A LOOK BACK AT THE 1927 DRAFT
Scouting Directors are working overtime with the short turn-around to a June draft and that means a much earlier than usual look by The Figment Sporting Journal back at the group of first rounders from ten years ago. This year's draft is slated for June 22 after decades of it being held in December but before we get to talking about the top prospects available this time around, let's review how the first rounders from the 1927 draft class fared, a decade later.
The first thought as I scan the list of first rounders is "Wow, this was an awful draft," as 5 of the 16 first rounders never played a major league game and 3 others played very little so at least 8 of the 16 picks have to be considered busts and an argument could certainly be made for a couple of others. However, the overall class itself was not that bad as it was more a case of what turned out to be some poor decisions being made in the first round.
Before we look at each of the first rounders here are some later round picks from that draft that fared very well: Alex Ingraham, Brooks Meek, Mike Taylor, Fred McCormick, Hank Barnett, Leon Drake, Doc Love, Larry Vestal, Mahlon Strong, Fred Miller, John Wicklund, Ed Wood, Dave Rankin, Dean Astle, Milt Fritz and Pinky Conlan. Based on that list it is very clear there was talent in the 1927 class, just a lot of General Manager's overlooked it early.
1- CLIFF MOSS OF MONTREAL - Moss' career has been linked to that of the General Manager that originally drafted him. mjj55409 selected the outfielder first overall after a solid career at Pierpont, brought him to the major leagues just a couple of months into his rookie pro season and then, almost immediately after leaving the GM office in Montreal to assume the reigns of the Chicago Chiefs, he acquired him in a trade with the Saints. Moss enjoyed 3 pretty solid seasons in Montreal to start his career including a career best .345,26,101 showing in 1930. His numbers dipped as he approached his late twenties and he fell out of favor in Montreal but has had a resurgence of sorts since moving to Chicago where he has earned the reputation of strictly being a platoon player who can only enjoy success against right handed pitching. While not a star, he was a solid contributor to the Chiefs World Championship team last season and his 143 career homers to date are the second most amassed by anyone in his draft class. (second round Alex Ingraham has 153 for St Louis). Moss was number one on most draft boards and he has proven to be a decent major league player.
2- BOBBY MONTEFUSCO P BOSTON - The 1927 draft did not have a clear cut choice as top pitcher, although Huck Moore might have come close. In hindsight there certainly was a clear number one but it turned out to be a high school pitcher who did not win a game in his draft year. So you can not blame Boston, or any other team for overlooking Milt Fritz, who currently has 122 wins and an Allen Award on his resume but was not selected until the 12th round. There were other candidates as well such as Ron Coles (48-34) and Dave Ranking (60-98), who both lasted until the fifth round and current Cleveland ace Dean Astle (62-39) who was not selected until the 9th round. His career was tragically cut short by injury but Johnny Jacob, who could have been a star also was available, lasting until Baltimore grabbed him in the fourth round. The Minutemen decided to use both their first and second round picks on pitchers. They took Art Keeter out of Los Angeles High School in the second round and he has shown some value of late with a 20-21 record over the past two seasons. Boston also ended up with another pitcher taken in the second round as they acquired Ed Wood from Cleveland early in his career and the now 28 year old has enjoyed some decent seasons including a career best 22 win campaign a year ago.
As mentioned earlier there was no clear cut best pitcher of the draft but the Minutemen decided to make Bobby Montefusco, who was coming off a pretty solid season with Grafton University, the number two pick. It did not turn out to be a bad choice as Montefusco has built himself a decent career as relief pitcher in Boston (15-16 career record in 171 appearances but just 8 starts) but he is hardly what one thinks of when they picture a second overall draft pick.
3- HARRY HUMPHREY OF CHICAGO COUGARS - Humphrey is the type of player that drives GM's nuts. He missed half of the 1926 season but hit .414 for Whitney College as a sophomore and then followed up by proving it was no fluke with a .413 season and played all 50 games of his draft year for the Engineers. The Chicago Cougars felt there was no way they could pass up the local kid (Whitney College is in Chicago) and BNN had him ranked second on it's top ten list. It seemed like a perfect match but Humphrey has yet to play above AA. Part of his issue was the game was changing as power hitting was now a desirable commodity in a corner outfielder and Humphrey, while he did hit 8 in his draft year, was certainly not a fly ball hitter. Some also questioned his work ethic and after 5 years in the Cougars system he was released. Humphrey caught on with Amarillo of the independent Lone Star Association but after being released a couple of seasons later the Cougars signed him to a minor league deal in 1935. He is now 31 years old and just a spare part to add depth to the Chicago system so seems pretty safe to say Harry Humphrey will never play in the major leagues and has to be one of, if not the the biggest disappointment of the 1927 draft.
4- FRANK LIGHTBODY OF PITTSBURGH - One has to wonder how seriously the Cougars looked at Frank Lightbody before selecting the local prospect Humphrey with the third pick. Lightbody was the top player on at least one team's board that year and had a great resume. His older brother Doug was a rising star with the Brooklyn Kings and Lightbody had 3 solid seasons under his belt at Mississippi A&M, which in that era was well known for producing quality outfielders. Pittsburgh grabbed him at #4 and, despite missing 7 weeks early in his first pro season with a sprained ankle he debuted with the Miners late that season. The rest is history as he has more big league hits (1480) than any other member of his draft class and only 8th round catcher Mike Taylor has played more than the 1149 FABL games Lightbody has appeared in. He joined his brother in Brooklyn after being traded to the Kings a year ago and while he still has the skills to start, has been relegated to a bench role because of Brooklyn's deep collection of outfielders.
5- BILL BALL SS BALTIMORE - Bill Ball is not a bad player but he is not the type that typically warrants a first round selection. Known as a slick fielding but light hitting middle infielder in high school ball, the Cannons might have reached a bit to select him although one other scouting director I spoke too had him ranked 15th on their depth chart. He made his big league debut in 1932 with the Cannons and after being up and down between the majors and AAA for a couple of seasons seems to have settled in as a backup infielder appearing in 433 games and posting a .247 major league average. There certainly were worse choices than Ball made in the first round.
6- HUCK MOORE P NEW YORK GOTHAMS - 1927 was the first year The Figment Sporting Journal named an AIAA All-American team. There was just a single team named that original season and the pitcher on that list was Huck Moore, coming off an 11-0 season when he helped lead Commonwealth Catholic to the AIAA title back in the feeder league era. Moore had an outstanding college career, going 29-6 for his 3 seasons as a Knight. The 29 wins was at the time an AIAA record equaling the mark set by Ralph Ohler in 1919-21 and duplicated by Walt Palmer (1924-26). Perhaps it was foreshadowing of what was to come from Moore as Ohler never played a big league game and Palmer lasted just 7 games for Pittsburgh in his career after being the second overall pick a year ahead of Moore. While he is still active and pitching for Amarillo in the lightly regarded independent Lone Star League, Moore's big league days are long behind him and he, perhaps more than any other player in FABL history has cause to be bitter about his FABL experience.
He had a decent season at Class A as a 22 year old rookie pro but from 1929 until 1935 when he was finally released by the Gothams he endured some awful seasons - none worse than a 1-18 record with a 9.05 era for AAA Toledo in 1932. Why he was never sent down to A or AA to regain some confidence is beyond me but regardless he was converted to a reliever in 1933 and went 6-4 with 7 saves and a 5.38 era for Toledo while making 52 relief appearances that season. It culminated in a call-up to the big leagues and on September 22nd in a relatively meaningless late season game between the third place Gothams and 7th place Chicago Chiefs, Moore got his one, and as it would turn out, only chance in the big leagues. He started the game, something he had not done all season in AAA, and went 5 solid innings allowing 6 hits and 2 runs but only one earned it what would end up being a 4-2 New York loss. That was it for Moore's days in New York. He never got another shot with the Gothams as he was back in the Toledo bullpen the following season and eventually released midway through the 1935 campaign. He was picked up by Amarillo and has found his calling as a relief pitcher in the Texas loop.
Despite Moore not panning out this was just an incredible draft class for the Gothams although much of it was by the AI (cpu makes selections for us after round ten) as they landed Frank McCormick, who became a star in St Louis after being included in the Max Morris trade, in the 11th round, all-star catcher John Wicklund in the 15th and Fred Miller, who also had success in St Louis, in the 16th round. The Gothams did have the foresight to select Mahlon Strong in the 8th round and Calvin Brown, who would go to St Louis with McCormick for Morris, was their second rounder in '27.
7- BILLY SMITH SS NEW YORK STARS - Much of what I wrote about 5th overall pick Billy Ball could easily have been said about Smith. He did post a little more offense than Ball in high school including 14 homers as a senior at Atlanta High but he has never been able to establish himself as someone who could hit big league pitching. Smith did make his big league debut at 26 last season for a very weak Stars club and he did make the club again this year but he is batting .224 in 73 career big league games. He does have a little pop in his bat with 7 round trippers. Smith was actually taken by the Philadelphia Sailors in the 1932 rule V draft but returned to the Stars even before camp started that March.
8- BERT HARRISON OF ST LOUIS - This is back in the pre-Mock Draft era but OSA actually had Harrison ranked 6th overall in it's top ten draft prospect email. He showed some power at Memphis High School with 27 homers including 12 in his senior year but aside from hitting 13 in 123 games at Class C two years after he was drafted that power has not translated to the professional ranks. In 1933 the Pioneers lost him to the Chicago Cougars in the rule V draft after he hit .328 at AA Dayton. He spent the 1934 season with the Cougars but only had 51 at bats and hit .255. The Cougars gave him 8 more big league at bats the following season and eventually waived him after he played sparingly in AAA last season as a 26 year old. There is perhaps still a small glimmer of hope he might get back to the majors as the Philadelphia Sailors claimed him and he is presently assigned to AAA San Francisco.
Fortunately for Pioneers fans the club grabbed another corner outfielder in the second round. He has fared much better as Alex Ingraham has become one of the best players in his draft class. Not sure whether it was by design or not but the Pioneers loved their outfielders in 1927 as their third, fourth and sixth rounders also played that position. They were all quite forgettable as third rounder Bill Hart and fourth rounder Bill Duke are long since retired and sixth round Harry Burke is still languishing in AA ball at the age of 27. None of the three made the majors.
9- DICK KENNON OF CLEVELAND - Another of the players to never make the major leagues, Kennon perhaps can be best remembered as a college teammate of first overall pick Cliff Moss at Pierpont. Moss was only a starter alongside Moss for one season in the Purple outfield and hit .320 with 9 homers that year. He advanced as high as AAA for the Foresters but that was strictly a 3 game stint in Cincinnati in 1933 when he went 0-for-8 and was released at the end of the season. He did have a couple of decent years in the low minors and hit fairly well in Amarillo (which seems to be a haven for 1927 first round picks) before retiring last October.
10- ANDY CARTER 2B WASHINGTON - Already a two time all-star with over 1000 FABL games and a .323 career batting average Carter would likely be the number one pick if we were to redraft today. It was a circuitous route to the big leagues for the now 31 year old. He started only one season of high school ball and was drafted in the 12th round by the Philadelphia Keystones in 1924. This was in the pre-human GM era and the Keystones released him prior to camp so he enrolled at St Blane and spent two years playing college ball. Carter hit .337 in 1927 and was considered one of the best middle infielders available when Washington selected him. He had a strong rookie pro season and then tore it up in A and AA in 1929 before making the Eagles out of camp in 1930. Carter hit .317 as a rookie and has never looked back, leading the Federal Association in triples 4 times so far in his career.
Despite the fact the Eagles second and third round picks never made the majors it was a decent draft for the franchise as Larry Vestal, who was eventually turned into 20 game winner Bill Anderson (another 1927 first rounder) in a trade with Toronto and has hit .304 in 651 FABL games, was their fourth round pick. Decent might be too strong a word in hindsight as aside from Carter and Vestal the only other Washington pick that year to have played in the big leagues was 24th rounder Jim Sears, a pitcher still with the organization in AAA who 9-12 in stints in the nation's capital in 1934 and 1935.
11- JACK BATES OF PHILADELPHIA SAILORS - I really miss the days before OOTP added the Mock Draft and why an option can't be added to block it from displaying is beyond me. In the good old days before OOTP21 all Figment General Manager's had to go on besides the written scouting report and stats was that top ten players available email the game would send us the day the draft class was revealed. I am not sure if BNN intended to mess up GM's on purpose or not but there always seemed to be a few players in there who it would turn out were just complete busts. Jack Bates was one of those guys.
I kept a list of the ten players listed in the BNN email for the 1927 draft. I believe it is the one we got on the draft class reveal date and not the actual draft but here it is:
Code:
1 Jack Bates CF 18 High school
2 Harry Humphrey CF 21 Whitney College
3 Brooks Meeks SS 18 High school
4 Roland Kumm CF 21 Maryland State
5 Loren Morgan LF 21 Mississippi A&M
6 Bert Harrison RF 17 High school
7 Jim Watson LF 21 Ellery College
8 Calvin Brown CF 18 High school
9 Rabbit Mudd SS 18 High school
10 Ralph Jackson 1B 18 High school
Whether BNN only looked at current ratings, picked some bad prospects intentionally to mess with us or simply had no idea what it was doing is not something I can answer but where was Frank Lightbody, Andy Carter, Alex Ingraham, Frank McCormick or a host of others who did well from this draft class? Instead, the poor Philadelphia Sailors got duped by BNN and Jack Bates.
Rube Carter, who was Brooklyn's scout at the time, had Bates 46th on his list and 9th among centerfielders. He was a three year starter in high school and his 6.3 career WAR was a Meridan (MS) High School record until Otto Deal broke it a few years later. Bates was certainly not a bad high school player. However, he spent 5 years in Class B and really did not improve much over that time. Next was Class A Peoria for two and a half seasons and now he is, at age 28, beginning his 3rd full season at AA Providence. So maybe he is a late bloomer or the Sailors are just taking their time with him but either way I highly doubt he will spend much, if any, time in the big leagues.
Looking at that list of ten above Bates has plenty of company. Harry Humphrey and Bert Harrison have already been discussed and we will reacquaint ourselves with Roland Kumm very shortly. Ralph Jackson would be another Sailors pick - this one in the third round - who never made the majors. Brooklyn spent a 4th round pick on Loren Morgan but he also failed to make the big leagues. So Jim Watson and Rabbit Mudd, who will be discussed shortly, along with Brooks Meeks (round 3 Pittsburgh) and perhaps Calvin Brown (round 2 Gothams) are the only 4 players worth mentioning from that top ten list. It was great when our scouts knew more than BNN, oh I long for the pre-mock draft days.
12- JIM WATSON OF CHICAGO CHIEFS - The outfielder had a solid college career as an Ellery Bruin and was ranked #7 on the OSA top draft prospects email. He worked his way up the Chiefs system but, after hitting .323 with 23 homers at AAA Fort Wayne in 1931 he was lost to Montreal in which I believe was the first year of the minor league phase of the rule V draft (records are spotty so I am not certain that is the reason for the move). He made his big league debut for the Saints the following season and has been a solid big league outfielder ever since, leading the Continental Association in stolen bases one season and triples another year.
I mentioned earlier how the New York Gothams got a big lift from AI selections (after round 10 the draft gets turned over to the scouting directors to auto finish) but the Chiefs got an even bigger boost. Let's start with pitcher Milt Fritz in the 12th round but also add in outfielder Leon Drake in round 14, infielder Len Jones in round 11 and pitcher Red Hampton in round 13 and you can see the Chiefs AI scouting director did an incredible job.
In all 8 Chiefs draft picks in 1927 would go on to play in FABL including those mentioned above and also another solid pick by their human GM in 5th rounder Ron Coles, a pitcher out of Knoxville High School who has a 48-34 record for his career including a 15-5 season a year ago to help the Chiefs to their World Championship victory. Only Baltimore with 11 and the New York Gothams with 10 had more players from this class make the big leagues, but the Chiefs on the strength of solid careers from Watson, Drake and Fritz in particular received the most production, at least if measured by career WAR, from their picks.
13- BILL ANDERSON P TORONTO - Anderson had less than impressive high school numbers and wasn't even on the radar of current Chiefs Scouting Director Rube Carter, who was with Brooklyn at the time. "Too be honest, he was not even the highest pitcher named Anderson I had on my board," said Carter recently. The pitchers Carter had above Bill Anderson included Woody Anderson out of Mississippi A&M, who the Kings took in the 6th round but never made the major leagues.
It turns out Carter missed the mark on Bill Anderson as the Wolves selected the Elmira (NY) High Schooler 13th despite a 9-10 career record in his amateur career. Like many pitchers drafted out of high school, Anderson took a while to get to the big leagues but made his debut in 1932 and by the following season was a big league regular. He won 15 games for Toronto in 1935 and then was dealt to Washington where he had a breakout season last year going 22-14 and clearly has claimed the title of the best of the three pitchers selected in the first round of his draft class.
14- HARRY MEEK P DETROIT - The Dynamos have not had a lot of success with picking pitchers in the first round thru the years:
Code:
YEAR NAME FABL W-L
1912 Gorge Davis 195-178
1914 Al Colby 60-70
1915 Whitey Hudson 0-0
1916 Mel Strom 189-189
1919 Billy Blank 0-0
1920 Paul Vandenberg 42-37
1924 Leo Hall 14-19
1926 Larry Brown 22-24
1927 Harry Meek 0-0
1930 Donnie Scheuermann 16-15
1934 Del Burns 0-0
In the early days things went well as George Davis would go on to win 195 career games and 3 World Championships with Detroit. Colby won 60 games and a WCS with St Louis and Strom won 189 games and a World Championship in Detroit. The jury is still out on Del Burns but Donnie Scheuermann and Larry Brown have certainly not lived up to first round expectations while Meek, like Whitey Hudson, Billy Blank, Paul Vandenberg and Leo Hall is a complete bust.
Meek's story is by far the worst of the group. His best season at Pierpont (quite a run for the Purple with Cliff Moss and Dick Kennon also going in round one) was his sophomore campaign when he went 10-3 with a 1.22 era. His junior season wasn't bad at all, but it was the beginning of a downward trend. The crazy thing is Meek never pitched a game in the Detroit organization as for some strange reason the Dynamos released their first round pick in early May without pitching him anywhere in the minors. The decision to release him did not prove to be as boneheaded as one might think as Meek signed with Boston but never advanced past AA before retiring following the 1935 season. Often when a player, particularly a pitcher busts, it is because of injury. The one thing Meek had going for him was his health. He never spent a day with even a minor nagging injury in his entire baseball career.
15- RABBIT MUDD 2B BROOKLYN - Mudd is a guy from that previously discussed top ten email who actually panned out. He had a stellar feeder career at Milwaukee High School culminating in a .401 average his senior season but as good as his bat was it was Mudd's glove that got him noticed. He was a terrific defensive infielder but he still had trouble finding playing time behind Jake Shadoan, Harry Barrell and Walt Layton with Brooklyn. He was moved to the New York Gothams midway through the 1935 season and has really blossomed as a hitter. Mudd is now 28 and finally getting the chance to play every day with the Gothams, for whom he has hit .296 over the last season and a bit.
16- ROLAND KUMM OF PHILADELPHIA KEYSTONES - Kumm was #4 on a BNN top ten list dominated by center fielders including three who busted in himself, Bates and Humphrey. He started 150 games over 3 seasons at Maryland State, posting a .309 career average with 20 homers. He has been in the Keystones system the past decade but advanced as far as AAA for just 130 games over parts of 3 seasons, hitting .244. He is back in AA now and is much closer to being released and playing in the Lone Star League then his chances are of getting into a big league game.
SUMMARY
I have not taken the time to do a detailed assessment of each draft's lower round picks but I can't imagine there were many drafts with more quality talented that was overlooked in the first round then what we saw in 1927. Let's hope the GM's and their Scouting Director's have a little more success in the 1937 draft.