HOW THE SAILORS BUILT THE FOUNDATION FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP IN 3 WEEKS
The Rule V draft comes around each December about a week after the amateur draft takes place. While there is plenty of excitement leading up to the amateur draft, the rule V draft goes by largely unnoticed. It lacks any of the fanfare and certainly the star power top college and high school seniors bring to the rookie draft. However, a smart rule V pick can set your team up for a championship.
Don't believe me? Just ask the Philadelphia Sailors. The Sailors had the best pitching rotation in FABL this year and the result was a World Championship. The number two starter on that title team was 26 year old righthander Rollie Beal. Beal might have struggled in his only postseason start but had he not gone 16-7 during the season the Sailors might not have won the Continental Association title.
Three years ago Beal was acquired by the Sailors as a rule V draft pick, plucked out of A ball with very little experience above that level. It was one of a series of decisions around pitching made by then rookie GM Alan Abel to set the Sailors up possibly for years.
More on the other moves in a moment but let's start with Beal as it was more than just Washington, the team that left him exposed in the rule V draft, that failed to see his potential. After a decent (12-9, 2.51) 3 year career at Liberty College, Beal was selected by the Montreal Saints in the 9th round of the 1924 draft. It was still in the era of computer GM's and as team's seemed to have the habit of doing, the Saints gave up on Beal early by releasing him in spring training. He caught on with Brooklyn and went 18-8 at AA Knoxville in 1924. He was 7-2 between 3 levels of minors with the Kings in May of 1925 when they inexplicably released him as well. Washington picked him up and assigned Beal to Class A Trenton of the Mid-Atlantic League where he went 17-1 in 19 starts with a 2.32 era. He was 24-3 combined with 4 minor league teams that season but when the human GM's took over Washington failed to protect the then 23 year old.
The Sailors finished in the middle of the pack in 1925 so 8 or so teams had a shot at Beal before them but it was only the Sailors who saw the potential in young righthander. To be historically accurate, the Sailors passed on Beal twice as well since he was not selected by them until the 3rd round, 41st overall in the 1925 Rule V draft. He went 16-9 as a rookie for the Sailors in 1926 and has not slowed down posting seasons of 17-12 and 16-7 the past two years. Meanwhile, 15 other FABL GM's are shaking their heads trying to figure out how they failed to see the potential Beal the day of that rule V draft.
Beal was just one of three smart or lucky (or a combination of both) moves made by Abel. Three weeks before the rule V draft in what was one of his first transactions as the Sailors GM, Abel signed minor league free agent Johnny Davis who had recently been released by the cpu GM in Boston. Davis, a former first round draft pick and College World Series winner who went 21-4 in 3 seasons with Garden State, spent two years in the minors with the Sailors organization before bursting on to the big stage this year. He led the Aligned Leagues with 24 wins, earned an Allen Award as Continental Association MVP and dominated the powerful Chicago Chiefs in the World Championship Series.
As if those two weren't enough, the Sailors completed the Fall 1925 trifecta by drafting William Jones in the third round out of Whitney College. Jones, like Davis, made his FABL debut this season and went 13-5 with a 2.88 era. 1925 was an exceptionally deep draft for hitters and the Sailors got one of the best by selecting 2B Jack Cleaves 10th overall out of Louisville High School. Cleaves made his FABL debut in 1927 and hit .289 as the Sailors everyday second baseman. 1925 has, so far, not proven to be as good a draft for pitchers. A total of 8 pitchers were selected ahead of Jones but only two, Brooklyn's Bill Dengler and Al Allen Jr. of Montreal, have made their big league debuts. Neither has been as effective yet as Jones has.
So in a matter of less than a month the Sailors acquired 3 young pitchers, at zero cost, who could form the backbone of their pitching staff for the next decade and they added a premier second baseman as well. Not bad for the first month on the job for their new GM.