I love Mark Eichhorn…
Posted by Andy on June 30, 2011
...and I've never even met him.
Eichhorn had a really nice career but flew under the radar because he was a reliever but not a closer.
Very few relievers have multiple seasons with at most 10 saves, 70 IP, and a 200 ERA+:
| Rk | Yrs | From | To | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Eichhorn | 3 | 1986 | 1994 | 25-33 | Ind. Seasons |
| 2 | LaTroy Hawkins | 2 | 2002 | 2003 | 29-30 | Ind. Seasons |
| 3 | Paul Quantrill | 2 | 1997 | 2003 | 28-34 | Ind. Seasons |
| 4 | Larry Andersen | 2 | 1989 | 1990 | 36-37 | Ind. Seasons |
And how about this...best career ERA+ for pitchers who finished at least 200 games but didn't reach 100 saves:
| Rk | Player | GF | SV | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Eichhorn | 142 | 226 | 32 | 1982 | 1996 |
| 2 | Jeff Nelson | 133 | 237 | 33 | 1992 | 2006 |
| 3 | Dave Veres | 131 | 284 | 95 | 1994 | 2003 |
| 4 | Steve Howe | 130 | 257 | 91 | 1980 | 1996 |
| 5 | Rob Dibble | 129 | 204 | 89 | 1988 | 1995 |
| 6 | Doug Corbett | 126 | 216 | 66 | 1980 | 1987 |
| 7 | Steve Kline | 125 | 231 | 39 | 1997 | 2007 |
| 8 | Al Hrabosky | 123 | 307 | 97 | 1970 | 1982 |
| 9 | Bob Locker | 123 | 288 | 95 | 1965 | 1975 |
| 10 | Al Holland | 123 | 216 | 78 | 1977 | 1987 |
Since 1980, only 16 pitchers have completed at least 500 innings while allowing no more than 1 homer every 18 innings:
| Rk | IP | HR | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duane Ward | 666.2 | 32 | 1986 | 1995 |
| 2 | Kent Tekulve | 896.1 | 42 | 1980 | 1989 |
| 3 | Dave Smith | 809.1 | 34 | 1980 | 1992 |
| 4 | Doug Sisk | 523.1 | 15 | 1982 | 1991 |
| 5 | Steve Rogers | 1199.0 | 62 | 1980 | 1985 |
| 6 | Mariano Rivera | 1180.1 | 63 | 1995 | 2011 |
| 7 | Dan Quisenberry | 1003.1 | 54 | 1980 | 1990 |
| 8 | Greg Minton | 978.2 | 39 | 1980 | 1990 |
| 9 | Roger McDowell | 1050.0 | 50 | 1985 | 1996 |
| 10 | Terry Leach | 700.0 | 38 | 1981 | 1993 |
| 11 | Gary Lavelle | 563.0 | 29 | 1980 | 1987 |
| 12 | Steve Howe | 606.0 | 32 | 1980 | 1996 |
| 13 | Mark Eichhorn | 885.2 | 49 | 1982 | 1996 |
| 14 | Chad Bradford | 515.2 | 28 | 1998 | 2009 |
| 15 | Bruce Berenyi | 781.2 | 32 | 1980 | 1986 |
| 16 | Juan Agosto | 626.1 | 30 | 1981 | 1993 |
I could go on, but I hope I've already proved my love to be worthy.
June 30th, 2011 at 8:30 am
Note that Ward (top of the last list) and Eichhorn were teammates in the Toronto pen.
June 30th, 2011 at 9:26 am
Eichorn's 86 season was just incredible, I wanted to see him get enough innings to qualify for the era title. IIRC, Cito didn't love him quite as much as Andy, and maybe didn't utilize him to the fullest extent, esp in his second go round in Toronto.
June 30th, 2011 at 9:51 am
Cito was not the manager when Mark was on the team the 1st time and only pitched 1 1/2 years for him when he came back. He already had Duane Ward and Tom Henke in the back end and the starters always gave him at least 6-7 innings. Mark could not handle that workload for more than a few years and it showed by 1992.
June 30th, 2011 at 10:27 am
He was a submariner, wasn't he? His HR numbers are just silly for most of his career. While I remember him (especially with the Angels) I have to admit, I did not realize how many innings he threw with Toronto in the mid 80's.
BTW his son Kevin was drafted by the DBacks in 2008 and was sent to Detroit this last off-season in the Armando Galarraga deal. Also a pitcher, he's scuffled so far.
June 30th, 2011 at 10:28 am
I played APBA with the 91 Angels, and Eichhorn was my closer, not Harvey.
June 30th, 2011 at 10:38 am
His son, Kevin, is a starting pitcher in Detroit's farm system. Dunno if he's a sidewinder, though.
June 30th, 2011 at 10:41 am
@5, Jeff -- I find that puzzling. In what way was Eichhorn '91 better than Harvey '91? Harvey dominated both lefties and righties, while Eich had his usual large platoon split.
June 30th, 2011 at 10:43 am
That '86 season was sick. WAR of 6.4 What is the highest WAR for a guy who was a reliever but not a starter? I don't even begin to know how to search for that.
June 30th, 2011 at 10:46 am
Couldn't be easier. Pitching Season Finder, set to reliever (say, 80% of the time), then search for most WAR:
Generated 6/30/2011.
June 30th, 2011 at 10:47 am
If we limit it to guys with no more than 10 saves, we get non-closing relievers:
Generated 6/30/2011.
Remember Rivera was setting up Wetteland that year.
June 30th, 2011 at 10:52 am
Andy-
Is there also a way to eliminate guys with X amount of starts? For instance, Eichhorn and Gossage made zero starts in those years, while Hiller made 8 starts. Granted, Hiller's starts weren't anything special, but my assumption is that one can boost their WAR with a handful of solid starts. I'm curious to see strict non-closing relievers (allowing for the handful of saves a non-closer reliever is likely to get... I think 10 is a fair number).
Regardless, it stands that that season by Eichhorn is pretty easily the best by a non-closing reliever. A full W ahead of the next best guy (who wasn't too shabby himself, that year or in general).
June 30th, 2011 at 10:53 am
WTF BSK? You are acting like a PI noob and you aren't one. Set GS < = 5 or whatever you want.
June 30th, 2011 at 11:24 am
But it's so much EASIER to get you guys to do it! :-p
I'm still learning how to do all these compound searches. Now, can you tell me who hit the most HRs? Ever?
June 30th, 2011 at 11:25 am
Sadaharu Oh
June 30th, 2011 at 11:57 am
@14
Touché Andy!
June 30th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Eichhorn should have been the AL Rookie of the Year in 1986 instead of Jose Canseco. Check out the WAR column at http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1986.shtml#ALroy
June 30th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
@13, @14 - or maybe Josh Gibson?
June 30th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Look at Eichhorns minor league page. He was finished in the majors in 1996, but in 1998 he pitched AAA for the Rays affiliate, had 44/11 SO/W and a 1.207 WHIP in 53 games. Then in 2000 (at age 39), he pitched for the Jays AAA team. 16.1 IP, 17 K, 2 BB, a .429 (!!!!!!) WHIP.
June 30th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
OMG LOL @ your use of W to mean BB
June 30th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
look at this guy who's never heard of strike out to win ratio
June 30th, 2011 at 1:12 pm
I KNOW! I'm sooooooooooo ignorant!
June 30th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Heh. See what happens when I get in a hurry? In my mind I typed BB. Unfortunately my fingers rarely listen to my mind.
June 30th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
When I was a kid, I always wondered why they didn't use 4B for HR...
June 30th, 2011 at 1:50 pm
And to think, when I woke this morning, the first thing I thought was "That BSK...he's so smart!"
June 30th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
FWIW, Aaron Crow has a chance to set the record for WAR by a strict reliever with 0 Saves. He is on pace to do so, assuming he continues to pitch as well as he does without getting a save. He's got 2.0 WAR thus far and the record is 3.3.
June 30th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
OMG BSK, how did you look that up?!?!?!?!?!
(I'm in some kind of weird mood today...)
June 30th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
YA KNOW WHAT, ANDY!
I was confused earlier because I said the % of games started and % of games relieved and you can only choose one of those. I didn't think to use the GS feature since I assumed those were the primary/only way of assessing role. Also, I'm on summer vacation AND I'm trying to plan a wedding so my brain is pretty foggy. Plus, I like making you getting your knickers in a bunch.
June 30th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Said = saw in that first sentence...
June 30th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
If it isn't clear, I am entirely joking in all of my comments...!
June 30th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Oh, same here! I totally got that you were as well.
June 30th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
That '92 Jay staff was something else.
5 guys on the team had or got a no-hitter.
Steib, Morris, Cone, Wells & Leiter.
You had two Cy winners in Hentgen and Cone, and Key, Morris and Steib all finished second.
At one time or another, 5 members of their bullpen were closers.
Weathers, Timlin, Eichorn, Henke, and Ward.
June 30th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Now we need a Major/Minor PI to see how many other pitchers had a K/9 under 5 in the minors but over 7 in the majors.
June 30th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Andy, fantastic post to give Mark Eichorn his moment in the sun. His name came up in a post in another thread.
On your second list, Andy, I am surprised to see his ERA+, as a soft tosser, so dominant over all the flame throwers.
His effectiveness was probably somewhat invisible in traditional, casual-fan metrics. To me, one of the beauties of BBref is that it can surface a gem of a career like this.
@12
"WTF ....? You are acting like a PI noob and you aren't one."
Now I am afraid to ever again make a lazy post
.
Duke, don`t remind me of the glory days of 1992.
June 30th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
wait just a dang blamed minute!!!!! Andy wears knickers???????
And who knew BSK is a wedding planner?
June 30th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
@34
Ah but LJF, the question is ........ are Andy's knickers boxers or briefs? 🙂
June 30th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Neil, you already blew it by misspelling Eichhorn.
June 30th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
@31
And, Duke, the top five of the batting order were no slouches ........ although the J** C***** debate rages on! (Can't use his name)
June 30th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Aw Andy, I'm an easy target, just shoot me! 🙂
June 30th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Andy, all joking and misspelled (JA will have to rule on that word) names aside, the Mark EichHorn blog is a nice piece and it does highlight what a subscriber can get in BBRef and almost nowhere else.
June 30th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
I met Eichhorn's wife at a game in the old Toronto stadium in 1988. A stunning knock out blonde squeezed perfectly into a pair of skinny jeans. Nice gal too.
June 30th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
I loved long relievers. Eich was probably MVP of that 86 team. 157 IP! And in 1985 they had Dennis Lamp who logged 105 IP and went 11-0. Gone are the days of the long reliever who snaps up more than a few wins and logs the innings of a spot starter.
June 30th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Mark also makes an appearance in the PBS documentary "Small Ball: A Little League Story". Mark worked as a coach for his son Kevin's Little League team from Aptos, California that in 2002 made it all the way to the promised land, the LLWS. Worth checking out for all baseball fans.
June 30th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
As a Yankee fan, I always always impressed and depressed with his pitching performances. I always compared Jeff Nelson as a very similar player. Both underrated and vital to a winning team.
June 30th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Being a word guy, I love Mark Eichhorn because he has a double h in his name. Unfortunately I can't do a name pattern search at BR to find out if there are any others with HH.
June 30th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
@42
Steve, I did not know that!
Listening to him in his media interactions in Toronto he seemed like a very easy-going, optimistic kind of guy. I don't how he came across in the documentary.
And he was lights out against right-handed batters, especially in 1986. Mark would start that 78-mph whiffle-ball pitch about 2 feet off the outside corner and throw it for called strikes often enough that batters couldn't always lay off it. (unless my memory embellishes) There was some name for the "out" pitch, a frisbee curve or something like that
As a recall, RHB's couldn't lay off the pitch very often and made themselves look foolish by overswinging at it. Once around the league, and Eichhorn was in the batters' heads so that with two strikes he could occasionally slip a "fast ball" past them looking because they were looking for the funny ball.
For someone with a "trick" pitch and delivery, his low walk totals were amazing.
June 30th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
Solace @2...Eichorn was given the option of starting the final game of the season in order to pitch the five IP necessary to qualify for the ERA title. He would have had to give up a ton of runs to fall behind Clemens. To his credit (IMO) he declined the offer.
June 30th, 2011 at 5:49 pm
This was one of my most vivid memories of Eichhorn. I was at this Fenway game in the '86 pennant race, sitting right behind home plate.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198609260.shtml
When Eichhorn released the ball, it looked like the pitch was coming right at me, headed for a RH hitter's front shoulder, if not behind his back. Even though it was wiffle pitch, it was still really tough for the hitters to dig in and make a good swing.
Blue Jays allowed 9 hits and committed 3 errors, but still eked out a 1-0 win in 12 innings on a Jesse Barfield homer. Eichhorn pitched 3.2 innings to take the win. The Jays remained mathematically alive in the pennant race, but then dropped six of their last seven to fall all the way to fourth.
June 30th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
stunning knock out blonde squeezed perfectly into a pair of skinny jeans.
This post is worthless without pictures.
June 30th, 2011 at 6:22 pm
@48
MR, for shame, you are a one-woman man! 🙂
@47
Doug, do you not have memories, also, that hitters would swing from the heels at the funny one, especially pinch hitters and literally lose their balance?
June 30th, 2011 at 6:45 pm
@49.
I know what you mean, Neil, about Eichhorn making hitters look bad.
I always had the sense the hitters had conflicted reactions. One part of them was thinking "the ball is coming right at me, I've got to bail" while the other part was thinking "but, I know it's going to end up being a lollipop over the plate, so I'm going to try to wallop it".
But, that fundamental conflict, I think, is what really prevented most hitters from making solid, balanced swings. Which is why they often ended up looking goofy.
June 30th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
WIsh there was some MLB video of Eichhorn throwing the frisbee pitch from back then.
July 1st, 2011 at 11:49 am
@ 16 Detroit Michael
Those 86 awards - Eichhorn was way ahead of Canseco.
How about Teddy Higuera 8.4 WAR
Look how Roger robbed his teammate Wade Boggs from a MVP
Who gave Gary Carter a first place MVP vote???
July 1st, 2011 at 11:53 am
Was Eichhorn's nickname "Double H"?
July 1st, 2011 at 2:32 pm
In 1986, Eichhorn had a .119 batting average against with at least one runner on base. (14-118)
July 1st, 2011 at 2:33 pm
I was a big fan of Eichhorn back in the day (I always prounced it i-korn with a short i).
Funny thing is, not until today did I realize he had 2 H's in his name.
July 1st, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Correction: make that a .149 average. I was using PAs instead of ABs. Still pretty good though.
July 3rd, 2011 at 2:03 am
Unfortunately I can't do a name pattern search at BR to find out if there are any others with HH.
#44, start from this screen: Players. Click each of the letter links ("A," "B," etc.), then use Control-F to search for the text string "hh." Here’s what you get:
Clay Buchholz
Taylor Buchholz
Don Buschhorn
Mark Eichhorn
Harry Lochhead
Lochhead, incidentally, was the starting shortstop for the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.