The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-04

in check, but the man on the mound has to have a team behind him that can field and score runs, or he can not win. Hence, pitchers like Wood and Coombs and Plank who have the support of playmates batting around
 280 in the aggregate. are not as de- serving Of praise as the fellow who goes forth to battle with falterine SUD- port, but still wins.
 Our own system of rating pitchers is. we think, a whole lot better than the won-and-iost, but we frankly ad- init it is open to objection in partfcu- lar cases. By it we place Walter Johnson ahead of every pitcher in the circuit and have a hunch that when the National league statistics appear it will be found that he made the best showing in either league.
 innings pitched into the total number of hits allowed. That certainly shows the pitchers effectiveness and ability to keep the enemy underfoot better ming and losing, when on a. tail-end team, with the winning and losing by a pitcher who has run-getting, slug ging combination behind like the New York Giants or the Philadelphia. ath- 1etics. ' -
 Johnson ranks third in games won. but in the matter of preventing hits which is a. pitchers main business in Hre-he is far ahead of every other man in the league, with Wood a legiti- mate second. Johnson got his official
 sZG which was 26 points less than Phila- delphia, and 21 points less than Bos- ton. He had to hustle for every game he gathered to his bosom in the 50 in which he appeared Wood had an easy time of it and did not have to strain himself so much in the last the pennant cinehed, but he did his best every time out in order to keep on edge for the worlds series His percentage is next to that of OF1T7c( 1r7 1Txr
 An upset is presented by Bedient, who, while having 50 points on Coombs in percentage of hits per inning, was 10 points behind him in winning games man and that probably accounted for the discrepancy.
 Now look at some concrete exam pies of the weakness Of the won-and- lost system. Taking him by and large Ed Walsh was as valuable a pitcher as ere was in the American league, Johnson and Wood not excepted. He figured in 62 games and pitched the great total Of 393 innings, and he is a veteran Of long standing. Walsh was with team that finished fourth and batted seventh for an average of .254 A fan 20 years from now would think Walsh was the 18th pitcher in the league in effectiveness this season. The real truth is Walsh allowed .845 of a hit per inning, which was better than that of any other man in the league except those of Johnson, Wood and oSO10uI ana OnIltl6Q IO DG Tduk0Q as the fourth pitcher of the year. His teams winning average was .510 and his own personal average was .614. Suppose Walsh had been supported by Boston the Athletics, what do you suppose his personal figure in win ming would have been? Certainly over TOO
 Another illustration is Jean Dubuc of Detroit. He is the 11th pitcher in winning and losing, with an average of .630 acquired with sixth place team comes right after CoombS with 1888 of a hit per inning and should be claSsed as the seventh pitcher of the year, for Buck O'Brien of Boston allowed only ,362 of a hit per inning and thereby sandwiched himself in between Coomios and Bedient