Fewest IP Per Win & Most IP Without a Win

In the low minor leagues, teams have begun intensely limiting pitcher workloads. For a lot of young starting pitchers, this can make it tough to last the five innings necessary for a win. A necessary result is an increased number of wins going to relievers. Some of the more obvious examples: Dan Meadows of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers has 10 wins in 47 1/3 innings. Eddie Gamboa of the Delmarva Shorebirds has six wins in 33 1/3 innings. Joey Williamson has seven wins in 41 1/3 innings.

The majors are obviously a different story as starting pitchers who don't last five innings are quickly washed out of the rotation. Those pitchers certainly have difficulty racking up wins as well. However, some pitchers in the majors actually have picked up wins while throwing relatively few innings.

Fewest Innings Pitched Per Win in a Season
(minimum 5 wins)

Name	Year	Record	IP	IP/W
Roy Face	1965	5-2	20 1/3	4.1
Scott Eyre	2008	5-0	25 2/3	5.1
Roy Face	1959	18-1	93 1/3	5.2
Gene Stechschulte	2002	6-2	32	5.3
Yhency Brazoban	2004	6-2	32 2/3	5.4
John Franco	1992	6-2	33	5.5
Johnny Murphy	1943	12-4	68	5.7
Bill Risley	1994	9-6	52 1/3	5.8
Arthur Rhodes	1996	9-1	53	5.9
Tom Gordon	2008	5-4	29 2/3	5.9

Roy Face's career is pretty impressive. Despite standing only 5'8", he was the Pirates' closer before closers and saves were invented, Face appeared in 57 games, finishing 47 of them. Retroactively assigning saves through his career gives him a total of 193, good for second all-time when his career finished. Obviously in 1959 and 1965, he benefited from timely offense behind him.

Of course, for every pitcher like those above, there has been one that couldn't buy a win.

Most Innings Pitched in a Season Without a Win

• Terry Felton, 1982 Twins, 117 1/3
• Stump Weidman, 1880 Buffalo, 113 2/3
• Diego Segui, 1977 Mariners, 110 2/3
• Russ Miller, 1928 Phillies, 108
• Steve Sparks, 2003 Tigers/Athletics, 107
• Bob Moorhead, 1962 Mets, 105 1/3
• Bob Shirley, 1986 Yankees, 105 1/3
• Steve Gerkin, 1945 Athletics, 102
• John Malarkey, 1895 Washington, 100 2/3
• Wes Stock, 1965 Athletics, 99 2/3

Moorhead had the fewest decisions of all those pitchers, going 0-2 with a 4.53 ERA, mostly in relief. Shirley and Stock were both 0-4.

Spring IBB and Other Curious Things

A couple weeks ago I posted about intentional walks in spring. A commenter suggested managers call for IBB in spring in order to get pitchers used to dealing with the pressure of situations that call for putting a baserunner on. I'm kind of dubious about that, but I guess it's possible. Since I wrote about the first two IBB's of spring, there have been five more. The latest victims/beneficiaries: Reds' 1B Kevin Barker, Mariners 3B/1B Russell Branyan, Cardinals SS Tyler Greene, Dodgers IF Mark Loretta, and Royals OF Derrick Robinson. The pitchers tabbed to add a baserunner: Texas RHP's Thomas Diamond and Andrew Laughter, Tigers LHP Fu-Te Ni, Dodgers RHP Ramon Troncoso, and Pirates RHP Ronald Uviedo. Hopefully the experience was useful to them.

Despite only appearing in one game and not giving up a hit, Phillies LHP J.C. Romero is one of only five pitchers with 2 or more pickoffs in spring. In two innings, he walked three batters, picked off two of them, had a throwing error on another pickoff attempt, and allowed a run on a subsequent sacrifice fly. Rockies lefty Franklin Morales leads all pitchers with three pickoffs. Cardinals pitcher Brad Thompson is the only righty with two or more pickoffs. The 1988 season this isn't, but not every pickoff has succeeded. Eighteen pitchers have been called for balks and Morales is the only one with a successful pickoff.

What do Wade LeBlanc, Mike MacDougal, and Luis Perdomo have in common? Each has three wild pitches this spring, and all are one behind Ian Kennedy for the MLB lead. Wildness can be intimidating, too: Wes Littleton, Carlos Marmol, and Jarrod Washburn are tied with three hit by pitches. Inconsistency hits fielders, too: Padres SS Everth Cabrera and Dan Uggla are tied atop the leaderboard with five errors.

Who's played the most innings in the field this spring? If you guessed Colby Rasmus with 99, you'd be correct. Andrew McCutchen and Xavier Paul are second at 96 1/3 and Elvis Andrus leads all infielders with 89 1/3. Jason LaRue leads all catchers with 69 innings. Kyle Lohse and Glen Perkins have pitched fifteen innings, one-third more than Micah Owings.

Micah Hoffpauir has batted the most so far, striding up to home plate 56 times. Despite all the pitchers working on bunting, Brian Barden leads all players with three sacrifices. Jayson Werth has grounded into four double plays despite batting only twenty-six times. Playing a game that's wildly popular for the first week of the regular season, that would put him on pace for about 75 or so this year.

Finally, since I like futility, Chris Nowak is 0 for 12 this spring. He's batted the most without reaching base. With that, it's time to conclude today's roundup of pointless spring trivia.

Team IP/G

A recent comment over at Brew Crew Ball inspired this post. The writer suggested projections for Brewers pitchers should add up to 1458 innings as a team. That, of course, would be the total of 162 games with nine innings pitched by the team. Yours truly replied with an awkward sounding suggestion that road losses requiring only eight innings pitched were to blame for the projections falling a little short. I figured that most teams finished below 1458 innings pitched and indeed only three teams (the Mets, Padres, and Twins) reached that number in 2008. I also wondered about the record for the highest (and lowest) average team innings pitched per game. Placing high on the list would seem to require winning often on the road and/or playing a lot of extra inning games. Likewise, showing up near to bottom would require losing a lot away from home and/or weather-shortened games.

I started by grabbing yearly pitching totals for each franchise from the franchise encyclopedia section of Baseball-Reference.com (a sample). Unfortunately those pages don't include thirds of an inning, but that won't change the results much anyway. In case of ties, though, I've gone and checked the relevant team pages. After getting all those numbers, it's easy to sort by innings pitched per game.

The bottom of the list is dominated by teams from the 19th and early 20th centuries. A simple reason for this games shorted because of darkness. Fields also weren't engineered as well as they are today, meaning inclement weather could shut games down much more quickly.

The two major league teams that averaged the fewest innings pitched per game folded shortly after beginning play. The 1884 St. Paul White Caps and 1884 Wilmington Quicksteps, both members of the Union Association, averaged 7.89 IP/G. St. Paul went 2-6 while Wilmington went 2-6-1 while Wilmington went 2-16. The 1884 Richmond Virginians, part of the American Association, were third from the bottom, averaging 8.04 IP in their 46 games.

It should come as no surprise that the team with the lowest average over a full season also owns the record for most losses in a season. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders, the best 20-134 team in baseball history, averaged a merciful 8.21 innings pitched per game. Just above them were the 1890 Baltimore Orioles and five Washington teams from the 1890's.

Turning to more modern teams, here are the bottom ten since expansion in 1961:

1. 2005 Royals, 8.72 (1413.1 IP/162 G)
2. 1961 Athletics, 8.73 (1415.0/162)
3. 2001 Pirates, 8.74 (1416.1/162)
4. 1979 Blue Jays, 8.75 (1417.0/162)
5. 1978 White Sox, 8.75 (1409.0/161)
6. 1983 Mariners, 8.75 (1418.0/162)
7. 2005 Rockies, 8.76 (1418.2/162)
8. 1985 Rangers, 8.76 (1411.0/161)
9. 2006 Orioles, 8.76 (1419.0/162)
10. 1997 Phillies, 8.77 (1420.0/162)
    1999 Padres, 8.77 (1420.0/162)
    2003 Rockies, 8.77 (1420.0/162)

All of these teams finished with more than 90 losses except for the 1999 Padres and 2003 Rockies (88 losses each). Many of them lost over 100 games. That's a lot of eight-inning contests. Surprisingly, the 1983 Mariners actually had an ERA+ over 100.

The other extreme has a mix of different eras. The top spot is held by the 1918 Washington Senators, a team that averaged a stunning 9.45 innings pitched over their 130 games. They went 72-56-2, finishing third in the league. There must have been a lot of extra baseball in Washington that year. The 1876 Louisville Grays are second, averaging 9.32 IP/G despite giving up just under 5 runs each game. The 1876 New York Mutuals took third at 9.30 IP/G while allowing over 7 runs each day. The 1969 Twins are the highest team since expansion, throwing 1497 innings on the year, or 9.24 per game. They finished 97-65 and played eleven games that lasted 13 or more innings.

Here are the top ten averages since expansion:

1. 1969 Twins, 9.24 (1497.0 IP/162 G)
2. 1973 Dodgers, 9.20 (1491.0/162)
3. 1967 White Sox, 9.20 (1490.0/162)
4. 1988 Athletics, 9.19 (1489.0/162)
5. 1996 Padres, 9.19 (1489.0/162)
6. 1982 Dodgers, 9.19 (1488.0/162)
7. 1985 Mets, 9.19 (1488.0/162)
8. 1964 Yankees, 9.18 (1506.0/164)
9. 1972 Padres, 9.17 (1403.0/153)
10. 1972 Reds, 9.17 (1412.0/154)

These teams all finished with 88 or more wins, with one notable exception. The 1972 Padres managed to lose 95 games despite throwing so many innings. They were better on the road (32-41) than they were at home (26-54) but that doesn't explain it all. Another big reason they averaged so many innings was the 21 extra inning games they played. By my count, they played 62 extra frames that season. The 1972 Padres were the only team on the list with an ERA+ under 100.

Wondering about the high and low teams in 2008? It turns out three teams averaged at least nine innings pitched per game, but one of them isn't one of the teams that totaled over 1458 innings. The Mets led the majors with 1464.1 innings pitched in 162 games, or 9.04 IP/G. The Cubs were next with 1450.2 in 161 games, or 9.01 IP/G. Finally, the Padres wound up at 1458 1/3 IP, just a hair over 9.00 IP/G. The bottom three teams were the Orioles, Astros, and Diamondbacks, averaging 8.83, 8.85, and 8.86 innings per game, respectively. The major league average was 8.93 IP/G. The major league average has hovered between 8.90 and 8.93 since 2000.

Highest Game Score in a Loss

Yesterday I posted about the lowest game scores for a winning pitcher. For a refresher on what a game score is and how it's figured, click here to see the post.

Today I want to look at the opposite of yesterdday's post: the highest game scores by a losing pitcher. Since game scores reward pitchers who throw a lot of innings in a game, I'm going to split it into nine-inning games and extra-inning games in order to avoid a bunch of ten and eleven inning outings on the list before getting to any regular-length games. Since it's rare for a pitcher these days to go past nine innings, having two different leaderboards should help get some more recent games on the list.

I decided to forgo making a table in favor of a simpler list. I don't have the pitcher's team or opponent, but that information can be found by clicking on the date of each pitcher's start.

Highest Game Score by a Losing Pitcher, 1956-2008
(Games with ten or more innings)

• Harvey Haddix - 107 - 5/26/1959 - 12.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
  
  
• Jim Maloney - 106 - 6/14/1965 - 11.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 18 K
  
  
• Juan Marichal - 104 - 8/19/1969 - 13.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
  
  
• Nolan Ryan - 99 - 8/20/1974 - 11.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 19 K
  
  
• Dick Drago - 98 - 5/24/1972 - 12.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
  
  
• Warren Spahn - 97 - 7/2/1963 - 15.1 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
  Pedro Ramos - 97 - 8/23/1963 - 13.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 14 K
  Bill Singer - 97 - 8/3/1973 - 11.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 R, 1 BB, 13 K
  
  
• Al Jackson - 96 - 8/14/1962 - 15.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 6 K
  Steve McCatty - 96 - 8/10/1980 - 14.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K
  
  
• Sandy Koufax - 93 - 5/28/1960 - 13.0 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 9 BB, 15 K
  
  
• Bob Rush - 92 - 8/23/1957 - 15.1 IP, 11 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 K
  Camilo Pascual - 92 - 6/5/1958 - 13.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
  
  
• Chuck Dobson - 91 - 5/21/1968 - 11.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
  Sam McDowell - 91 - 6/13/1968 - 11.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 BB, 14 K
  Ed Halicki - 91 - 5/26/1975 - 10.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K

Those games show how starters have been reigned in over the years. Only five of those sixteen games took place after 1970 and the last one was in 1980. Given that only five pitchers in the past decade have reached ten innings in a game (and a starter going past nine innings has happened 50 times since 1990), these days it's impossible to think of a starter going 12 or more innings.

There are a couple notable games in the above collection. Harvey Haddix's outing on top of the list was a perfect game for twelve innings. In the bottom of the thirteenth, Felix Mantilla reached on an error, Eddie Mathews bunted him to second, Hank Aaron was intentionally walked, and Joe Adcock hit a double to center field to end the game. Warren Spahn's start on July 2, 1963, was his famous sixteen-inning duel with Juan Marichal (who got a game score of 112). Two strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings is nuts.

Highest Game Score by a Losing Pitcher, 1956-2008
(Games with nine innings or less)

• Ken Johnson - 92 - 4/23/1964 - 9.0 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
  
  
• Kevin Appier - 91 - 7/27/1993 - 9.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K
  
  
• Bob Sebra - 90 - 7/1/1987 - 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 14 K
  
  
• Sam McDowell - 89 - 7/6/1968 - 9.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 14 K
  
  
• Fernando Valenzuela - 88 - 4/28/1985 - 9.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
  
  
• Rudy May - 87 - 69/1973 - 9.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K
  Floyd Youmans - 87 - 9/27/1986 - 9.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 7 BB, 15 K
  Pedro Martinez - 87 - 5/6/2000 - 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 17 K
  
  
• Jim Bouton - 86 - 9/16/1966 - 9.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
  Andy Hassler - 86 - 9/8/1974 - 9.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
  Bill Singer - 86 - 5/31/1975 - 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
  Pete Smith - 86 - 4/15/1989 - 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
  
  
• Jim Nash - 85 - 7/23/1967 - 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 12 K
  Bill Singer - 85 - 6/12/1969 - 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 12 K
  Vida Blue - 85 - 8/24/1971 - 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K
  Fred Norman - 85 - 5/7/1974 - 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 13 K
  Randy Johnson - 85 - 6/25/1999 - 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 14 K
  Jon Lieber - 85 - 5/29/2000 - 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K

Jon Lieber and Pete Smith are the only guys on that list who didn't go nine innings in their starts. In Smith's case, it was because the game was over when his team didn't score in the top of the ninth. Lieber was pulled after throwing 116 pitches over his eight innings.

Bill Singer was pretty unlucky. He appeared once on the extra-innings list and twice on the regular game list. Of course, he managed to win 20 games in 1969 and 1973, two of the years he appeared on these lists, so I guess he wasn't hurt too badly.

Since the most recent game in the lists above took place in 2000, I looked up the highest game score by a losing pitcher during the 2008 season. On July 20, Scott Baker of the Twins gave up one run on two hits over eight innings. He walked one and struck out eight for a game score of 81.

Lowest Game Scores in a Win

A pitcher's Game Score is a quick and dirty way of examining his effectiveness during a particular start. Originally created by Bill James, it's found through this formula:

1. Start with 50 points.
2. Add 1 point for each out recorded, (3 points per inning).
3. Add 2 points for each inning completed after the 4th.
4. Add 1 point for each strikeout.
5. Subtract 2 points for each hit allowed.
6. Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed.
7. Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed.
8. Subtract 1 point for each walk.

It's available plenty of places, but I took that from ESPN.com's MLB Best Games page which contains a handy-dandy list of the best game scores of the season. Ricky Nolasco's nine-inning, eleven-strikeout shutout of the Giants last Tuesday gave him the highest game score by an NL pitcher in 2008 - neat.

Anyway, game score is a neat little tool because it rewards starters who go deep into a game while striking out a lot of enemy batters and preventing opposing baserunners and runs. That's pretty common sensical-like. For more basic trivia about game scores, check out the Game Score Wikipedia article.

The reason I bring up game scores ultimately has to do with abysmal pitching. I'm sure most baseball fans can think of an awful outing by a starting pitcher who managed to come away with a win. As luck would have it, Matt Harrison of the Rangers had such a win earlier this month. On August 10, he gave up six runs on ten hits and two walks in five innings and was the winning pitcher in a 15-7 slugfest. While other pitchers have given up more runs in a start and come away with a win (Russ Ortiz, for one), you get the idea.

I want to look at the lowest game scores by a winning starting pitcher since 1956. Matt Harrison's win two weeks ago came with a game score of 21 and Russ Ortiz's bad day I linked to had a game score of 22 thanks to his seven strikeouts. There have been even lower game scores coupled with pitching wins. They were achieved, obviously, by pitchers who didn't strike out many batters while scattering hits and walks around the yard en route to a bunch of runs scored against them. Below is the list of the twenty-seven games since 1956 in which a starting pitcher with a game score of 19 or lower was the winning pitcher. The dates listed link to the box score of the game.

Lowest Game Scores by a Winning Pitcher, 1956-2008

Name	Date	Tm	Opp.	Final Score	Game Score	Pitching Line
Ike Delock	6/14/1956	BOS	CLE	10-9	19	5.1 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 2 K
Rick Waits	8/4/1979	CLE	TEX	12-8	19	5.1 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Rick Aguilera	8/8/1985	NYM	MON	14-7	19	5.0 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 0 K
Jimmy Jones	7/30/1987	SDP	CIN	12-8	19	5.0 IP, 11 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
Mike Mussina	7/1/1994	BAL	CAL	14-7	19	5.0 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Bobby Witt	4/25/1998	TEX	KCR	11-8	19	5.0 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 0 K
Brian Bohanon	6/15/1999	COL	SFG	15-6	19	5.0 IP, 12 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 4 K
Chris Peters	8/30/1999	PIT	COL	11-8	19	5.0 IP, 12 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
Ken Holtzman	5/28/1969	CHC	SFG	9-8	18	5.0 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 4 K
Charles Hudson	6/11/1985	PHI	NYM	26-7	18	5.0 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
Steve Woodard	5/11/2000	MIL	CHC	14-8	18	5.0 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Jake Westbrook	7/31/2005	CLE	SEA	9-7	18	5.2 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Bob Rush	5/12/1956	CHC	STL	14-10	17	5.1 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Don Sutton	5/5/1976	LAD	CHC	14-12	17	5.2 IP, 14 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Todd Stottlemyre	4/23/1992	TOR	CLE	13-8	17	6.2 IP, 13 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Sid Roberson	6/30/1995	MIL	NYY	12-6	17	5.0 IP, 12 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 2 K
Shawn Estes	7/6/1999	SFG	SDP	10-9	17	5.0 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Bill Campbell	8/3/1975	MIN	CHW	12-9	16	5.2 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 6 BB, 3 K
Kirk Rueter	6/12/1999	SFG	SEA	15-11	16	5.1 IP, 10 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Casey Daigle	5/10/2004	ARI	NYM	12-8	15	5.0 IP, 12 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
Jaret Wright	4/18/2005	NYY	TBD	19-8	15	5.1 IP, 11 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
Jae Seo	5/24/2007	TBD	SEA	13-12	15	5.0 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Don Sutton	5/31/1979	LAD	SFG	12-10	14	6.2 IP, 13 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
Jon Garland	4/13/2006	CHW	DET	13-9	14	5.0 IP, 13 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Andy Pettitte	9/29/2007	NYY	BAL	11-10	14	5.0 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 0 K
Dan Haren	8/21/2006	OAK	TOR	12-10	13	5.2 IP, 11 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Woody Williams	4/7/2001	SDP	COL	14-10	12	5.0 IP, 12 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

As you can see, the difference between Woody Williams' start and many of the ones above it is negligible - a hit, walk, or strikeout here or there accounts for the difference in game scores and if you've given up nine runs in five innings, who really cares how you did it, right? The same can be said for most of the games listed here. That said, there's something special about having a unique combination of innings, hits, walks, strikeouts, and runs allowed among all winning pitchers in the past 52 years. I'm sure Woody Williams was glad to forget April 7, 2001, but he still got the win and (retroactively) a very dubious distinction for his trouble.

I also found the number of good pitchers on the list interesting. Hall of Famer Don Sutton shows up twice while more recent 200-game winners Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte also appear. It might not mean as much anymore, but besides those three, nine more pitchers on the list were named to the All-Star team at least once. I guess it just goes to show you that any pitcher can have a bad day...and any pitcher can have his team's bats let him off the hook.

Most Career Innings Pitched, Zero Wild Pitches

I was a little surprised to find out today that wild pitch totals exist all the way back to the first games of the National League in 1876. For some reason I figured that would be a stat (like strikeouts as a batter?) that didn't pop up until later. Whether they were recorded by contemporary stat crews or figured out later as part of a research project, the data makes for an interesting post.

Though it's cool to know which pitchers were wild in the 19th century, I find some numbers dubious at best. Consider Hall of Famer Tim Keefe, a pitcher from 1880 to 1893. In 5047.2 career innings, he tossed 233 wild pitches, or so the record says. What stands out from his yearly totals, however, is his 1884 season for the American Association's (then the second major league) New York Metropolitans. During that season, Keefe supposedly threw 483 innings without a single wild pitch. The year before he had 26 wild pitches in 619 innings and the year after (back in the National League) he had 35 wild pitches in 400 total innings. Is it possible he had great control that season? Sure, but I find it very unlikely. After all, the 1883 and 1884 New York Metropolitans used the same two catchers for most of each season. Further lending doubt as to the accuracy of his wild pitch count is the AA leaderboard for wild pitches: Bob Emslie had 43 wild pitches, followed by Bill Mountjoy with 18. Tom Sullivan claims fifth in the league...with three. That just seems strange, especially since Emslie only had 12 wild pitches in 1883. Was there a change in the definition of a wild pitch over time?

In any case, the cloudy 19th century data means I'm only going to look at numbers since 1901. That's a pretty common way to view records anyway. There's no guarantee numbers from the beginning part of the 20th century are any better than those of the previous twenty-five years, of course, but we'll hope they are. Let's see which pitchers had the longest careers sans wild pitches.

Most Career Innings Pitched, Zero Wild Pitches (1901-2007)

Rank	Name	Career IP	Career Span
1	Joe Black	414.0	1952-1957
2	Scott Baker	280.2	2005-2007
3	Cactus Keck	218.0	1922-1923
4	Frank Shellenback	217.2	1918-1919
5	Max Fiske	198.0	1914
6	Tommy de la Cruz	191.1	1944
7	Dennis Burns	181.0	1923-1924
8	Dale Gear	163.0	1901*
9	Jim Bivin	161.2	1935
10	Rick Williams	156.0	1978-1979
11	Mark Brandenburg	144.1	1995-1997
12	Clem Dreisewerd	140.2	1944-1948
	Farmer Ray	140.2	1910
14	Jim Wright	139.0	1978-1979
15	Jess Doyle	136.0	1925-1931
16	Bud Smith	132.2	2001-2002
17	Lynn Brenton	131.1	1913-1921
18	Mark Lee	127.1	1988-1995
19	Joe Martina	125.1	1924
20	Dick Robertson	124.2	1913-1919

*Gear also pitched 23 innings in 1896 without a wild pitch. If you count those (and I didn't) he leaps over Dennis Burns and takes over seventh place with 186.0 career innings.

Now, let's look at the active pitchers with the most career innings without a wild pitch. Obviously, Scott Baker leads the list, but who else has more than fifty career innings?

1. Scott Baker, 280.2 IP
2. Kyle Kendrick, 121.0
3. Manny Delcarmen, 106.1
4. Tim Stauffer, 94.2
5. Yusmeiro Petit, 83.1
6. Edinson Volquez, 80.0
7. Ken Ray, 79.0
8. Chris Schroeder, 73.2
9. Hideki Okajima, 69.0
10. Chris Britton, 66.1
11. Bill Bray, 65.0
12. Jeff Harris, 57.0
13. Brian Wilson, 53.2
14. Bryan Corey, 53.1

Though they didn't pitch in the majors this year, Ken Ray and Jeff Harris toiled in AAA, so it's possible they will get another shot at the majors in the future.

As a final note, the all-time leader for most wild pitches, Nolan Ryan, threw 277 wild pitches, or one every 19.44 innings. Since 2000, 119 players have had MLB pitching careers shorter than 277 total pitches. Of those, 13 were primarily position players, but 106 pitchers, even if many are still active, is still a lot.

Highest WHIP in Season, 40+ Appearances in Relief

A stat that helps tell the story of a pitcher's effectiveness is WHIP, or Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched. This is kind of like on base percentage for a pitcher, since it tells you how many baserunners he allows in an average inning. Obviously, it's advantageous to have as low a WHIP as possible, since no baserunners means less opportunity to allow runs.

Below is the list of the twenty highest WHIP's put up by relievers appearing in 40+ games, since 1901. I'm defining a reliever as a pitcher making 80% or more of his appearances in relief so a few swingmen may show up on the list.

Highest WHIP in a Season by a Reliever in 40+ Appearances

Rank	Name	Year	IP	WHIP	ERA	FIP
1	Mike Flanagan	1992	34.7	2.106	8.05	5.77
2	Franklyn German	2003	44.7	2.060	6.04	5.98
3	Mike Holtz	2002	35.0	2.057	5.40	6.31
4	Dick Welteroth	1949	95.3	2.056	7.36	6.07
5	Rob Murphy	1990	57.0	2.053	6.32	5.32
6	Vic Darensbourg	1999	34.7	2.048	8.83	5.65
7	Danny Graves	2005	38.7	2.043	6.52	6.98
8	Paul Assenmacher	1999	33.0	2.030	8.18	5.44
9	Tony Fossas	1998	22.7	2.029	5.96	3.86
10	Kevin Wickander	1993	34.0	2.029	6.09	7.02
11	Frank Biscan	1948	98.7	2.027	6.11	5.12
12	Shawn Camp	2007	40.0	2.025	7.20	5.25
13	Ron Davis	1986	58.7	2.011	9.20	5.89
14	Bryan Hickerson	1995	48.3	2.007	8.57	5.50
15	Pedro Borbon	2000	41.7	1.992	6.48	6.46
16	Jim Poole	1997	49.3	1.986	7.11	5.49
17	Joe Grahe	1994	43.3	1.985	6.65	5.16
18	Brian Bruney	2005	46.0	1.978	7.43	5.29
19	Kevin Gryboski	2005	31.0	1.968	5.52	5.20
20	Jim Todd	1979	81.0	1.963	6.56	6.45

The only pitcher with a decent FIP is Tony Fossas, but I'm almost positive that's because he was a LOOGY (Lefty One-Out GuY) by that time, although the fact he only gave up one home run didn't hurt. Dick Welteroth has one of the worst K:BB ratios I've seen, striking out 37 strikeouts while walking 89 batters. It may not entirely be his fault; the American League as a whole put up one of the worst K:BB ratios as a league in their history in 1949.

To wit, here's a chart I quickly put together using the total bases on balls and strikeouts for each season available on Baseball-Reference.com (click to enlarge the image in a new tab/window):



Not only is it evident the AL in 1949 saw more walks relative to strikeouts, you can also see the pitching-dominant year of 1968 in the chart as well, in climax of the upswing following 1949. Pretty crazy stuff going on in the junior circuit.

Run, Run, Rudolph...

There are four pitchers in the major leagues this year who have thrown over 100 innings while allowing 10+ steals and not having a single attempt thrown out (excluding pickoffs). Some of this is their catchers' fault, but as manager Ned Yost noted recently about one of the four: "Benny's [Sheets] a little slow to the plate." Perhaps that has something to do with the other guys as well.

Here's the list:

• Dustin McGowan, Toronto, 159.1 IP, 28 SB
• Chris Young, San Diego, 156.0, 36
  
• A.J. Burnett, Toronto, 153.1, 29
• Ben Sheets, Milwaukee, 141.1, 21

I wonder if Johnny Estrada, Gregg Zaun and Josh Bard get together in the offseason and compete to see who can throw an egg against a wall the most without it breaking.

So what pitchers have allowed the most steals? Here's the guys with 100+ IP and 20+ steals against:

1. Tim Wakefield, Boston, 39 (Surprised?)
2. Chris Young, San Diego, 36
3. Greg Maddux, San Diego, 33
4. A.J. Burnett, Toronto, 29
5. Dustin McGowan, Toronto, 28
6. Brandon Webb, Arizona, 26
7. Daniel Cabrera, Baltimore, 24
8. Jose Contreras, Chicago (AL), 23
9. Rich Hill, Chicago (NL), 22
10. Jake Peavy, San Diego, 21
11. Mike Mussina, New York (AL), 21
12. Ben Sheets, Milwaukee, 21
13. Byung-Hyun Kim, National League, 21
14. Roy Halladay, Toronto, 20

Note Rich Hill is the only left-hander on the list. What's going on there?

Five players have at least five pickoffs in 100+ innings this year:

1. Doug Davis, Arizona, 6
2. Wandy Rodriguez, Houston, 6
3. Mike Maroth, Detroit/St. Louis, 6
4. Andy Pettitte, New York (AL), 5
5. Mark Buehrle, Chicago (AL), 5
   

Final Line for [insert name here], 0.0 IP...

We've all seen it happen before: a team's manager plays the percentages and calls on his left-handed specialist to face the other team's lefty slugger. The new pitcher promptly gives up a hit, walk, or otherwise fails in his task and is removed before recording an out. His line in the box score then looks like "0.0......0....1...." and so on. Let's look at the season and career leaders for 0.0 IP appearances. As usual with play by play reliant searches, this spans 1957-2007.

Most 0.0 IP appearances in a season by a lefthanded pitcher:

1. Sean Runyan, 1998, 17
2. George Sherrill, 2006, 15
3. Bob McClure, 1977, 15
4. Mike Myers, 2001, 13
5. Mike Myers, 1997, 13
6. Jason Christiansen, 2004, 13
7. 11 tied with, 12

Most 0.0 IP appearances in a career by a lefthanded pitcher:

1. Mike Myers, 127
2. Jesse Orosco, 80
3. Paul Assenmacher, 76
4. Bob McClure, 65
5. Wedsel "Buddy" Groom, 65
6. Mike Stanton, 61
7. Steve Kline, 59
8. Dan Plesac, 58
9. Tony Fossas, 54
10. Ray King, 51
11. Mike Holtz, 51

Alright, as established, these guys tend to get lifted because they are called upon to face one batter. I would think it's tougher to be taken out without recording at least 1/3 inning if you're righthanded. Let's look at those leaders.

Most 0.0 IP appearances in a season by a righthanded pitcher:

1. Jeff Nelson, 1993, 10
2. Horacio Pina, 1971, 9
3. Turk Lown, 1960, 7
4. Cecilio Guante, 1988, 7
5. Kevin Gryboski, 2003, 7
6. Bob Anderson, 1962, 7

Most 0.0 IP appearances in a career by a righthanded pitcher:

1. Jeff Nelson, 49
2. Paul Quantrill, 28
3. Kent Tekulve, 27
4. Don McMahon, 27
5. Hector Carrasco, 26

Now let's look to see what years featured the most 0.0 IP appearances, regardless of handedness, because we can:

1. 1999 - 487
2. 2000 - 482
3. 2006 - 474
4. 2005 - 473
5. 1998 - 472
6. 1997 - 465
7. 2003 - 456
8. 2004 - 452
9. 2002 - 448
10. 2001 - 447

Surprise, surprise, managers have been more willing to yank guys quickly since bullpens have specialized. For the curious, 2007 has already seen 364 such appearances, through yesterday. The highest appearances total for any season before 1990 was 324 in 1987. The lowest total? 128 in 1958.

Finally, let's see what teams had a manager with a quick hook:

1. 2004 San Francisco Giants, 43
2. 2007 Cincinnati Reds, 29
3. 1995 Chicago Cubs, 29
4. 1971 Washington Senators, 28
5. 2003 Toronto Blue Jays, 28
6. 2002 Texas Rangers, 28
7. 1993 Seattle Mariners, 28
8. 1963 Los Angeles Angels, 28
9. 2000 Colorado Rockies, 28
10. 1998 Chicago Cubs, 28

It's interesting to me that the 2nd and 3rd place teams didn't (yet) get the benefit of a full season. Obviously 2007 is still going on and 1995 had a weird 144-game schedule due to the players' strike of 1994-5.

The pitchers involved in the 2004 Giants record-shattering campaign: Jason Christiansen, David Aardsma, Kevin Walker, Jim Brower, Felix Rodriguez, Wayne Franklin (ha!), Matt Herges, Scott Eyre, Tyler Walker, Dustin Hermanson, and Dave Burba. Eleven, count 'em, eleven guys. That's almost twice the number of relievers on a given team at a given time.

Who Needs A Bullpen?

A few days ago I looked at pitchers who had trouble getting through five or more innings per start in a season. Today I want to do the opposite. In order to differentiate between innings as a starter and reliever in the same season, I limited the search to the years 1957-2007. Here's the list of every pitcher to make more than 20 starts in a season and average eight or more innings per start.

Name	Year	Starts	IP	IP/GS
Bob Gibson	1969	35	314.0	8.97
Bob Gibson	1968	34	304.7	8.96
Rick Langford	1980	33	287.7	8.72
Gaylord Perry	1974	37	322.3	8.71
Bob Gibson	1970	34	294.0	8.65
Mark Fidrych	1976	29	249.3	8.60
Juan Marichal	1968	38	326.0	8.58
Gaylord Perry	1972	40	341.7	8.54
Juan Marichal	1966	36	306.0	8.50
Jim Palmer	1975	38	322.3	8.48
Frank Tanana	1976	34	288.3	8.48
Steve Carlton	1972	41	346.3	8.45
Steve McCatty	1981	22	185.7	8.44
Catfish Hunter	1975	39	328.0	8.41
Gaylord Perry	1973	41	344.0	8.39
Mickey Lolich	1971	45	376.0	8.36
Ferguson Jenkins	1971	39	325.0	8.33
Nolan Ryan	1973	39	323.7	8.30
Juan Marichal	1969	36	298.7	8.30
Catfish Hunter	1976	36	298.7	8.30
Gaylord Perry	1969	39	323.3	8.29
Bert Blyleven	1976	36	297.7	8.27
Mike Caldwell	1978	34	281.0	8.26
Gaylord Perry	1975	37	305.7	8.26
Denny McLain	1968	41	336.0	8.20
Luis Tiant	1974	38	311.3	8.19
Bob Gibson	1965	36	294.7	8.19
Jim Palmer	1977	39	319.0	8.18
Bob Gibson	1972	34	278.0	8.18
Tom Seaver	1971	35	285.7	8.16
Larry Dierker	1969	37	301.3	8.14
Rick Langford	1981	24	195.3	8.14
Sandy Koufax	1965	41	333.7	8.14
Bert Blyleven	1973	40	325.0	8.13
Nolan Ryan	1977	37	299.0	8.08
Greg Maddux	1994	25	202.0	8.08
Ron Guidry	1983	31	250.3	8.08
Nolan Ryan	1974	41	331.0	8.07
Tom Seaver	1970	36	290.3	8.06
Vida Blue	1976	37	298.3	8.06
Tom Seaver	1973	36	290.0	8.06
Mario Soto	1983	34	273.7	8.05
Ferguson Jenkins	1972	36	289.3	8.04
Don Drysdale	1964	40	321.3	8.03
Bill Lee	1973	33	265.0	8.03
Vern Law	1959	33	265.0	8.03
Phil Niekro	1967	20	160.3	8.02
Gaylord Perry	1970	41	328.7	8.02
Camilo Pascual	1963	31	248.3	8.01
Bob Gibson	1966	35	280.3	8.01
Jim Colborn	1973	36	288.3	8.01
Warren Spahn	1958	36	288.3	8.01
Ferguson Jenkins	1970	39	312.3	8.01
Ferguson Jenkins	1974	41	328.3	8.01
Vida Blue	1971	39	312.0	8.00
Steve Carlton	1980	38	304.0	8.00

That's a lot of innings pitched! It's interesting to me that of the 56 seasons listed, 39 of them took place in the decade from 1968-1977. A number of guys had more than one season on the list: Bert Blyleven (2), Bob Gibson (6), Catfish Hunter (2), Ferguson Jenkins (4), Gaylord Perry (6), Jim Palmer (2), Juan Marichal (3), Nolan Ryan (3), Rick Langford (2), Steve Carlton (2), Tom Seaver (3), and Vida Blue (2) were the multiple entrants. Greg Maddux is the only pitcher since 1983 to appear on the list. I doubt another guy will show up on it anytime soon. Say the average starter makes 33 starts per year now; he would have to pitch 264 innings in those starts to make the cut.

Anatomy of a Record

How do I go about finding these obscure, pointless records? Well, the brief answer is by tinkering with the Baseball-Reference Play Index (B-R PI) until it spits out the answer I seek. However, I feel like taking you on a tour of my thought process throughout.

The first step is deciding just what record to look up. There's been some agitation in Milwaukee recently about the Brewers' staff having trouble pitching six full innings in an average start, so how about we look up what pitcher holds the record for least IP/GS in various numbers of starts? Now that that's settled, we've hit our first potential roadblock: starters that don't last very long likely won't remain starters all year. The first option is to just look at guys who started every game they appeared in. That's the easiest method, though a lot of guys would likely fall through the cracks. The other option is to investigate game logs for each of the guys who may have had a worse IP/GS average, though that would limit us to players since 1957 (the extent of the database). The solution, in my mind, will be to look up first the guys who started every game they appeared in and then see if any guys who were bumped to the bullpen midseason threaten their mark.

Then there's the decision of how many starts I want to set as the minimum category. While seasons like Kevin Ritz's 1990 are fun to look/laugh at, I find it more interesting to see mediocrity spread out across most of a season. With that in mind, I think starting at 20 starts and increasing at 5 start intervals makes sense.

Firing up the Pitching Season Finder at the B-R PI and setting it to the predetermined conditions (20 starts, 100% of games pitched as starts, sorted by IP in ascending order), we get this list:

1. Kirk Rueter, 92.1 IP, 20 GS, 1994
2. Pascual Perez, 95.2 IP, 22 GS, 1985
3. Kip Wells, 98.2 IP, 20 GS, 2000
4. Oliver Perez, 103.0 IP, 20 GS, 2005
5. LaTroy Hawkins, 103.1 IP, 20 GS, 1997

It's not hard to see that Pascual Perez will hold the record for this category, as his innings pitched is second in two more starts than anyone around him. His 95.2 IP in 22 starts works out to 4.35 IP/GS, meaning he was good for 13 outs. Here's his game log for 1985. For anyone to be worse, here's the innings they'd have to throw in increasing numbers of starts:

• 20 GS: 86.2 IP
• 21 GS: 91.0 IP
• 23 GS: 100.0 IP
• 24 GS: 104.1 IP
• 25 GS: 108.2 IP

It continues, obviously, at a increase of about 4 1/3 IP for each start. Skimming down the list, the first 23 game starter (Kevin Appier, 2003) tossed 111.2 IP, so that won't cut it. No one else came close in any larger number of starts, either.

Now, like I said earlier, it's time to make things harder and attempt to find any starter/relievers that might have done worse in 20+ starts. Resetting the Pitching Season Finder to reflect the new conditions (1957-2007, 20+ starts, sorted by IP in ascending order), here's the list of guys who had at least one relief appearance mixed in their starts:

1. Steve Avery, 21 G, 20 GS, 99.0 IP, 1990
2. Mike O'Connor, 21 G, 20 GS, 105.0 IP, 2006
3. Tomokazu Ohka, 22 G, 21 GS, 107.0 IP, 2001
4. Ismael Valdez, 21 G, 20 GS, 107.0 IP, 2000
5. Josh Beckett, 23 G, 21 GS, 107.2 IP, 2002
6. Randy Jones, 28 G, 20 GS, 107.2 IP, 1982
7. Steve Arlin, 27 G, 22 GS, 107.2 IP, 1974
8. Doug Drabek, 23 G, 21 GS, 108.2 IP, 1998
9. Shawn Chacon, 26 G, 20 GS, 109.0 IP, 2006
10. Scott Scudder, 23 G, 22 GS, 109.0 IP, 1992

Referring to our chart of maximum innings for the various numbers of starts, I think it's safe to say that none of the 1-2 relief appearance guys on the list broke the record. That cuts it down to Randy Jones, Steve Arlin, and Shawn Chacon. Luckily, a quick look at their splits page (here's Jones') lets us determine whether or not they did set the record. Jones had 93.1 IP in his 20 GS, so not bad enough. Arlin's 99.2 IP in 22 GS and Chacon's 98.0 IP in 20 GS also miss the cut. Ignoring the fact there may be someone from before 1957 or a freak of nature throwing 5+ IP relief outings among his horribly short starts, it's pretty safe to say Pascual Perez's 4.35 IP/GS in 1985 is worst among starting pitchers with 20 or more starts.

Let's increase the minimum to 25 or more starts. Rather than make you read how I determined all this again, I'll just post the results. First, for guys that only started:

1. Ramon Martinez, 27 GS, 127.2 IP, 4.73 IP/GS - 2000
   
2. Sean Bergman, 28 GS, 135.1 IP, 4.83 IP/GS - 1995
3. Aaron Sele, 25 GS, 121.2 IP, 4.87 IP/GS - 2003
4. Colby Lewis, 26 GS, 127.0 IP, 4.88 IP/GS - 2003
5. Joe Niekro, 25 GS, 125.2 IP, 5.03 IP/GS - 1986

Now including the guys that started and relieved:

1. Ramon Martinez, 27 GS, 127.2 IP, 4.73 IP/GS - 2000
2. Sean Bergman, 28 GS, 135.1 IP, 4.83 IP/GS - 1995
3. Pete Redfern, 28 GS, 135.2 IP, 4.85 IP/GS - 1977
4. Ryan Vogelsong, 26 GS, 126.0 IP, 4.85 IP/GS - 2004
5. Aaron Sele, 25 GS, 121.2 IP, 4.87 IP/GS - 2003

Duly increasing the minimum now to 30 starts, here's the table of both starters and guys with at least one relief appearance:

1. Bobby Witt, 31 GS, 157.2 IP, 5.09 IP/GS - 1986
2. Jeriome Robertson, 31 GS, 159.0 IP, 5.13 IP/GS - 2003
3. Dick Drott, 31 GS, 159.0 IP, 5.13 IP/GS - 2003
4. Tony Armas, 30 GS, 154.0 IP, 5.13 IP/GS - 2006
5. Ken Cloude, 30 GS, 155.1 IP, 5.18 IP/GS - 1998

With the minimum at 35 starts, we get these guys:

1. Dennis Lamp, 37 GS, 198.2 IP, 5.37 IP/GS - 1980
2. Claude Osteen, 37 GS, 204.1 IP, 5.52 IP/GS - 1975
3. Steve Bedrosian, 37 GS, 206.2 IP, 5.59 IP/GS - 1985
4. Jim McGlothlin, 35 GS, 195.2 IP, 5.59 IP/GS - 1969
5. Sterling Hitchcock, 35 GS, 196.2 IP, 5.62 IP/GS - 1996

Finally, while I know it's not likely we'll see a 40-start pitcher anytime soon, let's look at those guys:

1. Stan Bahnsen, 41 GS, 248.2 IP, 6.07 IP/GS - 1972
2. Jim Kaat, 42 GS, 262.1 IP, 6.25 IP/GS - 1965
3. Johnny Podres, 40 GS, 255.0 IP, 6.38 IP/GS - 1962
4. Jim Bibby, 41 GS, 264.0 IP, 6.44 IP/GS - 1974
5. Tom Bradley, 40 GS, 260.0 IP, 6.50 IP/GS - 1972

Well, that was fun. To recap, here's the leaders at each minimum set:

Minimum Starts	Name	Year	IP/GS
20	Chris Knapp	1980	4.30
25	Ramon Martinez	2000	4.73
30	Bobby Witt	1986	5.09
35	Dennis Lamp	1980	5.37
40	Stan Bahnsen	1972	6.07

No one's really threatening any of these marks this year, though Matt Chico might come close to the 35 start mark if he has ten more starts. He's currently at 5.29 IP/GS through 25 starts. Edwin Jackson could threaten the 30-start mark, as he's at 5.07 IP/GS through 23 starts, though he'd have to start struggling again.

EDIT: Zeyes correctly points out that Chris Knapp in 1980 managed only 4.3 IP/GS in 20 starts, making him the all-time leader in duration futility. He also points out Ron Bryant's 1974 featured 23 starts at 4.38 IP/GS.