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Week 4 Summary (05/06/1957 - 05/12/1957)

Week four of the 1957 replay is in the books and the standings continue to be in flux as teams in both leagues jockey for early position. All teams have passed the twenty games played mark as the regular Sunday doubleheaders appear to keep teams from falling behind and keeps teams at a more-or-less even keel with regards to the schedule.

 

Cincinnati currently sits atop the NL standings, with St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh all tied at 1.5 games behind the NL leader. Cincinnati has the offense, but their lack of pitching will catch up with them sooner or later. St. Louis went on a mid-week five-game winning streak and zoomed up to second place, while Philadelphia and Pittsburgh tried to knock each other down over the past few days. For a team that is supposed to finish tied for last the Pirates have a decent core of players – they have some pitching, their defense is OK, and their offense has some pop. Having said that, I still think their hot start is about to come to an end. Milwaukee is still floundering. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they pitch, but they can’t seem to do both on any kind of consistent basis though. Brooklyn leads the league in pitching, but are last in runs scored – it has not been a pretty start for the Dodgers. If their offense should ever start coming around, combined with that pitching, everyone in the league still fears them (as least they did climb into sixth place to get past the Cubs). Chicago and New York has been hopeless so far. They both have a bona fide superstar (Ernie Banks, Willie Mays), but it gets pretty weak after that.

 

New York (NL) Manager
Bill Rigney
Detroit has had a brief turn in first place, and Boston did also this past week, and the Yankees might be making a move, but the White Sox have been the constant so far at the top of the AL standings. The White Sox don’t get flustered and play like they belong there, while Detroit and Boston tend to go up and own. The Yankees know they belong there and are working their way out of a slow start and have crept to within 2.5 games of first place. Baltimore continues to be the best of the rest, as Kansas City, Cleveland, and Washington often serves as cannon fodder for the teams at the top.

 

In the AL, Mickey Mantle (.416) is slightly edging out Ted Williams (.412) in batting average, with Mantle and teammate Gil McDougald leading in runs scored (22). Mantle has the lead in RBI’s (27), just ahead of Roy Sievers (25). Hank Bauer has the lead in hits (32), just ahead of McDougald and Mantle, both with 30. Eddie Yost has the early lead in doubles (11), just ahead of Reno Bertoia (9). Sievers has the homerun lead (10), with Vic Wertz (8) right behind. Mantle also leads the AL in walks (27). Billy Pierce (5-0) and Dick Donovan (4-0) are leading the White Sox early charge, but Frank Sullivan (4-0) and Hal Brown (4-0) are off to good starts as well.

 

Joe Adcock (.429) leads the NL in hitting, ahead of Roy McMillan (.422) and Stan Musial (.419), but Musial has the lead in hits (39) over Adcock (36) and McMillan (35). Hank Aaron has the lead in runs (26), just ahead of Musial (23) and teammate Eddie Mathews (22), and Aaron also leads in RBI’s (31), just over Musial (27) and Frank Thomas (26). Ken Boyer and Dick Groat lead in doubles (8) with many others right behind them. Aaron leads in homeruns (13), ahead of Musial (8) and Adcock, Wally Moon, and Ernie Banks, all with 7. Brooks Lawrence (6-0) and Bob Friend (6-1) lead the NL in wins.

 

On the one hand, the AL is 72 runs ahead of where they actually stood at this point in 1957. The batting average in both leagues is up about 7 points and the ERA is up about a half-run per league as well. This past week was a rather “offensive “ week though, so that will account for some of this. The Cardinals had a slow start but went on a hitting binge this past week and are currently hitting .319 as a team. Cincinnati is hitting .300 and has managed to regularly pummel their opposition so far. The Yankees had their offensive binge the previous week and are leading the AL with a .306 average.

 

On the other hand, there have been a total of 32 shutouts already. This projects out to more than 200 in the replay, well above the actual total of 153. Of course, it is possible for a team to have an offensive binge in a game in which a shutout is thrown, but after four weeks of gameplay there have been elements of “feast or famine” on display so far. It’s only been four weeks, so a lot of this will settle itself out over the remainder of the season, but it is interesting to see spikes like this occur.


A couple of player notes:


Lou Whitaker, the Detroit second baseman that teamed with shortstop Alan Trammell on those great Detroit teams in the 1980s, was born on a Mother's Day, May 12, 1957. Whitaker is the only player that I share a birthday with (day and year).




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