FLASHBACK TO THE FEEDER LEAGUE DAYS
1931-32 HARTFORD HIGH SCHOOL PITCHING STAFF
Lefty Allen, who has spent quite some time as the number 1 prospect in the game, recently made his debut for the Pittsburgh Miners. The 21 year old, who was selected 4th overall in 1932 out of Hartford High School, was a September call-up who made three starts including a very successful debut in a 9-3 victory over the Detroit Dynamos on September 12th. He would pitch well in his next two outings, both against Washington, but was tagged with the loss each time. Still his 1-2 record and 3.60 era bodes well for the prize prospect earning a full-time spot in the Pittsburgh rotation next season.
Seeing Allen make his pro debut got me thinking about what arguably might be the best quartet of pitchers ever to suit up in a single high school team's rotation. Allen pitched for Hartford High from 1930-32 and was joined his final two seasons with the Blue Sox by John Edwards and Al Miller, both of whom would be selected in the top 4 picks in 1933. In addition the Blue Sox also had Pepper Tuttle, who was a fourth round pick in 1933. So the 1931-32 Hartford High School rotation looked like this:
Code:
NAME YEARS CAREER HS STATS DRAFTED
Lefty Allen 1930-32 10-3 1.89 1932 4th overall Pittsburgh
John Edwards 1931-33 12-10 3.62 1933 3rd overall Baltimore
Al Miller 1931-33 13-8 2.98 1933 4th overall Chicago Chiefs
Pepper Tuttle 1931-33 3-4 4.58 1933 Round 4 Brooklyn
So three pitchers chosen in the top four picks of their draft and a fourth rounder were teammates for two years on a high school squad. With talent like that you would think the Blue Sox were a dominant high school program in those days but in truth they somehow failed to make the playoffs in any of the years that at least one of them pitched in Hartford. The 1930 squad with just Allen went 19-21 and that record was matched the following season with all four of them in the rotation. In 1932, their second year all together, the Blue Sox were just 20-20 and even in 1933 when Edwards and Miller were on their way to be selected in the top four and Allen was a rookie pro in the Miners organization, Hartford High still failed to make the playoffs although they did finally finish over .500.
A look at the current OSA top prospects list and all four of those names appear with three of them in the top ten. Allen remains the number one ranked prospect according to OSA while Miller, who also made his big league debut September for the Chicago Chiefs, is ranked #5 and Edwards, who split the season between Baltimore's A and AA affiliates, is ranked the 9th best prospect in the game according to OSA. Even a Tuttle, who was a fourth round pick, is considered a decent prospect as the 20 year old, who split the season between Class C and B in the Brooklyn Kings system, comes in at #117 on the current prospect rankings.
Years from now, assuming that Allen, Edwards and Miller all pan out (and possibly Tuttle becomes a serviceable big league pitcher as well) we will likely look back on the 1931-32 Hartford team as the greatest collection of pitchers ever assembled by one high school club.