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JAMES KELLER HITS .400 IN 1ST MWBA SEASON!
1ST MWBA .400 HITTER SINCE 1898; WON 2ND STRAIGHT BotY IN ABA LEAGUE

After winning the APBL Batsman of the Year and nearly taking the league’s Triple Crown in 1902, James Keller was shockingly traded to the Minneapolis Lakers in the MWBA for five-star pitching prospect Levi Butcher just weeks later.

Keller underwent a massive improvement from his first season with the Massachusetts Bay Pilgrims in 1901 to his award-winning 1902 season, so there was some argument that he might take some time to adjust to his new league.

Did it take time for Keller to adjust? About a month. After hitting .281 (16/57) in April Keller put up an absurd .427 Batting Average (156/365) over the rest of the 1903 season to become the first MWBA player since Milwaukee’s Thierry Moreau in 1898 to hit .400.

Keller’s 1903 stat line:

• 458 PA, .408/.439/.578, 1.017 OPS, 77 R, 172 H, 33 2B, 3 3B, 11 HR, 92 RBI, 23 BB/16 K, 1 SB, 5.7 WPA, 5.9 oWAR, 5.3 WAR

If Keller’s Plate Appearance amount looks a bit low, that’s because he was part of a first-of-its-kind player rotation undertaken by Minneapolis manager George Gorecki.

After trading for Keller, it meant four-star first baseman Harold O’Mara was out of a spot in the regular lineup. O’Mara could play third base just as easily as first but moving him there would force four-star third baseman, and four-time Team of the Year member, Cleveland DeVoe out of his regular spot in the lineup. However, DeVoe was a true corner utility man who could play first, third, left field, and right field comfortably, ranking about 55/80 at first & third and 60/80 at left & right. Gorecki took DeVoe out of his regular spot, but instead started him for 20-25 games at each of his four positions so he could play as often as a regular, with the regulars in those positions – Keller (1B), O’Mara (3B), Franklin Etheridge (LF), and Elton Crosby (RF) – each starting 100-110 games.

The results speak for themselves. Minneapolis went 92-40 to have the best record of any ABA team, and they led the MWBA in the following offensive categories:

• Runs: 796 (6.03 R/G; 1st by 49)
• Batting Average: .318 (1st by 10 points)
• On-Base Pct: .378 (1st by 8 points)
• Slugging Pct: .420 (1st by 13 points)
• On-Base + Slg: .798 (1st by 30 points)
• Home Runs: 52 (1st by 5)
• Strikeouts: 441 (3.34 K/G; lowest by 20)
• Win Prob. Added: 26.8 (1st by 8.6)
• Batting WAR: 35.7 (1st by 3.7)

They went on to take the Lincoln Memorial Cup in six games over Columbus and finished the season with another six-game triumph over the Manhattan Knickerbockers in the third edition of the President’s Cup.

If there is to be one dark cloud to Keller’s season it’s in the unique player rotation system that he was a part of. While it could be argued that the periodic games Keller spent on the bench kept him fresh enough to hit .408, the same system likely kept him from winning the MWBA Triple Crown. As things were, Keller hit .408 with 11 Home Runs and 92 RBI in 110 games. Columbus’ Ewan King led the MWBA with 12 home runs, and Missouri’s Mark Cronan led the league in RBI with 105. Extrapolating Keller’s HR & RBI rate out to a full 132 games – he wasn’t injured in 1903 – would have him with a .408 Average, 13 Home Runs, and 110 RBI, enough to overtake the leaders in the other two main batting categories, who were out for a handful of games at most.