Highlanders Become Yankees! Team Moves Into Polo Grounds!
Offseason Recap & 1913 Season Preview:
I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Years!
Hall Of Fame Inductees: OF Elmer Flick, 2B Nap LaJoie, SS Bobby Wallace
It's interesting that during the height of the dead ball era, almost all the hall of famers were hitters. Flick was an offensive force his whole career. He put up a .305 lifetime average, had 1876 hits, and a .813 OPS. Nap LaJoie was an even better hitter then Flick, piling up over 2000 career hits and a .331 lifetime average. Bobby Wallace however was not much of a hitter. His career .257 average would not be HoF worthy. But he defense was. Wallace is still known to this day as one of the best fielding shortstops of all time. One of Wallace's real world teammates said "It was a delight to play third base next to that fellow."
Highlanders 1912 Award Winners: P Frank Smith won his 2nd career AL Gold Glove. 1B Hal Chase won his 5th straight AL Gold Glove. LF Lee McGee won his 1st career AL Gold Glove. 2B Eddie Collins won his 1st AL MVP Award. P Christy Mathewson won his 1st AL Most Valuable Pitcher award. He also won the NL version in 1910 with the Giants.
Highlanders Draft Recap: No real big names in this draft. I'm not going to lie. My eye is on the 1914 draft, when George Herman Ruth should be available. He WILL be a Yankee, even if it means I have to trade half the team to get him.
Notable Offseason Transactions: We sent a number of players packing who were either not working out, or were going to be too expensive. They included Walter Johnson, Hub Pernoll, Bill Killefer, George Winter, & Frank Smith. Smith wouldn't agree to any contract offers I made, yet he signed elsewhere for less money.
December 11, 1912: Signed free agent P Vic Willis to a 2 year contract @ $4,500 per season
Willis will be a good #4 starter, or could come out of the pen.
December 17, 1912: Signed P Doc White to a 1 year extension @ $38,500
White is one of my best pitchers, and I didn't want to lose him. Thankfully he didn't ask for a raise to stay in NY.
January 6, 1913: Traded RF Ray Demmitt & P Roy Patterson to the Cincinnati Reds for P Louis Drucke
Teams kept trying to get Demmitt from me, and since he wasn't going to start in RF anytime soon, I decided to trade him for a young pitcher. Drucke is a decent young righty who is probably good enough to be a legit #2 starter. His lack of control will never allow him to be a staff ace though.
Strengths: Our lineup is as good or better then last year. Pitching will be almost as tough to beat.
Weaknesses: The Yankees don't have a decent hitting catcher, but at least Agnew is solid behind the plate.
Projected Record: While our rotation is probably not as good as last year, it's still going to be hard to beat us. With our lineup we should score a lot of runs. It's hard to imagine this team not winning 90+ games and another AL pennant.
1913 Opening Day Roster:
