Evening star., 1917-03-25

With the man who is guiding the
destinies of the team unable to decide
at this time as to the relative merits
of his players it i'll behooves any one
else to nominate one or more OF the
athletes for the discard. but some have
shown better form than others.
1t is assured Mike Menosky will be
carried as an extra outfielder, and u
is by no means certain that he Will
not become a fixture in the garden
Joe Cantillon. under whom Mike played
last year. made the prediction before
leaving Augusta that Menosky would
be playing regularly in the outheld
for Washington before the season was
a month old. Menosky is good fielder,
has a sturdy throwing arm and is fast
on the bases. but his strongest recon-
mendation is his batting ability. When
Mike hits the ball 1t goes mile.'
extra-base wallops being his speciality;
but for all that he is not steady
who strikes out frequently. From the
work done thus far by Zeb Milan,
Smith and Rice it is hard to figure out
how Menosky is going to horn in" to
the outfield. None OF this trio has
started to hit as he will later. Rice
undoubtedly is the best batsman of the
bunch. Smith is a hitter of somewhat
the same type as Menosky and his
drives will average longer, If any
thing, while Milan's ability with the
for comment. 1t is true this veteran
has reached the stage where he is not
likely to surpass any of the marks he
has established In former years. but
drop off several points in all depart
ments of the game and still be rat
tling good outf1elder.
Sam Crane has demonstrated to the
satisfaction of everybody that he is a
wonderful fielder He has as good a
pair of hands as has been seen in a
Washington infield for years. and his
throwing is strong and accurate.
Against the pitching at Augusta, such
as it was, Crane had a batting average
of about .261. Against the same brand
of twirling McBride's hitting mark for
the training camp games was approxi-
mately .2SS. Crane has not yet earned
title to that shortstopping Job
Howard Shanks has about held his
own in fielding with Joe Judge at first
base and has shown somewhat more
ability with the stick. Morgan has
displayed good form at third, but Leon
ards record at bat and afield does not
suffer in comparison with Rays, and
Sawyer's work at second has caused
Eddie Foster no uneasiness regarding
his joby at the keystone sack.
The work behina the bat of Ainsmith,
Charity and Henry has come up to eX-
pectations in every particular. There Is
no room for speculation there, as all
three are assured Of their positions,
but the pitchers provide some food for
thought.
OF the status of Gallia and johnson
there is no question. Shaw, Dumont and
Thomas are in splendid shape, but
Ayers, Craft. Jameson, Humphrey and
Harper have yet to reach the point
where they can show at their best. Har-
per is being nursed along in the hope
he will recover the full use of his arm,
in which event there would be no ques-
tion as to him being numbered with the
three best pitchers on the team. Jamie
son is experimenting with splitter and
has not started curving the ball as yet.
Humphrey has displayed a good line of
wares, including control and a wise
head, but needs a little additional
weight and assurance that the knee he
injured last season will not fail him.
Ayers is il, fine physical condition. the