[ayaghmour2]

With FABL teams still dealing with the draft and enlistments (just Class B and C players left, although big leaguers can leave at any time), this was one of the more active Rule-5 Drafts. We've been rather lucky so far, with the only big loss Pete Papenfus, as well as a few less crippling with Harl Haines and Fred Vargas, and very few minor leaguers leaving. I have a lot of guys in the lower minors, so I expect to get hit hard in the coming days, but we won't have to worry about losing guys like Bunny Hufford, Solly Skidmore, Mel Haynes, and Danny Goff Jr.

In the Rule-5 Draft, we lost just one guy; Bob Worley. I totally forgot he was even in our organization, which makes sense because I added him to a minor league deal in September. Way back in 1926 he was actually our 12th Round selection, but the following offseason I sent him to the Stars with Phil English and Bert Houston for Bob McCarty and Pat Schuring. He debuted in 1930, and has made appearances for the Stars, Saints, Chiefs, and Kings. He's always shown power, but his .237/.305/.342 (76 OPS+) career line isn't all that impressive. He'll now return to the Chiefs, who hope he can be this year's Jim Watson.

We added two arms, picking up a pair of young righties. The first was Ken Matson, who comes over from Brooklyn. The Kings took him with the last pick of the human portion of the draft back in 1936, and he's had a decent minor league career with them. He split his time last year between AA Knoxville and AAA Jersey City, and as you'd expect, he was much better in AA. Matson went 9-5 with a 4.05 ERA (111 ERA+), 1.42 WHIP, 32 walks, and 78 strikeouts in 17 starts. He made 11 more with the Uniforms, where he was a below average 5-6 with a 3.48 ERA (83 ERA+), 1.33 WHIP, 28 walks, and 62 strikeouts. I love the soon-to-be 24-year-olds stuff, as he's always struck out a ton of hitters, with K/9s of 5.3 and 6.2 in Knoxville and Jersey City this year. OSA and Tom Weinstock think he'll end up a spot starter, but I really like his profile out of the pen. He's a hard thrower with a 95-97 cutter, and batters have to respect his curve and change. At times he walks too many hitters, but he gets good movement on his pitches and is good at missing bats. As of now, he has the inside track to securing a pen spot, and I'd like to keep him on the roster all season. Matson is also interestingly a sparkplug, something you usually see in hitters and not pitchers. He does rank in the top 500, sitting at 357th and 36th in our organization.

The other was a former Eagle 19th Rounder with an awesome baseball name; Hooks Camp. The 24-year-old has a fittingly sharp curve, the best of a decent four pitch mix. Camp spent all of last season in AA Atlanta, and he did an okay job there. He was 11-15 with a 4.21 ERA (103 ERA+) and 1.57 WHIP with 100 walks and 88 strikeouts across 213.2 innings. Yes, the walks are an obvious concern, but he has a ton of stamina and can eat innings. Tom thinks Hooks can also be a spot starter, and is a big fan of how he always puts the team first. He's not the hardest thrower, sitting in the low 90s, but he does a good job keeping the ball in the park, while erasing some of his free passes with double plays. With some polishing of his control, he can be a Harry Parker type complete game machine, and he managed to throw 267 pitches in a 15.1 inning loss against Knoxville and 175 in a game where our Commodores walked him off in the 9th. It will be hard to keep both guys, but I really like them both. Injuries and the military could make things easier, but I may have to work out a trade to keep them in the organization.