Most appearances without a baserunner
Posted by Andy on October 29, 2007
Picking up on an idea made in the Suggestions, here are the most appearances in history without allowing a baserunner:
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Jesse Orosco 418 Ind. Games Mike Stanton 394 Ind. Games Dan Plesac 373 Ind. Games Mike Myers 363 Ind. Games Trevor Hoffman 330 Ind. Games John Franco 316 Ind. Games Mike Timlin 304 Ind. Games Mike Jackson 286 Ind. Games Dennis Eckersley 282 Ind. Games Lee Smith 277 Ind. Games Alan Embree 277 Ind. Games Roberto Hernandez 272 Ind. Games Mariano Rivera 271 Ind. Games Eddie Guardado 271 Ind. Games Paul Assenmacher 271 Ind. Games Billy Wagner 269 Ind. Games Steve Kline 269 Ind. Games Todd Jones 258 Ind. Games Jose Mesa 250 Ind. Games Armando Benitez 250 Ind. Games
Unsurprisingly, these are all players from the last 20 or so years, and most of the best closers from that period are here as well. (The full list is here.) With relief appearances so much more common these days (not to mention specialization such as the one-out lefty) there are many more opportunities these days for pitchers to have appearances with no baserunners.
How about some love for Jesse Orosco? The man made 1248 relief appearances, and didn't allow even a single baserunner in more than a third (33.5%) of them. Call me crazy, but I find that hugely impressive.
Raising the bar to a minimum of 1 inning pitched for appearances with no baserunners, here are the leaders:
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Trevor Hoffman 293 Ind. Games Billy Wagner 249 Ind. Games Mariano Rivera 249 Ind. Games John Franco 249 Ind. Games Mike Timlin 236 Ind. Games Roberto Hernandez 223 Ind. Games Dennis Eckersley 220 Ind. Games Lee Smith 219 Ind. Games Mike Stanton 218 Ind. Games Todd Jones 213 Ind. Games Troy Percival 205 Ind. Games Mike Jackson 201 Ind. Games Armando Benitez 199 Ind. Games Jose Mesa 192 Ind. Games Rod Beck 187 Ind. Games Tom Henke 185 Ind. Games Robb Nen 183 Ind. Games Jeff Reardon 182 Ind. Games Rick Aguilera 181 Ind. Games John Wetteland 176 Ind. Games Doug Jones 176 Ind. Games Tom Gordon 176 Ind. Games Jesse Orosco 175 Ind. Games Keith Foulke 175 Ind. Games Ugueth Urbina 174 Ind. Games
This is virtually a Who's Who of all-time closers. One guy who sticks out is Mike Stanton, who hasn't spent much time as a closer. The same could be said for Orosco, who spent only a handful of seasons as a closer.
But, if you raise the bar a bt further to 2 IP per appearance, then you get another set of all-time closers:
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Hoyt Wilhelm 51 Ind. Games Kent Tekulve 42 Ind. Games Don McMahon 42 Ind. Games Gene Garber 42 Ind. Games Rich Gossage 39 Ind. Games Tug McGraw 38 Ind. Games Jeff Reardon 35 Ind. Games Bruce Sutter 34 Ind. Games Rollie Fingers 34 Ind. Games Lindy McDaniel 32 Ind. Games Larry Andersen 32 Ind. Games Jesse Orosco 30 Ind. Games Eddie Fisher 30 Ind. Games Dan Quisenberry 29 Ind. Games Lee Smith 28 Ind. Games Guillermo Mota 28 Ind. Games Bill Campbell 28 Ind. Games Willie Hernandez 26 Ind. Games Doug Bair 26 Ind. Games Dave Smith 25 Ind. Games Enrique Romo 25 Ind. Games Ron Reed 25 Ind. Games Roger McDowell 25 Ind. Games Gary Lavelle 25 Ind. Games Mike Jackson 25 Ind. Games
It really shows you how much 1-inning specialization there now is for closers. Not a single modern closer makes the list, with the most recent being Mike Jackson, I guess.
Here are the leaders for 3-inning appearances with no baserunners, and 4 innings.
Note that that final list is mainly guys who have thrown perfect games.