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Jiggs McGee · 02-06-2022, 12:37 AM

JANUARY 13, 1941

The 1941 FABL draft is underway with the first two selections being announced and neither comes as a surprise. Although there were some rumours the Cleveland Foresters had briefly considered trade offers for the number one selection in the end they decided to hang on to the pick and take Hiram Steinberg, an 18 year old righthander out of New York City's Washington High School who had been speculated as the possible top pick of the 1941 draft as far back as his outstanding freshman season of 1938 when Steinberg went 12-0 with a 0.65 era. Steinberg has never lost a high school game and is a perfect 35-0 with a 0.55 era and 632 strikeouts in 362 innings of work. He was a High School All-American selection each of the three years and added the Adwell Award, as the National High School player of the year each of the last two.

Steinberg is already third in career high school strikeouts and when his senior season is over he will likely lead in that category as well as career high school victories. His 35-0 mark is 7 less than Donnie Jones accumulated at Minneapolis High School before being selected 6th overall by Toronto in the 1938 draft.

Assuming he signs with the Foresters following his senior year in June, Steinberg should certainly top the Cleveland prospect list and may well immediately debut as a top ten prospect on OSA's league wide list. OSA feels Steinberg has the potential be an ace, and will be heavily counted on to lead the Foresters in their rebuild.

Cleveland had spent 8 straight seasons in the first division, winning the franchise's first WCS title in 1934 and a pennant again the following season, but the club fell on hard times last year finishing with a 53-101 record good for last place overall in FABL. The 53 win total is the second lowest in franchise his and the lowest since the debut season of FABL way back in 1892.

It marks the third straight season Cleveland has taken a pitcher with their first round selection, opting for Richie Hughes 14th overall in the 1940 draft and Bart Schneider, one of the famous Schneider triplets, with the 8th pick in 1939. It also marks the 3rd time Cleveland selected first overall in the modern era and the previous two had quite different results. In 1931 Cleveland selected Harry Barrell, who has gone on to be a 6 time all-star shortstop with Brooklyn, while in 1926 the Foresters drafted Rainier College outfielder Karl Stevens number one and Stevens went on to play just 14 career FABL games.

Code:

CLEVELAND FORESTERS FIRST ROUND PICKS
	MODERN (HUMAN GM) ERA
YEAR  PICK#	NAME		POS	SCHOOL
1925	14   Alex Thompson	1B  San Antonio HS
1926     1   Karl Stevens	OF  Rainier College
	13   Mike Williams	OF  College of San Diego
	16   Woody Armstrong	SS  University of Chicago 
1927     9   Dick Kennon	OF  Pierpont University
1928    12   Leo Clark		OF  Dickson College
1929     8   Amos Leblanc	OF  George Fox Univ.
	16   Ben Bernard	P   Mobile HS
1930     4   Johnny Turner	3B  George Fox Univ.
1931     1   Harry Barrell	SS  Atlanta HS
1932    10   Levi Redding	OF  Central Ohio Univ.
	12   Art Spencer	3B  Rainier College
1933         Traded first round pick  
1934  	     Traded first round pick 
1935    15   Gabe Cain Jr.      2B  Houlton (ME) HS
        16   Eli Harkless	OF  Cambridge (MA) HS
1936    12   Jake Creel		SS  Ferguson College
1937    11   Joseph Mills	OF  Carolina Poly
1938    10   Paul F Smith	OF  Bardney College
1939     9   Bart Schneider     P   Northwestern HS, Detroit, MI
1940    14   Richie Hughes	P   Amboy (IL) HS
1941 	 1   Hiram Steinberg    P   Washington HS, New York City

ST LOUIS PIONEERS TAKE TOM BUCHANAN

As obvious as Steinberg appeared to be as the number one choice many, including TWIFB editor Jiggs McGee, had tabbed Tom Buchanan as nearly as clear cut to go second overall. The St Louis Pioneers followed script by picking the Waterloo, Iowa native immediately after the Foresters revealed their choice.

While most consider Buchanan, a tall (6'2") hard throwing lefthander, to be a step down from Steinberg OSA still believes once he matures the 17 year old should rank among the best starting pitching prospects in any organization. Buchanan took a big leap forward as a junior at Waterloo High last season, going 11-0 with a 0.58 era and 184 strikeouts while walking just 15 in 108 innings of work.

Pitching was a big problem for the Pioneers last season but plenty of help appears to be on the way. Buchanan will certainly need a few years in the minors but former first round St Louis selections Mel Bianco and Carl Roe both appear ready to join the big league club next season and the Pioneers also have 24 year old Danny Hern who spent significant time in St Louis this season. Those three and Buchanan certainly give the Pioneers a solid group of arms to build their future around.

The draft will continue over the next couple of days.

HALL OF FAME BALLOT REVEALED

The following players have been named as candidates for the 1941 Hall of Fame Class. A vote among league executives and selected media members will be conducted this week with the top three vote getters on the ballot will compromise this year's class. In addition one manager will also been enshrined from the list of former skipper's below.

PLAYERS

2B Jack Arabian (1896-1915) - .338 (15th), 3391 hits (6th all-time), 565 2B (3rd), 1362 R (19th), 1343 RBI (14th), 168.3 WAR (5th)
SS George Melvin (1891-1909) - 2716 hits (16th), 1471 R (14th), 686 SB (7th), 167.3 WAR (6th)
OF Thomas Watkins (1888-1904) - 3143 hits (9th), 581 2B (1st), 1641 R (8th), 1378 RBI (10th), 624 SB (13th), 108.8 WAR (14th)
OF Bill Craigen (1899-1917) - 2906 hits (11th), 381 3B (3rd), 1341 R (21st), 1294 RBI (16th), 89.8 WAR; Manager: 4 WCS wins, 1512-1409 record
1B Jim Jones (1879-1904) - 2786 hits (13th), 512 2B (6th), 206 3B (18th), 1608 R (9th), 1354 RBI (13th), 99.1 WAR (18th)
P Bill Temple (1899-1911), 284-230 (14th), 2.31 ERA (128 ERA+), 4819.1 IP (12th), 3131 K (2nd), 112.3 WAR (5th)
P Phil Miller (1909-1924), 288-284 (13th), 3.18 ERA (103 ERA+), 5102 IP, (5th) 1451 K, 102.4 WAR (6th)
P Charlie Wilson (1889-1901), 332-190, (5th) 2.72 ERA, (135 ERA+), 4698 IP (17th), 1927 K (13th), 99.2 WAR (7th)
P Jim Golden (1909-1920), 269-158 (17th), 2.27 ERA (129 ERA+), 3887 IP (31st), 2060 K (12th), 82.3 WAR (20th)
P Charlie Firestone (1912-1919), 210-103 (41st), 2.25 ERA (135 ERA+), 2898 IP (82nd), 1881 K (14th), 78.4 WAR

MANAGERS

Bill Craigen (1920-38): Also on ballot as player. 2921 G, 1512-1409 W-L, 4 WCS titles with NYS
Walter Love (1894-1920): 3911 G (3rd), 2076 wins (3rd) 1835 L, 3 WCS title, 1 add'l pennant
Joe Johnson (1892-1924): .551 Win Percentage, best for all managers with 1000+ games. 966-788 record, 4 pennants, 2 titles

The 1940 class consisted of just one player, pitching great Big George Johnson, as well as early major league manager Edward Wakeham. 9 votes were required for election on the players side a year ago. Here were the 1940 results:

Code:


HOF Voting results. 12 ballots, 9 votes needed for election:
Big George Johnson	9
Jack Arabian		7
Charlie Wilson		7
Jim Golden		6
Bill Temple		3
Thomas Watkins		2
Jim Jones		1
Fred Robey		0
Joe Carney		0

Here is the complete list of Hall of Famers.

A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT TOP PLAYERS

Earlier in this off season we had the announcement of the Whitney Awards for the top batter of each association. What does that mean: top batter? Is there an analytic approach we could take to help us determine who the top batters were in the FABL in 1940?

If you are working in a FABL front office, part of the job is to determine the value of particular players and find areas in which your club can be improved. How? Well, if the run is the currency of the game and the win is the currency of the season, then a club wants to generate as many runs as it can per game--while preventing the other team from generating runs--resulting in the maximum number of wins over the course of 154 games. And so for player value, the equation is simple: value comes from generating runs or preventing runs. Asking the question--who are the top batters?--is the same as asking which batters generated the most runs.

Lucky for us, there is an analytical statistic that attempts to answer just that question: Weighted Runs Created (wRC). And the plus version of that statistic--wRC+--is the park and league adjusted version. With wRC, instead of listing the individual elements of a batter's line individually--(.257/.374/.442, 25 2B, 16 3B, 14 HR)--the individual elements are distilled into a single number in order to say, "Player X was worth 24 runs to his team last year." wRC+ is further useful as it can be used to compare players--not only players who played in different parks with different run scoring environments, but also different seasons with different run scoring environments. A .348 batting average means something different in 1940 than it did in 1910. A wRC+ of 118 means the same thing all of the time.

But if we are used to looking at numbers like a player's slash line (.311/.346/.454), how can we make sense of a number like 118 wRC+? Is that good?

Everyone looks at .300 as the benchmark for a good batter. For the rest of the slash line, I think we can agree that an OPS (OBP plus SLG) of .800 is the mark of an above average player. In 1940 a total of 33 qualified batters reached the .800 OPS threshold. Red Johnson of the Dynamos is at the top of that list with 1.020 and Woody Stone of the Sailors is at the bottom right at .800. Stone's slash line was .311/.346/.454--.800. His wRC+ for the season was 118--18 percent above league average.

And here's Stars third baseman Ray Cochran: .300/.367/.450--.816, 125 wRC+.
Sailors first baseman Dick Walker: .257/.374/.442--.816, 130 wRC+.
Red Johnson? .335/.451/.569--1.020, 183 wRC+.

It's generally thought that a wRC+ of 115 or above denotes an above average player. Woody Stone and his .800 OPS had a wRC+ of 118. So, it passes the first eye test: these 33 batters with an OPS of at least .800 represent a group of above average batters in 1940.

Just for fun: how are the clubs represented among these 33 batters?

By club: BOS (2), CHC (3), CHI (3), CIN (2), CLE (2), DET (2), MON (3), NYS (5), PHI (2), PHS (2), PIT (4), STL (1), TOR (2).
Missing: WAS, NYG, BRK.

It's easy to see why the seasons for the Eagles, Gothams, and Kings were so disappointing.

What about the entire cohort of 89 qualified batters? Recall that wRC+ is calculated such that 100 represents league average. Above 100 is better than average, and below 100 is worse than average. As such, we would expect the wRC+ values to be distributed in a bell curve, with most batters somewhere around average.

Code:


Rating         wRC+      Player Count
Excellent      160        2
Great          140       15
Above Average  115       25
Average        100       23
Below Average   80       19
Poor            75        0
Awful           60        5

What this table means is that a hitter that had an above average season has a wRC+ of between 115 and 140, a great season is between 140 and 160, and an excellent season is above 160. And as we expected, most of the batters (67 of 89 or 75%) are some degree of average.

The two players in the Excellent category? Detroit's Red Johnson (.335/.451/.459, wRC+ 183) and Montreal's Red Bond (.340/.394/.550, wRC+ 164). Johnson won the Whitney in the FA while Bond was the runner-up in the CA.

The winner of the CA Whitney was the Cougars John Lawson (.345/.399/.507, wRC+ 154) who landed in the Great category. Both the Chiefs Hank Barnett (.298/.387/.529, wRC+ 159) and the Wolves Fred McCormick (.335/.430/.509, wRC+ 159) finished just outside of the Excellent group.

It is interesting--at least to me--that while there were no batters in the Poor category (wRC+ between 75 and 80), there were five batters who received enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title and who also finished with an Awful wRC+. That ignoble group:

The Pioneers Tommy Wilson (.223/.300/.300, wRC+ 71) and Ivan Cameron (.251/.313/.308, wRC+ 70), the Kings Fred Barrell (.243/.312/.321, wRC+ 70) and Walt Layton (.224/.265/.342, wRC+ 69), and the Dynamos Gil London (.216/.291/.268, wRC+ 62).

What these 5 players have in common--besides a wRC+ below 75--is that they all play good defense, which is why they have their spots in the starting lineup. There comes a point in time, though, that no matter how many runs you are saving in the field, if you are giving all those runs back at the plate, the improved defense is not worth it.

And I don't mean to single out the Kings, but their offense needs a lot of work. We already pointed out that the Kings were one of three clubs to not have any qualified batters top .800 OPS. And not only do they have two batters in the Awful wRC+ category, they have no batters in the Great or Above Average categories either. Their top batter--Rats McGonigle (.265/.314/.448, wRC+ 110)--had a decidedly average season. And on top of that, McGonigle was the only qualified Kings batter in the Average category.

The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 1/12/1941

Despite being driven out of Egypt and forced to fall back in both Greece and Libya, Mussolini and the Italian cabinet adopt a resolution "solemnly reaffirming" Italy's fidelity to the alliance with Germany and declared Italy's determination to fight on to victory. Mussolini also expressed confidence in the capabilities of the Italian military.
Britain expects Hitler to attempt to land on English soil in the next few months, if not weeks. They feel Hitler "cannot afford to remain passive much longer while his junior partner in crime is being hammered in Africa and Albania, on the seas and in the air."
The R.A.F. bombed Naples this week in addition to several attacks on German naval ports.
Russia objected heavily that the US is violating international law by sending arms to Britain while holding that Russia could not sell even cereals to Germany without violating the policy of peace. This came as Germany and Russia agree to a new pact, extending trade between the two nations.
President Roosevelt calls for a final budget of $17 billion "for the total defense of our democracy" and will soon ask for an additional reported $3-$10 billion being needed to help supply munitions for Britain.
Secretary of Navy Knox announces the addition of 40,000 more enlisted men to meet FDR's call that every U.S. warship be manned at full wartime strength as soon as possible.
New York City Mayor LaGuardia hints he may leave his post for Washington to act as co-ordinator of the defense program but when FDR was asked about the report he replied it was the first time he had heard of it.

02-06-2022, 12:37 AM	#349
Jiggs McGee All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2019 Posts: 677	1941 January - the draft begins and Hall of Fame ballot revealed JANUARY 13, 1941 The 1941 FABL draft is underway with the first two selections being announced and neither comes as a surprise. Although there were some rumours the Cleveland Foresters had briefly considered trade offers for the number one selection in the end they decided to hang on to the pick and take Hiram Steinberg, an 18 year old righthander out of New York City's Washington High School who had been speculated as the possible top pick of the 1941 draft as far back as his outstanding freshman season of 1938 when Steinberg went 12-0 with a 0.65 era. Steinberg has never lost a high school game and is a perfect 35-0 with a 0.55 era and 632 strikeouts in 362 innings of work. He was a High School All-American selection each of the three years and added the Adwell Award, as the National High School player of the year each of the last two. Steinberg is already third in career high school strikeouts and when his senior season is over he will likely lead in that category as well as career high school victories. His 35-0 mark is 7 less than Donnie Jones accumulated at Minneapolis High School before being selected 6th overall by Toronto in the 1938 draft. Assuming he signs with the Foresters following his senior year in June, Steinberg should certainly top the Cleveland prospect list and may well immediately debut as a top ten prospect on OSA's league wide list. OSA feels Steinberg has the potential be an ace, and will be heavily counted on to lead the Foresters in their rebuild. Cleveland had spent 8 straight seasons in the first division, winning the franchise's first WCS title in 1934 and a pennant again the following season, but the club fell on hard times last year finishing with a 53-101 record good for last place overall in FABL. The 53 win total is the second lowest in franchise his and the lowest since the debut season of FABL way back in 1892. It marks the third straight season Cleveland has taken a pitcher with their first round selection, opting for Richie Hughes 14th overall in the 1940 draft and Bart Schneider, one of the famous Schneider triplets, with the 8th pick in 1939. It also marks the 3rd time Cleveland selected first overall in the modern era and the previous two had quite different results. In 1931 Cleveland selected Harry Barrell, who has gone on to be a 6 time all-star shortstop with Brooklyn, while in 1926 the Foresters drafted Rainier College outfielder Karl Stevens number one and Stevens went on to play just 14 career FABL games. Code: CLEVELAND FORESTERS FIRST ROUND PICKS MODERN (HUMAN GM) ERA YEAR PICK# NAME POS SCHOOL 1925 14 Alex Thompson 1B San Antonio HS 1926 1 Karl Stevens OF Rainier College 13 Mike Williams OF College of San Diego 16 Woody Armstrong SS University of Chicago 1927 9 Dick Kennon OF Pierpont University 1928 12 Leo Clark OF Dickson College 1929 8 Amos Leblanc OF George Fox Univ. 16 Ben Bernard P Mobile HS 1930 4 Johnny Turner 3B George Fox Univ. 1931 1 Harry Barrell SS Atlanta HS 1932 10 Levi Redding OF Central Ohio Univ. 12 Art Spencer 3B Rainier College 1933 Traded first round pick 1934 Traded first round pick 1935 15 Gabe Cain Jr. 2B Houlton (ME) HS 16 Eli Harkless OF Cambridge (MA) HS 1936 12 Jake Creel SS Ferguson College 1937 11 Joseph Mills OF Carolina Poly 1938 10 Paul F Smith OF Bardney College 1939 9 Bart Schneider P Northwestern HS, Detroit, MI 1940 14 Richie Hughes P Amboy (IL) HS 1941 1 Hiram Steinberg P Washington HS, New York City ST LOUIS PIONEERS TAKE TOM BUCHANAN As obvious as Steinberg appeared to be as the number one choice many, including TWIFB editor Jiggs McGee, had tabbed Tom Buchanan as nearly as clear cut to go second overall. The St Louis Pioneers followed script by picking the Waterloo, Iowa native immediately after the Foresters revealed their choice. While most consider Buchanan, a tall (6'2") hard throwing lefthander, to be a step down from Steinberg OSA still believes once he matures the 17 year old should rank among the best starting pitching prospects in any organization. Buchanan took a big leap forward as a junior at Waterloo High last season, going 11-0 with a 0.58 era and 184 strikeouts while walking just 15 in 108 innings of work. Pitching was a big problem for the Pioneers last season but plenty of help appears to be on the way. Buchanan will certainly need a few years in the minors but former first round St Louis selections Mel Bianco and Carl Roe both appear ready to join the big league club next season and the Pioneers also have 24 year old Danny Hern who spent significant time in St Louis this season. Those three and Buchanan certainly give the Pioneers a solid group of arms to build their future around. The draft will continue over the next couple of days. HALL OF FAME BALLOT REVEALED The following players have been named as candidates for the 1941 Hall of Fame Class. A vote among league executives and selected media members will be conducted this week with the top three vote getters on the ballot will compromise this year's class. In addition one manager will also been enshrined from the list of former skipper's below. PLAYERS 2B Jack Arabian (1896-1915) - .338 (15th), 3391 hits (6th all-time), 565 2B (3rd), 1362 R (19th), 1343 RBI (14th), 168.3 WAR (5th) SS George Melvin (1891-1909) - 2716 hits (16th), 1471 R (14th), 686 SB (7th), 167.3 WAR (6th) OF Thomas Watkins (1888-1904) - 3143 hits (9th), 581 2B (1st), 1641 R (8th), 1378 RBI (10th), 624 SB (13th), 108.8 WAR (14th) OF Bill Craigen (1899-1917) - 2906 hits (11th), 381 3B (3rd), 1341 R (21st), 1294 RBI (16th), 89.8 WAR; Manager: 4 WCS wins, 1512-1409 record 1B Jim Jones (1879-1904) - 2786 hits (13th), 512 2B (6th), 206 3B (18th), 1608 R (9th), 1354 RBI (13th), 99.1 WAR (18th) P Bill Temple (1899-1911), 284-230 (14th), 2.31 ERA (128 ERA+), 4819.1 IP (12th), 3131 K (2nd), 112.3 WAR (5th) P Phil Miller (1909-1924), 288-284 (13th), 3.18 ERA (103 ERA+), 5102 IP, (5th) 1451 K, 102.4 WAR (6th) P Charlie Wilson (1889-1901), 332-190, (5th) 2.72 ERA, (135 ERA+), 4698 IP (17th), 1927 K (13th), 99.2 WAR (7th) P Jim Golden (1909-1920), 269-158 (17th), 2.27 ERA (129 ERA+), 3887 IP (31st), 2060 K (12th), 82.3 WAR (20th) P Charlie Firestone (1912-1919), 210-103 (41st), 2.25 ERA (135 ERA+), 2898 IP (82nd), 1881 K (14th), 78.4 WAR MANAGERS Bill Craigen (1920-38): Also on ballot as player. 2921 G, 1512-1409 W-L, 4 WCS titles with NYS Walter Love (1894-1920): 3911 G (3rd), 2076 wins (3rd) 1835 L, 3 WCS title, 1 add'l pennant Joe Johnson (1892-1924): .551 Win Percentage, best for all managers with 1000+ games. 966-788 record, 4 pennants, 2 titles The 1940 class consisted of just one player, pitching great Big George Johnson, as well as early major league manager Edward Wakeham. 9 votes were required for election on the players side a year ago. Here were the 1940 results: Code: HOF Voting results. 12 ballots, 9 votes needed for election: Big George Johnson 9 Jack Arabian 7 Charlie Wilson 7 Jim Golden 6 Bill Temple 3 Thomas Watkins 2 Jim Jones 1 Fred Robey 0 Joe Carney 0 Here is the complete list of Hall of Famers. A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT TOP PLAYERS Earlier in this off season we had the announcement of the Whitney Awards for the top batter of each association. What does that mean: top batter? Is there an analytic approach we could take to help us determine who the top batters were in the FABL in 1940? If you are working in a FABL front office, part of the job is to determine the value of particular players and find areas in which your club can be improved. How? Well, if the run is the currency of the game and the win is the currency of the season, then a club wants to generate as many runs as it can per game--while preventing the other team from generating runs--resulting in the maximum number of wins over the course of 154 games. And so for player value, the equation is simple: value comes from generating runs or preventing runs. Asking the question--who are the top batters?--is the same as asking which batters generated the most runs. Lucky for us, there is an analytical statistic that attempts to answer just that question: Weighted Runs Created (wRC). And the plus version of that statistic--wRC+--is the park and league adjusted version. With wRC, instead of listing the individual elements of a batter's line individually--(.257/.374/.442, 25 2B, 16 3B, 14 HR)--the individual elements are distilled into a single number in order to say, "Player X was worth 24 runs to his team last year." wRC+ is further useful as it can be used to compare players--not only players who played in different parks with different run scoring environments, but also different seasons with different run scoring environments. A .348 batting average means something different in 1940 than it did in 1910. A wRC+ of 118 means the same thing all of the time. But if we are used to looking at numbers like a player's slash line (.311/.346/.454), how can we make sense of a number like 118 wRC+? Is that good? Everyone looks at .300 as the benchmark for a good batter. For the rest of the slash line, I think we can agree that an OPS (OBP plus SLG) of .800 is the mark of an above average player. In 1940 a total of 33 qualified batters reached the .800 OPS threshold. Red Johnson of the Dynamos is at the top of that list with 1.020 and Woody Stone of the Sailors is at the bottom right at .800. Stone's slash line was .311/.346/.454--.800. His wRC+ for the season was 118--18 percent above league average. And here's Stars third baseman Ray Cochran: .300/.367/.450--.816, 125 wRC+. Sailors first baseman Dick Walker: .257/.374/.442--.816, 130 wRC+. Red Johnson? .335/.451/.569--1.020, 183 wRC+. It's generally thought that a wRC+ of 115 or above denotes an above average player. Woody Stone and his .800 OPS had a wRC+ of 118. So, it passes the first eye test: these 33 batters with an OPS of at least .800 represent a group of above average batters in 1940. Just for fun: how are the clubs represented among these 33 batters? By club: BOS (2), CHC (3), CHI (3), CIN (2), CLE (2), DET (2), MON (3), NYS (5), PHI (2), PHS (2), PIT (4), STL (1), TOR (2). Missing: WAS, NYG, BRK. It's easy to see why the seasons for the Eagles, Gothams, and Kings were so disappointing. What about the entire cohort of 89 qualified batters? Recall that wRC+ is calculated such that 100 represents league average. Above 100 is better than average, and below 100 is worse than average. As such, we would expect the wRC+ values to be distributed in a bell curve, with most batters somewhere around average. Code: Rating wRC+ Player Count Excellent 160 2 Great 140 15 Above Average 115 25 Average 100 23 Below Average 80 19 Poor 75 0 Awful 60 5 What this table means is that a hitter that had an above average season has a wRC+ of between 115 and 140, a great season is between 140 and 160, and an excellent season is above 160. And as we expected, most of the batters (67 of 89 or 75%) are some degree of average. The two players in the Excellent category? Detroit's Red Johnson (.335/.451/.459, wRC+ 183) and Montreal's Red Bond (.340/.394/.550, wRC+ 164). Johnson won the Whitney in the FA while Bond was the runner-up in the CA. The winner of the CA Whitney was the Cougars John Lawson (.345/.399/.507, wRC+ 154) who landed in the Great category. Both the Chiefs Hank Barnett (.298/.387/.529, wRC+ 159) and the Wolves Fred McCormick (.335/.430/.509, wRC+ 159) finished just outside of the Excellent group. It is interesting--at least to me--that while there were no batters in the Poor category (wRC+ between 75 and 80), there were five batters who received enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title and who also finished with an Awful wRC+. That ignoble group: The Pioneers Tommy Wilson (.223/.300/.300, wRC+ 71) and Ivan Cameron (.251/.313/.308, wRC+ 70), the Kings Fred Barrell (.243/.312/.321, wRC+ 70) and Walt Layton (.224/.265/.342, wRC+ 69), and the Dynamos Gil London (.216/.291/.268, wRC+ 62). What these 5 players have in common--besides a wRC+ below 75--is that they all play good defense, which is why they have their spots in the starting lineup. There comes a point in time, though, that no matter how many runs you are saving in the field, if you are giving all those runs back at the plate, the improved defense is not worth it. And I don't mean to single out the Kings, but their offense needs a lot of work. We already pointed out that the Kings were one of three clubs to not have any qualified batters top .800 OPS. And not only do they have two batters in the Awful wRC+ category, they have no batters in the Great or Above Average categories either. Their top batter--Rats McGonigle (.265/.314/.448, wRC+ 110)--had a decidedly average season. And on top of that, McGonigle was the only qualified Kings batter in the Average category. The Week That Was Current events from the week ending 1/12/1941 Despite being driven out of Egypt and forced to fall back in both Greece and Libya, Mussolini and the Italian cabinet adopt a resolution "solemnly reaffirming" Italy's fidelity to the alliance with Germany and declared Italy's determination to fight on to victory. Mussolini also expressed confidence in the capabilities of the Italian military. Britain expects Hitler to attempt to land on English soil in the next few months, if not weeks. They feel Hitler "cannot afford to remain passive much longer while his junior partner in crime is being hammered in Africa and Albania, on the seas and in the air." The R.A.F. bombed Naples this week in addition to several attacks on German naval ports. Russia objected heavily that the US is violating international law by sending arms to Britain while holding that Russia could not sell even cereals to Germany without violating the policy of peace. This came as Germany and Russia agree to a new pact, extending trade between the two nations. President Roosevelt calls for a final budget of $17 billion "for the total defense of our democracy" and will soon ask for an additional reported $3-$10 billion being needed to help supply munitions for Britain. Secretary of Navy Knox announces the addition of 40,000 more enlisted men to meet FDR's call that every U.S. warship be manned at full wartime strength as soon as possible. New York City Mayor LaGuardia hints he may leave his post for Washington to act as co-ordinator of the defense program but when FDR was asked about the report he replied it was the first time he had heard of it. __________________ Lead Columnist of The Figment Sporting Journal The Scripture of Sports Last edited by Jiggs McGee; 02-06-2022 at 12:40 AM.