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Week 15 Summary

Week 15 is complete and we move on to Week 16, the 2/3's point of the replay. If anything, the teams at the top of their respective leads have managed to segregate themselves from the teams in the middle, who in turn have started to separate themselves from the teams at the bottom. There is still room for shuffling and there are still a lot of games left to play - only one team has reached the 100 games mark, although all teams will be there in a few short days.

Ellis Kinder
Boston just had a thirteen game winning streak snapped and they continue to suck up all the oxygen in the room, not letting anybody else mount a serious rally. New York had climbed to within 5.5 games of Boston just last week, but continue to play well and now find themselves 9.0 games behind. Cleveland had gotten to within one game of New York to begin the week, lost that game, and then ended the week losing 3-of-4 to Boston. Detroit has players with three of the top five batting averages and three pitchers with ten or more wins, but still can’t reach .500. Philadelphia has climbed up past Chicago and Washington, but they continue to serve as a punching bag to those teams at the top of the standings. Chicago and Washington continue to sag, although somehow Washington pulled it together for one day this past week and swept a doubleheader from Detroit. Both teams feel comfortable they will end up ahead of St. Louis as the Browns don't seem to offer much hope.

 St. Louis, like Boston, had a few weeks where it looked like things might be slipping, but then, like Boston, they had a series of games against teams at the bottom of the standings and they both got real healthy real quick. The Cardinals might have gotten a little lucky this week as they were facing a red-hot Brooklyn team and two of their games ended up as ties. New York recaptured second place on Sunday when they took two from Cincinnati. I keep expecting them to slide away, but the Giants have enough pitching that they stay close and they have enough power that they can (and do) turnaround a close game with one swing.  Brooklyn had second place to themselves for most of the week but just couldn't hold it. Even if the Dodgers should truly get hot and make a charge for St. Louis, I am not sure they can do it if the Cardinals continue to refuse to lose. After all, St. Louis is 23-2 versus Cincinnati and Chicago, meaning they have 25 games left against these two. Boston continues to be plagued by spotty pitching and injuries but continues to remain in the hunt somehow. Philadelphia has regained its stability and is now just below .500, but they could use some offensive pop as they come down the stretch. Pittsburgh is pretty much right where they should be, as are Cincinnati and Chicago.

Hoot Evers
George Kell continues to lead the league in hitting (.373), over Ted Williams (.349) and Detroit teammate Hoot Evers (.341). Another Detroiter, Vic Wertz, lead in hits (139) over Kell (134) and Johnny Pesky (128). Williams continues to lead in runs (95) and RBI's (101), ahead of Dom DiMaggio (84) and Eddie Joost (81) in runs, and ahead of Vern Stephens (98) and Sam Chapman (79) in RBI's. Kell also maintained his lead in doubles (26) over Al Zarilla and Hank Majeski, both with 22. Stephens (31) and Williams (30) continue to duel for the homerun lead, with a newly healthy Tommy Henrich (24) following them. Boston's Ellis Kinder (15-2) and Mel Parnell (15-4) lead over Eddie Lopat (14-2) and Vic Raschi (14-5) in wins, with five other pitchers in double digits in wins and seven more sitting on nine wins.

Enos Slaughter remains on a hot streak (.408) but has help from Stan Musial (.364) and Red Schoendienst (.343). Slaughter also leads in hits (142) just ahead of Musial (137) and Richie Ashburn (135). Ashburn had a nice little 16-for-27 (.593) week for Philadelphia. Musial (89), Ralph Kiner (86) and Schoendienst (83) top in runs, while Kiner leads in RBI's (94) over Bobby Thomson (79), Musial (76), and Jackie Robinson (76).  Del Ennis (30) leads in doubles over Whitey Lockman (23) and Pee Wee Reese, Granny Hamner, and Bob Elliott, all with 22. Kiner also leads in homeruns (28) over Musial (23) and three players tied with 21: Andy Pafko, Hank Sauer, and Thomson. Harry Brecheen (16-3) and Warren Spahn (15-4) remain atop the leaderboard for pitchers, with eight other NL pitchers in double figures for wins.


Ralph Kiner
I would classify the APBA fielding ratings in both 1930 and 1949 as both having a normal dispersion of fielding ratings. Both seasons were 154 game seasons, my 1930 replay ended up with 1845 errors committed (3035 actual) and my 1949 replay is expecting to come in at around 1897 errors (2295 actual). So basically, the same fielding rating distribution, the same number of games, and the same number of error outcomes. Since I am considering doing 1901 for my next replay I am wondering if even the two error numbers per card are enough (5327 total errors in a 140 game season). I am a long way from there yet though … just something to think about.

When we return to play it will be in a new month, and if we are in August that means we are getting close to September so it is time for several teams to either put up or shut up. Let's go see what happens.


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