1905 Chicago Cubs replay update: 1905 AL Wrapup

Addie Joss AL Pitcher of the Year	Sam Crawford AL MVP

1905 American League Review

Final Standings

MVP
Sam Crawford, Detroit Tigers
.305 AVG 6 HR 55 RBI 34 SB

Pitcher Of The Year
Addie Joss, Cleveland Indians
33-14 1.61 ERA .72 WHIP 47 CG 10 Shutouts

Batting Average (Min. 434 AB)

Sam Crawford Tigers .305
Harry Bay Indians .300
Napoleon Lajoie Indians .295
James Callahan White Sox .280
Jasper Davis A’s .267

Home Runs

George Stone Browns 12
Jasper Davis A’s 11
Jimmy Collins Red Sox 8
Kip Selbach Red Sox 7
Napoleon Lajoie Indians 6

RBI

Charlie Hickman Senators 102
Frank Isbell White Sox 97
Jasper Davis A’s 83
Napoleon Lajoie Indians 76
Ed McFarland White Sox 75

Stolen Bases

Danny Hoffman A’s 75
James Callahan White Sox 69
Harry Bay Indians 63
Dave Fultz Yankees 59
John Anderson Yankees 52

Victories

Addie Joss Indians 33
Earl Moore Indians 32
Frank Smith White Sox 31
Andy Coakley A’s 27
Guy White White Sox 26

ERA

Ed Killian Tigers 1.46
Andy Coakley A’s 1.55
Addie Joss Indians 1.61
Earl Moore Indians 1.72
Bill Donovan Tigers 1.77

Strikeouts

Rube Waddell A’s 234
Frank Smith White Sox 222
Andy Coakley A’s 197
Cy Young Red Sox 190
Harry Howell Browns 184

Wrap-up

The AL certainly ended up different than the actual standings where the A’s came out on top. Pitching was at a premium and hitting was heavily suppressed during the first ¾ths of the year, resulting in only 2 .300 hitters and only 5 over .280. Several top players underperformed, and some players over performed, but I guess that’s how things go on the table top. Here is the breakdown by team.

Cleveland Indians

The Indians endured a lot this year as they had numerous injuries and their best players struggling until mid-season. Addie Joss was the workhorse of this team, setting a new record for complete games in a season with 44. He went 33-14 with a 1.41 ERA and a .72 WHIP on his way to Pitcher Of The Year. Earl Moore is another stud pitcher that held hitters down with a 32-10 record and a 1.72 ERA with a .77 WHIP. Napoleon Lajoie was hitting under .200 at the half way point, but went on a tear to finish with a .296 AVG 6 HR and 36 SB. Harry Bay came out of nowhere to finish second in hitting with a .300 AVG and 63 steals, my only real complaint about his year is that he struck out a lot fanning 75 times for the year in the leadoff spot. Elmer Flick struggled mightily all year, but finished at a .265 mark.

Chicago White Sox

They were on top most of the year, but hitting was their kryptonite, and late in the season lost several players. This was big as they only carried 5 bench players, and 4 of them could qualify for “Terrible Tuesday”. All three starters pitched no hitters and Frank Smith was surprisingly good. He finished the year at 31-15 with a 1.92 ERA and his 222 strikeouts are third highest in history. Guy White finished with 26 wins. James Callahan, just 4 years removed from being one of the best pitchers in the AL was a serious candidate for MVP as an outfielder, finishing with a .280 AVG and 69 steals and was among the leaders in every other category other than homers.

Philadelphia A’s

The A’s were an interesting team and had some great cards. Before I started the season I had them as my choice to win the AL. They had many players underperform and while the pitching was solid, failed enough times to finish third. The key injury was third baseman Bristol Lord spent more time on the DL than the field. While Lord was not going to remind anyone of George Brett, it forced some very bad players onto the field more than they should have been. The pitching philosophy was apparently “blow them away” as they had 3 of the top 10 strikeout artists, and role pitchers with solid strikeout to walk ratio’s. Rube Waddell finished with a 23-18 record and a 2.04 ERA. His 234 strikeouts are second highest ever.

Young Andy Coakley finished with a 27-13 record, a 1.55 ERA and 197 strikeouts. Eddie Plank had a good year, but was the one pitcher that struggled when needed the most. He did finish with 21 wins and a 2.80 ERA, but that was merely ordinary in a pitchers year. Although the hitting struggled more than it should have it was not all bad. Danny Hoffman led the league with 75 steals, and after bad first halves Jasper Davis and Ralph Seybold went on monster second halves to finish with some decent numbers. Davis hit .267 and after hitting two homers on the final day of the year finished with 11, good enough for second place. He also stole 44 bases. Not bad for a power hitting first baseman. Seybold hit .267 with 6 homers. In a bench role Tullos “Topsy” Hartsel hit .262, but he had no extra base hits, which kept him out of the lineup more. Catcher Ossee Schreckengost wins the Shawon Dunston award for the worst walk to strikeout ratio by an everyday player. He fanned 41 times, which is not horrible, but he drew ONE base on balls.

Detroit Tigers

OK Shawn, this is for you. The Tigers struggled a lot, and floated around the standings pretty much all year, but the pitching was phenomenal late and they made a late push and finished at .500. Sam Crawford was basically the offense most of the season and unlike my 1901 replay where he had great numbers and no help in Cincinnati and finished second in the voting he wins the AL MVP this year. His RBI total may not be typical for an MVP but he was in the top of almost every category, and had he had any help from the top of the order, that saw both the 1 and 2 hitters finish under .200 for the year was enough to hold him down in that category.

Matt McIntyre took over in June for the struggling rookie Ty Cobb and made the most of his opportunity. He hit 10 triples and 15 doubles in just 384 at bats. Lew Drill took over the catchers spot about August and despite only having a 7-7-6 and an 11 for a card hit .255 with 3 homers, and stole 25 bases in just 188 at bats. Talk about over performing! Pitching was the true hallmark of this team and while their victory totals are not amazing they really held the other teams in check, and had they had anything resembling hitting would have made a decent run. Ed Killian led the team with 23 wins and 170 strikeouts. Bill Donovan allowed the second fewest hits by a starter and George Mullin was third fewest and had 4 1 hitters.

Boston Red Sox

While I did not expect a lot from this group, they really underperformed. Especially Buck Freeman and Jimmy “DL” Collins. Freeman was one of the early day power hitters he finished well under his usual numbers and lost his during the season. Fortunately for Buck the Red Sox got power from other players. Collins did not play horribly, but given his card I expected better than a .240 AVG to go with his 8 HR and 28 steals. In his defense he did miss 30 games out of a 140 game schedule. Cy Young and Jesse Tannehill shouldered the load on the mound and both finished with 20 wins and ERA’s just under 2.00

New York Yankees

I got just about what I expected from the yanks this year. Willie Keeler, even in a suppressed league manages to finish in the top 10 hitters with a .256 AVG, and surprised me with 3 homers while stealing 40 bases. Dave Fultz led the team with 59. Pitching was decent at times, but after Calvin Griffith went down for about a month the rest of the staff (other than Jack Chesbro and Al Orth) struggled. No pitchers really stand out though and that was enough to bury them near the bottom.

Washington Senators

A team that was bad from the beginning and in some cases actually disappointed me. Charlie Hickman struggled horribly, but crushed the ball in September to provide decent overall numbers. He finished with a .249 AVG, 3 HR, 18 triples and somehow managed to be the only hitter in the AL with over 100 RBI (102) despite really bad hitters in front of him. John Anderson struggled more than I expected, and came alive about late August to finish with a .253 average and 53 steals. Although Garland Stahl’s numbers are not great, he was the glue that kept this team out of last place most of the year, and when Anderson and Hickman finally came around was worn down and finally struggled. He did hit 3 homers and steal 48 bases though. Tom Hughes was the one bright spot on the pitching staff and managed 17 wins with a 2.60 ERA.

St. Louis Browns

Well I was actually surprised by this finish. I know they are the Browns, but if you were to look at the cards for the Yankees, Senators and Browns, you would actually expect the Browns to NOT finish last. What can I say other than hitting was nonexistent for the entire season other than George Stone. George just missed setting the single season for most sacrifices, which surprised me as he led the AL in home runs with 12 and finished in the top 10 in several categories. His .260 AVG was good enough for 8th, and he got mild consideration for MVP. Pitching was decent, as Harry Howell and his 184 strikeouts was good enough for 6th place. John Powell surprised by finishing in the top 10 in several categories, but the lack of hitting really hurt the staff’s numbers.

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