The war draft was hard on teams and fans of baseball. The LBL saw a massive chunk of its top talent leave for overseas to fight for the freedom to play this beautiful game, and we hope they all come back to entertain the American people soon. The loss of players will test both the depth of team rosters, and the ability of Managers to work with less than a full squad. More than ever, we are going to see the importance of defensive specialists, the use of righty / lefty splits, and platoon players taking on larger roles.
The Boston Banshees were hit as hard as any team in the league, losing 3 of the league’s top hitters in Guy Slade, Daniel West, and Robert Carter. In addition, Boston lost their 2017 1st round pick Marcel Wheatcroft and top prospect McKinley Milledge. The 22 year old starting Pitcher Wheatcroft, was expected to make his Big League debut at some point in the season.
Boston Players Getting an Opportunity
For the Banshees, it’s “next man up” time. Back-up Catcher Henry Shackleford hit .308 / .375 last year for Boston in his reserve roll behind star Catcher Guy Slade. We don’t expect Shackleford to duplicate those numbers, but even if he hits closer to an average year of .260/.325 , Boston will have avoided a crater of a hole in the line up. Slade is a career .311 / .341 hitter who drove in 64 RBI last year hitting 2nd in the line-up… on his way to his 2nd Golden Bat in 3 years. Nobody is going to fill those shoes
Just when it looked like Utility Infielder Ashley Trudgeon was about to fade into obscurity, the war opened up an infield spot at 2nd Base that was vacated by the departure of 2 time Golden Bat winner Daniel West. West had a massive season in 1917 hitting .291 / .370 and put up a 5.5 WAR on his way to driving in 51 RBI and scoring 66 runs. Fortunately for the Banshees, Trudgeon has had his share of very good seasons, and will put together streaks of great perfomances. As recently as 1916, the 30 year old infielder hit .290/.354. What Trudgeon isn’t capable of doing, is filling West’s glove. Trudgeon is notorious for being sloppy and committing a ton of errors… 237 career errors to be exact.
Finally, Paul Lashbrooke will replace Robert Carter out in Right Field. Both players were brought over in the same deal from Providence. Carter was brought in to fill Rickward’s shoes, an unfair task if there ever was one. Carter had a mediocre season, and Lashbrooke possesses the ability to actually surpass the numbers that Carter put up last year. Lashbrooke saw a lot of improvement over the summer, and will definitely be better than Carter on the bases and in the field. This has the potential to be addition by subtraction for Boston.
This has the makings of an interesting season, regardless of the results.