For those of you embarking this trolley along the route, the premise of the exercise can be found HERE.
OVERVIEW
We get our first major divergence from this historical as the league expands from 16 to 20 teams, with two divisions of five teams in both the AL and NL.
This will add a best-of-seven League Championship round to the playoffs.
The AAA level has also been introduced and here’s how the new structure looks at each level:
As you can see, I have added some flavours of the NeL to reflect the player composition and overriding spirit of this endeavour.
Certain franchises will evolve over the years to ultimately imbue this league with a fair resemblance to the IRL modern day setup with a few choice differences. All in good time!
The other major feature I will be introducing at this point is a fairly controlled orchestration of where the better-known players end up playing. This will give us a much more realistic look at exactly how the NeL guys might have fared in the MLB if given the chance.
I can’t control player movement 100% without turning off trading, which I don’t want to do. So I have instead reduced the trading frequency setting to the first above NIL, which means there won’t be all that much action other than my behind-the-scenes machinations.
I’ll be completely transparent about the moves I make and you’ll have to trust me when I say the last thing I want in this exercise is to make it easier for my Dodgers to win. That makes it a fairly boring process for me. So my policy is, if in doubt cut it out. In other words, acquiring players will be doubly hard for me as for other clubs and we’ll get no favours from me in my secondary role as Commish. Players who spent any time at all with our club but who didn’t join us as rookies will be Draft Eligible for us if not “Spoken For” elsewhere. If we draft them, they are immediately eligible. If we don’t, they’ll only become eligible to play for us from the same season as they did IRL, as per the original agreement. This hopefully gives me the “Goldilocks Zone” I seek between realism and personal interest, although it will almost certainly need some fine tuning along the way.
At the start of each offseason, I will be allocating certain rookies to their historical clubs. Just the big names and certain other guys to ensure a level of competitive parity. The NeL rooks each year will go to the four new Negro League clubs (and the fifth franchise that comes in a bit further down the track); same goes for some fictional players when a few ahistorical clubs join the fray in 1920.
I will also be allocating Free-Agents in this timeline to their historical clubs where appropriate. It’s very much a “use ’em or ‘lose ’em” kind of deal. If clubs re-sign these guys, I won’t touch them. They are only fair game when they declare as FAs. When I see players at their correct club as unsigned pending FA, I will manually extend their contracts to match the IRL where appropriate.
My entire aim is to as closely replicate the historical as possible while catering for all these other extraneous factors and giving the non-historical franchises a chance to be competitive.
While all of this might sound complicated, I’ll make it fairly easy to follow along on a yearly basis by only highlighting the puppets, not the hands animating them, if you get my drift.
The annual Rookie Draft will continue, although obviously its importance will henceforth be greatly reduced. All the same, it will allow clubs to fill out their main rosters and farm systems with players who, while perhaps not superstars, could still prove incredibly handy. Plus there’ll be quite a few players who moved around a lot in their historical careers and who will be left as “free electrons” to go where the wind (or fake money) takes them.
An Expansion Draft was held at the end of the 1905 season to allow the new clubs to gather players and I was fairly ruthless with regard to player eligibility in order that they not be completely hopeless. We’ll just have to see how successful I was in this regard. Freddy Parent (Red Sox to ABCs) and Homer Smoot (Cardinals to Monarchs) were arguably the two biggest names to feature.
OK then, on with the “Show”!
OFFSEASON / PRESEASON
We get five new modified NeLers:
- OF Ashby Dunbar (26); Grays
- OF Charles Earle (22); Black Sox
- P Bill Gatewood (19); Monarchs SABR BIO
- SS John Henry Lloyd (21); Buckeyes SABR BIO
- C Bruce Petway (20); ABCs SABR BIO
Rookies of note in the allocation for 1906 include Tris Speaker and Bill Carrigan (Red Sox), Heinie Zimmerman (Cubs), Donie Bush (Tigers), Rube Marquard, Larry Doyle and Jack Meyers (Giants), Cocky Collins and Jack Coombs (Athletics), Babe Adams (Pirates), and Clyde Milan (Senators).
Ed “Loose” Karger, taken first overall by the Monarchs, is probably the biggest name among this year’s draftees.
My Brooklyn club neither receives nor drafts anyone of note. Nor do we sign any notable Free-Agents.
Interesting offseason moves include Bob Wicker to the Cubs, Red Donahue to the Reds, Tully Sparks to the Buckeyes, NeLer Jose Munoz to the ABCs, Fielder Jones to the Giants, Sammy Strang to the Athletics, and Tom Hughes to the Senators.
OPENING DAY PREVIEW
The top-ranked position player is Pirates SS Honus Wagner.
The top-ranked pitcher is Ed Walsh of the White Sox.
The top-rated prospect is age-19 2B Laughing Larry Doyle of the Giants.
The Preseason Predictions see the divisional races as follows:
- AL East: 117-45 Athletics 15 clear of the Yankees, with the 43-119 Black Sox in the cellar.
- AL Central: 102-60 Browns 10 clear of the Buckeyes, with the 46-116 Monarchs in the cellar.
- NL East: 110-52 Phillies 15 clear of the Giants, with the 43-119 Grays in the cellar.
- NL Central: 108-54 Cubs 15 clear of the Cardinals, with the 58-104 ABCs in the cellar.
Doesn’t say much for my competitive balancing act!
REGULAR SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
04/02: The three expansion clubs playing today (not KC) win their first-ever MLB game.
04/15: Big Jeff Pfeffer, whom the Braves are using in a two-way capacity, justifies the move by clipping the Cardinals for the cycle.
04/27: Pittsburgh’s Jack Chesbro no-hits the ABCs.
04/29: A massive loss for the Giants, with Christy Mathewson to miss 5 months due to a bout of shoulder inflammation.
05/30: After winning 10 decisions from 10 to start the season, we hand Chicago’s Ed Reulbach his first loss for the year.
06/05: Bunk Congalton of the Yanks hits safely in 36 consecutive games, just 2 shy of Mike Donlin’s MLB record.
06/29: Harry Steinfeldt pops 3 homers for Cincy against the Cubs—one to tie the game with none out in the 9th and another to walk it off in the 10th—just the fourth time the feat has been achieved, with Harry now responsible for two of those.
07/08: A knee injury knocks Giants SP Jack Powell out for the year.
07/10: The AL wins the All-Star Game 6-4, with our own Judge Lumley named MVP.
07/31: The Braves and Browns swap pitchers at the Deadline, with Irv Young headed to St. Louis and Glenn Liebhardt to Boston.
08/01: Buck Freeman of the Red Sox collects the cycle against the Monarchs.
09/01: The Athletics suffer a massive setback with ace Charles Bender done for the year and all of next season as well after he tears his UCL. They’ll also be without Jimmy Dygert, who suffers a setback rehabbing a forearm strain.
09/06: Detroit catcher Jay Clarke has been the undisputed surprise packet this season and he adds another feather to his cap by hitting for the cycle against the Yankees.
REGULAR SEASON RECAP
AL
The Athletics lead pretty much from go to whoa and run out easy winners in the AL East.
While the Buckeyes hang in there as long as they can and even cause some nervy moments toward the end, the Browns atone for narrowly missing out last season with a first AL Central title.
NL
The Cubs are never troubled and actually seem to get stronger as the season progresses, clinching in early September and finishing with 115 wins.
The Phillies make their move in July, putting some distance on their NL East rivals with a 12-game run of wins and go on to a comfortable division win.
My Dodgers start the season dreadfully – losing pitcher Harry McIntire for a full year in the process – and never really recover, finishing 80-82 and in mid-standings. If not for the expansion clubs we might have lost 100, going 37-65 against the six established franchises.
One highlight for us is Harry Lumley hitting .362 with 24 HR and 136 RBI to earn our club its second Triple Crown.
I actually expected more hitting records to fall with the expansion clubs diluting the talent pool, but only the following new marks are set:
- Tim Jordan (WAS) 37 HR
- Hal Chase (NYY) 705 AB; 261 Hits
- Sherry Magee (PHI) 71 doubles
Ed Reulbach of the Cubs also sets a new low ERA with 1.80 and various “per 9” records as well including an 0.99 WHIP.
Pending FA Bill Monroe is the pick of the NeL hitters this year with nearly 7 WAR, ahead of Pete Hill and Grant Johnson.
Both Walter Ball and Rube Foster enjoy 20-Win campaigns and, while Jose Munoz does see his Losses cut by more than half this year, his career record now sits at a ghastly 40-73.
FINAL MLB STANDINGS
AL STAT LEADERS
NL STAT LEADERS
* Please note there are some discrepancies regarding players’ correct teams in these stat leaders screenshots from the early years due to them having been taken retrospectively.
PLAYOFFS
The curse of ’06 strikes the Cubs in this timeline as well as they are unceremoniously dumped by the Phillies 4-1 in the NLCS and, when the Athletics somehow manage to pull off a miracle comeback from 3-1 down to break Browns fans’ hearts, all roads lead to the City of Brotherly Love.
The host Phillies get a blowout win in the opener with Al Orth spinning a 5-hit shutout and they notch a come-from-behind win the next game as well.
The occasion seems to be utterly overwhelming the Athletics as the Phillies destroy them 14-3 in Game 3 but they somehow manage to get up off the canvas and break their duck with a tough 8-4 win the next day and storm home to stay alive with a nailbiting 6-5 victory in Game 5.
Now they have all the momentum, forcing a Game 7 with another dogged 3-2 road win and the Phillies have nothing left in the tank, dropping their fourth straight 4-0 to hand the A’s their second Championship.
Socks Seybold, who also won the award in the ALCS, in named World Series MVP.
1906 RECAP
A first MVP for Harry Davis; a third for the great Honus Wagner. Harry Lumley’s TC effort is only good enough for fourth in the NL.
Guys named Ed continue to feature prominently on the pitching honour roll, with Walsh and Reulbach taking out this year’s CYAs.
Jack Pfiester and Harry Niles are the 1906 RoYs.
We in Brooklyn get our sole nod with Frank Kitson joining Fred Burchell in winning this year’s reliever awards.
A few notable retirees this year—Kid Nichols, Hugh Duffy, Noodles Hahn and the tragic Chick Stahl.
NeL-obsessed member from Sydney, Australia who spends an inordinate amount of my free time running simulations of various natures on Out of the Park Baseball.
Wow – the Cubs with 115 wins, just one win away from their real life total! And just like in real life, they could not win it all!