Tiger Fan's online league dynasty - Page 7

Tiger Fan · 10-31-2019, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadluckinOOTP

To add to your bounty of catching prospects, your former farmhand, Jim Pool is considered a top 100 prospect by BNN and has shown some solid ability as he's already made it AAA St. Paul in the Miners system.

Pool was one I really liked but moved because of the depth I have. With him and Renfroe the Miners are becoming my favorite FA team. Plus you have Frank Lightbody.

On Brooklyn catchers I also forgot to mention 22 year old Joe Cameron, who is on the DL right now but hitting .367 at Class A Omaha.

mjj55409 · 10-31-2019, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiger Fan

The only downside there is now I don’t know what to do with Lynn Randall. He was originally an OF that I moved to first to get him a shot at majors as I am pretty set in the OF. But I suppose that is a great problem to have...seemingly too many good prospects.

Sure, but neither Randall nor Taylor have demonstrated they can hit in the FABL. Maybe they both can. If tso, great. If not, the problem will sort itself out.

Tiger Fan · 11-01-2019, 01:32 PM

MAY 28, 1928
BAD WEEK FOR KINGS

After finishing their road trip with 3 straight wins in Cleveland and coming home to Kings County Ballpark to get a dramatic walk-off win over the New York Stars a week ago, the Brooklyn Kings were expected to roll through Montreal and Baltimore in their 6 home games this past week. Instead, the Kings played uninspired ball and allowed the Saints, who were swept by Brooklyn in Canada 2 weeks ago, to return the favour by beating the Kings 3 straight times in the middle of the week. Brooklyn did salvage the week somewhat by taking two of three from Baltimore but to go 2-4 with all the momentum they had built up the previous week is unacceptable. The only consolation is Baltimore and Montreal combined to win 4 of 6 from New York but Cleveland recovered quickly from their lost series with the Kings. The Foresters took 3 of 4 from both Philadelphia and Toronto to widen their lead atop the Continental Association.

While Kings manager Wally Grant was obviously disappointed with the way the week played out he says it is not all on the Kings players. "We didn't play like we are capable. The bats went cold and the pitching wasn't sharp on a number of days this week, but you know sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the guys in the other locker room. Montreal is much improved. They have a scrappy young team with loads of talent and Baltimore...well, they started bad, but they had won something like 11 of their last 13 entering the series with us."

The Kings bats have gone cold and no one has felt more of a chill recently than outfielder Bud Rogers. The 29 year old former batting champ was one of the league's hottest hitters in April when he hit at a .410 clip. However, since the calendar turned to May Rogers has hit just .183 and went 3-for-20 last week. Brooklyn has decided to give him a few days off to see if that helps him out. Fourth outfielder Clarence Hall, who hit .395 in a reserve role last year but has also struggled this season, will spell Rogers for the week.

Rookie call-up Arnold Bower had a big week in his FABL debut. The 24 year old shortstop went 5-for-8 and will get some more starts this week. The Kings also demoted a pair of struggling players to Houston with the plan being to get them some work and bring them back up in a week or two if all goes well. Backup middle infielder Rip Agee was hitting just .175 in limited action so he will get a chance to play everyday for the next week or two in AAA. 26 year old Henry Middleton makes his first trip to the major leagues as he will take Agee's spot as the backup second baseman. Middleton was hitting .266 in Houston. Veteran pitcher Dick Dover is also back with the Kings. The 30 year old, who has had an up and down career in Brooklyn, was called up when 24 year old Leon Campbell, who had struggled in the early going and get moved from the rotation to the pen, was sent to Houston to get his confidence back. Dover, who won 15 or more games for 5 straight seasons with the Kings beginning in 1921, was very unpredictable in the pen the last two seasons and spent most of the time in the minors as a result. He has had some strong outings in relief for the Bulls recently so with Bill Dengler nursing a minor injury, Dover was the right candidate to get another chance in the Brooklyn pen.

Tiger Fan · 11-06-2019, 02:45 PM

June 18, 1928

It has been a couple of sim weeks since my last update but during that time not much has changed for the Kings, at least as far as the Continental Association standings are concerned. Brooklyn remains in 3rd place in the CA, 3 games back of front-running Cleveland and 2 behind the second place New York Stars. Philadelphia, which took 3 from us a couple weeks back, is also right in the mix.

This is a big week for the Kings as today we make the short trip to Riverside Stadium to start a 4 game set with the Stars before finishing the week with two in Baltimore and then a return home Sunday for a brief 1 game visit to Kings County Park from the Montreal Saints. However, it is the New York series that is most important in the minds of Kings fans and players alike. We had a rough start to the season series with the Stars but have improved our record against them to 5-6 so far this year in the battle for local bragging rights.

There have been a couple of significant roster moves since my last update. I finally promoted Mike Taylor, the much talked about 22 year old who had recently moved up to #2 on the league top 100 prospects list. Taylor, converted recently from catcher to first base so I could play him in Brooklyn, had quite the debut. He was named Continental Association player of the week in his first go around at big league pitching, batting .440 with 4 doubles, a triple and 7 rbi's in his first 7 games. I think it is safe to say he has, at least for the short-term, relegated Lou Garman (.302,3,33) to a backup role.

I also called up 23 year old outfielder Gus Powell. I have not written much about Powell, who was an 9th round pick out of Lincoln College (formerly Illinois before the commissioner fictionalized the school names to tie in with a future football and basketball online Figment League). Powell was very good at Class B Tampa a year ago, belting 30 homers in 103 games while batting .297. This season he was promoted to AA Knoxville, where he hit .303 with 7 homers in 37 games before moving up to AAA Houston. He was on fire with the Bulls, hitting .382 with 13 homers in 18 starts and got the call to Brooklyn because backup outfielder Clarence Hall and starter Bud Rogers were struggling off late. I sent Hall down to AAA to get some AB's and find his game. Kings Manager Wally Grant decided to bench Rogers for the week and put Powell in the starting lineup. He homered in his first FABL at bat but struggled the rest of the week and ended up going just 4-for-24 (.167) in his 6 starts. Grant has indicated he will stick with Powell in leftfield at least to start the series with the Stars.

Powell has been completely overlooked so far in his career. Despite hitting 29 homers in 143 college games and batting .350 he lasted until the 9th round of the draft. Despite a 30 homer season in Tampa he was never mentioned on the top 100 prospect list and to this day is still not ranked on the Kings top 30 prospect page (neither is Lynn Randall for that matter) so he has a real chip on his shoulder and something to prove to the league. Riverside Stadium would be a great place for him to make a statement, don't you think.

Tiger Fan · 11-07-2019, 12:43 PM

JUNE 25, 1928
KINGS HAVE ANOTHER BAD WEEK

Some of the preseason predictions had the defending Continental Association champion Brooklyn Kings being in for a rough season this time around. It is starting to look like they just might have been right in that assessment, but for the wrong reason. Most had felt the Kings pitching, especially the bullpen which always seems to be a challenge for the Brooklyn side, would be their downfall. But as the season approaches the mid-point it is the offense, which used to be so dominant, that is costing the Kings games.

Brooklyn dropped 4 in a row last week to their hated rival New York Stars and also lost the opener of a 3 game set in Baltimore before rebounding to end the week with a pair of victories. The Kings have lost 7 of their last 11 and are 11-13 for the month of June. That rough stretch now sees them in 4th place in the Continental Association, 6.5 games back of front-running Cleveland.

Pitching has not been the issue, at least certainly not the bullpen which boasts the second lowest ERA in either league. The starting pitching has been a little inconsistent, but that is nothing new for Kings fans. What is new is the offense, which dominated the CA each of the past two seasons is merely ordinary as Brooklyn has just 4th most runs scored in the CA, after topping the league in that category each of the last two years.

The problems actually started in the World Championship Series a year ago, when the Kings could not get the clutch hit when they needed it. The recent series with the Stars showed the same problem still exists as time and again Brooklyn stranded runners on base. In last Monday's loss alone the Kings had the following 5 situations when they failed to score a single run in a 4-2 loss: Bases loaded 2-out got nothing, a lead-off triple failed to score, and runners on first and second with 2 out on 3 occasions and they came away empty. Each time they failed to score and it cost them in a 4-2 loss. The story was much the same in back to back 4-3 losses to end the series and in other recent losses as well. Brooklyn outhits it's opponents in many of their losses.

So why are the Kings not getting the clutch hit? That is the $100,000 question and if you have the answer and a solution you will be hired on the spot to replace Manager Wally Grant.

Bud Rogers had an incredbile April, hitting .410 but has been awful since. On the season he is batting just .263 now after hitting .322-.348 each of the 3 previous years. It is hard to call Doug Lightbody's season a disappointment when he is batting .326 but he hit .384 a year ago so he is also down. The rest of the lineup is performing pretty much they way they did a year ago but the Kings just aren't getting the key hits when they need them.

With the way Cleveland, New York and the surging Philadelphia Sailors are playing if Brooklyn doesn't get on track soon it may be too late to recover.

Tiger Fan · 11-09-2019, 09:25 PM

JULY 2, 1928
STRUGGLING KINGS SHAKE UP TEAM WITH MAJOR TRADE

Last season when the Brooklyn Kings went into a terrible slump in July and dropped to fourth place they shook things up by firing manager Powell Slocum and replacing him with Wally Grant. The move worked as Grant got the Kings back on track and they won the Continental Association pennant. However, here we are nearly a year later and the Kings find themselves in an even worse situation. Yes, they are still in 4th place but a year ago they were always within 5 games of the lead in a tight race. This season after suffering through a 12-15 June that included 7 losses in the final 10 games of the month, the Kings find themselves a distant 9 games off the pace set by the New York Stars.

Drastic times call for drastic measures and Brooklyn has made several internal roster moves the past couple of weeks but today club management made a major move to shake up the core of the team. Tired of what seems to be a complacent attitude about losing, manager Grant had a long discussion with GM TigerFan and team owner Malcolm Presley. While there had been speculation that Grant's job was in jeopardy, instead he was given a vote of confidence and the three decided to reshape the team by making a major deal that on the surface appears they are giving up on this season and turning the focus to the future.

Three veteran players were dealt off the Kings big league roster to the Cleveland Foresters in exchange for a pair of AAA prospects and a 4th round draft pick. Gone are a pair of veteran pitchers in 35 year old Mose Smith and 30 year old Dick Dover as well as 31 year old shortstop Lloyd Carter. Smith was leading the club in wins with a 10-6 record and is less than a season removed from winning the Allan Award as the Continental Association's top pitcher. Carter was hitting .284 and providing above average defense but had recently lost his starting job in the first part of the Kings roster shake-up to 24 year old rookie Arnold Bower. Dover had been with the Kings organization for a decade and has a 93-84 career record but he has been very inconsistent the last couple of years and spent more time in the minors then he did in Brooklyn.

In return Brooklyn adds nothing to their major league roster but there is some speculation the pair of 23 year old's they acquired from the Foresters organization may be called up this season. Brooklyn is said to be very high on outfielder Charlie Powell, who hit 36 homers at Class A Reading last season after being drafted in the 8th round out of Boulder State. This season after hitting 15 homers in 30 AA games at Toledo, Powell was promoted to AAA where he has batted .295 with 18 homers in 52 games for the Cincinnati Steamers. The Canadian native is not related to fellow slugging outfielder Gus Powell, who was recently promoted to Brooklyn after going on a homerun tear at AAA Houston. The second 23 year old addition is Mickey Beavers, a righthanded pitcher Kings scouting director Rube Carter has had his eyes on since Beaver's college days at St. Pancras. He was originally drafted by the New York Stars in the 12th round of the 1925 draft but dealt to Cleveland after his rookie pro season. This season he has compiled an 8-3 record with a 4.55 era for Cincinnati but has struggled a little bit compared to what he did the previous season.

Rumours persist that the move to acquire Powell is part of a plan by the organization to part ways with Bud Rogers or perhaps even Doug Lightbody. Both have struggled a bit this season with Rogers having a much better start to the year then Lightbody, but also having gone into a much bigger slump as well. Rogers has been replaced in the lineup lately by the aforementioned Gus Powell but at 29 years old and coming off 3 straight outstanding seasons it is hard to believe Brooklyn would choose to part with a player in his prime like Rogers. Likewise, dealing Lightbody seems extremely unlikely but it is clear the now 24 year old reigning CA MVP lost some of his luster with a lackluster 1-for-17 performance in the World Championship Series last year.

Brooklyn has made bold moves in the past with not just the firing of the popular Slocum a year ago but also big trades the season prior to bring in Smith and Del Plummer. The decision to replace Slocum obviously worked out and the trades for Smith and Plummer could have quite likely led to a pennant in 1926 had Plummer not suffered a serious injury in late August of that year after beginning his Brooklyn career with a 7-2 record.

It is hard to see where today's moves can be considered anything but waving the white flag on this year and looking to the future but Wally Grant is adamant that is not the case.

"Yes, we gave up Mose Smith," conceeded Grant, "but pitching has not been our problem this year and I think we have guys in Houston who can replace both him and Dover. Carter is strong at shortstop but the kid Bower has proved he can more than replace Carter's bat as well as providing great defense of his own."

Grant adds that yes losing Smith is going to be a drop-off a little bit on the mound but accurately points out he is 35 years old and the other two guys are also on the wrong side of 30. This also might be the spark the Kings need to get back on track and salvage this season. With 3 teams ahead of them and a 9 game deficit another trip to the World Championship Series seems extremely unlikely but if the Kings can get a half year of big league experience for young stars like Mike Taylor, the Powells, Arnold Bower and recently acquired pitchers Buzz Ham and Beavers they could be well positioned for next year. And if the trade jolts the attention of Lightbody and Rogers perhaps those two, along with new phenom Mike Taylor, could be enough to stage a miracle comeback this season. Not likely, but the Kings still have plenty of talent. It just needs to live up to it's past accomplishments.

Tiger Fan · 11-13-2019, 11:18 AM

JULY 23, 1928
KINGS ENJOY MORE SUCCESS IN JULY

After struggling through the month of June, the Brooklyn Kings seem to be back on track in July. The Kings are 14-7 since the calendar changed including 10-4 following their blockbuster trade that dispatched Mose Smith and Lloyd Carter to Cleveland for a pair of prospects and a draft pick.

Despite the solid month, Brooklyn has not been able to climb back in to the Continental Association pennant race as both New York and Philadelphia have played extremely well. The Kings ended June 9 and a half games out of first place and despite with 10 of their last 14 they are still in fourth place, 8 games back of the Stars.

Before dropping the final two games of a wild 4-game set with Philadelphia, the Kings had amassed an 8 game winning streak - their longest of the season. The Philadelphia series was very dramatic with 3 of the 4 games decided by a single run including two in extra innings. Topsy Moran and Leon Thompson combined on a 1-0 victory in the series opener that was scoreless until Mike Taylor, who hit a 1 out double scored on an rbi single from Bud Rogers in the top of the 10th. Buzz Ham, who was acquired from the Chicago Cougars in June, improved to 4-0 with a 1.87 era as a King after pitching a complete game 2-1 victory in the second game of the series. Despite a 3-run pinch-hit homer from rookie Gus Powell in the top of the ninth, Brooklyn dropped Saturday's contest 6-5 in 10 innings and then lost a slugfest 13-9 on Sunday.

Next week the Kings are home for one more game against Philadelphia before welcoming Toronto and Cleveland into Kings County Park.

KINGS NOTES - Outfielder Bud Rogers is showing signs of perhaps breaking out of the 2 month slump he was in. Rogers is batting .323 over his last 8 games. The career .319 hitter had a torrid start, batting .410 in April but hit just .146 in May and June combined.....Catcher Mickey Dowell is in a bit of a slump now so manager Wally Grant is going to give him a few days off and move Mike Taylor from 1B to his natural C position. Taylor, an 8th round draft pick last winter, is hitting .333 with 2 homers in 36 games. The move will allow Lou Garman (.320,4,38) to get some playing time again at first base, a job he lost when Taylor was promoted last month.....Lefthander Buzz Ham has been a pleasant surprise on the mound. Originally acquired last month from the Cougars for pitching depth, the 25 year old worked his way into the starting lineup and is 4-0 including 3 straight compete game victories where he allowed just 1 run in each....Brooklyn has called up one of the players acquired recently from Cleveland. Pitcher Mickey Beavers didn't get a win in AAA Houston but had two strong starts and will make his FABL debut this week working out of the Brooklyn bullpen. The other player acquired in the Cleveland deal - 23 year old OF Charlie Powell won't be far behind. Powell hit 3 homers last week and is hitting .261 with 4 homers and 14 rbi's in 12 games with the Bulls.

Tiger Fan · 11-14-2019, 08:33 PM

JULY 30, 1928
KINGS WAVE WHITE FLAG - LOOK TO FUTURE

Not only did the Brooklyn Kings throw in the towel on the current season by dealing 2 veteran stars away, they dealt them to their arch rival New York Stars. After dropping three games over the weekend to fall 10 games off the pace being set by the Continental Association leading Stars, the Kings decided to make their second major trade in 2 weeks and rumours are they may not be done yet. With the trade deadline looming this evening the Kings are said to have ongoing discussions with a couple of teams about some more moves.

Today's deal saw Brooklyn send veteran starter Del Plummer (9-9, 4.34) and fan favourite Bud Rogers (.250,4,30) along with a minor league prospect to the New York Stars in exchange for the Stars first round pick in the next draft and AA third base prospect Tony King. This comes less than a month after the Kings dealt 35 year old pitcher Mose Smith (11-9, 4.70), SS Lloyd Carter and reliever Dick Dover to another CA rival in the Cleveland Foresters.

"It was clear we did not have what it takes to win a second straight pennant," explained 87 year old team owner Malcolm Presley. "This just isn't our year and while it pains me to see those guys go, especially Rogers and especially to the Stars, it is best for our franchise in the long run. We are now much younger and have added some assets that will help us in the big picture."

The Kings decided to promote the two young players acquired from Cleveland. Pitcher Mickey Beavers, a 23 year old righthander, made his FABL debut with a brief relief appearance last week and will replace Plummer in the starting rotation this week. Meanwhile, 23 year old outfielder Charlie Powell, who has hit 42 homers in 107 games at AA and AAA so far this season, was promoted today and is expected to make his FABL debut this week.

The Kings also got a 4th round pick in the Cleveland deal to go along with the extra first rounder they acquired today from the Stars. It is expected the Kings will be focused very heavily on pitching in the upcoming draft. While it is extremely unlikely they will get a shot at selecting college pitchers Tommy Wilox, who set an AIAA single season and career record for strikeouts at Liberty College this season, or Tom Barrell, who won an AIAA high 11 games this season at Georgia Baptist, Kings head scout Rube Carter feels this is a very deep draft for pitching talent and it is expected Brooklyn will use at least one of their 2 first round picks on a college arm.

Tiger Fan · 11-19-2019, 10:42 AM

August 20, 1928
BREAKDOWN OF ALL THE DEADLINE DEALS

Now that we are a couple of sims past the trade deadline I thought I should talk a little about the moves I made and the thinking behind it.

First a recap of what was traded. I sent away 3/5ths of my starting rotation in 35 year old Mose Smith, 32 year old Del Plummer and 31 year old Cal Williams as well as 29 year old outfielder Bud Rogers and 32 year old shortstop Lloyd Carter. Both Carter and Rogers had been long-time starters for my Kings but both had also recently lost their starting jobs on the team. I also parted 31 year old reliever Dick Dover, who had been very inconsistent in Brooklyn so spent the majority of the past couple of seasons in AAA, as well as a 24 year old minor league first baseman by the name of Jack Procell.

In return, while we certainly got worse in the short term because of the pitchers sent away, we got much younger and hopefully positioned better for the future. We acquired a first round and a fourth round draft pick as well as 4 minor leaguers. They are a pair of pitchers in 23 year old Mickey Beavers and 20 year old George Johnson along with 23 year old outfielder Charlie Powell and 20 year old third baseman Tony King.

THE REASONING
So why would I decide to tear down a team that had won the pennant a year ago and was possibly still in the hunt this year as, while we were 4th in the league, we were just 9 games out of first place at the time of the first deal in early July.

First reason is I knew we were out of the race. Our hitting was not doing what it did in past years and both Philadelphia and New York were on fire. The Stars especially had shown in the past that when they got hot they were almost unstoppable. Since that first move in July until this writing my Kings have still done fairly well, going 24-22, although they are on a downward trend here in August. The New York Stars have gone 24-19 since July 1st as they too have struggled in August but the Philadelphia Sailors have gone 34-9 over that stretch. So whether I had the three pitchers in my rotation or not (worth noting is Mose Smith has been awful since the trade as well) there is no way we would have not lost even more ground to Philadelphia.

So with a pennant out of the question this year I had to look ahead to next season. Smith would be 36 years old and was not the pitcher in the first half of this season that he was a year ago when he won the Allen Award as the Continental's top arm. Plummer would be 33 and just a year removed from missing 13 months with a major arm injury. Williams would be 32 and coming off two very good years for us including a 20-win season a year ago. He is the one I felt the most hesitation about moving, but the opportunity to grab a young arm like George Johnson (who is in the BNN top 30 prospects and top 10 pitchers) was too much to pass up. Plus my head scout Rube Carter seemed to be no longer as high on Williams as he was a year ago.

I am not saying these were bad players. On the contrary, all 3 are in my mind still good...if you are contending for a pennant this year. Smith was a huge reason we won a year ago but we weren't winning this year. All 3 are older so I wanted to make a move when I could still get some decent value in return.

The same goes for the two hitters I gave up. Carter is an outstanding defensive shortstop but I have a young prospect named Arnold Bower who has a comparable glove and seems to be a much better hitter than Carter currently is so it made sense to move him now while he has some value. Rogers is a year younger than Carter and hit over .400 in April before a terrible May-June slump. He is likely still a great hitter but we have young guys in the system - and young guys with power, something our team desperately lacks - so I figured it is better to trade Rogers a year or two too early instead of too late. We are playing stats-only as followers of this thread I am sure are well aware so it makes the decision on when to move a guy that much tougher but it has been my observation (correctly or not I am uncertain) that a large number of hitters seem to go into a nosedive when they hit age 30-32. That factored very heavily on my decision to move Rogers. He quite easily could be the exception to that rule, or my observation may be way off base as it is on an admittedly small sample size but with the guys I have in the pipeline I felt I could take that risk especially when I had a first round draft pick coming back in return.

WHAT I ADDED AND WHY I WANTED THEM
Those two picks are very important additions as the Brooklyn collection of pitching prospects was very thin prior to the deals. I am certain that one of my two first rounders (likely around 10th and 14th overall) will be used on a pitcher and there is a good chance I will use both of them on an arm. A stats-only draft is a real crapshoot - both good and bad as my star C-1B Mike Taylor, an 8th round pick a year ago, proves. The more tickets I have in the draft lottery the better odds I get a winner out of the pile I take.

George Johnson was acquired straight up for Cal Williams. Right now he is ranked as the 7th best pitching prospect in the game. Prior to acquiring him I had no pitchers in the top 100 and just one that was listed in the top 200 prospects. I might disagree with that a bit as I have a couple of pitchers in my system I really like but I do agree I am very thin on pitching talent. Johnson was taken 6th overall by the Chicago Chiefs out of high school 2 drafts ago. In a year and a half in Class B his numbers have not been overly impressive (13-29, 5.08 era) but high school pitchers seem to take a while to develop. He gave up more homers than I like to see but I have to think that was partly due to pitching in the longball crazy COW League. Chicago had just moved him to Class A the week before the deal so I put him with my A ball affiliate in Omaha. He had a couple of rough relief outings for me but looked pretty good in winning his first start. He is the youngest pitcher I have in Omaha and one of just a dozen pitchers age 20 or younger in the Heartland League. My plan is to bring him along slowly but I see him being in the middle of my FABL rotation in 3 years and still being just 23 years old at the time.

The other arm I added is 23 year old Mickey Beavers who was a 12th round pick out of college following the 1925 season. He was in AAA a year ago and looked very good but his numbers are not quite as impressive this season. He did look good for me in 3 starts with my AAA affiliate but I brought him up to Brooklyn for a couple of weeks and he was clearly overmatched - going 0-3 with an 8.40 era and an awful 2.27 WHIP. That has scared me a little on his potential but my hope remains he can fill one of my rotation spots next spring. I dealt Mose Smith, Dick Dover and Lloyd Carter to Cleveland for Beavers and an outfielder named Charlie Powell that I am very high on as well as I received a 4th round pick in the deal. As a result, for reasons I mentioned earlier (Smith's age, Carter's age and lost job, and Dover's terribly inconsistent pitching) I think taking a chance on Beavers was a very reasonable risk.

My scout Rube Carter absolutely loves Powell. Now I have decided to rely much more on stats then scouting reports but it is nice to hear Carter agrees with what the stats tell me. Powell is a corner outfielder on a team with corner outfielders averaging about 5 homers a year for me. I want at least one big power hitting bat in my lineup and I think it can be Powell. He started the season at AA Toledo and was promoted by the Foresters to AAA Cincinnati in May. I have him in AAA Houston and in 111 games between the three cities Powell has hit 46 homeruns. The big question is what will his batting average be like as he has hit just .280 in AAA this season with a 13.4% strikeout rate. I gave him a quick taste of the big leagues with a week in Brooklyn but he got just 3 plate appearances. No hits but he did not strike out and drew a walk as well. With him and the emergence of Gus Powell (no relation), another 23 year old corner OF who has 12 homers but is batting .222 in 53 games in Brooklyn, I have two players to battle it out for the clean-up role in the Brooklyn lineup.

The final prospect I received was 20 year old 3B Tony King. King is, by 2 years, the youngest position player I have at AA Knoxville and while his glove needs some work, he is enjoying great success at the plate batting .352 in 14 games for the Knights. He hit .295 as a 19 year old in Class B and was batting .273 for the NY Stars AA affiliate this season. My scout Rube Carter says he has power potential, but we haven't seen it yet, and felt he could be a solid contributor on a first division team when we acquired him. Carter has lowered those expectations recently (which is one reason I like to look at the stats and level a player is playing at primarily) but my expectations have gone up after seeing how he is handling AA pitching as a 20 year old. My concern is his play in the field, but Carter seems to think he will be okay. King has been a negative zone rating guy all his career so I am not so certain but the first round pick I got from the Stars in the deal was the prize piece for me in the trade.

A good deal is one that helps both teams. While the jury is still out on the guys I sent to Cleveland (the Foresters have been struggling as a whole since the trade) I think the Stars (with Rogers and Plummer) and the Chicago Chiefs (with Cal Williams) have made out nicely on the trade. Now it is up to my scout Rube Carter and myself to make sure the draft picks pan out and it will take time to see how accurate a judge of talent I am with Johnson, Beavers, Powell and, to a lesser extent King. If I develop one starting pitcher out of the draft this year and between Johnson and Beavers I get one mid-rotation starter I think the deal would be well worth it from the Kings point of view. If Powell can break through and be a strong FABL power hitter that would be a nice bonus. I am betting those things will happen. Now I have to wait for a few seasons before we can accurately judge these trades.

I don't think I gave away a shot at the 1928 pennant - it was already long gone. 1929, perhaps? But if things pan out these deals laid some solid building blocks on what I hope will be a very strong first half decade in the 1930s.

Tiger Fan · 11-21-2019, 03:27 PM

September 3, 1928
KINGS DIP TO .500 AS LOSES MOUNT

The Brooklyn Kings have fallen to 65-65 on the season after dropping 7 of their last 12 games. The Kings are now 21 1/2 games behind the still red-hot Philadelphia Sailors, who are running away with the Continental Association pennant.

For the Kings, long since out of the race, the focus is to the future and the club made another move in that direction this past week by reassigning long-time Scouting Director Rube Carter and hiring his replacement. Carter, who has led the Kings scouting department since 1923, was asked to assume the role of assistant General Manager and accepted the new position. In his place, Brooklyn has hired 54 year old Gary Scott as it's head talent evaluator. Scott, who worked briefly in the same role for the New York Stars, never played professional ball, but the 54 year old made a name for himself working for the league scouting service OSA as a draft specialist. He faces a pressure filled couple of months as for the Kings recent trades to work out for the organization they need to have a very good draft, especially being sure to land top potential talent with their two first round selections.

Meanwhile, on the diamond Kings manager Wally Grant, at the direction of upper management, continues to play the collection of young talent in an effort to allow management to gauge what the club should look like next season. Special attention will be paid to several players including recently acquired lefthander Buzz Ham and 23 year old Bill Dengler. It is hoped the two pitchers are ready to join the rotation on a full time basis next year. Ham, 25, had an outstanding July since his acquisition from the Chicago Cougars, but struggled in August. On the year, Ham is 6-4 as a King with a 2.76 era in 10 starts. Dengler, who made his Brooklyn debut as an injury replacement last year, spent most of this season in Houston but has gone 3-2 with 4 saves and a 2.49 era coming out of the pen. He will get some starts down the stretch as the Kings are going to take the unusual approach of going with a 6-man rotation for a spell now that the rosters have been expanded to 35. Veterans Leon Thompson and Harry Schab will also be given a few starts to help determine if they fit into Brooklyn's plans next year. Recently acquired 23 year old Mickey Beavers is also back up with the big club but Beavers will likely be used sparingly after stuggling in a brief call-up recently.

There are far less questions among position players but with recent minor injuries to OF Doug Lightbody and 3B John Wilder it will allow Brooklyn to take a closer look at 23 year olds Phil Long and Charlie Powell.

There is good news in the minors as the Houston Bulls, for which Dengler, Long and Powell played a key role down the stretch, have clinched the Century League pennant for the first time since 1910 when the club was still based in Toledo. Although he won't play in the final game as he was among those called up to Brooklyn today, 23 year old outfielder Herb Smiddy still has a chance to win the Century League batting title. Smiddy hit .339 and trails Milwaukee catcher Tony Stewart by .002 with 1 game remaining for Stewart's club. The Bulls led the Century League in most offensive categories thanks to many of the players who are now suiting up in Brooklyn including 23 year old outfielder Charlie Powell, who hit 16 homers in 45 games since being acquired from the Cleveland Foresters organization.

All in all, it was a good season for the Kings farm teams. Only Houston wins a pennant but 3 of the 4 clubs will finish over .500 with the lone exception being AA Knoxville that is 68-71 with 1 game remaining.

Tiger Fan · 11-22-2019, 10:20 AM

Septmeber 10, 1928

A decent 4-2 week for the Kings as a lot of young players are given an opportunity to show what they can do. Gus Powell was named CA player of the week in his first full week in the big leagues. More on him below. On the mound both Buzz Ham (7-4, 2.85) and Bill Dengler (3-3, 2.28) had strong starts although Dengler took the loss in his.

We were officially eliminated from pennant contention but are back to a pair of games over .500. Pitching for the most part was solid and I will stick with the 6 man rotation for the next week at least as I try to get a look at a bunch of guys. The last few weeks of the season will be used to fully evaluate where we stand for next year. We have 2 first round picks and 6 picks in the first 4 rounds of the draft so I have already started working hard on my draft list with new Scouting Director Gary Scott. Together we have identified several candidates I think will be available when the Kings pick: likely 10th and 14th in the opening round.

The Philadelphia Sailors continue to run away with the Continental Association. New York is still alive thanks to an 8-2 start to the month. The Stars do still have 4 games left against the Sailors, but even if they sweep that series they will still need a lot of help to catch Philadelphia.

THE POW(ell) BROTHERS

Brooklyn Kings outfielders Charlie Powell and Gus Powell may not be brothers but they certainly have a lot in common. Both are 23 years old. Both made their FABL debut this season and both can give he baseball quite a ride.

Gus Powell, a 9th round pick of the Kings out of Lincoln College in 1926, has been in Brooklyn since June after hitting 20 homers in 64 combined AA and AAA games to start the season. The Fayetteville, North Carolina native may be batting just .212 in 69 games with Brooklyn but Gus has hit 17 homers and driven in 48 rbi's, numbers that extrapolate to 38 homers and 107 rbi's over a full season.

Charlie Powell is a Canadian born outfielder who came to the Kings in a trade deadline deal with Cleveland. Like Gus, he was selected in the 1926 draft, but went in the 8th round, 28 picks ahead of his teammate. He played his college ball at Boulder State, putting up decent numbers but his power hitting ability really came to light in A ball when he hit 36 homers in 85 games for Reading last year. This season due to the trade he has played for 4 different teams from AA to the major leagues and has hit 54 homers in 143 games so far. Powell spent 45 games at AAA Houston after the trade, helping lead the Bulls to the Century League title. Despite the small game total he finished tied for second in the loop with 16 homers and was the Century League's player of the month for August. He was called up to Brooklyn with the September 1st roster expansion and hit a 2-run homer on a full count in his first big league at bat. In 9 games with the Kings Charlie Powell is batting .385 with 2 homers and 10 rbi's and was named player of the week in the Continental League.

The problem posed for Brooklyn is placing the pair of powerful Powell's on the playing field. With Doug Lightbody back from a minor back injury and speedy centerfielder Ab Thomas, who is hitting .300 and leads the majors with 34 stolen bases, there is only one spot left in the outfield. Both Powell's can also play first base but if that means moving a rising star in Mike Taylor (.346,6,33 in 68 games) from first base to catcher then what becomes of Mickey Dowell (.280,4,71). The Powell's have created a perplexing problem for the Kings.

Tiger Fan · 11-26-2019, 10:04 PM

September 24, 1928
KINGS LOOK TOWARDS 1929

There is still a week remaining in an eventful 1928 season for the Brooklyn Kings but the organization's focus is already gazed towards 1929 and beyond. Things started so full of promise for the club that entered the campaign as the defending Continental Association champions and began the year with 15 wins in their first 23 games, but it all came crashing down with a dismal stretch starting in late May when Brooklyn lost not only 19 of 34 ballgames but also sight of the front-runners atop the standings. The offense was still very good, but no longer dominant like it was in previous years when it carried a substandard pitching staff.

With the club enduring a double digit deficit behind the league leader as the calendar turned to July, Kings management made the difficult decision to retool and as a result a number of key players became casualties. Veteran pitchers Del Plummer, Mose Smith and Cal Williams all were dispatched elsewhere for young talent or draft picks and shortstop Lloyd Carter plus the former face of the franchise in Bud Rogers were also dealt away. For Williams it will mean a second straight trip to the World Championship Series as he has enjoyed success since moving to Federal Association front-runner Chicago while the others went to New York or Cleveland.

The season for Brooklyn mirrors the year of outfielder Bud Rogers. The 29 year old, who is only 3 years removed from winning a batting title, hit .335 a year ago and was one of the few Kings to be productive in a disappointing WCS loss to the Philadelphia Keystones last October. Rogers looked ready to lead the Kings to another shot at the franchise's first World Championship in April when he hit .410 with a pair of homers. However, as the Kings began to swoon in May it was Rogers lack of production that seemed to lead the slide. From May 1 until he was traded in late July to the New York Stars Rogers batted just .201 and became an easy target when identifying why the Kings offense had crumbled. He seems to have righted the ship since the trade, batting .299 in 30 games for the Stars, but there was far less outcry in the stands at Kings County Stadium then one might expect when the face of the franchise gets dealt.

Since the trade deadline the Kings have tumbled further, posting a 17-27 record, but the focus has been more on determining who belongs in Brooklyn next year, especially on the mound, then on wins and losses.

To that end lets take a look and project the Kings rotation and starting lineup for 1929. A lot can certainly change between now and then but here is a first look at your potential Kings roster next season.

CATCHER - It is clear by his poor fielding numbers 22 year old rookie Mike Taylor was never comfortable at first base. It is also clear with his .337 average and .524 slugging percentage in 78 games that the Kings have to get his bat in the lineup. The problem is 27 year old catcher Mickey Dowell, a .308 career hitter who led the CA in rbi's 2 seasons ago, also needs a spot in the lineup. Since the experiment with Taylor at 1B does not seem to be working well, the Kings have tried playing Dowell at third base. The results are mixed so far but the expectation is Dowell will spend most of his time at the hot corner in spring training.

FIRST BASE- Lou Garman is hitting .311 this season and has been a very steady bat for Brooklyn since breaking in to the FABL in 1924. The only knock on Garman is he has limited power- just 22 homers in 498 career games- and the game is changing with a greater emphasis on the longball. Despite being just 29 years old it appears that Garman is being phased out by the Kings simply because there are too many good young hitters the club wants in the lineup. Catcher Taylor is one, but the choice lately seems to be Gus Powell, a 23 year old former 9th round pick who, despite batting just .218, has hit 20 homers in 280 big league at bats. The expectation is Powell will develop the contact skills and if so he could be a dominant player. Another prospect is Lynn Randall, another 23 year old who hit 18 homers in 84 games at AAA Houston a year ago and has spent most of the season as a backup in Brooklyn, batting .272 with 2 homers in 136 at bats. Kings brass is confident that the job will belong to Gus Powell for many years.

SECOND BASE - 26 year old Willie Jackson, an undrafted free agent cut by several organizations, earned the backup job with his glove a year ago and has evolved into the Kings everyday second baseman this season. He is hitting .298 with 9 homers this season. He is a decent player but don't be surprised if the Kings look for an upgrade at this position although they have been burned before bringing in vets like Rocky Edwards and Eddie Andrews.

SHORTSTOP - Half a season of watching 24 year old Arnold Bower was enough to convince the Kings it was time to move veteran Lloyd Carter. Bower has been very good with the glove and better then expected (.315 average) with the bat. He is the club's everyday shortstop.

THIRD BASE - The Kings are still very high on 26 year old John Wilder, who was acquired from Pittsburgh for outfielder Jim Renfroe a year ago, but now Mickey Dowell is in the mix as well. Defense may decide who gets the majority of the starts as Wilder is a comparable hitter with a slightly lower batting average but a bit more power than Dowell.

OUTFIELD - Two of the three spots are well spoken for. It is hard to believe that Ab Thomas, at 23 years of age, is already in his 3rd FABL season. Thomas is an above average defensive centerfielder and loaded with speed. He leads the entire FABL with 37 stolen bases and is batting .301 so center should be his domain well into the 1930s. Likewise, Doug Lightbody is a no brainer in right field. Lightbody is a year older than Thomas and also in his third season with the Kings. He was CA MVP a year ago when he hit a league leading .384 but then came the struggles of going 1-for-17 in the World Championship Series loss to the Keystones. He is well off his production of a year ago, so perhaps there are lingering side effects from last October, but Lightbody is still batting .348 and among the best young outfielders in the game.

For left field there is a grab bag of candidates. Gus Powell and Lynn Randall, both of whom were moved to first base because of the outfield logjam may still be in the mix and the Kings still have highly touted rookie Herb Smiddy, who hit .339 at Houston this year to finish second in the Century League in batting. However, the leading candidate is a trade deadline pickup from Cleveland named Charlie Powell. No relation to Gus, the 23 year old Canadian has hit 55 homers so far this season, including 3 in 53 at bats since being called up to Brooklyn in September.

Code:

PROJECTED OPENING DAY 1929 LINEUP and age as of 1929 opening day
#   NAME	 POS  AGE   1928 stats
1 Ab Thomas	 CF   24  .301/.354/.384 37 SB
2 Mike Taylor    C    22  .337/.382/.524  7 HR in 78 games
3 Doug Lightbody RF   25  .348/.424/.536  was MVP in 1927
4 Gus Powell     1B   23  .218/.301/.439  20 homers in 80 games
5 Charlie Powell LF   24  .283/.345/.491  hit 55 homers with 4 teams this season
6 John Wilder    3B   27  .298/.359/.425  first full FABL season
7 Willie Jackson 2B   27  .298/.368/.435  
8 Arnold Bower   SS   25  .315/.364/.451  outstanding defensive SS

Next recap will focus on the pitching outlook.

Tiger Fan · 11-29-2019, 03:31 PM

September 28, 1928
KINGS LOOK AHEAD TO 1929 - Part II

Last article we discussed the potential opening day 1929 lineup for the Kings. This time let's look at the state of the organization's pitching.

Major changes took place in the days leading up to the trade deadline as the Kings parted ways with 3 veteran starters in Mose Smith, Cal Williams and Del Plummer along with reliever Dick Dover as it was clear they would not have a chance to repeat as Continental Association champions. Instead the focus was turned to acquiring assets to allow the club to quickly retool. As mentioned in the previous report the state of the Kings position players looks very promising. There is plenty of good young talent that is major league ready. Unfortunately the pitching staff has a lot more questions marks.

The Kings are very high on pitcher George Johnson, who was aquired from the Chicago Chiefs in exchange for veteran Cal Williams at the deadline. Johnson is the Kings top pitching prospect and currently ranked #31 on the league top prospect lists. The organization sees the former 6th overall draft pick as a key piece of the rotation but unfortunately it will not be for a couple of more years. Johnson is still just 20 years old and struggled in a short stint at Class A Omaha to end the season.

The hope is Johnson eventually develops into a top of the rotation guy, which is something Brooklyn desperately lacks. The closest thing to that currently would be Topsy Moran or Harvey Rodgers. Each is in their 3rd season with Brooklyn since being acquired from Toronto as minor leaguers prior to the 1926 season. Moran is a 29 year old righthander who went 9-11 this season and is 23-25 for his career while the 27 year old Rodgers was 13-12 this year and is 37-25 in his career. The only certainty around the Brooklyn pitching staff for next season is both Rodgers and Moran will be in the rotation.

That leaves about a dozen pitchers competing for the final six spots on the staff. It is a wide gamut of players that range from young rookies to veteran's who were claimed off the waiver wire but regardless of their history they all know a job is wide open. Brooklyn auditioned most of those arms in the big leagues in September and all will be given another look in the spring. Here is the list of them and some notes on each.

MICKEY BEAVERS: 24 yr old righthander acquired in trade with Cleveland in July.
Beavers looked very good in his first two minor pro seasons since being selected in the 12th round of the 1925 draft by the New York Stars. He was traded to the Cleveland organization and struggled a bit in AAA this season but looked strong in 6 appearances for Houston (AAA) after being acquired from the Kings. He was promoted to the majors in September and given 6 starts as the Kings wanted to get a good look at him. Results were mixed as he had a few rough outings but also looked very good in a 2-1 complete game victory over Chicago for his first win and also in a season ending 3-1 loss to the Stars. The hope is he has a strong spring and will be in the Kings rotation in April.

JOE BLANSIT: 23 yr old righthander signed as minor league free agent in 1925.
Blansit was named the 49th best prospect in the league at the start of 1927 but has since dropped off that list. He struggled at AA a year ago but was moderately impressive with Houston this season, going 16-7 with a 4.03 era. He was called up in September and got 2 FABL starts, winning one of them, but getting hit pretty good in both. Barring a great spring he is likely ticketed for Houston again in April.

LEON CAMPBELL: 26 yr old lefthander acquired in a trade with the New York Gothams in 1924.
Campbell went 14-2 for Brooklyn as he took the city by storm in 1926 and followed that up with a 17-13 campaign and finished third in pitcher of the year voting in the pennant winning season a year ago. With the return of Del Plummer from injury and after a bad spring, Campbell was moved to the pen where he struggled. He was sent down to Houston in May and went 5-0 with the Bulls before coming back up to Brooklyn in August. He was given a couple of starts down the stretch and got beat up in both of them which did not help his standing with the Kings. He has a career record of 38-23 with Brooklyn and the Kings desperately hope he can regain the form he should last year.

ART CARLSON - 28 yr old lefthander selected by Kings in 5th round of 1921 draft.
Carlson has had a brief call up each of the past three seasons but struggled on each occasion. He had a really good year at AAA (12-5, 2.71) for the second straight season and one gets the sense he is a good AAA pitcher but no better than that. Allowing 15 hits and 11 earned runs while walking 7 in 7 2/3 September innings in Brooklyn has likely eliminated him from contention for a job in Brooklyn come April.

BILL DENGLER - 23 year old righthander selected by Kings in the 2nd round of the 1925 draft.
The Kings have always been very high on the Maryland State Bengal graduate and he had a very impressive big league debut in 1926 after just 12 minor league starts. Several teams over the years have inquired about acquiring Dengler but the Kings will not part with him. He looked pretty good out of the pen this year after being promoted from Houston so one has to assume he will land a roster spot in April. The Kings want it to be in their rotation but his performance at camp will decide that.

CLARENCE FLANDERS - 25 yr old righthander acquired in January 1927 trade with independent Portland.
Flanders caught the Kings attention when we went 17-9 for Portland of the Great West League in 1926. Brooklyn traded for him and after a 6-0 start at Houston he made his big league debut last summer. Results were mixed with Flanders going 2-3 with a 4.42 era. He was caught in the numbers game in the spring and ended up at AA Knoxville where he was less than impressive. The Kings did recall him in August after all the trades and were very impressed as he went 3-1 with a 1.08 era in 11 appearances. He was exceptional in 3 starts to end the season and based on that a rotation job is his to lose in the spring.

JACK GUNDERSON - 27 yr old lefthander signed as a minor league free agent in September 1925.
Gunderson's story is one of resilience. Drafted 3 times and released on each occasion. Played a 3 different colleges, cut 14 times by either FABL or independent teams before finally sticking with Brooklyn. He had 7 saves for Houston in 1926 and was rewarded with a few innings in the big leagues that season, saving both games he pitched in without allowing an earned run. He spent each of the past two seasons in Houston, notching 11 more saves, and was called up to Brooklyn each September. He looked very good this September and will enter camp in March with the closer's job his to lose.

BUZZ HAM - 25 yr old lefthander acquired in trade with Chicago Cougars in June 1928
Brooklyn dealt a decent prospect and an 8th round pick to the Cougars for the lefthander and they were rewarded as he was the Kings best pitcher down the stretch. Ham went 8-5 and led the FABL with a 2.57 era this season. He only started 12 games in Brooklyn this year but will be given a chance in spring to prove he is worthy of starting opening day.

ART HARVEY - 29 yr old righthander drafted by Brooklyn in the 3rd round in 1920
Harvey has spent the last four years in AAA and has an 80-82 career record but has never pitched a game in the big leagues. The Kings might give him a shot in spring training but it is clear that, much like Art Carlson, they think of Harvey as a AAA pitcher.

LEON THOMPSON - 28 yr old righthander acquired from Pittsburgh at 1927 trade deadline.
The much travelled Thompson has pitched for four teams in the FABL but only appeared in 72 career big league games including 45 with the Kings. A Brooklyn native, Thompson seems to have found a home in the Kings bullpen but even though he got some starts in September it is clear the Brooklyn brass thinks of him as a bullpen piece only.

HARRY SCHAB - 31 yr old righthander claimed off waivers from Philadelphia Sailors in July 1927
Schab has spent most of his time with the organization pitching in Houston (15-13 in 30 starts) but did see some action with the Kings after being promoted in August. He gave up 9 runs in 3 innings in his debut in August which killed his era, but in truth he was pretty solid out of the pen in Brooklyn after that outing. He earned a couple starts to end the season but all they did was reaffirm the Kings thoughts that Schab belonged in the pen. He might stick come April but that is likely dependent upon Campbell, Flanders or someone else struggling more than what Schab accomplishes.

Code:


1928 PROJECTED PITCHING STAFF
ROTATION
1- Buzz Ham
2- Harvey Rodgers
3- Topsy Moran
4 & 5- between Leon Campbell, Clarence Flanders
       and Mickey Beavers

BULLPEN
CL - Jack Gunderson
REL - Leon Thompson
REL - Harry Schab

Tiger Fan · 12-06-2019, 09:38 PM

KINGS MAKE MAJOR MOVE AT DRAFT

The Brooklyn Kings have gone all in on All-American pitching phenom Tommy Wilcox. Wilcox, the 21 year old righthander from Liberty College, who set both the single season and career AIAA mark for strikeouts, was widely expected to go number one in the draft. Brooklyn desperately is seeking a future ace for the pitching staff but the Kings held the 10th and 14th picks in the draft, so Wilcox appeared out of their grasp. Until today.

Brooklyn announced on the eve of the FABL draft it had made a major trade with Washington to acquire the number one overall pick from the Eagles. The Kings will get their man, but the cost was steep as Brooklyn had to part with not only the 10th and 14th picks of round one but also young third base prospect Dave Bristol, who was informed he had been dealt to Washington on his 21st birthday.

Wilcox helped Liberty College reach the College World Series finals this year before they fell to Lubbock State. The 21 year old Hartville, Ohio native was 5-2 with a 1.82 era in 8 post-season games, striking out 86 while walking just 12 in 69 innings of work. He set an AIAA regular season record for strikeouts with 196 in 127 innings of work and graduates as the all-time college strikeout leader with 498. He went 20-12 with a 2.24 era and 8 saves in 63 college appearances. Wilcox also holds the college record for strikeouts in a game with 19, which he accomplished twice.

The move for the consensus number one pick is not without some risk as the Kings parted with a pair of first round picks in what is considered to be a fairly deep draft. If Wilcox can come anywhere close to the standards he set in college it will be well worth it as the Kings brass feels they have a great young stable of position players but are desperately in need of pitching talent. The hope in Brooklyn is they will go a long ways towards solving that need when Wilcox joins the organization this spring.

Tiger Fan · 12-08-2019, 09:15 PM

1928 FABL DRAFT- PART I

It was a very busy start to the draft weekend for the Brooklyn Kings and half way through the 10 round active GM portion (before our AI scouting director's take over) Brooklyn's brass feels pretty good about their draft so far. It is draft day so every team feels optimistic of course, but the Kings had a little more reason that most for their excitement.

The prize of the draft for Brooklyn was trading up to grab the first overall selection and the right to choose Liberty College pitching sensation Tommy Wilcox. The deal all came together just hours before the draft was set to start and was a surprise even to the Kings. The Kings went into the draft knowing they wanted to come away with a premier pitching prospect and in their minds that meant one of two players. "We had reached out to Washington early in the week to try and see about getting pick one," explained Assistant General Manager Rube Carter, "but did not hear back so we set our sights on the local kid we also liked a lot."

That local kid was Brooklyn State lefthander Mike Murphy, who was the main focus of the Kings trade discussions in the final few days leading up to the draft. Brooklyn had figured the cost of getting the number one pick and the right to select Tommy Wilcox would be more than they would be willing to pay but perhaps they could land Murphy by trading up into the top five. When that failed to materialize, despite calls to several clubs, the Kings began to look at plan C which was using their two first round picks (10 and 14) on the 2 best pitchers they could find and hope one would blossom. While the Kings won't confirm, they were rumoured to be targeting a pair of high school arms in George Thomas and Joe Russell or a college pitcher like Pat Albright or Frank Nicholas.

It turned out the deal with Washington did come to fruition and the Kings pulled the trigger even though it cost them a good young prospect in 3B Dave Bristol as well as their two first round picks. It turned out a rumoured trade up to #3 with St Louis would not have helped the Kings land Murphy as he ended up going second to the Chicago Cougars right after Brooklyn announced the selection of Wilcox. In the end things worked out even better than expected when Brooklyn not only got Wilcox but they also landed one of the other arms they coveted - Joe Russell - with their second round pick.

For Brooklyn State prospect Mike Murphy it was a mild disappointment. The lefthander was thrilled to be selected second overall by the Chicago Cougars but smiled for a moment and said "Ya, it would have been something," when asked how he would feel about pitching at Kings County Ballpark wearing a Brooklyn Kings uniform. Very popular in his adopted hometown, some Brooklyn fans were calling for the Kings to take Murphy over Wilcox with the first pick but it has been clear all season that the Liberty College strikeout artist was the clear favourite to go first overall.

Brooklyn also made a surprise move during the draft to add 2 more draft picks. The Kings had some sort of falling out with their new scouting director and traded him to the Pittsburgh Miners for a 6th and 7th round draft pick. Brooklyn also announced that long-time scouting director Rube Carter, recently promoted to assistant General Manager, had agreed to return to his scouting duties. Carter is credited for selecting the large number of good young position players on the big league roster including Doug Lightbody, Ab Thomas and Mike Taylor. He has had much less success with acquiring pitching talent but the Kings hope that changes with this draft.

Here are the picks so far.

ROUND 1 PICK 1 - TOMMY WILCOX - The All-American righthander from Liberty College set new single season and career AIAA marks for strikeouts after fanning 196 in 127 innings this season and 498 for his 3 year career. Wilcox led Liberty to the College World Series finals and is being banked on as a future top of the rotation guy. It's a lot of pressure for the 21 year old to live up to and while a final decision has not been made Wilcox will likely start his journey at Class A Omaha.

ROUND 2 PICK 10 - JOE RUSSELL - After getting the number one college pitcher in the draft the Kings added what they felt was the number one high school arm in Joe Russell, an 18 year old righthander from Toledo High School. Russell finished his prep career with a 23-2 record and a 1.28 era. He fanned 288 batters in 225 innings while walking just 44.

ROUND 3 PICK 10 - ART SUMMERS - Despite an overabundance of power hitting OF-1B in their system, the Kings felt they could not pass on the 21 year old outfielder from St. Matthew's College. Summers, who hit .324 with 11 homers in 50 games as a senior, was projected as a first round pick by the Kings scouting department. The Charlotte, NC native hit 31 homers and batted .340 for his college career.

ROUND 4 PICK 10 - DAN YOUNG - The 18 year old shortstop from Tulsa High School is a defensive marvel but there are some concerns about his bat. He hit .290 in 116 high school games for his career but his glove is likely already good enough for the major leagues. He is a longer term project with the hope he can develop the offensive skills to be more than just a defensive whiz at shortstop.

ROUND 4 PICK 12 - OSSIE MAHONEY - With the pick acquired from Cleveland in the deadline deal that sent Mose Smith back to the Foresters the Brooklyn Kings elected to take another college arm. The 21 year old went 5-4 for the St. Pancras Lions this season. The Kings see him as a potential back of the rotation starter.

ROUND 5 PICK 10 - DOC DILL - There were a number of power-hitting first basemen the Kings had interest in and when they started dropping off the board Brooklyn figured it better pull the trigger and select Dill. An 18 year old from Cleveland High School, Dill is a long-term project and the type of player who will benefit immediately from the Kings recently announced new Class C level affiliate in the Upper Mississippi Valley Association. Dill finished second in the nation among high schoolers with 16 home runs this season and led the nation in OPS. He has shown steady improvement in each of his three high school years and the Kings see him as a longer term project.

ROUND 6 PICK 6 - MARV BELL - Through trades the Kings have 3 picks in the sixth round and used the first of them on utility man Marv Bell. The 21 year old primarily played second base, and did so with above-average ability, for the St. Patrick's Shamrocks but he can play anywhere in the infield or a corner outfield spot in a pinch. He hit .281 in 100 college games and the Kings are hoping he can improve his on base percentage. He won't be a longball threat but with his defensive skills would make an excellent role player down the road.

Brooklyn's remaining picks will take place tomorrow.

Tiger Fan · 12-11-2019, 12:08 PM

BROOKLYN KINGS OFF-SEASON UPDATES

DRAFT PART II

Here is a look at some highlights from the remaining selections made by the Brooklyn Kings in the 1928 FABL draft.

Thanks to trades the Kings had three picks in the sixth round. After taking college 2B Marv Bell with their first one, Brooklyn turned back to pitching. In a further effort to address a lack of quality pitching depth in the organization, Brooklyn adds two more arms with their remaining round six selections. Joining the Kings family are 21 year old Eddie Boyle from Maryland State and 18 year old Tony Fasone from Tulsa High School.

Boyle reminds Kings management a lot of current King Bill Dengler. Both are former Maryland State Bengals. Both righthanders had outstanding junior seasons but each struggled somewhat in their draft year. Boyle was 10-1 with a 2.04 era as a junior but struggled this past season in a down year for the school. For his 3 year college career Boyle compiled a 21-10 record with a 2.47 era and an impressive 1.01 WHIP. His 21 wins establish a new school record beating the old mark of 19 that was shared by Dengler.

Fasone, a high school teammate of Kings fourth round pick Dan Young, is the opposite of Boyle. The righthander improved most of his stats each season culminating in a very strong year on the mound for the Tomcats.

The Kings would also add more pitching in the later rounds bringing the total to 11 pitchers selected among their 27 draft picks. Most of the later round picks will likely never advance past the low minors but a couple to keep an eye on are Tommy Chandler and Chief Cook. Both are college pitchers and Chandler was especially highly thought of by the Kings scouting department, which ranked him as the 4th best lefthander available in the draft. Chandler went 7-2 with a 3.24 era for St Patrick's this season. Cook is a righthander who hails from Eastchester, New York and pitched for 3 seasons at Opelika State. The 15th round pick was 5-2 with a 4.28 era for the Wildcats and was greatly improved over his first two seasons in the AIAA.

Other position player selected include speedy centerfielder Paul Edwards from Mississippi A&M, a school that also produced Kings outfielders Doug Lightbody and Clarence Hall. Edwards, a 7th round pick, was a 3 year starter and hit .310 for his college career with 22 homers and 34 stolen bases in 147 games. The Kings hope the selection of high school third baseman Milt Butler in the 9th round will help reduce the sting of losing young prospect Dave Bristol in the trade with Washington for the first overall selection. Butler hit .322 with 28 homers in 119 games at San Antonio High School. He also helped the Warriors to a national high school championship this past summer, batting .310 with 5 round trippers in 22 games. Two rounds later the Kings would draft another San Antonio HS product in power hitting first baseman Paul Valentine, who batted .334 with 29 homers in his 120 game prep career.

DRAFT SUMMARY

Like every team a week after the draft the Brooklyn Kings are thrilled with the prospects they added. The big coup, and how the success of this draft will judged, hinges entirely on the right arm of Tommy Wilcox. If Wilcox comes anywhere close to living up to the hype that surrounded him at Liberty College the draft will be a huge success for the Kings. Brooklyn, of course, hopes and thinks that some of the other picks will develop nicely but it is the career of Tommy Wilcox and the Kings move to trade up to the number one spot that will be remembered.

RULE V DRAFT

Now that the euphoria of adding Wilcox has abated somewhat the Kings need to get down to the business of signing their draft picks and preparing for the Rule V draft. With a pair of open spots on their 40 man roster one would think Brooklyn will be active in the draft but inside sources say the Kings may go in a different direction to fill at least one of the final two spots.

There was a lot of upheaval in the baseball world this off-season with several new minor league teams and some existing independent clubs now aligning themselves with a major league affiliate. As a result between those for indy team players and some veteran roster cuts by FABL clubs there are some attractive veteran free agents available and Brooklyn may use a roster spot signing one of them. The Kings also have a couple of veteran infielders in Eddie Andrews and Glenn Mowles that are presently not on the 40-man roster so there is a chance one could be added.

Brooklyn has been known for trying to keep 1 spot free on their 40 man at all times to allow for roster flexibility without having to worry about exposing anyone to waivers so there is a good chance the Kings may not make a selection in tomorrow's rule V draft.

Tiger Fan · 12-12-2019, 11:19 AM

DECEMBER 31, 1928
KINGS ADD TWO ARMS TO 40 MAN ROSTER AND SIGN WILCOX

The Brooklyn Kings will have a very happy New Year after receiving a signed contract in the mail from first overall draft pick Tommy Wilcox. The Liberty College ace, who rewrote the AIAA record book with his ability to strike batters out, has agreed to a minor league deal with the largest signing bonus in Kings history and will report to Class A Omaha when spring training begins. While that was the biggest news out of Brooklyn the past few weeks it was certainly not the only announcement.

Brooklyn was busy in the Rule V draft selecting two pitchers but were immediately forced to return one of them to his original club after news broke that former Kings star pitcher, 35 year old Bob Schmid, would be returning to Brooklyn. Schmid was a two-time 20 game winner with the Kings and is 97-87 in his big league career that began with Brooklyn before he was dealt to the New York Gothams midway through the 1925 season. He spent last year with AAA Columbus, leading the Union League in wins with an 18-11 record, but was waived by the Gothams last month. With Leon Thompson now owning Schmid's familiar #24 jersey, the veteran will wear 17 when he joins the Kings at spring training in Tampa.

With the signing of Schmid it meant the Kings only had one open spot on their 40-man roster despite drafting 2 players in the rule V draft. Brooklyn selected a pair of pitchers in Jim Langley, a 23 year old lefthander who went 13-15 for AA Syracuse a year ago, and 22 year old righthander Harry Meek. The Kings like Meek's potential but felt there was no way they could carry both rule v draftees on their 23 man roster so the decision was made to return Meek to Boston immediately rather than remove someone else from the 40-man to make room for Schmid.

DRAFT PICK REFUSES TO SIGN

For the first time under it's current management the Kings were unable to agree to a contract with one of their high school draftees. Brooklyn really liked 5th round pick Doc Dill, a first baseman who hit 16 homers in 40 games for Cleveland High School last year, but the youngster seems committed to getting an education and opted not to sign despite the Kings offering a bonus comparable to what first overall pick Tommy Wilcox received. The Kings wish Dill well and hope to have the opportunity to select him again after his college career comes to a conclusion.

Tiger Fan · 12-13-2019, 12:26 AM

KINGS ORGANIZATIONAL DEPTH CHART

Part One: Position players

I do one of these each season but have not posted an update since the 1926 season. However, as we approach 1929 spring training here is where the Brooklyn Kings staff sees our team depth chart.

CATCHER

I feel we have been loaded behind the plate for a couple of years now but the emergence last year of 8th round draft pick MIKE TAYLOR has sent us to a whole new level. Taylor is well on his way to becoming a superstar in this league even though the 22 year old has only played 84 FABL games (batting .325 with 7 homers). He is so good he displaced 28 year old MICKEY DOWELL, a career .308 hitter who averaged about 85 rbi's a season. Dowell will still get playing time as I am having him learn third base and Taylor can also play first base so the idea is Taylor gets about 110 games behind the plate and another 20-30 at first with Dowell catching the remaining 50 odd games and filling in at third as well.

I have four above average prospects in the system, at least according to my interpretation of their stats and my head scout Rube Carter's assessment. The BNN scouting services doesn't consider any of them top 100 candidates but TOM AIELLO is ranked about 130th although in my mind he has a great prospect. Aiello hit .291 in 85 games at AAA as a 21 year old catcher while playing error free defense. He needs to improve his CS% a bit (threw out 35% of runners in AAA but was better in lower minors) but I think that will come. BILL SMITH, JOE CAMERON and HACK LAPOINTE are also have potential to develop into above average FABL catchers.

FIRST BASE

29 year old LOU GARMAN has been a solid first baseman for me since I took over the club and he has a .324 career average. The only knock on him is the game is changing and Garman lacks the power I need from the first base position. He will stay with the big club as a reliable back-up and insurance piece but I will be transitioning his at bats to some combination of the previously mentioned Mike Taylor or 3 converted outfielders in LYNN RANDALL, GUS POWELL and CHARLIE POWELL. All 3 are young and capable of being above average corner outfielders but we have a logjam at that position so one of them will get a lot of time at first base. Randall hit 18 homers in an 84 game audition at AAA a year ago but failed to deliver this past season, hitting just 6 while batting .291 between AAA and Brooklyn. I still have confidence in him but if he doesn't produce there is plenty waiting in the wings.

GUS POWELL was a 9th round pick out of Lincoln College in 1926 who hit 30 homers at Class B Tampa as a rookie pro in 1927 and then followed it up with 41 homers at three levels, including 21 in 87 games in Brooklyn, last season. He struggled with contact in Brooklyn, batting just .204 with far too many strikeouts but I think it will come as his contact rate was pretty good in the minors. He is also adequate with the glove at first base as compared to a little below average if I play him in left field. CHARLIE POWELL (no relation) is a 23 year old Canadian I acquired from Cleveland at the trade deadline. Charlie hit 55 homers at 3 levels last season including 3 in 13 starts in Brooklyn last September. He can rake and provides above average defense in the outfield.

Further down the chain I have a 22 year old in NICK BENNETT, a third round pick out of Ellery College in 1927. Bennett hit .305 at three levels (primarily AA) but I will want more power out of him as he matures (just 4 homers) to remain an above average rated prospect. I also like EDDIE KELLOW, who we rate as an average major league talent. Kellow, a 1926 14th round pick out of Indiana A&M hit 37 homers between Class B and A as a rookie pro in 1927 and followed that up with 16 and a .352 average last season but his playing time was limited because I had a logjam of young prospects to look at. The plan is to play the 23 year old Kellow a lot at AA this year.

SECOND BASE

WILLIE JACKSON is 26 and has proven he can be a slightly better than average FABL second baseman. The 26 year old hit .292 with 9 homers last season while providing average defense for us at second base. He will be pushed soon by a kid I really like in 22 year old ELMER ROOT. A 4th round pick out of high school in 1924, Root has slowly progressed through the system and had a breakout year at the plate, hitting .343 as he split the year between AA and AAA. Root also stole 28 bases and looks like a future lead-off man in Brooklyn. I would like his defense to improve a bit and Rufus Carter says he is confident it will. BNN calls him the 74th rated prospect in the sport.

SHORTSTOP

24 year old ARNOLD BOWER has been in our system for a while and finally made his FABL debut last season, hitting .307 in 80 games. He was a 2nd round pick out of high school in 1922 and took some time to develop but he is here to stay. Carter loves his defense, especially the ability to turn a doubleplay and he has plus speed. He took the starting job away from RIP AGEE because Bower can provide more offense and similar defense. Agee is a very good bench player with the skills to provide strong defense at second or shortstop.

On the farm WILLIE RAZZANO was highly thought of at one time after a great 1926 season but he has struggled to hit at AAA and is no longer considered a top prospect. However, two youngsters seem to have some very good potential in 19 year old RABBIT MUDD and 20 year old WALT LAYTON. Our first round pick out of high school a year ago, Mudd hit .259 with 7 homers at Class B Tampa this past season. He has a decent glove but may ultimately be moved to second base. Layton was a 16th round pick out of high school two years ago and struggled in limited action as a rookie pro at Class B Tampa. He broke out at Tampa last season, batting .304 with an outstanding defensive zone rating. Rube Carter calls him a cornerstone piece of the future. I am not sold yet but the kid has certainly caught my attention. I may challenge him to perform at Class A Omaha this season.

THIRD BASE

We paid a high price to get JOHN WILDER from Pittsburgh a year and a half ago but he has proven to be worth the cost, batting .302 with 12 homers and a 3.8 WAR in his first full season with the Kings. His defense is solid, but not above average. His playing time might be cut this year through no fault of his own, just because I need to get Mickey Dowell's some at bats.

I was able to trade a former second round pick in 21 year old Dave Bristol in my deal to move up to first overall in the draft in a big part because of how much we like PHIL LONG. The 23 year old was a 24th round pick out of high school in 1923 and has steadily rose through our system. He struggled when given a taste of AAA in 1927 but was much better last year, batting .282 with 7 homers as he split the year between AA and AAA. Carter loves the kid, says there is more power coming and we are both happy with his glove. I don't know I would rate him an above average big league prospect- I would say more average- but Rube is very high on him.

Another guy we like at third base is 21 year old TONY KING, who we picked up from the New York Stars at the trade deadline. A 6th round pick out of high school in 1925, King hit .282 at AA this past season. His defense needs work but Rube calls him a second-division starter. I see maybe a little more from the kid. JOHN WYCHE is another guy Carter likes. A 20 year old who was taken in the 24th round, I have yet to give him much playing time but at the urging of Carter he will get his chance in either Class B or C this year.

The guy I like as our 3B of the future is BUCK SARGENT. A 20 year old high school pick in the third round of the 1926 draft, Sargent has shown great power with 18 homers at Class A Omaha a year ago. He needs to work on contact but he has plus defense and I think plus power potential.

OUTFIELD

We are loaded with young major league ready talent here once again, even after I dealt several prospects the past couple of years. DOUG LIGHTBODY is just 25 but already has a batting title and a Whitney Award under his belt. Last season Lightbody hit .356 with 35 triples and a 5.8 WAR- and that was a down year for him compared to his previous season. 24 year old AB THOMAS has a vacuum for a glove in center and had 21 outfield assists last season. He also hit .303 while lead the league with 38 stolen bases.

With those two set in center and right we have the previously mentioned 1B-OF crew of Lynn Randall, Charlie Powell and Gus Powell to fight for playing time as well as veteran CLARENCE HALL. Hall is 29 and would likely be starting for 8-12 other teams in the league. He has hit .348 for his career including .395 in 245 plate appearances in 1927 when he lost his starting job and moved to the 4th outfielder spot. Last year he struggled with limited playing time and ended up batting just .191 in Brooklyn but hit .303 in a 41 game stint in AAA. I am confident the numbers will return to normal this year and manager Wally Grant is making a case for starting him but I think the Powell's are going to be too good to sit on the bench.

We also now have to contend with what to do with 23 year old HERB SMIDDY. I grabbed him as a minor league free agent in 1925 and he has outperformed my expectations with a breakout year at AAA Houston last season. Smiddy hit .339 and while he does not have a lot of power, he does have speed (stole 31 bases for Class A Omaha in 1927) and earned a September callup to Brooklyn where he went 5-for-15 with a pair of doubles and a homer primarily as a pinch-hitter. The issue is going to be finding somewhere to play him and unfortunately I may have to send him down to AAA for another year.

There are also a number of above average potential outfielders in the minors with the closest one to being ready is 24 year old BERNIE CARTER. The 24 year old was a 14th round pick out of Coastal California University and hit .270 in a backup role at AAA a year ago. My third round pick this year, ART SUMMERS out of St Matthew's College, is not ready for me to call him an above average prospect but I think he has the possibility of reaching that level after hitting .340 with 31 homers in 150 career college games.

SUMMARY

The league scouting service does not show the Kings a lot of respect. With the addition of first overall pick Tommy Wilcox (who I will discuss with the pitchers) we have finally moved out of the basement and are ranked the 11th best minor league system. The service has OF JIM GENTRY(72) and Charlie Powell (82) as well as 2B Elmer Root (76) as my only top 100 prospects. I like Gentry but I like a lot of my other outfielders better than him and am surprised there is no mention of Smiddy, Aiello and several other players mentioned above. Overall, I am as happy as I have been at any point with the quality of our position player prospects.

Tiger Fan · 12-13-2019, 01:09 AM

KINGS ORGANIZATIONAL DEPTH CHART

PART 2: PITCHING

I have never felt really good about our pitching and while I still think we may have some issues this year at the major league level there is finally some hope for the future. I identified TOMMY WILCOX as the premier pitcher available in the draft and perhaps a talent that only comes around every few years so once we fell out of contention in June most of my deadline deals were made with an eye towards trying to acquire Wilcox or lefthander Mike Murphy, a Brooklyn State pitcher I also liked and felt had a more reasonable shot at getting.

Things fell into place and I landed Wilcox and he is now in the organization. Initial scouting reports both internally and from the league service confirm my hopes - Wilcox debuted as the top pitcher in the BNN 100 prospects list right after he signed. He will start the season at Class A Omaha and is in my mind a future top of the rotation ace. He is the only such arm we have but we do finally have a couple of #2 or #3 starter prospects in 20 year old GEORGE JOHNSON and 23 year old DEL LYONS.

A 1926 first round pick (6th overall), Johnson was acquired from the Chicago Chiefs in exchange for veteran pitcher Cal Williams at the deadline. He was 6-15 with a 6.63 era but most of those numbers were in the homer happy COW League. I am going to start him at Omaha with Wilcox but am not afraid to back him down a level if need be. Being a high school arm I want to take things slow with him and a Brooklyn debut is likely not until 1931 at the earliest and quite possibly later.

Lyons was my second round pick out of St. Matthew's College in 1926 and I used him in the bullpen at Omaha as a rookie pro where he had 19 saves but also gave up a ton of homeruns. He improved the homer numbers last season at AA Knoxville, where he started and went 11-10 with a 3.99 era and got a late promotion to AAA. I think he is ready for AAA full time this year and I will start him in the pen but likely move him to the rotation at some point. Not as highly thought of by the league scouting service as Johnson, I see him as my #3 starter in a couple of seasons as the three of them will ideally give me a good start on a rotation that rivals any in the league.

Those 3 are my prize prospects. There are some others I like such as MICKEY BEAVERS, SCOTTY GROSSMAN, FRANK PARSONS, DAVE RANKIN, ART BLAKE and last month's second round pick JOE RUSSELL but they all grade out as back of the rotation talents.

It is at the major league level where I think we may still have problems. Hopefully 25 year old BUZZ HAM's season was the start of a trend and not just a one-off type of thing. The lefthander came over in early June from the Chicago Cougars and led the Continental Association with a 2.57 era while going 8-5. He spent much of the year in the pen but was switched to the rotation and made 12 starts. He has posted solid numbers throughout his career going back to his days at Golden Gate University. The Cougars drafted him in the 5th round in 1924. He has in my mind the potential to be a solid number 2 starter but our problem is we don't have a number one.

I think we do have some depth with several young veterans that can fill the big end of a rotation such as 27 year old HARVEY RODGERS (13-12, 4.99), 29 year old TOPSY MORAN (9-11, 4.91) and 28 year old LEON THOMPSON (8-6, 4.84) as well as the recently signed 35 year old BOB SCHMID (18-11, 3.03 in AAA) who was a long-time Kings pitcher before being dealt to the New York Gothams several years ago.

BILL DENGLER is now 24 and has pitched fairly well in Brooklyn when given the chance while more was expected of 26 year old CLARENCE FLANDERS, who was acquired after a 17-9, 3.86 season as a 23 year old with independent Portland of the Great West League. Flanders did look very good out of the pen as a September call-up so hopefully that is a sign he is ready. 23 year old Rule V draft pick JIM LANGLEY also fits into the group of guys who can fill out or pen or perhaps compete for a starting job.

SUMMARY

We are still thin overall at pitcher and lack a #1 at the big league level but with Wilcox, Lyons and Johnson their finally is hope in Brooklyn. We need to resist the temptation to rush Wilcox and look to get one or two more young arms with a high ceiling.

If things go right with our staff this year I believe we can compete for a pennant at the big league level but we are a young team (both on the mound and in the field) and the goal is to build a multiple year contender, but that might be 1 or 2 more seasons away. There is a ton of pressure on Wilcox to live up to expectations but finally, there is hope we can build a team with a pitching staff that can compare to the quality of our offense.

Tiger Fan · 12-13-2019, 12:07 PM

KINGS ADD TO MINOR LEAGUE PITCHING DEPTH

The Brooklyn Kings interrupt the dead of winter to announce a trade. Brooklyn has sent catcher Dave Armstrong to the Detroit Dynamos in exchange for 20 year old pitcher Larry Brown and a 6th round pick in next year's draft.

Armstrong had been caught in a numbers game due to the Kings wealth of young catching talent. Originally a 3rd round pick in the 1923 draft out of Whitney College, Armstrong worked his way up the system and after hitting .329 for AAA Houston in 1927 he was called up to Brooklyn late that season. Last season as a 25 year old he spent most of the year in Brooklyn backing up Mickey Dowell and later, after his promotion Mike Taylor. With those two seeing the bulk of the action behind the plate Armstrong was limited to 20 games but he made the most of his opportunity, batting .372 in those contests.

He has the tools to be a starting catcher in the Federally Aligned Leagues but there was just no room for him in Brooklyn as Taylor and Dowell will split the catching duties in 1929 and a couple of good young prospects are in AAA Rochester. It is expected the 26 year old Armstrong will battle veteran Dick York for playing time with the Dynamos.

In return, Brooklyn acquires another young arm to it's now growing list of young pitching prospects. Brown was considered to be Detroit's second best prospect and ranked 45th in the most recent top 100. He is a young (20 year old) lefthander that was taken in the first round of the 1926 draft by the Dynamos out of Oakland High School. There are never any guarantees with high school drafted pitchers but the Kings scouting department like what they have seen of Brown. He struggled in his rookie pro year at Class B Chattanooga, going 7-16 with a 7.54 era and gave up 22 homers in 31 starts. However, in repeating at that level last season he responded with a 20-11, 3.27 season and lowered his homers allowed slightly. The Kings will likely start him in Class B once again but the hope is he shows enough early to join top prospects Tommy Wilcox and George Johnson in Omaha.

11-01-2019, 01:32 PM	#123
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	MAY 28, 1928 BAD WEEK FOR KINGS After finishing their road trip with 3 straight wins in Cleveland and coming home to Kings County Ballpark to get a dramatic walk-off win over the New York Stars a week ago, the Brooklyn Kings were expected to roll through Montreal and Baltimore in their 6 home games this past week. Instead, the Kings played uninspired ball and allowed the Saints, who were swept by Brooklyn in Canada 2 weeks ago, to return the favour by beating the Kings 3 straight times in the middle of the week. Brooklyn did salvage the week somewhat by taking two of three from Baltimore but to go 2-4 with all the momentum they had built up the previous week is unacceptable. The only consolation is Baltimore and Montreal combined to win 4 of 6 from New York but Cleveland recovered quickly from their lost series with the Kings. The Foresters took 3 of 4 from both Philadelphia and Toronto to widen their lead atop the Continental Association. While Kings manager Wally Grant was obviously disappointed with the way the week played out he says it is not all on the Kings players. "We didn't play like we are capable. The bats went cold and the pitching wasn't sharp on a number of days this week, but you know sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the guys in the other locker room. Montreal is much improved. They have a scrappy young team with loads of talent and Baltimore...well, they started bad, but they had won something like 11 of their last 13 entering the series with us." The Kings bats have gone cold and no one has felt more of a chill recently than outfielder Bud Rogers. The 29 year old former batting champ was one of the league's hottest hitters in April when he hit at a .410 clip. However, since the calendar turned to May Rogers has hit just .183 and went 3-for-20 last week. Brooklyn has decided to give him a few days off to see if that helps him out. Fourth outfielder Clarence Hall, who hit .395 in a reserve role last year but has also struggled this season, will spell Rogers for the week. Rookie call-up Arnold Bower had a big week in his FABL debut. The 24 year old shortstop went 5-for-8 and will get some more starts this week. The Kings also demoted a pair of struggling players to Houston with the plan being to get them some work and bring them back up in a week or two if all goes well. Backup middle infielder Rip Agee was hitting just .175 in limited action so he will get a chance to play everyday for the next week or two in AAA. 26 year old Henry Middleton makes his first trip to the major leagues as he will take Agee's spot as the backup second baseman. Middleton was hitting .266 in Houston. Veteran pitcher Dick Dover is also back with the Kings. The 30 year old, who has had an up and down career in Brooklyn, was called up when 24 year old Leon Campbell, who had struggled in the early going and get moved from the rotation to the pen, was sent to Houston to get his confidence back. Dover, who won 15 or more games for 5 straight seasons with the Kings beginning in 1921, was very unpredictable in the pen the last two seasons and spent most of the time in the minors as a result. He has had some strong outings in relief for the Bulls recently so with Bill Dengler nursing a minor injury, Dover was the right candidate to get another chance in the Brooklyn pen. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

11-06-2019, 02:45 PM	#124
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	June 18, 1928 It has been a couple of sim weeks since my last update but during that time not much has changed for the Kings, at least as far as the Continental Association standings are concerned. Brooklyn remains in 3rd place in the CA, 3 games back of front-running Cleveland and 2 behind the second place New York Stars. Philadelphia, which took 3 from us a couple weeks back, is also right in the mix. This is a big week for the Kings as today we make the short trip to Riverside Stadium to start a 4 game set with the Stars before finishing the week with two in Baltimore and then a return home Sunday for a brief 1 game visit to Kings County Park from the Montreal Saints. However, it is the New York series that is most important in the minds of Kings fans and players alike. We had a rough start to the season series with the Stars but have improved our record against them to 5-6 so far this year in the battle for local bragging rights. There have been a couple of significant roster moves since my last update. I finally promoted Mike Taylor, the much talked about 22 year old who had recently moved up to #2 on the league top 100 prospects list. Taylor, converted recently from catcher to first base so I could play him in Brooklyn, had quite the debut. He was named Continental Association player of the week in his first go around at big league pitching, batting .440 with 4 doubles, a triple and 7 rbi's in his first 7 games. I think it is safe to say he has, at least for the short-term, relegated Lou Garman (.302,3,33) to a backup role. I also called up 23 year old outfielder Gus Powell. I have not written much about Powell, who was an 9th round pick out of Lincoln College (formerly Illinois before the commissioner fictionalized the school names to tie in with a future football and basketball online Figment League). Powell was very good at Class B Tampa a year ago, belting 30 homers in 103 games while batting .297. This season he was promoted to AA Knoxville, where he hit .303 with 7 homers in 37 games before moving up to AAA Houston. He was on fire with the Bulls, hitting .382 with 13 homers in 18 starts and got the call to Brooklyn because backup outfielder Clarence Hall and starter Bud Rogers were struggling off late. I sent Hall down to AAA to get some AB's and find his game. Kings Manager Wally Grant decided to bench Rogers for the week and put Powell in the starting lineup. He homered in his first FABL at bat but struggled the rest of the week and ended up going just 4-for-24 (.167) in his 6 starts. Grant has indicated he will stick with Powell in leftfield at least to start the series with the Stars. Powell has been completely overlooked so far in his career. Despite hitting 29 homers in 143 college games and batting .350 he lasted until the 9th round of the draft. Despite a 30 homer season in Tampa he was never mentioned on the top 100 prospect list and to this day is still not ranked on the Kings top 30 prospect page (neither is Lynn Randall for that matter) so he has a real chip on his shoulder and something to prove to the league. Riverside Stadium would be a great place for him to make a statement, don't you think. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

11-07-2019, 12:43 PM	#125
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	JUNE 25, 1928 KINGS HAVE ANOTHER BAD WEEK Some of the preseason predictions had the defending Continental Association champion Brooklyn Kings being in for a rough season this time around. It is starting to look like they just might have been right in that assessment, but for the wrong reason. Most had felt the Kings pitching, especially the bullpen which always seems to be a challenge for the Brooklyn side, would be their downfall. But as the season approaches the mid-point it is the offense, which used to be so dominant, that is costing the Kings games. Brooklyn dropped 4 in a row last week to their hated rival New York Stars and also lost the opener of a 3 game set in Baltimore before rebounding to end the week with a pair of victories. The Kings have lost 7 of their last 11 and are 11-13 for the month of June. That rough stretch now sees them in 4th place in the Continental Association, 6.5 games back of front-running Cleveland. Pitching has not been the issue, at least certainly not the bullpen which boasts the second lowest ERA in either league. The starting pitching has been a little inconsistent, but that is nothing new for Kings fans. What is new is the offense, which dominated the CA each of the past two seasons is merely ordinary as Brooklyn has just 4th most runs scored in the CA, after topping the league in that category each of the last two years. The problems actually started in the World Championship Series a year ago, when the Kings could not get the clutch hit when they needed it. The recent series with the Stars showed the same problem still exists as time and again Brooklyn stranded runners on base. In last Monday's loss alone the Kings had the following 5 situations when they failed to score a single run in a 4-2 loss: Bases loaded 2-out got nothing, a lead-off triple failed to score, and runners on first and second with 2 out on 3 occasions and they came away empty. Each time they failed to score and it cost them in a 4-2 loss. The story was much the same in back to back 4-3 losses to end the series and in other recent losses as well. Brooklyn outhits it's opponents in many of their losses. So why are the Kings not getting the clutch hit? That is the $100,000 question and if you have the answer and a solution you will be hired on the spot to replace Manager Wally Grant. Bud Rogers had an incredbile April, hitting .410 but has been awful since. On the season he is batting just .263 now after hitting .322-.348 each of the 3 previous years. It is hard to call Doug Lightbody's season a disappointment when he is batting .326 but he hit .384 a year ago so he is also down. The rest of the lineup is performing pretty much they way they did a year ago but the Kings just aren't getting the key hits when they need them. With the way Cleveland, New York and the surging Philadelphia Sailors are playing if Brooklyn doesn't get on track soon it may be too late to recover. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

11-09-2019, 09:25 PM	#126
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	JULY 2, 1928 STRUGGLING KINGS SHAKE UP TEAM WITH MAJOR TRADE Last season when the Brooklyn Kings went into a terrible slump in July and dropped to fourth place they shook things up by firing manager Powell Slocum and replacing him with Wally Grant. The move worked as Grant got the Kings back on track and they won the Continental Association pennant. However, here we are nearly a year later and the Kings find themselves in an even worse situation. Yes, they are still in 4th place but a year ago they were always within 5 games of the lead in a tight race. This season after suffering through a 12-15 June that included 7 losses in the final 10 games of the month, the Kings find themselves a distant 9 games off the pace set by the New York Stars. Drastic times call for drastic measures and Brooklyn has made several internal roster moves the past couple of weeks but today club management made a major move to shake up the core of the team. Tired of what seems to be a complacent attitude about losing, manager Grant had a long discussion with GM TigerFan and team owner Malcolm Presley. While there had been speculation that Grant's job was in jeopardy, instead he was given a vote of confidence and the three decided to reshape the team by making a major deal that on the surface appears they are giving up on this season and turning the focus to the future. Three veteran players were dealt off the Kings big league roster to the Cleveland Foresters in exchange for a pair of AAA prospects and a 4th round draft pick. Gone are a pair of veteran pitchers in 35 year old Mose Smith and 30 year old Dick Dover as well as 31 year old shortstop Lloyd Carter. Smith was leading the club in wins with a 10-6 record and is less than a season removed from winning the Allan Award as the Continental Association's top pitcher. Carter was hitting .284 and providing above average defense but had recently lost his starting job in the first part of the Kings roster shake-up to 24 year old rookie Arnold Bower. Dover had been with the Kings organization for a decade and has a 93-84 career record but he has been very inconsistent the last couple of years and spent more time in the minors then he did in Brooklyn. In return Brooklyn adds nothing to their major league roster but there is some speculation the pair of 23 year old's they acquired from the Foresters organization may be called up this season. Brooklyn is said to be very high on outfielder Charlie Powell, who hit 36 homers at Class A Reading last season after being drafted in the 8th round out of Boulder State. This season after hitting 15 homers in 30 AA games at Toledo, Powell was promoted to AAA where he has batted .295 with 18 homers in 52 games for the Cincinnati Steamers. The Canadian native is not related to fellow slugging outfielder Gus Powell, who was recently promoted to Brooklyn after going on a homerun tear at AAA Houston. The second 23 year old addition is Mickey Beavers, a righthanded pitcher Kings scouting director Rube Carter has had his eyes on since Beaver's college days at St. Pancras. He was originally drafted by the New York Stars in the 12th round of the 1925 draft but dealt to Cleveland after his rookie pro season. This season he has compiled an 8-3 record with a 4.55 era for Cincinnati but has struggled a little bit compared to what he did the previous season. Rumours persist that the move to acquire Powell is part of a plan by the organization to part ways with Bud Rogers or perhaps even Doug Lightbody. Both have struggled a bit this season with Rogers having a much better start to the year then Lightbody, but also having gone into a much bigger slump as well. Rogers has been replaced in the lineup lately by the aforementioned Gus Powell but at 29 years old and coming off 3 straight outstanding seasons it is hard to believe Brooklyn would choose to part with a player in his prime like Rogers. Likewise, dealing Lightbody seems extremely unlikely but it is clear the now 24 year old reigning CA MVP lost some of his luster with a lackluster 1-for-17 performance in the World Championship Series last year. Brooklyn has made bold moves in the past with not just the firing of the popular Slocum a year ago but also big trades the season prior to bring in Smith and Del Plummer. The decision to replace Slocum obviously worked out and the trades for Smith and Plummer could have quite likely led to a pennant in 1926 had Plummer not suffered a serious injury in late August of that year after beginning his Brooklyn career with a 7-2 record. It is hard to see where today's moves can be considered anything but waving the white flag on this year and looking to the future but Wally Grant is adamant that is not the case. "Yes, we gave up Mose Smith," conceeded Grant, "but pitching has not been our problem this year and I think we have guys in Houston who can replace both him and Dover. Carter is strong at shortstop but the kid Bower has proved he can more than replace Carter's bat as well as providing great defense of his own." Grant adds that yes losing Smith is going to be a drop-off a little bit on the mound but accurately points out he is 35 years old and the other two guys are also on the wrong side of 30. This also might be the spark the Kings need to get back on track and salvage this season. With 3 teams ahead of them and a 9 game deficit another trip to the World Championship Series seems extremely unlikely but if the Kings can get a half year of big league experience for young stars like Mike Taylor, the Powells, Arnold Bower and recently acquired pitchers Buzz Ham and Beavers they could be well positioned for next year. And if the trade jolts the attention of Lightbody and Rogers perhaps those two, along with new phenom Mike Taylor, could be enough to stage a miracle comeback this season. Not likely, but the Kings still have plenty of talent. It just needs to live up to it's past accomplishments. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board. Last edited by Tiger Fan; 11-10-2019 at 07:41 AM.

11-13-2019, 11:18 AM	#127
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	JULY 23, 1928 KINGS ENJOY MORE SUCCESS IN JULY After struggling through the month of June, the Brooklyn Kings seem to be back on track in July. The Kings are 14-7 since the calendar changed including 10-4 following their blockbuster trade that dispatched Mose Smith and Lloyd Carter to Cleveland for a pair of prospects and a draft pick. Despite the solid month, Brooklyn has not been able to climb back in to the Continental Association pennant race as both New York and Philadelphia have played extremely well. The Kings ended June 9 and a half games out of first place and despite with 10 of their last 14 they are still in fourth place, 8 games back of the Stars. Before dropping the final two games of a wild 4-game set with Philadelphia, the Kings had amassed an 8 game winning streak - their longest of the season. The Philadelphia series was very dramatic with 3 of the 4 games decided by a single run including two in extra innings. Topsy Moran and Leon Thompson combined on a 1-0 victory in the series opener that was scoreless until Mike Taylor, who hit a 1 out double scored on an rbi single from Bud Rogers in the top of the 10th. Buzz Ham, who was acquired from the Chicago Cougars in June, improved to 4-0 with a 1.87 era as a King after pitching a complete game 2-1 victory in the second game of the series. Despite a 3-run pinch-hit homer from rookie Gus Powell in the top of the ninth, Brooklyn dropped Saturday's contest 6-5 in 10 innings and then lost a slugfest 13-9 on Sunday. Next week the Kings are home for one more game against Philadelphia before welcoming Toronto and Cleveland into Kings County Park. KINGS NOTES - Outfielder Bud Rogers is showing signs of perhaps breaking out of the 2 month slump he was in. Rogers is batting .323 over his last 8 games. The career .319 hitter had a torrid start, batting .410 in April but hit just .146 in May and June combined.....Catcher Mickey Dowell is in a bit of a slump now so manager Wally Grant is going to give him a few days off and move Mike Taylor from 1B to his natural C position. Taylor, an 8th round draft pick last winter, is hitting .333 with 2 homers in 36 games. The move will allow Lou Garman (.320,4,38) to get some playing time again at first base, a job he lost when Taylor was promoted last month.....Lefthander Buzz Ham has been a pleasant surprise on the mound. Originally acquired last month from the Cougars for pitching depth, the 25 year old worked his way into the starting lineup and is 4-0 including 3 straight compete game victories where he allowed just 1 run in each....Brooklyn has called up one of the players acquired recently from Cleveland. Pitcher Mickey Beavers didn't get a win in AAA Houston but had two strong starts and will make his FABL debut this week working out of the Brooklyn bullpen. The other player acquired in the Cleveland deal - 23 year old OF Charlie Powell won't be far behind. Powell hit 3 homers last week and is hitting .261 with 4 homers and 14 rbi's in 12 games with the Bulls. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

11-14-2019, 08:33 PM	#128
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	JULY 30, 1928 KINGS WAVE WHITE FLAG - LOOK TO FUTURE Not only did the Brooklyn Kings throw in the towel on the current season by dealing 2 veteran stars away, they dealt them to their arch rival New York Stars. After dropping three games over the weekend to fall 10 games off the pace being set by the Continental Association leading Stars, the Kings decided to make their second major trade in 2 weeks and rumours are they may not be done yet. With the trade deadline looming this evening the Kings are said to have ongoing discussions with a couple of teams about some more moves. Today's deal saw Brooklyn send veteran starter Del Plummer (9-9, 4.34) and fan favourite Bud Rogers (.250,4,30) along with a minor league prospect to the New York Stars in exchange for the Stars first round pick in the next draft and AA third base prospect Tony King. This comes less than a month after the Kings dealt 35 year old pitcher Mose Smith (11-9, 4.70), SS Lloyd Carter and reliever Dick Dover to another CA rival in the Cleveland Foresters. "It was clear we did not have what it takes to win a second straight pennant," explained 87 year old team owner Malcolm Presley. "This just isn't our year and while it pains me to see those guys go, especially Rogers and especially to the Stars, it is best for our franchise in the long run. We are now much younger and have added some assets that will help us in the big picture." The Kings decided to promote the two young players acquired from Cleveland. Pitcher Mickey Beavers, a 23 year old righthander, made his FABL debut with a brief relief appearance last week and will replace Plummer in the starting rotation this week. Meanwhile, 23 year old outfielder Charlie Powell, who has hit 42 homers in 107 games at AA and AAA so far this season, was promoted today and is expected to make his FABL debut this week. The Kings also got a 4th round pick in the Cleveland deal to go along with the extra first rounder they acquired today from the Stars. It is expected the Kings will be focused very heavily on pitching in the upcoming draft. While it is extremely unlikely they will get a shot at selecting college pitchers Tommy Wilox, who set an AIAA single season and career record for strikeouts at Liberty College this season, or Tom Barrell, who won an AIAA high 11 games this season at Georgia Baptist, Kings head scout Rube Carter feels this is a very deep draft for pitching talent and it is expected Brooklyn will use at least one of their 2 first round picks on a college arm. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

11-19-2019, 10:42 AM	#129
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	August 20, 1928 BREAKDOWN OF ALL THE DEADLINE DEALS Now that we are a couple of sims past the trade deadline I thought I should talk a little about the moves I made and the thinking behind it. First a recap of what was traded. I sent away 3/5ths of my starting rotation in 35 year old Mose Smith, 32 year old Del Plummer and 31 year old Cal Williams as well as 29 year old outfielder Bud Rogers and 32 year old shortstop Lloyd Carter. Both Carter and Rogers had been long-time starters for my Kings but both had also recently lost their starting jobs on the team. I also parted 31 year old reliever Dick Dover, who had been very inconsistent in Brooklyn so spent the majority of the past couple of seasons in AAA, as well as a 24 year old minor league first baseman by the name of Jack Procell. In return, while we certainly got worse in the short term because of the pitchers sent away, we got much younger and hopefully positioned better for the future. We acquired a first round and a fourth round draft pick as well as 4 minor leaguers. They are a pair of pitchers in 23 year old Mickey Beavers and 20 year old George Johnson along with 23 year old outfielder Charlie Powell and 20 year old third baseman Tony King. THE REASONING So why would I decide to tear down a team that had won the pennant a year ago and was possibly still in the hunt this year as, while we were 4th in the league, we were just 9 games out of first place at the time of the first deal in early July. First reason is I knew we were out of the race. Our hitting was not doing what it did in past years and both Philadelphia and New York were on fire. The Stars especially had shown in the past that when they got hot they were almost unstoppable. Since that first move in July until this writing my Kings have still done fairly well, going 24-22, although they are on a downward trend here in August. The New York Stars have gone 24-19 since July 1st as they too have struggled in August but the Philadelphia Sailors have gone 34-9 over that stretch. So whether I had the three pitchers in my rotation or not (worth noting is Mose Smith has been awful since the trade as well) there is no way we would have not lost even more ground to Philadelphia. So with a pennant out of the question this year I had to look ahead to next season. Smith would be 36 years old and was not the pitcher in the first half of this season that he was a year ago when he won the Allen Award as the Continental's top arm. Plummer would be 33 and just a year removed from missing 13 months with a major arm injury. Williams would be 32 and coming off two very good years for us including a 20-win season a year ago. He is the one I felt the most hesitation about moving, but the opportunity to grab a young arm like George Johnson (who is in the BNN top 30 prospects and top 10 pitchers) was too much to pass up. Plus my head scout Rube Carter seemed to be no longer as high on Williams as he was a year ago. I am not saying these were bad players. On the contrary, all 3 are in my mind still good...if you are contending for a pennant this year. Smith was a huge reason we won a year ago but we weren't winning this year. All 3 are older so I wanted to make a move when I could still get some decent value in return. The same goes for the two hitters I gave up. Carter is an outstanding defensive shortstop but I have a young prospect named Arnold Bower who has a comparable glove and seems to be a much better hitter than Carter currently is so it made sense to move him now while he has some value. Rogers is a year younger than Carter and hit over .400 in April before a terrible May-June slump. He is likely still a great hitter but we have young guys in the system - and young guys with power, something our team desperately lacks - so I figured it is better to trade Rogers a year or two too early instead of too late. We are playing stats-only as followers of this thread I am sure are well aware so it makes the decision on when to move a guy that much tougher but it has been my observation (correctly or not I am uncertain) that a large number of hitters seem to go into a nosedive when they hit age 30-32. That factored very heavily on my decision to move Rogers. He quite easily could be the exception to that rule, or my observation may be way off base as it is on an admittedly small sample size but with the guys I have in the pipeline I felt I could take that risk especially when I had a first round draft pick coming back in return. WHAT I ADDED AND WHY I WANTED THEM Those two picks are very important additions as the Brooklyn collection of pitching prospects was very thin prior to the deals. I am certain that one of my two first rounders (likely around 10th and 14th overall) will be used on a pitcher and there is a good chance I will use both of them on an arm. A stats-only draft is a real crapshoot - both good and bad as my star C-1B Mike Taylor, an 8th round pick a year ago, proves. The more tickets I have in the draft lottery the better odds I get a winner out of the pile I take. George Johnson was acquired straight up for Cal Williams. Right now he is ranked as the 7th best pitching prospect in the game. Prior to acquiring him I had no pitchers in the top 100 and just one that was listed in the top 200 prospects. I might disagree with that a bit as I have a couple of pitchers in my system I really like but I do agree I am very thin on pitching talent. Johnson was taken 6th overall by the Chicago Chiefs out of high school 2 drafts ago. In a year and a half in Class B his numbers have not been overly impressive (13-29, 5.08 era) but high school pitchers seem to take a while to develop. He gave up more homers than I like to see but I have to think that was partly due to pitching in the longball crazy COW League. Chicago had just moved him to Class A the week before the deal so I put him with my A ball affiliate in Omaha. He had a couple of rough relief outings for me but looked pretty good in winning his first start. He is the youngest pitcher I have in Omaha and one of just a dozen pitchers age 20 or younger in the Heartland League. My plan is to bring him along slowly but I see him being in the middle of my FABL rotation in 3 years and still being just 23 years old at the time. The other arm I added is 23 year old Mickey Beavers who was a 12th round pick out of college following the 1925 season. He was in AAA a year ago and looked very good but his numbers are not quite as impressive this season. He did look good for me in 3 starts with my AAA affiliate but I brought him up to Brooklyn for a couple of weeks and he was clearly overmatched - going 0-3 with an 8.40 era and an awful 2.27 WHIP. That has scared me a little on his potential but my hope remains he can fill one of my rotation spots next spring. I dealt Mose Smith, Dick Dover and Lloyd Carter to Cleveland for Beavers and an outfielder named Charlie Powell that I am very high on as well as I received a 4th round pick in the deal. As a result, for reasons I mentioned earlier (Smith's age, Carter's age and lost job, and Dover's terribly inconsistent pitching) I think taking a chance on Beavers was a very reasonable risk. My scout Rube Carter absolutely loves Powell. Now I have decided to rely much more on stats then scouting reports but it is nice to hear Carter agrees with what the stats tell me. Powell is a corner outfielder on a team with corner outfielders averaging about 5 homers a year for me. I want at least one big power hitting bat in my lineup and I think it can be Powell. He started the season at AA Toledo and was promoted by the Foresters to AAA Cincinnati in May. I have him in AAA Houston and in 111 games between the three cities Powell has hit 46 homeruns. The big question is what will his batting average be like as he has hit just .280 in AAA this season with a 13.4% strikeout rate. I gave him a quick taste of the big leagues with a week in Brooklyn but he got just 3 plate appearances. No hits but he did not strike out and drew a walk as well. With him and the emergence of Gus Powell (no relation), another 23 year old corner OF who has 12 homers but is batting .222 in 53 games in Brooklyn, I have two players to battle it out for the clean-up role in the Brooklyn lineup. The final prospect I received was 20 year old 3B Tony King. King is, by 2 years, the youngest position player I have at AA Knoxville and while his glove needs some work, he is enjoying great success at the plate batting .352 in 14 games for the Knights. He hit .295 as a 19 year old in Class B and was batting .273 for the NY Stars AA affiliate this season. My scout Rube Carter says he has power potential, but we haven't seen it yet, and felt he could be a solid contributor on a first division team when we acquired him. Carter has lowered those expectations recently (which is one reason I like to look at the stats and level a player is playing at primarily) but my expectations have gone up after seeing how he is handling AA pitching as a 20 year old. My concern is his play in the field, but Carter seems to think he will be okay. King has been a negative zone rating guy all his career so I am not so certain but the first round pick I got from the Stars in the deal was the prize piece for me in the trade. A good deal is one that helps both teams. While the jury is still out on the guys I sent to Cleveland (the Foresters have been struggling as a whole since the trade) I think the Stars (with Rogers and Plummer) and the Chicago Chiefs (with Cal Williams) have made out nicely on the trade. Now it is up to my scout Rube Carter and myself to make sure the draft picks pan out and it will take time to see how accurate a judge of talent I am with Johnson, Beavers, Powell and, to a lesser extent King. If I develop one starting pitcher out of the draft this year and between Johnson and Beavers I get one mid-rotation starter I think the deal would be well worth it from the Kings point of view. If Powell can break through and be a strong FABL power hitter that would be a nice bonus. I am betting those things will happen. Now I have to wait for a few seasons before we can accurately judge these trades. I don't think I gave away a shot at the 1928 pennant - it was already long gone. 1929, perhaps? But if things pan out these deals laid some solid building blocks on what I hope will be a very strong first half decade in the 1930s. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board. Last edited by Tiger Fan; 11-19-2019 at 05:58 PM.

11-21-2019, 03:27 PM	#130
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	September 3, 1928 KINGS DIP TO .500 AS LOSES MOUNT The Brooklyn Kings have fallen to 65-65 on the season after dropping 7 of their last 12 games. The Kings are now 21 1/2 games behind the still red-hot Philadelphia Sailors, who are running away with the Continental Association pennant. For the Kings, long since out of the race, the focus is to the future and the club made another move in that direction this past week by reassigning long-time Scouting Director Rube Carter and hiring his replacement. Carter, who has led the Kings scouting department since 1923, was asked to assume the role of assistant General Manager and accepted the new position. In his place, Brooklyn has hired 54 year old Gary Scott as it's head talent evaluator. Scott, who worked briefly in the same role for the New York Stars, never played professional ball, but the 54 year old made a name for himself working for the league scouting service OSA as a draft specialist. He faces a pressure filled couple of months as for the Kings recent trades to work out for the organization they need to have a very good draft, especially being sure to land top potential talent with their two first round selections. Meanwhile, on the diamond Kings manager Wally Grant, at the direction of upper management, continues to play the collection of young talent in an effort to allow management to gauge what the club should look like next season. Special attention will be paid to several players including recently acquired lefthander Buzz Ham and 23 year old Bill Dengler. It is hoped the two pitchers are ready to join the rotation on a full time basis next year. Ham, 25, had an outstanding July since his acquisition from the Chicago Cougars, but struggled in August. On the year, Ham is 6-4 as a King with a 2.76 era in 10 starts. Dengler, who made his Brooklyn debut as an injury replacement last year, spent most of this season in Houston but has gone 3-2 with 4 saves and a 2.49 era coming out of the pen. He will get some starts down the stretch as the Kings are going to take the unusual approach of going with a 6-man rotation for a spell now that the rosters have been expanded to 35. Veterans Leon Thompson and Harry Schab will also be given a few starts to help determine if they fit into Brooklyn's plans next year. Recently acquired 23 year old Mickey Beavers is also back up with the big club but Beavers will likely be used sparingly after stuggling in a brief call-up recently. There are far less questions among position players but with recent minor injuries to OF Doug Lightbody and 3B John Wilder it will allow Brooklyn to take a closer look at 23 year olds Phil Long and Charlie Powell. There is good news in the minors as the Houston Bulls, for which Dengler, Long and Powell played a key role down the stretch, have clinched the Century League pennant for the first time since 1910 when the club was still based in Toledo. Although he won't play in the final game as he was among those called up to Brooklyn today, 23 year old outfielder Herb Smiddy still has a chance to win the Century League batting title. Smiddy hit .339 and trails Milwaukee catcher Tony Stewart by .002 with 1 game remaining for Stewart's club. The Bulls led the Century League in most offensive categories thanks to many of the players who are now suiting up in Brooklyn including 23 year old outfielder Charlie Powell, who hit 16 homers in 45 games since being acquired from the Cleveland Foresters organization. All in all, it was a good season for the Kings farm teams. Only Houston wins a pennant but 3 of the 4 clubs will finish over .500 with the lone exception being AA Knoxville that is 68-71 with 1 game remaining. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

11-22-2019, 10:20 AM	#131
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	Septmeber 10, 1928 A decent 4-2 week for the Kings as a lot of young players are given an opportunity to show what they can do. Gus Powell was named CA player of the week in his first full week in the big leagues. More on him below. On the mound both Buzz Ham (7-4, 2.85) and Bill Dengler (3-3, 2.28) had strong starts although Dengler took the loss in his. We were officially eliminated from pennant contention but are back to a pair of games over .500. Pitching for the most part was solid and I will stick with the 6 man rotation for the next week at least as I try to get a look at a bunch of guys. The last few weeks of the season will be used to fully evaluate where we stand for next year. We have 2 first round picks and 6 picks in the first 4 rounds of the draft so I have already started working hard on my draft list with new Scouting Director Gary Scott. Together we have identified several candidates I think will be available when the Kings pick: likely 10th and 14th in the opening round. The Philadelphia Sailors continue to run away with the Continental Association. New York is still alive thanks to an 8-2 start to the month. The Stars do still have 4 games left against the Sailors, but even if they sweep that series they will still need a lot of help to catch Philadelphia. THE POW(ell) BROTHERS Brooklyn Kings outfielders Charlie Powell and Gus Powell may not be brothers but they certainly have a lot in common. Both are 23 years old. Both made their FABL debut this season and both can give he baseball quite a ride. Gus Powell, a 9th round pick of the Kings out of Lincoln College in 1926, has been in Brooklyn since June after hitting 20 homers in 64 combined AA and AAA games to start the season. The Fayetteville, North Carolina native may be batting just .212 in 69 games with Brooklyn but Gus has hit 17 homers and driven in 48 rbi's, numbers that extrapolate to 38 homers and 107 rbi's over a full season. Charlie Powell is a Canadian born outfielder who came to the Kings in a trade deadline deal with Cleveland. Like Gus, he was selected in the 1926 draft, but went in the 8th round, 28 picks ahead of his teammate. He played his college ball at Boulder State, putting up decent numbers but his power hitting ability really came to light in A ball when he hit 36 homers in 85 games for Reading last year. This season due to the trade he has played for 4 different teams from AA to the major leagues and has hit 54 homers in 143 games so far. Powell spent 45 games at AAA Houston after the trade, helping lead the Bulls to the Century League title. Despite the small game total he finished tied for second in the loop with 16 homers and was the Century League's player of the month for August. He was called up to Brooklyn with the September 1st roster expansion and hit a 2-run homer on a full count in his first big league at bat. In 9 games with the Kings Charlie Powell is batting .385 with 2 homers and 10 rbi's and was named player of the week in the Continental League. The problem posed for Brooklyn is placing the pair of powerful Powell's on the playing field. With Doug Lightbody back from a minor back injury and speedy centerfielder Ab Thomas, who is hitting .300 and leads the majors with 34 stolen bases, there is only one spot left in the outfield. Both Powell's can also play first base but if that means moving a rising star in Mike Taylor (.346,6,33 in 68 games) from first base to catcher then what becomes of Mickey Dowell (.280,4,71). The Powell's have created a perplexing problem for the Kings. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

11-26-2019, 10:04 PM	#132
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	September 24, 1928 KINGS LOOK TOWARDS 1929 There is still a week remaining in an eventful 1928 season for the Brooklyn Kings but the organization's focus is already gazed towards 1929 and beyond. Things started so full of promise for the club that entered the campaign as the defending Continental Association champions and began the year with 15 wins in their first 23 games, but it all came crashing down with a dismal stretch starting in late May when Brooklyn lost not only 19 of 34 ballgames but also sight of the front-runners atop the standings. The offense was still very good, but no longer dominant like it was in previous years when it carried a substandard pitching staff. With the club enduring a double digit deficit behind the league leader as the calendar turned to July, Kings management made the difficult decision to retool and as a result a number of key players became casualties. Veteran pitchers Del Plummer, Mose Smith and Cal Williams all were dispatched elsewhere for young talent or draft picks and shortstop Lloyd Carter plus the former face of the franchise in Bud Rogers were also dealt away. For Williams it will mean a second straight trip to the World Championship Series as he has enjoyed success since moving to Federal Association front-runner Chicago while the others went to New York or Cleveland. The season for Brooklyn mirrors the year of outfielder Bud Rogers. The 29 year old, who is only 3 years removed from winning a batting title, hit .335 a year ago and was one of the few Kings to be productive in a disappointing WCS loss to the Philadelphia Keystones last October. Rogers looked ready to lead the Kings to another shot at the franchise's first World Championship in April when he hit .410 with a pair of homers. However, as the Kings began to swoon in May it was Rogers lack of production that seemed to lead the slide. From May 1 until he was traded in late July to the New York Stars Rogers batted just .201 and became an easy target when identifying why the Kings offense had crumbled. He seems to have righted the ship since the trade, batting .299 in 30 games for the Stars, but there was far less outcry in the stands at Kings County Stadium then one might expect when the face of the franchise gets dealt. Since the trade deadline the Kings have tumbled further, posting a 17-27 record, but the focus has been more on determining who belongs in Brooklyn next year, especially on the mound, then on wins and losses. To that end lets take a look and project the Kings rotation and starting lineup for 1929. A lot can certainly change between now and then but here is a first look at your potential Kings roster next season. CATCHER - It is clear by his poor fielding numbers 22 year old rookie Mike Taylor was never comfortable at first base. It is also clear with his .337 average and .524 slugging percentage in 78 games that the Kings have to get his bat in the lineup. The problem is 27 year old catcher Mickey Dowell, a .308 career hitter who led the CA in rbi's 2 seasons ago, also needs a spot in the lineup. Since the experiment with Taylor at 1B does not seem to be working well, the Kings have tried playing Dowell at third base. The results are mixed so far but the expectation is Dowell will spend most of his time at the hot corner in spring training. FIRST BASE- Lou Garman is hitting .311 this season and has been a very steady bat for Brooklyn since breaking in to the FABL in 1924. The only knock on Garman is he has limited power- just 22 homers in 498 career games- and the game is changing with a greater emphasis on the longball. Despite being just 29 years old it appears that Garman is being phased out by the Kings simply because there are too many good young hitters the club wants in the lineup. Catcher Taylor is one, but the choice lately seems to be Gus Powell, a 23 year old former 9th round pick who, despite batting just .218, has hit 20 homers in 280 big league at bats. The expectation is Powell will develop the contact skills and if so he could be a dominant player. Another prospect is Lynn Randall, another 23 year old who hit 18 homers in 84 games at AAA Houston a year ago and has spent most of the season as a backup in Brooklyn, batting .272 with 2 homers in 136 at bats. Kings brass is confident that the job will belong to Gus Powell for many years. SECOND BASE - 26 year old Willie Jackson, an undrafted free agent cut by several organizations, earned the backup job with his glove a year ago and has evolved into the Kings everyday second baseman this season. He is hitting .298 with 9 homers this season. He is a decent player but don't be surprised if the Kings look for an upgrade at this position although they have been burned before bringing in vets like Rocky Edwards and Eddie Andrews. SHORTSTOP - Half a season of watching 24 year old Arnold Bower was enough to convince the Kings it was time to move veteran Lloyd Carter. Bower has been very good with the glove and better then expected (.315 average) with the bat. He is the club's everyday shortstop. THIRD BASE - The Kings are still very high on 26 year old John Wilder, who was acquired from Pittsburgh for outfielder Jim Renfroe a year ago, but now Mickey Dowell is in the mix as well. Defense may decide who gets the majority of the starts as Wilder is a comparable hitter with a slightly lower batting average but a bit more power than Dowell. OUTFIELD - Two of the three spots are well spoken for. It is hard to believe that Ab Thomas, at 23 years of age, is already in his 3rd FABL season. Thomas is an above average defensive centerfielder and loaded with speed. He leads the entire FABL with 37 stolen bases and is batting .301 so center should be his domain well into the 1930s. Likewise, Doug Lightbody is a no brainer in right field. Lightbody is a year older than Thomas and also in his third season with the Kings. He was CA MVP a year ago when he hit a league leading .384 but then came the struggles of going 1-for-17 in the World Championship Series loss to the Keystones. He is well off his production of a year ago, so perhaps there are lingering side effects from last October, but Lightbody is still batting .348 and among the best young outfielders in the game. For left field there is a grab bag of candidates. Gus Powell and Lynn Randall, both of whom were moved to first base because of the outfield logjam may still be in the mix and the Kings still have highly touted rookie Herb Smiddy, who hit .339 at Houston this year to finish second in the Century League in batting. However, the leading candidate is a trade deadline pickup from Cleveland named Charlie Powell. No relation to Gus, the 23 year old Canadian has hit 55 homers so far this season, including 3 in 53 at bats since being called up to Brooklyn in September. Code: PROJECTED OPENING DAY 1929 LINEUP and age as of 1929 opening day # NAME POS AGE 1928 stats 1 Ab Thomas CF 24 .301/.354/.384 37 SB 2 Mike Taylor C 22 .337/.382/.524 7 HR in 78 games 3 Doug Lightbody RF 25 .348/.424/.536 was MVP in 1927 4 Gus Powell 1B 23 .218/.301/.439 20 homers in 80 games 5 Charlie Powell LF 24 .283/.345/.491 hit 55 homers with 4 teams this season 6 John Wilder 3B 27 .298/.359/.425 first full FABL season 7 Willie Jackson 2B 27 .298/.368/.435 8 Arnold Bower SS 25 .315/.364/.451 outstanding defensive SS Next recap will focus on the pitching outlook. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

11-29-2019, 03:31 PM	#133
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	September 28, 1928 KINGS LOOK AHEAD TO 1929 - Part II Last article we discussed the potential opening day 1929 lineup for the Kings. This time let's look at the state of the organization's pitching. Major changes took place in the days leading up to the trade deadline as the Kings parted ways with 3 veteran starters in Mose Smith, Cal Williams and Del Plummer along with reliever Dick Dover as it was clear they would not have a chance to repeat as Continental Association champions. Instead the focus was turned to acquiring assets to allow the club to quickly retool. As mentioned in the previous report the state of the Kings position players looks very promising. There is plenty of good young talent that is major league ready. Unfortunately the pitching staff has a lot more questions marks. The Kings are very high on pitcher George Johnson, who was aquired from the Chicago Chiefs in exchange for veteran Cal Williams at the deadline. Johnson is the Kings top pitching prospect and currently ranked #31 on the league top prospect lists. The organization sees the former 6th overall draft pick as a key piece of the rotation but unfortunately it will not be for a couple of more years. Johnson is still just 20 years old and struggled in a short stint at Class A Omaha to end the season. The hope is Johnson eventually develops into a top of the rotation guy, which is something Brooklyn desperately lacks. The closest thing to that currently would be Topsy Moran or Harvey Rodgers. Each is in their 3rd season with Brooklyn since being acquired from Toronto as minor leaguers prior to the 1926 season. Moran is a 29 year old righthander who went 9-11 this season and is 23-25 for his career while the 27 year old Rodgers was 13-12 this year and is 37-25 in his career. The only certainty around the Brooklyn pitching staff for next season is both Rodgers and Moran will be in the rotation. That leaves about a dozen pitchers competing for the final six spots on the staff. It is a wide gamut of players that range from young rookies to veteran's who were claimed off the waiver wire but regardless of their history they all know a job is wide open. Brooklyn auditioned most of those arms in the big leagues in September and all will be given another look in the spring. Here is the list of them and some notes on each. MICKEY BEAVERS: 24 yr old righthander acquired in trade with Cleveland in July. Beavers looked very good in his first two minor pro seasons since being selected in the 12th round of the 1925 draft by the New York Stars. He was traded to the Cleveland organization and struggled a bit in AAA this season but looked strong in 6 appearances for Houston (AAA) after being acquired from the Kings. He was promoted to the majors in September and given 6 starts as the Kings wanted to get a good look at him. Results were mixed as he had a few rough outings but also looked very good in a 2-1 complete game victory over Chicago for his first win and also in a season ending 3-1 loss to the Stars. The hope is he has a strong spring and will be in the Kings rotation in April. JOE BLANSIT: 23 yr old righthander signed as minor league free agent in 1925. Blansit was named the 49th best prospect in the league at the start of 1927 but has since dropped off that list. He struggled at AA a year ago but was moderately impressive with Houston this season, going 16-7 with a 4.03 era. He was called up in September and got 2 FABL starts, winning one of them, but getting hit pretty good in both. Barring a great spring he is likely ticketed for Houston again in April. LEON CAMPBELL: 26 yr old lefthander acquired in a trade with the New York Gothams in 1924. Campbell went 14-2 for Brooklyn as he took the city by storm in 1926 and followed that up with a 17-13 campaign and finished third in pitcher of the year voting in the pennant winning season a year ago. With the return of Del Plummer from injury and after a bad spring, Campbell was moved to the pen where he struggled. He was sent down to Houston in May and went 5-0 with the Bulls before coming back up to Brooklyn in August. He was given a couple of starts down the stretch and got beat up in both of them which did not help his standing with the Kings. He has a career record of 38-23 with Brooklyn and the Kings desperately hope he can regain the form he should last year. ART CARLSON - 28 yr old lefthander selected by Kings in 5th round of 1921 draft. Carlson has had a brief call up each of the past three seasons but struggled on each occasion. He had a really good year at AAA (12-5, 2.71) for the second straight season and one gets the sense he is a good AAA pitcher but no better than that. Allowing 15 hits and 11 earned runs while walking 7 in 7 2/3 September innings in Brooklyn has likely eliminated him from contention for a job in Brooklyn come April. BILL DENGLER - 23 year old righthander selected by Kings in the 2nd round of the 1925 draft. The Kings have always been very high on the Maryland State Bengal graduate and he had a very impressive big league debut in 1926 after just 12 minor league starts. Several teams over the years have inquired about acquiring Dengler but the Kings will not part with him. He looked pretty good out of the pen this year after being promoted from Houston so one has to assume he will land a roster spot in April. The Kings want it to be in their rotation but his performance at camp will decide that. CLARENCE FLANDERS - 25 yr old righthander acquired in January 1927 trade with independent Portland. Flanders caught the Kings attention when we went 17-9 for Portland of the Great West League in 1926. Brooklyn traded for him and after a 6-0 start at Houston he made his big league debut last summer. Results were mixed with Flanders going 2-3 with a 4.42 era. He was caught in the numbers game in the spring and ended up at AA Knoxville where he was less than impressive. The Kings did recall him in August after all the trades and were very impressed as he went 3-1 with a 1.08 era in 11 appearances. He was exceptional in 3 starts to end the season and based on that a rotation job is his to lose in the spring. JACK GUNDERSON - 27 yr old lefthander signed as a minor league free agent in September 1925. Gunderson's story is one of resilience. Drafted 3 times and released on each occasion. Played a 3 different colleges, cut 14 times by either FABL or independent teams before finally sticking with Brooklyn. He had 7 saves for Houston in 1926 and was rewarded with a few innings in the big leagues that season, saving both games he pitched in without allowing an earned run. He spent each of the past two seasons in Houston, notching 11 more saves, and was called up to Brooklyn each September. He looked very good this September and will enter camp in March with the closer's job his to lose. BUZZ HAM - 25 yr old lefthander acquired in trade with Chicago Cougars in June 1928 Brooklyn dealt a decent prospect and an 8th round pick to the Cougars for the lefthander and they were rewarded as he was the Kings best pitcher down the stretch. Ham went 8-5 and led the FABL with a 2.57 era this season. He only started 12 games in Brooklyn this year but will be given a chance in spring to prove he is worthy of starting opening day. ART HARVEY - 29 yr old righthander drafted by Brooklyn in the 3rd round in 1920 Harvey has spent the last four years in AAA and has an 80-82 career record but has never pitched a game in the big leagues. The Kings might give him a shot in spring training but it is clear that, much like Art Carlson, they think of Harvey as a AAA pitcher. LEON THOMPSON - 28 yr old righthander acquired from Pittsburgh at 1927 trade deadline. The much travelled Thompson has pitched for four teams in the FABL but only appeared in 72 career big league games including 45 with the Kings. A Brooklyn native, Thompson seems to have found a home in the Kings bullpen but even though he got some starts in September it is clear the Brooklyn brass thinks of him as a bullpen piece only. HARRY SCHAB - 31 yr old righthander claimed off waivers from Philadelphia Sailors in July 1927 Schab has spent most of his time with the organization pitching in Houston (15-13 in 30 starts) but did see some action with the Kings after being promoted in August. He gave up 9 runs in 3 innings in his debut in August which killed his era, but in truth he was pretty solid out of the pen in Brooklyn after that outing. He earned a couple starts to end the season but all they did was reaffirm the Kings thoughts that Schab belonged in the pen. He might stick come April but that is likely dependent upon Campbell, Flanders or someone else struggling more than what Schab accomplishes. Code: 1928 PROJECTED PITCHING STAFF ROTATION 1- Buzz Ham 2- Harvey Rodgers 3- Topsy Moran 4 & 5- between Leon Campbell, Clarence Flanders and Mickey Beavers BULLPEN CL - Jack Gunderson REL - Leon Thompson REL - Harry Schab __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

12-06-2019, 09:38 PM	#134
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	1928 draft KINGS MAKE MAJOR MOVE AT DRAFT The Brooklyn Kings have gone all in on All-American pitching phenom Tommy Wilcox. Wilcox, the 21 year old righthander from Liberty College, who set both the single season and career AIAA mark for strikeouts, was widely expected to go number one in the draft. Brooklyn desperately is seeking a future ace for the pitching staff but the Kings held the 10th and 14th picks in the draft, so Wilcox appeared out of their grasp. Until today. Brooklyn announced on the eve of the FABL draft it had made a major trade with Washington to acquire the number one overall pick from the Eagles. The Kings will get their man, but the cost was steep as Brooklyn had to part with not only the 10th and 14th picks of round one but also young third base prospect Dave Bristol, who was informed he had been dealt to Washington on his 21st birthday. Wilcox helped Liberty College reach the College World Series finals this year before they fell to Lubbock State. The 21 year old Hartville, Ohio native was 5-2 with a 1.82 era in 8 post-season games, striking out 86 while walking just 12 in 69 innings of work. He set an AIAA regular season record for strikeouts with 196 in 127 innings of work and graduates as the all-time college strikeout leader with 498. He went 20-12 with a 2.24 era and 8 saves in 63 college appearances. Wilcox also holds the college record for strikeouts in a game with 19, which he accomplished twice. The move for the consensus number one pick is not without some risk as the Kings parted with a pair of first round picks in what is considered to be a fairly deep draft. If Wilcox can come anywhere close to the standards he set in college it will be well worth it as the Kings brass feels they have a great young stable of position players but are desperately in need of pitching talent. The hope in Brooklyn is they will go a long ways towards solving that need when Wilcox joins the organization this spring. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

12-08-2019, 09:15 PM	#135
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	1928 Figment Draft 1928 FABL DRAFT- PART I It was a very busy start to the draft weekend for the Brooklyn Kings and half way through the 10 round active GM portion (before our AI scouting director's take over) Brooklyn's brass feels pretty good about their draft so far. It is draft day so every team feels optimistic of course, but the Kings had a little more reason that most for their excitement. The prize of the draft for Brooklyn was trading up to grab the first overall selection and the right to choose Liberty College pitching sensation Tommy Wilcox. The deal all came together just hours before the draft was set to start and was a surprise even to the Kings. The Kings went into the draft knowing they wanted to come away with a premier pitching prospect and in their minds that meant one of two players. "We had reached out to Washington early in the week to try and see about getting pick one," explained Assistant General Manager Rube Carter, "but did not hear back so we set our sights on the local kid we also liked a lot." That local kid was Brooklyn State lefthander Mike Murphy, who was the main focus of the Kings trade discussions in the final few days leading up to the draft. Brooklyn had figured the cost of getting the number one pick and the right to select Tommy Wilcox would be more than they would be willing to pay but perhaps they could land Murphy by trading up into the top five. When that failed to materialize, despite calls to several clubs, the Kings began to look at plan C which was using their two first round picks (10 and 14) on the 2 best pitchers they could find and hope one would blossom. While the Kings won't confirm, they were rumoured to be targeting a pair of high school arms in George Thomas and Joe Russell or a college pitcher like Pat Albright or Frank Nicholas. It turned out the deal with Washington did come to fruition and the Kings pulled the trigger even though it cost them a good young prospect in 3B Dave Bristol as well as their two first round picks. It turned out a rumoured trade up to #3 with St Louis would not have helped the Kings land Murphy as he ended up going second to the Chicago Cougars right after Brooklyn announced the selection of Wilcox. In the end things worked out even better than expected when Brooklyn not only got Wilcox but they also landed one of the other arms they coveted - Joe Russell - with their second round pick. For Brooklyn State prospect Mike Murphy it was a mild disappointment. The lefthander was thrilled to be selected second overall by the Chicago Cougars but smiled for a moment and said "Ya, it would have been something," when asked how he would feel about pitching at Kings County Ballpark wearing a Brooklyn Kings uniform. Very popular in his adopted hometown, some Brooklyn fans were calling for the Kings to take Murphy over Wilcox with the first pick but it has been clear all season that the Liberty College strikeout artist was the clear favourite to go first overall. Brooklyn also made a surprise move during the draft to add 2 more draft picks. The Kings had some sort of falling out with their new scouting director and traded him to the Pittsburgh Miners for a 6th and 7th round draft pick. Brooklyn also announced that long-time scouting director Rube Carter, recently promoted to assistant General Manager, had agreed to return to his scouting duties. Carter is credited for selecting the large number of good young position players on the big league roster including Doug Lightbody, Ab Thomas and Mike Taylor. He has had much less success with acquiring pitching talent but the Kings hope that changes with this draft. Here are the picks so far. ROUND 1 PICK 1 - TOMMY WILCOX - The All-American righthander from Liberty College set new single season and career AIAA marks for strikeouts after fanning 196 in 127 innings this season and 498 for his 3 year career. Wilcox led Liberty to the College World Series finals and is being banked on as a future top of the rotation guy. It's a lot of pressure for the 21 year old to live up to and while a final decision has not been made Wilcox will likely start his journey at Class A Omaha. ROUND 2 PICK 10 - JOE RUSSELL - After getting the number one college pitcher in the draft the Kings added what they felt was the number one high school arm in Joe Russell, an 18 year old righthander from Toledo High School. Russell finished his prep career with a 23-2 record and a 1.28 era. He fanned 288 batters in 225 innings while walking just 44. ROUND 3 PICK 10 - ART SUMMERS - Despite an overabundance of power hitting OF-1B in their system, the Kings felt they could not pass on the 21 year old outfielder from St. Matthew's College. Summers, who hit .324 with 11 homers in 50 games as a senior, was projected as a first round pick by the Kings scouting department. The Charlotte, NC native hit 31 homers and batted .340 for his college career. ROUND 4 PICK 10 - DAN YOUNG - The 18 year old shortstop from Tulsa High School is a defensive marvel but there are some concerns about his bat. He hit .290 in 116 high school games for his career but his glove is likely already good enough for the major leagues. He is a longer term project with the hope he can develop the offensive skills to be more than just a defensive whiz at shortstop. ROUND 4 PICK 12 - OSSIE MAHONEY - With the pick acquired from Cleveland in the deadline deal that sent Mose Smith back to the Foresters the Brooklyn Kings elected to take another college arm. The 21 year old went 5-4 for the St. Pancras Lions this season. The Kings see him as a potential back of the rotation starter. ROUND 5 PICK 10 - DOC DILL - There were a number of power-hitting first basemen the Kings had interest in and when they started dropping off the board Brooklyn figured it better pull the trigger and select Dill. An 18 year old from Cleveland High School, Dill is a long-term project and the type of player who will benefit immediately from the Kings recently announced new Class C level affiliate in the Upper Mississippi Valley Association. Dill finished second in the nation among high schoolers with 16 home runs this season and led the nation in OPS. He has shown steady improvement in each of his three high school years and the Kings see him as a longer term project. ROUND 6 PICK 6 - MARV BELL - Through trades the Kings have 3 picks in the sixth round and used the first of them on utility man Marv Bell. The 21 year old primarily played second base, and did so with above-average ability, for the St. Patrick's Shamrocks but he can play anywhere in the infield or a corner outfield spot in a pinch. He hit .281 in 100 college games and the Kings are hoping he can improve his on base percentage. He won't be a longball threat but with his defensive skills would make an excellent role player down the road. Brooklyn's remaining picks will take place tomorrow. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

12-11-2019, 12:08 PM	#136
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	Brooklyn Kings off season 1928 Draft part II BROOKLYN KINGS OFF-SEASON UPDATES DRAFT PART II Here is a look at some highlights from the remaining selections made by the Brooklyn Kings in the 1928 FABL draft. Thanks to trades the Kings had three picks in the sixth round. After taking college 2B Marv Bell with their first one, Brooklyn turned back to pitching. In a further effort to address a lack of quality pitching depth in the organization, Brooklyn adds two more arms with their remaining round six selections. Joining the Kings family are 21 year old Eddie Boyle from Maryland State and 18 year old Tony Fasone from Tulsa High School. Boyle reminds Kings management a lot of current King Bill Dengler. Both are former Maryland State Bengals. Both righthanders had outstanding junior seasons but each struggled somewhat in their draft year. Boyle was 10-1 with a 2.04 era as a junior but struggled this past season in a down year for the school. For his 3 year college career Boyle compiled a 21-10 record with a 2.47 era and an impressive 1.01 WHIP. His 21 wins establish a new school record beating the old mark of 19 that was shared by Dengler. Fasone, a high school teammate of Kings fourth round pick Dan Young, is the opposite of Boyle. The righthander improved most of his stats each season culminating in a very strong year on the mound for the Tomcats. The Kings would also add more pitching in the later rounds bringing the total to 11 pitchers selected among their 27 draft picks. Most of the later round picks will likely never advance past the low minors but a couple to keep an eye on are Tommy Chandler and Chief Cook. Both are college pitchers and Chandler was especially highly thought of by the Kings scouting department, which ranked him as the 4th best lefthander available in the draft. Chandler went 7-2 with a 3.24 era for St Patrick's this season. Cook is a righthander who hails from Eastchester, New York and pitched for 3 seasons at Opelika State. The 15th round pick was 5-2 with a 4.28 era for the Wildcats and was greatly improved over his first two seasons in the AIAA. Other position player selected include speedy centerfielder Paul Edwards from Mississippi A&M, a school that also produced Kings outfielders Doug Lightbody and Clarence Hall. Edwards, a 7th round pick, was a 3 year starter and hit .310 for his college career with 22 homers and 34 stolen bases in 147 games. The Kings hope the selection of high school third baseman Milt Butler in the 9th round will help reduce the sting of losing young prospect Dave Bristol in the trade with Washington for the first overall selection. Butler hit .322 with 28 homers in 119 games at San Antonio High School. He also helped the Warriors to a national high school championship this past summer, batting .310 with 5 round trippers in 22 games. Two rounds later the Kings would draft another San Antonio HS product in power hitting first baseman Paul Valentine, who batted .334 with 29 homers in his 120 game prep career. DRAFT SUMMARY Like every team a week after the draft the Brooklyn Kings are thrilled with the prospects they added. The big coup, and how the success of this draft will judged, hinges entirely on the right arm of Tommy Wilcox. If Wilcox comes anywhere close to living up to the hype that surrounded him at Liberty College the draft will be a huge success for the Kings. Brooklyn, of course, hopes and thinks that some of the other picks will develop nicely but it is the career of Tommy Wilcox and the Kings move to trade up to the number one spot that will be remembered. RULE V DRAFT Now that the euphoria of adding Wilcox has abated somewhat the Kings need to get down to the business of signing their draft picks and preparing for the Rule V draft. With a pair of open spots on their 40 man roster one would think Brooklyn will be active in the draft but inside sources say the Kings may go in a different direction to fill at least one of the final two spots. There was a lot of upheaval in the baseball world this off-season with several new minor league teams and some existing independent clubs now aligning themselves with a major league affiliate. As a result between those for indy team players and some veteran roster cuts by FABL clubs there are some attractive veteran free agents available and Brooklyn may use a roster spot signing one of them. The Kings also have a couple of veteran infielders in Eddie Andrews and Glenn Mowles that are presently not on the 40-man roster so there is a chance one could be added. Brooklyn has been known for trying to keep 1 spot free on their 40 man at all times to allow for roster flexibility without having to worry about exposing anyone to waivers so there is a good chance the Kings may not make a selection in tomorrow's rule V draft. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

12-12-2019, 11:19 AM	#137
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	DECEMBER 31, 1928 KINGS ADD TWO ARMS TO 40 MAN ROSTER AND SIGN WILCOX The Brooklyn Kings will have a very happy New Year after receiving a signed contract in the mail from first overall draft pick Tommy Wilcox. The Liberty College ace, who rewrote the AIAA record book with his ability to strike batters out, has agreed to a minor league deal with the largest signing bonus in Kings history and will report to Class A Omaha when spring training begins. While that was the biggest news out of Brooklyn the past few weeks it was certainly not the only announcement. Brooklyn was busy in the Rule V draft selecting two pitchers but were immediately forced to return one of them to his original club after news broke that former Kings star pitcher, 35 year old Bob Schmid, would be returning to Brooklyn. Schmid was a two-time 20 game winner with the Kings and is 97-87 in his big league career that began with Brooklyn before he was dealt to the New York Gothams midway through the 1925 season. He spent last year with AAA Columbus, leading the Union League in wins with an 18-11 record, but was waived by the Gothams last month. With Leon Thompson now owning Schmid's familiar #24 jersey, the veteran will wear 17 when he joins the Kings at spring training in Tampa. With the signing of Schmid it meant the Kings only had one open spot on their 40-man roster despite drafting 2 players in the rule V draft. Brooklyn selected a pair of pitchers in Jim Langley, a 23 year old lefthander who went 13-15 for AA Syracuse a year ago, and 22 year old righthander Harry Meek. The Kings like Meek's potential but felt there was no way they could carry both rule v draftees on their 23 man roster so the decision was made to return Meek to Boston immediately rather than remove someone else from the 40-man to make room for Schmid. DRAFT PICK REFUSES TO SIGN For the first time under it's current management the Kings were unable to agree to a contract with one of their high school draftees. Brooklyn really liked 5th round pick Doc Dill, a first baseman who hit 16 homers in 40 games for Cleveland High School last year, but the youngster seems committed to getting an education and opted not to sign despite the Kings offering a bonus comparable to what first overall pick Tommy Wilcox received. The Kings wish Dill well and hope to have the opportunity to select him again after his college career comes to a conclusion. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

12-13-2019, 12:26 AM	#138
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	1929 Depth Chart KINGS ORGANIZATIONAL DEPTH CHART Part One: Position players I do one of these each season but have not posted an update since the 1926 season. However, as we approach 1929 spring training here is where the Brooklyn Kings staff sees our team depth chart. CATCHER I feel we have been loaded behind the plate for a couple of years now but the emergence last year of 8th round draft pick MIKE TAYLOR has sent us to a whole new level. Taylor is well on his way to becoming a superstar in this league even though the 22 year old has only played 84 FABL games (batting .325 with 7 homers). He is so good he displaced 28 year old MICKEY DOWELL, a career .308 hitter who averaged about 85 rbi's a season. Dowell will still get playing time as I am having him learn third base and Taylor can also play first base so the idea is Taylor gets about 110 games behind the plate and another 20-30 at first with Dowell catching the remaining 50 odd games and filling in at third as well. I have four above average prospects in the system, at least according to my interpretation of their stats and my head scout Rube Carter's assessment. The BNN scouting services doesn't consider any of them top 100 candidates but TOM AIELLO is ranked about 130th although in my mind he has a great prospect. Aiello hit .291 in 85 games at AAA as a 21 year old catcher while playing error free defense. He needs to improve his CS% a bit (threw out 35% of runners in AAA but was better in lower minors) but I think that will come. BILL SMITH, JOE CAMERON and HACK LAPOINTE are also have potential to develop into above average FABL catchers. FIRST BASE 29 year old LOU GARMAN has been a solid first baseman for me since I took over the club and he has a .324 career average. The only knock on him is the game is changing and Garman lacks the power I need from the first base position. He will stay with the big club as a reliable back-up and insurance piece but I will be transitioning his at bats to some combination of the previously mentioned Mike Taylor or 3 converted outfielders in LYNN RANDALL, GUS POWELL and CHARLIE POWELL. All 3 are young and capable of being above average corner outfielders but we have a logjam at that position so one of them will get a lot of time at first base. Randall hit 18 homers in an 84 game audition at AAA a year ago but failed to deliver this past season, hitting just 6 while batting .291 between AAA and Brooklyn. I still have confidence in him but if he doesn't produce there is plenty waiting in the wings. GUS POWELL was a 9th round pick out of Lincoln College in 1926 who hit 30 homers at Class B Tampa as a rookie pro in 1927 and then followed it up with 41 homers at three levels, including 21 in 87 games in Brooklyn, last season. He struggled with contact in Brooklyn, batting just .204 with far too many strikeouts but I think it will come as his contact rate was pretty good in the minors. He is also adequate with the glove at first base as compared to a little below average if I play him in left field. CHARLIE POWELL (no relation) is a 23 year old Canadian I acquired from Cleveland at the trade deadline. Charlie hit 55 homers at 3 levels last season including 3 in 13 starts in Brooklyn last September. He can rake and provides above average defense in the outfield. Further down the chain I have a 22 year old in NICK BENNETT, a third round pick out of Ellery College in 1927. Bennett hit .305 at three levels (primarily AA) but I will want more power out of him as he matures (just 4 homers) to remain an above average rated prospect. I also like EDDIE KELLOW, who we rate as an average major league talent. Kellow, a 1926 14th round pick out of Indiana A&M hit 37 homers between Class B and A as a rookie pro in 1927 and followed that up with 16 and a .352 average last season but his playing time was limited because I had a logjam of young prospects to look at. The plan is to play the 23 year old Kellow a lot at AA this year. SECOND BASE WILLIE JACKSON is 26 and has proven he can be a slightly better than average FABL second baseman. The 26 year old hit .292 with 9 homers last season while providing average defense for us at second base. He will be pushed soon by a kid I really like in 22 year old ELMER ROOT. A 4th round pick out of high school in 1924, Root has slowly progressed through the system and had a breakout year at the plate, hitting .343 as he split the year between AA and AAA. Root also stole 28 bases and looks like a future lead-off man in Brooklyn. I would like his defense to improve a bit and Rufus Carter says he is confident it will. BNN calls him the 74th rated prospect in the sport. SHORTSTOP 24 year old ARNOLD BOWER has been in our system for a while and finally made his FABL debut last season, hitting .307 in 80 games. He was a 2nd round pick out of high school in 1922 and took some time to develop but he is here to stay. Carter loves his defense, especially the ability to turn a doubleplay and he has plus speed. He took the starting job away from RIP AGEE because Bower can provide more offense and similar defense. Agee is a very good bench player with the skills to provide strong defense at second or shortstop. On the farm WILLIE RAZZANO was highly thought of at one time after a great 1926 season but he has struggled to hit at AAA and is no longer considered a top prospect. However, two youngsters seem to have some very good potential in 19 year old RABBIT MUDD and 20 year old WALT LAYTON. Our first round pick out of high school a year ago, Mudd hit .259 with 7 homers at Class B Tampa this past season. He has a decent glove but may ultimately be moved to second base. Layton was a 16th round pick out of high school two years ago and struggled in limited action as a rookie pro at Class B Tampa. He broke out at Tampa last season, batting .304 with an outstanding defensive zone rating. Rube Carter calls him a cornerstone piece of the future. I am not sold yet but the kid has certainly caught my attention. I may challenge him to perform at Class A Omaha this season. THIRD BASE We paid a high price to get JOHN WILDER from Pittsburgh a year and a half ago but he has proven to be worth the cost, batting .302 with 12 homers and a 3.8 WAR in his first full season with the Kings. His defense is solid, but not above average. His playing time might be cut this year through no fault of his own, just because I need to get Mickey Dowell's some at bats. I was able to trade a former second round pick in 21 year old Dave Bristol in my deal to move up to first overall in the draft in a big part because of how much we like PHIL LONG. The 23 year old was a 24th round pick out of high school in 1923 and has steadily rose through our system. He struggled when given a taste of AAA in 1927 but was much better last year, batting .282 with 7 homers as he split the year between AA and AAA. Carter loves the kid, says there is more power coming and we are both happy with his glove. I don't know I would rate him an above average big league prospect- I would say more average- but Rube is very high on him. Another guy we like at third base is 21 year old TONY KING, who we picked up from the New York Stars at the trade deadline. A 6th round pick out of high school in 1925, King hit .282 at AA this past season. His defense needs work but Rube calls him a second-division starter. I see maybe a little more from the kid. JOHN WYCHE is another guy Carter likes. A 20 year old who was taken in the 24th round, I have yet to give him much playing time but at the urging of Carter he will get his chance in either Class B or C this year. The guy I like as our 3B of the future is BUCK SARGENT. A 20 year old high school pick in the third round of the 1926 draft, Sargent has shown great power with 18 homers at Class A Omaha a year ago. He needs to work on contact but he has plus defense and I think plus power potential. OUTFIELD We are loaded with young major league ready talent here once again, even after I dealt several prospects the past couple of years. DOUG LIGHTBODY is just 25 but already has a batting title and a Whitney Award under his belt. Last season Lightbody hit .356 with 35 triples and a 5.8 WAR- and that was a down year for him compared to his previous season. 24 year old AB THOMAS has a vacuum for a glove in center and had 21 outfield assists last season. He also hit .303 while lead the league with 38 stolen bases. With those two set in center and right we have the previously mentioned 1B-OF crew of Lynn Randall, Charlie Powell and Gus Powell to fight for playing time as well as veteran CLARENCE HALL. Hall is 29 and would likely be starting for 8-12 other teams in the league. He has hit .348 for his career including .395 in 245 plate appearances in 1927 when he lost his starting job and moved to the 4th outfielder spot. Last year he struggled with limited playing time and ended up batting just .191 in Brooklyn but hit .303 in a 41 game stint in AAA. I am confident the numbers will return to normal this year and manager Wally Grant is making a case for starting him but I think the Powell's are going to be too good to sit on the bench. We also now have to contend with what to do with 23 year old HERB SMIDDY. I grabbed him as a minor league free agent in 1925 and he has outperformed my expectations with a breakout year at AAA Houston last season. Smiddy hit .339 and while he does not have a lot of power, he does have speed (stole 31 bases for Class A Omaha in 1927) and earned a September callup to Brooklyn where he went 5-for-15 with a pair of doubles and a homer primarily as a pinch-hitter. The issue is going to be finding somewhere to play him and unfortunately I may have to send him down to AAA for another year. There are also a number of above average potential outfielders in the minors with the closest one to being ready is 24 year old BERNIE CARTER. The 24 year old was a 14th round pick out of Coastal California University and hit .270 in a backup role at AAA a year ago. My third round pick this year, ART SUMMERS out of St Matthew's College, is not ready for me to call him an above average prospect but I think he has the possibility of reaching that level after hitting .340 with 31 homers in 150 career college games. SUMMARY The league scouting service does not show the Kings a lot of respect. With the addition of first overall pick Tommy Wilcox (who I will discuss with the pitchers) we have finally moved out of the basement and are ranked the 11th best minor league system. The service has OF JIM GENTRY(72) and Charlie Powell (82) as well as 2B Elmer Root (76) as my only top 100 prospects. I like Gentry but I like a lot of my other outfielders better than him and am surprised there is no mention of Smiddy, Aiello and several other players mentioned above. Overall, I am as happy as I have been at any point with the quality of our position player prospects. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

12-13-2019, 01:09 AM	#139
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	1929 Brooklyn Kings depth chart : Pitching KINGS ORGANIZATIONAL DEPTH CHART PART 2: PITCHING I have never felt really good about our pitching and while I still think we may have some issues this year at the major league level there is finally some hope for the future. I identified TOMMY WILCOX as the premier pitcher available in the draft and perhaps a talent that only comes around every few years so once we fell out of contention in June most of my deadline deals were made with an eye towards trying to acquire Wilcox or lefthander Mike Murphy, a Brooklyn State pitcher I also liked and felt had a more reasonable shot at getting. Things fell into place and I landed Wilcox and he is now in the organization. Initial scouting reports both internally and from the league service confirm my hopes - Wilcox debuted as the top pitcher in the BNN 100 prospects list right after he signed. He will start the season at Class A Omaha and is in my mind a future top of the rotation ace. He is the only such arm we have but we do finally have a couple of #2 or #3 starter prospects in 20 year old GEORGE JOHNSON and 23 year old DEL LYONS. A 1926 first round pick (6th overall), Johnson was acquired from the Chicago Chiefs in exchange for veteran pitcher Cal Williams at the deadline. He was 6-15 with a 6.63 era but most of those numbers were in the homer happy COW League. I am going to start him at Omaha with Wilcox but am not afraid to back him down a level if need be. Being a high school arm I want to take things slow with him and a Brooklyn debut is likely not until 1931 at the earliest and quite possibly later. Lyons was my second round pick out of St. Matthew's College in 1926 and I used him in the bullpen at Omaha as a rookie pro where he had 19 saves but also gave up a ton of homeruns. He improved the homer numbers last season at AA Knoxville, where he started and went 11-10 with a 3.99 era and got a late promotion to AAA. I think he is ready for AAA full time this year and I will start him in the pen but likely move him to the rotation at some point. Not as highly thought of by the league scouting service as Johnson, I see him as my #3 starter in a couple of seasons as the three of them will ideally give me a good start on a rotation that rivals any in the league. Those 3 are my prize prospects. There are some others I like such as MICKEY BEAVERS, SCOTTY GROSSMAN, FRANK PARSONS, DAVE RANKIN, ART BLAKE and last month's second round pick JOE RUSSELL but they all grade out as back of the rotation talents. It is at the major league level where I think we may still have problems. Hopefully 25 year old BUZZ HAM's season was the start of a trend and not just a one-off type of thing. The lefthander came over in early June from the Chicago Cougars and led the Continental Association with a 2.57 era while going 8-5. He spent much of the year in the pen but was switched to the rotation and made 12 starts. He has posted solid numbers throughout his career going back to his days at Golden Gate University. The Cougars drafted him in the 5th round in 1924. He has in my mind the potential to be a solid number 2 starter but our problem is we don't have a number one. I think we do have some depth with several young veterans that can fill the big end of a rotation such as 27 year old HARVEY RODGERS (13-12, 4.99), 29 year old TOPSY MORAN (9-11, 4.91) and 28 year old LEON THOMPSON (8-6, 4.84) as well as the recently signed 35 year old BOB SCHMID (18-11, 3.03 in AAA) who was a long-time Kings pitcher before being dealt to the New York Gothams several years ago. BILL DENGLER is now 24 and has pitched fairly well in Brooklyn when given the chance while more was expected of 26 year old CLARENCE FLANDERS, who was acquired after a 17-9, 3.86 season as a 23 year old with independent Portland of the Great West League. Flanders did look very good out of the pen as a September call-up so hopefully that is a sign he is ready. 23 year old Rule V draft pick JIM LANGLEY also fits into the group of guys who can fill out or pen or perhaps compete for a starting job. SUMMARY We are still thin overall at pitcher and lack a #1 at the big league level but with Wilcox, Lyons and Johnson their finally is hope in Brooklyn. We need to resist the temptation to rush Wilcox and look to get one or two more young arms with a high ceiling. If things go right with our staff this year I believe we can compete for a pennant at the big league level but we are a young team (both on the mound and in the field) and the goal is to build a multiple year contender, but that might be 1 or 2 more seasons away. There is a ton of pressure on Wilcox to live up to expectations but finally, there is hope we can build a team with a pitching staff that can compare to the quality of our offense. Attached Images __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.

12-13-2019, 12:07 PM	#140
Tiger Fan Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 9,536	February 17, 1929 KINGS ADD TO MINOR LEAGUE PITCHING DEPTH The Brooklyn Kings interrupt the dead of winter to announce a trade. Brooklyn has sent catcher Dave Armstrong to the Detroit Dynamos in exchange for 20 year old pitcher Larry Brown and a 6th round pick in next year's draft. Armstrong had been caught in a numbers game due to the Kings wealth of young catching talent. Originally a 3rd round pick in the 1923 draft out of Whitney College, Armstrong worked his way up the system and after hitting .329 for AAA Houston in 1927 he was called up to Brooklyn late that season. Last season as a 25 year old he spent most of the year in Brooklyn backing up Mickey Dowell and later, after his promotion Mike Taylor. With those two seeing the bulk of the action behind the plate Armstrong was limited to 20 games but he made the most of his opportunity, batting .372 in those contests. He has the tools to be a starting catcher in the Federally Aligned Leagues but there was just no room for him in Brooklyn as Taylor and Dowell will split the catching duties in 1929 and a couple of good young prospects are in AAA Rochester. It is expected the 26 year old Armstrong will battle veteran Dick York for playing time with the Dynamos. In return, Brooklyn acquires another young arm to it's now growing list of young pitching prospects. Brown was considered to be Detroit's second best prospect and ranked 45th in the most recent top 100. He is a young (20 year old) lefthander that was taken in the first round of the 1926 draft by the Dynamos out of Oakland High School. There are never any guarantees with high school drafted pitchers but the Kings scouting department like what they have seen of Brown. He struggled in his rookie pro year at Class B Chattanooga, going 7-16 with a 7.54 era and gave up 22 homers in 31 starts. However, in repeating at that level last season he responded with a 20-11, 3.27 season and lowered his homers allowed slightly. The Kings will likely start him in Class B once again but the hope is he shows enough early to join top prospects Tommy Wilcox and George Johnson in Omaha. __________________ Cliff Markle HOB1 greatest pitcher 360-160, 9 Welch Awards, 11 WS titles Columnist- The Figment Sporting Journal MY FIGMENT LEAGUE BROOKLYN KINGS DYNASTY PAST DYNASTYS My History of Hockey Replay Tiger Fan's Sporting News : the mid 1940's Tiger Fan's All Sport Replay: The 1920s History of Sports 1901-15 Historical Tutorial and Feedback League My first fictional attempt The HOB4: The last of my series of history of baseball replays that go back to OOTP2 and the old message board.