Out of the Shadows: The Eclipse League

[luckymann]

A year almost to the day since Harry Simpson achieved the same feat, KC's Cliff Floyd becomes the fourth EL player to go yard four times in a game, also driving in 7 to lead the Mons past archrivals Memphis.

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It is all happening in the EL at the moment, as Homestead's Al Bumbry hits for the cycle against Philly. Despite his efforts, the Grays drop this one 8-7.

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The BYs seem in no rush to set Bullet Rogan free into the EL wilds. They gave him a couple cups of Joe last season but he is back in the TL again for 1980 and, from the looks of this effort, carving things up down there.

[luckymann]

Eclipse League

The apparent imbalance in the FC National has been at least partway redressed as the MeSox catch fire, riding a 2--6 May all the way to the top of the table. They are currently in the midst of a 9-game win streak. The Mons also started showing some improved form and sit a half-dozen games back.

The 33-17 Crawfords continue to street the FCA field, while the WC is looker super competitive in both groups.

Monthly Award Winners

• FC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Miguel Sano (Monarchs) 284 / 10 HR / 26 RBI.
• FC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Nate Moreland (Red Sox) 4-0 / 1.76 / 42 K / 51 IP.
• FC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Bob Gibson (Red Sox) 4-1 / 4.14 / 30 K / 50 IP.
• WC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Cristobal Torriente (Motown Stars) 384 / 7 HR / 25 RBI.
• WC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Agustin Acosta (American Giants) 5-1 / 2.89 / 25 K / 43.2 IP.
• WC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Salvador Perez (Lincoln Giants) 321 / 4 HR / 17 RBI.

Points of Interest

• LibStars 3B Tommy Davis is hitting 422 entering June - can he become the EL's first 400 hitter?
• Roy Campanella signs a 1-year / $810k deal with the AGs. Reliever Pee-Wee Jenkins re-ups with the MoStars on a 2/894 deal.
• Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, despite going 3-1 / 1.65, is released by the EGs.
• Key Injuries: P Frank Bradley (Liberty Stars) elbow, season; P Michael Pineda (Liberty Stars) shoulder, 8-9 weeks; SS Al Smith (Buckeyes) back, 6 weeks; P Ramon Ramirez (Dodgers) back, 6 weeks; C Sam Lampkin (Black Barons) thumb, 6 weeks.

Transit League

Dayton still looking good with a TL-best 30-20 mark to this point and a handy break on their rivals. The other three groups remain tight.

Monthly Award Winners

• CAC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Rich Murray (Eagles) 447 / 5 HR / 20 RBI.
• CAC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Antonio Santos (Blue Birds) 6-0 / 3.78 / 22 K / 33.1 IP.
• FRC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Joe Scott (Black Senators) 370 / 4 HR / 19 RBI.
• FRC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Juan Jimenez (Habaneros) 5-1 / 2.21 / 32 K / 40.2 IP.

[luckymann]

Offence has somewhat dominated things in the early going of both the Eclipse and Transit Leagues - will this exemplary effort from Akron's Alfredo Figaro down at AAA usher in a swing back toward the mound?

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This save never disappoints, it has been a pure joy from the get-go and this season is again shaping to raise the EL's bar once more.

We get our first no-hitter for the year in the top flight as Jose Rijo is lights out against Philly in a classic pitching duel against Andy Porter.

[luckymann]

As I suspect might be the case for the majority of you following along, I first became aware of Sol White through in his role as the pre-Buck O’Neil Buck O’Neil - IE the spruiker- and chronicler-in-chief of the pre-1920s Negro Leagues. I have both his Official Base Ball Guide and History of Colored Base Ball among my NeL reference library and find each of them a fascinating study both in the art of preserving history and twisting that history to suits one's own personal narrative. Buck O'Neil would perfect this skill a few decades later and - fifteen years after Sol was himself enshrined as a pioneer / executive - parlay it into a plaque at Cooperstown.

As a player, Sol began while still a student at Wilberforce, holding down second base for the Philadelphia Keystones in the short-lived NCL in 1887. After a few seasons playing in various white leagues, he spent the 1890s at various iterations of the Cuban Giants.

But it was in the first decade of the 20th century that Sol really made his mark both on and off the field, as a playing member and part-owner of the Philadelphia Giants, one of the first true powerhouses in black baseball that won numerous Championships in this period.

Nearing his retirement as an active player, Sol chronicled the 1906 season in his History, and took his leave of the game the following year. he would later return in the 1920s to manage various NNL clubs before retiring for good from the field in 1926. He lived a long and full life, dying in 1955 at the age of 87.

Seamheads has his career slash at 294/332/419 with a healthy OPS+ of 114, while EC has deemed there to be insufficient data for him to formulate an MLE.

Unlike most from this era with no MLE info on hand for me to be able to use and edit the player's data, Sol actually imported OK into the EL. More in the high yellow range than green or blue, but pretty good all the same. And he seems to be turning this into a nice little understated EL career.

It didn't start out that way. Entering the league as a FA in 1974, Sol bounced around through a few clubs in 1975 and played the entire season in the TL. His fortunes changed a little in 1976, when he was signed by the Monarchs, only to find the big league a bit beyond him at that point and hit a meagre 151 on the year.

After being traded to the Buckeyes, 1977 saw Sol split time between the EL and TL once again, although he was starting to handle major league pitching again. He spent the next couple years with the LGs before again being traded, this time to the Crawfords. He re-upped on a one-year deal at the start of the current season and remains at the club at the time of writing, holding down their starting 3B role and - batting 9th - slashing 306/371/462 with a couple dingers and 27 RBI, good so far for 1.5 bWAR. That might well earn him some jewellery, the way the Crawfs are playing this year. We'll check back in and see at the end of the year.

[luckymann]

Eclipse League

Most unusually, it seems for once the EL is set to be devoid of drama with all four races looking fairly clear-cut at this point. Still plenty of time for that to change of course, especially in the WC where the gaps are narrower.

Monthly Award Winners

• FC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Cesar Hernandez (Black Yankees) 360 / 7 HR / 21 RBI.
• FC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Vida Blue (Crawfords) 6-0 / 1.82 / 45 K / 49.1 IP.
• FC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Bob Gibson (Red Sox) 4-2 / 3.80 / 36 K / 45 IP.
• WC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Chili Davis (American Giants) 308 / 9 HR / 24 RBI.
• WC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Joe Williams (Motown Stars) 5-1 / 2.33 / 34 K / 46.1 IP.
• WC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Kelvim Escobar (Liberty Stars) 3-2 / 4.20 / 31 K / 40.2 IP.

Points of Interest

• Octavio Dotel rings up his 300th career Save.
• Key Injuries: P Ollie West (Motown Stars) biceps, 4 weeks; 1B Edgar Wesley (Crawfords) Achilles, 3 weeks; P Ed Rile (Motown Stars AAA) UCL, 14 months; 3B Carlos Moran (Elite Giants) thumb, 3 months.
• OF Michael Brantley is claimed off waivers from Homestead by the AGs.
• Very quiet in the trade market so far which means we should expect a flurry in July; this was June's only trade of note:

Top 20s - overall

Top 20s - NeLers

Transit League

While the Marcos continue to lead their division, their fellow perennial malingerer House of David has returned to form and sunk to the wrong end of the table. Still up for grabs across the board.

Monthly Award Winners

• CAC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Arquimedez Pozo (Black Crackers) 342 / 7 HR / 23 RBI.
• CAC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Johnny Goodgame (Marcos) 3-2 / 1.88 / 33 K / 38.1 IP.
• FRC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Oswaldo Arcia (Wolves) 306 / 8 HR / 19 RBI.
• FRC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Henry McHenry (Wolves) 5-1 / 2.55 / 34 K / 49.1 IP.

[luckymann]

Bill Harvey wins the Derby, with MVP Tex Burnett leading the Catto Conference to a 4-3 ASG victory.

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An update to the Prospect Pipeline sees NeLer Harry Williams head a sterling list from Tony Phillips.

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The stars of today:




And tomorrow:

HR Derby winner

Carlos Delgado (Crawfords) def John Mayberry (Royal Giants)

ASG result

Weldy 8, Fleet 3

ASG MVP

John Beckwith (Buckeyes)


Prospects Game result

Fleet 5, Weldy 3

Prospects Game MVP

Tony Abreu (Hornets)

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[luckymann]

Robert "Roy" Poindexter pretty much epitomises the purpose of this series - to shine a light on clearly talented guys kept somewhat in the dark due to the vagaries of circumstance and fate.

Born in Virginia just before the turn of the century (the fact that nothing more specific than this has ever been unearthed kind of foregrounds the rest of his life), Roy came late to pro ball and left early, with his rookie year at the Birmingham Black Barons in the 1924 Negro National League being his age-27 season. It was with the BBs that he would play the vast majority of his NeL career, with four of his six seasons spent there.

Over that span, Roy fashioned a 35-52 career with Seamheads allocating him an ERA+ of 99, while he doesn't feature among Eric Chalek's MLEs for some reason (I will have to follow it up with the man himself). Jim Riley calls him a "fairly effective" pitcher; hardly effusive praise but then again he was no world-beater. He also describes a guy who had his fair share of off-field problems, once shooting a teammate and eventually causing the premature end of his own career when he tried to end his life by taking poison. The attempt failed to kill him, but he never appeared in the NeL after that time.

Happy to report that his EL avatar is having a better time of it. Entering the league via the 1976 Draft, in which he was the second overall pick, he has been toiling away manfully for the poor old Cuban Stars East, the most thankless of tasks for a pitcher. It redounds to how good he has been that he is barely sub-500 to this point, going 52-56 (on a club that has on average lost a smidge under 100 games in his three seasons to date and look like doing so again this year) with an ERA+ of 112 and almost 20 rWAR. He was just a few weeks back named to his first All-Star team as well.

He has one more year of arb left with an expected payout for 1981 in excess of $1m, and with the small-budget East already having Deacon Meyers locked down on a long and lucrative contract, you'd have to think a move is imminent. We will, as always, keep tabs on him over the remainder of his EL career.

[luckymann]

Eclipse League

We may just get a bit of stretch run drama, with the WC American race tightening right up after Philly posts a middling 11-13. And Memphis just leaves the door ajar a bit in the FCN - that 7 1/2 game split between them and KC wouldn't be looking wide enough just yet.

Monthly Award Winners

• FC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Bernie Williams (Monarchs) 430 / 2 HR / 17 RBI.
• FC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Dave Brown (Bacharach Giants) 5-0 / 1.26 / 28 K / 43 IP.
• FC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Ronald Acuna (Dodgers) 319 / 5 HR / 22 RBI.
• WC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Minnie Minoso (Lincoln Giants) 349 / 6 HR / 21 RBI.
• WC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Juan Nieves (ABCs) 5-0 / 2.14 / 41 K / 46.1 IP.
• WC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Kelvim Escobar (Liberty Stars) 4-0 / 3.86 / 31 K / 35 IP.

Points of Interest

• Dave Brown notches career win #200 (for those of you interested, there's a great new bio of Lefty up on SABR).
• Key Injuries: P Lefty Holmes (American Giants) shoulder, 6 weeks; 2B Leroy Morney (Athletics) elbow, season; 1B Edgar Wesley (Crawfords) rib, 6 weeks.
• The Red Sox just haven't quite put the Mons away yet, and would be hoping the waiver wire grab of Luis Tiant will help them do so.
• As usual, there are a few notable trades made during July:

Transit League

Everything still to play for in the TL, with Detroit's 5-game lead in the FCN the widest of any.

Monthly Award Winners

• CAC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Curtis Granderson (Black Crackers) 440 / 9 HR / 23 RBI.
• CAC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Alex Colome (White Sox) 4-0 / 3.48 / 27 K / 33.2 IP.
• FRC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Willie Montanez (Black Senators) 337 / 6 HR / 19 RBI.
• FRC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Victor Alvarez (Cubans) 3-1 / 2.04 / 19 K / 35.1 IP.

[luckymann]

Undoubtedly one of the games of the year and a major boost for the Red Sox as they win an 11-10 thriller late against the BYs with Eric Davis starring and the aforementioned El Tiant getting the W. I see NY has finally deployed Bullet Rogan - can't wait to see how he fares in the Show.

[luckymann]

I've not seen this before, even if this is only in AAA it is still a fantastic achievement as Eddie Williams of Louisville - a rookie, no less - does this in back-to-back games:




With the Mons hunting the MeSox up in the big league, he may not be with the White Sox much longer.

[luckymann]

Back to there being little more than pride to play for in this year's Cuban Stars match-up, with both clubs well out of contention again. The West hosts this year's series and comes away from it with a 2-1 win after dropping the opener. That extends their series lead to 9-4.

[luckymann]

Recent OotS subject Robert Poindexter is knocked out of action for the remainder by shoulder inflammation - let's hope this isn't a pattern forming a la the SI cover...

[luckymann]

Not gonna lie to you, had never heard of Jermaine Van Buren until this very moment. Well, he's an Eclipse League immortal now - not bad for someone in their rookie season making the 15th start of his career, even with those 7 walks issued.