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November 17th, 1945
After nearly a month of running around begging other GM’s by phone I manage to put together a couple of trades on the same day.
Trade #1:
Packers get: 3B John Mauney, 3B Dan Bottoms (minors), SS Clay Mays (minors)
Bombers get: IF Eric Barron, 1B Rob Thompson, $8,000
The papers will be livid that we sold off a potential future hall of famer in Mauney, but he’s 35 and his salary just isn’t justified anymore. Clearing him off the books gives us room to raise the scouting budget to the league average and go after some real pitching. In addition Barron is the potential platoon partner we wanted for 1B Jay Hamilton and was 4th in the league in defensive efficiency last season in his limited time.
The other downside? We’re probably going to sell even less opening day tickets than we were before.
Trade #2:
Indians get: RF Ray Kempa, RF Fred James (#37 Prospect), RF William Fuchs (minors), 2B Kent Webb (#66 Prospect), 3B Bob Hahn (#86 Prospect in 1944)
Bombers get: SP George Brewer, SP Ralph Marshall (#31 Prospect)
This trade on the other hand will likely piss off the scouting department more than the papers. Kempa is a solid hitter (.305 career, 5 time batter of the month), but he has an extensive injury history and having missed a couple of years due to the war how can we be sure he’ll come back strong? Unfortunately, much like Mauney, he has a huge fan following here in Baltimore so the calls for my head from the press will only get louder no matter how smart a move it is. Losing the prospects James and Webb hurts a lot and Hahn looked like he could potentially have become a major league regular if things broke his way.
With that out of the way I couldn’t be happier with the return I got in this deal. Brewer is a bona-fide #2 starter at just 26 years old and led the Federal League in shutouts last season. Pitching in spacious Memorial Stadium you better believe he’s going to have a good season for us. Marshall on the other hand projects as a #3-#4 pitcher, but already has better scouting reports than any guy on our staff. What’s even more interesting to me is that he’s a flyball tossing knuckleballer, so he’ll also fit in nicely within spacious Memorial Stadium.
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November 25th, 1945
The CBA draft was created by the non-New York teams to break up the dominance the Metros and Knights had during the teens and twenties. It’ll be just like professional football, they thought, and will give other teams a fighting chance. Well it helped break the dominance of the New York teams, but it fueled the rise of Brooklyn and baseball’s refusal to abandon the best record picks first meant it did very little to help parity in the league like some had hoped it would. Personally I didn’t mind it. Parity is for losers anyway, but even I have to admit I’d rather have the third pick this year than the fifteenth.
As such we had the 14th pick.
1st Round: SP Mike McChesney, 20 Yrs old – California sinkerballer. Broadus says the kid has a good forkball, but a low overall ceiling of 4th starter. Nonetheless we hope to move him quickly if at all possible.
2nd Round: OF Tommy O’Fahy, 23 Yrs old – Advanced college prospect who’s pretty much fully developed as is. A mediocre hitter, but an incredibly fast runner and sound defender I could see him making the bench out of spring training.
3rd Round: RF Weldon Hedges, 19 Yrs old – Hedges was probably the steal of our draft. He possesses a good work ethic, above average raw power, and runs well enough to swipe a few bags. There are concerns about his defense and ability to make contact, but I could definitely see him developing into a major league regular with a few lucky steps forward.
4th Round: SP Mike McLarnon, 21 Yrs old – McLarnon is a below average talent, but is a smart kid and pitched deep into games throughout his college career. An extra pitch or some good coaching will likely get him to the bigs.
5th Round: LF Robert Ogburn, 19 Yrs old - Similar profile to Hedges according to Broadus; tremendous raw power and speed, but with the added bonus that he plays league average defense and sees the ball incredibly well (.500 OBP against average competition and a 4/7 rating from Broadus for his eye).
We also selected a shortstop in that years rule five draft by the name of Larry Milligan. We hoped to switch him to second base fulltime in spring training and take advantage of his excellent speed tools (7 SPD, 8 STL according to Broadus). I know the stolen base isn’t in vogue these days, but adding that dimension to our offense this year might help when you consider that we stole just 23 bags all of last season.
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