[Questdog]

Here's the Skinny on the Skunkbears

We are now the two time defending champions of the Liberty League. We won the first championship by the skin of our teeth, but romped to an easy win last year. I see only one way that we will not be champions again: either Bush or Townley takes a serious injury. Now that we have traded William McLeod (27-5.6) because of his exorbitant salary demands, we do not have the pitching depth to sustain a loss to one of our top two pitchers as we did last season.

Pitchers
Ed Bush (26-5.3)
He went from #3 pitcher to our ace last season and just missed winning the Hurler Trophy, finishing a very close 2nd in the voting. One concern is the number of home runs he allowed, 27 last season. A lot of that had to do with our park, but a lot of it did not. He led the League in home runs allowed on the road. We have addressed the park issue, though clouts to right field will still find the fences fairly often. We'll see if Bush can make some adjustments himself to fix the issue. The other issue is his control. His control was good enough for the old pitching rules, but we'll have to see if the new rules make it harder for him to throw strikes. But he was super in the Spring games, walking about as many as he did last year and he did not allow a home run.

Lou Townley (25-3.4)
Quote from last season's Opening Day dispatch: "He'll be the highest paid player in the Liberty League this year with a contract that calls for Mr. Perkins (64-4.3) to pay him $23,160. He'll be worth every penny." He was not worth every penny. He only won 8 games because of an elbow problem. He was excellent in the games he pitched, but he did not earn his salary by a long shot. This season he will not make as much money as last year, but he'll still be well compensated. He'll be the 5th highest paid pitcher in the game and all 4 above him won a lot more than 8 games last year. In the Spring Games, his control was superb, but he did not seem terribly difficult to hit. We'll just have to see if he's still working the elbow back to full strength.

Zenas Keough (25-4.5)
Our 2nd round draft pick from '84, he has shown good control in the minors, but not much else. A decent hitter for a pitcher. I'm hoping he shows continued improvement, but he was not very impressive in the practice games. He'll get first shot at the games that Bush and Townley can't pitch until Al Rice (22-7.6) shows me he's ready for the big leagues.

Ed Seelow (27-4.5)
He was decent in a few starts for Philadelphia last year, but stunk it up for us this Spring. But he's a lefty, and lefty's often take longer to get in shape for the season. The fact that he's a lefty is the only reason he's on the team. We'll start him against teams that look like they'd give Keough a rough time of it. I have Dave Frazier (27-5.7) at Syracuse to fill the same role if Seelow falters. Actually, I thought Frazier would be the one to win the job, but he was horrible this Spring, walking 10 batters and not striking out anyone in 18 innings before I kicked him off the team.

Catcher
Jimmy Babcock (30-6.9)
Babcock won the job over Evan Eckberg (31-3.5) this Spring with his defense, but he hit pretty well, too. Eckberg can still swing the bat, but his play behind the plate has deteriorated at an alarming rate. He'll still get plenty of action as the #2 backstop and maybe can earn back the #1 job, but I doubt it. Frankly, I will be surprised if this is not Eckberg's last season with Detroit.

First Base
Sam Cowan (31-5.1)
The all-time Hit King is back after a great first season in Detroit. He won a Silver Slugger Bat and a Gold Glove and was named to the post-season All-Star team and he won his 2nd batting title. He's not getting any younger, however, and the fact that he did not hit at all this Spring is a concern.

Second Base
Jocko Cole (25-6.1)
He had a great season last year, improving in almost every area over his good 1885. I expect him to improve even more this year and become one of the premier hitters in the League. He had a fantastic Spring, batting over .400 with power.

Shortstop
Al Shaffer (24-5.6)
He played a solid half-season last year and finally won the starting job that I tried to give him when I first arrived in Detroit. He showed good power and though he is not very fast, he stole 10 bases without getting caught. His glove is solid, if unspectacular. The one concern is his refusal to let a pitch go by without taking a swing at it. This year, with the batters not allowed to call for the location of the pitch, a patient eye will be even more important.

Third Base
Sam Boullion (25-4.8)
My first pick in the B Draft after I took the Detroit job in the Fall of '84. He blossomed last season into a great player, both at bat and in the field. And the rest of the League took notice as well and he finished 2nd in the MVP voting. I expect him to win a Gold Glove this year and be in the hunt for the batting title as well. However, he is currently lame and will miss the first week of the season. However, far from being upset by this, I am glad, because it will give me the opportunity to play Tom Nelson (20-6.6). When I was poring over the players eligible for the Draft last fall, I spotted Nelson and immediately decided I wanted to pick him for his great glove and the fact that he was amazing as a hitter on the sandlots. However, since he was not universally regarded as one of the top prospects in B Ball, I thought I could wait and pick him in the 3rd round. But Kansas City beat me to him and picked him in the 2nd. So I traded for him and thought he might turn into a good ballplayer in a few years. But this Spring he was the best hitter on our team, leading everyone in RBIs. So while Boullion is out, Nelson will play 3rd and then after the week is up, I can decide what to do with him. He is a better fielder than Shaffer at short and if he continues to hit, he'll have to take that spot. Else, if he fails to live up to his Spring showing, I will send him to Syracuse for seasoning.

Left Field
Ben Smith (27-6.7)
He followed up his MVP season with one more akin to his previous years, but that was good enough to be named to the post-season All-Star team. And good enough for me. He did not hit well this Spring, but he never seems to anyway and as he his only 27, not much cause for concern. He'll once again be our cleanup hitter.

Center Field
Tom Duncan (22-6.6)
I think our first pick from the 1885 Draft is ready to take over the job in center field. He hit for a very good average this Spring, though not for much power. If he is not ready, we still have the usual candidates from the past lurking around in various nooks and crannies.

Right Field
Joe Kraus (28-7.9)
"The best hitter and nicest guy on the team" is what I wrote about Kraus in my first Opening Day dispatch 2 years ago. Well, he is still the nicest guy on the team and the main reason he still has a job. He has not hit very well in either of the past two seasons. But he can still catch the ball as evidenced by the 4th Gold Glove he won last year and until somebody outplays him soundly, he'll have a spot in my lineup. He's recovering from a sprained ankle and will not start in the first series of the season.

We finally got our park to be a fair place to play a ball game, though Mr. Perkins insisted on keeping the right field fence shorter than it needs to be so that now it will take a Herculean blast to hit one over the left field fence, but any Nancy who makes contact can put one over the right field boundary. Of course, most of our hitters bat right-handed and so our opponents will more likely benefit from our park than us. But anyways, it is a step in the right direction and maybe I can convince the owner to see things my way in full for next year.

Editor's Note: I do not pick my park's modifiers; they are all based on the historical venues. For teams that appear in our universe that did not play in the MLB for that season, I make their parks analogous to one of the real parks that is not represented. By the way, they are also of my own figuring and not the default ones in OOTP as those are not calculated properly.

Once again, I am eager to get the season underway and I feel we have a good shot at another championship as long as Bush and Townley keep healthy. And even if one of them goes down, with the new trading rules, I may be able to secure an acceptable replacement, provided they get hurt before the June 15 trading deadline.

See you on Opening Day!

Bartholomew Levy
April 27, 1887