JUNE 26, 1944
BREAKING NEWS - BOSTON/CINCINNATI TRADE
The Boston Minutemen and Cincinnati Cannons have hooked up on an 8-player, 1 draft pick deal, with the centerpiece being two-time all-star and back to back World Championship Series winner Billy Dalton heading east to New England. Dalton solves the Minutemen infield problems as it will allow Jim Spencer to shift from the hot corner to second base. The addition of Dalton along with four other veterans in pitcher Roger Perry, catcher Buster Farrar and outfielders Alf Pestilli and Jim Mason might be enough to lift Boston into the favourite role for winning their second straight Federal Association pennant. For Cincinnati, it is the official recognition that there will be no WCS title this time around but the allure of building a pitching staff with 4 players selected first or second overall and all in the peak of their careers. That is assuming that Deuce Barrell, the two-time Allen Award winner who's season ending elbow injury knocke the Cannons out of the Continental Association race even before it began, can make a full recovery. Cannons fans could see a dream-rotation headed by Deuce, Vic Carroll, Bill Sohl and newcomer Bob Arman. Sohl was a second overall selection while each of the other three were the top pick in their respective draft classes. In addition to the 23 year Arman, who is presently in the Army, the Cannons also add two other young prospects and receive Boston's first round selection next January.
If Ol’ Doc lived in a world without deadlines he would have included the big news in his earlier edition. If that was to be the case though he would have missed out on one of his greatest pleasures in life which is rushing into the print room hollering “STOP THE PRESSES!!” Ol’ Doc will choose to ignore the insolent curs that didn’t move a muscle to stop said presses. So readers will have to be satisfied with a special edition outlining today's events.
The defending Worlds Champions, the Cincinnati Cannons who took the hearts of every Boston fan last season with their game seven triumph over our beloved Minutemen, were faced with some real adversity this season. 27 year old star hurler and golden armed delight of the league, Rufus Barrell II, otherwise known as Deuce had his poor elbow explode on him in March. With the loss of Barrell the chance of a Cannon’s repeat appeared to be slim. Pair that loss with C Adam Mullins doing a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy and the Cannons came out of the gates playing .500 baseball. One bright spot for the Cannons was the emergence of LF Denny Andrews who was enjoying his best season as a professional. That all came to an end in mid May when his elbow decided to stop working. With the losses on the roster and field combined with the Chicago Cougar’s meteoric rise through the CA, rumbling from Cincinnati brass could be heard all the way to the Atlantic where the Boston GM was trying to find a way to get his club back into the FED race. Boston is well aware from when the Cannons GM was in Brooklyn that “rumblings” were really code for cannon shots about to be fired. Ol’ Doc was not privy to the intimate details of the back and forth between Boston and Cincinnati but he is well versed in inferring. Safe to say when that phone rang with Cincinnati on the other line if Boston wasn’t going to get stronger, someone else in the FED surely was. Ol’ Doc believes that there may have been a bit of “preventative maintenance” with this deal. Speaking plainly, you don’t let someone with the talent of Billy Dalton, a proven winner, go to the teams you are trying to catch in the standings. Here is the completed deal in full:
Boston sends:
SP Bob Arman (Military)
SS Clifton Smith (MLB)
OF Karl Berggen (My draft pick from the January portion of the draft)
1945 1st round draft pick. (Since this trade won’t be processed till after the draft that pick is open to be traded)
Cincinnati Sends:
3B Billy Dalton
C Buster Farrar
OF Alf Pestilli
SP Roger Perry
OF Jim Mason
This deal was shaped around third sacker Billy Dalton. As Boston fans are aware Art Spencer is having a great season manning the hot corner. Spencer is on track for a plus 5 WAR season so why is the team looking toward Dalton. The answer to that question is not at third but on the right side of the diamond at second base. The combination of Henry Warren, Bud Gustafson and Clifton Smith was not getting the job done. Dalton will play third and Art will move to second giving the lineup much more pop than it previously had.
The deal also included Buster Farrar who will move right into the mix behind the plate with Bill Van Ness. This is a clear upgrade to the Van Ness/Artesan duo the club is currently rolling out. Without any options left it would appear that Artesan’s days in a Boston uniform are numbered. Expect a trade or an outright DFA for the young glove first backstop.
The Boston outfield as a unit is once again a strong point of the club. Adding Alf Pestilli, a lefty that can hit lefties, to the mix just makes that unit so much stronger. Pestilli can play all three OF positions as well as first base giving manager Billy Boshart plenty of options.
The pitching staff has been very solid this season for Boston but there is an old baseball adage that you can NEVER have enough quality arms. Perry is enjoying a fine season and is a better option for spot starts than what Boston is currently using with Richardson and Linden. Look for Tom Martin to possibly get a demotion to make room for Perry.
The final piece of the puzzle would be OF/1B Jim Mason who will provide a better option than Willie Jones and Bob Donoghue have been giving as first base depth. There is no question that Boston wanted Mason over a few other candidates to really try and fill out their depth and get better on the margins.
In return Cincinnati will receive Bob Arman, Clifton Smith, newly drafted OF Karl Berggen and the 1945 first round pick of the Minutemen. Boston is hoping that pick will be #16 in the draft. Ol’ Doc won’t get too deep into the weeds here as I’m sure Ernie Herr from the Cincinnati post will go into greater detail there but this does fit the modus operandi of the Boston GM. Ol’ Doc knows him to be a man of action that is not worried about giving up future assets for continued current success. In a league where many of the GM’s like to hoard prospects the Boston GM is operating in stark contrast. Ol’ Doc would like to remind the head man in Boston that if he keeps dealing his first round picks each year he is losing his opportunity to replenish that renewable currency he likes to quickly deal away. However, Ol’ Doc will also admit watching a team succeed in Boston is a whole lot more fun to cover than a first place club in Columbus, Worcester, Springfield or the other stops along the Minuteman minor league highway. Ol’ Doc was talking about drama in his earlier edition today. This sort of deal makes his words prophetic as this move will hopefully provide high drama the rest of the way this season.
- It looks like the Cincinnati Cannons front office officially admitted what everyone knew to be true for quite some time. There will be no repeat for the 1943 World Championship Series winners. The Cannons dealt one of the key pieces they acquired last summer to help the club claim that fancy trophy and banner to display at Tice Stadium, along with 4 other players off of their big league roster in exchange for 3 prospects and a draft pick. The message is clear. The Cannons seem to know the Chicago Cougars are far too strong and are building for next year, or whenever the war ends and the likes of Adam Mullins, Fred Galloway, Charlie Rivera and top prospect Dick Blaszak return home.
It will be interesting to see how the fan base reacts. There were mixed reactions in the streets and taverns of the Queen City when the news broke that Dalton, along with pitcher Roger Perry, catcher Buster Farrar and outfielders Alf Pestilli and Jim Mason had all been dispatched to Boston in an effort to help the team the Cannons topped last October try and repeat as Federal Association flag winners. In return the Cannons receive a lot of future talent, but also create a lot of short-term holes in their lineup. Of the haul Cincinnati claims only Clinton Smith, a raw but gifted 23 year old middle infielder, will see any action with the big club this season. The rest of the pieces are 23 year old righthander Bob Arman -a highly touted hurler who was selected first overall in 1942 but is presently the property of Uncle Sam's Army- as well as Karl Berggren, a Boston area native and 2-time second team All-American who suited up for Huntington State this season after the Minutemen selected him in the second round of the January draft phase. Cincinnati also receives Boston's first round pick in the January 1945 draft but with the players the Cannons gifted to the New Englanders it might well be the 16th and final selection of the opening round.
The centerpiece for the Cannons is clearly Arman. Cannons pitching coach Big George Johnson must be dreaming of the day he can count a rotation that includes three first-overall draft picks in Deuce Barrell, Vic Carroll and the 23 year old Arman with Bill Sohl -merely a second overall selection although it was in the same year the Cannons picked 1-2 and selected Dick Blaszak before Sohl- as the fourth man in that talented group. That is assuming that Deuce makes a full recovery from the injury that cost him the season and clearly is a key factor in why this deal was ever considered.
Potential doesn't always pan out with elite pitchers but one has to think this move positions the Cannons very well to compete with the Chicago Cougars and the amazing collection of arms they will get back once the war ends. The fact that Adam Mullins will also return, perhaps as early as next season, makes Farrar expendable although the Cannons are noticably weaker behind the plate now with Tommy Morris and Ed Sala battling for the starting job. Roger Perry was a dependable veteran arm and in the short-term the Cannons will muddle through the current season and hope that the likes of Tom Barrell and Dan Adams can cover for Perry's absence from the rotation. But as soon as the war ends and players return there would be no room for Perry in Cincinnati. Same for Alf Pestilli and Jim Mason. While there was no room for Mason already, Pestilli was enjoying a nice season but the outfield was crowded and this will give Rufus Daniels and veteran Henry Jones some more games but they are both just placeholders until the likes of Fred Galloway, Mike T. Taylor and top prospect Dick Blaszak return from the war. At that point with Bob Griffith and Sam Brown here now, the outfield will once again be very crowded.
That crowded outfield picture is exactly why the Cannons felt they could deal Dalton - less than a year after they brought him from New York. Dalton now stands a decent shot of accomplishing something very special - three World Championships in three successive seasons with 3 different teams as he played a key role on the '42 Gothams winner as well as the Cannons last October. Denny Andrews had a chance once before to solidify himself as the Cannons third baseman but he failed miserably. However, Andrews looked very good at the plate this season and skipper Ad Doria was forced to shoehorn him in at left field because Dalton owned the hot corner. Andrews is hurt right now, but when he returns in August the hope is he can continue to produce as a third sacker the same way he did the first two months of the season. Until then the Cannons turn to 35 year old Nick Wallace, who has spent the last 4 seasons in Indianapolis, to man third base although if he falters the plan is likely to shift light hitting second sacker Tony White to third since newcomer Clifton Smith will get every opportunity to claim the keystone bag as his own.
So it is clearly a step back this season, but really that was a lost cause now anyway, in hopes that the future just became an awful lot brighter. The success of this deal hinges on whether Arman can be a top of the rotation starter as many project. If so, it will not bother the Cannons one bit to see all of those veterans win another title in Boston.
FABL DRAFT UPDATE
The first round of the summer phase of the FABL draft have been completed. It is actually round four overall as the opening two rounds along with the Regional third round are all completed in January each year. The Chicago Cougars had the opening pick of this phase and they went with George Sutterfield, a 22 year old shortstop out of Georgia Baptist. The Nashville native played just the one season of college ball, slashing .282/.353/.410. Said to be very intelligent with an outstanding work ethic, Sutterfield is very athletic and OSA gives him a ceiling of developing into a star caliber infielder.
Speaking of Georgia Baptist, the second pick was Jeep Erickson by the Cleveland Foresters out of a Wisconsin High School. The 18 year old outfielder says he is not going to sign with the Foresters and plans on attending Georgia Baptist in the fall. He wasn't the only fourth rounder to say he is passing on minor league ball in order to receive a college education as Jack Rogers -Brooklyn's pick at #6- is committed to Kit Carson University where the 18 year old plans to play baseball and basketball. The Foresters and Kings will still have an opportunity to change the minds of the two outfielders.
There was a trade made during the draft as the New York Gothams sent the first pick of the fifth round -which turned out to be Baton Rogue State shortstop Bill Doucette- to the Detroit Dynamos in exchange for 30 year old righthander Cy Sullivan. Sullivan was 5-7 with a 4.00 era for the Dynamos this season and is 48-50 over his 7 seasons with Detroit and the Chicago Cougars. The Gothams were also said to shopping other picks but as of press time had no takers as of press time.
Code:
DRAFT RESULTS: ROUND FOUR
PK TM PLAYER AGE POS SCHOOL HOMETOWN
49 CHC George Sutterfield 22 SS Georgia Baptist Nashville, TN
50 CLE Jeep Erickson 18 CF Pardeeville (WI) HS Sheboygan, WI
51 DET Pete Brown 21 P Eaton College Milwaukee, WI
52 NYS Frank Burke 18 P Shinglehouse(PA) HS Buffalo, NY
53 PIT Gary Burgess 18 SS Downey (CA) HS French Valley, CA
54 BKN Jack Rogers 18 CF Glendora (CA) HS Glendora, CA
55 CHI Ted Marcom 17 C Baltic (CT) HS Grafton, MA
56 MON Leo Warren 18 2B Warwick (RI) HS Boston, MA
57 WSH Gene Ryan 22 C Bayou State San Antonio, TX
58 PHS Ray Taylor 18 1B East HS, Nashville Nashville, TN
59 PHK Aubrey Gray 18 3B Avilla (IN) HS Avilla, IN
60 CHC Mike Thorpe 21 P Americus University Walterboro, SC
61 DET George Bundy 18 OF Parkland HS, Portland Portland, OR
62 NYS Danny Allen 21 P College of Waco Wellsville, OH
63 BKN Andy Moyer 17 CF Richmond (CA) HS San Francisco, CA
64 NYS Frankie Foster 17 P Ashland (VA) HS Ashland, VA
- Washington drafted a Texas born catcher by the name of Gene Ryan with their fourth round pick. It is the third time the Eagles have selected a catcher born in the Lone Star state in the first 10 rounds of a draft. They are hoping Ryan is a little closer to the first one - TR Goins, first overall in 1919 who played 2025 FABL games- than the second one. That second catcher is Harry Rainey, a 1933 round 3 selection who is now retired and never made it to the big leagues.
- Noticed that big bat George Bundy is from Portland, Oregon. He was Detroit's fourth round pick Different high school but are the Dynamos hoping he can follow in the footsteps of another big bat from Portland - one who is now playing first base in New York and goes by the name Red.