Most consecutive appearances, 1/3 IP or less
Posted by Andy on March 27, 2009
Here's a Pitching Game Streak Finder search for most consecutive appearances by a pitcher where he recorded 1 or zero outs. I expected to see some left-handed specialists here, and the first guy to come to mind was Mike Myers.
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Royce Ring 2008-04-21 2008-05-09 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 4 0 0.00 1 0 1 ATL Mike Myers 2001-08-12 2001-09-17 10 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 6 4 4 3 2 0 18.00 0 0 0 COL John Candelaria 1991-08-21 1991-09-29 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 10 5 5 2 6 0 15.00 0 0 0 LAD Trever Miller 2007-06-13 2007-06-28 9 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2.1 5 3 3 3 4 0 11.57 0 0 0 HOU Jesse Orosco 2003-08-05 2003-08-25 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.2 3 5 4 3 1 0 21.60 0 0 0 NYY Jesse Orosco 1999-08-04 1999-08-25 9 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2.2 2 1 1 1 3 0 3.38 0 0 0 BAL Tony Fossas 1992-07-29 1992-08-22 9 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2.1 3 1 0 1 3 0 0.00 1 0 0 BOS Bill Bray 2008-09-05 2008-09-26 8 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2.1 1 1 1 1 5 0 3.86 0 0 0 CIN Ron Villone 2008-08-24 2008-09-09 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.1 2 2 2 3 1 0 13.50 1 1 0 STL Damaso Marte 2007-09-07 2008-04-02 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.2 7 8 8 2 3 2 27.00 0 0 0 PIT John Franco 2004-10-03 2005-04-21 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 6 2 1 1 2 0 4.50 1 0 0 NYM-HOU Scott Eyre 2004-07-15 2004-07-26 8 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 2.1 3 1 1 1 1 0 3.86 0 0 0 SFG Scott Eyre 2004-06-23 2004-07-03 8 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1.2 2 0 0 2 3 0 0.00 0 1 0 SFG Jesse Orosco 2002-08-31 2002-09-20 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 4.50 0 0 0 LAD Armando Almanza 2000-09-08 2000-09-27 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.2 4 4 4 5 2 0 13.50 1 0 0 FLA Jason Christianse 2000-09-03 2000-09-22 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.1 3 0 0 1 1 0 0.00 0 0 0 STL Mike Holtz 1997-05-14 1997-06-06 8 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2.1 5 1 1 0 3 1 3.86 0 0 0 ANA Larry Casian 1995-08-27 1995-09-13 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 2 2 1 0 0 18.00 0 0 0 CHC Tony Fossas 1993-09-10 1993-09-25 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 4 3 1 2 0 13.50 1 0 0 BOS Tony Fossas 1993-08-26 1993-09-05 8 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 2 2 0 3 0 9.00 0 0 0 BOS Tony Fossas 1992-07-08 1992-07-25 8 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2.2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0.00 0 0 0 BOS Mike Barlow 1980-09-17 1981-04-11 8 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2.2 10 8 7 6 0 1 23.63 1 2 0 TOR
Well, well, well, looks like I know a thing or two. Myers got hammered pretty good in his streak. Of those 10 games, 7 were scoreless, but in the other 3 he allowed 4 runs while recording only 2 outs. All 10 appearances added up to just 6 outs.
I was surprised to see Candelaria on there, as he's a guy I think of as exlusively a starter. But indeed towards the end of his career, he too was being used as a left-handed relief specialist, and in fact he never started a game after 1990. He got scored in during 4 of his 10 appearances.
Royce Ring, on the other hand, had a beautiful streak last year, pitching 3 innings over 10 appearances, allowing no hits, one walk, and no runs.
Many of the other guys on this list are also left-handed relief specialists.
March 27th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Take a look at the list when you move it to 2 outs or less: http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/shareit/nhy8
There's Mike Myers again with 21 consecutive appearances, tied for the 2nd longest streak with John Franco.
The record holder is Pedro Feliciano (imagine that, a left handed specialist) and his streak of 23 games is still in tact (as his game 23 was #162 last season).
Of the 13 streaks of 15 or more games, Jesse Orosco owns 4 of them. No one else has more than one 15 game streak.
March 29th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
All modern-era guys. Not a surprise there. God forbid a right-handed batter faces a left-handed pitcher. It's hard to imagine how the Yankees won all of those championships with guys pitching complete games and actually getting good hitters out.
Now, we need a guy to come in and face one hitter. Is the game really better?
March 31st, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Actually, we're looking mostly at LHBs not facing those RHPs...
The relevant question is, would those other teams of old have had a better chance of beating the Yankees if they had used a "lefty specialist" to pitch against Ruth, Gehrig, et. al.? If no one is using specialists, or if everyone is using them, then there is no strategic advantage. When, however, some teams are using them and others are not - that's when we can determine their strategic value. Presumably, teams and managers changed their strategy to use specialists because they found an advantage in doing so. (This may have been determined intuitively or through analysis, but managers generaly go "by the book" unless they have a compelling reason not to.) The early adopters of the specialist pitcher strategy presumably started winning more games than expected. Other teams then had to adopt the strategy themselves or play at a strategic disadvantage. If there were no percieved advantage in using them - and clearly there is a cost (requiring a larger bullpen and therefore having fewer non-pitchers on the bench) - managers would go back to the strategy of old (or perhaps they would not have changed in the first place).
That said, most managers trust their perceptions over systematic data analysis, and percieved strategic advantages don't always prove to be actual advantages. Perhaps the small percentage increase in chance of getting David Oriz out does not translate to as many wins as having another pinch-hitter or a slick leather available at the end of the games. But that's for the sabrmatricians to study. (Are you reading this, Bill James?)
April 4th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
It's interesting that the Cardinals grabbed both Ring and Trever Miller in an attempt to get a LOOGY. Miller stuck; Ring didn't.