(Don't) Swing, Batter!

It's always frustrating for fans to watch their team's pitchers miss the strike zone consistently. In yesterday's Chicago-Pittsburgh game, Pirates Rule 5 pick Evan Meek, forced into a tie game in the twelfth, threw thirty-six pitches and only eleven of them were strikes. Granted, he had two intentional walks mixed in there, but that's still a hard thing to watch. A Rule 5 back-of-the-bullpen pitcher might have an excuse, although it might not be a good one.

Starting pitchers, on the other hand, who throw more balls than strikes in an outing are really annoying. The Baseball-Reference.com Play Index lists 43,722 starts from 1999-2007 (the years I've found with reliable pitch data) and only 705 of them (1.6%) featured at least as many balls as strikes thrown. The wild starters' teams were a combined 191-514 (.271) in those games and the pitchers themselves went 40-386 (.094).

I've put together some lists of the lowest percentage of strikes thrown in a start and broken it into multiple categories so the list isn't cluttered by guys who left shortly after the game started due to injury or managerial ire.

Lowest Percentage of Strikes Thrown in a Start, 1-49 pitches
1999-2007

Rank	Name	Date	Team	Opponent	Pitches	Strikes	Strike %
1	Aaron Myette	9/3/2002	TEX	BAL	4	0	0.0
2	Justin Wayne	5/3/2003	FLA	HOU	23	4	17.4
3	Ryan Dempster	10/5/2001	FLA	ATL	45	14	31.1
4	Kyle Davies	7/16/2007	ATL	CIN	22	7	31.8
5	Jason Standridge	7/13/2003	TBD	SEA	31	10	32.3
6	Kevin Correia	9/12/2005	SFG	SDP	27	9	33.3
7	Mickey Callaway	6/18/1999	TBD	MIN	12	4	33.3
8	Chad Gaudin	6/22/2004	TBD	TOR	29	10	34.5
9	Brian Tollberg	6/10/2003	SDP	CLE	26	9	34.6
10	Michael Tejera	7/1/2004	FLA	ATL	23	8	34.8
	Ramon Martinez	9/28/2000	BOS	CHW	23	8	34.8

Lowest Percentage of Strikes Thrown in a Start, 50-99 pitches
1999-2007

Rank	Name	Date	Team	Opponent	Pitches	Strikes	Strike %
1	Alan Levine	9/27/2000	ANA	OAK	51	18	35.3
2	Daniel Cabrera	4/7/2006	BAL	BOS	60	22	36.7
3	Ryan Dempster	4/30/2003	CIN	COL	50	19	38.0
4	Shawn Chacon	8/16/2003	COL	NYM	52	20	38.5
5	Jim Brower	7/5/2000	CLE	TOR	52	20	38.5
6	Rocky Coppinger	4/25/1999	BAL	OAK	57	22	38.6
7	Jonathan Johnson	6/13/2003	HOU	BOS	76	30	39.5
8	Mario Ramos	6/29/2003	TEX	HOU	75	30	40.0
9	Wes Obermueller	5/31/2005	MIL	SDP	55	22	40.0
10	Darryl Kile	4/23/1999	COL	SFG	54	22	40.7

Lowest Percentage of Strikes Thrown in a Start, 100+ pitches
1999-2007

Rank	Name	Date	Team	Opponent	Pitches	Strikes	Strike %
1	Ervin Santana	7/20/2006	LAA	KCR	103	46	44.7
2	Jason Jennings	9/8/2002	COL	SDP	108	49	45.4
3	Tom Glavine	8/21/2004	NYM	SFG	110	50	45.5
4	Tom Glavine	9/18/2001	ATL	PHI	105	48	45.7
5	Shawn Chacon	7/24/2002	COL	ARI	118	54	45.8
6	Al Leiter	5/1/2004	NYM	SDP	113	52	46.0
7	Robert Person	7/17/2002	PHI	CHC	115	53	46.1
8	Chris Capuano	4/18/2005	MIL	LAD	104	48	46.2
9	Russ Ortiz	9/8/2003	ATL	PHI	110	51	46.4
10	Darren Dreifort	4/20/1999	LAD	ATL	103	48	46.6

It's interesting that Tom Glavine shows up on the last list twice. On the final list, Ortiz and Dreifort got wins for their trouble.

There are quite a few pitchers who show up more than once on the list of starts with at least as many balls thrown as strikes. Below you'll find the pitchers with six or more such games.

Most Starts With at Least as Many Balls Thrown as Strikes, 1999-2007

• Russ Ortiz, 12
  
• Shawn Estes, 10
  Tom Glavine, 10
  
• Al Leiter, 9
• Daniel Cabrera, 8
• Jimmy Anderson, 7
  Jason Bere, 7
  Jaret Wright, 7
  Victor Zambrano, 7
• Chris Carpenter, 6
  Shawn Chacon, 6
  Ryan Dempster, 6
  Scott Erickson, 6
  Mike Hampton, 6
  Hideo Nomo, 6
  Mark Redman, 6
  Dan Reichert, 6
  Jamey Wright, 6

Some of those guys are still active, so watch for them to pad their "wild start" numbers. Also note that since this is only since the 1999 season, guys like Tom Glavine probably have more starts that qualify from before then.