My final dagger belongs to one of our most experienced Bad Neighbor owners, our much-esteemed owner, ermocito. He has chosen offensive juggernauts 1956 Detroit Tigers and 1936 New York Yankees. He was gifted the much-maligned duo of 1926 Brooklyn Robins and 1936 St. Louis Browns. And in the 1st dagger round, he lost $6M Yankee C Bill Dickey. Seems like the Yankees and Tigers would fulfill a majority of his starting positions so making an impactful stab to the heart from the Browns may be a tough task, but let’s take a better look and see.
Starting with the pitching staff…I can see ermocito wasn’t planning on building around a dominating pitching staff. They’re not horrible options but they will allow a lot of hits. The Tigers(1), Robins(1), and Yankees(2) can fill his rotation with 1086 solid innings. The Yankees and Tigers each have at least one RP each to add which puts him at 1247 IP/162 with 6 pitchers @$33M. The only Brown I see who could have a positive impact and be used as a middle and long reliever is Ivy Andrews who offers 204 innings @$4.2M. The rest of the Browns pitchers are really bad inning eaters in the $2-3M realm or sub-$1M mop up pitchers. Hitting Andrews only affects a roster position, maybe. The Browns also offer $529K, $728K, and $784K pitchers that can easily be used to fill roster space with cheap unneeded players. I don’t think we’re going to find someone to dagger here. Looks like a $37-38M pitching staff…
Assuming ermocito has around $42-43M left to spend, his average cost per position is around $5.2-5.4M, with a potential to maybe get one or two players in the low to mid $6M+. In looking at the Browns’ hitters, I initially see the following potentials: starters 1B Jim Bottomley ($3.6M), 3B Harlond Clift ($6.6M), SS Lyn Lary ($5.0M), OF Beau Bell ($5.6M), OF Moose Solters ($4.2M) and bench players 2B Ollie Bejma ($788K), OF Ed Coleman ($823K), OF Ray Pepper ($565K), and C Tony Giuliani ($829K). Now let’s see what he needs to fill.
Starting in the OF, he has a lot of options here: Tigers Al Kaline ($6.7M) and Charlie Maxwell ($6.1M); Yankees Joe DiMaggio ($7.0M) and George Selkirk ($5.3M); Robins Babe Herman ($4.1M), Dick Cox ($2.6M), Zack Wheat ($2.5M) and Gus Felix ($3.0M); and Browns Beau Bell ($5.6M) and Moose Salters ($4.2M). He also has 4 options between $564K and $847K. Even if I rule out DiMaggio and Kaline, hitting Bell or Salters would have little to zero impact. Moving on…
At SS there are also multiple options in the right price ranges: Tiger Harvey Kuenn ($5.2M), Yankie Frankie Crosetti ($5.4M), Brown Lary Lyn ($5.0M) and probably the best defensive option, Robin Johnny Butler ($3.6M). The challenge here is at back-up SS where his only options are Tiger Jim Brideweser ($818K) and Robin Rabbit Maranville ($1.5M). Hitting Lyn may push him towards Crosetti or Butler unless he wants to spend two Tigers on SS. Butler may be the right way to go here so Lyn would have no impact. Next…
Usually 3B is a tougher position to fill. But ermocito has options here, too: Tiger Ray Boone ($5.1M), Yankee Red Rolfe ($6.3M) and Brown Harlond Clift ($6.6M). He also has only one sub-$1M 3B, Tiger Bob Kennedy ($836K). The last option is a very bad Robin who shouldn’t make any roster, ever: William Marriott ($1.9M). Hitting Clift won’t be an option as he won’t be on ermocito’s short list.
That brings us to every 7th grade boys dream, 2nd base. This looks to be a weak spot for ermocito but I don’t think I can make an impact. Tiger Frank Bolling ($2.6M) is probably the right pick here and Yankee Tony Lazzeri ($4.4M) would be the next best option. There are two sub-$1M options and one is a Brown, Ollie Bejma ($788K) but he’s got to use some Robin players, too and Jerry Standaert ($836K) is probably needed more here. If he goes Bolling, that puts him at 5 Tigers with two positions not yet evaluated and no starters chosen for OF, SS, or 3B where the Tigers have 4 very good players already. I’m starting to think this dagger could have an impact after all…
I think 1B is a no brainer for ermocito’s starter, Robin Babe Herman ($4.1M). Brown Jim Bottomley ($3.6M) is an option as is Tiger Earl Torgeson ($2.5M) although Torgeson would need to platoon with a RH with 200PA’s. And he is a Tiger. Which brings us to another interesting note: for back-up 1B the cheapest options are both Tigers: Wayne Belardi ($964K) and Jack Phillips ($1.3M). Robin Jack Fournier ($1.7M) is the non-Tiger option. The Yankee we haven’t spoken of is Lou Gehrig ($10.5M) and I doubt he’s drafting him. With only a $390K difference between Herman and Bottomley, I don’t think Bottomley is the right choice.
That finally brings us to C, which has already been impacted by the 1st dagger, taking out HOFer Bill Dickey ($6.5M). Initially, it seemed that the Dickey hit might be a gift. But let’s look closer: He has great offensive numbers for the price, he doesn’t have a D- arm and, he had the most PA’s of all ermocito’s catching options. As a matter of fact, he was the only C who could platoon with all of his other C options and have more than 600 PA’s. The next highest PA option at C… Brown Rollie Hemsley ($2.8M) with 456 PA’s.
That pretty much rules out Robin Hank Deberry ($1.0M) and his 136 PA’s but leaves all the other C options available. But what if we hit Hemsley… The C with the next highest PA is Tiger Frank House ($2.0M) with 367 PA’s followed by teammate Red Wilson ($2.7M) with 293 PA’s. House is the only other C who can platoon with one C and still get to 600 PA’s. Additionally, there are no players whose secondary position is C. He is limited to those two roster positions only for C.
Besides Wilson, there are only two other C’s who can get him there: Robins Charlie Hargreaves ($2.1M) and Mickey O’Neil ($1.3M). So essentially, if I hit Hemsley, a minimum of one Tiger player will need to be used. That would make 6 and none of them named Kaline, Maxwell, Kuenn, or Boone. Hitting Hemsley might get you to your cheapest roster to fill C but it will cost him some good offensive options at other positions. And some of those options may be more expensive or less impactful.
Although I didn’t identify him as a possible target in my initial assessment, I think the best choice to dagger is: C Rollie Hemsley
8/7/2023 11:38 PM (edited)