> Yea Scottie definitely bloomed
> too late to get in that discussion.
> 200 isn't out of the question
> though for him.
200 is possible if they score runs for him. You look at those 45 games he won from 1946-48 and sort of worry. A big injury would be a killer.
Shipley should get past 200 as well. Couple of year younger, he's still an excellent pitcher, and the Cards have a strong core to their team (Wing, Fellner, Dunk, Cook, Tito Jr.) that should score runs for him. They have a few players that will need to be replaced in the next couple of years (Morton Chamblee right now since he retired, Stoller in a while, though his glove is so strong it might keep him in the line-up even as his glove fades to a lower level). But this is a team that will be good for the balance of Shipley's prime, so he should pretty consistently get 15-20 wins for the next 4 years (age 33-36), which would put him over.
Crowell still can pitch, so he might have 10 wins left in him. He might be a good Emberling for some team - get popped in the rotation at a key moment and pick up some wins. Hell, he did that last year for the A's... and it's quite possible that the Tigers yanking him from the rotation and going in another direction cost them the two games they finished behind the White Sox. The Tigers love of GB pitchers, and dislike of FB pitchers, seems to have missed the boat on why Crowell was so successful in his two seasons in Tiger Stadium - Monster Movement reduces the Long Ball *regardless* of whether you're a groundball pitcher or a flyball pitcher. 3 HR and 8 HR in his two full seasons in Detroit, even as an old goat. Last year, despite pitching in two dinger parks and being an even older goat, he gave up just 12 in 199 IP. Jack Boe for the Tigers, despite a better GB factor, gave up 14 in 155 IP.
I'm digressing... but I want to make the point.
Wolfe, with a 61 GB rate, gave up 30 in 312 IP. Andrew, with a 31 GB rate, gave up 28 in 301 IP. The other difference between those pitchers? Wolfe has a 5 Movement, while Andrew has a 7 Movement.
You can pitch perfectly will in Tiger Stadium and avoid a monsterous number of HR (as in the 40 range in 300 IP) if you have great movement.
Boe and the 4-5 movement is going to get taken deep in Tiger Stadium, and his 5 control is going to be walking folks unlike Wolfe.
If the Tigers want to get back to 1948 levels *and sustain* it, they need what they had then - a wily vet like Crowell with that killer Movement, strong Control... and screw whether he's a FB or GB pitcher. We've discussed over on the TWB boards that the Tigers OF is wildly underrated when it comes to defense anyway.
There was a 34 year old pitcher on that list above that fits that bill, Goose.
34-35-36-37 years old... at least four years sitting there next to Andrew, Ulrich and Wolfe. You don't think that rotation wouldn't fit nicely with your offense?
But I digress.
Nolting and Andrew are the top candidates lower on the list. Andrew is winning at a higher rate at the moment, and pitching with a better offense at his back, with that offense pretty much at its prime. Nolting's team is rebuilding, especially the offense which looks a few years away. They are very close in terms of quality at the moment, though Nolting maxes out better. Andrew looks like the better odds at 300 wins *right now*, but those odds could change very fast if the Phils rebuild to their former levels, and the Tigers fall off.
Schoonover is a surprise. He became a fulltime starter at the age of 19 and won the ROY in 1941. He missed a year and a half to the War. He's never really had a big year, though he could have in 1949 if the team had a better offense in support of him. He's sort of plugged away to get here. He's not as strong of a pitcher as many of the others on the list, but he's solid to the point that he should go beyond 200 fairly easy if he pitchers for decent teams.
Faulkner pitches with a strong offense at his back. Even with an off year last season, he bagged 18 wins. He lost three years to the war, and he already are a very good pitcher before heading off. Should get well past 200 wins, but 300 seems.
Ulrich of the Tigers isn't on the list with 34 wins at the age of 26 this season. I would tag him as one of the better 300 candidates among the pitchers not on the Active Leaderboard. His biggest problem is that he will hit his prime *after* the Tigers offense reaches its prime, so the stars don't perfectly align for him. 25+ win seasons potential if the stars had aligned.
John