Offseason Recap & 1925 Season Preview: I'm starting my move today, so this may be the last update for a week or so. At most I'll maybe get one more update finished before my DSL goes down for the move.
Hall Of Fame Inductees: P Chief Bender
The former Yankee finished with a distinguished career. Over his 22 years in the league, Bender won 313 games and had a career 2.81 ERA. He also pitched 2 no hitters, the first in 1906 and the second in 1920.
Yankees 1924 Award Winners: Rogers Hornsby won his 3rd straight AL MVP. Hod Eller won his first AL Most Valuable Pitcher award. Frank Parkinson won his 3rd AL Gold Glove.
I still don't understand how guys like Bancroft & Hornsby are not winning Gold Gloves. They both led the league in fielding at their respective positions with the best fielding percentages and fewest errors.
Draft Recap: Stars entering the league this year include Lefty Grove (White Sox), Tony Lazzeri (Pirates), Bill Foster (Giants)(Rube Foster's brother from the Negro Leagues, and one of the best pitchers from that era), Mickey Cochrane (Cubs), & Joe Cronin (Brooklyn Robins).
Regarding Negro League players, I realized that I've been missing a lot of them because the game didn't rate them properly due to the lack of recorded stats. So starting with this draft I'll be going through the whole draft pool (about 100 players a year right now) to try and find these players and re-rate them. I'll be baseing ratings on what I read about the players from sites like this:
Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum: Personal Profiles
Notable Offseason Transactions: Bill Doak was due for a contract option, and since his injury would keep him out almost all of the 1925 season, and because he would be 35 when he came back, I decided to opt out and released him to free agency.
November 18, 1924: Signed 2B Dave Bancroft to a 3 year extension @ $32,000 per season (year 3 is a mutual option)
Gold Gloves or not, Bancroft is now a fixture in Yankee pinstripes and I will try to make sure he finishes his career here. He'll probably never reach 3000 hits, but with 7 Gold Gloves and counting he's most certainly a Hall of Famer.
November 29, 1924: Signed free agent P Henry Keupper to a 2 year contract worth $67,000 (season 2 is a mutual option)
Keupper is already 37, which is why I didn't want to sign him long term. Hopefully he can hold down the #3 spot in the rotation.
January 19, 1925: Signed free agent CF James Hickman & CF Pat Duncan to 1 year contracts @ $3,000
After fighting to sign career stolen base king Max Carey - and losing him to the Indians, I had to find an adequate center fielder who could hold down the spot for a year or 2 while Cool Papa Bell continues to progress in the minors.
Strengths: The Yankees infield is still the best in the game. And we still have Suttles-Hornsby-Meusel-Jackson in the lineup.
Weaknesses: Travis Jackson is still learning to catch. CF will probably be a black hole. And I'm not sure what I'll get out of the bottom half of the pitching rotation.
Projected Record: With Rogers Hornsby I'm always a contender. But the Indians are still good. The White Sox have a ton of young talent. And the Red Sox will contend. I'll say 90 wins. Whether that's enough to win the American League or not I'm not sure.
1925 Budget (League Rank In Parentheses): $616,023 (#1)
1925 Opening Day Payroll (#8 in the league):
1925 Opening Day Roster:
