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Bad Week For A Relief Pitcher

Posted by Steve Lombardi on May 14, 2011

Detroit Michael recently asked if any pitcher had a week like the one Brandon League had this week.  And, the answer is "yes."

See this list -

Rk   Strk Start End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA 6 HBP WP BK Tm
1 Fausto Carmona 2006-07-30 2006-08-05 4 0 4 0 0 0 3 0 2.2 8 11 11 4 4 2 37.13 3 0 0 CLE
2 Brian Fuentes 2007-06-22 2007-06-29 4 0 4 0 0 0 4 0 2.1 11 11 8 1 3 2 30.86 1 0 0 COL
3 Brandon League 2011-05-08 2011-05-13 4 0 4 0 0 0 3 0 3.0 12 10 10 0 3 1 30.00 2 0 0 SEA
4 Steve Bedrosian 1984-06-09 1984-06-16 4 0 4 0 0 0 4 0 3.0 9 5 5 3 5 0 15.00 0 0 0 ATL
5 Ron Villone 2009-06-10 2009-06-16 4 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 2.2 7 5 4 3 3 1 13.50 0 0 0 WSN
6 Craig Anderson 1962-05-24 1962-06-02 4 0 4 0 0 0 2 0 9.0 8 8 7 5 7 2 7.00 0 0 0 NYM
7 Rick Lysander 1983-05-27 1983-06-01 4 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 10.1 12 8 6 3 3 1 5.23 0 0 0 MIN
8 George Grant 1927-07-11 1927-07-19 4 0 4 0 0 0 3 0 17.2 18 9 9 11 6 0 4.58 0 0 0 CLE
9 Duane Ward 1989-04-29 1989-05-06 4 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 6.2 8 5 3 4 5 0 4.05 0 2 0 TOR
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/14/2011.

.
Fausto Carmona and Brian Fuentes are right up there with Brandon League.

11 Responses to “Bad Week For A Relief Pitcher”

  1. LJF Says:

    the Brian Fuentes situation is really odd. He also was torched in his next appearance on July 1 (1 IP, 2 ER, 2 H , 2 BB).

    Here's his line from the beginning of the season until those 5 games, the 5 games where he was awful, and then from there to the rest of the season.

    34 G, 33.1 IP, 1.89 ERA, .175 BAA, .582 OPSA, .186 BABIP
    5 G, 3.1 IP, 27.00 ERA, .542 BAA, 1.440 OPSA, .611 BABIP
    25 G, 24.2 IP, 1.46 ERA, .153 BAA, .442 OPSA, .224 BABIP

    And BTW, all of the 5 bad games were away from Coors Field (One in TOR, One in Wrigley and the last 3 @ HOU).

  2. BSK Says:

    I remember that Carmona season. I believe at least two of the games were against the Red Sox.

  3. DoubleDiamond Says:

    There's at least one guy on the list who had a Cy Young award in his future!

  4. Thomas Court Says:

    @3

    1987 was a weak year for Cy Young candidates in the National League. For a closer to win the award on a team that finished 80-82 does not seem right. This of course is the year that Nolan Ryan finished 8-16, but led the league in ERA, strikeouts, SO/9, and even SO/BB ratio.

    Bedrock should have the award stripped from him and sent to Juan Marichal - who didn't even garner a single vote in the three seasons that he won 25 games. Every other pitcher that has won 25 games since the award was created has won it.

  5. Neil L. Says:

    @3 @4
    Bedrosian,'s 1984 mini-funk was unusual in that he entered the 4-game stretch with a miniscule 0.54 ERA over 33.1 IP and 134 BF

    He then more than tripled his ERA in a span of four appearances.

    Those four games kicked off a stretch where Atlanta lost 12 of his 13 consecutive appearances; including two starts.

    Who knew Cy would come calling a couple of years later?

  6. Neil L. Says:

    For League's sake, thank goodness for rain in Cleveland, although he likely wouldn't have been used.

    I wonder how the week from h*ll will affect his performance going forward? A closer is supposed to be able to shake it off but....

    I also wonder where the jury is now on the Brandon Morrow for Brandon League trade between the Jays and Mariners? Both pitchers had "good stuff" at the time of the trade. Morrow, 2 years younger, is scheduled to start against the Twins today, I believe,

  7. Detroit Michael Says:

    Thanks, Steve.

    Looking at the date ranges, it still seems that League set up a record regarding how quickly he lost four games.

  8. hysteria1978 Says:

    I hate to sound like a noob, but I have attempted to recreate the search that produced this list, and I can't figure it out, in looking at the shared link the title was...

    Longest Streak with A.L=1 From 1919 to 2011, as Reliever: Results

    I was just wondering if any one knows what the "A.L" perameter means, and how it is specified in the search form?

    Thanks...

  9. Raphy Says:

    @ 8 For some reason PI makes it sound really complicated, I'm not sure why.
    Steve's search was simply consecutive relief appearances with a loss.

    Using the streak finder, selecting reliever and setting L=1; this will give you his results.

  10. hysteria1978 Says:

    Got it now, Thanks Raphy..

  11. Brian Fuentes Says:

    I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything, and I'm sorry to bump an old topic, but I just pulled it off again.

    May 18th through the 23rd: 0-4