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DD Martin · 09-19-2020, 06:50 PM

1932 - A season of Improvement?

Author note - As I continue to catch up the story we will quickly look at the early season of 1932. Current the league is in the off-season just prior to spring training of 1933. This will probably be a quick 3-4 post recap of the season and the 2 major decisions that the Foresters make.

As we head into the spring training in 1932 we had no visions of being able to go from worst to first. In fact our goal was to show improvement of course but we wouldn't be disappointed if we got another top end draft pick. While I won't call it tanking because we were in a definite building mode. I can't call it rebuilding, since you have to have accomplished something to rebuild it.

We made the decision early that we would bring up our young SP from the start of the season. Our rotation would like this to open the season.

SP Karl Johnson (24) 9-16 4.47 ERA 30 starts 1932
SP Roger Perry (24) 3-4 4.33 ERA 7 starts 1932
SP Ben Turner (24) 2-0 1.06 ERA 2 starts 1932 (AAA 8-2 2.55 ERA 14GS)
SP Carl Bragg (23) 4-5 4.32 ERA 18 starts 1932

In the #5 spot we decided to go with George Barker (31) who had in Cleveland in 1930-1931 going 17-25 4.68 ERA in 60 starts. We had thought about maybe going with SP/C Al Howell, but his hitting and catching had caught our eye so much that we decided to let him be primarily a position player. Also we consider SP Ed Wood (23) for the spot but wanted to give him a few innings at AAA Cincinnati since he had only been as high as AA Portland in the prior season.

In going with such a young rotation we decided it was time to see what we really had. Worst thing that could happen was that they wouldn't be ready and we would have a top 4 draft pick. I had my eye on two players in particular, especially Henry Hudson University SP Curly Jones. He was on the top of our draft board even at that time 10 months before the next amateur draft.

With the position players, here was our opening day lineup and their 1931 stats.

CF Jake Matheson 246/341/989 65-140 (AAA GWL Seattle)
1B Luke Nixon 420/500/1.100 1-5 50 AB (Cleveland)
RF Moxie Pidgeon 269/340/786 23-92 (Cleveland)
LF Bobby Allen 276/336/786 16-69 (Cleveland)
3B Jake Moore 293/358/798 9-88 (Cleveland)
SS Erv Smith 260/316/654 1-40 (Cleveland)
2B Brooks Meeks 273/333/733 1-9 55AB (Cleveland)
C Al Howell 200/269/587 0-3 85AB (Cleveland)

As you can see many of the same characters that had been around, but there were a few new additions. CF Jake Matheson was a minor league trade we worked out with Seattle. He launched 65 home runs with Seattle and felt that if he could even hit 20 with us that it would be a great start to his career.

1B Luke Nixon was the next in line to occupy 1B. He had shown some power in the minors but was a pretty good hitter and RBI guy. He was going to be given the full time shot to show that we need not look any further for a 1B of the future.

SS Erv Smith coming back from injury was going to be given the everyday SS job and see how he could do. A solid but not spectacular fielder, if he could hit 270 with a 330 OBP we would be happy with him until either minor league phenom Harry Barrell (#2 overall prospect)or George Dawson (#5 overall prospect) take over the position for the next decade.

2B Brooks Meeks had emerged as our top 2B prospect and we decided that even though he was only 22, we would get him out there. He hit 283 at AAA Cincinnati in 1931 so there really wasn't much more he was going to get out of hitting there another year.

Finally C Al Howell was a surprise to me to see in the starting lineup on opening day ahead of veteran backstop Josh Fry. Fry was coming off a lackluster season in 1931 hitting only 236. His defense had also dropped up quite a bit and even though he was only 29, the mileage of catching seemed to be catching up with him. In talking with our manager Hank Leitzke, he felt that he would likely give Fry more off-days but that he was still the #1 catcher.

So how did we do in April coming out of spring training? Honestly I was surprised to see us at 9-9 and in 3rd place in the CA. Of course we were already 6 games behind the Chicago Cougars who were the easy pre-season favorites. It wasn't a shock we were 6 games behind the Cougars since we had played 8 games against them and were 1-7. We were 8-2 against everyone else.

May had us going 14-17 with a 23-26 record overall 11 games out of first. We were in 5th place and 11 games out, so if there were any fantasies about a Forester pennant in 32, they were quickly thrown out the window.

In the first two months 2B Meeks had moved into the lead-off spot in the order hitting a very respectable 286. 1B Luke Nixon had struggled so badly hitting only 225 that we brought up the #1 overall pick in the 1925 draft, Alex Thompson. It was really just an opportunity to give Nixon a break as Thompson had not lived up to the hype of our former Director of Scouting in that first draft. He did however had hit a very respectable 325+ in his over 6 minor league season. Not much power as he had hit a total of 26 home runs in those minor league seasons, but we wanted to see if he could do anything before calling him a 4A player.

SS Erv Smith had gotten off to a great start hitting 321 in the first 2 months of the season and was showing no ill effects of his injury from last year. We figured we'd show case him and that either at the trade deadline or in the off-season someone would want to take a shot at him if he was still hitting around 300 and being an above average SS defensively.

CF Jake Matheson who started the season in the lead-off spot had not adjusted well to major league pitching. After clubbing 65 home runs at AAA, he was hitting a lowly 216 with 2 homers in his first 2 months, moving down from lead-off to 8th in the order.

On the starting pitching side through May here was our rotation and their season to date numbers.

Carl Bragg 3-5 4.77
Ben Turner 4-5 4.20
Roger Perry 5-2 2.64
Karl Johnson 4-4 3.50
Ed Wood 1-3 5.56

Roger Perry had emerged as our #1 starter. Our team had been high on him since acquiring him in a trade with the NY Stars in the pre-season of 1931. He was going to be among the top starting pitchers in the CA all year but would slip a bit in September (more on that later).

Ed Wood had also been called up with George Barker proving that he just wasn't a big league starting pitcher anymore. Barker only last 3 starts and was 0-2 with an ERA of almost 9 and was sent to Cincinnati before ultimately being DFA. He would remain in the organization in 1932 but would pitching at AA Portland and AAA Cincinnati.

Next up - June and a shocking trade on July 4th

09-19-2020, 06:50 PM	#60
DD Martin All Star Starter Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 1,022	1932 - A season of Improvement? Author note - As I continue to catch up the story we will quickly look at the early season of 1932. Current the league is in the off-season just prior to spring training of 1933. This will probably be a quick 3-4 post recap of the season and the 2 major decisions that the Foresters make. As we head into the spring training in 1932 we had no visions of being able to go from worst to first. In fact our goal was to show improvement of course but we wouldn't be disappointed if we got another top end draft pick. While I won't call it tanking because we were in a definite building mode. I can't call it rebuilding, since you have to have accomplished something to rebuild it. We made the decision early that we would bring up our young SP from the start of the season. Our rotation would like this to open the season. SP Karl Johnson (24) 9-16 4.47 ERA 30 starts 1932 SP Roger Perry (24) 3-4 4.33 ERA 7 starts 1932 SP Ben Turner (24) 2-0 1.06 ERA 2 starts 1932 (AAA 8-2 2.55 ERA 14GS) SP Carl Bragg (23) 4-5 4.32 ERA 18 starts 1932 In the #5 spot we decided to go with George Barker (31) who had in Cleveland in 1930-1931 going 17-25 4.68 ERA in 60 starts. We had thought about maybe going with SP/C Al Howell, but his hitting and catching had caught our eye so much that we decided to let him be primarily a position player. Also we consider SP Ed Wood (23) for the spot but wanted to give him a few innings at AAA Cincinnati since he had only been as high as AA Portland in the prior season. In going with such a young rotation we decided it was time to see what we really had. Worst thing that could happen was that they wouldn't be ready and we would have a top 4 draft pick. I had my eye on two players in particular, especially Henry Hudson University SP Curly Jones. He was on the top of our draft board even at that time 10 months before the next amateur draft. With the position players, here was our opening day lineup and their 1931 stats. CF Jake Matheson 246/341/989 65-140 (AAA GWL Seattle) 1B Luke Nixon 420/500/1.100 1-5 50 AB (Cleveland) RF Moxie Pidgeon 269/340/786 23-92 (Cleveland) LF Bobby Allen 276/336/786 16-69 (Cleveland) 3B Jake Moore 293/358/798 9-88 (Cleveland) SS Erv Smith 260/316/654 1-40 (Cleveland) 2B Brooks Meeks 273/333/733 1-9 55AB (Cleveland) C Al Howell 200/269/587 0-3 85AB (Cleveland) As you can see many of the same characters that had been around, but there were a few new additions. CF Jake Matheson was a minor league trade we worked out with Seattle. He launched 65 home runs with Seattle and felt that if he could even hit 20 with us that it would be a great start to his career. 1B Luke Nixon was the next in line to occupy 1B. He had shown some power in the minors but was a pretty good hitter and RBI guy. He was going to be given the full time shot to show that we need not look any further for a 1B of the future. SS Erv Smith coming back from injury was going to be given the everyday SS job and see how he could do. A solid but not spectacular fielder, if he could hit 270 with a 330 OBP we would be happy with him until either minor league phenom Harry Barrell (#2 overall prospect)or George Dawson (#5 overall prospect) take over the position for the next decade. 2B Brooks Meeks had emerged as our top 2B prospect and we decided that even though he was only 22, we would get him out there. He hit 283 at AAA Cincinnati in 1931 so there really wasn't much more he was going to get out of hitting there another year. Finally C Al Howell was a surprise to me to see in the starting lineup on opening day ahead of veteran backstop Josh Fry. Fry was coming off a lackluster season in 1931 hitting only 236. His defense had also dropped up quite a bit and even though he was only 29, the mileage of catching seemed to be catching up with him. In talking with our manager Hank Leitzke, he felt that he would likely give Fry more off-days but that he was still the #1 catcher. So how did we do in April coming out of spring training? Honestly I was surprised to see us at 9-9 and in 3rd place in the CA. Of course we were already 6 games behind the Chicago Cougars who were the easy pre-season favorites. It wasn't a shock we were 6 games behind the Cougars since we had played 8 games against them and were 1-7. We were 8-2 against everyone else. May had us going 14-17 with a 23-26 record overall 11 games out of first. We were in 5th place and 11 games out, so if there were any fantasies about a Forester pennant in 32, they were quickly thrown out the window. In the first two months 2B Meeks had moved into the lead-off spot in the order hitting a very respectable 286. 1B Luke Nixon had struggled so badly hitting only 225 that we brought up the #1 overall pick in the 1925 draft, Alex Thompson. It was really just an opportunity to give Nixon a break as Thompson had not lived up to the hype of our former Director of Scouting in that first draft. He did however had hit a very respectable 325+ in his over 6 minor league season. Not much power as he had hit a total of 26 home runs in those minor league seasons, but we wanted to see if he could do anything before calling him a 4A player. SS Erv Smith had gotten off to a great start hitting 321 in the first 2 months of the season and was showing no ill effects of his injury from last year. We figured we'd show case him and that either at the trade deadline or in the off-season someone would want to take a shot at him if he was still hitting around 300 and being an above average SS defensively. CF Jake Matheson who started the season in the lead-off spot had not adjusted well to major league pitching. After clubbing 65 home runs at AAA, he was hitting a lowly 216 with 2 homers in his first 2 months, moving down from lead-off to 8th in the order. On the starting pitching side through May here was our rotation and their season to date numbers. Carl Bragg 3-5 4.77 Ben Turner 4-5 4.20 Roger Perry 5-2 2.64 Karl Johnson 4-4 3.50 Ed Wood 1-3 5.56 Roger Perry had emerged as our #1 starter. Our team had been high on him since acquiring him in a trade with the NY Stars in the pre-season of 1931. He was going to be among the top starting pitchers in the CA all year but would slip a bit in September (more on that later). Ed Wood had also been called up with George Barker proving that he just wasn't a big league starting pitcher anymore. Barker only last 3 starts and was 0-2 with an ERA of almost 9 and was sent to Cincinnati before ultimately being DFA. He would remain in the organization in 1932 but would pitching at AA Portland and AAA Cincinnati. Next up - June and a shocking trade on July 4th Attached Images Last edited by DD Martin; 09-19-2020 at 06:53 PM.