OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - FABL - Cleveland Foresters Mediocrity at its worst

DD Martin · 02-08-2020, 05:35 PM

The Draft - 1st Round

The morning of the draft had the usual excitement going through the office. Mr. Marshall had come back from his trip to Europe with a glum look on his face. Apparently some of his holdings took a beating in the market, but then I presented him with his ownership check from this past season. While the on field product was much less than we had all hoped as far as wins and losses, the ownership profit was substantial still. He was in a much better mood after he took the $479,000 check. Granted this was $150,000 less than last season's profit check but still it was a good chunk of change and with all the chaos that was going on, the Foresters were a very good investment.

I let him know that with the poor season we had on the field, that I was dropping our ticket prices 4% for next season. I wasn't expecting our record to be much better honestly, but who knows the kids that I am planning to play could surprise us. We chatted some more and he seemed genuinely enthused about all the trades and the rebuilding of the team. He asked why I soured on Chick Stout and I gave him the reasons on his personal character were not something that I wanted. He tended to agree with me as he remembers the 1925 and 1926 teams that were riddle with problems and not just in the big leagues. He said after the draft he wanted to go through a full organizational review so we agreed to a time next week. He then left the office to with check in hand. The bank would love to see him come in and deposit that, but knowing Mr. Marshall he was likely to be finding some investments to buy while they were low.

The draft got off very quickly with the announcement that Chicago had indeed taken SP Tom Barrell out of Georgia Baptist. Next up with their #2 overall the Minors didn't shock any either with their pick of SP Chick Stout from Rainier College. I have to admit that with the Stout announcement if I had made the right choice. As with all draft picks only time will tell, but I had already taken a beating in one Cleveland newspaper.

Next up was Montreal with the 3rd choice that was originally ours. They quickly ended all speculation of who they were going after when they took RF Vic Crawford out of Commonwealth Catholic College. So far in my mind the draft had played out the way I saw it. But Ollie was scratching his head a bit. He had Crawford at #19 on his listings but agreed with most that he should be higher and didn't offer a reason as to why he was listed so low. I then started looking through the rest of Ollie's rankings. I asked Ollie where he had Chick Stout. He muttered that he was in their somewhere. After going through 3 pages of prospect names and none of them were pitchers, I jokingly said "oh you gave me just the batter list, where is the single sheet of pitchers". You see Ollie Moses hates pitchers, he wished the game would do away with pitchers completely. I always tell him that without pitchers you can't even have a game and he calmly says "sure you can, just either use a tee or get some sort of contraption out there that throws the ball over the plate at 90 mph. Problem solved."

I dearly love Ollie, but it is one of the reasons where I was discussing a position with Hal Bean. I need someone to be a little more objective on pitching.

Next up in the draft was St. Louis who once again had a new GM. This ownership and team had wasted arguably one or greatest players ever in Max Morris. Max was closing in on 500 home runs and might get it this season with another typical Morris effort. Most don't realize but Morris was drafted by us with the first overall pick in the 1913 draft. He played parts of 7 seasons in Cleveland, and no I am not the GM that traded him. I went back to look at the history books to see what we got for Morris in that trade and here is the deal.....

Cleveland Trades Max Morris (24) to St. Louis for the following during the off-season
1.) $10,000
2.) SP Milt Sexton (23) who was 15-8 2.86
3.) RF John Hill (26) who was hitting 291/317/392 1HR 25SB
4.) 3B James Gerhardt (23 class A) 337/398/452 10 HR 1SB
5.) 3B Jim Cator (25 AAA) 378/439/649 3 HR

So we traded an in his prime future hall of famer for at lease Jim Cator who was a fairly decent player for the Foresters. To be fair Morris had only hit 47 of his career homeruns by this point. Now after bashing the ball for the Pioneers for the last 10 years he is at 473 career home runs. Is it the ballpark...hmmm doubt it.

Anyway besides Cator I was familiar with James Gerhardt. I shipped his unmotivated lazy but out of town (DFA) in 1926. He wound up playing with some independent teams and is currently with the Houston Bulls.

RF John Hill was also in the organization when I arrive and was also DFA and released in August of 1926. He retired the next day.

SP Milt Sexton spent most of his time in Cincinnati with the Steamers but did get a shot in Cleveland in that ill fated 1926 season. I made 11 appearances for us pitching in relief with a 4.63 ERA. Another player with little ability and a bad attitude that I shipped out in June of 1926. He is playing today in San Diego Conquistadors who won the 1929 GWL title (AAA).

Rumor has it that the elder Mr. Marshall (Harold Marshall) took the $10,000 and bought a new fancy car, a new boat and a large house for one of his grandkids (and no it was not Ricky).

Wow anyway St. Louis took SP Tom Blalock with the #4 pick. A solid choice and 3rd pitcher taken so far.

With the 5th Pick the Toronto Wolves selected 2B Sam Orr. Orr was one of two players who I was hoping would be available at #8.

Boston grabbed CF Dan Fowler who we had down a little farther between 10-15 overall on our list.

Then came the Brooklyn Kings. Man do I hate drafting behind the Kings. They always seem to grab who we had next on our list. Fortunately for most of the draft we will be picking ahead of the Kings in the round. And of course never to disappoint, the Kings took the guy I would have taken with the next pick. This time it was 2B Jake Shadoan. I am not sure why I was so much in love with the 2B guys in this draft, especially since we had picked up Brooks Meek in the trade with Pittsburgh.

Finally it is our turn. I really was torn on who to pick. Ollie had an OF on his list that was #1 on his board, but not on anyone else's obviously. I reviewed our ratings, and then also reviewed some of the other publications that had ratings out. I decided that even thought we didn't have a screaming need for a CF, that we would draft one of the top guys on the board (even Ollie's). We selected CF Amos LeBlanc out of George Fox who was another college kid. It has been a run on college guys in this draft..

We will review all our top draft choices after the first 5 rounds in more detail.

02-08-2020, 05:35 PM	#13
DD Martin All Star Reserve Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 830	The Draft - 1st Round The morning of the draft had the usual excitement going through the office. Mr. Marshall had come back from his trip to Europe with a glum look on his face. Apparently some of his holdings took a beating in the market, but then I presented him with his ownership check from this past season. While the on field product was much less than we had all hoped as far as wins and losses, the ownership profit was substantial still. He was in a much better mood after he took the $479,000 check. Granted this was $150,000 less than last season's profit check but still it was a good chunk of change and with all the chaos that was going on, the Foresters were a very good investment. I let him know that with the poor season we had on the field, that I was dropping our ticket prices 4% for next season. I wasn't expecting our record to be much better honestly, but who knows the kids that I am planning to play could surprise us. We chatted some more and he seemed genuinely enthused about all the trades and the rebuilding of the team. He asked why I soured on Chick Stout and I gave him the reasons on his personal character were not something that I wanted. He tended to agree with me as he remembers the 1925 and 1926 teams that were riddle with problems and not just in the big leagues. He said after the draft he wanted to go through a full organizational review so we agreed to a time next week. He then left the office to with check in hand. The bank would love to see him come in and deposit that, but knowing Mr. Marshall he was likely to be finding some investments to buy while they were low. The draft got off very quickly with the announcement that Chicago had indeed taken SP Tom Barrell out of Georgia Baptist. Next up with their #2 overall the Minors didn't shock any either with their pick of SP Chick Stout from Rainier College. I have to admit that with the Stout announcement if I had made the right choice. As with all draft picks only time will tell, but I had already taken a beating in one Cleveland newspaper. Next up was Montreal with the 3rd choice that was originally ours. They quickly ended all speculation of who they were going after when they took RF Vic Crawford out of Commonwealth Catholic College. So far in my mind the draft had played out the way I saw it. But Ollie was scratching his head a bit. He had Crawford at #19 on his listings but agreed with most that he should be higher and didn't offer a reason as to why he was listed so low. I then started looking through the rest of Ollie's rankings. I asked Ollie where he had Chick Stout. He muttered that he was in their somewhere. After going through 3 pages of prospect names and none of them were pitchers, I jokingly said "*oh you gave me just the batter list, where is the single sheet of pitchers". You see Ollie Moses hates pitchers, he wished the game would do away with pitchers completely. I always tell him that without pitchers you can't even have a game and he calmly says "sure you can, just either use a tee or get some sort of contraption out there that throws the ball over the plate at 90 mph. Problem solved.*" I dearly love Ollie, but it is one of the reasons where I was discussing a position with Hal Bean. I need someone to be a little more objective on pitching. Next up in the draft was St. Louis who once again had a new GM. This ownership and team had wasted arguably one or greatest players ever in Max Morris. Max was closing in on 500 home runs and might get it this season with another typical Morris effort. Most don't realize but Morris was drafted by us with the first overall pick in the 1913 draft. He played parts of 7 seasons in Cleveland, and no I am not the GM that traded him. I went back to look at the history books to see what we got for Morris in that trade and here is the deal..... Cleveland Trades Max Morris (24) to St. Louis for the following during the off-season 1.) $10,000 2.) SP Milt Sexton (23) who was 15-8 2.86 3.) RF John Hill (26) who was hitting 291/317/392 1HR 25SB 4.) 3B James Gerhardt (23 class A) 337/398/452 10 HR 1SB 5.) 3B Jim Cator (25 AAA) 378/439/649 3 HR So we traded an in his prime future hall of famer for at lease Jim Cator who was a fairly decent player for the Foresters. To be fair Morris had only hit 47 of his career homeruns by this point. Now after bashing the ball for the Pioneers for the last 10 years he is at 473 career home runs. Is it the ballpark...hmmm doubt it. Anyway besides Cator I was familiar with James Gerhardt. I shipped his unmotivated lazy but out of town (DFA) in 1926. He wound up playing with some independent teams and is currently with the Houston Bulls. RF John Hill was also in the organization when I arrive and was also DFA and released in August of 1926. He retired the next day. SP Milt Sexton spent most of his time in Cincinnati with the Steamers but did get a shot in Cleveland in that ill fated 1926 season. I made 11 appearances for us pitching in relief with a 4.63 ERA. Another player with little ability and a bad attitude that I shipped out in June of 1926. He is playing today in San Diego Conquistadors who won the 1929 GWL title (AAA). Rumor has it that the elder Mr. Marshall (Harold Marshall) took the $10,000 and bought a new fancy car, a new boat and a large house for one of his grandkids (and no it was not Ricky). Wow anyway St. Louis took SP Tom Blalock with the #4 pick. A solid choice and 3rd pitcher taken so far. With the 5th Pick the Toronto Wolves selected 2B Sam Orr. Orr was one of two players who I was hoping would be available at #8. Boston grabbed CF Dan Fowler who we had down a little farther between 10-15 overall on our list. Then came the Brooklyn Kings. Man do I hate drafting behind the Kings. They always seem to grab who we had next on our list. Fortunately for most of the draft we will be picking ahead of the Kings in the round. And of course never to disappoint, the Kings took the guy I would have taken with the next pick. This time it was 2B Jake Shadoan. I am not sure why I was so much in love with the 2B guys in this draft, especially since we had picked up Brooks Meek in the trade with Pittsburgh. Finally it is our turn. I really was torn on who to pick. Ollie had an OF on his list that was #1 on his board, but not on anyone else's obviously. I reviewed our ratings, and then also reviewed some of the other publications that had ratings out. I decided that even thought we didn't have a screaming need for a CF, that we would draft one of the top guys on the board (even Ollie's). We selected CF Amos LeBlanc out of George Fox who was another college kid. It has been a run on college guys in this draft.. We will review all our top draft choices after the first 5 rounds in more detail.