The Baseball League (1888)

[jasg224]

The year is 1888 and the Baseball League becomes the first such competition in world baseball. The season is set to begin on April 15th with 12 member clubs from the Midlands and North of England:
- Accrington Baseball Club
- Aston Villa Lions
- Blackburn Rovers
- Bolton Wanderers
- Burnley Clarets
- Derby Rams
- Everton Toffees
- Notts County Magpies
- Preston North End
- Stoke Potters
- West Bromwich Baggies
- Wolverhampton Wanderers


They will play each other twice, once at home and once away. The rules state that whichever teams finishes with the best winning record at the end will be crowned Champion.
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Once again, I will attempt to have a long-running save recreating the world of football from its very inception. Here are some of the settings and bases I will be using in this save:


League Rules
- DH on
- Allow ties after 9 innings (of course football allows ties)
- 20 active/25 reserve players
- Trading set to Almost Never
- Amateur Draft Off
- 1888 Financials
- No Free Agency
- No revenue sharing
- Playoffs off (I will also run a parallel points table although it will be just for fun and to see if something will change with the champions, and in the future, relegation)

Players
- 95% English, 5% Scottish
- More International Discoveries (with similar percentages, I intend this to work as a sort of "youth recruiting" to replace the draft)

AI
- 3-man rotation set to "start higher rested"
- No relievers
- Very Slow hook
- Very Rarely use relievers and closers
- High pitcher stamina

Game Settings
- Injuries set to low (for now)
- Development and aging set to younger
- TCR: 125

I have also set the Baseball Quality in all countries except England and Scotland to Non-Existent for now, of course this will change with time. Also worth noting, all players will be completely fictional. We'll cover some other bases as we go along.


Anyway, thanks for reading! Any feedback, suggestions or whatever is very welcome. You can expect to see a recap of April/May 1888 in the next post.

[jasg224]

April/May 1888

Aston Villa's Eric Greaves led off against Preston North End. Following a called strike, he set up to bunt and then blazed towards first base, being called safe for The Baseball League's first ever hit. Only 3 other Lions would pick up hits, while Preston batters connected 12 times against Jeffrey Lacy as North End coasted to a 5-1 victory.

Derby, West Brom, Accrington, Burnley and Stoke would also pick up wins on Opening Day. A month and a half later, Derby, Preston and Burnley remain tied up top.



The Rams owe most of it to Colin "Phantom" Martlet. The Londoner has allowed 2 or fewer runs in 4 games, picking up Player of the Game honors in 3 of them. On the batting side, left fielder Evander "Shrimp" Hooper has been the highlight of the Derbyshire side. Hooper has hit in every game, collecting a 3rd best .481 AVG. Despite Hooper's performance, Derby remains middle of the road in most offensive categories. Will Martlet and Hooper be consistent enough to bring Derby the first ever title?

Preston are in a similar situation, with Welsh ace Robert Mills-Roberts leading the charge with a league low 2.26 ERA. Their batting has still more work to do than Derby's though, as they are 10th in Runs Scored, Average and OPS. Their standout performer on that front has been Bob Holmes with 10 hits in 7 games. Can Mills-Roberts carry Preston to glory?

Burnley are an interesting team. Despite being league average offensively, they manage to score lots of runs, which is good enough to get wins when combined with their slightly above average pitching. On the mound for them is Alexander "Rainmaker" Downs, whose 4 quality starts and 3.21 ERA has meant 4 wins for Burnley. On the batting side, 2B Rob Griffin and CF Freddie Mobley have been the highlights. Add LF Doug Smith to that and you have the 2nd most powerful team in the league with 9 home runs hit so far. Can Burnley continue to produce runs as we enter the midseason?

Other players worth noting are West Brom's Nevin Mahoney (.519/.552/.963) and Bob Roberts (2.47 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 7.5 K/9), as well as Notts County's Jason Gordan (.481/.516/.815), with West Brom being close to the battle at the top and Notts County's 3 ties having them second to last.

Finally, here's the "for fun" table. It's worth noting that wins are worth 2 points and the tiebreaker is run average (RF/RA) as this is what was used at the time, as we go along we'll switch to 3 points per win and run difference.



In the next post we'll take a look at June-July. Here's the part where I mention a mess up I made with the schedule. The first weekend of June will see teams play a double-header except that it's against different teams and some even switch home/away status, I will make sure this is corrected for next year's schedule.

Thanks for reading!

[jasg224]

June 1888

Preston took charge of the league this month, losing one before winning 4 in a row. Burnley remain closely behind them, despite losses to Accrington and Bolton. Also in the hunt are West Bromwich, Bolton, Derby and Accrington.



Building on last month's performance, Robert Mills-Roberts has continued to carry Preston, adding 3 wins and lowering his ERA to 2.19 in the meanwhile. On the batting side, Scotsman Jimmy Ross got hot, hitting .421/.476/1.053 in 5 games this month. It looks like Preston is ready to win the first ever championship, with key games coming up against West Bromwich and Burnley.

For Burnley, hitting has been the key, with Doug Smith, Rob Griffin and Freddie Mobley hitting for a combined 16 hits, 6 2B, 2 HR and 6 RBI in the 5 games this month. On the pitching side, 26-year-old Londoner Peter Corkhill has been a solid enough replacement for Alexander Downs, who tore his meniscus in the 7th inning of the first game of the month and will lose the rest of the season. Corkhill has pitched to a 3.18 ERA, with him doing much better at home, allowing only 3 runs compared to 9 runs in away games. The Clarets will need to turn Turf Moor into a fortress if they want to get anything out of this season.

West Bromwich are pretty much a one-man-team. Luckily for them, that man is Nevin Mahoney. The Harrogate native could be the only player hotter than Jimmy Ross, hitting a nice .389/.476/.611 this month. Duff Hynds and Nate Werner also turned in great performances this month. On the pitching side, Bob Roberts has been less than effective, pitching to a 4.96 ERA this month. Can Roberts find his form again as Mahoney keeps hitting?

Other players worth noting this month are:
- Aston Villa's Zach Revell (.409/.458/.591)
- Everton's Rob Lee (.450/.500/.650)
- Accrington's Stewart Plunkett (.400/.455/1.000)
- Everton's Thomas Devine (2.86 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 9.6 K/BB)
- Bolton's Scott Dean (3.50 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 3.6 K/BB)
- Aston Villa's Jeffrey Lacy (5.00 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 2.3 K/BB)

Here's the "for fun" table so far:


Thanks for reading! In the next update we'll cover July's games as we enter the final stretch of the season.

[jasg224]

July 1888

Preston refuse to give up their lead, losing only one game this month. West Brom and Accrington charge up the table, while Bolton drop out of the title race.



Robert Mills-Roberts further lowers his ERA to 2.13, as he collects 2 more wins this month. He allowed 10 runs in 5 games, striking out 35 as Preston emerge as title favorites. On the other side of the ball, Jimmy Ross (7 H, 3 RBI, 4 R, 1 SB) and Bob Howarth (8 H, 4 RBI, 1 R) were highlights this month. Remaining games: BOL, NOC, EVE, DER, WOL.

The 2nd place Baggies won 4 games this month, losing only against Wolves in a one run game, allowing 5 runs in the last two frames. Bob Roberts allowed 12 runs in 44.2 innings, striking out 45 this month. Meanwhile, Andrew McCausland (9 H, 7 RBI, 2 R) led the charge offensively. Remaining games: BUR, BLA, ABC, STO, BOL.

Burnley only won 2 games this month, but they remain just 2 games back from the title. Peter Corkhill had a very bad month, allowing 30 runs in 5 games this month, striking out 21 players. However, bats have been hot for Burnley, with 8 players getting at least 5 hits this month. The highlights were Thad Jarvis (7 H, 4 RBI, 4 R) and Doug Smith (7 H, 7 RBI, 2 R). Remaining games: WBA, EVE, BLA, ABC, STO.

Other players worth noting this month:
- Accrington's Stewart Plunkett (.389/.476/.833)
- West Brom's Nevin Mahoney (.263/.364/.368)
- Derby's Evander Hooper (.389/.476/.833)
- Stoke's Don Hitchcock (3.48 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 10 K/BB)
- Blackburn's Herby Arthur (1.43 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 2.3 K/BB)
- Everton's Thomas Devine (4.42 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, 3.8 K/BB)

Here's the points table:


Thanks for reading! Next time out, we'll see the season finale.