Wrapped up the 1968 regular season this morning before heading off to work. As expected pitching completely dominated the 1968 season.
The Southern Division continues to be where the pennant races roam, as things once again went down to the final Sunday of the season. After a very long draught the once mighty Memphis Redbirds burst back on the scene managing to hold off the Birmingham Barons and the San Antonio Missions to win the division. Birmingham and San Antonio would finish the season with identical 90-72 records, notching the two available wild cards. The Dayton Dragons struggled during the last week of the season, finishing 89-73. So close, but the Dragons once again miss the playoffs. Interesting note in regards to Memphis and San Antonio. San Antonio began the 68 season with both Hilton Smith and Ad Lankford in their starting rotation. These two studs, sat in the top 3 on the ERA leadboard to at the end of 1968. Guessing Smith is a soon to be free agent, as that's the only reason I can see for the Missions to deal him away. Why they would do so to division rival in the midst of a pennant race is beyond me. That being said, it made things interesting, so I'm not complaining
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John Beckwith won his 3rd home run title in a row, finishing with 42 home runs. Beckwith held off a late season power surge from Sammy Sosa to take home the home run title. John has now hit 143 balls over the fence during the last 3 seasons.
Tris Speaker was crowned the International League batting champion in 1968. Speaker has now won that title 2 times over his first 5 seasons in the league. He won the title in 66, was in the running in 67 and led the league once again 1968.
One thing that shocked me in 68 is, pitching as a whole dominated in a huge way, so I expected to see a starter or two notch 25 or more wins. Not the case at all with 21 being the most wins by a starting pitcher on the season.
The Tulsa Drillers that were able to add George Sisler to their squad in last years amateur draft. They will once again be picking 1st in this years draft. Will be interesting to see the players available for the taking. Hankering for a Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Josh Gibson or on the pitching side a Bob Feller, Walter Johnson or Greg Maddux.
1968 will not feature a team winning their first league championship like 1966 and 67 did. I'm picking Memphis or Peoria to win it all, but I'm kind of pulling for Mel Ott and Birmingham to win it all. It would be cool to see Ott notch another ring, before he rides off into the sunset. If Ott has a good post season power wise, he may cement his hold on most post season home runs for eternity. Ott already has 20 career post season home runs. Would be cool to see him add to that total.
Earlier I mentioned a little know pitcher named Scott Brown that's emerged as a relief pitching super star in the International league. Well, Browns prowess continues. Problem is, it really does appear that he's simply repeating the same season over and over again. I have my TCR set to 130, but it really does look like at time guys like this will dominate until they finally take a hit from the OOTP gods. Maybe for my next random, I will crank the TCR up to 200. I'm using VERY HIGH for injuries and as a whole feel guys still aren't missing enough time to injuries. Maybe like injuries, maxing TCR out is the way to go.