Week (or two) in Review - National League thru April 28, 1929

 As explained in the earlier post of the American League, this Week in Review covers the first two weeks of the 1929 season.  As in the AL, and perhaps even more so, there were some incredible offensive performers to open the season.  Let's start with the standings through April 28, 1929:

National League

Team         W   L   GB   PCT  Home  Road Strk  L10
-----------   ---  ---  ----    ----     -----    -----   ----   ----

Giants        5    2    ---    714      4-1     1-1    W-2 5-2

Reds          6    4    0.5    600      4-3     2-1    L-2 6-4

Pirates       5   4     1.0    556      2-1     3-3    W-1 5-4

Cubs          5   5     1.5    500      3-3    2-2     W-2 5-5

Robins       5   5     1.5    500      3-3    2-2     L-3  5-5

Phillies      4   5     2.0    444      2-1   2-4     L-1  4-5

Braves       3   5     2.5    375      1-2   2-3     W-1 3-5

Cardinals   4   7     3.0    364      1-3  3-4      L-1 4-6

Once again, here is the link to the Baseball-Reference page for the season, which shows the standings as of games through 4/28/1929.  Can see some early season variance...what jumps out at me in comparing to the actual results are the slow starts of the Cubs and Cardinals.  Surprisingly, in the real results the Boston Braves were leading the NL at this point in the season at 6-2 but would go on to finish dead last and lose nearly 100 games.  So, the Braves underperforming the real-life results at this point isn't surprising, as they faded badly as the season progressed.  The Giants and Phillies offenses are both super explosive and fun to play with, so we will see how those teams end up as we get deeper into the year.

NL Batting Leaders

BVG - Min. Plate Appearances (22)
Name	Team	At Bats	Hits	BVG
L. O'DOUL	Phillies	35	18	514
B. TERRY	Giants	28	14	500
G. HARPER	Braves	29	14	483
G. KELLY	Reds	40	18	450
J. BOTTOMLEY	Cardinals	42	18	429
R. HORNSBY	Cubs	43	17	395
R. STEPHENSON	Cubs	33	13	394
D. BARTELL	Pirates	36	14	389
W. GILBERT	Robins	24	9	375
D. BANCROFT	Robins	27	10	370
M. OTT	Giants	22	8	364
H. WILSON	Cubs	42	15	357
B. FRIBERG	Phillies	34	12	353
L. WANER	Pirates	40	14	350
T. JACKSON	Giants	23	8	348
C. KLEIN	Phillies	35	12	343
P. WHITNEY	Phillies	35	12	343
H. HENDRICK	Robins	21	7	333
K. CUYLER	Cubs	42	14	333
F. THOMPSON	Phillies	40	13	325

HR Leaders
Name	Team	Homeruns
C. KLEIN	Phillies	5
J. BOTTOMLEY	Cardinals	4
F. LINDSTROM	Giants	3
R. HORNSBY	Cubs	3
L. O'DOUL	Phillies	3
B. TERRY	Giants	3
5 Players Tied	NA	2

 

RBI Leaders
Name	Team	RBI
R. HORNSBY	Cubs	15
J. BOTTOMLEY	Cardinals	15
L. O'DOUL	Phillies	13
C. KLEIN	Phillies	12
E. ALLEN	Reds	12
B. TERRY	Giants	11
4 Players Tied	NA	9

Run Leaders
Name	Team	Runs
F. THOMPSON	Phillies	11
F. FRISCH	Cardinals	10
L. WANER	Pirates	9
H. WILSON	Cubs	9
L. O'DOUL	Phillies	9
C. KLEIN	Phillies	9
7 Players Tied	NA	8

Hits Leaders
Name	Team	Hits
G. KELLY	Reds	18
L. O'DOUL	Phillies	18
J. BOTTOMLEY	Cardinals	18
R. HORNSBY	Cubs	17
H. WILSON	Cubs	15
6 Players Tied	NA	14

OBP Leaders
Name	Team	OBP
L. O'DOUL	Phillies	575
G. HARPER	Braves	571
R. STEPHENSON	Cubs	533
B. TERRY	Giants	517
G. KELLY	Reds	500
G. GRANTHAM	Pirates	462
M. OTT	Giants	462
R. HORNSBY	Cubs	458

SLG Leaders
Name	Team	SLG
B. TERRY	Giants	893
L. O'DOUL	Phillies	886
J. BOTTOMLEY	Cardinals	786
C. KLEIN	Phillies	771
R. HORNSBY	Cubs	721
T. JACKSON	Giants	696
F. LINDSTROM	Giants	677
B. FRIBERG	Phillies	647

OPS - Plate Appearances (22)
Name	Team	OPS
L. O'DOUL	Phillies	1461
B. TERRY	Giants	1410
J. BOTTOMLEY	Cardinals	1235
C. KLEIN	Phillies	1196
R. HORNSBY	Cubs	1179
G. HARPER	Braves	1123
M. OTT	Giants	1098
G. GRANTHAM	Pirates	1083

Name	Team	BB
R. STEPHENSON	Cubs	10
G. GRANTHAM	Pirates	10
C. WALKER	Reds	7
P. WANER	Pirates	7
7 Players Tied	NA	6

SB Leaders
Name	Team	SB
C. GELBERT	Cardinals	5
T. DOUTHIT	Cardinals	4
P. TRAYNOR	Pirates	4
B. HERMAN	Robins	3
L. WANER	Pirates	3
6 Players Tied	NA	2

NL Pitching Leaders

ERA - Min. Innings Pitched (7)
Name	Team	Innings	ERA
B. HEARN	Braves	7	0
S. JOHNSON	Cardinals	10	0.9
D. VANCE	Robins	19	0.95
S. SWETONIC	Pirates	8	1.13
L. ROY	Phillies	7.2	1.17
J. PETTY	Pirates	15	1.2
C. MITCHELL	Cardinals	7	1.29
L. BENTON	Giants	11	1.64
D. LUQUE	Reds	18	2
R. LUCAS	Reds	20	2.25
C. HILL	Pirates	8	2.25
H. CARLSON	Cubs	10.2	2.53
J. HAINES	Cardinals	16	2.81
R. BENGE	Phillies	9	3
A. FERGUSON	Phillies	14	3.21
R. KREMER	Pirates	14	3.21
D. KEMNER	Reds	8.1	3.24
C. HUBBELL	Giants	16	3.38
J. ELLIOTT	Robins	13	3.46
P. JONES	Braves	20	3.6

Strikeout Leaders
Name	Team	Strikeouts
P. MALONE	Cubs	17
D. LUQUE	Reds	12
D. VANCE	Robins	11
D. McWEENY	Robins	8
B. SHERDEL	Cardinals	8
P. JONES	Braves	7
S. BLAKE	Cubs	7
B. GRIMES	Pirates	7

Innings Leaders
Name	Team	Innings
C. WILLOUGHBY	Phillies	24.2
P. MALONE	Cubs	23.1
P. ALEXANDER	Cardinals	23
B. GRIMES	Pirates	20.1
R. LUCAS	Reds	20
P. JONES	Braves	20
D. VANCE	Robins	19
D. LUQUE	Reds	18

WHIP - Min. Inn. (7)
Name	Team	OBP
B. HEARN	Braves	0.71
C. MITCHELL	Cardinals	0.86
D. LUQUE	Reds	0.89
S. JOHNSON	Cardinals	0.9
L. BENTON	Giants	0.91
R. EHRHARDT	Reds	0.91
J. PETTY	Pirates	0.93
H. CARLSON	Cubs	0.94

NL Top Performers

Look no further than the Top 5 in NL OPS for the week's top performers - and quite possibly in that exact order, as outlined below.

Lefty O'Doul, Philadelphia Phillies (*NL Player of the Week) - O'Doul hit .398 in 1929 and easily won the batting title, so it's no surprise that he is already an offensive juggernaut in this replay.  Through the first two weeks of the season he leads the NL in average, hits, OBP, and OPS, and trailing only slightly in other major offensive categories (HRs, RBI, runs, slugging).  Alongside fellow top performer Chuck Klein, the Phillies offense is formidable, as either Lefty or Klein are likely to drive in any runners that get on base.  O'Doul is currently riding a 9 game hit streak.

Bill Terry, New York Giants - the star of the first-place Giants, Terry has done it all through the opening of the season.  Slashing at .500/.517/.893, Terry leads the league in slugging and is second in a number of other major categories.  Terry capped off his incredible start against the Phillies in the last game of the week, going 4-5 with a HR and the game winning single to walk it off in the bottom of the 10th.

Jim Bottomly, St. Louis Cardinals - The Cardinals may be off to a slow start, but Bottomly certainly isn't.  The reigning 1928 NL MVP has carried his team offensively, hitting an impressive .429/.449/.786, swatting 4 home runs and knocking in 15 runs (tied for the league lead).  The performance from Bottomly is one of the reasons I'm really enjoying this replay, as here is a guy who had a Hall of Fame career but that I knew very little about before starting this project.

Chuck Klein, Philadelphia Phillies - You'd think that hitting behind Lefty O'Doul, who has himself knocked in 13 runs, would dampen Klein's numbers, but it definitely has not.  Klein leads the league in home runs at 5, while slugging .771 and posting an OPS of 1.196, good enough for third in the NL.  The Phillies currently sit at 4-5 on the year, but their offense guarantees they have a shot in every game.

Rogers Hornsby, Chicago Cubs - The Rajah has started as one would expect, based on his actual 1929 numbers.  His 15 RBIs are tied for tops in the league and his .395/.458/.721 stat line is phenomenal.  He also came up clutch in some big situations, such as delivering an RBI in the top of the 17th in a game on April 28 against the Reds.

Games of the Week

Yes, plural "games" rather than only one game of the week, as I couldn't choose between two that occurred on April 28.  So, I'm going to crown them both.

4/28/1929

Chicago Cubs (5-5) at Cincinnati Reds (6-4)

Teams   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17   R  H  E

------ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  -- -- --

Cubs    4  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  2   7 13  1

Reds    0  2  0  0  0  1  0  2  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0   5 11  2

The Cubs grabbed control early in this one and looked as if they might coast to a relatively easy victory.  The Reds, however, scored two runs in the bottom of the 8th, tying the game at 5-5 - whereupon, the pitching promptly took over and no team scored for the next 8 innings.  It wasn't until the top of the 17th that the Cubs knocked in two runs, one from star Rogers Hornsby, and were able to hold on to that lead.

4/28/1929

Philadelphia Phillies (4-5) at New York Giants (5-2)

Teams       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10   R  H  E

---------- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  -- -- --

Phillies    0  0  1  0  0  1  0  0  0  0   2  7  2

Giants      0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  1  1   3 13  1

Considering the offensive stars playing on both sides of this game, this one was surprisingly low scoring.  The Phillies lead 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th, when a genius manager (me) removed a pitcher that had been stellar the entire day and the reliever promptly gave up a run to send it into extra innings.  In the bottom of the 10th, Bill Terry, who had already homered earlier in the game, hit a walk off single to give the Giants the win.