Week 12 Summary

Week 12 is completed and the replay is at the halfway point. There are still four teams below the 77 games played mark, but one is at 75 and the others at 76 so they will get there quick.  The first half of the season has been pretty topsy-turvy, The better teams are starting to rise to the top, the bad teams are settling to the bottom, and those in the middle are in a real dogfight as they try and claw their way to the top. Nothing is settled yet and we have a whole half season yet to play so let's see what happens.

Luke Appling

Boston is still dominating the AL, but the story here Joe DiMaggio and New York. In the two weeks that DiMaggio has been back, they have reduced Boston's lead from 11.0 games down to 6.5 as DiMaggio is hitting at a .490 clip with five homeruns already. New York's pitching has appeared to gel while Boston's pitchers are starting to show signs of strain. Of course, at this point in 1949 it was New York that had an eight-game lead over Boston and Boston eventually caught them and I wouldn't be surprised if that happens here. Cleveland just got through losing 6-of-7 seven games to fourth place Detroit but kept their head above water in games versus St. Louis and Chicago. Cleveland is having trouble fielding a consistent lineup and even though they have the second best pitching in the league their hitting remains inconsistent. Detroit managed to extract themselves from that mess with the teams immediately below them and are keeping their eye on the team right in front of them. Washington has fallen back to fifth as their pitching keeps them in games, but their hitting is sometimes non-existent. Chicago continues to run through different players and somehow they have remained competitive. Not good mind you, but they have proven to be a tenacious group all season. Philadelphia is a lot better team than their seventh-place showing, at the end of Week 6 Philadelphia was 19-19 and in fourth place, but since then they have gone 15-26 and can't seem to get out of their own way. Games against Boston and New York, plus games against Washington when they were on their hot streak, will do that to you. St. Louis is right where they should be, bless their souls.

St. Louis has been playing the three teams at the bottom of the NL standings over the past two weeks and went 14-2 over that time. The team right behind them have actually played well, but St. Louis still managed to expand their lead from 6.0 games to 10.5 games. If you are going to win a championship it is said you need to beat the teams you are supposed to beat and so far this year they are 23-2 versus Cincinnati and Chicago. New York and Boston have been content to swap second and third place amongst themselves, both keeping the other from making up any ground on St. Louis and allowing Brooklyn to creep ever closer. Brooklyn actually slipped into third place for a day but couldn’t hold it. Brooklyn's pitching had stabilized over the past few weeks and they are now third in ERA in the NL. Philadelphia is suffering through an offensive drought and they are slipping in the standings. Young Dick Sisler was just moved out of the three-spot in the lineup down to seventh and they are hoping juggling things around a little will spark a fire. Ralph Kiner hit five homeruns and drove in fifteen runs in a struggle to keep Pittsburgh relevant, but being a one-man show will only get you so far. Cincinnati and Chicago were both bruised pretty badly these last two weeks by St. Louis, although the two losses that St. Louis did have were at the hand of Cincinnati.

Vic Raschi

George Kell is still leading the AL in hitting (.364) but has cooled off considerably, just ahead of Luke Appling (.363) and Ted Williams (.359). Vic Wertz lead in hits (115) over Williams (104), Johnny Pesky (102), and Kell (100). Williams leads in runs (79) and RBI's (90), leading Dom DiMaggio (69) and Eddie Joost (66) in runs, and Vern Stephens (80) and Sam Chapman (64) in RBI's. Kell has maintained his doubles lead (20) over Hank Majeski and Joost, both with 19. Williams and Stephens both have 27 homes runs, with Tommy Henrich (21) trailing behind. Vic Raschi (13-5) is riding a five-game winning streak, helping to move New York up standings and moving past Ellis Kinder (12-2) and Mel Parnell (12-5).

Stan Musial

After their tear these past two weeks there are three players from St. Louis now sitting at the top of the hitting chart: Enos Slaughter (.393), Stan Musial (.361), and Red Schoendienst (.358) and it is the same names in hits with Schoendienst (116), Musial (112), and Slaughter (112). Eddie Waitkus (.370) has finally fallen off the list for lack of appearances.  Ralph Kiner still leads in runs (73) and RBI's (77), leading Musial (72) and Schoendienst (71) in runs and leading Bobby Thomson (67), Jackie Robinson (66) and Slaughter (66) in RBI's. Del Ennis (26) leads in doubles, ahead of Duke Snider (20) and four others tied with nineteen. Kiner (23) has the homeruns lead over Andy Pafko (20) and Thomson (18). Warren Spahn (14-2) and Harry Brecheen (13-3) still lead in pitching, but there are several pitchers bunched below them and others working their way up as well.

Overall the replay continues to play out well. The numbers are coming around although there are a couple I still need to keep my eyes on. When looking ahead at the next week's schedule I was surprised to see the week start off with three consecutive off days - the All-Star game (that didn’t happen in my 1930 repay). Regular games will resume on Thursday but I won’t actually play the All-Star game. Instead, I will just name my replay All-Star lineup and include that write up in next week's post.