The virtual 1958-68 Giants, Reds, and Cardinals (Part 4: 1960-61)
We’ve completed three seasons of our triangular hypothetical:
Last time, we saw the Giants extending success, the Reds distinctly failing to do the same, and the Cardinals doing all right but not good enough. Will 1961 introduce any new turns in the road?
Giants: Actual Reds: Actual Cardinals: Actual
Year W L Pos RS RA W L Pos RS RA W L Pos RS RA
1958 80 74 3 727 698 76 78 4 695 623 72 82 5T 619 704
1959 83 71 3 705 613 74 80 5T 764 738 71 83 7 641 725
1960 79 75 5 671 631 67 87 6 640 692 86 68 3 639 616
Giants: Virtual Reds: Virtual Cardinals: Virtual
Year W L Pos RS RA W L Pos RS RA W L Pos RS RA
1958 83 71 2 747 692 73 81 5 683 637 77 77 4 640 677
1959 87 67 1T 737 615 87 67 1T 802 662 84 70 4 725 685
1960 93 61 1 709 561 76 78 6 705 666 86 68 4 661 632
The 1960-61 offseason: Actual deals we will make
Oct. 15, 1960: The Cincinnati Reds traded catcher Dutch Dotterer to the Kansas City Athletics for catcher Danny Kravitz.
Because, other things being equal, it’s nice to have your backup catcher hit left-handed.
Dec. 15, 1960: The Cincinnati Reds traded shortstop Roy McMillan to the Milwaukee Braves for pitchers Joey Jay and Juan Pizarro.
Well, then. This one can only be understood as one-half of a bold ploy by the Braves to instantly reconstruct their middle infield, as they were also trading center fielder Bill Bruton, along with three other useful players, to Detroit in exchange for second baseman Frank Bolling. Here’s how we summed it up in the Blockbusters series:
With the decline of both second baseman Red Schoendienst and shortstop Johnny Logan, and the Braves’ frustrating second-place finishes in both 1959 and ’60, Milwaukee GM John McHale decided it was time to stop fooling around and get himself a new first-class double play combination. That he did: Bolling and McMillan were both terrific with the glove, and Bolling wasn’t a bad hitter.
But McHale sure expended a lot of talent to get them, and it would turn out to be one of those cases of solving one problem while creating others.
Indeed, it was a double-overpayment by Milwaukee. Neither Jay nor Pizarro, somewhat buried behind the Braves’ big front three of Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, and Bob Buhl, had quite broken through yet, but both were among the more promising young pitching talents in the game. Our Reds, as in reality, will be happy to accommodate Milwaukee’s gamble, particularly since we have a young shortstop, Leo Cardenas, who looks ready to take over in place of the veteran McMillan.
Jan. 25, 1961: The Cincinnati Reds traded pitcher Joe Nuxhall to the Kansas City Athletics for pitchers John Briggs and John Tsitouris.
We like Nuxhall, but we have young lefty Claude Osteen looking ready for the majors, and along with Pizarro now in the mix, we’ve got more than enough southpaws on hand. Briggs and Tsitouris are mid-grade right-handed prospects.
Feb. 24, 1961: The Cincinnati Reds sold catcher Frank House to the Baltimore Orioles.
While having a left-handed backup catcher is nice, you don’t need too many, and with Kravitz on hand we’ll let go of House.
April 10, 1961: The St. Louis Cardinals sold pitcher Ron Kline to the Los Angeles Angels.
After his lousy season in 1960, Kline isn’t going to make our staff this spring.
The 1960-61 offseason: Actual deals we will not make
Oct. 11, 1960: The St. Louis Cardinals traded outfielder Leon Wagner, pitcher Cal Browning, a player to be named later, and cash to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League for pitcher Al Cicotte. (On Jan. 26, 1961, the Cardinals sent outfielder Ellis Burton to the Maple Leafs, completing the deal.)
Wait, what? The Cardinals traded all that to get Al Cicotte, a well-traveled 31-year-old journeyman right-hander?
Granted, Cicotte has surprised with a terrific year in triple-A in 1960 (16-7 with a 1.79 ERA in 201 innings), but on the basis of his track record, he sure doesn’t seem to be worth that much. Our Cards won’t bite.
Oct. 31, 1960: The San Francisco Giants traded shortstop Andre Rodgers to the Milwaukee Braves for infielder Alvin Dark.
The actual Giants had never been comfortable with the big-bodied Rodgers, dwelling on his weaknesses and dismissing his strengths, and never just letting him settle in and play. Here they compounded the miscalculation by expending him in order to acquire the veteran Dark for the purpose of naming him manager, despite the fact that Dark had never managed at any level.
Our Giants will do no such thing.
Dec. 3, 1960: The San Francisco Giants traded outfielder Willie Kirkland and pitcher Johnny Antonelli to the Cleveland Indians for outfielder Harvey Kuenn.
This one as well was mostly a function of San Francisco’s frustration. This time it was with the not-quite-27-year-old Kirkland, whom they’d expected to develop into a star, but it just wasn’t happening. Antonelli, the long-time staff ace, had distinctly declined at the age of 30 in 1960, and though his days as a regular starter appeared through, he might have a nice run as a reliever ahead.
Kuenn, for his part, had long been a terrific hitter for average, but though he was just turning 30, had noticeably slowed down in 1960, and was, shall we say, never known for his dedication to healthy conditioning habits. All in all the Giants were betting quite a lot that Kuenn’s decline phase wasn’t about to get underway.
Our Giants won’t take that action, and we’ll accept Kirkland as the good supporting player that he’s been.
Dec. 14, 1960: The Cincinnati Reds sold catcher Joe Azcue to the Milwaukee Braves.
One fails to grasp any purpose in Cincinnati’s unloading of this 21-year-old catching prospect who’d progressed nicely through their system.
Dec. 15, 1960: The Cincinnati Reds traded pitchers Cal McLish and Juan Pizarro to the Chicago White Sox for third baseman Gene Freese.
One can understand newly-arrived Cincinnati GM Bill DeWitt’s logic here, as he had a hole at third base and Freese had established himself as a productive young power hitter.
But it was a high price in pitching talent to pay, and our version of the Reds has no third base hole, since we didn’t trade away Don Hoak. So we’ll pass on Freese, and give the hard-throwing young Pizarro an opportunity.
March 15, 1961: The St. Louis Cardinals signed second baseman Red Schoendienst as a free agent.
We’d love to welcome this longtime St. Louis star, recently released by the Braves, back into our organization to finish his career. But we don’t have roster room for him. Hopefully he’ll agree to be a coach.
The 1960-61 offseason: Actual deals we will invoke
Dec. 3, 1960: The Cincinnati Reds traded pitcher Don Rudolph and cash to the Chicago Cubs for outfielder Lou Johnson.
We just don’t have a spot for the soft-tossing southpaw Rudolph, and it’s plausible that the Cubs would have more interest in him than they were showing in the longtime minor leaguer Johnson, who hadn’t hit well when Chicago gave him a bit of a big league chance in 1960. Our Reds will allow Sweet Lou to compete for a bench role.
Dec. 15, 1960: The San Francisco Giants traded outfielders Felipe Alou and Manny Mota, pitchers Eddie Fisher and Dick LeMay, and third baseman Jim Davenport to the St. Louis Cardinals for third baseman Ken Boyer.
Yes, you read that correctly: our Cardinals will surrender their hugely popular and productive star third baseman, the local Missouri boy, the team captain, the one and only Ken Boyer. And our Giants will commit the enormous package of talent necessary to pry him loose.
The explanation for this megabombshell starts with our candid assessment of the St. Louis situation. Though our annual win totals have crept upward from 1958 through 1960, we’ve still not climbed past fourth place, and we just don’t see the essential structure of this ball club with a championship in its future. Heaven knows we don’t mean to blame Boyer for this: he’s wonderful in every regard. But there isn’t enough talent capital supporting him, especially not in the offensive half of the inning.
Stan Musial has settled in as a productive part-timer, but that’s all he is, and for how long can he sustain that? Bill White is developing into an outstanding all-around first baseman, but he isn’t a serious power producer. Larry Jackson is a highly reliable workhorse, but not a true stopper. We just don’t see a plausible scenario in which this foundation yields any pennants.
And though we certainly understand that the St. Louis fanbase will be apoplectic at the news of this transaction, we’re firmly of the opinion that at the end of the day, what drives the popularity of a ball club is its win total, and especially its achievement of championships. Our time horizon is three to five years, and within that window we think we’re more likely to hoist that flag having made this deal. And we believe that once that flag is hoisted, few fans will still be kvetching about the Ken Boyer trade.
This deals hurts St Louis a lot at third base, of course. But the slick-fielding Davenport isn’t chopped liver. And this deal helps St. Louis significantly in the outfield and on the mound. We’re ready to suffer some downside in 1961 and perhaps ’62, but the further we look forward, the more we see this exchange balancing in the Cardinals’ favor.
As for our Giants, we understand that as a sheer talent comparison, in the long run we’re giving more than we’re getting in this five-for-one. But we also understand that talent only yields value when it can be exploited, and we doubt we have the lineup space to fully exploit Alou or Davenport, and probably won’t even have a spot for Mota. We love Fisher and like LeMay, but we’re fortunate enough to have such a bounty of young pitching talent on hand that if anyone can afford to give them up, we can.
And Boyer fits just perfectly into our world. His presence allows us to move Orlando Cepeda back out to left field, dramatically improving our defense and allowing Cepeda to relax and focus on his hitting. We see the almost-30-year-old Boyer as likely to deliver at least two or three more peak-level seasons before he begins to decline, and his peak is so robust that he could be a good player even as he declines.
In short, it’s a case of our Cardinals looking honestly around the corner, and our Giants going all in to maximize their impact at the top of the success cycle. These franchises are hooking up (if you’ll pardon the expression) for mutual benefit.
Dec. 16, 1960: The St. Louis Cardinals traded catcher Smoky Burgess and pitchers Curt Simmons and Chuck Stobbs to the Pittsburgh Pirates for pitcher Al Jackson, second baseman Julian Javier, and catcher Carl Sawatski.
And here our Cardinals decide that in for a penny, in for a pound in the rebuilding effort. Earlier in the year, the Pirates had been willing to offer Javier for Wilmer Mizell, and we’d turned them down. But since he’s still available, and with the Boyer deal we’ve committed to getting younger, we’ll work something out with Pittsburgh now.
We still won’t surrender the just-turned-30-year-old lefty Mizell, but instead offer the soon-to-be-32-year-old lefty Simmons, who was so surprisingly lights-out for us in 1960, but in whom we still don’t have long-term confidence. (Simmons will prove our judgment wrong.) We’ll also allow the Pirates to significantly upgrade their left-handed hitting catcher, plus put the additional southpaw Stobbs in their bullpen.
For that we’ll take Javier, who will compete for our second base job with Don Blasingame, who was less than impressive in 1960. We’ll also take the crafty young left-hander Jackson, whom the Pirates have never really appreciated despite fine work in triple-A.
March 31, 1961: The San Francisco Giants traded infielder Eddie Bressoud to the Chicago Cubs for pitcher Seth Morehead.
Actually on this date, the Cubs traded the journeyman southpaw Morehead to Milwaukee for Andre Rodgers. Our Giants certainly aren’t doing that, but we will give up the utilityman Bressoud.
April 1, 1961: The San Francisco Giants traded outfielder Leon Wagner to the Los Angeles Angels for outfielder Jim McAnany and cash.
(Actually on this date the Angels traded McAnany to the Cubs for Lou Johnson. Two weeks later Los Angeles would flip Johnson to Toronto in exchange for Wagner.)
The sweet-swinging Wagner hasn’t developed as our Giants thought he would, and now rookie Matty Alou is beating him out for the backup outfield spot. So we’re ready to exchange Daddy Wags for McAnany, who’ll never hit like Wagner but plays far better defense, and we’ll place him in triple-A as injury insurance.
April, 1961: The St. Louis Cardinals sold outfielder Walt Moryn to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Consistent with our youth movement, we won’t leave roster room for this 35-year-old veteran.
The 1961 season: Actual deals we will make
May 10, 1961: The Cincinnati Reds traded infielder Jim Baumer to the Detroit Tigers for first baseman Dick Gernert.
We’ll have the 32-year-old Gernert take over the role the 38-year-old Walt Dropo has been filling.
May 16, 1961: The St. Louis Cardinals traded outfielder-first baseman Duke Carmel to the Los Angeles Dodgers for infielder Joe Koppe.
Our Cardinals have given the toolsy Carmel another chance this spring, but again he isn’t hitting his weight, and he won’t make the cut. We’ll park the journeyman Koppe in triple-A instead.
June 19, 1961: The St. Louis Cardinals sold shortstop Joe Koppe to the Los Angeles Angels for $1,000.
A lousy thousand bucks? Really? Well, Koppe has hit just .219 in the minors, so, whatever.
The 1961 season: Actual deals we will not make
April 27, 1961: The San Francisco Giants traded second baseman Don Blasingame, catcher Bob Schmidt, and a player to be named later to the Cincinnati Reds for catcher Ed Bailey. (On May 13, 1961, the Giants sent pitcher Sherman Jones to the Reds, completing the deal.)
Blasingame had fallen far short of expectations in San Francisco, and the Reds were searching for a second baseman, so the teams connected. But in our scenario, the Giants don’t have Blasingame, and moreover our Reds, with Johnny Temple still on hand, have second base reasonably covered. So our Reds will hang on to the power-hitting backstop Bailey.
May 30, 1961: The St. Louis Cardinals traded infielder Daryl Spencer to the Los Angeles Dodgers for outfielder Carl Warwick and infielder Bob Lillis.
Our Cardinals don’t have Spencer; our Giants still do. But our Giants have no interest in this offering from L.A.
July 21, 1961: The Cincinnati Reds traded pitcher Orlando Peña and cash to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League for pitcher Ken Johnson.
The actual Reds left Peña to the minors in 1960-61, for no persuasive reason. We’ve been making good use of him in the majors, and will have no interest in this swap.
Aug. 14, 1961: The Cincinnati Reds purchased catcher Darrell Johnson from the Philadelphia Phillies.
Nor will our Reds, with Bailey still in the fold, have any interest in this marginality.
Sep. 16, 1961: The Cincinnati Reds traded pitcher Claude Osteen to the Washington Senators for a player to be named later and cash. (On Nov. 28, 1961, the Senators sent pitcher Dave Sisler to the Reds, completing the deal.)
We’ve explored what a bizarre move this was by Cincinnati. Suffice to say that in the long history of trades, few have been sillier than this one.
Our Reds won’t go anywhere near there. Instead, we’ll just give the 22-year-old southpaw Osteen an honest chance to pitch in the major leagues.
The 1961 season: Deals we will invoke
May 13, 1961: The San Francisco Giants traded pitcher Sherman Jones to the Cincinnati Reds for pitcher Mike Cuellar.
Giving our Reds the second-line pitcher they actually accepted from the Giants on this date as the PTBNL from the Bailey deal, and giving our Giants a chance to try out the slender young junkballing lefty Cuellar, who’s washed out in Cincinnati.
July 3, 1961: The Cincinnati Reds sold pitcher Johnny Klippstein to the Washington Senators.
He’s having a bad year, and we’ll promote Jones to take his spot.
July 4, 1961: The San Francisco Giants sold pitcher Johnny Antonelli to the Milwaukee Braves.
The Braves actually purchased Antonelli from Cleveland on this date. His implosion from elite-ace status since 1959 has been shockingly sudden, and at the age of 31 it has to be acknowledged that he’s looking like, well, roadkill. (Though the Braves might say: remember Curt Simmons!)
1961 season results
Giants
The single huge move, of course, is the installation of Boyer and third, and the resulting shift of Cepeda back to left. Otherwise the roster changes are small: the departed Felipe’s younger brother Matty backing up in the outfield, and fellow rookies Jose Pagan taking over as the primary utility infielder, and Tom Haller joining the catching corps.
1961 San Francisco Giants Won 88 Lost 66 Finished 2nd
Pos Player Age G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
1B W. McCovey* 23 141 507 101 137 19 4 30 71 64 92 .270 .354 .501 .855 127
2B D. Spencer 32 112 319 41 76 12 0 10 33 45 52 .238 .336 .370 .706 90
SS A. Rodgers 26 136 496 67 127 31 2 12 44 58 110 .256 .333 .399 .732 96
3B K. Boyer 30 153 617 111 195 25 7 23 83 74 92 .316 .387 .491 .878 135
RF W. Kirkland* 27 146 525 63 137 23 6 26 88 43 83 .261 .312 .476 .788 108
CF W. Mays 30 154 572 132 176 32 3 40 119 81 77 .308 .393 .584 .977 159
LF-1B O. Cepeda 23 152 585 107 182 28 4 46 137 39 91 .311 .362 .609 .970 155
C B. Schmidt 28 73 182 14 36 5 0 5 19 15 31 .198 .255 .308 .563 51
2B-SS J. Pagan 26 99 217 19 54 8 1 3 20 15 24 .249 .295 .336 .632 70
C T. Haller* 24 77 169 18 31 4 3 5 16 26 44 .183 .295 .331 .626 68
C H. Landrith* 31 81 148 19 35 7 0 4 13 23 15 .236 .322 .365 .687 85
UT D. Phillips* 29 72 123 16 27 3 1 3 13 19 17 .220 .324 .333 .657 78
OF M. Alou* 22 73 133 27 40 5 1 4 11 9 13 .301 .340 .444 .784 109
UT H. Bright 31 54 92 9 22 3 0 2 9 9 13 .239 .304 .337 .641 72
LF B. Nieman 34 45 82 5 30 7 0 2 16 6 7 .366 .409 .524 .933 149
Others 84 10 22 4 1 2 7 7 15 .262 .323 .405 .727 94
Pitchers 402 28 67 9 0 3 23 22 109 .167 .195 .211 .406 9
Total 5253 787 1394 225 33 220 722 555 885 .265 .333 .446 .780 108
* Bats left
Pitcher Age G GS CG W L SV IP H R ER HR BB SO ERA ERA+
M. McCormick* 22 40 35 13 14 15 0 250 235 99 89 33 75 163 3.20 120
J. Sanford 32 38 33 6 13 8 0 217 203 114 102 22 87 112 4.23 91
J. Marichal 23 29 27 9 13 9 0 185 183 88 80 24 48 124 3.89 99
E. Broglio 25 29 26 7 10 9 0 175 156 81 69 17 75 113 3.55 108
S. Jones 35 37 16 2 7 7 1 115 120 64 57 11 52 96 4.46 86
S. Miller 33 63 0 0 14 5 18 122 95 41 36 4 37 89 2.66 145
B. O'Dell* 28 46 14 4 7 5 3 130 132 63 52 10 33 110 3.60 107
F. Funk 24 44 0 0 4 3 5 72 61 26 25 7 22 55 3.13 123
B. Bolin 22 19 0 0 1 1 3 24 19 10 9 3 19 24 3.38 114
J. Antonelli* 31 17 2 0 1 1 0 36 49 25 24 5 13 20 6.00 64
M. Cuellar* 24 14 1 0 0 1 0 20 25 14 11 3 7 12 4.95 78
S. Morehead* 26 12 0 0 1 0 0 15 16 11 11 4 7 13 6.60 58
Others 1 0 3 2 1 28 26 12 11 3 12 15 3.54 109
Total 155 41 88 66 31 1389 1320 648 576 146 487 946 3.73 103
* Throws left
Boyer is marvelous, and even though our two primary catchers seem to be competing for who can slump the worst, overall this offense is the knockout-punching heavyweight we anticipated. Cepeda steps forward to join Willie Mays in superstar-hitter status, as our Murderer’s Row comes within a single home run of tying the National League record for big flies.
Alas, our pitching, the strength of the club in 1959-60, encounters some problems this time around. Stu Miller steps forward with a terrific ace reliever performance, but all the rest of the staff regresses to one degree or another. Our pitching is still pretty good, but that’s all.
Thus not only are we unable to build upon our 93-victory, pennant-winning form of 1960, we drop back to 88-66, and second place. Indeed, a very distant second place.
Reds
We’re making just one important change to the starting lineup: the rookie Cardenas replacing McMillan at shortstop. A minor alteration is a position shift: Frank Robinson, with his throwing arm healed, returns to right field, so Tony Gonzalez slides over to left, and Wally Moon is back to first base.
The big issue is on the pitching staff, where Jay and Pizarro are available to compete for starting assignments.
1961 Cincinnati Reds Won 106 Lost 48 Finished 1st
Pos Player Age G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
1B W. Moon* 31 134 463 84 140 28 2 21 92 90 82 .302 .411 .508 .919 141
2B-LF C. Flood 23 132 335 57 105 15 5 2 22 36 33 .313 .378 .406 .784 107
SS L. Cardenas 22 138 485 60 140 32 3 10 64 36 88 .289 .334 .429 .763 100
3B D. Hoak 33 145 503 77 149 27 5 16 77 70 52 .296 .381 .465 .846 122
RF F. Robinson 25 153 545 124 176 32 7 37 130 71 64 .323 .404 .611 1.015 163
CF V. Pinson* 22 154 607 107 208 34 8 16 91 39 63 .343 .376 .504 .880 130
LF T. Gonzalez* 24 123 339 56 100 14 5 13 57 41 47 .295 .373 .481 .854 123
C E. Bailey* 30 108 315 39 79 11 1 11 47 37 40 .251 .330 .397 .726 91
C-LF G. Oliver 26 103 261 48 71 9 0 18 54 43 63 .272 .376 .513 .890 132
2B-3B J. Temple 33 97 259 39 72 12 2 2 16 27 21 .278 .340 .363 .703 86
LF J. Lynch* 30 96 181 36 57 13 2 13 55 27 25 .315 .405 .6241.029 167
IF A. Grammas 35 64 113 16 23 7 1 0 14 13 14 .204 .280 .283 .563 49
OF L. Johnson 26 61 113 20 27 4 3 2 13 7 15 .239 .296 .381 .677 77
C J. Zimmerman 26 51 102 5 20 2 0 0 6 5 12 .196 .236 .216 .452 21
1B D. Gernert 32 40 63 4 19 1 0 0 7 7 9 .302 .361 .317 .679 81
Others 59 7 11 2 0 0 3 7 15 .186 .269 .220 .489 31
Pitchers 415 34 64 13 1 1 25 15 132 .154 .180 .198 .378 0
Total 5158 813 1461 256 45 162 773 571 775 .283 .352 .445 .797 109
* Bats left
Pitcher Age G GS CG W L SV IP H R ER HR BB SO ERA ERA+
J. O'Toole* 24 39 35 10 20 7 2 240 217 95 82 15 88 170 3.08 133
J. Jay 25 34 34 13 22 8 0 235 205 97 91 23 87 150 3.49 117
B. Purkey 31 36 34 12 17 10 1 234 232 111 96 25 48 111 3.69 111
J. Pizarro* 24 39 25 12 15 6 4 195 172 81 71 18 80 188 3.28 125
H. Haddix* 35 34 11 2 8 3 3 104 103 49 44 9 27 69 3.81 107
L. Arroyo* 34 57 0 0 11 4 27 89 65 28 23 4 34 68 2.33 176
O. Peña 27 41 2 0 4 3 6 70 78 35 29 6 14 44 3.73 110
C. Osteen* 21 23 3 0 3 1 0 53 50 28 25 5 25 35 4.25 96
J. Klippstein 33 21 0 0 1 2 2 36 44 33 29 8 19 23 7.25 56
S. Jones 26 12 1 0 1 0 1 28 26 16 14 3 14 16 4.50 91
J. Hook 24 11 3 0 1 1 0 32 42 28 27 7 11 18 7.59 54
D. Stenhouse 27 10 4 0 1 1 0 29 28 16 13 2 13 16 4.03 101
Others 2 0 2 2 0 24 22 12 11 3 13 14 4.13 99
Total 154 49 106 48 46 1369 1284 629 555 128 473 922 3.65 112
* Throws left
Over the many decades of baseball history, there have been a few instances of teams having a season in which everything of significance works out perfectly. It’s very rare, but once in a great while, it happens.
This is one of those precious times.
Dang near everybody has a real good year. From established stars Robinson, Moon, Vada Pinson, and Don Hoak on down, virtually every role is amply filled.
Curt Flood reinvents his batting approach, foregoing the power game to focus on up-the-middle contact, and emerges as a high-average hitter, wrestling the second base job away from the still-effective veteran Temple. The power bats on the bench, Jerry Lynch and Gene Oliver, both hit up a fearsome storm.
Jay and Pizarro both blossom into stardom, as does sophomore Jim O’Toole. Luis Arroyo is wicked out of the bullpen, and so not only is our hitting the best in the league, so is our pitching.
And so old Uncle Pythagoras decides to join the bacchanalia of positive outcomes, allowing our Reds to surpass our projected wins by a whopping margin of 10. We capture 106 victories, the most by any National League team in a non-wartime season since 1907, and far and away the most in Cincinnati franchise history. This is, quite simply, the best baseball season in this town since, oh, 1869.
And it invites us to wonder just how this Reds powerhouse might have fared in the World Series. In reality, the less-than-overwhelming Cincinnati team that squared off against the “Dial M for Murder” Yankees got blown away. This bunch might have given those Bombers a mighty challenge.
Cardinals
There are changes everywhere as we seek to reconstruct this ball club into one both younger and more multi-faceted. The center field job is Alou’s to lose, as is third base for Davenport, while Javier is going to be at least a platoon partner with Blasingame at second base. Sawatski steps in as the lefty-hitting catcher. Fisher, Jackson, and rookie Bob Miller will get serious opportunities as starters.
1961 St. Louis Cardinals Won 72 Lost 82 Finished 6th
Pos Player Age G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
1B B. White* 27 153 591 85 169 28 11 20 94 64 84 .286 .353 .472 .825 108
2B J. Javier 24 99 334 44 92 11 2 2 31 22 39 .275 .320 .338 .658 68
SS D. Schofield# 26 140 480 76 122 15 4 3 35 77 84 .254 .351 .321 .672 74
3B J. Davenport 27 137 436 64 129 31 5 14 68 44 66 .296 .349 .486 .835 110
RF J. Cunningham* 29 118 354 66 101 12 2 8 44 58 35 .285 .400 .398 .798 105
CF-RF F. Alou 26 137 498 71 150 26 1 24 68 30 50 .301 .340 .502 .842 112
LF S. Musial* 40 123 372 44 107 22 4 15 72 52 35 .288 .371 .489 .860 118
C C. Sawatski* 33 86 174 23 52 8 0 10 33 25 17 .299 .385 .517 .902 128
C-OF G. Green 28 99 291 40 85 14 3 17 53 25 57 .292 .346 .536 .882 121
IF E. Kasko 29 84 235 32 65 12 1 1 15 14 19 .277 .319 .349 .668 71
2B D. Blasingame* 29 82 226 31 52 9 2 1 12 18 20 .230 .283 .301 .584 49
OF C. James 23 72 181 20 48 10 1 3 25 9 28 .265 .301 .381 .682 73
C H. Smith 30 45 125 6 31 4 1 0 10 11 12 .248 .303 .296 .599 54
C J. Schaffer 25 57 102 10 25 5 0 1 11 5 20 .245 .279 .324 .603 53
OF D. Landrum* 25 71 100 10 19 4 0 1 6 7 19 .190 .245 .260 .505 29
OF J. Hickman 24 34 93 10 19 3 0 2 10 9 24 .204 .279 .301 .580 48
OF E. Burton# 24 34 77 10 12 1 0 3 11 11 21 .156 .264 .286 .549 40
3B E. Olivares 22 21 30 2 5 0 0 0 1 0 4 .167 .161 .167 .328 -16
Others 96 10 20 3 0 1 10 11 16 .208 .290 .271 .561 44
Pitchers 426 35 78 15 4 3 35 25 130 .183 .216 .259 .474 21
Total 5221 689 1381 233 41 129 644 517 780 .264 .328 .399 .727 85
* Bats left
# Bats both
Pitcher Age G GS CG W L SV IP H R ER HR BB SO ERA ERA+
L. Jackson 30 33 28 12 13 12 0 211 203 102 88 20 56 113 3.75 118
B. Gibson 25 31 27 10 12 13 1 203 178 90 74 13 112 161 3.28 135
A. Jackson* 25 34 28 8 7 10 0 198 210 99 82 19 50 142 3.73 119
E. Fisher 24 28 23 5 6 9 0 160 184 91 77 25 38 87 4.33 103
R. Sadecki* 20 16 16 7 6 6 0 112 98 52 46 14 51 57 3.70 120
W. Mizell* 30 25 17 2 5 9 0 100 125 70 62 21 30 37 5.58 80
B. Miller 22 34 12 0 1 6 1 99 109 64 55 10 54 56 5.00 89
J. Brosnan 31 53 0 0 9 5 10 80 82 38 29 7 17 40 3.26 136
L. McDaniel 25 49 0 0 8 5 8 85 104 52 45 10 28 60 4.76 93
H. Nunn 25 24 0 0 1 2 0 38 37 20 16 0 23 26 3.79 117
M. Bridges* 30 13 0 0 0 1 0 21 28 23 20 4 10 17 8.57 52
Others 4 1 4 4 2 62 49 23 23 7 24 41 3.34 133
Total 155 45 72 82 22 1369 1407 724 617 150 493 837 4.06 109
* Throws left
The good news seems to outweigh the bad. We’re delighted with Alou’s development, and surprised and delighted with Davenport’s to boot. The powerful hitting of catchers Sawatski and Gene Green is another pleasant surprise.
Fisher does okay. But Jackson and sophomore right-hander Bob Gibson both emerge as real-deal major league starters. We call up 20-year-old lefty Ray Sadecki in mid-season, and he thrives too. Though Mizell, McDaniel, and Miller all struggle, our pitching comes through as a genuine and significant strength.
But our offense, without a core slugging star, remains below average. Our expectations for this season were realistic, anticipating somewhere around a .500 finish. We fall a bit short of that, dropping to sixth. No doubt our fans are in a foul mood, but keeping our eyes on the prize, we assess this year as a strategic sidestep, a difficult but necessary and decisive pivot toward a potentially positive direction.
Next time
We’ll see what our Giants can do, reeling from the out-of-the-blue butt-kicking they’ve just received from the Reds. And we’ll also monitor the progress of our rebuilding Cardinals.
Giants: Actual Reds: Actual Cardinals: Actual
Year W L Pos RS RA W L Pos RS RA W L Pos RS RA
1958 80 74 3 727 698 76 78 4 695 623 72 82 5T 619 704
1959 83 71 3 705 613 74 80 5T 764 738 71 83 7 641 725
1960 79 75 5 671 631 67 87 6 640 692 86 68 3 639 616
1961 85 69 3 773 655 93 61 1 710 653 80 74 5 703 668
Giants: Virtual Reds: Virtual Cardinals: Virtual
Year W L Pos RS RA W L Pos RS RA W L Pos RS RA
1958 83 71 2T 747 692 73 81 5 683 637 77 77 4 640 677
1959 87 67 1T 737 615 87 67 1T 802 662 84 70 4 725 685
1960 93 61 1 709 561 76 78 6 705 666 86 68 4 661 632
1961 88 66 2 787 648 106 48 1 813 629 72 82 6 689 724
Who will manage the 1961 Giants in the absence of Alvin Dark?
Short answer: anyone but Alvin Dark! Who proved to be a less-than-satisfactory manager; the Giants won the pennant in 1962 despite Dark’s work, not because of it.
Longer answer: I think the Giants’ firing of Bill Rigney in mid-1960 was entirely pointless. I see no reason why Rigney shouldn’t have been the Giants’ manager in 1961 and beyond.
I was looking at the Giants hitters and wondering about the lineup. Who hits leadoff? 2nd? They have a bunch of 3-6 lineup types and the middle infielders both have #8 hitter stats. 3-6 is apparently Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, Kirkland. With Boyer’s lower RBIs I guess you have him either 1 or 2 – care to share your lineup?
Very good and interesting question. My guess is that these Giants wouldn’t have a single set order, but it would have varied depending on who was hot and who wasn’t, whether the opposing starter was lefty or righty, and so on. But the one I’ve imagined as most typical would be:
1. Boyer, 3b
2. McCovey, 1b
3. Mays, cf
4. Cepeda, lf
5. Kirkland, rf
6. Spencer, 2b
7. Schmidt or Haller, c
8. Rodgers, ss
9. pitcher
Boyer obviously wasn’t a classic leadoff type, but he was an excellent hitter for average and just real good at getting on base generally, plus he ran quite well. And McCovey did bat second for the actual Giants fairly often in the early 1960s.
I distinctly recall listening on the radio with my family a “Giants Clubhouse” postgame interview with McCovey in 1966, following a game in which he’d legged out a triple (he hit a career-high six triples that year).
The interviewer (it probably was Lon Simmons) noted that McCovey demonstrated pretty good wheels on that one. And McCovey’s reply, in his inimitable Alabama drawl, was as follows:
“Well, it takes me a while to get going, but once I get going I can really move!”
My mom just cracked up laughing. That became her favorite line for about the next year. (And hearing my mom try to talk like Willie McCovey was hysterical in itself.)
The truth is that before his knees went bad, and he became quite possibly the slowest major league baseball player in history, McCovey wasn’t slow. He wasn’t fast, and certainly wasn’t quick, but just as he said, once he got the entire package of ridiculously long arms and legs going in the same direction, he could cover some ground.
A very interesting trade, cuz SL got the best of the deal, but it would have kicked SF power into overdrive making it worth it. Then with Jim Ray Hart coming in ‘63, Boyer could have moved Kirkland out or SF could have got lucky and traded him before he fell off the cliff.
You also had Flood at 2B and that could have been a good fit for all we know. I’ve always thought that Aaron should have been 2B to get more value, and that if he wasn’t on same team as Mathews, ending up at 3B would have been very natural; he certainly had the ability.
I like these virtual series, but having three teams together and inter-trading gets tricky. BTW I was in SoCal when Wagner got traded there and he was famous in the area beyond his playing ability – born to be a celebrity you might say.
Yeah, Wagner had a clothing store in LA. “Buy your rags from Daddy Wags!” It’s possible there might have been someone along the way who met Leon Wagner and didn’t like him, but extremely unlikely.
Steve,
I am just now jumping into your series of articles having just discovered HT (mea culpa). I was curious what route you are taking to develop the statistics for each of the players? If you mentioned it earlier, I apologize for missing it, but I am intrigued.
Cheers,
Rick Cooper
Rick,
Very fair question. There isn’t anything especially scientific about it: I simply do my best to make whatever adjustments to actual stats are warranted by park effects, the impact of facing a different opponent in a small percentage of games, and different playing time/role. Also, when having a guy play in the majors who actually played in the minors, I do my best to estimate his major league equivalencies.
I have rough percentage rules of thumb for all these things I’ve developed over many years, but I never just go with the formulaic figure if it doesn’t seem realistic. The overriding intention is to get it as plausibly realistic as possible.