The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-13

 strength, it's batting strength asains. Chcago's pitching strength, and 1lsuleu how many games Cleveland ought to "ll from Chicago. Then l LOOK CleNeiauo against the Red Sox and figured tne number of games each should win anu lose in 22 games scheduled. Ihen CieVe Hand against New Yorok, and so on untli concluded that Cleveland, with US pitching strength against the pltcnihs and batting strength of the other seven
 clubs. ought to win SC and lose 6S games during the season if it plays out the entire schedule Then l took Chicago and went through the same process ilS- uring what it's pitchers should do agaihst each club and what each clubs pitchers ought to do against the White Sox. And so through each club of the maJoi leagues until I arrived at the results tab ulated at the head of this column. You will run across some peculiar l freaks in following this method. This | is because of the fact that certain pitch CTS who, perhaps, are With meolocre 1 clubs 'have something on" stronger clubs, and when we come to compare | team strengths we suddenly find the great attacking power of one club nulli- l fled by the peculiar style of some one pitcher Thus we find that the New l York Giants in all probability will lose the series to the Chicago Cubs. in spite of the fact that the Giants are much stronger team. because Mitchell has | chosen and purchased pitchers who have something on" the Giants.
 CUBS HAVE PITCHERS
 1 Chicagos big gain, of course, is i'll l getting Alexander. Even if he should
 not prove the winner for them he has been for the Phillies, the Cubs are big l gathers because Alex always could beat
 them and usually pitched large num- l Der of games against them. Tyler is very effective against both Giants and Cincinnati when in form and was against Chicago, which is double gain for the Cubs.
 l We find these variations all through
 the dope. but they do not seriously af- | feet the averages upon which all dope is l based
 | Oddly enough, if the dope works out as :! it should, there will be few important l changes from the finish of last season, except a generally better tone among
 the National league clubs and a slightly better punching of the American leaguers. In the American league New | York and St. Louis show the most .m-
 provement. The experimental stage vii! l be trying and the teams probably will make a late start. It is to be hoped that | Huggins can lose the jinX that has beer pursuing the team for several years. St. l as it's pitching staff rounds into shape.
 Jones has plenty of material, but is iia- :; ble to lose ground at the start of the season while trying to choose his regu- 1 lar pitchers. Such lost ground usually 1 is made up later, but have had to give l the western teams an edge on the Browns 1 because they will get to play them before the team settles to regular work. l NATIONAL BETTER
 l In the National league there is a gen. eral forward movement, with the excep- l tion of Pittsburg and Brooklyn, which
 have lost ground. If Pfeffer who was considered lost to the team, gets into
 shape and is. left with the club even
 month, II will help nightly. The best
 of the pitching staff is getting aged. I Coombs announces this is his last season. and Richard the Lion Heart Marquardt
 cannot go his left t-handed way many more seasons.
 l Copyright. 1918, by the Bell Syndicate, |