Comments on: On Strike

By: skyking162 » SOTD - On Strike

skyking162 » SOTD - On Strike — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 01:28:18 +0000

[...] strike that officially started yesterday in Hollywood, I presented a list of the pitchers who threw the most strikes in a single game. Here are two teaser bits of [...]

By: statboy

statboy — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:43:10 +0000

Check out this game by Curt Schilling...
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL200209200.shtml

114 pitches, *94 STRIKES*, and he got SHELLED. The 94 strikes are the most strikes "ever" thrown with a total pitch count of 120 or less.

By: Yuri

Yuri — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:32:12 +0000

Hmm, interesting list.

I wonder what the most consecutive strikes a pitcher has thrown is? That would take amazing control.

By: Johnny Twisto

Johnny Twisto — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:08:54 +0000

Birtelcom, I was just coming on to post that. Sky definitely should have clarified that pitch counts are only available on B-R since about 1990, and for random games (mostly late '50s-early '60s Dodgers) prior to that.

By: birtelcom

birtelcom — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:58:45 +0000

Do I correctly assume that this list is subject to the caveat that it only covers those games for which pitch counts are currently Retrosheet available, which is not all games since 1957 and few or none before 1957?

By: savoyspecial

savoyspecial — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:38:26 +0000

"Sandy Koufax dominates the top spots, placing in a tie for 1st, plus 5th and 6th. Huh, wasn’t his career cut short by arm issues or something like that?"

I thought Koufax's arm troubles stemmed from tearing apart the cartilage in his pitching arm when he jammed it while diving back into 2nd base in a 1964 game. Although, I can't imagine he could have continued to toss 300+ IP seasons much longer even without the injury.

By: savoyspecial

savoyspecial — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:51:41 +0000

Just missing the cut: Orel Hershiser on Oct 1, 1989: 108 strikes thrown in an 11-inning, 169-pitch effort.

This performance is widely considered the climax of the wear and tear on Orel's arm, after 3 consecutive seasons
of 250+ IP. Less than a month into the 1990 season, he tore his rotator cuff and missed most of the next two seasons.

By: savoyspecial

savoyspecial — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:05:19 +0000

Very interesting. I'm curious as to most balls (non-strikes) thrown in a game.

Afterall, in order to rank high in this category, a pitcher would theoretically have to be effective enough to pitch deep into the game.

By: Sky

Sky — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:22:52 +0000

In his 20-strikeout game, Kerry Wood threw 84 of 122 pitches for strikes. One of Clemens' games wasn't charted, and in the other one he threw 101 of 151 pitches for strikes. Looking through the list of top strikeout games, about half don't have pitch data. How come I'd never heard of Tom Cheney's 21-strikeout game? Probably because it took him 16 innings. I think the Game Scores aren't overly impressive because we're not filtering based on percentage of strikes, just raw totals. Plus, it's difficult to be thoroughly effective over 10+ innings. There's probably something to throwing too many strikes, especially when your stuff isn't great. You want hitters to know you CAN throw a strike, but also get them to swing at stuff they can't hit hard. Too many strikes means too many homeruns for most pitchers.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:07:55 +0000

That's a great point, Andrew. I also noticed the low game scores. It opens up a whole area of discussion about what makes a successfully-pitched game. We know that a lot of successful pitchers throw intentional balls a bit outside the strike zone just to set up subsequent strikes--to induce either swings and misses or poor contact on batted balls. It could be that on average, games with really high game scores have fewer strikes thrown. Gives me an idea for a post....