WHAT FABL COULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE WITHOUT TRADES
When the era of the human General Manager began following the 1925 season in FABL, it marked a drastic change from the approach of teams in the pre-play days when the AI controlled all drafting and transactions. In those days the AI made few trades, and not a lot of blockbuster deals. It could also be argued that for the most part, the AI was also much poorer then our human GM's at drafting. So what would FABL look like had each of the human GMs decided never to make a trade and instead rely only on their drafting skills? What team would be the best?
Without the benefit of actual games, determining the best team is very subjective so for simplicity I decided to take the top 15 drafted players by each team (5 pitchers, 8 starting position players and 2 subs) and rank each team by last year's WAR total accumulated by the 15 players. I made some minor changes to positions in order to field the highest possible WAR team for each club but everyone was listed only at a position they are actually rated for.
Had human General Managers restricted themselves to only drafting and not trading we would have quite possibly had the first All-Chicago World Championship in League history. Here are how the teams stack up based on WAR totals last season from players drafted by each club:
Code:
1934 STANDINGS BASED ON WAR OF DRAFTED PLAYERS
Federal Association Continental Association
Chiefs 50.5 Cougars 46.5
Detroit 41.0 Cleveland 44.4
Keystones 39.3 Toronto 44.0
Gothams 39.0 Baltimore 41.5
Boston 34.6 Montreal 38.7
Washington 32.9 Brooklyn 38.0
Pittsburgh 32.3 Sailors 34.4
St Louis 29.7 Stars 28.2
Now before you go and gloat about how well or complain about how poorly you might have drafted remember there is flip side to this. The Chicago Chiefs, for example, had the highest WAR total among drafted players but aside from Bob Martin, all of their top producers had been traded away. So trading wisely and knowing which of your draft picks to move and which to hang on to is nearly as important as drafting the right guys to begin with. We have only had 10 human drafts so there are a number of players on the chart below who were not drafted by a human GM (like Max Morris for example). This is also only factoring in what current FABL player did last season so top draft picks over the past couple of years that have yet to make the big leagues do not factor in this at all.
The complete roster chart is at the bottom of this post. Here are a couple of quick observations:
1- The first thing that jumped out at me is how well Cleveland has done in drafting shortstops. How about this group: Harry Barrell, George Dawson, Woody Armstrong and John Wood. The 21 year old Barrell was a no brainer, a first overall selection in 1931 who has already made two all-star teams and seems destined for a lot more of them. George Dawson was taken in the second round of the 1929 draft and was the primary reason the Foresters felt they could part with Barrell. Dawson hit .313 last season while playing outstanding defense and is just 23 years old. Then you have John Wood, a 5th round pick in 1932 who was traded to Boston in a 1933 deal to bring Dan Fowler to Cleveland. The 23 year old former Wisconsin State star hit .275 in 151 games as a rookie this past season in Boston. He does not have the defensive skills of Barrell or Dawson but should still prove to be pretty good with the glove. You also have Woody Armstrong, a 1926 first rounder out of Chicago Poly. He was traded to Montreal in his first pro season and spent a number of years as the Saints starting shortstop before being moved to the Chicago Cougars last season.
2- It certainly has worked for them but the Chicago Cougars don't seem to be a team that has ever met a trade opportunity they didn't like. Aside from original human GM draft pick Bill Ashbaugh and a pair of AI draft holdovers in pitcher Dick Lyons, a 1921 second rounder, and shortstop Slim Bloom, taken 13th round of the 1923 draft, all of the other 12 Cougar picks were traded away. Now they got a lot of talent in return but how about a pitching staff that featured Tom Barrell, Dean Astle and Mike Murphy throwing to catcher Fred Barrell?
3- Toronto did surprisingly well. I always felt like the Wolves draft classes were below average but they scored pretty well on this report. Their numbers I believe were inflated somewhat because of solid AI drafting as Toronto had Tom Roberts (4.2 WAR), Cy Bryant (3.2), Dick Walker (3.0), Bill Eastep (2.5), Freddie Malley (2.3) and Don Summers (1.3) all make their Draft WAR team.
Here is a look at what each team would have looked like had they held on to all of their draftees.