The Sensational 70's - League Leaders

Well, the melancholy month of November is now upon us and the somber notion of the absence baseball for another 4 months becomes reality. However, I refuse to succumb and rage, rage aqainst the dying of the light. My PS4 will really be getting a workout now in order for me to get my fix. I'll be providing more consist updates on the 1975 Red Sox as they move through my classic season. Along with this, I'll offer up some dreamy playoff baseball from some of the greatest teams of the 20th century. So fear not as virtual baseball lives here.

At this time, I have reached the 54 game mark in my Sensational Seventies campaign which I began back in March. Below I have fashioned some pertinent stats for your perusal. The '75 Red Sox are hanging in there as they hover around a wild card berth after a third of this campaign has been played out.  Boston is in tough though as the '79 Orioles won 102 games and the '78 Yankees won 100 games including that heartbreaking tie breaker at Fenway. Bucky "F$@king" Dent, huh? The Jays and Rays don't surprise here with a top heavy AL East against those two inaugural teams. The AL Central has the Royals and White Sox jockeying for top spot but the Twins and Tigers are still within shouting distance. The Astros have cooled as they held down first in the AL West initially, but now the Rangers are finding their legs with the Angels lurking in the weeds.

As can been seen below, Reggie Jackson continues to be the "straw that stirs the drink" in Gotham with a huge offensive presence as he is on pace for a 54 homer 135 RBI season. "Mr. October" has easily been the AL MVP at this point. The Oriole outfielders are doing the heavy lifting in batting average, home runs and OPS, helping make Baltimore the top run scoring club in the AL. The Red Sox are noticeably absent  in the main power categories as many of their offense linchpins have yet to put things together consistently. we'll take a closer look at the Sawx in my next post.

Complimenting Jackson on the pitching side of things in New York has been  a couple of 20+ game winnings from 1978. The 25 game winning lefty they call "Louisiana Lighting" Ron Guidry. has combined with Ed Figueroa to deliver 14 of the Yankees 38 victories. Boston has been an overall league leader on the bump powered by the efforts of Luis Tiant and Bill Lee. Both men have also won 14 games between them (Lee has 6 wins) and have registered stingy sub 3.00 ERA's. The tandem of Forsch and Richard for the Astros have also served notice which has made Houston contenders in the early going.

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Turning to the senior circuit, The Dodger continue to run rampant leading in runs scored and winning percentage. The '79 Expos have a very balanced approach with timely hitting and the second best total in the runs allowed category bested only by the NL Central cellar-dwelling Pirates who have been the biggest disappointment so far this season.

Leading the Dodgers'offensive charge is the trio of Steve Garvey, Dusty Baker, and Reggie Smith of the NL as they are prominent names in homers, RBI and OPS. Baker and Garvey also reside in the top ten in batting average, but Baker edges the others out for top NL position player at this time.

On the bump in the NL, it's kind of a mixed bag. Worth noting is the performance of Bert Blyleven in ERA for the Pirates and Rangers. If you scroll up a bit, you'll also notice he is in the top ten in ERA in the AL with the Rangers as he is the author of a sub 2.00 ERA in both leagues making him easily the most dominate pitchers so far in the campaign. I didn't fuss about duplicate players, so Bert is starring in both leagues. If the Twins ever played the Pirates in a game that I selected, I wouldn't have Blyleven vs Blyleven as a pitching matchup, but in simulated games, I couldn't care less. Blyleven is also in the top ten in both leagues in strikeouts.

Keep an eye out for my next post on an in-depth look at the '75 Red Sox and their progress through the first 54 games.