The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-27
AMERICAN LEAGUE.

Evers is .350 hitter against Mayer Tor Instance. and .150 hitter against
 Alexander. Fournier hits Walter John
 son freely. and Is Sucker" against
 many worse pitchers We cannot tell from the statistics al
 hand how the batters of these teams Will hit the pitchers of the opposing teams To get to this we rlust pick out American league pitchers who re- semble in methods the National league pitchers who are engaged in the series. and then see how the American league batters hit against that type of pitch Ing in their own league. That gives us. approximately, the batting value of each man in the series Secondly, we must study the catchers, and calculate now much their work is likely to af- rect the attacking strength of the op- posing club.
 Value of Each Player
 Then, we must calculate what effect the physical characteristics of the grounds themselves may have, for each grounds has it's own character The short fields in Philadelphia, for in- stance. handicap some teams and help others. But there Is another element In Philadelphia and in some other places the background from which the pitchers throw the ball is important In Philadelphia there Is a section of the field seats on a line with the pitch CTS that usually is crowded When the fans in that section take off their coats, it is almost impossible for the batters to see the ball. On some other grounds the pitchers practice pitching so that the ball seems to be coming at the batter out of a sign.
 Having finally reached the value of each player as an individual, we must figure his value in this series in his position. Ty Cobb. for instance, may be much greater player than is Hub Ferdue; but in ball game where Per due is pitching and Cobb playing out field, Perdue is much more important.
 l have, after many years of calcula- tion made up table of relative values of positions regardless of men. cen ter fielder, on defensive play, is only worth 6-10 in 100, whereas the pitcher Is worth 3s in 100. The table Is based upon the chances to do good or harm.
 Putting down all these figures we reduce them to the value of the man as an offensive player, as a defensive player. his value to his team in the reg ular season. and, finally. to his value in this series After calculating the value of each man, we simply add and divide until we reach the relative values of the two teams.
 The Dope's Ultimate Limit
 After that we have only reached the that one team or the other Is the better and. therefore, should win the series. But I'm going to carry you further. am going to take each pitcher and calculate how many hits and runs the opposing team should make against him. Then if we can guess which pitcher the managers will use in each game, we'll have the approximate scores of each game, won't we?
 That Is what I have done with these two teams. In fact, I have figured four teams-Boston Red Sox against Boston and Philadelphia Nationals; De. troit against Braves and Phillies Phil lies against Red Sox and Detroit, and Braves against Red Sox and Detroit: and at one stage I got scared and started to figure Brooklyn into the mess Some work? Well, yes; so I'm letting you fellows off easily. Don't come around after it is over and tell me how wrong I was or how right lust take your little pencil and we'll start figuring the first basemen, and see whether or not our statistics agree | We'll start tomorrow with the first oasemen.
 Copyright 1915, by the Wheeler
 Syndicate, Incl