Season 1935 opens in interesting fashion with a series against the Reds in which we face – and, in both cases, beat – Bill Swift and Bobo Newsom in successive games. Not the most auspicious start for Josh against his former club as he hits just 100, although he does smack his first homer as a Pirate.
We get an early window into what I fear this season is going to contain plenty of when, after we pull Duke out of a game against the Cardinals after he feels back tightness, the pen blows a lead and we take our first loss of the year. That said, a few games later neck Stanley gives us 6 scoreless in relief as we win an 18-inning marathon at Cincy and then 5 scoreless a couple games after that.
Our unsettled early section is exacerbated when Vaughan succumbs to another injury, with a bout of shoulder inflammation set to sideline him for 5 weeks. All of which is very much reflected in our play with not much working how we’d like.
Then Ted Trent goes down as well, but thankfully it turns out to be only minor. Still, aside from Duke Derringer our rotation’s early form is nothing short of diabolical. And with Gibson still only hitting 169 at this point that trade is casting a big shadow.
And then Harry Gumbert tears his rotator cuff completely, ending his career.
Looks like it’s going to be one of those seasons.
This forces my hand and I use my final trade pass to make the following move.
I've been coveting Double Duty for some while and had even made enquiries about him on a number of occasions to no avail. He is a FA at the end of the season and a year older than Ted, so once again there is some risk involved - although not that much as I'm pretty sure Ted was planning to opt out at season's-end anyway. It gets us a guy known for his durability, key given the state of play right now, who can also fill in behind the plate and be a handy bat off the bench on days when he isn't pitching. I wouldn't, however, have pulled the switch without a second player thrown in and Vern will take Harry's BP spot.
I hate being reactive rather than proactive, but necessity is the mother yada yada yada.
I also take this opportunity to move Wes Ferrell into the spin at the expense of Bill Lee, who just looks a bit out of his depth at this stage, and promote Pete Washington from AAA, where he has been - as the previous post attests - killing it.