Complete games
Posted by Andy on September 29, 2008
Now that the regular 2008 season is over, we can begin to put some accomplishments in persective. The C. C. Sabathia acquisition will go down as one of the greatest mid-season trades of all time. Yesterday, his 10th complete game of the year helped the Brewers make the playoffs for the first time in ovet 25 years.
Sabathia is the first guy in quite a while to get 10 CGs in a season:
Cnt Player Year CG Age Tm Lg G GS SHO GF 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 C.C. Sabathia 2008 10 27 TOT ML 35 35 5 0 17 10 .630 0 253 223 85 76 59 251 2.70 162 19 1023 942 38 1 1 7 9 6 20 12 3 2 2 2 .237 .285 .340 .625 65 3814 2530 2 Randy Johnson 1999 12 35 ARI NL 35 35 2 0 17 9 .654 0 271.2 207 86 75 70 364 2.48 186 30 1079 993 28 4 3 9 4 3 14 42 17 5 2 4 .208 .266 .335 .601 55 3 Scott Erickson 1998 11 30 BAL AL 36 36 2 0 16 13 .552 0 251.1 284 125 112 69 186 4.01 113 23 1102 1011 44 4 4 13 7 2 23 28 7 1 0 4 .281 .334 .401 .735 92 4 Randy Johnson 1998 10 34 TOT ML 34 34 6 0 19 11 .633 0 244.1 203 102 89 86 329 3.28 135 23 1014 907 38 1 1 14 5 2 13 31 19 3 2 7 .224 .300 .344 .644 71 5 Curt Schilling 1998 15 31 PHI NL 35 35 2 0 15 14 .517 0 268.2 236 101 97 61 300 3.25 134 23 1089 1000 56 6 3 6 14 7 18 10 5 0 0 12 .236 .282 .373 .655 74 6 Pedro Martinez 1997 13 25 MON NL 31 31 4 0 17 8 .680 0 241.1 158 65 51 67 305 1.90 219 16 947 860 24 4 5 9 9 1 16 20 5 3 1 3 .184 .250 .277 .527 42 7 Pat Hentgen 1996 10 27 TOR AL 35 35 3 0 20 10 .667 0 265.2 238 105 95 94 177 3.22 155 20 1100 988 49 2 3 5 5 8 24 7 9 2 0 8 .241 .308 .355 .663 68 8 Greg Maddux 1995 10 29 ATL NL 28 28 3 0 19 2 .905 0 209.2 147 39 38 23 181 1.63 262 8 785 748 22 0 3 4 9 1 16 26 6 2 0 1 .197 .224 .258 .482 29 9 Greg Maddux 1994 10 28 ATL NL 25 25 3 0 16 6 .727 0 202 150 44 35 31 156 1.56 271 4 774 726 22 2 3 6 6 5 21 22 6 2 1 3 .207 .243 .259 .502 34 10 Kevin Brown 1993 12 28 TEX AL 34 34 3 0 15 12 .556 0 233 228 105 93 74 142 3.59 116 14 1001 903 41 4 5 15 5 3 15 10 10 2 1 8 .252 .319 .353 .672 84 11 Chuck Finley 1993 13 30 CAL AL 35 35 2 0 16 14 .533 0 251.1 243 108 88 82 187 3.15 143 22 1065 959 38 1 1 6 11 7 21 21 9 0 1 8 .253 .314 .364 .678 79 12 Randy Johnson 1993 10 29 SEA AL 35 34 3 1 19 8 .704 1 255.1 185 97 92 99 308 3.24 136 22 1043 913 37 3 1 16 8 7 16 28 12 2 2 8 .203 .290 .322 .612 64 13 Jack McDowell 1993 10 27 CHW AL 34 34 4 0 22 10 .688 0 256.2 261 104 96 69 158 3.37 125 20 1067 981 43 4 6 3 8 6 19 10 15 6 1 8 .266 .314 .379 .693 87 14 Kevin Brown 1992 11 27 TEX AL 35 35 1 0 21 11 .656 0 265.2 262 117 98 76 173 3.32 115 11 1108 1007 40 1 2 10 7 8 29 7 12 2 2 8 .260 .316 .335 .651 85 15 Roger Clemens 1992 11 29 BOS AL 32 32 5 0 18 11 .621 0 246.2 203 80 66 62 208 2.41 175 11 989 907 39 2 5 9 5 5 28 24 12 1 0 3 .224 .279 .308 .587 60 16 Doug Drabek 1992 10 29 PIT NL 34 34 4 0 15 11 .577 0 256.2 218 84 79 54 177 2.77 124 17 1021 945 35 4 8 6 8 8 20 18 14 3 1 11 .231 .274 .330 .604 77 17 Jack McDowell 1992 13 26 CHW AL 34 34 1 0 20 10 .667 0 260.2 247 95 92 75 178 3.18 123 21 1079 983 45 9 9 7 8 6 12 29 16 4 0 6 .251 .307 .379 .686 92 18 Terry Mulholland 1992 12 29 PHI NL 32 32 2 0 13 11 .542 0 229 227 101 97 46 125 3.81 92 14 937 871 43 3 3 3 10 7 14 2 5 15 0 3 .261 .298 .365 .663 93 19 Charles Nagy 1992 10 25 CLE AL 33 33 3 0 17 10 .630 0 252 245 91 83 57 169 2.96 133 11 1018 944 41 4 1 2 6 9 34 12 15 0 0 7 .260 .300 .346 .646 82 20 Melido Perez 1992 10 26 NYY AL 33 33 1 0 13 16 .448 0 247.2 212 94 79 93 218 2.87 138 16 1013 901 33 3 5 5 6 8 19 18 18 9 0 13 .235 .308 .332 .640 79 21 Curt Schilling 1992 10 25 PHI NL 42 26 4 10 14 11 .560 2 226.1 165 67 59 59 147 2.35 150 11 895 819 30 4 4 1 7 8 11 7 7 0 0 4 .201 .254 .288 .542 58 22 Roger Clemens 1991 13 28 BOS AL 35 35 4 0 18 10 .643 0 271.1 219 93 79 65 241 2.62 164 15 1077 993 46 8 12 5 6 8 18 23 16 1 0 6 .221 .270 .328 .598 61 23 Jack McDowell 1991 15 25 CHW AL 35 35 3 0 17 10 .630 0 253.2 212 97 96 82 191 3.41 117 19 1028 930 44 5 2 4 8 4 11 22 10 5 1 10 .228 .292 .347 .639 78 24 Jack Morris 1991 10 36 MIN AL 35 35 2 0 18 12 .600 0 246.2 226 107 94 92 163 3.43 124 18 1032 922 28 6 5 5 5 8 23 32 8 0 1 15 .245 .315 .347 .662 79 25 Jaime Navarro 1991 10 24 MIL AL 34 34 2 0 15 12 .556 0 234 237 117 102 73 114 3.92 102 18 1002 908 39 3 3 6 7 8 20 23 7 0 0 10 .261 .318 .370 .688 91
September 29th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Perhaps more amazing is the fact that he lead BOTH leagues in shutouts. Now that is quite a stat of the day.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Also, consider how many of those were on short rest. He started 4 games in a 13 day span, from the 16th to the 28th. That's gotta be the first time that's happened in a while.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
There was never a season in which no one reached 10 CG until 2000. Then no one had as many as 10 until yesterday.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
There have been 10 complete games on 3 days' rest this entire decade. Two of them were over the weekend. In 1972 Steve Carlton had 26 -- the most in the past 50 years. In the '80s there were 759 total. In the '90s there were 87.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
The last guy to get to 10 before Sabathia, Randy Johnson in '99, only had one outing in which he didn't reach 100 pitches. He threw 93. Sabathia never dipped below 91 pitches, but he had six games in the 90s compared to Johnson's one.
Sabathia's highest pitch count this season was 130. Johnson's in 1999 was 142, and he had seven other outings of more than 130 pitches. In fact, the highest pitch count of 2008 was 138 by Tim Lincecum, and Randy Johnson topped that three times and equaled it once in 1999.
I'm not knocking C.C. at all. I'm just marveling at Johnson's excellence/durabilty and the difference in the way that managers used starters then from how they use them now. I'm surprised that 1999 was really that different from 2008.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Not to be picky (well, I guess it is being picky), but the regular season stats aren't complete until the White Sox and Detroit make up their missed game AND the White Sox and Twins play their tiebreaker. Not that it matters for the complete game list, as the Twins, White Sox and Tigers have a grand total of 10 complete games COMBINED.