Mailbag: Winning 15+ Games on a Losing Team

Posted by Neil Paine on March 10, 2010

Today, we get a question from reader Dan, who wrote:

"I am having a debate w/ a friend that the # of pitchers to win at least 15 games a season for teams w/ a sub .500 record is far & few between. He contests the opposite, and I have no idea where to find this information. Even a category for most wins by a pitcher in a season with a team record of less then .500."

Unfortunately, you can't use the Play Index to find that right now, but with Baseball-Databank.com & a little MySQL and/or Excel know-how you can put together a query along those lines. Since 1901, I found that 626 pitchers have had seasons with 15 or more wins on a team with a sub-.500 record (for split-season pitchers, I took the weighted average of their team WPct's by their IP with each team). Here are the most wins in a season by pitchers on losing squads:

Player	Year	W	L	G	GS	IP	tmWPct
Pete Alexander	1920	27	14	46	40	363.3	0.487
Pete Alexander	1914	27	15	46	39	355.0	0.481
Eddie Rommel	1922	27	13	51	33	294.0	0.422
Steve Carlton	1972	27	10	41	41	346.3	0.378
Bob Feller	1946	26	15	48	42	371.3	0.442
Walter Johnson	1916	25	20	48	38	369.7	0.497
Bob Feller	1941	25	13	44	40	343.0	0.487
Walter Johnson	1910	25	17	45	42	370.0	0.437
Walter Johnson	1911	25	13	40	37	322.3	0.416
Red Faber	1921	25	15	43	39	330.7	0.403
Wilbur Wood	1973	24	20	49	48	359.3	0.475
Larry Jackson	1964	24	11	40	38	297.7	0.469
Gaylord Perry	1972	24	16	41	40	342.7	0.462
Jack Taylor	1902	23	11	36	33	324.7	0.496
Robin Roberts	1954	23	15	45	38	336.7	0.487
Sam Jones	1921	23	16	40	38	298.7	0.487
Jeff Pfeffer	1914	23	12	43	34	315.0	0.487
Walter Johnson	1917	23	16	47	34	326.0	0.484
Hippo Vaughn	1917	23	13	41	38	295.7	0.481
Bob Gibson	1970	23	7	34	34	294.0	0.469

How about the best W-L% by a pitcher who won 15 games on a losing team?

Player	Year	W	L	WPct	G	GS	IP	tmWPct
Sandy Koufax	1964	19	5	0.792	29	28	223.0	0.494
Tim Lincecum	2008	18	5	0.783	34	33	227.0	0.444
Tom Seaver	1977	21	6	0.778	33	33	261.3	0.489
Bob Gibson	1970	23	7	0.767	34	34	294.0	0.469
Roger Clemens	1997	21	7	0.750	34	34	264.0	0.469
Steve Blass	1968	18	6	0.750	33	31	220.3	0.494
Fred Toney	1915	17	6	0.739	36	23	222.7	0.461
Edinson Volquez	2008	17	6	0.739	33	32	196.0	0.457
Ewell Blackwell	1947	22	8	0.733	33	33	273.0	0.474
Roy Halladay	2002	19	7	0.731	34	34	239.3	0.481
Bert Blyleven	1984	19	7	0.731	33	32	245.0	0.463
Steve Carlton	1972	27	10	0.730	41	41	346.3	0.378
Don Gullett	1971	16	6	0.727	35	31	217.7	0.488
Aaron Harang	2007	16	6	0.727	34	34	231.7	0.444
Al Mamaux	1915	21	8	0.724	38	31	251.7	0.474
Mike Mussina	1999	18	7	0.720	31	31	203.3	0.481
Kent Bottenfield	1999	18	7	0.720	31	31	190.3	0.466
Mario Soto	1984	18	7	0.720	33	33	237.3	0.432
Bartolo Colon	2002	20	8	0.714	33	33	233.3	0.485
Dutch Leonard	1939	20	8	0.714	34	34	269.3	0.428

How about the 15-game winner on a losing team whose personal W-L% differed the most from his team's?

Player	Year	W	L	WPct	G	GS	IP	tmWPct	Diff
Steve Carlton	1972	27	10	0.730	41	41	346.3	0.378	0.352
Tim Lincecum	2008	18	5	0.783	34	33	227.0	0.444	0.338
Sandy Koufax	1964	19	5	0.792	29	28	223.0	0.494	0.298
Bob Gibson	1970	23	7	0.767	34	34	294.0	0.469	0.298
Tom Seaver	1977	21	6	0.778	33	33	261.3	0.489	0.289
Carlos Zambrano	2006	16	7	0.696	33	33	214.0	0.407	0.288
Mario Soto	1984	18	7	0.720	33	33	237.3	0.432	0.288
Ned Garver	1951	20	12	0.625	33	30	246.0	0.338	0.287
Dutch Leonard	1939	20	8	0.714	34	34	269.3	0.428	0.287
Ray Scarborough	1948	15	8	0.652	31	26	185.3	0.366	0.286
Aaron Harang	2007	16	6	0.727	34	34	231.7	0.444	0.283
Edinson Volquez	2008	17	6	0.739	33	32	196.0	0.457	0.282
Roger Clemens	1997	21	7	0.750	34	34	264.0	0.469	0.281
Fred Toney	1915	17	6	0.739	36	23	222.7	0.461	0.278
Wilbur Cooper	1917	17	11	0.607	40	34	297.7	0.331	0.276
Bert Blyleven	1984	19	7	0.731	33	32	245.0	0.463	0.268
Zack Greinke	2009	16	8	0.667	33	33	229.3	0.401	0.265
Dazzy Vance	1925	22	9	0.710	31	31	265.3	0.444	0.265
Scott Elarton	2000	17	7	0.708	30	30	192.7	0.444	0.264
Bob Hooper	1950	15	10	0.600	45	20	170.3	0.338	0.262

Finally, here are the number of times it happened per year since 1901:

Year	Instances
2009	3
2008	4
2007	4
2006	9
2005	1
2004	2
2003	4
2002	6
2001	2
2000	2
1999	11
1998	4
1997	7
1996	7
1995	4
1994	0
1993	5
1992	9
1991	4
1990	5
1989	6
1988	4
1987	12
1986	5
1985	8
1984	9
1983	5
1982	6
1981	0
1980	4
1979	4
1978	4
1977	7
1976	12
1975	14
1974	11
1973	10
1972	8
1971	12
1970	6
1969	5
1968	5
1967	5
1966	2
1965	5
1964	10
1963	4
1962	3
1961	4
1960	5
1959	9
1958	3
1957	2
1956	5
1955	1
1954	5
1953	0
1952	1
1951	8
1950	2
1949	6
1948	3
1947	4
1946	1
1945	2
1944	6
1943	4
1942	4
1941	3
1940	4
1939	4
1938	5
1937	1
1936	6
1935	5
1934	5
1933	6
1932	4
1931	5
1930	6
1929	5
1928	5
1927	7
1926	3
1925	4
1924	8
1923	10
1922	7
1921	9
1920	12
1919	6
1918	5
1917	7
1916	5
1915	14
1914	12
1913	5
1912	12
1911	3
1910	8
1909	6
1908	8
1907	7
1906	8
1905	10
1904	9
1903	8
1902	8
1901	7

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 4:15 pm and is filed under History, Mailbag. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “Mailbag: Winning 15+ Games on a Losing Team”

steven Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Tom Seaver's 1977 season was split between a lousy team (Mets) and a good team (Reds).
Jim Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Truly not surprised to see Carltons '72 season on here. He had his best year statistically for a team that pretty dismal.
Rich Says:
March 10th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
What's also interesting about Carlton is that he had the most wins in the NL in 1972 and then the most losses in 1973. As I found out from this blog, the third guy on the first list, Eddie Rommel, did the exact same thing 50 years earlier for the Philadelphia Athletics.
koma Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 1:57 am
there where only 3 years with 0 occurances. Two of them are the strike shortened ´94 and ´81.

And then there is 1953??
Kahuna Tuna Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Most wins for a sub-.500 team in 1953 was Ruben Gomez's 13 for the Giants (70-84). Several pitchers had 12 wins. The AL had only three sub-.500 teams; Washington removed itself from consideration by going 76-76. Just one of those years, it seems.
Djibouti Says:
March 11th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
One extra table you could throw in would be pitchers who had the highest percentage of their team's wins. Lincecum in '08 had 18 of the Giants 72 wins, so exactly 25%. I have a feeling that would look similar to the third chart but with more of a skew to the older guys (46% of the 1972 Phillies wins were Steve Carlton starts!)

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