May 6, 1929
With the first three weeks of the season behind us, my Kings sit in 4th place with a 10-10 record, three games back of the front running Philadelphia Stars in the Continental Association. No formal write-up here but instead just a collection of random notes on my organization.
BROOKLYN
Overall, I am happy with our performance through 3 weeks. We just got
Doug Lightbody back from an injury (he was 6-for-12 in a 3 game sweep of Cleveland in his return) so that should help our offense, which is pretty good already and leading the Continental Association in runs scored.
So let's start there. Getting Lightbody will help but our outfield has been pretty solid without him. 23 year old rookie
Herb Smiddy was named player of the week and is batting .320 with a homer and 11 rbi's in 20 games for us. Smiddy really came out of nowhere for me. I signed him as a minor league free agent to round out my Class B affiliate when I first took over the club. He had been an 11th round pick but was quickly cut by the Chicago Chiefs prior to my signing him. He was okay for me, hitting .254 with 7 homers in Class B Tampa that season and .234 with 16 homers the following year at Class A. I really didn't think a lot of him at that point but needed someone in AAA Houston to start last season and at the urging of my
scouting director Rube Carter I gave Smiddy a shot. He proved Carter right by hitting .339 in 120 games, although with limited power, but he did earn a September call-up to Brooklyn, where he went 5-for-15 with 3 extra base hits in limited action. Smiddy followed that up with a real strong spring and earned a starting job with Lightbody down to start the season. It just goes to show you in stats-only don't rule anyone out, and on occasion you really should trust your scout.
The knock on
Gus Powell was he could not hit for average. So far that has not been the case as he is batting a decent .250 but it is the power I love. Powell has 5 homers and trails only Tom Taylor of the Sailors (8). He cooled off a little this week but remains my best power threat and has 16 rbi's, tied with rookie
3B Phil Long for the team lead.
Long is another pleasant surprise and, like Smiddy, a guy I had originally not expected a lot from. And why should I have? He was a 24th rd pick by the AI GM in 1923 but has worked his way through our system very slowly. The 24 year old hit.282 at 3 levels last year (AA, AAA and 24 games in Brooklyn)and has been outstanding to start the year (.324/.359/.535) forcing me to keep
Mickey Dowell on the bench.
Dowell, you might recall is a converted catcher who is a career .308 hitter but lost the catching job to surprise breakout prospect
Mike Taylor. The highly touted Taylor is doing just fine also, batting .361 to start the season.
The only guy I am really concerned about offensively is SS
Arnold Bower, who is hitting just .220. I like his glove so we can accept the low offensive production, at least for now when everyone else is firing.
PITCHING
I am pleasantly surprised with our staff so far as well. After the spring he had I was very worried about
Bill Dengler going into the season but Dengler (3-1, 3.60) is pitching like I expected he could when I drafted him in the second round in 1925 out of Maryland State.
Leon Thompson, a vet on our staff at age 29 but with only 76 career appearances, is off to a great start as well, posting a 3-1 record with a 2.08 era. His only loss was a 10 inning 2-1 defeat to Montreal.
Rule V pickup
Jim Langley (1-3, 3.55) got his first win against Cleveland the other day and I am excited to see what one of my 2 waiver pickups
Art Roe has done. The 28 year old followed up a complete game shutout of the New York Stars with a solid 5 plus innings in a win over his former team Cleveland last week. The other waiver pickup, also from Cleveland, in 31 year old
Ben Thompson had a rough debut and may not be around for much longer as 35 year old
Bob Schmid will come off the DL next week.
AAA ROCHESTER
Leon Campbell, who pitched a couple of seasons in Brooklyn, had a very good start to open the season in AAA and at 2-1, 1.48 might get a call-up if anyone on the big club falters. 24 year old prospect
Mickey Beavers has had a couple of decent outings and a pitcher I really like in
Del Lyons continues to grow on me. The 23 year old Lyons was 11-10 at AA a year ago and started this season in the pen at Rochester, where he has yet to allow a run in 5 relief appearances.
Finally,
Topsy Moran appears to have settled down. He had two terrible starts in Brooklyn so I demoted him when I signed Art Roe, hoping Moran could find his form with a brief sting in AAA. My
AAA manager, Luther Legier, who has been with me at AAA ever since I took over and I trust, didn't want Moran in the rotation so he went to pen and got rocked in his first week with Rochester. He has looked a little better last week but Legier says keep him in the pen.
AA KNOXVILLE
We got a couple of injuries this past week with the toughest loss being promising 22 year old OF
Roy Meagher, who tore up his knee and is out for the year. An 8th rd pick out of HS in my first draft, he started slow as a pro but had a great year last season and has really grown on me, hitting .364 in a full year at Class A. Was in AA this year and my scout sees him as a second division starter but he will have to wait and try his hand at AA Knoxville again next season. Went 3-for-10 so showed some promise before the injury
Of course the player everyone is following is my first overall draft pick
Tommy Wilcox. The 22 year old is 1-2 with a 4.88 era and had 2 decent starts this week. He is clearly not ready for the big leagues yet, and may be getting stretched a bit at AA this early in his career but I am prepared to keep him here and see how things progress. I do need to resist the temptation to promote him to Brooklyn too soon so this slow start at AA may be blessing disguise.
If all goes according to plan I am going to have a real logjam of young arms going forward and
Lyman Weigel is making a case to be in that mix. The 24 year old was my 7th round pick out of Commonwealth Catholic in 1925 and was 10-9 at AAA Houston in 1927. The numbers game dropped him back to AA a year ago and he had an off year (10-15, 5.24) so he is back in Knoxville again this season but after going 2-0 with a 2.50 era in a pair of complete game starts he may be moved up to Rochester soon.
A OMAHA
I have 5 starters all doing very well in Omaha as the Cowboys are off to a strong start. 21 year old
George Johnson (2-0, 2.00) is my top arm there but college players
Dave Rankin (3-0, 2.33) and
Ossie Mahoney (3-0, 0.69) are both highly thought of. At the dish I love the start my 3rd round pick
Art Summers (.526,1,10) is off to and second year pro
Loren Morgan (.396,5,16) as well. They are added to a crowded collection of OF prospects.
The one thing I need to keep in mind with Omaha is we switched leagues, moving to the Western League. It is a league with 5 of the 8 teams being independent clubs and may not be fully stocked with Class A quality talent.
B TAMPA
No longer the 'Baby Kings' with the addition of Class C, their are 2 pitchers and a couple of hitters really impressing me. Recently acquired 20 year old pitchers
Larry Brown (3-0, 2.00) and
Johnny Jacob (2-0, 3.50) have performed as advertised. Another 20 year old in 3B
Buck Sargent (.385,4,12) is benefiting from a drop back to Class B after being overmatched at times in A ball a year ago - although he did hit 18 homers in Omaha last season.
Finally, I like the play of 21 year old CF
Paul Edwards (.357,0,9). A 7th round pick out of Mississippi A&M last winter, Edwards will likely be bound for Omaha perhaps as early as this week.
C MARSHALLTOWN
Pitching, pitching and more pitching. I love it as the long-time weakness of the organization is showing signs of becoming a major strength. 19 year old
Art Blake (3-0, 0.35) is dominating at this level and will be in Tampa soon. Same for 21 year old
Tommy Chandler (2-1, 0.67), my 12th round pick who probably should have started in Tampa after a strong spring at minor league camp.
The league scouting service does not give a lot of credit to my second round pick, high schooler
Joe Russell but all he does is dominate wherever he pitches. Russell was 24-2, 1.27 over 3 seasons of school ball and is 1-0 with a 1.13 era in 16 innings of work as a pro. Another high schooler, my 6th rd pick
Tony Fasone (2-0, 1.69) has been nearly as good.
Finally I will mention
Jim Ferro, a name I touched on in spring updates. A free agent signing with no high school or college experience, the 20 year old dominated minor league camp in the spring and has continued to do so. He struck out 6 without allowing a hit in 3 2/3 innings earlier in the week and has 2 saves and 10 k's while allowing just 1 hit and no runs in 4 relief appearances totalling 6 and 2/3 innings. My scout doesn't think too highly of him but at some point I am going to move him up a level and see if the success continues. To have a 20 year old pitcher that dominating makes me think he has potential. He also added a pitch to his repertoire and increased his velocity over the winter.
Overall, I am pretty happy with the state of the organization at this point. Let's see if it continues.