Ah, what could have been …
Chino Smith (another unfortunate nickname from the times) was on an arc that could have placed him among the immortals. Quite a few players look good and fade out, but few look *this* good, and Smith didn’t fade out, instead his career was cut short by yellow fever before he hit 30.
Smith split his time between 2B and RF, but his primary value was at the plate. Where his numbers were eye-popping. We have Smith posting an OPS over 1.000 for 5 of the first 6 years of his career and accumulating black ink throughout, being likely to lead the league in H, 2B, and 3B multiple times. Add double-digit homerun power, and you have a true masher.
He drew walks at a decent pace and was fast on the basepaths, although he did whiff a lot. A small price to pay.
Defensively, Smith was well above average at both 2B and RF, probably a bit more valuable at 2B. He played a handful of games elsewhere, to no great effect. His arm in the OF was no better than average.
Look, deaths happen. It’s part of the sport, and it’s beyond the pale of the particular kind of fiction we’re creating here to try to figure out what Smith could have looked like without his early death. So the only real question we wrestled with was what to do with 1931. He played very little that year, and it’s not clear to us at this point when he contracted the disease (other projects credit him with a full season in 1931 before his passing in January of 1932). I think it’s quite possible that the next round of research shows that he got sick early in 1931, and we remove that year entirely from the projection.
I also think Smith’s numbers from 1926 to 1930 get nudged up slightly, which is stupefying. But there is evidence that his eye for the strike zone was a little better than we have here, and that he had a little more power, most likely in more doubles and a few more longballs.
For now, we’re content to just marvel at how spectacular Postalita was for the brief time he was on the stage.
| Name | Charlie Smith (Red; Postalita) |
| ID / Status | smith01cha / Draft |
| Pos | 2B |
| DOB / i9s Career | 09/24/1901 / 1925 - 1931 |
| Birthplace | Hamlet, NC (USA) |
| Height / Weight | 5'11" / 180 |
| B / T | L / R |
Batting Projections
| Year | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SB | CS | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| 1925 | 474 | 156 | 36 | 14 | 18 | 43 | 31 | 11 | 4 | 0.329 | 0.385 | 0.578 | 0.963 |
| 1926 | 588 | 217 | 52 | 15 | 19 | 63 | 47 | 17 | 3 | 0.369 | 0.430 | 0.605 | 1.036 |
| 1927 | 587 | 220 | 48 | 19 | 20 | 68 | 40 | 39 | 3 | 0.375 | 0.440 | 0.624 | 1.063 |
| 1928 | 633 | 244 | 54 | 23 | 25 | 54 | 50 | 15 | 7 | 0.385 | 0.434 | 0.662 | 1.096 |
| 1929 | 619 | 248 | 49 | 20 | 30 | 80 | 49 | 54 | 18 | 0.401 | 0.469 | 0.690 | 1.159 |
| 1930 | 610 | 221 | 44 | 19 | 27 | 92 | 55 | 34 | 11 | 0.362 | 0.446 | 0.630 | 1.075 |
| 1931 | 564 | 187 | 39 | 10 | 16 | 51 | 56 | 9 | 6 | 0.332 | 0.387 | 0.521 | 0.908 |