FABL - Cleveland Foresters Mediocrity at its worst

[DD Martin]

1930 Spring Training
Lakeland, Florida

GM Martin’s thoughts – Man is it good to get out of Cleveland during the dead of winter. The place is just so cold during the winter months. What I wouldn’t give to have our offices here in Florida full time during the winter. I will bring that up to Mr. Marshall that maybe our winter operations should be held down here. I am sure everyone would think better, including me not being in good ole frozen Cleveland.

We came down in late February this year and held meetings with all our organization folks to address what we want to accomplish at each level and discuss who might end up where (more on that to come). The first games of the spring will be in Mid-March and the pitchers and catchers report March 1st, when the rest of the roster comes in the following week.
Looking at the season some of the roster spots are very secure and there will also be some battles for other spots. We will quickly look at the spots and give a brief review of what we can expect.

A couple of players were either signed or acquire while camp was going on. Both are pitchers who have hopes of making the team. They will do some extra workouts to catch up to the others and not appear in any games the first week. We will get them in the mix for starts during the 2nd week. The new acquisitions are:

SP Jack Thompson LHSP 28 (signed as a free agent) – Thompson comes as a player that has solid leadership skills along with an interesting mix with a cutter, forkball, splitter, changeup and a curve. He is a towering presence on the mound standing 6’8 and a solid 235 lbs. Last year he spent the entire season in the Pittsburgh organization at AAA St. Paul and went 2-4 with 2 saves and a 4.40 ERA in 24 relief appearances. As a SP in 28 with St Paul he was 11-6 3.30 in 25 starts. We hope he can bring that sort of ability to Cleveland. The players like him arriving in camp so that is a positive.

SP Jim Thompson RHSP 26 (acquire in Independent Draft from Portland Green Sox) – No relation to Jack (above). Jim spent the last several years with Portland after have been drafted in the 3rd round of the 22 draft by the Chicago Chiefs. At one time he was considered as high as the #34 prospect in the FABL in 1925. He has a 93mph cutter, along with a, curve, slider, forkball and a change-up. Last season at AAA Portland he was 12-7 2 saves with a 3.14 ERA 38 appearances (32 GS)

Roster position and likely team makeup
Team has 23 active roster spots
Pitchers – (9)
Catchers – (2)
Infielders – (7)
Outfielders – (5)

Pitchers – 22 pitchers in spring camp
We will have quite a few battles for pitching spots this spring as nothing really appears settled. We drafted 2 Rule 5 Players in Felix Dent and CL Ed Smith. If we keep them then we are down to 7 spots.

Likely Locks to make roster - SP Eddie Gray. SP George Barker, SP Harvey Tully, RP Jack Gunderson

SP Eddie Gray 24 made his debut last year with the Foresters having been drafted in the 1926 draft, Gray worked his way up the ladder to finally get the call after the July trade that sent 2 pitchers to Detroit and then the loss of Jim Wilson to a career ending injury. Gray struggled in his first shot in the big leagues with a 6-10 record and a 5.09 ERA. He will likely be one of the starters heading North.

SP Harvey Tully 26 came back in the 2nd half of last season after a horrific torn labrum injury in May of 1928. He really struggled last season going 1-9 with an 8.28 ERA. While he is likely to go north with the team, he does have 2 options left if he struggles during the spring.

SP George Barker 28 really has been a surprise player for the Foresters. He pitched well enough in the minors to finally get a shot in the 2nd half of last season as really was a surprising bright spot going 6-4 with a 3.87 ERA. Really the only Forester start besides the since departed Max Wilder who made any significant impact last season during the 2nd half.

RP Jack Gunderson 28 was acquired prior to the start of the 29 season and brought in to be either the stopper or short man in the pen. He bounced between those roles but really was the only effective RP on the team. He was 5-2 with 8 saves and a 3.15 ERA. He will likely be in the stopper mix with Rule 5 pick up Ed Smith or the top MR.

Veteran Pitchers who have a shot to make the team – SP Jim Thompson, SP Jack Thompson, SP Max Dowless, P Jack Mast, RP Ernie Davey, P Joe McCoy SP Rube McCormick,

Max Dowless 3-5 6.14 ERA (FABL Cleveland)
Jack Mast 2-3 6.38 ERA(FABL Cleveland) AAA Cincinnati 6-2 2.56 ERA
Ernie Davey 3-4 3 saves 4.15 ERA (FABL Cleveland)
Joe McCoy 1-6 7.38 ERA (FABL Cleveland)
Rube McCormack 0-3 4.50 ERA (FABL Cleveland) AAA Cincinnati 10-7 2.92

Look for both the Thompson’s to get a long look in spring training. Jack Thompson is out of options so if he doesn’t make the team, he will have to be DFA. Jim has all his options so could be sent to AAA Cincinnati.
Dowless, Mast, Davey and McCormack all have options so they could be in Cincinnati if they do not earn spots in the spring.

McCormack is thought of the most by the front office between these 4 and will likely get a long look. Dowless struggled during injury and Mast has been up and down since he was acquired off waivers several years ago. Davey at one time was a solid relief option and that is his best bet to make the team.

Young Pitchers to watch – SP Karl Johnson*, SP Rick Walther*, SP Stan Harrison, RP Ducky Henry, CL Ed Smith, P Felix Dent. RP Frank Phillips*

Karl Johnson 9-1 2.97 AAA Cincinnati
Rick Walther 8-1 1.98 AAA Cincinnati
Stan Harrison 18-8 2.70 AA Portland
Ducky Henry 3-0-1 6.13 (FABL Brooklyn and AAA Cincinnati)
Frank Phillips 7-4-12 3.18 AAA Cincinnati
Ed Smith 1-1-5 saves 3.18 AA Arkon (Rule 5)
Felix Dent 14-13 3.40 A Trenton (Rule 5)

The future of the team is here with a couple of 22-year-old starters who really performed well at AAA in callups last year. Karl Johnson and Rick Walther both will be given chances to earn a spot on the team. As will CL Ed Smith and Felix Dent (who will likely be a RP this season if he is on the big-league team). RP Frank Phillips is another 22-year-old who the Foresters really like. While it would be exciting to see these youngsters get a shot, it might serve them best to repeat some more time at AAA since none of them were there a full season last year.

Ducky Henry and Stan Harrison are both a little older than the 22-year old’s but Harrison hasn’t started above AA, and was only in 5 games with AAA Cincinnati.

Of this group only Henry is out of options.

Of the Rule 5 guys while both could make it out of Florida to go North, Ed Smith is the favorite of the two to make it. If the team deems Dent not ready to try to sit in the pen this year the team might try to work a deal with Washington Eagles on a trade.

Longshots to make the team – SP Karl Clasby*, RP Ethan Scott, RP Otto Howard, and Bill Beier*

Long time starter Karl Clasby 30 was another of the pitchers with a dramatic arm injury during the 1928 season and struggled in his return. He has been designated and is a non-roster invitee to camp. He likely will be in Cincinnati but there has been some thought to give him a shot in the stopper role.

Young pitchers Ethan Scott, Otto Howard are on the 40-man roster but would have to really impress to make a run at the team. Both have options and will likely be in AA or AAA. Bill Beier is another pitcher who is coming off of an injury but not as significant a one as Tully, Clasby, and Dowless . Not on the 40-man roster most feel he will get a shot to be the Cincinnati stopper.

* Denotes not on 40-man roster

Next at look at the Position Players in Spring Camp and the Battles there

[DD Martin]

Spring Training 1930
Lakeland, Florida

The Position Players (29 players in Camp)

GM Thoughts – Fortunately the position players in camp on paper appear to be a lot stronger than the pitchers. While we have hopes for the pitchers this is where the real strength of the team lies. Will it be enough to push us into contention….unfortunately not likely. Here is our review of players and the camp battles.

Catchers (4 in camp with 2 spots available)

Starter (solid lock) Josh Fry
Battle for Backup Barney Green and Lew Stiles
Longshot youngster (future) Ben Richardson

Josh Fry 27 R 285 7-63 (FABL Cleveland) Fry is a steady catcher that flashes glimpse of huge potential only to fall back with the bat. Defensively a solid catcher but his defense did slip last season. He started 133 games and totaled almost 1200 innings. He threw out 43.8% of base-stealers last season (career average 50.2%). He cut down on his passed balls from 9 to 7 but made more errors 10 compared to 6. Still baring some injury or last-minute acquisition, he will be the opening day starter.

Barney Green 27 S 275 5-42 (between Cleveland and Chicago Cougars). Green is a switch hitter which bodes in his favor and give Manager Lietzke some additional flexibility. He has thrown out a career average 40.6% of would be base stealers and I would appear to have a slight edge over Lew Stiles. Green does have 2 options years remaining.

Lew Stiles 27 R spent most of last season in AAA Minnesota (322 4-25) before Montreal placed him on waivers and Cleveland picked him up. He is out of options so if he is not the backup, he will have to be DFA once again. Stiles threw out 43% of would be baserunners but is really going to have to shine to beat out Barney.

Young Ben Richardson 20 is in camp but is slated to be in the minor leagues this year. Most likely starting in Class A Reading.

Infielders -

The battle is the infield is really on the right side of the diamond. 3B Jake Moore has tried to grab a hold of the position but hasnÂ’t for a full season. Last year injury got in the way some but he is likely to be the man at 3B full time this season.

Shortstop is an interesting position as the team traded 3 SS from last season. AAA SS Jim Payne appears to be the heavy favorite going in and last yearÂ’s Rule 5 player Marty Smith likely going to Portland or Cincinnati for more seasoning. The question will be who will be the backup at SS? 2B candidates Brooks Meeks and Calvin Baldwin both have some innings at short. The team would like to see Meeks either win the 2B job or start the year getting full time at-bats at AAA Cincinnati.

First Base has a quartet of players vying for the job. Veteran George Simpson is a solid player and a team leader, but he disappointed some with the bat last season as the full-time guy.
Many in the organization want to see recently trade acquisition Luke Nixon win the job here in spring training. Nixon showed more pop in the lower minors than he did in Chicago last season.
Former Rule 5 player Ron McDougle spent last season in Cincinnati and while not hitting for much power hit the ball hard and also got in some time as an experiment in the corner OF.
Finally, a wildcard sort of situation with 1B Joe Smith who was newly added to the 40-man roster. Smith is a hitting machine in the minors similar to McDougle, but has something the Foresters donÂ’t have a ton of, base stealing ability. Smith stole 28 bases at AAA Cincinnati last season.

Battle for the starting job between Luke Nixon and George Simpson. Could Simpson be dealt? Battle for the back up spot has McDougle and Smith. Both hit for a high average with SmithÂ’s speed a plus but McDougleÂ’s experience in the corner OF spots a plus for him.

That leaves us with 2nd base. Truly a wide-open position on the team. Last yearÂ’s Rule 5 2B Bob Baker wasnÂ’t expected to get the bulk of starts in the spring but emerge with Don Ward (since traded) covering for Moore at 3B. Again, the youngster in the mix that many in the organization want to see take the job is Brooks Meeks, a young 20-year-old acquired via trade in the off-season. Many feel that Meeks needs to spend more time in the minors though and is not on the 40-man roster. If he does well this spring and wins the 2B job, he will go north with the team, but donÂ’t look for him to be a backup and sitting on the bench in Cleveland. This years Rule 5 2B Russ Franklin can also play in CF so he has some versatility there and as mentioned above Calvin BaldwinÂ’s ability to handle some innings at SS would give him a solid shot to make the team.

Others in camp but likely not making the team as infielders are – Bill Cotton, Vince Frazier (although Frazier can play 2B/3B and could be the backup at both), 2B Mo Matson and young 1B Gene Hand.

Outfielders – A position where most people know there is not any argument who will be in LF and RF. Cleveland brass would argue that these two players are the best two rookies in the last two seasons in all of the CA. Most observers don’t see a question in CF either but that is where the excitement of Spring Training will be.

Left Fielder – Joe Perret R 27 has hit 346 and 347 his first two seasons in the big leagues. Having hit 45 homeruns between the 2 seasons and driving in 210 (last season he spent 5 weeks on the DL) he is a sure thing to be the starter in left.

Right Fielder – Moxie Pidgeon R 23 came up and spent all of last season with the Foresters hitting 349 26-125. He is only expected to get better and is really the cornerstone of the team.

Center Field – Bobby Allen is the incumbent and has been a source of power for the Foresters. Allen has hit 272 and hit 17 and 19 homers in his first 2 seasons with 84 and 82 RBi’s respectfully. So why isn’t he the guaranteed starter going into the 1930 season? A couple of things, first is he has shown a few letdowns defensively in CF and secondly a player the team is very high on in Frank Moseley. Last season in AAA Cincinnati Moseley hit 287 with 29-84 and stole 30 bases (although he was caught 24 times). So with that power and speed combo he is considered one of the better CF’s defensively in the minor leagues. That is why this is considered to be such an interesting battle. Moseley is a left-handed hitter while Allen is a switch-hitter so they tend to balance out the two right-handed hitting power hitters in the corners.

The CF depth in the Cleveland organization is deep too. Also, in camp are several big league players in last year Rule 5 steal Leon Drake. Drake might be the best in the future but he needs a lot of at-bats in either AA or AAA this season. He is in camp but not expected to make the team.

Another CF in camp is Leo Clark who has only played at Class A and Class AA the last season. He hit well in AA Portland but only got 119 ABÂ’s there. He is not on the 40-man roster and he list likely headed to start in CF at Portland for a full season. Unlike most of the talent in the Cleveland organization in the OF, he is not a power hitter at this time but does have the profile.

OFÂ’s Dick Wilson and Mickey Crawford are also both in camp but appear they are here for experience and have little shot at making the team.

RF/1B Bill Grunwald is likely to be one of the backups OFÂ’s along with whoever loses the CF battle between Allen and Moseley. Grunwald is a solid contact hitter and excellent pinch hitter who is out of options and is also only 24.

The final player in camp is LF/3B Ray Cochran who was drafted in the 4th round in 1927. He has hit well in Class A Reading and played both LF and 3B but I donÂ’t see 3B being an option for him unless there is significant defensive improvement. He will likely go to Portland for a full season to see how he handles the pitching there. Scouting feels that Cochran could be a very good base stealer although he hasnÂ’t run much in his first two minor league seasons. He has hit very well for average though.

Next – Week 1 Spring Training games

[DD Martin]

[

Cleveland P-I
Sports Columnist Ronald William Apter
Date - March 24, 1930

Well week 1 of spring training is in the books and the forecasts for this Cleveland club looks as grim as I forecasted. The team limped to a 2-5 record and while i’m sure GM Martin is fine with the results, the fans of this club who I speak am not. This is the 50th anniversary for the Foresters and by the looks of things they might win 1 game for every year this season.

While it’s still early in the spring one bright spot has been SP Eddie Gray. While his record is only 1-1 due to yesterday’s where the alleged strength of this team, the offense managed just 4 hits. Gray has started 2 games pitching 7 quality innings giving up just one run. There is hope that last season tough start we’re just growing pains and that he is poised to have a breakout. I believe he will be a good top half of the rotation starter, let’s just hope it happens in a Cleveland and not one of the other outposts in the FABL. Martin has a history of trading good pitchers so Gray might be in trouble here.

Another solid bright spot so far has been Rule 5 pick, stopper Ed Smith. Smith has seen plenty of action so far pitching in 4 of the teams 7 games. He’s pitched 6 innings and given up no runs so far and even saved the first Forester win of the spring.

In the 3rd game of the spring Max Dowless and rookie Stan Harrison gave up a combined 7 runs in 3 2/3 innings. Harrison might have a future down the line in Cleveland debut it is not now. Dowless should be released. He has never shown much talent and appears to be done after his arm surgery in 28. I’m sure Martin will keep him around for another start, but if he makes this team it should be as the 9th pitcher on the staff only used in blowout losses. He should get plenty of innings the way things look.

The offense hasn’t been very good so far but they are playing a lot of guys. It’s been pretty ugly so far but we will give them a pass so far this week.

Later this spring as the roster trims down I’ll give my season prediction for who makes the team, stats and of course win loss record. Right now they are 2-5 in the spring tied with the Chicago Cougars who have long been doormats in the CA the last few years. These 2 should battle for the #2 pick (top pick goes to last place in FA) in the end of season draft. At least the Cougar fans can be heartened by the fact that Chicago has some promising talent for the future. Cleveland fans don’t appear to have that type of hope with GM DD (Dumb Dope) Martin at the helm.

[DD Martin]

Spring Training Camp Report

We have now completed 3 weeks of spring training and surprisingly we have a 10-10 record after the terrible 2-5 start. While we are not all that concerned with the spring record, it is nice to see that the team is at least competing hard.

Some interesting position battles are building as we go into the last week of games. 4 games left to ferret out the roster. Last 4 games for some players to show that they belong, for some to show that we should keep them, and for some it will be their last 4 games in the organization.
We made some cuts earlier last week and now we will be tweaking the roster some more as we still have 40 guys in camp and that is just too many. The minor teams are taking shape in our mind in the front office as well.

Position Battles
Catcher (2 Opening Day spots)
4 catchers were on the spring training roster (spring stats).
Josh Fry (293/341/366 0-7)
Barney Green (308/379/385 0-2)
Lew Stiles (071/133/071 0-0)
Ben Richardson (0-1)

One catcher had his spot locked down when we came here. Nothing has changed that. Josh Fry (27) will be our starter going into the 1930 season. The battle was for the backup job between Barney Green (27) and Lew Stiles (27). 20-year-old Ben Richardson gained valuable experience being in camp but he was not going to make the opening day roster. He has been sent to start the year likely at class B Savannah and with a successful start to the season will be in Class A Reading by Memorial Day.

Fry is getting most of the at-bats while Green and Stiles were splitting the first two weeks with Green emerging as the leader for the spot. Stiles is out of options so he will get plenty of chances the last 4 games to make his case.

Infield (likely 7-8 Opening Day Spots)
15 players were in camp whose primary position is infielder.

Position Battles – 1B (Spring Stats)
Luke Nixon (276/364/414 0-1)
George Simpson (300/391/300 0-2)
Ron McDougle (500 4 AB’s)
Joe Smith (419/455/516 0-1)
Gene Hand (286 1HR 2 hits 286 7 AB’s)

Last year Simpson (28) was the starter and while he didn’t have a great year the Foresters brought in via trade Luke Nixon (25). Since the team is in the rebuilding mode the front office would love to see Nixon win the job outright this spring. The Foresters have made Simpson available and figured with his leadership skills he would end up on a contending team. So far there have been no signs of interest in Simpson.

If Simpson is not traded, he will likely be on the opening day roster. So far with the bat this spring both Simpson and Nixon are hitting fairly similarly. Neither have hit a homerun, but while Simpson has the higher OBP, Nixon has the higher slugging. Ron McDougle (25) has surprising been the odd man out in the spring games. The reason why? Joe Smith (26) and his 419/455/516 spring in 31 AB’s. McDougle has options and has only garnered 4 PA’s and has 2 hits. He will likely be going down to AAA Cincinnati to start the year. Smith (26) is really pressing the issue here with his batting skills that he has shown throughout the minors. If Simpson were traded Smith would be the hands down backup to Nixon. The question is, what will the Foresters do with Simpson

Promising hitter 1B Gene Hand (24) has the only spring homerun for the Forester 1st basemen and has 2 hits in 7 AB’s. He will be sent to AA Portland to start the season.

Infield Position 3B
3 players in camp
Jake Moore (156/222/219 0-3)
Vince Frazier (200/276/200 0-3)
Bill Cotton (250/298/364 0-6)

The most underwhelming position of the entire spring. Moore (27) has not inspired confidence in the coaching staff or front office with his spring. The position looked to be his locked up but now while he is still in control of the spot, the team might look for alternative solutions. The fact is that none of the candidates for 3rd have done much to show that they are destined to make the team. Frazier (27) offers so backup utility abilities also being able to handle 2B. Cotton (29) actually was not serious considered for the job but has at least looked a little like he belongs this spring. Moore will likely break camp the starter but expect the team to be checking the waiver wire after spring training.

Infield Position -SS
2 main players here in camp but also have a couple of 2B guys that could backup here
Jim Payne (250-364/429 1-3)
Marty Smith (226/351/290 0-2)

Not much of a surprise here. Payne (27) was considered the front runner for the job in the off-season, while SS Smith (25) was likely headed to the minors. The organization is high on the former Rule 5 pick Smith but many feel he needs steady at-bats and wouldn’t benefit from being a backup this season. Smith will go to AAA Cincinnati where the team hopes he solidifies himself for a future shot on the Foresters.

Infield Position – 2B
5 players in camp with likely 1-3 spots available being the 3rd one would likely backup at SS)
Bob Baker (211/211/211 0-2)
Calvin Baldwin (333/333/444 0-7)
Russ Franklin (429/467/786 0-2)
Mo Matson (1AB 000)
Brooks Meeks (464/464/536 0-5)

Maybe the most interesting position battle in camp. Last year’s primary starter Bob Baker (25) has struggled to hit most of the spring. He will likely get most of the playing time in the last 4 games to see if he can get his bat started, if he can’t then he might be headed to AAA to straighten things out. Long-time minor leaguer Calvin Baldwin (28) is making a strong push as is Rule 5 Pick Russ Franklin (23). Both have swung the bat well so far and both appear headed to make the team. Mo Matson appears to be the odd man out once again. The well-liked Matson (27) appears to be slated to the minors and his place in the minors appears destined to where the team places the most talked about player in camp.

Brooks Meeks (20) has really impressed this spring and has put up the numbers that suggest he should be the opening day starter. But honestly that was not the plan this year with the kid. He is certainly making me reconsider the thought process but he will go down to either AA Portland to start or we might send him straight to AAA Cincinnati. But at 20 he will be one of the youngest players in the Union League and we don’t want to undermine his confidence.

Outfield
10 players in camp with likely 5 spots available
LF Joe Perret (194/235/258 0-5)
RF Moxie Pidgeon (286/362/452 2-5)
CF Bobby Allen (306/390/639 4-8)
CF Frank Moseley (275/326/425 2-6)
Battle for last spot
Bill Grunwald (333/400/333 0-1)
Mickey Crawford (375/429/531 0-6)
Leo Clark (300/417/300 0-1)
Leon Drake (188/278/375 1-2)
Ray Cochran (317/370/512 1-7)
Dick Wilson (250/455/625 1-1)

Corner Outfield Starters will be no surprise in LF Joe Perret (27) and RF Moxie Pidgeon (23). These 2 budding superstars have not had the strongest of springs with Perret surprisingly struggling the most. Pidgeon has hit a couple of homeruns though so far. Regardless of the spring numbers these two will be locks in the top 2-4 spots in the order.
The position battle is really in CF where Bobby Allen (25) tried to maintain his opening day roster spot with Frank Moseley (24) pushing hard. With that battle going on it would then be who would be the extra pinch hitting OF. Both Allen and Moseley with their springs appear to likely both make the team barring any late trades. Allen has hit 4 homers and been the best RBI man for the whole team this spring. Moseley has hit fairly well, shown some power and played very good defense. Who is named the starter between these two has not been announced as of yet.

Youngsters in camp but headed to the minors in CF will be last season Rule 5 pick and very highly thought of Leon Drake (21). Drake would still be considered a top 30 prospect if he hadn’t spent all of last season on the regular season roster. It makes no sense for him to be sitting on the bench in Cleveland instead of playing everyday in Portland. Also heading to the minors is left-handed hitting Leo Clark (23). He hit well this spring at 300 but will be headed to AAA Cincinnati. Mickey Crawford (25) hit very well in spring games at 375 and is fighting for that last spot on the roster with the incumbent Bill Grunwald (24). Grunwald is out of options and is a solid pinch hitter on the left-handed side so he is the favorite as Crawford has options. Dick Wilson (27) is likely going to be DFA.

Another youngster and highly thought of player in camp is LF Ray Cochran (24) who can also play 3B albeit not very well. Versatility is always important and with the 3B in camp not exactly lighting it up that might be were the team has him concentrate his time.

Next the Pitching Battle in Spring Training

[DD Martin]

Spring Training Report Pitching

A lot of spots were open on the pitching staff and this spring was meant to sort out the best 9 on the team. Or the best 7 if we keep the two young Rule 5 Players. I know that I will keep one for sure and that would be RP Ed Smith. So there are really 7-8 spots available.

Before week 3 was underway we made some moves to send some of the pitchers down to the minor leagues. The first 5 players on that list were some of our most promising pitchers. SP Rick Walther and Karl Johnson both 22, looked a little overmatched this spring. Johnson had an 8.64 ERA while Walther was at 5.23. Both have promising futures but they are not quite here yet. I expect at some point this season we will see them both in Cleveland, but for now they will report to AAA Cincinnati. Also heading down was SP Stan Harrison (26) who hasn’t appeared yet in AAA, but he will get the opportunity there this year behind Johnson and Walther in the starting rotation.

Relievers Otto Howard (24) and Ethan Scott (23) will also be reassigned in the minor league camp.

Heading into the last week of spring we made a couple of more decisions. Swingman Rube McCormack will start the year in Cincinnati and be the #4 SP there. I still feel “Mac” has a chance to be a starting rotation guy so instead of sitting in the bullpen, even if he is one of the best 9 he will gain more starting experience in Cincinnati.

While he wasn’t in the big league camp we also placed SP Harry Parker (20) on the injured list. Parker has some elbow inflammation that we are being careful with. He currently doesn’t have a timeline to return but is slated to be in Class A Reading once he is medically deemed ready to pitch.

We also started the painful process of cutting players from the organization. We have a bloated roster and roughly 20 guys need to be cut. The first casualty was RP/OF Bugs Westfall. Bugs was drafted in the 25th round of the 1926 draft and simply didn’t do enough either in the field, at the plate or on the mound to warrant another season in our minor league system. Veteran OF Al Stone (31) was on the chopping block but, he was placed on the injured list. When ready he might still be a causality of the numbers.

Starting Pitchers – Battle for the Rotation (Spring Training numbers)
Harvey Tully (0-1 3.09 11.2 innings)
Eddie Gray (1-2 1.26 14.1 innings)
George Barker (1-0 3.12 8.2 innings)

What is emerging is maybe some hopeful news. SP Eddie Gray (24) who struggled some in the 2nd half last season has been pretty sharp this spring. With a 1-2 record but a 1.26 ERA, he has secured a spot in the 1930 starting rotation. Also looking fairly solid after a rough return from injury is Harvey Tully (26) who is 0-1 with a 3.87 ERA. While he is not yet guaranteed himself a spot it is looking promising. He will get the start in the 2nd game next week. SP George Barker (28) 1-0 3.12 ERA will start the last of the 4 remaining spring games. But he looks to have earned himself a spot after this spring and his promising rookie season last year.

The next spots in the rotation

This appears to be a battle for survival between the Thompson Twins (Jack 28 and Jim 26). They aren’t really twins, but I just had to say it. Jim is going to get the first start of the last week while Jack will be a long reliever. Also with a smattering of faint hope is Jack Mast (29) who is like the swiss army knife of pitchers. He will simply plug in wherever we decide we need him. He is battling for a job though as he is not a lock to be on the opening day roster and to keep his 40-man spot. While his 40-man spot is not in jeopardy, his spot on the opening day roster is and that is Max Dowless (28). Max has pitched well enough to make the team (3.00 ERA) and might get the #5 spot in the rotation by default. He will not get a start in one of the last 4 games (this is where I wish since I am limiting pitch counts that I could select pitchers who I want to pitch in certain spring games. I really wish this was a feature instead of leaving it up to the sim and my manager).


The Bullpen
4 total spots
RP Ed Smith will be guaranteed a spot as a Rule 5 guys. He has done enough in the stopper role in the early spring to ensure his spot in the pen. Though it might not be as the stopper as a surprising battle has emerged in the last 2 weeks. P Karl Clasby the former SP for the Foresters who was waived in the off-season has stayed with the organization and is reliving. Not given much of a chance of making the pen at the start of spring training, he has elevated his position to at least being considered. Clasby has 4 saves in the last 2 weeks and a 0.90 ERA this spring. While that ERA and saves number is nice, his control has not been great as evidenced by his FIP of 4.75. The last week will tell if Karl forces may hand to bring him back to Cleveland or not.

RP Jack Gunderson (28) was the stopper for about half the season last year and didn’t pitch poorly. He has continued that this spring with a 1.50 ERA in middle relief mostly. Gunderson is out of options and would likely be lost if waived so he will probably stick. It helps that he is a lefty.

SP/RP Felix Dent (23) another Rule 5 guy, hasn’t had a lot of opportunities but that said he hasn’t pitched himself out of a job either. In 4.2 innings of relief he hasn’t given up a run so far this spring.

The final spot in the Bullpen
So if both Rule 5 guys Smith and Dent make the team and Gunderson stays. That means it comes down to one of these guys, unless Karl Clasby makes the team.

RP Frank Phillips (22) is a personal favorite and has pitched well with a sub-2 ERA. I think the kid has a lot of potential to be something pretty good. Time is on his side so he might end up the stopper in Cincinnati.
Also if he is not in the rotation Jack Thompson is out of options and is a hell of a leader. It is a strong possibility that he snags this spot in the bullpen.

RP Bill Beier (25) is a little older but still a very good RP that I would like to see in Cleveland at some point. His spring ERA is 3.38 and he has done well in the minors. He is not on the 40-man roster so he likely will be in Cincinnati’s pen. If he has a good year he will have to be protected next year, but he is safe from poachers for now.

RP Ernie Davey (28) seems older than he is since he has been on every Cleveland team since I took over. He was once the rock of the pen but his performance last season slipped some. He has 2 options so he is likely destined to Cincinnati as well, but he is a capable RP.


Likely headed to Waivers
Two more guys but both out of options. Jim McCoy (25) was a waiver wire pick up late last season. While he is young, he has done nothing with the opportunities that Cleveland, Boston, Pittsburgh or Montreal has given him. He’s young enough that someone else might give him a chance.

RP Ducky Henry (25) appears to be a 4A pitcher. He was also claimed by us last season late in the year off waivers from Brooklyn. He appears to be out of time with us as well.



Next - Spring Training Ends, who goes north to Cleveland, who is sent packing

[DD Martin]

Breaking Spring Training Camp

The Foresters finished 12-12 in the spring which surprised us. I am not sure exactly why we played 500 ball as our hitting was often absent in a lot of games this spring. Honestly I expected a 9-15 type of spring so this gives us some hope.

As we approach final cutdown day for the Opening Day roster several players again made very strong cases to stick with the big-league team. Chief among them is P Karl Clasby. 6 months ago we wrote Karl off, now he is making me reconsider bringing him back on the 40-man roster in a completely different role. We tried this last year in the spring with Mose Smith trying out the stopper role and it didn't make it past week 3 of the spring. Karl has made it past that and maybe just maybe back to Cleveland.

Clasby end the spring with a 0.64 ERA and a record of 1-0 with 5 saves. He was someone that we were not thinking would be a part of the plans but he has put himself in strong consideration for a job.

SP Joe McCoy who was thought to be an easy DFA candidate also put up a strong spring in efforts to save his job. McCoy went 10 innings this spring with a 1.80 ERA. He could slide into a spot but it is going to be a numbers game in the pitching staff. If he does make it he will be watched extremely closely early.

Rule 5 P Felix Dent probably cemented his spot on the team with 4 more shut out innings. Dent ran his total to 8.2 spring innings without giving up a run. The way the roster is potentially shaking out Dent might actually end up as the #5 starter. Anyway he made the team, welcome to Cleveland Felix.

The pitching staff decisions are going to be the toughest to be sure.

The situation at 2B and 3B though continue to be evaluated. We will send young 2B Brooks Meeks to the minors to start the year. 3B Jake Moore has been so underwhelming this spring that we are going to actively review the waiver wire. The situation there is maddening.

A lot of questions as SS as well. Jim Payne is the starter and will have Calvin Baldwin be the backup at 2B/SS. We had our eye on a veteran SS that we might try to add. Whether he is signed to be in Cleveland our off the 40-man roster as depth (not starting over Marty Smith) in Cincinnati remains to be seen.

We are still hoping to make a trade at some point, but our young arms in the minors will not be given up for any other than a potential star player that is young and can contribute.

Next - Opening Day Rosters

[DD Martin]

Opening Day Rosters and some Predictions

So here we are the opening day of the FABL as the Continental Association Cleveland Foresters have set their roster for the upcoming season. Their roster at least to start the season with.

Cleveland P-I Columnist “Angry” Ronald William Apter predicts that the Foresters will go on to have the worst season in club history. Now while the 1892 club won only 44 games (44-91 .326), they only played 135. With the teams playing 154 games nowadays in the modern times the fewest wins record seems to be safe. But Apter predicts that the team will go 50-104 .325 which would be the lowest win percentage in franchise history. And by the way he feels they will finish dead last.

Prominent baseball writer Jiggs McGee seems a little more hopefully than many that the Foresters won't be as bad as some say. He feels the young OF will have enough to power them to maybe as high as 5th. He figures that Montreal, Chicago who have very talented young teams might not be ready to take a big leap quite yet to the upper division. He pegs the Foresters for 5th in a tight contest between those two clubs and a 73-81 record. Of course Jiggs did have them winning the CA last year and we all know how that turned out.

Baseball mega-scout, historian and patriarch of baseball’s 1st family, Rufus Barrell seems the Foresters in 7th place this year. He’s looking for the team to be in the 62-92 range finishing shockingly ahead of the Toronto Wolves.

As for Michael J. Kiely of the Cleveland Tribune, he sees a little more optimistic season ahead. He predicts the Foresters to finish in 5th place with a 72-82 record.

Opening Day Roster (1929 Stats) (Spring Stats)
Starting Pitchers – The Foresters will likely mostly go with a 4-man rotation to start but have named Rule 5 draftee Felix Dent as the #5 starter. I’m not expecting him to make a huge number of starts but depending on what happens he could make 15 or so.

#1 Starter – Eddie Gray RHSP bats L 25 (6-10 5.09 ERA in 1929) (1-2 2.45 ERA Spring Training)
Gray will be looked on to improve on his call up season of last year. Gray had trouble with the long ball both with the Foresters and AAA Cincinnati. The hope is he can learn from last year and reduces the baserunners and homers against him.

#2 Starter – Harvey Tully RHSP bats S 26 (1-9 8.28 ERA CL 3-2 2.91 at AAA Cincy) (0-2 3.68 ERA Spring)
Tully was 3-1 in 5 starts with a pristine 1.96 ERA early in the 28 season before a major injury forced him out until summer last year. To say he struggled in his return is being kind. The Foresters are obviously hoping their one time pilfering of independent team Sacramento returns to form. This will be a big season for Tully and deciding his future.

#3 Starter – George Barker LHSP 28 (6-4 3.87 ERA) (1-1 4.97 ERA Spring)
This guy has surprised everyone in the organization and they hope he keeps doing it. Never thought of as much of a talent to make the big club he just kept pitching and moving up. Last year he moved up after the trading of Lawrence and Robinson and the injury to Wilson. This will be his first full season in the big leagues.

#4 Starter – Jack Thompson LHSP 30 (2-4-2 AAA ST Paul) (0-0 4.91 ERA Spring)
Picked up literally off the scrap heap by the Foresters after Thompson was released by the Pittsburgh Miners after the 29 season. He flirted with signing with AAA indy Sacramento but then was released and signed by the Foresters. We are not sure what to expect from him on the mound, but he brings solid leadership to a young pitching staff.

#5 Starter/RP Felix Dent RHSP Bat S 23 (Rule 5 pick) (14-13 3.40 ERA A Trenton) (0-0 0.00 Spring)
Huge leap up from class A and into the big leagues for this kid. Foresters will try and get him some work and some occasional starts. Had a perfect spring to secure his roster spot in 8 2/3 innings. Will see some action out of the bullpen as well.

Bullpen
Stopper Karl Clasby RHRP 31 (3-4 7.01 ERA) (1-0-5 0.64 Spring)
Clasby returned from injury last year and could not get untracked. He was 5-5 4.04 at Cincinnati when not with the Foresters. After the season last year, the Foresters DFA him and he wasn’t picked up. Continued to workout with the club and was invited non-roster status to spring training. Surprised everyone and for now has earned the stopper role. Foresters have a lot of youth that could take this spot, but it is Clasby’s for the time being.

MR Jack Gunderson LHRP 28 (5-2-8 3.15) (1-0 2.16 Spring)
Gunderson was acquired before opening day last year from the Kings. He has pitched very well and could be ready at any time to take over the stopper role if Clasby falters. Probably the steadiest of the bullpen pitchers with the team.

MR Ed Smith RHRP 25 (Rule 5) 22-5 3.36 Class A 1-1-5 3.18 Class AA) (0-2-1 4.50 Spring)
Some thoughts were Smith would be the opening day stopper but again a big jump for the young man from starting in Class A and relieving in AA last season. The team has decided to ease him into the bullpen roles a little slower. He wasn’t bad this spring, but he wasn’t dominate either.

LR Joe McCoy RHP 25 (1-6 7.38 in 5 starts with Cleveland) (0-0 1.80 Spring)
McCoy literally bought some time and maybe saved his career with his spring performance. While most observers thought he would be DFA and this stop would go to anyone else, he persevered. Along with veteran Clasby, McCoy who has never lived up to his promise after his 12-8 3.88 class A season in 1925.

Summary – Shaky at best is this bunch. Starters are littered with pitchers hoping to rebound from injury or career ineffectiveness. Bullpen has 1 steady component in Gunderson, a couple of kids sneaking through Rule 5 and a couple of reclamation projects. This does not look like a top pitching staff this season.

Position Players
Catchers – Not a huge surprise here with Josh Fry being the incumbent starter and Barney Green (switch hitter) being his backup. Lew Stiles was DFA after spring training.

C Josh Fry R 27 (285/348/755 7-63 last season) (261 0-7 spring)
Fry seems to have a pretty firm grip on the starting job and at this point doesn’t look to be challenged for it until youngster Ben Richardson (20) is ready likely in the 1932/33 time frame. Fry has gunned down 50% of the base runners against him in his first 2 big league seasons.

C Barney Green S 27 (275 5-42 Clv/CHC) (267 0-2 spring)
His switch-hitting bat is a plus off the bench, but he is not the defensive receiver that Fry is. He’s not terrible but he is a notch below most starting catchers in the FABL.

Infielders – Probably long term the most problematic positions in the entire organization. The team went heavy with early round picks at all the infield positions. While the cupboard is not bare it for now is lacking any superstars. There is help on the horizon with 2B Brooks Meeks and the team is crossing its fingers that 1B Luke Nixon will be the player they have longed for at 1B.

1B Luke Nixon R 25 (328/375/842 5-51 CHC) (281 0-1 spring)
The man the organization wants to take charge of this position. To start the year, it looks like its going to be a bit of a platoon with George Simpson. How long that lasts will be how both players start the season. The odds are that Nixon will emerge as the starter and Simpson will be moved one way or the other.

1B George Simpson L 28 (313/370/830 9-66) (360 0-7 spring)
Simpson came over at the start of last spring from Pittsburgh. While he played fairly well and brings excellent leadership to the team, the organization was underwhelmed with his power. The team has long dreamed of a power hitting 1B and to date hasn’t found what they are looking for.

2B Bob Baker L 25 (276/335/698 3-57) (280 1-3 spring)
Baker was a Rule 5 Pick last season that took advantage of Jake Moore’s injury at 3B with Don Ward moving from 2B to 3B. Baker came out hot and played well the first half. 2nd half of season the bat cooled off. Will platoon with this year’s rule 5 Pick Russ Franklin to start the year.

2B Russ Franklin R 23 (Rule 5 Pick) (336/385/872 4-85 Class A) (455 0-2 Spring)
Franklin has come on strong and could claim the job outright but will start in the platoon setup. He even has manager Hank Lietzke thinking of starting him in CF as well so he has some versatility. CF though is already crowded with 2 very capable players.

SS Jim Payne R 27 (327/366/834 6-81 AAA Cincy) (281 0-1 spring)
There wasn’t any doubt who was going to be the starting SS this season. Payne had been awarded the job right after Russ Combs and Don Ward were traded away at the end of last year. His defense in the minors has been much better than the Foresters have been getting, and one of the priorities in the off-season was to get stronger up the middle. The question about Payne is will his bat translate to the big leagues. In a cup of coffee at the end of last year he went 0-16.

MI/UT Calvin Baldwin R 28 (308/338/800 1-7 AA Portland) (306 0-9 spring)
Baldwin finally get his chance with the big-league team. His versatility to backup at most the infield positions cemented his position. Strictly a backup infielder who has a decent glove, but no speed.

3B Jake Moore R 27 (310/377/854 7-39) (128 0-3)
This was not supposed to be a position of huge concern other than a few injuries that Moore has had in the previous couple of seasons. But the wheels fell off in spring and has sent the organization scrambling to look if there are other options to bring in for a look. Hopefully Moore will shake off the rough spring, but the organization is on the lookout for the next 3rd baseman.

Outfield – This is where the star power lies with the team. With Perret in LF and Pidgeon in RF the team has two very capable Whitney Award candidates any season. With Bobby Allen or Frank Moseley in CF adding power as well. Right now, it looks like Moseley will get the starts but don’t be surprised with a platoon here as well. Allen has tried his hand at 1B in a few spring games and with his power bat he could be a person to bring power to that position.

LF Joe Perret R 27 (346/394/953 21-93) (222 0-6)
Injury robbed him of 5 weeks last year and a shot at 25-100. Among league leaders in batting average and OBP his first 2 season. A slow start this spring doesn’t have the team very alarmed though. Has a shot at the Whitney this year as BNN pegs him with predictions of 373 23-121 and 17 SB’s. The Foresters would be thrilled with those numbers.

RF Moxie Pidgeon R 23 (349/412/979 26-125) (240 2-5 Spring)
This kid appears to be the real deal. Originally an 11th round choice in the 25 draft, Pidgeon burst onto the scene last year with 349 avg and 26 homeruns in his rookie season. This year BNN pegs him at 344 28-125 numbers. Combines to make the best corner OF in the CA

CF Frank Moseley L 24 (287/349/843 29-84 AAA Cincy) (277 2-6 Spring)
Moseley brings the defense to CF that the Foresters don’t have with Allen. The key will be to see if he can replicate his minor league power numbers in the big leagues this season. He will likely share some time to start the year in CF with Allen but everything points to him being the Foresters CF for a long time Speed is a part of Moseley’s game which the Foresters don’t have a lot of.

CF/OF Bobby Allen R 25 (275/332/785 19-82) (273 4-9 Spring)
CF should be Allen’s job and the team should be shopping Moseley if Allen could play better defense. Allen is still young but has shown the ability to hit 20 homers. He will split early time with Moseley in CF and might pick up a few AB’s giving Perret or Pidgeon a rest. The team could also go back to the experiment of giving Allen time at 1B if Nixon or Simpson aren’t effective. Maybe the best 4th OF in baseball today bat wise.

OF/PH Bill Grunwald 24 L (339/391/808 2-9) (333 0-2 spring)
Grunwald who is out of options made the 29 team primarily as a pinch hitter. He performed well at that and will likely be called on to do the same this season. While the team would hate to lose him because he is still young and has potential, he could be a roster casualty at some point this year.

Manager Hank Leitzke 53
Long time minor league manager who signed on with Cincinnati in 1928 after Joe Johnson was promoted to the top spot in Cleveland. He carried on Joe’s winning way in Cincinnati winning 2 more Union League championships (Cincinnati is the 3-time defending Union League champs). He has an excellent reputation around the league and many wonder why he hasn’t gotten a coveted FABL job prior to this. His patience might be tested this year with this pitching staff, but it appears that Leitzke will be in Cleveland for a long time.

Next -Transactions and more during a busy opening week.

[DD Martin]

1930 Season Opening Week

We start the season at home and who do we welcome to town? A team that has had our number the last several years, the 2-time defending CA champions the Philadelphia Sailors. A very difficult task to start the season to be sure.

Game 1 - Philadelphia Sailors 16 @ Cleveland Foresters 2
Ugly game from the git go. Phily clobbers starter Harvey Tully who picked up where he left off last season in giving up 7 runs in the 2nd inning. Tully pitches 1 more inning gives up 2 more runs and the rest is history. A very familiar result against the Sailors
Season record 0-1
WP - Oscar Morse 1-0 2.00 LP - Harvey Tully 0-1 24.00

Game 2 - Philadelphia Sailors 6 @ Cleveland Foresters 12
Well tonight we got a respectable outing from Eddie Gray going 7 1/3 against the mighty Sailors. Gray gave up 3 runs and Joe McCoy came in and finished the game giving up a few runs. Bill Grunwald got a surprise start by manager Hank Leitzke and rewarded the skipper with a homerun and 3 hits.

WP - Eddie Gray 1-0 3.68 LP - Russ Real 0-1 17.18
Season record 1-1

Game 3 - Philadelphia Sailors 4 @ Cleveland Foresters 5
George Barker got the win going 7 1/3 innings and giving up 2 runs against the potent Sailors. Barker appears to be picking up where he left off last season which is good news for the Foresters. Grunwald again homers (2) and the Foresters hung on despite Stopper Karl Clasby got the save despite pitching rather poorly giving up 2 runs in the 9th.

WP - George Barker 1-0 2.45 LP - William Jones 0-1 5.63 S- Karl Clasby 1 10.80
Season record 2-1

Could we actually win 3 out of 4 against the powerful Sailors? Probably not

Game 4 - Philadelphia Sailors 4 @ Cleveland Foresters 1 10 innings
The 2 starters had a great pitching duel over the first 9 innings. Both Rollie Beal and Jack Thompson gave up just 1 run through the first 9. Both SP came back out for the 10th and that was 1 too many for Thompson as he gave up 3 runs in the 10th with the big hit being a 2-out, 2-run double by C Alex Diaz.

WP - Rollie Beal 1-0 0.90 LP - Jack Thompson 0-1 3.60
Season record 2-2

After that tough series we welcomed the Chicago Cougars to town. So we go from the 2-time defending champs to the 2-time defending cellar dwellers in a battle that will likely be important for the top CA draft pick next off-season. The Cougs come into town playing well have won 3 out of 4 against the Toronto Wolves to kick off the season.

Game 5 - Chicago Cougars (3-1) 10 @ Cleveland Foresters (2-2) 11
What a wild game here today at Forester Stadium with 8500+ fans watching two teams shred each other pitching. 3B Jake Moore was named the player of the game going 3-5 with 3R and 3RBI along with a DB. Rookie Felix Dent didn't fare well in his FABL debut going 4.2 and giving up 4 runs. He wasn't the worst pitcher in the game though RP Ed Smith and Stopper Karl Clasby gave up 5 runs the rest of the way. Clasby blew the save but got the win.

WP - Karl Clasby 1-0 12.27ERA LP - Chick Meehan 0-2 12.26
Season record 3-2

Game 6 - Chicago Cougars (3-2) 8 @ Cleveland Foresters (3-2) 13
Is it the baseballs, the pitching or its just early in the season? So far the pitching in a lot of FABL cities has been awful and there was more of it on display today. Cougar SP Dick Lyons went 5+ and gave up 10 runs with 6 earned. Harvey Tully got the win but his line was almost as ugly giving up 6 runs all earned in 7 innings. LF Joe Perret drove in 4 guns to get POTG honors.

WP - Harvey Tully 1-1 15.00 LP - Dick Lyons 1-1 6.39 S- Jack Gunderson 1 0.00
Season record 4-2

An interesting week 1 is in the books. We have 1 more at home against the Cougs before we hit the road next week. We are ecstatic winning 4 of our first 6 games. Who knows with the state of pitching in the league early on, maybe our staff isn't as horrible as some think. It is but maybe we have some company there.

Next -Early season transactions

[DD Martin]

End of spring and early season transactions

Just a quick catchup on what we did to get to our roster numbers, who went and where they went.

The moves to get the roster down and the organization
With the pairing of the roster to 23 we had to make some tough decisions.

Dick Wilson DFA – signed by the Dallas Centurions
Ducky Henry DFA - released
Lew Stiles DFA - released

We also had to make some tough choices to get our minor league rosters in shape for the upcoming season as we had roughly 24 players too many. Players released from the minor leagues.

SP Ivan Soto 27 released from AA Portland - has since signed with Syracuse Excelsiors
SS Irv Arnold 20 released from C Ottumwa
SS Lloyd Carter 33 released from AAA Cincinnati
RP Guy Crane 25 released from B Savannah
LF Jim Douglas 20 released from C Ottumwa
SP Red Dunagan 19 released from C Ottumwa
2B Dode Espen 32 released from AA Portland
1B Jim Holmes 30 released from AAA Cincinnati
1B Alex Mower 33 released from AA Portland
RP Roy Robinson 23 released from B Savannah
LF Ted Smith 21 released from C Ottumwa
2B Dean Sturtevant 24 released from C Ottumwa
RP Jack Tower 27 released from AA Portland
SP Jim C Walker 28 released from AAA Cincinnati
RP/OF Bugs Westfall 24 released from A Reading
1B Ron Ashley 27 released by AAA Cincinnati – signed with San Diego Conquistadors
1B Dan Niles 18 released by C Ottumwa – signed by Waco Wranglers
1B/OF John Spears 21 released by C Ottumwa – signed by Dallas Centurions
OF Pat Jarrell 27 released by A Reading – signed with Austin Violets
1B Kirby Duvall 24 released by B Savannah – signed with Forth Worth Cattlemen
RP Frankie Baker 23 released by B Savannah – signed with Houston Bulls
RF Karl Helms 30 released by AAA Cincinnati – signed Springfield Hustlers
SP Gus Robinson 26 released by B Savannah – signed by Amarillo Stars
OF Ike Minor 23 released by A Reading – signed by Pueblo Mountaineers

In the first day of reviewing waiver transactions we claimed Cal Blackshear 29 from the NY Gothams. We didn’t have room on the roster for him as he is out of options so we tried to sneak him through waivers again. Unfortunately for us he was claimed by the Chicago Cougars so that transaction is pending. Blackshear was plan A for a veteran backup SS in case Jim Payne faltered.

We did put in claims for several guys, both younger and one of them still has options. We claimed LF Art Miller from the Chicago Cougars. Miller is 24 and hasn’t played above Class B ball. Last season he spent most of his time in Class C which is low for a 24-year-old. He will get a shot if we have 40-man roster room. At his age I would have to see if he could play at Class A Reading.

Two more significant players claimed were SS Irv Smith 22 and 3B Harry Stroud 27. Of course, Smith is another former Philadelphia Keystone SS prospect. We seem to keep trying to find a diamond or two in their leftovers (waivers and Rule 5). Smith remarkably is out of options at 22 so if we deem him viable, he might bump Calvin Baldwin out of a job.
3B Stroud is also a former Keystone. If we keep both of these guys, we will have to do some roster juggling. I am tempted to keep Stroud to keep pressure on Moore to find his bat.

In minor league moves we added signed 11 players to try and balance out our minor league roster. We had room for 4 players so we will have to review things and make 7 minor league moves to get these guys spots.

Creating 40-man spots was not really a problem so we decided to add both Stroud and Smith to the 40-man roster. In order to do that we had to DFA and release a couple of guys. The victims were 2B Mo Matson 27 and 3B Bill Cotton 29. We ended up optioning 2B/SS Calvin Baldwin to AAA Cincinnati and putting SS Irv Smith in as the backup SS. We need to make another move with the 23-man roster to put Stroud on the roster. This will likely come from the pitching staff, but we are going to wait a week since we have time to make that choice. That likely means that a couple of players are once again pitching for the Forester careers.

The 10 players signed are
3B Pete Israel 20
CF Tom Hoppe 20
2B Juan Sarmiento 16
3B Carlos Saenz 17
1B Ollie Gordon 21
RP Johnny Howe 22
LF Dan Streams 18
SP Lark Morrice 19
C Walt Cox 18
LF Hank Levine 23

To make room for these guys the following players were released. We have a glut of 1B so we will prune some of them right away. A couple of kids were drafted by us in the late rounds but we need to develop more than 1st basemen.

1B Andy Tremp 27 from A Reading
1B Ray Gregory 18 from C Ottumwa
1B Elmer Lockwood 18 from C Ottumwa
LF Al Conrad 19 from C Ottumwa
3B Dale Wooden 18 from C Ottumwa
RF Bob Augustine 26 from B Savannah
2B Chuck Carlson 20 from B Savannah
LF Willie Wild 19 from C Ottumwa

Next - Week 2 could the early season success continue?

[DD Martin]

Its Week 2 in the FABL and your co-league leading Cleveland Foresters say #$%@ to all the nay-sayers...….yeah right

Well after a surprising week 1 found us in a 3-way tie for first, this week we finish off our homestand with 1 more game against the Chicago Cougars. Then we trek off on the road for our first roadtrip of the young season and find us stopping in....no not in Philadelphia against the Sailors. They are going to be pissed that they only won 2 out of 4 against us last week. After 2 in Phily (thankfully it is only 2) then we go to for 2 and then back home for the first of 4 games against Toronto on Sunday. Will lady luck keep smiling on us? Haha I seriously doubt it.

Game 7 - Chicago Cougars (3-3) 2 @ Cleveland Foresters 6
The Foresters were not very kind to their visitors from the Windy City as behind SP Eddie Gray's 7.1 innings of 2 run ball the Foresters sweep the Cougars out of Cleveland and remain tied for first with the Sailors. To support the fine pitching of Gray, Bob Baker (4), Moxie Pidgeon (2) and Jake Moore (3) all hit doubles and drove in a run. The runs all came off former Forester Max Wilder who took the loss in the complete game.

WP - Eddie Gray 2-0 3.07 LP - Max Wilder 1-1 4.80
Season Record 5-2 Home Record 5-2

After the game with the Cougars the Foresters got an off-day before climbing on the bus to head to Philadelphia. The Sailors are also 5-2 with their only losses on the season so far against us here last week. I am very much expecting the Sailors to extract revenge for that showing.

Game 8 - Cleveland Foresters (5-2) 3 @ Philadelphia Sailors (5-2) 4
The magic beans only last so long in this league and the Sailors showed why they are the favorites in the CA again as they got a solid but not spectacular performance by SP William Jones. The Sailors boast by far the best starting unit in the CA and even when they are not at their sharpest they still are better than most. RF Moxie Pidgeon hit his first homerun of the season, a 2-run shot in the 4th to give the Foresters hope, but it didn't last long. Forester SP George Barker was the tough luck loser giving up 4 runs but only 1 earned in taking his first loss of the season.

WP - William Jones 1-1 4.24 LP - George Barker 1-1 1.98
Season Record 5-3

Game 9 - Cleveland Foresters (5-3) 10 @ Philadelphia Sailors (6-2) 4
In a rematch of a 10 inning game last week where SP Rollie Beal and Jack Thompson locked up in a pitching struggle for 9 innings. The Foresters this time jumped all over Beal for 8 runs and leading 5-1 after 4 innings. SP Jack Thompson evened his record at 1-1 and pitched his 2nd complete game of the season. Moxie Pidgeon homer for the 2nd straight day and LF Joe Perret hit his first of the season.

WP - Jack Thompson 1-1 3.79 LP - Rollie Beal 1-1 4.67
Season Record 6-3 (tied for first with Sailors) Road Record 1-1

Two more games this week on the road before returning home Sunday. We make our way to Chicago who we swept last week for 2 games. Odds are the hungry Cougars will be looking to extract a little revenge against us at home.

Game 10 Cleveland Foresters (6-3) 4 @ Chicago Cougars (5-5) 9
Chicago chased SP Felix Dent in the 5th getting 3 runs off the young rookie as the Forester's try and let him ease into the season. That fit Chicago well because they proceeded to smash the Forester bullpen and mostly Joe McCoy for 6 more runs. McCoy who might be in trouble keeping his job went 2 innings and gave up 5 hits and count them 5 earned runs as the Cougars ran away with this one.

WP - Tommy Russel 2-0 3.43 LP - Joe McCoy 0-1 11.12
Season record 6-4

Game 11 Cleveland Foresters (6-4) 2 @ Chicago Cougars (6-5) 8
Another beat down curtesy of the improving Cougars as they pound Joe McCoy again in relief of Harvey Tully who left the game in the 3rd inning in a collision at 2nd base. Not that it really matter for the Foresters who's bats were silent SP Ace McSherry. Kind of expected that Chicago was up for this series after the way Cleveland hosted them last week.

WP - Ace McSherry 1-0 2.82 LP - Harvey Tully 0-2 13.91
Season Record 6-5 Road Record 1-3

We head home with a 6-5 record and a 4 game series that starts on Sunday against the struggling Toronto Wolves 2-10. We will have Tully examined at home Sunday with Dr. Bob Riley (team trainer) and see how Tully's stiff neck is doing.

Game 12 - Toronto Wolves (2-10) 6 vs Cleveland Foresters (6-5) 3
This one was over quickly as Toronto came out on fire and shocked SP Eddie Gray with 5 runs in the 2nd inning. Gray gave up 9 hits and 6 walks in 6.1 and 6 earned runs. The Foresters never recovered and dropped to 6-6 on the season.

WP - Barry Wood 1-0 5.19 LP - Eddie Gray 2-1 4.71


GM Thoughts - What a difference a week makes. Last week we were riding high 4-2 and this week the complete opposite going 2-4 and ending on a 3 game losing streak. Honestly being 6-6 at this point is probably better than we should be expecting and only 3 games behind Phily. The Sailors are 9-3 and 6-0 against everyone but us (3-3).

Next week we have 3 more with this same Toronto team (3-10) at home and then the other Canadian team comes to town as the Montreal Saints (6-7) follow.

Dr Bob says the Tully is experiencing some neck stiffness and would likely be able to make his next start but then goes on to say that Tully is also very depressed and down. He looks like his is lacking confidence so maybe a little rest and refocusing might be in order.

I take Dr. Bob's hint and place Tully on the DL. He will be out for two weeks so that he can maybe work with our pitching coach Dave Noyes while we are here at home. The most likely scenario is that after his 14 days on the DL, he will go to Cincinnati for a rehab stint and we will see if we can get him righted. The concern is that he might not ever get back to where he was before that injury in May of 1928. He looked so promising and he is still young at 26 so we are going to try and get his arm and mind right. How long he stays in Cincinnati will depend on how he pitches down there. He could stay the whole 30 day rehab stint there and if he is still not right we will send him down to continue to work on things as he has options left.

With the roster spot opening with Tully going down we have made the decision to go with a 4 man rotation next week and an 8 man staff. Most of the FABL teams tend to go with 8 man staff while we have almost always carried 9. We also decide that Felix Dent is going to be the long man in the pen instead of starting and we will move Joe McCoy into the #4 slot. So far McCoy has pitched horribly and so if he gets into a game next week and stinks it up again he will likely be on his way out of Cleveland. Hopefully he does alright as he is also still very young but so far he hasn't come close to looking like someone we can count on this season or beyond.

Being activated to the roster will be recently waiver acquired 3B Harry Stroud will get called up. 3B Jake Moore who struggled through the spring is hitting only 240 but is 2nd on the team with 10 RBI's. With RISP he is hitting 300 with 8 of his RBI's so at least he has been getting some clutch hits. Stroud is an insurance policy for now.

[DD Martin]

Month of April Report
Cleveland Foresters
Record 9-6 3 games behind Philadelphia Sailors in the CA
Home Record 8-3
Road Record 1-3

As we hit the end of the month, we have 3 more games with the Toronto Wolves. The Wolves have struggled this season so far like many of the experts predicted. While they have struggled their AAA team in Buffalo is leading the Union League with a 9-1 record and 9 straight wins. The 3-time defending Union League Champions, our AAA Affiliate Cincinnati Steamers are 7-3 in 2nd place. Cincinnati with their winning teams and solid fan support has rumored to be looking to land a team in the FABL. One crazy report out there is that the Foresters are one of the targets to swap the FABL and Union League cities.

While the Wolves have struggled so far, they came in and won game 1 of the 4-game set here yesterday (Sunday) 6-3. The Foresters will send out on the mound the following 3 pitchers to go against Toronto and see if they can break the 3-game skid they are currently riding.

Foresters vs Toronto
Monday - Cleveland George Barker 1-1 1.98
Tuesday - Cleveland Jack Thompson 101 3.79
Wednesday - Cleveland Joe McCoy 0-1 9.31

Game 13 Toronto Wolves (3-10) 1 vs Cleveland Foresters (6-6) 7
SP George Barker was again sharp and the Forester bats put up a 5 spot in the 2nd inning to jump on the Wolves and even the series at a game apiece. In the explosive 2nd inning Joe Perret hit his 3rd homer of the season, this one a 2 run shot propelling the Foresters to the easy win. Barker went 8 innings and gave up just 4 hits and a single run to lower his ERA to 1.66.
WP – George Barker 2-1 1.66 LP – Harry Myers 0-1 2.37
Season Record 7-6

Game 14 – Toronto Wolves (3-11) 7 vs Cleveland Foresters (7-6) 8 12 innings
Getting a rare start C Barney Green responded with a 4-4 day with homerun, double and 2 singles driving in 3 and scoring 2. The game went to extra innings tied at 7-7. In the 12th inning PH Bobby Allen tripled to lead off the 12 and CF Frank Moseley after taking a called strike singled him in off losing pitcher Bert Sweet. SPÂ’s Jack Thompson (CL) and Birdie Smith (Tor) both gave up 7 earned runs in tough outings for both pitchers. Rule 5 pickup Ed Smith gets his first big-league win in relief.

WP – Ed Smith 1-0 7.20 LP – Bert Sweet 0-3 6.00
Season Record 8-6

Last game of the month of April 1930
Game 15 Toronto Wolves (3-12) 2 vs Cleveland Foresters (8-6) 5

C Josh Fry not to be outdone by his fellow catcher Barney Green hit a home run and drove in 2 runs in the victory over the Wolves. Joe Perret hit his team leading 4th homer of the season and team leading 16th RBI in the victory. SP Joe McCoy who some said he was pitching for his career once again, starved off the Wolves scattering 7 hits in 5+ innings. Karl Clasby recorded his 3rd save of the season as the Foresters win the last 3 of the 4-game set with Toronto and end the month a surprising 9-6 and in 2nd place in the CA. The Foresters trail the Sailors by 3 games and are just a half a game ahead of the team coming to town next, the Montreal Saints (9-7).

WP - Joe McCoy 1-1 6.60 LP - Frank Houk 0-4 6.40 S- Karl Clasby 3 4.91
Season Record 9-6
Home Record 8-3

CA Players of the Month Awards
Oscar Morse took a much-deserved turn in the spotlight and was awarded the CA Pitcher for the Month of April. The Sailors starter was 4-0 with a 3.74 ERA striking out 14 in 14 starts.

Philadelphia Sailors are taking a lot of rewards and the hitter of the month is also going that way. Superstar Tom Taylor hit 365, smashed 5 home runs and drove in 19 runs while scoring 18 to run away with the award.

Breaking the strangle hold of the Sailors on awards is this months Rookie award winner. It is no surprise that former top draft pick Tommy Wilcox received the award. With better numbers than the pitcher of the month other than wins Wilcox went 2-1 in 4 starts with a shiny 2.72 ERA. With run scoring on the rise so far this year, the youngster compiling such a lofy ERA adds even more promise to the young mans future. He appears destined to win an Allen Award someday.

Over in the Fed the award winners are
Pitcher - Jack Beach of Detroit who compiled a 3-0 record with a 2.33 ERA and even found time to snag a save. So far he has held batters in the hitter friendly Fed to a 183 batting average.

Batter - Rankin Kellogg just keeps on trucking as the 27-year-old adds more hardware to his mantle. The slugging 1B of the Keystones hit 446 with 6 homers and 16 RBI's and also scoring 21 runs.

Rookie - The fed rookie of the month goes to SS Andy Carter who was drafted 10th overall in the first round in 1927. He hit 379 with 2 doubles but what might be a league record 10 triples in the month of April. He drove in 23 runs while scoring 10. Unfortunately for the Washington Eagles he was one of very few bright spots as the Eagles struggled to a 7-10 opening month.

Cleveland Award Winners by the Cincinnati Media
Batter of the Month - Not a big surprise as LF Joe Perret wins the Forester batter of the month award. This award will likely be shared a lot with his fellow OF Moxie Pidgeon throughout the season. Perret hit 387/433/1175 4 home runs 16 RBI's and scored 13 runs.

Pitcher of the Month - While it looked like it might be a close competition early in the month, SP George Barker easily won the award for April for the Foresters. Barker was 2-1 4.66 ERA in 3 starts and is showing that his numbers last year were not a fluke.



League Standings

[DD Martin]

Cleveland Tribune
Foresters Month-End Guide
By: Michael J. Kiely

The Forester's surprised not only their fans but the entire Continental Association with their 9-6 start to the season. Besides that record they are the only team in the CA that has won even 1 game against the juggernaut Philadelphia Sailors, as the Foresters have gone 3-3 against the team that will likely be back in the World Series.

One of the things that is surprising this season is the number of runs scored in the league. Over the years the rival Federal League has been the higher scoring of the leagues. Right now the CA teams are scoring 5.6 runs per a game on average. The Forester's are scoring 7.0 runs per a game through the month. Just to show you a comparison, the CA teams last year scored an average of 5.2 runs per game and the Foresters were at 4.9. So right now through 1 month CA scoring is up over 10.77% and the Foresters are up 42.86%. No way the Forester's can keep up that blistering pace, or can they? And what is causing all this run scoring.

Note - The FA scored 5.3 runs per team/game last year and this year are only scoring at an average of 5.16 down 2.6%

So how are the Foresters doing it so far this year. Well some would say that the early season home schedule is definitely playing into their favor and I would have to agree that has helped. The team is 8-3 at home and only 1-3 on the road so far. The pitching staff team ERA of 5.30 is about where we thought it would be, near the bottom of the CA. The defense is average at best so far but errors seem to be down slightly with 20 in 18 games.

Some have looked at the untested useless theory W-L stat and it shows the Foresters have won 2 more games than they "Should" have based on that method.

Its clearly the offense that is making the early season difference here as they are second in most hitting categories behind the Sailors in the CA. The team batting numbers are 320/373/884 (#1 in slugging % and extra base hits 77). Stolen bases are been few this year when their was a thought the team might open up the base paths a little more with Frank Moseley. But the AAA option of 1B/OF Joe Smith might also be playing into that some.

My analysis is that the hitters are going to have to keep up what in my mind is an unbelievable pace for this team to continue playing 600 baseball. The pitching staff without some major additions just doesn't seem posed to help out much this year. OF's Joe Perret and Moxie Pidgeon along with some surprise offense from C Josh Fry and clutch hitting of 3B Jake Moore are going to have to continue or it will become a very long season eventually.

Here are the numbers for the Foresters for Hitting and Pitching through April 30th games.

[DD Martin]

The Homestand Continues, but will the hitting and the wins?

The Foresters 9-6 wrap up the third full week of the season with 3 more home games against the Montreal Saints 9-7 with 2nd place in the CA on the line. Here are the pitching matchups for the 3 game series.

Game 1 Montreal John Barrie 1-1 3.43 vs Cleveland Eddie Gray 2-1 4.71
Game 2 Montreal Sam Young 1-1 3.94 vs Cleveland George Barker 2-1 1.66
Game 3 Montreal Charlie Steadman 1-0 3.38 vs Cleveland Jack Thompson 101 5.13

Game 16 - Montreal Saints (9-7) 6 vs Cleveland Foresters (9-6) 9
Lots of hits in this game as Cleveland gets 16 of the 30 total in the game. 1B Luke Nixon got 3 hits including a triple, Moxie Pidgeon hit his 3rd homerun of the season and Jake Moore hit his 2nd. Eddie Gray wasn't great going 6 innings and giving up 6 earned runs, but Stopper Karl Clasby seems to be settling into his role after a shaky start and garners his 4 save.

WP - Eddie Gray 3-1 5.67 LP - Harvey Rodgers 0-2 6.97 S- Karl Clasby 4 3.86
Season Record 10-6 2nd

Game 17 Montreal Saints (9-8) 4 vs Cleveland Foresters (10-6) 14
Moxie Pidgeon hits his 4th homerun of the season and leads an 18 hit Cleveland attack in making a winner out of SP George Barker. Barker went 7 and gave up 9hits and 3 earned runs. Rookie Felix Dent tossed a couple of low pressure innings as well. The Foresters have run their win streak to 5 games now.

WP - George Barker 3-1 2.20 LP - Sam Young 1-2 7.94

Game 18 - Montreal Saints (9-9) 7 vs Cleveland Foresters (11-6) 11
Forester's Win 6th Straight!
Cleveland was up 11-3 after 6 innings and survived the Saints scoring 2 in each of the 7th and 8th innings to run their win streak to 6 games and the season record to 12-6. Again Cleveland's offense rapped out 16 hits and OF Bobby Allen hit his 1st homerun of the season making a winner out of SP Jack Thompson. Thompson's line was anything but stellar as he gave up a staggering 15 hits and 7 runs (5 earned) while walking 4. That is a lot of base runners but he survived.

WP - Jack Thompson 2-1 5.29 LP - Charlie Steadman 1-1 4.72
Foresters Season Record 12-6 2nd place 3 games back of Philadelphia
Home Record 11-3 and a 6 game winning streak

GM Notes - Not a lot of moves made this week. We did see a couple of minor league pitchers hit the DL with Reading (Class A) RP Billy Roberson hitting the shelf for 2 weeks with a herniated disc in his back. Also going down was Savannah (Class B) SP Lee Guthrie who will be out for 7 weeks with a badly sprained ankle.

Harvey Tully has been working with Dr. Bob and our pitching coach. With the team continuing a long home stand he will stay in Cleveland and continue workouts under both their watchful eyes. At the end of next week he will report to Cincinnati for a rehab assignment and we will see if we can get him straightened out. Unless there is an injury we will have to make some sort of roster move at Cincinnati to accommodate his rehab stint.

Long time organization OF Al Stone was designated for assignment. The 31-year-old will likely not be back with the organization as there are plenty of young OF in the system. Stone will likely try to hook on with one of the independent teams in the minors, or maybe someone will sign him for organization depth.

Next week the team continues this long home stand with the Baltimore Cannons who are off to a very disappointing start at 7-12. Many observers felt the Cannons might be the team to give the Sailors a run for their money but they are already 8 1/2 games behind the Sailors in the CA. Following 4 games with the Cannons another expected top of the division team the New York Stars make their way to Cleveland for 3 games. The Stars are currently 4th in the CA at 10-9 and 5 1/2 games behind the Sailors.

The Foresters offense will have to remain red-hot at home to see another winning week against 2 teams that are expected to rise as the season goes on.

Next - Week 4 another week at home will success continue?

[DD Martin]

Crap I had this all written up for week 5 and then the web page closed and I didn't get it saved. I will have to re-write it but am too tired tonight to do it. Look for a double update tomorrow with week 4 first and then week 5.

Annoying!

[DD Martin]

Ok well we will try this again...Â…

Week 4 - The Home Stand Rolls on, but can the winning ways?

GM Thoughts - Well we are 12-6 after the first 3 weeks and we have more home games this week. First up the Baltimore Cannons who have struggled out of the gate. They are projected to be in the first division mix but so far have been underwhelming. After the Cannons then we get the NY Stars who are hovering around 500 but are also projected to be in that top tier of CA teams. The Stars are a dangerous team, not that they will give Phily a challenge but still they are my pick for #2 in the league.

Game 19 - Baltimore Cannons (7-12) 2 vs Cleveland Foresters (12-6) 4
Win Streak Now 7 games in a row for the overachieving Foresters.

Fans were shocked to see that the combination of SP Joe McCoy and rookie rule 5 RP Felix Dent were able to outduel veteran star Rabbit Day. McCoy who is on a pitch count so far pulled off 4.2 innings of 4 hit ball-1 run ball while Dent pitched the final 4.1 of 3 hit 1 run 0ER ball for the win. Moxie Pidgeon doubled and tripled scoring 2 runs to lead the offense.

WP - Felix Dent 1-0 4.41 LP - Rabbit Day 2-4 3.40
Season Record 13-6

Game 20 - Baltimore Cannons (7-13) 1 vs Cleveland Foresters (13-6) 2
Foresters rally in 9th after Clasby blows save for 8th straight win

C Josh Fry walked with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th and then rookie SS Jim Payne hit a key double to the gap for the winning run. The play at the plate was close as the not necessarily fleet foot catcher slide across and avoided the tag of superstar C Joe Welch. Clasby blew his 2nd save chance of the season but got the win on the 9th inning heroics of Payne and Fry. SP Eddie Gray pitched an excellent game and even hit his 1st career homer in the 4th to stake the Foresters to a 1-0 lead. Tough luck Cannons #2 SP Ken Carpenter was the tough luck loser giving up just 5 hits, but his 6th walk of the game came back to haunt him.

WP - Karl Clasby 2-0 3.45 LP - Ken Carpenter 2-3 2.96
Season Record 14-6 (still 3 GB behind the Sailors)

Game 21- Baltimore Cannons (7-14) 6 vs Cleveland Foresters 3
Win streak comes to an end as Bob Miller slams door on home team.

SP Bob Miller, definitely not in the same class as Rabbit Day or Ken Carpenter did what the other Cannons pitchers couldn't and that was to beat the Cleveland Foresters. Miller stymied the Foresters for 8 innings giving up no runs, but finally Cleveland got to him in the 9th for 3 runs but it was way too little and too late.

WP - Bob Miller 3-2 4.57 LP - George Barker 3-2 2.95
Season Record 14-7

Game 22 - Baltimore Cannons (8-14) 5 vs Cleveland Foresters (14-7) 4
Thompson folds in the 9th as Foresters give up 3 on 2 hits and 2 costly errors and lose 2nd straight.

SP Jack Thompson looked like he had his 3rd victory in sight but a disastrous 9th inning cost him the game. Thompson gave up 2 hits, had an error of his own and then a costly error by CF Frank Moseley allowed the winning runs to score. The Foresters went relatively quietly in the bottom of the 9th as the stunned crowd went home in disbelief.

WP - Paul Reed 1-3 6.56 LP - Jack Thompson 2-2 4.60 S- Lee Drouillard 2 0.00
Season Record 14-8

GM Thoughts - Man getting that last game and winning this series would have been nice. Hank might have left Jack in too long, but those errors. CF Frank Moseley is only hitting 234 and appears to be pressing a bit. The kid was really down in the locker room after the game. There is a growing sentiment that OF Bobby Allen should be reinstated as the starter to give the kid a break. We will see how he does the next week or so. Benching him now might be a further confidence killer.

I am also keeping a very watchful eye on RP Karl Clasby. He had a great spring to win the closer job, had a rough early game but then seemed to right the ship. The last few outings have been an adventure so we will start to look for alternatives if he can't get it straightened out. Karl is a good guy, but that arm injury he had in 28 might be more than he can overcome.

The Stars come in for 4-games Thursday-Monday. It is a team that worries me that could come in here and get hot.

Game 23 - New York Stars (12-11) 3 vs Cleveland Foresters (14-8) 4
Clasby blows 3rd save chance but gets win as Foresters rally in 8th.

In what is becoming a reoccurring theme, RP Karl Clasby blows a lead but then gets a win after team picks him up. PH Bill Grunwald hit a key pinch hit single scoring Russ Franklin as the Foresters avoid their first 3 game losing streak of the season. SP Joe McCoy again was solid as the team seems to be a little more willing to let him go farther in games. This time 6.2 innings of 5 hit 2 run ball should have given him the win. RP Jack Gunderson pitched a quiet 9th for the save.

WP - Karl Clasby 3-0 3.71 LP- Skinny Foster 1-4 4.78 S- Jack Gunderson 2 1.69
Season Record 15-8

Game 24 - New York Stars (12-12) 11 vs Cleveland Foresters (15-8) 12 10 innings
Forester score in extras to eke out slugfest win

Big comeback win for the Foresters as they gave up 7 in the 7th only to score 6 themselves in the 8th to send it to extras. Once there in the 10 backup 3B Harry Stroud delivered the clutch base hit to give the Foresters a hard earned win. SP Eddie Gray homered for the 2nd consecutive start, but wasn't as effective on the mound giving up 5 earned runs in 6 innings. RP Karl Clasby came in to pour more gasoline on the fire giving up 5 runs in 2 innings blowing his 4th save of the season. Jack Gunderson came in and got the win with 2innings of scoreless ball.

WP - Jack Gunderson 1-0 1.42 LP - Phil English 0-1 3.00
Season record 16-8

Game 25 - New York Stars (12-13) 8 vs Cleveland Foresters (16-8) 1
Annoyed Stars rout Foresters as bats go silent.

NY jumped on SP George Barker for 3 runs in the 1st and this one was all over at that point. Stars SP Lou Martino stymied the Foresters on 4 hits and no runs through and 7.2 innings getting the win. Cleveland's lone run came on 1B George Simpson's 1st homerun of the season in the 9th.

WP - Lou Martino 3-1 3.26 LP- George Barker 3-3 3.98
Season Record 16-9 3.5 GB behind Sailors
Home Record 15-6

GM Thoughts - Can't really complain about a 4-3 week but some kinks in the armor are starting to show. The offense has cooled off a lot this week scoring 4.3 per game (we scored 7.0 in the first 18). It was bound to happen because its not realistic for the team to keep up the run scoring pace we were on. But it is also very obvious that we need to being scoring a lot of runs because our pitching is about where everyone expected us to be, towards the bottom of the CA.

The situation with RP Karl Clasby enters a critical week next week. We need him to be solid for us with games against Brooklyn and Phily next week along with Monday's game against the Stars.

It really would have been nice to go 5-2 this week and if we hadn't blown a couple of games late, we likely would have gotten that 5th win.

On the injury front Harvey Tully will go down to Cincinnati and put in some rehab starts. We really need him to shake off this post arm injury malaise he has gone through. He can be a really solid mid rotation guy for us, but he has to get it back soon. Hopefully a week or two in Cincinnati will get him right and back up with us.

Next - Week 5 more home games can we keep it up?

[DD Martin]

Week 5 - The Foresters are who we thought they were...a fraud!

Cleveland Post-Intelligencer
Forester Report by Ronald William Apter
Fraudulent Foresters are exactly who we thought they were

As I stated in spring training, this group in Cleveland is not to be taken seriously. There are so many problems with this franchise (starting at the head of the front office) on the field it is more than amazing that they are 16-16 at this point of the season. But the gleam has come off, the team is in the mist of an 8-game losing streak and in a free fall behind the Philadelphia Sailors. Even the kids from Brooklyn have surpassed this crew especially after a 4 game sweep here in Cleveland. The real bad news is that after 27 of their first 32 games at home, this team is stuck at 500 and so far are a dismal 1-4 in road games.

Let's take a quick look at the games they played this week.

Game 26 New York Stars (13-13) 3 vs Cleveland Foresters (16-9) 0
Forester offense stinks it up again getting blanked by Stars Nelson

The Foresters managed just 6 hits and unfortunately none of them together in getting whitewashed by a long time star pitcher Moxie Nelson. Not much to say really, Jack Thompson pitched well enough to win but the suddenly impotent Forester offense offer no resistance to the 34-year-old junk-baller.

WP - Moxie Nelson 5-0 2.17 LP - Jack Thompson 2-3 4.33
Season Record 16-10

Game 27 - Brooklyn Kings (16-10) 7 vs Cleveland Foresters (16-10) 5
Battle for 2nd goes to the Jr High Kings from Brooklyn as Foresters hot start fades quickly.

CF Frank Moseley finally got off his arse and lead off the game with a homerun his first of the season. The hot shot Moseley was GM Martin's young stud that was going to solve the CF defense, too bad he can't hit for much. Rule 5 "stopper of the future" Ed Smith (Send him back!) was light up for 5 runs so you can't even blame Karl Clasby for this one. Joe McCoy didn't pitch badly giving up only 2 runs but they still won't let him go past 85 or so pitches.

WP - Jim Langley 5-1 4.56 LP - Joe McCoy 1-2 4.65
Season Record 16-11 3rd place

Game 28 Brooklyn Kings (17-10) 7 vs Cleveland Foresters (16-11) 3
Fading and Falling Fast are the Foresters.

The Foresters started fast on offense with Jake Moore and Joe Perret hitting home runs for a 3-0 first inning lead, then took the rest of the game off. Brooklyn scored the next 7 runs and the Foresters fall for the 4th straight time at home. They are now 2 games out of 2nd behind the Kings and we won't even mention how far they have fallen behind that team in Philadelphia. Oh yeah and before I forget, Karl Clasby (shocker) took the loss in relief giving up 4 runs. Yeah I know they were unearned
runs because the savior at SS Jim Payne made an error in each of the 8th and 9th innings. Payne now has 9 errors on the season and is not the offensive threat that dearly departed SS Russ Combs was. Nice move there Martin!

WP - Bill Kutz 2-0 2.05 LP - Karl (DFA me now) Clasby 3-1 5.14
Season Record 16-12

Game 29 - Brooklyn Kings (18-10) 9 vs Cleveland Foresters (16-12) 2
Uninspired Foresters lose 5th straight as Kings say thank you and roll

Overall I really like Hank Lietzke the Foresters manager but he needs to light a fire under these guys. Right now all phases of the team are in a funk from starting pitching, to relief pitching, to defense, to now even the offense. Today the Foresters looked like they were in slow motion and made "no-name" Gordie Woods look like an future hall of famer.

WP - Gordie Woods 3-1 3.22 LP - George Barker 3-4 4.41
Season Record 16-13

Game 30 - Brooklyn Kings (19-10) 3 vs Cleveland Foresters 2
Leading 2-0 heading into the 8th, Foresters Fumble Another for 6 Straight!
When does it end? The Foresters managed to scratch a couple of runs off of the awe inspiring Tommy Wilcox over 7 innings, but then they leave Jack Thompson out there to throw 143 pitches? I know Clasby would likely blow it in the 9th but come on, you have Gunderson Hank. Thompson gave up 1 in the 8th and should have come out, but he trotted out there in the 9th and gave up 2 more and the Foresters lose. Get used to that Cleveland Fans the Foresters LOSE! Some joker named Topsy Moron got the win for the Kings as they finally leave town laughing all the way.

WP - Topsy Moran 1-0 0.00 LP - Jack Thompson 2-4 4.13
Season Record 16-14

Game 31 - Cleveland Foresters (16-14) 2 @ Philadelphia Sailors (24-5) 4
Sailors double down on Foresters and extend the Cleveland losing streak to 7.

Thankfully the paper didn't make me go to Philadelphia for this 1 game "series". So I get to mail this report in just like the Foresters mailed in the game. The win brings the Sailors to 25-5 and they have a 9.5 game lead on the Foresters after this game. After the game where Rollie Beal scattered 3 hits to win his 5th game he stated "Baseball is a game about momentum and we have a lot of momentum". Well if that is the case, the Foresters need to change their momentum before this entire season is lost, but then again it was lost in the off-season.

WP - Rollie Beal 5-1 2.70 LP - Joe McCoy 1-3 4.62
Season Record 16-15

Game 32 - Philadelphia Sailors (25-5) 11 vs Cleveland Foresters (16-15) 6
The Sky is Falling as Forester Free Fall reaches 8 Straight!

Despite Joe Perret hitting 2 homeruns the Foresters continue the epic fall from an unrealistic start of the season to go 16-16. The team has played 27 of its 32 games at home so far, which means they have a lot of road games coming up. So far this group away from the "friendly" confines of Forester Stadium are 1-4. Just to show that the entire bullpen isn't immune from "Karl Clasby Disorder" RP Jack Gunderson had his first poor outing of the year giving up 4 runs and took his first loss of the season.

WP - Merritt Thomas 1-0 2.53 LP - Jack Gunderson 1-1 4.58 S- Dan Waldman 1 3.86
Season Record 16-16
Home Record 15-12

Ronald William Apter Summary - So the Foresters have lost 8 straight and wiped out the over achieving 16-8 start to fall to 500. They are clinging to 3rd place in the CA since everyone else in the league is playing fairly pathetic baseball as well. The team has a couple of shinning bright spots in the outfield. LF Joe Perret is hitting 367/414/1149 9-33 and RF Moxie Pidgeon isn't too far behind hitting 345/403/1032 6-21.

OF Bobby Allen should be given back the starting job in CF as his replacement "defensive whiz" Frank Moseley is hitting a pedestrian 218/250/596 1-7, while Bobby Allen rides the pine with a 310/396/991 2-14 line in 50 plate appearances. Seems like a pretty easy decision to make if GM Martin let's manager Hank Leitzke make it.

Now some people say that I am cold and heartless but seriously someone needs to put an end to the failed experiment of Karl Clasby as the team's stopper. He's walked almost 4 batters per 9 innings, his WHIP is 2.00 and his ERA is probably fortunate to be only at 5.32. Enough already, someone please plead mercy on poor Karl and DFA before something bad really happens.

Next - Week 6 Can the Foresters rebound from such a disastrous week?

[DD Martin]

Week 6 - Foresters makes some moves on the field and in the other places.

GM DD Martin reads a prepared statement, noticeably absent from the press gathering is Cleveland P-I columnist Ronald Apter. (reading his statement rather sternly)

I am here to announce a couple of player moves. Based on the results we have reluctantly decided to designate for assignment veteran P Karl Clasby. Karl's efforts in coming back from major injury should be inspiring to everyone, but that said this is a game of wins and loses and at this point in time we have no other options. If Karl clears waivers and is willing, he will be invited to join the Cincinnati Steamers to see if he can work through his recovery. Obviously Karl is disappointed in the teams decision but he has our best wishes in wherever he decides to go to continue his career and our sincere thanks.

In a corresponding move we will be recalling P Jack Mast from Cincinnati. Mast has been with us for several years and has continued to push hard to make his return. With a 2-0 record and 3.22 ERA at AAA Cincinnati we feel that Jack has earned not only that opportunity to come up but to also start. He will be inserted into the starting rotation for us immediately. RP Jack Gunderson will take over the stopper role and Joe McCoy who has pitched well for us will move into the top middle reliever for us.

Now onto the off the field news. Many people have asked how the organization was going to handle a certain reporter from the Cleveland P-I so he it is short and to the point. Stadium pass, reporter pass and locker room credentials for Ron Apter have been suspended. While we realize that he has a right to his opinion, his continued unfair diatribes against players and management of this organization will not be tolerated. The suspension of privilege's is for at least 1 week and the head editor of the Cleveland P-I will come to our office next week to meet with Foresters Owner Elmer Marshall. Thank you.

Game 33 - Philadelphia Sailors (26-5) 6 vs Cleveland Foresters (16-16) 5 10 innings.
Foresters can't hang on giving up single runs in the 9th and 10th to lose 9th straight.

The Sailors came out hot and scored 4 runs in the first 3 innings against the Foresters. Manager Hank Leitzke was then kicked out of the game for auguring balls and strikes with home plate umpire Quincy McGoo. That seemed to finally light a fire under the Foresters as they took advantage of some sloppy defensive by the Sailors (4 errors) and scored 5 runs to take a 5-4 into the 9th. Joe McCoy unfortunately ran aided by an error by 3B Jake Moore caught up the single runs and the Foresters continued to find ways to pile up the losses.

WP - Maurice Demby 1-0 1.08 LP - Joe McCoy 1-4 4.62
Season Record 16-17 first time below 500 since game 1 loss to these same Sailors

Game 34 - Philadelphia Sailors (27-5) 5 vs Cleveland Foresters (16-17) 0
Streak reaches 10 as Foresters manage just 3 hits against Sailor Ace Oscar Morse.

Morse was dominate in holding the Foresters to just 3 hits in getting the complete game shutout. The Foresters held a very vocal players only meeting after the game and there were no comments to the media afterwards. Manager Hank Leitzke's only comment was "The guys are very angry right now. They know they are better than this and they have to take it upon themselves to right the ship. We will let them do that and see if it can make a difference going forward. The time is now to turn this around."

WP - Oscar Morse 7-1 3.16 LP - Jack Thompson 2-5 4.24
Season Record 16-18

GM Thoughts - I'm frustrated, Hank's frustrated and Mr. Marshall is frustrated. Losing is something that no one likes so I am glad they are fired up about changing it. The Sailors are simply put the best team in the league and with that pitching staff they have, barring 3 or 4 key injuries they will cruise to the CA title. This might be their best team and they sure seem like they want back in the World Series to avenge that upset loss to Detroit last season. As for us, we are glad that they are leaving town and maybe we can figure some things out against a young Toronto club up in Toronto to get us back on track. The guys just finished a meeting and have a long bus ride to continue to sort things out.


Game 35 - Cleveland Foresters (16-18) 3 @ Toronto Wolves (6-28) 2 11 innings.
It wasn't easy but Forester's end 10 game skid against lowly Toronto on the road.

In the top of the 11th CF Bobby Allen's triple and then once again a clutch RBI single from 3B Jake Moore scoring Allen ended the clubs long losing streak. For the first time in what seems like forever, the players had some smiles on their faces after the game. Toronto veteran Birdie Smith went the entire 11 innings but failed to win his first game of the season (0-6). For the Foresters, Jack Mast freshly called up from Cincinnati pitched a solid 8 innings of 2-run ball and gave way to the bullpen Jack Gunderson picked up the win and Joe McCoy record his first save.

WP - Jack Gunderson 2-1 4.12 LP- Birdie Smith 0-6 5.58 S- Joe McCoy 1 4.50
Record 17-18

Game 36 - Cleveland Foresters (17-18) 5 @ Toronto Wolves (6-29) 7
Toronto escapes with a victory after 3 run 7th.

Cleveland SP Eddie Gray continued his recent struggles on the mound giving up all 7 runs on 13 hits in 6+ innings. A frustrated Gray lamented that "he let his teammates down today". C Josh Fry continued his hot hitting with 2 doubles and is hitting a very solid 326 on the season with 15 RBI's. The way manager Hank Leitzke is handling the catching duties and giving Fry a few more off days here and there seems to be helping keep him fresh.

WP - Frank Howk 2-4 4.80 LP- Eddie Gray 3-2 5.88 S- Eddie Quinn 1 5.32
Season Record 17-19

Game 37 - Cleveland Foresters (17-19) 12 @ Toronto Wolves (7-29) 6
Foresters come out hitting pounding out 15 hits in rout of Wolves

CF Bobby Allen had 4 hits with 2 singles and 2 doubles to pace the Foresters to the win. Allen upped his average to 364 with 2 homers and 17 RBI's in limited action and has seemed to tighten his hold on the CF position. SP George Barker benefited from the hitting display put on getting the win (4-4) but gave up all 6 runs in 7 innings. Young rookie Felix Dent pitched the final 2 innings giving up no hits and lowering his ERA to 3.14 on the season.

WP - George Barker 4-4 4.86 LP- Art Harvey 3-5 7.36
Season Record 18-19

Game 38 - Cleveland Foresters (18-19) 3 @ Toronto Wolves (7-30) 2
Simpson's 2-run 7th inning double combined with Thompson's pitching propels Forester's to 500.

The Foresters got back to a 500 record today with the tight 3-2 win over the Wolves. Manager Hank Leitzke stated "It was nice to get back to winning a series" as the Forester's took 3 out of 4 against the struggling Wolves. SP Jack Thompson has really been pitching fairly well for the team and providing excellent leadership all year long notched his 3rd win of the season and lowered his ERA to 3.99.

WP - Jack Thompson 3-5 3.99 LP- Harry Myers 0-4 3.40
Season Record 19-19

GM Thoughts - While I know some will say it is against Toronto, we needed this series. I think it will get us back in the right frame of mind to go on the road and take a series like this. Now we go home for a single game Sunday against the Sailors, but the team is in better spirits now than there were earlier in the week and I think we are going to take it to the Sailors tomorrow. Hopefully we can end the week over 500 and stay in the first division of teams in the CA.

Game 39 - Philadelphia Sailors (30-7) 1 @ Cleveland Foresters (19-19) 6
Behind Mast, Foresters drown Sailors 6-1

SP Jack Mast has people wondering why he wasn't with the club coming out of spring training as he easily tamed the high octane Sailor offense to only 4 hits and 1 run in 8.1 innings to get his first win of the season. 3B Jake Moore hit a 3-run shot in the 7th to seal the win. Moxie Pidgeon hit his 12 double of the season a 2-run hit in the 3rd to get the Clevelander's started. When asked why he wasn't with the club coming out of spring, the veteran Mast simply stated "I hadn't earned it so I went to Cincinnati with the hopes of pitching well and getting back up."

WP - Jack Mast 1-0 1.65 LP - Russ Reel 5-2 3.95
Season Record 20-19
Home Record 16-14

GM Thoughts - Back to a winning week and we will take it anyway we can get it. Ambushing the Sailors like that today was just the perfect way to end the week and getting back to above 500. These kids are working their butts off and it is paying off. You are starting to see some positive things come out of players who might not have had very high expectations. We have 8 games next week with 4 at Chicago and 3 @Philadelphia (including a doubleheader on Friday) before coming home Sunday to face Baltimore on June 1st. We will take a look at the staff and discuss whether or not we want to bring up a 9th pitcher especially with that double header. We haven't had an off-day since May 1st so we want to be sure we have enough fresh arms for this trip.

Also next week my scouting director will be giving us our first in-depth look at our minor league system and our top prospects. Plus Ollie Moses recently went out west to review some of the top college programs on the West Coast and he will also have a report.

Of course while the team is away most of next week there will also be the meeting between Mr. Marshall and the Editor of the Cleveland P-I to discuss Ron Apter. Personally I'm in favor of the ban continuing as the locker room seems much happier when he is not around.

[DD Martin]

The Long and Winding Road Trip Tour

Right now we are entering a very difficult part of our schedule. We had all the home games early that we made some early hay with until an 10-game losing streak that ended earlier in May. Now we get the flip side of having all those home games with a rush of road games. Here is our upcoming schedule.

May 26-29 (4) @ Chicago
May 30-31 (3) @ Philadelphia (Double-header on Friday 30th)
June 1st (1) vs Toronto at home
June 2nd -off day
June 3-5 (3) @ Montreal
June 6,7,9 (3) @ New York with an odd off-day on the 8th.
June 10-13 (4) @ Brooklyn
June 14-17 (5) @ Baltimore (with Double-header on Tuesday 17th)
June 18 - off day

So 22 of our next 23 are on the road were we are 4-5 on the season. If we play around 500 ball during this stretch, I will be surprised quite honestly.

Chicago in my mind is starting to turn the corner we some more consistent play. They are being helped by the return of our former SS Russ Combs who was out for the start of the season with a with a strained groin. In about dozen games since he has come back Combs is hitting 333 and the Cougars have won 7 of those 12 games.

The player we traded to Chicago in the off-season was veteran right-hander Max Wilder (32). Wilder got off to a rough start but has righted the ship nicely going 4-2 with a sparkling 2.42 ERA. His last start he actually went 12.1 innings of 4-hit shutout baseball in a game the Cougars eventually won in 14 innings 2-0. We can only hope that he ran out of gas after that long start when we see him in this series.

To prepare for the 8 games in 7 days this week we recalled RP Ernie Davey from Cincinnati to give us an extra arm and optioned struggling OF Frank Moseley who we hope can find his stroke back in AAA.

Game 40 - Cleveland Foresters (20-19) 5 @ Chicago Cougars (19-20) 11
Ashbaugh rips Foresters with 3 hits
A player that the Cleveland organization always coveted when he was drafted in the 1st round just ahead of their pick in 1925 draft (out of Rainier College), Ashbaugh hit a double, triple and single to lead the Cougars in a pounding over the Foresters. Forester SP Eddie Gray continues his recent slump giving up 15 hits and 10 runs in 3.2 innings of work. One Cougar jokingly noted "It was like batting practice".

WP - Dick Lyons 3-6 5.72 LP - Eddie Gray 3-3 6.68
Season Record 20-20

Game 41 - Cleveland Foresters (20-20) 7 @ Chicago Cougars (20-20) 5
2B Bob Baker leads the Foresters back with homer on big day.

Baker hit a homerun and added 2 singles to drive in 3 and score 2. Moxie Pidgeon greeted Cougar SP Kick Kadlec with a 3-run homer in the first to get the Foresters off to a fast start. Joe McCoy benefited from the offense to post his 2nd win (2-4) of the season. Stopper Jack Gunderson came on to pitch the final 4 innings to pick up his 4th save of the season.

WP - Joe McCoy 2-4 4.80 LP - Dick Kadlec 1-5 6.34 S - Jack Gunderson 4 3.55
Season Record 21-20

Game 42 - Cleveland Foresters (21-20) 6 @ Chicago Cougars (20-21) 8
Ashbaugh again homers to doom Foresters

Ashbaugh is enjoying this series with Cleveland so far as he has 6 hits, 2 home runs and 7 RBI's in 11 at-bats over the first 3 games. If the Foresters want to earn a split in this series tomorrow they are going to have to cool off the former 2B turned 1B Ashbaugh. Both teams are back at 500 with the winner tomorrow staying in the upper division of the CA. SP Max Wilder wasn't as sharp as his last outing giving up 5 runs in 6 innings against his former club. RP Gunderson might have pitched too many innings yesterday to come back with no rest and took the loss. In not so good news LF Joe Perret was injured running the bases. No word on how long he will be out.

WP - Chick Meechan 3-2 6.58 LP - Jack Gunderson 2-2 3.95
Season Record 21-21

Game 43 - Cleveland Foresters (21-21) 5 @ Chicago Cougars (21-21) 9
Foresters can't stop Cougars offense and lose series

The Foresters scored 23 runs in this 4-game series, but unfortunately gave up a whole lot more (30) as Chicago takes 3 of the 4 games. Today's Forester SP getting rough up was Jack Thompson (3-6) giving up 10 hits and 6 runs in 6 innings. Backup C Barney Green tried to make it closer and give the Foresters a chance with a 3-run homer in the 4th.

WP - Ace McSherry 4-2 3.34 LP - Jack Thompson 3-6 4.34
Season Record 21-22
Road Record 5-8
Road Trip 1-3

GM Thoughts - On to Philadelphia where the Sailors have to be salivating after having an off-day to think about them losing 3 out of their last 4 games. Brooklyn is trying to make a race of this thing. We will start with a double-header today (Friday). LF Joe Perret has been who missed the last game in Chicago with a sprained ankle has returned to Cleveland to be examined and will miss the entire 3 games in Philadelphia.

Game 44 - Cleveland Foresters (21-22) 5 @ Philadelphia Sailors (31-10) 4
Game 45 - Cleveland Foresters (22-22) 5 @ Philadelphia Sailors (31-11) 1
Foresters pull off a shocking Double-Header Sweep in Phily

Even with LF Joe Perret not in the stadium, the Foresters rallied in a big way getting a huge couple of wins. The Sailors have now lost 5 of their last 6 and really appear to be on their first bit of adversity of the season. In the 2nd game of the 2, SP Jack Mast continued his amazing roll since being recalled going 8.1 innings and shutting down the Sailors to just 1 run.

DH GM1 WP - Eddie Gray 4-3 6.43 LP - William Jones 5-4 3.60
DH GM2 WP - Jack Mast 2-0 1.46 LP - Russ Real 5-3 3.82
Season Record 23-22

Game 46 - Cleveland Foresters (23-22) 1 @Philadelphia Sailors (31-12) 8
Angry Sailors Storm Back in Big Way


An angry group of Sailors took the field and behind their workhorse ace SP Oscar Morse, they dominated the Foresters in the final game of the short 3-game series. The Foresters managed just 4 singles against Morse and Phily pound SP Joe McCoy for 2 homeruns and 6 runs in 5 innings. Foresters end the first weekend of the road trip going 3-4 with a home game tomorrow against Toronto.

WP - Oscar Morse 8-3 2.46 LP - Joe McCoy 2-5 5.40
Season Record 23-23
Road Record 7-9
Road Trip 3-4

GM Thoughts - We head home for a quick game against Toronto 10-35 to hopefully square up the week at 4-4. This is the only home game on this odyssey so we need to take care of business at home. LF Joe Perret is not responding much to treatment on the sprained ankle. He will sit out the game today and with an off-day on Monday hopefully return on Tuesday.

Game 47 - Toronto Wolves (10-35) 9 vs Cleveland Foresters (23-23) 3
Toronto Ambushes Sleepy Foresters

RF Bill Eastep led the charge and the Wolves jumped the Foresters early and often to get a rare win. Eastep was 3-5 with 2 doubles and 4 RBI"s as veteran SP Art Harvey said thank you for the runs to get his 4th win and lower his ERA to 7.07 on the season. The Foresters also added 4 errors in the game as Manager Hank Leitzke call the performance "shameful".

WP - Art Harvey 4-5 7.07 LP - George Barker 4-5 5.23
Season Record 23-24
Home Record 16-15

GM Thoughts - Roller Coaster week ends with a just pitiful loss at home against Toronto. Manager Hank Leitzke really laid into the guys a bit after the game while is not usual for him. After the game he talked to me and was just furious with how lackadaisical the effort was in that game.

As a precautionary measure we are going to hold off and having LF Joe Perret start any games this week. The team trainer will go with the team and will continue to give treatment and Perret will only be available for pinch-hitting duties if the situation calls for it. We hope after another week he will be ready to return to full time duty 100%.

Now that we completed the 8 games in 7 days, we optioned RP Ernie Davey (1GP 1 inning no runs) back down to AAA Cincinnati. Since we are going without LF Joe Perret other than pinch hitting duties and we have only 5 games this week, we purchased the contract of OF Mickey Crawford.

P Karl Clasby was very disappointed with the fact that we designated him and declined an invite to pitch in Cincinnati, so we released him. He's a good guy, but I'm just not sure he has anything left to give. I will assume someone will give him a chance if not in the big leagues then at the AAA level. Karl's a fighter and knowing him I think he lands on his feet and will try to prove us wrong for releasing him.

Month of May 1930 Review

[DD Martin]

May 1930 Review

The Foresters went 14-17 in May following a 9-6 April. With a 23-23 record overall the Foresters are 4th in the CA 10 games behind the leading Philadelphia Sailors who drifted back to the pack a bit.

Our offensive star of the month had to be RF Moxie Pidgeon who lead the team with 6 homers, 24 RBI's while batting 336. Newly reinstated CF Bobby Allen had 3 hrs and 11 RBI's in about a third of the plate appearances.

On the pitching side of things, it wasn't a very pretty month. But in looking at it more closely it appears to be about the same as the previous month. If you go by WAR (which I don't) it would say that SP Jack Thompson had the best month. He was 2-5 in 7 GS and had a decent 3.99 ERA. But I'm going to say just for the story here that the best pitcher of the month is the one that has been on the staff the shortest amount of time. Yes Jack Mast was recalled from Cincinnati and in 3 starts has a sparkling 1.46 ERA and a 2-0 record. It was a great month for the veteran but he has never kept those sort of numbers ever in his career. Can it continue? If it does it will be maybe the best comeback story of the year. We thought Karl Clasby might be that story, but May was not going to be his month.

As far as rookies, I didn't name one last month. We do have a few rookie players on the team with P's Felix Dent and Ed Smith. 2B Russ Franklin, SS Jim Payne and the since demoted Frank Moseley. Of those 5, the best player in the first two months is probably the one we expected the least from. That would be Felix Dent. The 23 year-old has both started but primarily relieved since late April. For the season Dent is 1-0 with a team best (of any of the opening day pitchers) 3.21 ERA. Dent is looking more and more like a solid keeper.

In the CA, the Philadelphia Sailors even with a little slump at the end of the month still leads and went 20-9 in May, but they didn't have the best record in the CA for May. That belongs to the surprising 2nd place Brooklyn Kings who went an FABL best 21-6 for the month and now are just 3.5 games behind. The Chicago Cougars played 600 ball (18-12) to take over 3rd at 25-21 8GB for the season. Cleveland (14-17 May) hangs on by a thread (1/2 game) ahead of Baltimore (18-14 May), but the Cannons appear to be catching fire of late. The NY Stars after a 500 April went a disappointing 13-17 in May and find themselves in 6th on the season. Following them are the Montreal Saints who had a good start in April only to see it fall apart in May with a 10-19 record. Bringing up the rear and playing about the same is the Toronto Wolves who are 10-35 on the season and were a horrible 7-22 in May.

CA Player of the month is red-hot Brooklyn's RF Doug Lightbody who hit 452 on the month with 4 homers, 20 RBI's and scored a whopping 38 runs. Drawing 17 walks on top of his hits for the month and his OBP was 526.

CA Pitcher of the Month us Philadelphia Sailors veteran SP Rollie Beal. Beal was pretty much lights out going 5-0 with a1.20 ERA in 45 innings. On the season Beal is 7-1 in 8 starts with a 2.14 ERA

CA Rookie of the Month is Brooklyn indy league find 2B Bill Scott. He has always been known for his long home runs and he is continuing to hit them with the Kings, but in May he also hit a robust 324 with 7 homers and 28 RBI's. Between him and Lightbody there is a very good reason why Brooklyn had such a good month.

Over in the FA, it again is a Philadelphia team as the Keystones maintain their 1 game lead over the defending World Series Champions Detroit Dynamos. Both teams went 20-9 in May and this appears to be a real battle for the rest of the summer. The New York City team on the rise is the Gotham's who turned in a lackluster April but rebounded nicely in May (18-12) for 3rd, but they are already 9.5 games behind the two front runners. Washington Eagles are starting to right the ship in May 15-13 and are in 4th now. Sliding down into 5th are the Chiefs of Chicago who struggled in May (12-17) and appear to be out of it. St. Louis isn't playing 500 ball yet in either month but is at least showing a pulse in 6th with a 13-16 May (18-27 overall). Last year surprise early season leaders the Boston Minutemen are not sneaking up on anyone this season and they are flailing away with an 11-18 month and have dropped into 7th. And trialing the pack is a team that I felt was going to make a move into the first division this season of the FA, but apparently didn't get the telegram as the Pittsburgh Miners slumped to FA worst 7-22 in May and find themselves dead last.

FA Player of the Month is no surprise in the league as Philadelphia Keystone Rankin Kellogg took the honors. The 1B batted 400 with 6 HR's, 20 RBI's and 31 runs scored. He has been a key cog to the Keystones offense and the 27 year old shows no signs of letting up.

FA Pitcher of the Month goes to the other front-running team in the FA the Detroit Dynamos and their SP Roy Calfee. He was a 2nd round draft pick in 1918, but has pitched like a 1st rounder the last 4 seasons. In May he was 6-1 with a 1.45 ERA in 7 starts. His pitching is keeping the Dynamo's in this thing.

FA Rookie of the Month goes to NY Gotham's P Kick Luedtke. The 6'2 right hander was thought to be a reliever but he turned in a pretty spectacular month for the Gotham's going 4-1 with a 2.05 ERA. Maybe he has starter stuff after all as we all know the BNN is sometimes wrong.

[DD Martin]

On the Road Again, the trip resumes

Well we might not quite be ready to continue this trip, but with Monday's off-day it made it easier for us to take a long trip to Montreal. The last time we saw the Saints they came into Cleveland with a 10-6 record in early May and left losing all 3 games which was when we were riding an 8 game winning streak. Since the start of that season with us in Cleveland the Saints have really struggled and gone 9-21. We haven't been much better at 11-18 since then. The Saints have some talent on their roster but they are lacking a real power house hitter. CF Cliff Moss is their best overall hitter with a 353 average and 6 homers with 28 RBI's which is 2nd on the team in RBI's. The RBI leader is LF Al Wilson with 31. Both of these guys are under 25 so if they keep them around, they should have a nice couple of building blocks to build around. The Saints starting pitchers are a fairly solid if unspectacular bunch, but they need them to go deep into games as the bullpen has been particularly brutal this year.

We of course enter this week set of games without one of our superstars in LF Joe Perret who will be extremely limited to rare pinch hitter chances.

Game 48 - Cleveland Foresters (23-24) 3 @ Montreal Saints (19-27) 7
Joe Fix's bases clearing double gives Saints all the cushion they need.

The Saints RF Joe Fix came up with the bases full and the Saints clinging to a lead of 4-3 in the 5th inning. He then ripped a double down the RF line to give the Saints 3 big runs and put the game away. SP Jack Thompson took the loss for Cleveland while the Saints lost SP Dave Paynter in the 2nd inning to injury. No word on how serious it is.

WP - Frank Ellison 1-0 6.83 LP - Jack Thompson 3-7 4.40 S- Harvey Rodgers 2 4.62
Season Record 23-25

Game 49 - Cleveland Foresters (23-25) 5 @ Montreal Saints (20-27) 6 10 innings
After Foresters grab led in top of 10th, a homerun, and error sink them

In the top of the 10th C Josh Fry singled scoring Jake Moore from 2nd but it wasn't enough. In the bottom of the 10th RP Jack Gunderson gave up a solo homer to Al Wilson and then C Frank Haab reached on an error by CF Bobby Allen who misjudged his fly ball initially going back before racing up and it dropped in front of him. Saints 2B Charlie Rector followed with a double that scored Haab and ended the game.

Fry had a great day for the Foresters going 4-4 with a HR, Double and 2 singles driving in 4 runs, but the 4 errors once again in the game did the Foresters in.

WP - Jack Barnet 4-4 7.71 LP - Jack Gunderson 2-3 4.40
Season Record 23-26

Game 50 - Cleveland Foresters (23-26) 5 @ Montreal Saints (21-27) 6
Gunderson Fails to save game, Foresters Fall Late 6-5 once again

The Foresters lead 5-3 going into the bottom of the 8th but gave up a run in the 8th and then another couple in the 9th and allowed the Saints to return the favor and sweep Cleveland at home. Gunderson who took over as the teams stopper for Karl Clasby has struggled of late and blew his 2nd straight and dropped his 4th game of the season (2-4). SP George Barker threw his best game in a month going 7 innings and giving up just 2 earned (3 total) runs. The Foresters defense let them down the whole series as well as they had 8 errors in the 3 game series. Now riding a 5 game losing streak the Foresters limp to NY to face the Stars.

WP - Jack Barnet 5-4 7.48 LP - Jack Gunderson 2-4 5.12

GM Thoughts - The last two games are ones we should have easily won. We now find ourselves 4 games below 500 and having some issues on the defensive side of the ball. CF Bobby Allen has always had a great bat but his lapses on defense over the years have been costly. I think we are going to review some things with the defense as we continue, but for now with Joe Perret out for these 2 in New York we won't change anything yet.

We go to face a Stars team that I thought was definitely a first division club but is currently slumming around with us and the Saints in the lower half only ahead of the Wolves. The Stars aren't playing well but then neither are we so who knows what will happen. I can only hope we turn it around before the end of this trip.

Game 51 - Cleveland Foresters (23-27) 6 @ New York Stars (22-29) 2
Foresters break 5 game skid with win in New York thanks to McCoy and Green

An unlikely pair helped snap the losing streak as backup C Barney Green went 2-4 with a homer, 2 RBI's and 2 runs scored and SP Joe McCoy gave up only 2 runs in 7.1 innings to raise his record to 3-5.

WP - Joe McCoy 3-5 5.02 LP - Moxie Nelson 6-3 3.79
Season Record 24-27

Game 52 - Cleveland Foresters (24-27) 10 @ New York Stars (22-30) 6
Fry continues hot hitting in leading Foresters to 2nd Straight win in NY

C Josh Fry got on base 5 times in 5 plate appearances with 3 singles, 2 walks and 2 runs scored. LF Moxie Pidgeon also hit his 9th homer of the season and scored twice as well. SP Jack Thompson was the beneficiary of the offensive support and hung around long enough to get an easy victory.

WP - Jack Thompson 4-7 4.59 LP - Skinny Foster 3-7 6.01
Season Record 25-27
Road Trip 5-7 Season Road Record 9-12

GM Thoughts - Well we have a strange off-day Sunday in this series before we play 1 more game against the Stars on Monday before leaving. We got the first 2 games of this series to stop the 5-game losing streak and get us back in a more positive frame of mind. The offense hasn't been bad for us but our pitching and defense have had so many lapses that it is hard to win in this league with that type of performances. I am scrambling a bit talking with Asst GM Ollie Moses along with Manager Hank Leitzke about what we should do. We are not going to make any trades that send any young future talent out of the organization, but we are going to review things and see if there are any deals out there. Right now with Brooklyn cooling off, there are really only 3 teams that are in my mind in serious playoff contenders. The Philadelphia Sailors in my mind have wrapped up the CA for the 3rd straight season. In the FA the Phily Keystones and Detroit Dynamos are the only real teams fighting there. I don't see a lot of trades unless some sort of injury happens, but we will look.

We keep playing this road trip song and seeing if we can turn things around and get back over 500.

Next - The long and winding road continues but inches closer to finishing