finalyear death_date debutyear statvalue finalteam birth_date death_place finaldate image statlabel debutteam name throws caption birth_place debutdate bats position article_title
1915 10 may 1934 1906 102-100 600 3.08 st. louis terriers 7 march 1884 wellington , kansas september 23 ed . jpg willett -lrb- 1908 detroit free press portrait -rrb- win -- loss record strikeouts earned run average detroit tigers ed willett right ed willett in 1908 norfolk , virginia september 5 right pitcher ed willett

ed willett

robert edgar willett -lrb- march 7 , 1884 -- may 10 , 1934 -rrb- was a pitcher in major league baseball .
he played with the detroit tigers of the american league -lrb- 1906 - 1913 -rrb- and the st. louis terriers of the federal league -lrb- 1914 - 1915 -rrb- .
he was born in norfolk , virginia , usa and threw right-handed .
he began his playing career in the western association , pitching one season with the wichita jobbers in 1905 .
he joined the detroit tigers in 1906 .
in his first two seasons in detroit , willett had a record of 1 -- 8 in 9 starts .
however , willett won at least 13 games in each of the next 6 seasons -lrb- 1908 -- 1913 -rrb- .
his best season was 1909 when he had a record of 21 -- 10 , ranking 3rd in the american league in wins and 5th in winning percentage -lrb- .677 -rrb- .
he had an earned run average of 2.34 for the season and was among the 1909 american league leaders in games -lrb- 41 -rrb- , innings -lrb- 292-2/3 -rrb- , games started -lrb- 34 -rrb- , complete games -lrb- 25 -rrb- , bases on balls and hits allowed -lrb- 88 and 239 -rrb- , as well as wild pitches -lrb- 10 -rrb- and hit batsmen -lrb- 14 -rrb- .
in two games of the 1909 world series against the pittsburgh pirates , willett pitched 7 and 2/3 innings , allowing no runs and three hits .
on january 20 , 1914 , willett jumped from the american league to the federal league where he finished his career with the st. louis terriers .
in two seasons with the last-place terriers , willett had a record of 6 -- 19 .
throughout his career , willett had a propensity to hit batters with his pitches .
he led the al in hit batsmen in 1912 with 17 and was among the league leaders seven straight years from 1908 to 1914 .
his career total of 106 hit batsmen ranks 50th in the all time major league baseball record book .
willett was an excellent fielding pitcher , consistently achieving a range factor in excess of the league average .
over his career , he had a range factor of 2.89 -- 71 points higher than the league average of 2.09 for pitchers .
in 1910 , willett had 113 assists in 224 innings pitched , meaning that he had an assist every other inning .
his range factor of 3.38 in 1912 was a remarkable 143 points higher than the league average of 1.95 -- meaning willett got to nearly twice as many batted balls as the typical pitcher of his era .
willett was also a good hitter for a pitcher , batting .268 with a .333 on-base percentage and a .427 slugging percentage in 1911 .
in 1913 , he raised his batting average to .283 .
in 274 career games , willett had a 102 -- 100 won-loss record with 142 complete games , an earned run average of 3.08 , 600 strikeouts , and 695 assists in 1,773 innings pitched .
willett died in 1934 in wellington , kansas at age 50 .
