Quote:
Originally Posted by infieldfly
Not really happy with this one but I think I've reached the area of diminishing returns.
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I agree it does not look like there is much scope for improvement, thank you.
Attached is a 1924 image of 1969 Hall Of Fame inductee Waite Hoyt with the New York Yankees.
Hoyt made just 1 appearance in his debut season of 1918 with the New York Giants. He faced just 3 batters and struckout 2 of them. This was no late season call up as it took place in July. An impressive debut but it was 14 years before the 18 year old pitched again with the Giants. He joined the Boston Red Sox the following year and started 11 games in both of the 2 seasons he spent with them.
Joining the New York Yankees in 1921 he established himself immediately as a mainstay of the rotation. A 19 game winner he completed 21 of his 32 starts and pitched a career high 282 plus innings. In 1922 he repeated as a 19 game winner and posted a career high 3 shutouts, a surprisingly low figure, for the first time. He posted a 17-9 record in 1923 and a League leading high in WHIP, which typified his style of making outs through contact rather than strikeouts. Went 18-13 in 1924 matching his career high of 32 starts from 1921. Suffered a losing record for the only time in his Yankee career in 1925. Recovered with a 16-12 record in 1926 the prelude before his career year of 1927. For the first time in his career was the team leader in wins and thereby established himself as the top pitcher on what many view as the best team in baseball history. Also led the league with his 22 wins and in winning percentage, posted his career best of a 2.63 ERA while matching his career high of 3 shutouts and set a career high of 23 complete games. He improved his win total to 23 in 1928 and also improved his winning percentage as his number of losses stayed at 7 but his ERA jumped to 3.36. Remarkably he also led the American League in saves notching 8. His win total dropped to 10 in 1929 and after 7 starts in 1930 he moved to the Detroit Tigers starting 20 more games.
1931 was again a season split between 2 teams as he made 16 appearances for both the Tigers and the Philadelphia Athletics, 10 of his 13 wins being with the A's. 1932 was another split season with the Brooklyn Dodgers and back again with the Giants. In 1933 Hoyt joined the Pittsburgh Pirates where he stayed until 1937. 1934 was by far his most productive season with them going 15-6 and setting his career high with 105 strikeouts. His ERA was almost identical to the previous season 2.93 from 2.92 but his won loss record improved dramatically from 5-7 in 1933. In 1937 after starting out the season with the Pirates he returned to the Dodgers. In 1938 he went winless with the Dodgers in 3 decisions.
Hoyt won 237 victories in his career based more on consistency and longevity than brilliance. He was never higher than 10th in MVP consideration.