Quick question to get class
started:
Over or Under 300 – the number of
pitchers who started at least one game in 2015?
You have five seconds … tick,
tick, tick!
The “Overs” win with a lucky 13 to
spare – which just happens to be how many guys started games for two different
teams this season. That baker’s dozen of nomads includes bonafide stoppers
(David Price, Cole Hamels, Johnny Cueto), over-the-hill dudes (Mat Latos, Dan
Haren), a couple of still decent prospects (Daniel Norris, Felix Doubront) as
well as some “who-dats” (Mike Fiers, Matt Boyd).
Forty percent of those pitchers
(124, to be exact) started a minimum of 20 games; slightly over half of them
(65, to be exact) took the bump 30 or more times, topped by the Rays’ Chris
Archer with 34 starting assignments.
Among this fraternity of 124
regular workers are 23 what I like to call “10-and-10” guys. These are the
starters whose team had exactly 10 wins and exactly 10 losses in their first 20
outings. Joe Maddon’s NLCS-bound Cubbies had three – Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks,
nomad Haren – in their rotation at season’s end. (The same is true of the
vacationing Twins.)
The 2015 season also produced four
“15-and-15” pitchers … even one, the Dodgers’ Brett Anderson, who maintained
this perfectly balanced mediocrity through both 20 and 30 starts. In all, there
were 94 pitchers – out of 124, mind you, basically 75 percent of the players
who qualify – to start at least 10 games ultimately won AND at least 10 games
ultimately lost. Twenty-one of that number, including names like Max Scherzer,
James Shields, John Lackey, Lester and Cueto, tallied a minimum of 15 games in
both the “team win” and “team loss” ledgers.
A total of 13 pitchers accumulated
20 or more team wins on the season, led unsurprisingly by the Cubs’ Jake
Arrieta with 25. The list includes two of the traded nomads (Price, Hamels),
shockingly two Houston Astros (Dallas Keuchel, Collin McHugh) and last year’s
NL Cy Young recipient. Curiously, the AL winner was one of only two pitchers
with sufficient bad luck and persistence to hit the 20-plateau for team losses.
There were 17 starters who rang up
a dozen or more “Notorious No Decisions,” the leader of this pack also a Cub,
Hendricks this time, who left accountability to Maddon’s bullpen on 17 separate
occasions in his 32 efforts. Before being too critical, let’s credit the
second-year-man for his durability. You might say he had perfect attendance for
the season – only twice did as many as six games elapse between his starts.
Quite acceptable work from a guy who was the team’s No. 5 starter when the
season opened.
On the other end of the spectrum,
there were several starters who took full ownership of their work – most
notably the Yankees’ Ivan Nova. A victim of 2014’s contagion of Tommy John
injuries, Nova did not begin his season until late June and worked 17 starts in
his team’s final 91 games, earning the decision in every last one of them. The
closest anyone else comes in such perfection is Detroit fill-in man Kyle
Lobstein with 11, and a quintet (including journeyman and current Royal Joe
Blanton) who went four-for-four [RIP Moses Malone]. Alas, the only one of these
dudes with a winning record is Toronto’s Marcus Stroman, who earned the winning
decision in four of the division champs’ last 21 contests, three times working
through the seventh inning.
A tip of the cap and an extra
serving of post-game ice need to go to the 22 pitchers who recorded 21 or more
outs in at least half of their starting assignments [minimum 10]. The
seven-inning “long start” (LS), in and of itself, has become a more recognized
accomplishment nowadays in MLB, especially as the Complete Game (CG) creeps closer
and closer to extinction. The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw topped the Bigs (and enhanced
his chances for a third consecutive Cy Young) by going long in two-thirds of
his 33 starts, one of just seven pitchers to deliver 20 or more such efforts
for the season.
In 2015, MLB fans were treated to
a near-record seven no-hit games. Two near perfectos were woven by Scherzer,
highlights in an otherwise disappointing debut campaign in the Capital. The
DH-less National League produced five of these gems.
Well we started off this class
with a quickie-quiz, so let’s end with some vocabulary study.
Here’s an oxymoron for ya.
AL hurlers threw nearly twice as
many CG’s as did their NL counterparts (66 – 38) and over 40 percent more
shutouts (30 – 21).
Hmmm!
NL guys enjoy the advantage of the
occasional “freebie” out afforded by the pitcher’s spot in the batting order …
hence, an easier route to something like a no-hitter.
Somewhere along the way, though,
there appears to arrive a “tipping point” in this simple logic.
The advantage an AL pitcher enjoys
when it comes to working deep into a game is that the odds of his removal from
the game for offensive purposes are “slim” and “none,” with “slim” running a
very weak second.
At just what point that
juxtaposition sets in remains, if not a mystery, a bit nebulous. Wherever that
point may lie, herein lies the Legacy of Longevity wrought by MLB’s Pitching
Class of 2015.
Despite the gleam of all those
no-no’s, its 104 Complete Game performances – the handiwork of 64 different
arms – represent the lowest total in the history of the sport … ya know, like
since ever.
For a discussion of alternative approaches to the use of a pitching staff from the perspectives of the 2015 World Series participants take a look at this.
For a discussion of alternative approaches to the use of a pitching staff from the perspectives of the 2015 World Series participants take a look at this.
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