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The 1943-44 Off-Season. It's All About the January Draft!
October 1943 Transactions:
Following the season besides the all hands on deck preparation for the January portion of the amateur draft, the Dynamo's did some housekeeping to the organization. Nobody on the 40-man roster retired, but veteran OF Al Heard who had spent 5 seasons in the big leagues with the Foresters, hung up his cleats after being in the AA ranks in the Dynamo's organization. As a big leaguer Heard hit 253/362/721 with 4 career home runs and 39 career RBI's. He added 10 stolen bases as well but never quite materialized as GM DD Martin had hoped when he was drafted in the 3rd round of the 1932 draft.
Other players moving on were P Jim Ray Clark, OF Fred Quinn, 2B Juan Sarmiento, RF Jorge Nava and 2B Chick Wilhelm.
November 1943 transactions
The Dynamo's made a trade with the Chicago Cougars trading an 8th round pick for SP Pug Bryan. At one time the Coug's were very high on the now 31-year-old hurler, but his career hasn't really panned out of hoped. He has a career record of 19-31 with 6 saves and a career ERA of 4.39. He is expected to have an opportunity in spring training to not only make the Dynamo's roster but be a member of the starting rotation. This may give a early indication of just how depleted the pitching is for the Dynamo's.
Several more players were drafted into the military service ranks including starting LF Rip Curry. Also going off to war was 2B Orville Snodgrass, SP Bobo White, SP Sergio Gonzales.
The Dynamo's made the move to try and strengthen their pitching corps by signing SP Roy Helland to a make good minor league spring contract. Shortly after Helland was signed, he was drafted and the Dynamo's simply released the veteran pitcher.
December 1943 Transactions
The Rule 5 draft was going to take place in December after some debate about scraping the draft do to the issues of so many players being draft for military service. But the draft was held as scheduled on Monday December 27th, 1943. To the surprise of nobody, not one single Dynamo organization player was taken. Detroit did grab 3 players in the draft.
With their 1st round selection they took Pittsburgh minor league SP Bob Clark (RHP - Age 23). Clark had a semi-productive season with the Minor's AA team going 14-9 with a 4.53 ERA. The book on him is he has a plus change to go with an average fastball and average cutter. He has average control and average stuff, which the Dynamo's hope means he will be an "average" big league pitcher, at least in this watered down era of pitching.
With their 2nd round selection, GM Martin returned once again to pillage his former club, the Cleveland Foresters and select SS/IF Jake Creel (B-R Age - 29). With SS Gil London's constant struggles hitting the baseball and SS George Dawson sent to Washington last season, Creel will be given a serious look to potentially make the Dynamo's roster. Hitting the baseball hasn't been Creel's strength either in his career as he has managed just a 214/276/566 numbers in 935 plate appearances over 4 seasons.
Detroit took the gamble one more time with another choice in the 3rd round of the Rule 5 Draft. With this selection they chose another pitcher in Dave Volpe (LHP - Age 25) out of the St. Louis. His stuff isn't great and he is likely a long shot to make the club. If he does somehow make the team out of spring, it really proves the lack of pitching depth the club has.
Two more players were draft into the military ranks as P Mule Earl and RP Norm Brown were sent packing. The loss of Earl in particular will really hurt the Dynamo's and was likely a factor in the club taking 2 pitchers in the Rule 5 draft. Earl had was 7-11 with a 4.38 ERA in 24 starts (34 total appearances) in 198 IP's.
Next - The Draft
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