David Wells
Posted by Andy on August 25, 2007
David Wells will shortly start his 12th tour of duty with a major league team. That's 2 each with Toronto, New York, and San Diego (putting him in the Jeff Conine club), and one with Detroit, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Chicago (AL), Boston, and now Los Angeles.
I think there is a lot to like about Wells, both as a pitcher and as a candid person who is not afraid to take responsibility or make justifiable accusations about existing problems with MLB. But I have to say, Wells looks quite classless in this article (link via MLBTradeRumors.com.) I don't care what kind of person you are. Replacing another player at his job and then making fun of him while he effectively cleans out his desk is one of the crassest things I have ever heard.
But anyway, this blog is about stats, so let's look at some data about David Wells:
I'm just going to focus on data we can find looking at Wells' pitcher vs batter page and his splits page.
Let's look at the guys Wells has faced the most (most PAs):
**PA** AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss +-----------------+-------+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+ Edgar Martinez 85 77 24 2 0 4 11 7 11 .312 .365 .494 .859 0 1 1 0 1 Bernie Williams 85 79 16 2 0 3 8 5 13 .203 .247 .342 .589 0 1 0 0 2 Ken Griffey 83 78 22 4 1 8 15 4 13 .282 .325 .667 .992 0 0 0 1 1 Chili Davis 79 74 26 6 0 7 19 5 16 .351 .392 .716 1.108 0 0 1 0 2 Rafael Palmeiro 79 76 13 6 0 1 10 2 8 .171 .203 .289 .492 0 0 1 1 0 Ruben Sierra 79 75 23 5 0 2 10 4 10 .307 .342 .453 .795 0 0 2 0 1 Alex Rodriguez 77 74 25 5 0 8 18 3 15 .338 .364 .730 1.094 0 0 1 0 2 Mo Vaughn 76 66 30 0 0 9 18 7 16 .455 .526 .864 1.390 0 0 0 3 1
80-some PAs against one batter is not too high of a total for a guy who has been around as long as Wells, but he's switched between leagues and teams so much that he couldn't really build up a lot of stats against particular other players. Just the fact the Bernie Williams is tied for most PAs against Wells but they were teammates for 4 years tells you all you need to know.
That being said, Mo Vaughn, Chili Davis, A-rod, and Griffey have some truly scary numbers against Wells. Those are some high OPS values (especially for Vaughn.)
Here are all the guys with at least a 1.000 OPS career vs. Wells, minimum 25 PAs:
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG **OPS** SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss +-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+ Luis Gonzalez 31 29 13 2 0 4 9 1 2 .448 .484 .931 1.415 0 0 0 1 0 Mo Vaughn 76 66 30 0 0 9 18 7 16 .455 .526 .864 1.390 0 0 0 3 1 Barry Bonds 25 22 8 2 0 3 6 3 2 .364 .440 .864 1.304 0 0 0 0 0 Cecil Fielder 32 25 8 0 0 4 10 7 6 .320 .469 .800 1.269 0 0 1 0 0 Frank Thomas 71 59 21 6 1 6 15 12 10 .356 .465 .797 1.262 0 0 4 0 0 Albert Belle 63 56 21 6 0 6 11 5 9 .375 .429 .804 1.233 0 1 2 1 0 Vernon Wells 31 30 13 4 0 2 5 1 2 .433 .452 .767 1.219 0 0 0 0 2 Gary Gaetti 27 24 6 0 0 5 9 2 2 .250 .296 .875 1.171 0 1 1 0 0 Shea Hillenbrand 45 45 21 5 0 1 4 0 4 .467 .467 .644 1.111 0 0 0 0 2 Chili Davis 79 74 26 6 0 7 19 5 16 .351 .392 .716 1.108 0 0 1 0 2 Marquis Grissom 26 25 11 2 0 1 5 1 2 .440 .462 .640 1.102 0 0 0 0 0 Alex Rodriguez 77 74 25 5 0 8 18 3 15 .338 .364 .730 1.094 0 0 1 0 2 Billy Ripken 25 22 8 3 0 1 1 3 0 .364 .440 .636 1.076 0 0 1 0 0 Ron Karkovice 26 22 7 0 0 3 6 1 5 .318 .333 .727 1.060 2 1 0 0 0 Gerald Williams 45 40 13 2 1 3 5 4 5 .325 .400 .650 1.050 0 0 0 1 1 Russ Davis 32 30 9 1 1 3 6 2 7 .300 .344 .700 1.044 0 0 0 0 0 Mark McGwire 39 32 10 1 0 3 12 6 6 .313 .410 .625 1.035 0 1 0 0 0 Miguel Tejada 49 48 16 2 0 5 10 1 6 .333 .347 .688 1.035 0 0 0 0 2 Chad Curtis 47 39 14 3 1 1 6 7 7 .359 .468 .564 1.032 0 0 0 1 1 Danny Tartabull 41 38 11 3 0 4 8 3 9 .289 .341 .684 1.025 0 0 0 0 0 Sandy Alomar 30 29 12 2 0 1 3 1 5 .414 .433 .586 1.019 0 0 1 0 0 Robin Yount 28 22 8 2 1 0 6 5 4 .364 .464 .545 1.009 0 1 2 0 0 Ivan Rodriguez 65 60 21 4 0 4 10 4 12 .350 .385 .617 1.002 0 1 2 0 2
This is a real trip down memory lane, huh? So many of these names are unsurprising, but then you see fellows like Billy Ripken, Ron Karkovice, and Chad Curtis. I guess all pitchers have certain batters like this who hit was over their career averages against them.
Most homers off Wells, also an unsurprising list:
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+------+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+ Mo Vaughn 76 66 30 0 0 9 18 7 16 .455 .526 .864 1.390 0 0 0 3 1 Ken Griffey 83 78 22 4 1 8 15 4 13 .282 .325 .667 .992 0 0 0 1 1 Alex Rodriguez 77 74 25 5 0 8 18 3 15 .338 .364 .730 1.094 0 0 1 0 2 Chili Davis 79 74 26 6 0 7 19 5 16 .351 .392 .716 1.108 0 0 1 0 2 Albert Belle 63 56 21 6 0 6 11 5 9 .375 .429 .804 1.233 0 1 2 1 0 Frank Thomas 71 59 21 6 1 6 15 12 10 .356 .465 .797 1.262 0 0 4 0 0 Gary Gaetti 27 24 6 0 0 5 9 2 2 .250 .296 .875 1.171 0 1 1 0 0 Juan Gonzalez 68 63 18 3 0 5 13 5 11 .286 .338 .571 .909 0 0 2 0 0 Miguel Tejada 49 48 16 2 0 5 10 1 6 .333 .347 .688 1.035 0 0 0 0 2
And against current HOFers:
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG **OPS** SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss +-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+ Robin Yount 28 22 8 2 1 0 6 5 4 .364 .464 .545 1.009 0 1 2 0 0 Dave Winfield 39 36 11 1 0 3 6 3 3 .306 .359 .583 .942 0 0 0 0 3 Paul Molitor 51 47 16 6 0 1 5 4 5 .340 .392 .532 .924 0 0 0 0 1 Eddie Murray 22 20 5 1 0 2 5 2 3 .250 .318 .600 .918 0 0 0 0 0 George Brett 21 20 7 1 1 0 4 1 1 .350 .381 .500 .881 0 0 1 0 0 Wade Boggs 38 34 7 1 0 2 5 4 5 .206 .289 .412 .701 0 0 0 0 0 Tony Gwynn 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333 .666 0 0 0 0 1 Cal Ripken 59 57 13 2 0 3 9 1 4 .228 .254 .421 .675 0 0 1 1 2 Kirby Puckett 33 29 6 1 0 1 3 4 6 .207 .303 .345 .648 0 0 0 0 1 Ozzie Smith 8 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 .286 .286 .286 .572 1 0 0 0 0 Carlton Fisk 9 9 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 .111 .111 .111 .222 0 0 0 0 0
And yes, you sticklers, I manually added in Gwynn and Ripken since they don't yet show up as HOFers in the database.
Career players with a sub-.500 OPS versus Wells, minimum 25 PAs:
PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG **OPS** SH SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss +-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+ Benji Gil 25 22 2 0 0 0 1 1 3 .091 .167 .091 .258 1 0 0 1 0 Omar Vizquel 67 61 7 0 0 1 3 3 9 .115 .154 .164 .318 2 1 0 0 0 Harold Reynolds 29 27 4 0 0 0 1 1 5 .148 .172 .148 .320 0 1 0 0 0 Toby Hall 26 24 4 0 0 0 2 0 0 .167 .154 .167 .321 0 2 0 0 2 Tino Martinez 37 35 6 1 0 0 2 0 8 .171 .189 .200 .389 0 1 0 1 2 Greg Gagne 25 22 3 1 0 0 1 2 5 .136 .208 .182 .390 1 0 0 0 0 Damon Buford 25 21 2 0 0 1 3 2 5 .095 .167 .238 .405 1 1 0 0 0 Marty Cordova 37 36 6 2 0 0 1 1 7 .167 .189 .222 .411 0 0 0 0 1 Jody Reed 30 27 4 1 0 0 1 3 1 .148 .233 .185 .418 0 0 0 0 1 Henry Cotto 29 27 5 1 0 0 1 1 6 .185 .207 .222 .429 0 1 0 0 0 Matt Lawton 36 34 6 2 0 0 7 2 1 .176 .222 .235 .457 0 0 0 0 0 Lance Johnson 30 30 6 0 1 0 2 0 3 .200 .200 .267 .467 0 0 0 0 0 Pat Meares 28 27 6 1 0 0 2 0 5 .222 .214 .259 .473 0 1 0 0 1 Rich Amaral 47 41 7 3 0 0 2 4 6 .171 .239 .244 .483 1 1 0 0 0 Jeff Cirillo 28 26 6 0 0 0 2 1 1 .231 .259 .231 .490 1 0 0 0 0 Rafael Palmeiro 79 76 13 6 0 1 10 2 8 .171 .203 .289 .492 0 0 1 1 0
Rafael Palmerio? Really? Wow. I also see a bunch of Mariners on that list. Let's see about his career performance against specific teams:
Split G GS GF W L S CG SHO IP ERA H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP +-+------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+------+------+----+----+----+---+----+---+----+---+ Inter-League 31 31 0 15 7 0 3 2 212.2 2.79 205 76 66 18 27 1 147 9 ANA 51 31 8 16 11 1 3 0 226.1 5.25 237 136 132 36 62 7 152 8 ARI 11 11 0 4 2 0 0 0 65.2 4.93 77 37 36 8 13 1 36 1 BAL 46 34 5 17 13 1 5 0 246.1 3.87 256 112 106 28 40 2 132 8 BOS 50 37 2 14 20 0 2 0 261.1 4.86 306 146 141 38 68 2 165 8 CHW 34 23 6 8 8 1 3 0 157.1 4.58 184 94 80 27 49 11 95 2 CLE 41 30 6 20 4 1 2 0 216.2 3.78 237 102 91 26 37 5 138 3 DET 43 25 4 14 8 1 2 0 201.1 4.60 228 109 103 21 43 2 144 4 KCR 32 23 3 16 3 1 3 0 168 3.11 148 60 58 8 28 3 108 3 MIL 26 14 6 9 5 1 2 2 111 4.14 109 54 51 6 29 5 62 4 MIN 38 25 7 19 6 0 8 3 200.1 2.34 172 58 52 14 31 1 132 2 NYY 45 32 5 19 11 2 5 0 244.2 3.09 222 96 84 26 49 2 175 7 OAK 36 24 4 10 8 2 4 2 161.1 4.69 176 87 84 23 45 3 128 8 SEA 44 29 4 11 11 1 3 0 207.1 4.47 210 112 103 34 49 3 132 2 TBD 18 18 0 10 2 0 4 1 115.2 2.80 120 41 36 11 14 0 71 4 TEX 41 29 5 10 10 1 2 2 202.2 4.75 229 124 107 33 45 6 127 4 TOR 20 20 0 5 10 0 0 0 130 5.82 157 86 84 10 27 2 90 4
These are the teams he appeared in at least 11 games against. From a W-L perspective, he's done best vs Cleveland (20-4), Kansas City (16-3), and Tampa Bay (10-2.) Against Seattle he's just 11-11 with a 4.47 ERA. He's also got some nice numbers vs Minnesota (2.34 ERA over 200.1 innings with 31 BB and 132 Ks.)
Interestingly, he also has much better numbers against the Yankees than he does against the Red Sox. Maybe that's the real reason why Steinbrenner always wanted him on the Yankees. Or maybe it was because of this:
How about Wells' overall postseason record:
W-L G GS ERA W L SV CG IP H ER BB SO
8-9 27 17 3.17 10 5 0 1 125 116 44 25 83
Just to clarify, his teams went 8-9 in the series, while he himself went 10-5. Those are some mighty impressive numbers for the playoffs. He was a member of two World Series winners: the 1992 Blue Jays and the 1998 Yankees.
And finally, we would be remiss if we didn't mention that Wells has had an extremely low walk rate in his career. How low? Let's throw in one PI Pitching Season Finder here. Lowest BB/9 rates, minimum 3000 IP:
Cnt Player **BB/9** IP From To Ages G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF IBB HBP BK WP Teams
+----+-----------------+---------+------+----+----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+-----+---+----+----+----+----+----+------+----+---+-----+---+---+---+---+-----------+
1 Cy Young 1.12 3313 1901 1911 34-44 401 369 331 44 28 225 146 .606 9 2900 1119 779 413 1563 2.12 137 44 13009 77 1 54 BOS-CLE-TOT
2 Christy Mathewson 1.56 4747 1901 1916 20-35 629 550 433 79 70 373 185 .668 28 4181 1584 1114 824 2487 2.11 136 90 18978 55 6 113 NYG-TOT
3 Pete Alexander 1.65 5190 1911 1930 24-43 696 599 437 90 80 373 208 .642 32 4868 1851 1476 951 2198 2.56 135 164 20928 70 1 39 PHI-CHC-TOT-STL-PHI
4 Robin Roberts 1.73 4688.2 1948 1966 21-39 676 609 305 45 49 286 245 .539 25 4582 1962 1774 902 2357 3.41 113 505 19174 69 54 3 33 PHI-BAL-TOT
5 Greg Maddux 1.82 4771 1986 2007 20-41 703 699 109 35 3 342 212 .617 0 4467 1852 1641 965 3252 3.10 135 329 19430 172 130 26 66 CHC-ATL-TOT-SDP
6 Juan Marichal 1.82 3507.1 1960 1975 22-37 471 457 244 52 11 243 142 .631 2 3153 1329 1126 709 2303 2.89 122 320 14236 82 40 20 51 SFG-BOS-LAD
7 Carl Hubbell 1.82 3590.1 1928 1943 25-40 535 431 260 36 82 253 154 .622 33 3461 1380 1188 725 1677 2.98 130 227 14805 53 1 53 NYG
8 Lew Burdette 1.84 3067.1 1950 1967 23-40 626 373 158 33 128 203 144 .585 31 3186 1400 1246 628 1074 3.66 98 289 12745 63 56 7 23 NYY-BSN-MLN-TOT-CAL
9 David Wells 1.88 3400.1 1987 2007 24-44 653 482 54 12 65 235 156 .601 13 3590 1679 1556 710 2182 4.12 108 402 14251 64 83 17 101 TOR-DET-TOT-BAL-NYY-TOR-CHW-NYY-SDP-BOS-TOT-SDP
10 Paul Derringer 1.88 3645 1931 1945 24-38 579 445 251 32 98 223 212 .513 29 3912 1652 1401 761 1507 3.46 108 158 15391 32 2 50 STL-TOT-CIN-CHC
That's a very impressive list. The only contemporary who beats him is Maddux, and if they both pitched 200 innings, Maddux would have just 12 fewer walks than Wells.
Also, I wrote this whole article in past tense as if his career is over, but it's not. Let's eee how long he keeps on keepin' on.