04 April 2007

1885 American Association

Back to a more normal eight teams in the AA for this year, with St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Louisville, Brooklyn, New York, and Baltimore finishing in that order. Columbus, Indianapolis, Richmond, Toledo and Washington were gone. The Browns actually ran away with the pennant, ending ahead of Cincinnati by 16 games, but there were no real patsies.

Pete Browning topped the loop with a .362 average, then came Dave Orr at .342, Henry Larkin .329, Charley Jones .322, Harry Stovey .315, Tom Brown .307, and Bill Phillips at .302. Stovey scored 130 runs, Larkin 114 and Jones 108. Larkin had 37 doubles and Browning 34. Orr had 21 triples, Bill Kuehne 19. Stovey hit 13 home runs and Frank Fennelly 10. Fennelly had 89 RBI and Larkin 88.

Bob Caruthers emerged at age 21 with 40 wins. Ed Morris won 39, Dave Foutz and Henry Porter 33, Guy Hecker and Bobby Mathews won 30. Caruthers led in ERA with a 2.07 mark, Hecker was at 2.18, Morris 2.35, Mathews 2.43, Foutz 2.63. Morris led with 298 strikeouts, Mathews 286, Hardie Henderson 263.

AA Win Shares leaders, pitchers; Ed Morris (Pittsburgh) 56, Bob Caruthers (St. Louis) 51, Guy Hecker (Louisville) 42, Dave Foutz (St. Louis) 37, Hardie Henderson (Baltimore) 36, Henry Porter (Brooklyn) 35, Bobby Mathews (Philadelphia) 26.

Position players; Pete Browning (Louisville) 28, Dave Orr (New York) 27, Charley Jones (Cincinnati) 24, Frank Fennelly (Cincinnati), Henry Larkin and Harry Stovey (both Philadelphia) 23 each, Curt Welch (St. Louis) 22, Candy Nelson (New York) and Sam Barkley (St. Louis) 21, Tom Brown (Pittsburgh) 20.

WARP3 leaderboard scores: Pitchers, Morris 8.1, Henderson 5.5 (career year), Hecker and Porter 5.2 (rookie year, career year for Porter), Caruthers 3.7 (first full year), Not WARP3 leaders were Mathews 2.6 (last good year) and Foutz 2.0.

WARP3 leaders, position players; Browning 8.5 (best year), Jones 7.1, Orr 6.7, Larkin 6.5 (best year), Stovey 6.3, Brown 5.7, Doc Bushong (St. Louis) and John Reilly (Cincinnati ) 5.2, Harry Stovey (Philadelphia) 4.8, Pop Snyder (Cincinnati) 4.7, Welch 4.3, Barkley 4.0. Not faring as well in WARP were Fennelly 1.9, and Nelson 1.8.

WAR leaders, pitchers: Morris 13.5, Caruthers 10.9, Hecker and Mathews 7.5, Henderson and Porter 7.2, Foutz 6.2, McKeon 5.1. Position players: Browning 5.4, Orr 4.6, Stovey 3.9, Jones 3.8, Nelson 3.4, Barkley, Brown, and Fennelly 3.0.

Top pitcher: Ed "Cannonball" Morris was throwing lefty heat again, from an underhand delivery as required at the time. Morris was 2nd in wins, 3rd in ERA, and 1st in strikeouts.

#1 Ed Morris, #2 Bob Caruthers, #3 Guy Hecker, #4 Bobby Mathews, #5 Henry Porter.

Top player: Pete Browning was the top hitter in the league again, and that overcame his fielding miscues to make him the top player.

#1 Pete Browning, #2 Dave Orr, #3 Charley Jones, #4 Henry Larkin, #5 Harry Stovey.

Top rookie: Harry Porter was the best rookie, in his only above-average year.

Top manager: Charles Comiskey, riding two ace pitchers to bring a pennant to St. Louis.

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