Week 3 was a fun one in my Buck O’Neil Project. All 4 series resulted in 2-2 splits. New York remained in first place by 1 game, with an 8-4 record. Washington and St. Louis are in second at 7-5. Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Birmingham are two games back at 6-6. Kansas City is at 5-7, and Newark is bringing up the rear at 3-9.
Click Here For Most League Statistics
Individual Pitching
Leon Day (St. Louis) and Cy Young (Washington) are leading the way with 3-0 records. Bruce Sutter (Detroit) and Rollie Fingers (New York) each have 4 saves. Ed Walsh (New York) leads the league with a 0.74 ERA, with Ray Brown (Washington) second at 1.16. Pedro Martinez (St. Louis) is way out in front with 33 strikeouts, with Smokey Joe Williams (Birmingham) and Sandy Koufax (New York) tied for second with 20 strikeouts.
Individual Hitting
Ralph Kiner (Detroit) is leading the way with 6 home runs and 16 RBI, and his teammate Wild Bill Wright (Detroit) is second with 5 HR and 11 RBI. Mule Suttles (Detroit) leads in OPS at 1.753.
Strat-O-Matic does not provide batting average leaders on my web site due to none of the hitters having 3.1 plate appearances per game. Here are the leaders in batting average:
| Name | Team | Average | OnBase | Slugging | OPS |
| J.Gibson | BIR | 0.565 | 0.667 | 0.87 | 1.536 |
| M.Suttles | DSG | 0.542 | 0.586 | 1.167 | 1.753 |
| H.Heilmann | NYC | 0.5 | 0.593 | 0.7 | 1.293 |
| E.Collins | STL | 0.5 | 0.567 | 0.654 | 1.221 |
| G.Brett | DSG | 0.462 | 0.548 | 0.808 | 1.356 |
| T.Speaker | KMG | 0.455 | 0.519 | 0.545 | 1.064 |
| D.Malarcher | KMG | 0.45 | 0.45 | 0.45 | 0.9 |
| J.Robinson | PCG | 0.444 | 0.516 | 0.667 | 1.183 |
| V.Harris | DSG | 0.429 | 0.538 | 0.571 | 1.11 |
| B.Ruth | BIR | 0.429 | 0.571 | 0.619 | 1.19 |
Team Statistics
There is a lot of variance when it comes to hitting and pitching. Detroit is averaging nearly 7 runs per game, while Washington is scoring fewer than 3 runs per game. New York is averaging exactly 3 runs per game, but fortunately their team ERA is a lowly 1.74. Detroit needs all that offense as they are allowing 6.92 earned runs per game. Here are the team stats:
Surprises
Most hitters have only appeared in 6 games, which is a small sample. However, there are some players that are struggling. For instance, here are some unexpectedly low batting averages: Willie Stargell (.050), Jim Rice (.083), Stan Musial (.111), Martin Dihigo (.125), Ernie Banks (.160), Buck Leonard (.185), and Lou Gehrig (.200). I guess Hall of Fame pitching can be tough to hit.
Hall of Fame hitters must also be tough to get out. Juan Marichal has a 9.45 ERA. Slim Jones is at 7.45 and Christy Matthewson is at 7.04. Again, the season is young and one quality start could turn things around for these pitchers.