The 1952 Portland Rosebuds
When opening day arrives, the 1952 Top Prospect report comes out, and we're still ranked as the #8 system in the league, but we're significantly deeper, with nine players ranked in the Top 100. While I won't do a deep dive now, I will highlight 3B Cortez de Santiago, who is now our highest ranking prospect after the graduation of SP Joey Parrish. de Santiago, a RHB, was an international signing out of Panama in our 1950 class and is now is ranked 16th overall.
He was a 40-rated player at the time and is now up to 60, with 6's across contact, power, and eye. This will be his first season out of the complex.
Our first game of the year is against our expansion-mates, the Vancouver Mounties. While they struggled early just like us, they had a few campaigns with win totals in the 70's, and last year went 81-81.
It's a 15-0 loss. Doesn't get much more ominous than that, does it? We lose again, but SP Joey Parrish puts a stop to things, throwing 5 innings of 2-run ball with a strikeout per inning.
I don't want to get overly excited, but we finished April with a 13-10 record. I may be mistaken, but I
think this is our first winning month...ever?
May isn't quite as hot, and the month ends with devastating news. SP Joey Parrish is out for the year. 10-11 months; torn flexor tendon. Fuck. After 10 starts, he had a 3.80 ERA, and an even better 3.11 SIERA. The K% was up, the BB% was down. This sucks. We can only hope he comes back healthy without losing the elite stuff he has.
That brings me to SP Chris Hopkins, who isn't nearly as exciting as he was when he was drafted back in 1948:
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Our second round pick is gone after signing White, so SP Chris Hopkins, a high-school LHP out of Alabama is our pick in the third round. He's got great stuff and control, but will likely need to develop his changeup to really hit his potential.
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Well of course he didn't develop his changeup. The stuff is still good (6) but the movement, which has always been at a 4 is still there, and the control's dropped from 7 to 5. This is likely an average starter, at best. But with Parrish's injury, he's the next man up. Our manager initially has him in the bullpen, which I'm free to over-ride if I find myself thinking differently. We'll see how he does there to start.
April: 13-10
May: 9-19
We get to Draft Day at 23-32, and I actually don't remember where our draft spot was; we dropped from #2 to #3. Not bad, but this is now the 6th straight year that we've dropped, I think?
There's some interesting pitchers but I'd say it leans way more in the offensive direction, with RF Michael Allen (5/7/7) and 3B Chase Wyatt (8/6/6) leading the way according to our scout. Both are high-school bats, but the guy that jumped out at me was a college bat, SS Josh Johnson (7/6/6), a lefty-swinger who's got good range and a good enough arm to play SS, but probably ends up moving to 3B. The speed is significantly better than the other two.
Arm-wise, SP Greg Sarrazin (6/6/6), SP Chris Rodriguez (6/6/6), and SP Nate Wallace (7/6/5) are high-school throwers who look like the best talent available.
Allen goes at 1.1 to the Washington Wasps, and then my guy Johnson goes next to St. Louis.
As much as I like Wyatt, the defense really scares me as I don't think he'll stay at 3B. Might even need to move to the OF. The high school arms are interesting; weird note...Sarrazin's hometown is town I was born in, a tiny town in NJ that no one has heard of. Bonus points! He also has an 8-grade changeup, and is a sidearmer, which is interesting; sidearm guys generally have a heavy split, but the changeup neutralizes opposite-handed hitters.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez has SIX great pitches, all grades as a 6. That's a nice profile and that's the direction we're going to go.
Wyatt goes a couple picks later, and Wallace goes at 10. Sazzarin makes it all the way to 17.
When our 2nd comes around, there's an Ohio prep bat, 3B Trevor Scott, who catches my eye. The defense is okay, but he's athletic enough defensively to play a corner spot too, I think. The bat is great though, with a very advanced eye at the plate (7) and home run power (6) with good contact ability (6).
With our 3rd-rounder, we go to the college ranks and grab SS Bobby Camacho. He's an elite defender with range (7), and not a ton of power but he should be able to hit for average and run the bases well. CF John Hollis is our fourth pick; I'm mentioning him here because he's the OF version of Camacho. Elite defense, great contact ability, and not a ton of power.
Going to wrap this up quickly, as things did not go our way in the second half.
June: 5-23
July: 7-18
August: 8-21
September: 7-20
October: 0-2
It's our worst season since our first season. 113 losses. It's incredible how invested I am in making this team good since I'm spending the time
writing about it but shit, this just isn't working.
The guy who took over closer duties, CL Corey Morris, was good (2.25 ERA) but his SIERA wasn't (4.08) and he walked wayyy to many guys. Only one other pitcher cracked 1 WAR.
2B Bill Marek led the team in WAR with 3.8, which is great. He slashed .270/.327/.434 with a wRC+ of 107. LF Steve Gonzalez wasn't quite as good, with a wRC+ below 100 for the first time (99) and a slash line of .254/.340/.374. CF Mike Gruver, who we were really expecting to break out, struggled offensively with a .253/.286/.396 line.
We did get some action from our first draft class, with utility/all-around guy Rich Black, picked 1.18 in '46, getting some playing time (137 PA, 88 wRC+). Our second-round pick, C Jesse Brinkman, got called up for his debut, getting up 155 times with a 76 wRC+. And 1B Bryant Hammock, who we went way over-slot for in the 4th round of the 1948 draft, also made his debut, with a 75 wRC+ over 170 PA.
So, I mean; exciting? It's cool to see these guys who I drafted. Black looks like a GREAT bench piece who can play everywhere and hit enough to stick around. Hammock still looks solid. Brinkman is pretty average across the board but certainly would be a great backup on a good team.
We desperately need some good luck this offseason. The dice need to roll our way so we can do something. With this record, we're already going to be losing moves.
The Georgia Peaches and the New York Knights win their leagues pennant. Georgia last won the World Series back in 1938, and New York is looking to repeat.
But they won't; Georgia wins in five, and we head into 1953.
See you in the offseason.