It's usually a good day when you can sign a future hall-of-famer for $750--even inflation-adjusted for a century ago. The Phils paid that much for arguably the most dominant pitcher in the city's history after drafting him on September 1st, 1910 from the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League, where he had won 29 games (including 15 shutouts) the year before. The returns were immediate, to say the least--Alexander set the modern-day record for wins for a rookie pitcher in the 1911 season, winning 28 games for the fourth-place Phillies. He would win 190 games for the Fightins over the next six seasons, a third of the team's total victories over that period, and led them to their first ever penant and World Series appearance in 1915, where he went an absolutely eye-popping 31-10 with a 1.22 ERA--a stat line that makes Robin Roberts, Steve Calrton, Curt Schilling and Cole Hamels look like a bunch of overpaid slackers in comparison.
The only thing stopping Grover Cleveland Alexander from going down in the books as the greatest non-position player to don the P was the duration of his stay. In 1917, owner William Baker sold Alexander to the Cubs, as a result of financial woes and fear that Alexander would be drafted to fight in World War I (he was, and suffered a number of lingering physical and mental issues as a result that eventually hurt his performance on the hill). Nonetheless, he went on to win a career 373 games, the third-highest tally in major league history. In 1999, The Sporting News named him the 12th greatest player of all-time, outranked only by Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson among pitchers.
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