Consecutive Apperances With at Least a Strikeout Per Inning to Start a Career
Posted by Raphy on July 22, 2010
The career of Stephen Strasburg has finally become somewhat routine. Sure, he is still the hyped phenom who has been delivering as promised. He's still the cash cow, the stadium filler and the marketing dream. But the hype surrounding Strasburg has quelled somewhat as he has begun to develop a career. It's still there in spades, but not at the astronomical levels that it once was. That could never last. No longer do we ask, "How does he compare after 7 starts?" "How about after 8?" (at least I don't). So now let's ask a baseball question, not because it involves Stephen Strasburg, but because it involves baseball, both current and past and that is when baseball is at its best.
Stephen Strasburg has now started his career with 9 consecutive starts with at least as many strikeouts as innings pitched:
Which player since 1920 started his career with the most consecutive games in which he recorded at least as many strikeouts as innings pitched?
To answer this question, I'm going to use the "PI Pitching Game Finder" (the streak finder would have been easier, but doesn't allow us to search for ratios) and search for " Players with Most Matching Games in Multiple Years" while setting SO>.999*IP. We can find the players with the most consecutive games to start a career simply by searching and limiting our search to a set number of "games to start a player's career" . If anyone accomplished the feat in all of those games, we can then increase the number of games in the search. This takes some trial and error, but is not difficult. I will collect the results and include them all in a table.
| Rk | Player | Year | #Matching | W | L | W-L% | ERA | GS | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | WHIP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kerry Wood | 1998 | 18 | Ind. Games | 9 | 5 | 0.643 | 3.23 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 114.1 | 77 | 41 | 7 | 64 | 167 | 1.23 |
| 2 | Zach Braddock | 2010 | 15 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | 0.500 | 5.54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 17 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 21 | 1.69 |
| 3 | Francisco Rodriguez | 2010 | 11 | Ind. Games | 0 | 0 | 4.26 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.2 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 1.11 | |
| 4 | Dwight Gooden | 1984 | 10 | Ind. Games | 4 | 3 | 0.571 | 3.39 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 58.1 | 43 | 22 | 1 | 28 | 80 | 1.22 |
| Francisco J. Rodriguez | 2002-2003 | 10 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | 0.500 | 4.05 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13.1 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 23 | 1.28 | |
| 6 | Stephen Strasburg | 2010 | 9 | Ind. Games | 5 | 2 | 0.714 | 2.32 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 54.1 | 43 | 14 | 3 | 15 | 75 | 1.07 |
| Francisco Liriano | 2005-2006 | 9 | Ind. Games | 1 | 2 | 0.333 | 4.45 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30.1 | 24 | 15 | 4 | 7 | 45 | 1.02 | |
| 7 | Huston Street | 2005 | 8 | Ind. Games | 1 | 1 | 0.500 | 3.86 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.1 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 1.50 |
| Herb Score | 1955 | 8 | Ind. Games | 4 | 3 | 0.571 | 2.95 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 64 | 40 | 21 | 5 | 40 | 77 | 1.25 | |
| Joba Chamberlain | 2007 | 8 | Ind. Games | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 0.70 | ||
| Jeff Austin | 2001 | 8 | Ind. Games | 0 | 0 | 1.86 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.2 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 15 | 1.34 |
A few notes on the table:
- Eleven guys with at least eight consecutive games and three of them are from this season. Forget being the all-time leader, Strasburg is only in third place this year alone.
- There seems to be a nice mix of starters and relievers here. I would have thought that this would be a reliever dominated table. As you would expect, the starters here had to be dominant. The relievers are an interesting mix.
- The double Francisco Rodriguez thing is kind of neat.
- Brewers fans can fill me in on the reason, but Braddock's ERA has dropped considerably since he stopped striking people out.
- Kerry Wood's lapping the field is no surprise. I imagine that it has to be bothersome for Cubs fans to remember his potential every time a new phenom arises. I also imagine that it has to be sobering for Nationals fans to see Wood's name every time a new Strasburg stat is mentioned.
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:18 pm
I think it's much more interesting and meaningful to exclude the relievers here. Doing that, you get Wood - 18, Gooden - 10, Strasburg - 9. Now that becomes impressive. I just don't think relievers pitching for 1 inning and striking 1 guy out is the same thing as what we're really talking about Strasburg having done.
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:57 pm
It would be more interesting. Although, quite a few more records would be more interesting if we just left off a few of the non-leaders.
Also, Braddock (who I'm using as an example because he's the top reliever on the list) twice only pitched to one batter during his streak. That's pretty darn impressive.
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Speaking of weird career starts, can someone explain Robin Yount's brother's major league career? I don't get it. According to the game log (http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU197109150.shtml) he entered, never threw a pitch, and then he exited. Did he get hurt? What's the deal?
Also, so sorry for this complete off-topic statement. I just noticed it, and was wondering if anyone had any insight. Also, maybe it's just that relief pitching has increased so dramatically recently, but it's really interesting that so many of these are so recent-- all since 1998 besides Score and Gooden.
One last thing: personally, watching him, I think Braddock has improved since realizing that he doesn't have to strike EVERYONE out in order to get his outs. Sometimes pitching for groundball and flyball outs can be successful, as most fans have probably noticed. Nice to see Braddock realize the same thing.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:11 pm
@3 - Yes, I heard that Larry Yount got hurt warming up for what would have been his major league debut. He never made it back to the major leagues, although I don't think he did eventually pitch again in the minors.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Raphy:
Tom Ruane just wrote a similar post on the SABR listserv last Saturday. Here's what he had to say:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
With his start last night, Stephen Strasburg has now begun his
major league career with eight consecutive starts where his
strikeouts have been greater than or equal to his innings
pitched. I was wondering how unusual that was and, at least
during the Retrosheet Era, there were three other pitchers who
managed to do this. Here they are:
# Pitcher Year IP SO
8 Herb Score 1955 64 78
10 Dwight Gooden 1984 58.1 80
18 Kerry Wood 1998 114.1 167
But what about the longest streaks at any point in a starting
pitcher's career? Here they are (again, since 1920):
# Pitcher Year(s) IP SO
20 Dwight Gooden 1984-1985 150.1 196
19 Randy Johnson 1999 148.0 206
19 Randy Johnson 2001 134.1 205
18 Kerry Wood 1998 114.1 167
17 Pedro Martinez 1999-2000 125.1 201
16 Pedro Martinez 1997-1998 118.2 164
15 Pedro Martinez 1999 111.2 161
After beginning his career with a streak of ten games, Dwight
Gooden had three straight starts with fewer strikeouts than
innings pitched before starting that streak of twenty straight
games. His record in those three games was 2-0 with two earned
runs allowed in 24 1/3 innings.
Finally, here are the longest streaks if we also include
relief appearances (and for the purposes of this study, I am
ignoring any outings in which the pitcher failed to retire a
batter):
# Pitcher Year(s) IP SO
38 Brad Lidge 2004-2005 42.2 77
30 Eric Gagne 2003-2004 34.1 57
26 Billy Wagner 1999-2000 28.1 43
23 Jose Valverde 2006 28.1 46
22 Chad Fox 1997-1998 27.2 41
22 Billy Wagner 2001 21.0 34
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Buckweaver: Wow! I had no idea that Ruane wrote that. Thank you.
Its always nice to see what other people do with similar information.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Join SABR (if you haven't already!) Trust me, you'll get your money's worth from the listserv alone. 😉
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:21 am
I'm starting to feel a little Strasburg lashback. Yesterday, ESPN.com's headline talked about him stifling the potent Red's lineup. Then I saw he lead up 3Rs in 5IP. Not a bad start by any means. But is that really stifling? I get it. The kid is a true phenom and is off to a ridiculous start of his career. He gives us so much to celebrate and be in awe of, as evidenced here... do we really need to conjure up exaggerated accomplishments to talk about to?
July 23rd, 2010 at 9:59 am
You're only starting to notice that ESPN over-celebrates everything anyone does? They do a great job in most respects, but when they get someone who they love that guy/gal can't be on the channel enough.
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Cubs fans feel bothered, Nats fans feel sobered, Indians fans are left to think "We paid this guy HOW much?"
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Given that strikeout rates are still rising, it's not surprising that most names on that list are from the last dozen years or so. With that in mind, Herb Score's accomplishment might be the most impressive on the list.
July 31st, 2010 at 6:52 pm
I would think it would be more difficult for a reliever. There are situations in which a reliever comes in with an out or two in the inning already. Maybe he only faces one batter. To keep this streak alive, he must strike out that batter.