All-Time Indians: Jack Powell

Baseball was a very different game prior to 1901 and that lead to some outrageous numbers, particularly considering starting pitchers. While they can’t be compared to today’s standards, these players did pitch every three days and amass incredible amounts of innings in very short periods.

The last one of these pitchers for the Cleveland Spiders was Jack Powell, who only threw for Cleveland for two years, but still racked up a ton of innings. In 1897, Powell was signed by the Spiders from Fort Wayne at the age of 22 and was immediately placed in the starting rotation. The group he joined was already a pretty impressive one lead by Cy Young, who was coming off 28 wins and 414.1 innings in 1946. Beyond Young were Nig Cuppy and Zeke Wilson with the three combining for 85% of the Spiders innings pitched that year.

Rather than replace one of these, Powell joined the trio as the Spiders went with a more fairly distributed four man rotation. While Young lead the team in starts (38) and innings (335.2), Powell was the team’s most efficient pitcher, holding a 3.16 ERA, winning 15 to just 10 losses in 26 starts, 24 of which he completed.

For someone coming out of nowhere in his rookie season, his 225 innings were incredible as was his total dominance of the National League. Even the all time great Young only had an ERA of 3.79 while Powell’s mark came in fifth in the entire NL (Cuppy’s 3.20 was seventh). As a team, the Spiders went just 69-62 that year finishing fifth of 12 teams, but this wasn’t the fault of Powell or really any of the Spiders top four starters as the extra men, who accounted for just 14% of the team’s innings that year, finished with a record of 6-14.

Powell himself was always a winner, at least in Cleveland and both St. Louis teams. With the Spiders, he finished 38-25, the third best winning percentage of all NL Cleveland pitchers (with at least five decisions) from 1871 though 1899. From his rookie year through 1904, he would win at least 15 games each season and over 20 four times, although most of this was outside Cleveland.

The 1898 season would be Powell’s best in Cleveland and his last thanks to some shading deals. The same four starters returned to take the vast majority of innings and again Powell was second to Young (a pretty elite position to be in) with 342 innings and a 3.00 ERA. All four of the Spiders starters improved over the previous season with the worst ERA and WHIP being held by Wilson at 3.61 and 1.41. Young finished sixth in ERA while Powell came in tenth this year and the Indians improved to 81-68. 23 of those wins belonged to Powell while he lost just 15, completing 36 of his 41 starts. To make sure he won, six of those complete games were shut outs, a number that lead the league.

The Spiders finished just fifth in the NL, but more importantly, the St. Louis Browns finished 39-111 in last place. This was important because a pair of brothers, Stanley and Frank Robison owned both the Spiders and Browns and decided that St. Louis would be the perfect place for the perfect team. In the off-season between 1898 and 1899, any player of value on the Spiders was transferred to the the newly named St. Louis Perfectos. Included in this group were all four of Young, Powell, Cuppy and Wilson with all but Wilson being among the Perfectos primary four starters. Offensively, the Hall of Famer Jesse Burkett, Cupid Childs and Patsy Tebeau were among those to get transferred leaving the Spiders with no talent and a last place finish in 1899, the worst in baseball history.

For Powell, the future was brighter. At just 24 years old, he was considered the ace of this newly created monster melding of two teams and he won 23 games for the second time. He lead the league in starts and complete games that year with a 3.52 ERA in 373 innings. This was just the first of three seasons with St. Louis (who became known as the less cocky moniker of the Cardinals in 1900) throwing more than 287 innings each year. In all, his 225 innings in his rookie year would be his lowest total until he was 35 years old in 1910.

In 1902, Powell jumped from the National League to the new American League St. Louis Browns and he played two solid seasons there, but wouldn’t have his best until he was traded to the New York Highlanders for the 1904 season. That year, he won 23 games again with a 2.44 ERA and 390.1 innings all numbers that tied or exceeded his career highs. As gloves got bigger and fields better taken care of, ERAs around the league dropped as the dead ball era began and Powell wasn’t left behind.

After a year and a half in New York, the Browns realized their mistake and bought back Powell who went on to post a 1.77 ERA in 1906, 2.68 in 1907 and 2.11 in both 1908 and 1909. Unlike his time with the Spiders, Perfectos and Highlanders, however, these Browns teams had no offense to support him and he lost more than he won. After 157-134 record through his first eight seasons, he finished his last eight 88-120 despite having all around better numbers.

Until the end, Powell was a durable and dependable starter, throwing 235.1 innings with a 3.10 ERA in his final Major League season in 1912 at the age of 37. After 16 years in the Major Leagues, he worked 4,389 innings with a 2.97 ERA, completing 422 of his 516 starts. While he pitched much longer for both St. Louis teams than with Cleveland, Powell still got his start with the Spiders and when the franchise was dismantled completely after 1899, he remained among the greatest pitchers in their history. Had the American League Cleveland franchise been based off the Spiders roster from 1898 instead of being an expansion franchise, there is little question that the rotation of Young, Powell and Cuppy would have lead them to the World Series long before 1920.

After leaving Major League Baseball, Powell pitched two more seasons with the American Association and the Pacific Coast League, adding 323 more innings to his already well worn arm. After retiring, Powell moved back to his home state of Illinois where he died in 1944 at the age of 70.