Week 6 Summary

Now that Week 6 is complete one-quarter of the season is past, at least on the calendar. Both leagues are a little bit shy of the 25% mark by games played, but not by a lot. All teams play two on the first day of Week 7 - Memorial Day - and that will bump that number up a little. This week saw good pitching - the ERA's in both league dropped about two-tenths of a run, and batting averages dropped about four points as well. Homeruns are still up but are continuing to drop as well.

Not only did Boston have a good week, but Cleveland and New York didn't, allowing the Red Sox to open a 5.5 game lead by weeks end. Boston's runs per game are down to "only" 6.6, and their pitching has been very strong so far, making it tough for their AL counterparts. Cleveland losing a doubleheader to Chicago on Sunday knocked them out of second place and allowed New York to slip past them. New York's pitching has started to stabilize and their power has returned (they are now third in the AL in homeruns). Cleveland's recent malaise has left them only 1.5 games ahead of fourth-place Philadelphia, and that is where the AL standings get interesting. Both Chicago and Detroit are a half-game behind Philadelphia as Detroit has finally started making their move up the standings. Chicago might be in for trouble without Gus Zernial for the next two months, but they dd take two from Cleveland without him. St. Louis and Washington both still give no quarter in any of their games but are often just outmatched by their stronger opponents.

St. Louis was the only team in the NL to have a winning record over their past ten games, so they stay on top and have opened a four-game lead. Boston has climbed to within a half-game of St. Louis early in the week, but they lost two to the Cardinals than their next two as well and find themselves tied with New York for second place. New York has the second-best pitching in the NL and their homerun first thinking has worked well with that. Philadelphia has the best ERA but has the fewest runs in either league. Ralph Kiner has picked Pittsburgh up and carried them on his broad shoulders over the past week but I am not sure how much longer that can go on. Brooklyn remains a mystery as somedays they get good pitching and somedays they get good hitting, but they still haven’t achieved some sort of consistency and they languish in sixth place. Both Cincinnati and Chicago picked up several wins this week, but mostly just from splitting games against each other.

Eddie Lopat

George Kell (.425) is still the only player hitting over .400. Kell has already had a seventeen game hitting streak and is currently working on a sixteen game hitting streak. Luke Appling (.391) and Ted Williams (.388) are next in line. Kell (62) lead sin hits over Vic Wertz (56) and Bob Dillinger (54). Williams has 41 runs scored, leading Eddie Joost (37) and Johnny Pesky (32). Vern Stephens (42) leads in RBI's, ahead of Sam Chapman (37) and Tommy Henrich and Williams, both with 35. Hank Majeski (13) still leads in doubles over Joost (11) and Gus Zernial and Kell (10). In homeruns, it's Stephens (12) over Henrich (11) and Williams (10). Mel Parnell (7-1), Ellis Kinder (6-1), and Eddie Lopat (6-1) lead in wins.

Stan Musial (.396) leads the NL in batting, well ahead of Harry Walker (.362) and Ralph Kiner (.361). Musial (53) leads in hits, just ahead of Jackie Robinson and Kiner, both with 52. Kiner leads in runs (39) over Pee Wee Reese (34) and Musial (32), and Kiner leads in RBI's (43), ahead of Hank Sauer (36) and Bobby Thomson (34). Kiner and Sauer both have 13 homeruns, ahead of Andy Pafko (11) and Johnny Mize (10). Roy Campanella and Del Ennis both have twelve doubles, ahead of three with eleven and three others with ten. Harry Brecheen (8-0), Warren Spahn (8-1) and Sheldon Jones (7-2) continue to lead in wins in the NL.

Bobby Thomson

As mentioned above both batting average and ERA made major corrections this week. I was way behind on sacrifice bunts, so I applied a little diligence in trying to get that caught up this week. It's a small sample size to be sure, but the increase in sacrifice hits resulted in a correspondent decrease in offensive output.

At the quarter pole, the most surprising part of the replay so far is the fight I seem to get out of every team. Even the bad teams make the good teams work for their win. There are the occasional blowouts of course, but when games are close both teams are within a hit or two of pulling out a win. There have been 46 one-run games on the NL and 36 in the AL so far. That seems like a lot to me. Something to research. The other thing is I am pretty conservative when deciding to send the runner, but in close games, when one run can make the difference, I will tend to get a little more aggressive. This week featured several runners thrown out on the bases, more than usual, but I don't think I am out of control, but if it is 50/50 then I have been sending the runner if that is the tying or winning run.

A long day of eight doubleheaders tomorrow, so let's get rolling.