Deadball Lessons

It seems I always learn something from tournament play.  This time at the 3rd Annual Michigan APBA Tournament I found myself pondering batting order and bunting.

I managed the 1912 Cleveland Naps for the Tournament.  A hard hitting team 1-5, modest fielding, poor pitching, and a fairly fast team for the deadball era.  High, sexy batting averages from Lajoie (.368) and Jackson (.395), combined with over .300 hitters through 4 and .271 at #5 set a dilemma in front of me that I didn't really solve until the last game of the tournament.

I hit the 1912 Naps in this order:
1. Turner .308
2. Lajoie .368
3. Jackson .395
4. Griggs .304
5. Ryan. 271
6. Birmingham .255
7. O'Neil . 228
8. Peckinpaugh .212
9. Pitcher

The following situation came up much too frequently.  Jackson or Griggs would get on base with no one out to start an inning and I was looking at Griggs (.304) to bunt Joe over or Ryan (a .271 hitter) for a bunt to move Griggs over (Jackson typically to third or Griggs to second) and then it was up to the very weak hitting Birmingham or O'Neil to drive them in using the next out or two, which they never did.  This deadball team got the heart of the order on base well, but couldn't convert the runners to runs scored the way the lineup was set. The problem was the cards dropped off the table after batter #5 and they could not drive or sacrifice the runs in as I needed.

I think I should have split the batting order up for a tournament to allow some talent to sacrifice, drive, or bunt in runs.  Split the line-up into men that get on base and men that can move them around the bases.

For the last game I hit the 1912 Naps like this:

1. Turner
2. Lajoie
3. Ryan
4. Jackson
5. Birmingham
6. Griggs
7. O'Neil
8. Peckinpaugh
9. Pitcher

By hitting Ryan and Birmingham higher in the order and dropping Griggs, I allowed my weaker hitters to sacrifice bunt the better hitters into scoring position and then was able to follow that move up with a good hitter at the plate.  In the previous order, I was forced to use good hitters to sacrifice bunt the runners forward and then rely on weaker hitter to try and drive them in.  This is not a good way to set a line-up that needed to move runners along, the new order did move the runners. This is a strategy that I do not recommend for a season as you want Jackson hitting higher for more plate appearance, but for a 8 game tournament this may work well.

I have played many games using the 2015 KC Royals and I wonder if this is not a good short-term strategy for this team also.  Try more bunting with the '15 Royals and see what happens.

Deadball is fantastic to play as you use the hit and run and bunt much more than in a modern game when the power got turned on.