NOVEMBER 4, 1940
DYNAMOS- SAINTS DEAL ON THIN ICE?
No one involved has any comment but there is some noise being bandied about that perhaps the big Detroit-Montreal deal of two weeks ago might just be falling apart. Nothing concrete but there are several rumours floating around that the huge 7 player, 2 draft pick deal bringing Adam Mullins to the Dynamos might be rescinded. One story making the rounds is that Mullins failed his physical while another source claims that one of the former Detroit players, likely catcher John Wicklund but possibly young pitcher Ed Whetzel, has refused to go to the Canadian club and is threatening to enlist in the military rather than accept the trade.
TWIFB has reached out to both organizations but neither has issued a reply at this time and while the sources releasing the information are credible, neither has a direct link to either club and each provided conflicting information as to the reason the deal would be nixed so it really is just conjecture at this point. Mullins has been to Detroit, as he was spotted around the city and the club issued a photo of him dressed in a Dynamos uniform shortly after the move was made but he has not been seem in public since.
DETROIT ADDS A CATCHER
The Dynamos did announce they have made a deal for another catcher but this one involved a pair of minor leaguers and is almost assuredly unrelated to any rumours circulating about the Mullins deal. The move brings 24 year old Joe Henry to the Motor City from the St Louis organization with 20 year old catcher Mike Logan heading the other way. The acquisition was likely initiated by the Dynamos after they waived last year's backup Clem Bliss. The 28 year old Bliss, who hit just.187 in 55 games last season, cleared waivers but is expected to be released by Detroit in a cost cutting move partially inspired because of the need to free up money with the acquisition of Adam Mullins.
With only AAA catcher Lou Bennett and Mullins on their secondary roster the move for Henry adds depth and the 24 year old, who split last season between AA and AAA, has a decent upside although there is some question if the former first round pick out of Lane State can be an everyday player. OSA feels he can and raves about his defense but Henry has never been considered anywhere near a top 100 type prospect.
With Heinie Zimmer likely holding down the starting job in St Louis for a number of years the deal for the 20 year old Logan allows the Pioneers to swap Henry out for a much younger catching prospect. Perhaps not the defender Henry is at this stage, Logan may have a higher upside than Henry does in the batters box. OSA feels the Detroit-area native could be a .310 hitter one day. Logan, who was a 4th round pick out of Detroit Catholic Central High School, hitting .330 between Class B and A last season and helped lead Terre Haute (Class A) to a Heartland League title.
PITCHERS AND OUTFIELDERS DOMINATE UPDATED TOP PROSPECT LIST
With all of the pitchers being drafted so highly over the past half dozen years it comes as little surprise that OSA's latest top prospect ranking contains a healthy dose of hurlers. The top 3 prospects on the list and 13 of the top 25 are pitchers led once again by 20 year old Ed Bowman of the New York Gothams organization. Other pitchers in the top ten include Cincinnati's Bill Sohl (#2), Pat Weakley of the Montreal Saints (#3), St Louis Pioneers lefthander Mal Bianco (#6) and Donnie Jones of the Chicago Cougars (#10). Seven of the top 25 are outfielders leaving just 5 infielders but surprisingly no shortstop cracked the top 25. You have to go all the way down to #37 to find a shortstop and only one to sneak into the top 60 overall is Hank Grant, a 24 year old who made his big league debut with the Montreal Saints in late July. There are no catchers in the top 25 but the Cougars Solly Skidmore finished just 2 spots below that at 27th.
HERE IS THE CURRENT LIST OF THE TOP TWENTY FIVE PROSPECTS ACCORDING TO OSA
HANG ON TO THOSE FOURTH AND FIFTH ROUND DRAFT PICKS
As you might expect the vast majority of the top prospects are drafted in the first round with exactly half of the current top fifty going in the the top 16 selections (including 3 players from the brief lottery system). Second round picks accounted for an additional 8 players and 6 more went in the third. What of the remaining 11 players you ask? Well those fourth and fifth round picks do often have some pretty good value as a total of 4 of the current top fifty were selected in each of the fourth and fifth rounds. The four fourth rounders had a pair of pitchers in Duke Bybee (#43) and Les Bradshaw (#48) as well as third baseman Norman Houser (#38) and outfielder Luke Berry (#46). The fifth round gives us two players that presently rank in the top 15 prospects in outfielder Otis Parker of Cincinnati and the Keystones 22 year old lefthander Ernie Espanoza. Two more pitchers in 20th ranked Ed Whetzel and Slick Wesolowski (29th) were also fifth round draft picks.
What is quite interesting is the fact that while not a single player drafted in rounds 6 thru 10 cracked the current top fifty there are two players who were AI draft picks (for anyone not familiar with the league the human GMs draft rounds 1-10 before the game simulates the remaining 15 rounds with draft lists we are able to provide or auto selection) that made the top 50.
Stock up on 14th round picks after reading the news that Danny Hearn and Hank Grant were both selected in that round, going 213th and 214th respectively in their draft year. How did this happen? The human General Managers combined to select 160 players before turning things over to the lists and even then it took three and a half more rounds before Grant and Hern were finally selected.
DANNY HERN
ORGANIZATION PIECE TO MID-ROTATION STARTER
Danny Hern is a 23 year old lefthander who played just 1 season of high school ball in 1935 before being selected by the Chicago Cougars 213th overall. It took over two years of pro ball but he finally cracked the top 100 by being ranked 71st in July of 1938. By October that year he was 55th and good enough for the St Louis Pioneers to ask for him, along with 4 others, in the deal that sent Freddie Jones to the Cougars. Opening Day 1939 he was inside the top 50 and presently sits at 40th, the highest point of his career. Hern pitched well at AAA Oakland this past season (9-4, 3.15) and earned a callup to St Louis. He struggled but so did the entire team, posting a 1-5 mark with a 3.75 era in 10 big league appearances with 6 of them starts. He pitched well enough to deserve to win a couple of his other starts but the run support was not there. However, his first win was a thing of beauty, a 3-2 complete game 6-hitter over the Boston Minutemen in mid-September when he outdueled Dick Higgins, a former second overall selection.
So what made Danny Hern good enough to make the majors ahead of 61 of the 74 pitchers drafted before him in 1935? That 1935 draft was famous for another pitcher, a guy by the name of Deuce Barrell, who went first overall and was one of 7 pitchers taken in the first round. George Garrison and Charlie Wheeler, two others from that round have done okay for themselves and Bud Canfield, the 12th overall pick that year sits just a few spots below Hern on the top prospect list.
But what of the other three. The Pioneers took Dan Rivard in the first round that year and, while not a top 100 prospect, Rivard is in AAA and may get a shot next year but Bill Keith and Luis Tapia are looking more and more like busts as they both languish in the minors. The ensuing rounds are also loaded with guys who's big league chances are slim at best but there is Hern, a 14th round pick made good.
Why? Is it Hearn's work ethic? Nope, that is listed as low and we are told he makes too many excuses for his poor work habits. Is he a leader? No, not at all. He must be smart then, right? Nope. Low intelligence. So despite no outstanding personality characteristic, low work ethic, just average high school stats in only one year at that level Hern has somehow gone from being considered a minor leaguer at best in 1935 to now being called a mid-rotation starter
HANK GRANT
Grant was a 14th round pick in the 1934 draft who went from being considered a below-average shortstop in his draft year to a top 50 prospect. His rise can be seen quite easily in looking at his stats. He was a average to slightly below average hitter his first four seasons in the minors but right from opening day 1939 he seemed to learn, almost overnight, how to hit. He advanced three levels that season and was an above average hitter at each of them. His production dropped a bit when he got to Montreal at the end of July this past season but certainly not far enough for one to think he may have peaked. His defense was also unusual. The Saints seemed to want to play him at second base or in the outfield as he rarely played shortstop prior to 1938, but when he started hitting he worked his way into the lineup and his defense was more than acceptable although, similar to his woes at the plate he struggled in the field once he made the Saints.
Current Brooklyn Kings scouting director John Spears admitted he had Grant as a 8th-10th round talent in the 1934 draft, ranking him 84th among position players on his draft board. "We thought he did everything okay - makes contact, has some speed, acceptable defense, but nothing stood out so we pegged him as maybe an injury replacement guy or more likely a career AAA talent."
OSA thought the same but here we are 6 years later and Grant is not only the lowest selected player from his draft class to make the big leagues so far, but also a top 50 prospect. 1934 was actually a decent draft for shortstops but before we get to that let's look at 5 that were selected in the first 5 rounds but given a re-do, the team selecting them would swap their pick for Grant in a heartbeat:
Code:
Tip Harrison : 2nd round 24 big league games, now 29 years old
Bill Sorrells : 2nd round 0 big league games, now 27 years old
Walter Morgan : 4th round 0 big league games, still only 24 though
Johnnie Wolsey: 4th round 97 big league games, now 27 years old
Bill Smith : 5th round 0 big league games, now 27 years old
While those five did very little, at least so far in their careers, as mentioned above the 1934 crop of shortstops was a pretty good one. Here is who we have:
Code:
RD PICK NAME FABL G DRAFTING TEAM
1 4 Charlie Artuso 457 Toronto
1 15 Jim Hensley 139 Baltimore
2 22 Lew McClendon 466 Pittsburgh
3 47 Ivan Cameron 292 Cougars
3 48 Mel Hancock Jr. 401 Cleveland
5 79 Mule Monier 302 Gothams
6 90 Leon Blackridge 235 Stars
6 95 Vince D'Alessandro 63 Gothams
8 114 Charley McCullough 258 Baltimore
8 119 Frank Davis 469 Pittsburgh
9 142 Terry Cox 39 Brooklyn
12 182 Jake Hughes 163 Montreal
14 214 Hank Grant 46 Montreal
So Grant has a ways to go to catch a lot of other guys in his draft class, but the vast majority of them had an 8-13 round head start on him.
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 11/03/1940
- British naval forces take over the island of Crete after coming to aid of Greece, which had been invaded by Italy. As the British drove Italian forces from Crete, Greek's little army continues to hold off Axis forces along the northern frontier.
- British warplanes struck for the first time at southern Italy, bombing the industrial center of Naples.
- The R.A.F. successfully stopped German and Italian raiding squadrons short of London time and again over the past week.
- The United States will rule the air, claimed President Roosevelt at a campaign stop in Boston in which he announced plans for the production of 12,000 more bombing airplanes, made thanks to the aid of the automobile industry.
- With the Presidential election just days away, Wendell Wilkie takes full advantage of a blunder FDR made in reading a campaign speech as Roosevelt referred to Joseph P Kennedy as "my Ambassador to Great Britain". Wilkie declared "this is what any would naturally say who has in his hands enormous power, who has felt the taste of power, who thinks in terms of himself as the ruler of a people instead of being merely an instrument for carrying out the laws of the land."
- The first lottery numbers were selected in the nation's unprecedented peacetime conscription. An estimated 6,175 men holding draft serial number 158 will be the first called up for military service.
- Police in New York City arrested a man with a revolver who claims he was offered $5,000 to "knock off Mayor LaGuardia". The man was arrested before he could approach the mayor.