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Old 06-13-2019, 02:53 PM   #41
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APRIL 5, 1926

We struggled again this week going 2-5 but I was playing several key players out of position and using some backups more to see what they could do. As was expected going into camp, I don't think offense will be a problem. We could certainly use some power but our guys are going to get a lot of hits. Pitching and defense remains the issue and there does not seem to be any quick fixes.

Our final roster is almost in place as I made a couple of roster moves sending 30 year old shortstop Jack Van Landingham, 29 year old catcher Dave Pearcey and 25 year old lefthander Art Carlson down to Houston.

Pearcey is understandedly angry about the decision. He has been the Kings backup catcher for 5 seasons, providing average defense while batting .258 and playing roughly 30 games a year. Vega is 26 and provided above average defense for Houston last year. He is batting just .115 in spring games (but Pearcey at .190 wasn't much better). I have a wave of good young catchers in the low minors so Pearcey will be squeezed out soon anyway, figure it makes sense to see what Vega, a former third round draft pick, can do in a limited role in majors backing up Mickey Dowell. The only concern is how the team takes it as Pearcy is described as a leader in the clubhouse, but really how much can you lead spending 95% of the time on the bench.

Van Landingham is another longtime FABL backup (5 years) who plays below average shortstop defense. I have Rip Agee and utility outfielder George T Johnson who can do that with Agee bringing much better defense than Van Landingham did. Van Landingham did hit .313 over the last two years so he was a useful pinch-hitter at times as well but I have others who can fill that role.

Carlson I have talked about a fair bit. He had a job coming into camp just because he was lefthanded and posted good numbers at AA Knoxville a year ago. He would have been my only lefty and I needed to keep at least one but a combination of terrible spring numbers from Carlson and an adequate job from career minor leaguer Karl Mallek meant Mallek stays as my lefthander and Carlson goes to Houston.
Code:

NAME		W L Sv  ERA  IP  HA ER HR BB K  WHIP  HR/9 BB/9  K/9  BABIP  ER+  WAR
Art Carlson	0 1  0 9.49 12.1 19 13  2  5 3  1.95  1.9  2.8   2.8  .354   86  -0.2 
Karl Mallek     3 0  0 3.50 18.0 21  7  1  8 8  1.61  0.5  4.0   4.0  .317  114  -0.1
With those three gone that leaves me with 25 players in camp. I need to cut one pitcher and one position player.

The position player comes down to Doug Lightbody, Rolla Alexander along with veterans Billy Geier and Hugh Lackey. I am still hessitent about starting Lightbody in the big leagues but the 22 year old has a spring slash line of .357/.455/.536 and is showing no signs of having difficulty handling FABL pitching, even getting his first homerun off of Montreal's Wayne Robinson - an 18 game winner a year ago.

Alexander, a 24 year old corner infielder, was supposed to be in AA Nashville by now but he forced me to keep him by hitting .307/.448/.704 in 27 spring at bats and has hit 2 homeruns, tied with Bud Rogers for the team spring lead. He has pretty much earned a spot on the team and if Glenn Mowles (.175/.313/.250) continues to struggle at the plate and in the field, then Alexander may find himself getting a shot at the starting third base job.

That leaves Billy Geier or Hugh Lackey. Both are 32 year old backups that have spent the past half dozen or so seasons on the big league roster. Lackey provides barely average defense and second base while Geier is a corner outfielder. Geier (.333/.367/.444) has the better spring numbers compared to Lackey's (.231/.259/.231). Over his career, Geier is a .310 hitter but barely gets a 100 plate appearances a season and provides subpar defense while Luckey has a .297 career average and plays less the Geier. His defense at second is below average. So it is a coin toss as to which one goes and which stays, assuming I keep Lightbody in Brooklyn to start the year.

Tomorrow's sim is the final week of spring training. It also marks the beginning of the minor league seasons so I have finalized pretty much all of my organizational roster moves except for the trickle down effect that will come when I demote a pitcher and likely Billy Geier after the next sim.
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Old 06-14-2019, 09:33 PM   #42
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SPRING TRAINING COMES TO AN END FOR KINGS
Fizzling out after a strong start, the Brooklyn Kings ended the spring schedule with a 10-14 record which left them tied for last place in the FABL with 4 other clubs including Continental Association rival Baltimore. Brooklyn won just 1 of it's final seven games after starting the Grapefruit campaign with a 5-1 record. The Kings now head north to begin the regular season next Tuesday in Montreal, which starts an 8 game road trip.

The final roster moves were made as outfielder Billy Geier and pitcher Bob Brown were sent down to Houston. Brown was the worst of what has turned out to be a very bad group of pitchers. We are going to need to score a lot of runs to get some wins for this group. It's not pretty but here are the spring stats of my staff:
Code:

Name		T   G  GS  W-L	SV  IP	HA  HR	 R  ER	BB  K	ERA	 AVG	ERA+	FIP   WAR
Jackie Marshall	R   4	3  0-2	0  13.2	17   1	 9   8	 6  3	5.27	.315	76	5.03	0
Dick Dover	R   7	0  1-1	0  13.1	20   0	13   8	10  7	5.40	.351	74	3.95	0.1
Danny Goff	R   4	4  0-1	0  15.1	25   2	17  10	 6  4	5.87	.373	68	5.35	0
Cal Williams	R   4	4  2-0	0  16	25   1	12   5	 6  3	2.81	.357	142	4.58	0.1
Topsy Moran	R   4	4  1-2	0  16	23   1	10   9	 0  1	5.06	.354	79	3.89	0.2

Buck Blood	R  17	0  0-2	4  30	38   0	20  17	13 10	5.10	.342	78	3.93	0.2
Harvey Rodgers	R   8	4  2-0	0  23.1	28   3	18  18	 7  3	6.94	.301	58	5.51   -0.2
Karl Mallek	L  12	2  3-2	1  25	32   1	13  13	15  9	4.68	.327	85	4.44	0.1
The offense is a completely different story. I am confident we will score a lot of runs with this batting order.

Code:

  POS	Name		B  G AB	 H  2B 3B HR RBI  R BB	SO  AVG	 OBP  SLG SB 
1  CF	Lou Cox		R 24 56	10   1	0  0   6  8  6	0  .179	.258 .196  2
2  1B	Lou Garman	L 22 45	15   3	0  0   6  7  6	4  .333	.415 .400  2
3  RF	Doug Lightbody	L 22 34	14   1	1  1   6  4  6	0  .412	.500 .588  0
4  LF	Bud Rogers	L 23 69	23   5	0  3  12 13  7	2  .333	.395 .536  0
5  C	Mickey Dowell	R 16 51	14   2	0  1  10  6  6	7  .275	.351 .373  0
6  2B	Victor Rodding	R 19 40	17   5	0  1  11  9  3	0  .425	.465 .625  0	 
7  3B	Rolla Alexander	R 24 40	16   3	0  3   6  4  3	1  .400	.442 .700  1	 
8  SS	Lloyd Carter	R 22 56	23   2	0  0   4 10  7	1  .411	.476 .446  2	 
																				
   RF	Clarence Hall	L 24 57	15   5	0  1   9 12  2	1  .263	.300 .404  0
   1B	Stan Bass	R 24 35	12   2	0  1   4  7  7	3  .343	.452 .486  0
   CF George T Johnson  R 24 44	14   2	1  1   2 10  3	5  .318	.362 .477  0
   2B	Rip Agee	L 21 35	10   1	0  0   6  5  9	4  .286	.422 .314  4	 
   2B	Hugh Luckey	L 24 36	10   0	0  1   6  4  1	0  .278	.297 .361  1	 
   3B	Glenn Mowles	R 24 46	 9   1	1  0   2  4  9	0  .196	.339 .261  0
    C	Clay Vega	R 16 30	 3   0	0  0   3  1  2	2  .100	.156 .100  0
CF Lou Cox had a bad spring but led the Continental Association in hits and stolen bases last year so I am confident he will rebound. First round pick Doug Lightbody outperformed Clarence Hall at the plate and in the outfield so for now Hall is our 4th outfielder despite hitting .352 in 102 games last season. I want more power in the lineup and the thinking is Lightbody may be able to deliver it.

Victor Rodding will still be watched closely at second base. He was among the worst at his position defensively a year ago. Rodding's defense was okay in the spring but his bat was outstanding so I can't replace him even though Rip Agee looks like the better defensive option at second. I am replacing last year's third baseman at least to start the season as Glenn Mowles was terrible in the spring and rookie Rolla Alexander was terrific.

Opening day can't come soon enough but after seeing how badly my pitching blew up the last couple of sims I think it may be a long year. I was optimistic towards a .500 or slightly better finish going into the spring. Now, I am thinking let's just try and avoid last place.


MINOR LEAGUES
The minor league regular seasons all started this week and there was a bunch of good news from there. Here are some brief notes:

AAA HOUSTON - 24 year old Leon Campbell, who went 5-2 in a Brooklyn call-up a year ago, looked good in his first start. The lefthander went 7 and a third, scattering 6 hits and 2 earned runs in a 5-3 win at New Orleans. The only thing keeping him out of main camp this year is he did not have to be on the 40 man roster as he was not Rule V exposed, but if he does well and the guys in Brooklyn struggle I may need to waive someone to make room for him.

Young outfielder Jim Renfroe hit .429 the opening week at Houston. The 23 year old spent most of last season with Class A Omaha. Renfroe is ranked the #15 prospect in the sport and second to only Doug Lightbody in our organization. On the negative side I better keep an eye on 20 year old catcher Joe Cameron, who went hitless in the first four games and struck out 8 times. Cameron played decent defense and threw out 3 would-be base stealers over the opening 4 games but I might have pushed him too far in going from 40 games of A ball a year ago after being taken in the third round out of Chicago high school, straight to AAA. He gets one more sim but I am expecting he will end up in Knoxville soon.

AA KNOXVILLE- The Knights split their 4 games in Mobile to open the season. Bill Smith, a free agent signing out of Dartmouth, went 5-for-15 while calling some good games. The 22 year old is another one of a deep group of catching prospects we have.


A OMAHA - The Cowboys split a 4-game set with Gary and were led by a pair of great pitching performances from recent draft picks. 6th rounder Rube McCormick won his pro debut, going 8 and a third while allowing 2 hits and 1 earned run. McCormick also fanned 8 while walking just 1. He didn't get a decision and we ultimately lost the game but 7th rounder Lyman Weigel had an even more dominating debut. Weigel threw 8 innings of 2 hit ball while striking out 13 and issuing just one free pass. He did give up a pair of earned runs in a 4-2 loss.

My enthusiasm for those outings is dampened slightly when I see Gary used a roster entirely comprised of ghost players. Not sure how much that tarnishes my hurler's performance but it is disappointing with all of the available free agents that teams can't fill out their minor league systems.

B TAMPA - My newest affiliate went 3-0 in their season opening series against Miami. Another catching prospect really impressed as 4th round pick Tom Aiello had a strong sim. The 19 year old had 5 hits in 3 games (.385), including a double, and a pair of rbi's. He also played error free and threw out the only runner who tested his arm. He is only ranked 22nd on my team prospect list but scout Rube Carter is really high on him. My 13th round pick, Tom Goldsborough out of Penn State, pitched a complete game 3 hitter to get his first pro win. Goldsborough fanned 11 and walked 5 in the 9-1 victory over the Miami Sailors.
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Old 06-17-2019, 10:51 AM   #43
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Our league sims Monday-Friday so after waiting thru the weekend for Opening Day it is finally Monday, but I need to wait one more day as this was just a quick 1-day sim to finish spring training and allow everyone to finalize their active roster heading into tomorrow's season openers.

Not much other than minor housekeeping for me to do today as my team is set for tomorrow's opening sim, which begins with 4 games in Montreal and will be followed by the beginning of a 4 game set in New York agaist the Stars. I received an email from Brooklyn owner Malcolm Presley. He doesn't have huge expectations, which is nice as I don't either after the way my pitching looked in spring. Presley has asked that we try to stay close to .500 for the season.

I see the top player list has been updated. We did not have anyone on the list of top 20 pitchers or hitters a year ago but not Dick Dover has risen to number 5 among hurlers. The 28 year old Dover was 15-16 a year ago and didn't have the greatest spring but he is at the top of our rotation. Hopefully the top 20 ranking means he had a nice skill bump and is ready for a big season. Not sure it if will change but for some reason Manager Powell Slocum - who I will let handle all Brooklyn lineup decisions at least for now - has decided to hand the ball to Danny Goff instead of Dover for opening day against the Saints. I don't have an issue with that as the 40 year old has had a tremendous career and deserves the respect.

Montreal will counter with 30 year old righthander Del Plummer. The Stafford, Texas native was 16-16 a year ago and led the league in innings pitched. He has a career record of 87-94. Batting any last minute changes from Slocum here is what the Brooklyn lineup will look like for the opener.
Code:

#  POS  NAME               1925 SLASH    HR  RBI
1  CF  Lou Cox		.330/.377/.443    5   64
2  1B  Lou Garman	.340/.398/.483    6   54
3  RF  Doug Lightbody     rookie   1st rd pick
4  LF  Bud Rogers       .348/.406/.546   14   94
5  C   Mickey Dowell    .287/.343/.382    5   75
6  2B  Victor Rodding   .321/.374/.437    7   80
7  3B  Rolla Alexander    rookie  Class A/AA
8  SS  Lloyd Carter	.343/.398/.415    1   66
So we have two players making their FABL debut in the opener including out first round pick Doug Lightbody. I believe Lightbody is the only player from the draft class who went straight to the majors which either means he was a great pick or I am rushing him too quickly. (I guess it could be both of those as well but he's here so only time will tell.) Lightbody is ranked the #6 prospect in the game. I believe we are using dynamic ranking so they will change but right now we have 8 players in the top 100 prospect list.
Code:

TOP 100 PROSPECTS
RK  POS    NAME		 AGE  LEVEL[/b]
 6  OF  Doug Lightbody   22   MLB
21  OF  Jim Renfroe	 23   AAA - Houston
37  P   Harvey Rodgers   24   MLB
41  P   Bill Dengler	 21   AA- Knoxville
46  OF  George Jordan    20   A - Omaha
47  P   Lyman Weigel	 21   A - Omaha
53  OF  Ab Thomas   	 21  AAA- Houston
99  P   Joe Blansit	 20   B - Tampa

The minors had the only action going on today and only one of our teams got a win. That would be the AAA Houston Bulls, who improved their Century League record to 3-2 with a 5-3 win over the Fort Wayne Warriors. Art Carlson pitched 5 shutout innings for the win in his season debut. Nice to see the lefty rebound from a terrible spring camp with the big club. Our #2 prospect Jim Renfoe hit his second homer of the season in that contest.

AA Knoxville fell to 2-3 in Dixie League play after being thumped 8-1 by Memphis. The Omaha Cowboys of the Class A Heartland League are also 2-3 after absorbing a 7-6 loss in Wichita. Catcher Dick Fleetwood, my 15th round pick in the draft, continued his strong play to start the season by going 3-for-3 and is batting .438. Finally the Baby Kings, the Class B Tampa Cigar Kings, took their first loss of the season by being shut out 3-0 by Mobile in Southeastern League action. Joe Blansit, who is ranked the #99 prospect, had a decent game despite the loss, going the distance while allowing 7 hits.

I am ready for Opening Day! I just hope my pitching staff is as well.
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Old 06-19-2019, 01:45 PM   #44
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THE 1926 SEASON BEGINS

After a 1 day delay because several of us, myself included, did not get their 40-man rosters set up properly the first sim of the 1926 season has taken place. A good learning point for online newcomers like myself is it's essential to make sure all players on your active roster are added to the 40-man. I made an error with my prize rookie Doug Lightbody in that I incorrectly assumed just the act of putting him on the active roster automatically places him on the 40-man. I am told it does during the season but not when you switch from spring training rosters to opening day. So I apologize to my fellow FABL owners for causing a delay, but I guess I can take comfort in knowing I was not alone responsible for it.

Anyway, on to the good stuff.

I am pretty happy with our first sim as the Kings went 3-3 in our opening set of games against Montreal and the New York Stars. The short overview (I'll go in more detail below) is there were a lot of positives with none bigger than the start for rookie Doug Lightbody. The young outfielder, taken 6th overall out of Ole Miss in December, hit .400 (10-for-25) with 3 rbi's in his big league debut week. Fellow rookie Rolla Alexander was just as good, hitting .348 with 3 doubles and 5 rbi's. Our defense was a positive as well, 5 of our 6 games were error-free but the other game saw us commit 5 miscues, and we still won!

Pitching was mixed. Newcomer Cal Williams and rookie Topsy Moran each won while going the distance and allowing just 1 earned run apiece. However, Jackie Marshall, who was supposed to be one of our better pitchers continued his poor pitching from the spring by getting shelled in his start.

We did not hit any homeruns in the 6 games, but I knew going in we lacked anything in the way of power hitters but we did steal 6 bases including 4 from CF Lou Cox who led the loop with 48 thefts a year ago.

So that's the quick overview. For those still interested in following along here is a game by game breakdown followed by minor league notes:

TUESDAY APRIL 13 - 6-2 Loss at Montreal
Saints ace Del Plummer outpitched 40 year old Danny Goff. Goff allowed a single run in each of the first four innings but we started a rally with two out in the fifth. With Lloyd Carter on second, platoon first baseman Lou Gorman drove him in with a 2-out single. Rookie Lightbody followed with a single to put runners on the corners for reigning CA batting champ Bud Rogers. Rogers reached on an error that scored Gorman cutting the Saints lead to 4-2 with the tying runs on base. The rally fizzled when Plummer induced an inning ending ground out from catcher Mickey Dowell. Montreal put it away with 2 more runs in the home half of the 5th.

We played error free defense. Lightbody, Rogers and Carter each had 2-hit games while Goff allowed 10 hits, walked 2 and fanned 2 in going the distance for the loss. We equalled Montreal's 10 hits but leaving men on base was our downfall in this one as we stranded 9 baserunners in the game.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 14, 1926 6-4 WIN at Montreal
Lou Garman had big game as he went 3-for-3, scored twice and drove in a run in a 6-4 win. Lightbody went 0-for-4 but fellow rookie Rolla Alexander got his first big league hit - an rbi double. Second baseman Victor Rodding, who's job was in jeopardy in the spring due to his defense, continued his hot hitting from the spring by going 3-for-4 with an rbi and a run. We had 10 hits against Montreal for the second straight game but unlike yesterday that was all singles, we had 4 doubles and a triple this afternoon. Dick Dover went the distance for the win. Not his best work as he scattered 12 hits and walked 3 but he did enough to get the win. It was another error free game by our defense.

THURSDAY APRIL 15, 1926 9-7 Loss at Montreal
An old King came back to haunt us as our former catcher Paul Tattersall, whom Montreal just acquired from the New York Gothams, tagged our starter Jackie Marshall for a pair of homeruns in a 9-7 Saints win. Marshall was doing okay until the wheels fell off in the fifth. Prior to that inning he was staked to a 3-1 lead but his control suddenly vanished with a pair of walks, a hit batsman, a triple and then Tattersall's second homer, which sent Marshall to the showers trailing 6-3.

I am worried Marshall can not cut it anymore at this level. His spring was poor and this start did little to give me any confidence in the 33 year old. He was probably our best pitcher a year ago, when he went 15-16 with a 3.90 era but I am partial to ground ball pitchers with good control and Marshall is neither of those.

The positives, other than pitching, in this game are plentiful. Doug Lightbody had a 2-for-4 day with 3 rbi's with the same line for Bud Rogers. We scored 7 runs which should have been enough to win and we played our third straight error free ball game.

FRIDAY APRIL 16, 1926 3-1 WIN at Montreal
We escape Quebec with a series split thanks to a solid job on the mound from Cal Williams. The 28 year old, who was acquired from Toronto over the winter, went the distance in a 3-1 win, allowing 7 hits and 1 walks while striking out 3 which was good enough to earn him the nod for player of the game. And Lightbody is on fie as the youngster had 3 hits today and went 7-for-16 in the series. Rolla Alexander delivered a double and a pair of rbi's and once again no errors by our defense.

SATURDAY APRIL 17, 1926 6-2 WIN at New York
We meet our cross-town rivals at Riverside Stadium and come away with a 6-2 victory in the series opener. The rookies led the way with Rolla Alexander and Doug Lightbody each getting 3 hits while Topsy Moran tossed a complete game 5-hitter in his big league debut. Our defense let Moran down a bit as all the error free games in Montreal caught up with us. The club committed 5 miscues including 2 by shortstop Lloyd Carter but they only led to 1 unearned run for the Stars. Our offense should have scored more as we had 15 hits including 5 of the extra-base variety but we stranded 9 runners.

SUNDAY APRIL 18, 1926 1-0 Loss to New York at home
As we are using the real 1926 MLB schedule there are some quirks that see us split a series usually with Montreal (which got the NYG real schedule while we have the Dodgers or Robbins if you prefer) but also some, like today, with the New York Stars. Se we play our home opener at Kings County Park before resuming the series with 2 more games starting tomorrow back in Manhattan.

We lost 1-0 but I can't complain much about this one. Danny Goff was very good, going the distance and keeping the game scoreless until allowing the game's only run on a 2-out solo homer by the Stars' Al Swain in the top of the ninth. They used three pitchers and we couldn't string much together, scattering 5 hits.

Our best chance came in the 5th inning when we had runners on the corners with 2 out and our pitcher Danny Goff at the plate. Too early to pinch-hit for Goff, Manager Powell Slocum elected to try a suicide squeeze bunt but Goff failed to make contact and Rodding, who had broke for home, was tagged out. We had some life in the bottom of the ninth after they took the lead as Mickey Dowell hit a two-out double but Rodding flew out to right field to end the contest.

So we are 3-3 with the week ahead being filled again with the Stars and Montreal. We have 2 games in New York and then an off day before we start a 4 game weekend series at home to the Saints beginning Thursday.

Code:

CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
TEAM		W   L   GB
Baltimore	5   1    -
Philadelphia	4   2   1.0
BROOKLYN	3   3   2.0
Chicago		3   3   2.0
Toronto		3   3   2.0
Montreal	2   4   3.0
New York	2   4   3.0
ROSTER MOVES - None for this week on the big league club. I scanned the waiver wire but there is no one we are interested in. I did make a couple of free agent signings among minor leaguers and I will discuss that in my next post talking about the minor league week that was.

FINAL IMPRESSIONS OF THE FIRST IN-SEASON SIM
I still can't believe how much I am enjoying this league. It has caused me to put my solo sims on the back burner for now and the writing that other owners and the commissioner are doing as well has really deepened the immersion level for me. If you are on the fence about online leagues find one that seems like it would be interesting to you and give it a shot. I did and have now found a new way (for me) to play OOTP. If you are following this thread and considering a league, get in touch with the commissioner to go on the waiting list.
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Old 06-19-2019, 03:27 PM   #45
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This post will just be a look at the current week in my minor leagues. Let's start with overall organization decisions.

I have placed 3 guys on waivers with the plan of releasing each of them as none fit in my long term plans. The first is 32 year old reliever Elmer Jennings. He has been in the organization for a while and suffered through a 22 loss season with the Kings in 1918. He hasn't pitched in the big leagues in 5 years and was just clogging up the roster at AAA Houston. I want my younger guys pitching more so Jennings is gone. I waived him before releasing in case another organization has a spot for him and wants to take his small contract off my hands.

The next two are a pair of outfielders that clear spots on my 40-man roster. Billy Geier is 32 years old and split last season between Brooklyn and the New York Gothams. He is a .310 hitter in 258 career FABL games but has never been an everyday player and won't crack my outfield so I sent him to AAA Houston after spring training. He was unhappy about the demotion so let's see how he feels when I cut him if he isn't claimed on waivers.

Jim Ward is 3 years younger than Geier but also is not good enough to make my outfield. A classic 4-A type player, Ward has split each of the last 3 seasons between Brooklyn and Houston. Because of numbers and wanting to get my younger guys playing time I sent him to AA Knoxville to start the year. He is pouting there and was 2-for-15 after 4 games. I shuffled some guys around and there are young prospects I want playing at Knoxville so he is also on his way out.

SIGNINGS
I did add 3 more young players this week as I regularly scan the free agent pool looking for someone my head scout Rube Carter thinks might be a hidden gem. Here are the guys he had us sign to fill out our roster in Class A and B.

21 year old second baseman Larry Lynch. A Sacramento native who played his college ball at Princeton, Lynch is someone Carter sees as a project. Carter feels the kid can become a .330 hitter and has excellent speed. He only got 63 at bats in 4 years of college so I am not sure if he has compromising pictures of Carter or what, but for the price of a minor league contract (essentially nothing) we can take a chance on him. Lynch went 0-for-2 with a walk and a run scored in 3 plate appearances for Class A Omaha this week.

The next one is a real Diamond in the rough- hopefully. The kid's name is Tillie Diamond and he is a 21 year old shortstop who hit .204 in 3 seasons with Purdue but went undrafted. Carter thinks he can provide Gold Glove type defense and great speed so if he can hit a bit, who knows. Diamond was hitless in 2 pinch-hit appearances for Omaha but I have dropped him down to Class B Tampa for the next sim.

The final signing is for sentimental reasons only as the kid really has very limited potential. He is 21 year old Dan Barrell, the eldest baseball playing son of Rufus Barrell. You can, and should, read about Rufus here.


Rufus, a flame throwing lefthander, was signed by the Kings as a teenager out of Savannah of the Coastal Association but suffered a tragic career ending injury when he was hit in the head by a batted ball in his preseason debut with Brooklyn. Barrell has remained a part of the organization and has three boys who play ball along with a boatload of other children (I believe 7 boys). The younger two are at Georgia Tech but Dan was playing in an independent league the past couple of seasons after playing high school ball in Washington DC. Rufus ran across Dan while scouting another player and an organization decision was made to add him to the Omaha Cowboys roster.

It's doubtful based on all scouting reports, but young Dan Barrell's story may have a storybook ending as Dan hit .412 in his first week of Heartland League action, including belting a pair of homeruns 8 rbi's.


AAA HOUSTON BULLS
The big news out of Houston this week was that pitching prospect Leon Campbell has shoulder tendinitis and will be out for 6 weeks. Tough loss as the 24 year old was first in line to be called up to Brooklyn after going 5-2 in an audition last year with the Kings. The lefthander was 2-0 with a 1.71 era and 17 k's vs 4 walks in 21 innings of work for the Bulls this season. Connie Lewis has been called up from AA Knoxville to replace Campbell in the rotation.

The Bulls had a 6 game winning streak snapped yesterday but at 7-3 they lead the Century League by half a game over the Minneapolis Lumberjacks.

Art Harvey, a 26 year old righthander, tossed 7 shutout innings in a 5-0 win over Fort Wayne this week. Harvey is 1-1 with a 1.46 era in 2 starts this season. Others doing well include 23 year old outfielder Jim Renfroe - our #2 prospect and 21st in the FABL, is hitting .270 with a pair of homers in 10 games for the Bulls and 28 year old second baseman Oscar Brunswick, who is among the Century League leaders with 10 rbi's.

AA KNOXVILLE KNIGHTS - The Knights are 6-5 and in fourth place but just a half game out of first in a tight Dixie League. I think 33 year old third baseman Hal Lucas is trying to prove I made a mistake optioning him to Knoxville after he split last season between Brooklyn and Houston. The veteran was named Dixie League player of the week and in 10 games this season is hitting .500/.533/.675 with 8 rbi's.

After he hit .419 at Omaha to start the season, I just promoted 22 year old outfielder Al Stanton to Knoxville. Cutting the 2 veteran outfielders in Geier and Ward made the room. I figure I need to get my young guys as much playing time as possible so there will likely be more minor league vets jettisoned soon.


A OMAHA COWBOYS - The Cowboys are also 6-5, but they sit 2.5 games back of the Lincoln Legislators, who rule the Heartland League with an 8-2 record. The Legislators pride and joy is Bill Ashbaugh, who the Chicago Cougars took 4th in the draft, and is hitting a robust .455 with 5 homers in his first 10 pro games.

As for my Cowboys, the big story is aforementioned Barrell but I have a couple of young pitchers doing okay at Omaha as well. Rube McCormick, my 6th round pick is 2-0 with a 1.76 era and 14ks vs 2 walks in 15 innings of work while 7th rounder Lyman Weigel is 1-1 with a 3.63 era in 22 innings. 13th round pick Tom Goldsborough just got promoted to Omaha after going 2-0 with a 0.69 era, 29 strikeouts and 8 walks in 26 innings for Tampa.

CLASS B TAMPA CIGAR KINGS - The baby Kings are 6-4 in a Southeastern League that is being dominated by the Arlington Patriots 10-0 start. In addition to Goldsborough's strong start in Tampa, the Cigar Kings also got a great pro debut from Ben Anderson. The 22 year old who was my 12th round pick out of USC, won both of his starts and has a 1.59 era with 20k's and 4 walks in 17 innings. One other note from Tampa is that third baseman Dave Bristol, one of my second round picks, hit his first pro homerun and is batting .306 through 10 games.



I have found watching and juggling my minor league prospects to be just as interesting - if not more so- than tracking the big league club. With no ratings, it is really fun to see how my draft picks are performing.
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Old 06-20-2019, 03:03 PM   #46
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DOWELL, LIGHTBODY POWER KINGS STONG WEEK

There was never any doubt the Brooklyn Kings had plenty of offense and the club proved that again this week by scoring 42 runs in 6 games. The result was 4 straight wins sandwiched in between losses to start and finish the week. That performance left the Kings with a 7-5 record on the season, good for a tie for second place in the Continental Association.

Just as they did last season, the Kings lead the CA in batting average and are second in runs scored as they average 5.5 a game. What is a surprise is the Kings defense, woeful a year ago, is now at least respectable. Pitching, unfortunately, still remains a trouble spot for the organization.

A huge part of the offense can be credited to the incredible start Doug Lightbody has enjoyed. The 22 year old rookie outfielder, who was taken 6th overall in the winter draft, hit his first two big league homers this week and is batting .413, good for third place in the Continental Association. In 12 games Lightbody, who I believe is the only member of his draft class playing in the big leagues at this time, is 19-for-46 with 2 homers, 12 rbi's and a slash line of .413/.500/.609. Fellow Kings rookie Rolla Alexander, a 24 year old who played Class A ball a year ago, is also off to a great start. The thirdbaseman is batting .340/.380/.480 and is among the league leaders with 11 rbi's.

Those two were overshadowed last week by another young King. 25 year old catcher Mickey Dowell, who is in his third major league season, was named the Continental Association's player of the week. In 12 games this season, the Houston native is batting .360/.407/.520 with a homerun and 13 rbi's.

The news was not all good as it was learned the club will be without second baseman Victor Rodding for about 6 weeks after the 29 year old suffered a wrist injury. Rodding, who has always been a great hitter, was on a tear with a slash line of .370/.393/.593 before the injury but Kings skipper Powell Slocum was even more impressed with his defense. Rodding's job was on the line in spring training because he was among the worst second baseman defensively in the league last season. The only positive the club can take from the injury is that converted shortstop Rip Agee got a lot of playing time at second base in the spring and, while he won't match Rodding at the plate, his defense might be an upgrade.

LAST WEEK
The Kings opened the week with an 8-3 loss to the New York Stars, which was their second straight defeat. Dick Dover got beat up pretty good, allowing 7 runs on 12 hits in 5 2/3s. The Kings salvaged a split of the 4 game set with a 14-4 pounding of the Stars the next day. Lightbody dominated with 4 hits including a homerun, 4 rbi's and 5 runs scored. A little worrisome was the fact that Rip Agee committed 2 errors in his first start at second since the injury to Rodding.

After an off-day the Kings returned home to begin a 4-game set with Montreal. The Kings offense dominated the first 3 days with Brooklyn winning by scores of 8-3, 7-4 and 8-4 before Montreal avoided the sweep with a 5-2 win yesterday.

Code:

CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
TEAM		W   L   GB
Chicago		8   5    -
Baltimore	7   5   0.5
BROOKLYN	7   5   0.5
New York	6   6   1.5
Philadelphia	6   6   1.5
Toronto		6   6   1.5
Cleveland	5   8   3.0
Montreal	4   8   3.5
Code:

				BROOKLYN KINGS BATTING STATS
POS  Name		G	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	R	AVG	OBP	SLG	SB
RF  Doug Lightbody	12	46	19	1	1	2	12	10	.413	.500	.609	1
C   Mickey Dowell	12	50	18	5	0	1	13	9	.360	.407	.520	0
3B  Rolla Alexander	12	47	16	6	0	0	11	2	.340	.380	.468	0
SS  Lloyd Carter	12	42	14	3	0	0	4	4	.333	.417	.405	1
1B  Lou Garman		12	45	15	2	0	0	5	10	.333	.412	.378	4
LF  Bud Rogers		10	41	13	1	0	0	7	5	.317	.356	.341	0
2B  Rip Agee	 	 5	19	6	3	0	0	2	3	.316	.409	.474	1
CF  Lou Cox		12	54	17	4	1	0	3	14	.315	.362	.426	8
RF  Clarence Hall	 6	10	3	0	0	0	3	2	.300	.462	.300	0
1B  Stan Bass	 	 2	5	1	0	1	0	1	1	.200	.200	.600	0
CF George T Johnson	 6	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	0
2B  Hugh Luckey		 3	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	.000	.000	0
3B  Glenn Mowles	 5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	0
SS J VanLandingham	 0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	0
C   Clay Vega		 1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	0
INJ Victor Rodding	 7     27      10       2       2       0       1       4       .370    .393    .593    0
For a guy who is ranked as one of the top pitchers in the game, Dick Dover has been a huge disappointment so far. His control is awful with 13 walks in 22 innings of work. Both he and Jackie Marshall need to figure things out soon.

Code:

			BROOKLYN KINGS PITCHING
T Name		  G GS	W-L   IP    HA	HR  R	ER  BB	K   ERA
R Dick Dover	  3  3	2-1  22.2   34	1  15	15  13	4   5.96
R Danny Goff	  3  3	1-2  26	    21	4  11	10   6	9   3.46
R Jackie Marshall 3  3	1-2  22.2   24	2  15	12   5	5   4.76
R Cal Williams	  2  2	2-0  17.1   14	1   4	3    7	5   1.56
R Topsy Moran	  1  1	1-0   9	     5	0   2	1    1	3   1.00
R Buck Blood	  1  0	0-0   1	     1	0   1	0    1	0   0.00
L Karl Mallek	  2  0	0-0   2	     4	0   2	2    0	0   9.00
R Harvey Rodgers  3  0	0-0   4.1    3	0   1	1    1	2   2.08
MINOR LEAGUES

CLASS AAA HOUSTON BULLS
The Bulls are 9-7 in the Century League. The prospect showing the best in Houston is 21 year old outfielder Ab Thomas, who is hitting .379 with a homer and 9 rbi's.

CLASS AA KNOXVILLE KNIGHTS
The Knights lead the Dixie League with a 12-6 record after having won 10 of their last 12. I have some good young players here including 2nd round pick Bill Dengler, who is 3-1 with a 3.77 era, 5th rounder Bill Smith is batting .283 with 8 rbi's and providing solid defense at the catching position. Another of my many young outfielder is 22 year old Al Stanton. Stanton hit .419 in 8 games at Omaha before being moved up to Knoxville this week. He went 10-for-31 with 2 homers and 5 rbi's in 7 games for the Knights.

CLASS A OMAHA COWBOYS
Despite dropping 3 games to first place Lincoln over the weekend, the Cowboys remain over .500 with a 9-8 record in Heartland League action. I just moved first baseman Bill Osborn up to AA after the 23 year old free agent signing out of Syracuse hit .354 with 12 rbis in 17 games for the Cowboys. Draft picks Lyman Weigel and Rube McCormick continue to shine on the mound, particularly Weigel, who leads the league with 39 strikeouts in 37 innings of work.

CLASS B TAMPA CIGAR KINGS
We have some good young pitchers tossing the ball for the 11-6 Cigar Kings. Tom Goldsborough and Ben Anderson both moved up to Omaha due to some injuries and their fine play. Anderson was 3-0 with a 1.80 era and 28 strikeouts compared to just 4 walks in 25 innings of work in Tampa while Goldsborough was 2-0 with a 0.81 era and 29 strikeouts vs 8 walks in 26 innings. Goldsborough, a former Penn State hurler, went 7 innings in his Class A debut with the Cowboys. It was a no decision but he struck out 8 and walked 1 while allowing 2 earned runs. He is just 18, but my other second round pick Dave Bristol will be looking for a promotion soon. The third baseman is batting .311 with a homerun and 12 rbi's in 17 games for Tampa. His glovework at the hot corner has been pretty good as well.


FINAL THOUGHTS
A better week than I hoped for. The injury to Rodding is rough but I think other than outfield, second base was the position we were best able to handle the loss of a regular. I am really excited about the young talent in the organization. I think the future is pretty bright but the present might be good as well, especially if Dover can get his pitching sorted out and Topsy Moran proves his first start wasn't a fluke. Finally, what can I say about Doug Lightbody. He has been amazing, but can he keep it up?
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Old 06-20-2019, 03:29 PM   #47
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Dick Dover is quite a name.
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Old 06-21-2019, 12:42 PM   #48
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MAY 3 - KINGS CONTINUE HOT STREAK

It's only a month into the season but the Brooklyn Kings, last place finishers a year ago, have to be pleased in finding themselves sharing the Continental Association lead after 3 weeks of play. Brooklyn went 5-2 last week to improve to 12-7 on the season, equalling the Philadelphia Sailors for the CA's best record. The big story continues to be the amazing start 22 year old Doug Lightbody has had. THe 6th overall pick out of Ole Miss is one of the few players since the draft began, and the only one this season, to make his pro debut in the major leagues. Lightbody hit just .286 this week but did smack his third homerun and was named the Continental Association's rookie of the month for April. Thru 19 games, Lightbody is batting .365/.453/.554 with 3 homers and 14 rbi's.

Lightbody is not the only rookie making his mark in Brooklyn as third baseman Rolla Alexander had his 17 game hitting streak snapped on Sunday. The 24 year old is batting .353 and among the league RBI leaders with 16. Pitcher Topsy Moran, who won 19 games for AAA Buffalo a year ago, is off to a 3-0 start with an impressive 2.42 era, third lowest in the loop. Moran is a 26 year old who was acquired from Toronto in a deal centered on a swap of draft picks. Another piece of that deal, 29 year old Cal Williams, was named the CA pitcher of the month after winning all 3 of his starts. Williams leads the Continental Association with a 2.22 era.

Code:

CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION STANDINGS
TEAM		 W   L   GB
BROOKLYN	12   7   -
Philadelphia	12   7   -
Toronto		11   8   1.0
Baltimore	 9  10   3.0
New York	 9  10   3.0
Chicago		 9  11   3.5
Montreal	 8  11   4.0
Cleveland	 7  13   5.5

While I know I could use some more pitching and can maybe deal 3B Glenn Mowles or outfielder Clarence Hall - who lost their starting jobs to my two rookies - I am very hessitant to do anything to tinker with things while we are enjoying some success. However, I do feel I need another starter or two as Jackie Marshall (1-2, 6.59) has been awful and I have my doubts if Williams and Moran can continue to pitch as they did in April. Will think about it over the weekend but I am leaning towards not talking trade about anyone right now. Don't want to upset the apple cart.

We enjoyed some nice success with a few of our minor leaguers this week as well. Next sim isn't until Monday so I will talk about them over the weekend. Remember if you are following this and want to look at anything in more detail the league html pages can be found here
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Old 06-24-2019, 02:10 PM   #49
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MAY 10 : KINGS RULE CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION

After another strong week that saw them win 5 of 6 games the Brooklyn Kings are the proud owners of the best record in the entire FABL. A four game sweep of Toronto over the weekend improved Brooklyn's record to 17-8, good for a 1 game lead on the Philadelphia Sailors atop the Continental Association. The excitement of another strong collection of games was dampened with the news that rookie pitcher Topsy Moran will be sidelined for 5 weeks with a hamstring injury.

Moran was one of the big surprises for Brooklyn this season as the 26 year old won each of his first four major league starts and was among the Continental Association leaders with a 2.36 era. "We're just glad it isn't his arm," said Kings skipper Powell Slocum. " Hopefully the hamstring heals quick with some rest and Topsy can get back out there. It has just been an incredible start for the kid. A tough break but it opens the door for Harvey to show what he can do."

The Harvey that Slocum referred to is rookie righthander Harvey Rodgers, who will now get a shot in the rotation with the injury to Moran. Rodgers, who won 20 games a year ago for Buffalo of the Union League, picked up his first big league win against his former organization over the weekend. The 25 year old was a rule V pickup from Toronto at the beginning of the season and has a 1.13 era in 8 innings of relief this season. Bob Brown was called up from AAA Houston to fill the roster spot. Brown was 2-1 with 4 saves and a 2.13 era for the Bulls. The 28 year old spent all of last season with the Kings, going 12-14 with a 4.91 era.

Doug Lightbody cooled off a bit last week, going 6-for-21 but he scored 9 runs and drew 6 walks. On the season the 22 year old first round pick is still putting up some big numbers hitting .347/.456/.505 with 3 homers and 15 rbi's. He also has swiped 4 bases, drawn 17 walks and scored 25 runs in 25 games. Lightbody is fifth in batting average in the league, but second on the team thanks to fellow rookie Rolla Alexander's .352 mark.

Veteran outfielder Bud Rogers, the reigning CA batting champ, is finally starting to heat up. Rogers had 8 hits in 6 games last week and is now slashing .348/.406/.546. Catcher Mickey Dowell is also on a tear with a .309/.374/.515 slash line and 4 homers to go with 25 rbi's. The future is bright for the Kings when you consider Rodgers is 27, Dowell 25, Alexander 24 and Lightbody just 22.

Even without the injury to Moran, pitching remains a concern as veterans Dick Dover (3-2, 7.05) and Jackie Marshall (2-2, 5.70) continue to struggle. Dover got shelled for 10 earned run in just over 5 innings of the Kings only loss for week, a 14-3 thumping at the hands of Baltimore. Marshall may being showing signs of coming around as he went the distance in a 5-4 win over Toronto.

LAST WEEK'S GAMES

MONDAY MAY 3 - 8-1 win over Baltimore. Bud Rogers had 3 hits, including his first homer of the season, and drove in 3 runs to lead the offense. 2B Rip Agee and 1B Stan Bass each chipped in with a pair of hits. Lead-off man Lou Cox stole his league leading 11th base. Cal Williams improved to 4-0 by going 6 and a third shutout innings, allowing 4 hits. Karl Mallek finished up in relief as he took over following a lengthy rain delay.

TUESDAY MAY 4 - 14-3 loss to Baltimore. As mentioned earlier, Dover was awful allowing 11 runs (10 earned) on 11 hits and 4 walks before getting pulled in the 6th. Mallek finished up the game. Doug Lightbody with another positive as the rookie had a pair of outfield assists showing off his strong arm.

THURSDAY MAY 6- 5-4 win over Toronto - The 4 game series in Toronto begins on a positive note. A 4 run outburst in the 7th led by a 3-run homer off the bat of Mickey Dowell was the key to make a winner out of Jackie Marshall for the second time this season. Lou Garman, who platoons with Stan Bass at first base, had a 3 hit game and is batting .325.

FRIDAY MAY 7 - 4-2 win over Toronto in 13 innings. Bud Rogers was the hero with a 2-run double in the top of the 14th after we rallied with a run into the top of the ninth to force extras. 7 strong innings from Danny Goff, who did not get a decision but allowed just 3 hits and 2 runs, both on a homerun. All 3 relievers pitched well led by Harvey Rodgers tossing 3 shutout innings for his first win. The rookies led the way again with Rolla Alexander going 3-for-5 with 2 rbi's while Doug Lightbody was 2-for-4 with 2 walks and 3 runs scored.

SATURDAY MAY 8 - 6-3 win over Toronto. 26 year old outfielder Clarence Hall lost his starting job to Lightbody but made manager Powell Slocum take notice when he got his opportunity. Inserted in the line-up, Hall went 2-for-4 with 3 rbi's and a run scored to lead the way. Moran pitched 8 and a third innings of 3 hit ball, allowing 2 earned runs and walking nobody before leaving with an injury. Harvery Rodgers got the final two outs.

SUNDAY MAY 9 - 2-1 win over Toronto. Cal Williams was outstanding in going the distance to improve his record to 5-0. Williams, another former Toronto Wolves hurler, allowed just 5 hits while walking two and captured player of the game honours for the second time this season. Rip Agee, who has taken over at 2B for the injured Victor Rodding, was the hero with a rbi double in the top of the ninth to snap the tie. Agee had two hits in the game to raise his average to .308.


MINOR LEAGUES

The Houston Bulls are 17-13, 1 game behind both St Paul and New Orleans for top spot in the Century League. 28 year old second baseman Oscar Brunswick has been a big reason why, batting .287 with 3 homers and is second in the league with 27 rbi's. A player to keep an eye on is 21 year old Ab Thomas. Ranked the #34 prospect in the game, Thomas is leading the Century League in hits while slashing .423/.461/.531 through 30 games. He is also second in stolen bases with 18, trailing only fellow Bull outfield prospect Jim Renfroe. The 23 year old Renfroe is slashing .223/.324/.679 with a league leading 21 swipes while only being caught stealing twice. Renfroe was recently named the 17th best prospect in the FABL.

Bill Dengler continues to impress for AA Knoxville. The 21 year old second round pick out of Maryland is off to a 5-1 start to help the Knights to the top of the Dixie League standings. Dengler is ranked the #84 prospect and has been joined in Knoxville by 7th round pick Lyman Weigel. Weigel is also 21 years old and ranked the #47 prospect. He was just 2-5 at Class A Omaha but had 64 strikeouts vs 17 walks in 60 innings of work. The Knoxville offense is led by another good outfield prospect in 22 year old Al Stanton (.326,3,16) and converted outfielder, now first baseman Bill Osborn. Undrafted after hitting .287 with 8 homers as a senior at Syracuse, Osborn was a free agent signee who batted .354 with 12 rbi's in 17 games at Omaha before earning a promotion to Knoxville where he is hitting .389 with 2 homers in 13 games.

Their roster is depleted by injury-forced call-ups so the Omaha Cowboys struggled through a 1-6 week and have dipped below the .500 mark in Heartland League play. Third round pick Lynn Randall is another of the deep crop of outfield prospects. The 21 year old out of LSU is slashing .273/.354/.414 with 3 homers and 12 rbi's thru his first 28 pro games.

The Class B Tampa Cigar Kings are also struggling, as they sit in 6th place in the Southeastern League with a 13-17 record. 20 year old catching prospect Joe Cameron, who started the year but was clearly overmatched in AAA, has settled in with the Baby Kings, batting .319. He was a third round pick two years ago. Brooklyn's 2nd of two second round picks this past winter, 3B Dave Bristol, is struggling at the plate for Tampa. The 18 year old is slashing .219/.252/.314 but his defense has been outstanding.
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Old 06-25-2019, 02:51 PM   #50
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MAY 17, 1926 - ROGERS NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK

The Brooklyn Kings enjoyed another successful week thanks in a big part to outfielder Bud Rogers. The 27 year old went 12-for-20 with 5 rbi's in 5 games, numbers good enough to capture him player of the week honours for the Continental Association. Rogers, who won the Continental Association batting title last year, raised his season average to .393 which places him third in the Association.

The Kings went 4-2 for the week, and are 21-10 on the season which keeps them in top spot with a 2 game lead on the Philadelphia Sailors. Brooklyn split the opening two of a 4 game set with the Sailors to end the week after winning 3 of 4 from the Cougars in Chicago. The Brooklyn offense continues to fire on all cylinders as four regulars are batting over .300 including Rogers, catcher Mickey Dowell (.319,4,28) and rookies Doug Lightbody (.373,3,18) and Rolla Alexander (.330,0,25). The first base platoon duo of Lou Garman (.304,0,11) and Stan Bass (.412,0,2) are also both on a tear.

The Brooklyn defense, a sore spot last season, continues to be sound and newcomers Cal Williams (6-0, 1.51) and rookie Harvey Rodgers (2-0, 1.59) have been outstanding on the mound. Dick Dover (4-2, 6.26) split a pair of starts this week but continues to struggle while 40 year old legend Danny Goff (1-6, 3.86) had a rough week, getting beat up pretty in his last two starts.

It is likely changes will need to be made with the pitching staff but the two most ready call-ups from AAA Houston have been injured. Leon Campbell still has two more weeks of recovery and will almost assuredly be called up if his first start or two in Houston go well. Had he not been hurt, the 24 year old who went 5-2 in a brief stint with the Kings a year ago, would already be on the Brooklyn roster. 25 year old lefthander Art Carlson has just returned from injury and may also get the call to report to Brooklyn in a week or so provided his strained oblique injury has not affected his performance.
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Old 06-26-2019, 03:19 PM   #51
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TOUGH WEEK FOR KINGS AS BATS COOL OFF

Brooklyn's stay at the top of the Continental Association was short-lived as the bats cooled off a bit this week and the Kings lost four of their 7 contests, including 3 out of 4 in Cleveland with the Foresters shutting them out twice. Brooklyn's bad week, coupled with Philadelphia sweeping 4 from Montreal at the same time the Kings were losing in Cleveland, allowed the Sailors to overtake Brooklyn for first place. It really is just a percentage point difference as both teams are plus 10 in the win-loss columns but the Sailors at 23-13 are .007 ahead of 24-14 Brooklyn.

It was a week that saw prize rookie Doug Lightbody (.345,3,22) show his first signs of mortality after going just 6-for-27 (.222) this week. Bud Rogers, who had been on a roll, had his 20 game hit streak come to an end as he endured a 4-for-25 week. Rookie Rolla Alexander (.299,1,26) has seen his numbers drop after enduring a 4-for-34 streak. Only catcher Mickey Dowell, who leads the CA in rbi's with 33, and the first base platoon combination of Lou Garman and Stan Bass seemed immune to the team-wide offensive drought.

The other bad news out of Brooklyn centered around injuries as the whole organization fell victim to the injury bug. The biggest one is the sprained ankle suffered by starting shortstop Lloyd Carter (.272/.341/.304) that will sideline him for 3 weeks. Carter had been providing excellent defense and his glove will surely be missed.

To make matters worse, veteran Rip Robertson fractured his foot playing for Houston this week so he is unavailable to replace Carter. Robertston was hitting .311 for the Bulls while providing adequate defense. Robertson was not the only minor league injury as 23 year old Houston outfielder Jim Renfroe, who is ranked the 19th best FABL prospect, suffered a hip injury that will sideline him for two or three months.

AA Knoxville could not avoid the injury bug either with another middle infielder going down. Charlie Rector, the starting shortstop for the Knights, is out for a month which further complicates the middle infield situation throughout the organization.

The result is the only viable candidate I had on my 40-man roster to call-up was a 22 year old outfielder named Al Stanton. Stanton was hitting .340 for AA Knoxville and likely won't see a lot of action other then perhaps pinch-hitting duties. He will add depth as back-up centerfielder George T Johnson can play shortstop in a pinch so Johnson becomes my emergency shortstop if both Jack Van Landingham and Rip Agee need time off. Agee will remain the starting second baseman - he is filling in for the still injured Victor Rodding, who has two weeks to go after a wrist injury. Van Landingham, who was called up from Houston when Rodding went down, is now the starting shortstop with Carter out as well.
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Old 06-27-2019, 03:58 PM   #52
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MAY 30, 1926

As the month of May comes to a close the Kings are returning home from a long road swing that saw them go 14-9. Unfortunately, they finished off the week with a 4 game losing streak after being swept in a 3 game series with New York to end the trip and dropping the opener of a 4 game set at home with Baltimore yesterday. At 27-18 and just a game behind the Philadelphia Sailors for top spot in the Continental Association I am very happy with the job Manager Powell Slocum has done. Ecstatic really as he has led a team that finished last in the Association a year ago to a .600 record so far, despite the organization being ravaged with injuries.

Reliever Karl Mallek was the latest to go down, lost for 8 weeks with an elbow strain. He was probably the pitcher we could most afford to lose so in that regard it is not too bad. Also, Leon Campbell, who was 5-2 in Brooklyn a year ago but started the season in AAA Houston, has come off the DL so he will take Mallek's spot. Well, technically Campbell, a 24 year old lefthander, will take Dick Dover's spot as Slocum is inserting Campbell in the rotation and moving Dover to the pen. The 28 year old Dover has had a decent career so far and started the season ranked in the league's top ten pitchers, but has been awful so far. His 5.74 era was worst among our 6 starters (including the still injured Topsy Moran) and were it not for a 3-0 complete game shutout over Philadelphia 2 weeks ago he would likely be in Houston. That game was the only bright spot for Dover, and forced me to pause on my decision to farm him out, but he gave up 25 earned runs and 37 hits in the 4 starts sandwiching the shutout. If he can't do the job in the pen he is gone and might still be in a week when Moran is ready to return.

The injuries have been awful. We have 4 major leaguers out including both our starting second baseman and shortstop plus a rookie pitcher who was off to a 4-0 start. Now that Campbell is back we are down to 7 minor leaguers out with injuries which is the most total players sidelined in either Association. The New York Stars are the next closest with 8 minor leaguers sidelined but just one player off their big league roster.

We started the week nicely with a sweep of last place Montreal before getting beat up pretty badly by the Stars in Manhattan. Cal Williams had a rough outing but our defense let him down with multiple errors as he suffered his second loss of the season. Jackie Marshall was what I am finding is typical Jackie Marshall - one good outing followed by one bad one. Consistency is not his friend. 40 year old Danny Goff(2-6, 4.46) finally got another win but he has been the victim of a lack of run support on more than one occasion. The bullpen has been very good. The injured Mellick has had his ups and downs but closer Buck Blood and recent call-up Bob Brown have not allowed an earned run in a combined 23 2/3 innings of work this season.

After a down week last week rookie outfielder Doug Lightbody got back on track, hitting .357 with a pair of triples in the 7 games. Slocum has given Lou Garman (.325,0,21) the full-time first base job over his former platoon partner Stan Bass (.478,0,3). Both are hitting really well but Garman has been the better defender. Bud Rogers (.344,3,27) is working his way up the league batting leaderboard while catcher Mickey Dowell (.319,4,34) and rookie third baseman Rolla Alexander (.294,1,31) are first and fourth in rbi's among Continental Association hitters. Meanwhile lead-off man centerfielder Lou Cox (.238/.311/.302) continues to set the pace with 17 stolen bases. Teammate Garman is second in the CA with 11 swipes.

MINOR LEAGUE SYSTEM
I am also very happy with a large number of our prospects, many of whom probably belong in Brooklyn but there just isn't room right now. Among the highlights:

21 year old centerfielder Ab Thomas is leading the Century League in batting with a .393 average and stolen bases with 31. Thomas is presently ranked as the 30th best prospect in the league and looks like he is ready for the big leagues at 21 but we have no room in out outfield right now.

That is the same problem facing Jim Renfroe. The 23 year old is stuck in Houston despite being the 19th best prospect in the game. As a corner outfielder his options long term with the organization are limited considering Doug Lightbody and Bud Rogers are ahead of him. Renfroe is sidelined for two months after suffering a hip injury a week ago.

A couple of young pitchers in the minors are in line for a promotion if we decide to do something with Dover and Marshall. Topsy Moran will replace one of our pitchers when he returns but if we need a second one then 25 year old Houston lefthander Art Carlson (2-3, 3.41 era, 36k, 10bb) is next in line but he might be challenged by second round draft pick Bill Dengler. The 21 year old former Maryland Terrapin is 7-4 with a 3.22 era in 11 starts at AA Knoxville. He just needs to get a handle on his control as walks have been an issue at times.

Further down the chain at Class A Omaha, I love the job draft picks Lyman Weigel and Rube McCormick have been doing. Weigel is 5-5 with a 2.57 era and among the Heartland League leaders in strikeouts while McCormick is 6-2 with a 2.78 era and, like Weigel, a great strikeout to walk ratio. I would think they are more candidates for mid-season callups a year from now.

Two of our minor league clubs are struggling. AAA Houston is 24-26 and in 6th place in the Century League, 6 games back of front running New Orleans. The Baby Kings at Class B Tampa are also off to a slow start with a 22-28 record, which places them 5th in the Southeastern League but 13 games off the pace set by the Chattanooga Dynamos. AA Knoxville is 30-20 and tied for first place in the Dixie League with another Chattanooga based club - Toronto's farm team called the Reliables. The Omaha Cowboys of the Class B Heartland League are also owning a 30-20 record but the Evansville Hawks are running away with the league as the Cowboys are already 13 games back.

I feel I have a bunch of very good prospects at all of the minor league levels but what the organization really lacks is power. Our organization homerun leader is 30 year old Harry Bartlett. The Houston third baseman has hit 8 so far and does have 19 round-trippers in 458 big league games but at this stage of his career he is just a minor league piece for us. Doug Lightbody is predicted to possess decent power but other than that the pickings are somewhat slim so pitching and power hitting will be high on our list come draft day after the season.

I think I am in kind of a no-mans land as GM of the Kings right now. I feel our pitching is not good enough to get us a pennant but I don't want to sacrifice good young prospects for a veteran pitcher. In fact, part of me thinks I should be dealing some of the vets I have for youth to clear room to give my young talent a chance to play but the team has played so much better than I expected - especially guys like Cal Williams and the rookies Lightbody, Moran and Alexander - I don't want to make any moves to mess things up. It is a great problem to have when the team is playing much, much better than I could have hoped for, especially considering the injuries. But every sim I just wait for the other shoe to drop.

These are new challenges for me as I usually play in commissioner mode rather than run a team in my historical sims and when I play fictional or modern day I tend to act just as the manager and not GM. It really is a lot of fun, especially with the uncertainty that stats only adds to the mix.

Here are the standings and our stats as of the current sim.
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Old 06-27-2019, 04:55 PM   #53
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For anyone who has also been following along with the great "The Ballad of the Brothers Barrell - A Figment League Story" by our commissioner I thought I would update you on the status of Dan Barrell.

The story referenced above is about Rufus Barrell, a pitching phenom who's career was tragically cut short by injury, but he took a job as a scout with the Brooklyn Kings. Barrell and his wife, from what we have learned so far in the story, have 7 children - all boys. The boys all seem to love sports but it appears the older siblings have gravitated to other sports rather than baseball. I know from scouting in our league file that the three youngest Barrell boys are playing baseball. 18 year old Tom and his 20 year old brother Fred are right now with Georgia Tech and Fred will be eligible for the next FABL draft. A catcher, he looks like a pretty good prospect too. 21 year old Dan didn't go to college, choosing to turn pro after high school ball. He was a late round pick of Montreal in 1923 but was cut in spring training that year. He had a couple of other tryouts with independent teams including the Sacramento Governors of the AAA Great Western League but failed to make the grade.

My head scout Rube Carter was checking out a high school prospect when he stumbled upon Dan playing for a semi-pro team (well that's my background story for it as in reality I happened to see him in the free agent pool while looking to fill out my low minors). Mostly as an unasked for favour to Rufus Barrell, Carter and I decided to sign young Dan to fill out the roster at Class A Omaha. We did this despite Rube telling me the kid has a good work ethic but zero potential to contribute at the major league level.

Well in 3 weeks at Omaha, which is notoriously tough on hitters, all Barrell did was bat .386 with 2 homers and 15 rbi's in 19 games. Injuries left me short on outfielders in AA so Barrell got the call up to Knoxville. He has been with the Knights for 3 weeks now and in 21 games is batting a robust .347 with 2 more homers and another 15 rbi's.

Carter still thinks he has no future in the game but who knows? I would love to see him somehow force me to give him a shot in Brooklyn someday. It would really be a nice sidebar to a wonderful story our commissioner is weaving about the Barrell clan.

Stories like this are why I am so engrossed in this league. The commissioner, with many team GM's also contributing, has created a universe that has so many stories just waiting to be discovered. And we are only 2 months into our first season with human GM's in charge, but there is 50 years worth of simmed history to build on.

And I should add the Dan Barrell accomplishments are only possible because we are playing stats-only. I expect that had I seen his ratings (unless my scout is way off on him) I would never have even considered giving Barrell a shot in my organization but, with stats only, I figured he can't be much worse than many other filler guys I was adding so I gave him a shot. So far, he looks like the second coming of Doug Lightbody.
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Old 06-28-2019, 10:57 PM   #54
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KINGS WIN 4 STRAIGHT - JUNE 7, 1926

The Kings won 5 of 7 games this past week including yesterday's 14-2 thrashing of the Philadelphia Sailors - the team we are trailing for top spot in the Continental Association. It snapped a 6 game winning streak for the Sailors and has Powell Slocum's squad thinking we can sweep the three game series and pull even with Philadelphia.
Code:

CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION LEAGUE STANDINGS
		 W  L   GB
Philadelphia	33 17    -
BROOKLYN	32 20   2.0
New York	26 23   6.5
Toronto		27 25   7.0
Baltimore	24 26   9.0
Chicago		22 30  12.0
Montreal	21 32  13.5
Cleveland	21 33  14.0
LIGHTBODY PLAYER OF THE MONTH

Rookie sensation Doug Lightbody was named the Association's top player for the month of May. The 22 year old outfielder hit .360 with a homerun, 15 rbi's and 29 runs scored. He followed that up by claiming the Continental Association's weekly honour for the opening week of June by going 14-for-26 in 7 games. On the season Lightbody is batting .372/.452/.543 with 3 homers, 28 rbi's and 49 runs scored. He is leading the CA in a number of offensive categories including batting average and runs scored.

The Kings also received some good news as both Victor Rodding and Topsy Moran have been cleared to return to action. Both missed a month with injuries. Second baseman Rodding was batting .370 when he went down while Moran was 4-0 with a 2.36 era. To make room we sent veteran infielder Jack Van Landingham back down to AAA Houston and traded away the legendary Danny Goff. That just leaves starting shortstop Lloyd Carter and reliever Karl Mallek on the injured list.

GOFF MOVED TO ST LOUIS

The 40 year old Goff was a victim of the numbers game but also declining skills. I did not want to send a player that has meant so much to this franchise (led us to our first CA pennant) and the league (is 22nd all-time with 237 career wins between Brooklyn and the New York Gothams) so I offered him around the league. St Louis is really struggling pitching-wise so they decided to give him a shot. It was really just a giveaway as all I got in return was a Class B outfielder with little long-term potential named Marty Williams. Williams is a Brooklyn native and will be assigned to Tampa of the Southeastern League.

The deal was more about finding a big league home for Goff, preferably not in the Continental Association so he doesn't come back to haunt me. I don't think he will as he has really declined over the past month, allowing 8 homers and 22 earned runs in his last 4 starts, a total of 24.2 innings. He had a couple of decent outings early in the season and is 2-6 with a 4.71 era but as a groundball type pitcher allowing 14 homeruns - most in either league - I think the writing is on the wall for him. It would be nice if he can turn it around and help St Louis to the World Championship Series, ideally against my Kings of course.

Probably not the best way to run an online league team but I try to treat it like I am dealing with real life players and I think cutting or demoting a declining star like Goff is not the right thing to do, although I could have moved him AAA Houston and kept him as insurance in case of injuries.

With Moran returning from the injured list I had to make a move and this trade prevents Goff from taking a spot in AAA that I want to give to a young guy. Speaking of which I promoted my second round pick Bill Dengler from AA Knoxville to Houston and 7th round pick Lyman Weigel from A Omaha to Knoxville. I think Dengler is still a year away but he has allowed 2 earned runs or less in 5 of his last 6 starts at Knoxville so I want to challenge him in AAA. On the season he is 8-4 with a 3.10 era. I mentioned in an earlier post his walks are a concern (39 in 95 innings) but I love the fact he has allowed just 1 homerun so far as a pro. Weigel was 6-6 with a 2.63 era for Omaha and is averaging 9.3 k's per 9 innings. He had 1 emergency start in Knoxville filling in with injuries and got beat up pretty good but I think he is ready for another chance. He was primarily a reliever at Boston College so the bullpen may be his eventual destination but for now he starts.

Weigel is also a groundball pitcher. My scout has been pretty good with hitters but seems to know very little about pitching, other than the fact he doesn't think anyone is good enough so with a lack of trustworthy guidance from him I have decided to target ground ball pitchers with good control. Figure if we can keep the ball in the park and not issue too many free passes we should make out reasonably well.

Other than that my basic strategy going into the season was get my kids playing and see if we can start to rebuild a last place team. Obviously, this start has greatly exceeded my expectations. I knew the offense was good - we led the league in batting average despite the last place finish a year ago - but pitching and defense were awful. The defense has rebounded nicely and I had hoped vets like Goff, Dick Dover and Jackie Marshall would have decent years. They haven't but my 3 Toronto pick-ups and my bullpen have been outstanding. Cal Williams is 8-3 with a 2.63 era which is so far above what I expected from him when he was acquired along with Moran in exchange for dropping from the #2 to the #6 spot in the draft and a young outfield prospect. I had hoped Williams could be good enough to be my #4 or 5 starter (he was 19-32 with an era of roughly 4.50 over the past two seasons with the Wolves) so the big prize was Moran, a 26 year old rookie who was 19-6 in AAA a year ago. Moran got hurt but not until after he won his first 4 decisions with a 2.36 era.

My rotation has been heavily transformed from last year with those two and the addition of rule v pickup Harvey Rodgers (4-2, 3.42), who also was acquired from Toronto and won 20 games in AAA a year ago. Rodgers was the one I coveted more than Moran in the trade talks simply because he is two years younger. I have just promoted lefty Leon Campbell (1-0, 4.80) from Houston. The 24 year old Campbell was 5-2 in a call-up last season but I elected to start him in AAA because of Goff, Dover and Marshall being in my rotation. Now only Marshall (4-4, 4.83) remains as Dover (5-4, 5.55) has been shifted to the pen but if they continue to struggle they will be gone as I have a couple of young arms in Houston that I think are ready for a shot, chief among them is 25 year old lefthander Art Carlson (2-3, 2.92), who was 16-7 at Knoxville a year ago.

The bullpen has been terrific. I knew I had a good closer in Buck Blood after his performance in the spring. He had not allowed an earned run all season until I talked about it last post and he immediately got torched for 6 runs in an inning against Baltimore this week. Middle reliever Bob Brown, who was called up from Houston when Moran went down, has allowed just 1 run in 14 2/3 innings of work. I moved Dover out of the rotation to the pen last week when I called up Campbell to replace the injured Karl Mallek on the roster. Dover was terrible in the rotation but has looked good in 2 relief outings so far. Hopefully he can keep it up otherwise he is off to Houston.


So we are tearing it up offensively, even better than expected. The pitching is a nice surprise, as is our defense. We have committed the fewest errors in the Association so far and are second in defensive efficiency, 5th in zone rating. Last year I believe we were dead last in the Continental Association in all three. The only question now is can we keep it up?
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Old 07-01-2019, 04:06 PM   #55
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June 14, 1926

MORAN THROWS NO-HITTER

The highlight of this week for the Brooklyn Kings was the performance by rookie pitcher Topsay Moran in a June 11th victory over the Cleveland Foresters. The 27 year old improved his record to 5-1 on the season by throwing the first no-hitter in the FABL in almost 3 years. The 5-0 win over Cleveland was just the second no-hitter in Kings history and first for the club since Ed Wilson also turned the trick against Cleveland back in 1900.

The Kings went 4-3 on the week and remain in second place, now 2.5 games back of the front-running Philadelphia Sailors. After blasting Sailors 14-2 last Sunday, Brooklyn began the sim with back to back losses to Philadelphia, falling 6-3 on Monday and 6-2 on Tuesday. Monday's loss marked the return of Moran, who had missed 5 weeks with a hamstring injury, and also his first loss of the season after beginning the year 4-0. Speaking of hamstring injuries, the Kings lost another pitcher with one as veteran Jackie Marshall is out for two months after getting hurt running the bases in a 4-2 extra inning loss to Cleveland the day before Moran's performance.

Not sure if it is just a coincidence or not but sure seems weird losing two pitchers with hamstring injuries. My trainer, Mark Dickenson, is rated outstanding at preventing leg injuries and excellent at healing them so don't think I have a problem there, so I am assuming it's just bad luck.

As for the rest of the week, after the two losses to Philadelphia we took 3 of 4 from Cleveland and finished the week with an 8-3 win over Chicago as our long homestand continues. Cal Williams got the win Sunday to become the first CA pitcher to reach the 10-win mark this season. Williams is 10-3 with a 2.35 era.

We have 7 more games at home this week before finally heading back out on the road. The week begins with 3 against Toronto and the Chicago comes back in for 3 before we end it with another one game series Sunday - this time vs the Wolves again.

ROSTER MOVES
I put Jackie Marshall on the 60 day injured list as he is gone for 2-3 months. At 4-4 with a 4.48 era Marshall was very inconsistent this year, but had pitched quite well in two of his last 4 outings. Dick Dover (5-4, 5.55), who got bumped from the rotation when Moran returned from injury, will go back in the starting five but he remains on thin ice as he has been extremely disappointing this year.

I called up 25 year old rookie lefthander Art Carlson from AAA Houston. The former Mississippi State Bulldog was a 5th round pick of the Kings in 1921 and he split last year between Class A Omaha and AA Knoxville, compiling a 20-7 record between the two levels. This year he was 3-3 with a 2.44 era in his first taste of AAA action. Carlson struck out 49 batters in 44 innings but I am little concerned he surrendered 5 homers despite being a groundball pitcher.

I also decided to send young outfielder Al Stanton back down to the minors. The 22 year old was called up a couple of weeks ago because of injuries but just wasn't getting any playing time. He had made a number of appearances as a defensive replacement but got just 1 at bat, in which he delivered an rbi single. He is not ranked by my scouting team as a high prospect but he was hitting .340 with 5 homers in 33 games at AA Knoxville so I want to get him some AAA at bats and see if he has a future with us. I recalled 30 year old infielder Jack Van Landingham to fill the roster spot. Van Landingham hit .257 in 21 games in Brooklyn so far this season.
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Old 07-02-2019, 02:31 PM   #56
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JUNE 21, 1926
My Brooklyn Kings went 5-2 this week but still dropped another game back in our chase of the first place Philadelphia Sailors. We also got a bit of an injury scare as rookie sensation Doug Lightbody suffered a back injury, but it was minor and he only missed a couple of games. Ligthbody (.370,5,38) continues to lead the Continental Association in batting, ops and WaR. Catcher Mickey Dowell (.341,5,47) is still the RBI leader with Bud Rogers (.330,4,43) moving up to third in that category. Lead-off man Lou Cox (.300,0,25) leads both leagues with 22 stolen bases while our first baseman Lou Garman (.354,2,34) is third in steals with 14.

We lead the CA in most offensive categories including runs scored and batting average and are still among the leaders in defensive efficiency and zone rating. However, our pitching is still not strong enough. We are 7th out of 8 teams in starters era but second in bullpen era. Philadelphia, conversly, has the best rotation in the CA and have allowed the fewest runs.

I am very happy with our top three starters even though Cal Williams (10-4, 2.81) just finished his worst outing as a King, getting beat up for 8 runs (just 4 earned) in 2.2 innings of a 9-6 loss to struggling Chicago. It was the Cougars only win in their last 10 games. #2 starter Topsy Moran followed up his no-hitter with a 6-hit performance in a 6-4 loss to Toronto. He did not get a decision in that one as reliever Buck Blood let a 4-4 tie disappear in the ninth inning but Moran improved to 6-1 on the season with a 7-4 win over that same Toronto team on the weekend. Harvey Rodgers (5-3, 3.88) pitched twice last week, going 8+ innings both times but only got the decision in a 7-2 win over Toronto on Monday. He wasn't as sharp in his second outing but the offense bailed us out with the tying run in the bottom of the ninth and the winning run in the 12th inning of an 8-7 victory.

#4 starter Leon Campbell improved to 2-0 despite a 5.90 era but he has benefitted from what likely is the best run support in either league. We have scored 44 runs in his 4 starts with the latest being a 13-6 win for him over Cleveland. Dick Dover gave up 7 runs in 6 and a third innings of his start for the week, but got the win because we scored 11 for him against Cleveland.

I am almost to the point of putting Dover (6-4, 5.91) back in the pen and giving the fifth starter job to rookie lefthander Art Carlson but my manager Powell Slocum still prefers Dover in the rotation so I will give him one more week. Calrson made his first three major league appearances, all in relief, this week with mixed results. He pitched a perfect 2/3 of an inning to close out a 7-2 win for Harvey Rodgers in his debut, gave up 2 runs in 1 2/3 vs Toronto the next day but it didn't hurt as we won 11-9, and finished strong with 5 1/3 of 3 hit,1 run ball against Chicago in relief of Williams.

Our injury list is getting much smaller. Down to just pitchers Jackie Marshall and Karl Mallek from the major league roster as shortstop Lloyd Carter(.272,0,10) has just been cleared to return to action this week after missing about a month with ankle problems. That allows me to shift Rip Agee back to second where he has played very well defensively. Jack Van Landingham goes back to AAA Houston to clear room for Carter on the active roster.


Code:

CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION LEAGUE STANDINGS
		 W  L   GB
Philadelphia	43 20    -
BROOKLYN	41 25   3.5
New York	35 26   7.0
Toronto		33 33  11.5
Baltimore	31 32  12.0
Chicago		26 40  18.5
Montreal	26 41  19.0
Cleveland	25 43  20.5
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Old 07-03-2019, 01:27 PM   #57
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Quite a week for what I am sure by now is your favourite FABL team. The Brooklyn Kings went 6-1 and moved to within a game of first place Philadelphia for supremacy in the Continental Assocation.

Lots of positives this week but let's start with Glen Mowles. The 33 year old third baseman had lost his starting job to rookie Rolla Alexander (.270,1,41), who had a great start to the season but slowed down of late. Manager Powell Slocum decided last week to insert Mowles in the starting lineup and it is clear the veteran wants his job back. Mowles hit .545 (12-for-22) with a homerun and 10 rbi's in 6 games to capture the CA player of the week award. Congrats to Mowles and to Slocum for a great decision.

The rest of the offense is rolling as well. Six of my 8 position players hit over .300 last week led by Mowles and catcher Mickey Dowell, who went 10-for-20 with 2 homers and 10 rbi's. Our Kings have scored 394 runs this season with the next closest CA team being the Chicago Cougars who trail us by 39 runs. Our .303 team batting average is .016 ahead of the Philadelphia Sailors and we are still second to only Philadelphia in defensive efficiency.

The leaderboards of the Continental Association are dominated by Kings. Rookie Doug Lightboyd (.366,5,43) leads the Association in batting average with teammates Lou Garman (.358,3,38) and Mickey Dowell (.353,7,57). Outfielder Bud Rogers (.327,4,45) is also in the top 10. Dowell is third in homers with Lightbody 5th. Dowell leads the league in RBI's with Rogers 3rd, Lightbody 4th and fellow rookie Rolla Alexander (.270,1,41) in 7th place. Lightbody and Garman are 1-2 in on-base percentage and first and third in hits with Lou Cox (.292,0,29) and Dowell also in the top 10. Cox leads the Association with 23 stolen bases while Garman's 15 place him third so all is good with our offense.

Cal Williams got his 11th win but did not pitch very well in his two starts, allowing 11 earned runs in 13 innings. He is 11-4 but his era has risen from 2.35 to 3.34 in just over 2 weeks. I fear he is starting to creep back up to his career norm which is in the mid 4's. Leon Campbell improved to 3-0 this season and 8-2 on his career with a complete game 3-hit shutout in a 5-0 win over Baltimore. Topsy Moran got his third straight win to improve to 7-1 while Harvey Rodgers had a strong outing against Baltimore to improve to 6-3. Even Dick Dover (8-4, 5.19) had a very good outing, beating the New York Stars 5-1 with a complete game but as you will read shortly all it earned him was a trip to AAA Houston.

Saying all that we know we need to improve our pitching if we want to be serious contenders for the Continental Association crown....so we made some moves that take effect for the next sim.

First Brooklyn dealt 2B Victor Rodding and highly regarded minor league shortstop Charlie Rector to Montreal in exchange for pitcher Del Plummer and 3B Fred Welsch and then we sent minor league pitcher Rube McCormick and our first round pick in the upcoming draft to Cleveland for pitcher Mose Smith and the right to exchange second round draft picks.

The moves only cost us Rodding off our major league roster. He is a great player but, at 30 years of age, the oldest of our core, and we can get by without his offense. Plus the addition of the 30 year old Welsch, who can also play second, provides nice insurance if 25 year old Rip Agee (.248,0,29) continues to struggle at the plate or the combination of rookie Alexander and veteran Mowles can't get it done at third base.

The big key are the two pitchers as that allows me to send Dover down to Houston as well as return rookie Art Carlson, who had been pitching out of our pen since Jackie Marshall went down. It was between Dover and Leon Campbell for the final spot and Campbell earned the job for now based on his terrific recent outing.

Mose Smith (7-7, 2.56) is a 33 year old pitcher who has had a dominant career with the Foresters, compiling a 207-204 career record. My scout Rube Carter says he is still one of the best in the game and will be a welcome addition to our rotation. Plummer is 30 years old and has a strong pedigree, but has been awful in recent weeks for Montreal. He is 3-13 with a 5.07 era but gets no run support. Our hope is he can pitch for us like he did in previous years, and April and May of this season, and not like how he has pitched the past month.

I let my manager Powell Slocum decide the pitching roles and has selected Campbell over Rodgers for our fifth starter. The staff looks like this:
Code:
1 R  Mose Smith		7-7  2.56
2 R  Topsy Moran 	7-1  3.13
3 R  Cal Williams      11-4  3.34
4 R  Del Plummer	3-13 5.07
5 L  Leon Campbell	3-0  4.50

  R  Buck Blood		4-3  3.71  8 saves
  R  Bob Brown		2-0  0.40  2 saves
  R  Harvey Rodgers	6-3  3.68
Here are the updated standings. More thoughts on my trades coming shortly.
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Old 07-03-2019, 01:55 PM   #58
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ANATOMY OF A TRADE IN A STATS ONLY ONLINE LEAGUE


I pulled the trigger on a pair of deals that best case scenario lift us to a Continental Association Pennant but worse case really hinder our long term competitiveness. I certainly got older but I also got a lot better at the major league level, picking up a pair of number one starters from other teams.

The deals both came about fairly quickly. The Philadelphia Sailors are good. We are in contention but clearly I need to do something with my pitching to have a shot at beating them. I looked through the teams in the bottom half of the league to identify pitchers I thought could help me but were also at least 30 years old, thinking these teams would be willing deal and because of the age the cost would not be as much as I would pay for a younger arm. I sent messages to 5 teams and a discussion began immediately with Montreal. The talks went very quickly as I expressed an interest in 30 year old Del Plummer.

Plummer is in his 7th year as a starter in the league and 6th with Montreal. He won 16 games each of the past two seasons and posted a 3.66 era in both those years. This year he has had a rough go of things with a 3-11 record and a 4.88 era but his run support is among the worst in the league and Montreal's defense behind him has struggled this year. My scout Rube Carter, who I mentioned before hates most pitchers, really likes him so that was a plus and while he has struggled mightily in his last 3 outings he pitched two very good games against my Kings this season, losing to us 2-0 and 3-1.

Still he was far from my first choice as a target because he is just 30 years old and I knew the cost would be heavy. As I mentioned the deal happened very quickly with Montreal asking for my starting 2B Victor Rodding and a top shortstop prospect in Charlie Rector. The Saints also offered to throw in 2B-3B Fred Welsch - a vet I assume they would have demoted or cut with the addition of Rodding.

It took me a bit of time to agree as Rector was the piece I did not want to part with if I could avoid it but I accepted the deal as offered. Montreal gets a great player in Victor Rodding, who just celebrated his 30th birthday four days prior. Rodding is an elite second baseman offensively with a .321 career batting average but I felt he was expendable because Rip Agee has shown he can do the job and I have a young talent in 23 year old Henry Middleton at AA right now. I have a wealth of offense but desperately need pitching if I am to catch the Philadelphia Sailors so I felt I could part with Rodding, who is also the oldest of my great young core of position players.

So now it came down to Rector. I would have much preferred to part with a young outfielder than a middle infielder but, like my Brooklyn Kings, Montreal is very deep outfield prospects. Rector is a 22 year old 6th round pick from the 1922 draft that I recently promoted from Class A Omaha to AA Knoxville. He struggled a bit at Omaha offensively, batting .233 but did draw a fair number of walks as well. His defense was outstanding so he got moved up to Knoxville and after a month there is hitting .266. I like him, I like him a lot and Rube Carter thinks he can become an above-average major league shortstop.

I also have another 22 year old shortstop who was taken in the second round of the 1922 draft by the name of Arnold Bower. Like Rector, Bower started at Omaha this season but was promoted to AA Knoxville after hitting .285 and playing solid defense for the Cowboys. Promoted in part to make room for Rector at Omaha. Bower hit .280 in Knoxville and again was good with the glove in 19 games. I had some injuries so I moved him up to AAA and he has struggled, hitting just .174 in 6 games. In short, I like him just as much as Rector and the plan was the two of them would fight it out to be my next shortstop. I say next but it's not like my starter in Brooklyn Lloyd Carter is going anywhere. Carter is still 29 and batting .272 this season but missed a month with an injury. He hit .343 a year ago and is a lifetime .312 hitter who plays very good defense. Because Carter is so good I finally decided I could live with 1 prospect instead of two at the shortstop position so I pulled the trigger on the deal.

Plummer will at the very least be my number four starter and allow me to move Dick Dover to the pen if I finally give up on him. Followers of this thread know Dover, who was ranked in the top 20 pitchers in the league in the preseason, has been my worst starting pitcher so far. In the short-term I demoted Art Carlson back to AAA to make room for Plummer. My biggest hesitation on Plummer is he has pitched very badly in his last three outings but hopefully a fresh start and the beginnings of a pennant race get him back on track. The other thing that made him less then ideal is I have made groundball pitchers a priority as out park slightly favours hitting. Plummer has been pitching in a pitcher-friendly park but he is neutral rather than a ground ball style pitcher. (We have no ratings to go by so we must base decisions on what we can see and that is one reason I have chose to focus on acquiring ground ball pitchers whenever possible).

Playing stats-only has added so much to this experience in my opinion. If we had ratings turned on things would be so much more black & white. Both Montreal and myself would know exactly what Plummer's ratings are and have a much better idea if his bad seasons was the start of a ratings plunge or just a blip in the big picture. We would also know just good Rector was expected to become and if I was right in putting my faith in Bower now as my shortstop of the future. But we don't and as a result there is so much more uncertainty and intrigue to these deals.

I have not touched on the other player Montreal included in the deal. Much more than a throw-in, 30 year old Fred Welsch may even start for me at 3B and at worst will be a good bench bat. He has slumped in the field but had a great season with the glove at third base a year ago. He can also play second but has not played it much at the major league level. He is a decent, but not spectacular hitter, batting .276 this year which is on par with his career .282 average. My scout, Rube Carter, likes him for his defense and is knowledge of the strike zone - he has a .340 on base percentage and does not strikeout much.

ANOTHER DEAL

Almost immediately after the Montreal trade was announced in our slack channel I got a message from Cleveland - one of the other teams I contacted about pitching. Cleveland is presently in last place in the Continental Association and is almost the opposite of Brooklyn. Good pitching but no hitting. The Foresters problem is all 5 of their starting pitchers are at least 30 years old including their ace, and one of the league's very best pitchers in Mose Smith.

I looked their team over and would have been happy with any of four different pitchers but Smith, despite being 33 years old, was the one I coveted the most...but it was close as I really liked the other guys as well. He is third in the league with a 2.52 era and despite a terrible offense to work with is the only Cleveland starter with a .500 record. He is an extreme ground ball pitcher and my scout loves him, calling him one of the elite, and worthy of Allen Award (our top pitcher award) discussion every year. He has been healthy throughout his career and pitches a lot of innings. At 33 I would like to think I could get at least 2 more good seasons out of him and maybe more plus at that age the cost might be a little less than one would expect to pay for a pitcher of his quality.

The cost? What is a player worth in this universe? That is one of those real unknowns for myself being new to online leagues, but I think for all of our GM's because of the uncertainty stats only brings to the equation. So for a newcomer to online leagues I feel much more on equal footing than I otherwise would if it was not stats-only.

Anyway, my hope was I could get Smith maybe at the cost of my first round pick and one of my outfield or catcher prospects, which I feel I have quite a lot of. Unfortunately, Cleveland wanted pitching or a catcher and did not seem to like the catchers in my system. They asked for Bill Dengler, my second round pick, and Rube McCormick, who I took in the 6th round. I really like both and consider them along with Lyman Weigel, part of my rotation of the future. I couldn't part with both and really think of Dengler as an untouchable in my system. So my first round pick entered the conversation along with McCormick. The big concern for me with including the pick is the goal in this deal is to win the pennant, so if I dealt my first rounder I am likely not getting a pick until 30th or so overall. I didn't want to move McCormick but Cleveland and I agreed to swap second rounders in the deal as well which hopefully allows me to find a good young arm around the 20th pick to take McCormick's spot. In my mind, if things go right it is almost like I dealt McCormick and my second rounder instead of a first as Cleveland will likely pick in the top five meaning I am giving up pick 13-16 and 30-32 but getting 17-21 in return. I also know without substantial pitching upgrades that Philadelphia will be very tough to catch so I pulled the trigger and gave up a young arm I am very high on in McCormick but added a 33 year old ace in return.

SUMMARY

Since taking over the Kings, I have completely redesigned my rotation which was among the worst in the league last season. Adding Cal Williams (10-4, 2.81) along with rookies Topsy Moran (6-1, 2.96) and Harvey Rodgers (5-3, 3.88) over the winter was the start. I moved out 40 year old declining legend Danny Goff to St Louis because of the number of homeruns he is giving up and I finished things off by adding a pair of number one starters - old for sure in 33 year old Mose Smith and 30 year old Del Plummer - but if they can pitch like they have perhaps we can give the Philadelphia Sailors a run for their money.

I think they were deals I had to make. Philadelphia's rotation is dominant and young so I feel they will be a force in the Continental Association for quite some time. Brooklyn has wildly exceeded my expectations this year: it is mid-June and we are in contention when I feared going in we would be a second-division team. I felt we are deep enough an organization in terms of young prospects I could make these moves for a shot at winning now without hurting the future. Our offense is dominant. Hopefully we now have the pitching that can support it and give us a 2 or 3 year window to win a pennant or two.

Big question is did I hurt my team long-term? If all goes right I moved what was effectively a second round pick plus what the game considers my 9th and 12th best prospects. Time well tell as McCormick and Rector could both become stars in this league. I hope they do because I want these deal to work out for both teams as that is best for the entire league. I also hope I can get 3 years out of Smith and 4 or 5 out of Plummer as key contributors to my rotation. And I hope this lets the Philadelphia Sailors know that Brooklyn has set it's sights on passing them. We also need to keep an eye on the two-time defending CA champion New York Stars, but that is for another write-up.
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Old 07-06-2019, 12:25 PM   #59
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LIGHTBODY DONE FOR SEASON

What I was hoping would be a recap of a great opening week for our new pitching acquisitions turned into a nightmare sim for my Brooklyn Kings. Our stellar rookie Doug Lightbody (.356/.428/.511, 5HR, 44 RBI, 66runs) was lost for the season when he blew out his elbow on a throw from the outfield. A devastating end to what was shaping up to be a historic debut for the 22 year old first round pick who came straight from Ole Miss to the FABL.

While the loss hurts I believe we have more than enough offense to compensate for his absence, but my worry is that this has a long-term effect on his career. Only time will tell. In the meantime, another former Ole Miss Rebel gets his starting job back as 26 year old Clarence Hall will replace Lightbody in rightfield after the rookie took his job in the spring. While not Lightbody, Hall is very good. He is hitting .328 in limited duty this year after batting .352 in 100 games as a rookie last season.

My other rookie position player, 3B Rolla Alexander, remains glued to the bench because veteran Glenn Mowles continues to be red-hot. The 33 year old Mowles got a chance to start two weeks ago when Alexander (.273,1,41) went into a bit of a slump. Mowles won player of the week and followed it up with another outstanding week that now sees him slashing .515/.564/.706 for the season (only 78 plate appearances though) which is obviously forcing manager Powell Slocum to keep him in the lineup.

The other positive news this week was first baseman Lou Garman (.359,4,44) was named the Continental Association batter of the month. Like I said, I think our offense should be okay even without Lightbody.


5 GAME LOSING STREAK
We started the week with 2 more wins to make it 7 straight victories but then the tides turned and we dropped our final 5 games of the week. The only good news is Philadelphia is on a 6 game losing streak so we remain virtually tied for top spot in the Association.

Code:

CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION LEAGUE STANDINGS
		 W  L   GB
Philadelphia	47 29    -
BROOKLYN	49 31    -
New York	42 35   5.5
Toronto		42 37   6.5
Baltimore	39 39   9.0
Chicago		34 45  14.5
Montreal	32 48  17.0
Cleveland	30 51  19.5
What I am worried about is our pitching. Not the new pick-ups as Mose Smith and Del Plummer both had decent outings in their opening week with us. Smith began the week with a 7-4 win over New York but lost 5-1 to Montreal in his second start. He went 8 innings both times and while, not great, his outings were about the best we got all week. Plummer had a tough assignment as he was forced to face his former teammates in his first Brooklyn game. We lost 4-2 but I was happy with his outing.

Cal Williams is who I am most worried about as I have waited all season for him to return to his career norm after he was so good to begin the year. He is overcompensating for that right now with 4 just plain awful starts for us since he beat Chicago 8-3 to improve to 10-3. He did get a win in one of them but has seen his era balloon from 2.35 to 3.85 after being shelled 4 straight games. Slocum is putting him in the pen this week to see if that gets him untracked.

Rookie Topsy Moran (7-3, 3.83), who tossed a no-hitter last month, has had 2 straight bad starts. Hopefully he can bounce back this week as he will stay in the rotation along with Smith, Plummer, fellow rookie Harvey Rodgers and young Leon Campbell.

Campbell is a weird story. The kid just can't lose it seems as he improved to 4-0 despite a 4.70 era this year after going 5-2 in a call-up last season. This year he has had some good outings - like a 3-hit shutout of Baltimore a couple of weeks ago, but also some bad ones too. However, we are scoring nearly 8 runs a start for him so he is getting the wins.

My bullpen is suddenly a worry as well. Bob Brown had been amazing out of the pen but has given up runs in each of his last two appearances. Even more troubling is our stopper Buck Blood, who didn't allow an earned run until June, but has fallen off the rails with 8 earned runs and 10 hits in his last 3 and a third innings of relief. I will give him another week to try and work out of it but if he doesn't come around soon I may have to bring up someone from Houston.


So the excitement of a big couple of trades disappeared quickly as the Lightbody injury and some terrible pitching from guys who had previously been doing great, really put a damper on the sim. But, I can't be too upset about it as it is July and our team, picked to finish at or near the bottom of the standings is in the thick of a pennant race. Let's hope for a better sim from the Kings on Monday.
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Old 07-08-2019, 11:36 AM   #60
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July 12, 1926

KINGS BACK ON TRACK
Brooklyn snapped it's 6 game losing streak in a big way by taking both ends of a doubleheader with Baltimore on Monday. It began a week that saw the Kings win 6 of 7 on the road including a 4-game sweep of the Cannons before taking two of three in Chicago. We survived our first week without the injured Doug Lightbody just fine as his fill-in, Clarence Hall, went 9-for-21. A number of reserves came up big this week but none more so that little used catcher Clay Vega. The 26 year old has had just 46 at bats this season as Mickey Dowell (.349,8,72) see the bulk of the action behind the plate, but Vega went 5-for-5 in one of his two starts for the week, a 3-0 win over Baltimore. 21 year old rookie outfielder Ab Thomas looked good in his big league debut, going 5-for-15 during the week with his first big league rbi.

Glen Mowles struggled after two huge weeks so we are going to give Fred Welsch, who came over from Montreal in the Del Plummer trade, an opportunity to play next week. Speaking of Plummer, he pitched well and picked up a pair of wins this week. We also got a great start from Harvey Rodgers (7-3, 3.15) and two outstanding outings from Leon Campbell (6-0, 3.80).

CARTER AND SLOCUM SIGN EXTENSIONS

In off-field news the Brooklyn Kings have announced they have extended the contracts of all of their major league personnel including manager Powell Slocum and scouting director Rube Carter. Slocum, who has done a marvelous job with the club this season, is now signed through the 1929 campaign. Carter, who was instrumental in the drafting of Doug Lightbody and the decisions to acquire pitchers Topsy Moran and Harvey Rodgers, has agreed to a deal that will keep him with Brooklyn for 4 more seasons.
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