i9s

Honestly, I don’t know what to do with Foster. Looking through the haze of the mythos that surrounds him, I see a few things that stand out.

First, he was very, very had to hit and, as importantly, hard to hit hard.

Second, he had excellent control.

Third, his career really pivots around 1911’ish, when he converts from a full-time starter to a swing starter and rubber-armed reliever.

So we have a young starter who looks like he has a shot to be listed among the all-time greats throughout his 20’s who then probably due to injury has to adapt to a different role, which he does quite successfully. What you end up with is a player who was almost always effective, often among the best in the league for part of his career, with a decently long tail as a spot starter.

This, of course, is independent of whatever value he may bring as a manager later on.

We have him bursting on the scene as a full time starter at age 22 and being a front of the rotation starter for most of the next decade, before morphing into an effective swing starter. He is one of the rare cases where his historical years match up with the arc we believe he would see in the integrated league. This draft feels solid, but my guess is it needs more tweaks, especially in the mix of hits and walks he surrenders. Regardless, from 1905 through 1910 he would have been one of the best in the game.

His brother was probably the better pitcher–which is an endorsement of Willie Foster, not an indictment of Rube.

Name	Andrew Foster (Rube)
ID / Status	foster002rub / Draft
Pos	P
DOB / i9s Career	09/17/1879 / 1900 - 1917
Birthplace	La Grange, TX (USA)
Height / Weight	5'9" / 210
B / T	R / R

 

Batting Projections

 

Pitching Projections

Year	G	GS	IP	HA	W	K	HRA	eD	eT	eHBP	BB/9	H/9	K/9	ERA	WHIP
1902	32	32	236.0	242	61	84	4	0	0	9	2.3	9.2	3.2	3.04	1.28
1903	35	35	268.0	253	65	101	3	0	0	9	2.2	8.5	3.4	2.83	1.19
1904	45	42	320.0	284	82	179	5	0	0	11	2.3	8.0	5.0	2.29	1.14
1905	47	47	343.0	248	106	170	4	0	0	14	2.8	6.5	4.5	2.07	1.03
1906	40	40	298.0	258	76	150	3	0	0	9	2.3	7.8	4.5	2.31	1.12
1907	42	40	302.0	239	85	146	3	0	0	10	2.5	7.1	4.4	2.02	1.07
1908	41	41	308.0	250	80	128	4	0	0	10	2.3	7.3	3.7	2.16	1.07
1909	32	30	236.0	172	59	107	3	0	0	7	2.3	6.6	4.1	1.91	0.98
1910	39	39	287.0	209	80	134	4	0	0	9	2.5	6.6	4.2	2.01	1.01
1911	23	19	151.0	168	64	77	3	0	0	7	3.8	10.0	4.6	3.68	1.54
1912	32	19	189.0	184	66	86	5	0	0	6	3.1	8.8	4.1	3.20	1.32
1913	38	17	195.0	206	64	88	4	0	0	6	3.0	9.5	4.1	3.29	1.38
1914	34	22	198.0	237	78	95	5	0	0	7	3.5	10.5	4.3	3.65	1.56
1915	24	19	161.0	151	68	63	2	0	0	6	3.8	8.4	3.5	3.09	1.36
1916	19	4	80.0	78	33	32	2	0	0	3	3.7	8.8	3.6	3.10	1.39
1917	14	2	51.0	67	19	15	1	0	0	2	3.4	11.8	2.6	4.11	1.69