Not So Gross After All?
Posted by Steve Lombardi on November 27, 2009
Today I was wondering about which starting pitchers were consistent in terms of taking a regular turn and providing innings pitched - but who were also not stellar or terrible that season. Who did this most often? So, I turned to Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Season Finder and set the controls for:
For single seasons, from 1901 to 2009, requiring GS>=30, IP>=200, ERA+>=90 and <=110, sorted by greatest number of seasons matching criteria
and, I got this leader board:
| Rk | Yrs | To | From | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don Sutton | 9 | 1966 | 1985 | 21-40 | |
| 2 | Frank Tanana | 8 | 1974 | 1993 | 20-39 | |
| 3 | Mickey Lolich | 7 | 1965 | 1975 | 24-34 | |
| 4 | Kevin Gross | 6 | 1985 | 1993 | 24-32 | |
| 5 | Tom Browning | 6 | 1985 | 1991 | 25-31 | |
| 6 | Nolan Ryan | 6 | 1976 | 1988 | 29-41 | |
| 7 | Paul Splittorff | 6 | 1972 | 1980 | 25-33 | |
| 8 | Phil Niekro | 6 | 1970 | 1986 | 31-47 | |
| 9 | Joe Niekro | 6 | 1969 | 1985 | 24-40 | |
| 10 | Steve Carlton | 6 | 1968 | 1984 | 23-39 | |
| 11 | Bob Friend | 6 | 1956 | 1965 | 25-34 | |
| 12 | Earl Whitehill | 6 | 1924 | 1935 | 25-36 | |
| 13 | George Mullin | 6 | 1902 | 1910 | 21-29 | |
| 14 | Walt Terrell | 5 | 1984 | 1991 | 26-33 | |
| 15 | Bruce Hurst | 5 | 1983 | 1992 | 25-34 | |
| 16 | Bill Gullickson | 5 | 1982 | 1992 | 23-33 | |
| 17 | Jack Morris | 5 | 1980 | 1992 | 25-37 | |
| 18 | Rick Sutcliffe | 5 | 1979 | 1989 | 23-33 | |
| 19 | Mike Flanagan | 5 | 1977 | 1988 | 25-36 | |
| 20 | Jerry Koosman | 5 | 1974 | 1980 | 31-37 | |
| 21 | Tommy John | 5 | 1971 | 1983 | 28-40 | |
| 22 | Rudy May | 5 | 1970 | 1977 | 25-32 | |
| 23 | Rick Wise | 5 | 1969 | 1975 | 23-29 | |
| 24 | Jim Kaat | 5 | 1969 | 1976 | 30-37 | |
| 25 | Ray Culp | 5 | 1963 | 1971 | 21-29 | |
| 26 | Robin Roberts | 5 | 1949 | 1963 | 22-36 | |
| 27 | Hooks Dauss | 5 | 1914 | 1923 | 24-33 | |
| 28 | Jack Powell | 5 | 1901 | 1907 | 26-32 |
Some of the names here are the ones that you may expect. But, I didn't think Kevin Gross would be so high on the list. Anyone here that surprises you?
November 27th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Don Sutton is the ultimate compiler.
November 27th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Frank Tanana is a pretty underrated guy, I think, mainly because he hung around for a long time and many of today's fans can remember him as a fairly ineffective pitcher. But he was quite reliable and productive in his day, if not stellar on a routine basis.
Way to go with the table formatting, Steve!
November 27th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Tanana was easily the best Angel pitcher of the mid-to-late 70s which says something because Nolan Ryan was also on the staff. He got hurt, though, and lost his fastball and had to reinvent himself as a junkball pitcher who nobody could really get too excited about. Still, its impressive that he could put together so many middle-of-the-rotation, innings-eating seasons *after* losing his best pitch due to injury.
November 27th, 2009 at 11:20 am
All I know about Kevin Gross is his May 14, 1990 feat with Fernando
November 27th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
What surprises me about the list is that 24 of the 28 were active after 1960 (which on a personal level means they played recently enough that I've been able to see them). Of course, after 1960 means after expansion, and it stands to reason that more teams means more pitchers which means more mid-rotation inning eaters. I suppose 5-man rotation also works in favor of getting on the list, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised that the list is so heavily weighted toward the 1960s and beyond. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I like that Joe and Phil Niekro both had 6 such seasons.