March 25, 1935
OPENING WEEK OF SPRING TRAINING
The Kings got the spring training games under way with an 8-5 win over Montreal in the opener. The bats were going right away and it was nice to see veteran Doug Lightbody get things started with a 2-run homer on the second pitch he saw from enemy hurlers this spring. Not much to take from this game or the rest of the week as the focus was on getting the kinks out and giving everyone some at bats. We went 4-2 and scored 33 runs in the 6 games so the signs look encouraging that our offense will be just as powerful this year as it was a season ago.
Some highlights:
Tom Blalock started the opener vs the Saints and pitched well enough to get another start. The 26 year old former Chicago Poly ace tied with Tom Barrell for second team All-American honours in 1928 and was a former 4th overall draft pick but has yet to pitch above AA. I was extremely high on him his draft year but things have not worked out for Blalock. We picked him up from St Louis for a late round draft pick over the winter with plans of assigning him to AAA Rochester in hopes he might be a late bloomer who could give us some useful innings in Brooklyn at some point in his career. He allowed 2 runs on 5 hits while fanning 3 and walking 3 in his 4 innings of work.
The Barrell clan is all clicking early. Tom got the start yesterday and followed up his Allan Award winning season a year ago with 4 innings of shutout ball in an 8-4 win over Toronto. Shortstop Harry went 7-for-16 with a pair of doubles in the opening week while first baseman Dan and catcher Fred each hit an identical .545 (6-for-11)
Ken Carpenter worked 5 innings this week and did not allow a hit but did walk 3 batters. Larry Brown and Chuck Murphy, both battling to catch on as the final piece in the bullpen each had strong starts but we received bad news when Art Blake took himself out of the race to make the team but suffering an arm injury that will sideline him until early May.
Jose Serna had a statement week as the former Rule V pickup looks to stick in Brooklyn for a second year rather than go down to Rochester for some much needed playing time. The 22 year old center fielder had 5 hits in 12 at bats including a triple and a homer. Our outfield situation is very crowded with 7 candidates likely belonging in Brooklyn but our plan is to only keep six. In addition to Serna, who appears to be the odd-man out, we have Doug Lightbody, Art Summers, Jim Gentry, Ab Thomas, Bill May and newcomer Joe Perrot.
For the week ahead I have not made too many changes. We did add veteran reliever Bert Henggler to camp. He was a waiver wire signing after Cleveland exposed him. The 33 year old is a fan favourite due to his outstanding work ethic and always enjoying spending time talking with kids in the stands. He was 6-6 with a 4.97 era out of the Foresters pen a year ago and, while he has a chance to break camp with us it likely will depend more on how comfortable we feel with one of our younger guys like Art White, Chuck Murphy, Larry Brown or George DeForest than on what Henggler does over the next 3 weeks. He is also an insurance policy in case 42 year old Hal Galvan (11-8, 18 saves last year) has lost anything. We also optioned veteran minor league shortstop Jud Hall and pitcher Gene Jones to AAA Rochester cutting our camp roster down to 33.
The plan is one more week of looking a little closer at our AAA guys before we start to give the regulars the bulk of the playing time over the final two weeks of camp.