Week 16 Summary

Week 16 is done and the replay is not two-thirds complete. All the teams have passed the 100 games played mark, so we are at the two-thirds mark form that perspective as well. The regular Sunday doubleheaders seem to allow for the usual rainouts and days off for travel throughout the week while keeping the schedule on track without falling behind and having to scramble at the end to get the games in. After all, this is the 49th year of modern baseball so they might have figured out a few things by now.

Johnny Pesky

Boston might be able to occasionally get pushed around by some of the better AL competition, but they just pound the teams at the bottom of the standings which makes it hard for anyone to make a move up the standings. New York has won nine games in a row and has only made up two games on Boston in the last ten days. At this time in 1949 it was New York that had a six-game lead over Boston and the Red Sox did catch them, so I suspect there is some excitement left. Cleveland now leads the league in ERA, but they just had a couple of rough series with the two teams ahead of them and hence they have fallen back. Both Detroit and Philadelphia are playing below their actual 1949 performance and neither can seem to get on a winning streak. Fourth place is open for the taking for whoever wants it. Chicago just swept a doubleheader against Washington and leads the Senators by three games, but that lead would be considered precarious. St. Louis has lost ten in a row - these east coast swings are hard on them.

St. Louis continues to play hot and they seemed to have honed the tactic of pounding whoever happens to be in second place on that day. Brooklyn has managed to climb up past New York and now reside in second place by themselves, but nine games is a lot to make up when the team ahead of you insists on playing almost .700 ball. New York and Boston have started to fade as their holes have started to be exposed. Philadelphia would like to put on a late-season charge and catch one of those two teams, but their on-base percentage is the second worst in the NL so it is hard for them to mount a consistent offense. Pittsburgh is a dangerous team but they too have a lot of holes. Chicago and Cincinnati … well, they both have better records than the Browns do.

Red Schoendienst

Enos Slaughter it still hitting over .400 (.401) and while he may end up leading the league, I don’t have a hope of him staying over the .400 mark much longer. Stan Musial (.366) and Johnny Mize (.350) trail Slaughter for the batting title. Richie Ashburn came from out of nowhere to be the first one in either league to reach 150 hits, just ahead of Slaughter and Musial, both with 148. Ralph Kiner had a bit of a resurgence this past week, leading in runs (97) and RBI's (107), leading in runs over Musial and Red Schoendienst, both with 93, and ahead in RBI's over Musial (88) and Bobby Thomson (86). Del Ennis still leads in doubles (32) ahead of four players with 24: Thomson, Jimmy Bloodworth, Bob Elliott, and Whitey Lockman. There are five others tied at 23. Kiner has the homerun lead (32), well ahead of Musial (25) and Thomson (22). Slaughter has 14 triples, just ahead of Ashburn with 13. Warren Spahn (17-4) and Harry Brecheen (16-4) still lead the pitchers.

Joe Hatten

George Kell (.359) is still in the batting lead, but Ted Williams (.356)  and Luke Appling (.345) are right behind. Vic Wertz leads in hits (142) over Kell (138) and Williams (135). Williams leads in runs (107) over teammates Dom DiMaggio (87) and Vern Stephens (86), although Stephens put on a late week rush to tie Williams for the RBI lead (110), ahead of Sam Chapman with 81. Kell maintains his lead in doubles (27) over Hank Majeski, Mickey Vernon, and Al Zarilla, all with 24, and as in the NL the line behind them is quite crowded. Stephens had the HR lead (36) ahead of Williams (33) and Tommy Henrich (26). Bob Dillinger leads in triples with ten, just ahead of Dale Mitchell with eight, although Mitchell has hit five of his in the past two weeks (he is supposed to hit 23). Ellis Kinder (16-2) and Mel Parnell (16-6) sit on top of the pitchers, with several others right behind.

At the two-thirds point of the replay, the various stats are starting to come into line with even the outliers starting to level off. The NL ERA is still up by about a quarter of a run but continues to lower slightly every week, as does the NL batting average, now down to within .008 points. Injuries and roster movements continue as teams, especially teams lower in the standings, look to improve with an eye on the future. The real observation here is that if Boston and St. Louis continue to play at an almost .700 clip I don’t think they will get caught, especially since we are now down to only eight weeks remaining. Regardless, hope springs eternal, especially in Yankees fans, and they do have ten games remaining with Boston.