SAINTS AND KEYSTONES ANNOUNCE TRADE
West Palm Beach, Florida -- The Montreal Saints and the Philadelphia Keystones held a press conference today to announce a trade. The Saints will send outfielders Phil Sandman and Jimmy Endler, minor league short stop Erv Smith, and their first round selection in the 1928 draft. In exchange, the defending champion Keystones will send minor league pitcher Walker Moore and their first round selection in the 1928 draft.
Some thoughts on the principals involved:
Phil Sandman -- The answer to the question posed in the last update--how long would Sandman be a Saint?--turned out to be 7 days. He is a very good outfielder who just doesn't fit into the long-term plans for the rebuilding Saints. Sandman is a career .315/.371/.459 hitter with 114 stolen bases. Putting Sandman in front of Rankin Kellog could make the Keystones a formidable force in the Federal.
Jimmy Endler -- This one was a sticking point in the trade discussions. I knew that to get Moore, I would need to give up a 2nd outfielder. Personally I like Endler, and he did a good job in right field after taking over for Hal Eason last season. But both scouting director Rufus Randle and manager Francis Asberry think that Ollie Farley has more potential in right field. Eventually I acquiesced to including Endler in the deal. We'll see who is correct in a few years.
Erv Smith -- 20-year-old Erv Smith won the National High School Championship as a short stop for Toledo HS in 1925. But he went undrafted in that December's draft and was signed as a minor league free agent by Montreal. Since then he's risen quickly through the rankings, becoming one of OSA's top short stop prospects. Smith has a tremendous glove, but he still has some difficulty making contact at the plate. If he manages to cut down on his strikeouts, he will be a top-tier short stop. And with the emergence of Woody Armstrong, and with Charlie Rector still in the system, I felt we could give up Smith.
Walker Moore -- Walker Moore, a big (6'4") 21-year-old left-hander from upstate New York, was drafted first overall by the Keystones in the 1924 draft. He's had some shoulder problems, and he still struggles at times with his control (347 walks in 662 innings pitched in class A), but Rufus Randle considers him a "top of the rotation talent," and Moore is OSA's top-ranked pitching prospect.
When I took over the Saints following the 1925 season, my highest long-term priority was to improve the organization's pitching outlook. The first step happened almost immediately when starting center fielder Bert Hartman was traded to the Chicago Chiefs for pitcher Charlie Stedman. Then in December of 1926, outfield prospect Tony Henderson was dealt to the Pittsburgh Miners in exchange for Ed Trammell. Now the latest piece is the acquisition of Walker Moore. Stedman enters 1928 as a potential ace, while Moore and Trammell give the Saints two players in OSA's list of top ten pitching prospects. Montreal may be coming off of consecutive 90 loss seasons, but I think the future looks bright.
From a Keystones perspective, they've made themselves the team to beat in the Federal for the foreseeable future. They gave up a really good prospect in Moore, but they were dealing from a position of organizational strength. With Moore, Philadelphia had four pitchers on OSA's top ten list of pitching prospects.