My Next Stratball Project

1949 Boston Red Sox Replay

As a kind of companion piece to my just completed 1949 Pittsburgh Pirates replay, I am going to do one of the Red Sox in the American League that same year.

In real life, Boston finished second by 1 game to the New York Yankees. I am going to do things a bit different this time around. I am going to have a set eight regulars for the Red Sox, who will play 95% of the time.

The regulars will be spelled on occasion, such as for doubleheaders. I am going to incorporate the injury rule, using the player’s actual at bats as a guide.(The more at bats in real life a player had, the less the length of his potential absence from the lineup.)

I’m going to use a 4 man starting rotation. Relievers who have relief designation listed first , will be used before those pitchers who have starter/relief designations.

Relievers cannot work in back to back games. As much as possible, I’m going to use the actual opponents lineup as listed in Retrosheet for that day’s game.

Here are the 1949 Boston Red Sox regulars:

CF Dom Dimaggio

3B Johnny Pesky

2B Bobby Doerr

LF Ted Williams

SS Vern Stephens

RF Al Zarilla

C Birdie Tebbetts

1B Billy Goodman

BENCH

IF Billy Hitchcock R

IF Lou Stringer R

IF Walt Dropo R

OF Tommy O’Brien R

IF Merle Combs L

C Matt Batts R

STARTING ROTATION

LH Mel Parnell

RH Ellis Kinder

RH Joe Dobson

LH Mickey McDermott

BULLPEN

PRIMARY RELIEVERS

RH Frank Quinn

RH Tex Hughson

LH Earl Johnson

SPOT STARTERS/AND OR

SECONDARY RELIEVERS

RH Jack Kramer

RH Walt Masterson

LH Chuck Stobbs