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Thanks for sharing some great information on the Cougars organization. Times have been tough the past couple of seasons and might also be this year but as you have indicated there is plenty of good young talent on the way to make Northsiders take heed of their team and serve as a reminder there is plenty of reason not be too envious of their Federal Association rivals in south Chicago.
The Cougars have a nice collection of young pitchers in their system led by Ben Turner, George DeForest and Heinie Bretz and, as you pointed out, catcher Fred Barrell and 3B Mack "The Real" Deal should be stars in this league for years to come. Old Jiggs would also like to touch on a couple of other players I really like in the Cougars system.
Let's start with Vince York. I first called attention to the 22 year old former Wichita High School star a year ago in an article late last summer when I mentioned the minor league outfielder was one of only 3 professional ballplayers to have over 220 hits at that point of the season. The other two were Jim Hampton of the Chicago Chiefs (who ended up batting .397 to lead the entire FABL) and Frank Vance of Detroit, who finished third behind Hampton and Joe Masters in Whitney Award voting. When the dust settled on the season York, an outfielder who split time between AA and AAA a year ago, was also surpassed by Masters for hits on the year but his minor league season was still one worth noticing. York ended up with 227, more hits than anyone else who played pro ball last season except the 3 finalists for the Whitney Award in the Federal Association.
Yes, the others did it in the big leagues and York was facing minor league pitching but let it sink in for a moment. York hit 227 base knocks and his .398 average was better than any other player - major or minor league- with at least 350 at bats a year ago. The kid can flat our 'rake'. He made huge strides from the season before, when he struck out 141 times in 545 at bats at Class A, reducing that total to just 27 k's in 637 plate appearances. He sacrificed a fair bit of power to focus on improving his pitch selection a year ago but I think he can hit 15 homers once he matures, although I believe he really projects to be an ideal lead-off man in the future with his above average foot speed.
One other name to keep an eye on is 21 year old lefthander Mike Murphy. Sources tell me a number of teams really liked the second overall draft pick the Cougars selected out of Brooklyn State this past December. The Brooklyn Kings, for one, have gone on record saying Murphy was their target in December had they not been able to secure the number one pick in the draft and, even after doing so, the Kings reportedly briefly considered the merits of selecting Morphy over Wilcox.
Speaking of Brooklyn, another player I have watched closely is an outfielder the Cougars snagged from the Kings a couple of years back. George Jordan is 23 years old now and 5 years removed from being a first round pick out of Sacramento High School. The centerfielder had a brief stint in Chicago last season after getting his first taste of AAA earlier in the summer. His rise through the minor leagues has been methodical but he has shown steady improvement each season. A good example is the start to his year at AA a season ago when, a year after hitting over .300 at Class A, he hit .337 in 52 AA games to earn the promotion to AAA. He might need another season of AAA but Jordan looks like he has tools to be a pretty good centerfielder.
Anyway I just wanted to poke my head in and thank the Cougars for some great insight on their team and wish them well in 1929.
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