American Association of Baseball Clubs

[fuzzy_patters]

November 21, 1908

Pittsburgh is continuing to unload their veteran pitchers on other GABL teams. Today they traded 40-year old pitcher Oscar Castillo to Detroit for minor-league shortstop Mario Valle and minor-league first baseman Marc Goodwin. Castillo was 1-2 with 4 saves and 0.69 ERA for Pittsburgh last year. Neither prospect looks like they will ever be big-leaguers, but these two trades are noteworthy because Pittsburgh has traded the second (Pizzi) and seventeenth (Castillo) winningest pitchers of all time. The Industrialists have fallen on hard-times and were 73-81 last year after much younger version of the two aces helped them win back-to-back World Series titles a decade ago.

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December 3, 1908

A couple of bottom feeders made a trade today. Jersey City LHP Travis Hayes to Boston for LF Sam Robinson. Hayes is a minor-leaguer who could be a big leaguer if he ever gains some control. Robinson hit .234 last year as a 25-year old.

In other news, I think that I'm going to stand pat for now. I want to wait and see how next year's team starts before I start making trades.

[fuzzy_patters]

December 6, 1908

My Hall of Fame ballot for 1908.

Mike Gee, CF, Baltimore Shippers- 1889 MVP, 1887 Kyle Strickland Award Winner, 1890 AABC Champion, 8-time All-Star

Rich Caesar, RP, Philadelphia Congress- 4 Reliever of the Year Awards, 2 World Series trophies, 6 time All-Star, 163 saves ranks 5th all-time

Kyle Brandenburg, 3B, Brooklyn Red Legged Devils- 1891 MVP, 4 Gilded Glove Awards, 1894 AABC Champion (with Cleveland), 4-time All Star

Mike Barajas, 1B, St Louis Survivors- 1898 GABL MVP (with Pittsburgh), 1898 AABC Champion (with Pittsburgh), 6 time All-Star

Ryan "Wrench" Bruno, SS, Pittsburgh Industrialists- 1898 Champion, 5 time All-Star

Steve "Sparky" Knox, 2B, Pittsburgh Industrialists- 1895 MVP, 1898 Champion, 1895 Kyle Strickland Award Winner, 4x All-Star

Dave Kowalczyk, C, Boston Brahmins- 1891 Champion, 1 Gilded Glove Award, 5x All-Star

Carlos Moreno, RP, St Louis Survivors- 4x Reliever of the Year, 1x All-Star, 5th all time in saves

Mat Fuoco, C, Cincinnati Abolitionists- 4x Gilded Glove Award Winner, 1x All Star, 5x Champion

Justin Perkins, 3B, Philadelphia Congress- 1882 Kyle Strickland Award Winner, 4x Gilded Glove Award winner, 3x champion

[fuzzy_patters]

December 22, 1908

Brooklyn and New York made a trade today. New York will get relief pitcher Brad Lofton (8-4, 3 Saves, 1.93 ERA). Brooklyn will get two minor leaguers, outfielder Eric Donovan and pitcher Jerry Brackney, both of whom look like they could be decent but unspectacular big leaguers someday. Brooklyn was terrible last year, but New York, at 82-72, had one of their best seasons ever. Could Lofton help them get over the hump and win their first championship ever? Thus far, the New York Immirgrants have always been synonymous with losing.

[fuzzy_patters]

December 25, 1908

I'm so excited! It's Christmas day! This morning, Santa brought me some new books to read including A Room With a View by EM Forster! I can't wait to read it! It will certainly help me to kill some time before the season starts.

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January 1, 1909

A new year is upon us. The corned beef and cabbage was amazing last night, and I can hardly wait three more months for the inauguration of William Howard Taft. I can't imagine any inauguration being as huge (haha!)!

Oh diary! In other news, the Newark Leathers and the Brooklyn Red Legged Devils made a New Year's Day trade. Brooklyn will be getting 29-year old centerfielder Brad Keel, who hit .265 with 31 SBs for Newark last year. Newark will receive 36-year old catcher Ken Shewey, who hit .239 in very limited playing time for Brooklyn and 20-year old minor league starting pitcher Frank Quintero, who looks like a very good pitching prospect.

This is an interesting trade. Brooklyn was terrible last year, and they get an outfielder in his prime while unloading a disappointing veteran. Newark was 10 games over .500 last year, but they seem to be playing for the future. They have agreed to take a bad current player in order to get the best long-term player in the trade. It will be interesting to follow how this trade affects both teams.

[fuzzy_patters]

January 15, 1909

Another trade was made today featuring a player in his prime in exchange for an aging veteran and a prospect. Washington, 72-82 last year, will receive 26-year old right fielder Jon Cargile from Philadelphia. Cargile was caught in a log jam for the Congress and hit .360 in just 12 games played last year after hitting .455 at AAA Scranton. Meanwhile, the defending champion Philadelphia Congress will receive 37-year old RHP Alex Gonzalez (1-1 1 SV, 6.75 ERA in 1908) and 20-year old RHP Tony "Vapor Lock" Gonzalez (8-3, 1 SV, 5.10 ERA for Atlanta in the Automotive League), who isn't much of a prospect. I'm not sure what Philly was thinking with this trade, but we will take it! Let's stand pat and wait for them to self-implode!

[fuzzy_patters]

January 20, 1909

Nary a single player will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. I thought that Mike Gee would have made it for sure. He was an 8 time All-Star, an MVP, a 4 time Clang Alexander winner, a Kyle Strickland winner, and a world champion. He ranks 15th all-time in hits, 13th in RBI, 13th in HR, 6th in SBs, 5th in runs, and 24th in WAR; yet, he only received 73 percent of the vote. I guess that he will have to wait until next year to see if he can get two more percent.

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February 3, 1909

The defending champs are at it again. I like this practice of theirs of giving up decent bench hitters in exchange for bad pitchers. Today they sent 34-year old outfielder Taylor Johns to the Cleveland Eries in exchange for 27-year old LH pitcher Nate Tart. Johns hit .315 in 92 ABs for the Congress last year. Tart had two scoreless innings of work for the Eries last year and a 3.53 ERA for AAA Columbus. Unfortunately, despite his poor performances, my scouts believe that Tart could actually be a good starting pitcher. Let's hope that they are wrong!

[fuzzy_patters]

February 8, 1909

The Minneapolis Lumberjacks and the Buffalo Freedom made a trade today. Minneapolis will receive 25-year old shortstop J.P. "Doom" Wright, who hit .238 in 47 games for Buffalo last year, and the Freedom will receive 31-year old right fielder Kevin Runyon, who hit .268 last year and .314 when he was the batting champ the year before. I'm glad to see Runyon leave for the GABL! He used to kill us!

[fuzzy_patters]

February 10, 1909

The defending GABL pennant-winning Louisville Speed made a trade with GABL doormat Jersey City today. Louisville will get 30-year old catcher Ryan Dewitt, who hit .271with 4 home runs last year for the Orange Steamboats. The Steamboats will receive 27-year old RHP Josh Stuart. Stuart was 23-13 with a 2.13 for Louisville last year. I have no idea why Louisville would make that trade except for the fact that they are very weak at catcher, but it isn't like they picked up a great one. Oh well! They are the defending pennant winners, and I'm not. What do I know?

[fuzzy_patters]

February 24, 1909

It is almost time for spring training, and the trade winds are brewing. There were four trades today.

Buffalo receives 26-year old catcher Chris Herron from Pittsburgh. Herron hit just .193 as a part-timer for the Industrialists last year. He is below average defensively, so this isn't much of a pick-up for the Freedom.

Pittsburgh receives RHP Emilio Lopez. A reliever, Lopez pitched 5.2 scoreless innings for Pittsburgh last year, but only had a 4.74 ERA for AAA Rochester. At 31-years old, he is a non-entity. This trade was a dud.

New Orleans receives 27 year old 1B Graham Hill from Detroit. Hill hit .238 in 116 games for the Electric last year. He isn't very good.

In exchange for Hill, Detroit receives 37-year old LHP Steve Terrell. An All-Star in 1906 and 1907, Terrell had 16 wins and a league worst 23 losses in 1908 for New Orleans. Detroit is hoping that Terrell has enough left in his arm to have a bounce back season in 1909.

The Brooklyn Red Legged Devils receive 33-year old right-handed reliever Chad Swire, who was 3-1 with a 2.75 ERA in relief for Minneapolis last year.

The Lumberjacks receive 27-year old first-baseman Josh Rochelle. Rochelle hit .333 in 9 games after hitting .302 at AAA Syracuse last year. Both Rochelle and Swire could help their teams in 1909.

Cleveland receives 29 year old left fielder David Logan, who hit .400 as a part-timer for New York last year. It will be interesting to see what he can do playing full-time. His .400 average was over 50 games played.

New York will receive right-handed 27-year old reliever Pat Cortez, who last played big league baseball in 1907, when he had a 4.71 ERA for Cleveland. My scouts thing that he has really good stuff, but he also has no control. He will need to find some if he is going to help New York.

[fuzzy_patters]

March 4, 1909

Just what we didn't need! Some people riding a train through town on the Chicago-Logansport-Cincinnati line said that they heard a rumor that Jonathan Haynes of the Philadelphia Congress has slimmed down and is now better at defense and should be faster on the baselines. We didn't need the Congress's five-time All-Star getting even better!

[fuzzy_patters]

March 4, 1909 part 2

Dear Diary,

I am sitting here waiting for the start of our first spring training game of 1909! The grass is green and the smell of baseball is in the air! Here is our spring training roster. Let's see what manager Bill Wilson can do with this.







It looks like we will go as far as our starting pitching can take us.

[fuzzy_patters]

March 8, 1909

Our Abs are off to a 3-1 start in spring training despite several small injuries including a two-week day-to-day injury to shortstop Alex Martinez.

Elsewhere, there have been several major injuries to bit players on other teams, but there hasn't been much notable on the injury front. The most significant has been New Orleans losing starting second-baseman Denny Owens for six weeks, but most of that time will be spring training.

Today there was a trade, though. The Brooklyn Red Legged Devils will receive 32-year old RH SP Hak-Su Kym, who was 6-9 with a 2.19 19 appearances (16 starts) last year for Providence. The Silversmiths will receive 26-year old RF Paul "Penguin" Stech. Penguin hit .223 in 73 games for Brooklyn last year.

[fuzzy_patters]

March 10, 1909

Today we lost David Robinson, whom we traded for just this past off-season, to an injury that will have him out for 6-weeks or so. At least most of that will be spring training.

It could be worse. The Minneapolis Lumberjacks have lost starting pitcher Chris Dow for the season. He was 15-19 with a 2.51 ERA last year. That's going to hurt!

[fuzzy_patters]

March 11, 1909

Today we lost Alex Martinez for the season! He was the Gilded Glove winning shortstop last year and an All Star the year before! He will be replaced by this guy.

[fuzzy_patters]

March 15, 1909

Beware the Ides of March! The Baltimore Shippers have lost relief pitcher Jon Espinoza for the next five months. I miss him sometimes. He was a big part of four championships for us before I let him leave in the 1904 expansion draft. After drafting him and hanging on to him until 1908, the Lumberjacks traded him to Baltimore last July for LF Jesse McCall. McCall only hit .212 for Minneapolis and is a 31-year old who has spent most of his career in the minors. That might be all that Espinoza is worth today, but I will always value the contributions that he made to the Abs, and in his defense, he did make his third career All-Star team in 1907 with the Lumberjacks. I hope that he goes into coaching someday. He will always be welcome in Cincinnati.

[fuzzy_patters]

March 16, 1909

There was a big trade today between Brooklyn and defending GABL champion Louisville. Brooklyn will get 26 year old LF Mike Anton, who hit .335 over the last couple of months of 1908 after being promoted from Covington to help Louisville win the pennant. The Speed will receive 25-year old relief pitcher Tim Martinez, who had a 1.56 ERA in 17.1 IP for Brooklyn last year. I think that Brooklyn actually won this trade. Perhaps they can end the Big Apple's 38-year World Series drought with the help of Anton. The SSL is getting tougher. Will the Abs be ready?

[fuzzy_patters]

March 18, 1909

The moment of truth has arrived. We just played Philly in a spring training game. Have we improved? The 11-0 drubbing that we just took suggests that we haven't. We only managed 3 hits for the game. We might be in trouble.