Looking To Sign A Workhorse F.A. Starting Pitcher?
Posted by Steve Lombardi on January 16, 2009
Today, I was wondering, from 2002 through 2008, how many big league pitchers younger than age 29 have posted four or more seasons where they made at least 32 starts, threw at least 190 innings, and won at least 10 games?
Look at the list:
From To Ages Seasons +-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+ Jon Garland 2002 2008 22-28 7 Barry Zito 2002 2007 24-29 6 Mark Buehrle 2002 2008 23-29 6 Johan Santana 2004 2008 25-29 5 John Lackey 2003 2007 24-28 5 Javier Vazquez 2002 2006 25-29 5 Roy Oswalt 2002 2007 24-29 5 Brandon Webb 2005 2008 26-29 4 Danny Haren 2005 2008 24-27 4 Dontrelle Willis 2004 2007 22-25 4 Jason Marquis 2004 2007 25-28 4 Carlos Zambrano 2003 2007 22-26 4
We can see that Jon Garland is the only pitcher to make this cut in all seven seasons (between 2002 and 2008). Is that young and durable, or what?
January 16th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Interesting list. Garland is the 10th pitcher to start his career after 1980 (99th since 1901) and throw 1600+ innings through his age 28 season. (Of course the strikes must have had some effect on some pitchers.)
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/JcaS
January 17th, 2009 at 11:18 am
It makes sense to target a young, winning, durable pitcher. But you never know when a pitcher will fall apart. Still, most of the guys on Raphy's list from the last 30 years proved at the least useful after that point, some going strong as starters for another decade. It would be hard to find a better group to gamble on.