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Week 18 Summary

Week 18 is complete and the replay is at the three-quarters mark. St. Louis did lose 3-of-4 at the end of the week to Pittsburgh but still have a considerable lead. Boston completed thumping Washington over the past two weeks and has expanded their lead, making a New York comeback even more likely. There are a few teams at the 120 games played mark, but the remainder will be at or near there by the middle of this coming week.

Dave Philley
Boston was pounding Washington and New York was getting surprised by Philadelphia and the Red Sox lead is now 12.5 games. I keep thinking that Boston will hit an extended slow spot sooner or later but it just hasn't happened. New York was on a hot streak for several weeks but as soon as they stopped playing .700 ball they lost ground to Boston. Cleveland continues to muddle along with the best pitching and a middle-of-the-pack offense. They actually have a winning record versus Boston (10-7), but they only have five more games remaining. Detroit and Philadelphia have improved recently and both are only three games below .500, the only real dog fight in the AL at this time. Detroit got hot playing Chicago and St. Louis, while Philadelphia got hot playing New York. Despite having a six-game losing streak Chicago is comfortably ahead of Washington, only because Washington has a sixteen game losing streak. St. Louis suddenly has their eye on that seventh place slot because they are now only 5.5 games behind Washington.

St. Louis has a nine-game lead despite a poor ending to last week,
Virgil Trucks
but it is now New York in second place, 2.5 games ahead of third place Brooklyn. New York continues to ride their good pitching and situational hitting as hard as they can, while Brooklyn had its malaise return again where they just can't put together pitching and hitting at the same time. Boston replaced their manager last weekend and had a good week, but they are doing it with mirrors. Philadelphia should be charging up the standings towards fourth place, but they seem content to toy with sixth place instead. Pittsburgh would love nothing more than to pass their cross-state rival for that sixth spot in the NL standings. Chicago has opened a three-game lead over Cincinnati, but those two are going to be stuck at the bottom of the NL standings in some order no matter what happens.

St. Louis and Ralph Kiner continue to dominate the NL leader categories as Enos Slaughter (.416), Stan Musial (.354) and Red Schoendienst (.345) lead in average. Slaughter (175) has the lead in hits, leading Richie Ashburn (161) and Musial and Schoendienst, both with 160. Kiner has the lead in runs (104), just ahead of Schoendienst (103) and Musial (102). Kiner also has the RBI lead with 117, still well ahead of Musial (102) and Bobby Thomson (98). Del Ennis continues to lead in doubles (34), ahead of Andy Pafko (30) and Whitey Lockman (29). Kiner leads in homeruns (37) over Musial (29) and Thomson (24). Warren Spahn and Harry Brecheen, both 18-5, continue to lead the NL in wins.

Whitey Lockman
Ted Williams pummeled Washington pitching pretty good recently and is now hitting .373, on top of George Kell (.359) and Bob Dillinger (.346). Williams leads in hits (163) over Vic Wertz (160) and Kell (159), Williams leads in runs (129) over Vern Stephens (105) and Dom DiMaggio (104), and Williams leads in RBI's (132) over Stephens (124) and Wertz (92). Kell has the doubles lead (30), but two familiar names (Williams and Stephens) are right behind him with 28. Williams and Stephens are tied for the lead in homeruns (39) as well, ahead of Tommy Henrich (29). Ellis Kinder (19-2). Eddie Lopat (18-2), and Mel Parnell (18-6) lead the AL in wins.


There really isn't much more to report at this point. All teams now have less than 40 games remaining so I am beginning to monitor player usage with a little more scrutiny. A few teams are starting to run thin on relief, while some are close to having too much relief remaining. It is just something to keep an eye on. The stats continue to come into line but I need to bump up both saves and complete games in the AL, although they are kind of mutually exclusive aren't they.


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