THIS WEEK IN FIGMENT BASEBALL
May 17, 1937
THREE ARE PULLING AWAY IN THE FED
The Federal Association is very quickly turning into a three team race as the Chicago Chiefs, Pittsburgh Miners and St Louis Pioneers all continue to roll. While the Chiefs 13 game winning streak streak came to an end a week ago against Philadelphia, the defending champions have started another one with 4 straight wins to finish off a 5-2 week. The St Louis Pioneers also won 5 of their 7 games last week and are 12-4 on the month but it is the Pittsburgh Miners who are suddenly the hottest club in the Fed. The Miners extended their winning streak to 9 games by taking a pair from their cross-state rivals from Philadelphia on the weekend. The wins were much needed for a Pittsburgh club that had started the month with 5 losses including 3 in Chicago and one at St Louis.
Those three clubs are the only Federal Association teams with a winning record and it is the Chiefs who continue to hold the lead, 2 and a half games up on Pittsburgh and 3 ahead of St Louis. Chicago is just 2-3 against St Louis so far this season but are 3-0 vs Pittsburgh heading into a 2-game series between the clubs this weekend. Pittsburgh will be short-staffed for the contest as the Miners suffered a big loss this week with the news that George Cleaves will be out for close to a month with a muscle strain. The 23 year old catcher is a 3-time member of the Federal Association all-star team and was among the league leaders with a .379 batting average, 6 homers and 22 rbi's this season. Cleaves is the second key Miner hitter to be sidelined as often injured outfielder Mahlon Strong, who was acquired from the Gothams over the winter, still has a couple of weeks left before he will be healthy enough to return. Strong played just 5 games in a Pittsburgh uniform before the injury but homered twice and was batting .636. While second sacker Sandy Grebow (.304,1,7) is not on the Cleaves and Strong stratosphere, he too will be missed as he was sidelined last week with an elbow injury that will keep him out of action until early June.
Speaking of often injured players the Pioneers were also dealt a blow last week when the incredibly talented but also incredibly injury prone Freddie Jones went down with a sore elbow. The prognosis is the 4 time all-star and 1935 Whitney Award winner will miss a month and a half. With Jones on the sidelines it will be even more important to the Pioneers that center fielder Gail Gifford (.415,7,29) continues his torrid start. The 25 year old fourth year Pioneer entered the season with a career .309 batting average and a penchant for striking out - he has been fanned more than any other Fed hitter in each of the past three seasons. He has not cut down on the k's much, and is still on a pace for 114 this season, but he is also leading the Fed in homers and rbi's and is second behind only Washington's Mel Carroll (.425,4,23) in batting average.
KINGS SPLIT WITH FORESTERS BUT GAIN GROUND IN THE CONTINENTAL RACE
It is always a big series when the Brooklyn Kings and Cleveland Foresters square off. After decades of limited success the two clubs have combined to win the past 3 Continental Association pennants and have provided some great drama down the stretch. This year promises to be no different although the Philadelphia Sailors, who edged out the Foresters for second place behind Brooklyn last season, are looking to join the party.
Counting last week the Kings and Foresters have played 68 times since the start of the 1934 season and each team has won 34 of them. Here is how the season series went each year:
Code:
1934 Tied 11-11
1935 Cleveland 13-9
1936 Brooklyn 13-9
1937 Tied 1-1
Cleveland-Brooklyn games have become an event, with many dramatic moments. That was not so much the case in the opening series between the two clubs this year but there are plenty more games remaining including 3 in Cleveland in mid-September that might factor in heavily as to who wins the pennant this time around.
As for last week's two game set in Brooklyn, the Kings entered the series on a 4-game winning streak but trailed the Foresters by 2 games in the standings. Cleveland was on a 5-game winning streak and extended it to 6 by taking the opener 4-0 behind a 3-hit shutout courtesy of Sergio Gonzales (2-1) who outdueled Brooklyn's Mike Murphy (2-3). Homers by Brooks Meeks, with his first of the season, and T.R. Goins, with his 5th, keyed the Cleveland offense. The Brooklyn bats, which had been in slumber mode much of the season, came alive the next day as the Kings pounded out 18 hits in 14-5 drubbing of former King Lyman Weigel, who won 15 games for Cleveland a year ago but has struggled this season. Art White went the distance to improve to 4-2 for Brooklyn while John Langille, with 4 hits, and Fred Barrell, with 2 hits and 4 rbi's, both showed signs of getting untracked after slow starts. The Kings would then go on to take two of three games in Baltimore while Cleveland would return home to drop a pair of games to Chicago and see their lead shrink to a half game. Charlie Barry, who had been so good to start the season, finally hit the inevitable rough patch and went just 4-for-22 during the week, but his .379 average on the season is still second best in the CA.
The Philadelphia Sailors, meanwhile, have been mired in a real slump since starting the month with back to back wins in Cleveland. The Sailors dropped the finale of their 3 game set with the Foresters before losing two of three in Brooklyn. Since then they have gone 3-7 against the likes of New York, Baltimore, Montreal and Toronto and dropped 5.5 games back of Cleveland with a 12-15 record.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH KELLOGG?
Rankin Kellogg is off to another slow start for the Philadelphia Keystones. The 34 year old Kellogg, a 4-time All-Star and 3 time Whitney Award winner, was hitting just .265 in early June last season although he did have 7 homers at the time, but the lifetime .348 hitter's struggles at the plate a year ago coincided with Keystones struggling out of the gate. A year ago the Keystones were 18-36 in early June and ended up finishing a distant 7th in the Federal Association race. Even though his team didn't, Kellogg eventually got going and finished with a .311 average to go with 36 homers and 137 rbi's, numbers just slightly below his career average.
Fast forward to this season and we are witnessing more early struggles from the Keystones star first baseman. Kellogg has not hit a homerun yet this year, and is batting just .247 with 6 rbi's after 25 games. Like every player, Kellogg has had slumps in the past but this power outage from the man with 443 career homers - second only to Hall of Famer Max Morris - is unheard of. There is no official data available but one has to feel pretty confident in assuming Kellogg has never had a homerless drought this long at any point in his 13 year career.
The Keystones are trying to figure out what is wrong. Kellogg insists he is healthy and really has no answer for the slump. Meanwhile Philadelphia has fallen to 11-14 on the season and are already 8 games behind the Chicago Chiefs just 4 weeks into the campaign and seem to be preparing for another dismal season.
Speaking of slumps the Washington Eagles are dealing with a very rough start from Bill Anderson (1-4, 9.00). The 28 year old joined Washington in a trade with Toronto prior to last season and responded with a career best 22 win season. Anderson did finally get a win after starting the season 0-4 but it was hardly comforting to the Eagles brass as the righthander surrendered 14 hits and 8 earned runs and did not survive the 6th inning of an 11-10 win over Boston. Washington has plenty of offense but in order to contend the Eagles need their pitching, especially Anderson, to get untracked soon.
ZIEHL IS MISDIRECTED WITH FRUSTRATION
New York Gothams manager Ed Ziehl blasted the Big Apple media for when he called "sensational" reporting and not in the good way. Ziehl felt news reports chastising pitcher Ernie Wise for being out carousing after yet another Gothams loss were uncalled for but the truth is the problem is much deeper and is really the Gothams own doing. Ziehl's frustrations with the media are misdirected as it should be his own management team his anger is aimed at.
I am not sure if Ziehl, who was a legendary Gotham player in his day, was part of the decision making team a year ago when the club ripped a championship team to threads by selling off virtually every player of any sort of skill level. Perhaps he was a willing participant but my guess, knowing the type of player he was and the type of manager he has been in his decade in New York, there is no way Ziehl agreed, at least behind the closed doors of the Gothams office, with the moves.
The Gothams are a dreadful 6-21 this season and since last July they are 38-69. It is clear from the local media there are troubles brewing in the clubhouse - how can there not be on a team playing .222 baseball this season - and it is likely only a matter of time before things erupt. Ziehl may well be the one who takes the fall but the ultimate responsibility falls much higher as I am shocked the Gothams General Manager still has his job or, knowing how the Bigsby clan is reputed to operate, all of his appendages intact, unless it was Bigsby himself who initialized the moves as a cost cutting measure but that seems highly unlikely as the Gothams are regularly among the most profitable franchises in baseball. New York did add a lot of minor league assets in tearing down the franchise, but the fan base only cares about the big league team and sooner or later they will revolt if this team does not turn it around fast. The Gothams have the benefit of a huge season-ticket subscriber base and it is one that has seen very quick turnarounds from the team in the past but something tells me this time will be different and there will be some lean years ahead. Ed Ziehl was a great player, is a very good manager and no one bleeds Gotham blue more than he does. He should not to be blamed for what is happening here but someone needs to be held accountable. I only hope Ziehl is not the one to take the fall.
Here is the original story on Ziehl from the New York World-Telegram
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Unlike a couple of his brothers on the Brooklyn Kings, Dan Barrell is off to a quick start this season. The 32 year old first baseman is batting .362 with 2 homers and 12 rbi's on the year after an award winning performance last week. Barrell went 12-for-19 in 5 games to capture his third career Continental Association Player of the Week award. While many of the Kings including Dan's brothers Fred (.198,0,9) and Harry (.179,0,5) have struggled in the early going this season Dan has performed at level slightly above his career averages.
As good as Barrell was last week, the top player in the Federal Association had an even better 7 days. Pittsburgh outfielder Ray Cochran had 10 hits in 14 at bats including a pair of homers, while driving in 9 runs and scoring 7 times. Cochran's arrival in Pittsburgh corresponded with the Miners hot streak of late as he was claimed on waivers from Detroit on May 2nd. The 31 year old was originally a Cleveland Forester pick in 1927 but could never break in as a regular in the Cleveland outfield. He was dealt to Detroit last season and played in a career high 130 games for the Dynamos, hitting .280 with 9 homers and 52 rbi's but lost his job in Detroit when the Dynamos added fellow ex-Forester Leon Drake and rookie phenom Sal Pestilli to their outfield. This likely will be Cochran's one taste of fame in FABL as he is a lifetime .285 hitter but the Miners brass look like a genius for the decision to sign him so they will enjoy it while they can and maybe he can make them forget about the injured Mahlon Strong for a couple more weeks.
QUICK HITS - It is great to see Max Morris finally get his first homer as a Detroit Dynamo. The player manager hit a 2-run shot off of Washington's Bill Anderson in a 9-4 win over Washington 10 days ago to finally get his first extra-base hit in a Detroit uniform. Since then he has added 3 more homers and raised his batting average to .248. Morris, who was inducted into the Hall of Famer in December, now has 706 career homeruns.
If you don't think luck plays a role in pitching success or failure take a look at
Jack Beach. The 35 year old had a couple of great seasons in Detroit to start the decade and won an Allen Award after his 20-10 performance in 1932. He was moved to Brooklyn in 1935 and was run out of the borough, as the main scapegoat for why the Kings collapsed and blew a pennant that season. Now he is in his second season with the Chicago Chiefs and is 5-0 while leading the Fed in ERA by a wide margin with his 1.31 mark. So what has changed for Beach? Well, walks for one as he is back to averaging 2.8 free passes per 9 innings, a number right in line with the total he posted in his Allan Award winning season but by far the biggest difference is in his BABIP. He has to be one of the luckiest pitchers in baseball right now with a 2.08 BABIP, which is the lowest in either league. However he was also one of the unluckiest two years ago in Brooklyn when his BABIP was .373 for the Kings and nearly as bad when they farmed him out to Rochester. So the big question in Chicago is how long will his luck last?
Terrible news out of Milwaukee as Tommy Wilcox has suffered another devastating injury. This almost assuredly spells the end of the line as a big league pitcher for the 30 year old former first overall draft pick. Wilcox, who the Chicago Cougars acquired in the deal that sent Tom and Fred Barrell to Brooklyn, first hurt his arm in 1934 and has never been the same. Prior to the injury he made the Continental all-star team for the first two All-Star games and won the Allan Award in 1933 after a 21-11 season. He had been farmed out to Milwaukee this season after going just 3-13 for the Cougars a year ago. In all, Wilcox was 91-84 for his major league career.
Brooklyn Kings farmhand
Joey Binette accomplished something that has been done very few times in the minor leagues and never in FABL. The Class A Springfield outfielder had a 4 homerun game this. It is the 8th time that has been accomplished in the Heartland League and the first since 1932 when Clarence Sandifer, who had a brief stint with the Chicago Cougars, turned the trick.
Binette's performance was the first 4 homer game ever hit by a Springfield player and just the 8th time it has been accomplished since they league began in 1904. All four of his homers came off of Peoria starter Stan Winstead, a 26 year old undrafted free agent in the Philadelphia Sailors organization. Binette was a second round pick of the Kings but the now 23 year old outfielder has yet to advance past Class A. Jim Noland, the first player to hit four homers in a Heartland League game and the only one to do it twice, played briefly for Brooklyn as did Jim Ramsdell, who also had a 4 homer game in the minors.
Code:
[b]
4 HOMER GAMES IN THE HEARTLAND LEAGUE
1905 Jim Noland Cedar Rapids
1907 Jim Noland(2) Cedar Rapids
1907 Jim Ramsdell Gary
1907 Tom Walls Peoria
1908 Lou Cobb Cedar Rapids
1913 Roger Howard Cedar Rapids
1932 Clarence Sandifer Cedar Rapids
1937 Joey Binette Springfield
PROSPECT TRACKING
Let's check in with the top ten prospects according to OSA and see how they are faring a month into the 1937 season.
1- SAL PESTILLI - DETROIT DYNAMOS : Clearly Pestilli has proven he deserved to be just the third player to go straight from college ball to the big leagues. All he has done in his first 27 professional games is hit .308 with 5 homers and 19 rbi's and is one of the big reasons the Dynamos future looks so bright. Oh, and he also was recently named Federal Association player of the week.
2- AL TUCKER- ST LOUIS PIONEERS: The 24 year old outfielder was a third round pick of Montreal's out of Elmira High School in 1931 and has been considered a top ten prospect since before the Saints dealt him to St Louis in the deal that brought Tom Bird to Montreal. At 24 he likely should have been in the big leagues by now and St Louis gave him every opportunity to win a job in the spring, but Tucker hit just .169 in camp and found himself back at AAA Oakland for the third time. He is not tearing up the Great West League but is hitting .273 with 4 homers and 16 rbi's in 22 games for the Grays. The Pioneers outfield is crowded and Tucker's best chance of starting in St Louis likely involves showing enough to force Art Cascone (.267,2,17) out of the starting right field job.
3- RED JOHNSON- DETROIT DYNAMOS: The second overall pick of the 1935 draft is still just 19 years old and has loads of potential, but the Dynamos so far must be underwhelmed with Johnson's showing in Class B Chattanooga. He spent just 10 games in Class C last year and after hitting 5 homers was moved up to Chattanooga but he batted just .249 with 12 homers in 126 games so he is back at that level again to start this season. There has not been a lot of improvement as he is batting .253 with 3 homers in 12 games but the Dynamos can afford to be patient and wait for Johnson's game to evolve.
4- PETE PAPENFUS- CHICAGO COUGARS: Papenfus was the second pitcher selected last December, 6th overall and after 4 impressive starts in Class A he is now considered the best pitching prospect in the game. He will need to cut down on the walks (16 in 28 innings) but everything else looks very good from the 19 year old who is 2-0 with a 2.86 era on the season.
5- BILLY WOYTEK- PHILADELPHIA KEYSTONES: The 3rd pick of the 1936 draft was off to a nice start in Class A Allentown but he banged up his shoulder and has missed the last couple of weeks. It doesn't look like anything serious and the Keystones have to be satisfied with his .304 average thru 15 games of pro ball.
6- HEINIE ZIMMER- ST LOUIS PIONEERS: The 22 year old catcher, like #2 prospect Al Tucker, was given an opportunity to make the Pioneers club out of camp but he also struggled in the spring. Zimmer looked very good hitting .341 at AAA Oakland last season and is back with the Grays this year. His slash numbers are down a bit so far this season but likely no cause for concern. However, the defense might be a bit of a worry as after throwing out 50.5% of would be base stealers last season he is just 1-for-8 in the early go this year. But it is a small sample.
7- RUFUS BARRELL II- BALTIMORE CANNONS: He was one of the most highly touted pitchers in draft history when the Cannons selected him first overall in 1935. Off the chart numbers at Macon (GA) High School but his pro experience has been a bitter disappointment so far. Barrell missed nearly all of his freshman pro season with a shoulder injury and then sprained his elbow this season which, while minor, did cost him a start or two. He is averaging 12.0 strikeouts per 9 innings but beyond that his numbers are worrisome, 61 ERA+ this season with a 1-3 record and 5.82 era in 4 starts. No one is going to give up on him but he is dropping in the prospect list after spending so much time at #1 or 2 and the Cannons really need him to start showing something soon, just to give them peace of mind.
8- JOHN EDWARDS- BALTIMORE CANNONS: The 21 year old 1933 third overall pick made his Baltimore debut last season and looked very good. He has struggled a bit this year with a 4-3 record and a 5.20 era through 7 starts but it was expected there would be a learning curve for Edwards and fellow Baltimore pitching prospects Rusty Petrick (3-4, 4.07) and Gus Goulding (1-6, 4.42).
9- BILLY HUNTER- CHICAGO COUGARS: Many, including scouting guru Possum Daniels, feel the 22 year old shortstop should already be plying his trade on the North Side Grounds infield especially with Ollie Page struggling at the position for Chicago. Hunter had a marginally successful spring and with only 20 games of AAA ball under his belt the Cougars felt he would be better served with a little more apprentice time in Milwaukee. He has played 22 games for the Blues this season and is batting .301 so with Chicago clearly going nowhere this season it should be just a matter of time before the 1932 first round pick gets the call.
10- RIP LEE- PHILADELPHIA SAILORS: Like Hunter, Lee was a high school shortstop who has worked his way up the top prospect list and been in the top ten for a couple of years now. The 23 year old was taken two rounds after Hunter in the 1932 draft out of Houston High School. He spent last season in AAA and was made the Sailors starting shortstop this season. Batting .286 and playing exceptional defense, his future looks very bright.