07 July 2007

1911 National League

New York outdistanced Chicago for the pennant, winning by 7.5 games. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and St. Louis were above .500, Cincinnati and Brooklyn were also-rans, while Boston lost 107 games. The Braves had horrid pitching and hitting.

The Numbers Game---
Statistical leaders: Offense didn't pick up in the NL quite as much as it did in the AL, but it did some. Honus Wagner was back on top with a .334 average, edging Doc Miller by a point with Chief Meyers another point behind. Jimmy Sheckard led in runs, Miller in hits, Frank "Wildfire" Schulte in total bases, home runs, and RBI (tied), Ed Konetchy in doubles, Larry Doyle in triples, Bob Bescher in steals, and Chief Wilson tied for the RBI lead.

Pete Alexander led with 28 wins, followed by Christy Mathewson with 26 and Rube Marquard with 24. Mathewson led with a 1.99 ERA, trailed by Lew Richie with a 2.31 mark and Babe Adams at 2.33. Rube Marquard took the strikeout lead with 237, followed by Alexander at 227. Alexander had seven shutouts, 31 complete games, and 367 innings. Mordecai Brown led the league with 13 saves, which established a new single-season record, though no one was counting at the time. The record would stand until 1924.

Win Shares leaderboard:
Players; Frank (Wildfire) Schulte (Chicago) 31, Jimmy Sheckard (Chicago) and Honus Wagner (Pittsburgh) 30, Larry Doyle (New York) 28, Ed Konetchy (St. Louis) 26, Johnny Bates (Cincinnati) and Fred Snodgrass (New York) 23, Heinie Zimmerman (Chicago), Chief Wilson (Pittsburgh) and Steve Evans (St. Louis) 22.

Pitchers; Pete Alexander (Philadelphia) 34, Christy Mathewson (New York) 32, Nap Rucker (Brooklyn) 31, Rube Marquard (New York) 26, Miner Brown (Chicago) and Babe Adams (Pittsburgh) 25, Earl Moore (Philadelphia) and Lefty Leifield (Pittsburgh) 24.

WARP3: Wagner 7.0, Sheckard 6.8, Schulte 5.1, Joe Tinker (Chicago) 4.6, Chief Meyers (New York) 4.5, Konetchy 4.2, Fred Clarke (Pittsburgh) and Jake Daubert (Brooklyn) 3.6, L. Doyle, Art Fletcher (New York) and Jim Doyle (Chicago) 3.5.

Pitchers; Rucker 9.7, Alexander 8.2 in his rookie year, Mathewson 7.2, Marquard 5.7, Adams and Leifield (best year) 5.5 , George Suggs (Cincinnati) 5.4, Moore 5.0 (last good season), Bob Harmon (St. Louis) 4.5, Bobby Keefe (Cincinnati) 4.3, Jeff Tesreau (New York) 4.0, Lew Richie (Chicago) 3.6, Brown 3.4.

WAR, players: Wagner 7.5, Doyle 6.5, Sheckard and Schulte 6.4, Konetchy 5.9, Bates 5.3, Snodgrass and Tinker 4.9, Merkle 4.8, Herzog 4.7.

Pitchers: Alexander 7.8, Rucker 7.7, Mathewson 7.3, Adams 6.5, Leifield 6.2, Marquard 6.0, Moore 5.4, Richie 5.0, Keefe 4.5.

1911 was also the first year of "official" awards. 8 voters, one from each city (counting Brooklyn as a separate city) cast ballots. Here are the results, from baseball-reference.com:
Place Name Team 1st place Points
1 Frank Schulte CHC 0 29
2 Christy Mathewson NYG 0 25
3 Pete Alexander PHI 0 23
3 Larry Doyle NYG 0 23
3 Honus Wagner PIT 0 23
6 Miller Huggins STL 0 21
7 Rube Marquard NYG 0 19
7 Fred Merkle NYG 0 19
9 Jake Daubert BRO 0 16
10 Chief Meyers NYG 0 11
10 Joe Tinker CHC 0 11
12 Mike Mitchell CIN 0 9
12 Jimmy Sheckard CHC 0 9
14 Mickey Doolan PHI 0 6
14 Bob Harmon STL 0 6
16 Jimmy Archer CHC 0 5
17 Bob Bescher CIN 0 4
17 Mordecai Brown CHC 0 4
17 George Gibson PIT 0 4
17 Hans Lobert PHI 0 4
21 Bill Sweeney BSN 0 3
22 Josh Devore NYG 0 2
22 Dick Hoblitzel CIN 0 2
22 Otto Knabe PHI 0 2
22 Ed Konetchy STL 0 2
22 Jimmy Walsh PHI 0 2
27 Babe Adams PIT 0 1
27 Johnny Kling TOT 0 1
27 Fred Luderus PHI 0 1
27 Nap Rucker BRO 0 1
Don't understand the lack of first-place votes. Could be a typo, or perhaps voters voted for both leagues together, as in the original Cy Young voting.

Top player: Honus Wagner returned to his accustomed place as the finest player in the National League. Frank Schulte was terrific for the Cubs, Larry Doyle excellent offensively (he never was good with the glove) for the winning Giants, Sheckard as usual an on-base machine, and Ed Konetchy is a terrific unrecognized player.

#1 Wagner, #2 Schulte, #3 Doyle, #4 Sheckard, #5 Konetchy.

Top pitcher: Christy Mathewson. Big Six was getting by more on guile and less on stuff at this point, but his big year for the pennant winners should not be overlooked. Pete Alexander came up big as a rookie, Nap Rucker had a solid year as the usually hard-luck pitcher won 22, and Rube Marquard won 24 for his first big year.
#1 Mathewson, #2 Alexander, #3 Marquard, #4 Rucker, #5 Adams.

Top rookie: Grover Cleveland Alexander. Led NL in wins his first year in the league.

Top manager: John McGraw leads the Giants back to the top.

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