Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMaus2
Really looking forward to seeing how Chino Smith performs in your league, aj.
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OSA ranks four Negro Leaguers who never got a chance to play in MLB IRL in it's top 20 position players and top 20 pitchers. There are two of each. CF Oscar Charleston of the Cardinals ranks 3rd in MLB among his fellow position players behind CF Cesar Cedeno and CF John E Briggs. 2B Chino Smith ranks 6th behind Cedeno, Briggs, Charleston, C Tom Haller, and CF Ginger Beaumont.
Charleston has won an MVP award (1955 NL MVP), is a 4-time All-Star, and a 3-time Silver Slugger, and won a championship with the Cardinals in 1955. Chino Smith has only had two seasons in MLB, but already has been an All-Star once, and has back-to-back Silver Slugger awards at 2B.
SP Bill Foster is the best pitcher in all of baseball right now, ahead of even the great Walter Johnson according to OSA. SP Bullet Rogan ranks 7th in all of baseball behind Foster, Johnson, SP Red Ehret, SP Junior Thompson (who's only been used as a RP up to now, but is giving it a shot as a SP this upcoming season), SP Jose Quintana, and SP Tom Seaver.
Foster is the most accomplished of the quartet. He is just through his age 25 season, and already has won the Cy Young award and the MVP award three times each (he pulled off the double in 1952, 1953 and 1957). He was the ROY at age 18 in 1950, and is a six-time All-Star. Rogan struggled early in his career (ERA+ under league average 100 in each of his first six seasons), and has only recently been able to put things together, representing the AL in the 1956 All-Star game, and the NL in the 1957 All-Star game.
It's not just superstuds making it from the Negro Leagues into my game. RHP Dick Redding, RHP Antonio Ruiz (Cuban League I believe), RHP George T Walker, RHP Theolic Smith, C U Emory, 2B Bingo DeMoss, 3B William X Kelly, 1B/OF Lee Moody, and C/OF Nate Peeples are also in there, and I'll be interested to see how they do as well.
I'll also use Spritze to help get Monte Irvin, Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson etc an early enough start so that the late start that they got doesn't affect their greatness in the long run. I'll probably do it for Ichiro as well because I believe he could've come over to North America straight out of high school (not necessarily into MLB, but he could've started his professional career in the minors instead of spending nine years in the ***.