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FINAL STANDINGS





MVP: OF Konrad Jensen (STJ) – .400 (18/45), 1.053 OPS, 2 2B, 2 3B, 15 R, 13 RBI, 6 BB/0 K, 10 SB/1 CS
2x PotG, 175 WRC+, 193 OPS+, 2 OF AST, 1.1 WPA, 0.8 WAR in 10 Games

The favorites, St. John’s, were right there until the very end, but the best defense in the NBBO won out in a memorable encounter in Providence on the final day of the competition. The only team that finished as expected by the Writers Pool was last-place Susquehanna.

It wasn’t the historic performance of the 1865 Knickerbocker team, but champions Orange allowed the second-fewest runs of any team in the Round Robin era of the Tucker-Wheaton Cup. Their pitching & defense was simply superior, and it meant that having a comparatively mediocre offense was no issue. Hawk Peterson (.378, 11 RBI) was their best batter, but the pitching duo of Raynard Cordell (4-2, 3.22, 50.1 IP) and Harold Perry (4-0, 1.50, 36.0 IP) carried the team.

As expected, St. John’s had the best offense in the competition and their stars were fantastic. Jensen had an OPS over 1.000 with 15 R, 13 RBI, & 10 SB. Kuopio had 18 RBI. Townsend had 11 R, 10 RBI, & 7 SB. Johnson scored a dozen runs. However, what did them in was secondary pitching, William Tighe was 5-1 with a 3.88 ERA, but other St. John’s pitchers were 2-2 with a higher ERA while walking thirteen batters in 43.2 innings compared to eight in 46.1 for Tighe.

Kings County started 4-0 but the 25-4 home loss to Niagara on Gameday Five undid their entire campaign, as the two-time champs ended up 5-5. The K.C. offense was not bad and their regular pitchers both had ERA’s under 3.00, but in four of the team’s five losses they committed 10+ fielding errors, profligacy that doomed K.C as the cup went on.

Do not be fooled by Niagara’s +3 Run Differential – without their Gameday Five result that RD turns into a -18. They were mostly outstanding in their four wins, but very poor in their losses. Walter Driscoll (1.002 OPS, 17 R, 10 BB, 7 SB) and Zorba Koustoubos (.422, .969 OPS, 13 RBI) were excellent, but Hamish Barclay (9/50) was a major letdown.

American became one of the few teams to allow 10+ runs per game during the Round Robin era. That they still won four games speaks to their offensive talent. William Busby (.422, .979 OPS, 9 RBI) was brilliant and a number of their batsman did well, but #1 Tom Hauser’s 8.26 ERA over 40.1 innings sums up the team’s pitching efforts during the competition.

Susquehanna easily had the most frustrating cup competition out of the six teams. Susquehanna’s eight losses in the cup were by 1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 6, 10, and 1 run. That is only two blowouts out of the eight, and with some more luck or better late-inning play they could have finished in the top three. Elmer Seabold had an ERA of 3.44 and struck out 22 yet was 0-6.

Konrad Jensen did not play for the cup champions, but he was clearly the best player in the Tucker-Wheaton Cup. He had the highest OPS & WAR of any batsman, and Jensen was the only player who finished with 10+ runs, RBI, and stolen bases. His performance on Gameday Nine was a perfect summary of Jensen’s cup run: he hit for extra bases, scored runs, drove in runs, stole bases, drew bases on balls, and threw out baserunners from the outfield. He was simply fantastic.

Some wanted to give the MVP to Harold Perry, as the Orange pitcher was 4-0 with a 1.50 ERA over four Complete Games (0.7 WAR, 1.6 rWAR) during the cup. However, fellow Orange pitcher Raynard Cordell also won four games (4-2) and Perry pitched in just four games while Cordell took part in six.

Had American BC pitching not been a disaster then William Busby might have received MVP attention. The first baseman hit .422, tied with Koustoubos for best in the competition, with fourteen runs scored, ten runs batted in, a .979 OPS, and a cup-leading WPA of 1.4 in just ten games. As it was, forgotten excellence for a team whose offense could not keep up due to catastrophic pitching.