For those of you embarking this trolley along the route, the premise of the exercise can be found HERE.
OVERVIEW
No franchise moves or changes to the league structure for the 1911 season.
OFFSEASON / PRESEASON
Six new modded NeLers enter the league in 1911, bringing the active total to 50:
- OF Jimmie Lyons (21); Black Sox
- P Dizzy Dismukes (21); Grays SABR BIO
- P Jose Junco (20); ABCs
- P Dick Redding (20); Monarchs SABR BIO
- C Pearl Webster (21); Cardinals (via the Draft)
- P Tom Johnson (21); Dodgers (via the Draft) SABR BIO
Notable 1911 rookies include Everett Scott (Red Sox); Rabbit Maranville (Braves); Nemo Leibold and Ray Schalk (White Sox); Vic Saier (Cubs); Heinie Groh and Dolf Luque (Reds); Bob Shawkey (Yankees); Erskine Mayer (Phillies); and Wilbur Cooper (Pirates).
Outfielder Tillie Walker is taken first overall by the Phillies in this year’s Draft.
As well as taking Tom Johnson with our R1 pick and signing “Striker” Gonzalez as a FA, my Dodgers get 3B Red Smith as a rookie, who’ll come into the group when Carlos Moran walks at the end of the year.
Notable offseason moves include Jack Pfiester, Al Bridwell, Regino Garcia, and Bill Carrigan (Black Sox); Cy Young (Red Sox); Walter Ball (Braves); Mike Mitchell and Hal Chase (White Sox); Bill Pettus and (Wahoo) Sam Crawford (Cubs); Louis Drucke and Ed Karger (Reds); Art Devlin, Andrew Payne, and Cy Seymour (Monarchs); John Knight (Yankees); Dode Paskert (Giants); Heinie Wagner and Johnny Bates (Phillies); Kid Elberfeld (Pirates); Tom Hughes (Browns); and Bris Lord (Senators).
OPENING DAY PREVIEW
The top-ranked position player is Tigers outfielder Ty Cobb.
The top-ranked pitcher is Washington’s Walter Johnson.
The top-rated prospect is age-24 P Grover Cleveland Alexander of the Phillies.
The top-ranked farm system belongs to the Reds.
BNN sees the races looking like this:
- AL East: 117-45 Red Sox 8 clear of the Athletics, with the 62-100 Black Sox in the cellar.
- AL Central: 94-68 White Sox 14 clear of the Buckeyes, with the 51-111 Browns in the cellar.
- NL East: 110-52 Giants 24 clear of the Dodgers, with the 72-90 Grays in the cellar.
- NL Central: 107-55 Pirates 7 clear of the Cubs, with the 47-115 Reds in the cellar.
REGULAR SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
04/03: A big OD for Pirates outfielder Owen Wilson, who goes 5-for-5 with 3 homers, 5 runs scored and 8 RBI in a 16-5 pummelling of the Cardinals.
04/07: The Athletics lose Frank Baker for 6 weeks to shoulder tendinitis.
05/20: Cardinals pitcher Harry Coveleski misses 5 months, with shoulder problems again the cause.
06/02: Tris Speaker hits for the cycle and drives in 7 as the Red Sox thrash the White Sox 18-5.
06/07: Harry Davis is the first player in this timeline to reach 200 career home runs.
06/19: Hurley McNair hits safely in 30 straight games, the sixth-longest such streak in MLB history.
06/21: Eddie Plank makes it to 250 career Wins.
07/01: The ABCs endure a 14-game losing streak and are undoubtedly the laggard among the four 1906 expansion clubs to this point.
07/25: Tom Hughes earns his 200th career Win.
07/29: Pittsburgh’s Babe Adams earns the W against the Cubs to move to 20-1 on the year.
09/08: After coming so close last year, Jake Stahl belts his 38th homer of the season to break Tim Jordan’s previous record of 37.
09/16: Mordecai Brown earns the 200th Win of his MLB career.
REGULAR SEASON RECAP
A couple tight races, a couple clear-cut ones.
AL
The BoSox are utterly dominant, finishing with an MLB record 120 wins—21 games clear of the Athletics.
The Buckeyes once again find themselves competing for that elusive AL Central title with the White Sox, looking for their third straight. They hold a narrow lead entering the final fortnight’s play and this time make no mistake, earning themselves the daunting but richly-deserved task of taking on the BoSox.
NL
Despite losing Cy Barger for most of the year in late April, my Dodgers register a winning record in every month and ride a 10-game win streak in early August, then hang on for grim life – as the Giants harry us from behind to the very end – to lock down our first playoff appearance.
The Cardinals try to go with the Pirates when they make a run for it in the NL Central over the middle third of the campaign; unsuccessfully, as it turns out, with Pittsburgh doing it fairly easily in the end.
With ourselves and the Buckeyes breaking our playoff droughts, that leaves the Braves, Reds and Senators along with the four expansion clubs still to cross this Rubicon.
Not quite the individual fireworks of a year ago but still some shining achievements to be had from the 1911 campaign:
- Joe Jackson hits .407 with 22 HR and 110 RBI to win his first AL batting title
- Veteran Sam Crawford wins his second in the NL, hitting .347
- Along with his new HR record – interestingly, he never adds to his 38 – Jake Stahl sets a new season high with 166 RBI
NeLER NOTES
Jules Thomas continues on his merry way with another outstanding campaign that sees him hit .351 with 30 HR and only John Henry Lloyd’s 6.9 WAR eclipses him among position players from this group. Spot Poles – who sets a new single-season mark with 68 SB – is another standout, and Gervasio Gonzalez rounds out those with 5 or more WAR.
Joe Williams’ rollercoaster season ends with him at 22-17. On an rWAR basis, Jose Mendez is – despite his 22 losses – the clear standout with 9.5 to Joe’s 6.3. Rube Foster also enjoys a nice year with a smidge under 6.
Jose Munoz goes 10-16 to sit at 100-194 lifetime, while Frank Wickware loses 26 and Bill Gatewood 25.
This is Julian Perez’s final season in the game and his career stats are included below.
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
We split the opening pair of games at Forbes Field, with Tom Johnson giving us a 3-hit shutout in G1. Two wins give us the chance to seal the deal at home but we stumble with a 6-3 loss and they win again to send us to a Game 7.
The lads show incredible poise to regroup and book our passage to the WS with a gutsy 5-2 win behind Schoolboy again.
Cleveland gives plenty of cheek early in their series, almost pinching G2 and then winning their first home game. Boston needs some late magic to take G4 and then show their class with a 7-2 win to clinch.
We get a strong start to our maiden World Series with a somewhat unexpected 5-3 win at Fenway as Nap Rucker beats superstar Joe Wood, but they even things up the next day via a win with the same scoreline.
Three Fall Classic games are a most fitting end for our grand old dame Washington Park as we move into the newly-built Ebbets Field for 1912. We lose the first of them 4-2 to all-time great Cy Young, who pops a homer for good measure, then again the next day as Smoky Joe exacts his revenge in the form of a 4-hit shutout.
You don’t get too many chances against this outfit and we waste a few they do give us in Game 5, opening the door for the Sox to take their second straight title and fourth overall with a 7-5 victory.
Tris Speaker is again named MVP.
1911 RECAP
A staggering sixth MVP in the NL for Honus Wagner, with Joe Jackson taking his first in the AL. Maiden CYA wins as well to Ray Collins of the Red Sox and Pittsburgh’s Babe Adams.
Yankee Ray Caldwell and Doc Miller of the Braves are this year’s RoYs, while Roy Mitchell of Baltimore and Indy’s Rube Geyer win the relief awards.
The legendary man himself, Denton “Cy” Young, takes his leave of the game with a “hybrid” total of 519 Wins.
He, of course, is a first-ballot lock, and really only Bad Bill Dahlen among the other retirees this year has any legitimate chance of joining him at Cooperstown at some stage.
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 – Honus Wagner, 6 MVPs!
As you’d expect, especially with my elevated power environment, he and Lajoie have dominated proceedings so far, but Honus edged him by quite a bit – 30 or so WAR, 16 JAWS, 2 MVPs, 3 ASG appearances. Larry has four rings to his two, however.