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.
«
»

Winning While Underperforming

Posted by Raphy on December 13, 2009

Reader Ollie1000 writes,

one oddity about Gooden's career I noticed besides the fact he was a superhuman monster on the mound as a 19 and 20 year old is that in 1990 he was 19 and 7 but had an era+ of 98, does that also seem odd to you all? I wonder what the best all time record was for an era+ in double digits?

Let's take a look. Using the Pitching Season Finder, limiting our search to pitchers who qualified for the W-L % title, filtering by ERA+<=99 and sorting by W-L% yields the following results:

Rk Player W-L% ERA+ Year Tm Lg G GS W L SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA
1 Jim Coates .813 83 1960 NYY AL 35 18 13 3 1 149.1 139 78 71 66 73 4.28
2 Hooks Wiltse .813 96 1904 NYG NL 24 16 13 3 3 164.2 150 66 52 61 105 2.84
3 Paul Abbott .810 98 2001 SEA AL 28 27 17 4 0 163.0 145 79 77 87 118 4.25
4 Ed Wells .800 83 1930 NYY AL 27 21 12 3 0 150.2 185 91 87 49 46 5.20
5 Preacher Roe .786 98 1953 BRO NL 25 24 11 3 0 157.0 171 78 76 40 85 4.36
6 Eddie Rommel .786 98 1927 PHA AL 30 17 11 3 1 146.2 166 83 71 48 33 4.36
7 Mark Wohlers .778 92 1994 ATL NL 51 0 7 2 1 51.0 51 35 26 33 58 4.59
8 Bob Wickman .778 90 1993 NYY AL 41 19 14 4 4 140.0 156 82 72 69 70 4.63
9 Pete Vuckovich .778 97 1981 MIL AL 24 23 14 4 0 149.2 137 61 59 57 84 3.55
10 Lefty Gomez .774 97 1932 NYY AL 37 31 24 7 1 265.1 266 140 124 105 176 4.21
11 Willard Schmidt .769 83 1957 STL NL 40 8 10 3 0 116.2 146 67 62 49 63 4.78
12 George Pipgras .769 93 1927 NYY AL 29 21 10 3 0 166.1 148 81 76 77 81 4.11
13 Lou North .769 87 1922 STL NL 53 11 10 3 4 149.2 164 90 74 64 84 4.45
14 Bernie Boland .769 72 1916 DET AL 46 9 10 3 3 130.1 111 69 57 73 59 3.94
15 Ken Holloway .765 93 1925 DET AL 38 14 13 4 2 157.2 170 90 81 67 29 4.62
16 Jack Bentley .762 97 1924 NYG NL 28 24 16 5 1 188.0 196 85 79 56 60 3.78
17 Larry Christenson .760 99 1977 PHI NL 34 34 19 6 0 219.1 229 113 99 69 118 4.06
18 Glen Perkins .750 95 2008 MIN AL 26 26 12 4 0 151.0 183 81 74 39 74 4.41
19 Fred Norman .750 96 1975 CIN NL 34 26 12 4 0 188.0 163 85 78 84 119 3.73
20 Chuck Dobson .750 88 1971 OAK AL 30 30 15 5 0 189.0 185 84 80 71 100 3.81
21 Jose Santiago .750 98 1967 BOS AL 50 11 12 4 5 145.1 138 61 58 47 109 3.59
22 Ed Lopat .750 97 1954 NYY AL 26 23 12 4 0 170.0 189 74 67 33 54 3.55
23 Russ Meyer .750 94 1953 BRO NL 34 32 15 5 0 191.1 201 109 97 63 106 4.56
24 Firpo Marberry .750 96 1934 DET AL 38 19 15 5 3 155.2 174 92 79 48 64 4.57
25 Russ Van Atta .750 93 1933 NYY AL 26 22 12 4 1 157.0 160 81 73 63 76 4.18
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/13/2009.

.
Gooden is tied for 31st. If you limit the list to players who started at least 60% of their games, Gooden jumps to #20.

Rk Player W-L% ERA+ Year Age Tm Lg G GS W L SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA
1 Hooks Wiltse .813 96 1904 24 NYG NL 24 16 13 3 3 164.2 150 66 52 61 105 2.84
2 Paul Abbott .810 98 2001 33 SEA AL 28 27 17 4 0 163.0 145 79 77 87 118 4.25
3 Ed Wells .800 83 1930 30 NYY AL 27 21 12 3 0 150.2 185 91 87 49 46 5.20
4 Preacher Roe .786 98 1953 38 BRO NL 25 24 11 3 0 157.0 171 78 76 40 85 4.36
5 Pete Vuckovich .778 97 1981 28 MIL AL 24 23 14 4 0 149.2 137 61 59 57 84 3.55
6 Lefty Gomez .774 97 1932 23 NYY AL 37 31 24 7 1 265.1 266 140 124 105 176 4.21
7 George Pipgras .769 93 1927 27 NYY AL 29 21 10 3 0 166.1 148 81 76 77 81 4.11
8 Jack Bentley .762 97 1924 29 NYG NL 28 24 16 5 1 188.0 196 85 79 56 60 3.78
9 Larry Christenson .760 99 1977 23 PHI NL 34 34 19 6 0 219.1 229 113 99 69 118 4.06
10 Glen Perkins .750 95 2008 25 MIN AL 26 26 12 4 0 151.0 183 81 74 39 74 4.41
11 Fred Norman .750 96 1975 32 CIN NL 34 26 12 4 0 188.0 163 85 78 84 119 3.73
12 Chuck Dobson .750 88 1971 27 OAK AL 30 30 15 5 0 189.0 185 84 80 71 100 3.81
13 Ed Lopat .750 97 1954 36 NYY AL 26 23 12 4 0 170.0 189 74 67 33 54 3.55
14 Russ Meyer .750 94 1953 29 BRO NL 34 32 15 5 0 191.1 201 109 97 63 106 4.56
15 Russ Van Atta .750 93 1933 27 NYY AL 26 22 12 4 1 157.0 160 81 73 63 76 4.18
16 Jim Lonborg .733 98 1977 35 PHI NL 25 25 11 4 0 157.2 157 77 72 50 76 4.11
17 Santo Alcala .733 75 1976 23 CIN NL 30 21 11 4 0 132.0 131 72 69 67 67 4.70
18 Bill Champion .733 99 1974 26 MIL AL 31 23 11 4 0 161.2 168 72 65 49 60 3.62
19 Dutch Leonard .733 95 1925 33 DET AL 18 18 11 4 0 125.2 143 73 63 43 65 4.51
20 Dwight Gooden .731 98 1990 25 NYM NL 34 34 19 7 0 232.2 229 106 99 70 223 3.83
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/13/2009.

Related posts:

    Lowest winning percetange, minimum 400 starts
    Winning More Than Losing, Last Quarter Century
    Teams Developing Young Winning Pitchers
    Winning 15+ Games In 1st Or 2nd Season Since 1973

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Season Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Winning While Underperforming”

  1. DavidRF Says:
    December 13th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    Career-wise, guys like Jack Coombs, Kirk Rueter and Lew Burdette top the list (depending what your minimum W-count is).

  2. gerry Says:
    December 13th, 2009 at 7:03 pm

    Of course, most of these guys played for very good teams. Among the starters, the oddest is Bill Champion, of the 1974 Brewers. They were 76-86, so how Champion managed to go 11-4 is a mystery to me.

  3. Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive » Unexpected Winners Says:
    December 14th, 2009 at 10:50 am

    [...] You Are Here > Baseball-Reference.com > Blog > Baseball Stats and Analysis B-R Blog & Stat of the Day Numbers, News, and Notes « Winning While Underperforming [...]

  4. ollie1000 Says:
    December 14th, 2009 at 6:49 pm

    thanks for that...

    but, I checked out Vukovich and he won the Cy Young the year after with a 105 strikeouts in 223 innings while giving up 234 hits, walking 102, and had a 1.502 whip, which brings up a lot of other questions, don't you think? the walk-strikeout ratio is pretty bad! I mean do you really want to bench a Cy Young winner on your fantasy team?

«
»