Back in December (during 1934 season), I was upset with how terrible my team was and took a look to see how we would have been doing if I never made a trade. I can't confirm it, but I'd wager I likely make the most trades in our league and while some were definite misses, I like to think I net positive in terms of value. I'm hoping to turn this into an eventual offseason project, after each year seeing what this no-trade Cougar team could be, but since I'm always looking for things to write (or just do) on the weekend, I thought it would be perfect to do some of the previous season teams. I already created a 1934 team, so I'm going to see how they performed.
The funniest part of looking back at the original post (
https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...&postcount=301) is that one of the draft picks I traded away actually turned out to be Dan Everett, who's now a Cougar. Despite trading for him this offseason, he's actually eligible to be part of this group.
To "score" how this team would have done, I'm using a sort of WAR to wins ratio. The 1934 Cougars won 78 games, with an offensive WAR of 26.3 and a pitching WAR of 17.2 for a combined 43.5 WAR on the season. I then divided that number by our win total to get 0.558, corresponding to 1 win equaling 0.558 WAR. For the "fake" Cougars, I will keep this ratio to determine how many games the other Cougars would have won. Yes, I know this is an imperfect measure, and yes I hate WAR, but I think this is the "fairest" way to predict how many wins we could have had. Below is the roster I selected and how each player ended up performing:
Below is the roster I selected and their numbers for the season:
Catchers
Fred Barrell (BRK): 105 OPS+, 9 HR, 81 RBI, SB, 3.5 WAR
Jim Kyle (CLE): 65 OPS+, 15 RBI, 0.0 WAR
Infielders
Jim Hatfield (BAL): 90 OPS+, HR, 34 RBI, 10 SB, 0.1 WAR
Bill Ashbaugh (CHC): 119 OPS+, 6 HR, 48 RBI, 5 SB, 1.7 WAR
Rabbit Forrest (PHI): 98 OPS+, 30 RBI, 5 SB, 1.8 WAR
Slim Bloom (CHC): 70 OPS+, 20 RBI, 3 SB, 0.2 WAR
Mack Deal (PHS): 75 OPS+, 0 HR, 41 RBI, 6 SB, 0.6 WAR
Clyde Hinzman (TOR/CHC): 66 OPS+, 2 HR, 37 RBI, -0.4 WAR
*John Lawson (NYS): 133 OPS+, 11 HR, 106 RBI, 6.1 WAR
*somehow I called him Joe in the original post
Outfielders
Vince York (STL): 102 OPS+, 5 HR, 42 RBI, 0.7 WAR
Joe Johnson (NYG): 110 OPS+, 3 HR, 43 RBI, 3 SB, 2.2 WAR
Billy Marshall (BAL): 114 OPS+, 7 HR, 34 RBI, 11 SB, 2.0 WAR
Joe Snider (BAL): 130 OPS+, 1 HR, 12 RBI, SB, 0.7 WAR
Bert Harrison (CHC): 79 OPS+, 11 RBI, -0.1 WAR
Bob Worley (MON): 107 OPS+, 17 HR, 71 RBI, 11 SB, 3.9 WAR
Pitchers
Dick Lyons (CHC): 13-10, 101 ERA+, 78 K, 5.4 WAR
Dean Astle (CLE): 17-7, 141 ERA+, 110 K, 6.9 WAR
Tom Barrell (BRK): 29-3, 145 ERA+, 189 K, 8.7 WAR
Mike Murphy (BRK): 21-7, 151 ERA+, 114 K, 5.1 WAR
Bill Ross (CHI): *Did not Pitch*
Ben Turner (CLE): 8-6, 98 ERA+, 48 K, 0.7 WAR
Chick Meehan (CHC): 5-2, 10 SV, 96 ERA+, 29 K, 1.2 WAR
Bill Kline (CHC): 5-3, 4 SV, 123 ERA+, 25 K, 0.6 WAR
Totals
Offense: 23 WAR
Pitching: 28.6 WAR
Total: 51.6 WAR
Approximate Wins: 92.5
If it is any consolation whatsoever, we would still finish in third place! Cleveland won 98 and Brooklyn 97, and yes, I think we'd win the division considering I would have stolen Cleveland's ace and Brooklyn's top two, but for consistency sake, we'll pretend that all other teams finish exactly how they would have. Of course, this team would not win less then 70 games the next year, so the future (past?) is much more encouraging for this roster. The pitching is just absolutely dominant, which makes sense considering Barrell and Astle are both considered top 5 pitchers and I'd argue Mike Murphy is the most underrated pitcher in the game. The offense, however, is actually worse and without John Lawson the team would've been much worse. Fred Barrell and Bob Worley had nice seasons, but our infield needs a lot of work.
Offseason moves for 1935:
Replace Bert Harrison with Jose Serna
Replace Chick Meehan with Phil English
Replace Joe Snider with Mike Knight
Replace Billy Marshall with Rich Langton
Replace Jim Hatfield with Leo Mitchell
Normally these moves will happen before the actual season, but these are all retroactive. Meehan was cut, so I did the same, Harrison was a Rule-5 Pick (only reason on the roster to start with), so he was "optioned" down. Snider was replaced because I wanted a ninth pitcher, while the former Cougar picks were replaced by other Cougar picks who debuted the next season. I'm pretty sure I expected both of these guys to be up during the 1935 season, so I'm allowing it, but my goal for future seasons is not having any idea how much playing time the prospects or non-Cougars are getting. This could potentially create another Bill Ross situation, which is okay, because a lot of these guys are playing independently, and this can help deflate some of the inflated amount of PA's/IP's that could arise.
Notable Prospects/Picks Traded:
Traded Ed Reyes, Red Moore, and Elmer Hutchins July of 1934. All three have debuted in the majors (Moore will be on this team soon)
Traded 3rd Round Pick (pick became Johnny Slaney) in December of 1934