Week 2 Summary (04/22/1957 - 04/28/1957)

Week 2 is in the books and with a reminder that it is still early, several teams have made power moves up towards the top of the standings. There were two grand slams this week and two different pitchers reached the fifteen strikeout mark in a game, but the big news was that St. Louis starter Lindy McDaniel threw a no-hitter on Sunday (game one of the doubleheader in Chicago). I still don’t have any earthly clue as to why I have so many no-hitters - I had six in my 1930 replay alone. It's the computer game, so it's not like I am fudging dice rolls or anything. I am using actual lineups … perhaps since I am not making any on-the-fly lineup adjustments the teams are somehow inherently weaker? It is puzzling. Exciting, but puzzling.

 

1957 Milwaukee Braves

The most interesting team so far is Pittsburgh, currently sitting in first place in the NL, a game ahead of both Cincinnati and Philadelphia. The Pirates won 6-of-7 versus the Dodgers in weeks one and two, a surprise to the rest of the league and especially to the Dodgers. The Pirates are currently right in the middle of the league in hitting but lead the league in pitching and mixed in with their above-average fielding and timely hitting so far have sent notice they are a team to be reckoned with. We'll see how long this lasts of course, but the Pittsburgh fans are happy with their fast start.

 

Milwaukee Manager Fred Haney

Philadelphia and Cincinnati are both right on Pittsburgh's tail and if the Pirates should falter they both stand ready to move up. The success of these three teams has kind of bottled up Milwaukee and St. Louis in fourth and fifth place, but they have both started to play better recently. Brooklyn, currently in sixth place, is going to make their own charge up the standings sooner or later, and likely sooner. New York and Chicago are doing pretty much what they were expected to do.

 

The White Sox are atop of the AL standings by percentage points, while Detroit is ahead by a half-game otherwise. While both teams are off to hot starts the Yankees and the Red Sox are lurking right behind them and these two powerhouses are able to make a move of their own at any time. Baltimore is the best of the rest, but I am not sure any of the remaining four are going to look to be doing anything except being spoilers for those in the top half of the standings.

 

The replay is going well. There were only seven shutouts this week, as opposed to the eleven that occurred last week. Not sure that I have an explanation for this either. That's a lot, no matter how you look at it. My sacrifice attempts, stolen base attempts, and intentional walks are still lagging, but they made good strides this past week as far as catching up. I am forcing myself to situationally sacrifice, steal, and intentionally walk a batter once in every game - not both teams, but just per game. It is helping.

 

We are starting to see injuries start to appear and there are several trades on the horizon. We will be in May in a matter of days so play marches on. The Midwest contingents from both leagues will be moving eastward to begin their first east coast swing.

Note: I neglected to credit these photos last week but these are the ones I am using as stadium backdrops in his replay. This one can be found here: https://pixels.com/featured/county-stadium-1958-gary-grigsby.html. There is a large selection of stadiums, different decades, all teams, very nice.