Games without a Decision
Posted by Raphy on August 5, 2009
Arthur Rhodes has now pitched in 46 games this season without earning a decision and now stands only 2 games away from second place for most games in a season without having a record. The record is 76 games set 2 years ago by Trever Miller, whose exploits were documented on the SoTD blog. Here are the current leaders.
Cnt Player **G** Dec Year Age Tm Lg GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str +----+-----------------+-------+---+----+---+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+ 1 Trever Miller 76 0 2007 34 HOU NL 0 0 0 12 0 0 1 46.1 45 26 25 23 46 4.86 90 6 211 181 11 2 6 4 3 0 2 3 0 0 0 1 .249 .346 .431 .777 105 833 527 2 Scott Aldred 48 0 1998 30 TBD AL 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 31.1 33 13 13 12 21 3.73 127 1 135 118 7 0 3 2 3 0 7 2 1 0 0 2 .280 .356 .364 .720 86 3 Arthur Rhodes 46 0 2009 39 CIN NL 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 37.2 25 10 9 15 35 2.15 206 3 152 133 4 2 2 0 3 1 2 2 2 1 0 1 .188 .268 .316 .584 0 640 420 4 Manny Delcarmen 44 0 2007 25 BOS AL 0 0 0 5 0 0 1 44 28 11 10 17 41 2.05 232 4 176 153 1 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 0 0 0 .183 .270 .294 .564 45 704 429 5 Kelly Wunsch 43 0 2003 30 CHW AL 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 36 17 13 11 25 33 2.75 168 1 160 122 5 0 4 7 1 5 0 6 0 0 0 1 .139 .308 .205 .513 39 628 369 6 Mike Flanagan 42 0 1992 40 BAL AL 0 0 0 15 0 0 0 34.2 50 34 31 23 17 8.05 50 3 180 148 6 1 1 5 2 2 5 2 0 0 0 4 .338 .438 .453 .891 148 7 Jason Christianse 40 0 2003 33 SFG NL 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 26 25 15 15 11 22 5.19 81 3 115 103 6 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .243 .322 .427 .749 100 461 290 8 Joe Klink 40 0 1990 28 OAK AL 0 0 0 19 0 0 1 39.2 34 9 9 18 19 2.04 182 1 165 146 4 1 0 0 1 0 7 2 0 0 1 3 .233 .317 .295 .612 75 9 Larry Andersen 40 0 1982 29 SEA AL 1 0 0 14 0 0 1 79.2 100 56 53 23 32 5.99 72 16 354 322 25 1 1 4 2 3 9 4 1 2 0 2 .311 .361 .543 .904 141 10 Ron Villone 37 0 2007 37 NYY AL 0 0 0 13 0 0 0 42.1 36 20 20 18 25 4.25 105 5 176 154 2 0 3 3 0 1 8 0 0 0 0 4 .234 .324 .344 .668 77 668 414
Of course a record like this can easily disappear mid-season if a pitcher earns a decision. Here are the pitchers since 1954 who have pitched more at least as many games as Rhodes before earning their fist decision of the season.:
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Trever Miller 2007-04-06 2007-09-18 76 0 0 0 0 0 12 1 46.1 45 26 25 23 46 6 4.86 4 1 0 HOU John Smoltz 2004-04-07 2004-09-21 68 0 0 0 0 0 57 40 77 70 20 20 10 79 7 2.34 0 4 0 ATL Mike Gallo 2004-04-15 2004-09-08 60 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 45 53 26 25 18 32 12 5.00 5 2 0 HOU Armando Benitez 2002-04-01 2002-09-19 60 0 0 0 0 0 50 33 64.1 45 20 17 25 76 8 2.38 3 1 0 NYM Joe Nathan 2008-03-31 2008-08-27 57 0 0 0 0 0 48 36 57 37 7 7 13 62 4 1.11 1 2 0 MIN Ricardo Rincon 2004-04-09 2004-09-10 56 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 37.1 36 18 15 19 33 3 3.62 1 4 0 OAK Arnold Earley 1965-04-17 1965-09-24 56 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 71 74 39 29 28 45 5 3.68 3 2 1 BOS Jamie Walker 2006-04-05 2006-09-27 54 0 0 0 0 0 13 0 45.2 43 11 11 8 37 5 2.17 0 1 0 DET Rob Murphy 1991-04-11 1991-09-02 54 0 0 0 0 0 26 4 47.1 45 14 13 17 34 4 2.47 1 4 0 SEA Eric Gagne 2002-04-02 2002-08-01 50 0 0 0 0 0 44 35 52 32 12 12 6 71 5 2.08 2 0 0 LAD Ed Vande Berg 1987-04-08 1987-09-13 50 0 0 0 0 0 16 0 64 87 39 39 16 36 9 5.48 0 5 0 CLE Damaso Marte 2007-04-02 2007-08-15 49 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 37.1 26 10 8 13 42 1 1.93 2 0 1 PIT Bobby Seay 2007-04-08 2007-08-24 48 0 0 0 0 0 15 1 36.1 34 12 12 13 27 1 2.97 2 1 1 DET Scott Aldred 1998-05-16 1998-09-27 48 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 31.1 33 13 13 12 21 1 3.73 2 2 0 TBD Scott Stewart 2001-04-05 2001-08-18 47 0 0 0 0 0 6 2 37 32 16 16 11 26 3 3.89 3 1 0 MON Rich Rodriguez 1999-04-06 1999-08-27 47 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 47 49 25 25 25 34 7 4.79 1 1 0 SFG Tom Henke 1995-04-27 1995-09-09 47 0 0 0 0 0 42 33 50 39 9 9 15 43 2 1.62 0 1 0 STL Arthur Rhodes 2009-04-06 2009-08-04 46 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 38 25 10 9 15 35 3 2.13 0 1 0 FLA-CIN Mike Myers 2003-04-01 2003-07-23 46 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 26.1 29 17 17 11 13 2 5.81 4 1 0 ARI Frank Williams 1987-04-06 1987-07-12 46 0 0 0 0 0 10 1 61 57 23 19 18 37 3 2.80 1 2 0 CIN
Clearly the Rhodes ahead is still a long way to go.
August 5th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
If Rhoades goes three more games without a decision or a save (and gets none the rest of the way), he'll beat Aldred for the most pitching appearances in a season without a Win, Loss, OR Save. Pretty cool on its own merits.
Of course, six other guys had longer streaks but lost them before the end of the season, according to your second list.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
THIS IS INSANE!! How does your offense not get enough runs for you to get a win in 76 games!!!!!
August 5th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Tomepp - I didn't notice that. That's preety cool.
August 5th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
To Yankeefan25: How? You enter a lot of games when your team is already losing or winning, often by a lot. In today's ultra-specialized bullpen, it is not uncommon for a pitcher to have a specific role, like only entering ballgames in the 6th or 7th inning that your team is behind by at least two runs. If the pitcher then pitches only one inning, his team has only one shot at taking the lead (perhaps requiring at least three runs in their half of the inning) to give that pitcher the win. Of course, if the pitcher comes out before the end of the half-inning, he has no shot at a win – and if his team was already behind when he entered, he won’t get saddled with the loss, either. Of course, sometimes schedules and situations force a manager to use a pitcher out-of-character, but that doesn't guarantee a decision in those cases, either.
In the case of Rhoades, he has not pitched more than 3 outs in any of his appearances this year, and in only 5 of the 46 has he spanned more than one inning (giving his team two chances to take the lead), and 4 of those 5 he entered with his team already ahead – no chance for a win there. (In the other multi-inning appearance, he entered and left with his team tied.) He also entered the game with his team leading in 22 of his appearances (48%). In those games, he could not earn a win, and would only get a loss if he pitched poorly enough to surrender the lead (his 2.15 ERA this year suggests that he’s not prone to doing that too often). In 16 of those 22, his team led by at least 2 runs, meaning that he’d have to surrender at least 3 runs – something he has not yet done this year – to get tagged with a loss.
I counted 4 games in which he could not get a decision because he entered the game with his team behind (no chance for a loss), and did not complete the inning (no chance for a win). In 23 of the remaining 42 games, he entered the game with his team ahead, so could only pick up a loss by pitching poorly. That leaves only 19 games in which he theoretically could pick up a win, but in almost half of those (9 games), his team was behind by more than 2 runs, meaning that his team would have to score at least 3 runs in their half-inning to give Arthur the win. (In 5 of those 9, they trailed by at least 5 runs – highly unlikely to rally for that many in a single inning.)
So Rhoades has had a bit of bad luck in terms of picking up wins, but he’s only had a reasonable shot at getting a win in about 22% of his games (10 of 46 by my count).
August 5th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
One other quick note on Rhoades' appearances; he entered tie games 8 times thus far this season and completed the inning (giving him a chance to pick up a win) in 5 of them. Obviously, his team failed to take and keep the lead for him in those. In those 8 games, he surrendered a run twice – one he put on, the other was inherited. The Reds got back the run he surrendered this past Sunday in the bottom of the inning (but lost in extra innings), while the inherited runner he allowed to score back on May 23 proved to be the losing run for the Reds and saddled Dave Weathers with the loss.
August 6th, 2009 at 8:00 am
It's harder to tell, because for some reason most splits don't display holds or blown saves, but I wonder what the record is for most appearances is without a Win, Loss, Save, Hold, or Blown Save -- a true "no decision"? (Rhoades has 17 holds, Aldred had 8 holds in 1998. All the guys listed had at least 4 holds in the given season.)
Also, does anyone know why holds (and either blown saves or save opportunities) are not listed in a player's splits - either here or on mlb.com? When I want to compile monthly totals for my fantasy league players, I have to go to the players' game logs and count them manually.
It seems to me that holds and blown saves are some reasonably basic counting stats; at least as relevant as IBB or balks, or sac hits and flies (which are listed in the battig against pitcher splits). Listing saves without blown saves would be like listing wins without losses, or stolen bases without caught stealing - it's only telling a partial story.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Tomepp, holds, BS, and Save opps are all included on the pitching stat pages under "Reliever Pitching." Which also includes Leverage Index, which tells us that Rhodes has faced an average LI of 1.403. This is pretty high (third highest in the Cincy bullpen) and tells us Rhodes has been used in some big spots, making it even more surprising he hasn't earned a decision. His limited innings have prevented that, as Tomepp explained above.
August 6th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
...but they're not listed in the pitchers' splits (e.g. platoon splits, home/away, monthly, etc.) Holds are not even listed in the Game Outcome splits.