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Two seasons with 50+ IP and WHIP under 0.8

Posted by Andy on September 20, 2007

Just one pitcher in history has 2 seasons with at least 50 IP and a WHIP under 0.8, but another one has a chance to do it this year.

Can you name these two pitchers? Click through for the answers.

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Jonathan Papelbon 2006 2007 25-26       2 Ind. Seasons                   
 Dennis Eckersley  1989 1990 34-35       2 Ind. Seasons                   
 Takashi Saito     2007 2007 37-37       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 J.J. Putz         2007 2007 30-30       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 Rafael Betancourt 2007 2007 32-32       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 Joe Nathan        2006 2006 31-31       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 Cla Meredith      2006 2006 23-23       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 Rafael Soriano    2003 2003 23-23       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 Eric Gagne        2003 2003 27-27       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 Pedro Martinez    2000 2000 28-28       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 Billy Wagner      1999 1999 27-27       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 Jeff Gray         1991 1991 28-28       1 Ind. Seasons                   
 Walter Johnson    1913 1913 25-25       1 Ind. Seasons          

Papelbon, despite giving up a grand slam last night, is still under 0.8 for the year and, having done it last year as well, has a great shot at joining HOFer Eckersley in this club.

Are you surprised that only one player before 1991 had such a season? I am.

If the IP bar is lowered just 10 in a season, a WHIP under 0.8 has still been done just 89 times.

25 Responses to “Two seasons with 50+ IP and WHIP under 0.8”

  1. OscarAzocar Says:

    While researching Joba's season I created this 1.0/1.0/1.0 list which shows what an amazing season Papelbon had last year.
    http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/Hg57

  2. Andy Says:

    Cool list, but why does it say ERA=9 at the top? I assume it should say K/9=9

  3. OscarAzocar Says:

    Whoops!
    The list is right. I must have accidentally erased the title.
    Its WHIP=9.00 sorted by IP

  4. OscarAzocar Says:

    Thats not what I typed either.

  5. OscarAzocar Says:

    WHIP=9.00
    Sorted by IP

  6. OscarAzocar Says:

    Something is really wrong with this board.

  7. OscarAzocar Says:

    WHIP less than or equal to 1.
    ERA less than or equal to 1.
    SO per 9 greater than or equal to 9
    sorted by IP.

  8. OscarAzocar Says:

    I think the "greater than" and "less than signs confuse it. Maybe HTML needs to be disabled after all.

  9. Andy Says:

    That's six unanswered comments in a row, big fella.

  10. OscarAzocar Says:

    If at first you don't succeed....
    Hey I don't get on you with your blank posts.

  11. Andy Says:

    That ain't my fault...

  12. OscarAzocar Says:

    sure...
    and I really typed WHIP=9.00 🙂

  13. Andy Says:

    It's really not my fault. There's something funky with WordPress and I've been discussing it with Sean but we can't figure it out...

  14. OscarAzocar Says:

    I understand that.
    Maybe I'm naive, but I didn't foresee the website truncating my comment.
    If I really meant to write WHIP=9.00 (twice) I would have posted this: http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/QSVK
    I don't know why anyone would want to know this, but here it is.

  15. AMusingFool Says:

    testing... WHIP < 1, ERA < 1, SO/9 >= 9

  16. OscarAzocar Says:

    WHIP = 9

  17. OscarAzocar Says:

    "less than or equal to" is what does it

  18. AMusingFool Says:

    (instead of typing <, type &lt; and instead of >, use &gt;)

  19. OscarAzocar Says:

    WHIP &lt =1, ERA &lt =1 , SO/9 &gt = 9

  20. OscarAzocar Says:

    WHIP =1, ERA =1 , SO/9 = 9

  21. OscarAzocar Says:

    Got it. Thanks. Sorry for hijacking the post.

  22. damthesehigheels Says:

    Anybody else notice Kevin Seitzer at the bottom of that list! hahaha!

  23. Andy Says:

    Seitzer was one of the greatest pitchers of his generation...(heh)

  24. vonhayes Says:

    Were you surprised because scoring has been up since the 90's? Or because of something else?

  25. Andy Says:

    Yeah, I'm surprised that anybody can achieve less than a 0.8 WHIP these days, and I'm surprised that in all those intervening years where offense was so low, that nobody did it. In fact, I'm having trouble entirely believing the search results. But I guess the issues are that A) 0.8 is a VERY small number and B) in the age of specialization, a few guys here and there have really put together amazing seasons.
    Probably the most impressive entry on that main list is Pedro, who did it while pitching a full season (217 IP) in an era of high offense.