1930 American League Regular Season Review

Philadelphia A's (104-50 / 102-52 / +2)

The A's got off to a bit of a sluggish start, partially because they had a lot of games early with Washington and the Nationals got off to a really fast start (Washington finished 13-9 versus the A's), but once the A's kicked it into gear there was nothing that could stop them. The A's featured a great defense, a powerful offense, and Lefty Grove anchoring another wise OK pitching staff. This is a case where a great defense improved the pitching staff, and when in doubt, the A's offense stepped in to lead the way.

Offensively, the A's finished second to New York in team batting average (.301 to .302) and in homeruns (150 to 158) but managed to outscore the Yankees (989 to 986), both teams falling just short of 1000 runs scored. The A's led in On-Base Percentage (.374) with a total of 643 walks. Second baseman Max Bishop led the league with 142 walks and finished fourth in runs scored with 133, one of four A's in the top eight for runs scored. Bishop also finished with 24 homeruns, whereas he actually only hit 10 in 1930 (like the A's needed the help). Catcher Mickey Cochrane finished second in hitting at .415, one of two A's that ended the season hitting .400. Cochrane chipped in with 55 doubles for the season and was one of four A's to finish with 100 or more RBI's. Al Simmons was the other A's .400 hitter (.402), plus he finished with 99 extra-base hits, 409 total bases and 169 RBI's. With those runners on-base all the time, if you didn’t want to face Simmons then Jimmie Foxx was next in the lineup. Foxx hit .338 and finished with 198 hits, 86 of which were for extra bases (364 total bases), and had 139 RBI's.

Lefty Grove was the best pitcher in the league in 1930. A 29-2 record and a 1.53 ERA both led the league, as did his thirty quality starts, eleven shutouts, and eight saves. And he hit three homeruns, because, well, why not? The A's finished second to Washington in team ERA, so while the remaining A's pitchers might not have been as strong as the pitchers on the Nationals, besides Grove there were five other A's pitchers that finished with ten or more wins. George Earnshaw led the league with 39 starts but just couldn’t get that twentieth win (19-13).

A solid defense, over the top hitting, Lefty Grove, and enough pitching behind Grove was easily enough to push the A's to the top of the 1930 AL. They improved their win total by +2 games during the replay, which is well within the bounds of normal. I am also sure that if Grove was sitting on 29 wins then manager Connie Mack would have found a way to get him an extra start or two at the end of the season to get him #30 instead of resting him.

Washington Nationals (98-40 / 94-44 / +4)

Washington featured great pitching (they had a league-best ERA, 3.15), a great defense, and finished third in hitting (.294), but just couldn’t match up the A's offensive firepower. The Nationals led for much of the first half of the season, but traded their one true power source and were never quite the same afterward.

After 47 games played Goose Goslin had 37 extra-base hits for the Nationals but had some sort of fall-out with Manager Walter Johnson one weekend in St. Louis and a trade was quickly arranged. Goslin was sent to the Browns in return for Heinie Manush and pitcher General Crowder. Manush hit .387 for the Nationals in the final 2/3 of the season and Crowder provided a valuable arm in the rotation as several Washington starters broke down late in the season, but the spell was broken and the A's moved ahead shortly thereafter and Washington never really challenged again. Shortstop Joe Cronin hit over .400 for the two months after Goslin left and Manush played well, but neither had that extra-base power that Goslin provided.

The best weapon the Nationals had was a strong pitching staff combined with a strong defense. Washington finished with a 3.15 ERA, a half run per game better than the A's 3.62, and they only gave up a total of 49 unearned runs. Washington did finish third in hitting with a .294 team batting average, all of which made them a force to be reckoned with this year and something they would carry forward for the next several seasons. Washington had six pitchers finish with ten or more wins but only finished with one pitcher that had more than 25 starts. Bump Hadley (18-8, 3.41, six shutouts) had 33 starts and Firpo Marberry (20-3, 3.96) led the starters but missed most of August and only had a few starts afterward, and this was the time that the A's really ran away with the division.

New York Yankees (85-59 / 86-48 / -1)

For a team that finished only one game off of its actual win-loss count, the Yankees had to put a lot of work into getting to that point. New York never really threatened Philadelphia or Washington at the top of the standings, and at one point in mid-season found themselves five games below .500 and mired in fifth place. Pitching was most of the problem for the Yankees, although some shaky defense plagued them at times as well, and if Ruth and Gehrig were having an off day, the rest of the team was comparatively ordinary in 1930.

Lou Gehrig

As you might expect any discussion about the Yankees offense begins with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Ruth hit .384 for the season and finished with 54 homeruns, seven of which came in the last two weeks of the season. This last minute hot streak pushed his RBI total to 179, ahead of Gehrig's 176. Gehrig led the replay with a .418 batting average, had 113 extra base hits and 456 total bases, and led the league in RBI's for most of the season, only losing out to his teammate in the last few days of the season. Part of the joy of doing a project like this is experiencing the magnificent performances of players like these two.

George Pipgras (18-9, 3.11) was the hero of the New York mound core in 1930. In some ways, the difference between the Phillies with Chuck Klein and Lefty O'Doul and the Yankees with Ruth and Gehrig was the Yankees pitchers were slightly better as a group plus they had Pipgras. Despair not Yankees fans because, after all, the Yankees don't rebuild, they reload. They picked up Red Ruffing in an early season trade with the Red Sox and Lefty Gomez made his ML debut this season, and both would go on to burnish their Hall-of-Fame credentials over the next decade while pitching for the Yankees.

St. Louis Browns (71-83 / 64-90 / +7)

The bottom five teams in the AL weren't all that different from each other, so it was just a case of who would go on a hot streak at the right time or which player would far exceed their expectations. In the case of the Browns, they got hot the last few weeks of the season to move into fourth place, but their season success relied firmly on the arm of pitcher Lefty Stewart (25-6, 2.01). Stewart single-handedly carried the team with the second worst hitting and second-fewest runs into the upper half of the AL based on his outstanding season with the league's third-best ERA (4.01).

Pitching was the key to the Browns. Their offense featured several starters with batting averages below .200 for most of the first half of the season, but I suppose you can say their ability to get their averages over the .200 mark by the end of the season helped to account for the Browns late-season success. Goose Goslin only hit .253 after he was acquired from Washington, but he did contribute 55 extra base hits and 70 RBI's in 107 games. The anchor of the Browns offense was Red Kress who hit .313, had 50 double, and drove in 118 runs. Kress spent most of the season at shortstop, but spent the last month of the season at third base, likely because of his 40 errors.

During their last week of the season homestand St. Louis sat many of their regulars and essentially gave a multi-game tryout to a bunch of youngsters. Not that any of those players amounted to much if anything, they did play well enough for the Browns to hold on to their fourth place finish.

Detroit Tigers (70-84 / 75-59 / -5)

Detroit had a decent offense in 1930, but their pitching ended up being the worst in the AL (5.21 ERA), with their relievers having a collective 8.43 ERA. The Tigers got off to a fast start and spent much of the first half season fighting with the Yankees for third place, but their pitching collapsed late in the season and they finished behind St. Louis in fifth place.

Charlie Gehringer was the leader of the offense, finishing with a .363 average and 52 doubles. Gehringer scored 104 runs and had 102 RBI's, the same number of RBI's as teammate Dale Alexander. Alexander was the cleanup hitter in the Tigers lineup and he fell below expectations on almost every category. Alexander was credited with 253 runners left on base, and while pitching was the Tigers real problem, Alexander had multiple opportunities to pick up RBI's and a couple of key hits here and there would have really helped the Tigers season.

Much can be made of the Tigers pitching woes this season, but on a positive note, Whit Wyatt and Tommy Bridges both made their debuts this season, as did future Hall-of-Famer first baseman Hank Greenberg. Billy Rogell this year didn’t do much and got sent down mid-season, but he would be back to anchor the shortstop position most of the remainder of the decade. Outfielders Roy Johnson and John Stone would provide contributions for many years to come as well as well. 1930 might have been a rough year for the Tigers but they were definitely setting up for success in the years to come.

Cleveland Indians (66-88 / 81-73 / -15)

If every replay has that one team that disappoints, then it was Cleveland for me. They got off to a bad start and could just not recover. Their corner outfielders weren't much of a force, the shortstop and third base positions were never really settled, and key injuries to 1929 Batting champ Lew Fonseca and a mid-season broken finger for catcher Luke Sewell didn’t help. Throw in a couple of starters who simply provided instant offense to their opponents and you are in for a rough year.

Ed Morgan

Center fielder Earl Averill got off to a slow start and then missed several weeks of play, but came back and finished strong, hitting .331 with 23 homeruns and 103 RBI's. The real star of the Indians offense was Ed Morgan who hit .347 with 39 homeruns (92 XBH) and 109 RBI's. Morgan took over at first when Fonseca got hurt, but many of his early season homeruns were solo shots when he was batting leadoff.

For many weeks at the beginning of the season, it was Wes Ferrell (24-11, 2.82) that was leading the league in the unfortunate category of lowest run support. That leveled out a little after a while and Ferrell went on a tear in the second half of the season, but the teams 5.04 ERA was next to last as the remaining Indians starters really struggled. The main offender here was Willis Hudlin (3-27, 6.56). Hudlin didn’t have a poor pitching grade, but he was that guy that simply managed to lose every way he could - close ones, blowouts, and everything in between. Hudlin went on to have a long career so it is not like he was a bad pitcher, but he certainly had a rough replay. If he had gone 13-16 like he did in real life, the Indians would have almost matched their 1930 win-loss totals.

Boston Red Sox (63-91 / 52-102 / +12)

The Red Sox were the surprise of the AL. At mid-season, they spent several days in third place ahead of New York and Detroit, but they just weren't a good team and eventually this caught up with them. To their credit, they played very tenaciously, kept games close, and took advantage of their opportunities to squirrel away wins early, often relying on their opponents to commit a critical blunder to open the door.

Milt Gaston

Earl Webb was picked up from Washington in an early season trade and led the offense, hitting .309 with 17 homeruns and 68 RBI's. Second baseman Bill Regan led the league in doubles for several months early in the year and finished with 47 doubles and 68 RBI's. Offense leaders get pretty slim at this point as the Red Sox had the league-worst batting average at .253, but in Boston's case, it was timely hitting from many different players that gave the Red Sox their positive W/L bump.

Milt Gaston (18-13, 2.85) kept the Red Sox in games and benefitted from some of the Red Sox good fortune. Danny MacFayden (11-19, 4.01) and Hod Lisenbee (11-17, 4.79) had their moments as well, and Boston finished fourth in the AL with a 4.39 ERA.

Chicago White Sox  (59-95 / 62-92 / -3)

Give the White Sox credit - they were a bad team, and they knew it. To that end, they used seven catchers, eight shortstops, and nine left fielders, all adding up to a league-high total of 40 players appearing on the White Sox roster. Out of that mess, a young Luke Appling appeared, so while the White Sox would continue to struggle for decades to come at least they had found their answer at shortstop.

Carl Reynolds hit .350, added 32 doubles, 14 triples, and 20 homeruns, and drove in and scored 97 runs. 28-year-old rookie Smead Jolley was a minor league stud, but never got his chance to play a the major league level until this year, and he responded with a .328 average, 44 doubles, 16 homeruns, and 106 RBI's. The knock against Jolley was his speed and defense, and he did little to put those bad reports to rest.

Ted Lyons (21-14, 3.00, 29 complete games, 22 quality starts) did what he could, including numerous pinch-hitting assignments and a .381 batting average along with nine extra-base hits. Pat Caraway (11-12, 3.67) helped some, but the rest of the White Sox starters really struggled, the team ending with a 4.93 ERA.