The Fab Five through June: 1966 NL replay update

I have finished the month of June in my 1966 National League replay!  It’s a good time for a team-by-team update. 

Before I begin, a quick synopsis of my format of my replay:

• I use the APBA Basic Game with the optional rules
• I use the 1966 reprint cards from APBA including the XBs
• I follow the schedule of actual games played.
• I use actual lineups and rotations as well as actual transactions (to the best of my ability)

It was a long, grueling month for some teams who were making up games in their schedule.  Because of (I’m assuming) inclement weather in April and early May, East Coast teams such as New York and Philadelphia fell behind in the number of games played.  As a result, there were many doubleheaders and makeup games in June.  The Mets played a total of 33 games and Philly played 32 in the 30 days of June. In fact, five teams played more games per days in June.

June was a month of pitching for the National League.  Specifically speaking, it was a month of Shutouts.  Of the 152 games played, there were 39 shutouts.  Four of those belonged to June Pitcher of the Month Juan Marichal of the Giants who went 7-0 with a 0.88 ERA. 

It was not exactly a powerful June.  Only two hitters hit more than four homers.  Let’s face it, Julian Javier hit five homeruns in the first two weeks of the year, right?  Even the two at the top were a bit of a surprise.  Cincinnati’s Deron Johnson and New York’s Ken Boyer are solid sluggers but their APBA cards don’t compare to Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and June’s Player of the Month Dick Allen from Philly who only hit two dingers. 

Today, let’s look at the top five teams in the standings as of June 30^th. 

Los Angeles Dodgers

47-26

At 16-12 for the month, you can hardly call Los Angeles’ performance disappointing.  At the same time, three teams did better than they did in June and they are all knocking at their door.  LA is still 3 ½ games up on the Pirates and the Braves. 

The Dodger pitching remains tough.  Sandy Koufax could have used a little more support in June.  His 2.01 ERA certainly does not justify a 1-4 record.  He’s now 9-6 with a 1.50 ERA which is third in the league.  Claude Osteen has made a comeback.  At one point in the season, he was the anomaly on the Dodger staff, starting out with a 1-8 record.  Since then, he’s gone 6-1.  His 2.79 ERA in June has helped the cause.  Of course, the big news in the month was Don Sutton’s loss.  After winning his first 15 games, he lost his first game of the year on June 21^st.  At 15-1 with a 1.62 ERA, he is rivaling Marichal for the potential All-Star game starter spot. 

When needed (though not often), Phil Regan is perfect as the late man.  He hasn’t given up a run yet in 13 innings. 

The Dodgers always seem to be about pitching but in June, Tommy Davis came on the scene.  For June, he hit in 19 straight games on his way to a .467 average for the month.  Davis still doesn’t have enough plate appearances to qualify but once he does, he’ll be among the leaders, I’m sure.  Right now, he’s at .445 for the season.  In the last game of June, Jim Lefebvre became the sixth player to hit double digits in homers.  He’s also eighth in the league in hitting with a season .316 batting average.  

Not unexpectedly, Maury Wills is tied for the lead in steals with 29.

To keep winning: LA just needs to stay the course with good pitching, solid defense and some timely hitting. 

Team Leaders through June

Pittsburgh Pirates

43-29

With an 18-10 record, Pittsburgh had the second-best record for June.  A lot of credit goes to three grade C pitchers.  Steve Blass (CY), Vern Law (CZ) and Woodie Fryman (CY) combined for a 13-2 record for June.  Law in particular went 6-0 with a 1.35 ERA for the month.  In the last day on June, he pitched a shutout to lower his season ERA to 1.301 second to Juan Marichal’s 1.297. 

In a deal with the Braves, the Pirates picked up Billy O’Dell (C(A*).  This might be what the Pirates need to shore up their pen. 

A month ago, Bob Bailey was still atop the NL batting leaders.  Since then, he has gone 3 for 38 with one rbi.  Somehow, manager Harry Walker knew Bailey was in slump and Jose Pagan was scheduled to be in the lineup.

Two hitters really came on for the Pirates.  Clemente hit .387 with four homeruns in June.  His 18-game hitting streak was second only to Tommy Davis’ streak of 19.  In fact, Roberto was considered for Player of the Month had it not been for Dick Allen’s achievements.  Willie Stargell is getting the job done but oddly, it’s not with the longball.  He only hit two homers in June but batted .343 with 21 rbis and 11 doubles. 

Leadoff man Matty Alou continues to set the table with a season batting average of .332. 

To keep winning: Willie Stargell could find yard.

Team Leaders through June

Atlanta Braves

46-32

With a 20-11 record, no team won more games in June than the Braves.  They are currently in third place but technically both they and the Pirates are 3 ½ games behind LA.  They have momentum too, winning their last three games. 

Like the Bucs, the Braves are getting mileage out of some grade C starters.  Tony Cloninger (CYW) went 5-1 in June and is now third in wins with an 11-5 record.  His 2.97 is over-achieving for a CYW, too!.  Two shutouts helped Denny Lemaster towards a 6-0 record and a 0.90 ERA for June. 

Billy O’Dell was lost to the Pirates in a trade but the Braves retain the services of Clay Carroll (B A*Z).  Carroll is tied for 3^rd in wins with Cloninger with 11.

The Braves are a team that can hit.  A LOT.  They have scored 143 runs through June.  That’s tops in the league.  Once Hank Aaron gets out of his funk, Los Angeles should be worried.  He still struggles with the bat.  He hit .217 with two homeruns in June.  Overall, he’s batting .233 with 9 dingers. 

Before Dick Allen came along, catcher Joe Torre was the leading the pack.  With a .356 June, his name is still littering the leaderboard.  At .340, he is third in the league.  Also at .340 is teammate Rico Carty who in June reached enough plate appearances to qualify. 

And then there’s Felipe Alou who sports stats beyond all of them.  Despite hitting just .297 for the year, Alou was the still the NL player to sport 100 hits, 40 extra base hits 10 triples and 60 runs scored.  Felipe drove in 24 runs in June, has played in all 78 games and leads the NL with 344 at bats. 

To keep winning: Hank Aaron needs to find his bat

Team Leaders through June

San Francisco Giants

42-34

You’ve already heard plenty about Pitcher of the Month Juan Marichal (7-0, 1.30 ERA, 148 Ks).  His shutout gave him a 14-3 record, which is one win short of Don Sutton’s league-leading 15.  Other than that, Marichal is leading the NL in ERA, strikeouts, shutouts (8), complete games (12), innings (152 2/3), WHIP (0.668), and H/9IP (3.8). 

A lot is expected from Gaylord Perry but his 3.21 ERA isn’t bringing results with a 4-8 record.  Bobby Bolin has done well at 7-5 and 3.23 ERA save for his 48 walks in 114 innings. 

It’s no surprise that the Giants lead the NL in homeruns (with 63 over Atlanta’s second place 50).  For a few days early in June, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Jimmie Ray Hart were 1-2-3 in homerun leaders.  Offense has never been an issue for San Francisco. 

As the entire league was down in homeruns in June, the Giants still managed to crank out 19.  Mays and McCovey had four (tied for third for June).  Somehow, opponents kept Hart to one.  Mays still remains an early favorite for MVP.  He’s batting .307 with a league leading 16 homerun with 48 rbis and 52 runs scored. 

As good as three of those three were, another Giant showed he could show some offense too.  Catcher Tom Haller hit .323 with three homers while batting mostly in the second spot of Giant lineup.  He ended the month with 40 rbis for the year. 

To keep winning: San Fran’s baserunners need to stay out of the double play (league-leading 73) so that Mays, McCovey and Hart can send them home.  …and Marichal needs to stay healthy!

Team Leaders through June

Philadelphia Phillies

40-34

The Pirates, Braves and Giants have consistently battled for second place all season but it’s appropriate that we finish out the top five with the Phillies.  They finished June with a surprising 19 wins, second only to the Braves. 

Why?  Well, you have already heard about Dick Allen’s phenomenal June.  He came off the bench and played every game to put up some great numbers.  He hit .397/.653/.443 with 33 rbis for June top the leaderboards.  Currently, Allen leads in batting (.386), slugging (.670) and on-base (.437) as well as rbis (54).

Something that surprised me was that Philly had the best pitching in June.  Sparked by Jim Bunning’s June 3^rd no-hitter, the entire Phillies staff had a 1.66 ERA for the month!  The good news?  For the month, Bunning had a 0.93 ERA, Chris Short had a 0.83 ERA and Rick Wise put up a 1.41 ERA. 

The bad news?  They combined for an 8-8 record.  As much as they won in June, the Phillies wasted some good pitching.  I still have to give them credit… Bunning (11-4, 1.76 ERA) and Short (8-5, 2.07 ERA) in particular have been tough all year. 

One reason for the wasted pitching is that the Phillies only hit six homeruns all month.  Only Allen hit more than one.  It’s worth mentioning that the Phillies pitching staff only gave up eight homers too. 

By the way, the Phillies are the only team in my replay who can consistently reach Fielding One (so Dick Allen can be forgiven for his OF-1). 

To keep winning: The rest of the Phillies need hit like Dick Allen and support their pitching staff. 

Team Leaders through June

If you want to see a good synopsis of leaders, standings and team stats of my replay through June, here is a pdf I put together. Those who enjoy my work in Excel will appreciate the pivot tables at work here.

Coming soon, the Foul Five: the bottom of the heap.