1916 BBW Replay Week 12 Summary - June 26-July 02, 1916

New York (NL) Manager
Bill Donovan
Week Twelve of the 1916 BBW Replay is in the books, and it was a full week of games, fifty-nine games played, including seven doubleheaders in the seven-day span. While no team has reached the seventy-game-played mark, Boston (NL) remains the only team yet to reach the sixty-game-played mark with fifty-nine. Given that seventy-seven games would be the halfway point of the season in games played, despite another busy week this coming week, every team will still be approaching the halfway point. Most teams will be in the seventies, with several still stuck in the sixties. And, oh by the way, the replay has now moved into the month of July, and this coming Tuesday is July Fourth, so there will be a holiday doubleheader extravaganza with doubleheaders for all.

In the AL, the Boston Red Sox still maintain a somewhat comfortable lead over the second-place Detroit Tigers. Boston leads the AL hitting and pitching, and somehow manages to bring both to the table in every game they play. Pitching woes were supposed to be the Tigers' bugaboo this season, but they have successfully worked through these issues to date and still maintain a fixed eye on first place and Boston.

 

At the other end of the standings, Philadelphia is going into a summer of try-outs for recently graduated college boys. This process has worked for Connie Mack in the past, and will work again for Mack in the future, but right now, it is going to be rough for the Mackmen. He can’t swap out the whole lineup, so a few bodies are brought in at a time, mixed in with the veterans, given their chance, and then they are moved out to the minors while Mack brings in a new group. By just doing a smaller set of 2-4 players at a time, it allows the A's to stay within the predefined roster limits as well.

 

New York Giants Team
Also floundering at the bottom of the AL standings are Cleveland and Chicago. Both have trouble putting their hitting and pitching together, and even if they win a few games, they promptly give them all back and more. I am not sure either of these teams can make a run for the pennant, but the managers in the top half of the AL all know that if either of these teams - or both - suddenly get the wind at their backs, they can be a real nuisance to those with pennant hopes.

 

In the NL, Brooklyn remains in first place with a somewhat comfortable lead, with a surprising Cincinnati team sitting in second place. The Robins lead the NL in hitting and pitching, while the Reds are hanging in there with their middle-of-the-pack pitching. I wouldn't be surprised if Cincinnati falls back during the final stretch of the season, but they have played strongly so far and, frankly, this is the beginning step of the team that would go to the World Series in 1919.

 

New York Giants Players
As a reminder, the Chicago Cubs spent most of the first month of the season in first place in the NL, but they just spent the end of the week losing all five games of a five-game series in St. Louis. This buries the Cubs in the bottom half of the NL standings, but it provided a boost to the Cardinals, who started the week in last place, but have now moved past Pittsburgh and are right on the tail of Chicago. This was a surprising mid-season turn of events for both teams, so now we see if Chicago can recover or if St. Louis can take advantage.

Since all teams will be much closer to the halfway point by the end of next week, I will post updated league leaders then. In the meantime, let's go play!



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