The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1919-04-18
FuIIerton'$
Baseball Dope
Here's One Time Cobb Plays Second Fiddle, and to Hi
Batting Rival, iris Speaker, at That-Figres Prove
Latter Is More Valuable to Cleveland Phan Georgia
Peach Is to eDtroit.
By HUGH S. FULLERTON.
The Center FielderS.

Cobba normal advantage over him
makes Speaker moro valuable to his
team. have been compelled IL deduct
some points from t'pbb'S standing be-
cause Of wear and tear and the yearly
Increase Of the time II takes hum 10 get
started. Lust year it looked for five
weeks as L he never would get started
and ;his season may he worse. Speaker
can 20 further back after fly ball. can
throw better and has an advantage in
several other points. besides playing in
more games per season than Cobb does
in these later years.
Happy WalSrh. figured on basis OF
coming back 70 the White SoN in con-
tented mood and with his injured feel
Ings salvrd. ranks third. leading Milan.
who is slowing up year after year. Re-
low them "" find Walker and Strunk,
Walker leading because of III" exceed
ing timclincSs Of his punch. At the
bottom We must record the Yankees.
ut in scoring the Tanks last we re-
serve tho right to chance. Higgins
had big problem OF arranging his
Quilted material to ;hr best advantage.
When he SORTS tho outfeld material so
as 70 Est the host results the figures
will show an Improvement all round the
outtlcld. He has lot IF material. but
it doesn't t1t we'll 10 the job.
In the National we lind another freak
of figures with Pitt Shurgh and tincin-
natl exactly tied for tho lead and New
York only ten points behind them.
Carey is perhaps entitled Ia the benefit
Of the draw because his all-Around work
b better balanced. IA great bail player
he is. and one who has improved stead
ily through hard work and attention TO
his business. His great asset. of
course il: speed. and he has learned TO
use it to bnst advantage. kauff is not
the great ball player hH * alleged TO be-
by his New York admirers. although
an Extremely good one. His army OK
perience has not helped hi mas u bah
player. That much I tinow from init
mate reports. but he probably will SUI
fer from tho setback for only Il short
time and then fall into the McGraw way
of playing tho game.
Look at old Dodc Faskrrt, He is
still up there with the leaders in SPITE
Of his years. He holds speed longer
than Methus"lah did. and he is playing
better and smarter ball under Mitchell
than he ever did in his life. EIskert
achieved Il reputation for beng bone"
under several managers. chiefly because
when ne made i mistake he did il when
i, showed up tho worst rather than be-
cause he made many plumbers.
The class of tn" center tleldnrs in
both leagues is rather higher tan that
OF either the right or left tield.rs. due
OF course to the fact that Speaker.
Cobb Telsch and Milan all play that
position. The sharp drop in lgures
down toward the bottom OF the list
would seem to indicate that some of IN"
clubs have extremely mediocre men. but
were these men 10 be compared 10 light
or loft tielders and listed in those posi-
tons they Nigh show up high.
The Boston raves make perhaps the
worst showing Of any among the center
helders. Stallings seems unfortunate N
his selection of outfieiderS anyhow.
Powell and Kelly also suffer in the fig
ureS because both slumped badly last
season and lost points. | have not Zig
ured either as being as bad as they
looked las, season. In fact. expect
Improvement in both men. because ii is
certain that much Of the slump resulted
from natural worry and discourage
ment Reing on a tail-"nd club which
is in straitened circumstances. and with
the draft threatening. does not tend to
make players hustle.
The ST.. Louis Browns, too, threaten
to show Improvement. Intact. am
holding out LOT inc liShl 'idii W diie''u
tht outfeld figures literally. as there
are three changes threatened which may
take place before the final compilation
Of the dope.
In the next article we tackle the
catchers. the second most important po-
sition in figured dope and can then be-
gin to get a closer line on how the
teams shape up.
(Copyright. 1919. Bell Syndicate. Incl