1950 AsPlayed Replay Wrap-Up

My 1950 replay is over. Except for the total whipping my Detroit Tigers took in the World Series, I had a lot of fun with this season and consider the replay a success. My goal for each replay is to manage Detroit to a AL Championship and win the World Series. I achieved my primary objective but not the secondary one. Detroit finished 3 games behind the New York Yankees in the real 1950 season after leading the league for most of the year. In my replay, the Tigers led the league from day 1 until the beginning of August when they fell to 3rd. By the middle of August Detroit was back in 1st and ended up winning the AL pennant by 11 games over 2nd place New York.
I started the replay managing the NL Philadelphia Phillies too, but after deciding I was doing more harm than good for them, I let the computer take over. The computer didn't do much better than I did though and the Phillies continued to under-perform all season long. Philadelphia finished in 2nd place, 14 games behind the runaway NL Champion Brooklyn Dodgers who over-performed by 9 games.
Ralph Kiner(Pitt), Stan Musial(St.Louis), Gil Hodges and Duke Snider(Brn) were the top hitters in the NL. Preacher Roe, Don Newcombe(Brn), Warren Spahn(Bsn) and Larry Jansen(NY) were the top NL pitchers.
In the AL the top hitters were: Yogi Berra, Joe Dimaggio(NY), Bobby Doer, Vern Stephens, Walt Dropo(Bsn), Larry Dobby, Luke Easter(Clev), and George Kell, Vic Wetrz(Det). Art Houtteman, Hal Newhouser(Det), Early Wynn(Clev), Mel Parnell(Bsn), and Allie Reynolds(NY) were the top AL pitchers.
Detroit lost to the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series 4 games to 2 but it wasn't really that close. The Dodgers hammered Tiger pitching and outscored Detroit 42 -14 in the series. The Tiger batters failed to come thru too during the WS. Detroit hit .296 as a team during the regular season (2nd in the AL) and were 2nd in runs scored. But the Tigers were shutout in the last 2 games and were out-homered 16-1 in the series.
The regular season was a different story for Detroit. They were fun to manage and get to know. Before I started the replay I was very unfamiliar with '50's Detroit baseball in general other than knowing about Al Kaline in the mid '50's. The real 1950 Tigers were a fairly good power hitting team but my Tigers under-performed in the home run category. 3rd baseman George Kell was the top player on the team. He won the AL MVP by hitting .371 (1st in the AL), scored 123 runs (2nd), drove in 116 runs (6th) and won a gold glove. The outfield was the backbone for the Detroit. Rightfielder Vic Wertz hit .320, had 20 hr, and 132 rbi. The other outfielders, Hoot Evers and Johnny Groth put up good numbers too: .311, 13, 99 and .309, 9, 91 respectively. Evers won a gold glove in leftfield while 2nd baseman Jerry Priddy and ss Johnny Lipon were solid defensively and at the plate (.300, .298).
Tiger starting pitching was very good but the bullpen was shaky. AL CY Award winner Art Houtteman (22-11, 2.82), Hal Newhouser (20-9, 2.92), Fred Hutchinson (16-6, 3.81) and Dizzy Trout (11-8, 3.66) gave Detroit 4 top starters. Hal White anchored the bullpen (6-3, 3.49 era, 12 saves) but I hoped every game my starters would go the distance.
New York and Cleveland had excellent team hitting and pitching while Boston had the best team hitting but where next to last in team pitching. All 3 teams under-performed compared to their actual 1950 W-L records. Detroit over-performed by 7 games, allowing them to win the AL pennant by an 11 game margin.
While I wait for SOM Baseball V16's release next month I'll probably play a few of the asplayed World Series SOM introduced in V15. I really enjoyed the 1945 WS replay I did last year, even though the Cubs beat my Tigers :( I think I'll try reversing the 1909 Detroit-Pittsburgh result first.