1st January 1881
Once the fans of the White Stockings sobered up from their MLB Championship Series winning parties they were glad to see that their was very little change at their club over the off season. The owner decided not to rock a winning boat and the only significant thing he did was to extend Manager Bruce Harveys contract by a further 2 years.
Talking of the Manager brings us onto the awards where Bruce Harvey again picked up the NL Manager of the Year award for the 5th time in his career.
On the player award front the NL awards dinner had a good outcome for the White Stockings players.
The biggest honour a White Stocking player picked up was by Bill McGunnigle as he was awarded the NL Rookie of the Year.
Their were also Golden Glove awards for Catcher Ned Williamson, Second Baseman Jack Burdock and Short Stop Jack Glasscock as they all made the NL defensive team of the year.
The team decided to stick with the current playing staff during the off season and made no trade movements.
3 players did decide to call time on their playing careers which will lead to a slight re structure of the depth charts.
The first player to retire was Catcher Charlie Mills. Mills was a bit part player most of his career but did get 1 all star selection in his good year of 1877. He played 105 games in the majors over 10 years with 66 as a starter. He collected 97 hits, 54 runs and 40 RBI's for an average of .333 (real life stats 38 games for 40 hits, 33 runs and 24RBI's along with an average of .226)
The next to retire was Short Stop Bill Lennon. Lennon never played for the White Stockings major league team after he was acquired in a trade but did play for Philadelphia prior to this. His record was 55 games with 6 hits, 6 runs and 3 RBI's for an average of .207 (real life stats 28 games for 27 hits, 18 runs and 13 RBI's with an average of .223)
The final player to hang up his cleats is Third Baseman Frank Norton. Norton played only 14 times in his career in the majors with 2 starts. He picked up 3 hits, 5 runs and 3 RBI's for an average of .231 (real life stats 1 game, 0 hits, 0 runs and 0 RBI's)
The only new players added to the squad came from the First Year Player Draft. The team only had 2 selections due to the small size of the class and selected First Baseman Martin Poweel in the first round. The full draft log is given below.
All draftees signed by deadline day.