1908 Statistics Update
We’ve reached the end of another week, which means it’s time to see how the stats are doing.
First, the standings:
The Giants have won 11 in a row, and are building up a lead in the National League. The Cubs are still hanging in there, but honestly only by a thread. It’s early, but the more the Cubs misstep the easier it’s going to be for the Giants to hold on.
The American League is still a four team pennant race. The Tigers and White Sox, who featured prominently in the race in real life, are both sliding down to the second division. Cleveland has been on a winning streak, but we’ll see how long that lasts.
Batting Leaders
We’ll look at the American League batting leaders first:
Josh Clarke of the Naps has defied all expectations so far, hitting a whopping .368 — much better than the .242 he managed in real life. It’s early, of course.
Meanwhile, Harry Niles has been hitting the cover off the ball for the last place Highlanders. With 5 home runs, he has also equaled his real life total for the entire 1908 season. Still, he hasn’t been enough to help the Highlanders, who have been awful.
Now the National League:
Honus Wagner is a great player, but the Giants have more than one great offensive star — which is why they keep winning.
Pitching Leaders
Now on to pitching.
I suppose Cy Young is the biggest story here. Young was 41 years old in real life, and yet still managed a 1.26 ERA and a 21-11 record. He hasn’t won that many games in the replay, but his ERA is just as microscopic.
It’s interesting to see two Cardinals among the National League pitching leaders. Mathewson’s ERA might not be the best in the league (though it’s still incredible at 1.38), but he has also not lost a game yet, putting up a perfect 8-0 record.
League Stats
Now comes the interesting part. Let’s look at batting first:
The American League has a .238 / .293 / .305 batting line so far in this replay. The real life line was .239 / .294 / .304. I suppose it could be a little bit closer, but this is still incredible for a tabletop game.
It seems that National League batting is still depressed. The line here is .229 / .284 / .295 against a real life line of .239 / .299 / .306. I wish it were a bit closer — and it might be my own fault for not using enough poor pitchers. Of course, it is still early.
The American league has a 2.35 ERA, as opposed to 2.39 in real life. We’ve got a 1.15 WHIP in our replay, which compares well to the 1.13 WHIP in real life.
Meanwhile, pitching in the National League is just a tad overpowered. The replay ERA so far is 2.25, a bit over the 2.35 of real life. The replay WHIP is 1.11 compared to 1.14 in real life — again, very close. We’re probably seeing fewer extra base hits than we should be seeing at this point in time.
I always like looking at the fielding stats, even though we’re not quite far enough into the replay for them to be all that relevant. The double play statistics don’t quite match up with what they were in real life, though it is still early. Fielding percentages are right on, though: .960 in the National League compared to .961 in real life, and .954 in the American League compared to .958 in real life.
Overall, I think this is pretty good for a card and dice game. We’ll keep an eye on this as the replay continues.