The Washington herald., 1922-12-06
PITCHING IMPROVED.

The quality Of pitching served to
American league batsnen the past
season was q noticeable improve
ment over that Of the preceding
year, even though the general bat
ting average showed only a slight
decline. As stated in the introduc-
ton to the batting records the
ranks Of American League slug
gers were reinforced by the add
tion of a considerable number Of
young and skillful hitters while the
quality of the fielding was not up
70 the standard of former years a.
heretofore explained. These con-
ditions made the task. Of the pitch
ers somewhat more difficult and
accounts tor the comparatiyely
slight decrease in the batting rec.
Crds-
Collectively the slabmen Of the
Chicago. Detroit and Philadelphia
teams showed the greatest i'm
provement but all of the other
teams. save only Boston. were
strengthened by the addition of one
or more young hurlers whose work
this season jus,ifies optimistic ex-
pectations for the future.
Urban c. Faber. White Sox vet
eran. is leading pitcher as he was
last wear. Faber led all competitors
in hurting complete games. 81: held
opponents to the lowest average Of
earned runs per game, 2.8l; worked
the most innings. 3S3; won 81
games, the fourth largest number
of victories and famed 14s oppo-
nents. one less than Shocker Of st.
Louis. who led IN strikeouts with
149
ROMMEL 4 WIZARD.
Edwin ROmmel. Mack's star Of
the Athletics. won % games for his
seventh place team, a truly great
record. Rommel worked % com
plete games. 294 innings and al
lowed 3.2s runs per game.
L. j. Bush. with the champion
Yankees behind him. garnered IS
victories and lost only seven games.
leading the league in percentage OF
games won and lost. with an aver
age of .7ss. Opponents scored 3.3z
earned runs per game off Bullet
Joe's" fork ball delivery.
Urban J. Shocker, anchor man
Of the Browns staff. won "a games.
pitched 34S innings. more than any
Sition to 2.97 earned runs, being
fourth best in point of effective
ness Shocker led in strikeouts
with 14s. and it was largely through
his sterling all-round work through
out the year that st. Louis battled
the Yankees for the championship
until a few days before the close
of the season.
The most gratifying feature Of
the pitching was the work OF a
large number Of young hurlers,
some of whom speedily won places
as regulars. while the others turned
in such excellent performances that
they are regarded by their respec-
tive managers as certain to qualify
for regular American League duty
next season
BRILLHEART is THERE.
Among the best of these are
G. X. Murray. OF the champion
Yankees; Herman Pillette and Syl-
vester johnson, of Detroit; Hubert
Pruett. st. Louis; Phil Bedgood and
G.. d. Metevier. Cleveland; c. C.
Robertson. G. V. Leverett and Ted
Blankenship. Chicago; J. Il. Brill
heart, Washington. and Fred Heimach
end Warren Ogden. Philadelphia.
Warren Collins, OF Boston. though
in his third American League sea
son. was allowed to take q regular
turn for the first time and his
work was sensational. The Texan
won eight of his last nine starts
for the eighth place Red Sox, siI
Of his victories being in succession.
Owing to the increasing practice
of changing pitchers II has been
found expedient to divide Ameri-
can League pitchers into fou-
noups.
-, the first group are those who
hurled ten or more complete games.
In the second group are those who
worked forty-five or more innings.
hut less than ten complete games.
Both of these groups are rated ac-
cording to the lowest number Of
earned runs allowed per nine-innipg
game. The third group contains
al those not included in either of
the first or second lists but VINO
are. credited with winning or
charged with losing one or more
games. The fourth division IL.