Chicago Cubs: The 1906 squad remains one of the best

Chicago Cubs: Leading the charge

When you see a team who wins over 100 contests, it gets you thinking as to how they accomplished such a task. Now as a sign of the times, home runs were not a very consistent stat for players. The league leaders, Tim Jordan, and Harry Davis tied for the league lead at just twelve apiece.

As a team, the Cubs hit a total of twenty. The team leader Frank Schulte led the team with seven. Nobody else hit more than three. Funny enough, what the club lacked in power, they made up for in speed as every member of the starting eight position players finished in double digits for steals, with Frank Chance leading the charge and swiping 57 bags, the most in the league.

Pitching became another strong key for the Cubs in 1906. Led by staff ace Mordecai ‘Three Fingers’ Brown, five of the six players in the starting rotation posted an ERA under 2.00. Brown, starting 32 games, finished with an ERA barely above one, 1.04 to be exact, across 277 1/3 innings.

Another young kid by the name of Ed Reulbach was just as impressive, racking up a team-leading .826 win percentage across 24 starts, finishing with a 1.65 ERA in 218 innings of his own. At the time, Reulbach was the youngest pitcher on the roster, winning 19 games, third most on the team.

The team slash line in 1906 was nothing impressive, as combined they finished .262/.328/.339 with a .667 OPS. Two of the most impressive stats, however, were the stolen bases and the triples. All said and done, the team combined for 71 three-baggers and a ridiculous 283 stolen bases.