Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Post WWII

We always joke around in my household that my mother has a PhD in World War II history with a focus in the Holocaust because she is always (I'm not kidding when I say always) reading some sort of World War II book. That may seem a very random fact for the most part but I guess it runs in the family, because I think one of the most interesting times in baseball would be post World War II. There are 36 players who served in World War II and went on to be Hall of Famers - I have always been absolutely fascinated by that - Ted Williams dropped his game after the 1942 season when he hit .356 and led the MLB in virtually every offensive category (runs, home runs, RBIs, walks, average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, total bases, and was the runner up in the MVP race (to the Yankees' Joe Gordon). He then valiantly served in the Air Force for three years and then came back to have an even better season. In 1946 upon his return, though his average was lower and had fewer hits, he had one more home run, one more run, 3 more triples, 13 more walks, and 5 more stolen bases on his way to his first of 2 career MVPs.
This photo is Ted Williams' Baseball Reference page - I just wanted to share the love for Ted Williams and how amazing it is for someone to play the game at an elite level, take three years off, AND PLAY AT AN EVEN ELITER LEVEL (eliter is now a word).

Now that I have had my daily dose of holy-cow-these-guys-are-good, I pose all of you a question: it's 1946. The Second World War is over and you are the GM of an expansion team. You have one player to pick to start your team around - who would you pick? 

It's an age old question, that of who you would build your team around. We talk about it all the time at work for the current era of players. But for World War II, the Golden Age that has produced more Hall of Famers than any other time in baseball, who would you pick? 

Knowing what we know now, it would be very difficult to pick between Williams and Musial - both won the MVP in their respective years, but you are the GM before 1946. You're taking a new franchise to Indianapolis and need to start a team. 

Give me Bob Feller. 

Don't get me wrong, it's hard to pass up the guy who led the league in hits (Musial) and it's almost harder to pass up the guy who led the league in on-base percentage (Williams), but it's been proven that defense wins championships. Offense wins games but defense wins championships. Especially when you have Bob Feller at the helm. 

First, he eats up a ton of innings. Last year, the league leader in innings pitched was Adam Wainwright with 241 innings. In fact, the last pitcher to throw 300 innings was Steve Carlton in 1980, so it goes to show how the value of a workhorse as diminished. Even if our proverbial new bullpen isn't the greatest, the fact that Feller throws, throws, and oh yeah, throws some more will really help take some stress off. In 1946, he threw 371.1 innings. Wow. The two seasons before that (1940, 1941 - he served for three years) he threw 320 and 343 innings, respectively. 

With throwing that many innings, some bad things can indeed happen. Feller led the league in hits allowed 3 times and walks 4 seasons. BUT Feller also led the league in strikeouts 7 seasons in a row (minus 1945 when he only pitched in 9 games). He must have an arm of German engineering. Combine both his gross numbers of walks and hits with his even grosser number of innings pitched and that makes for an excellent WHIP (career 1.31, 1.15 in 1946). 

Truth be told, Feller didn't have a great track record against Ted Williams (.378 avg, 9 home runs, only 8 K's) or other Hall of Famers but that doesn't mean he didn't back down. In his pitching career, Feller was surprisingly on his best game when he got the least run support. This will be perfect considering we are a new franchise and probably won't score many runs. In 454 qualifying starts, Feller had the best ERA and WHIP when his team scored between 0-2 runs. Granted he had a 35-89 record but it's hard to win 35 games when your team scores 0-2 runs. When the team scores 6 or more runs, Feller's ERA shoots up to 3.61 - not a huge jump but enough of one that makes you think that he takes his foot off the gas pedal just a bit. It's interesting that Feller threw his best stuff with his back against the wall. A lot like King Felix now when he won his Cy Young in 2010 with a 13-12 record (his ERA was 2.76 for when the Mariners scored 0-2 runs and 3.53 when they scored 6+).

Feller never won a Cy Young Award. Because the award didn't exist yet. 

Bob Feller and I thank you for reading. 

1 comment: