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jksander · 01-26-2024, 12:06 AM

Postseason Tidbits

1. Jackie Robinson finished the year as the NL’s batting champion! He finished with a .333 average while slugging .693, thanks to 42 doubles, 24 triples and 39 homers, nearly matching his home run total from last year! He finishes the year with 13.1 batting WAR, and will easily be a frontrunning contender for the NL’s MVP award.

2. Willie Mays, at 25, finally has himself a Home Run title, having hit 54 this season, ten more than either Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams, who tied for second in the race. We’ll get to see how he does against Mantle during the upcoming World Series, but Mays already has 190 homers in just six seasons as a major leaguer, and this year he hit .322 and slugged .670, adding 27 doubles and 14 triples to his tally as well as putting up 11.6 batting WAR -- hitting for his first cycle at the very end of the season was just an added bonus.

3. Hy Cohen had 31 wins this year, the most in the majors, but Sal Maglie gave him a run for it, winning 27 for Brooklyn, while Connie Johnson finished with 24. It was a tight race in the NL for pitchers, and is likely to be a brutal race for the Cy Young -- multiple pitchers in the National League all have resumes that would be worthy of the award in any other year, and Johnson had a much stronger finish to his season than Cohen did. Johnson finished 24-6 with a 1.50 ERA, 312.0 innings pitched, 330 strikeouts and an 0.75 WHIP, finishing with a staggering 18.6 WAR, while Cohen finished a distant second with 13.9 WAR to go with a 31-3 record, 1.82 ERA, 292.1 innings pitched, 283 strikeouts and an 0.81 WHIP. Though Sal Maglie and Saul Rogovin also had seasons that would have deserved merit in any other season, it’s hard to think the race isn’t between Cohen and Johnson -- and Johnson’s performance looks likely to win him the award in a landslide.

4. Sandy Koufax’s season wasn’t as impressive as his freshman run last year, but he did put up the most saves of any pitcher in the majors, with 24, ten more than any other reliever, which would have put him in the running for reliever of the year had he not finished with negative pitching WAR. He finished with a 5-7 record and a 3.36 ERA, down from last year because we initially tried to use him as a starter, when it’s now clear he needs to be in the bullpen where he can develop his control and work his way up to the starting role if his skills improve. He put together a resume that included 80.1 innings of work in 52 appearances, but his WHIP of 1.33 and a home run rate of 1.5 per nine innings make him a continued work in progress. He did lead the majors with 29 shutdowns, which suggests once his control improves he’ll be a very lethal option.

5. In an era where pitchers go the distance on a regular basis, there aren’t as many opportunities for multi-reliever games where holds become a factor. But our team has the three best “setup men” in the game right now, with Hersh Freeman, Larry Jansen and Vern Law, who each had four holds this season. And Carl Erskine had three, putting himself in the conversation. Yes, the way the league plays right now you expect your starters to play the bulk of the innings, but a big reason we’ve dominated the last three seasons has been our ability to put together a winning bullpen.

6. A final note on pitching: Camilo Pascual finished a close second to Pittsburgh’s Hank Aguirre in pitching BAPIP, with batters hitting .201 against him all year, while Aguirre held batters to a .192 average. Pascual has improved in his second season in the majors, though he was often overshadowed by the flashier duo of Cohen and Rogovin. This season he started in 31 games, going 14-8 with a 2.63 ERA, while striking out 137 batters. And though his WHIP and strikeout totals dropped and he didn’t contribute the flashy WAR numbers he did last season, his ERA improved four points to 2.63, his BAPIP improved from .263, and his ERA+ went up from 139 to 141. He’s only 22, and even though he may never be the anchor of our rotation, he’s got the middle locked down.

7. Then there’s the legend of “Jackrabbit” Poppell. Signed from the Crestview Braves in the Alabama-Florida League, Poppell clearly had talent -- the fact that we spent almost a month bidding on his services against the likes of Boston and New York bears that out. But no one, including myself, thought that he would, once unleashed, become the basepath-chewing juggernaut he did in his rookie season. Once I realized he could steal bases at such a clip, while only being caught 12 percent of the time, I gave him the green light and let him dominate the leadoff spot. The 23-year-old only played in 88 games, batting 372 times, but he put up numbers the likes of which I’m unsure he’ll be able to sustain -- he hit .274/.367/.293, so purely a contact game, but he only struck out 47 times, walking 48. And once on base, he was a machine, stealing 114 bases and only getting caught 15 times! If he doesn’t win Rookie of the Year I’ll be stunned, because his legs alone were good for 5.2 WAR. Can he do it again next year now that every pitcher in the National League knows what he’s up to? It’s also easy to forget he’s a solid second baseman as well defensively, fielding in 788.2 innings with 133 putouts, 231 assists, 48 double plays, and only five errors, good for a +8.7 zone rating.

8. As a team we didn’t have a ton of fielding stats stand out competitively against the rest of the league, but for catcher Del Crandall, whose 48.8% caught stealing rate led both leagues by at least four percent! The rest of his fielding stats don’t particularly stand out, but he’s efficient and he has a great arm and a ton of ability at the position, and he’s still among the top defensive catchers in the National League.

If there’s anything else you’d like to know about, feel free to drop me a reply!

- - - - -

1956 Chicago Cubs Playoff Roster

BATTERS
C - Del Crandall
1B - Al Rosen
2B - Jack Poppell
3B - Jackie Robinson
SS - Ernie Banks
LF - Roger Maris
CF - Willie Mays
RF - Al Kaline

Bench: Less Moss (C), Ed Bouchee (1B), Gene Baker (2B), Joe Brovia (LF), Dick Whitman (LF), Daniel Howard (RF)

STARTERS
Hy Cohen
Saul Rogovin
Camilo Pascual
Tom Acker

BULLPEN
CL - Sandy Koufax
ST - Carl Erskine
SE - Vern Law
MR: Hersh Freeman, Bob Porterfield
LR: Bob Purkey
LR: Larry Jansen

01-26-2024, 12:06 AM	#294
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,637	Postseason Tidbits 1. Jackie Robinson finished the year as the NL’s batting champion! He finished with a .333 average while slugging .693, thanks to 42 doubles, 24 triples and 39 homers, nearly matching his home run total from last year! He finishes the year with 13.1 batting WAR, and will easily be a frontrunning contender for the NL’s MVP award. 2. Willie Mays, at 25, finally has himself a Home Run title, having hit 54 this season, ten more than either Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams, who tied for second in the race. We’ll get to see how he does against Mantle during the upcoming World Series, but Mays already has 190 homers in just six seasons as a major leaguer, and this year he hit .322 and slugged .670, adding 27 doubles and 14 triples to his tally as well as putting up 11.6 batting WAR -- hitting for his first cycle at the very end of the season was just an added bonus. 3. Hy Cohen had 31 wins this year, the most in the majors, but Sal Maglie gave him a run for it, winning 27 for Brooklyn, while Connie Johnson finished with 24. It was a tight race in the NL for pitchers, and is likely to be a brutal race for the Cy Young -- multiple pitchers in the National League all have resumes that would be worthy of the award in any other year, and Johnson had a much stronger finish to his season than Cohen did. Johnson finished 24-6 with a 1.50 ERA, 312.0 innings pitched, 330 strikeouts and an 0.75 WHIP, finishing with a staggering 18.6 WAR, while Cohen finished a distant second with 13.9 WAR to go with a 31-3 record, 1.82 ERA, 292.1 innings pitched, 283 strikeouts and an 0.81 WHIP. Though Sal Maglie and Saul Rogovin also had seasons that would have deserved merit in any other season, it’s hard to think the race isn’t between Cohen and Johnson -- and Johnson’s performance looks likely to win him the award in a landslide. 4. Sandy Koufax’s season wasn’t as impressive as his freshman run last year, but he did put up the most saves of any pitcher in the majors, with 24, ten more than any other reliever, which would have put him in the running for reliever of the year had he not finished with negative pitching WAR. He finished with a 5-7 record and a 3.36 ERA, down from last year because we initially tried to use him as a starter, when it’s now clear he needs to be in the bullpen where he can develop his control and work his way up to the starting role if his skills improve. He put together a resume that included 80.1 innings of work in 52 appearances, but his WHIP of 1.33 and a home run rate of 1.5 per nine innings make him a continued work in progress. He did lead the majors with 29 shutdowns, which suggests once his control improves he’ll be a very lethal option. 5. In an era where pitchers go the distance on a regular basis, there aren’t as many opportunities for multi-reliever games where holds become a factor. But our team has the three best “setup men” in the game right now, with Hersh Freeman, Larry Jansen and Vern Law, who each had four holds this season. And Carl Erskine had three, putting himself in the conversation. Yes, the way the league plays right now you expect your starters to play the bulk of the innings, but a big reason we’ve dominated the last three seasons has been our ability to put together a winning bullpen. 6. A final note on pitching: Camilo Pascual finished a close second to Pittsburgh’s Hank Aguirre in pitching BAPIP, with batters hitting .201 against him all year, while Aguirre held batters to a .192 average. Pascual has improved in his second season in the majors, though he was often overshadowed by the flashier duo of Cohen and Rogovin. This season he started in 31 games, going 14-8 with a 2.63 ERA, while striking out 137 batters. And though his WHIP and strikeout totals dropped and he didn’t contribute the flashy WAR numbers he did last season, his ERA improved four points to 2.63, his BAPIP improved from .263, and his ERA+ went up from 139 to 141. He’s only 22, and even though he may never be the anchor of our rotation, he’s got the middle locked down. 7. Then there’s the legend of “Jackrabbit” Poppell. Signed from the Crestview Braves in the Alabama-Florida League, Poppell clearly had talent -- the fact that we spent almost a month bidding on his services against the likes of Boston and New York bears that out. But no one, including myself, thought that he would, once unleashed, become the basepath-chewing juggernaut he did in his rookie season. Once I realized he could steal bases at such a clip, while only being caught 12 percent of the time, I gave him the green light and let him dominate the leadoff spot. The 23-year-old only played in 88 games, batting 372 times, but he put up numbers the likes of which I’m unsure he’ll be able to sustain -- he hit .274/.367/.293, so purely a contact game, but he only struck out 47 times, walking 48. And once on base, he was a machine, stealing 114 bases and only getting caught 15 times! If he doesn’t win Rookie of the Year I’ll be stunned, because his legs alone were good for 5.2 WAR. Can he do it again next year now that every pitcher in the National League knows what he’s up to? It’s also easy to forget he’s a solid second baseman as well defensively, fielding in 788.2 innings with 133 putouts, 231 assists, 48 double plays, and only five errors, good for a +8.7 zone rating. 8. As a team we didn’t have a ton of fielding stats stand out competitively against the rest of the league, but for catcher Del Crandall, whose 48.8% caught stealing rate led both leagues by at least four percent! The rest of his fielding stats don’t particularly stand out, but he’s efficient and he has a great arm and a ton of ability at the position, and he’s still among the top defensive catchers in the National League. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about, feel free to drop me a reply! - - - - - 1956 Chicago Cubs Playoff Roster BATTERS C - Del Crandall 1B - Al Rosen 2B - Jack Poppell 3B - Jackie Robinson SS - Ernie Banks LF - Roger Maris CF - Willie Mays RF - Al Kaline *Bench: Less Moss (C), Ed Bouchee (1B), Gene Baker (2B), Joe Brovia (LF), Dick Whitman (LF), Daniel Howard (RF) STARTERS Hy Cohen Saul Rogovin Camilo Pascual Tom Acker BULLPEN CL - Sandy Koufax ST - Carl Erskine SE - Vern Law MR: Hersh Freeman, Bob Porterfield LR: Bob Purkey LR: Larry Jansen __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World* -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds) Last edited by jksander; 01-26-2024 at 02:09 AM.