December 5, 1938
STARS CONTINUE TO WHEEL AND DEAL
The two most active teams on the trade front this winter have been the New York Stars and the Washington Eagles. Although both teams struggled last season and each has a new General Manager, their short-term objectives couldn't be any more different at the moment. The Eagles recognize a tear down needs to take place in order to restock their system and have made several trades with that goal in mind including the recent deal to send slugger Moxie Pidgeon to the Big Apple. The Stars, after several years sinking to the bottom half of the Continental Association appear ready to resurface in the first division as they have stocked up on some big league talent led by Pidgeon with the latest move bringing in veteran third baseman Ray Cochran in a deal with Pittsburgh. The 32 year old is a versatile defender but not overly skilled at third base. He appeared in a 131 games with the Miners last season and started at five different positions. Third base is were he will likely end up with the Stars but perhaps might be a better fit at first base. Either way, New York will welcome his bat into the lineup as Cochran is a .299 career hitter and coming off a pair of very good seasons at the dish.
in return New York sent promising shortstop prospect Leon Blackridge to the Miners. The 22 year old's path to the big leagues is blocked by Joe Angevine in New York but he was the third prospect ranked in the league top 60 the Stars have moved in recent days, joining pitchers Johnnie Jones and Jim Douglass who were dispatched to Washington in the trade for Pidgeon.
No sooner was the ink dry on that deal then the Stars announced a second move for a third baseman. This trade saw them send away two more pitching prospects in Tom Henderson and Jim Birdwell to the New York Gothams in exchange for minor leaguer Constantine Peters. The Gothams have been on the hunt for young arms to match the quality of position player prospects they have on the way up and Henderson, who is another top 100 prospect leaving the Stars organization, certainly fits that bill. Henderson does not project to be an ace but the 21 year old has the upside of a mid-rotation piece. Originally selected in the third round of the 1935 draft out of a Georgia High School, he has had mixed results in his 3 years in the Stars system although under their old management his innings were drastically limited. Birdwell is a little further down the rankings, slotting it at 160th on the current OSA list. Also a third round pick, the 23 year old was drafted out of Sumpter College a year after the Stars selected Henderson. Birdwell did look effective after a mid-season promotion to AA, finishing the year 9-3 with a 3.35 era at that level.
To add those two arms the Gothams did pay a fairly hefty price in sending Peters, a 1937 lottery round pickup out of Springfield State to their cross-town rivals. Peters jumped all the way from A ball to finish this past season at AAA and may be ready to join the Stars this season. He would certainly be an upgrade on Cochran in the field but is not expected to approach the veteran's offensive production, at least not at this stage of his career. The Gothams were able to move the 22 year old Peters because they seem fully committed to 24 year old Billy Dalton as their long-term solution at third base.
JIGGS MCGEE'S TAKE: A pair of nice trades that seem to help all involved. The Stars did give up more prospect capital but they seem fully committed on contending in the near future and these moves will help in that regard. Cochran is a solid veteran bat who can easily shift to first base or the outfield when young Constantine Peters is ready for full-time duty. The Gothams and Miners both benefit from the deals as well by adding more youth without sacrificing much of their present at all. In Pittsburgh's case Cochran really did not have an everyday position and the Gothams need quality young pitching so moving Peters makes sense with Dalton already entrenched at the hot corner.
GOTHAMS ADD VETERAN CATCHER FLINT
The Gothams had been in the habit recently of adding young pitchers but they bucked that trend with their move to send Del Thomas to St Louis in exchange for veteran catcher Jack Flint. The 29 year old Flint has been an outstanding hitter the past three seasons but the two time All-Star lost the starting job with the Pioneers to Heinie Zimmer last season. It is not known how long he will be the number one guy in New York as the Gothams have highly touted 19 year old Pete Casstevens on his way up the system and 24 year old Joe Green, who hit .247 as a rookie starter last season, also shows some promise.
Del Thomas becomes the latest pitcher to join the Pioneers, who like the Gothams, have been stockpiling young arms of late. The 24 year old Thomas came to New York after his rookie pro season as he was originally drafted by the Cougars out of Amarillo Methodist in the 11th round of the 1937 draft. He put up some solid numbers progressing from Class B to AA last season but he will be 25 when spring training gets underway so his time to show what he can do in the big leagues might be starting to run out. OSA has him just outside the top 100 prospect list.
JIGGS MCGEE'S TAKE: Nice move for the Gothams to get a former all-star who can certainly hit and should help to mentor the many young pitchers in New York. With the arms they have added recently the Gothams could easily afford to part with Thomas. It was clear with the youth movement in St Louis that Jack Flint was not going to play regularly so the Pioneers decided to gamble on Thomas developing into a decent pitching prospect.
QUICK HITS
- New Philadelphia Keystones manager Bill Libby will have a tall order in ushering in the post-Kellogg era. Keystones Assistant General Manager George Mitchell explained the discussions with Libby started a couple of weeks before the news about Kellogg, but his unflappability was impressive in the face of this major change. His pitching acumen was the reason the Keystones lured Libby by offering the $110,000 contract. Philadelphia's young pitching took a step back in many ways in 1938 and while there are some good young arms in the pipeline, Libby will need to harness that talent and turn it into results.
- Libby was heavily pursued by the Chicago Chiefs a couple of years ago but he had just signed an extension with the Kings at the time and did not feel comfortable breaking that deal, even to take a managerial position, right after accepting the new contract.
- Excitement continues to resonate out of Pittsburgh over the Miners acquisition of Karl Johnson (13-19, 4.63). The hope is the 31 year old lefthander rebounds from a down season in Washington last year and finally gives the Miners a consistent 4th starter to join Lefty Allen (24-17, 3.58), Bill Ketterman (25-13, 2.78) and Charlie Stedman (14-17, 3.28) in the rotation. If Johnson can return to the form he showed in previous seasons and veterans Ketterman and Stedman can approach what they did this past season it might be a very memorable season in Pittsburgh.
- After all the recent wheeling and dealing the New York Stars feel very good about their club right now. New Manager Otto Schmidt likes his starting 8 which at this moment projects to look like this on Opening Day (age as of the start of next season):
Code:
POS NAME AGE AVG HR RBI
C Johnny Hooper 24 .268 0 36
1B Dave Trowbridge 40 .291 8 51
2B Mel Hancock Jr 25 .271 3 34
3B Ray Cochran 33 .317 5 73
SS Joe Angevine 23 .367 0 13
LF Moxie Pidgeon 32 .295 21 85
CF Chink Stickels 27 .322 8 73
RF Bill Barrett 19 .283 9 35
- The deal made this week between the Gothams and Stars was the first time the two New York clubs have made a trade in nine years. The last deal between the two came in October of 1929 and saw a then 33 year Moxie Nelson head from the Bigsby Oval to the Stars. Nelson won 121 games in his career and went 13-10 for the Stars in the season after the deal but retired the following season. He was dealt with another pitcher by the name of Harry Turkington, who went 5-8 for the Gothams in 1929 and pitched for the Stars in 1930, but had a 7.35 era out of the pen and that would be the end of his big league career. Going the other way was shortstop Don Tyra, who played 4 seasons with the Stars prior to the deal and 161 games with the Gothams over two season following the trade. The other player the Gothams acquired was an outfielder by the name of Charlie Bitner who never made the big leagues.
The Week That Was
Current events from week ending 12/04/1938
- The German government carried it's sweeping anti-Jewish campaign a step further this week with the publication of an order empowering the police to tell German Jews when they may or may not leave their homes and where they were allowed to go.
- British Prime Minister Chamberlain will visit Rome to confer with Premier Mussolini in furtherance of Chamberlain's European appeasement policy.
- Calling on the army, French Premier Daladier quickly broke a call for a 24-hour general strike which had been planned to protest the French government's economy decrees. Opponents had accused the Premier of dictatorial ambitions but he chose to meet the issue head on and the inside of a few hours there was nothing left of the strike movement.
- Paris must also contend with Mussolini, who announced today that Italy is ready to march against France if necessary. The announcement coincides with a sudden strain in relations between the two nations because of Italian demands for colonies of Corsica and Tunisia at the expense of France.