1956 Cincinnati Reds - 91-63 (2 GB)

Riding the enthusiasm of a 20 year old rookie who was way beyond his years in both talent and maturity the Reds battled for the pennant all the way down to the final weekend of the season.  Taking 8 of their final 9 still left the Reds 2 games short of the Boys of Summer and 1 behind the surging Braves.  The Reds were consistent all season and never fell further than 5.5 games behind in the standings.  As late as July 2nd they had a half game lead.

STRENGTHS:  A high octane offense led by the aforementioned 20 year old future HOF'er, Frank Robinson, who hit 38 roundtrippers (a rookie record) knocked in 83 runs and hit a robust .290.  Frank Robby wasn't the only producer on offense.  This team led the league in both runs and homers, having eclipsed the 200 plateau for the latter.  Of the starters, only their keystone combo (Roy McMillan & Johnny Temple) failed to reach double digits in round trippers.  Both were supreme glovemen who hit over .260, so no one was complaining about them.  Besides Robby, Wally Post (36) and Ted Kluszewski (35) also eclipsed the 30 homer mark.  Catcher Ed Bailey (28) would have joined them if he played in more than the 118 games he played in.

  

WEAKNESSES:  Starting pitching

PITCHING:  By far their biggest weakness.  Two starter (Klippstein and Fowler) had ERA's above 4.00 and Brooks Lawrence (19-10, 3.99) was close to joining them.  Joe Nuxhall (13-11, 3.72) wasn't all that much better.

BULLPEN:  Hersh Freeman (14-5, 3.40, 18 sv) was the beneficiary of many a late inning comeback by this team's great offense.  Hal Jeffcoat (8-2, 3.84, 2 sv) was both set up man and spot starter.  Tom Acker (4-3, 2.37) and Don Gross (3-0, 1.95) were underutilized.  Maybe they could have made up the 2 game differential if they were given a shot to pitch more.  Veterans Joe Black (3-2, 4.52) and Larry Jansen (2-3, 5.19) are at the end of the line and light years away from their glory days in the Big Apple.

BENCH:  When you have a backup catcher / pinch hitter extroidanaire like Smoky Burgess (.275-12-39) you have yourself a clutch lefty bat late in games.  George Crowe hit 10 homers in just 144 AB's.  Bob Thurman hit 8 in 139 AB's.

I was forced to redo the full card set, because the original set was created in a horizontal format, which does not display well on the game screen.  I added a total of cards, including the coveted Frank Robinson "pre-rookie" card.