Career middle relievers
Posted by Andy on September 8, 2008
First, here are the guys with the most career games pitched with no game starts:
Cnt Player **G** GS From To Ages CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF IBB HBP BK WP Teams +----+-----------------+--------+---+----+----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+-----+---+------+----+----+----+----+----+------+----+---+-----+---+---+---+---+-----------+ 1 John Franco 1119 0 1984 2005 23-44 0 0 774 90 87 .508 424 1245.2 1166 466 400 495 975 2.89 137 81 5312 78 22 9 54 CIN-NYM-HOU 2 Kent Tekulve 1050 0 1974 1989 27-42 0 0 638 94 90 .511 184 1436.1 1305 526 455 491 779 2.85 132 63 6001 179 17 3 23 PIT-TOT-PHI-CIN 3 Trevor Hoffman 926 0 1993 2008 25-40 0 0 771 56 66 .459 552 984 762 336 305 273 1054 2.79 144 90 3961 53 8 0 45 TOT-SDP 4 Sparky Lyle 899 0 1967 1982 22-37 0 0 634 99 76 .566 238 1390.1 1292 519 445 481 873 2.88 127 84 5794 81 14 10 66 BOS-NYY-TEX-TOT-PHI 5 Mike Myers 883 0 1995 2007 26-38 0 0 195 25 24 .510 14 541.2 525 278 258 256 429 4.29 111 58 2385 33 43 2 10 TOT-DET-MIL-COL-ARI-TOT-BOS-NYY 6 Jeff Reardon 880 0 1979 1994 23-38 0 0 695 73 77 .487 367 1132.1 1000 426 397 358 877 3.16 121 109 4720 65 27 4 20 NYM-TOT-MON-MIN-BOS-CIN-NYY 7 Steve Reed 833 0 1992 2005 27-40 0 0 197 49 44 .527 18 870.2 811 384 351 285 630 3.63 132 107 3662 46 61 5 11 SFG-COL-TOT-CLE-BAL 8 Jeff Nelson 798 0 1992 2006 25-39 0 0 237 48 45 .516 33 784.2 633 329 297 428 829 3.41 132 55 3402 59 64 3 36 SEA-NYY-TOT-TEX-SEA-CHW 9 Billy Wagner 765 0 1995 2008 23-36 0 0 637 39 37 .513 385 818 555 243 218 270 1066 2.40 180 76 3269 23 29 1 40 HOU-PHI-NYM 10 Armando Benitez 762 0 1994 2008 21-35 0 0 527 40 47 .460 289 779 545 296 271 403 946 3.13 139 95 3253 32 16 5 18 BAL-NYM-TOT-FLA-SFG-TOT-TOR
And most career games pitched with no games finished:
Cnt Player **G** GF From To Ages GS CG SHO W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF IBB HBP BK WP Teams +----+-----------------+--------+---+----+----+-----+---+---+---+---+---+-----+---+------+----+----+----+----+----+------+----+---+-----+---+---+---+---+-----------+ 1 Roger Clemens 709 0 1984 2007 21-44 707 118 46 354 184 .658 0 4916.2 4185 1885 1707 1580 4672 3.12 143 363 20240 63 159 20 143 BOS-TOR-NYY-HOU 2 Tom Glavine 682 0 1987 2008 21-42 682 56 25 305 203 .600 0 4413.1 4298 1900 1734 1500 2607 3.54 118 356 18604 145 66 7 65 ATL-NYM 3 Mike Mussina 532 0 1991 2008 22-39 531 57 23 267 151 .639 0 3534.2 3433 1549 1448 778 2786 3.69 122 374 14481 28 60 1 71 BAL-NYY 4 Frank Viola 421 0 1982 1996 22-36 420 74 16 176 150 .540 0 2836.1 2827 1303 1175 864 1844 3.73 112 294 11933 39 48 12 86 MIN-TOT-NYM-BOS-CIN-TOR 5 Livan Hernandez 379 0 1996 2008 21-33 378 45 7 145 139 .511 0 2534.2 2783 1326 1231 866 1607 4.37 97 294 10996 65 66 12 34 FLA-TOT-SFG-MON-WSN-ARI 6 Brad Radke 378 0 1995 2006 22-33 377 37 10 148 139 .516 0 2451 2643 1233 1150 445 1467 4.22 112 326 10244 12 62 3 28 MIN 7 John Denny 325 0 1974 1986 21-33 322 62 18 123 108 .532 0 2148.2 2093 967 856 778 1146 3.59 104 137 9077 49 54 12 68 STL-CLE-TOT-PHI-CIN 8 Bartolo Colon 315 0 1997 2008 24-35 312 31 8 150 97 .607 0 2008.1 1992 984 914 688 1568 4.10 112 243 8527 27 42 5 38 CLE-TOT-CHW-ANA-LAA-BOS 9 Tim Hudson 304 0 1999 2008 23-32 303 22 11 146 77 .655 0 2017.1 1909 857 781 619 1372 3.48 126 160 8424 61 75 6 58 OAK-ATL 10 Barry Zito 284 0 2000 2008 22-30 283 9 4 122 92 .570 0 1780.2 1571 828 756 732 1325 3.82 116 186 7550 27 73 5 33 OAK-SFG
Given these, what do you think the record is for most career games pitched with no game starts or games finished? These are guys who appeared only as middle relievers.
Think about it for a while, and then click here to see the list.
Shocking, eh?
It seemed wrong and impossible to me, too, until I looked at it this way. Here are the only guys to ever appear in 10+ games in a season without a start or game finished.
Cnt Player **G** GS GF Year Age Tm Lg CG SHO W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str +----+-----------------+-------+---+--+----+---+---+--+--+---+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+ 1 Omar Daal 28 0 0 1995 23 LAD NL 0 0 4 0 1.000 0 20 29 16 16 15 11 7.20 53 1 100 82 5 0 4 1 1 1 5 1 0 0 1 0 .354 .455 .451 .906 156 2 Don Bessent 19 0 0 1958 27 LAD NL 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 24.1 24 14 9 17 13 3.33 123 3 107 89 4 2 0 1 0 0 7 1 1 0 0 0 .270 .393 .461 .854 130 3 Mike Schooler 17 0 0 1993 30 TEX AL 0 0 3 0 1.000 0 24.1 30 17 15 10 16 5.55 75 3 111 99 7 1 1 0 2 0 1 5 1 0 0 1 .303 .367 .485 .852 130 4 Jim Constable 16 0 0 1957 24 NYG NL 0 0 1 1 .500 0 28.1 27 10 9 7 13 2.86 137 2 115 104 4 2 0 4 1 0 4 0 2 0 0 1 .260 .330 .394 .724 102 5 Stan Bahnsen 15 0 0 1982 37 TOT ML 0 0 0 1 .000 0 23 21 8 7 11 14 2.74 140 0 98 86 4 1 2 0 0 1 1 4 4 0 0 0 .244 .327 .314 .641 81 6 Travis Hughes 14 0 0 2005 27 WSN NL 0 0 1 1 .500 0 13 18 8 8 8 8 5.54 73 4 64 54 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 .333 .429 .556 .985 168 234 137 7 Arnie Munoz 13 0 0 2007 25 WSN NL 0 0 0 0 0 5.1 6 4 4 7 3 6.75 62 2 32 22 1 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .273 .484 .591 1.075 188 128 66 8 Cliff Politte 13 0 0 1999 25 PHI NL 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 17.2 19 14 14 15 15 7.13 67 2 85 69 6 0 0 0 1 0 3 1 0 0 0 2 .275 .405 .449 .854 117 9 Oscar Villarreal 11 0 0 2005 23 ARI NL 0 0 2 0 1.000 0 13.2 11 8 8 6 5 5.27 84 2 57 47 2 0 2 1 2 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 .234 .327 .404 .731 91 186 107 10 Will Ohman 11 0 0 2001 23 CHC NL 0 0 0 1 .000 0 11.2 14 10 10 6 12 7.71 54 2 54 48 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 .292 .370 .479 .849 129 217 123 11 Curt Schmidt 11 0 0 1995 25 MON NL 0 0 0 0 0 10.1 15 8 8 9 7 6.97 62 1 54 42 5 0 0 2 1 0 3 4 0 0 0 0 .357 .491 .548 1.039 175 12 Dave Haas 11 0 0 1991 25 DET AL 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 10.2 8 8 8 12 6 6.75 62 1 50 33 1 0 3 1 2 2 3 0 1 0 0 1 .242 .438 .364 .802 118 13 Ron Meridith 11 0 0 1987 30 TEX AL 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 20.2 25 18 14 12 17 6.10 74 7 96 84 3 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 0 .298 .385 .583 .968 153 14 Chad Orvella 10 0 0 2007 26 TBD AL 0 0 0 2 .000 0 8 18 16 13 10 6 14.62 31 3 56 45 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 .400 .518 .756 1.274 235 214 125 15 Jermaine Van Bure 10 0 0 2006 25 BOS AL 0 0 1 0 1.000 0 13 14 17 17 15 8 11.77 40 1 65 48 3 1 1 0 1 1 3 5 0 0 0 0 .292 .453 .458 .911 132 301 169 16 Mike Johnson 10 0 0 2001 25 MON NL 0 0 0 0 0 11.1 13 6 6 4 10 4.76 93 3 50 44 4 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 .295 .380 .591 .971 153 194 116 17 Ray King 10 0 0 1999 25 CHC NL 0 0 0 0 0 10.2 11 8 7 10 5 5.91 76 2 50 38 3 0 0 1 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 1 .289 .449 .526 .975 154 18 Odalis Perez 10 0 0 1998 21 ATL NL 0 0 0 1 .000 0 10.2 10 5 5 4 5 4.22 98 1 45 41 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 .244 .311 .341 .652 77 19 Tim Young 10 0 0 1998 24 MON NL 0 0 0 0 0 6 6 4 4 4 7 6.00 70 0 29 24 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 .357 .333 .690 87 20 Al Osuna 10 0 0 1996 30 SDP NL 0 0 0 0 0 4 5 1 1 2 4 2.25 178 0 20 16 3 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .313 .400 .625 1.025 180 21 Kip Gross 10 0 0 1993 28 LAD NL 0 0 0 0 0 15 13 1 1 4 12 0.60 641 0 59 55 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 .236 .288 .273 .561 60
To make the career list, a guy would had to have done that every year of his career. I wonder if Franklin Nunez knows that he holds this MLB record.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:33 am
How can you have 0 "games finished" when you have 118 complete games?! This list doesn't make sense since it doesn't take into account starting pitchers with complete games
September 8th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Because the games finished stat refers only to relievers who finish games, whether getting a save, win, loss, or ND.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:27 am
to satisfy raboom, here's the top 8 in career games with 0 games finished and 0 complete games: Scott Olsen (98), Jered Weaver, Chuck James, Gustavo Chacin, Brandon Claussen, John Danks, Tim Lincecum, Matt Beech. those 8 are the only ones with over 50 games. I have a good feeling that by the end of next year, half of this list will have a CG or GF.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
anyone else notice that in nearly 1000 innings pitched (984) hoffman has hit only 8 batters? that's pretty crazy...
September 9th, 2008 at 12:55 am
How about most games pitched with no wins, no losses, and no saves? or has that already been done?
September 9th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Mike Kinnunen with 48 games. Being only 21, i have only heard of 2 players in the top 25 (one they made a movie about). But i'm not sure my age would have much of an effect on who i'd know if i was older.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I wonder how many of those on the career list for middle relievers weren't really pitchers. . . . That is, they were position players who were put on the mound in the middle of a blowout or as a stunt. Vic Davilillo, Germany Schaefer, Stan Musial, Sal Bando, Lew Fonseca are some of those on the list. . . .
September 11th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Joseph Bisenius, of two career games (and his BR page is sponsored!) went on to get the record for most saves in a career in a long-running game of OOTP I've got going.
I sort of assumed the game made him up. He didn't even get his first save until 2009 in my game. Weird.
September 21st, 2008 at 8:00 pm
This is great. I love these types of searches. 🙂
But I started thinking... is Games Finished really a reliable way to do this? There are many non-closers that finish games, such as a blowout, mopup duty, etc. So, I ran it to see who has the most career games with no games started and no SAVES (since that still implies that he'd be a non-closer).
It's Rich Monteleone at 210 games (1987-1996 with Seattle, California, the Yankees, and Giants). Over 210 games (no starts and no saves, but 61 games finished), he posted a 3.87 ERA and 106 ERA+.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:18 am
Your search is fine---it's just not for "middle" relievers as my title line said.