OCTOBER 28, 1940
DYNAMOS ANSWER MINERS MOVE IN A MAJOR WAY
The game of oneupmanship among Federal Association powers took another dramatic step forward as the Detroit Dynamos made a pair of deals, including a blockbuster with Montreal designed to tilt the balance of power in the Fed away from Pittsburgh just days after the Miners made a dramatic deal. It appears that means the onus is now on the Philadelphia Keystones, the third contender for the Federal throne, to match serve by responding with a move of their own.
Detroit began the week by acquiring talented but often injured pitching prodigy Nate Spear from the New York Gothams but that turned out to be merely the appetizer as the main course was French cuisine with the Dynamos and Montreal Saints combining on a massive 7 player, two draft pick deal that was highlighted by the acquisition of a 4-time all-star catcher for a 2-time all-star catcher. The complete particulars see Montreal sending 4-time all-star Adam Mullins along with AAA pitcher Jimmy Mayse and AAA outfielder Maury Millsap to Detroit in exchange for catcher John Wicklund, young pitcher Ed Whetzel, veteran AAA outfielder Wayne Morgan, decent AA infield prospect Joe York and Detroit's first and second round picks in the January portion of the draft.
The key is clearly Mullins (.319,5,69), a 28 year old who has made four straight trips to the all-star game and is, or at least was until today, the best catcher in the Continental Association. He will have some competition for that honour in the Fed but that is precisely the reason why he was in such great demand by the Dynamos and many others. Mullins gives Detroit a catcher that is not that far away from being the equal of or perhaps even better than Pittsburgh's George Cleaves and in Detroit these days everything is measured against the two-time defending champion Miners. Catcher and shortstop were the two weak links in the Detroit lineup a year ago and Mullins more than fills the former. Given the chance it is likely Detroit would take an offensive upgrade at shortstop as well but Gil London (.216,1,35) presently does enough with his glove to warrant being penciled into the lineup every day.
Mayse and Millsap are inexpensive depth pieces of the type that the suddenly cash strapped Dynamos now are seeking. The 24 year old lefthander Mayse, nicknamed 'Preacher Man" in reference to his college choice of East Missouri Seminary School, went 11-6 with a 3.89 ERA at AAA Minneapolis last season. He is on a minor league deal with plenty of option years left and with good size, might have a better chance making the Dynamos winter touring basketball team than their major league rotation but certainly is a solid minor league depth arm, and with some luck might just work his way into the back of a big league rotation one day . Millsap is much the same: an inexpensive, controllable minor league outfielder. The 26 year old hit .312 with 7 homers in Minneapolis and likely will never be more than a AAA depth piece.
Parting with Mullins was something the Saints had repeatedly said would not happen but obviously Detroit caught them at the right time with the right package to convince Montreal it was in the best interests of the franchise long-term to move their star catcher for multiple pieces. Whether that turns out to be the case is certainly open for debate and most definitely will be the subject of much discussion over the winter and the coming seasons. The gem of the deal from Montreal's end is clearly Whetzel, a 22 year old former 5th round pick who went 2-3 with a 2.34 era in a brief stint with Detroit this season. OSA feels Whetzel's future lies at the top of the rotation and when you add him to existing young talent like Wally Doyle, Pat Weakley and George Wynn the future looks very bright for the Saints pitching staff. The other youngster Montreal added is Joe York, oldest son of former Detroit star catcher Dick York, a solid defensive second base prospect. There are question as to whether York will hit enough to play every day: he batted .259 with 2 homers and 53 rbi's in 130 games at AA Akron this season.
Montreal does not have a solid young catcher in their system and perhaps they will use one of their 3 first round picks or two second round picks on one in January but for the foreseeable future John Wicklund takes over the number one job. Wicklund, who hit .231 with 8 homers and 59 rbi's last season in Detroit, has had an up and down career. He was an all-star his first two seasons in New York and was very good in 1936 when the Gothams dealt him to Boston at the trade deadline. He has struggled since then with strikeouts becoming a serious concern but the Saints hope his defense will help nurture their collection of talented young arms but there are concerns his offensive shortcomings will be magnified playing in spacious Parc Cartier. Outfielder Wayne Morgan is the final player moving from the Dynamos organization to Montreal. The 29 year old Michigan native has spent most of his time in AAA but did play a little for Detroit in 1938 and 1939. He is really just a throw-in piece to help make the finances work for the Dynamos.
SPEARS TO DETROIT
The Nate Spear deal falls completely off the radar with the news of the Montreal trade but for Detroit it is a gamble on a very talented young arm as the 24 year old has shown some very nice flashes of what the Pittsburgh Miners saw way back in 1933 when they selected him 8th overall out of high school. Spear grabbed everyone's attention with a 6-0, 2.21 start to the 1939 season with the Gothams until shoulder troubles cut his season short. Injuries have been nearly as common as starts for Spear since the Gothams acquired him in a 1936 deal that sent Mahlon Strong, another frequent victim of the injury bug, to the Steel City. The Dynamos hope the talent is still there despite all the arm troubles but there is some doubt as to whether he will be available when the season begins in April as Spear is recovering from a sore elbow and trainers say to expect that recovery to take another 6 months.
In return the Gothams add 19 year old Marcus Mangum, a 1939 fifth overall pick who split his first full pro season between Class C and B, posting a 3-9 record. He lacks the upside of Spear but quite possibly is showing the same tendency for injury as he missed the tail end of each of the past two seasons. New York also gets 23 year old Harry Frenette, a 1935 5th rounder who pitched well between AA and AAA last season but is not very high on OSA's prospect list and 26 year old longtime minor league second baseman Arnold Allen, who made his FABL debut in September, getting a single in his only plate appearance.
JIGGS MCGEE'S TAKE: Tommy Wilcox, Rabbit Day, Al Wheeler, Fred McCormick. When each of those star players was dealt what was the common denominator? The whole league knew about it before it happened! Trading any player, but especially a superstar requires careful thought, timing and most importantly maximizing your return and you do that by getting the largest number of teams possible bidding on your guy. Making a move quietly, under the secrecy of night and catching most of the league unaware only benefits the buyer. The less competition the better for the prospective suitor which means the less he will be required to surrender. Brooklyn made a fatal mistake whisking Tom Barrell off to Pittsburgh a week ago and now Montreal repeats it with Adam Mullins.
I had criticized the Saints for not moving one of their late twenties all-star hitters in Mullins or Red Bond at the trade deadline. I felt either of those players could earn a sufficient return to help jumpstart a rebuild that might finally make Montreal relevant again after two decades of being merely a peripheral piece of the Continental Association stranded in the second division. In theory it made perfect sense however that premise was predicated on procuring sufficient big league potential in return. In that regard this deal appears to fail miserably. I love Whetzel and think the youngster has the chance to be a great pitcher but he alone is nowhere near enough of a return for Mullins. The rest of the package Montreal secured is not what you would expect in return for your all-star catcher. Even the picks, while they sound good on paper are 13th in rounds one and two, so yes they might deliver quality talent but are hardly the spot where a sure-fire future star resides. The plan - move Mullins for a boatload of young talent was sound. The execution was not. Could the Saints have received more in return for Mullins? Absolutely and that is not just conjecture on my part as the Boston Minutemen brass was reportedly livid at the news of Mullins change of address, stating unequivocally they for one would have paid more for Mullins, a player they have been after since before the trade deadline. While we will never know just how much the Minutemen might have been willing to include in their package we can guess it would almost assuredly have contained Bill Van Ness and at least one of their good young pitchers to match Whetzel. Plus one needs to consider that the picks Boston could offer were in the middle of the first and second rounds not at the bottom. Would Boston have gone all in on Mullins? Of that I am not 100% certain and unfortunately, due to a failure to shop the player, neither are the Saints. I can feel pretty comfortable stating that shopping Mullins would most certainly have resulted in a lot more attractive return for the Saints than Whetzel and the vial or two of snake oil fancied up to look like a magic elixir by the Dynamos.
As for Detroit, it is clearly a case of the Dynamos needing to make a big move to keep up with the Pittsburgh Miners, who unloaded their own trinket and beads on Brooklyn last week as landing Tom Barrell was the biggest steal in New York since Manhattan was purchased for a similar collection of flashy but ultimately useless bag of trinkets and beads. To that end the Dynamos hit a homerun with the addition of Mullins. This is a great pickup for the Dynamos and solves what has been a weakness for the club. Whetzel appears to be a very good prospect to give up but the others were spare parts and the draft picks are at the bottom of the round so the trade-off will be well worth it for Detroit, and perhaps if Mullins continues on his Hall of Fame trajectory, it might just mean the end of a 3-year run as the Federal Association bridesmaid and finally winning a pennant. The trade for Spear is also a move that, while likely a longshot due to his injury history, might just pay off in a big way and if things break right for the Dynamos he more or less fills the void losing Whetzel leaves in the Detroit pitching depth chart. I am not counting on that happening however as if I was betting I would wager Pittsburgh's pickup of Tom Barrell is far better to turn out to have a happy ending that Detroit's acquisition of Spear, who I can't help but think is much closer to the end of his big league days than he is the beginning despite being a tender 24 years of age.
As for the Gothams, I get it. They are sick of waiting to see if Nate Spear can go a full season without injury and he has not done so, at least so far. Their options to deal him were probably quite limited, at least in terms of what the return might be so taking a trio of longshot prospects in hopes that at least one pans out is probably the best they could have to hoped to receive. Considering how good Spear has been in limited showings I might have been inclined to give him another chance but the Gothams have never been accused of patience and waiting in this case runs the risk of Spear's arm falling off entirely and getting nothing in return.
BOTTOM LINE: John Brinker, my esteemed colleague from the New York Mirror, summed it up best in his recent column which read in part:
FABL HANDS OUT IT'S HARDWARE
There were a couple of tight races in balloting for the two Continental Association player awards with the Whitney Award especially close. Montreal's Red Bond earned the most first place votes but in the end it was 37 year old John Lawson of the Chicago Cougars who claimed the honour as the best hitter in the CA. It is Lawson's third Whitney but his first in 9 years and makes him the oldest player to win the Award since Max Morris claimed his record 8th and final Whitney Award in 1933 at the age of 38. Lawson's .346 batting average placed him second in the CA behind only fellow greybeard Dave Trowbridge, the 42 year old New York Stars first baseman. Lawson tied with Bond for the RBI lead at 111 while hitting 17 homers. Bond (.340,30,111) finished second while Fred McCormick (.335,13,95) of the World Champion Toronto Wolves came in third. McCormick, who won the award in each of the previous two seasons, has his name at the top of 3 of the 16 ballots cast with Trowbridge and Toronto shortstop Charlie Artuso also receiving one first place vote each.
The Continental Allen Award was also a very tight contest with Walt Wells (20-13, 3.10) of the Philadelphia Sailors winning for the first time as 5 different pitchers claimed first place votes. The decisions were much more clear cut in the Federal Association as Pittsburgh's Lefty Allen (22-13, 3.06) garnered 14 of the 16 first place votes to win the second Allen Award of his career. Detroit's 23 year old slugger Red Johnson (.335,28,108) had a similar dominance in Whitney balloting as he, like Allen, topped 14 of the 16 ballots.
Here are the voting results:
KEYSTONES MCKAY NAMED TOP ROOKIE ACCORDING TO CHICAGO SCRIBES
The Philadelphia Keystones had plenty to be proud of this season as their collection of young talent kept the club in contention until the final week of September. One big reason for that success was the play of rookie outfielder Hank McKay, and the 24 year old was rewarded for his tremendous season by being named FABL's top rookie according to the Chicago Sportswriters Guild. McKay, who was acquired from the Montreal Saints last Halloween in exchange for veteran pitched Ed Baker, had a brief introduction to the big leagues with Montreal as a September callup a year ago. That experience seemed to pay off immediately as McKay's Philadelphia debut was a 4-hit effort in a game against Lefty Allen and the Pittsburgh Miners. The Keystones knew they had something special right from that day and McKay went on to hit .269 with 10 homers, 61 rbi's and tied for the FABL lead in triples with 16. Totals good enough as it turned out to earn him the top newcomer award ahead of Washington pitcher Del Burns, a 24 year old who won 17 games for the Eagles.
McKay led the way with 6 first place votes while Burns picked up three and the Keystones Hans Wright along with New York Stars pitcher Lou Robertson garnered one each. Burns was the only one to appear on all 11 ballots cast, one more than McKay. Here are the past winners and voting results of the award that was first presented by the Chicago sportswriters in 1937 and revived this year after a 2 year absence by Percy Sutherland, President of the Windy City Guild and Sports Editor of the Chicago Herald-Examiner.
Code:
CHICAGO SPORTSWRITERS GUILD ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS
YEAR PLAYER CLUB
1936 Al Miller Chicago Chiefs
1937 Sal Pestilli Detroit Dynamos
1938 no winner named
1939 no winner named
1940 Hank McKay Philadelphia Keystones
WOLVES, FORESTERS REVAMP STAFF
Talk about a pressure situation for your first big league managerial job. The Toronto Wolves have found their replacement for Hank Leitzke, naming former Cleveland bench coach Charlie Reed as their manager. Reed will face the difficult task of trying to duplicate the combative Leitzke's accomplishments because there is no way he can surpass them after Leitzke guided the Wolves to their first Pennant and World Championship Series win in 29 years less than a month ago.
The 60 year old Reed is described as much more 'personable' than Leitzke and should create quite a change in the Toronto clubhouse but it remains to be seen if the confrontational approach from his predecessor was the key reason the Wolves prospered. Reed has had plenty of success in his 8 years as the Foresters bench coach, winning a WCS in 1934 and a pennant again the following year. Prior to that he spent 7 seasons in the Eastern Association within the Cleveland system, claiming a pair of minor league pennants in the process. Well before that he had a brief professional career but never reached the big leagues as a player. The Wolves also announced the hiring of former Pittsburgh pitching coach Art Nichols to assume the same duties in Toronto. Nichols spent two seasons with the Miners but was not active in the professional ranks the past two years, taking the time off after leaving Pittsburgh following the 1938 season to work with a high school team in his native Massachusetts.
The Cleveland Foresters have a number of openings throughout the organization to fill but they started with the job at the top as the club announced it has a new General Manager. The new GM's primary focus will be to sit down with his Scouting Director, who also was freshly hired, and make a decision on who the Foresters will select with the first pick in January's draft. Marv Branson, a 58 year old who spent 5 seasons as the Chicago Cougars scouting director before leaving that post in 1938, is the new head scout in Cleveland. Said to favour ability, Branson had a fair bit of FABL experience as a player, suiting up for 808 games in the outfield for St Louis and the New York Stars before ending his career as an outfielder in the Great Western League.
QUICK HITS
- There were a couple of minor league deals announced this week as well. The Chicago Cougars as is the case this time every year where in draft pick gathering mode as they sent AA 1B Bill Dambreville to Boston for the Minutemens fourth rounder and the Wolves also acquired a 6th rounder plus Class B shortstop Johnny Bunce from Pittsburgh for AA outfielder Jasper Wright. Perhaps better than any other team in FABL the Cougars have built a terrific pyramid game of sorts by acquiring plenty of late round picks and moving the pieces that don't develop to their liking 2 or 3 years later for more kicks at the lottery tickets that are later round draftees.
- Much of the league is facing a real financial crunch now, or at least the requirement to be much more fiscally responsible. Some are citing the commissioners decision to do a long needed recalculate on league finances but it is clear there are still profits being made and big time dollars being siphoned into owners pockets. Perhaps it is a 'war chest' of sorts as owners prepare for increased taxes on both their personal and business incomes to fund FDR's record breaking national defense budget but some owners are privately worried that if we join Europe's war there is a chance baseball gets shut down for a stretch. It did not happen during the Great War, although schedules were shortened for a period, but the storm waging in the old world is nothing like has ever been seen before and it is almost a certainty it is just a matter of time before those foul winds blow across an ocean - and quite possibly a pair of oceans- and engulf our way of life as well.
- There is already a great concern baseball will lose many players as all across the league, stars and scrubs alike, are registering for a much different kind of draft than they previously experienced. It seems almost a certainty many players will spend some time away from the game, perhaps even as early as next season. Some Canadian born players have already discussed the possibility of going off to help Great Britain in it's challenge of eliminating the Nazi threat. Could a stretch of time, maybe even a season or two without games at all, be in our future?
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 10/27/1940
- R.A.F. bombers have set a great fire in the heart of Berlin with gas works and communication centers as the primary targets. Hamburg is also said to be ablaze. Meanwhile Nazi planes continue to hammer London and targets all along the British coast.
- Taunting Hitler by saying "we are waiting for the promised invasion" Prime Minister Winston Churchill predicted that the British will seize command of the air from Germany next year. "We are on his (Hitler's) track" said Churchill "and so are our friends across the Atlantic Ocean."
- According to Berlin, government officials in Paris are close to accepting Nazi terms for France to re-enter the war but fighting on the side of the Axis powers. FDR warned the French that Washington would not accept any change in the status of French possessions in the Western Hemisphere.
- Josef Stalin is said to be hoping to arrange a German-Italian-Japanese-Russian conference, probably early next month, in an effort to find common ground with the Axis powers.
- An estimated 16,4000,000 American men between the ages of 21 and 35 are registering for the draft with the first lottery calling being held this week in which 800,000 will be selected.
- As the November 5th election date fast approaches both candidates heat up their verbal sparring. Republican nominee Wendell Wilkie claims the U.S. faces a dictatorship within 4 years if Roosevelt wins as well as "one of the greatest panics in history" will follow completion of America's defense program unless private domestic economy is stimulated. Meanwhile, President Roosevelt called Wilkie a 'falsifier' for many of his campaign statements that FDR alleges are intentionally misleading. FDR also promises to serve his full term if re-elected rather than resign after the European crisis subsides.
- President Roosevelt this week announced the promotion of Col. Benjamin O. Davis to become the first African American general in the army's history.