Strasburg’s strikeouts
Posted by Andy on June 20, 2010
Stephen Strasburg is the first player within the Play Index box score years (1920-1939, 1952-present) to start his career with at least 8 strikeouts in each of his first 3 games.
If we lower the bar to just 6 K's in each game, here is the list of guys who make the cut:
| Rk | Player | #Matching | W | L | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | ER | HR | BB ▾ | SO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen Strasburg | 3 | Ind. Games | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.86 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 19.1 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 32 | 0.78 |
| 2 | Jose DeLeon | 3 | Ind. Games | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.04 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 26.0 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 27 | 0.69 |
| 3 | Tom Griffin | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 2 | .333 | 2.66 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 20.1 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 11 | 26 | 0.98 |
| 4 | Al Leiter | 3 | Ind. Games | 2 | 1 | .667 | 4.66 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 19.1 | 19 | 10 | 2 | 12 | 25 | 1.60 |
| 5 | Herb Score | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | .500 | 5.48 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 23.0 | 22 | 14 | 3 | 18 | 25 | 1.74 |
| 6 | Johnny Cueto | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | .500 | 3.72 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 19.1 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 24 | 0.62 |
| 7 | Juan Marichal | 3 | Ind. Games | 3 | 0 | 1.000 | 0.96 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 28.0 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 24 | 0.64 |
| 8 | Orlando Hernandez | 3 | Ind. Games | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.52 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 23.2 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 23 | 0.93 |
| 9 | Luis Tiant | 3 | Ind. Games | 2 | 1 | .667 | 1.88 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 24.0 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 23 | 1.00 |
| 10 | Randy Wolf | 3 | Ind. Games | 3 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.74 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 20.2 | 15 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 21 | 1.11 |
| 11 | Lynn McGlothen | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1.82 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 24.2 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 20 | 0.85 |
| 12 | Aaron Sele | 3 | Ind. Games | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.31 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 20.2 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 20 | 1.06 |
| 13 | Geremi Gonzalez | 3 | Ind. Games | 2 | 1 | .667 | 2.76 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 16.1 | 17 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 19 | 1.59 |
That's not a bad group of players. There are some big-time stars on there (Marichal, Tiant, and I'll throw Leiter in there too) as well as a number of guys with solid major-league careers. I have long felt that Jose DeLeon is very underrated--a victim of the unreliable Wins and Losses stats. A couple of guys, Griffin and McGlothen, didn't have great career numbers but did pitch in the majors for a long time. The late Geremi Gonzalez might be the biggest disappointment on this list, and even he did a bunch of good things in his career, including putting up a solid season for Tampa Bay in 2003 before they were a good franchise.
I notice that Johnny Cueto has come up on a lot of these lists, including good first games, high strikeout totals, etc. For many of today's fans, he's been flying under the radar, but he's a guy to keep your eye on. He could easily become a star in the next decade. (Some might argue he's already at star-level talent, and I wouldn't argue.)
Incidentally, the next-highest total to Strasburg's 32 K's I could find over the first 3 career games is 29 by J. R. Richard in 1971.
June 20th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Richard only K-ed 5 in his second start and Spooner only struck out 1. In start four, Richard didn't retire a batter (3BB 1H) while Spooner struck out six.
This might be more appropriate for the other thread, but can you do a "most K's first three starts" type of search? That would be the easiest way to track this type of record going forward.
June 20th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
He obviously has the highest K's per 9 innings too after his first 3 games too.
June 20th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I just continue to pray that this kid doesn't burn out; because if je doesn't, he might just make us forget both Feller and Koufax.
June 20th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Elias says Strasberg's 32 strikeouts in his first three starts is the post-1900 record, beating J R Richard's 29. http://espn.go.com/espn/elias?date=20100619
June 21st, 2010 at 8:26 am
We cannot explicitly search for most strikeouts in first 3 games as the PI is not set up that way. But, as you can see from the last line of my original post, I believed that Strasburg had the record. By searching for pitchers with at least, say, 5 strikeouts in each of their first 3 games, I can then sort through the 3-game totals for that group and see who has the most (Strasburg.) But this leaves open the possibility that someone got, say, 15, 15, and 3 in his first 3 games. This mythical person wouldn't make the list of 5 in each of the first 3 games but would have 33 over their first 3 games.
June 21st, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Feller's strikeout numbers from 1936, his rookie season, kind of sneak up on you. His first six big-league appearances were in relief. He struck out 15 in his first start, a complete-game victory over the Browns. Then he lost starts against the Red Sox and Yankees, striking out a combined seven in six innings. That's 22 strikeouts in his first three starts — good, though nothing special. However, in career starts four and five, he struck out 10 against St. Louis and 17 against Philadelphia. So, after his first five starts, he had struck out 49 batters.
Score did even better, with 51 K's in his first five starts. DeLeon had the highest five-start strikeout total of any of the pitchers on Andy's list: 43.