The Year of the Pitcher Part II

As I was writing Saturday's post about the history of Tiger Stadium, I started to peruse the 1968 Tigers, the same year Denny McLain won 31 games (we won't see a 30 game winner for a very long time) and had an ERA of 1.96. As I gathered myself after being blown away so fiercely by these stats, I remembered that was also Bob Gibson's Cy Young winning year of 22-9 with a 1.12 ERA in 304 innings. If you were to Google "Year of the Pitcher" the first hit is the 1968 MLB season, which doesn't really surprise me considering McLain and Gibson both won Cy Young Awards and MVP awards that year. But check this out:

• That's the first and only time that both Cy Young winners were named MVPs as well. There have been 10 pitchers to win both awards in the same season, but never in both leagues.
• Since the award has been given to both leagues in 1967, Bob Gibson is the only National League pitcher to win both awards (Sandy Koufax and Don Newcombe, both Dodgers, won CYA and MVP but before there were 2 CYA).
• Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA is the 4th lowest single season ERA ever. The next closest ERA for a pitcher after 1920 is Greg Maddux's 1.559 ERA in 1994.
• McLain is the one of 2 pitchers with 31 wins in the Live Ball Era and the only one with 30+ after World War II (Lefty Grove won 31 games in 1931).
• The 1968 World Series featured 3 complete games each from Mickey Lolich and Bob Gibson - the only time that has ever happened.

So 1968 was clearly the Year of the Pitcher. But what's the runner-up?

Answer: 1995. Winners: Greg Maddux (19-2, 1.63) and Randy Johnson (18-2, 2.48).

After the grudge match of the 1994 strike that resulted of the fans being stripped of a World Series, baseball came back with a bang. In 1995, the Indians' Albert Belle became the only person in baseball history to have a 50 home run-50 double season, Atlanta continued their tirade on the NL East, finishing 21 games ahead of the 2nd place Mets and Phillies, and future Hall of Famer Barry Larkin won his only MVP award, hitting .319. With an abbreviated 1994 season, fans simply missed the game. Any action would have been nice to see, but a pair of 2-loss seasons from the greatest pitchers of the last 30 years blew us all away. Welcome back, baseball.

It wasn't quite the level of 1968 where Gibson had an absolutely absurd ERA and McLain had an absolutely absurd win total, but I think that these seasons are just as impressive. Think about baseball in the 60s, there weren't a whole lot of huge sluggers around; Aaron, Mays, Schmidt, an aging Mantle, and Killebrew were really the brunt of the power. Compared to 90s, with McGwire, Canseco, Sosa, Bonds, Griffey, Thome, A-Rod, Albert Belle (in 1995 at least), there were sluggers popping up left and right. Sure a lot of them were steroid users, but doesn't that make Maddux's 8 home runs allowed over 209 innings all the more impressive? I think so (of course I do, I'm the one writing). I'll share some quick highlights about both of their seasons and why 1995 was the Year of the Cy Young Pitcher Part II.

Maddux
Mad Dog was always praised for his durability. Among all his league-leading stats, he led the league in starts the most, with 6 times (including when he was 39). In fact, except for his rookie year, Maddux made at least 25 starts every single year he ever pitched. But in 1995, he only started 28 times, and he made the most of those starts. 

• On June 15th against Montreal, Maddux only needed 87 pitches to shut out the Expos. 
• From May 12th to July 29th he didn't hit a batter.
• From August 26th to the end of the regular season he didn't allow a home run. 
• He was 13-0 on the road with a 1.12 ERA in 15 starts. 
• He had a .21 ERA when the Braves scored between 0-2 runs (1 run in 5 games) with a 17:1 strikeout to walk ratio.
• He allowed only 8 2nd inning hits all year (random, I know). 
• He was 7-0 against the NL East with a 1.62 ERA. 

Unbelievable.

Johnson
Johnson won his first of 5 Cy Youngs in 1995, going 19-2 with a 2.48 ERA (terrible compared to Maddux, but still led the AL). He also struck out 294 batters, most in the Majors by 58 K's (almost 6 games worth). It went Johnson 294, Nomo 236, Stottlemyre 205, and that was it for people over 200. He blew away both batters and other pitchers with how dominating his 6' 10" frame was coming down on them. Let's delve.

• In 1995, Johnson had 16 10+ strikeout games. 
• He averaged 119.8 pitches per start (including a rain delay game in which he threw 37 pitches), including 141 in back-to-back starts in June and 160 in a complete game against Cleveland. 
• He faced 866 batters, not even cracking the top 10. This means he struck out 30.5% of the batters he faced, compared to Maddux's 23.5%.
• Tale of two pitchers: when Johnson got hit, he got hit. In his two losses, his ERA was 9.45 versus 1.48 in wins. 
• He had a .164 batting average against with runners in scoring position.
• He was 6-1 against the AL West with a 2.55 ERA.

Who had the better season? I'd go with Maddux, he was simply systematic in the way that he handled other teams. While Johnson was a workhorse (not wild, but threw a lot) and struck out half the block, Maddux (the younger of the two in 1995, surprisingly) was a machine. Incredible strikeout to walk ratio, incredible WHIP and ERA, and 13-0 on the road? It's no wonder the Braves won the World Series that year. 

Here's a fun fact about this pair of Cy Young winners: it is the 3rd furthest distance between the winners' teams (Safeco Field to Turner Field [the Braves didn't begin playing there until 1997 but Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium is no longer standing] is 2,636 miles) and furthest since the Padres' Gaylord Perry and Yankees' Ron Guidry in 1978 (Yankee Stadium to Qualcomm Stadium is 2,766 miles).

Enjoy the playoffs, folks. Tonight kicks off the postseason with Kansas City and Oakland in the AL Wild Card game. Though Lester has been a great pick up for the A's, I think Big Game James stays true to his name and pitches lights out for the Royals to send the A's packing. 

But then again, I didn't even have the Angels or Royals in the playoffs. Take me with a grain of salt.

Thanks for reading. 

Will We Ever See a Unanimous Hall of Famer?

With the 2014 Induction come and gone, I started to look at the three players inducted and the percentage of the vote they received. Maddux, who won 4 straight Cy Young awards from '92-'95, received 555/571 (97.2%). Fellow Brave Tom Glavine received 525 votes, good enough for 91.9% of the voters, and surprisingly enough, the Big Hurt Frank Thomas only got 83.7% of the votes in his first time on the ballot. 

Between last summer and my crazy baseball brain now, I've always wondered: will we ever see a unanimous selection for the Hall of Fame? Some writers have already disclosed to the media that they will not vote for anyone who played in the steroid era. Though I disagree with that, I do understand the thought process and the necessity for purifying the era (however, remember my post from about a month ago that preached that we don't live in the steroid era, we live in the Hall of Fame era). Then there are other writers who will argue that certain players don't deserve to be first-ballot Hall of Famers. At the Hall of Fame, there is no denotation whether or not someone was a first-ballot inductee or a last ballot inductee, so why does it matter? Hall of Famer is a Hall of Famer, regardless of the year they were inducted. Inducted means inducted, and anyone who visits the Hall of Fame knows that some players are just better than others, that's a fact. 

Of course now that I wrote that, I guess I'm contradicting myself - why does it matter if someone is elected unanimously or not? 

I'll tell you why: because some players are that good. 

Tom Seaver of the 1992 class is the reigning champion for percentage of votes received with 98.8% (Nolan Ryan also got 98.8% but with rounding and conversion rates and sigfigs, Seaver wins out). The thing is, with his 3 Cy Young awards, Rookie of the Year, and 311 wins, Greg Maddux is a better pitcher with 4 Cy Youngs and 355 wins (a lot of the more specific stats like ERA and WHIP belong to Seaver), at least on paper he is. But Maddux only received 97.2% of the vote (only, ha) - is that circumstantial? Personally, I believe so. If you put Maddux in the Seaver era with the same stats, Maddux might have gotten 98.8%. So it will be very hard for anyone in the near future to be elected unanimously given the steroid era, but this is the man that has the best shot:

Randy Johnson
Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux (sorry to keep referring to Maddux, I just think he's a good basis for example and comparison for the upcoming years of Hall of Famers) are incredibly similar pitchers, except for Johnson's gory strikeout numbers. Johnson's ERA is .13 worse than Maddux's (though Johnson actually allowed fewer earned runs in his career) and Johnson's WHIP is .03 worse than his. In that regard, they are similar pitchers. Not a lot of people ever made solid contact and they did not walk a lot of batters. Here's where Maddux has an edge: he has 52 more wins and almost 1,000 more innings pitched. Decent edge. Here's where Johnson blows Maddux away: one more Cy Young award (Johnson also has 4 consecutive), 2nd all-time in strikeouts and 1st all-time in strikeouts per 9 innings. He has the same hardware as Maddux (plus a World Series co-MVP) and the power numbers of Nolan Ryan, who never won a Cy Young. Judging by his low WHIP and high K/9, Johnson combined the finesse of Maddux and the power of Nolan Ryan, all from the low left arm slot which made it nearly impossible to hit (just ask John Kruk). He's got the hardware, he's got the stats, he's got a ring (Maddux did win 18 Gold Gloves - that's hard to beat). If I were a writer, I can't find a good enough reason to justify not voting for him. Look at these batting averages against him:

• Rickey Henderson: .115, 30 K's in 61 AB
• Adrian Beltre: .219, 19 K's in 64 AB
• Frank Thomas: .233, 18 K's in 43 AB
• Roberto Alomar: .220, 13 K's in 41 AB
• Jim Thome, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn: .111 average 
• Andre Dawson: .133

These are Hall of Famers (or soon to be Hall of Famers). The dude didn't mess around. Although lucky for him, he never had to face Don Kelly. 

To be honest, I don't think we'll see anyone inducted unanimously in my lifetime. There's always a couple people who will prevent that from happening. But if I were to guess, Johnson would be it. Here's a picture of the lanky 6'10" Big Unit at USC just because Google is awesome.

Thanks for reading. 

Unhittable

First of all, I want to congratulate Josh Beckett on throwing his first career no-hitter against the Phillies yesterday. His no-no yesterday was the first of 2014 and the first in the Dodgers organization since Hideo Nomo did in late September of 1996 against the Rockies (sidenote, if a no-hitter were to happen to anyone this year, it would be the Phillies/Dodgers - the Dodgers are first in baseball history with 21 no-hitters and the Phillies have been no-hit a record 18 times). Beckett is now 3-1 on the year with a 2.43 ERA and a WHIP of 1.024.

I heard a stat though talking about Josh Beckett and how at age 34 he was the oldest pitcher since the Big Unit (Randy Johnson) to throw a no-hitter. Randy Johnson did it when he was 40. And it wasn't just a no-no, it was a perfect game. 

Randy Johnson is already one of the greatest pitchers ever and arguably the best post-integration pitcher to ever play the game. He's got 5 Cy Young Awards (four came consecutively), 300 wins, the best K/9 ratio in the world, ever, and has thrown two no-hitters (one perfect game). Fun fact: he has the largest gap between no-hitters in history; he threw one in 1990 and one in 2004. Many pitchers aren't even good for 14 years in a row let alone book end a career with perfection. 

May 18, 2004: Diamondbacks (15-23) at Braves (17-20). The Diamondbacks were on the backslide of their 2001 World Series run and had aged heavily. The Braves, meanwhile, were in the midst of their historic run of dominance in the NL East. Despite being a few games under .500 going in, they would finish the season at 96-66. This lineup was not a joke but Randy Johnson left the game laughing. 

This was a Tuesday night game and unfortunately a lot of the Braves regulars were out of the lineup. Rafael Furcal was out of the lineup and replaced with Jesse Garcia. 45-year old Julio Franco played first instead of Adam Laroche. Nick Green replaced Marcus Giles who would hit .311 for the year. While the Braves lineup was normally pretty fierce, it wasn't as much this particular night. But either way, Johnson was perfect. 

I want to reiterate that Johnson was 40 years old when he did this. In today's game, very few players can still play at a high level at this age. Torii Hunter and Joe Nathan for the Tigers are 39 years old and having respectable seasons. The Captain over in New York is turning 40 soon and hitting .275; again, respectable. But perfect games? Not very close. 

Braves catcher Johnny Estrada had the longest at-bat of the night, seeing 11 pitches and a 3-ball count (the only 3-ball count any of the Braves would see) and Estrada eventually struck out as did so many other Braves. Johnson went on to strike out 13 total, 11 of which were swinging strikeouts. Chipper Jones struck out 3 times; Andruw Jones and Mark DeRosa were the only players not to strike out. Even Eddie Perez, the pinch hitter for Braves starter Mike Hampton, who came on in the 9th with the pressure of stopping perfection struck out. Wow. 

He threw 117 pitches (more than most pitchers do in 6 innings these days) and 87 of those pitches were strikes. That's nearly 75%. I tweeted yesterday that Verlander is down to throwing 62% strikes this year and could pertain to his struggles - he could learn from the Big Unit. 75% strike throwing is ridiculous but at least 65%. 

Let's not overlook the start from Mike Hampton either. The Diamondbacks pushed across 2 runs, one in the 2nd and one in the 7th, and they did not take great at-bats. Hampton threw 9 innings, walked 3, allowed 2 earned runs, and struck out 5, all on 107 pitches (71 strikes). That's how baseball goes though, and unfortunately he picked up his 5th loss of the year to drop to 0-5. He would finish 13-9. 

It was a small crowd at Turner Field to witness history. I sure wish I was there, or at least was old enough to recognize how amazing this is. I just turned 22 and can barely run a mile let alone pitch a perfect game. Way to go, Randy. If he isn't a first ballot Hall of Famer, I don't know who is.

Thanks for reading, and thank you to the brave men and women who protect the USA so I can write this post. Happy Memorial Day.