a newspaper, or looks to be one. But we lost that game 9-8. George dropped two balls in the ninth inning to let them score. You were there. You saw it.”

“I did. But this newspaper is from my world. Look how old it is. The paper is 140 years old, yet the results happened less than three weeks ago. Do you see? How could I have done this with such old paper?”

“By God, I’m sure I don’t know. Not a word of it makes any sense to me. So tell me something – something that happens in your world that I can use to test you. If the games don’t come out the same, there must be some way of knowing whether you speak the truth.” I could tell I was losing him.

In for a penny, in for a pound, I decided. “Okay. On the evening of October 8, 1871, there was a fire in my world. It burned down nearly the entire city of Chicago. Hundreds of people dead, thousands homeless. I won’t go anywhere near Chicago in early October. I can’t say things will happen the same in this world – obviously the games don’t turn out the same – but if they do you’ll know I speak the truth.”

Wright turned away. “All right, moon man, we’ll see if Chicago burns. If it does, you can tell me all about the next 100 years.” He laughed and called to George, who was looking on quizzically from the other side of the field.
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Old 04-13-2013, 04:24 AM   #3
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It was a chilly morning in Boston, and I woke to an insistent knock at the door. I had the distinct impression whoever it was had been knocking for some time. I shook the sleep from my head and made my way to the door.

Standing there was an ashen-faced Harry Wright. “The telegrams started coming in yesterday. By last night it was everywhere. How could you have known?” In his hand he held a newspaper, telling me the news I already knew.

“Chicago burned?”

“Nearly the entire downtown. The stadium is gone. The whole city near the river is gone. How did you know, moon man?”

“I told you. I traveled here from 2013. That’s how I knew what was going to happen on October 8, 1871. For me it’s 142 years in the past.”

“So I’ve been dead and gone for what – around 100 years? Is that what you’re telling me? Can you tell me what’s going to happen to me?”

“Look,” I said carefully. “These things are not predestined. They change all the time. In my world your team battles for the pennant in 1871. Here… well…”

“We are the worst team in the Association. I know. Here’s what I want, moon man. I want you to run the team now. You know things the rest of us don’t. You can make this club into a winning one. Use your powers. Win us the title.”

“I’ll try. But this is a different world. The results were different, and I think the players will be different too. Remember back in August when Olympic and Troy swapped players?”

“The deal that sent Lip Pike to Olympic and Fred Waterman to Troy? Sure. That was big news.”

“It was big news to me too. It didn’t happen in my world. Still, I think I might be able to help. I’ve spent my life studying baseball strategy. I know what works and what doesn’t. I think some of the things I know might be useful even now.”

“So you’ll help Boston in 1872?” Wright asked.

“I will,” I answered. “If I can bring the pennant to Boston, I’ll do it.”
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Old 04-13-2013, 02:23 PM   #4
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Wow, nice way to start this off. This will be excellent to read. Keep up the great work.
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Old 04-13-2013, 09:25 PM   #5
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My work was cut out for me in 1872. In the “real world,” Boston won 20 games in 1871, finishing just behind Athletic with 21 and just ahead of Chicago, who had 19. (Back then, teams were ranked by number of wins without regard to the total games played.)

In this new world, the standings for 1871 were far different:

Chicago 20-8
Forest City (Rockford) 19-6
Athletic 17-11
Olympic 16-14
Mutual 14-19
Forest City (Cleveland) 11-18
Kekionga 10-9
Troy 9-19
Boston 9-21

Chicago ended up overcoming the Great Fire to win a title, clinching the victory in two games at Troy nearly two weeks after the fire. They played in borrowed uniforms with equipment that was not theirs, but still proved to be the best team. Sadly, they would not field a team for 1872, and Rockford could not afford to stay in the Association with their closest rival leaving. A third western team – Kekionga – was going to be gone for 1872, so their rosters were available to pick through. Meanwhile, there were new teams entering the Association – Atlantic and Eckford from Brooklyn, Lord Baltimore and National from Baltimore and Washington respectively, and Mansfield from Middletown, Connecticut.

Because I had followed Boston fairly closely, I knew how the players had done in 1871:

Catcher – Cal McVey. He had been a superstar in the world I knew in 1871, batting .431 and knocking in 43 runs. In this world, he was still good, but not at that level. He had a slash line of .309/.338/.446 for the year. (Just the fact that I knew how to calculate a slash line and understood its significance would no doubt put me ahead of the managers of the 1870s.)

First Base – Charlie Gould. I remember reading somewhere – maybe some old Bill James abstract? – that he was probably the worst player on the 1869 Red Stockings. For Boston he did a little better in 1871 - .319/.333/.457. Still, I was going to keep him in mind as someone who might be replaceable.

Second Base – George Wright. For some reason, in this world George mostly played second base instead of shortstop in 1871. I couldn’t imagine how my presence could have caused that, but I could drive myself crazy thinking about it. He was a star in my world, and he was very good in this world too, hitting .322/.350/.517.

Shortstop – Ross Barnes. At the top of my agenda for 1872 was switching Barnes and Wright back to the positions I was more familiar with. He was probably the best hitter in the game in the Association era, and he was pretty solid in 1871 in this world as well, hitting .336/.362/.457.

Third Base – Harry Schafer. Schafer was known as “Silk Stockings,” apparently for his expensive tastes and reputation as something of a fancy. He was a terrible hitter in 1871, going .212/.215/.292 for Boston. Schafer was generally considered a defense-first player, but no one was going to make my team hitting that poorly.

Left Field – Fred Cone. He only played one season in the major leagues in real life, so I wasn’t sure if he’d be around for 1872. If so, I wasn’t sure we wanted him - .281/.311/.347 wasn’t awful, but as a team in rebuilding I wasn’t sure he was right for the club.

Center Field – Harry Wright himself. In my world, Harry was on the decline from the start of the Association, and would take himself out of the lineup within a couple years. However, he’d done a pretty decent job with the stick in 1871, going .318/.344/.432. The real problem was that he probably didn’t have the range for center field any longer. If I could get a new center fielder, I wanted to consider moving Harry to a less demanding position to keep his bat in the lineup.

Right Field – Dave Birdsall. He was another older guy who didn’t last long after the Association began. .243/.264/.324 wasn’t anything to celebrate, so perhaps he could be the one to make room for a new outfielder.

Pitcher – Al Spalding. Spalding, known more as a sporting goods magnate than anything else in my world, was a run-of-the-mill pitcher in this world. My hope was that with a better defense behind him the team would do better.

So our priorities in the offseason were as follows:

1. Get a second pitcher to give Spalding some rest time.
2. Third base. We needed to upgrade from Schafer.
3. Another outfielder, possibly to replace Birdsall. A center fielder would be even better.
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Old 04-13-2013, 09:57 PM   #6
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You've got me hooked. Nice start, and I'll definitely be following along.
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Old 04-14-2013, 11:16 AM   #7
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I always used to love looking at the old time stat sheets, and figuring out who would have been the All-Stars, Silver Sluggers, Gold Glove winners, etc., if they’d existed back then. Now that I had my own universe of players, I figured I wouldn’t let it go to waste. I managed to get the real scoresheets for the games, so I had the real stats for 1871, and I was going to make sure I figured out the best players for each position.

My notes from the season began with the league’s catchers.
Craver, Troy - .310/.331/.341, OPS+ 94, Pct. .914, Eff .931, CS% 60.5%
Foley, Chicago - .286/.280/.357, OPS+ 82, Pct .853, Eff 1.176, CS% 38.9%
Hastings, Forest City (Rockford) .277/.296/.412, OPS+ 101, Pct .839, Eff .880, CS% 52.2%
Higham, Mutual - .365/.367/.447, OPS+ 133, Pct .881, Eff 1.016, CS% 42.1%
Malone, Athletic - .317/.345/.446, OPS+ 125, Pct .809, Eff 1.016, CS% 35.8%
McVey, Boston - .309/.338/.446, OPS+ 123, Pct .901, Eff .889, CS% 54.4%
Sellman, Kekionga - .310/.330/.388, OPS+ 106, Pct .816, Eff 1.016, CS% 35.7%
Waterman, Olympic - .404/.419/.518, OPS+ 168, Pct. .770, Eff .677, CS% 47.3%
White, Forest City (Cleveland) - .280/.336/.394, OPS+ 109, Pct .918, Eff .959, CS% 56.2%

Great offensive numbers for Waterman, but he was sent to Troy in August in professional baseball’s first trade. (Another thing I must have affected somehow, as the world I knew didn’t start trading players until 1886.) For people who played a full season (it seems strange to say that about 30 games) Dick Higham of Mutual seemed the best of the catchers. On defense, Deacon White and Bill Craver seemed pretty evenly matched. White was more familiar in the world I’d come from, so he was my pick for the first Gold Glove. (Of course, in 1871 it would have been “Gold Bare Hands.” I saw my share of hand and finger injuries in 1871, I can tell you.)

Foley, Hastings and Sellman would be available due to their teams leaving the Association. I preferred McVey to any of them and wasn’t planning on pursuing them.

For the first basemen:

Carleton, Forest City (Cleveland) - .301/.321/.434, Pct .937, Eff 1.067, Range 7.86
Connor, Troy - .346/.423/.462, OPS+ 155, Pct .955, Eff 1.035, Range 9.29
Glenn, Olympic - .319/.326/.384, OPS+ 104, Pct .948, Eff 1.003, Range 9.73
Gould, Boston - .319/.333/.457, OPS+ 125, Pct .935, Eff .895, Range 12.32
Heubel, Athletic - .301/.307/.439, OPS+ 112, Pct .940, Eff .998, Range 13.20
Lennon, Kekionga - .392/.412/.473, OPS+ 154, Pct .836, Eff .487, Range 8.16
Mack, Forest City (Rockford) - .215/.231/.285, OPS+ 48, Pct .952, Eff .978, Range 10.46
McAtee, Chicago - .263/.280/.365, OPS+ 84, Pct .956, Eff 1.161, Range 12.57
Start, Mutual - .295/.305/.372, OPS+ 94, Pct .927, Eff .954, Range 9.61

The weird thing is that neither Bill Lennon nor Ned Connor made any real impact in the world I’d come from. (I double-checked the bb-ref stuff I’d printed out just to make sure my memory wasn’t deceiving me.) Lennon was a drinker who had trouble holding down the job as a result, and Connor played in fewer than ten games in my world. Here, I figured Connor was the equivalent of the Silver Slugger, since Troy played more games than Kekionga did – although I was awfully tempted by that .392 average. Defensively, I was not sure how much I could trust the numbers, but that was true in my world too. All the numbers suggest Bub McAtee was the best defender in 1871, and so I figured he’d be my Gold Glover there.

The players who’d be available in the offseason were Lennon, McAtee, and Denny Mack. Mack pretty much single-handedly cost Rockford the pennant with his terrible hitting, so I wasn’t interested in him. Lennon was tempting, but I figured I’d only be interested if no other teams were bidding.

At second base:

Addy, Forest City (Rockford) - .339/.371/.390, OPS+ 119, Pct .861, Eff 1.075, Range 5.76, ZR +9.9
Beavens, Troy - .247/.266/.411, OPS+ 91, Pct .871, Eff .998, Range 5.89, ZR +3.2
Berthrong, Olympic - .419/.427/.556, OPS+ 180, Pct .881, Eff 1.029, Range 6.25, ZR +5.4
Hallinan, Kekionga - .270/.316/.360, OPS+ 94, Pct .824, Eff .911, Range 5.07, ZR +0.7
Hatfield, Mutual - .252/.282/.323, OPS+ 74, Pct .802, Eff 1.011, Range 4.99, ZR +9.0
Johnson, Forest City (Cleveland) - .270/.319/.360, OPS+ 95, Pct .895, Eff 1.059, Range 5.68, ZR +7.0
Reach, Athletic - .252/.310/.391, OPS+ 100, Pct .847, Eff .990, Range 7.28, ZR +5.7
Wood, Chicago - .356/.369/.523, OPS+ 153, Pct .884, Eff 1.049, Range 5.38, ZR +7.7
Wright, Boston - .322/.350/.517, OPS+ 145, Pct .773, Eff .860, Range 5.83, ZR -0.4

Berthrong was another surprise, as both Jimmy Wood and George Wright were considered top players in my world, but Harry Berthrong? Not so much. Still, he ran away with the Silver Slugger spot, and led the Association in batting. On defense, I’m not on solid ground at all. Do I trust Range? ZR? What is ZR? Caleb Johnson of Cleveland and Bob Addy of Rockford seem to have the best numbers, and Addy’s nickname was “Magnet,” so that basically decided things in his favor.

Addy, Jimmy Wood and Jimmy Hallinan were all going to be available in the offseason. Wright was a pretty terrible defender at second, so I was a little worried about the spot. However, I was hoping he’d improve with a switch to his more natural position of shortstop. Still, I would need to keep this in mind.
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Old 04-14-2013, 02:54 PM   #8
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Awesome stuff. Good to see you back.
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Old 04-14-2013, 04:26 PM   #9
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The third basemen:

Anson, Forest City (Rockford) - .333/.378/.419, OPS+ 129, Pct .778, Eff 1.116, Range 3.97, ZR +18.1
Barrett, Kekionga - .250/.292/.400, OPS+ 97, Pct .667, Eff .942, Range 3.17, ZR +3.8
Bellan, Troy - .252/.291/.288, OPS+ 68, Pct .679, Eff .957, Range 2.82, ZR +3.1
Ferguson, Mutual - .278/.293/.331, OPS+ 79, Pct .724, Eff 1.064, Range 3.38, ZR +11.1
Force, Olympic - .254/.265/.377, OPS+ 82, Pct .635, Eff .899, Range 3.77, ZR +4.7
Meyerle, Athletic - .385/.395/.587, OPS+ 178, Pct .709, Eff .957, Range 3.85, ZR +8.5
Pinkham, Chicago - .326/.399/.455, OPS+ 145, Pct .775, Eff 1.100, Range 4.19, ZR +19.3
Schafer, Boston - .212/.215/.292, OPS+ 44, Pct .665, Eff .920, Range 4.15, ZR +8.5
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - .311/.336/.481, OPS+ 132, Pct .800, Eff 1.163, Range 2.92, ZR +16.7

Lord, Harry Schafer was terrible for Boston in 1871. It was fortunate that the team did so poorly, because otherwise he would obviously be the one responsible for the lack of a pennant (as Denny Mack was for Rockford). The best hitter at the position was obviously Levi Meyerle, who was a legendary hitter in my real world as well, so it was nice to see my arrival hadn’t thrown everything into chaos.

On defense, the usual disclaimers about not trusting or understanding the statistics apply, but Sutton, Pinkham and Anson were clearly better than the rest. If I was reading the statistics right, Sutton was the most reliable player, but got to fewer balls than Anson or Pinkham. Pinkham got to the most balls, but also made more errors. Anson was in the middle on both. Given the importance of errors in the 1870s, especially at the third base position, I had to go with Ezra Sutton, a top player in the world I knew, as the Gold Glove player.

With both Anson and Pinkham available in the offseason, and Boston in deep trouble at the position, my top priority was clear. Anson, probably the most famous player of the 19th century in my world, was the obvious choice, but he was partially famous for being a racist bastard. Then again, everyone in this world seems to be a racist bastard. On a day where there were no games, I stopped by to see a lecture by some scientist and heard an hour-long lecture about how people of African descent were less evolved and closely related to gorillas. And that was a scientist. There are lots of ways in which this world of the 1870s was as good or better than the world I knew. This wasn’t one of them. Anyway, I am not sure whether I want Anson on the team, or what he will cost, but it seems worth looking into.

At shortstop:

Barnes, Boston - .336/.362/.457, OPS+ 134, Pct .694, Eff .930, Range 5.83, ZR +9.2
Carey, Kekionga - .402/.424/.540, OPS+ 175, Pct .811, Eff 1.141, Range 5.80, ZR +14.8
Duffy, Chicago - .246/.268/.297, OPS+ 62, Pct .763, Eff 1.001, Range 5.56, ZR +11.2
Fulmer, Forest City (Rockford) - .339/.347/.466, OPS+ 131, Pct .777, Eff 1.087, Range 5.64, ZR +17.5
Kimball, Forest City (Cleveland) - .218/.241/.248, OPS+ 41, Pct .811, Eff 1.060, Range 4.55, ZR +9.2
Leonard, Olympic - .262/.312/.393, OPS+ 101, Pct .730, Eff .934, Range 4.39, ZR +3.3
Pearce, Mutual - .264/.296/.340, OPS+ 83, Pct .769, Eff .932, Range 4.86, ZR +3.5
Radcliff, Athletic - .273/.277/.364, OPS+ 83, Pct .762, Eff 1.035, Range 6.12, ZR +16.5
Waterman, Troy - .279/.292/.328, OPS+ 78, Pct .522, Eff .517, Range 3.62, ZR -8.1

Ross Barnes, a renowned hitter from the 1870s in my world, was more than capable for Boston, but Kekionga’s Tom Carey had the better season in 1871 in this world, and was an obvious Silver Slugger choice. On defense, Carey, Fulmer and Athletic’s John Radcliff were the top players. I decided I had to give the nod to Radcliff and his clearly superior range, although it was an exceedingly difficult decision. (Radcliff had a reputation as a better defender than Carey, which was enough for me as a tiebreaker.)

Barnes was fairly weak on defense and my plan was to move him over to second base for 1872. George Wright was my first choice at shortstop, but perhaps I would want to look at some of the top defenders as backup options.

In left field:

Cone, Boston - .281/.311/.347, OPS+ 89, Pct .819, Eff 1.076, Range 2.44, ZR +3.1
Cuthbert, Athletic - .205/.234/.280, OPS+ 47, Pct .862, Eff 1.117, Range 2.20, ZR +4.5
Foran, Kekionga - .333/.365/.389, OPS+ 117, Pct .827, Eff 1.067, Range 2.73, ZR +2.4
Hall, Olympic - .293/.308/.480, OPS+ 122, Pct .830, Eff 1.005, Range 2.94, ZR +0.5
Ham, Forest City (Rockford) - .258/.314/.269, OPS+ 70, Pct .831, Eff .923, Range 2.72, ZR -3.3
King, Troy - .218/.243/.345, OPS+ 67, Pct .871, Eff 1.063, Range 2.79, ZR +3.1
Pabor, Forest City (Cleveland) - .267/.273/.348, OPS+ 77, Pct .790, Eff .869, Range 3.19, ZR -8.5
Patterson, Mutual - .229/.264/.271, OPS+ 55, Pct .890, Eff .953, Range 2.95, ZR -3.0
Treacey, Chicago - .264/.300/.419, OPS+ 104, Pct .790, Eff 1.117, Range 2.26, ZR +5.8

Left field was not a place where teams put their stars in 1871. The corner outfield spots tended to be where teams put their spare players, much like modern-day Little League teams. The major league equivalent of the hiding place for fat or asthmatic kids yielded few big names. The two top hitters at the position were George Hall of Olympic (who would be banned from the game for gambling in my world) and Jim Foran of Kekionga. Normally, I would favor Foran’s OBP-heavy hitting over Hall’s extra base hits, but Olympic played a more extensive schedule so I trusted Hall’s numbers more. He would be my Silver Slugger in left.

Defensively, Ned Cuthbert of Athletic and Steve King of Troy looked like the best players. I had to give Cuthbert the slight edge despite the fact that he had a truly awful year at the plate. At any rate, this just did not seem like an area where teams distinguished themselves, so it was unlikely to be the top priority for Boston in the offseason.
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Old 04-14-2013, 08:08 PM   #10
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Center field:

Allison, Forest City (Cleveland) - .278/.278/.405, OPS+ 94, Pct .800, Eff .866, Range 4.42, ZR -14.6
Bird, Forest City (Rockford) - .336/.344/.513, OPS+ 143, Pct .785, Eff .962, Range 2.96, ZR -1.4
Burroughs, Olympic - .255/.304/.382, OPS+ 96, Pct .930, Eff 1.073, Range 3.54, ZR +5.5
Eggler, Mutual - .256/.287/.325, OPS+ 76, Pct .850, Eff 1.107, Range 4.99, ZR +16.0
Fisler, Athletic - .285/.295/.382, OPS+ 93, Pct .796, Eff .977, Range 2.39, ZR -0.4
King, Chicago - .246/.287/.352, OPS+ 83, Pct .837, Eff 1.062, Range 2.74, ZR +4.1
Pike, Troy - .304/.342/.493, OPS+ 137, Pct .804, Eff .966, Range 3.06, ZR -0.5
Quinn, Kekionga - .366/.402/.409, OPS+ 134, Pct .890, Eff 1.038, Range 3.90, ZR +2.7
Wright, Boston - .318/.344/.432, OPS+ 122, Pct .710, Eff .889, Range 2.44, ZR -6.8

George Bird’s strong hitting was a key reason the Rockford club came very close to winning the pennant in 1871. He was an easy choice as the Silver Slugger since Lip Pike was traded in midseason and Kekionga played fewer games, rendering Paddy Quinn’s strong performance more suspect. In the field, Henry Burroughs had an amazingly low error rate, but he also lost his starting job in August, and Dave Eggler of Mutual got to so many fly balls that he seemed the obvious choice as Gold Glover.

For Boston, this was a problematic area. Harry Wright could still hit at age 36, but he had trouble getting to the ball the way he did back in the days of amateur baseball. I wasn’t going to be able to force him out in 1872, but clearly his defense in center was problematic. Perhaps if we added a player like Bird or Quinn I could talk Wright into moving to a corner outfield spot.

Right field:

Allison, Olympic - .310/.321/.450, OPS+ 119, Pct .889, Eff 1.045, Range 2.65, ZR +1.5
Bass, Forest City (Cleveland) - .304/.321/.392, OPS+ 104, Pct .828, Eff 1.034, Range 4.04, ZR +4.0
Bechtel, Athletic - .366/.379/.495, OPS+ 149, Pct .771, Eff 1.217, Range 2.06, ZR +6.2
Birdsall, Boston - .243/.264/.324, OPS+ 68, Pct .844, Eff 1.033, Range 2.68, ZR +1.9
Flynn, Troy - .288/.308/.338, OPS+ 86, Pct .830, Eff 1.074, Range 3.22, ZR +5.4
Hodes, Chicago - .271/.292/.383, OPS+ 92, Pct .841, Eff 1.109, Range 2.55, ZR +5.0
Kelly, Kekionga - .320/.337/.412, OPS+ 114, Pct .855, Eff 1.081, Range 2.87, ZR +3.3
Smith, Mutual - .280/.293/.352, OPS+ 85, Pct .328, Eff .429, Range 1.29, ZR -19.6
Stires, Forest City (Rockford) - .330/.384/.438, OPS+ 136, Pct .811, Eff 1.030, Range 3.12, ZR +2.7

George Bechtel of the Athletic club was strong both at the plate and in the field. His hitting won him the nod for Silver Slugger over Gat Stires of Rockford, but defensively he just made too many errors to be the Gold Glover. Instead, Charlie Hodes of Chicago, who was a similarly efficient player in 1871, received the nod.

Boston had problems here too, as Birdsall, one of the oldest players in the league, did not hit well and had trouble fielding his position. Since both Stires and Hodes were on teams that would not survive to 1872, it seemed clear that this was another area for upgrade.

Pitchers

Brainard, Olympic - 14-10, 2.74 ERA, 20 BB, 20 K, .118/.130/.129, Pct .901, Eff 1.038, Range 2.90, ZR +1.9
Fisher, Forest City (Rockford) - 18-6, 2.53 ERA, 20 BB, 19 K, .213/.226/.281, Pct .910, Eff 1.040, Range 2.53, ZR +1.6
Mathews, Kekionga - 9-9, 2.35 ERA, 18 BB, 29 K, .329/.329/.395, Pct .829, Eff .932, Range 1.86, ZR -1.0
McBride, Athletic - 17-10, 3.00 ERA, 60 BB, 16 K, .293/.298/.424, Pct .798, Eff .936, Range 2.73, ZR -1.2
McMullin, Troy - 9-19, 3.23 ERA, 54 BB, 21 K, .171/.230/.257, Pct .883, Eff 1.036, Range 1.95, ZR +1.5
Pratt, Forest City (Cleveland) - 11-17, 4.29 ERA, 65 BB, 11 K, .145/.153/.245, Pct .784, Eff .896, Range 1.05, ZR -1.1
Spalding, Boston - 9-21, 3.36 ERA, 50 BB, 30 K, .266/.302/.358, Pct .862, Eff 1.008, Range 3.22, ZR +1.3
Wolters, Mutual - 11-16, 2.59 ERA, 22 BB, 23 K, .313/.329/.487, Pct .886, Eff 1.061, Range 2.36, ZR +2.5
Zettlein, Chicago - 20-8, 2.87 ERA, 21 BB, 37 K, .250/.267/.292, Pct .864, Eff 1.024, Range 2.48, ZR +1.4

For pitching it was hard to match Chicago’s George Zettlein, who was a premier pitcher in an era when pitching was much less vital. Honestly, the pitching made 1871 baseball look not all that different from what I knew as slow-pitch softball. The pitchers didn’t go quite that easy on hitters, but there was none of the modern duel between batters and pitchers. The best-fielding pitcher for the year was probably Rynie Wolters of Mutual. For Boston, the goal for 1872 was simply to have a second pitcher available in case Spalding started to wear down over the course of the season.
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Old 04-14-2013, 09:27 PM   #11
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Neat start for such a shady galoot. I'll be following along!
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Old 04-15-2013, 02:56 PM   #12
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With the nine positions completely analyzed, I was able to list my Silver Sluggers:

C – Dick Higham, Mutual (0-37-.365-7)
1B – Ned Connor, Troy (0-26-.346-0)
2B – Harry Berthrong, Olympic (2-39-.419-7)
3B – Levi Meyerle, Athletic (2-24-.385-0)
SS – Tom Carey, Kekionga (1-24-.402-0)
LF – George Hall, Olympic (0-19-.293-4)
CF – George Bird, Forest City (Rockford) (2-31-.336-1)
RF – George Bechtel, Athletic (0-22-.366-6)

And my Gold Glovers:

P – Rynie Wolters, Mutual
C – Deacon White, Forest City (Cleveland)
1B – Bub McAtee, Chicago
2B – Bob Addy, Forest City (Rockford)
3B – Ezra Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland)
SS – John Radcliff, Athletic
LF – Ned Cuthbert, Athletic
CF – Dave Eggler, Mutual
RF – Charlie Hodes, Chicago

The Player of the Year award, given to the top position player of the year, would go to Olympic’s Berthrong, with Tom Carey of Kekionga the runner-up and Levi Meyerle of Athletic in third. The Jim Creighton Award for the best pitcher went to Chicago’s George Zettlein, with Cherokee Fisher of Rockford second and Bobby Mathews of Kekionga third.

Rookie of the Year was tougher. In a sense, everyone was a rookie, since professional baseball was new in 1871. However, by researching baseball history from my own world and by asking around (since the universes were the same until early 1871), I learned that, for instance, Harry Berthrong was a Civil War veteran who had played for Olympic since 1865. Tom Carey was lured to Kekionga after having been a top player in Maryland. Levi Meyerle played for the Chicagos in 1870. Most of the top pitchers were experienced as well.

George Bird, however, was a young man new to top-flight baseball and would be the first Rookie of the Year. Ned Connor, who was basically an unknown quantity, would be the runner-up, and center fielder Paddy Quinn of Kekionga took third. The final award to be handed out was for Old-Timer of the Year (best player age 35 or over), and Boston’s own Harry Wright took the one piece of hardware won by the Red Stockings, winning this award in a walkover. The runner-up was Dickey Pearce of Mutual.
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Old 04-15-2013, 05:04 PM   #13
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Despite the fact that Harry Wright was baseball’s first real capitalist, he seemed to have an aversion to spending any money on players. We had discussed the need for a new third baseman and a second pitcher (I was trying to soft-pedal the idea of replacing him in center field for now), and I’d told him we would need to be willing to pay at least $300-400 per month for these players. He hated the idea.

“We don’t have to pay the rest of these players any more than $100 in a month! $300 is outrageous.”

“The best players out there are not under contract to any team. That means we need to bid against the other Association teams. It isn’t like it was in 1869, when you were the only one bidding on top players.”

“Well, I won’t have it. We should be able to win for a reasonable amount.”

After several days of arguing, we reached an agreement. I could spend whatever I wanted on players, as long as I didn’t offer the biggest single contract in baseball, and as long as our total payroll wasn’t the highest. I figured that would be a reasonable way to work – after all, I had some idea what these players would be worth due to my inside knowledge from the “real universe.”

It was on November 13, 1871 that the first free agency period really got going. Star shortstop Tom Carey from Kekionga signed with the Olympic club of Washington for $1,800.

Meanwhile, the changes that occurred in the Association were the same as I knew from my universe. Not surprisingly, the Chicagos decided not to field a team since their city lay in ruins. That meant Rockford had no nearby rival, and without the financial resources to compete they dropped from the Association as well. Finally, Kekionga decided they could no longer keep top-flight baseball in Fort Wayne.

Five new clubs entered the Association, to give a total of 11 for 1872. Two Brooklyn clubs that were leaders of the amateur era joined up – Atlantic and Eckford. The National club of Washington, which was historically made up of federal employees who were given their jobs so they could play baseball for the club, decided to join as an open professional club as well. The Lord Baltimore club and the Mansfields of Middletown, Connecticut would round out the Association for 1872. The Association would have a decidedly eastern flavor in 1872, as Cleveland was the closest thing to a “western” club.

With these new clubs vying for players, I would see whether I could acquire what I needed for the Bostons.
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Old 04-16-2013, 11:40 AM   #14
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Success on one point, failure on another. By March, the meager free agent class of 1871-72 had all signed contracts. We had been able to add some talent, with Frank Sellman, a versatile player who had been a catcher with Kekionga in 1871, and Charlie Hodes, a solid outfielder from the Chicagos who could also play a little third base. Rookie Fraley Rogers would also be available for 1872, so we had three new players to choose from, with none of last year’s men leaving the club. However, there simply had not been enough pitchers available for us to add another to the roster, so Al Spalding was going to have to do all the work this season as he had in 1871.

I was still undecided as to the final spots on the field for each of the players. However, my plan was to let the team play its way into playing time. On paper, the club seemed well-equipped to succeed, and of course I had two advantages: I knew that in my world the 1872 Bostons had won the pennant, and expectations were low due to the terrible finish in 1871.

Our first game was on April 30, 1872, after several of the other teams had begun their schedules. In the first week or two, both Washington clubs and the Lord Baltimores struggled, while Mutual jumped out to an early 4-1 record, followed closely by the surprising Mansfield club at 3-0, including the only defeat of Mutual. We began in Washington where we would face the new National club, and with that game I would begin my managerial career.
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Old 04-17-2013, 02:28 AM   #15
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For my first game as manager, I decided not to shake things up too drastically. I would play both my new acquisitions to see how they adjusted, and would leave the rookie Rogers on the bench with me. The aging players – Birdsall and Harry Wright – were the obvious odd men out. I’d need to handle this carefully. Fortunately for me, Wright was feeling a little under the weather and didn’t mind sitting out this first game. He muttered something about an agreement that the games weren’t supposed to count until the beginning of May, and I figured I’d use the opportunity. Fortunately, I’d had last year’s star catcher Cal McVey training in center field, so he was ready to go.

My first lineup:

Ross Barnes, 2B
George Wright, SS
Frank Sellman, C
Cal McVey, CF
Charlie Gould, 1B
Fred Cone, LF
Charlie Hodes, RF
Harry Schafer, 3B
Al Spalding, P

For the National club, the lineup would be:

Ralph Ham, 3B
Holly Hollingshead, LF
Tom Foley, C
George Bird, CF
Ed Duffy, SS
Paul Hines, 1B
Joe Miller, 2B
Oscar Bielaski, RF
James McDermott, P

The afternoon started perfectly, as we jumped all over National in the top of the first inning, batting around thanks to six hits (including two by George Wright) and three National errors, to give us a quick 7-0 lead. I relaxed a little, thinking that maybe the extra knowledge from my own world was going to give me the edge necessary to conquer the Association in this universe. When the defense set down National in order in the first, things looked even better. By the fourth inning, our lead was extended to 13-0, and it never got much closer than that, as we breezed to a 23-5 victory.

In the final box score, George Wright was the game’s star, getting five hits in seven trips to the plate. Hodes and Sellman had each contributed three hits, and Hodes managed to drive in a team-high six runs. Since I still hadn’t broken it to Harry Wright that he wouldn’t be starting for me, this game would help in that regard as well – I could tell him that I didn’t want to change the lineup when things were going so well.

On the morning of May 1, the standings stood as follows:

Mutual 4-1
Mansfield 3-0
Boston 1-0
Olympic 1-1
National 1-3
Lord Baltimore 1-4
Athletic 0-0
Forest City 0-0
Atlantic 0-0
Eckford 0-0
Troy 0-2

We had another game scheduled in the nation’s capital for the 1st, this one against the Olympic club. I knew this would be a particularly important game for Harry Wright, since half of his Cincinnati Red Stockings had gone to Olympic in 1871, and they had ended up doing better than Wright’s own team, at least in this universe.
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Old 04-17-2013, 01:06 PM   #16
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“Now see here! I won’t sit out another game – that’s not why you’re in charge here, moon man!” Harry Wright was furious at the idea of missing the Olympic game, after I’d just left him out against National. I figured it would be better to appease him now – if he did well, I could find a spot for him in the lineup, and if he did poorly maybe he’d come to the right conclusion on his own.

“Well, McVey and Sellman should probably both be in the lineup, and the easiest way to do that is to put Sellman at catcher and McVey in center field. So we’ll need to find a spot for you.”

“I can play anywhere, just make sure I’m on the field when the game begins,” replied Wright angrily.

“Um, have you ever tried first base?”

“Of course. I can definitely play first base.”

I decided not to mention any of the sabermetric research showing that first base was the best place to hide a terrible fielder. At any rate, here was our lineup for the May 1 game against Olympic:

Ross Barnes, 2B
George Wright, SS
Frank Sellman, C
Cal McVey, CF
Charlie Hodes, RF
Harry Wright, 1B
Fred Cone, LF
Harry Schafer, 3B
Al Spalding, P

And their lineup against us:

Andy Leonard, 2B
John Glenn, RF
Lip Pike, CF
George Hall, LF
Doug Allison, C
Ed Pinkham, 3B
Davy Force, SS
Everett Mills, 1B
Bill Stearns, P

This second game started out very differently from the first. We were able to get one run in the top of the first inning, thanks to a Frank Sellman triple followed by a throwing error on Andy Leonard. However, our defense committed three errors in the bottom of the inning (one by George Wright, two by Charlie Hodes) to allow Olympic to score three times after we managed to retire the first two hitters in order.

Things only got worse from there, as we were unable to score or even get much of a threat going for the next few innings. While the defense shaped up somewhat, we were stuck in a 3-1 tie until the bottom of the fifth inning, when three more errors and a few key hits gave Olympic a strong 6-1 lead.

We were able to rally in the following innings, as key hits by George Wright and Frank Sellman and a throwing error on Ed Pinkham enabled us to get within 6-5 in the sixth inning. (We could have gotten more but Harry Wright grounded out with two outs and two men on base.)

The game stayed at 6-5 until the ninth inning, when two Olympic errors with two outs enabled us to score the tying run. With men on second and third and two out, Harry Wright was the scheduled batter. I considered having someone bat for him, but given the conventions of 1872 this would have been a big deal to explain to him. I decided to let him hit. He hit the 0-1 pitch right to shortstop Davy Force, who easily threw him out at first.

In the bottom of the inning, a couple of Washington hits and a key error by none other than Harry Wright enabled Olympic to score the winning run, defeating us by a final score of 7-6. There were no two ways about it: I was going to have to tell Harry Wright he was no longer a starter for Boston.
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Old 04-18-2013, 04:08 AM   #17
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Harry Wright was depressed, which seemed understandable. I had just told the man who was most responsible for inventing major league baseball that he was no longer good enough to start for the team he’d created. He’d taken it well, all things considered, but part of me hoped he’d find some way to contribute as a player for the team.

For now, though, there wasn’t time to worry about things. On May 2, we had another game scheduled – this one against the Lord Baltimore club, as we completed our sweep through the Washington-Baltimore area. I decided to go with a slightly different lineup, putting Fraley Rogers in right field and moving Charlie Hodes to third base.
For their part, Baltimore had played six games thus far and lost five of them. They did not seem like a terrible team on paper, but their nucleus of Cap Anson, Jim Foran and Bill Kelly had yet to get them off the ground.

In this game, we trailed early after a 4-run first inning for Baltimore, but an 8-run fourth inning that included doubles by Ross Barnes and Cal McVey put us in front to stay, and we coasted to a 12-7 victory. Young Fraley Rogers went 3 for 5 in his debut, so he would no doubt be seeing more playing time.

On the whole, our opening trip to Washington and Baltimore was a qualified success. We won two of the three games, and the one we lost was very close. On a more pessimistic note, the two teams we beat were new teams not expected to contend, while the team that finished ahead of us in 1871 beat us.

However, our travels were not over. Two days later, on May 4, we took on Athletic in Philadelphia. We used a similar lineup to that we’d run out against Lord Baltimore, but with much less success; while the hitting was solid, our fielding was terrible – we committed 14 errors as a team, allowing Athletic to beat us 9-5. This ran the season record to 2-2, and it reminded me that here in 1872, defense was just as important as offense, if not more so.

The next day, May 5, was a Sunday so there were no games played. The standings in the Association at that point were as follows:

Mansfield 4-0
Mutual 4-2
Athletic 2-0
Olympic 2-1
Boston 2-2
Lord Baltimore 2-6
Atlantic 1-1
National 1-3
Forest City 0-0
Eckford 0-0
Troy 0-3
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Old 04-18-2013, 12:47 PM   #18
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The boat ride from New York to Fall River was a dismal experience, as was the train from there to Boston. It was becoming clear that the team simply did not have the defensive skills to compete for the crown in 1872, as we’d committed 39 errors in the three games in New York and Brooklyn through the middle of the week, winning just one of the three.

I sat next to young Frank Sellman on the train to Boston. At age 19, Sellman was little more than a child, yet he was one of the better players on the team so far, hitting .405 with eight runs driven in in seven games. A Baltimore boy, he often seemed a little lonely playing for Boston – he’d told me that he had only traveled a little before accepting an offer to move to Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1871 to play for the defunct Kekionga club. I had decided to take him under my wing and see what I could teach him.

“So,” I said. “Why do you think we’re having so much trouble out there?”

“Are you joking? Everyone knows that we drop more balls than anyone. You heard the crowds in New York.” The hecklers and boo-birds had been out in full force for Wednesday’s game, which we narrowly lost to Mutual.

“How would you fix it?”

“Me? Isn’t that your job?”

“Well, yes, but I just thought –“

“It’s strange. You are always writing in your little book as though you had something important there, but it seems like you don’t really have anything to say that will help.”

“Look, kid, I just want what we all want – this club to start winning. If you’re going to start arguing with me, you’ll find yourself on the end of the bench.”

Sellman looked furious, but he said nothing. I went on, “I am trying to make this into a winning ball club. I’m not sure whether we have the players to be one yet, but we will, and I want you to be a part of it. But we have to play harder, and we have to play smarter. If you go against me, you can go back to Baltimore and be a good player on a losing team. But if you stick with me, maybe we can actually do something here.”

I went on, “Now, what would you do to fix things?”

“I… I guess I would start keeping track of people’s fielding and put them in based on that, since we are already one of the best hitting teams.”

“Now we’re talking. Work with me on this, kid, and we’ll see if we can’t turn this team around.” I tapped the morning newspaper sitting next to me. “Look at these standings. The teams ahead of us all know how to play defense. That’s something we need to learn. It’s why we were in last place last year, and it’s why we aren’t winning this year. But we’ll get there. We have to.”

Those standings, on the morning on May 10, 1872, were:

Mutual 5-2
Mansfield 4-0
Olympic 3-2
Boston 3-4
Troy 3-4
Athletic 2-0
Atlantic 2-2
Lord Baltimore 2-7
Eckford 1-1
National 1-4
Forest City 0-0
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Old 04-18-2013, 04:31 PM   #19
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Originally Posted by Eckstein 4 Prez View Post
“Now we’re talking. Work with me on this, kid, and we’ll see if we can’t turn this team around.” I tapped the morning newspaper sitting next to me. “Look at these standings. The teams ahead of us all know how to play defense. That’s something we need to learn. It’s why we were in last place last year, and it’s why we aren’t winning this year. But we’ll get there. We have to.”
This. I'm finding it out first hand in my dynasty. I, like the Lord Baltimore Club in your world, always have a handful of the top hitters, but I don't win with them. I'm going to try to build my next team with defense in mind, but I don't log fielding stats since I don't have the advantage of that time machine! What are you going to be looking for, ratings wise (range-position ratings-arms?), in trying to build the Red Stockings defense. How much do you think the pitcher matters in this? Do you think a pitchers defense ratings could even matter more than some of his pitching one's in the early years?
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Old 04-18-2013, 11:19 PM   #20
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Originally Posted by goroyals View Post
This. I'm finding it out first hand in my dynasty. I, like the Lord Baltimore Club in your world, always have a handful of the top hitters, but I don't win with them. I'm going to try to build my next team with defense in mind, but I don't log fielding stats since I don't have the advantage of that time machine! What are you going to be looking for, ratings wise (range-position ratings-arms?), in trying to build the Red Stockings defense. How much do you think the pitcher matters in this? Do you think a pitchers defense ratings could even matter more than some of his pitching one's in the early years?
I think a pitcher's fielding ratings are probably worth nearly as much as other ratings in the 1870s. Pitching is worth more by the late 1870s, and vastly more by the early 1880s.

I don't display hitting or pitching ratings at all, and have the other (defense, arm, etc.) ratings on the 20-80 scale. However, I'm going to be looking at defensive statistics and watching games just as much as looking at ratings.
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