The Detroit World
April 17th, 1940
Sports
By Fred Farhat
Dynamo's make 3 trades on the Eve of the start of the Season
The Dynamo's were busy prior to the Opening Day start of the season. While none of the acquired players will be with the club for the 1st week of the season as the players move from their respective former cities, the club is excited to bring them in.
Deal #1 - Detroit and New York Gothams Swing a Deal
Detroit trades minor league CF Stan Chrzanowski (traded because of difficultly with spelling his name) for SP Mule Earl.
Basically the Gothams had DFA Earl after he failed to make their Opening Day roster. The out of options SP was available and Detroit sensing that they would not get him on waivers swung the low level deal with the Gotham's. For the G-men they at least get a warm body for a player they had no more use of. Earl will likely slot into the bullpen to start the season once he arrives and also could be used as an emergency SP if necessary.
Deal #2 - Detroit and Toronto revived talks for a player they have both discussed in the past.
The Dynamo's traded SP Ron Coles and a 7th round draft pick to the Wolves for veteran 3B Nick Wallace. While Wallace isn't expected to come in here and take Frank Vance's job at 3B he does provide a solid bat and depth for a team Detroit hopes will win the Fed this season.
Losing Ron Coles is the admittance that the deal with the Chicago Chiefs that saw SP's Bob Walls and Ron Coles come to Detroit for 2B Hank Barnett was an epic failure. While Walls was spun off in the 1938 season after having not been able to stay in AAA Newark's starting rotation, he has performed well for the Wolves in his season and half north of the border. Coles who came back from a serious injury after the 1937 season just never was able to regain his form that made him such a coveted player by GM DD Martin. While Coles was 6-0 with a 3.72 ERA mostly in relief last season, he was deemed expendable.
Martin chimed in stating this was a deal that provided both clubs with depth while shipping out players they had decided no longer fit their needs.
Deal #3 - Dynamo's and Keystones burn the Midnight Oil Before Announcing Deal
Detroit acquired LF Rip Curry (30) from the Keystones for minor league SP Abe Abingdon (19) and AAA CF Ed Greenwood (24). While Greenwood is the #89 prospect in baseball and Abingdon is #137, the Dynamo's decided they needed to add a little more insurance to their OF to make up for the departing Leon Drake. Curry who has been labeled "Sleepy" by his former team do to a sense of lack of motivation appears to be a solid replacement for Drake. Curry is a career 325/382/801 hitter with 49 home runs and 404 RBI's in 828 career games with the Keystones.
Some have raised their eyebrows at the Dynamo's shipping two prospects for Curry, but with CF locked down for 15+ seasons with Sal Pestilli, the club saw the opportunity to flip Greenwood after picking him up on waivers trade after he was DFA.
All 3 players will join the Dynamo's on the 2nd week of the season. Announcements have not been made yet who will be making room for the incoming players on the clubs 24 and 40 man rosters. Speculation is that veteran RP's Ben Curtin and Red Ross could be DFA next week.