Dan Shaughnessy used to be one of my favorite writers, be he certainly has changed over the years and is now just a mouthpiece for the Red Sox, given that he writes for the paper partially owned by the team. Remember last year when the Globe had a front-page story (front of the main section, not the sports section) about the wonderful Red Sox Travel Packages? It was nothing more than a huge advertisement.

Anyway, check out his column about Jim Rice's HOF candidacy right here. It's full of all the usual grandstanding, and is just about devoid of any real facts. I especially like how he mentions Tim Rice only to say that Rice was better, when by every available decent metric, Raines is actually quite superior.

The one thing that bothers me about all of this is that I now seem to agree with Curt Schilling about something, which I find disgusting.

Since Mr. Knice Guy got shortchanged yesterday, I thought I'd use the PI batter-vs-pitcher feature to point out some of his career performances. Read the rest of this entry »

...I guess you'll finally find out if you've been naughty or nice.

(Apologies to Alan Knicely, who didn't quite make the cut.)

I hope everyone has a great holiday season.

For the 2007 season, here are the leaders among pitcher for most stolen bases allowed:

  Cnt Player             **SB** Year Age Tm  Lg  G  GS CG 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 CS Pk BK WP   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  OPS+  Pit  Str
+----+-----------------+-------+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+
    1 Chris Young          44   2007  28 SDP NL  30 30  0   0  0  9  8  .529  0 173   118  66  60  72 167   3.12  129 10  705  616 19  8   0   7   3   6   9  0  2  4  7  .192  .281  .297  .578   60 2884 1844
    2 Tim Wakefield        41   2007  40 BOS AL  31 31  0   0  0 17 12  .586  0 189   191 104 100  64 110   4.76  100 22  800  724 47  3   1   4   2   6  14  8  0  0 10  .264  .325  .428  .753   92 2881 1858
    3 Greg Maddux          37   2007  41 SDP NL  34 34  1   0  0 14 11  .560  0 198   221  92  91  25 104   4.14   98 14  830  776 47  8   3   6  15   8  14  2  1  0  5  .285  .309  .420  .729   98 2704 1855
    4 A.J. Burnett         31   2007  30 TOR AL  25 25  2   0  0 10  8  .556  0 165.2 131  74  69  66 176   3.75  119 23  691  611 19  1   2  12   0   2  19  0  0  0  5  .214  .302  .362  .664   75 2649 1625
    5 Dustin McGowan       29   2007  25 TOR AL  27 27  2   1  0 12 10  .545  0 169.2 146  80  77  61 144   4.08  109 14  705  636 27  3   3   2   0   6  13  1  0  0 13  .230  .296  .347  .643   70 2702 1659
    6 Brandon Webb         26   2007  28 ARI NL  34 34  4   3  0 18 10  .643  0 236.1 209  91  79  72 194   3.01  156 12  975  883 42  4   6   5   9   6  20  9  1  0  3  .237  .296  .334  .630   63 3436 2228
    7 Jose Contreras       25   2007  35 CHW AL  32 30  2   2  2 10 17  .370  0 189   232 134 117  62 113   5.57   85 21  858  763 39  5   1  15   8  10  19  6  0  0  3  .304  .364  .451  .815  110 2999 1887
    8 Mike Mussina         24   2007  38 NYY AL  28 27  0   0  0 11 10  .524  0 152   188  90  87  35  91   5.15   87 14  656  605 49  1   2   4   6   6  18  3  0  0  1  .311  .349  .464  .813  112 2393 1575
    9 Daniel Cabrera       24   2007  26 BAL AL  34 34  1   0  0  9 18  .333  0 204.1 207 133 126 108 166   5.55   83 25  922  781 37  2   6  15  13   5  21  4  0  2  7  .265  .363  .414  .777  103 3564 2069
   10 Rich Hill            23   2007  27 CHC NL  32 32  0   0  0 11  8  .579  0 195   170  89  85  63 183   3.92  119 27  812  724 32  1   3  12   9   4  14  5  4  1  1  .235  .305  .394  .699   81 3073 2033 

Umm, 44 seems like an awful lot to me. If a staff of 5 starters each allowed 44 in a season, that would be 220 opposing stolen bases, and the Mets led this year with 200 SB (second place was Baltimore with 144.)

Not surprisingly, a bunch of the same names show up on the list for highest SB% allowed  in 2007 (among starters qualified for the ERA title):

  Cnt Player             **SB%** Year Age Tm  Lg  G  GS CG 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 A.J. Burnett        1.00   2007  30 TOR AL  25 25  2   0  0 10  8  .556  0 165.2 131  74  69  66 176   3.75  119 23  691  611 19  1   2  12   0   2  19  31  0  0  0  5  .214  .302  .362  .664   75 2649 1625
    2 Chris Young         1.00   2007  28 SDP NL  30 30  0   0  0  9  8  .529  0 173   118  66  60  72 167   3.12  129 10  705  616 19  8   0   7   3   6   9  44  0  2  4  7  .192  .281  .297  .578   60 2884 1844
    3 Jeff Suppan         1.00   2007  32 MIL NL  34 34  1   0  0 12 12  .500  0 206.2 243 113 106  68 114   4.62   97 18  919  815 60  3  10  11  14  11  23   7  0  0  0  7  .298  .356  .445  .801  109 3325 2071
    4 Dustin McGowan      0.97   2007  25 TOR AL  27 27  2   1  0 12 10  .545  0 169.2 146  80  77  61 144   4.08  109 14  705  636 27  3   3   2   0   6  13  29  1  0  0 13  .230  .296  .347  .643   70 2702 1659
    5 Greg Maddux         0.95   2007  41 SDP NL  34 34  1   0  0 14 11  .560  0 198   221  92  91  25 104   4.14   98 14  830  776 47  8   3   6  15   8  14  37  2  1  0  5  .285  .309  .420  .729   98 2704 1855
    6 Chad Gaudin         0.92   2007  24 OAK AL  34 34  1   0  0 11 13  .458  0 199.1 205 108  98 100 154   4.42   95 21  886  769 40  8   8   8   3   6  26  12  1  0  1  3  .267  .354  .421  .775  110 3290 1984
    7 Jason Marquis       0.91   2007  28 CHC NL  34 33  1   1  0 12  9  .571  0 191.2 190 111  98  76 109   4.60  101 22  846  743 40  4   6  13  13   1  19  20  2  0  0  3  .256  .335  .409  .744   92 3027 1870
    8 Jake Peavy          0.91   2007  26 SDP NL  34 34  0   0  0 19  6  .760  0 223.1 169  67  63  68 240   2.54  159 13  898  812 31  7   5   6   5   7  16  21  2  1  0  4  .208  .272  .312  .584   61 3609 2349
    9 Cole Hamels         0.88   2007  23 PHI NL  28 28  2   0  0 15  5  .750  0 183.1 163  72  69  43 177   3.39  136 25  743  687 37  1   4   3   5   5  13  14  2  2  0  5  .237  .283  .403  .686   76 2791 1911
   10 Matt Morris         0.88   2007  32 TOT NL  32 32  3   0  0 10 11  .476  0 198.2 240 123 108  61 102   4.89   90 18  884  795 61  4   4   9  10   8  24  15  2  0  0  4  .302  .355  .457  .812  114 3037 1943

Wow, Burnett allowed 31 steals without a CS, Young allowed 44 without a CS, and Suppan allowed  7 without a CS. To a degree, the catchers might be to blame, but more than likely these pitchers have slower deliveries and/or are more "readable" by the baserunners.

As long as we're looking at it, here are the best caught stealing percentages for the year, also among starters qualified for the ERA title:

  Cnt Player             **SB%** Year Age Tm  Lg  G  GS CG 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 Jon Garland         0.25   2007  27 CHW AL  32 32  2   1  0 10 13  .435  0 208.1 219 114  98  57  98   4.23  112 19  883  812 46  7   3   4   3   7  20   2  6  1  0  1  .270  .318  .414  .732   89 3297 2095
    2 Bronson Arroyo      0.33   2007  30 CIN NL  34 34  1   0  0  9 15  .375  0 210.2 232 109  99  63 156   4.23  110 28  921  828 53  2   6  13  10   7  12   3  6  2  0  4  .280  .338  .450  .788  103 3432 2202
    3 Tom Glavine         0.38   2007  41 NYM NL  34 34  1   1  0 13  8  .619  0 200.1 219 102  99  64  89   4.45   96 23  855  780 38  8   2   4   5   2  21   5  8  2  0  2  .281  .338  .438  .776  107 3338 1938
    4 Mark Buehrle        0.40   2007  28 CHW AL  30 30  3   1  0 10  9  .526  0 201   208  86  81  45 115   3.63  131 22  835  773 44  2   5   5   7   5  20   2  3  5  0  1  .269  .312  .417  .729   87 3102 1997
    5 Adam Wainwright     0.43   2007  25 STL NL  32 32  1   0  0 14 12  .538  0 202   212  93  83  70 136   3.70  119 13  882  789 47  4   4   9   9   5  19   6  8  1  0  6  .269  .333  .388  .721   91 3173 1971
    6 Jeremy Guthrie      0.44   2007  28 BAL AL  32 26  0   0  3  7  5  .583  0 175.1 165  78  72  47 123   3.70  125 23  723  662 37  1   2   4   4   6  18   4  5  1  1  8  .249  .300  .412  .712   85 2681 1709
    7 Gil Meche           0.44   2007  28 KCR AL  34 34  1   0  0  9 13  .409  0 216   218  98  88  62 156   3.67  128 22  906  829 37  4   2   3   5   7  20   4  5  2  0  3  .263  .314  .397  .711   84 3584 2287
    8 C.C. Sabathia       0.50   2007  26 CLE AL  34 34  4   1  0 19  7  .731  0 241   238  94  86  37 209   3.21  143 20  975  918 60  1   1   8   6   6  23  10 10  0  0  1  .259  .292  .392  .684   76 3581 2377
    9 Doug Davis          0.50   2007  31 ARI NL  33 33  0   0  0 13 12  .520  0 192.2 211 100  91  95 144   4.25  111 21  862  750 40  4   7   5  10   2  23   6  6  7  1 10  .281  .365  .429  .794  105 3356 1968
   10 Carlos Silva        0.53   2007  28 MIN AL  33 33  2   1  0 13 14  .481  0 202   229  99  94  36  89   4.19  103 20  848  797 41  7   2   4   6   5  24   8  7  0  1  4  .287  .319  .432  .751   99 3057 1996 

What you notice is that very few stolen bases were attempted against these pitchers. Sabathia allowed the most out of this group, and that's just 10 SB. I imagine teams were inclined to run against Sabathia since it was fairly difficult to get runners into scoring postion against him by other means. But like a lot of hard throwers, C.C. has a quick delivery and is pretty hard to steal against.

By the way, 7 different pitchers allowed 5 stolen bases in a single game this year:

  Cnt Player            Date          Tm   Opp GmReslt App,Dec    IP   H  R ER BB SO HR Pit Str GmSc IR IS BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP **SB** CS Pk BK WP   ERA
+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+---------+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+------+--+--+--+--+------+
    1 Ben Sheets        2007-09-14    MIL  CIN L  5-6  GS-3  ,L   3    6  5  5  2  3  1  50  30   28       17 14  0  0   1   0  0  1   0    5    0  0  0  0  15.00
    2 Gavin Floyd       2007-09-05    CHW @DET L  1-2  GS-6       6    6  1  1  2  6  1  90  53   60       27 24  1  0   0   1  0  0   0    5    0  0  0  0   1.50
    3 Jake Peavy        2007-08-22    SDP @NYM W  7-5  GS-6  ,W   6    2  2  2  5 11  0 101  68   66       26 21  1  0   0   0  0  0   0    5    0  0  0  1   3.00
    4 Dustin McGowan    2007-08-11    TOR @KCR L  1-4  GS-7  ,L   6.1  6  4  3  1  4  1 100  63   50       27 25  0  1   0   0  0  1   0    5    0  0  0  0   4.26
    5 Chris Young       2007-06-29    SDP @LAD W  7-6  GS-6  ,W   6    7  2  2  1  9  0 113  82   58       26 25  0  0   0   0  0  0   0    5    0  0  1  0   3.00
    6 Mike Mussina      2007-06-24    NYY @SFG L  2-7  GS-5  ,L   5    5  3  2  3  5  0 105  63   49       24 19  1  0   1   0  1  1   0    5    0  0  0  0   3.60
    7 Joe Blanton       2007-05-27    OAK @BAL L  4-8  GS-6  ,L   6   10  8  8  1  2  3 110  68   21       30 29  1  0   0   0  0  0   0    5    0  0  0  0  12.00

Ben Sheets did it in just 3 innings!

Main Page - BR Bullpen

If you want to take a break from the stats for a day or two, you can always browse around or contribute your vast baseball knowledge to the Bullpen, our wiki site. We just topped 43,000 pages of content on that site, so if you can't find things on our main site, the bullpen may be a good place to look.

Happy Holidays!

Remember a few years back when Doug Mirabelli was flown in by the Red Sox to catch Tim Wakefield, after the Red Sox realized that Josh Bard couldn't catch the knuckleball?

Personally, I have always found it hard to believe that Mirabelli's defense was worth all the trouble. (See below for further discussion on "the trouble.") It's true that Josh Bard had a lot of trouble himself early that season, allowing a number of passed balls. But I really wonder if Boston wouldn't be better off training a young catcher in the off-season to handle the knuckle, rather than continuing the trot Dougy out there.

First of all, here are the worst batting averages for players with at least 400 PAs over the last 3 seasons:

  Cnt Player              **BA**    PA  From  To   Ages   G    AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS  OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions Teams
+----+-----------------+---------+-----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+
    1 Mark Bellhorn        .198     661 2005 2007 30-32  222   567   71  112  31   2  16   58   88   1  207   2   0   4   7    3   0  .306  .344  .650 /4536D9   TOT-SDP-CIN
    2 Doug Mirabelli       .206     481 2005 2007 34-36  171   433   38   89  17   0  17   59   40   0  148   7   1   0   8    2   0  .283  .363  .646 *2/D      BOS-TOT
    3 Brian N. Anderson    .216     459 2005 2007 23-25  160   416   52   90  25   1  10   36   32   2  109   5   3   3   7    5   7  .279  .353  .632 *8/7D9    CHW
    4 Jason LaRue          .216     847 2005 2007 31-33  248   721   74  156  41   0  26   94   85  16  218  25  11   5  17    2   0  .318  .381  .699 *2/95     CIN-KCR
    5 John Mabry           .216     550 2005 2007 34-36  247   490   46  106  24   2  14   62   48   1  130   1   6   5  12    0   0  .285  .359  .644 /3975D    STL-CHC-COL
    6 David Newhan         .217     475 2005 2007 31-33  191   423   54   92  14   1  10   45   37   2   86   5   5   5   7   15   4  .285  .326  .611 /8795D43  BAL-NYM
    7 Tomas Perez          .220     430 2005 2006 31-32  193   400   48   88  19   0   2   38   16   2   71   2   7   5   9    2   0  .251  .283  .534 /563497   PHI-TBD
    8 Joe Borchard         .221     484 2005 2007 26-28  206   430   53   95  18   1  14   47   49   6  133   5   0   0   9    4   4  .308  .365  .673 /97D83    CHW-TOT-FLA
    9 Nick Green           .221     509 2005 2007 26-28  180   439   65   97  20   2   7   33   44   0  129  12  11   3   7    4   5  .307  .323  .630 *4/5693   TBD-TOT-SEA
   10 Scott Thorman        .222     440 2006 2007 24-25  175   415   50   92  29   0  16   50   19   3   91   3   1   2   6    2   1  .260  .407  .667 *3/7      ATL

Thank goodness for Mark Bellhorn, or maybe more people would realize that Mirabelli has given Boston absolutely NOTHING offensively.

Now, when Boston originally traded away Mirabelli, they got Mark Loretta in return. During his one year in Boston, Loretta put up .285/.345/.361, a rung below his career averages, and then he walked as a free agent. Not a bad trade considering how worthless Mirabelli is (particularly to a team with no knuckleball pitchers,) but certainly nothing to write home about.

But to get Mirabelli back, the Red Sox had to send Josh Bard and Cla Meredith (plus some cash) to the Padres.

Since, Bard has put up an OPS+ of 122 in 1.5 seasons with the Padres and he looks like a decent player. Meredith put up a 0.711 WHIP in 2006 along with an ERA+ of 380. Last year, he came back down to earth with a 1.393 WHIP and an ERA+ of 115. If he can perform somewhere in the middle in 2008, he'll be just great.

In any case, both players have more value than Mirabelli. I just cannot believe that Boston uses one of 25 roster spots on this guy.

Most current baseball fans will recognize the name Cody Ross. Even if not, perhaps you should familiarize yourself with him on his main Baseball-Reference.com page. First of all, in his major league career of 486 at-bats, he's got 26 HR, 91 RBI, and .829 OPS and a 114 OPS+.

But here's an interesting tidbit. Most total bases in a season from 1998 to 2007 with at most 200 PAs:

 Cnt Player             **TB**  PA Year Age Tm  Lg  G   AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+---+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Cody Ross           113   197 2007  26 FLA NL  66 173  35  58 19  0 12  39  20   3  38   3   0   1   2   2  0  .335  .411  .653 1.064 *89/7
    2 Greg Colbrunn       107   185 2002  32 ARI NL  72 171  30  57 16  2 10  27  13   1  19   0   0   1   5   0  0  .333  .378  .626 1.004 *3/5D
    3 Richie Sexson       103   183 1998  23 CLE AL  49 174  28  54 14  1 11  35   6   0  42   3   0   0   3   1  1  .310  .344  .592  .936 *3/7D
    4 Shawon Dunston       95   193 2001  38 SFG NL  88 186  26  52 10  3  9  25   2   0  32   2   2   1   2   3  1  .280  .293  .511  .804 987/D3
    5 Craig Wilson         93   183 2001  24 PIT NL  88 158  27  49  3  1 13  32  15   1  53   7   1   2   4   3  1  .310  .390  .589  .979 392/D7
    6 Rick Ankiel          92   190 2007  27 STL NL  47 172  31  49  8  1 11  39  13   0  41   0   1   4   3   1  0  .285  .328  .535  .863 *98/7
    7 Erubiel Durazo       92   185 1999  25 ARI NL  52 155  31  51  4  2 11  30  26   1  43   1   0   3   1   1  1  .329  .422  .594 1.016 *3
    8 Juan Encarnacion     92   175 1998  22 DET AL  40 164  30  54  9  4  7  21   7   0  31   1   0   3   2   7  4  .329  .354  .561  .915 *98/7D
    9 Carlos Quentin       88   191 2006  23 ARI NL  57 166  23  42 13  3  9  32  15   2  34   8   1   1   6   1  0  .253  .342  .530  .872 *9/7
   10 Jason Varitek        85   198 2001  29 BOS AL  51 174  19  51 11  1  7  25  21   3  35   1   1   1   6   0  0  .293  .371  .489  .860 *2
   11 Doug Mirabelli       84   182 2004  33 BOS AL  59 160  27  45 12  0  9  32  19   0  46   3   0   0   5   0  0  .281  .368  .525  .893 *2/D
   12 Robb Quinlan         84   177 2004  27 ANA AL  56 160  23  55 14  0  5  23  14   0  26   2   0   1   1   3  1  .344  .401  .525  .926 *53/7D9
   13 Marcus Thames        84   184 2004  27 DET AL  61 165  24  42 12  0 10  33  16   0  42   2   0   1   3   0  1  .255  .326  .509  .835 *79/D
   14 Toby Hall            84   196 2001  25 TBD AL  49 188  28  56 16  0  4  30   4   0  16   3   0   1   5   2  2  .298  .321  .447  .768 *2
   15 Mike Difelice        84   191 1999  30 TBD AL  51 179  21  55 11  0  6  27   8   0  23   3   0   1   1   0  0  .307  .346  .469  .815 *2
   16 Freddy Garcia        84   193 1998  25 PIT NL  56 172  27  44 11  1  9  26  18   3  45   2   0   1   3   0  2  .256  .332  .488  .820 *5/3
   17 Russell Branyan      83   182 2004  28 MIL NL  51 158  21  37 11  1 11  27  20   0  68   2   0   2   1   1  0  .234  .324  .525  .849 *5/3
   18 Fernando Seguigno    83   175 2000  25 MON NL  76 162  22  45  8  0 10  22   9   0  46   3   0   1   5   0  1  .278  .326  .512  .838 379/D     

He's way out in the lead there, although he's helped by having had very close to, but not quite, 200 PAs. Notice that Rick Ankiel got on there too, although some questions his accomplishment given his mention in the Mitchell Report. Notice that both Boston catchers made it (#10 and #11) although that was Mirabelli's last productive season.

On another post, kingturtle remarked that Sid Fernandez was incredibly effective in his career until the 5th of 6th inning of starts. I remember hearing that something about Fernandez' windup or delivery made it tough for batters to pick up the ball, and that they usually needed a couple of at-bats in a game against Fernandez to get accustomed to it.

An easy way to look at that is to check out Fernandez' pitching splits, specifically his average against based on the number of times he has faced a guy in a game. For his career, guys facing him for the first time in a game hit .186 / .264 / .308 against him, whereas the batting average climbed to .204 in the second PA, and .246 in the 3rd or greater PA.

To me, these numbers back up kingturtle exactly. 5th or 6th inning would usually mean 2 PAs by most players, and Fernandez allowed a combined .194 batting average over the first 2 PAs by each player.

If you break it out by years, from 1985 to 1993, batters were collectively under .200 every single year in their first PA against Fernandez. Wow!

That being said, one important factor is that Fernandez' career batting average against is just .209 and he is third all-time in fewest hits allowed per 9 innings.

But compare him to pitchers most statistically similar:

Jose Rijo allowed a .243 average in his career, broken out as .239 in the first PA, .254 in the second PA, and .236 in the third+ PA. Certainly quite a different breakdown from Fernandez.

Bob Ojeda allowed a .257 average in his career. It was .250 in the first PA, .253 in the second PA, and .272 in the third+ PA. This is a similar trend to Fernandez, but the numbers split across PA# are all closer to the average for Ojeda.

Gary Peters allowed a .243 average in his career. It was .233 in PA #1, .238 in PA #2, and .258 in PA #3+. This is somewhat closer to Fernandez' model.

I remember that Fernandez was a notorious fly-ball pitcher and he did allow more homers on average. But I guess he allowed many fewer singles!

I've heard many times that Jack Morris is the winningest pitcher of the 1980s, but who was the losingest? Jim Clancy.  Those early 1980s Jays teams just couldn't hit.

Going back,

1870s: Bobby Mathews, 164
1880s: Pud Galvin, 242
1890s: Amos Rusie, 163

1900s: Vic Willis, 172
1910s: Walter Johnson, 143

1920s: Dolf Luque, 146

1930s: Paul Derringer, 137
1940s:  Dutch Leonard, 123

1950s: Robin Roberts, 149
1960s: Jack Fisher, 133
1970s: Phil Niekro, 151
1980s: Jim Clancy, 126

1990s: Andy Benes, 116
2000s:  Jeff Weaver, 102

I see the Phillies are close to signing Geoff Jenkins.

Here's the good news. Most seasons by an active player since 1999 with an OPS+ of at least 130:

http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/CJgb

(sorry, had to use a link because something buggy made the post go blank before.)

So Jenkins is one of just 32 players with at least 4 such seasons.

The "bad" news is that Jenkins averaged 103 in the other 5 intervening seasons, including 101 in each of the last 2. He's by no means a bad player, but it seems he's likely pretty average in that regard.