The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-04-03
American League.

Harry Hooper, the wonderful veter-
an of the Red Sox, and Pep" Young,
the great kid of the Giants, carry off
the honors in the dope of the right
fielders. These two stand almost
alone among the right fielders of the
country, although the development of
Southwark. one of the finds of recent
years, places him in a position to dis
pute Young's claim to the premier
ship. if not this season, then before
many years.
There is more difficulty in figuring
dope on right fielders than in calcu-
lating position strength of any other
position. This for the reason that, in
so many cases, one is compelled to cal
culate combination strengths because
of the habit of managers Of shifting
outfielders because of right and left
handed pitching and because of ability
of some to play sun fields.
Because of this it is practically i'm
possible to say that any one man will
play right field during an entire sea-
son, although a few do stick to the
same job no matter what the condi-
fore the figures in the case of the ma
jority represent the combined
strengths and weaknesses
On top of that, there are still four
clubs that have not made the final
decision as to who the regular right
fielder will be and it probably will be
necessary to amend the right field fig
ures in the final summing up of team
strengths. However, while some teams
may improve their figures, there is
extremely small chance that any of the
new men will show enough strength
| to crowd up among the leaders.
Position strengths in right show a
greater range of difference than is
usual in Major Leagues. The position,
in fact, is satisfactorily filled in only
ten of the sixteen clubs, and the other
six hold the jobs not because of their
own strength but because no stronger
candidates have been developed.
| Brooklyn, of course, makes the big
gain. The discovery of this youngster
Nels appears to be one of the sur
prises of the spring. If the reports are
true, and if the form he has been show
ing since the Robins went into train
ing continue during the playing sea-
son, Brooklyn has picked up a com
| ing start in the outfield and, better
than that man who may develop into
one of the great lead off batters of
/ the country.
There are extremely few good lead
one of the Roy Thomas. Willie Keller,
Jimmy Slagle or Topsy Hartzell class
would be like picking up a fortune.
| Detroit's strength in right is due TO
the attacking power OF Flagstead. am
the reserve attacking power which Jen-
nings seems always to possess.
The showing of the New York Yam
KEGS in the figures is serious dis
appointment The figures are com.
bination ones of Ruth, Wick and Meu-
sell and in no way can 1 figure the
| team to strengthen right field much.
Possibly if Higgins assigns Meusel to
the job regularly there may be consid-
cradle Improvement. With Ruth in
that job stea Oily the figures show
only trifIe more strength than the
combination of the three reveals. With
Wick there regularly the attacking pow
err of the team is reduced greatly, al
though some speed is gained. 1t looks
to me to be a hard problem for Hug
gins to dope out
/ Cleveland again shows fair strength
| in right, position in which / expected
the figures to show the Indians lack
ing, and the St. Louis Cards have
better right fielder defensive than 1
anticipated.
In the next article we will compile
the outfield figures and see how the
teams compare in that regard. This is
important because the great punch
of Major League teams usually is cen
tered among the outfielders.
Copyright, 1920. by the Bell Syn
dictate, Inc.)