Federal League Teams Joins Majors (Alternate 1916)

Through the wonders of Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP), I have decided to do an alternate MLB projection, which is including a Federal-Major League Merger. 

The merger would only include four Federal League teams joining while the other 4 teams become defunct, and those players remaining fall into a free agency pool. The teams that joined the Majors are as follows...

• Baltimore Terrapins (A.L.)
• Buffalo Bisons (N.L.)
• Indianapolis Federals (formerly Newark Peppers, N.L.)
• Kansas City Packers (A.L.)

Obviously in real life, the Federal League only existed from 1914-1915. In this alternate reality, we'll say that maybe it was more successful than it actually was, and the Majors stepped in, and made generous offers to owners in the Federal League, which teams departed, and the league folded.

There was a free agency draft order, starting with the Federal League teams getting the first picks, while the rest of the Major League teams went in order from worst to best. Since the Boston Red Sox won the 1915 World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies, those teams got the last free agency picks in each round. Buffalo Blues became Buffalo Bisons, due to Cleveland being the Cleveland Blues already. The Blues are mapped out to be renamed later. I thought the idea of a team being named after a player or coach is weird, and I didn't agree with a name that Christopher Columbus picked out.

After all that, I also balanced the teams to all have 40-Man Rosters (25 player Team Roster / 15 player Reserve Roster).

I then went to the Free Agency board, it did include players that weren't on Federal League rosters, being either not on a roster that year or in prospect status. I didn't want to go through every single team to see who was actually where, and so-so. All teams fell into this rule, so for example -- The Detroit Tigers actually lost 1B/OF Harry Heilmann and C Johnny Bassler.

Teams Notable Additions:

• Baltimore Terrapins: 3B Frank 'Home Run' Baker, 1B Ed Konetchy & SP Elmer Leonard.
• Boston Red Sox: C Grover Hartley, OF Irish Meusel, 1B/2B Jim Galloway.
• Boston Braves: C Art Wilson, OF Dutch Zwilling & 3B Mike Menosky.
• Brooklyn Dodgers: 3B Charlie Deal & P Lefty Gervais.
• Buffalo Bisons: 1B/OF Harry Heilmann, C Joe Jenkins & SP Bill Prough.
• Chicago White Sox: SP Bill Burns, 3B Mike Mowrey & OF Mike Fitzgerald.
• Chicago Cubs: P Jim Bagley Sr & SS Billy Orr.
• Cincinnati Reds: SP King Bader, SS/1B Jack Ness & C Gus Fisher.
• Cleveland Blues: P Dave Davenport, SP Tom J Hughes & OF Steve Evans.
• Detroit Tigers: P Dave Danforth, SP Claude Hendrix & OF Johnny Bates.
• Indianapolis Federals: OF Benny Kauff, SP Buddy Hearn, OF Bert Graham & 1B Norm Glockson.
• Kansas City Packers: SP Eddie Plank, 3B Ed Hemingway, OF/C Lee Magee & 1B Jack Lelivelt.
• New York Yankees: OF Max Flack, SP Frank Allen & OF Les Mann.
• New York Giants: C Johnny Bassler & 3B Jimmy Johnston.
• Philadelphia Athletics: SP Lefty Williams, P Byron Houck & OF William Rumler.
• Philadelphia Phillies: 2B Joe Gideon & SP Johnny Enzmann.
• Pittsburgh Pirates: SP Stan Coveleski, 2B Morrie Rath & C William Fischer.
• St. Louis Browns: OF Jack Tobin, SP Flame Delhi & P Ed Lennox
• St. Louis Cardinals: P Clarence Mitchell & SP Al Huenke
• Washington Senators: C Mike Konnick, OF Pete Compton & OF Pop Foster.

Note: Once in awhile OOTP is not accurate on their rosters, and I didn't notice until the season got rolling, but 'Shoeless Joe' Jackson was still on Cleveland for some reason, which he was actually acquired by the Chicago White Sox during the 1915 MLB season. But I will make him a White Sox player for the 1917 season, while they will also add acquisition 1B Chick Gandil from Washington. Washington has upcoming Joe Judge to take Gandil's place.

Speaking of acquisitions: I will try to do some of the realistic trades, and players going to their real-life places, but I won't be doing it, if the transactions don't fit with the team's overall status. For example, there was a team that was in the thick of a pennant chase, and one of their stars in real life was traded, because that team in real life wasn't in the hunt. Plus there was trades that couldn't happen with some of the places being elsewhere...

For example: 

Real-life deal: The Giants acquiring IF Buck Herzog and OF Red Killefer from the Reds, in exchange for SP Christy Mathewson, OF Edd Roush and 2B Bill McKechnie. 

OOTP 1916: The Giants lost Christy Mathewson for the season (Radial nerve - Elbow surgery) already at that point in the season, Edd Roush (born in Indiana) was on the Indianapolis Hoosiers/Newark Peppers 1914 & 1915 Federal League rosters, making him a young star for the Indianapolis Federals in 1916, which leads to Bill McKechnie being a lone piece for a trade, which also didn't make sense for the two teams.

The Giants also had another real-life deal that didn't go down involving Cubs' 3B Heinie Zimmerman and the Giants' 2B Larry Doyle. Although that trade may go down during the 1917 offseason. 

*** Coming up the 1916 MLB Season results from the Alt-Federal OOTP Timeline. ***