Quick Dagger - An OOTP 2006 Dynasty

April 16, 1903 - Day Two

2006-06-22T01:09:00.000-07:00

Well we had no problem with offense in the first inning as we raked Boston pitcher Bill Dineen for four runs in the first inning towards a 7-4 victory. LF Ed Delahanty and 3B Harry Wolverton had three hits apiece and only the P Hap Townsend went without a basehit. CF Roy Thomas was intentionally walked twice.

If there are any negatives in the victory, we did leave runners on again. Thirteen, this time. Five of whom were in scoring position. But a win is a win to me and I'll take it.

April 15, 1903 - Opening Day

2006-06-22T00:47:00.000-07:00

What a thriller for opening day! We beat the Boston Beaneaters 1-0. And it was quite the frustrating victory in that we put up 10 hits but were only able to get one run after stranding nine. Four runners were left stranded in scoring position. It felt like we had a man on third base the entire game.

P Doc White was sensational. And economical: 23 outs came by either ground outs or fly outs and he pitched a complete game in 97 pitches. A complete game shutout for the Doc.

March 1, 1903 - Your Philadelphia Phillies!

2006-06-21T22:40:00.000-07:00

I've decided upon my lineups for the 1903 season. I think we have a World Series winner here.

C - Klondike Douglass/Harry Bemis
1B - Roy Brashear
2B - John Farrell
3B - Harry Wolverton/Jack Dunn
SS - Hughie Jennings
LF - Ed Delahanty
CF - Roy Thomas
RF - Elmer Flick

Rotation:
Doc White, Happy Townsend, Red Donahue, Al Orth

Bullpen:
Bob Short, Bill Dugleby

January 12, 1903 - Tempting Trade

2006-06-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well, the Pittsburgh Pirates approached me with a trade that sounded very tempting, but I believe I'll turn it down. They were offering LF Fred Clarke for RF Elmer Flick and LF Harry Wood. Clarke is 30 to Flick's 27.

Here is Fred Clarke's 1902 stat line (click to enlarge):

And Flick's (click to enlarge):

December 20, 1902 - Amateur Draft

2006-06-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Alright, today is the big day. I feel like our selections were pretty solid considering we had the 14th pick.

The first overall pick by the Washington Senators was for P Chief Bender. As for us?

1 - RF John Titus
2 - P Elmer Bliss
3 - P Conny McGeehan
4 - P Larry Milton
5 - C Jack Zalusky
6 - LF Harry Wood

All three pitchers have some promise and I feel that among the three, at least one of them will eventually make a contribution to the team. C Jack Zalusky has enormous pop in his bat, maybe even more than Ed Delahanty! RF John Titus may be the best of the lot, though, as he may be as handy with the bat as our starting RF Elmer Flick. I may have to use one as trade bait of consider moving one of them to another position so to get both bats into the lineup.

1902 Awards Ceremony

2006-06-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Well, another year is in the books and it's time to hand out some hardware to individuals who have earned recognition.

The Gold Glove winners.

AL Rookie of the Year: LF Patsy Dougherty, Cleveland Bronchos
NL Rookie of the Year: P Dad Hale, New York Giants

AL Cy Young Award: P Jesse Tannehill, St. Louis Browns
NL Cy Young Award: P Rube Waddell, Pittsburgh Pirates

AL Chalmers Award: SS/2B Nap Lajoie, Philadelphia A's
NL Chalmers Award: LF Sam Crawford, Cincinnati Reds

1902 World Series

2006-06-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

The St. Louis Browns defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4 games to 1.

1902 - Final Standings

2006-06-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

August 25, 1902 - Delahanty injured!

2006-06-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

A critical injury down the stretch, 1B/LF Ed Delahanty suffers a groin injury and will have to sit on the 15-day DL. I call up a masher LF George Hildebrand off the reserve roster. He was our 11th round draft pick before this season and he appears to have enormous power.

In the meanwhile LF Jimmy Slage takes over in LF and 1B Harry Bemis will stick around first.

The standings as of today:

August 4, 1902 - Closing the gap

2006-06-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Our players are winning awards left and right and our persistence on the diamond is paying off. With 50 games left in the season, we're still in the mix:

June 30, 1902 - Standings

2006-06-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

Despite some excellent performances and a lack of any new injuries, we're starting to fade in the standings:

June 2, 1902 - Bemis & Delahanty Awards

2006-06-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

1B/LF Ed Delahanty won the batter of the month award for May. He batted .393 for the month, had one dinger, 18 RBIs, 21 runs, 15 walks, and an OBP of .468.

1B/C Harry Bemis was the rookie of the month for May, as well. He hit .345 with one homer and 27 RBIs while batting .343 on the season.

May 27, 1902 - Superchokes

2006-06-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

Played the Brooklyn Superbas on the road today....losing 0-2 in the top of the 9th, we put up 5 runs to win 5-2.

1B/C Harry Bemis a few days ago on the 24th went 5-for-5 against Chicago. And LF/1B Ed Delahanty won the Player of the Week award yesterday. Currently Delahanty is on a 10 game hit streak.

We're currently 2.5 games behind cross-state rival Pittsburgh Pirates. The St. Louis Cardinals are on a 5 game win streak and are a half game ahead of us.

May 11, 1902

2006-06-18T15:53:00.000-07:00

Winning three of four in St. Louis puts us in first place!

April 24, 1902 - Farrell out for the season

2006-06-16T01:04:00.000-07:00

Our intrepid new 2B/SS John Farrell suffered a serious elbow bone chip injury today and is out 7-8 months!

It's a big blow. He was batting .346 and had one jack.

IF Roy Brashear will take over full time duties at second while Hughie Jennings will take the job at short.

At this point in the season, our record is at 4-3 and we're only one game behind the first place St. Louis Cardinals.

April 21, 1902 - Giants begone

2006-06-15T23:52:00.000-07:00

We finished our opening series by dropping two of the three games to the Giants. Strangely, the American League doesn't begin until the 23rd.

April 17, 1902 - Opening Day

2006-06-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

Opening Day was a thrill as we destroyed Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants on their own turf 7-1.

Our new SS John Farrell went 2-for-3 with a 2-run HR as well as a walk.

P Doc White, aside from having three wild pitches, was great. The only Giants run was unearned, so he has a relatively squeaky record so far.....

Good start to the season.

February 18, 1902 - Trade

2006-06-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

To shore up on the 2B position and being four catchers deep, I was able to send C Fred Jacklitsch to the Washington Senators in exchange for 2B John Farrell. Farrell was pretty good last year, batting .286 with 3 HRs and 50 stolen bases. To top it off, he was the 1901 Al Gold Glove winner for second base.

Frankly, examining this guy's attributes, he appears to be better than Joe Dolan and Bert Conn, my second basemen from last year, so I believe I may make Farrell the number one guy at second base....Great trade!

December 20, 1901 - Amateur Draft

2006-06-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

Well, today is the day to re-stock the team with the draft. We're pretty shallow at the first base position, so I make our first pick 1B Roy Brashear, who appears to have a good bat.

The first pick overall was P Bob Ewing for the Boston Beaneaters.

Our entire draft selections:

1. 1B Roy Brashear
2. C Harry Bemis
3. LF Chick Hartley
4. P Harvey Cushman
5. P Bill Salisbury
6. C Lee Fohl
7. LF George Hildenbrand
8. RF Lew Post

I have two spare spots on my active roster and for the time being, Brashear and Bemis will make the team. The others will languish in quiet desperation, I suppose.

November 1901 - Off Season News

2006-06-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

A few off-season events for the kids:

-The Boston Americans are changing their name to the Boston Somersets.

-The Cleveland Blues are changing their name to the Cleveland Bronchos.

-The Cincinnati Reds are changing parks to the Palace of the Fans. Pretty cavalier name, isn't it?

-The Milwaukee Brewers are moving to St. Louis and will now be called the St. Louis Browns. Their new home is called Sportsman's Park.

1901 Awards Ceremony

2006-06-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year. The hardware for the best players. Even though it's 1901 and Cy Young is an active player, I went ahead and named the best pitcher award the Cy Young Award. The Batting Title is named the Chalmers Award, which is remotely accurate to the historical name for the award.

First, the Gold Glove Winners:

AL Rookie of the Year: P Frank Owen, Detroit Tigers
NL Rookie of the Year: P Doc White, Philadelphia Phillies
AL Cy Young Award: P Cy Young, Boston Americans
NL Cy Young Award: P Rube Waddell, Pittsburgh Pirates
AL Chalmers Award: SS Nap Lajoie, Philadelphia Athletics
NL Chalmers Award: RF Sam Crawford, Cincinnati Reds

1901 World Series

2006-06-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 1 to win the first World Series.

1901 Final Standings

2006-06-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

October 6, 1901

2006-06-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

I'm eager to get the first season or two under my belt so there's a sense of history. Plus, I want to make sure my settings are realistic and getting a waste season or two out of the way would do that.

So we get to the end of the regular season and the Pennant winners? American League winner are the Detroit Tigers while the National League representative in the World Series are the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Important statistical leaders?

Average: .394-Emmet Heidrick, St. Louis Cardinals
VORP: 110.8-Nap Lajoie, Philadelphia Athletics
Hits: 219-Nap Lajoie, Philadelphia Athletics
Homeruns: 21-Sam Crawford, Cincinnati Reds
RBIs: 129-Ed Delahanty, Philadelphia Phillies
Stolen Bases: 117-Elmer Flick, Philadelphia Phillies

ERA: 2.85-Ed Siever, Detroit Tigers
Wins: 28-Harry Howell, Baltimore Orioles
Shutouts: 5-Watty Lee, Washington Senators
VORP: 96.5-Rube Waddell, Pittsburgh Pirates
Strikeouts: 186-Christy Mathewson, New York Giants

Runners Caught: 18.2%-Doc Powers, Philadelphia Athletics

July 16, 1901 - Standings

2006-06-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

Moving forward, the National League standings on July 16th, 1901.

April 23, 1901 - Brooklyn Superbas

2006-06-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

Our first series was a four game offensive slugfest with the Brooklyn Superbas at home. Opening day was a monstrous 19-13 loss! We managed to split the series two games apiece, however. The lowest scoring game was a 6-4 loss....

January 2, 1901 - Free Agents signed

2006-06-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

For depth, I dipped into the free agent market and picked up two players. P Bob Short and SS Bill Strype were signed to 1-year deals.

Strype appears to have some batting skill, so hopefully I can fit him into the lineup whenever an infielder needs a rest.

January 1st, 1901 - Wot 'ave we 'ere?

2006-06-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Taking stock of the situation, the 1901 Philadelphia Phillies appear to have a pretty solid roster.

We have three catchers who all could easily start in Klondike Douglass, Fred Jacklitsch, and Ed McFarland. Douglass will probably see the most time but I will platoon all three.

1B/LF Ed Delahanty is the lynchpin of our offense. He can hit for power, hit for singles, steal bases, and plays pretty good defense. He's an old geezer at 33, so he provides some leadership. He'll rotate between first and left often. Klondike Douglass will probably play first when Delahanty is not, giving time to the other catchers.

2B Joe Dolan has some pop in his bat.

3B Harry Wolverton will be my starting third baseman and Jack Dunn is the backup.

At SS Hughie Jennings is the base stealing threat of the team.

When Delahanty isn't in left, it will be a 27 year old Jimmy Slagle. CF Roy Thomas and RF Elmer Flick are pretty big mashers for a dead ball era team. They'll provide some pop.

My rotation is stellar. Al Orth and Doc White are the aces of the team and White is only 21 years old. Red Donahue and Bill Duggleby are excellent third and fourth starters. Happy Townsend will be the house relief pitcher. He's more than capable of doing the job well and could start a few games.

I expect to contend for the World Series off the bat, no pun intended. Hopefully that's exactly what we'll do....

Greetings

2006-06-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this blog is simply to help my personal attachment to an Out of the Park Baseball 2006 save game.

With the Lahman database and starting with the 1901 Major League Baseball season, I'll start with the Philadelphia Phillies in hopes of bring home World Series glory. This blog is the journal of that World Series quest.