1st January 1887
After a poor season, the fans of the Red Stockings are looking to the owner and front office to freshen things up and find a way to get the team back into the top half of the table. The owner was happy with what he had seen during the season and decided to give GM Mark Bass a 3 year contract extension which puzzled the fans somewhat.
The NL awards dinner saw Fred Dunlap pick up a golden glove award for his defensive work during the past season.
The team has seen 4 players decide their careers were to come to an end.
The first to retire is pitcher Dick McBride. 39 year old McBride has been in the league since its inauguration and his 16 years have seen him collect 2 Pitcher of the Year awards, 4 Golden Gloves and 5 All Star Appearances and 1 MLB Championship Medal. He spent his 16 years with 3 clubs including a long sting with the Philadelphia Athletics. His stats are 349 games with 316 starts saw him have a record of 147 wins and 146 losses. His 2650 innings pitched saw him give up 775 earned runs for an ERA of 2.63. (real life stats 237 games, record of 149 wins, 78 losses and an ERA of 2.85 with 660 earned runs given up)
A second pitcher also decided to hang up his glove. This pitcher was George Zettlein. 42 year old Zettlein is another main stay of the league after joining when the league inaugurated. He spent 16 years in the league with the original St Louis Brown Stockings, Brooklyn Grays and Cincinnati Red Stockings. He picked up 1 Pithcer of the Year award and 8 All Star appearances and 1 MLB Championship Medal with the St Louis Brown Stockings. His final stats for his career was 481 games played with 442 starts with a record of 201 wins and 217 losses. He pitched 3569 innings to give up 1050 earned runs and an ERA of 2.65. (real life stats 250 games, 129 wins, 112 losses. ERA of 2.78 with 671 earned runs given up)
35 year old Catcher John Clapp has also decided to end his career this year. He spent 15 years with the league playing his whole career in Cincinnati. He managed to make 4 All Star appearances during this time. His stats for his career read as 726 games played with 815 hits from 2975 at bats. He scored 468 runs with 323 RBI's for an average of .274. (real life stats 588 games, 457 runs, 714 hits, 275 RBI's and an average of .283)
The final retirement is of a player that did not make much of his career. Pitcher Billy Arnold managed 1 game in the league with only 4 innings pitched. He had an ERA of 2.25 with 1 earned run given up. (real life stats as a batter was 2 games 1 hit, 2 runs and an average of .143)
The team drafted 5 players during the first year player draft. The first round pick saw the team select Centre Fielder Mike Griffin. The full draft log is given below.
The team managed to sign all the draftees by the deadline.