This is our old blog. It hasn't been active since 2011. Please see the link above for our current blog or click the logo above to see all of the great data and content on this site.

Best and Worst Winning Percentage by a Hall of Famer vs. a single team

Posted by Sean Forman on September 6, 2007

A reader asked, so I'll post the answer here.

Minimum of 10 decisions.

| name_common    | split_name | W    | L    | WP    |
+----------------+------------+------+------+-------+
| Sandy Koufax   | NYM        |   17 |    2 | 0.895 |
| Sandy Koufax   | HOU        |   14 |    2 | 0.875 |
| Jim Bunning    | TEX        |   10 |    2 | 0.833 |
| Gaylord Perry  | SDP        |   14 |    3 | 0.824 |
| Gaylord Perry  | BOS        |   22 |    5 | 0.815 |
| Whitey Ford    | TEX        |   13 |    3 | 0.813 |
| Don Drysdale   | NYM        |   24 |    6 | 0.800 |
| Hoyt Wilhelm   | CLE        |   14 |    4 | 0.778 |
| Warren Spahn   | CHC        |   24 |    7 | 0.774 |
| Tom Seaver     | SDP        |   33 |   10 | 0.767 |
| Juan Marichal  | NYM        |   26 |    8 | 0.765 |
| Fergie Jenkins | PHI        |   26 |    8 | 0.765 |
| Bob Gibson     | SDP        |   13 |    4 | 0.765 |
| Fergie Jenkins | SDP        |   13 |    4 | 0.765 |
| Tom Seaver     | ATL        |   32 |   10 | 0.762 |
| Nolan Ryan     | CHC        |   16 |    5 | 0.762 |
| Whitey Ford    | CLE        |   21 |    7 | 0.750 |
| Don Sutton     | CLE        |    9 |    3 | 0.750 |
| Phil Niekro    | KCR        |    9 |    3 | 0.750 |
| Juan Marichal  | CHC        |   23 |    8 | 0.742 |

The worst

| name_common      | split_name | W    | L    | WP    |
+------------------+------------+------+------+-------+
| Robin Roberts    | LAD        |    5 |   16 | 0.238 |
| Gaylord Perry    | MIL        |    5 |   12 | 0.294 |
| Nolan Ryan       | HOU        |    3 |    7 | 0.300 |
| Bruce Sutter     | PIT        |    3 |    7 | 0.300 |
| Phil Niekro      | TEX        |    3 |    7 | 0.300 |
| Hoyt Wilhelm     | BOS        |    7 |   16 | 0.304 |
| Early Wynn       | NYY        |    8 |   18 | 0.308 |
| Rollie Fingers   | MIN        |    5 |   11 | 0.313 |
| Jim Bunning      | STL        |    5 |   11 | 0.313 |
| Jim Bunning      | CHC        |    6 |   12 | 0.333 |
| Robin Roberts    | PIT        |    8 |   15 | 0.348 |
| Gaylord Perry    | KCR        |    9 |   16 | 0.360 |
| Dennis Eckersley | TEX        |    9 |   16 | 0.360 |
| Early Wynn       | DET        |    7 |   12 | 0.368 |
| Nolan Ryan       | BAL        |   10 |   17 | 0.370 |
| Tom Seaver       | CIN        |   12 |   20 | 0.375 |
| Dennis Eckersley | NYY        |    9 |   15 | 0.375 |
| Robin Roberts    | SFG        |    9 |   15 | 0.375 |
| Fergie Jenkins   | PIT        |   14 |   23 | 0.378 |
| Nolan Ryan       | OAK        |   11 |   18 | 0.379 |

3 Responses to “Best and Worst Winning Percentage by a Hall of Famer vs. a single team”

  1. jackfish Says:

    I'm a bit curious as to Don Sutton's WP against the Cubs. Didn't he lose 13 consecutive games to them in the mid-late 1960s?

    Jack

  2. spartanbill Says:

    That's the first thing I thought of when I saw the topis also, so I looked it up.

    He lost his first 13 decisions against them 66-71, didn;t face them in 72 and beat them in 73.

    In spite of that horrendous start his lifetime record V the Cubs was actually 18-20.

  3. admin Says:

    Jack,

    If you look at the pitcher's career splits, these are all listed there.