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Week 3 part 1 - The end of April 1936
Before the week started we had 4 games for the rest of April, 1 left vs St. Louis who is 5-0 against us and 3-5 against the rest of the Fed. Then we head to Philadelphia to play the Keystones (5-8) for 3 games. It was a busy week as far as roster moves since we had DFA a lot of guys. Of course nobody else in the league thought our castoffs were worth anything either so they all came crawling back with their bats and gloves.
Several players were not so lucky, C Dave Armstrong (33) had not been a favorite of mine since we arrived so he was cut loose. Also cut loose were P Fred Smith (28 - AAA), P Ernie Miller (33 - AA), RF Jack Siciliano (33 - AAA), 2B Steve Stewart (30 - AA), SS George Drake (29 - AAA), and 2B Skipper Williams (25 - AA). With reluctance we shipped back to Cleveland rule 5 draft pick P George Coleman (0-0 6.00 ERA in 2 relief appearances).
Why all the releases, well we decided to keep a majority of the guys we DFA. P's Don Grossman, Duke Brown were assigned to AAA Newark along with SS John McKinley, and OF Mickey Tompkins. P's Phil Hicks and Taylor Collins were sent to AA Akron and P Al Allen was banished to class C Biloxi.
Some of these moves were also necessitated by our frequent use of the waiver wire trying to bring in talent to the organization. We went to a 10-man pitching staff with waiver claims P Eddie Bloom (from Cleveland) and Jim Hawkins (from Boston) joining the staff. That meant that one of the position players would have to be sent off. The lucky or unlucky soul, depending on how you look at it was 1B/2B Claude Merrill who was hitting just 209/261/587 with 1 home run and 5 RBI's in the first 13 games. He will go down and work out primarily as a 3B to see if he can again find his hitting stroke and have any shot at coming back up to play 3B.
We have more waiver guys waiting their turn to get a shot as P Jim Spencer and CF Jack Burke were added to the 40-man roster but were not assigned any spots yet.
We also made another waiver claim for P Chuck Murphy who was being DFA by the Chicago Chiefs. That claim won't be finished until the end of the week.
So much for all the moves, here are the games that were played between April 27th and April 30th 1936.
Game 14 - St. Louis Pioneers (8-5) 13 vs Detroit Dynamos (1-12) 4
Right now the Pioneers are wishing they could play 100 games versus the Dyanmos instead of only 22 a season. With the blasting today, they move to 6-0 against the Detroit 9. Unfortunately for St. Louis's playoff hopes they will not meet the Dynamo's again until the end of May.
Game 15 - Detroit Dynamos (1-13) 7 @ Philadelphia Keystones (5-8) 0
Last year it took Detroit until the last couple of weeks of the season to shut out an opponent, so doing it in April is a huge accomplishment (again looking for positives here). The offense banged out 15 hits (season high) and 7 runs and was led by leadoff CF Jose Srna 3-5 2R 3RBI, with a double and triple. The real hero was SP Hank Spencer who gave up just 6 hits in going the distance.
Game 16 - Detroit Dynamos (2-13) 3 @ Philadelphia Keystones (5-9) 4 (11 innings)
So close to a winning streak, the Dynamos could almost taste it. SP Chuck Calvert is still looking for his first win of the season (0-3) despite a fine 2.73 ERA in 4 starts. All-FABL RP Jim Simmons took the loss in extra innings but he has managed to lower his ERA to 12.38.
Game 17 - Detroit Dynamos (2-14) 3 @ Philadelphia Keystones (6-9) 2
Well the winning steak was out the window but the first season series win could be had. SP Jim Crawford pitched a 7-hit, 2-run effort in keeping the Keys at bay long enough for as Detroit made its 3-0 lead in the 2nd hold up for the win. Manager Tom Bray was seen celebrating in the dugout, white hair and all as he must have felt like his team just won the World Series.
Summary - So we end up the opening month of the season having played 17 straight games and going 3-14. We won the last 2 out of 3 so maybe better things are ahead like playing 350 baseball the rest of the year.
Player Awards of the Month of April
CA Rookie of the Month goes to Chicago Cougar CF Roy Moore who hit 354 with a home run, 9 RBI's and 8 runs scored.
CA Hitter of the Month goes to former Detroit Dynamo OF Al "The Wonder Wheel" Wheeler who blistered the CA for a 429 batting average with 5 home runs and 24 RBI's and a whopping 20 runs scored. He is almost doing single handedly as much damage as the entire Detroit offense for the month of April.
CA Pitcher of the Month is almost becoming a broken record as the reigning 2-time CA Allen Award winner P Tom Barrell of Brooklyn takes home the honor. For Barrell it is the 6th time he has won the award. In April he went 4-1 with a 2.68 ERA in 43.2 innings as the King's work him hard in the opening weeks of the season.
FA Rookie of the Month goes to league leading Chicago Chief youngster SP Al Miller. Miller has looked sharp in his early career going 3-0 with a 2.33 ERA.
FA Hitter of the Month goes to Pittsburgh Miners 1B Lou Kelly who hit 426 with a home run, 11 RBI's and 14 runs scored. For the veteran Kelly (34) it was his 8th career player of the month honor.
FA Pitcher of the Month goes to the Washington Eagles SP Bill Anderson who seems to be enjoying the change in scenery in the nations capital. the former Toronto Wolves SP went 4-1 in 5 starts with a 3.70 ERA.
Detroit Stars of the month
While not getting the national attention for anyone, the Dynamos announced that SP Hank Spencer was named their pitcher of the month. Spencer went 2-1 with a 2.13 ERA in 3 starts
For the Dynamo hitter of the month there was not a lot to choose from as the team is by far the worst offense in the Fed. In a close vote, CF Jose Serna got the nod by hitting 278/333/736 with 7 RBI's and 6 runs scored. Henry Jones had the better batting average but just didn't generate or produce many runs while hitting 319
Dynamo rookie of the month goes to utility man Juan Sarmiento who hit 353 in just 17 AB's but managed a home run, with 5 runs scored.
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