[Highlander]

Spent some more time running seasons, so I have a lot to update!

1945 St. Louis Cardinals vs. 1923 New York Giants

The real life Cards were 95-59 and finished in 2nd place behind the Cubs. They were one of the few 100 game winners in the 1st round, however, as they finished at 101-61.

The Giants are going to be a familiar bunch, as the 1922 team has already made an appearance.....remember they got beat by the 2019 Dodgers, so maybe an earlier opponent will help them. The real life Giants were 95-58 and then lost to the Yankees in the World Series. They were quite a bit better in the 1st round than their 1922 counterparts, as they finished at an impressive 98-64.

The Giants jumped right out to a big lead in their home season, as they beat the Cardinals 96-66. The 22 team struggled in the season outside of their era, but this one was much closer, and even though the Cards won the 1945 season 88-74, it wasn't enough. The Giants move on 170-154.

1903 Pittsburgh Pirates vs. 2001 Cleveland Indians

The Pirates are from the earliest year represented in this tournament. In real life, they finished at 91-49 and then lost the very first World Series 5 games to 3 against the Boston Pilgrims. They were 92-70 in the 1st round.

The 2001 Indians were 91-71, winning their division. They lost in the division series to the 116 game winning Mariners. There were a lot of teams from 2001 that I would have picked to be here over the Indians, but they finished at 93-69 to make it clear they were the ones to represent 2001.

This was one of the most interesting and surprising matchups so far. The 1903 season played out first and the Indians jumped right out to an 84-79 lead. Based on past teams, I expected the Pirates to really struggle in the season played close to 100 years after they were around. This time that wasn't the case! The Pirates showed they are going to be a contender by going 106-56 in 2001 to blow out the Indians 184-140. They had a bigger number of pitchers who could fill in those relief roles, so that really helped. Plus, they were able to have 4 guys hit 30+ HR....so they are going to be able to compete in all eras it seems.

1938 New York Yankees vs. 1998 New York Yankees

Not surprisingly, the Yankees are very well-represented in this competition....some expected teams and some not. Although, both of these teams were highly favored to represent their years. The 1938 Yankees were 99-53 and swept the Cubs in the World Series. They left no doubt in the 1st round, going 98-64.

The 1998 Yankees are one of the winningest teams ever, as they went 114-48 and then swept the Padres in the World Series. Their 95-67 1st round win shows they may not be as dominant as some might think, however.

This matchup started out, as all of them do, in the earliest year. The 98 Yankees seemed right at home back in 1938 and they took an early 92-70 lead. Recently, early teams have been having more success in later years.....but that was not to be the case here, as the 98 Yankees also took their home year 94-68 to cruise to a 186-138 win and advance to round 3. There's not a lot of standout guys on that 98 team.....just a solid team from top to bottom. One factor that really helps, though, is the season by Shane Spencer. He came out of nowhere that year to put up a .373 average and 10 HR in just 73 plate appearances. He ends up doing big things in a full season. We'll see if it will be enough to go all the way....other teams have similar players both as hitters and pitchers.

1993 San Francisco Giants vs. 1994 Houston Astros

This is as close as you can get to having teams from similar times. The 1993 Giants were a second place team that didn't make the playoffs back then....although they went 103-59! In the 1st round, they were 94-68 to get to this point.

The 94 Astros were also a 2nd place team in the strike shortened season, going 66-49....just a half game out of 1st. In the first round, they went 93-69.

It was a matchup of the "B's"! Bonds vs. Bagwell and Biggio. In the 1993 season, the Giants showed that their 103 real life wins were no joke as they went 94-68 to take a big lead. The Astros could only manage a 1 game improvement in their home season as the Giants went 93-69 to advance by an overall score of 187-137. In the 93 season, Bagwell out-homered Bonds 35-34....but Matt Williams outdid them both with 38. Another "B", Rod Beck, was a huge factor for the Giants that season. He had 47 saves and a .83 ERA! In the 94 season, Bonds won the HR battle with Bagwell, 40-38.

1931 New York Yankees vs. 1983 New York Yankees

Another day, another all-Yankees matchup! The real 1931 Yankees a surprise to make it this far. They were a solid team at 94-59, but came in 2nd by 13.5 games to the 107-45 A's. Add in the 101-game winning Cardinals who beat the A's in the World Series, and this was a pretty big upset. The 31 Yankees were a solid 92-70 in the 1st round to advance. I guess the Babe wanted one more shot!

The 1983 Yankees were another surprise team. They barely scraped into the competition as a 3rd place team that went 91-71. They barely scraped by in the 1st round as well, as they finished at 86-76, tied with the Chicago White Sox. Their +76 to +47 run differential got them here.

So we have two teams that were pretty lucky to be here and they lived up to that fact in their matchup for sure. The 1931 season was barely won by the 31 Yankees with an 83-79 record. In many cases, when the early season is that close, the later team pulls it out by a larger margin in their season. This time, the 83 Yankees did win their own season....but also by an 83-79 margin! Our first tie!! As with the last round, I went to combined run differential to settle the tie. The 31 Yankees outscored the 83 Yankees in the 1931 season by 58 runs.....the 83 Yankees only had a +17 in 1983, so the 1931 Yankees will move on by a +41 run differential. Not sure we will have another matchup this close!


1991 Pittsburgh Pirates vs. 1918 Chicago Cubs

The 91 Pirates had the best record in baseball that year at 98-64, but lost the LCS to the Braves in 7 games. They were 91-71 in the 1st round to ger here.

The 1918 Cubs were 84-45 in real life and lost the World Series to the Red Sox in 6 games. They barely slipped into this round with an 84-78 record.

Based on their own season success in the 1st round, it appeared the Cubs were the underdogs. However, they came out in their season and squeaked by the Pirates at 82-80. The Pirates, though, followed the trend I mentioned earlier and won their home season by a 94-68 margin to advance 174-150.

1941 Brooklyn Dodgers vs. 2011 Texas Rangers

When I started this, I thought we'd see a few more Brooklyn Dodger teams make it to this round, but in many cases, it was like in real life where the Yankees beat them out by small margins....or a surprise team popped up. This Dodger team was one that broke that trend. They went 100-54 in real life, but lost to the Yankees in the World Series. In the 1st round, though, they came through with an 89-73 record to slip by the Yankees into this round.

The 2011 Rangers were 96-66 in real life and then lost to the Phillies in the World Series. In the first round, however, they showed that they might be a contender to go far in this competition, as they ended up with the second best record I saw after the 1907 Cubs. The Rangers went 107-55 to get here....it will be interesting to see how far they can go.

The Dodgers fought hard against this surprisingly good Rangers team in the 1941 season and the teams ended up tied 81-81. It was all up to the 2011 season to determine who would move one.....and the Rangers dominated their season once again, finishing with a record of 98-64 to advance by a margin of 179-145.

2013 Oakland A's vs. 1935 Detroit Tigers


The 2013 A's were 96-66 to win their division, but then lost in the LCS to the Tigers. Their 1st round record was 93-69.

The real 35 Tigers were 93-58 and won the World Series over the Cubs. In the 1st round, they finished at 92-70, tied with those same Cubs....but the run differential for the Tigers was an impressive +136, compared to a still strong +51 for the Cubs.

Despite coming from very different years, this proved to be a good matchup. The A's jumped out to a big lead in the 1935 season, at 94-68. Surprisingly, the Tigers regrouped and won the 2013 season with a record of 83-79. It wasn't enough, though, as the A's had too big of a lead and advanced 173-151.

1906 Chicago Cubs vs. 1975 Cincinnati Reds

The 1906 Cubs are part of those great early 1900's Cubs teams with guys like Three-Finger Brown and the famous Tinker to Evers to Chance. This version was the big one, going 116-36. Surprisingly, they lost to the White Sox in the World Series that year.

The real 1975 Reds are a team right in the heart of The Big Red Machine....Rose, Perez, Bench and the rest. The 75 team went 108-54 on the season and then beat the Red Sox in the World Series in 7 games.

This matchup features two very famous and successful teams from totally different eras. The Cubs jumped out to a lead in their home season, going 87-75. However, once the game moved to a more modern time, the Cubs just couldn't come through and the Reds won the 75 season 91-71 to advance by a 166-158 margin. An important thing to note about the Cubs is that they were able to win those 71 games over that 1975 season with only 6 pitchers on their roster. They had a 5-man rotation most of the way and had to used their starters to relieve a few times, but the one true reliever they had was Carl Lundgren. He ended up going 7-19 with 15 saves, appearing in 91 games for 211.1 IP. That included zero starts. His ERA was 7.58. His real life ERA was 2.21 in 1906. I really think that if the Cubs had even 2-3 more guys in their bullpen, they could have won it. Lack of pitchers really hurts those super early teams in later years.

The next update will start off with the teams from 1930 and 1933 going at it. We will also see a pretty decent run of Cleveland teams being in the mix over the next few games.