27 July 2007

1914 American League

Philadelphia won the pennant, their fourth in five years. In the World Series, they got swept by the "Miracle Braves." The Red Sox were a strong second in the AL, but they were the only other really good team. Washington and Detroit were a little over .500, St. Louis, Chicago and New York were a bit below. Cleveland occupied the basement. This was the first year of the rival Federal League, and salaries began to skyrocket as the Feds made offers to lure stars over. Some teams lost significant talent, others traded valuable players rather than lose them.

Statistical leaderboard: Ty Cobb led in the percentage categories, but lost a lot of time to injuries. He batted .368 to Eddie Collins' .344. Tris Speaker and Joe Jackson were at .338. Collins led with 122 runs, Speaker with 193 hits and 46 doubles, Sam Crawford with 26 triples and 104 RBI, Fritz Maisel with 74 steals.

Walter Johnson led in strikeouts with 225, and with 28 wins, as Stan Coveleski was second with 22. Dutch Leonard posted the all-time low, a 0.96 ERA. Rube Foster was second at 1.70. Johnson also led with 33 complete games, 9 shutouts, and 372 innings.

Win Shares leaderboard:
Players; Tris Speaker (Boston) 45, Eddie Collins (Philadelphia) 43, Frank Baker (Philadelphia) 35, Sam Crawford (Detroit) 31, Tilly Walker (St. Louis) 28, Ty Cobb (Detroit) and Del Pratt (St. Louis) 26, Eddie Murphy (Philadelphia) and Eddie Foster (St. Louis) 23, Donie Bush (Detroit) 22.

Pitchers; Walter Johnson (Washington) 38, Dutch Leonard (Boston) 29, Carl Weilman (St. Louis) 24, Harry Coveleski (Detroit) 23, Ray Caldwell (New York) and Earl Hamilton (St. Louis) 22.

WARP3: Speaker 10.2, Collins 8.1, Crawford 6.9, Baker 6.1 (last year before his first career interruption), Walker 6.0 (best year), Bush 5.6, Pratt 5.1, Cobb 4.7 (he played only 98 games), Wally Schang (Philadelphia) 4.1, Ray Schalk (Chicago) 3.9.

Pitchers; Johnson 13.3, Leonard 8.2 (best year, his 0.96 ERA season), Caldwell 6.4, Bill Steen (Cleveland) 6.1, Coveleski 6.0, Weilman 5.9, Hamilton 4.7 (best year), Chief Bender (Philadelphia) 4.5, Ray Fisher (New York) 4.4, Rube Bressler (Philadelphia) and Eddie Cicotte (Chicago) 4.2.

WAR, position players: Speaker 9.3, Collins 8.5, Baker 6.4, Crawford 5.8, Walker 5.2, Bush 5.1, Jackson 4.3, Pratt 3.9, Moriarty 3.6, Gandil 3.4. Pitchers: Johnson 9.9, Leonard 7.9, Caldwell and Weilman 5.4, Coveleski 4.1, Fisher and Hamilton 3.8, Bender 3.7, Bressler 3.5, Steen 3.2.

Award voting:
MVP
Place Name 1st Place Team Points
1 Eddie Collins PHA 7 63
2 Sam Crawford DET 0 35
3 Frank Baker PHA 0 17
3 Donie Bush DET 0 17
5 Joe Jackson CLE 0 15
6 Ray Schalk CHW 0 13
7 Eddie Foster WSH 0 11
7 Stuffy McInnis PHA 0 11
7 Buck Weaver CHW 0 11
10 Del Pratt SLB 0 10
10 Wally Schang PHA 0 10
12 Tris Speaker BOS 0 9
12 Tilly Walker SLB 0 9
14 Ty Cobb DET 0 7
14 Everett Scott BOS 0 7
16 Jack Barry PHA 0 6
16 Dutch Leonard BOS 0 6
18 George McBride WSH 0 5
18 Eddie Plank PHA 0 5

Speaker or Collins, Collins or Speaker.....the voters at the time thought it was clearly Collins. I'm not so sure, but I'll go with it.

Top player; Eddie Collins, mainly because his team won. Collins led the league in runs, was 2nd in batting and on-base. Speaker is #2. He led in hits and total bases, was second in slugging and OPS. Sam Crawford #3, Frank Baker #4, Tilly Walker #5.

Top pitcher; Walter Johnson. Walter looks great, except in comparison with himself the year before. Sure, Dutch Leonard had an 0.96 ERA, and he also had Speaker to run everything down behind him. Walter pitched over 100 more innings. Johnson was 28-18 with a 1.72 ERA. Leonard was 19-5 with a 0.96 ERA. Johnson #1, Leonard #2, Carl Weilman #3, Harry Coveleski #4, Ray Caldwell #5.

Top rookie: George Burns hit .291 in 137 games for Detroit.

Top manager: Connie Mack, extending a terrific run.

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