Robin Roberts 1926-2010
Posted by Andy on May 6, 2010
Robin Roberts died this morning.
I'm not good at writing these blog entries and it's getting harder and harder. Coming on the heels of Ernie Harwell's passing, this one is especially tough.
Rather than attempt to say anything about Roberts as a man or as a player, let me see if I can find a few stats of interest.
Just this morning, there was mention of his all-time record for HR allowed on my earlier post. That's a record he 'earned' through longevity.
Here are some other stats:
From 1950 to 1955, he led the league in starts every single year. Check out the margin by which he led this category over that time period:
| Rk | Player | GS | Age | G | CG | SHO | W | L | IP | H | ER | BB | SO | HR | Tm | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robin Roberts | 232 | 23-28 | 253 | 161 | 24 | 138 | 78 | .639 | 1937.2 | 1763 | 631 | 356 | 964 | 2.93 | 135 | 177 | PHI |
| 2 | Warren Spahn | 208 | 29-34 | 233 | 133 | 20 | 118 | 83 | .587 | 1688.1 | 1511 | 552 | 514 | 932 | 2.94 | 128 | 124 | BSN-MLN |
| 3 | Bob Lemon | 207 | 29-34 | 240 | 116 | 16 | 124 | 68 | .646 | 1617.1 | 1490 | 588 | 651 | 741 | 3.27 | 117 | 106 | CLE |
| 4 | Early Wynn | 196 | 30-35 | 219 | 106 | 19 | 118 | 67 | .638 | 1526.0 | 1298 | 524 | 610 | 844 | 3.09 | 123 | 120 | CLE |
| 5 | Mike Garcia | 195 | 26-31 | 247 | 85 | 17 | 101 | 65 | .608 | 1471.1 | 1424 | 513 | 451 | 720 | 3.14 | 121 | 75 | CLE |
| 6 | Bob Rush | 188 | 24-29 | 205 | 81 | 11 | 76 | 85 | .472 | 1353.1 | 1272 | 544 | 484 | 717 | 3.62 | 114 | 89 | CHC |
| 7 | Murry Dickson | 176 | 33-38 | 260 | 82 | 14 | 76 | 102 | .427 | 1434.1 | 1485 | 614 | 473 | 544 | 3.85 | 108 | 163 | PIT-PHI |
| 8 | Billy Pierce | 174 | 23-28 | 212 | 94 | 23 | 84 | 74 | .532 | 1380.2 | 1197 | 451 | 541 | 866 | 2.94 | 135 | 88 | CHW |
| 9 | Ned Garver | 173 | 24-29 | 190 | 99 | 9 | 78 | 78 | .500 | 1339.0 | 1335 | 540 | 457 | 477 | 3.63 | 115 | 107 | SLB-TOT-DET |
| 10 | Vic Raschi | 171 | 31-36 | 178 | 59 | 16 | 83 | 46 | .643 | 1201.0 | 1108 | 503 | 472 | 634 | 3.77 | 104 | 96 | NYY-STL-TOT |
I have my doubts that anyone has led in game starts by a bigger margin over any 6-year period. He averaged 4 more starts per season than just the second-place guy! Not only that, he managed the best ERA of this group, most wins, most CG, most shutouts...on and on.
Roberts is misunderstood by some as an average-ish type pitcher in part because of the decline in the second half of his career but also because of all those hits and homers he gave up. From 1952 to 1956, he led the league in hits allowed each year:
| Rk | Player | H |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robin Roberts | 1525 |
| 2 | Warren Spahn | 1234 |
| 3 | Mike Garcia | 1207 |
| 4 | Bob Lemon | 1195 |
| 5 | Murry Dickson | 1159 |
| 6 | Early Wynn | 1138 |
| 7 | Bob Friend | 1071 |
| 8 | Bob Porterfield | 1038 |
| 9 | Billy Pierce | 1032 |
| 10 | Lew Burdette | 1026 |
As you can see, he was way out in front.
But those numbers lie.
Here is the same list, taken down to show all guys with at least 900 hits allowed from 1952 to 1956:
| Rk | Player | H | From | To | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robin Roberts | 1525 | 8.49 | 1.102 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 2 | Warren Spahn | 1234 | 8.13 | 1.157 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 3 | Mike Garcia | 1207 | 8.82 | 1.280 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 4 | Bob Lemon | 1195 | 8.14 | 1.260 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 5 | Murry Dickson | 1159 | 9.15 | 1.331 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 6 | Early Wynn | 1138 | 7.78 | 1.240 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 7 | Bob Friend | 1071 | 9.26 | 1.352 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 8 | Bob Porterfield | 1038 | 9.03 | 1.345 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 9 | Billy Pierce | 1032 | 7.76 | 1.222 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 10 | Lew Burdette | 1026 | 8.91 | 1.270 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 11 | Bob Rush | 1009 | 8.06 | 1.234 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 12 | Carl Erskine | 993 | 8.16 | 1.253 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 13 | Billy Hoeft | 989 | 9.22 | 1.396 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 14 | Curt Simmons | 941 | 8.30 | 1.280 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 15 | Harvey Haddix | 938 | 8.50 | 1.230 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 16 | Gerry Staley | 932 | 9.88 | 1.336 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 17 | Virgil Trucks | 928 | 8.18 | 1.301 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 18 | Warren Hacker | 918 | 8.73 | 1.191 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 19 | Sal Maglie | 907 | 8.77 | 1.298 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 20 | Alex Kellner | 904 | 9.45 | 1.419 | 1952 | 1956 |
| 21 | Jim Hearn | 900 | 8.94 | 1.387 | 1952 | 1956 |
I've added hits per 9 innings as well as WHIP (walks + hits per inning pitched.) Robert's H/9 is middle of the pack, not the worst, for this group because he threw so many games and so many innings. And his WHIP is not only the best, but best by a wide margin because his walk rate was extremely low. He led the league in lowest walk rate in 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1956. For his career he allowed only 1.7 walks per 9 innings and he was in the top 10 in his league 14 times in his career.
Sure, hits and walks are not equal since hits tends to advance base runners further along and sometimes those hits are homers. But people who look just at Roberts' hit totals or HR totals are doing him a disservice.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Your postings are great! Short and to the point. Talking about baseball requires having a color guy and a steady, on-point play-by-play guy. I think you know which one you are 🙂
May 6th, 2010 at 11:07 am
A Toast to the memory of Robin Roberts; if a Hall Of Famer can be described as an "Unsung Hero", Robin Roberts is the one.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:20 am
It's unfortunate that his best seasons happened before the Cy Young Award was started in 1956. He certainly would have won in 1952, when he went 28-7 with a 2.59 ERA. He came in 2nd in the MVP voting that year, finishing a close 2nd to Hank Sauer. The next closest pitcher in wins that year had only 18. Since 1936, he is one of only 3 pitchers with 28 wins in a season, along with Tigers Denny McLain (1968, 31) and Hal Newhouser (1944, 29).
May 6th, 2010 at 11:28 am
A very underrated pitcher. His 1950-55 peak would be better remembered if they had Cy Young Awards back then. Those didn't start until 1956 (not for both leagues until 1967). Roberts did very well in MVP voting. He likely would have two or three CYA's if they had them back then.
The advanced metrics like him even more. The combination extremely high IP and top-6 ERA+ results in very high amounts of runs saved. Those high IP totals took their toll on his arm and the second half of his career weigh down his career rate stats, but he deserves to be remembered as the incredibly dominant pitcher he was in his prime.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:50 am
Roberts is in a group with guys like Curt Schilling, Fergie Jenkins, Catfish Hunter, who gave up a lot of HR but it didn't hurt them because they walked so few batters.
He exemplifies some of the difficulties in separating defense into pitching and fielding. He (and Curt Simmons) were flyball pitchers who had a great CF behind them in Richie Ashburn. Were they successful because Ashburn was so good? Or does Ashburn look so good because his pitchers gave him a lot of opportunities to make plays? And did Roberts throw more high fastballs than he would have, because he knew Ashburn could track them down?
I wouldn't be surprised if there are other pitchers who have a bigger margin in starts over a 6-year period. Simply because there is so much pitcher attrition, if you choose one guy who you know did well over a particular period, it's not unlikely that his best competition didn't last over the same period. But I'm not sure where to start checking to see...
May 6th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Well, here's one: 1885-1890 John Clarkson made 354 starts. Tim Keefe was next with 292.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:56 am
I don't know if this link will work, but B-Ref has gamelogs for the entirety of Roberts' consecutive Complete Game streak.
Roberts' Complete Game Streak
May 6th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Well, I stand corrected. I suspect it hasn't happened since the 1950s though.
May 6th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
You may be right....a quick search of random periods in more recent years didn't find any gaps nearly that big.
May 6th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Just adding to some earlier comments re: the Cy Young Award...If you assume that the pitcher with the most MVP votes would've won the Cy (admittedly, a questionable assumption), he not only would've won in '52 (as someone noted above), but also in '50 and '55. And 3-time Cy Young winners are pretty darned elite. (Also, baseballprojection has him ranked as 21st highest all-time among pitchers in WAR. Pretty impressive.)
May 6th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
He didn't make it to 300 wins, or have a peak period like Koufax, but you would have to place Robin Roberts as one of the three greatest pitchers of his generation, right up there with Warren Spahn, and no more than a notch below Bob Feller. As such, I put him in the upper echelons of HOFers--not in the top tier, but certainly the type of player for whom the Hall was created. A big loss to the baseball community.
May 6th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I was very surprised to learn that Robin Roberts was purchased by the Yankees after the 1961 season, but then released early in the 1962 season without ever having appeared in a game for the Yanks.
May 6th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Could be wrong, but i think Sir Robin threw 28 straight complete games over two seasons. Amazing!!
May 6th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Richie Ashburn used to tell the story about how Robin gave up a home run to the lead off batter and then retired the next 27 men in order. Since I was born in 1958, I obviously don't remember. Does anyone know when this happenned and against what team?
I love this website!
May 6th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI195405130.shtml
May 6th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Thanks, man!
May 13, 1954 against the Reds!
May 6th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Although the Phillies are my team now, there was a time (which included 1983) when my team was the Orioles - the modern day franchise that was formerly the St. Louis Browns. And Robin Roberts was the first guy who played for these Orioles to make it into the Hall of Fame. Of course, there have been many since then. And Roberts probably went in as a Phillie, which is how it should be.
May 8th, 2010 at 7:49 am
[...] find a beautiful symmetry in Moyer's start given the passing of Robin Roberts. Moyer managed to stave off adding to his career total of 498 homers and joining Roberts in the [...]