Consecutive Decisions

With the advent of pitch counts and specialized bullpens, starting pitchers have begun averaging fewer and fewer innings per start. One often-noted effect of this is a reduced number of complete games and shutouts around the league. Where the league complete games leader routinely reached double-digits and often more than 20 CG in the 1970's, now baseball has seen only two pitchers complete more than ten games in one year since 1999: Randy Johnson's 12 that season and CC Sabathia's 10 last year. Shutouts are the same way. Where leaders used to regularly place between 5-10, baseball has only seen three players reach five in a year since 1999: AJ Burnett in 2002, Dontrelle Willis in 2005, and CC Sabathia in 2008.

Complete games and shutouts aren't the only casualties of starters not pitching as deep into games anymore. The number of decisions by those starters have been falling as well. If pitchers only last six innings on a quality night, that leaves plenty of time for a bullpen to blow a lead. Likewise, there are plenty of opportunities for his offense to let him off the hook for the loss. This means it's tough for starters to put together long streaks of decisions in each start - somewhere along the line some reliever or batter messes things up.

NOTE: When I wrote this, I was actually looking at streaks of decisions in each appearance, whether starting or in relief. Since starters appeared in relief more prior to the 1970's, it makes a difference in some of the streaks below. You can find the longest streaks of decisions in starts here. The longest such streak is really Fergie Jenkins' 63 in 1970-1971. Sorry for the confusion.

On Friday night, the Toronto Blue Jays lost to the Atlanta Braves 1-0 after a Casey Kotchman sacrifice fly drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 8th. Jays starter Roy Halladay had been pinch-hit for the inning before, so Jesse Carlson was tagged with the loss. Notably, Halladay hadn't had a no-decision since June 25, 2008. That start also occurred in interleague play, but the Blue Jays were at home, so you can't blame pinch-hitting. Halladay's string of 26 decisions in 26 starts ties him for the 40th longest such streak since 1954. The only other starters to carry a streak that far since 2000 were Roy Oswalt (26, 2004-2005), Tim Wakefield (26, 2007), and Bartolo Colon (30, 2004-2005). Colon is one of only nineteen pitchers to reach 30 straight decisions since 1954:

• Gaylord Perry, 47 (28 W, 19 L) - 1972-1973
• Nolan Ryan, 42 (25-17) - 1974-1975
• Juan Marichal, 41 (28-13) - 1964-1965
• Wilbur Wood, 38 (20-18) - 1972-1973
• Charlie Hough, 36 (18-18) - 1985-1986
  
• Fritz Peterson, 35 (18-17) - 1971-1972
  
• Nolan Ryan, 34 (19-15) - 1976-1977
  
• Dick Ellsworth, 34 (17-17) - 1963-1964
  
• Gaylord Perry, 33 (12-21) - 1974-1975
  
• Fergie Jenkins, 33 (20-13) - 1970
  
• Robin Roberts, 33 (15-18) - 1959-1960
  
• Bob Friend, 32 (19-13) - 1958
  
• Ron Guidry, 31 (21-10) - 1983-1984
  
• Luis Tiant, 31 (20-11) - 1973
  
• Stan Bahnsen, 31 (12-19) - 1973-1974
  
• Bartolo Colon, 30 (18-12) - 2004-2005
  
• Steve Rogers, 30 (19-11) - 1981-1982
  
• Mickey Lolich, 30 (19-11) - 1971-1972
  
• Fergie Jenkins, 30 (20-10) - 1970-1971
  

Randy Johnson came close to joining in 1998, carrying a streak of 29 straight through the end of the year, but the Diamondbacks bullpen couldn't protect a lead in his first start of 1999.

Halladay hasn't had a no-decision against an American League opponent since September 21, 2007, when he threw 8 2/3 innings against the Yankees in what was eventually a 14-inning, 5-4 Toronto triumph. That gives him 40 straight starts with a win or loss against the AL, placing him behind only Perry's 47 51 and Ryan's 42 41 since 1954. In those 40 starts, Halladay is 29-11 with a 2.79 ERA and 246 strikeouts in exactly 300 innings pitched. Can he go eight twelve more starts to eclipse Perry? It's definitely something to keep tabs on when following the tight AL East race.

The Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy Award

The sponsorship message on Hugh Mulcahy's B-R.com page sums up Mulcahy's career pretty well:

Seattle Marinerds sponsor(s) this page.
There are bad pitchers, and there are unlucky pitchers, and then there are men who were neither: they were just cursed to pitch on horrendous Philadelphia teams, the poor souls.

Mulcahy was a regular member of the Phillies for only four seasons, but he wasn't a terrible pitcher. Sure, he walked too many batters. Yeah, his strikeout total is pretty low, even for the late 30's (Mulcahy had 2.51 K/9 from 1937-40 - the NL was at 3.52 for the same period). His ERA was nothing to brag about either. But he was durable, finishing in the NL's top 10 for innings pitched three years in a row. All in all, he wasn't someone you'd find in a key spot for a good team, but he was a capable innings-eater in the majors.

Unfortunately, as the above message says, he was stuck on some terrible Phillies teams. From 1938-1940, the Phillies were worst in the league at scoring runs and worst in the league at preventing them. Philadelphia's NL team lost 100 games in six out of seven seasons after 1935. It wasn't like this was a short-lived time of troubles for Philadelphia: from 1919 to 1948 the Phillies finished in the top half of the NL one time. That was in 1932 when Burt Shotton guided the club to a 78-76 record and a fourth place finish. That was the only winning season the team had over that stretch.

You know what's coming next: the combination of Mulcahy's durability, lack of dominance, and terrible surrounding cast led to a lot of losses on his record. Over his four seasons in the Phillies rotation he lost 76 games. He led the league in losses in 1938 and 1940. His regular placement in box scores gave him perhaps the most unfortunate nickname of any major league player: "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy.

While he was doomed to bad teams and may have even had a respectable record had he pitched for better teams, it only seems fitting that Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy be the namesake of the opposite of the Steve Carlton Award I posted about earlier in the week. Whereas Carlton won plenty of games for a team that didn't win much, the Hugh Mulcahy Award recognizes pitchers who were responsible the highest percentage of their team's losses.

The top ten all-time is again clogged with early 20th-century pitchers, so I'll post a separate 1961-2008 list again.

Highest Percentage of Team's Losses By One Pitcher
1901-2008

Rank	Pitcher	Pitcher W-L	Team	Team W-L	L%
1	Joe McGinnity	31-20	1903 New York Giants	84-55	36.4
2	Bill Dinneen	21-21	1902 Boston Red Sox	77-60	35.0
3	George Mullin	20-20	1907 Detroit Tigers	92-58	34.5
4	Dolf Luque	13-23	1922 Cincinnati Reds	86-68	33.8
5	Patsy Flaherty	11-25	1903 Chicago White Sox	60-77	32.5
6	Eppa Rixey	16-21	1917 Philadelphia Phillies	87-65	32.3
7	Harry Howell	14-21	1901 Baltimore Orioles	68-65	32.3
8	Jack Powell	23-19	1904 New York Highlanders	92-59	32.2
9	Dummy Taylor	21-15	1904 New York Giants	106-47	31.9
10	Dummy Taylor	18-27	1901 New York Giants	52-85	31.8

Quick, spot the Hall of Famers! Dummy Taylor just couldn't catch a break (or avoid a loss), I guess.

This next list should be more interesting. At the very least, the names should be more familiar.

Highest Percentage of Team's Losses By One Pitcher
1961-2008

Rank	Pitcher	Pitcher W-L	Team	Team W-L	L%
1	Dennis Martinez	15-16	1979 Baltimore Orioles	102-57	28.1
2	Don Drysdale	19-17	1963 Los Angeles Dodgers	99-63	27.0
3	Steve Rogers	15-22	1974 Montreal Expos	79-82	26.8
4	Ralph Terry	17-15	1963 New York Yankees	104-57	26.3
5	Dave McNally	17-17	1973 Baltimore Orioles	97-65	26.2
6	Mike Moore	13-15	1990 Oakland Athletics	103-59	25.4
7	Wilbur Wood	24-17	1972 Chicago White Sox	87-67	25.4
8	Brian Kingman	8-20	1980 Oakland Athletics	83-79	25.3
9	Jim Bibby	19-19	1974 Texas Rangers	84-76	25.0
10	Dennis Martinez	7-16	1983 Baltimore Orioles	98-64	25.0

Hmm. Maybe I should call it the Dennis Martinez Award instead. Nah, I still like the idea of an award involving losses named after Losing Pitcher Mulcahy, even if he never would've won the award. I don't think Martinez will mind.

So who was responsible for the highest percentage of his team's losses this year? Strangely, the top ten is split evenly between above-.500 and below-.500 teams:

2008 Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy Award Rankings

1. Javier Vazquez, 12-16 for the 89-74 White Sox, 21.6%
2. Aaron Harang, 6-17 for the 74-88 Reds, 19.3%
3. Justin Verlander, 11-17 for the 74-88 Reds, 19.3%
4. Andy Pettitte, 14-14 for the 89-73 Yankees, 19.2%
5. Barry Zito, 10-17 for the 72-90 Giants, 18.9%
6. Brandon Backe, 9-14 for the 86-75 Astros, 18.7%
7. Greg Smith, 7-16 for the 75-86 Athletics, 18.6%
8. Brett Myers, 10-13 for the 92-70 Phillies, 18.6%
9. Braden Looper, 12-14 for the 86-76 Cardinals, 18.4%
10. Brian Bannister, 9-16 for the 75-87 Royals, 18.4%

Vazquez is one of fifteen pitchers to be above 20.0% in a season since 2000. The highest on the list? Livan Hernandez and his 12-16 record for the 2002 Giants. San Francisco lost 66 games that season, meaning Hernandez accounted for 24.2% of his team's losses.

Fun fact: Deacon Phillippe went 20-9 for the 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates only lost 36 games that season, making him responsible for one-quarter of his team's losses. That's the highest percentage among pitchers with single-digit losses on the season.

It's Better To Be Lucky Than Good

In my last post I looked at pitchers who were exceedingly unlucky. The guys I listed all had an ERA+ of 120 or above but won one-third or fewer of their (at least 15) decisions. Today I want to look at pitchers who did the opposite: had a low ERA+ but won two-thirds or more of their decisions. The criteria again are 15+ decisions, a winning percentage of .667 or above, and 50% or more of appearances as a starter.

Lowest ERA+, .667 or above W-L%, min. 15 decisions, 1901-2007

Name	Year	ERA	ERA+	W-L Record	Run Support*	League Runs Per Game**
Santo Alcala	1976	4.70	75	11-4	6.34	3.98
Rip Collins	1921	5.44	78	11-5	6.20	5.12
Mike Lynch	1905	3.79	79	17-8	4.46	4.11
Ed Wells	1930	5.20	83	12-3	6.90	5.41
Jim Coates	1960	4.28	83	13-3	7.81	4.39
Rube Benton	1916	2.87	85	16-8	3.85	3.45
Storm Davis	1989	4.36	85	19-7	5.81	4.29
James Baldwin	1998	5.32	86	13-6	5.19	5.01
Guy Bush	1931	4.49	86	16-8	5.31	4.48
Tommie Sisk	1966	4.14	86	10-5	5.78	4.09
Chuck Dobson	1971	3.81	88	15-5	5.96	3.87
Roxie Lawson	1937	5.26	89	18-7	6.03	5.23
Johnny Allen	1933	4.39	89	15-7	6.10	5.00
Lefty Williams	1917	2.97	89	17-8	4.21	3.65
Ralph Works	1911	3.87	90	11-5	5.40	4.61
Hooks Dauss	1919	3.55	90	21-9	4.41	4.09
Jack Coombs	1911	3.53	90	28-12	5.66	4.61
Kevin Tapani	1998	4.85	90	19-9	5.37	4.60
Adam Eaton	2005	4.27	90	11-5	5.49	4.45
Rube Foster	1916	3.06	90	14-7	3.53	3.68

*Runs scored by the pitcher's team's offense in games in which he pitched; if prior to 1957, the team's runs per game. If more than one team, a weighted average based on innings pitched.
**League refers to the league (American/National) the pitcher was in. Any pitcher in both leagues gets a weighted average of the two league values based on innings pitched.

These were the only twenty pitchers who had an ERA+ of 90 or less. The complete list of all 88 seasons with an ERA+ of 100 (league average) or below can be found here.

Anything for a Win

In 1987, Nolan Ryan placed fifth in the NL Cy Young voting while pitching for the Houston Astros. He had an impressive 270 strikeouts in 211 2/3 innings and won the league ERA title by 27 points (2.76 vs. Mike Dunne's 3.03). Unfortunately for Ryan, the Astros as a team scored 648 runs that season, or 4 per game. When he took the mound, he was only received 3.28 runs of support from his offense -- the league average runs scored by a team per game was 4.52. Despite his many strikeouts and ERA title, Ryan only went 8-16 on the year. Imagine being possibly the most dominant pitcher in the league and only winning one-third of your decisions. Sometimes life just isn't fair. I should note that Orel Hershiser, who finished fourth in Cy Young voting could complain as well - he went 16-16 with a 3.06 ERA and 190 strikeouts for the hitting-challenged Dodgers.

With Ryan's season in mind, I want to find starting pitchers (i.e., 50+% of appearances were starts) who pitched well but had no luck in gathering wins. To do this, I'm going to use ERA+, defined as "the ratio of the league's ERA (adjusted to the pitcher's ballpark) to that of the pitcher. -- found by lgERA/ERA" Thus since Nolan Ryan played in a ballpark that favored pitchers in 1987, the league ERA used to derive ERA+ will be slightly higher than the actual average to reflect the slightly easier conditions (the exact process behind park adjustments is described here). Since Ryan's 2.76 was still much better than the adjusted league ERA, his ERA+ is an excellent 142. Using ERA+ also allows you to make judgments across time since it compares pitchers to others in their same league in the same year. For example, in 1918 Allen Sothoron put up a sterling 1.94 ERA in 209 innings. Though Sothoron's ERA looks much better than Ryan's, using ERA+ we see they were about equal in relation to the league they played in (Ryan's ERA+ was 142, Sothoron's was 141).

The second part of finding these unlucky guys is deciding which winning percentage to look under. Looking for guys with a losing record makes sense, but first I want to see guys who were really unlucky. To that effect, I'm going to look for pitchers who had a .333 or below winning percentage. Finally, a guy that goes 1-2 in 5 excellent starts is certainly unlucky, but I want to find pitchers who were unlucky for most of a season. Thus I'm going set the minimum for decisions at fifteen. It would be hard to start games all season and not get fifteen decisions somehow: only 35 pitchers since 1901 have started 25 or more games in a year and wound up with fewer than fifteen decisions. The only pitcher who might be excluded by this is John Dopson: he went 3-11 with a 118+ ERA for Montreal in 1988.

Highest ERA+, .333 or below W-L%, min. 15 decisions, 1901-2007

Name	Year	ERA	ERA+	W-L Record	Run Support*	League Runs Per Game**
Ned Garvin	1904	1.72	158	5-16	3.27	3.89
Jim Abbott	1992	2.77	144	7-15	2.48	4.32
Nolan Ryan	1987	2.76	142	8-16	3.28	4.52
Harry Brecheen	1953	3.07	137	5-13	3.60	4.46
Dummy Taylor	1902	1.72	132	5-16	3.19	4.11
Brandon Webb	2004	3.59	129	7-16	4.08	4.64
George Mogridge	1916	2.31	125	6-12	3.70	3.68
Turk Farrell	1962	3.02	124	10-20	2.67	4.48
Buster Brown	1910	2.67	123	9-23	3.15	4.03
Matt Cain	2007	3.65	122	7-16	3.20	4.71
Dennis Lamp	1978	3.30	122	7-15	3.65	3.99
Howard Ehmke	1925	3.73	121	9-20	4.20	5.20
Ed Durham	1932	3.80	120	6-13	3.68	5.23
Bill Piercy	1923	3.41	120	8-17	3.79	4.78
Erv Kantlehner	1915	2.26	120	5-12	3.57	3.62
Jumbo Elliott	1927	3.30	120	6-13	3.51	4.58
Eddie Smith	1937	3.94	120	4-17	4.54	5.23

*Runs scored by the pitcher's team's offense in games in which he pitched; if prior to 1957, the team's runs per game. If more than one team, a weighted average based on innings pitched.
**League refers to the league (American/National) the pitcher was in. Any pitcher in both leagues gets a weighted average of the two league values based on innings pitched.

Poor Matt Cain, stuck on a team that couldn't score for him. Of course, it's perhaps harder to feel for him with his contract that makes him set for life than it is to feel for a guy like Erv Kantlehner who was out of baseball at the age of 24 and who probably didn't get paid real well when he was in the game. But from a strictly baseball sense: poor Matt Cain. I always figured Nolan Ryan was the best recent example of good pitching wrecked by anemic offense, but Jim Abbott's 1992 is even better: Abbott's Angels even got a designated hitter to help spur offense. I cut the chart off at 120 simply for brevity's sake, but you can find the list of all 126 better than average losers meeting my criteria here.

A final note about George Mogridge and Kantlehner: as noted, their "Run Support" number reflects their team's average runs per game. They very well might (and probably did) have had even fewer runs scored behind them.

Most Career Games Pitched, No Wins

This post is similar to the previous one but rather than looking for players with no decisions, its focus is players with zero career wins. Some of the names overlap, but there's been a fair amount of winless pitchers to throw in a lot of games. Of the 2,408 pitchers with zero career wins, there are twenty-two that have appeared in forty or more games. A number of these guys are still active, so the list will be fluid next season.

With that in mind, here are the winless wonders. As with yesterday, active pitchers are bolded:

Name	Games	Innings	Losses	(L/R)HP
Ed Olwine	80	89.2	1	LHP
Juan Alvarez	80	60.1	5	LHP
Chris Britton	63	66.1	3	RHP
Franquelis Osoria	61	75.2	6	RHP
Erik Plantenberg	61	42.1	0	LHP
Terry Felton	55	138.1	16	RHP
Frank Fanovich	55	105.0	5	LHP
Rob Mallicoat	51	53.2	2	LHP
Jeff Kaiser	50	52.0	2	LHP
Ross Powell	48	53.1	5	LHP
Mike Kinnunen	48	51.2	0	LHP
Bob Moorhead	47	119.2	3	RHP
John Lamb	47	66.1	2	RHP
Erik Schullstrom	46	60.0	0	RHP
Mike Burns	45	52.0	0	RHP
Steve Sinclair	45	34.1	3	LHP
Marcos Carvajal	42	57.0	2	RHP
Scott Forster	42	32.0	1	LHP
Brad Voyles	40	68.1	4	RHP
Ron Tompkins	40	50.0	2	RHP
Carmen Cali	40	34.1	1	LHP
Chad Bentz	40	29.2	3	LHP

Though I didn't bold his name Chad Bentz pitched this season for the Bridgeport Bluefish, an independent league team featuring other ex-major leaguers like Quinton McCracken, Brian Boehringer, and Matt Perisho, among others. It's not inconceivable that he'd be able to catch on again in some team's minor league system and the fact he's lefthanded makes it that much more probable.

Another interesting name is Terry Felton. Despite support from Brooks Robinson, Felton was released after going 0-13 for the Twins in 1982. He never appeared in the majors again and holds both the record for most career losses without a win with 16 (Steve Gerkin and Charlie Stecher are the only winless others to lose as many as ten) and the record for most losses in a season without a win with 13.

Most Career Games Pitched, No Decisions

Shortly after the season ended, I noted Trever Miller had set a single-season record for most games pitched without a decision. Today I want to look at the career leaders for most games without a win or a loss.

There have been thirty-one pitchers in baseball history to appear in 20+ games without moving their career record off 0-0. Overall, 1,417 pitchers have appeared in at least one game without a career decision.

UPDATE (2/11/13): There are now 35 pitchers who have appeared in 20+ games without a decision.  The table below has been updated through 2012.  The active contenders (pitched in majors or minors in 2012) are bolded:

Name	Games	Innings	(L/R)HP
Erik Plantenberg	61	42.1	LHP
Mike Kinnunen	48	51.2	LHP
Erik Schullstrom	46	60.0	RHP
Greg Jones	38	47.2	RHP
Allen McDill	38	34.2	LHP
Tom Qualters	34	52.2	RHP
Mike Neu	33	46.0	RHP
Dae-Sung Koo	33	23.0	LHP
Harry Shuman	30	50.2	RHP
Dustin Richardson	29	16.1	LHP
Mike Hinckley	28	23.1	RHP
Scott Watkins	27	21.2	LHP
Eulogio de la Cruz	27	32.0	RHP
Don Rowe	26	54.2	LHP
Wayne Schurr	26	48.1	RHP
Tim Kubinski	25	25.0	LHP
Roberto Vargas	25	24.2	LHP
Ron Diorio	25	20.1	RHP
John Anderson	24	44.2	RHP
Lee Hancock	24	32.1	LHP
Brad Boxberger	24	27.2	RHP
Jose Valdez	24	26.0	RHP
Norm McRae	22	34.1	RHP
Jose Cecena	22	26.1	RHP
Chris Hatcher	22	25.0	RHP
David Sanders	22	24.0	LHP
Rick Kester	21	40.2	RHP
Doug Piatt	21	34.2	RHP
Jim Morris	21	15.0	LHP
Takahito Nomura	21	13.2	LHP
Rommie Lewis	22	23.2	LHP
Lester Oliveros	22	23.0	RHP
Aaron Taylor	20	21.1	RHP
Reynaldo Garcia	20	20.0	RHP
Kevin Tolar	20	17.2	LHP

I wonder if Erik Plantenburg knows he set a major league record during his career? Speaking of Erik's, it's kind of weird that both the LHP and RHP records for career decisionless games were set by guys with the first name Erik. There have only been nine major league players (seven pitchers) named Erik, so that's almost unbelievable.

Trever Miller Record Update

In mid-September I wrote about Trever Miller's chase for a season record. At the time, Miller had 74 appearances with a 0-0 record. The previous record for most games in a season without a win or loss had been 48 games pitched by Scott Aldred for the 1998 Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Since the season is over, I thought it made sense to confirm that his final season total of 76 games in the official new record. Interestingly, Manny Delcarmen of the Boston Red Sox placed third on the all-time list by throwing in 44 games this year without a decision. Ron Villone also joined the all-time top ten this year by tying for ninth with 37 "decisionless" appearances.

Loser Teenagers

People always like celebrating winners, so I figured I'd turn the tables and look at the guys who lost the most games as teenagers. There's a mix of being good enough to stay in the league and debuting while relatively young in placing on the list. Also, baseball-reference says a player's age during a season is their age as of June 30th of that season, so even though the top man on the list, Pete Schneider, turned 20 on August 2, his whole season applies. It's a little erroneous, but what can you do?

Without further ado, these are baseball's top loser teens:

1. Pete Schneider, 32 losses, 1914-15
2. Bob Feller, 21, 1936-38
3. David Clyde, 17, 1973-74
4. Larry Dierker, 17, 1964-66
5. Ray Keating, 15, 1912-13
6. Chief Bender, 14, 1903
7. Mike Morgan, 13, 1978-79
8. Curt Simmons, 13, 1947-48
9. Frank Shellenback, 12, 1918
10. Earl Hamilton, 12, 1911
11. Jim Waugh, 11, 1952-53
12. Mike McCormick, 10, 1956-58
13. Milt Pappas, 10, 1957-1958
14. Cal McLish, 10, 1944
15. Hal Newhouser, 10, 1939-40

Hey, three of those guys went on to be Hall of Famers! Interestingly, only 152 pitchers have ever lost even one game in their teenage years. Only 329 pitchers made an appearance before their age 20 season.

Here's a trivia question for you: Who are the only two pitchers since 2000 to lose one or more games before their age 20 season, as defined by Baseball-Reference?

I wonder if he gets a bonus for a decision?

I got curious tonight (upon hearing Mike Stanton is 1-3 in 65 appearances) and decided to look up who holds the major league record for most appearances in a season without recording a win or loss. The record coming into the year was lefty Scott Aldred's 48 for the Devil Rays in 1998. With a couple weeks to go, however, Trever Miller has appeared in 74 games for the Astros and still carries a 0-0 record on the year. Something else to keep an eye on as the season winds down.