A few notes regarding my 1918 Chicago Cubs in 0soup4u's Best 90M Team Ever theme (choose a real life team, add 5 "free agents" from any other team in the same season):
- Four batters with 0 real life HR hit HR for me; one of them, Bill Killefer, hit 3.
- The team was not great, finishing with 87 wins, but did win its division by 1 game. This was due largely to our record in extra inning games: 19-5. I don't think I've ever seen a team win that many in extras (if anyone has seen more than 19, please post below).
- The main reason we did so well in extras was our 4 pitching FA, who all happen to be WIS favorites from 1918: Fred Toney, Jack Quinn, Jake Northrop and Carmen Hill. This quartet went a combined 34-9 with an ERA of 1.86.
- The main reason we won only 87 games was our lone FA hitter, Ty Cobb. A $9.35M salary, probably the highest paid batter in the league, and he didn't finish Top 50 in Runs Created. His batting line was a disappointing but not horrible .321/.378/.394 (real life: .382/.440/.515), but it was his hitting with RISP that really stunk. Half my losses seemed to see him making the final out with the tying run on third base and the winning run on second. Cobb hit second in the order; for comparison's sake, here are the rest of the top 4 with their salaries, RC and RBI:
Lead off hitter Charlie Conacher ($5.51M): 105 RC, 65 RBI
#3 hitter Les Mann ($4.27M): 108 RC, 104 RBI
#4 hitter Dode Paskert ($5.67): 94 RC, 122 RBI
Cobb, who costs nearly as much as the #1 and #3 hitters combined, finished with 92 RC and a measly 42 RBI.
Believe It or Don't!