Baseball. IS. BACKKKK!!!!!!!!!
As it is every spring, excitement is in the air, and after the acquisition of Don Griffin, I'm really liking our chances for 1963. Before the trade, OSA even had us as the 2nd place team with 99 wins, and I bet if they ran them one more time we'd be back over 100 with the Kings. Obviously, plenty can go wrong during a season, but when you take a team that won 86 games with a young squad, add a year of experience, a new best hitter and pitcher, and really anything short of 90 would be a disappointment. Add on what could be a Ken Stone or Dode Caudill breakout, and a deeper lineup that will probably end with Tom Halliday or Cal Randall, and then a full season of Dick Champ. Well??? This seems pretty great!
Enough hypotheticals! Let's see the 25 (well, 24) Cougars ready for Opening Day!
RHP Bob Allen
RHP Dick Champ
RHP Roy Ellis
RHP Don Griffin
LHP Henry Henderson*
RHP Ken Stone
RHP Earle Turner
RHP Hank Walker
LHP Pug White
RHP Arch Wilson
C Dutch Miller
C Milt Payne
1B Gene Case
1B John Morrison
2B Buddy Byrd
2B Jack Gibson
3B Bob Decker
3B George McKee
SS Tom Halliday
LF Jim Barton
LF Byron Burnett
LF Dode Caudill
CF Jerry McMillan
RF Pete Meany
RF Henry Watson
*Technically on the Opening roster, will be replaced by Cal Randall
Most notably, there was the optioning of Mooney Vetter, who got squeezed out by Decker, McKee, and Buddy Byrd. Neither could go down to AAA, Byrd can refuse options and the other two are all out, and this move has nothing to do with Randall. We'll stick with a 9-man staff, would've been 10 without the trade, and I'll instead work on Vetter's versatility. He's a two-time Diamond Defense winner at third, so I imagine he can be at least decent at short, a position he has some experience with. Other notable players going down are Chappy Sanders and John Mitchell, as there really wasn't room for either. Dutch Miller wasn't any good this spring, but he's a better hitter and defender, and I didn't feel like going with three catchers again. Mitchell, meanwhile, got pushed out of the rotation, and even after the Henderson trade I like him working on his stuff in AAA. His change is great, and his fastball is average, but the other four pitches aren't any good. Plus, he got lit up hard at the end of the season, making me a little worried guys are starting to figure him out.
It won't stay this way for long, as Dode Caudill hopefully mashes since day one, and will graduate early, but we do enter the season with the 6th ranked system. Even after shipping Martinez away. Jim Place jumping to 65th is huge, as we're back to 5 top-100 prospects. Then we have 11 in the top-200 and 27 in the top-500, and we have a nice long gap between George McKee (182nd) to Ed Wells (330th). It's funny because when we were in charge long-term, the Cougs were the best at getting prospects in that relative range. So many of our late picks would end up there, but it's also the hardest area to fill. It's easy to get guys at the top, hit on your early picks. And it's easy to get guys at the bottom, just sort of pay attention to guys with interesting tools. But the middle? That's where you build depth, and the area where prospects on the rise start to fill. I've gotten some of these scrubs from the outside to the fringes of the top-500, and if I can actually make my picks this time around, I think our system will get closer to what I'm used to having.
We do have some games tonight, and with a pair of off days, I'll get to use each starter once. Sure, I could do some skipping, but Roy Ellis isn't the guy I want in the #1 spot, and I don't want to delay Ken Stone's season debut for a few weeks. Plus the abbreviated spring may not have gotten enough rust off some of these guys, so I'll look to ease our rotation back into the swing of things. Though to be fair, for Ellis, Dick Champ, and Doc Griffin, the Dallas Wranglers offense should do just that. One of the expansion clubs, everyone thinks they'll finish in 9th, as they look to build from the ground up. Their best piece so far is 26-year-old righty Butch Abrams (13-13, 4.31, 98), one of the many quality arms to come from St. Louis. Beyond that, there's not much, though disciplined slugger Ken Hudson (.243, 20, 66) could start in the corner infield elsewhere, and Ed Thompson (.277, 5, 47) does a great job putting the ball in play. Still, there is a huge talent discrepancy between the two teams, and I truly don't see a single player in our rotation or lineup I'd replace with a Wrangler.
Our week is spent at home, as during the off day we'll wait for the defending Continental champs. They didn't look very good in the playoffs, but the Sailors are a great team, and they'll cause us trouble all season long. Dixie disagrees, but OSA thinks Charlie Lawson (16-10, 4.02, 169) is a rare 4-4-4 pitcher, and at least to me it seems like the 24-year-old is an ace. Even if not an aces ace. Set in a four man rotation to start the year, I expect and old friend Zane Kelley (14-7, 4.49, 114), though they have plenty of SPs in the pen. There's a few new faces in the projected lineup, even if the rotation is mostly unchanged, as 27th ranked prospect Otis Haldeman seems to have won the right field job, while 24-year-old catcher Bill Jenkins may lead the lineup off. Both will be making their debuts, and between them they'll have the deep 2-3-4-5 of Carlos Jaramillo (.291, 8, 45, 27), Ernie Carter (.340, 12, 119, 10), Edwin Hackberry (.289, 24, 95, 23), and John Kingsbury (.350, 22, 113, 13). Kingsbury is the one to watch, as the 3-Time Diamond Defense winner is very overdo for an All-Star nod. One of the toughest guys to strike out, he maintains high averages and OBPs, all while racking up the extra base hits. Last year it was 22 doubles, 14 triples, and 22 homers, and I'm sure this year he'll have at least 50 between the three categories. An early quick test, being at home is huge, and it could be two huge victories that come in clutch when the year is winding down.