SHL American Midwest: Musical Chairs

For the third Monday in a row, a new team sits atop the Seamheads Historical League’s American Midwest division.

Indian Uprising: In mid-June the Cleveland Indians did all they could to sabotage themselves in this ultra-competitive division, losing three straight games, two of them in embarrassing fashion.  On June 13, they took an 8-3 lead into the seventh inning only to implode over the last three frames in a 9-8 loss to the Mariners.  The very next night, the same thing happened, except the lead was 7-3 going into the bottom of the eighth before the Indians allowed five runs in the inning to lose 8-7.  They followed that up with a 4-2 loss at the capable hands of Walter Johnson and Joe Nathan, who combined to allow only five singles and a double to one of the league’s most potent offenses.

Since then, however, the Indians have been humming along on all cylinders, winning 10 of their last 12 and climbing into first place by a game over the Orioles, four over the White Sox, and six over the last-place but still competitive Detroit Tigers.  Three of those wins came against the division rival White Sox and they were extremely convincing—the Tribe outscored the Pale Hose 26-7, and beat them 10-1 and 10-2 in the last two games of a three-game set.  Then they waxed the Cubs 5-1 and 7-1 in a two-game sweep.  It was the worst defeat of an entire city since Sherman marched through Atlanta.

Credit for the team’s success still rests with the offense, which ranks among the top five in seven categories, including runs (414) where they rank second behind only the San Diego Padres who’ve crossed the plate a surprising 426 times in 72 games.  Roberto Alomar still isn’t a fixture in Cleveland’s lineup, but he may have forced Indians management to reconsider his role after he belted three homers and drove in half of the team’s runs against the White Sox on June 28.  With an OPS of .930, and seven homers and 24 RBIs in 120 at-bats, Alomar deserves more playing time.

Most of the rest of the lineup is also hitting the hell out of the ball, led by Albert Belle, who has 17 homers and 67 RBIs to go along with a .290 batting average.  Tris Speaker is hitting .340 with a team-leading six triples, and is 15-for-19 in steal attempts; Nap Lajoie is hitting .337 and leading the team in runs (60), hits (101), and doubles (29); Joe Jackson is batting .323 with a team-leading 17 steals; and Joe Sewell is batting .335 with a .901 OPS.

The team’s pitching is still among the league’s worst, ranking among the bottom half in all but one category, but it’s improved over the last few weeks, and closer Doug Jones has been as hot as any hurler in the SHL.  Sam McDowell (8-5) and Bob Feller (8-5) share the team lead in wins, but they have a combined ERA of 5.46, and Feller is still walking more batters than he’s fanned (69/52).  McDowell has been inconsistent, but Feller has put together three great starts in a row, going 3-0 and allowing only five runs in his last 24 innings (1.88 ERA).  Addie Joss is 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in his last two starts, and Stan Coveleski is 3-0 with a 2.50 ERA in his last four starts.

Jones is also on fire coming out of the bullpen.  He hasn’t blown a save since May 15 and the earned run he allowed on June 26 against the White Sox was his first in 17 appearances dating back to May 5.  Since then, he’s lowered his ERA from 6.35 to 2.93.

O’s Woes: Since starting the season at 30-17, the Orioles have gone 10-15 and dropped into second place, albeit by only a game.  Baltimore lost nine of 12 from June 9-21, including two of three to the Indians, and they hadn’t won a series since late May before they finally took two of three from the Tigers from June 26-28.  But they just as easily could have had a winning record over their last 25 games if not for seven one-run losses, two of which were decided in extra innings.

For all the negatives the Orioles experienced, there were a few positives as well that may bode well for them in July.  Chris Hoiles‘ bat finally came around and he hit .321 with six homers and 15 RBIs in June after hitting only .184 with five homers and 22 RBIs in April and May.  Al Bumbry, who’s performed well all season (.335/.372/.452 and 14 steals), hit .380/.406/.489 and went 5-for-5 in steal attempts.  Frank Robinson and Eddie Murray belted four homers each and knocked in 17 and 14 runs, respectively, and only Willie Stargell has more RBIs than Robinson’s 68.

For the most part, the Orioles’ pitching staff did well in June, especially the bullpen, but there are concerns that may need to be dealt with.  The bullpen posted a 2.85 ERA in 41 innings, and if you remove Hoyt Wilhelm who was awful in June (8.10 ERA), it drops to an outstanding 1.16.  Tippy Martinez was particularly effective, posting a 0.79 ERA in 11 1/3 innings and reducing his mark on the year to a stellar 1.95.

The rotation wasn’t quite as good—the starters went 9-12 with a 4.92 ERA—but Milt Pappas, Mike Flanagan, and Scott McGregor, filling in for an injured Jim Palmer, were solid, going 6-5 with a 3.56 ERA between them.  Palmer (5-2, 3.98) has been complaining about a stiff back since late May, but recently came off the DL and will give the rotation a boost in July.  Of particular concern, however, is Robin Roberts who went 0-5 with an 8.70 ERA in June after going 6-3 with a 3.28 ERA in his first 10 starts.  If Roberts doesn’t get it together in July, McGregor, who was sent down to make room for Palmer, may be back in Baltimore sooner rather than later.

A Pox Upon the Sox: While the Orioles have been on a recent slide, the White Sox’s skid has been longer and deeper.  After jumping out to a 16-6 start in April, Chicago has gone only 21-29 in its last 50 games and is only two games over .500 at 37-35.  They just recently broke a five-game losing streak with a 6-3 win over J.R. Richard and the Astros, but that hardly salved the wounds they suffered in their three-game beatdown at the hands of the Indians.

On the surface, the White Sox have a pretty balanced team—they’re second in batting at .288, third in hits, fourth in stolen bases, and ninth in runs, and they rank eighth in ERA and runs allowed and boast the league’s sixth best rotation.  But statistically they’re all over the map.  They also rank 22nd in slugging, 26th in home runs and walks, and only three other teams strike out more than they do.

Frank Thomas still remains one of the league’s best players—he’s third in batting at .364, tied for second in OBA at .431, fourth in slugging at .592, and third in OPS at 1.023—and it doesn’t look like he’ll be slowing down anytime soon.  His power was off a little in June (only two homers and a SLG of .526), but he batted .380, reached base at a .444 clip, and knocked in a season-high 20 runs.  Carlton Fisk rebounded from a poor May and batted .333/.377/.667 in June with four homers and 10 RBIs in 48 at-bats.  Joe Jackson hit .347 with seven doubles, and Buck Weaver hit .309 with five doubles and four steals.

Among the pitchers, Eddie Cicotte has established himself as the clear leader, going 4-1 in June with a 1.82 ERA to run his record to 11-3 on the year with a 2.48 ERA, good for fifth in the league.  Four of his six starts were “quality,” he surrendered no home runs in 49 1/3 innings, he held batters to a .237 average, and four of five runners were gunned down trying to steal when he was on the mound.  Despite pitching well and posting a 3.40 ERA, Ed Walsh lost all four of his June decisions before winning his first July start to break the skein.  But he should be used to that by now.  He has the 16th best ERA in the SHL (3.13), one point ahead of Walter Johnson, but is only 6-11 on the year, mostly because his team has scored only 2.7 runs per game in his losses, and 4.1 per game overall (take out the 13 they scored against Cincinnati on April 14 and it gets worse).

It’s easy to see why the White Sox have struggled of late, however, as the rest of the staff has been largely terrible.  While Cicotte and Walsh combined for a 2.53 ERA in June, the other eight hurlers posted a 5.58 ERA.

Motor City Mediocrity: If you’re looking for the epitome of average, look no further than the Detroit Tigers.  They’re only two games below .500, their winning percentages are .455 in April, .480 in May, and .500 in June, and they rank right in the middle (or close to it) in several statistical categories.  In fact, they’re 15th (out of 28) in runs scored and 16th in runs allowed and ERA.  Though they don’t stand out in any one category, they’re still only six games out of first place and very much alive in a division that has seen three of its four teams in first place at one time or another.  And if they ever figure out how to win at home (they’re only 11-20 in Detroit), they could easily contend for the division title and a playoff berth.

One of the more surprising early developments was Detroit’s lack of power, especially from slugging first baseman Hank Greenberg who had only four home runs through May.  But as the weather heated up so did the Tigers’ booming bats.  Greenberg pounded out eight homers in June to run his total to 12, and slugged .600 after slugging only .423 in his first 175 at-bats.  Suddenly he’s second on the team in homers and RBIs (54), and is on pace for 26 dingers and 116 ribbies.  Harry Heilmann also brought out the good wood in June and slugged .610 on the strength of eight doubles and six homers, but he’s been doing well all season, enjoying his third straight month of .900+ OPS.  Mickey Tettleton also continued to scorch the ball, belting five more homers to increase his team lead to 14, and posting a season-best .524 SLG.

The rest of the lineup struggled, however.  Ty Cobb hit only .278 with little power or speed (he was thrown out on 3-of-4 steal attempts); Charlie Gehringer hit .247; George Kell hit .253 with a .645 OPS; Al Kaline hit .230, albeit with four homers.

The pitching staff had its moments, but still needs to improve.  Harry Coveleski was brilliant in June and was named Pitcher of the Month after going 4-1 with a 1.41 ERA, his only loss coming in a 2-1 game in which he allowed only one earned run in nine innings.  Hal Newhouser went 2-1 with a 2.76 ERA and pitched much better than his record would indicate.  And Joel Zumaya was mostly fantastic in the closer role, recording six saves to run his total to 18, and posting a 2.19 ERA, but he stumbled a few times and ended up with two losses and a blown save.  Regardless, he’s tied for second in saves with three others and in ERA at 1.75.

The rest of the staff was awful, though.  No one had an ERA below 4.82 and the seven pitchers not named Coveleski, Newhouser, and Zumaya posted a 6.06 ERA in 114 1/3 innings.  Mark Fidrych has been especially disappointing at 0-8 with a 6.71 ERA in 10 starts.