Scott Fennessy’s 1908 NL replay is now complete with a Cubs championship!

Friend and frequent contributor Scott Fennessy has finished his 1908 National League replay! He emailed me and wanted to share with The APBA Blog audience.

Scott knows all about 1908. He led the New York Giants to a Chicagoland tourney win back in 2013 thanks in part to a Christy Mathewson no-hitter.

Here is his recap:

Actual final standings
---
Cubs                 99-55
Giants               98-56
Pirates              98-56
Phillies 	     83-71
Reds                 73-81
Braves               63-91
Dodgers              53-101
Cardinals            49-105

My final standings
--- 
Cubs                 94-46 
Giants               93-47 
Pirates              92-48 
Phillies             74-66 
Braves               57-83 
Reds                 56-84 
Cardinals            52-88 
Dodgers              43-97

The upper division played pretty much as expected, and the Cubs were EXTREMELY hard pressed to hold off the Pirates and Giants, just like in the actual season, minus a Fred Merkle error.  The lower division, while horrible provided some challenging games when playing against each other.

National League MVP

Chicago Cubs (94-46 first place)

Oh, how the Cubs loved to torture me. While they ended up in a race every bit as close as the one in real life, they should have wrapped this up a week earlier. I lost track of the number of times they would play the lower division and the bats would take the day off and an A vs. C starter matchup would result in the Cubs blowing the game after the 7th inning.

Chicago’s lineup was very top heavy. Once you got past the first three batters, they were pretty weak. Joe Tinker was probably the biggest surprise this season. Hitting .260 with 6 homers and 49 stolen bases he did a solid job setting the table.

Having him onboard was the key to the offense, as Johnny Evers (.275 49 SB in 96 games) and Frank Chance (.292 41 SB) had tons of 14’s and the hit and run was vital to their chances to winning.

Johnny Kling struggled down the stretch, but hit .220 with 4 homers, and stole 29 bases.

The bottom of the lineup was not very helpful. Only one player cleared the .200 mark, and Harry Steinfeldt (.189) was a massive disappointment and only stayed in the lineup because of his top shelf defense.

The bench didn’t get a lot of time, but the players who did get into the lineup did a pretty decent job. George Howard (.258 1 HR), Henry Zimmerman (.242) and Jimmy Slagle (.217 11 SB in 37 games) kept them afloat.

The pitching was what got them to the pennant. Although they had to struggle through some tough times with injuries, Mordecai Brown (21-10 1.40 ERA .67 WHIP) was the glue of the pitching staff.

John Pfiester (19-10 2.02 ERA) pitched better than it felt like. I was constantly frustrated with his performance against the lower division, but he was good when he needed to be.

Ed Reulbach missed some time early in the season, but was extremely strong upon his return. going 26-9 with a 2.00 ERA, led the staff in most pitching categories, and if that wasn’t enough, he hit .328 with 14 extra base hits and somehow stole 4 bases.

The other pitchers were a mixed bag of ability. Orval Overall (17-9 1.84 ERA) was the most unstable of them all. While his numbers looked great on paper, he had significant trouble with walks and coughing up the lead with the game on the line.

Chick Fraser (8-8 4.59 ERA) was the player on the team I loved to hate. He was downright awful against the Pirates and Giants and I couldn’t wait until they got their starters in position to finish the season.

Andy Coakley came over from Cincinnati, and while he only appeared in three games, he won them all, had an ERA of .51 and pitched a no hitter. I wonder what a full season could have produced.

New York Giants 93-47 (1 game behind)

The Giants, just like their real world counterparts came up short on the final day of the year. They traded the lead with Chicago multiple times during the year, but NY got cold in June and July, and it looked like they were going to run away with it as late as August.

Then John McGraw rode the backs of Christy Mathewson and George Wiltse, and actually claimed the lead on October 6, but lost their final regular season game to the Cubs in Chicago, which was a rescheduled game from a rain out earlier in the season, and had to watch as the Cubs pounded the Phillies in their last game to win the pennant by one game.

McGraw was given one of the strongest rosters in baseball. Unlike Chicago, he was blessed with an abundance of hitting AND a powerful pitching staff.

Larry Doyle (.237) missed a fair amount of time this year, and underperformed when he was in the lineup, so Turkey Mike Donlin had to basically be both the leadoff man and the number two hitter at the same time.

And somehow he pulled it off. Hitting .324 to win the batting title for the second time in three years, he also had 18 triples and 5 homers, 79 RBI and stole 43 bases. He was narrowly beaten out of the MVP award, but it was a stellar season non the less.

James Seymour (.279 4 HR 86 RBI) turned in another solid year. He was the person who kept the lineup together. Donlin got all the headlines, while Seymour quietly produced at a steady pace.

Roger Bresnahan had a better campaign then expected. He got off to another red hot start, but got ice cold in June. He eventually got on track and finished at .268 with 1 homer, 69 RBI and 12 stolen bases.

Fred Tenney, the last remaining member of the 1899 Boston Braves escaped at last and had his best season in 3 years, hitting .251 with 1 HR and 8 SB and 59 RBI despite hitting in the 8 spot all year.

The bench was probably the best in baseball. Harry McCormick missed the first half, but hit .261 once he began to start. Charles Herzog (.243) covered a couple different positions throughout the summer, and rookie Fred Merkle made a terrific debut. In just 29 games hie hit .324 with 5 home runs, 20 RBI and stole 2 bases.

For the fifth time in six years Christy Mathewson (30-14 1.77 ERA .78 WHIP) won the pitcher of the year award. He dominated the NL like nobody else, leading the league in wins, complete games, innings pitched, strikeouts and had 10 shutouts.

George Wiltse (26-11) was possibly the best number two pitcher I have ever had. Like Mathewson, he ate a ton of innings, and hurled 6 shutouts. Unfortunately, when he didn’t have his good stuff, he got hit hard.

Joe McGinnity (13-5 1.72 ERA) may be nearing the end of the line. While his numbers were extremely strong, he pitched the fewest games and innings of his career.

Red Ames (8-6) and James Crandall (8-8) were too inconsistent during the summer, but Crandall did somehow manage to just miss the top ten in home runs with 6.

Pittsburgh Pirates (92-48 3 games behind)

To tell you how strong the upper division of the NL was, had the third place Pittsburgh Pirates been in the AL they would have won the flag.

The team is starting to transit away from the initial 1901 roster into the next phase. William Bransfield was shipped to Philadelphia, Ginger Beaumont and Claude Ritchey were dumped on Boston, Fred Clarke is declining and probably won’t be around much longer.

Led by Honus Wagner (.314 15 HR 104 RBI 60 SB), who in just 7 years has elevated himself to immortal status in my replays. He won his third straight MVP, and his fourth in 6 years.

Tommy Leach (.220 6 HR 30 SB) never quite recovered from a mid June slump, but helped out where he could. Alan Storke was injured in the first week of the season and didn’t return until about August, but hit .256 with 4 homers after he returned.

Roy Thomas (.235) came over in the Bransfield trade, and while he didn’t exactly shine, he wasn’t awful either, but age has caught up with him, as the only two things he did well, which is draw walks and steal bases finally diminished. For the first time in his career he had more strikeouts than walks, and stole just 10 bases, and hit the DL in late August, never to return.

Too bad for the team that was about all the offense they had. Multiple players underperformed very badly, which meant the pitching had to do even more.

In addition to having to carry the load for the season, they struggled with keeping pitchers healthy. Nothing too serious, but their younger pitchers missed several starts, and considering how close they were, maybe they would have had a better ending to the season.

Veteran Vic Willis (23-14 1.83 ERA) had another great year. He got particularly hot in July, when he threw back to back no hitters on July 4th and again on the 14th. He now is not only the first pitcher to do this, the first to have two no hitters in one season in two different years, and lifetime leader with 4.

Sam Leever (14-6) missed a lot of time at the end of the year, but was outstanding when he was on the mound. The trio of younger pitchers, Sam Camnitz (16-10 1.82 ERA), Nicholas Maddox (21-10 1.94 ERA) and Lefty Leifield (14-5 1.89 ERA) performed admirably.

Another vet, Irving Young also got out of Boston, didn’t pitch much, but produced well enough to have a 4-3 record.

Philadelphia Phillies (74-66 30 games behind)

Philadelphia has spent the last few years rebuilding, and is finally showing signs of life. Although nobody had a standout season, they had a more consistent level of play throughout the season, even if it wasn’t always good.

Sherry Magee (.242 43 SB) and John Titus (.254) set the table for William Bransfield, whom Pittsburgh deemed too old. Mr. Bransfield took it personal and hit .246 with 4 homers and 35 stolen bases. Being a gritty player he was also beaned 10 times, which oddly enough did NOT lead the team.

Wilfred Osborn (.227) and Red Dooin (.205) were the only other players to cross that dismal line, but both had more than 20 steals, and considering Dooin is the starting catcher is pretty impressive.

Eddie Grant, no, not the “electric avenue” guy anchored the hot corner, and it’s a good thing he has a good glove, because in the words of Crash Davis “couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a f***ing boat”.

Otto Knabe was horrible most of the year, but he finally started hitting in September, and looked like he might actually make it to .200, but he came up just short. Despite only getting 90 hits on the year, he did steal 26 bases, and led the league in getting beaned 18 times.

The philly manager used the “my starters are my starters” method, and rarely did any of the reserves play, but backup catcher Fred Jacklistch subbed periodically for Dooin, and hit .308.

The one area that the Phillies front office seems to have ignored so far is pitching. In an era where pitching is king, they are not only not the king, they are more like the jack.

Only George McQuillian (27-15 1.86 ERA) who was a major competetor to Christy Mathewson for pitcher of the year award, and also had a no hitter late in the season had a standout year.

Tully Sparks (16-15), Lew Richie (7-5), William Foxen (7-5) and Lew Moren (9-6) had winning records, but weren’t exactly overpowering.

Boston Braves (57-83 55.5 games behind)

It’s hard to believe how quickly a once dominant team like Boston, which won 5 pennants in the 1890’s became a dumping ground for the upper division’s past their prime players.

Most of the “new arrivals” performed like an older player would be expected to. Diminished results.

Of these new players only Claude Ritchey (.252 7 HR), who had a bit of a comeback after 3 poor seasons in Pittsburgh, and Ginger Beaumont, who was my defending batting champ at the time of his dismissal hit .250 with 3 homers, but bad knees took away the speed part of his game and with just 13 steals he has now become just another outfielder.

None of the other starters did much of note. Johnny Bates hit .233 with 12 triples and 46 steals, and Dan McGann hit 5 homers, but hit just .167 in the process.

The reserves, who didn’t get a ton of playing time, Harry Smith hit .250 with 2 homers in 40 at bats, and journeyman Joe Kelley hit .260 in 28 games.

The pitching was slightly better, and the pitchers would have had a much better W/L had they gotten more support. Vivian Lindaman (12-18 1.73 ERA), Pat Flaherty (19-12 1.76 ERA).

Gus Dorner (6-22) lost 20 for the second time in three years. This marks his last real chance as a starter as he sticks around for a couple of seasons with the occasional spot start, so it’s kind of a bad break, but in a league where the average A or B starter can get kicked around, a C starter like Gus is not going to have much of a chance.

Cincinnati Reds (56-84 57 games behind)

Cincinnati went through a lot of players during the season, hoping for someone, anyone to pair up with Hans Lobert (.274 7 HR 49 SB). Unfortunately, that just never happend.

The lineup was consistantly bad, players seemed to be in slumps more often than not, and the reserves were no better. John Kane hit 6 homers, but only .200 for the year. Miller Huggins struggled until September 1st, and ended up with a .229 average and 14 triples.

Bob Bescher (.263) and Dick Hoblitzel (.241) were better as part time players than all of the regulars, but couldn’t keep healthy enough to get more playing time.

The one thing this team did well was steal bases. 7 players hit double digits, and 4 cleared 30.

The pitching staff was pretty ineffective, and had troubles keeping runners off the bases. They easily had the worst walk to strikeout ratio of any team in the NL. Only “Long Bob” Ewing avoided having a losing record, and he only managed to break even at 18-18.

St. Louis Cardinals (52-88 63 games behind)

As a Cubs fan it’s supposed to be a joy to watch the redbirds suffer. However, this is just a level of bad I am not used to for them.

They had a “decent” pitching staff, but the offense looks like they just drew names out of a hat and signed them to contracts. This isn’t like the Senators, Browns and Braves taking on old rejects and hoping for lightning in a bottle, this is just praying you got lucky when you put a guy on the team.

John Murray (.225 7 HR 60 SB) has been the power guy for a couple of years now, and it would appear they were going with the “Rickey Henderson mode” even though he won’t be born for another 50 years.

It kind of worked, but with pitching being so powerful maybe this wasn’t the best idea. Joe Delehanty, like his brother James on the Senators was the best hitter on this team. Hitting .242 with 24 steals is kind of a big deal on a team that hit just .189.

Ed Konetchy is kind of a cardinal rarity for me. A guy in St. Louis I sort of like. Unfortunately, he struggled badly most of the year and had to go on an 8 game hit streak late in the year to clear the Mendoza line, but he did lead the team with 8 bombs.

Most of the team was a platoon status, where none of the players really impressed. Perhaps most telling was Cardinals utility player Ray Charles, who was moved around multiple infield positions and appeared in 121 games and hit a mind boggling .123 batting average. With the exception of Bill Bergen no player should be this bad on offense. Further proving his futility is that he is rated horribly in all the positions he plays. Yikes.