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Show r Fullerton9 s Spring Dope V J AMERICAN LEAGUE CATGnERS. By Hugh S. Fullerton. Offense Defense Total Chicago 07- 791 1163 Cleveland .. .....616 728 1344 SL Louis 612 720 1332 Philadelphia '615 700 1314 Washington 59o 703 1301 Bo3ton 619 G70 1289 Now York 602 645 1247 Detroit 573 659 1237 Chicago's White Sox, because of the great superiority of Ray Schalk over over his rivals in the American league, lead the league In the dope on catchers. catch-ers. Cleveland, largely because of the individual brilliancy and capability of Steve O'Neill, rides easily in second place, with a well-balanced SL Louis staff and the Athletics fourth. Save for the superiority of Chicago and the excessslve weakness of Detroit De-troit and the Yankees, the catchers rank fairly well together. The doping of catchers is one of the hardest jobs in the entire cate--gory of dope. If any club possesses one man who is far superior to his associates, as-sociates, it is a cinch that he wjll do the bulk of the catching. For instance, you can figure now that Schalk will catch in about 135 games during the coming season, unless he suffers Injuries In-juries that incapacitate him, and that O'Neill will be in quite as many, if a basis of 135 games for Shalk, perhaps twelve for Lynn and the remainder for the third catcher, Lees. Where there are two or three catchers, catch-ers, no one of which stands out as better bet-ter than the others, we-are compelled to study the "pitchers with whom they will work and figure approximately in how many games a catcher is likely to (be, figure his value in that number ot games, after figuring each man, strike an average of values. The diffioulty is that the teams which have one great catcher seldom develop strong second men, because to be great a catcher must work often We figure on Schalk in 135 games, and along comes a foul tip that puts him out of twenty or moro and brings Lynn and Lees into agtion, with the result that the dope figures must be readjusted read-justed sharply to express the catching strength of the team. In other words, some teams are putting put-ting most of their eggs in one basket, and with these an accident to the star catcher means a sudden loss or strength in both the catching and, the pitching departments, because a catcher catch-er affects the entire pitching staff, especially es-pecially ono who has been working steadily with all the pinchers. So in. a way a team with throe catchers of just average strength may excel one with one star and two low rating men. The strength of the Browns in catching need not be surprising to any one. as Sovereld. is a near star and his associates are far above tho average. Nor need one bo surprised to find the lowly Athletics figuring Xourlh in catching. Perkins is a Tegular ginger pot and is improving, and reports from the south Indicate that Mack has a consistent staff behind the plate. , In fact, if there are any surprises, it will bo in the fact that New York and Detroit rank so low in comparative catching strength. It looks as If Hug-j Hug-j gins' weakest spot will be behind tho 'plate. Hannah is a big. willing fellow, a regular horse for work, but sadly lacking in finish, nor does he seem to improve. Muddy Rcuf is a hustling, aggressive man, but not a great catcher. I looked to see Detroit's annual weakness remedied to some extent. The fact that Detroit has been under a heavy handicap for years because or inefficient catching, which has affected affect-ed the naturally weak pitching squad. Last year Ainsmith, jiimself not a great catcher, but an excellent man in handling han-dling pitchers, got more out of the Tiger twirlers than they have shown jfor years. In spite of this fact, the figures show the Tigers lamentably I weak in the attacking part of the 'catching department. I The hitting of catchers has been de-j de-j creasing steadily of recent years. I Practically the entire list of catchers 'of the American league hit and run far below par. Tho average attacking power of all major league players I figure fig-ure on a basis of 700, and not one catching department of the league attains at-tains the average thin season. Of the individuals, Schang, O'Neill and Schalk are slightly above average, while 'Nunamakcr, Pfchnic, Gharrity, Sever-eid Sever-eid and Agnew (and last year Ain-swjth) Ain-swjth) hit up to the average and lost later on lack of . attacking power "in running, sliding:,, etc. The otners list far down. j On defensive work the catchers arc well up to the major league averages in the majority of cases. In the next article we will study the National league catchers, where is It probable even greater diversity of strength will be found. oo |
