# 1957 Washington Senators season

The 1957 Washington Senators won 55 games and lost 99 in their 57th year in the American League, and finished in eighth place, attracting 457,079 spectators to Griffith Stadium, last in the major leagues. Chuck Dressen began the year as their manager, but after the Senators dropped 16 of their first 20 games, Dressen was replaced by Cookie Lavagetto on May 7. Lavagetto, a longtime aide to Dressen, went 51–83 for the rest of the year, but would remain at the club's helm into June 1961, its first season as the Minnesota Twins.
The 1957 Senators set an MLB record which still stands for the fewest stolen bases by a team in a season, with only 13. Washington left fielder Roy Sievers set a new team record with 42 home runs to the lead the Junior Circuit, as he benefited from Griffith Stadium's shorter dimensions in left and left-center field, which had been implemented before the 1956 campaign.
The 1957 season also marked the first time that Washington's American League franchise had used Senators as its official nickname since 1904. For 52 years (1905–1956), the team called itself the Nationals, with Senators as an unofficial, but widely used, secondary appellation. From 1957 on, headline writers and baseball journalists would continue to use Nats as an accepted alternative name for both this Senators franchise and its expansion-era successor, the Senators of 1961–1971, until the "new Senators" relocated to Dallas–Fort Worth after the 1971 campaign. Since 2005, the Nationals name is the official identity of Washington's National League franchise formerly called the Montreal Expos.

## Offseason

* Prior to 1957 season: Choo-Choo Coleman was released by the Senators.

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| New York Yankees | 98 | 56 | .636 | — | 48‍–‍29 | 50‍–‍27 |
| Chicago White Sox | 90 | 64 | .584 | 8 | 45‍–‍32 | 45‍–‍32 |
| Boston Red Sox | 82 | 72 | .532 | 16 | 44‍–‍33 | 38‍–‍39 |
| Detroit Tigers | 78 | 76 | .506 | 20 | 45‍–‍32 | 33‍–‍44 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 76 | 76 | .500 | 21 | 42‍–‍33 | 34‍–‍43 |
| Cleveland Indians | 76 | 77 | .497 | 21½ | 40‍–‍37 | 36‍–‍40 |
| Kansas City Athletics | 59 | 94 | .386 | 38½ | 37‍–‍40 | 22‍–‍54 |
| Washington Senators | 55 | 99 | .357 | 43 | 28‍–‍49 | 27‍–‍50 |

### Record vs. opponents

1957 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BAL | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | KCA | NYY | WSH |
| Baltimore | — | 8–14 | 10–12–1 | 9–12 | 9–13 | 16–5–1 | 9–13 | 15–7 |
| Boston | 14–8 | — | 8–14 | 12–10 | 10–12 | 16–6 | 8–14 | 14–8 |
| Chicago | 12–10–1 | 14–8 | — | 14–8 | 11–11 | 14–8 | 8–14 | 17–5 |
| Cleveland | 12–9 | 10–12 | 8–14 | — | 11–11 | 11–11 | 9–13 | 15–7 |
| Detroit | 13–9 | 12–10 | 11–11 | 11–11 | — | 8–14 | 10–12 | 13–9 |
| Kansas City | 5–16–1 | 6–16 | 8–14 | 11–11 | 14–8 | — | 3–19 | 12–10 |
| New York | 13–9 | 14–8 | 14–8 | 13–9 | 12–10 | 19–3 | — | 13–9 |
| Washington | 7–15 | 8–14 | 5–17 | 7–15 | 9–13 | 10–12 | 9–13 | — |

### Notable transactions

* April 29, 1957: Bob Chakales and Dean Stone were traded by the Senators to the Boston Red Sox for Faye Throneberry, Milt Bolling and Russ Kemmerer.
* June 17, 1957: Jim Kaat was signed as an amateur free agent by the Senators.

### Roster
## Player stats
### Batting
#### Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Lou Berberet | 99 | 264 | 69 | .261 | 7 | 36 |
| 1B | Pete Runnels | 134 | 473 | 109 | .230 | 2 | 35 |
| 2B | Herb Plews | 104 | 329 | 89 | .271 | 1 | 26 |
| SS | Rocky Bridges | 120 | 391 | 89 | .228 | 3 | 47 |
| 3B | Eddie Yost | 110 | 414 | 104 | .251 | 9 | 38 |
| LF | Roy Sievers | 152 | 572 | 172 | .301 | 42 | 114 |
| CF | Bob Usher | 96 | 295 | 77 | .261 | 5 | 27 |
| RF | Jim Lemon | 137 | 518 | 147 | .284 | 17 | 64 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Milt Bolling | 91 | 277 | 63 | .227 | 4 | 19 |
| Art Schult | 77 | 247 | 65 | .263 | 4 | 35 |
| Clint Courtney | 91 | 232 | 62 | .267 | 6 | 27 |
| Faye Throneberry | 68 | 195 | 36 | .185 | 2 | 12 |
| Julio Bécquer | 105 | 186 | 42 | .226 | 2 | 22 |
| Ed Fitz Gerald | 45 | 125 | 34 | .272 | 1 | 13 |
| Jerry Snyder | 42 | 93 | 14 | .151 | 1 | 4 |
| Whitey Herzog | 36 | 78 | 13 | .167 | 0 | 4 |
| Neil Chrisley | 26 | 51 | 8 | .157 | 0 | 3 |
| Lyle Luttrell | 19 | 45 | 9 | .200 | 0 | 5 |
| Harmon Killebrew | 9 | 31 | 9 | .290 | 2 | 5 |
| Jerry Schoonmaker | 30 | 23 | 2 | .087 | 0 | 0 |
| Karl Olson | 8 | 12 | 2 | .167 | 0 | 0 |
| Dick Tettelbach | 9 | 11 | 2 | .182 | 0 | 1 |

### Pitching
#### Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Pedro Ramos | 43 | 231.0 | 12 | 16 | 4.79 | 91 |
| Chuck Stobbs | 42 | 211.2 | 8 | 20 | 5.36 | 114 |
| Camilo Pascual | 29 | 175.2 | 8 | 17 | 4.10 | 113 |
| Russ Kemmerer | 39 | 172.1 | 7 | 11 | 4.96 | 81 |
| Hal Griggs | 2 | 13.2 | 0 | 1 | 3.29 | 12 |

#### Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Tex Clevenger | 52 | 139.2 | 7 | 6 | 4.19 | 75 |
| Ted Abernathy | 26 | 85.0 | 2 | 10 | 6.78 | 50 |
| Jim Heise | 8 | 19.0 | 0 | 3 | 8.05 | 8 |
| Bob Chakales | 4 | 18.1 | 0 | 1 | 5.40 | 12 |
| Bob Wiesler | 3 | 16.1 | 1 | 1 | 4.41 | 9 |
| Ralph Lumenti | 3 | 9.1 | 0 | 1 | 6.75 | 8 |
| Don Minnick | 2 | 9.1 | 0 | 1 | 4.82 | 7 |
| Garland Shifflett | 6 | 8.0 | 0 | 0 | 10.13 | 2 |

#### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| Bud Byerly | 47 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3.13 | 39 |
| Dick Hyde | 52 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4.12 | 46 |
| Evelio Hernández | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.25 | 15 |
| Joe Black | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7.11 | 2 |
| Dick Brodowski | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11.12 | 4 |
| Dean Stone | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8.10 | 3 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AA | Chattanooga Lookouts | Southern Association | Cal Ermer |
| A | Charlotte Hornets | Sally League | Gene Verble |
| B | Kinston Eagles/Wilson Tobs | Carolina League | Pete Suder |
| B | Midland/Lamesa Indians | Southwestern League | Johnny Welaj and Hank O'Neal |
| C | Missoula Timberjacks | Pioneer League | Jack McKeon |
| D | Fort Walton Beach Jets | Alabama–Florida League | Neal Cobb |
| D | Superior Senators | Nebraska State League | Ray Baker |
| D | Elmira Pioneers | New York–Penn League | Bill Brightwell |
Kinston franchise transferred to Wilson and renamed, May 11, 1957; Midland franchise transferred to Lamesa, August 1, 1957