1916 American League

Boston outraced Chicago (by two games) and Detroit (by four games) for the pennant, their second in a row, then won the World Series. New York and St. Louis were also above .500, while Cleveland was at .500 and Washington was a game below. The whole league beat up on Philadelphia, with 117 losses. Everybody else was, or nearly was, above average.

Tris Speaker led in many of the statistical categories, including taking the batting title with a .386 average, besting Ty Cobb's .371. Speaker also led in on-base, slugging, and OPS, as well as with 211 hits and tied with teammate Jack Graney at 41 doubles. Cobb led with 113 runs and 68 steals. Joe Jackson had 21 triples, Wally Pipp 12 homers. Del Pratt had 103 RBI. Walter Johnson led pitchers with 25 wins and 228 strikeouts, while Babe Ruth took the ERA title at 1.75.

Win Shares, Players; Tris Speaker (Cleveland) 41, Ty Cobb (Detroit) 40, Joe Jackson (Chicago) 34, Eddie Collins (Chicago) 31, Larry Gardner (Boston) and Bobby Veach (Detroit) 27, Harry Hooper (Boston) and Burt Shotton (St. Louis) 26, George Sisler (St. Louis) 25.

WS, Pitchers; Babe Ruth (Boston) 37, Walter Johnson (Washington) 36, Harry Coveleski (Detroit) and Bob Shawkey (New York) 27, Dutch Leonard and Carl Mays (Boston) 22.

WARP3: Speaker and Cobb 8.7, Collins 7.7, Jackson 6.5, Veach 5.9, Shotton (right before his career jolted to a stop) and Sisler 5.4, Hooper 5.3, Del Pratt (St. Louis) 5.2, Gardner 4.6.

Pitchers: Johnson 11.9 (in the last year of a run of 7 consecutive ERAs under 2.00), Ruth 10.1, Shawkey 8.2 (best year), Joe Bush (Philadephia) 8.0, Coveleski 6.9 (last good year), Mays 6.3, Harry Harper (Washington) 5.2, Carl Weilman (St. Louis) 5.1, Jim Bagby (Cleveland) 4.8, Leonard 4.7.

WAR, position players: Speaker 9.2, Cobb 9.1, Jackson and Collins 7.6, Gardner and Veach 5.7, Strunk 5.6, Shotton 5.5, Peckinpaugh 5.4, Felsch 5.3. Pitchers: Johnson 7.8, Ruth 7.4, Shawkey 5.8, Coveleski 5.6, Leonard 4.2, Bush 4.0, Harper and Weilman 3.9, Mays 3.6, Russell 3.4.

Best player: Tris Speaker. Speaker and Cobb are very close, I'll take the Grey Eagle. Speaker led in batting average, hits, times on base, and OPS. #2 man Cobb led in runs and steals and was 2nd in OPS. Eddie Collins #3, Joe Jackson (the triples leader) #4, Bobby Veach #5.

Best pitcher: Walter Johnson. Ruth was great, but Walter was better for a team that was much worse. Johnson was 25-20, 1.90, while Ruth was 23-12, 1.75. #3 is Bob Shawkey, 24-14, 2.21. Harry Coveleski was #4, at 21-11, 1.95, Dutch Leonard at #5.

Best rookie: Whitey Witt, batted .245 as shortstop for Philadelphia.

Best manager: Bill Carrigan again, in his last year as a player, and the last in this stint as Red Sox skipper.