1932 TRADE DEADLINE
It was amazing how quickly a season with such high expectations - I figured the Kings would at least contend for the pennant- completely fell apart and became just a nightmare year. The trouble signs began late in spring training when the face of the franchise Doug Lightbody hurt his elbow and missed the first two months of the year. We started slow and by the end of April were already 7.5 games back of the front-running Chicago Cougars. It went from bad to worse and after a 13-18 start it cost manager Wally Grant his job. Grant was in the final year of his contract, and quite frankly had underperformed in my mind after his great debut midway through the 1927 campaign when he led us to a 23-14 finish and our first and so far only pennant under my stewardship of the franchise.
Walt Bailey, who had guided our AA club in Knoxville to a pair of Dixie League titles in the past three seasons and been in the organization for 7 years, was given the reigns in Brooklyn in hopes the Kings would respond to his friendly attitude, a sharp contrast from the canterkous Grant. They did not and as of this writing in late July our Kings are 15 games under .500 and seventh in the Continental Association, ahead of only the woeful Toronto Wolves, who swept us in a 4 game series last week.
I know change was needed. Youth is no longer an excuse. We have a very young lineup but they have plenty of experience yet nearly every player on the team is having a career worst year. Lightbody (.286,3,17) has struggled since his return. My catcher Mike Taylor does have 15 homers, a career high, but his average is just .285 and well below his career totals. As a team our offense ranks among the worst in the entire FABL and our pitching, especially the bullpen is dreadful. Our pitching staff was expected to be a strength but only co-aces Milt Fritz (9-10, 3.60) and Tommy Wilcox (9-9, 3.19) along with second year King Heinie Bretz (7-10,3.31) can be proud of their efforts.
So I found myself once again at a crossroads. A team that I built with the expectation it would contend is instead providing Brooklyn fans with the most disappointing season of my tenure with the organization. A manager change did not work. Bringing up some of my other young talent from Rochester did not work. I needed something to shake the team out of it's doldrums and the result was likely the biggest blockbuster trade I have made (and I have made some big ones) in my 7 years with the Kings.
A BARRELL OF BALLPLAYERS
I entered the deadline with no intentions to deal one of my 3 stud pitchers (Fritz, Wilcox or youngster Johnny Jacob) but wanted to shake things up. The defending FABL champion Chicago Cougars were a team we thought we would be this year- a club that endured some losing seasons and a massive rebuild to win the league title last season and were back in the thick of things again this year. The Cougars made it known they wanted to add as they are chasing the New York Stars for top spot. I thought it would be a fantastic story-line (anyone who has followed this knows I value good storylines for my team nearly as much as winning) to add some of Dan Barrell's brothers to the team their father all so briefly pitched for so I offered what I thought was a pretty fair deal to the Cougars. I should note that Dan - the eldest ballplaying Barrell boy - has come out of nowhere this season. Now 27 years old and signed as a free agent 6 years ago after being out of organized baseball for 3 years, Dan suddenly has discovered a hitting stroke and is hitting .300 in his first full major league season.
Anyway, back to the trade offer. I would deal my catcher Mike Taylor - who despite his batting average being lower this year was hitting a lot of homers- something I thought the Cougars could use, along with Doug Lightbody - who at 28 is coming off leading the CA in on-base percentage each of the past two years. In return I wanted the two young Barrell brothers - Brooklyn born boys who's father Rufus is considered the dean of FABL scouting. Fred is a catcher who would be expendable with the addition of Taylor while Tom, a 24 year old pitcher who looked great in brief stint in the majors including a shutout of Toronto and a win over my Kings, was a very good prospect but also back in AAA right now so he, I assumed, would be expendable if the Cougars were serious in their decision to go all-in for a chance to repeat as champs.
Chicago countered saying to deal Tom they needed one of my pitching aces in Tom Wilcox to come to the Windy City. They liked Taylor so offered me a package of the Barrell brothers - who would join their brother Dan - in Brooklyn and they would include a pair of pitching prospects in 24 year old Mike Murphy and 23 year old George DeForest. After I initially rejected the notion of dealing Wilcox I came back to the idea that something had to change in Brooklyn so after we haggled a bit over some other names we eventually agreed that would be the deal we would make.
It might be a cliche but I am thinking it helped both teams towards their goals. With Wilcox now anchoring the rotation and the booming bat of Taylor the Cougars seem much better positioned for their change of the New York Stars (they are 3 games back) and a second straight title. As for my Kings, well we gave up a 25 year old ace in Wilcox - a first overall pick in 1928 who went 51-42 for the Kings and led the league in innings pitched a year ago. We also dealt arguably the best catcher in the CA but in return we got the Barrell boys - sure to attract a lot of fan interest in Brooklyn and hopefully will be just as good as the two men they replaced. Tom, like the other Tom in the deal, was a first overall draft pick (in 1929) after an incredible college career. He was outstanding in his brief FABL debut this season and completely dominant (6-1, 1.42 with a 322 ERA+) in AAA. He is a year younger than Wilcox and hopefully quickly becomes a comparable pitcher. Fred has played nearly 3 full seasons as a catcher in Chicago (.306/.366/.434) and while he may not have the same power potential as Taylor, I think he can be a better hitter and just as good defensively. Fred also brings great playoff experience, something my Kings lack, in that he was the World Championship Series MVP a year ago.
So if those two can be close to a wash with the pair I gave up that means I moved closer to my goal of improving a dreadful bullpen because I now have two more arms full of potential in my system. Mike Murphy has been linked with Wilcox throughout his career. He was drafted second in 1928 - one spot behind Wilcox - and I believe I have written before that my initial goal in the '28 draft was to get Murphy, a Brooklyn State product. I had hoped to trade into the top 3 to select him but then I made the big deal with Washington to move up to #1 and at that point I even very briefly debated using the pick on Murphy. Since then I tried on a couple of occasions to acquire him from the Cougars before finally landing him. Murphy has pitched just 8 innings of big league ball but at 6-3, 2.83 with a 162 ERA+ in AAA this year, I think he is ready for the jump to Brooklyn. DeForest is a 23 year old former high school pitcher selected in the 6th round back in 1927. He has worked his way through the Cougars system and is presently ranked the #62nd prospect in the league, posting a 7-5, 3.73 mark for AA Mobile. With our AA affiliate Knoxville embroiled in a tight pennant race I think I will leave DeForest in AA the rest of the year to give him some pressure innings but my hope is he is ready for the jump to Brooklyn by this time next year.
So I gave up potentially the best pitcher in the game but added an arm I feel can be nearly as good plus two other solid prospects in the deal. Let's see if this one turns out.
BLOCKBUSTER DEAL HISTORY
Is this the biggest trade I have ever made? 4 players in their prime including a pair of first overall draft picks and a prospect who was taken 2nd overall in his draft year.
I have made some big deals in Brooklyn but I think this is the largest. Here is a recap of the 3 other contenders for biggest deal in modern Kings history.
1925 DRAFT - Sent the second overall pick to Toronto along with minor league OF Howie Davidson for the 6th overall and also receive pitchers Cal Williams and Topsy Moran plus a second and a fourth round pick.
My first trade was a doozy. I entered the 1925 draft - my first with the team - with 6 players I really liked but also a terrible shortage of quality pitching so I shopped my pick. Doug Lightbody was second on my draft list behind Al Wheeler, who would go first overall to Detroit. So this trade could not have worked out better for me as I still got the hitter I wanted but also added Williams and Moran, both of whom played key roles in our pennant winning 1927 season. Williams won 21 games that year and would later be traded to the Chicago Chiefs for a pitcher still in our system with some potential in George Johnson while Moran would throw a no-hitter in 1926 and provide some decent depth for us. Moran could have been much more I think - he was 12-10 in 1926 - but was not the same pitcher following serious arm injury in 1927. I used the extra second round pick on pitcher Bill Dengler, who is still with the Kings and I felt had a lot of promise until he tore his UCL in 1929. With the fourth round pick I selected catcher Tom Aiello who would later become a piece in the deal that allowed me to acquire Tommy Wilcox.
Toronto took high school pitcher Eddie Quinn second overall. Quinn spent a lot of time in the minors but has been in Toronto the past 3 years and is 3-12, 5.05 this season as a 25 year old. Davidson is still with the Wolves as a fourth outfielder. Now 30 years old, he is a .249 career hitter in 230 career FABL games.
1928 DRAFT - Acquired the first overall pick (Tommy Wilcox) from Washington. The cost was a pair of first round picks (10th and 14th overall) along with third base prospect Dave Bristol. More than enough has been written about Wilcox to know how he panned out. Bristol was a prospect I really liked and he has hit very well in the minors but for some reason at 24 years of age remains sitting in Class A with the Eagles. The two picks I parted with were used to grab Wally Flowers and Grover Carson. Flowers is a very good second year outfielder in Washington now and Carson has taken over their starting shortstop job this season.
FALL OF 1930 - Desperate, as always it seems, for pitching I landed a gem in Milt Fritz. Not yet 21 years old at the time of the deal Fritz was already 34-17 as a big leaguer with the Chicago Chiefs. He would win the Allen Award last season, his first in Brooklyn, posting a 23-15 record and will be our ace for years to come. I had built a pretty deep farm system but the cost for Fritz was huge - sending pitchers Dave Rankin, Rod Barney, Taylor Hamilton, catcher Tom Aiello, First baseman Ron Rattigan and my 1930 first round pick to the rebuilding Chiefs. The verdict is still out on Chicago's end for this deal as all of the players they received were young prospects. Rattigan is ranked 26th best in the league at this point and Rankin and Aiello have already made their big league debuts.
This trade I just made is different from the other three in that it is the first time I have dealt an established major leaguer (two in this case) rather than simply raided my prospect cupboard so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. All I know is the way this season has gone, things certainly can't get much worse for Brooklyn so hopefully with 3 Barrell brothers in the fold we can build a pennant contender and maybe some day win the first World Championship Series in franchise history - something that has eluded the Kings franchise for 40 years now.