{"id":1213,"date":"2009-05-26T04:52:44","date_gmt":"2009-05-26T11:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/26\/update-for-the-near-miss-league\/"},"modified":"2009-05-26T08:43:39","modified_gmt":"2009-05-26T15:43:39","slug":"update-for-the-near-miss-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/26\/update-for-the-near-miss-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Update for the Near Miss League"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ’22 St. Louis Browns are off to an impressive start in the Near Miss League, posting the best winning percentage through the first month of the season. The Brown’s George Sisler is squared off against the man who broke his single season hits record–Ichiro Suzuki–for the Near Miss batting title. That and other simulated matchups after the jump…<\/em><\/p>\n

AL Update<\/strong><\/p>\n

George Sisler has taken over the\u00c2\u00a0league in hitting with a .404 average after Joe Judge of the ’25 Senators faded.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Ichiro Suzuki–who broke Sisler’s single season hit record in 2004–is just off the pace at .375 setting up what may be an interesting race for the batting title.<\/p>\n

As hot as Sisler has been the Browns’ quick start is a team venture. Ken Williams was the NML’s offensive player of the month in April and leads the league with ten homers. The Brown’s Pat Collins was the Player of the Week recently after going 12-for-21 for that period.<\/p>\n

Everything is working for the Browns. Staff ace Urban Shocker is among the league pitching leaders with a 4-1 record and an ERA of 1.99. The Browns have the ’54 Yankees and ’61 Tigers in town this week and both are playing well. The ’54 Yanks with Mantle, Skowron and Berra could be an important early test. “Superchief,” Allie Reynolds is off to a slow start, but the Great Spirit (or random number machine) moves in mysterious ways.\u00c2\u00a0 Reynolds and Whitey Ford are still a formidable hill for the Browns to climb.<\/p>\n

The 2008 Red Sox have been inconsistent but may be putting together a good run.\u00c2\u00a0 They have won three in a row after losing three.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all about the offense with Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia setting the table and David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez cleaning it off.\u00c2\u00a0 Josh Beckett has four wins and is teaming with Jon Lester to give the team an imposing pair at the top of the rotation.\u00c2\u00a0 They have three games in Boston with the powerful Oakland A’s on tap.<\/p>\n

Some of the\u00c2\u00a0hottest competition for the Browns is coming from within their division. The 1977 Kansas City Royals are 16-10 and three games back in the AL West. George Brett is the 327 under the hood, with Hal McRae, Amos Otis, and Darrel Porter as three on the floor. They are going to run fast all season long.<\/p>\n

But it has been the pitching guiding them around the track. Dennis Leonard (6-2, 1.15) and Paul Splitorff (5-1, 2.68) form the core of the rotation that has been the best in the AL so far. The bullpen, anchored by Doug Bird’s eight saves, has been workman like. The Royals travel to Cleveland and Baltimore this coming week. The ’69 Orioles are better than they have shown so far and the sleeping giant may yet awaken.<\/p>\n

NL Update<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the National League, the 1998 San Diego Padres are off to a surprisingly fast start and are tied with the Braves for the NL West lead. Kevin Brown has been un-hittable with five wins and an ERA of 1.08. But the Pads’ hitting is still questionable. Tony Gwynn has started slow and that will not last. Steve Finley and Ken Caminiti have been knocking them out a fast clip along with Greg Vaughn who joins Caminiti with seven homers.<\/p>\n

The Padres lead the NML in slugging, but their start is reminiscent of the SHL Padres who had Bruce Hurst and the best hitting in the league, yet could not put it all together. San Diego goes on the road this week against the ’51 Giants and the ’16 Robins, both of whom have been winning. Color me still skeptical.<\/p>\n

The 1996 Atlanta Braves are still the team to beat but they have yet to put together a winning streak.\u00c2\u00a0 They split four in Cincinnati against\u00c2\u00a0the ’99 Cincinnati Reds. Greg Maddux was roughed up in the opener, but the Braves hung on to win behind four homers–Chipper Jones, Marquis Grissom, David Justice and Fred McGriff.\u00c2\u00a0 The second win was a Steve Avery affair as he had a strong outing for his fourth win.<\/p>\n

The Braves rotation is near the top of the NL with a 2.82 ERA. Smoltz–5-1–and Maddux–4-1–have been lights-out. The bullpen has been characteristically weak, but they don’t have to be particularly good if Chipper Jones, Javy Lopez, McGriff and Klesko get hot against the NL East competition next week.\u00c2\u00a0 The Braves were hitting a paltry .238, but the four games against the Reds’ weak staff\u00c2\u00a0raised that mark to .248.<\/p>\n

Next report will focus on the NL East where the potent pitching of the\u00c2\u00a0’16 Brooklyn Robins and\u00c2\u00a0’51 Giants have them\u00c2\u00a0locked in a tie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ’22 St. Louis Browns are off to an impressive start in the Near Miss League, posting the best winning percentage through the first month of the season. The Brown’s George Sisler is squared off against the man who broke his single season hits record–Ichiro Suzuki–for the Near Miss batting title. That and other simulated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}