SoM NNL replay: half way team review NY Lincoln Giants

After a bit more than a third of my NNL / ECL replay using the Strat-o-Matic Negro League All Stars player cards, I want to take stock where the teams are.

I want to look at the following for each team:

• team performance and how the season went so far
• individual performances: who did better or worse than expected
• outlook to the rest of the season
• roster challenges and potential trade / acquisition targets

I'll start with one of the League Leading teams, the 

New York Lincoln Giants

How the season went so far

After fourteen games in thirteen days (remember, there are doubleheaders every Saturday and very few off days in my one month regular season schedule), with a record of 8-6 the Lincoln Giants are on top of the ECL, give or take half a game depending on how the Homestead Grays will do in their first of two games against the Hilldales.

Starting the season with a three game sweep of the Hilldale Daisies, the Lincoln Giants went 4-3 against these league rivals, and 1-1 against their other league competitor, the Homestead Grays. 

In inter-league games they already played all five games, winning 3-2, against the NNL leading Chicago American Giants. They have still to face the St. Louis Stars (in about a week) and Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs, who they will only meet in the last week or so of regular season play. 

Individual performances

Playing in a hitters ballpark, the NY Catholic Protectory Oval, the Giants are an offensively minded team. They are led in style by the general consensus for the greatest Negro League player of all times, Oscar Charleston, but their team triple slash of .325/.382/.561 shows that the other batters are no slouches, either. As a team, they are hitting more than two homers per game, with Mule Suttles alone going yard more frequently than every second game. 

The team leaders are (all appearing in all 14 games so far)

• Oscar Charleston CF (.418/.507/.818, 5 HR, 13 RBI, 5 SB)
• John Beckwith 3B (.410/.463/.721, 5 HR, 22 RBI)
• Mule Suttles 1B (.393/.439/.869, 8 (!) HR, 14 RBI)

For pitching they fully rely on their solid starting rotation, with 10 of the 14 games being completed by the starter. Despite generally strong hitting in this NNL environment, some of their pitchers have remarkably low ERAs so far:

• John Donalds (2-1 in three starts and one relief appearance, 24 IP including two complete games, 1.88 ERA)
• Max Manning (also 2-1 in three starts and one relief appearance, 29 IP, 3.10 ERA)

On the negative side, Bill Byrd was lucky to get away with a 1-1 record in three starts and a brief relief appearance, driving down his ERA to a whopping 13.09 with two starts where he gave up 9 runs in four innings against the Chicago Giants, and 21 runs (18 earned) over eight innings against the Daisies. 

Defensively, Oscar Charleston leads the team with 117 innings in center field without a single error so far.

What's next

The Giants will now enjoy an off-day before playing back-to-back 3 resp. 2 game series against their ECL rivals, the Grays and Daisies. After that they will face the St. Louis Stars for the first time in a single away game, before continuing the intra-league series and a first encounter with the Monarchs. 

They should be able to stay close to the ECL leadership race provided they can keep winning against the weaker teams of the first third of the season. 

Trading / acquisition needs

With the late addition of a single reliever to their five-starter pitching team, the Giants addressed what is their only real thin area on paper. Their catching situation is great, with Spoony Palm and Frank Duncan taking turns on solid defensive and offensive outings. 

So as long as they are spared any significant injuries they should be fine with their solid squad of every day players. If they do have to replace injured players, though, they will have to go to the nearly non-existent free agent market very quickly.