Detroit World
Sports
By - Fred Farhat
Sunday April 14th, 1940
Dynamo’s Spring Training Review
The Dynamo’s came into spring training with only a few questions.
1.). Could veteran P Oscar Morse (36) be their 3rd RHSP to work with Detroit’s collection of 3 LHSP’s
2.) Who would take over the starting RF job left by the surprising departure of Leon Drake in the off-season?
3.) Is the end of season injury that occurred last year to all everything CF Sal Pestilli clearly behind him?
4.) 2B Ed Stewart had the worst offensive season of his career (although he played very good defensively). Can he bounce back to something closer to his career norms or will one of the young 2B the club acquired in the recent past (Dale Robbins or Chick Wilhelm) take over sooner than expected?
5.) With former minority Owner/Manager George Theobald off to Cincinnati with the ownership shake up with Big Ed Thompson passing last year. An rookie manager Patrick Licteneggar handle the high pressure situation he has been thrust into? Detroit GM Martin has made this type of bold move before when in 1933 he fired Cleveland Manager Hank Lietzke after a disappointing 5-17 start to that season. He hired unheralded rookie manager Jim Wilson who quickly righted the ship in the 33 season as Cleveland went 82-50 to finish 2nd that season. The next two seasons saw the Foresters win the CA twice and the 1934 World Series. An FA Pennant and Series win is what the Dynamos are looking for in the 1940 season.
Those are the questions that Detroit came to camp with. Here is perhaps some of the answers.
SP Oscar Morse has been a mixed bag to start the spring. He’s looked very good at times and he’s looked average at best several times. He finished the spring 1-1 with a 5.73 ERA in 7 games with 3 starts. He was rocked for 3 runs in his last appearance which was just an inning. You take out that 1 bad inning and he ends the spring with a much more respectable 4.42 ERA. He isn’t he to be the ace starter for the Dynamo’s but to provide stability and the extra rotation arm in case the club needs it.
What the club didn’t count on was another injury to star SP Charlie Wheeler. Wheeler looked sharp in his lone outing of 3 innings but then left the game with a strain in the same shoulder that caused him to miss the last half of the 39 season. While Wheeler is expected back around early May a 302nd injury to that shoulder was something they hoped to avoid. This makes the Morse signing even more important as well as the acquisition of young SP Cy Sullivan.
The answer to who will
take over in RF for Leon Drake took an injury turn as well. RF Sid Williams was the front runner to receive the most time with some occasional platoon help from Elmer Nolde. Williams looked solid in the first week of spring hitting 333 and drawing 6 walks. Then he went down with a strain groin that will keep him sidelined through the first week of the season. He will likely spend a week at Newark before likely getting the call up around May 1st. In his place to open the season will be Elmer Nolde and perhaps judging by the spring experiment with 1B Red Johnson in the OF, we might see Red out in either LF (preferred) or RF occasionally this season.
There is also some chatter that the club might be looking for a veteran OF to plug the gap.
While there is not a huge amount of
concern about CF Sal Pestilli coming back to form this season. There might be a fe raise eyebrows this spring 250 spring batting average. Sal started out the spring ice cold but slowly warmed up with some extra BP with hitting coach Jim Webb. Pestilli ended up at 250 with a late spring home run and drove in 11 RBI’s. At the end of spring training GM Martin stated that fans shouldn’t worry about Sal, he will be just fine and once again be among the leaders in Home Runs, RBI’s and runs scored.
2B Ed Stewart last season had a brutal year with the bat. After hitting 267 with 33 home runs in 1938, he fell off dramatically last season hitting 233 with 8-47. Stewart is likely beyond his 300 batting days, but a return of power and RBI’s is what the club is hoping. Stewart hit 292/407/844 this spring with a couple of home runs and 6 RBI’s. He has held off the challenge it’s the youngsters but the Dynamo’s did claim former Chicago Chief IF Len Jones to be a quality veteran option in case Stewart falters.
Finally, how did rookie skipper Patrick Licteneggar do this spring? Well he handled the club not hitting well in the first week. Instead of showing any signs of panic with the position bats hitting 188 that first week and a 2-4 record. The rookie skip just told everyone that we will work in the batting cage and he was sure the rust would wear off fairly quickly. And it did as the club went 3-3 the next week in spring and then went 10-2 over the last two weeks. While pennants aren’t won in Florida during these meaningless exhibition games, respect can be won. It is clear that while Licteneggar is looking for his first big league managerial win as the season opens, and he trails the former man in his seat by 2,424 wins. It is clear he has the clubhouse with the players support after going 15-9 in the spring.
The real test though comes April 16th when the Dynamo’s open the season against the hated rivals the Chicago Chiefs at Whitney Park for a 3-game series.