MAY 15, 1933
KINGS ARE AT IT AGAIN
It seems like every year the Brooklyn Kings are good for two things. One is a prolonged losing skid and for the second year in a row the Kings decided to get that out of the way in the first couple of months of the season. The second thing Brooklyn has become famous for is blockbuster deals involving pitchers.
It started in the days leading up to the draft following the 1928 season when Brooklyn packaged a bunch of picks and players to acquire the number one overall pick which they used on can't miss pitching phenom Tommy Wilcox. Next came a huge deal with the Chicago Chiefs announced during the 1930 World Championship Series that brought Milt Fritz to Brooklyn. The Wilcox and Fritz era was supposed to last a decade and lead to many pennants for the Kings. Instead it yielded none and less than 3 years later both were gone. Wilcox in a big deal last season that suddenly turned the Kings fortunes around after a dismal first half of the 1932 season and now Fritz just over two months into the 1933 campaign in yet another huge deal announced today.
Milt Fritz is now a Montreal Saint, joining a rising team of the type Brooklyn fans thought the Kings were becoming when they acquired him less than 3 years ago. The Saints are suddenly relevant after nearly a decade of struggles and made the move to try and keep pace with the talent rich Chicago Cougars - led by the other former Brooklyn ace in Tommy Wilcox. Fritz has struggled with his control this year and is 1-5 with a 4.23 era but he is just 23 years old and two years removed from an Allen Award winning season when he went 23-15 for the Kings. In all, Fritz has won 74 FABL games and seems well on his way to becoming one of the great pitchers of his era.
Brooklyn, mirred in another terrible start, may have over-reacted this time but it is clear GM Tiger Fan feels he is on the hot seat and needed to do something to shake up his struggling team. It worked a season ago as the Kings were the hottest team in baseball after dealing Wilcox. The difference this year is there will be no Tom or Fred Barrell quality player coming back in the deal. At least not immediately.
In this deal the Kings shipped Fritz and a third round pick to Montreal for the Saints first rounder in the 1933 draft and three top fifty prospects in outfielder Bill May, third baseman John Langille and pitcher Chuck Murphy.
MURPHY'S LAW
Brooklyn did add a ton of talent in the trade but only pitcher Chuck Murphy appears potentially ready to join the big league club this season. Murphy, a 24 year old first round pick out of Ellery College in 1930, had a brief but unsuccessful stint in Montreal last summer and has spent this season at AAA Minnesota, posting a 1-4 record with a 5.05 era. Now last year the Kings did add another 24 year old Murphy in lefthander Mike, and he paid immediate dividends by going 7-2 down the stretch for Brooklyn after a brief but unsuccessful stint with the Chicago Cougars in the year prior to the deal. Chuck Murphy is ranked the 33rd prospect in the league and will likely be in Brooklyn soon.
THE ART OF THE LANGILLE
Langille was high on the Kings draft list this past winter and was the player they targeted for their first pick, which came in the second round because they dealt their first rounder away in another deal of the large variety, bringing in teenage SS Harry Barrell from Cleveland. Langille went 6 picks ahead of the Kings turn when Montreal called his name at 20th overall. He is a Canadian who seemed a perfect fit for the Saints after an outstanding career at Commonwealth Catholic that saw him hit .366 with 28 homers in 152 career games in the AIAA. He started the season at Class A where he is batting .250 but is ranked the #46 prospect in the game at the moment.
MAY DAY
The final player the Kings added was Montreal's top prospect (#14 overall) in 20 year old outfielder Bill May. A 1931 fifth overall pick out of Greensboro High School, he split his rookie pro season between Class C and B, batting .305 with 11 homers. He has been playing right field this season for Montreal but is a natural centerfielder with a very bright future.
SUMMARY
The first round pick will yield another top prospect to a rapidly improving Brooklyn farm system. The Kings felt they could make this deal without too much of a step back because of the emergence of Johnny Jacob this season and the presence of three very good pitching prospects in 19 year old Dixie Lee (26th ranked), 21 year old Art White (66th ranked) and 24 year old George DeForest (103rd ranked). The hope is Jacob continues his development and joins Tom Barrell, as long as he can regain his control, as the pair of aces with some combination of the two Murphy's, the three pitchers mentioned above and veteran Lyman Weigel (a 19 game winner two seasons ago) filling out the rest of the rotation.
The move certainly seems to indicate the Kings are taking another step back into the rebuild this season but the club still has loads of talent. The challenge is, as it has been the past two years, getting that talent to compete for a full a season.