The Best of the Rest?
It's Opening Day, and the prognosticators have released their updated predictions for the upcoming season.
It's expected to be a two team race--between New York and St. Louis--for the FA pennant, with Chicago topping the rest of the contenders. It's not a bad prediction for the Chiefs, especially when you consider that we will be fielding 5 rookies: Ed Reyes, Paddy Smith, Bill White, Ron Rattigan, and Charlie Bingham.
The outfield is particularly unsettled with two new starters in Reyes and Smith, a new bench option in Rattigan, and with Jim Hampton playing right field for the first time. There is also a new keystone combination in Mose Christopher and Bill White.
Batters (1934 stats)
The pitching staff is also in flux. Red Hampton and Ernie Newman were the horses in 1934, but Newman is now in Fort Wayne and Jim Crawford and Ron Coles will be looked at to step up and lead the staff. And we were excited by what we saw with the rookie knuckle-baller Charlie Bingham in the spring.
Pitchers (1934 stats)
We are also closely monitoring the waiver wire, so the fringes of the roster could change a little over the next week.