Brothers Lindy and Von McDaniel along with Bob L. Miller joined the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1950’s without playing in the minor leagues first.
Other than the St. Louis Cardinals home opener of course, one of the big stories in baseball on Monday was the MLB debut of Cincinnati’s Mike Leake. The 22-year-old did something more-heralded first-round draft pick Stephen Strasburg did not, as the right-hander jumped into a starting role in the majors without playing a single minor league game. The former Arizona State star is the first starting pitcher to do so since California’s Jim Abbott in 1989.
Leake is the 84th man to play in the Major Leagues without a Minor League appearance and just the 23rd since the draft as we know it was initiated in 1965.
Prior to then, starting in 1947, a player signed for more than $4,000 was required to remain on the Major League roster. The intent was to hold down bonuses and when one was signed, the rule obviously kept the player from appearing in the Minors for a year or two, as the rules evolved. “Bonus Babies” from the era that would never play a game in the minors include Hall of Famers Al Kaline and Sandy Koufax.
The Cardinals had three of the Bonus Babies, all pitchers. They are the McDaniel brothers, Lindy (signed in 1955) and Von (1957) from Hollis, Oklahoma and Bob L. Miller from St. Louis (also 1957). They are the only Cardinals since at least 1947 that jumped straight to the majors.
Miller, a right-hander, appeared in five games at the age of 18 for the 1957 Cardinals but spent all of the 1958 and parts of the 1959 and 1960 seasons in the minors, converting to relief. He remained with the Cardinals organization through the 1961 season. At that point, he joined the New York Mets in the expansion draft and pitched in the majors for a total of 17 seasons, through 1974. Miller’s career record was 69-81 with a 3.37 ERA.
Lindy McDaniel made his MLB debut in September 1955 at the age of 19 after his freshman year at Abilene Christian College. By 1957, he was in the Cardinals rotation, a season in which he went 15-9 with a 3.49 ERA. Lindy would only appear in a total of six minor league games, all in 1958, in contrast with an MLB career that lasted 21 years. Lindy remained with the Cardinals through 1962 when he was traded to the Cubs. He appeared in 987 career games with a 141-119 record and a 3.45 ERA. Lindy logged 172 saves in a time when they were much more difficult to earn.
Driven by his father’s desire to have his sons together, Von signed with St. Louis right out of high school in June 1957 for the same $50,000 amount as his big brother received. He began very strongly with a two-hitter and a one-hitter in his first two starts, drawing widespread comparisons to the Dean Brothers from 23 years earlier.
Following that magical 1957 season, Von’s career quickly unraveled as tore a muscle in his shoulder during spring training in 1958. His MLB career ended at the age of 19 after two appearances that season. After trying to continue to pitch in the minors, Von became a third baseman and played in the minor leagues through the 1966 season in the systems of Houston (1962-64) and the Cubs (1965-66) after leaving the Cardinals.
Time will tell if Leake has a long, productive career like Miller and Lindy or burn brightly before quickly flaming out like Von.
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Its interesting how contexts change. During the 1950s, it sounds like requiring bonus babies be put on a ML roster was a way MLB tried to pressure teams to give out lower signing bonuses to elite amateurs. Why am I unsurprised? Baseball’s history has had many ugly management practices, leading to a union and strikes, to force owners to share more moola with the athletes who make the game possible.
Leake pitched three years at an elite collegiate program. Strasburg and Leake were the best college pitchers last spring. Both might have gone directly into the majors, however, times have changed and now there are economic reasons to keep a bonus baby in the minors, to delay onset of veteran free agency after 6 years, a non-issue back during the 1950s. The Nationals are starting Strasburg in the minors, whereas the Reds are sending a positive signal to Leake that he can be the master of his own fate. Nice ethical decision by Walt!
I find “ethical” an odd choice of words in this context.
Are Boras, Strasburg and Mike Rizzo of the Nats being unethical by agreeing to limit Strasburg to 100 innings this season and by starting him in the minors?
I am not confident about the truth about Strasburg’s contract. Is it known for certain he is contract limited to 100 innings? The story was disputed by a player development guy for the Nationals.
However, if the 100 inning story is true, this would have been agreed to by the team and the player, voluntarily, so I would not have any opinion about their mutual decision.
I can share my opinion about Leake. Pitching is an injurious profession. If Leake is good enough to pitch in the majors now, why should a team hold him back? He might suffer a shoulder injury in a couple of years and never reach post-6 year veteran free agency anyway. I like giving him a chance, if the best man available to the Reds right now.
Time for a Quad Cities update…..
Hooker and Schneider set them down again, 7 innings, 10 Ks. During April, its cool. A fly ball does not carry as far in cold air. Based on physics, its a good time of year to be pitching in the Midwest. No wonder Mo sent Shelby to the Quad!
Big Matt Adams did not have a great game, but coaxed a walk and scored the winning run. Both runs were knocked in by Big Devin Shepherd. Way to go, Big Devin!!
jumbo,
and chapman? did walt suddenly lose his “ethics”?
How ethical is it to start a player in the majors when some developmental time my serve his overall career better — even if he can a win a few games without it? Not sure ethics is so balck and white here on either side.
bip, Chapman was not ready for the majors, so that is why he is not beginning there. He had some lower back pain and the Reds want to get him culturally acclimated to a foreign society (the US).
Both Chapman and Strasburg have much bigger bonuses and contracts than does Leake. Leake got $2.3MM, so he is a rich guy. Its just C and S are much richer. Its going to take Leake years to catch up with them financially.
Chapman and Strasburg illustrate one thing very clearly. Both were superstar prospects. Some say Strasburg was the best college pitching prospect of all time. He was able to command about $15MM as an initial contract, about double the typical top of the draft player.
However, despite being the hottest US prospect ever, Chapman made a lot more money when he signed, $30MM. Why? Competition. Teams had to bid against one another to land the Cuban, Chapman, whereas MLB gave sole negotiating rights to Strasburg to the Nationals. He had to take what the Nationals would give.
Its an odd situation. MLB is most generous toward foreign kids, whereas the best American prospect of all time makes only half what Chapman got. Foreign amateurs get much better financial treatment from American baseball than do US kids, because of the benefits of competition for players.
jumbo,
so now you are looking at the prospects individual readiness to perform in mlb. what is best for each player and their org.
chapman has a guaranteed contract that ALSO allows him to draw arb, when eligible. his guaranteed salaries convert to bonuses and the arb $ is tacked on. the 30mil could become 50+mil, best case, if he’s a near-lincecum type in effectiveness. by being in the minors, his earning potential is reduced during this contract.
leake should be less expensive through arb, so the same ethics question of straussburg / leake, could be flipped to chapman / leake, under the same gm’s watch. glad to see you abandoned the “ethics” approach.
bip, just to clarify, I did NOT retract my salute to Jocketty’s ethics for not delaying Leake’s entrance into the majors on grounds that this would delay Leake’s service time clock from starting. Cynics are always accusing teams of doing this. This sure did not happen with Leake.
The Reds were bold on Chapman, outbidding the Yanks, Sox, and others who are traditionally big spenders. Chapman did not rack up great stats in Cuba, or so i heard. So he could need development. There will also be cultural adjustments, not an issue with Leake, the US kid. The Reds are taking a cautious approach with their huge investment. They have Tony Fossas, a Cuban born lefty, as one of Chapman’s advisors; sounds sensible. I dont see any problem with Chapman being at AA. Each individual is different.
Brian introduced something about ethics and Strasburg. I dont know enough facts about Strasburg’s contract or did not understand the claim.
Its a pity foreign top amateurs can get bigger bonuses than US counterparts. Brian’s essay about the brothers McDaniel indicates one of MLB’s tricks to hold down bonuses for American amateurs during the 1950s.
My only point is this. There are so many potential motivations, to proclaim ethics or lack of them with the very little we know from this distant perch is not reasonable.
My only point would be that it is common for commentators to claim some hot prospect will spend a few extra months at AAA, because his ML service clock will not start. This may have been said for Jay Bruce of the Reds in 2008.
However, in 2010, the same team went with Leake. So if this financial motive exists within MLB, which I do not know, it did not get factored with Leake. Leake is the rare guy who did not spend a day in the minors, but was also not some kind of strange gimmick.
Leake’s selection may indicate the Reds lack pitching depth. That seems fair. But its still impressive to go from college to the majors on possible merit. Matt Morris, Braden Looper, Dan Haren were good college pitchers, but ended up doing some years in the minors. Cinci is hitters park. Its not going to be easy for Leake.
Leake ties into another discussion had here about shorter pitchers. He is listed at 6’0″ but has said in interviews he is only 5’10″. I’d say height ad skipping the minors has him starting out with 2 strikes against him.
Leake was listed at 5’11″ when drafted in 2006. Since scouts dislike sub 6 foot RHPs, and I can understand the aversion, he must have been listed at 6′ wink wink. He is not everyone’s cup of tea. Jocketty must have been happy he was available. Leake excelled in a top college conference for 3 years. He could hold his own as a rookie. We shall see.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2009/reports.jsp?content=leake
The mention of Lindy McDaniel is useful as a reminder that he was part of a pre-draft era during which the Cards were successful at signing amateur pitchers.
Does anyone remember a fellow named Bob Gibson? The Cards signed him from amateur ranks.
Steve Carlton? He was not a bad find.
Mike Torrez was a long-time starting pitcher in the bigs.
Nellie Briles, Dick Hughes were also home grown talent who enabled the 1967/68 squads.
Back when there was a competitive market for US amateur pitchers, the Cards were relatively successful at finding pitchers.
The early years of the draft, they found Jerry Reuss out of a St Louis high school. Also, Clay Kirby a good pitcher lost to San Diego in the expansion draft bringing the Padres into existance. Al Hrabosky was a home grown reliever. Bob Forsch a 3B/RHP. Then it got to be a long dry spell for turning up starting pitchers, before a few years of Greg Matthews and Joe Magrane and in 19995 Matt Morris.
Lindy McDaniel was part of an earlier, open market era when the Cards were good at signing US amateur pitchers.