With the 16th pick of the 1908 amateur draft, the Brooklyn Whales selected 18 year old outfielder Erwin Ford. Ford, a tall and slender switch hitter with a sweet swing had proven himself to be an excellent hitter in the Legacy Baseball Academy League with a career slash line of .278/.409/.524 (152 wRC+) with 47 stolen bases and 19 home runs. A natural hitter with an advanced feel for the strike zone, Ford has excelled thus far for the Whales’ affiliated Sleepy Hollow Cranes in the AA Madison Baseball League. The youngster is hitting .246/.333/.415 with 7 steals through 22 games with the Cranes.
With the 32nd pick of the 1908 draft, the Whales selected another polished amateur batter. This time opting for a cerebral 17 year old hitter named Edwin Badcoe. Like Ford, the outfielder demonstrated a refined approach at the plate throughout his amateur career with a career line in the LBAL of .311/.412/.524 (136 wRC+). A sweet swinging lefty that had Whales’ scouts drooling, Badcoe has started his professional career by punishing older pitchers in the MBL by hitting .328/.394/.484 (193 wRC+) with a homer and a stolen base (that he took on a dare from his new, more spry outfield running mate). In addition to the polished bat, Badcoe has been blessed with a cannon for an arm that could allow him to stick long term in right field.
The two outfielders with very different personalities–Ford, the quiet, awkward kid off the field who lets his bat get the last word for him, and Badcoe the brainy overthinker who likes to force mistakes by getting under opposing pitchers’ skin–have become fast friends and have been inseparable since arriving in Sleepy Hollow. On the field together, their youthful energy and brash confidence has been infectious for the other Cranes players and rooters alike. Bringing swagger to an outfield that also features former first round pick, 20 year old center fielder Whiskey Morris (.286/.327/.401, 136 wRC+) and reserve outfielders 21 year old Gennaro Maw (.290/.421/.382m 167 wRC+) and newly signed 21 year old Horace Young (.333/.400/.333 in 7 games), Ford and Badcoe form a brutal battery in the heart of the Cranes’ lineup with the Sleepy Hollow veterans Morris and third baseman Mumbles Page (.273/.346/.345, 126 wRC+) that is capable of scoring runs in bunches and could be giving fans a glimpse of the heart of the future Brooklyn lineup.
The Whooping Cranes are joined in the lineup by 3 other recent draft picks: 18 year old 1B/OF John Woodstock (4th round) is taking notes on Ford and Badcoe’s approach as he hopes to unlock his swing, and defensive wizards SS Warner Springer (6th round) and 2B Lavern Young (5th round) are manning the middle infield for the Cranes while showing exceptional range and making Cranes’ pitchers’ jobs a little easier. The young Cranes have gone 11-11 since the draft picks’ debut–no small feat given the youth of their lineup–and have maintained their lead in the Ivy Division of the MBL.
Ford and Badcoe have started their journey up the minor league ladder towards Brooklyn, and the sound of their brash jawing and loud contact has let the other LBL franchises know that they do not intend to make the journey quietly.