Francisco Morán had a nice career as a useful OF, although he hovered on the edges of being a full time player for most of it. Originally a middle infielder, Morán spent most of his career in the OF, along with a couple significant turns behind the plate, speaking to his arm strength.
Almost all of his offensive value came from his control of the strike zone: while he struggled to hit significantly over .200 (topping .240 only twice in these projections), he posted respectable OBPs most seasons. He had no power, so when on base, he was usually on first, looking to take advantage of his considerable speed, to the point where he should occasionally show up on the SB leaderboards despite his limited playing time.
Defensively, he was very strong in the OF, especially in CF and especially in terms of the amount of ground he covered. He played more in the OF combined than behind the plate, but was clearly more than just a fill in backstop, despite being fairly average there on defense. He did well in a handful of appearances at 2B and the less said about his SS play the better.
We have followed his historical career exactly, having him debut as a teenager and retire in his early 30s, with his best seasons occurring before 1905. Eventually, it doesn’t matter how many walks you draw, hitting under .150 will cost you your job, which it did for Pancho.
It’s vaguely possible Morán was better than we’re projecting: another 15 points of BA, and suddenly he’s among the league leaders in steals, has an OBP well over .350, etc. But I don’t think so. And, of course, he could be slightly worse, exiting the game very quickly (most likely after his very rough 1904 season). So let’s call this the sweet spot for Morán.
| Name | Francisco Morán (Pancho) |
| ID / Status | moran049fra / Draft |
| Pos | OF |
| DOB / i9s Career | 1880 / 1899 - 1909 |
| Birthplace | Matanzas, (Cuba) |
| Height / Weight | / |
| B / T | R / R |
Batting Projections
| Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 1899 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.053 | 0.100 | 0.053 | 0.153 |
| 1900 | 55 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0.182 | 0.286 | 0.236 | 0.522 |
| 1901 | 228 | 59 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 31 | 24 | 15 | 4 | 0.259 | 0.347 | 0.276 | 0.624 |
| 1902 | 465 | 116 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 47 | 46 | 36 | 8 | 0.249 | 0.318 | 0.269 | 0.587 |
| 1903 | 451 | 102 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 62 | 46 | 27 | 8 | 0.226 | 0.320 | 0.246 | 0.566 |
| 1904 | 343 | 62 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 52 | 41 | 17 | 5 | 0.181 | 0.289 | 0.216 | 0.504 |
| 1905 | 406 | 85 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 71 | 56 | 39 | 7 | 0.209 | 0.327 | 0.251 | 0.578 |
| 1906 | 397 | 77 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 62 | 51 | 33 | 6 | 0.194 | 0.303 | 0.227 | 0.530 |
| 1907 | 403 | 87 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 80 | 61 | 49 | 11 | 0.216 | 0.346 | 0.251 | 0.596 |
| 1908 | 400 | 59 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 68 | 68 | 29 | 5 | 0.148 | 0.271 | 0.173 | 0.444 |
| 1909 | 237 | 32 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 47 | 49 | 14 | 4 | 0.135 | 0.278 | 0.148 | 0.426 |