Spring Training Update: 3/2

History of Baseball: 1915
World Series Champions: Boston Red Sox (101-50, .669 WPCT).
An era ended in Cleveland in 1915.  Nap Lajoie, the Naps' namesake and their star player for 13 seasons, joined the Philadelphia Athletics.  Since they couldn't retain the name "Naps", they took on a new name: the Cleveland Indians.  Over in the Federal League, the Indianapolis Hoosiers, the 1914 league champions, moved to New Jersey and became the Newark Peppers.  They thus became the second and final major league team to play home games in New Jersey, following the Elizabeth Resolutes of 1873, when they played in the National Association.  While Babe Ruth joined the league in 1914, two more future all time greats first stepped into big league parks in 1915, both joining St. Louis teams.  First, the St. Louis Browns brought up 22 year old George Sisler on June 28th.  He would go on to become one of the defining hitters of the 1920's and one of St. Louis' first great stars.  At the end of the season, on September 10th, the St. Louis Cardinals penciled the fiery 19 year old Texan Rogers Hornsby.  Much like Ty Cobb with his dark personality and rumored to be a member of the KKK, Hornsby became one of the nastiest and greatest players to ever play the game.  Aside from Sisler and Hornsby, Babe Ruth saw his career begin to heat up.  On May 6th, though still a pitcher, the 20 year old hit the first of his 714 home runs.  With all these new guys, someone was bound to go.  The first was Ross Barnes, the hero of the 1876 season where he hit .429, on February 5th.  The second was Al Spalding, Barnes' manager in 1876 and one of the game's first great pitchers, on September 9th.  Lastly, on December 31st, Tip O'Neill, the single season record holder in batting average (.435 in 1887), passed away at 57.  Back to the regular season, Eddie Plank, the great former A's pitcher (now with FL's St. Louis Terriers) nearing the end of his career, became the ninth member of the 300 win club on September 11th.  Christy Mathewson had three years prior been the most recent addition to the club.  
In the Federal League's second and final season, the Chicago Whales just barely eeked out a pennant, going 86-66.  The St. Louis Terriers were right there, technically tying with them by going 87-67, though they were .000854 points back in winning percentage, rounding to a .566 to .565 victory.  The Pittsburgh Rebels were also vying for the pennant to the end, finishing 86-67, half a game back with a winning percentage of .562.  The American League also saw an extremely close race.  The Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers fought it out, but Boston ended up winning the division with a 101-50 record, 2.5 games over Detroit's 100-54.  The Philadelphia Athletics, who had lost Eddie Plank, Chief Bender, Jack Coombs, Eddie Collins, and Frank "Home Run" Baker, over the offseason, went just 43-109 and finished last in the majors.  The only starters left from their 1910-1913 dynasty were Amos Strunk, Stuffy McInnis, and Rube Oldring, none of whom where anywhere near as good as Plank, Bender, Coombs, Collins, and Baker.  Even the addition of Nap Lajoie could not offset the loss.  The National League did not see as close a race as the FL and AL did.  The Philadelphia Phillies finished with a commanding, seven game lead over the Boston Braves, going 90-62 to the Braves' 83-69.  The Phillies and Red Sox met in the World Series, where Boston took four of the five games to win their third World Series, tying the Athletics for the most in the game's history.  Duffy Lewis led the Boston offense by batting .444, while teammate Harry Hooper knocked a pair of home runs to go along with a .350 average.  Rube Foster earned two of Boston's four victories, with one each going to Ernie Shore and Dutch Leonard.
Chalmers Automobile discontinued the Chalmers Award in 1915, seeing that it was not profitable.  Baseball was again without a major award.  Naturally, the batting champion was regarded as the unofficial MVP.  Ty Cobb led the majors in batting average (big surprise) at .369, claiming his ninth straight AL batting title.  He also stole a career high 96 bases, which led the majors by 41 over Benny Kauff's 55.  That same Benny Kauff, playing for the Brooklyn Tip-Tops, finished second in the majors with a Federal League leading .342 average.  The Giants' Larry Doyle led the NL in average way down at .320.  The Phillies' Gavvy Cravath led the majors in home runs for a third straight season, blasting an amazing 24 longballs.  It was the highest total since Ned Williamson hit 27 three decades prior in 1884, and the highest total in major league history to that point without an asterisk.  As we remember, Williamson's 27 home runs were aided by his home stadium's extremely close right field fence.  Cravath also led the majors with 115 RBI, while Cobb's 144 runs scored had everyone beat by a long shot.  However, all this offense ceased when one man stood sixty feet six inches away.  Grover Cleveland Alexander, now in his fifth season, broke out with one of the best years of his career.  In 49 games (42 starts), he went 31-10 with a 1.22 ERA, a 0.84 WHIP, and 241 strikeouts, leading all of baseball in those categories (minus the games/starts) and thus winning the pitchers' Triple Crown.  Walter Johnson continued to thrive, as he went 27-13 with a 1.55 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP to prove Alexander wasn't the only guy who could pitch.  The White Sox' Red Faber put up a breakout season, going 24-14 with a 2.55 ERA.  Another breakout star was Cincinnati's Fred Toney, who went 17-6 with a 1.58 ERA in 36 games (23 starts).  Mordecai "Three Finger Brown", now with the FL's Chicago Whales and pitching in his final full season, went 17-8 with a 2.09 ERA.  Lastly, Babe Ruth had as solid a rookie season as you can have, going 18-8 with a 2.44 ERA in 28 games (16 starts) for the Red Sox.  He also developed the swing that would one day make him famous, hitting four home runs and batting .315 in just 42 games.  Because he was a pitcher and was not expected to hit, he took the opportunity to just swing out of his shoes and have fun.  That power stroke would change baseball in the coming years, and it was all developed during this mid 1910's time period.

News
Spring Training games have started!  See below for new format.
Angels signed Mike Trout to a one year, $1 million extension (the highest ever for a pre-arbitration player).
Braves resigned Freddy Garcia (4-7, 4.37 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 2014 age: 37) to a minor league deal.

Game Scores (SS=Split Squad)
Nationals (3-0) beat the Marlins (3-1) 10-3.
Red Sox (1-2) beat the Orioles (2-1) 8-6.
Yankees (3-2) beat the Blue Jays (3-2) 8-2.
Pirates (3-1) beat the Phillies (1-4) 4-1.
Rays (1-1) beat the Twins (2-1) 6-3.
Dodgers (2-2) tied the Padres (SS, 0-4) 3-3.
Royals (3-1) beat the Cubs (0-3) 5-3.
Tigers (3-2) tied the Braves (SS, 0-5) 0-0 (10 innings).
Brewers (3-2) beat the Rockies (1-2) 6-5.
Top Scorer: Reds beat the Padres (SS) 15-4.

Standings
Grapefruit (Florida) League: Top: Nationals (3-0, 1.000 WPCT).  Bottom: Braves (0-5, .000).
Cactus (Arizona) League: Top: Indians/Royals/A's/Mariners (3-1, .750).  Bottom: Padres (0-4, .000).

Spring Leaders
Offensive: AVG: Zach Walters (Nationals), 1.000 (5-5). Home runs: Jose Bautista (Blue Jays), Juan Francisco (Brewers), Mike Moustakas (Royals), and Yangervis Solarte (Yankees), 2.  RBI: Mike Moustakas, 6.  Stolen bases: Billy Burns (A's), 4.
Pitching: Wins: Jesse Chavez (A's), 2.  K's: Neil Wagner (Blue Jays), 6.  ERA: Jesse Chavez, 0.00 (4.2 shutout innings).  Saves: Josh Collmenter (Diamondbacks), 2.

Top Performers
Offensive: Mike Moustakas (Royals): 2-3, 2 home runs (2), 3 RBI, 2 runs.
Pitching: Tim Cooney (Cardinals): No decision, 2 shutout innings, no hits, no walks, 4 K's (4).
Worst Pitching Performance: Edgar Olmos (Marlins): No decision, 0.1 innings, 4 earned runs, 1 hit, 3 walks, 0 K's.

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Teams followed in this update: Washington Nationals, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers
If your team is not included, please leave a comment.
HR: home runs.  RBI: runs batted in.  AVG: batting average.  SB: stolen bases.  ERA: earned run average. WHIP: walks/hits per innings pitched.  K's: strikeouts. WPCT: winning percentage
Zack Silverman