# 1938 St. Louis Browns season

The 1938 St. Louis Browns season involved the Browns finishing 7th in the American League with a record of 55 wins and 97 losses.

## Offseason

* December 1, 1937: Elon Hogsett was traded by the Browns to the Washington Senators for Ed Linke.
* December 2, 1937: Joe Vosmik was traded by the Browns to the Boston Red Sox for Red Kress, Buster Mills and Bobo Newsom.

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| New York Yankees | 99 | 53 | .651 | — | 55‍–‍22 | 44‍–‍31 |
| Boston Red Sox | 88 | 61 | .591 | 9½ | 52‍–‍23 | 36‍–‍38 |
| Cleveland Indians | 86 | 66 | .566 | 13 | 46‍–‍30 | 40‍–‍36 |
| Detroit Tigers | 84 | 70 | .545 | 16 | 48‍–‍31 | 36‍–‍39 |
| Washington Senators | 75 | 76 | .497 | 23½ | 44‍–‍33 | 31‍–‍43 |
| Chicago White Sox | 65 | 83 | .439 | 32 | 33‍–‍39 | 32‍–‍44 |
| St. Louis Browns | 55 | 97 | .362 | 44 | 31‍–‍43 | 24‍–‍54 |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 53 | 99 | .349 | 46 | 28‍–‍47 | 25‍–‍52 |

### Record vs. opponents

1938 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | NYY | PHA | SLB | WSH |
| Boston | — | 12–6 | 12–10 | 10–12 | 11–11–1 | 14–8 | 17–5 | 12–9 |
| Chicago | 6–12 | — | 9–13 | 7–15 | 8–14 | 12–10 | 13–8–1 | 10–11 |
| Cleveland | 10–12 | 13–9 | — | 12–10 | 8–13 | 18–4 | 13–9–1 | 12–9 |
| Detroit | 12–10 | 15–7 | 10–12 | — | 8–14 | 14–8 | 12–10–1 | 13–9 |
| New York | 11–11–1 | 14–8 | 13–8 | 14–8 | — | 16–5–2 | 15–7–1 | 16–6–1 |
| Philadelphia | 8–14 | 10–12 | 4–18 | 8–14 | 5–16–2 | — | 12–9 | 6–16 |
| St. Louis | 5–17 | 8–13–1 | 9–13–1 | 10–12–1 | 7–15–1 | 9–12 | — | 7–15 |
| Washington | 9–12 | 11–10 | 9–12 | 9–13 | 6–16–1 | 16–6 | 15–7 | — |

### Opening Day lineup

* Mel Mazzera, LF
* Billy Sullivan Jr., C
* Sam West, CF
* Beau Bell, 3B
* Harlond Clift, 3B
* Red Kress, SS
* George McQuinn, 1B
* Don Heffner, 2B
* Bobo Newsom, P

### Notable transactions

* June 11, 1938: Jack Knott was traded by the Browns to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Bill Cox.
* September 8, 1938: Joe Grace was purchased by the Browns from the Memphis Chicks (Southern Association).

### Roster
## Player stats
### Batting
#### Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Billy Sullivan | 111 | 375 | 104 | .277 | 7 | 49 |
| 1B | George McQuinn | 148 | 602 | 195 | .324 | 12 | 82 |
| 2B | Don Heffner | 141 | 473 | 116 | .245 | 2 | 69 |
| SS | Red Kress | 150 | 566 | 171 | .302 | 7 | 79 |
| 3B | Harlond Clift | 149 | 534 | 155 | .290 | 34 | 118 |
| OF | Mel Almada | 102 | 436 | 149 | .342 | 3 | 37 |
| OF | Buster Mills | 123 | 466 | 133 | .285 | 3 | 46 |
| OF | Beau Bell | 147 | 526 | 138 | .262 | 13 | 84 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Mel Mazzera | 86 | 204 | 57 | .279 | 6 | 29 |
| Tommy Heath | 70 | 194 | 44 | .227 | 2 | 22 |
| Sam West | 44 | 165 | 51 | .309 | 1 | 27 |
| Glenn McQuillen | 43 | 116 | 33 | .284 | 0 | 13 |
| Roy Hughes | 58 | 96 | 27 | .281 | 2 | 13 |
| Joe Grace | 12 | 47 | 16 | .340 | 0 | 4 |
| Ethan Allen | 19 | 33 | 10 | .303 | 0 | 4 |
| Sam Harshany | 11 | 24 | 7 | .292 | 0 | 0 |
| Sig Gryska | 7 | 21 | 10 | .476 | 0 | 4 |
| Johnny Lucadello | 7 | 20 | 3 | .150 | 0 | 0 |

### Pitching
#### Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Bobo Newsom | 44 | 329.2 | 20 | 16 | 5.08 | 226 |
| Lefty Mills | 30 | 210.1 | 10 | 12 | 5.31 | 134 |
| Oral Hildebrand | 23 | 163.0 | 8 | 10 | 5.69 | 66 |
| Harry Kimberlin | 1 | 8.0 | 0 | 0 | 3.38 | 1 |
| Bill Trotter | 1 | 8.0 | 0 | 1 | 5.62 | 1 |
| Jim Weaver | 1 | 7.0 | 0 | 1 | 9.00 | 4 |

#### Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Russ Van Atta | 25 | 104.0 | 4 | 7 | 6.06 | 35 |
| Jim Walkup | 18 | 94.0 | 1 | 12 | 6.80 | 28 |
| Ed Cole | 36 | 88.2 | 1 | 5 | 5.18 | 26 |
| Fred Johnson | 17 | 69.0 | 3 | 7 | 5.61 | 24 |
| Bill Cox | 22 | 63.0 | 1 | 4 | 7.00 | 16 |
| Les Tietje | 17 | 62.0 | 2 | 5 | 7.55 | 15 |
| Jack Knott | 7 | 30.0 | 1 | 2 | 4.80 | 8 |
| Emil Bildilli | 5 | 21.2 | 1 | 2 | 7.06 | 11 |
| Vito Tamulis | 3 | 15.1 | 0 | 3 | 7.63 | 11 |

#### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| Ed Linke | 21 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 7.94 | 18 |
| Julio Bonetti | 17 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6.35 | 7 |
| Glenn Liebhardt | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 | 1 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AA | Toledo Mud Hens | American Association | Fred Haney |
| A1 | San Antonio Missions | Texas League | Zack Taylor |
| B | Meridian Scrappers | Southeastern League | Harry Whitehouse |
| B | Springfield Browns | Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League | Walter Holke |
| C | Palestine Pals | East Texas League | Abe Miller, Neil Andrews and John Kosey |
| C | Johnstown Johnnies | Middle Atlantic League | Bobby Goff |
| D | Pennington Gap Lee Bears | Appalachian League | Ralph Goldsmith and Lynn Lunsford |
| D | Siloam Springs Travelers | Arkansas–Missouri League | Vince "Moon" Mullen, Runt Marr and Mike Serlick |
| D | Easton Browns | Eastern Shore League | George Jacobs |
| D | Lafayette White Sox | Evangeline League | Frank Oceak |
| D | Mayfield Clothiers | KITTY League | Bennie Tate |
| D | Lincoln Links | Nebraska State League | Pug Griffin |
| D | Batesville White Sox | Northeast Arkansas League | Elmer Kirchoff |
| D | Findlay Browns | Ohio State League | Grover Hartley |
| D | Beaver Falls Browns | Pennsylvania State Association | Howard Shanks |
| D | Corpus Christi Spudders | Texas Valley League | Rod Whitney |