Joe Cowley
Joseph Alan Cowley
Bats: Right , Throws: Right
Height: 6' 5" , Weight: 210 lb.

Born: August 15, 1958 in Lexington, KY
Signed by the Atlanta Braves as an amateur free agent in 1976. (All Transactions)
Debut: April 13, 1982
Final Game: May 3, 1987
    About biographical information

Standard Pitching

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Year Age Tm Lg W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB Awards
1982 23 ATL NL 1 2 .333 4.47 17 8 4 0 0 0 52.1 53 27 26 6 16 2 27 1 0 0 221 84 1.318 9.1 1.0 2.8 4.6 1.69
1984 25 NYY AL 9 2 .818 3.56 16 11 2 3 1 0 83.1 75 34 33 12 31 1 71 2 1 2 356 107 1.272 8.1 1.3 3.3 7.7 2.29
1985 26 NYY AL 12 6 .667 3.95 30 26 2 1 0 0 159.2 132 75 70 29 85 2 97 6 1 5 684 102 1.359 7.4 1.6 4.8 5.5 1.14
1986 27 CHW AL 11 11 .500 3.88 27 27 0 4 0 0 162.1 133 81 70 20 83 1 132 3 0 4 692 112 1.331 7.4 1.1 4.6 7.3 1.59
1987 28 PHI NL 0 4 .000 15.43 5 4 0 0 0 0 11.2 21 26 20 2 17 1 5 2 0 0 73 28 3.257 16.2 1.5 13.1 3.9 0.29
5 Seasons 33 25 .569 4.20 95 76 8 8 1 0 469.1 414 243 219 69 232 7 332 14 2 11 2026 97 1.376 7.9 1.3 4.4 6.4 1.43
162 Game Avg. 13 10 .569 4.20 38 30 3 3 0 0 187 165 97 87 27 92 3 132 6 1 4 806 97 1.376 7.9 1.3 4.4 6.4 1.43
NYY (2 yrs) 21 8 .724 3.81 46 37 4 4 1 0 243.0 207 109 103 41 116 3 168 8 2 7 1040 103 1.329 7.7 1.5 4.3 6.2 1.45
PHI (1 yr) 0 4 .000 15.43 5 4 0 0 0 0 11.2 21 26 20 2 17 1 5 2 0 0 73 28 3.257 16.2 1.5 13.1 3.9 0.29
ATL (1 yr) 1 2 .333 4.47 17 8 4 0 0 0 52.1 53 27 26 6 16 2 27 1 0 0 221 84 1.318 9.1 1.0 2.8 4.6 1.69
CHW (1 yr) 11 11 .500 3.88 27 27 0 4 0 0 162.1 133 81 70 20 83 1 132 3 0 4 692 112 1.331 7.4 1.1 4.6 7.3 1.59
AL (3 yrs) 32 19 .627 3.84 73 64 4 8 1 0 405.1 340 190 173 61 199 4 300 11 2 11 1732 107 1.330 7.5 1.4 4.4 6.7 1.51
NL (2 yrs) 1 6 .143 6.47 22 12 4 0 0 0 64.0 74 53 46 8 33 3 32 3 0 0 294 59 1.672 10.4 1.1 4.6 4.5 0.97

Batting Against -- Pitching*

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Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS BAbip TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
1982 23 ATL NL 17 221 200 27 53 11 1 6 10 4 16 27 .265 .321 .420 .741 .280 84 2 1 3 1 2
1984 25 NYY AL 16 356 321 34 75 9 4 12 4 1 31 71 .234 .303 .399 .702 .263 128 2 2 0 2 1
1985 26 NYY AL 30 684 588 75 132 17 3 29 12 7 85 97 .224 .327 .412 .738 .221 242 9 6 1 4 2
1986 27 CHW AL 27 692 596 81 133 25 1 20 17 5 83 132 .223 .319 .369 .688 .252 220 8 3 6 4 1
1987 28 PHI NL 5 73 54 26 21 4 1 2 6 0 17 5 .389 .548 .611 1.159 .404 33 2 2 0 0 1
5 Seasons 95 2026 1759 243 414 66 10 69 49 17 232 332 .235 .327 .402 .729 .252 707 23 14 10 11 7
162 Game Avg. 38 806 699 97 165 26 4 27 19 7 92 132 .235 .327 .402 .729 .252 281 9 6 4 4 3
MLB Averages

Starting Pitching*

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Year Age Tm Lg G GS Wgs Lgs ND Wchp Ltuf Wtm Ltm tmW-L% Wlst Lsv CG SHO QS QS% GmScA Best Wrst BQR BQS sDR lDR RS/GS RS/IP IP/GS Pit/GS <80 80-99 100-119 ≥120 Max
1982 23 ATL NL 17 8 0 2 6 0 0 4 4 .500 1 0 0 0 2 25% 46 68 9 10 0 0 2 4.1 3.6 4.8
1984 25 NYY AL 16 11 8 0 3 5 0 11 0 1.000 2 1 3 1 3 27% 54 82 25 12 3 0 7 7.4 7.5 6.6
1985 26 NYY AL 30 26 11 6 9 3 0 16 10 .615 2 5 1 0 11 42% 51 75 21 20 6 1 14 5.1 4.3 5.7
1986 27 CHW AL 27 27 11 11 5 3 3 13 14 .481 2 1 4 0 14 52% 53 84 8 20 6 0 9 4.7 5.0 6.0
1987 28 PHI NL 5 4 0 4 0 0 0 0 4 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0% 27 38 20 8 7 0 3 2.0 1.8 2.8
5 Seasons 95 76 30 23 23 11 3 44 32 .579 7 7 8 1 30 39% 50 84 8 70 22 1 35 5.0 4.9 5.7
MLB Averages

Reliever Pitching*

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Year Age Tm Lg G GR GF Wgr Lgr SVOpp SV BSv SV% SVSit Hold IR IS IS% 1stIP aLI LevHi LevMd LevLo Ahd Tie Bhd Runr Empt >3o <3o IPmult 0DR Out/GR Pit/GR
1982 23 ATL NL 17 9 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 100% 7 0.803 1 2 6 1 1 7 3 6 4 2 4 1 4.7
1984 25 NYY AL 16 5 2 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0% 6 1.080 2 3 0 1 2 2 1 4 3 1 4 0 6.6
1985 26 NYY AL 30 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 100% 2 0.997 0 1 3 0 0 4 1 3 3 0 3 0 9.5
1987 28 PHI NL 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0% 3 1.102 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 2.0
4 Seasons 68 19 8 3 2 0 0 0 1 1 8 6 75% 0.993 3 6 10 2 3 14 6 13 10 4 12 1 6.1

Ratio Pitching*

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Year Age Tm Lg PA Ptn% HR% SO% BB% XBH% X/H% GB/FB GO/AO IP% LD% HR/FB IF/FB DPopp DPs DP%
1982 23 ATL NL 221 51% 2.7% 12.2% 7.2% 8.1% 34% 0.85 76% 33 2 6%
1984 25 NYY AL 356 58% 3.4% 19.9% 8.7% 7.0% 33% 0.62 67% 60 2 3%
1985 26 NYY AL 684 59% 4.2% 14.2% 12.4% 7.2% 37% 0.72 68% 115 9 8%
1986 27 CHW AL 692 55% 2.9% 19.1% 12.0% 6.7% 35% 0.87 65% 121 8 7%
1987 28 PHI NL 73 55% 2.7% 6.9% 23.3% 9.6% 33% 1.31 64% 22 2 9%
5 Seasons 2026 56% 3.4% 16.4% 11.5% 7.2% 35% 0.78 68% 351 23 7%
MLB Averages

Baserunning & Situational Stats*

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Hits Home Runs Advances Baserunning
Year Age Tm Lg PA H Inf Bnt All GS GSo vRH vLH Hm Rd <2,3B Scr SO % ROE WP PB SBO SB CS SB% SB2 CS2 SB3 CS3 SBH CSH PO PCS BT PAu
1982 23 ATL NL 221 53 6 1 4 3 3 3 3 16 9 1 56% 1 0 1 66 10 4 71% 10 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0
1984 25 NYY AL 356 75 12 0 7 4 8 8 4 17 7 6 41% 1 2 0 117 4 1 80% 4 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 5 0
1985 26 NYY AL 684 132 29 1 9 14 15 10 19 21 12 0 57% 6 5 0 236 12 7 63% 12 7 0 0 0 0 8 1 14 0
1986 27 CHW AL 692 133 20 0 22 10 10 6 14 34 17 6 50% 7 4 1 240 17 5 77% 16 2 1 2 0 1 2 0 11 0
1987 28 PHI NL 73 21 2 0 7 2 0 1 1 16 6 1 38% 0 0 1 29 6 0 100% 3 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
5 Seasons 2026 414 69 2 49 33 36 28 41 104 51 14 49% 15 11 3 688 49 17 74% 45 13 3 3 1 1 12 1 33 0
MLB Averages

Cumulative Pitching

Glossary · Click headers to sort · SHARE  · CSV · PRE · LINK
Year Age W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB ERA+
1982 23 1 2 .333 4.47 17 8 4 0 0 0 52.1 53 27 26 6 16 2 27 1 0 0 221 84 1.318 9.1 1.0 2.8 4.6 1.69 84
1983 24 1 2 .333 4.47 17 8 4 0 0 0 52.1 53 27 26 6 16 2 27 1 0 0 221 84 1.318 9.1 1.0 2.8 4.6 1.69 84
1984 25 10 4 .714 3.91 33 19 6 3 1 0 135.2 128 61 59 18 47 3 98 3 1 2 577 97 1.290 8.5 1.2 3.1 6.5 2.09 97
1985 26 22 10 .688 3.93 63 45 8 4 1 0 295.1 260 136 129 47 132 5 195 9 2 7 1261 100 1.327 7.9 1.4 4.0 5.9 1.48 100
1986 27 33 21 .611 3.91 90 72 8 8 1 0 457.2 393 217 199 67 215 6 327 12 2 11 1953 104 1.328 7.7 1.3 4.2 6.4 1.52 104
1987 28 33 25 .569 4.20 95 76 8 8 1 0 469.1 414 243 219 69 232 7 332 14 2 11 2026 97 1.376 7.9 1.3 4.4 6.4 1.43 97

Neutralized Pitching

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Change to: Default / 750 Runs / 1968 Dodgers / 2000 Rockies or

All seasons are converted to 162-game seasons &
average team scoring of 716 total runs (4.42 R/G) How this works
Year Age W L W-L% ERA IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP WHIP H/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB HR/9 Gact
1982 23 2 3 .400 5.14 49.0 55 31 28 6 17 25 1 1.469 10.1 3.1 4.6 1.47 1.1 17
1984 25 4 4 .500 4.16 80.0 81 41 37 13 33 68 2 1.425 9.1 3.7 7.7 2.06 1.5 16
1985 26 7 9 .438 4.44 150.0 138 82 74 30 89 91 6 1.513 8.3 5.3 5.5 1.02 1.8 30
1986 27 9 8 .529 3.96 157.0 134 77 69 20 84 128 3 1.389 7.7 4.8 7.3 1.52 1.1 27
1987 28 0 1 .000 15.55 11.0 21 21 19 2 17 5 2 3.455 17.2 13.9 4.1 0.29 1.6 5
5 Seasons 22 25 .468 4.57 447.0 429 252 227 71 240 317 14 1.497 8.6 6.4 1.32 1.4 95

* Many Detailed Statistics are based on play-by-play accounts accumulated by RetroSheet. These totals may be incomplete (3.6% of all plays from 1954 to 1973 are missing or have incomplete accounts, click link for year and team summary) for some players prior to 1974 and even complete seasons may not match the official totals due to errors in both the official totals and the play-by-play accounts.

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank, Glossary

Win-Loss % s c a p y
1985 AL--.667--4th

Hits per 9 IP s c a p y
1986 AL--7.374--5th

Strikeouts per 9 IP s c a p y
1986 AL--7.318--10th

Home Runs s c a p y
1985 AL--29--5th

Hall Of Fame Statistics

Player rank in (·)

Gray InkPitching - 5 (1819), Average HOFer ≈ 185

Similarity Scores

Explanation of Similarity Scores
Similar Pitchers 
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 Compare Stats to Similars
  1. Paul Moskau (975)
  2. Slick Castleman (973)
  3. Marty Bystrom (972)
  4. Ron Romanick (970)
  5. Duster Mails (969)
  6. John Stuper (968)
  7. Tommy Greene (968)
  8. John Maine (968)
  9. Charlie Wagner (967)
  10. Dave Frost (966)
Most Similar by Ages 
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 Hold mouse over #'s to see names
  1. Andy Replogle (987)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  2. Jeff Robinson (991)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  3. Wayne Simpson (981)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C
  4. Rollie Sheldon (974)  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 C

Other Resources & Links

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Viewed 25,802 times through December 3, 2009.
Name and misspellings: Joseph Alan Joe jose joseph Cowley

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