1st January 1889
It was an extremely tough year for the Louisville fans to suffer last season and they are hoping the off season bought the extra performance they wanted. The owner decided that this past season was a blip and has sat tight with his front office, not making any changes.
Buck Ewing picked up a Platinum Stick award at the AL Awards dinner
The fact the front office was not in flux meant they could get to work early and traded 29 year old Pitcher Joe Brown to the Philadelphia Quakers in return for the 22 year old Pitcher Billy Crowell.
They also freshened up the squad by trading 34 year old Pitcher Doc Landis to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for 23 year old Right Fielder Fred O'Neill and 24 year old minor league Third Baseman Dick Van Zant.
The team has had a minor clear out of older players this year as they lost 7 players to retirement. The big name retirement for the team was First Baseman Molly Moore. Moore has spent 13 years with the St Louis/Louisville Franchise. In that time he picked up 1 golden glove award. He managed to play in 316 games with 117 starts. He hit 112 balls from 464 at bats. He scored 63 runs with 50 RBI's for an average of .241. (Real life stats 21 games, 19 hits, 5 runs, 5 RBI's for an average of .221)
There were 2 bit part players that decided to retire. These were Frank Bliss who played in 31 games over 11 years and Denny Clare with 27 games over 15 years. Bliss hit 9 times while scoring 2 runs with 5 RBI's for an average of .281 (Real life stats 2 games, 1 hit, 1 run, .125 average) while Clare managed 7 hits, 2 runs and 2 RBI's for an average of .226 (Real life stats 2 games, 1 hit, 1 run, average .143)
The other 4 players to retire rarely if ever made the big time. Jim Gilmore made only 2 appearances (Real life stats 3 games, 3 hits, 2 runs, .250 average) and Martin Flaherty managed 4 appearances 1hit and 1 run for an average of .143 (Real life stats 1 game, .000 average). The final 2 players did not make an appearance. They were U Hellings (Real life stats 1 game, 1 hit, .250 average) and Bill Sullivan (Real life stats 2 games, 1 hit, 1 run, average of .167)
The team did not have much success with the First Year Player draft this year. They made 6 selections with the first selection being used to get Centre Fielder Bug Holliday. The full draft log is given below.
The team failed to sign both their 3rd round and 5th round selections. All other draftees signed by the deadline.