Battling Bucs : State By State Bucco History Part X

This is the continuation of my ATP (All Time Pirates) series but I have opted to change the name to make it a little more obvious what is covered in the topic. As a quick recap this is a running series of mine that digs into the Pirates past and takes a look at it from various different angles. This particular exercise is looking at it from the player's place of birth. Each US state, the District of Columbia and each foreign country will be investigated in the attempt to build a team. For more specifics check out the introductory post here.
In part X I will continue looking at the Pirates pitchers by place of birth and this focus on class C locations. Class C locations consist of places that have 20 to 30 players eligible for the pitching staff meaning each team will have several pitchers who failed to make the 13 man staff.

Indiana
Rotation and Relief Ace
#1: Bob Friend
#2: Babe Adams
#3: Nick Strincevich
#4: Vic Aldridge
RA: Dan Plesac
Reserves
SP: Mike Dunne
SP: Kirtley Baker
SP: Roscoe Miller
SP: Walt Terrell
SP: Bill Nelson
SP/RP: Bill Brandt
SP/RP: Harley Young
RP: Barry Jones
Notes: Friend and Adams have a legitimate claim to being the best two pitchers in franchise history so it goes without saying that this dynamic duo is quite a formidable one. Friend and Adams could really be ordered either way but Friend gets the nod here as he pitched in a more modern area of 1951-1966 compared to Adams tenure from 1907-1926. Strincevich and Aldridge in the 3 and 4 spots are no slouches either as both racked up over 600 innings and an ERA better than league average during their tenures with the Pirates in the 1940s and 1920s respectively. The relief ace position is a bit of a weak link for team Indiana and Plesac was just a rather ordinary middle reliever for the Pirates during the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
In the reserves Mike Dunne is a very fine extra starter while Barry Jones and Bill Brandt put up a strong fight against Plesac for the relief ace job. Among the res Roscoe Miller has superficially good numbers but he pitched for the Pirates during the pitching dominated era of the early 1900s so they aren’t quite what they seem. The rest of the staff consists of pitchers who played sparingly, Nelson and Young, or who performed poorly, Baker and Terrell.

Kentucky
Rotation and Relief Ace
#1: Jesse Tannehill
#2: Howie Camnitz
#3: Johnny Morrison
#4: Red Ehret
RA: Don Robinson
Reserves
SP: Jim Bunning
SP: Woodie Fryman
SP: Bill Hart
SP: Bill Sowders
SP: Scott Stratton
SP/RP: Chris Peters
RP: Joe Blanton
RP: Jim Minshall
Notes: The top 3 here is a really impressive group with each pitcher having thrown 1300+ innings for the Pirates and posting an ERA at least 10% better than league average. Staff ace Jesse Tannehill is especially impressive as he had originally won a starting OF job in the Kentucky lineup but he is far more valuable as a pitcher so he has been replaced there. Camnitz who pitched for the Pirates in the first decade of the 1900s and Morrison who pitched in the 1920s occupy the next two spots and give Kentucky an excellent top 3. In the fourth spot Red Ehret is himself a quality SP having pitched nearly 1000 innings of above average baseball for Pittsburgh back in the 19^th century. Don Robinson spent 10 years with the Pirates with 4 of his 5 serving primarily as a starting pitcher but he finished his tenure with the team as almost purely a relief pitcher. He racked up 1200 innings with the Pirates posting an averageish ERA but was better as a reliever than a starter.
Amongst the reserves Jim Bunning is clearly the most well known having pitched a Hall of Fame career but his two seasons with the Pirates (1968 and 1969) has little to do with it as he was a below average pitcher by that point. Fryman and Hart gives the team a pair of respectable back of the rotation arms with about 300 IP of experience. Blanton is the best pure relief pitcher on the staff but is lacking innings.
Massachusetts
Rotation and Relief Ace
#1: Jack Chesbro
#2: Denny Driscoll
#3: Adonis Terry
#4: Mike Lynch
RA: Jack Ferry
Reserves
SP: Josh Fogg
SP: John Fox
SP: Fred Woodcook
SP/RP: Paul LaPline
SP/RP: Ed Warner
SP/RP: Danny MacFayden
RP: Wilbur Wood
RP: Jonah Bayliss
Notes: Staff ace Jack Chesbro is a hall of fame pitcher which of course helps the staff credentials but while he was good with the Pirates the bulk of his career came as a Yankee. He played four seasons for the Pirates (1899-1902) compiling just over 900 innings while being a very good starter. His numbers throughout his career don’t necessarily scream hall of famer but he was undoubtedly a good pitcher for his era. Driscoll pitched for the PBC during its first year of existence in 1882 and was the club’s best starter posting an ERA of 1.21. He spent one more season with the club but posted poor numbers. Terry was another pitcher from the pre-1900 days and he spent 3 seasons with the Pirates serving as a roughly average starter. Fourth starter Lynch played for the Pirates from 1904-1907 and served a dependable arm at the back of the rotation. Ferry pitched for the Pirates from 1910-1913 which was an era where relief pitchers were hard to come by but that’s indeed what he was as he pitched in relief during 33 of his 47 games. His numbers aren’t eye popping but there isn’t much competition here.
Josh Fogg spent a few seasons during the Pirates awful years in the early 2000s eating innings at a semi-competent level. Paul LaPlime pitched for the Pirates a few seasons back in the 1950s serving as an unsuccessful swingman. No one else on the staff cracked 100 IP though MacFayden and Wood who top the rest at 91.1 and 68.2 innings pitched provided a challenge to Ferry for the relief ace job.
Missouri
Rotation and Relief Ace
#1: Pud Galvin
#2: Jerry Reuss
#3: Murry Dickson
#4: Heinie Meine
RA: Al Gerheauser
Reserves
SP: Bob Harmon
SP: Bob Klinger
SP: Silver King
SP: Elmer Jacobs
SP: Jake Thies
SP: Ken Heintzelman
SP: Dick Hall
SP/RP: Fred Fussell
Notes: Pud Galvin is routinely recognized as one of the best pitchers from the pre-1900 era of baseball and is also credited as the first 300 game winner. His best years were with the Buffalo Bisons but he had 7 fine years with the PBC as well. Jack Reuss’s career spanned 4 decades from 1969-1990. He spent 1974 to 1978 with the Pirates (with a final stop in 1990 as well) and had one great season in 1975 but was largely just an average pitcher. In the third spot is Murray Dickson who had very similar career stats to Reuss but in a smoother pattern as he was a slightly above league average pitcher for basically the duration of his five years (1949-1953) with the franchise. Following much the same pattern as the two before him Helinie Meline was a roughly league average pitcher for the Pirates for a handful of seasons back in the 1930s. The staff is severely lacking relief arms but Al Gerheauser is one of the few they have available and he proved to be a functional relief arm for the club for two seasons during the 1940s.
The starting pitcher depth for the Missouri club is great as Harmon, Klinger and King are all solid options. Harmon has great numbers but they are inflated thanks to the dead ball era, Klinger was a useful starter for the Pirates in the 30s and 40s who had a mix of good and bad years. King is another pre-1900 guy but he has only around 300 innings with the Pirates. Ken Heintzelman wasn’t the best pitcher but did rack up nearly 700 innings and everyone else on the staff managed at least 100 so there is good depth here.
Power Rankings
4. Massachusetts
The staff for Massachusetts isn’t a bad one by any measure but it just doesn’t compare well against its competition. Chesbro has by far the fewest innings pitched of any of the aces in this class and his supporting cast in the rotation finds themselves with the fewest innings for their rotation spots as well. Josh Fogg is a nice depth piece but beyond him there are really no solid reserves backing up the main 5.
3. Missouri
I hesitated to rank Missouri this low due to an insane amount of depth amongst their reserves but it’s not like the teams above them have no depth whatsoever and the top of their staffs are clearly better than what Missouri is capable of sending out there. The top of Missouri’s roster is by no means weak but it just clearly isn’t on the same level as the other teams yet to come.
2. Kentucky
The top 3 in the rotation is incredible which makes it incredibly hard not to rank them first. Honestly there is a very compelling case for Kentucky holding down the top spot but the elite talent on the top squad is just too much for this staff to edge out a victory. It is really a coin flip but in this instance Kentucky loses out by a hair.
1. Indiana
Friend and Adams are an awesome duo and the best you are going to see for any team from any class in this exercise. The back of the rotation is also decent but beyond them the staff definitely loses something compared to the previous two ranked. The relief ace is somewhat suspect and compared to the two previous teams their depth is weak but the top arms are still able to overcome those short failings.