Doug Fister can’t buy a win
Posted by John Autin on July 27, 2011
Seattle finally won a game Wednesday, erupting for 9 runs against the Yankees. It's no surprise that it happened the day after Doug Fister started.
On Tuesday, Doug "No Visible Means of Support" Fister was tagged with another tough loss, allowing 3 runs in 7 IP, while his mates could barely make contact off CC Sabathia. The Mariners have scored 2 runs or less in 16 of Fister's 21 starts this year.
- His last win came on May 30. In 10 starts since then, he has a 3.42 ERA, but an 0-7 record, including an agonizing 3-game stretch allowing 1 run each game while lasting 8, 8 and 9 IP -- all for an 0-1 record. He has 4 games of 8+ IP and just 1 run allowed, but no wins to show for them. All other SPs combined, when going 8+ IP and allowing 1 run this year, are 77-12, with 15 no-decisions. No other pitcher has more 2 winless games of 8+ IP and 1 run.
(1) Fister's season record is now 3-12 (.200 W%), but with a 3.33 ERA / 111 ERA+.
Since 1901, here are the 15 starting pitchers with a season Winning Pct. of .250 or worse but an ERA+ of at least 100 (min. 15 decisions):
Rk | Player | Year | Age | Tm | Lg | G | GS | CG | SHO | GF | W | L | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ned Garvin | 159 | .238 | 21 | 1904 | 30 | TOT | ML | 25 | 24 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 16 | 0 | 193.2 | 155 | 85 | 37 | 80 | 94 | 1.72 | 6 | 781 |
2 | Eddie Smith | 119 | .190 | 21 | 1937 | 23 | PHA | AL | 38 | 23 | 14 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 17 | 5 | 196.2 | 178 | 100 | 86 | 90 | 79 | 3.94 | 18 | 847 |
3 | Frank Allen | 116 | .182 | 22 | 1913 | 24 | BRO | NL | 34 | 25 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 18 | 2 | 174.2 | 144 | 75 | 55 | 81 | 82 | 2.83 | 6 | 736 |
4 | George McConnell | 113 | .250 | 16 | 1916 | 38 | CHC | NL | 28 | 21 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 12 | 0 | 171.1 | 137 | 66 | 49 | 35 | 82 | 2.57 | 8 | 682 |
5 | Jesse Flores | 113 | .235 | 17 | 1947 | 32 | PHA | AL | 28 | 20 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 151.1 | 139 | 72 | 57 | 59 | 41 | 3.39 | 10 | 633 |
6 | Doug Fister | 111 | .200 | 15 | 2011 | 27 | SEA | AL | 21 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 146.0 | 139 | 57 | 54 | 32 | 89 | 3.33 | 7 | 602 |
7 | Jack Russell | 108 | .250 | 24 | 1929 | 23 | BOS | AL | 35 | 32 | 13 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 18 | 0 | 227.1 | 263 | 132 | 99 | 40 | 37 | 3.92 | 12 | 978 |
8 | Howie Fox | 106 | .240 | 25 | 1949 | 28 | CIN | NL | 38 | 30 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 19 | 0 | 215.0 | 221 | 120 | 95 | 77 | 60 | 3.98 | 13 | 928 |
9 | Ben Cantwell | 103 | .235 | 17 | 1929 | 27 | BSN | NL | 27 | 20 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 13 | 2 | 157.0 | 171 | 98 | 78 | 52 | 25 | 4.47 | 11 | 683 |
10 | Paul Derringer | 103 | .206 | 34 | 1933 | 26 | TOT | NL | 36 | 33 | 17 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 27 | 1 | 248.0 | 264 | 117 | 91 | 60 | 89 | 3.30 | 4 | 1045 |
11 | Rollie Naylor | 102 | .217 | 23 | 1919 | 27 | PHA | AL | 31 | 23 | 17 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 18 | 0 | 204.2 | 210 | 109 | 76 | 64 | 68 | 3.34 | 2 | 819 |
12 | Dolf Luque | 102 | .238 | 21 | 1929 | 38 | CIN | NL | 32 | 22 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 16 | 0 | 176.0 | 213 | 103 | 88 | 56 | 43 | 4.50 | 7 | 771 |
13 | Elmer Jacobs | 101 | .240 | 25 | 1917 | 24 | PIT | NL | 38 | 25 | 10 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 19 | 2 | 227.1 | 214 | 87 | 71 | 76 | 58 | 2.81 | 3 | 941 |
14 | John Buzhardt | 101 | .238 | 21 | 1960 | 23 | PHI | NL | 30 | 29 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 16 | 0 | 200.1 | 198 | 101 | 86 | 68 | 73 | 3.86 | 14 | 849 |
15 | Russ Christopher | 100 | .235 | 17 | 1942 | 24 | PHA | AL | 30 | 18 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 13 | 1 | 165.0 | 154 | 78 | 70 | 99 | 58 | 3.82 | 8 | 718 |
__________
(2) Fister's career record is 12-30 (.286), with a 103 ERA+. Since 1901, that's the worst W% for a starter with an ERA+ of at least 100 in at least 30 decisions:
Rk | Player | From | To | Age | G | GS | CG | SHO | GF | W | L | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | IBB | HBP | BK | WP | Tm | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Doug Fister | .286 | 103 | 42 | 2009 | 2011 | 25-27 | 60 | 59 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 30 | 0 | 378.0 | 389 | 171 | 160 | 79 | 218 | 3.81 | 31 | 1578 | 4 | 17 | 4 | 12 | SEA |
2 | Mack Allison | .300 | 103 | 30 | 1911 | 1913 | 24-26 | 45 | 27 | 17 | 1 | 12 | 9 | 21 | 1 | 246.2 | 247 | 135 | 87 | 67 | 57 | 3.17 | 4 | 988 | 11 | 1 | 9 | SLB | |
3 | Cliff Curtis | .315 | 101 | 89 | 1909 | 1913 | 27-31 | 136 | 94 | 39 | 5 | 32 | 28 | 61 | 6 | 744.2 | 707 | 393 | 274 | 317 | 236 | 3.31 | 22 | 3126 | 37 | 0 | 22 | BSN-TOT-BRO | |
4 | Rollie Naylor | .336 | 102 | 125 | 1917 | 1924 | 25-32 | 181 | 136 | 67 | 2 | 28 | 42 | 83 | 0 | 1011.0 | 1174 | 584 | 442 | 346 | 282 | 3.93 | 34 | 4364 | 17 | 2 | 22 | PHA | |
5 | Tony Saunders | .351 | 100 | 37 | 1997 | 1999 | 23-25 | 62 | 61 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 24 | 0 | 345.2 | 343 | 196 | 175 | 204 | 304 | 4.56 | 33 | 1542 | 2 | 13 | 2 | 7 | FLA-TBD |
6 | Highball Wilson | .359 | 102 | 39 | 1902 | 1904 | 23-25 | 46 | 41 | 36 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 25 | 0 | 363.2 | 405 | 184 | 128 | 66 | 85 | 3.17 | 8 | 1527 | 21 | 1 | 3 | PHA-WSH | |
7 | Bill Burns | .366 | 101 | 82 | 1908 | 1912 | 28-32 | 117 | 85 | 45 | 10 | 21 | 30 | 52 | 2 | 717.2 | 705 | 331 | 217 | 147 | 233 | 2.72 | 14 | 2846 | 38 | 7 | 11 | WSH-TOT-DET | |
8 | Scott Perry | .370 | 113 | 108 | 1915 | 1921 | 24-30 | 132 | 104 | 69 | 5 | 24 | 40 | 68 | 5 | 893.1 | 927 | 403 | 305 | 284 | 231 | 3.07 | 23 | 3706 | 14 | 2 | 13 | SLB-CHC-CIN-PHA | |
9 | Tom Poholsky | .373 | 101 | 83 | 1950 | 1957 | 20-27 | 159 | 104 | 30 | 5 | 30 | 31 | 52 | 1 | 753.2 | 791 | 381 | 329 | 192 | 316 | 3.93 | 90 | 3184 | 15 | 13 | 1 | 16 | STL-CHC |
10 | Ned Garvin | .375 | 120 | 104 | 1901 | 1904 | 27-30 | 125 | 106 | 86 | 8 | 19 | 39 | 65 | 3 | 942.1 | 874 | 474 | 283 | 301 | 432 | 2.70 | 15 | 3889 | 41 | 3 | 38 | MLA-TOT-BRO | |
11 | Ross Baumgarten | .379 | 101 | 58 | 1978 | 1982 | 23-27 | 90 | 84 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 22 | 36 | 0 | 495.1 | 492 | 246 | 220 | 211 | 222 | 4.00 | 43 | 2133 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 21 | CHW-PIT |
12 | Elmer Ponder | .386 | 105 | 44 | 1917 | 1921 | 24-28 | 69 | 42 | 20 | 3 | 19 | 17 | 27 | 0 | 378.2 | 395 | 173 | 135 | 72 | 113 | 3.21 | 11 | 1582 | 9 | 0 | 13 | PIT-TOT | |
13 | Eddie Smith | .392 | 108 | 186 | 1936 | 1947 | 22-33 | 282 | 197 | 91 | 8 | 60 | 73 | 113 | 12 | 1595.2 | 1554 | 816 | 678 | 739 | 694 | 3.82 | 106 | 6973 | 33 | 1 | 34 | PHA-TOT-CHW | |
14 | Tom Cheney | .396 | 104 | 48 | 1957 | 1966 | 22-31 | 115 | 71 | 13 | 8 | 21 | 19 | 29 | 2 | 466.0 | 382 | 224 | 195 | 245 | 345 | 3.77 | 53 | 1981 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 15 | STL-PIT-TOT-WSA |
15 | Bob Weiland | .397 | 100 | 156 | 1928 | 1940 | 22-34 | 277 | 179 | 66 | 7 | 47 | 62 | 94 | 7 | 1388.1 | 1463 | 794 | 654 | 611 | 614 | 4.24 | 85 | 6150 | 37 | 5 | 13 | CHW-BOS-TOT-SLB-STL | |
16 | Jeremy Guthrie | .404 | 105 | 104 | 2004 | 2011 | 25-32 | 166 | 143 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 42 | 62 | 0 | 949.2 | 944 | 472 | 441 | 279 | 581 | 4.18 | 129 | 4023 | 11 | 44 | 3 | 17 | CLE-BAL |
(By the way, that's Ned Garvin on these lists, not our old friend Ned Garver -- although Garver is certainly one of the top "better-than-his-record" pitchers.)
(3) Fister's ERA this year in his 12 losses alone is 4.25, with an average of almost 7 IP per game. Through Tuesday, Detroit's Max Scherzer had a 4.35 ERA and averaged 6 IP per start this season -- and an 11-5 record.
Obviously, the Mariners haven't scored much for any of their pitchers over the past 2 years. But in 2010, they all in the same boat; their 4 starters who qualified for the Run Support list occupied the bottom 4 spots in AL support.
This year, Fister has gotten the short end of a very short stick. The M's have averaged 3.6 for Felix Hernandez, 3.4 for Michael Pineda and Jason Vargas -- and an AL-worst 2.4 runs per 9 innings in Fister's starts. John Danks (2.8) is the only other AL pitcher getting less than 3 runs per game.
The sad part is that Fister's MLB performance has been better than any reasonable expectations. In the minors, he was 23-31 with a 4.38 ERA in over 400 IP, allowing 10.3 H/9. His big-league marks are all better -- 3.81 ERA, 9.3 H/9, an outstanding 1.9 BB/9 and a strong HR rate of 0.7 HR/9. But the W-L results have been far worse.
July 27th, 2011 at 10:45 pm
Glad someeone finally posted about this. It's tough to talk about this without mentioning that in one of the games, Fister allowed only one run on a Cameron Maybin walk. It was discovered later that Maybin should have only had 3 balls on him. So Fister lost 1-0 with the only scored run coming on a 3 ball walk. About as tough of a loss as you can take as a pitcher right there.
July 27th, 2011 at 10:47 pm
i wonder if his luck is the reason behind highball wilson's nickname
July 27th, 2011 at 11:02 pm
@2, Zuke -- Funny!
But considering the off-color puns made on "Doug Fister" in a recent blog, perhaps we should allow for a cooling-off period before deciding on his nickname.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/13140#comment-130368
July 27th, 2011 at 11:30 pm
In terms of WAR, the only player more valuable than Fister (2.8 WAR) on the M's is Felix (2.9 WAR). Right behind him is Brendan Ryan (2.5 WAR), mostly because of his defense. Fister has been fantastic this year but his run support over the last two years is simply a mystery. Its not like he's always being matched up against the best pitchers in the game either. Luck can be such a strange thing.
July 27th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Hmm. Ross Baumgarten. Never thought of him as a hard luck pitcher. People talk a lot about the 1980 Oakland staff - young and good but burned out fast. How about the 1979 White Sox. 5 guys 27 and under, 4 out of 5 with ERA+ > 110, ERA .530 (all with Rich Wortham as the odd man out). They were primed to be a dominant staff in the 80s, but what happened. Remaining career wins: Barrios-2, Wortham-4, Kravec-5, Baumgarten-7. Only Steve Trout had any kind of a career, winning 74 games over the next 10 years. What the heck happened? How did it all fall apart so fast? Anyone remember?
July 27th, 2011 at 11:41 pm
List of stats for '79 should read; ERA+ > 110, ERA .530.
July 27th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Clearly my string of symbols in being interpreted somehow. One more time
ERA+ greater than 10
ERA less than 3.90
WPct greater than .530
July 27th, 2011 at 11:52 pm
@5, Tristram -- You could throw Britt Burns into that mix, too; he burst on the scene in 1980, had a 140 ERA+ for 1980-81 combined, but was out of the game by age 26.
There's a lot of luck involved in keeping young pitchers healthy.
July 28th, 2011 at 12:03 am
if you look at ned garvin's stats (and i'm sure some others), he gave up an unusual amount of unearned runs. at his time the normal er/r was like 0.7, but he had only half or less in a couple of seasons. i remember because i did a best pitcher thing and he won the year 1900 with a losing record and i looked at his stats again. these things usually work themselves out like that.
July 28th, 2011 at 12:17 am
Fister has 2.8 WAR and only three wins. Even though we all know wins are a junk stat for pitchers, that's astounding. Has any starting pitcher ever gone a whole year in which his WAR > W ? I imagine that high-value modern closers might be able to do this because they're usually given a different junk stat (saves) for dominant performance... but a starter?
July 28th, 2011 at 12:24 am
@9, Jason -- It's always good to look at unearned runs when a W-L record is way out of line with the ERA. That's not a factor for Fister, though; he's allowed just 11 UER in 378 IP -- a little below average, I think.
July 28th, 2011 at 12:33 am
@10, Nightfly -- Good question.
-- No qualifying pitcher ever had more WAR than Wins. Fister's ratio would be the most extreme ever.
-- The lowest ratio of WAR to Wins in a full qualifying season was 0.85 (3.4 WAR, 4 wins) by Eddie Smith of the '37 Phillies.
-- The lowest ratio in a 200-IP season was 0.82 (4.9 WAR, 6 wins) by Joey Hamilton of the '95 Padres. Hamilton tossed 204 IP in 30 starts with a 3.08 ERA, 132 ERA+, but went 6-9.
July 28th, 2011 at 12:35 am
@Nightfly
Someone with the Play Index need to look into that, I'd be shocked if it were so.
July 28th, 2011 at 12:36 am
@10, 12
I took a slightly different approach than John.
2 pitchers have made at least 20 starts in a season and had WAR>=W, both are named Ross: Baumgarten in 1980 and Ohlendorf last season.
Here are the players with WAR>=W sorted by # of starts:
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/SqhVU
July 28th, 2011 at 12:43 am
You could throw Britt Burns into that mix, too; he burst on the scene in 1980, had a 140 ERA+ for 1980-81 combined, but was out of the game by age 26.
Right after being traded to the Yanks....sigh....
if you look at ned garvin's stats (and i'm sure some others), he gave up an unusual amount of unearned runs.
Yup, I think that's part of the reason most of these seasons are from many years ago, when there were more UER and ERA tells us a bit less about a pitcher's actual performance.
July 28th, 2011 at 12:47 am
@5 Tristam
I think you're looking at this the wrong way. The '79 White Sox staff was hardly primed to be a dominant force. NONE of those guys were strikeout pitchers and it's hard to be dominant if you're not striking batters out. In fact, Baumgarten managed to have a fairly decent season in '79 despite walking more batters than he struck out. (BTW, Steve Trout, later in his career, would have 4 straight seasons with more walks than strikeouts which is pretty hard to do).
Anyway, the question in my mind is along the lines of "How did a staff of four generally mediocre pitchers all manage to put together decent seasons during the same year?"
July 28th, 2011 at 3:36 am
Zambrano - 6+ strong, 2 ER, got a hit!
July 28th, 2011 at 7:20 am
@8 JA - if you open it up to '80, you'd have to include Richard Dotson and LaMarr Hoyt, as well, who both had real careers. I guess as a group of 8, having 3 fully develop seems like a reasonable number.
@16 Ed - completely agree. However, I was remembering back to the sentiment in '79 - which was a pre-Bill James world where much of that wasn't known.
Overall, I am most surprised at how fast the 4 young starters from the '79 staff flamed out - it was almost overnight.
July 28th, 2011 at 8:21 am
@18 Tristram
Gotcha. I was only 10 years old in 1979 so have no particular recollections of the White Sox pitching staff. All I can do is look back on their pitching records. BTW, I mentioned that Baumgarten had more walks than strikeouts in 1979; the same was true of Barrios. And Kravec and Trout weren't far off. I just think it's really hard to sustain success when you're walking as many (or more) batters than you're striking out.
July 28th, 2011 at 8:27 am
As a side note to my last comment, in looking at the White Sox staff from 1979, I would have assumed that they were last in the AL in strikeouts. But they weren't. There were 3 teams that stuck out even fewer batters than the White Sox. In fact, the staff with the most strikeouts in 1979 was the California Angles with 820 (which was mostly fueled by Nolan Ryan). Here's the thing....the team with the FEWEST strikeouts last year was the Cleveland Indians with 967. I knew strikeouts had been increasing but that's pretty amazing. The staff that had the most strikeouts in 1979 would have placed dead last in 2010, even though they had Nolan Ryan pitching for them.
July 28th, 2011 at 10:47 am
On the other hand there's Alfredo Aceves, who has a career record of 20-2. I know wins and losses don't mean much to a reliever, and he's actually pitched very well for excellent teams (NYY, BOS), but still, this is amazing.
July 28th, 2011 at 10:49 am
One more thought on the stats I saw for Doug Fister this year. I see he's thrown three complete games, and lost them all. What's the record for the most complete games by a pitcher in a season where they didn't win any of the games?
July 28th, 2011 at 11:26 am
@22
Scott, I assume your question means most complete games where the pitcher loses instead of getting a no-decision. If not, then all the rain-shortened tie games get included.
Jim Tobin, pitching for Boston in 1942, holds the record with 16 losing, complete games. A big fat 0-16 for his efforts.
Three others are tied with 15 complete games, during the years 1928-32.
Since 1990, Melido Perez went 0-8 in such games in 1992, Jack McDowell 0-7 in the same year and Jack Morris 0-7 in 1990.
Complete list here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/shareit/MiGBk
July 28th, 2011 at 11:36 am
Most of the pitchers on the second list are pretty forgettable, with the exception of Jeremy Guthrie.
So, Doug Hard-Luck Fister, may be unique in his career in the sense that he may well be the best pitcher on the list, although it remains to be seen how the rest of his career will play out.
He is young to be the victim of such poor run support. I wonder how long a pitcher can go like this before it starts to mess with his head?
July 28th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
This should at least earn him a cool nickname, like "Black Cat" or "Broken Mirror" or "Friday the 13th"
July 28th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Topper009 -- I see him more as "The Orphan". Or maybe "Home Alone".
Or ... "Foster Child" Fister?
July 28th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
#23
Jim Tobin won 7 of his complete games in 1942, I am not sure how to search for just losses in complete games.
July 28th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
@27
Troy, just check off the "loss" button"on the Play Index search page under the "Pitcher Decision" section, in addition to, of course, the complete game button.
That should limit the search to just games the pitcher lost, along with whatever other criteria you have set.
July 28th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Sounds like Seattle has another potential Cy Young award winner this year.
July 28th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Foster Fister has a nice ring to it. If you like the orphan angle you could go with Oliver Twist, I think a certain common poster here would like that name, or go the Home Alone route and call him Macaulay.
Really too bad he is being associated with bad luck because of course a more "natural" nickname would be something like "Old Lady" or "Five Fingers"
July 28th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Another funky thing about the '79 White Sox starters - the top four were left-handed. Frankie Barrios only started 15 games that year, so if they would have brought up Britt Burns and thrown him in the rotation they could have had an entire left-handed rotation.
July 28th, 2011 at 1:43 pm
@31, Ray -- The '83 Yankees did have an all-lefty rotation: Ron Guidry, Dave Righetti, Shane Rawley, Ray Fontenot, Bob Shirley. Their 127 starts by LHPs is the most since 1919.
The '79 ChiSox were 3rd with 116.
The '75 ChiSox were 2nd with 124. Wood, Kaat and Osteen accounted for 121 of those.
July 28th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Thanks for the assist, Raphy! Confirms my suspicion that it would be insanely difficult to accomplish (if that's the correct word here).
As an honorable mention from your list, Hoyt Wilhelm's 1958 - he made only ten starts (the first of his career) but pitched 131 innings, comparable to Baumgarten (136 IP) and far more than Ohlendorf (108.1 IP). Wilhelm had 3.7 WAR (the most of anyone on this list) but only 3 wins. And immediately following him is Lee Smith, making the final five starts of his career. He threw 117 innings for the Cubbies in 1982, and had 3 WAR but only 2 wins.
(The next year Smith pitched exclusively in relief, had 103.1 IP, and 4.5 WAR but only 4 wins. It makes me think that it's really tough to rack up wins above replacement if you're a reliever, especially a modern 3-out closer in the LaRussan mold. You simply can't get innings the way the 60's and 70's firemen could.)
July 28th, 2011 at 7:32 pm
@33, one of those ten starts Wilhelm made in 1958 was a no-hitter against the Yankees.
July 28th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Speaking of bad-luck pitchers, you have to mention Randy Johnson in '99. From June 25, to July 15, he made 5 starts all 7+ IP, for 40 IP and 1.13 ERA. He struck out 62 and gave up only 25 hits - but went 0-4.
In the first 4 games, the D-backs were No-hit, 1-hit, 2-hit, 3 hit, all shutouts. On his fifth start, his team mustered up 5 hits and 2 runs. He left in the 8th winning 2-0, but Matt Mantei gave up 3 runs in .2 innings.
And then there is Nolan Ryan in '87, who led the league in SO and ERA but finished only 8-16. I thought he might be in contention for the WAR > W, but I guess his BBs kept his WAR to only 5.5.
July 28th, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Yeah, Duke, but the Big Unit still got the Cy Young Award in '99.
July 28th, 2011 at 9:13 pm
[...] • Seattle Mariners pitcher Doug Fister is one of the Tigers’ rumored trade targets. If you’re looking at Fister’s 3-12 record and thinking he’d be a terrible pick-up, consider how little run support he’s received. In 16 of Fister’s 21 starts this season, the Mariners’ lineup has scored two or fewer runs. His ERA is 3.33 this season. That’s among the reasons why Seattle may want to keep him. [Baseball-Reference] [...]
July 28th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
@Gerry - wow. I had no idea that Hoyt's no-hitter was in there. Makes it even cooler.
July 29th, 2011 at 3:17 pm
What's the record for the most complete games by a pitcher in a season where they didn't win any of the games?
Messed around with the PI a little bit, and from what I can tell the answer is five, by Jeff Weaver (2001 Angels) and Curt Fullerton (2-15 record with the 1923 Red Sox). Nine other pitchers lost all four CGs that they threw,
Note: The stat line on Fullerton's main B-Ref page says he pitched six complete games in 1923, but his 1923 Game Log shows only five CGs.
July 30th, 2011 at 5:11 am
Even the greatest pitchers need an offense. Seattle has but one player hitting over .300. It's not a pitching problem in Seattle. It's bats.
July 30th, 2011 at 9:10 pm
[...] games. But the Mariners’ lineup has supposing a rapist miss of run support. In 16 of his 21 starts [...]
July 31st, 2011 at 6:57 am
[...] has an unimpressive 3-12 this season for the Mariners. But his ERA is 3.33, and he’s received terrible run support from the Seattle lineup this year. In 16 of Fister’s 21 starts, the Mariners have scored two [...]
July 31st, 2011 at 11:07 am
It's been a tough year for Doug Fister, but also for Dustin Moseley of the San Diego Padres. He also meets the same criteria of WPct 100. The season started out rough as Moseley allowed four runs in his first three starts and the Padres scored zero, yes zero, runs. It is all about bats and as somebody mentioned in an earlier response, the Mariners only have one .300 batter. The Padres also only have only one .300 batter, but unfortunately he is playing first base for the Red Sox this year. And to the responder who lamented the 3-ball walk that beat Fister, trust me, it was about the only lucky moment the Padres have had all year. Let the dogs enjoy just that one little bone.