Lee led the league in ERA by a wide margin, and was among the league
leaders in everything else. I think he clearly
has to rank as the best in the league this year. Next year, Lee
went just 2-6, apparently missing time because of injury. The rest
of his career was mostly a struggle, and he finished with a record
of 117-124, which is too bad because he was a fine pitcher.
This was Bob Feller's sixth season, and third consecutive one
in which he had at least 24 wins. And he was 22 years old! He
pitched a huge number of innings, and was easily the top strikeout
pitcher in the game. He also walked a huge number of batters, which
kept him from pitching as well as Lee, but he was still clearly the
second-best pitcher in the league.
After the season, Feller went off to war, and didn't return
until the last month of 1945, missing almost four complete seasons.
Despite missing all this time, Feller won 266 games in his career;
you often here that the war cost Feller 300 wins, maybe even 400. That may be
true, but I wonder. Feller lost his fastball when he was 30,
then hung around for eight more years throwing junk and putting up
.500 records. His managers let him throw an absurd number of
innings when he was very young. If Feller hadn't gone to war, would
he have won another 100 games, or would he have
blown out his arm when he was 25? We'll never know, I guess.
Johnny Murphy was won of the first pitchers who thrived in a
relief role. This was probably Murphy's best year in the role; his ERA and won-loss record were both outstanding. Relievers at this time were
usually failed starters, and Murphy seems to fit that description.
His control was lousy, and he didn't strike anybody out. He pitched
for a great Yankee team that won the World Series, and they
probably helped his stats. He pitched well, but not well enough to
merit Cy Young consideration.
When you think of great Yankee pitchers, Marius Ugo Russo
usually doesn't come to mind. But this year, in which the Yankees
won the World Series and Joe DiMaggio had the 56 game hit streak,
Russo was their best pitcher. This was the third of three terrific
seasons he began his career with; afterwards he went off to war, and didn't win a game
when he got back. He was another Yankee lefty in the Pennock-Gomez-Ford-Guidry-Pettitte mold, and probably could have been real good
had things gone his way.
