A Couple Quick Notes

Just a couple things to pass along:

• Plunk Everyone is a blog dedicated to the humble hit by pitch. It's well worth reading. The author mentioned both on his blog and in a post at Brew Crew Ball on Tuesday that Jason Kendall became only the second player to be hit by all 30 major league teams (can you guess the first without looking? I'm guessing you'll be surprised). The Brewers backstop has now been hit 235 times by 184 pitchers.
  
  
• Elias Says..., a column at ESPN.com, notes that nine different Mets have tripled over the teams last nine games coming into today. The Mets are the first team to do that since 1983. Right on cue, Jeremy Reed hit his first triple of the season today to become the tenth player in ten games, but it wasn't enough to stop New York from losing to Florida.
  
  
• Yovani Gallardo of the Brewers was the winning pitcher in his team's 1-0 victory. He also hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the 7th inning. He departed after the 8th inning, having thrown 116 pitches. Had he pitched a scoreless ninth, he would have joined the following pitchers since 1954 who homered in all their team's runs while throwing a shutout:
  
  
  • Bob Welch (LAD) on June 17, 1983 - won 1-0
  • Juan Pizarro (CHC) on September 16, 1971 - won 1-0
  • Sonny Siebert (BOS) on September 2, 1971 - won 3-0
    
  • Jim Bunning (PHI) on May 5, 1965 - won 1-0
  • Early Wynn (CHW) on May 1, 1959 - won 1-0
  
  There are a couple honorable mentions as well. Juan Pizarro drove in both Cubs runs during his 2-0 shutout on May 10, 1963 but only one came via the long ball. Also, though Roger Freed drove in one run, that shouldn't take away from Rick Wise's 3 RBI on 2 HR for the Phillies on June 23, 1971 -- all while he was no-hitting the Reds.
  

Completing Every Start

Have you ever seen something online, decided to pursue more information on the topic, and realize an hour later that you've wandered into topics far from the original? I had such an experience last night and it resulted in my finding the BR Bullpen page of turn-of-the-century hurler Kid Nichols. Nichols is deservedly a Hall of Famer and I was struck by this quote on the page:

"(He) took pride in two things - his election to (the Hall of Fame), and the fact he was never removed from a game for a relief hurler." - from the New York Times obituary of Kid Nichols

If you look at his career stats, you can see he started 561 games and completed 531 of them. That means he went the distance in nearly 95% of his starts. That's a stunning number, even for those days. Among pitchers who started at least 400 games (~10 seasons), only Will White, Charley Radbourn, Jim McCormick, and Mickey Welch completed a higher percentage of their starts.

You might be saying that it's all well and good Nichols was a durable pitcher, but the quote is wrong. He had thirty starts that he didn't finish, so obviously relievers were used. I wonder how many of those thirty starts were ended by pinch hitters sent up to bat for him (he was no great shakes with the bat). You could argue that situation isn't being removed for a relief pitcher. Also, if he only came out of games between innings, he was never relieved while on the mound. Either way, I'm willing to give a guy who completed 95% of his starts the benefit of the doubt.

That quote also made me wonder about pitchers who did complete every single game they started. It turns out twenty pitchers, all from 1901 or before, started ten or more games in their career and completed every one.

Most Career Games Started, All Complete Games

1. Bill Stemmeyer, 59
2. Fleury Sullivan, 51
3. Sam Kimber, 42
4. Frank Hankinson, 28
5. Charlie Knepper, 26
6. Doug Crothers, 21
   
7. John Shaffer, 21
8. Ed Dugan, 20
9. John Henry, 18
10. Will Sawyer, 15
11. Ed Mars, 14
12. Peek-A-Boo Veach, 13
13. Frank Brill, 12
14. John Connor, 12
15. John Hofford, 12
16. Frank Hoffman, 12
17. Jack Bracken, 12
18. Buck Becannon, 11
19. Jim Egan, 10
20. Ed Trumbull, 10

Wait, Games Last Nine Innings?!

In the Marlins game notes for Friday's Florida-Milwaukee game, it was noted that starting pitcher Scott Olsen ranks eleventh all-time on the list of most career games started without a complete game. That in itself is hardly surprising, since young pitchers aren't often allowed to go much beyond 100 pitches and this usually works out to six or seven innings. The expansion of the bullpen and relief roles in recent decades has also influenced the lesser number of complete games for all MLB teams compared to, say, the 1970's and before. Therefore, the list of most career starts without a complete game is, as expected, filled with active or recently retired pitchers.

Most Career Starts, Zero Complete Games, 1876-2008
(Players in MLB in 2008 italicized)

1. Tony Armas Jr., 166 GS
   
2. Shawn Chacon, 124
3. Casey Fossum, 120
4. Claudio Vargas, 110
5. Chris Young, 104
6. Tim Redding, 99
7. Byung-Hyun Kim, 87
8. Mike Thurman, 87
9. Marvin Freeman, 78
10. Brandon Duckworth, 77
11. Scott Olsen, 73
12. Dave Eiland, 70
13. Dave Weathers, 69
14. Wally Whitehurst, 66
15. Scott Scudder, 64
16. Pat Mahomes, 63
17. Damian Moss, 61
18. Gustavo Chacin, 58
19. Brandon Claussen, 58
20. Joaquin Benoit, 55
    

0 BB, 0 K Complete Games

I've focused a lot on the offensive side of things so far, so let's look at the men on the hill. Since 1957, there have been 61 complete games in which a pitcher has neither walked nor struck out a single batter. Here's the most recent five; the dates link to the box score and play-by-play of the game:

1. Joel Piniero, 5/1/2006, 9.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 HR, 106 pitches, 77 strikes
2. Pedro Astacio, 4/24/1994, 9.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 HR, 108 pitches, 67 strikes
3. Tom Glavine, 6/15/1993, 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 HR, 79 pitches, 53 strikes
   
4. Bill Wegman, 7/11/1992, 9.0 IP, 13 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 HR, 134 pitches, 84 strikes
5. Bill Gullickson, 5/26/1992, 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 HR, 84 pitches, 55 strikes

The entire list can be found by clicking here. It's interesting that they happened at least once a year from 1957-1994, except for 1960, 1970, and 1984 and then there was a twelve year break between 1994 and 2006. Have bullpens specialized that much more since thirteen years ago?