Introducing the Footnote League

[luckymann]

• LAST YEAR: 85-55, 1st / .318 / 4.23
• BNN PREDICTION: 80-70 2 GB, 2nd / .257 / 2.81
• FARM SYSTEM: 1st
• PAYROLL: 2nd, $27,280
• HIGHEST PAID PLAYER: 2B Wally Backman, $1,903
• CASH BALANCE: $167,503

There seems to be an almost organic progression in train with the Senators. 1901: Be competitive, go close but ultimately fall short; 1902: Win the Pennant, but be found wanting in the Series; 1903:??

I see no apparent reasons why this progression shouldn’t reach its natural conclusion and the Sens win it all this season.

The continued absence of SP Tommy Hughes was more than compensated for by the FA signing of Jake Weimer. He, along with Lou Brissie, two-way star Micah Owings and southpaw Tyler Anderson form a rotation that is arguably second only to the A’s in the AL.

All of the offensive pieces that have served them so well these past two years are still in place, and with the addition of phenomenal rookies SS Solly Hofman and 3B Hans Lobert their lineup looks even more fearsome. So much so, in fact, that 1901 AL MVP Wally Backman finds himself relegated to the bench. Now, my friends, that is depth.

There is no BUT to all of this, apart from the luck of the draw and roll of the ball. Players get hurt, lose form, make errors. None of which can be controlled. The Senators organisation has done their best with the things they can control, and only a mug would bet against them coming up with the goods in 1903.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: SS Solly Hofman, 3B Hans Lobert, 1B / SP Micah Owings, SP Jake Weimer

Opening Day squad.

[ALB123]

Okay... Who let the zombie sit dead center for the Philadelphia A's team photo? If that dude was on the mound and it were my turn to bat, I'd refuse to get in the batter's box.

I'm sorry to suggest this after the fact, but I literally just thought of it. Do you think you could edit the team photo posts and maybe put a small text with something like "Players to Watch..." and then list like 3 people that you, the Commissioner, think could be worth paying particular attention to? It doesn't have to be their best players all the time. Chances are they're going to stand out anyway. If the team has a Captain, maybe list the team Captain too? I don't know....something like that - just to give us some names to look for? Unless that's stupid. I know I have terrible ideas all the time.

Seriously... You might want to call the local coroner or maybe the police concerning that dude on the A's. There is no way his heart is still beating.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by ALB123

Okay... Who let the zombie sit dead center for the Philadelphia A's team photo? If that dude was on the mound and it were my turn to bat, I'd refuse to get in the batter's box.

I'm sorry to suggest this after the fact, but I literally just thought of it. Do you think you could edit the team photo posts and maybe put a small text with something like "Players to Watch..." and then list like 3 people that you, the Commissioner, think could be worth paying particular attention to? It doesn't have to be their best players all the time. Chances are they're going to stand out anyway. If the team has a Captain, maybe list the team Captain too? I don't know....something like that - just to give us some names to look for? Unless that's stupid. I know I have terrible ideas all the time.

Seriously... You might want to call the local coroner or maybe the police concerning that dude on the A's. There is no way his heart is still beating.

Great minds bud, I'm actually in the middle of doing a season preview from my perspective rather than just the raw stats etc. There'll be a rundown on each roster and some "New Faces for 1903" to keep an eye out for.

Watch this space!

EDIT - I'VE STARTED PUTTING THE COMMENTARY / ANALYSIS ON EACH OF THE POSTS WHERE THE TEAM PICS ARE, A PAGE OR SO BACK.

[luckymann]

After taking in submissions, I am proud to present to you the new official logo for the Footnote League, courtesy of Master Designer davwms.

Ain't she a beauty!

Tempus Effulgeo: Time to Shine

[luckymann]

Not sure how I missed this, but Dave Roberts, he of "The Steal" fame, has been in the FL from the start, and will be suiting up for the 1903 Pittsburgh Pirates squad.

And then there's Bill Knowlton, who will enter the FL through this year's Rookie Draft. I scour the new entries each year and weed out the big names, in the course of which process I noticed Bill. He pitched in just one game in 1920 for the A's, going 5.2 innings and taking the loss. That's it, roll credits and up the lights.

Of course that sent me scurrying off for a surf to try and find out more info on him. But I got bupkis. Zero, zilch, nada. If anyone can unearth more on the Bill Knowlton story that would be awesome.

[luckymann]

Here are the top 5 Draftees as suggested by the Mock Draft.

1. C Patsy Gharrity
2. 2B John Lowenstein
3. OF Lloyd Moseby
4. P Jack Coombs
5. OF Ping Bodie

[luckymann]

And finally, here are the three Negro League players who'll be joining the Footnote League via the Draft this year.

OF Turkey Stearnes
P / 1B Nip Winters
P Sam Streeter

[luckymann]

Well it certainly looks like we’re in for a tight race in both leagues with plenty of chances capable of taking the ultimate prize. If I remove my Commissioner hat for a second and revert to the role of casual spectator then I do think Washington looks the team to beat, with Pittsburgh real comers in the NL. But I wouldn’t entirely rule out a “Subway Series” either.

Enough talk for now – tempus effulgeo, Footnote League players. Time to Shine.

PLAY BALL!

[luckymann]

Just a quick note to let you know that, because of continued issues with regard to statistical output in the PSL, I won't be reporting on this league each month. I was planning on cutting this out anyway as I want to have more time to focus on the FL, but these anomalies forced my hand.

[luckymann]

FAIRLY EVEN APRIL IN THE AL – CARDS BEGIN WELL IN THE NL.

Notable Performances

• 22nd: Washington rookie Jake Weimer begins his big league career in fine style, shutting out the Highlanders on 2 hits while fanning 5. The same day sees Cincy’s Jim Barr go 12 innings, shutting out the Cubs on three hits.
• 23rd: Washington’s rotation continue their domination of New York with another two-hitter, this time by Lou Brissie in a 3-0 shutout.
• 25th: Another two-hit shutout with southpaw Hooks Wiltse leading the Browns to a 6-0 whitewash of the Sox. Later that month, however, he goes down with shoulder tendonitis and will miss 6 weeks.
• 28th: Cleveland’s Kid Elberfeld has the season’s first 5-hit game, helping the Naps overcome the Browns 5-1.
• 30th: The A’s rally from 9-0 down, scoring 11 over the final four innings to pinch one from the Americans, with Homer Smoot’s 4-5 / 2B / HR / 2 RBI performance leading the way.

Feats and Streaks

• 16th: Al Shaw of the Giants finally has his hit streak – which had carried over from the previous season – halted by Brooklyn at 30 games. St Louis outfielder Steve Braun would have his streak brought to an end the following day after hitting in 28 straight.

Transactions
None of note

Injuries

• 30th: Disaster for the red-hot A’s and their equally in-form ace Fred Glade, as he is lost for the year with a partially-torn labrum.

Monthly Awards
American League

• Batter: Charlie Babb PHA (.366 / 4 RBI / 9 R)
• Pitcher: Jake Weimer WAS (2-0 / 0.00 / 11 K / 18 IP)
• Rookie: Jake Weimer WAS

National League

• Batter: Steve Braun STL (.389 / 9 RBI / 7 R)
• Pitcher: Jim Barr CIN (3-0 / 0.90 / 11 K / 30 IP)
• Rookie: Hub Purdue CHC (2-1 / 1.04 / 13 K / 26 IP)

Leaders
American League

• BA: Jeff Keppinger WAS .476
• HR: Homer Smoot PHA 2
• RBI: Nomar Mazara CLE 10
• BWAR: Miguel Rojas SLA 0.9
• SB: Rudy Law WAS 9

• W: Many tied on 2
• ERA: 2 tied on 0.00
• K: 2 tied on 13
• SV: Many tied on 1
• PWAR: Ed Head PHA 0.6

National League

• BA: Steve Braun STL .389
• HR: Rick Dempsey BSN 3
• RBI: Mike Shannon BRO 11
• BWAR: Eddie Joost PHI 1.2
• SB: Delino DeShields BRO 9

• W: Many tied on 3
• ERA: Jim Barr CIN 0.90
• K: Johnny Broaca PHI 20
• SV: 2 tied on 1
• PWAR: Johnny Broaca PHI 0.9

Standings

[luckymann]

Just a quick run through of where our Spotlight players are at this early stage of season 1903:

• Ed Head continues to do well for the A’s, 3-0 with an ERA of 1.17 thru May 4th
• Otto Hess is having a fairly torrid time of it down at PSL Newark, with an ERA of 11.45 in 22 IP
• Ray Starr is a FA looking for a team, but at 39 his chances of finding one look pretty grim
• Curt Roberts has had just 1 AB for PSL Wichita Falls—he made an out, but has also walked and scored a run
• Rawmeat Bill Rodgers is playing mainly from the bench for the Superbas and has gone 3-for-12 with one ribbie so far
• Arnold Hauser is a teammate of Curt Roberts at Wichita Falls, and is currently hitting .238 with a dinger and 5 RBI in 101 AB
• Cy Seymour has, of course, retired

More updates throughout the course of the year.

[luckymann]

TIGERS WITH A MINI-BREAK AFTER A 21-9 MONTH – NL STILL VERY TIGHT – CARDS ON TOP BUT BUCS LOOMING OMINOUSLY.

Notable Performances

• 4th: A one-hit gem by Johnny Broaca leads the Phils past the Superbas 4-0.
• 5th: 5 in the bottom 9th gets the Beaneaters out of jail 6-5 against the Giants, with a two-out two-run two-bagger by Gates Brown walking it off for the win.
• 11th: The Pirates nearly blow one when they give up a 4-run lead in the 9th, only to eventually win it 10-9 in 13.
• 20th: Sens ace Lou Brissie’s fine start to the season continued as he three-hits the struggling Naps in an 11-0 cakewalk, putting his record at 4-1 with an ERA of 1.20.
• 21st: Despite posting a crooked number in the 9th the A’s come up short 10-9 against the streaking Tigers.
• 26th: The surprising Browns score 10 in the 9th to get past Detroit 13-6 and pull within one game of them at the top of the AL standings.
• 28th: A Danny Cox 2-hit sparkler helps the White Sox to a 12-0 win as they split a doubleheader with the Naps, while Danny Duffy’s three-hit shutout earns the Cubs a 4-0 win over the Giants.
• 27th: A quick word from the PSL, where Joplin’s Bill Lohrman recorded the 3rd no-hitter in the league’s history in a 6-0 win over the Lookouts.

Feats and Streaks
None of note.

Transactions

• 13th: Hopefully Whitey Wietelmann will start seeing some more game time after the Senators ship the SS to Brooklyn in exchange for pitchers Josh Collmenter and Tom Earley.

Injuries

• 2nd: The Highlanders SP Ben McDonald is ruled out for the season with radial nerve compression.
• 5th: Talented Brooklyn 2B Jim Gantner will be on the sideline for about a month after being diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back.
• 20th: The Tigers lose hot-hitting 2B Sam Mertes for 5 weeks to a strained oblique.
• 25th: The Giants will have to do without 2B Steve Lombardozzi for most of the season courtesy of a torn back muscle.

Monthly Awards
American League

• Batter: Eric Young BOS (.346 / 17 RBI / 27 R)
• Pitcher: Dave Rozema DET (6-0 / 1.81 / 15 K / 59.2 IP)
• Rookie: Weldon Henley DET (4-3 / 3.36 / 31 K / 67 IP)

National League

• Batter: Pete Runnells PHI (.396 / 19 RBI / 25 R)
• Pitcher: Don Robinson PIT (4-1 / 1.98 / 19 K / 59 IP)
• Rookie: Joe Ferguson CIN (.347 / 21 RBI / 16 R)

Leaders
American League

• BA: George Stone CWS .400
• HR: Homer Smoot PHA 3
• RBI: Homer Smoot PHA 26
• BWAR: Solly Hemus CWS 2.1
• SB: Rudy Law WAS 28

• W: Many tied on 6
• ERA: Lou Brissie WAS 1.41
• K: Jake Weimer WAS 51
• SV: 4 tied on 2
• PWAR: Ed Head PHA 1.9

National League

• BA: Gates Brown BSN .360
• HR: Bill DeLancey NYG 4
• RBI: Billy Johnson NYG 35
• BWAR: Eddie Joost PHI 2.2
• SB: Dave Roberts PIT 21

• W: Harry Gumbert STL 7
• ERA: Flint Rhem STL 1.98
• K: Johnny Broaca PHI 50
• SV: 3 tied on 2
• PWAR: Dave Dravecky STL 1.9

Standings

[Brad K]

Pitcher: Don Robinson PIT (4-1 / 1.98 / 19 K / 59 IP)

So here I am fooled again. Ready to complain he was too good for your league so I checked and he's got a WAR of 17.4. Probably on the high side though for the Footnote though.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by Brad K

So here I am fooled again. Ready to complain he was too good for your league so I checked and he's got a WAR of 17.4. Probably on the high side though for the Footnote though.

I was close to cutting him. Unofficial highwater mark is 20 WAR except in special cases such as Negro League players. But, you're right, he just snuck in on that benchmark.

Ratings-wise he doesn't exactly kill it, he's just having a good season.

Just notice two Steve Lombardozzis have somehow entered the league, so one of them will have to go at the end of the season. It'll be the Cleveland one. I must have accidentally unretired him and had a new one created as well.

[luckymann]

Only 7 rounds in this year’s Rookie Draft, so spots in the FL were keenly fought for. Boom catcher Patsy Gharrity went first overall, with the Reds picking him up, and once again position players dominated the early rounds. The first pitcher to be taken was Bob Wicker, at 12 by the Pirates.

Here are our new recruits:

[luckymann]

Runs Created per 27 Outs (season to date):

[luckymann]

Only relatively early doors in the season but I couldn't help noticing what I've called "The White Sox Paradox".

They have three of the hottest hitters in the league:

• George Stone - .393 / .452 / . 543 with 1 HR and 18 RBI
• Austin Jackson - .338 / AL-leading 27 RBI
• Solly Hemus - .331 / 1 HR / 13 RBI / AL-leading 2.3 WAR

Are hitting .289 as a team (3rd), have the best FIP in the AL (3.18).

Are sitting next-to-last in the AL with a 15-22 record.

So what gives?

Well they say good pitching usually beats good hitting. But nowhere in that equation does fielding rate a mention. The 1903 White Sox show that you can have great hitting and great pitching, but if your defence can't do its job then you may as well have neither.

Despite their great FIP the Sox have given up more runs (182) than their potent lineup has scored (173), thanks mainly to 85 errors and the second-worst ZR in the league.

They'll need to tighten this up if they don't want to waste what should have been a successful season.

[luckymann]

Cribbed from THIS article on SABR Bio by Chip Greene.

If I’m being brutally honest, in the big scheme of things Dave Rozema wasn’t much of a ballplayer. What he was is something we are seeing less and less of as baseball continues to evolve into more of a business than a pastime: a good ol’ boy. A character.

The Tigers had just unearthed Mark “The Bird” Fidrych in his 19-win ROY 1976 season when Dave “The Rose” Rozema came up. Despite having sub-par stuff, Rozema was seen as another huge prospect. Detroit skipper Ralph Houk said Rozema had the best control he’d ever seen. Even Reds manager Frank Robinson thought he could win 30 games in a season.

After turning down the Giants, who had nabbed him in the 22nd round of the 1974 Draft but failed to offer him a signing bonus, Rozema signed with Detroit the following year. He spent 1975 at their Class A team in Clinton, Iowa, finishing with a 14-5 record and an ERA of 2.09. After trying out unsuccessfully for the parent club the following spring, he started the season at AA Montgomery, and ended the year at 12-4 / 1.57.

With the inevitable avian comparisons flying thick and fast, Dave pressed his case for a spot on the parent team’s roster. That spot was clinched, somewhat ironically, when Fidrych went down with a knee injury in the pre-season. He made his MLB debut on April 11 with a no-decision in a loss to the expansion Blue Jays, and fashioned a solid 15-7 record in his rookie campaign. His 3.09 ERA was seventh-best in the AL and he walked just 34 batters in 218 IP. His promising start was curtailed, however, when the first of a series of injuries that would plague him from that point on forced him to sit out the final three weeks of the season. Nevertheless, he finished 4th in the ROY and 8th in Cy Young calculations.

These injuries definitely played a part in the dropoff in his performance the following year. And yet, despite his record falling to 9-12, most of his other stats closely replicated his rookie year: 209 IP; 3.14 ERA; WHIP up just a tad from 1.173 to 1.175. Things worsened again in 1979, which saw him appear in just 16 games and pitch just 97 innings, ending up 4-4 / 3.51.

It was around this time that Dave’s off-field behaviour started featuring in reports as much as his on-field performance, and after a so-so start to the 1980 season he found himself shifted to the bullpen. He did make one more memorable start, a two-hitter against Seattle in 1981, but it was the beginning of the end for him at Detroit.

After separate incidents in early 1982 that saw him requiring 11 stitches in his buttock and SS Alan Trammel needing 40 in his mouth (again, separate incidents…), Rozema started the year as well as he ever had, going 3-0 / 1.63 over the first month. But then on May 11, his involvement in a bench-clearing brawl resulted in him basically destroying one of his knees and missing the rest of the year.

He rebounded in 1983 with a solid 8-3 / 3.43 year in relief, and was 7-1 early on in the Tigers’ all-conquering 1984. But he faded so badly in the latter part of the season – losing 5 straight games – that he didn’t make an appearance in the World Series, and was released to free agency at the end of the season.

He signed with Texas for 1985, but never really got going there. He pitched less than 100 innings in his two seasons at Arlington, and that was his career in the majors done. He spent some time in the White Sox and Phillies’ farm systems before retiring from the game in 1990. Obviously Cooperstown was never an option for The Rose, but he is enshrined at the Grand Rapids Hall of Fame along with such players as Jim Kaat, Wally Pipp and Mickey Stanley.

Dave “The Rose” Rozema is certainly making the most of his second chance to shine in the FL, and strangely enough it is with the Tigers he is doing so after they drafted him in 1901 (4th round, 55th overall pick). The IRL parallels don’t stop there, as he has also struggled in the simulated world with shoulder problems, especially in 1902 when he was limited to just 90 IP. But this year has seen him roar back to life, going 7-2 with a 2.87 ERA, and he is on pace for a 4+ WAR season. Two of his most recent starts have been CG shutouts (helping him to the AL Pitcher of the Month Award for May), so he certainly seems at the peak of his form right now. Tempus effulgeo, Dave – keep up the good work!

BASEBALL REFERENCE PAGE

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by luckymann

I was close to cutting him. Unofficial highwater mark is 20 WAR except in special cases such as Negro League players. But, you're right, he just snuck in on that benchmark.

Ratings-wise he doesn't exactly kill it, he's just having a good season.

His ratings look fine to me. I'd be completely happy to have a SP like that.

I usually play the Pirates often set rookies to historical teams so I get him a lot. I don't know if its my impressions from real life or impressions from the game that caused me to think he'd be better than 17.4.

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by luckymann

Just notice two Steve Lombardozzis have somehow entered the league, so one of them will have to go at the end of the season. It'll be the Cleveland one. I must have accidentally unretired him and had a new one created as well.

Its the same guy holding down two jobs. Scotty in the transporter room does wonders.