Since 1954, forty-four qualified pitchers have allowed opponents to slug .500 over a season. Twenty have cracked the .520 plateau:
Name | Year | Team | SLG |
---|---|---|---|
Jim Deshaies | 1994 | MIN | .583 |
Jose Lima | 2000 | HOU | .578 |
Darrell May | 2004 | KCR | .555 |
Bill Gullickson | 1994 | DET | .552 |
Brian Anderson | 2004 | KCR | .545 |
Dave Mlicki | 2001 | DET/HOU | .545 |
Brandon Backe | 2008 | HOU | .544 |
Jose Lima | 2005 | KCR | .544 |
Eric Milton | 2005 | CIN | .543 |
Terry Mulholland | 1994 | NYY | .539 |
The abbreviated 1994 season and Jose Lima are both well-represented. Pitchers just didn't have as much time to a) drop their slugging percentage to something more respectable or b) get replaced before reaching the usual 162 innings to qualify. The other seven seasons all took place this decade, which makes sense as slugging percentages league-wide have reached new heights. Here's the .500+ opponent slugging allowed list prior to 1994:
Name | Year | Team | SLG |
---|---|---|---|
Don Newcombe | 1958 | LAD/CIN | .514 |
Jack Lamabe | 1964 | BOS | .507 |
Bob Knepper | 1987 | HOU | .502 |
Yep, that's it.
A high slugging percentage allowed is fueling Jeff Suppan's run at another distinction. He likely will not reach the required 162 innings, but if the season ended today he would be only the ninth qualifying pitcher to allow an OPS of .900 or higher. The current list of eight is the highest slugging allowed list jumbled a bit:
Name | Year | Team | OPS |
---|---|---|---|
Jim Deshaies | 1994 | MIN | .965 |
Jose Lima | 2000 | HOU | .942 |
Dave Mlicki | 2001 | DET/HOU | .927 |
Brandon Backe | 2008 | HOU | .920 |
Jose Lima | 2005 | KCR | .917 |
Bill Gullickson | 1994 | DET | .912 |
Brian Anderson | 2004 | KCR | .911 |
Darrell May | 2004 | KCR | .906 |
Suppan has allowed opponents to put up a .900 OPS this year. Cahill, if you're wondering, is second with an .856 OPS allowed.
1 comment:
I love Jose Lima stats, he is a gold mine for interesting data.
He finished with a 5.26 ERA and over 1500 IP (only one ever). Even if you take pitchers with a 5.25 ERA and go all the way down to 750 IP, there's still only 10 other pitchers.
Somehow, he kept coming back, and occasionally did ok, such as with the 2004 Dodgers, getting their only playoff win between 1988 and 2008, with a complete game shutout of the Cardinals.
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