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Hey, I got nothing. I'm examining how complicated the schedules of the past made a manager's life.

Seriously.


Here, for example, are the final six weeks of the 1907 Chicago Cubs season. We begin on Boston - the Cubs played the Beaneaters (or whatever they were calling themselves that season - the Doves? the Doves)  on Thursday and Friday. They then got the weekend off, and resumed playing Boston on Monday...

Date         Opponent     Cubs starter

Mon AUG 26 - at BOS (DH) Brown / Pfiester
Tue Aug 27 - at BRO    Lundgren
Wed Aug 28 - at BRO    Overall
Thu Aug 29 - at BRO    Pfiester
Fri Aug 30 - at PIT (DH) Fraser / Lundgren
Sat Aug 31 - at CIN    Overall
Sun Sep  1 - vs STL    Reulbach
Mon Sep  2 - at STL (DH) Fraser / Pfeister
Tue Sep  3 - at STL    Overall
Wed Sep  4 - at STL    Reulbach
Thu Sep  5 - at PIT    Lundgren
Fri Sep  6 - at PIT    Pfiester
Sat Sep  7 - at PIT    Reulbach
Sun Sep  8 - vs PIT (DH)  Brown / Lundgren
Mon Sep  9 -
Tue Sep 10 -
Wed Sep 11 - vs STL    Reulbach
Thu Sep 12 - vs CIN    Overall
Fri Sep 13 - vs CIN    Reulbach
Sat Sep 14 - vs CIN    Pfiester
Sun Sep 15 - vs CIN    Lundgren
Mon Sep 16 -
Tue Sep 17 -
Wed Sep 18 - at CIN    Overall
Thu Sep 19 - at CIN    Fraser
Fri Sep 20 -
Sat Sep 21 - vs BOS    Pfiester
Sun Sep 22 - vs BOS (DH)  Lundgren / Durbin
Mon Sep 23 - vs PHI    Brown
Tue Sep 24 -
Wed Sep 25 - vs PHI (DH)  Overall / Fraser
Thu Sep 26 -
Fri Sep 27 -
Sat Sep 28 -
Sun Sep 29 - vs BRO (DH) Pfiester / Lundgren
Mon Sep 30 - vs NY    Reulbach
Tue Oct  1 - vs NY    Fraser
Wed Oct  2 - vs NY    Brown
Thu Oct  3 -
Fri Oct  4 - at STL    Pfiester
Sat Oct  5 - at STL (DH) Overall / Brown
Sun Oct  6 - at STL (DH)  Reulbach / Lundgren

Playing 39 games in 42 days isn't that big a deal, even if you're travelling by train everywhere.  But mix in 10 off days and 9 double-headers, and wackiness ensues. It would be fun to take a modern manager and ask him to cope with this sort of thing...

The Cubs went 25-14 in these 39 games to close out their season. That was cruise control for these guys - they had a 15 game lead on the rest of the league when this stretch began, and they ended up 17 games ahead of the Pirates. After finishing the season with back-to-back double-headers on the final weekend, they got Monday off and opened the World Series against Detroit on the Tuesday. The first game was called after 12 innings with the score tied - the Cubs then blew away the Tigers in four straight games.

Anyway, schedules went on this general fashion for more or less the next 40 or 50 years. Under these circumstances, how do you set up a starting rotation, and just turn your guys over? You can't. You can't even try. Frank Chance used six of the seven pitchers on his roster as starters during those final six weeks. The seventh man, Jack Fraser, made 13 starts during the season, but after losing all four of his starts in August he seems to have been banished from the manager's sight. He made what would prove to be the final appearance of his career out of the bullpen in early September. One suspects an injury was involved.

Most remarkably, Chance also gave a start to a 20 year old reserve outfielder named Kid Durbin, who had in fact pitched in relief a few times earlier in the season. This was, of course, the only game Durbin started on the mound in his extremely brief major league career. He went the distance, but lost 4-2.

Orval Overall (23-7, 1.68)  - 8 starts, Days of Rest: 4, 2, 2, 8, 5, 6, 9
Carl Lundgren (18-7, 1.17) - 8 starts, Days of Rest: 7, 2, 5, 2, 6, 6, 6, 6
Jack Pfiester (14-9, 1.15) - 8 starts, Days of Rest: 5, 2, 3, 3, 7, 6, 7, 4
Ed Reulbach (17-4, 1.69) - 7 starts, Days of Rest: 23, 2, 2, 3, 1, 16, 5
Miner Brown (20-6, 1.39) -  5 starts, Days of Rest: 8, 12, 14, 8, 2
Chick Fraser (8-5, 2.28) - 3 starts, Days of Rest: 7, 19, 11
Kid Durbin (1)

We don't have box scores (yet!) for 1907 - we do know that the pitchers generally finished what they started - Overall completed 26 of his 30 starts, Lundgren 21 of 25. The Cubs starters completed 114 games - in the other 41 games, Chance used a total of 45 relief pitchers.

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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
binnister - Thursday, December 24 2009 @ 11:59 AM EST (#210471) #

From the 'Anatomy of the Doc deal' by Bob Elliott  (which is an interesting read). http://www.torontosun.com/sports/columnists/bob_elliott/2009/12/24/12258766-sun.html

 "You know," says an opposing GM, "Alex reminds me of Scott Boras. He is a very eloquent speaker, intelligent and can string a lot of thoughts together rather quickly."

I...guess...this is a good thing.  I mean, a lot of people get angry at Scott Boras for what he does to baseball salaries, but would you really get that angry if he was working for you?

CeeBee - Thursday, December 24 2009 @ 12:43 PM EST (#210473) #
That is one heck of an interesting read by Elliott. If even half of what we are hearing about AA is true we might have a gem here. :)
Richard S.S. - Thursday, December 24 2009 @ 12:47 PM EST (#210475) #

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.

I'd like to give us something to think about over the holiday season.   1) John Buck is our starting (?) Catcher?   Who is our backup (?) / possible starting (?) Catcher?   2) Jose Bautista (?!?!?!) is our starting Right Fielder?  We have Joey Gathright (?!?!?!) as our backup Outfielder?   3) David Purcey is out of options if he doesn't make the team, and too good to just let go.  Therefore he's a Starter, in the Bullpen or Traded.  His best value is now, in a package - you get nothing if you wait.   4) Lyle Overbay is a Block, to Brian Dopirak, to Adam Lind, to Brett Wallace and to David Cooper.  Lyle also has trade value, w/wo $2.0M - $5.0M added, w/wo any other piece(s).

AA has a lot of work to do.   What with the holidays and his wedding, it might be the 10th of January 2010 before he gets back to it.

Magpie - Thursday, December 24 2009 @ 12:51 PM EST (#210476) #
I mean, a lot of people get angry at Scott Boras for what he does to baseball salaries

If I was a ball player, I'd want Scott Boras to represent me. I get my money, and everyone gets mad at him. That's a good agent.
John Northey - Thursday, December 24 2009 @ 01:13 PM EST (#210479) #
I'd love it if AA is the Boras of GM's - hated by all except those who benefit from his efforts.  Thus Jay fans and ownership would be very happy and all other fans would hate him.  The only way that happens is with a team that keeps winning trades and makes it to the World Series regularly.
Mike Forbes - Thursday, December 24 2009 @ 02:34 PM EST (#210481) #
Here's a little Q&A with everyones favorite non-prospect, Dirk Hayhurst...

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=303549

Talks about his new book, labels and "The Garfoose".
ayjackson - Thursday, December 24 2009 @ 02:43 PM EST (#210482) #

I have a little twist on the tandem starter thing that's been bantied about the box for a year or so now. 

Four regulars (say Romero, Morrow, Rzep, and Marcum) and then one tandem - Richmond/Purcey.  The Richmond/Purcey tandem would be a little different in that the starter would only pitch 1-3 innings and then the other would come in to pitch the rest of the game in a platoon advantage.  Further, because they are only pitching a full start every other turn, I would pitch them on three days rest.  This would enable the rest of the rotation to manage their innings better over the course of the season.

Magpie - Thursday, December 24 2009 @ 05:55 PM EST (#210485) #
then the other would come in to pitch the rest of the game in a platoon advantage.

No point. Platooning is disappearing from the game, just as it did from from 1925-1950. The reason this time is that teams simply don't carry enough bats on their rosters to do it. Even when platoons were much more common than they are now, you almost never saw that platooning gambit - the fake starter, who is pulled after you gain the platoon advantage - almost out of professional courtesy. Not in the real games - it's a board game strategy.

The reason platooning disappeared before is largely because the players absolutely hated it, and it required a very special manager (Casey Stengel) to bring it back and make it stick. Which is something like what you would need if you wanted to try anything really unconventional with your pitchers. You would need to commit to it, from the top to the bottom of the organization. You would need a manager, a staff, and a front office who believed in the idea and who were absolutely sure of themselves and their judgement.

Because the players would hate it, and you would be second-guessed by everybody until the end of time. Very few people want to risk their jobs and careers on something unusual that no one has tried...
Mike Green - Friday, December 25 2009 @ 01:05 PM EST (#210493) #
Merry Christmas, Bauxites.  I was visited by an Angell, and that is always OK by me.
TamRa - Friday, December 25 2009 @ 02:48 PM EST (#210494) #
Via Rob Neyer - an explanation of how Corey Koskie was a more valuable player than Justin Morneau has been

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/article/corey_koskie_v_justin_morneau/

Time to revisit the idea that the Koskie contract was a bad signing (without the benefit of hindsight)?


Mike Green - Monday, December 28 2009 @ 11:42 PM EST (#210562) #
Fangraphs' Matthew Carruth has an interesting look at Brandon League's new pitch.. 
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