The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-03-22
BY GEORGE KIRsKEY United Press Stan COrrcspondent)

BY GEORGE KIRgKEY
 United Press Stan CorrespOndent)
 Bradenton Fla, March 22-(UP) For two years the Boston Bees have been going down-from .62O in 1897 to .507 in 1888 and then to .417 last season when they landed in seventh place. So there's plenty of room for improvement in the Beehive.
 Casey Stengel, the irrepressible buffon who manages the Bees. ad- mits so himself. "But we might be little better than some people think" says Stengel. 1T don't know about our pitching and our power but we have classy inf1eld."
 Another favorable portent for the Bees to Stengel is what managers of the supposedly stronger clubs think of some of his players.
 we've got the players they want" says Stengel. Every few days somebody wants to make a deal for Lopez, Miller, Cuccinello, WC0o u 0A0UA, oO WC CttA1 bC 41VpCs less"
 Miller Recovers
 The Bees infield is better than all right with Les Scarsella from the Reds at first Sebastian Sisti, the 19-year-old Buffalo boy at sec- ond, Eddie Miller, completely re- covered from his broken leg, at short. and the veteran Tony Cucs cinello shifted from second to third.
 Miller looked like a coming star in 77 games last season until he broke 8 small bone in his leg in collision with Al Simmons. Stengel believes Miller and Sisti, who Casey says reminds him of Frankie Frisch around the keystone sack, will give the Bees the leagues best double play combination.
 Scarsella is expected to give the club better punch, and Cuccinello is perhaps the best third baseman the Bees have had in a dozen years.
 The only outfleld spot that doesn't cause Stengel some concern is cen- ter, where Big Max West, the most coveted player in the league, has been shifted from right. West ad- ded 51 points to his batting aver age last season, tipping it from .234 to .285 and, with Hank Leiber of the Cubs. was the only National Leaguer to hit homer in every park in the circuit. He's bigger and stronger and he is going to cause plenty of pitching headaches around the circuit. Buddy Hassett, the converted first baseman, will play right, and left-field is a toss-up between two youngsters, Chet Ross, who hit .306 for Evansville and Carvel Powell, who batter .294 for Hartford. Neither is yet a major leaguer.
 Fette No. 1 Pitcher
 The Standbys on the pitching staff are Lou F'ette, Bill Posedel, Joe Sullivan, Dick Erickson, and Jim Tobin from the Pirates. Fette is still the No. 1 man. The best of the youngsters are Nick Strince- vich, Sacramento; George Barnicle from Hartford; Al Piechota from Kansas City; Don French from In- dianapolis and Joe Callahan from Bill Swift from the Pirates and Dick Coffman, a Giant castoff, also are in the running.
 Barnicle. big right-hander who struck out five straight Cards last fall in short relief job. Strince- vich, who famed out of 6 Giants in three innings last September, and Callahan, who beat the Giants late in the season, look like the best of the new crop.
 The Bees catching is one of the clubs brightest spots with Al Lopez and the up and coming Phil Masi | in that department. Masi, only g has come fast and Stengel ex- poets him to develop into star un- der Lopez tutelage.
 One big thing in favor of the Bees is that they are developing | of those tough defensive | clubs who'll play best in Boston, where the wind blows off the Char les River and makes those power hitters of the visiting clubs moan bloody murder.