THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL
June 21, 1937
FIRST TEST FOR NEW DRAFT SYSTEM
This is a historic time in Figment Baseball as the two major changes to the draft system will come into effect tomorrow as the 1937 draft begins. The changes are well documented as they
1)- see the draft date moved from the off-season to late June in an effort to align with college and high school ball schedules.
and 2) have a special phase involving the top 32 players as they are no longer part of the draft but instead free to negotiate and sign with a team of their choice.
I have discussed the real life reasoning behind those changes because of our issues with the mock draft but here is the 1930's era storyline that will mark the official record of what happened to implement the change.
If they had their druthers the league owners would continue to use the same system that has been in force since the draft began in 1911. However, a combination of events caused them to agree to modify things. Those events included several college players over the years attempting to challenge the draft as an unfair business practice preventing the players from seeking employment where they choose. One player, Curly Jones, even briefly quit the game after being selected first overall by the New York Gothams in 1932. He eventually reversed his decision and agreed to play but he was the catalyst prompting other players to begin to band together. Jones remained involved and along with several other well educated and talented former college ballplayers they began to mount a case to challenge the legality of the draft. The group, which received the support of 1937 draftees including Joe Pestilli, Tom Frederick and Spud Bent was close to initiating efforts designed to unionize the players and challenge baseball's anti-trust exemption in court.
That in itself might not have been enough to sway the owners to any sort of compromise but when combined with the deadly protests going on with the Steelworkers Union in Chicago, FABL decided to open a dialog with the lawyers representing the players. There was some give from owners initially when talks began last summer but the tipping point actually happened because of the actions of one of the league owners. Perhaps sensing a change was on the way and not wanting to lose the ability to secure top players via the draft, the New York Gothams decided to trade off most of their premier talent and gut a championship team in an effort to stock up on young talent before any changes might occur. The irony is that decision by the Gothams was what ultimately convinced owners a change would be in their interests also.
To help prevent blatant attempts by a franchise to 'tank' in the future and appease the players somewhat at the same time, FABL presented a solution where each year a small number of elite amateur players could be exempt from the draft process and free to negotiate with any club of their choosing. They eventually compromised at 32 players with the rule that each player would narrow his choices down to 4 clubs and every club must be allowed to sign two players. This gave the players some choice in the matter while also keeping the ultimate control in the hands of the league. In return the players agreed to drop their pursuit of antitrust rules and abandon any plans to unionize.
MILESTONE HITS FOR GOINS AND LAWSON
Cleveland's T.R. Goins became the 21st player in FABL history to reach the 2,500 hit mark for his career while John Lawson became the 59th player to have 2,000 hits as both reached those lofty heights this week. Goins, who spent most of his career in Washington before a 1933 trade to the Foresters, is one of the few players to win a Whitney Award in each league, turning the trick with Washington in 1926 and Cleveland in 1934. He also won a World Championship Series with each organization and is a 3-time all-star. Max Morris, with 3,598 hits and Rankin Kellogg, at 2,526, are the only active players with more hits than Goins. His 2,5000 came Friday at home against Montreal. It was actually part of a 4-hit game and was his second double of the contest, a 3rd inning hit off of Montreal starter Jake DeYoung.
A day later John Lawson of the Chicago Cougars would get his 2,000, lacing a single off Les Zoller of the New York Stars in the 6th inning of a 4-3 Cougars loss at home to New York.
KEYSTONES MAKE A CHARGE
Thanks to a 13-5 record in June and a suddenly dominant pitching staff the Philadelphia Keystones are making some noise in the Federal Association. The Keystones have looked very good against the first place Chicago Chiefs of late, taking 4 of 6 games from the defending champions with second year starter George M Brooks (6-4, 2.34) leading the way. Brooks, who leads the Fed in ERA beat the Chiefs twice in his last three starts with a win over St Louis sandwiched in between. The former Georgia Baptist Gator, who was selected 9th overall in 1934, allowed just 2 earned runs in each of those 3 starts and has been named player of the game in 6 of his last seven starts.
The Chicago Chiefs still lead the way, by 4 games on second place Pittsburgh and 6 and a half on both Philadelphia and St Louis but with an injury to infielder Pete Layton and the continued struggles of Rabbit Day it might be white knuckle time at Whitney Park. Layton (.327,5,40), who recently switched from second to shortstop, will be out at least a month with muscle strain. Meanwhile Day, who was so good in winning the Allan Award and leading the Chiefs to the title a year ago, continues to struggle and it is not getting any better. Rather than just turning the page on May, perhaps Day would like to go back to April and just hit the reset button on the whole season. After a 7.71 (!!) ERA in 2 starts last week, Day's June ERA is now 5.45. April = 4.29, May = 4.59, June = 5.45. Not a good trend.
Chicago is not the only pennant contender to be bit by the injury bug last week as the Pittsburgh Miners learned they will be missing catcher George Cleaves (.344,7,25) for at least three weeks. Mahlon Strong (.310,5,13) is also hurt again - what else is new - but word is he is not expected to be seriously hobbled by his knee acting up again. Cleaves is a big loss and it costs the 23 year old a chance to appear in his 4th straight all-star game.
In the Continental the Brooklyn Kings limped through a 3-3 week as the club still appears shell-shocked by the loss of ace Tom Barrell, who will miss the next two months. Brooklyn has been working the phones frantically trying to find a pitcher to fill in for Barrell. They were rumoured to make a serious offer to a Continental Association rival for an elite young arm but talks never amounted to much so the Kings put a claim in on former Brooklyn pitcher Roy Pierce, who had been waived by Baltimore. Whether Pierce, who was 10-10 for Brooklyn in 1933, actually joins the team is up in the air as several staff members, most notably bench coach Danny Goff, are campaigning for Danny's son - 20 year old Jack Goff - to get the call to the big leagues. Goff was recently promoted to AAA Rochester and is 3-0 with a 3.65 era in 4 starts for the Rooks.
Second place Cleveland took two of 3 from Brooklyn at home and we are back to a tie for first place in the CA. Perhaps the Foresters should offer to play the rest of their games on the road as, while they are just 12-13 at Forester Stadium, they have the best road record in either association at 24-9.
SWING AND A MISS FOR FARHAT
In a recent edition of
The Detroit World newspaper, esteemed sportswriter Fast Freddie Farhat handed out grades on the efforts of Dynamos players and staff so far this season. Most of what Farhat reported was right on point but as I mentioned in an open letter to the paper Fast Freddie whiffed big time on his grade for Detroit's General Manager Martin. Now in Freddie's defense the mark of D assigned to Martin was the same mark Martin gave himself in an interview a week earlier but Farhat is, and should have been in this case, much better than that.
I won't go into all of the details in my response but I will say two years ago when Martin left Cleveland for the Detroit job it came as a huge surprise and was a huge step backwards as the Dynamos were arguably in state so poor that it has to be considered the worst hole a GM has ever had to dig out of, at least in the modern post 1925 era when human GM's assumed the reigns. Two years later Detroit is a team on the rise, loaded with young talent that is the envy of much of the league.
The job is certainly not done but Martin has acquired some impressive building blocks, with 8 prospects ranked in the top 100 including Sal Pestilli and Red Johnson, who are 1 and 2 overall. The 21 year old Pestilli is already proving his worth on the big league stage and looks like he could be the heart of the Dynamos franchise for the next 15 years. Johnson is just 19 but the 1936 second overall pick is performing very well in Class B and will likely be moved up a level next season so Detroit has it's centerfielder and first baseman to build around. You can also add in third baseman Hank Koblenz, who just turned 20 and was taken 5th overall two years ago. Kolbenz has had a little tougher time adjusting to pro ball than his Chattanooga teammate Johnson but it is far too early to give up on him. There is plenty more in the pipeline. December's third round pick, catcher Glen Sexton, has struggled early but I see big things for him and scouts absolutely love 20 year old shortstop Frank Davis, who was acquired from Pittsburgh for aging pitcher Roy Calfee (now retired) and is already at AAA.
Detroit has a great young core of young offensive talent and several pitchers with potential as well. This is from a team that had absolutely nothing - not even managers at most levels in it's minor league system when Martin arrived.
BREAKING DOWN THE GOTHAMS
The New York World-Telegram, which is owned by the Bigsby family so often has a pro-Gothams slant to it's reporting, offered this comparison of the New York Feds club a year ago compared to today after the team was gutted right about this time last season, just months after winning a World Championship.
The World-Telegram writes "The Gothams have taken a lot of heat for breaking up a championship team. Well what if they'd kept the old gang together? Does this look like a contender?:"
Code:
C Wicklund .246 - 4 - 25 Traded replaced with - Lake .305 - 1 25
1B Jameson .258 - 4 - 19
2B Mudd .272 - 4 - 21
3B McDowell .248 - 0 - 11
SS Smith .236 - 0 - 18
LF Pidgeon .321 - 6 - 32 Traded replaced with - DeMars .288 - 6 - 32
CF Taylor .262 - 1 - 12 Cut replaced with - Brown, Jr. .348 - 1 - 22
RF Strong .329 - 5 - 12 Traded replaced with - Adams .307 - 1 - 22
SP Lonardo 2-6 3.63
SP Day 5-4 4.35 Traded replaced with Snyder 4-2 3.08
SP Bates 4-5 5.09 Traded replaced with Baker 2-2 4.35
SP Elder 1-5 5.49 Traded replaced with Adams 2-3 4.84
SP Jones 2-2 3.08 Traded replaced with Ratcliffe (will make his ML debut this sim)
CL Ellertson 4-1 3.96 Traded replaced with Watters 2-0 1.78
Many readers quickly responded with some arguments, the best of which came from a Cleveland fan who very eloquently noted that you "cant take an engine apart and say the parts don't work by themselves."
Others had similar arguments suggesting that "things might have been different if they stayed together, but more likely a battle for 3rd/4th/5th like (The World-Telegraph) said. The only caveat is if you hadn’t broken up the team what would you have added to improve them and would the pitchers be doing better at the oval than they are scattered around the league?"
Of that we will never know but the Gothams brass continues to feed it's fans the story that the Gothams players were for the most part ready for retirement and they now have loads of young talent coming in. The Gothams management and their lackeys at the World-Telegraph can spin it any way they like but there is no way anyone can convince me that the team, or the great Gothams baseball fans in New York, are in any way better off with Rabbit Day, Mahlon Strong and Moxie Pidgeon all suiting up for Federal Association rivals instead of trying to win another pennant together in New York. Yes Day is struggling right now but he will come out of it and I am sorry but you just do not tear apart a team six months after their second straight 90+ win season and back to back Federal Association pennants.
A Gothams executive responded to the verbal attacks by pointing out correctly that New York had no farm system to speak of. "It was ranked 15-16th in the league. So we had no capital to try improving that team. We had spent it to win and all I could do was trade away another draft to try plugging holes."
It will be fun to see what happens going forward with this new group of Gothams and might be interesting to compare the New York plan to that of the Brooklyn Kings. The Kings are in a very similar position to what the Gothams found themselves in a year ago. Brooklyn, like New York a year ago, has very little in the way of prospects at the minor league level and the Kings have a lot of key players on the wrong side of thirty including Frank Vance, Dan Barrell, Fred Barrell, Doug Lightbody, Joe Shaffner with Tom Barrell, Mike Murphy and Al Wheeler right there at age 29 as well. Brooklyn assistant General Manager Jim Golden is adamant the idea of tearing apart the team has never crossed their minds.
"Never would the Kings consider a complete sell-off to tear the team apart," explained Golden. "We just won't do that to our fans. Pieces might get moved as we progress but I think, and it is just my opinion so in the big picture not worth anything at all, they would have been far better served keeping the key guys - biting the bullet on perhaps one bad year - and quite possibly being back in contention again this season."
While Golden would not say any more on the subject it was quite obvious there is no love lost in Brooklyn towards the Gothams organization, a team with a rich history that has often overshadowed the Kings. As for what The Figment Sporting Journal's thoughts on the subject are: Well, I just want to say I take great exception to the Gothams statement that they would no longer have contended with the group they had a year ago. I disagree. Remember if the Gothams had hung on to their core the Chiefs would not have Rabbit Day so they would be weaker and who knows, if Day was getting better run support in New York this season than he has received from the Chiefs he might be in the middle of another dominant campaign, one in which the right move or two at the deadline to add veteran pieces and a couple of breaks, might have had New York contending for a chance to play October baseball. A guarantee of a title? No, absolutely not but that is the same challenge every team faces every year. However, with their current make-up one thing is certain - it is clear October baseball is a few years away for the Gothams.
QUICK HITS
Pittsburgh's Joe Owens had 15 triples last year, 13 triples the year before and has yet to hit one this year.
It's a small sample size but Lew Seals has 7 outfield assists in just 208 innings playing in right field for the Miners. There are 4 other players with more than that in RF, and they've all played upwards of 450 innings out there. Seals had 21 assists playing the outfield in the minors last season.
We had another no-hitter last week. This one was in the AAA Century League as Minneapolis pitcher Bill Brown blanked the Indianapolis Hoosiers 1-0 in a dramatic game that was scoreless until the top of the ninth when Lumberjacks pinch-hitter Dilly Ward delivered an rbi single for the only run. Brown, who also threw a no-hitter in AA six years ago, did not allow a walk but did hit 3 Hoosiers batters. The 29 year old has been in the Montreal Saints system since signing as an undrafted free agent out of Spartanburg High School in 1925.
The Week That Was
Current events for the week ending 6/20/1937
- The Soviets execute 28 more--mostly business and industrial leaders--as purge continues.
- Amelia Earhart will likely need to quarantine for 9 days after landing in India this week, as she has flown from a Yellow Fever area in Africa.
- In the Spanish conflict, the rebels gain control of the key Basque city of Bilbao.
- President Roosevelt becomes involved in the steelworkers strike. In Youngstown, police and strikers clash in pitched battles. The city is under control of state police.