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Jiggs McGee · 06-14-2021, 02:05 PM

THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL

June 14, 1937

A BARRELL OF TROUBLE FOR BROOKLYN?

The Brooklyn Kings chances of repeating as Continental Association champs were dealt a serious blow last week as it was learned that ace pitcher Tom Barrell will miss two months with a hamstring injury. The 29 year old Brooklyn native, who has claimed 3 straight Allen Awards, recently won his 100th game as a King since joining the club midway through the 1932 season. Barrell was 7-3 with a team best 2.66 era at the time of his injury. The Kings dropped 2 out of 3 games over the weekend to the third place Philadelphia Sailors, allowing Cleveland - which has won 4 straight and 6 of their last 7 - to pull into a first place tie atop the Continental Association.

GONZALEZ HAS FORESTERS ON FIRE

25 year old Sergio Gonzalez has come a long ways from the Dominican Republic to the major leagues but the Cleveland Foresters righthander is presently one of the hottest pitchers in baseball. Gonzalez has followed up a breakout 15-7 season a year ago with an 8-1 start for the Foresters including back to back victories over their arch rivals from Brooklyn. Gonzalez has started 12 games for Cleveland this season and the only one of those starts they lost was a to Toronto on April 30th, a game in which Gonzalez went 8 innings but came up on the short-end of a 2-1 score.

It has been quite a ride for Gonzalez, who is one of only 6 Dominican born players to appear in a FABL game and one of just two pitchers. He and Angel Padilla, who made his FABL debut this season with St Louis, both took the same very unlikely route to the majors. Each left their home at the tender age of 17 to go to Texas for an open tryout for the new Lone Star League. Both caught on with clubs, Austin for Padilla and Oklahoma City for Gonzalez. He did not pitch in the Line Star league as his contracted was purchased by AAA Portland of the Great Western League almost immediately. He did get into a few games with a championship Green Sox team as a 19 year old but struggled and was waived at the end of the 1931 season. Hollywood of the same league signed him but he struggled with the Heroes in 1932 and was back with Portland for the 1933 season. That was the year that changed his life as, after going 14-9 for the Green Sox, he was acquired by the New York Gothams organization in 1934. He made his Gothams debut that season at the age of 22 and was subsequently traded to Cleveland in the deal that brought Moxie Pidgeon to New York. The rest is, as they say, history. An all-star in both 1935 and 1936 it seems a lock that Gonzalez will make his third all-star team and might even get the start this year. Who knows, if he keeps it up the undrafted walk-on at a Class A open tryout might just win the Allen Award this season.

Another player who seems to be on the same path as Gonzalez is 24 year Juan Salinas. The native of Curacao was another of the Caribbean born players who attended the open tryout for the Lone Star Association when it began in 1929 and has bounced around with a number of minor league organizations, overcoming a serious arm injury in the process. Healthy once again and now with Dallas of the same league, Salinas has been dominant in 8 Lone Star starts for the Centurions. He is 6-0 with a 2.92 era and looks to be a prime candidate for a big league team to acquire his rights over the winter.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/uScAUug.jpg[/img

]

CHIEFS WINNING WITHOUT THEIR BEST DAY

If the rest of the Federal Association is having trouble catching the Chicago Chiefs right now, just wait until Rabbit Day gets going. If you told me at the beginning of the season that Day's era would be the highest among Chicago starters I would have said you were nuts but that is exactly what is happening in the Windy City. Day has a rather pedestrian 4.35 era to go with a 5-4 record and has just 1 win in his last 6 starts but that has not stopped the Chiefs from once again being the best pitching staff in the Fed. Day, a 3 time Allen Award winner with 196 career wins including a 25-3 campaign a year ago, will certainly get untracked and when he does just how dangerous will the Chiefs staff be?

21 year old righthander Al Miller has had a couple of wonky outings but has put aside any worries of a sophomore jinx with an 8-2 record to go with a 3.10 era. But that is nothing compared to what veteran Jack Beach (7-3, 2.71) and knuckleballer Charlie Bingham (9-1, 2.89) have brought to the table in Chicago so far this season. Even Ron Coles (6-4, 3.93) is proving his 15 win season last year was not a fluke. Bingham may come back to earth a bit in the second half as he presently has the highest run support per game of any pitcher with at least 5 starts in the Federal Association and it is nearly double the 3.4 runs Day has received per start from his Chicago teammates.

If there is a pitcher to fear in the Fed right now it should be St Louis Pioneers ace Sam Sheppard, who is 12-1 with a 2.90 era in 14 starts. Some local news scribes held Sheppard responsible last season for what they called a disappointing year as a follow up to his Allan Award winning 28-7 1934 season. If a 20 win season is a disappointment - as Sheppard went 20-13 a year ago - I would love to be that disappointed like that every year.

A special accomplishment this week as we see our first 6-hit game in nearly two years.

It is the second time in his career that McCormick had enjoyed a 6-hit afternoon. In a 1934 game against Washington he went 6-for-6 with a homer and 5 rbi's. The legendary Max Morris had the most recent 6-hit game before last week, when Mighty Mo had 6 for Cleveland in 1935. Despite spending 11 seasons in St Louis, Morris never had 6-hit game as a Pioneer. In fact, prior to McCormick's first 6-hit day the only time a Pioneer player ever had a 6 hit game was in 1919 when Jason Hopkins went 6-for-8 against the Chiefs. It would be the highlight of Hopkins career as he would only get 507 career hits and spent most of his 6 seasons in St Louis as a backup.

GOINS INCHES CLOSER TO 2500 CAREER HITS

Rankin Kellogg reached the milestone of 2500 hits a couple of weeks ago and now veteran Cleveland catcher T.R. Goins is closing in on becoming just the 21st player in Figment history to reach that lofty number. It used to be a regular occurrence for a player to get to that milestone- in fact from 1904 thru 1909 at least one player got his 2500th each season. Lately though it has been a much more rare event as before Kellogg got there last month the most recent player to reach the 2500 hit plateau was Max Morris who did it back in 1930 - and has added nearly 1100 more hits since that date. Before Morris you also have a bit of a drought as we need to look at 1924 when Bill McMurtrie was finishing out his career by suiting up for the Chicago Chiefs after years in Boston. McMurtrie would end with 2549 career hits and, at 18th overall, the next name on Kellogg's radar.

Two players reaching 2500 in the same season is something that has happened 4 times before. The most recent occurrence was 1920 when Joe Ward and Ed Ziehl- two players who both eventually surpassed the 3,000 mark - both did it. Interestingly enough both Ward (with the Chiefs) and Ziehl (with the Gothams) are current big league managers. The 3 other times 2 players each reached the 2500 hit mark in the same season were in 1919 (John Dibblee and John Cook), 1909 (George Pruitt and John Waggoner) and 1907 (Fred Roby and George Melvin).

TALKING STATS (from the Chicago Herald-Examiner)

I don't like to talk advanced stats much here as it does not fit the timeline but our slack channel (something else that clearly does not fit the timeline) had some great comments coming out of Chicago regarding wRC+. The first thing noted was FanGraphs deems a wRC+ of over 160 as excellent. As of last week there were just 7 players in FABL at or above that mark and 3 of them were members of the St Louis Pioneers.

It was also noted there are 14 current, active players with a career wRC+ of greater than 140 (min PA of 500). No surprise the list is dominated by players on the corners (LF/RF/1B/3B). Of the 14, 12 are corners and 2 are middle infielders. Which two? Freddie Jones (150) of St Louis and the Chicago Chiefs' Pete Layton (149). Of the 14, 4 are current Brooklyn Kings: Al Wheeler (154), Doug Lightbody (152), Frank Vance (144), and Dan Barrell (140). Of course, Max Morris (178) and Rankin Kellogg (170) top the list as the only players with a wRC+ of 170 or more. Kellogg better get it in gear this season or he'll risk dropping on this list.

To go one step further I decided to take a look at the career leaders in wRC+. They likely won't end up that way as I expect Morris to drop a bit here in the tail end of his career but it is very fitting that Morris and Powell Slocum - my two choices for the greatest hitters of all-time, are tied for top spot.

THIS AND THAT

Brooklyn's Al Wheeler's 2 homer 7 rbi game against Chicago last week was the second best hitter performance of the season, trailing only Al Wheeler's 2 homer, 6 rbi game vs Montreal in late April. Wheeler has been on fire of late, raising his average to .354 with a FABL leading 15 homers and 55 rbi's. Pittsburgh's George Cleaves and Gail Gifford of St Louis also each have 2 of the top 10 hitting performances of the season.

For the second time this season Washington third baseman Mel Carroll was named player of the week in the Federal Association. Carroll is hitting .409 on the season with 8 homers and 37 rbi's. The CA award went to the previously mentioned Wheeler, who is a 3-time winner this season.

Bob Worley is making the Montreal Saints feel they gave up on him far too early. The 28 year old outfielder won another player of the week award in the Lone Star league - his third in the past month. Worley now has 32 home runs in 48 games. He is on pace for 91 home runs and 249 rbi. Now Lone Star Association pitching is a long ways from the big leagues but Worley did hit 17 homers playing for Montreal three years ago so one has to think he certainly still has the ability to play in the majors. Rumour is Worley may have to settle for AAA as several indy Great Western League teams are reportedly courting him. FABL rules prevent a major league team from trading for him until the off-season.

Do you think Larry Jones feels he deserves another shot at the big leagues? The 28 year old outfielder/first baseman, who Detroit picked up on waivers from Pittsburgh during the off-season, has 23 homers in 45 games at AA Akron including 6 last week to earn him player of the week accolades in the Eastern Association. A 1926 second round pick out of high school by the Miners, Jones had some pretty good seasons in the Pittsburgh system but his FABL career so far has consisted of 2 big league appearances, one as a pinch-runner and the other as a pinch-hitter after being a September callup in 1935. His lone plate appearance was a fly out in a blowout loss to Boston. Included in his exploits last week was a 4-homer game in a 12-10 win at Harrisburg. It was the fourth time an Eastern Association player hit 4 longballs in a single game.

24 year old Al Tucker, the 3rd ranked prospect according to OSA, made his big league debut last week and it was quite a start for the 1931 third round draft pick. The outfielder appeared in all 7 games last week for the St Louis Pioneers, starting 5 and going 10-for-23. He drew a walk against Boston as a pinch-hitter in a 5-3 win on Monday and got his first hit, a single, two days later off of Washington's Eddie Quinn.

That is more like it! Deuce Barrell, the Baltimore Cannons first overall selection in 1935 has had his struggles in the minors but last week was just the type of thing the Cannons were hoping for from the 20 year old prodigy. Barrell made two starts and allowed 0 earned runs and just 6 hits over 17 innings of work for Charleston of the Class B Southeastern League. Because of 3 unearned runs and a lack of offensive support he split the two decisions but improved to 3-6 and lowered his era to 3.76 on the year.

Staying in the Southeastern League, the second overall pick right after Barrell also had a solid week. Detroit first base prospect Red Johnson hit 2 more homers for Chattanooga last week and is second in the SEL with 9 on the year. Another pair of power hitting young first baseman are having strong seasons in Class C. Walt Messer, who was taken 2nd overall by the Gothams after Detroit drafted Sal Pestilli last December, has 12 homers in 49 games for Rock Island. Messer is tied with Marshalltown (BKN) youngster Tim Hopkins for the Upper Mississippi Valley Association lead.

The Week That Was
Current events for the week ending 6/13/1937

Striking autoworkers blockade the streets in Lansing, forcing the closure of plants and businesses in Michigan's capital.
Unemployment in the United States is at its lowest since 1931, giving more credence to the claim that the depression is ending.
Amelia Earhart crosses the Atlantic from Brazil to Senegal and is now preparing for her flight across Africa.
The Soviets execute 8 top generals as spies in a purge of the Red Army.

06-14-2021, 02:05 PM	#176
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	This Week in Figment Baseball: June 14, 1937 THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL June 14, 1937 A BARRELL OF TROUBLE FOR BROOKLYN? The Brooklyn Kings chances of repeating as Continental Association champs were dealt a serious blow last week as it was learned that ace pitcher Tom Barrell will miss two months with a hamstring injury. The 29 year old Brooklyn native, who has claimed 3 straight Allen Awards, recently won his 100th game as a King since joining the club midway through the 1932 season. Barrell was 7-3 with a team best 2.66 era at the time of his injury. The Kings dropped 2 out of 3 games over the weekend to the third place Philadelphia Sailors, allowing Cleveland - which has won 4 straight and 6 of their last 7 - to pull into a first place tie atop the Continental Association. GONZALEZ HAS FORESTERS ON FIRE 25 year old Sergio Gonzalez has come a long ways from the Dominican Republic to the major leagues but the Cleveland Foresters righthander is presently one of the hottest pitchers in baseball. Gonzalez has followed up a breakout 15-7 season a year ago with an 8-1 start for the Foresters including back to back victories over their arch rivals from Brooklyn. Gonzalez has started 12 games for Cleveland this season and the only one of those starts they lost was a to Toronto on April 30th, a game in which Gonzalez went 8 innings but came up on the short-end of a 2-1 score. It has been quite a ride for Gonzalez, who is one of only 6 Dominican born players to appear in a FABL game and one of just two pitchers. He and Angel Padilla, who made his FABL debut this season with St Louis, both took the same very unlikely route to the majors. Each left their home at the tender age of 17 to go to Texas for an open tryout for the new Lone Star League. Both caught on with clubs, Austin for Padilla and Oklahoma City for Gonzalez. He did not pitch in the Line Star league as his contracted was purchased by AAA Portland of the Great Western League almost immediately. He did get into a few games with a championship Green Sox team as a 19 year old but struggled and was waived at the end of the 1931 season. Hollywood of the same league signed him but he struggled with the Heroes in 1932 and was back with Portland for the 1933 season. That was the year that changed his life as, after going 14-9 for the Green Sox, he was acquired by the New York Gothams organization in 1934. He made his Gothams debut that season at the age of 22 and was subsequently traded to Cleveland in the deal that brought Moxie Pidgeon to New York. The rest is, as they say, history. An all-star in both 1935 and 1936 it seems a lock that Gonzalez will make his third all-star team and might even get the start this year. Who knows, if he keeps it up the undrafted walk-on at a Class A open tryout might just win the Allen Award this season. Another player who seems to be on the same path as Gonzalez is 24 year Juan Salinas. The native of Curacao was another of the Caribbean born players who attended the open tryout for the Lone Star Association when it began in 1929 and has bounced around with a number of minor league organizations, overcoming a serious arm injury in the process. Healthy once again and now with Dallas of the same league, Salinas has been dominant in 8 Lone Star starts for the Centurions. He is 6-0 with a 2.92 era and looks to be a prime candidate for a big league team to acquire his rights over the winter. [img]https://i.imgur.com/uScAUug.jpg[/img ] CHIEFS WINNING WITHOUT THEIR BEST DAY If the rest of the Federal Association is having trouble catching the Chicago Chiefs right now, just wait until Rabbit Day gets going. If you told me at the beginning of the season that Day's era would be the highest among Chicago starters I would have said you were nuts but that is exactly what is happening in the Windy City. Day has a rather pedestrian 4.35 era to go with a 5-4 record and has just 1 win in his last 6 starts but that has not stopped the Chiefs from once again being the best pitching staff in the Fed. Day, a 3 time Allen Award winner with 196 career wins including a 25-3 campaign a year ago, will certainly get untracked and when he does just how dangerous will the Chiefs staff be? 21 year old righthander Al Miller has had a couple of wonky outings but has put aside any worries of a sophomore jinx with an 8-2 record to go with a 3.10 era. But that is nothing compared to what veteran Jack Beach (7-3, 2.71) and knuckleballer Charlie Bingham (9-1, 2.89) have brought to the table in Chicago so far this season. Even Ron Coles (6-4, 3.93) is proving his 15 win season last year was not a fluke. Bingham may come back to earth a bit in the second half as he presently has the highest run support per game of any pitcher with at least 5 starts in the Federal Association and it is nearly double the 3.4 runs Day has received per start from his Chicago teammates. If there is a pitcher to fear in the Fed right now it should be St Louis Pioneers ace Sam Sheppard, who is 12-1 with a 2.90 era in 14 starts. Some local news scribes held Sheppard responsible last season for what they called a disappointing year as a follow up to his Allan Award winning 28-7 1934 season. If a 20 win season is a disappointment - as Sheppard went 20-13 a year ago - I would love to be that disappointed like that every year. A special accomplishment this week as we see our first 6-hit game in nearly two years. It is the second time in his career that McCormick had enjoyed a 6-hit afternoon. In a 1934 game against Washington he went 6-for-6 with a homer and 5 rbi's. The legendary Max Morris had the most recent 6-hit game before last week, when Mighty Mo had 6 for Cleveland in 1935. Despite spending 11 seasons in St Louis, Morris never had 6-hit game as a Pioneer. In fact, prior to McCormick's first 6-hit day the only time a Pioneer player ever had a 6 hit game was in 1919 when Jason Hopkins went 6-for-8 against the Chiefs. It would be the highlight of Hopkins career as he would only get 507 career hits and spent most of his 6 seasons in St Louis as a backup. GOINS INCHES CLOSER TO 2500 CAREER HITS Rankin Kellogg reached the milestone of 2500 hits a couple of weeks ago and now veteran Cleveland catcher T.R. Goins is closing in on becoming just the 21st player in Figment history to reach that lofty number. It used to be a regular occurrence for a player to get to that milestone- in fact from 1904 thru 1909 at least one player got his 2500th each season. Lately though it has been a much more rare event as before Kellogg got there last month the most recent player to reach the 2500 hit plateau was Max Morris who did it back in 1930 - and has added nearly 1100 more hits since that date. Before Morris you also have a bit of a drought as we need to look at 1924 when Bill McMurtrie was finishing out his career by suiting up for the Chicago Chiefs after years in Boston. McMurtrie would end with 2549 career hits and, at 18th overall, the next name on Kellogg's radar. Two players reaching 2500 in the same season is something that has happened 4 times before. The most recent occurrence was 1920 when Joe Ward and Ed Ziehl- two players who both eventually surpassed the 3,000 mark - both did it. Interestingly enough both Ward (with the Chiefs) and Ziehl (with the Gothams) are current big league managers. The 3 other times 2 players each reached the 2500 hit mark in the same season were in 1919 (John Dibblee and John Cook), 1909 (George Pruitt and John Waggoner) and 1907 (Fred Roby and George Melvin). TALKING STATS (from the Chicago Herald-Examiner) I don't like to talk advanced stats much here as it does not fit the timeline but our slack channel (something else that clearly does not fit the timeline) had some great comments coming out of Chicago regarding wRC+. The first thing noted was FanGraphs deems a wRC+ of over 160 as excellent. As of last week there were just 7 players in FABL at or above that mark and 3 of them were members of the St Louis Pioneers. It was also noted there are 14 current, active players with a career wRC+ of greater than 140 (min PA of 500). No surprise the list is dominated by players on the corners (LF/RF/1B/3B). Of the 14, 12 are corners and 2 are middle infielders. Which two? Freddie Jones (150) of St Louis and the Chicago Chiefs' Pete Layton (149). Of the 14, 4 are current Brooklyn Kings: Al Wheeler (154), Doug Lightbody (152), Frank Vance (144), and Dan Barrell (140). Of course, Max Morris (178) and Rankin Kellogg (170) top the list as the only players with a wRC+ of 170 or more. Kellogg better get it in gear this season or he'll risk dropping on this list. To go one step further I decided to take a look at the career leaders in wRC+. They likely won't end up that way as I expect Morris to drop a bit here in the tail end of his career but it is very fitting that Morris and Powell Slocum - my two choices for the greatest hitters of all-time, are tied for top spot. THIS AND THAT Brooklyn's Al Wheeler's 2 homer 7 rbi game against Chicago last week was the second best hitter performance of the season, trailing only Al Wheeler's 2 homer, 6 rbi game vs Montreal in late April. Wheeler has been on fire of late, raising his average to .354 with a FABL leading 15 homers and 55 rbi's. Pittsburgh's George Cleaves and Gail Gifford of St Louis also each have 2 of the top 10 hitting performances of the season. For the second time this season Washington third baseman Mel Carroll was named player of the week in the Federal Association. Carroll is hitting .409 on the season with 8 homers and 37 rbi's. The CA award went to the previously mentioned Wheeler, who is a 3-time winner this season. Bob Worley is making the Montreal Saints feel they gave up on him far too early. The 28 year old outfielder won another player of the week award in the Lone Star league - his third in the past month. Worley now has 32 home runs in 48 games. He is on pace for 91 home runs and 249 rbi. Now Lone Star Association pitching is a long ways from the big leagues but Worley did hit 17 homers playing for Montreal three years ago so one has to think he certainly still has the ability to play in the majors. Rumour is Worley may have to settle for AAA as several indy Great Western League teams are reportedly courting him. FABL rules prevent a major league team from trading for him until the off-season. Do you think Larry Jones feels he deserves another shot at the big leagues? The 28 year old outfielder/first baseman, who Detroit picked up on waivers from Pittsburgh during the off-season, has 23 homers in 45 games at AA Akron including 6 last week to earn him player of the week accolades in the Eastern Association. A 1926 second round pick out of high school by the Miners, Jones had some pretty good seasons in the Pittsburgh system but his FABL career so far has consisted of 2 big league appearances, one as a pinch-runner and the other as a pinch-hitter after being a September callup in 1935. His lone plate appearance was a fly out in a blowout loss to Boston. Included in his exploits last week was a 4-homer game in a 12-10 win at Harrisburg. It was the fourth time an Eastern Association player hit 4 longballs in a single game. 24 year old Al Tucker, the 3rd ranked prospect according to OSA, made his big league debut last week and it was quite a start for the 1931 third round draft pick. The outfielder appeared in all 7 games last week for the St Louis Pioneers, starting 5 and going 10-for-23. He drew a walk against Boston as a pinch-hitter in a 5-3 win on Monday and got his first hit, a single, two days later off of Washington's Eddie Quinn. That is more like it! Deuce Barrell, the Baltimore Cannons first overall selection in 1935 has had his struggles in the minors but last week was just the type of thing the Cannons were hoping for from the 20 year old prodigy. Barrell made two starts and allowed 0 earned runs and just 6 hits over 17 innings of work for Charleston of the Class B Southeastern League. Because of 3 unearned runs and a lack of offensive support he split the two decisions but improved to 3-6 and lowered his era to 3.76 on the year. Staying in the Southeastern League, the second overall pick right after Barrell also had a solid week. Detroit first base prospect Red Johnson hit 2 more homers for Chattanooga last week and is second in the SEL with 9 on the year. Another pair of power hitting young first baseman are having strong seasons in Class C. Walt Messer, who was taken 2nd overall by the Gothams after Detroit drafted Sal Pestilli last December, has 12 homers in 49 games for Rock Island. Messer is tied with Marshalltown (BKN) youngster Tim Hopkins for the Upper Mississippi Valley Association lead. The Week That Was Current events for the week ending 6/13/1937 Striking autoworkers blockade the streets in Lansing, forcing the closure of plants and businesses in Michigan's capital. Unemployment in the United States is at its lowest since 1931, giving more credence to the claim that the depression is ending. Amelia Earhart crosses the Atlantic from Brazil to Senegal and is now preparing for her flight across Africa. The Soviets execute 8 top generals as spies in a purge of the Red Army. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports Last edited by Jiggs McGee; 06-14-2021 at 02:19 PM.