Roger's 1911 APBA Replay: Week 3 Summary(04/24/1911

St. Louis Browns

Week 3 is in the books and the month of April is completed. This past week saw adjustments at the top of the standings in both leagues, it saw a slew of homeruns (and three grand slams), and the Ty Cobb versus Joe Jackson battle for AL batting supremacy is well underway. One of the things a re-player gets to look forward to in a replay is having those great players have great seasons. Every at-bat for these two is must-see baseball and I can well imagine the sense of excitement the fans in the stands must have felt when these greats strode to the plate.

St. Louis (AL) Manager
Bobby Wallace

Cleveland ended the week atop of the AL standings as Philadelphia only had an OK kind of week, while the Naps pounded Detroit and won their last three games of the week to take a 1.0 game lead. Chicago is sitting in second, a half-game ahead of the A's, and they are currently working on their own five-game winning streak. Philadelphia was never going to lead end-to-end; they do have the best pitching in the AL, but they have struggled to put together a consistent offense so far. Detroit stumbled out of the gate, roared back to draw within a half-game of first, only to then end the week with three losses at home to Cleveland. With Cobb and Crawford finally hitting their groove the Tigers are going to be competitive all season.

In the NL it was New York that got off to a fast start, but then they ended the week by losing two games, only see Pittsburgh jump past them into first place. The Pirates lost on Sunday so both teams now both have 10-3 records. The Giants are hitting .330 as a team, but surprisingly it is their pitching that has struggled. Manager John McGraw will settle that out, but Pittsburgh is no slouch and will be there as well. Philadelphia has a strong offense (team .310 batting average) and should be able to hang around, but beneath these three teams, there has been a lot of shuffling up and down in the standings so far.

The offenses in both leagues have been on fire so far. ERA's for both leagues are up by about three-quarters of a run per game so far, I have had several double-digit games including some games where both teams reached double-digit runs scored. There were three grand slams this past week plus there were a total of eight three-run homeruns as well - not sure where any of this came from, but they just kept coming. Joe Jackson (.521, 38 hits, 21 runs scored, 20 RBI's, and 14 doubles) plus Nap Lajoie (.437, 22 RBI's) have powered the Naps to the top of the AL while Ty Cobb (.441, 19 RBI's) to drive the Tigers forward. Cobb has seven stolen bases but also has seven caughts.

The Giants are hitting .330 as a team which means they are pounding the ball up and down the lineup. Of the eight non-pitchers in the starting lineup, only one of which is hitting less than .300 is Larry Doyle (.291). Once the schedule settles down and then pitching rotation settles in they will be in good shape. Pittsburgh is on a roll, but I don't think they will be able to keep it up.

There have been a ton of player ejections so far. The AL is averaging a HBP per game so far and tempers are obviously running hot. That number is projecting well ahead of the actual HBP number, so while I do expect this to level off, it's just another reminder that you never know what is going to happen next. Overall, the replay is going well. Of course, it's still early and there are lots of games remaining - the east coast teams haven't played any of their midwestern brethren yet in either league - but we move into May tomorrow so we keep moving along.

https://pixels.com/featured/sportsman-park-1909-gary-grigsby.html?product=poster