HUMAN GM SCORECARD - PART II: DRAFTING (CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION TEAMS)
A short time ago I took a look at how the 16 FABL franchises have performed since the 1925 off-season, which is when FABL switched to online and human GM's took over controlling the fate of the league. The Philadelphia Sailors had both the best winning percentage and most pennants during that spree but let's take a look at how they, and the other clubs did at the draft table. We are entering 1933 so players from our first draft class, 1925, are well into their careers. I will look at them as well as the 1926 thru 1928 first round picks for each team as anything more recent than that is probably much too early in the player's careers. I am only going to look at first round picks in this analysis, perhaps later round steals (and there certainly have been some good ones) is material for a future topic.
Let's look at the 8 Continental Association teams in this recap.
BALTIMORE CANNONS
The Cannons missed on their very first pick by selecting Earle Charlton, a pitcher out of Lincoln College 8th overall. It was a draft that was top heavy with quality hitters and in the Cannons defense most of them were gone by their pick but the Baltimore brass passed on Jack Cleaves, who went two picks later to the Sailors, in order to select Charlton, who was 12-11 with 3.21 era over 3 seasons of college ball. It is easy to see why they went with him as the league appeared to be very pitching thin at that point but Charlton was not the answer. He spent parts of 5 and a half seasons with Baltimore before being claimed on waivers by Montreal midway through last season. The Saints have since waived him and Charlton, now 28 is trying to catch on with the Sacramento Governors of the AAA Great Western League. His FABL mark stands at 8-16 with a career 6.02 era.
In hindsight the 1926 draft was a very weak class for first rounders, aside from #3 pick Fred Barrell and #16 Woody Armstrong. The Cannons took infielder Art Hart on the strength of an outstanding career at Opelika State, where he started 150 games and hit .351, showing some power with 16 homers in his draft year. The 3B has shown some power at the AAA level but has had difficulty hitting for average and now 28 years old, Hart has played just 26 major league games and is a .208 career hitter.
In 1927 the Cannons dipped into the high school pool and took Bill Ball from New Orleans. The SS made his FABL debut at 23 last season, batting .247 in 109 games so he may still prove to be a solid pick but right now two other first round shortstops look like the better choice as Andy Carter is carving out a very good career in Washington while the other high school shortstop first rounder, Rabbit Mudd, is on the verge of doing the same in Brooklyn although he has been shifted to second base.
1928 was a pitcher heavy first round but the Cannons went for a high school outfielder by the name of Ken Curry with the 8th pick. Curry was just the third position player selected that draft and while his path to the majors has been much slower then fellow outfielders Bobby Barrell (6th pick) and Wally Flowers (10th pick) he is still just 23 years old and ranked the 11th best prospect in the game. That does seem to contrast with what the stats say, as Curry hit just .167 at AA last year. The verdict is still out but he is looking like he might just be a bust.
Here is the complete list of Baltimore first rounders:
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BALTIMORE CANNONS FIRST ROUND PICKS
YR NAME POS PICK TEAM
1925- Earle Charlton P 8 Lincoln (AIAA)
1926- Art Hart 3B 7 Opelika State (AIAA)
1927- Bill Ball SS 5 New Orleans HS
1928- Ken Curry CF 8 Denver HS
1929- Ray Barnes 2B 11 Boulder State (AIAA)
1930- Al Horton LF 14 Coll of San Diego (AIAA)
1931- Ben Watkins P 13 St Patrick's (AIAA)
1932- Whit Williams CF 6 Henry Hudson (AIAA)
BROOKLYN KINGS
The Kings have been one of, if not the most active team on the trade front and draft picks always seem to figure prominently in their dealings. In 1925 the Kings had a huge win with their first round pick. Brooklyn traded down from 2 to 6 and added a pair of veteran arms while still coming out with an outstanding prospect. Since being drafted Doug Lightbody has won a CA batting title and a Whitney Award while compiling a lifetime .362 average. There were half a dozen elite players available in this draft and the Kings got one of them.
In 1926 Brooklyn dealt it's first round pick to Cleveland to acquire veteran pitcher Mose Smith in a pennant run that ultimately fell short, although Smith would be a key piece in the Kings pennant winning season the following year.
Rabbit Mudd is looking like an outstanding selection at pick 15 of the 1927 draft. The high school shortstop moved to second base in Brooklyn and provides outstanding defense while hitting .278 in his year and a half in the big leagues.
The Kings made a huge trade in 1928 to acquire the number one pick which they used on Tommy Wilcox. Clearly the class of his draft, at least among pitchers, Wilcox is already 57-48 as a big leaguer but was dealt to the Chicago Cougars last summer in a blockbuster deal involving a pair of number one over draft picks and two other top five selections.
Here is a complete list of Brooklyn first rounders
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BROOKLYN KINGS FIRST ROUND PICKS
YR NAME POS PICK TEAM
1925 Doug Lightbody RF 6 Mississippi A&M (AIAA)
1926 traded pick no first rounder
1927 Rabbit Mudd SS 15 Milwaukee HS
1928 Tommy Wilcox P 1 Liberty College (AIAA)
1929 Jake Shadoan 2B 7 Liberty College (AIAA)
1930 traded pick no first rounder
1931 Dixie Lee P 9 Little Rock HS
CHICAGO COUGARS
A huge win with 1925 first round Bill Ashbaugh. A second baseman in college Ashbaugh has found a home at first for the Cougars and is hitting .320 for his six year career with 103 homers. As mentioned before there were several elite hitters available in this draft and the Cougars grabbed one of them with the 4th pick.
Another win for the Cougars in 1926 as Fred Barrell, although now traded to Brooklyn along with fellow first rounders his brother Tom and Mike Murphy, is looking like the premier player in the 1926 draft class.
The Cougars surely want a do-over for 1927 pick Harry Humphrey, who never advanced past AA and now at 27, after being traded to independent Houston and then released by them, his career seems to be at it's end. Perhaps the Cougars might look to Pittsburgh longingly as the Miners took an outfielder right after Humphrey. A kid with good genes in Frank Lightbody who, while not quite as good as his brother Doug yet, is certainly an above average big league outfielder.
Another high pick for the Cougars in 1928 and this one, like the first two years, paid dividends. Mike Murphy had an outstanding draft year at Brooklyn State and was being considered for the first overall selection. The Cougars maybe should have kept that Barrell thing going and drafted outfielder Bobby (who went 6th to the Keystones) but Murphy became a key piece in their big trade with Brooklyn a year ago and was outstanding in his big league debut so it is hard to question this pick.
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CHICAGO COUGARS FIRST ROUND PICKS
YR NAME POS PICK TEAM
1925 Bill Ashbaugh 2B 4 Rainier College(AIAA)
1926 Fred Barrell C 3 Georgia Baptist (AIAA)
1927 Harry Humphrey LF 3 Whitney College (AIAA)
1928 Mike Murphy P 2 Brooklyn State (AIAA)
1929 Tom Barrell P 1 Georiga Baptist (AIAA)
1930 James Demastus C 10 Nashville HS
1931 Ed Reyes LF 15 Atlanta HS
1932 Billy Hunter SS 14 Cincinnati HS
CLEVELAND FORESTERS
The Foresters have been accumulating more then their share of first rounders through the years. Unfortunately most have been later picks and so far very few have panned out.
In 1925 all of the marquee names were gone by the time the Foresters pick at 14 came up. They took a high school first baseman by the name of Alex Thompson, who had hit .317 and showed a little power in his draft year. He worked his way up the Cleveland system and made his debut last year before being included in the package sent to the Gothams to bring Max Morris back to Cleveland. Now almost 26, the jury is still out on Thompson but he was very impressive in a half season of big league ball split between Cleveland and New York last season, batting .340. All in all a decent pick for that point in the round.
Oh, 1926. The Foresters must have nightmares about this draft. Three first round picks including #1 overall. They could have taken Fred Barrell, who went third, but they decided on Karl Stevens. Stevens had an outstanding career at Rainier College but as it turned out that was where he peaked. He hit .184 in 14 games in Cleveland but did fare better in AAA. He ran out of options and was claimed on waivers by Brooklyn but does not look like he will ever live up to the hype of being a first overall pick. Fortunately the Foresters did much better with their other two picks that round. Mike Williams has yet to establish himself as an everyday big league outfielder but has shown a little power for the Foresters while 16th pick Woody Armstrong has proven to be a decent shortstop, particularly with the glove. Unfortunately he is doing it in Montreal as the Foresters traded him while still a minor leaguer for Wayne Robinson. Robinson pitched well in his time in Cleveland and was dealt to Detroit for more picks so it worked out okay but from purely a draft perspective Armstrong was a great pick.
1927 saw the Foresters take outfielder Dick Kennon 9th. A better choice would have been shortstop Andy Carter (10th to Washington) or if they wanted an outfielder St Louis got a pretty good one in the middle of the second round by the name of Alex Ingraham. As for Kennon, he is 26 and coming off his second season of AA ball, where he hit .271 in 89 games.
Another outfielder was taken with their 1928 first round pick. This might have been the year 26 year old Leo Clark makes his big league debut but it won't happen after he blew out his knee in spring training. Clark has been injury prone but this season ender is by far the worst he has endured which is sad because it comes after a 43 homer season at AAA. Hopefully he can make a full recovery and go on to be a decent outfielder in the big leagues.
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CLEVELAND FORESTERS FIRST ROUND PICKS
YR NAME POS PICK TEAM
1925 Alex Thompson 1B 14 San Antonio HS
1926 Karl Stevens OF 1 Rainier College (AIAA)
Mike Williams OF 13 College of San Diego (AIAA)
Woody Armstrong SS 16 Chicago Poly (AIAA)
1927 Dick Kennon OF 9 Pierpont (AIAA)
1928 Leo Clark OF 12 Dickson (AIAA)
1929 Amos Leblanc OF 8 George Fox (AIAA)
Ben Bernard P 16 Mobile HS
1930 Johnny Turner 3B 4 George Fox (AIAA)
1931 Harry Barrell SS 1 Atlanta HS
1932 Levi Redding OF 10 Central Ohio (AIAA)
Art Spencer 3B 12 Rainier College (AIAA)
MONTREAL SAINTS
The Saints are one of three CA teams that still have every one of their human GM first round picks in their organization.
With the elite guys gone by the time their pick came up in 1925, the Saints went with high school first baseman George X Johnson. He made his FABL debut a year ago, going hitless in 6 at bats and at 25 it seems Johnson may be just a career minor leaguer. There were a lot of players with similar careers picked right around Johnson so you can't say the Saints did badly with this pick but certainly a player like Abel Man (taken by Baltimore midway through round two) would have been a much better choice. Ah, hindsight...isn't it great.
1926 first round Lee Giffin has been a bench player with the Saints off and on for 5 years and that is likely all his career will hold. Now 28, he has played 233 FABL games and is a .223 career hitter. His speed, especially patrolling center in that big Parc Cartier outfield is likely what has kept him employed. Woody Armstrong, at 16, would have been a much better choice but Armstrong, originally drafted by Cleveland, ended up in Montreal through trade anyway.
The Saints looked to the outfield with the top pick of the 1927 draft and got a pretty good one in Cliff Moss. It wasn't the greatest first round pick (the class was a little weaker perhaps then others at the top of the draft) but Moss has hit .304 in 729 games with the Saints. Perhaps one could argue 4th pick Frank Lightbody was the better choice but you can't hold that against the Saints as Moss was clearly the better player judging by their final year of college.
1928 was the year of the pitcher as far as the draft is concerned with 5 of the first seven picks being hurlers. George Thomas went 7th overall to the Saints as the last of those five arms. Tommy Wilcox has proven to be the head of that class and #2 Mike Murphy is looking like the real deal. Three and four on that list are Chuck Cole and Phil Hicks, both high school players like Thomas but the difference is Thomas has already pitched in the big leagues. Like Cole, Thomas is a highly touted prospect but he struggled in Montreal a year ago, going 6-12 with a 4.24 era. The 1933 season may go a long ways to determining just how valuable a draft pick he was but right now it looks like Montreal will get decent value from the pick with a chance, if Thomas develops like the scouts say, for him to be a huge win. Not on the Tommy Wilcox level but certainly just a step below.
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MONTREAL SAINTS FIRST ROUND PICKS
YR NAME POS PICK TEAM
1925 George Johnson 1B 12 Knoxville HS
1926 Lee Giffin CF 5 Grafton (AIAA)
1927 Cliff Moss OF 1 Pierpont (AIAA)
1928 George Thomas P 7 Niagara Falls HS
1929 Vic Crawford OF 3 Commonwealth Catholic (AIAA)
1930 Chuck Murphy P 12 Ellery (AIAA)
1931 Bill May OF 5 Greensboro HS
1932 Pablo Reyes CF 3 Bayou State (AIAA)
NEW YORK STARS
Two things immediately jump out when you look at the Stars collection of first round picks. One, they are a very successful team considering how late they always seem to pick and two, they seem to love going for high school players in the opening round.
You can't complain about 1925 first rounder Lou Martino at pick 16. He was the fourth pitcher taken but has greatly outperformed the three selected ahead of him and, at age 26, he seems to be just hitting his prime. Martino is 32-12 with a World Championship Series ring to show for his last two seasons of work and 50-24 overall with the Stars.
While a lot of the pitchers taken just before or after George Williams in 1927 have made their big league debut only Frank Crawford (taken 10th by the Keystones) has really stood out. The 24 year old Williams has been brought along slowly by the Stars, finally reaching AAA last season and posting a 7-11, 4.94 season. He does not appear to have the skills to be a quality starting pitcher but may be a serviceable bullpen piece.
The hope in New York is 1927 first rounder Billy Smith will develop into more then the following trivia question: Name one Atlanta High School SS besides Harry Barrell to be a first round pick? It wasn't a great draft class but as mentioned earlier in the Baltimore recap there were a couple of better options at shortstop still available when the Stars took Smith 7th: Andy Carter or Rabbit Mudd. Now 23, Smith hit .232 splitting last season between A and AA. He was exposed in the rule V draft and selected by the Sailors, but returned to the Stars prior to the season.
The Stars did not have a 1928 first rounder.
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NEW YORK STARS FIRST ROUND PICKS
YR NAME POS PICK TEAM
1925 Lou Martino P 16 Birmingham HS
1926 George Williams P 15 Berkely HS
1927 Billy Smith SS 7 Atlanta HS
1928 traded pick no first rounder
1929 Nellie Dawson OF 13 Wisconsin State (AIAA)
1930 Art McMahon OF 8 Waco HS
1931 Al Haynes 2B 11 Whitney College (AIAA)
1932 Johnny Hopper C 16 Spartanburg HS
PHILADELPHIA SAILORS
Like the Montreal Saints, all of the team's first round pick's remain in the organization and like the New York Stars, the Sailors success at the major league level has forced them to pick late in most drafts.
In hindsight it is easy to say (and I have above) that 1925 first rounder Jack Cleaves was overlooked by several teams as part of the elite players at the top of the draft. But as I knock other scouting staffs for not taking him perhaps it is better to credit the Sailors front office for actually taking him that high. A high school middle infielder, the then 18 year old Cleaves did not start his junior year and batted only .263 with 4 homers as a senior. He was immediately rated the #5 prospect in the spring after his draft year so others quickly saw what the Sailors did. Regardless, the grandson of former FABL player George Theobald quickly proved he belonged as he was in the majors the following season and has never looked back, winning a pair of World Championship Series with the Sailors.
It looks like the Sailors missed their boat in 1926 with the selection of Everett Jurgens at #9. I have mentioned previously that the draft was not the strongest but Jurgens has greatly underperformed as a college player who has spent six years in A ball and only hit .215 at that level. The Sailors did atone for that pick with their second rounder, another college player named Irv Brady who has hit .270 in 4 years with the big club.
For the second year in a row the Sailors went with a centerfielder in 1927's first round and for the second year in a row they did not have much success. This time they took high schooler Jack Bates with the 11th pick and Bates, like Jurgens, remains buried in the low minors. Unlike Jurgens, he has had some success at the plate (batting .310 in Class B) and is still 23 years old so perhaps their might be a chance he gets a taste of the big leagues someday. I have mentioned him before but a better pick for an outfielder would have been St Louis' second rounder Alex Ingraham. 1927 was a weak class (or perhaps late developing), as has been touched on before, with to date only 8 position players have amassed as many as 200 FABL games led by top pick Cliff Moss and 4th pick Frank Lightbody, neither of whom were around when the Sailors got their first chance to take a player. The steal of the draft, as it would turn out, was catcher Mike Taylor, taken in the 8th round and he falls right in between Moss and Lightbody for big league games played. Pitching-wise the class of the draft was Chiefs 12th round pick Milt Fritz, who has already won an Allen Award and 73 big league games. Number two on the list of major league wins by a pitcher in this draft is Toronto's 5th round pick Buddy Adams, who is 20-19 for his career.
The Sailors had the final pick of the first round in 1928 and selected second baseman Ed Scott. The Sailors are well known to not rush prospects but like the previous two picks Scott, now 25, has yet to play above AA and even that was only for a handful of games. Scott was a curious pick, to say the least, at the time - he only played 6 games of college ball in his 3 years at Indiana A&M and none since his freshman year. They were admittedly six pretty good games as hit slashed .381/.435/.952 in them but it was still only 6 games. I guess when you are picking 16th nothing is a guarantee and maybe the Sailors scouting staff knew something the rest of the league didn't (and they have found some later round gems) but this pick both at the time and in hindsight looks like just an incredible reach. But they have 3 pennants and a pair of World Championship Series titles in the past 8 years so who am I to question.
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PHILADELPHIA SAILORS FIRST ROUND PICKS
YR NAME POS PICK TEAM
1925 Jack Cleaves 2B 10 Louisville HS
1926 Everett Jurgens CF 9 Sadler (AIAA)
1927 Jack Bates CF 11 Meridian HS
1928 Ed Scott 2B 16 Indiana A&M (AIAA)
1929 Lou Williams CF 15 Detroit City College (AIAA)
1930 Floyd Spencer 3B 16 Frankford State (AIAA)
1931 Marion Boismenu 3B 7 Pittsburgh HS
1932 Fritz Bach P 8 Cambridge HS
TORONTO WOLVES
The Wolves are another team that has retained each of their first round picks as all remain with the organization at the time of this article. Interesting to note Toronto's focus, more so than other teams in the CA, on grabbing starting pitchers with their first round pick and in the early days of the league they relied on high school arms, the best of whom is still working his way up the system in 1928 pick Chuck Cole.
More on Cole in a minute but let's start with Eddie Quinn, the 1925 first rounder. With a half dozen very good to great hitters available at the top of this draft the Wolves took a pitcher, and dealt two arms and additional picks away to move up from 6 to 2 in order to grab him. Ignoring the fact that Quinn would likely have still been available at 6 (ah, hindsight once again) and the fact that it is clear now the Wolves should have taken Doug Lightbody, Bud Jameson, Bill Ashbaugh or Jack Cleaves here (Al Wheeler was already gone at #1) you do have to admire the Wolves strategy to get what they felt was the best pitcher. The league had a real shortage of quality young arms at the time. If Quinn had panned out or if the Wolves had announced the name Jim Lorando (10th round), Lou Martino (1st rd pick 16) or William Jones (3rd round) we would look at the move in a much different light but unfortunately Quinn did not, or at least so far, has not panned out. There is still time, however, as Quinn is pitching in the big leagues for the Wolves and has done so for the past 3 seasons. He is still just 26 years old and is coming off his first season as a starter, but went 6-18 with a 4.43 era. I think before his career is over Quinn will have turned out to be a solid 3-4 starter for a few years in this league and if the Wolves had stood pat and drafted him 6th that year it would have been a pretty decent pick as there were certainly some first round busts in the 1925 draft. Once again though, I have the benefit of hindsight.
1926 pick Frank Huddleston (11th) was a pretty solid pick by the Wolves. Perhaps right now you can argue that Woody Armstrong at 16 was a better shortstop selection but Huddleston is just 24, 3 and a half years younger than Armstrong, so much remains to be written for Huddleston and Armstrong to be fairly compared.
Picking 13th (their lowest selection) in 1927 the Wolves continued to look to the high school ranks and took another pitcher in Bill Anderson. The 24 year old worked his way through the Wolves system and made his big league debut last season, going 1-1 with 3 saves and a 4.60 era in 25 relief appearances. The bullpen or maybe a fifth starter is probably his ceiling but there were not a lot of quality pitchers taken in the picks right around Anderson. The Wolves got Buddy Adams in the third round, who is 27 and probably what Anderson can aspire to be. Scouting pitching, especially high school arms, is such an inexact science a lot of teams just take the strategy of throw as many darts at the board as you can and hope some of them stick. The high school arms that appear to have 'stuck' in this class are Milt Fritz (Chiefs round 10), Johnny Jacob ( Baltimore round 4) so you can't fault the Wolves for gambling on Anderson here although his prep numbers certainly paled in comparison to Jacob, but - and nothing illustrates the unpredictability of high school arms then this stat - Fritz was just 3-13 with a 3.92 era in his high school career.
1928 could be remembered for it's incredible group of pitchers at the top of the draft much like 1925 was for it's hitters. The only thing is, while there is great potential in this class, only #1 pick Tommy Wilcox has lived up to it so far. It looks like 5th overall pick Phil Hicks is going to be a bust but #2 Mike Murphy is, at least in the short-term looking like the real deal and #7 George Thomas and the this Wolves pick, #4 Chuck Cole, are adored by scouts but have not done much yet. If Cole does become a top of the rotation guy this pick will be considered a very good one. If he doesn't, all fans in Toronto can think is this is 1925 all over again. We could have had a great hitter as Bobby Barrell went 6th to the Philadelphia Keystones and is tearing up the Federal Association. Cole is 23 and honed his craft in the lower minors for 3 years before advancing to AA partway through last season. He looked like a future ace there, going 4-0 with a 1.75 era and appears set to start the year in AAA so perhaps we will find out just how good he can be against big league hitters later this summer. Right now, you have to love this pick as Cole has plenty of promise.
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TORONTO WOLVES FIRST ROUND PICKS
YR NAME POS PICK TEAM
1925 Eddie Quinn P 2 Greensboro HS
1926 Frank Huddleston SS 11 Wichita HS
1927 Bill Anderson P 13 Elmira HS
1928 Chuck Cole P 4 Louisville HS
1929 Sam Orr 2B 5 Henry Hudson (AIAA)
1930 Jim Harris P 2 Northern Cal (AIAA)
1931 Bernie Johnson P 3 Northern Cal (AIAA)
1932 Pete Hunt 1B 2 Wisconsin State (AIAA)
So there you have it. A look at how the 8 Continental Association teams did with their first round picks. It is far too early to fully judge many of them and it is also important to note that many of the teams who were panned in this article for a pick or two made in the opening round, came up big in later rounds by unearthing some gems. What I take from this is don't screw up if you have a top five pick, but beyond that it is likely okay to swing for the fences, knowing there will be the occasional whiff, as long as you land a few gems in the later rounds.