Slightly Better than Replacement Level
Geroge Cunningham was 2 seasons into his professional career when he became more than just a pitcher. It’s unclear as to why Detroit Tigers manager Hughie Jennings thought to spend the 1918 season trying Cunningham out in a two-way role. He had been decent with the bat in 2016, putting up an OPS+ of 137 […]
Right from the get-go, Otto Hess was a two-way player. Okay, okay, okay, not from the very get-go, but in his second year of professional baseball he took on the two-way player cause. It’s unclear what caused this to be the course of action because in 1902 with the American League’s Cleveland Bronchos he was […]
There were two-way players before Babe Ruth. A quick look at the Deadball Era reveals a number of short-lived two-way players. Some were experiments, some were actual strategic moves, and others were larks and nothing more. For some players, they underwent a transitional period. During this period they would see time on the other side […]
In my heart of hearts, I like to believe that Al Maul was given the nickname “Smiling” as some sort of inside joke. With a last name like Maul he had to be a killer, is what I tell myself when I think of the lost opportunities when it came to the Philadelphia natives nickname. […]