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Hardball Retrospective – 1901 Season Replay
In “Hardball Retrospective: Evaluating Scouting and Development Outcomes for the Modern-Era Franchises”, I placed every ballplayer in the modern era (from 1901-present) on their original team. I calculated revised standings for every season based entirely on the performance of each team’s “original” players. I discuss every team’s “original” players and seasons at length along with organizational performance with respect to the Amateur Draft (or First-Year Player Draft), amateur free agent signings and other methods of player acquisition. Season standings, WAR and Win Shares totals for the “original” teams are compared against the “actual” team results to assess each franchise’s scouting, development and general management skills.
Using a modified version of the Lahman Database (with the ballplayers linked to their original franchises), I imported the players into Digital Diamond Baseball
and conducted a full-season replay with the as-played 1901 schedule.
Several housekeeping items: - American League schedule was omitted from the 1901 season replay due to a lack of ballplayers on each team.
- Players on defunct teams such as Cy Young (Cleveland Spiders), Honus Wagner (Louisville Colonels) and Jesse Burkett (Indianapolis Hoosiers) are excluded because their original team’s league ceased to exist by 1901.
- I attempted to emulate player usage in the DDBB replay to real-life usage whenever possible.
This series of articles will reveal the results for each season replay and compare the outcomes to the OPW%, OWAR and OWS standings from Hardball Retrospective. “Hardball Retrospective”is available in digital format on Amazon
, Barnes and Noble
, GooglePlay
, iTunes
and KoboBooks
. Additional information and a discussion forum are available at TuataraSoftware.com
. Terminology
OWAR– Wins Above Replacement for players on “original” teams OWS– Win Shares for players on “original” teams OPW%– Pythagorean Won-Loss record for the “original” teams 1901 National League – Replay Results
The Philadelphia Phillies coasted to the 1901 National League pennant as the Pittsburgh Pirates finished 24 games in arrears. Phillies’ second-sacker Nap Lajoie paced the Senior Circuit with a .431 BA, .481 OBP, .617 SLG, 139 runs and 243 base hits. “Smiling” Al Orth (30-6, 2.63) led the League in victories and placed third in ERA behind teammate Bill Duggleby (23-5, 2.52) and Bucs’ right-hander “Happy” Jack Chesbro (18-13, 2.33). “Big” Ed Delahanty (.339/5/123) topped the leader boards in RBI, laced 199 base knocks and nabbed 27 bags. Elmer Flick boasted a .325 BA and surpassed the century mark in runs scored along with Lajoie and Delahanty. Roy A. Thomas contributed a .328 BA, led the League with 95 bases on balls and supplied the second-highest OBP (.441).
Pittsburgh’s lineup featured five batsmen who eclipsed the .300 mark in batting average and three tallied more than 90 aces. George Van Haltren recorded 199 safeties and batted at a .339 clip. Bert Husting matched Chesbro with 18 victories and furnished a 2.97 ERA. Jimmy Collins (.335/8/99) manned the hot corner for the Beaneaters. He clubbed 48 two-baggers and placed among the top ten in several offensive categories. Vic Willis paced the pitching staff with a 21-16 record and a 3.02 ERA.
Jimmy Sheckard (.390/15/120) enjoyed a banner year at the dish, leading the circuit in triples (26) and home runs while placing in the top five in almost every major offensive category. “Honest” John Anderson (.314/12/109) swiped 27 bags and topped the leader boards with 53 doubles. Second sacker Tom Daly slashed 40 two-base hits, legged out 17 triples and led the Cubs with a .351 BA.
“Turkey” Mike Donlin (.361/7/81) registered 219 base knocks and scored 113 runs for the Cardinals. Socks Seybold tied Donlin for third place in the batting race while Reds’ teammate Sam Crawford posted a .324 BA with 20 triples. Noodles Hahn (25-20, 3.07) finished second in victories and strikeouts (136). “Wee” Willie Keeler sparked the Giants offense with a .358 BA, 230 safeties and 108 aces.
1901 National League – Hardball Retro Replay – Final Standings
Replay Results vs. Hardball Retrospective Findings
The Beaneaters edged the Phillies by one game in the Pythagorean Win Percentage (OPW%) standings with a record of 78-62 (.557). Philadelphia (46.2) collected top honors in OWAR with Brooklyn (43) placing runner-up while the Superbas logged the highest OWS score (277). Based on the replay results, the Phillies’ OWAR totals compared favorably with the squad’s dominant season in the DDBB replay. On Deck
1902 Season Replay References and Resources
Baseball America – Executive Database
Baseball-Reference
James, Bill, with Jim Henzler. Win Shares. Morton Grove, Ill.: STATS, 2002. Print. Retrosheet – Transactions Database
Seamheads – Baseball Gauge
Sean Lahman Baseball Archive
About the Author
I am a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family. “Hardball Retrospective”is available in paperback
and digital ( Kindle
) format at Amazon.com. Supplemental Statistics, Charts and Graphs
along with a discussion forum are offered at TuataraSoftware.com
.
Don Daglow (Intellivision World Series Major League Baseball, Earl Weaver Baseball, Tony LaRussa Baseball) contributed the foreword for Hardball Retrospective. The foreword and preview of my book are accessible here
. “Hardball Retrospective – Addendum 2014 to 2016”supplements my research for Hardball Retrospective, providing retroactive standings based on Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and Win Shares (WS) for each “original” team over the past three seasons (2014-2016). Team totals from 2010 – 2013 are included for reference purposes. “Addendum” is available in paperback
and digital ( Kindle
) format at Amazon.com. “ Hardball Retroactive”,published in June 2018, is available in paperback
and digital ( Kindle
) format at Amazon.com. A cross-section of essays that I penned for Seamheads.com along with my Baseball Analytics blog spanning nearly a decade touching on subjects including “Taking the Extra Base”, “General Manager Scorecard”, “Worst Trades”, “BABIP By Location” and “Baseball Birthplaces and the Retro World Baseball Classic”. Rediscover your favorite hardball arcade and simulations in “Play Retro Baseball Video Games In Your Browser” or take a deep dive into every franchise’s minor league successes and failures in relation to their major league operations in “Minors vs. Majors”.
