Kernel of Truth 62.25 - Only 4 Kernels left over from pre-JR days

[JRamirez]

5/22/62

DM's starting lineup has only JR to blame.

The starting nine are all his players, either acquired by him (6) or moved up through the DMO ranks by him (3). This latter grupito, C Masakado Matsunaga, RF Júlio Pérez, and DH Carlos Rodríguez were all deep in the DMO minors as of April '59. The other six starters are JR acquisitions. These include his '59 number 1 pick Huckleberry 'Haiku' Flinn and his '60 number one pick 2B Jesús Rosito, who just completed his first week with the Kernels.

3B Félix 'Matchbox' Parreno was part of the Cornell years, but he had been traded away by him in '58, so JR's signing of Matchbox to a six-year FA contract makes him a JR guy (he was brought back to DM by JR after 1.2 seasons in PHX). Of all other batters on the team, only LF Kevin Thistle had any ML playing time for Josh Cornell, JR's predecessor as DM general manager. And Thistle is not starting this season.

As for pitchers, only three were on the DMO 27-man when JR arrived. These are Tommy 'Stew' Akers (suspended for 8 games on 5/13), Garth Dobbs, and Alonso 'Sandman' Amaya. Two other pitchers, Ken Haworth and Salah Lutfi were promoted to the ML squad by JR, the latter just this month.

Everybody else on the ML roster was acquired by JR.

Does this make this "JR's team"? It does in the sense that only four players on the 27-man saw playing time for Cornell, five if we include Matchbox, who Cornell traded away in a salary dump. One thing Matchbox did after his rearrival to DM was hit his 400th career home run.

Does this make this "JR's Dream Team?" Not really. He's done with what he had. Big moves were to clear out the two aging & injury-prone OFers, the highly popular and highly paid Hasheem Makin—DFA'd 3 years ago—and Cano, Jr—traded to SA 5/24/60, so almost two years to the day. This gave Thistle and Perez spots to play. JR has no particular "type" of team. He can go with flyers, bombers, pitching, whatever is available and puts the most competitive team on the field for Des Moines fans to support.