[Tiger Fan]

Lets finish up a look at my organization

INFIELDERS
I have two players I am very happy with and consider above average major leaguers in first baseman Lou Garman and shortstop Lloyd Carter. Carter is 29 and played college ball at Colorado before the Kings took him in the second round in 1918. He is above average defensivly according to my scout and hit .343 last season but missed 6 weeks with an injury. Garman is 26 and a first round pick in 1920 from the North Carolina Tar Heels. He split the first base job last year hitting .340 with 6 homers and 54 rbi's in 96 games. His competition for the first base job comes from 29 year old Stan Bass, another former first round pick but by the Chicago Chiefs. The former Indiana Hoosier was signed by the Kings as a minor league free agent in 1923 and played a few games in Brooklyn that season. Last year he hit .343 with 7 homers and 61 rbi's in 102 appearances. Bass bats right and Garman left so my thinking is my manager Powell Slocum may decide to platoon them. All 3 players I am my head scout Rube Carter grade out as above average major leaguers.

My second baseman and third baseman both grade out as average major leaguers. 2B Victor Rodding is 29 and a 1917 third round pick from Rutgers. He has been the starter the past 3 seasons and batted .321 this past year but his zone rating is -11.3 Not big on sabrmetrics so any help on how much he is hurting me would be appreciated. My third baseman is 32 year old Glenn Mowles, who I also grade as average at his position but missed half the year with an injury and I just have the feeling he is on the downside of his career although he did raise his average from .256 the previous year to .283. His defense is solid.


My reserves are decent backups in 32 year old Hugh Luckey and 29 year old Jack Van Landingham.

I don't have a lot of great infield prospects although I do obviously like my second round pick Dave Bristol but the third baseman is just 18 years old so it will be a while before we see him in Brooklyn. I also have a 19 year old second baseman named Elmer Root who just finished his first pro year in A ball.



PITCHERS
Here is where things look bleak. In my entire organization I have 0 pitchers I would consider superstars or in the case of prospects have superstar potential. Also 0 players I would consider above average. And I might be overly generous stating that I have 6 pitchers I would consider to be or have the potential to be major league average. The remainder of my organization is composed of below average major league potential pitchers or scrubs I can't see every playing in the big leagues.

Now I do have a 21 year old second round draft pick out of Maryland by the name Bill Dengler but my scout was not very high on him, or any of the other pitchers in the draft class. Let's hope the scout was wrong and Dengler or some of the other pitchers I drafted somehow pan out.

So here is what do I have on the big league club as far as a rotation:

My number one starter (by default) is 32 year old Jackie Marshall. He has had a pretty good career, going 107-104 in 9 seasons and was 15-16 in 1925. However, he gave up 324 hits in 291 innings pitched and walked more batters than he struck out so I have to think he is on the downside of his career. Rube Carter suggests he would be good at the back end of the rotation, unfortunately I have 5 starters on my roster that fit that description.

My number two starter was a near legend in the league but will be 40 years old by opening day. The great Danny Goff burst on to the scene in 1911 at the age of 25 when he was signed out of an independent league by Brooklyn. The following season he won 23 games and led the Kings to their first ever Continental Association pennant. For some crazy reason he was dealt to the New York Gothams in 1916 and enjoyed some great success with them before being reacquired by the Kings in 1924. His lifetime mark is 235-227 and he is quite popular but clearly at the tail end of his great career that, had he been injured a little less and started his career a year or two earlier, could have seen him approaching the 300 win mark this season.

Right now our manager has 28 year old Dick Dover pencilled in as the number 3 starter. The former first overall draft pick (1918) has spent five seasons in Brooklyn and won 18 games, equaling his career high, in 1923 when we won our second Continental Association pennant. Last year he was 15-16 but his WHIP, ERA+ and BABIP were the worst of his career.

The #4 starter will be newly acquired Cal Williams. I should say reacquired as the 28 year old was originally a 5th round pick of the Kings in 1918 but was dealt to Toronto before making his FABL debut. We reacquired him in my first move as GM. He was part of the deal that netted me some extra draft picks in exchange for dropping from #2 to #6 in the first round. Williams went 10-13 for Toronto last season and will be in the rotation despite scout Rube Carter saying his pedestrian stuff is not good enough to be a big league starter.

Right now my number five starter is 26 year old Bob Brown, another player Carter thinks belongs in the bullpen at best. The much travelled righthander is with his fourth organization but he has only pitched in the big leagues with Brooklyn, going 33-42 over 4 seasons including 12-14 a year ago. Like all of my other starters he gave up more hits than innings pitched and walked more than he struck out....so I guess we are at least consistent.

Another piece of my deal with Toronto was Topsy Moran. Another 26 year old hurler, I am hoping Moran can duplicate his minor league numbers that saw him with 19 games in Chattanooga two years ago and go 19-6 for AAA Buffalo last season. Moran also fanned 196 batters while allowing 56 walks in 213 innings. By numbers alone he is a great prospect and my scout almost likes him - saying he could be good enough for the back half of the rotation. The one knock on Moran is his personality says he is unmotivated. Let's hope a big league paycheque motivates him this year. My manager has him set to start the year in the pen.

29 year old Buck Blood is my so-called closer who had 6 saves and half as many blown saves. My last pitcher on the big league roster right now (23 man limit) is 25 year old rookie Art Carlson. Carlson is the only lefthander on my staff and went 16-7 last season at AA Knoxville but, like all my starters, gave up more hits than innings pitched.

There is not a lot worth mentioning in the system. I have some older scrubs at AAA and a prospect in 23 year old Leon Campbell. I also like a pair of younger guys in my low minors but they are a couple of years away and, at least at this stage, nothing more than borderline prospects in the grand scheme. I do have some draft picks as previously mentioned but they are all a long ways away.


MANAGER
The best know King is our manager Powell Slocum. The 39 year old was acquired from Baltimore late in his playing career before assuming the manager role last season. He may be inexperienced still as a manager but certainly not as a player. He won 15 FABL batting titles and 3 World Championships. He is the all-time leader in hits (4144) as well as games played and career batting average. There have been 22 seasons in which a FABL player hit at least .400 and 7 of them belond to Slocum. Just wish he could still play, although it's not hitting that is our problem.

I was a little worried reading the recaps before we went interactive as they way I read it Slocum was portrayed as engineering his deal out of Baltimore and very controlling of the entire situation with the Clippers (now called the Baltimore Cannons) and also to get the manager job in Brooklyn. I might consider a change but I think I have to give him a much longer leash than someone else would get simply because of his legendary player status.

A storyline with him I am developing is Slocum's ties to the Univeristy of Maryland and how he was instrumental in convincing me to draft Bill Dengler over the objections of scouting director Rube Carter. Of course this all created in my mind based on the history of Slocum playing in Baltimore so long but these are the things you can image in a fictional world.

Legendsport has done a nice job of adding nuggets in to the game. For example I discovered that my first round pick, Doug Lightbody, has a younger brother who also plays at Mississippi. I will keep him on my radar and their program in general since they have been a real outfield pipeline for me with Bud Rogers and Clarence Hall both playing there as well as well as one of my minor league outfielders by the name of Jim Renfroe. All things being equal when I have two outfielders to decide on in the draft I think I will naturally lean towards the Ole Miss guy just to further this storyline.

It's things like that you can find in fictional leagues that really turn it into a 'real' world. If you dig deep enough they are just waiting to be discovered, and once found they add so much to the immersion factor, at least for me they do.