Eppa Rixey is in the Hall of Fame and the main reason is he won 266 games. He also lost 251 which is part of the reason I have him down in 61st place as a pitcher. Bill James had Rixey 75th because he concentrated on prime more than I did, even though I concentrated more on prime with my second rating system.
If I do a third rating system, I am leaning towards doing it even more on prime. However, I doubt I would ever do a third system.
Rixey has the opposite problem that Jimmy Sheckard had. While Sheckard was at his best hitting for power during the dead ball era, Rixey had his best years pitching during the lively ball era.
Rixey played for two teams the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds. He liked the Reds organization better than the Phillies organization and played a lot better for the Reds. The only Phillies manager Rixey really liked was Pat Moran, who also managed Rixey for his first three years in Cincinnati, the start of his prime.
Pat Moran died before the 1924 season and Jack Hendricks took his place. Rixey still pitched great for Hendricks. Moran managed 9 years and finished in the top 2 six times. If he hadn’t of died at age 498 he would have been a potential hall of fame manager. Chris jaffe had him 17th in runs earned for his team “Evaluating Baseball Managers”. His handling of Rixey was a reason why. One of the things he did for his pitchers was put good defenses behind him. One thing he expected from his pitchers was to throw strikes with few walks. Eppa Rixey certainly did both of those things.
