August 9, 1926
Let's call it an interesting week for the Kings. The offense was on fire as we scored 46 runs in 6 games this week but pitching and defense are another story. We won 4 of 6 but the two losses to Toronto ended up being football game scores of 18-12 and 14-11. Catcher Mickey Dowell, who is bidding to become the first batter not named Max Morris to win the triple crown since 1898, was named the Continental Association player of the week after going 15-for-26 with a homer and 4 rbi's. The 25 year old is now .359,11,87 and leads the league in batting average and rbi's and is one off the pace in the homerun race. Dowell wasn't the only King hitter to have a big week as outfielder Clarence Hall went 9-for-18, 2B Rip Agee hit .409 with 9 rbi's, trade pick-up Fred Welsch hit .385 and Bud Rogers hit .375 with 9 rbi's in 6 games. Pitching was another story as Leon Campbell, Harvey Rodgers and reliever Buck Blood all got beat up pretty badly.
After an 8-7 win Monday to complete a 4-game sweep of Chicago things really got wild as the Toronto Wolves invaded Kings County Ballpark. The series opener on Wednesday was a hit parade as the two teams combined for 30 runs and 38 hits to go with 7 errors. We built a 7-0 lead after two innings but starter Leon Campbell (9-0, 3.95), who showed no signs of trouble in the first couple of innings, ran into bigtime trouble and allowed 8 runs in the next three so we entered the bottom of the fifth trailing 8-7. Toronto scored in every inning except the first two as first Harvey Rodgers and later Bob Brown could not do the job out of the pen as we lost 18-12.
The plan was to get them tomorrow but that didn't work out well as reliever Buck Blood imploded this time, allowing 5 runs in the 9th inning of a 14-11 loss. Starter Mose Smith was not much better as he allowed 9 runs, 7 earned in his 7 and two thirds innings of work. Smith is now 4-4 with a 4.87 era since coming over from Cleveland.
The last three games of the series with Toronto were much more of what we expected, winning by 7-2, 3-2 and 5-2 scores. Cal Williams (14-5, 3.62) had his second straight strong outing in the first of the three, Topsy Moran(8-5, 4.34) looked back to his pre-injury self after a solid outing in the 3-2 win and Del Plummer (10-14, 4.56) got his second win of the week on Sunday to improve to 7-1 with the Kings since coming over from Montreal.
Next week is a short one for the Kings, beginning with a 2-game set against Philadelphia starting tomorrow. The Sailors wen 3-3 during the week so they are now 4.5 games behind us. We then get 3 days off to end the week before hosting Baltimore for two games on the weekend.
ROSTER MOVES
A week in Houston seemed to have helped Topsy Moran when he was struggling so I am trying the same thing with Buck Blood this week. Blood was outstanding as our closer early in the season but has given up 10 earned runs in his last five appearances so he goes to the Bulls for one week and Art Carlson comes back up. Carlson didn't have a good start in his one game replacing Moran - took the loss and gave up 7 runs in 5 and two-thirds vs Cleveland - but he went back to Houston with a great attitude and did not allow a run in his 2 starts last week for the Bulls. Manager Powell Slocum seems to have confidence in him and put him in the 3 spot in the rotation but with the short week I am not sure he will get the call to start a game.
ON THE FARM
Been a while since I took a good look at my prospects so here is some info on the progress of who the game calls my top ten prospects.
1- JIM RENFROE 23 year old OF - I have mentioned it before but I have a ton of good young outfielders and a large number are from Mississippi including Renfroe. Other former Rebels are Doug Lightbody, Bud Rogers and Clarence Hall. My scouts love Renfroe, who we took 2nd overall in 1924 but this year has been a trying one for the youngster. He has missed the last two and a half months with a hip injury but has just been cleared to return to action. Will return to AAA Houston where he was batting .246 with 4 homers and 19 rbi's in 43 games.
2- AB THOMAS 21 year old OF - My philosphy is to generally prefer college players but I am glad the previous regime selected the Graceland, Texas native 12th overall in the 1922 draft. He started the year at AAA Houston, where he was batting .358 with 44 stolen bases in 80 games before being promoted to Brooklyn when Lightbody got hurt. With the Kings he is slashing .420/.462/.519 through his first 26 games of major league baseball. I see him as a potential superstar at centerfield and a perfect compliment to Bud Rogers and Doug Lightbody in our outfield.
3- GEORGE JORDAN 21 year old OF - Another high school pick, Jordan was taken 17th overall in 1923. The Warwick, Rhode Island native has flown under the radar for me this season. My scouts like him but I am not so sure. He is struggling at Class A Omaha right now, batting just .230 with 3 homers in 64 games.
4- BILL DENGLER 21 year old P - I just love this kid. My second round pick out of Maryland, Dengler seems to be growing on scout Rube Carter as well, who was originally not that high on him. However, I started him at AA Knoxville and he was solid with an 8-4, 3.10 record which earned him a promotion to Houston at mid-season. He started slow at AAA where he is now 4-6, 4.28 but seems to be getting better with every start. I see him as a top of the rotation guy for me but likely needs at least one more year in the minors.
5- HARRY MIDDLETON 23 year old 2B - I think the creators of the top prospect list like Middleton more than I do but I can't argue with his numbers this season. Middleton is a 10th round pick out of North Carolina in 1923 after deciding on college over the New York Gothams, who took him in the fourth round two years earlier. He has spent all season at AA Knoxville and is batting .309 thru 100 games and playing well above average defense.
6- ARNOLD BOWER 22 year old SS - A second round pick in 1922 out of high school, Bower is projected as my shortstop of the future. Bower is currently injured after hurting his elbow in mid-July and likely won't be back until near the end of the month. After spending 1925 in A ball, I have used him at 3 levels this season. He struggled in a brief stint at AAA Houston but has looked very good in Knoxville (.322,1,20 in 38 games). His defense at shortstop has been very good at all three levels.
7- JOE BLANSIT 20 year old P - Drafted twice by two different teams out of high school, Blansit never caught on and ended up signing with independent Sacramento of the Great West League last year until the Kings picked him up at mid-season. I started him at our Class B affiliate Tampa this year and he is 7-11 with a 2.40 era and a great k/bb ratio for us. Had a brief stint in A ball with Omaha filling in for some injuries but Tampa is the right level currently as he is still just 20 years old. He has great size for the era (6'3") and is a groundball pitcher that projects as a future big league reliever. I have a few other pitchers ranked ahead of him on my list but I still like him.
8- Bill SMITH 22 year old C- I think I like my crop of catchers better than the game does. Smith is the highest rated on this list with Joe Cameron(12), Dave Armstrong (13) and Tom Aiello(20) and also cracking the Brooklyn top 20. Smith is my 5th round pick in the last draft out of Dartmouth. He started the season at AA Knoxville but after hitting .317 in 29 games was promoted to Houston where I have been using him as the number one catcher. He has struggled a bit at the plate, batting .218 but has shown a little power. He might be more suited for AA right now but there is a logjam of catchers behind him so I thought we would challenge Smith at AAA.
9- LYMAN WEIGEL 22 year old P - My 7th round pick out of Boston College. I really like him, certainly more than my scouting director Rube Carter does. Weigel absolutely dominated at Omaha, fanning 137 and walking just 34 in 142 innings while posting a 171 era+. I moved him up to Knoxville and it has been more of a challenge but after a slow start he has had some pretty good outings of late. He is not Dengler's calibre, but I think he can be an effective back of the rotation guy.
10- JIM GENTRY 20 year old OF - Taken in the second round of the 1924 draft out of high school, the Rhode Island native, has had a decent season so far at Class B Tampa. He is hitting .281 with 1 homer and 29 rbi's. My scout thinks he will eventually develop some power but there are a lot of outfielders ahead of him on my depth chart.
21- DAN BARRELL - A free agent signing out of a semi-pro league really as a favour to his father, a long-time scout for the Kings, Barrell has been nothing short of amazing in his first taste of organized ball since finishing high school 3 years ago. I started him in Omaha but after hitting .347 with a .533 slugging percentage in 21 games he was promoted to AA Knoxville. The hot streak continued with the Knights, where Barrell is batting .333 with 3 homers and 53 rbi's in 77 games. He also had a brief stint in AAA as an injury replacement but the 21 year old was clearly overmatched at this time. Orginally, thought of as nothing more than roster fodder, Rube Carter now feels he has a shot to be a back-up outfielder in the major leagues. The kid has an incredible attitude and comes from a great family background that includes 2 brothers playing college ball at Georgia Tech and another brother who is a professional boxer.
Here are the Kings the game presently has ranked in the top 100 prospects. Our system is listed mid-pack right now, as the 8th best on the list.
18- Jim Renfroe
29- Ab Thomas
40- George Jordan
50- Bill Dengler
53- Henry Middleton
63- Arnold Bower
81- Joe Blansit