July 1, 1920
Trade season is upon us folks. We've hit the point where the competition leaders try to shore up their weaknesses and the competition basement dwellers are just trying to salvage
something from the season by trading off the olds and bringing in some younger talent for the future.
The Crimson Forest Falcons (25-56) were the first to move by sending off 1B Zeke Reynolds to the Dustland Sharks (47-36) in exchange for two minor leaguers. Reynolds is 37 years old, absolutely terrible defensively, and slower than molasses on the basepaths. He can hit though. The Falcons restricted him to a pinch hitting role (they had a preference for the defence and stealing of 23 year old Gaby Williams) where he amassed 143 OPS+ over 72 plate appearances.
The Sharks are going to take a gamble on his terrible defense and put him in the starting lineup, hitting cleanup against Righties. Their other first base options: Spencer Quinn and freshly demoted Siem Bork offer more defensively but offered nothing offensively generating 42 and 68 OPS+ respectively.
Reynolds, who had made a public demand to be traded back in May is a free agent after this season.
The other team throwing in the towel was the Amelia City Metros (34-48) who got two minor league pitchers from the Spice District Roosters (54-28) in exchange for 32 year old Sylas Lang. The league leading Roosters will slot Lang at #3 on their rotation behind two All-Stars Max Steel and Jared Way.
July 5, 1920
Draft day. Most of the draft pool is made up of players from the local high school and university leagues but there's a few Amelians in there who played some college ball overseas who've returned home.
With the #1 pick, the Crimson Forest Falcons pick CF Christian Tiggs
Tiggs attended University in a foreign land and made a strong contribution. He projects out to be an excellent defender and baserunner with strong discipline at the plate. That high work ethic and low greed is just icing on the cake for the Falcons.
With the #2 pick, the Amelia City Metropolitans pick Pitcher Carson Mixon from the Institute of Evil
The Institute of Evil had a terrible season this year, it certainly didn't help that Mixon got himself injured in in his third game. He probably couldn't have held that 316 ERA+ but he certainly could have helped the Ravens do better than 8-28.
With the #3 pick, the Unicorn Point Athletic Club pick Pitcher Wade Callaghan from Whiskeytown Schoolhouse
A starter in high school but almost certainly a reliever if he makes to COBRA ball. Even now, he's got more movement on his pitches than the pros. He shows a lot of promise but we'll see if the Unicorns can convince him to give university a skip (he's already been accepted by the Saffron School of Magic).
With the #4 pick, the Whiskeytown Ducks pick 2B Jack Barfield from the Saffron School of Magic
One of the stars of the supposedly invincible Saffron School of Magic team. Barfield is promising to be an absolute terror on the basepaths but it remains to be seen if he can get that hitting and defense up to COBRA standards. One of his crazier stats from uni was BB/SO ratio. He drew 18 walks but only struck out three times. If he can bring that approach to the big time he could be successful.
Barfield won the Great Glove and the Platinum Stick award for second basemen this year.
With the #5 pick, the Hadestown Broncos pick Pitcher Thomas Campbell from Dustland Boy's High School
Hadestown management going for a big gamble by using their first round pick on a high school kid with injury problems. Campbell missed most of the season with injuries but we did get to see a glimpse of his promise in his final game for his school where he threw 8 innings of shutout ball on the way to a 2-0 win for his team.
Rest of Round One...- #6 Dustland Sharks picked RF Toby Ogle from Amelia University
- #7 Port Magnolia Dolphins picked SS Thomas Nielsen from Whiskeytown Schoolhouse
- #8 Sugar Factory Elephants picked 2B Asher Sunderland
- #9 Northlands Polar Bears picked CF Robert Lowe from Crimson Forest High School. Along with the championship, Lowe also won the Great Glove and Platinum Stick award for CF. Probably his most notable achievement was hitting two grand slams in one game against the Hadestown Magic Academy.
- #10 Saffron Turtles picked 3B Ozzy Maricic from Hadestown Magic Academy. Winner of the MVP award and the Platinum Stick award for 3B. Led the league in batting average and OPS.
- #11 Spice District Roosters picked C Elijah Padula from Whiskeytown Schoolhouse
- #12 Salt Quarter Penguins picked SS Jesper de Bruin from Port Magnolia High School