Orcin
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Apr 21, 2007
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I have another baseball league going using the new game version, PureSim Baseball 2, which was released as a commercial product in September (it sells for $20).
My new league has a little different concept. I have completed three seasons now, and still going strong. Here's a link to my journal for the league in case you are interested. Just to whet your appetite, I'll also post the background idea for the league in this blog entry.
The Virtual 1946-49 St. Louis Cardinals - Wolverine Studios
The Virtual 1946-49 St. Louis Cardinals
I discovered a fascinating article while doing research for my last historical replay league. The article, published by The Hardball Times, is called The Virtual 1946-1949 St. Louis Cardinals. I will summarize the article here because their premise is the inspiration for this new league.
The Cardinals were a dominate franchise from the mid-1920’s through the mid-1940’s. Their 1946 World Series victory over the Red Sox capped a 20-year reign during which the Redbirds won nine National League pennants and six world championships. They finished second each year from 1947 through 1949 and then faded into irrelevance for the decade of the 1950’s, despite having one of the great players of the era in Stan Musial.
There are several reasons for the decline of the franchise, starting with the defection of Branch Rickey, their famous General Manager, to the Dodgers in 1942. The leadership void contributed to the deterioration of the legendary farm system that fueled this run of dominance. Other teams had begun to copy the Cardinals’ player development model and some, most notably the Yankees and Dodgers, were building strong farm systems of their own. Also, the Cardinals were very slow to integrate, creating an even bigger talent gap. But the reason that is pertinent to the article is owner Sam Breadon’s annoying habit of selling key players to other teams for cash.
Breadon sold the team in November of 1947 at age 71 and died of prostate cancer a year later. It is my unsubstantiated belief that he was taking profit out of the team, player by player, for his estate in the years leading up to the sale. He did not employ a general manager after Branch Rickey, so Breadon was the only person who knew the true motivation for these transactions. There is no doubt that the player-for-cash deals, which continued during 1946 and 1947, weakened the team from a competitive standpoint. It took a decade to recover after August Busch purchased the team in 1953.
The 1946-49 Cardinals could have been one of the great dynasties of baseball. They featured outstanding pitching, and the offense was good enough to support that pitching in 1946. While the pitching continued to flourish in 1947-49, the offense declined and they fell a little short each year. The primary positions that failed to contribute enough offense were catcher, center field, and first base (really left field, but the fleet-footed Musial should have been playing left field instead of first base, so the real problem was the absence of a productive first baseman).
The Hardball Times article looks at what might have happened if the Cardinals had simply not made three key “fire sale” transactions that significantly weakened their offense:
1. December 1941 – sold Johnny Mize (1B) to the Giants for $50,000 and three scrub players
2. January 1946 – sold Walker Cooper (C) to the Giants for $175,000
3. February 1946 – sold Johnny Wyrostek (OF) to the Phillies for an undisclosed amount
These players could have manned the three weak positions very capably and perhaps put the Cardinals over the top for a four-year dynasty. Hardball Times concluded via statistical analysis that the Redbirds probably would have won at least two pennants and perhaps all of them. Thanks to PureSim Baseball 2, we can (and will) do our own test of this hypothesis and we’ll have a lot of fun in the process.
Some of you know that I just completed a historical replay of this same four-year era as GM of the Cardinals. So why do it again? In my previous replay, I was motivated to exploit the AI for talent if possible. I was trying to “beat” the game with a handicap of some self-imposed payroll restrictions. The team was very successful on the field and I enjoyed building it, but the end product did not look much like the Cardinals to me.
This time around, I want to manage a reasonable facsimile of the late 40’s Cardinals instead of a fictional All-Star team. The addition of the three players from the Hardball Times premise provides just enough difference to interest and motivate me, but they are still Cardinal players in my memory and don’t disrupt the immersion like adding a Duke Snider would (for example). I will control my urge to scam the AI using some player acquisition shackles that I will describe later in this thread. It will be hard to contain my competitive nature when I see Duke Snider available in the amateur draft, but I am determined to make it work this time.
So here we go with The Virtual 1946-49 St. Louis Cardinals!
My new league has a little different concept. I have completed three seasons now, and still going strong. Here's a link to my journal for the league in case you are interested. Just to whet your appetite, I'll also post the background idea for the league in this blog entry.
The Virtual 1946-49 St. Louis Cardinals - Wolverine Studios
The Virtual 1946-49 St. Louis Cardinals
I discovered a fascinating article while doing research for my last historical replay league. The article, published by The Hardball Times, is called The Virtual 1946-1949 St. Louis Cardinals. I will summarize the article here because their premise is the inspiration for this new league.
The Cardinals were a dominate franchise from the mid-1920’s through the mid-1940’s. Their 1946 World Series victory over the Red Sox capped a 20-year reign during which the Redbirds won nine National League pennants and six world championships. They finished second each year from 1947 through 1949 and then faded into irrelevance for the decade of the 1950’s, despite having one of the great players of the era in Stan Musial.
There are several reasons for the decline of the franchise, starting with the defection of Branch Rickey, their famous General Manager, to the Dodgers in 1942. The leadership void contributed to the deterioration of the legendary farm system that fueled this run of dominance. Other teams had begun to copy the Cardinals’ player development model and some, most notably the Yankees and Dodgers, were building strong farm systems of their own. Also, the Cardinals were very slow to integrate, creating an even bigger talent gap. But the reason that is pertinent to the article is owner Sam Breadon’s annoying habit of selling key players to other teams for cash.
Breadon sold the team in November of 1947 at age 71 and died of prostate cancer a year later. It is my unsubstantiated belief that he was taking profit out of the team, player by player, for his estate in the years leading up to the sale. He did not employ a general manager after Branch Rickey, so Breadon was the only person who knew the true motivation for these transactions. There is no doubt that the player-for-cash deals, which continued during 1946 and 1947, weakened the team from a competitive standpoint. It took a decade to recover after August Busch purchased the team in 1953.
The 1946-49 Cardinals could have been one of the great dynasties of baseball. They featured outstanding pitching, and the offense was good enough to support that pitching in 1946. While the pitching continued to flourish in 1947-49, the offense declined and they fell a little short each year. The primary positions that failed to contribute enough offense were catcher, center field, and first base (really left field, but the fleet-footed Musial should have been playing left field instead of first base, so the real problem was the absence of a productive first baseman).
The Hardball Times article looks at what might have happened if the Cardinals had simply not made three key “fire sale” transactions that significantly weakened their offense:
1. December 1941 – sold Johnny Mize (1B) to the Giants for $50,000 and three scrub players
2. January 1946 – sold Walker Cooper (C) to the Giants for $175,000
3. February 1946 – sold Johnny Wyrostek (OF) to the Phillies for an undisclosed amount
These players could have manned the three weak positions very capably and perhaps put the Cardinals over the top for a four-year dynasty. Hardball Times concluded via statistical analysis that the Redbirds probably would have won at least two pennants and perhaps all of them. Thanks to PureSim Baseball 2, we can (and will) do our own test of this hypothesis and we’ll have a lot of fun in the process.
Some of you know that I just completed a historical replay of this same four-year era as GM of the Cardinals. So why do it again? In my previous replay, I was motivated to exploit the AI for talent if possible. I was trying to “beat” the game with a handicap of some self-imposed payroll restrictions. The team was very successful on the field and I enjoyed building it, but the end product did not look much like the Cardinals to me.
This time around, I want to manage a reasonable facsimile of the late 40’s Cardinals instead of a fictional All-Star team. The addition of the three players from the Hardball Times premise provides just enough difference to interest and motivate me, but they are still Cardinal players in my memory and don’t disrupt the immersion like adding a Duke Snider would (for example). I will control my urge to scam the AI using some player acquisition shackles that I will describe later in this thread. It will be hard to contain my competitive nature when I see Duke Snider available in the amateur draft, but I am determined to make it work this time.
So here we go with The Virtual 1946-49 St. Louis Cardinals!
