Willis lost his 8th straight decision on Friday, and he now has 12 straight starts without a win. Here are the longest streaks of starts without a win over 2006 and 2007:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games   W   L   GS  CG SHO  GF  SV   IP     H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR   ERA  HBP  WP  BK Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Anthony Reyes      2006-09-08  2007-06-27    16    0  12  16   1   0   0   0   79     90   61   60   30   65  13   6.84   5   2   1 STL

 Edwin Jackson      2006-04-22  2007-06-18    14    0   8  14   0   0   0   0   64.1   78   63   55   43   59  10   7.69   3   3   1 TBD

 Chris Capuano      2007-05-13  2007-08-02    13    0   8  13   0   0   0   0   70.1   86   50   49   30   65  10   6.27   3   3   0 MIL
 Angel Guzman       2006-04-26  2007-05-17    13    0   6  13   0   0   0   0   58     78   52   50   34   59  10   7.76   7   8   0 CHC
 Jay Bergmann       2006-08-12  2007-05-09    13    0   4  13   0   0   0   0   71.2   56   38   36   32   50   9   4.52   3   3   0 WSN
 Eric Milton        2006-08-13  2007-05-08    13    0   5  13   0   0   0   0   63.2   84   45   39   17   37  13   5.51   0   3   0 CIN
 Jae Weong Seo      2006-08-03  2007-04-15    13    0   4  13   0   0   0   0   70    104   50   40   19   37  13   5.14   4   4   0 TBD

 Dontrelle Willis   2007-06-03  2007-08-03    12    0   8  12   0   0   0   0   64.2   83   44   36   30   41   5   5.01   4   2   0 FLA
 Jason Hammel       2006-04-11  2007-08-01    12    0   7  12   0   0   0   0   56.1   68   44   44   27   38   8   7.03   1   3   2 TBD
 Wandy Rodriguez    2006-07-07  2007-05-08    12    0   8  12   0   0   0   0   66.2   71   43   42   22   65   9   5.67   2   3   0 HOU
 Russ Ortiz         2006-04-07  2007-04-07    12    0   9  12   0   0   0   0   42.2   68   49   46   35   29  10   9.70   2   1   0 ARI-BAL-SFG
 Tim Corcoran       2006-07-17  2006-09-18    12    0   9  12   0   0   0   0   58.1   67   42   38   32   36   8   5.86   2   0   0 TBD
 Bruce Chen         2006-04-08  2006-08-04    12    0   5  12   0   0   0   0   58.1   84   52   48   18   40  19   7.41   0   1   0 BAL

When you read down the names, this isn't exactly a Who's Who of All Star pitchers. For the most part, these are 4th and 5th starters--guys who are decent enough to stay in the rotation but aren't front-line guys. I certainly hope that Willis doesn't get downgraded into this category.

Willis also has had two streaks in his career where he has gone 10 starts without a loss:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games   W   L   GS  CG SHO  GF  SV   IP     H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR   ERA  HBP  WP  BK Teams
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 Dontrelle Willis   2003-09-07  2004-04-30    10    6   0  10   0   0   0   0   57     51   20   18   23   43   7   2.84   5   1   1 FLA
 Dontrelle Willis   2003-05-25  2003-07-13    10    8   0  10   2   2   0   0   68.1   52    9    8   16   62   1   1.05   1   3   0 FLA

Since Dontrelle's career started in 2003, here are all the pitchers I could find who, like him, have streaks of at least 10 starts without a win and 10 starts without a loss.

Aaron Cook (10 without a loss in 2005, 11 without a win in 2006-07)
Brad Radke (11 without a loss in 2003-04, 10 without a win in 2003)
Brett Tomko (10 without a loss in 2004, 10 without a win in 2005)
Bronson Arroyo (17 without a loss in 2004-05, 2 streaks of 10 without a win in 2006 and 2007)
Dontrelle Willis (as above)
Eric Milton (2 streaks without a loss: 11 in 2003-04, 12 in 2005, 13 without a win in 2006-07)
Jamie Moyer (10 without a loss in 2004, 16 without a win in 2004)
Jeremy Bonderman (2 streaks without a loss: 10 in 2006 and 17 in 2006-07, 11 without a win in 2003)
Jose Lima (10 without a loss in 2004, 2 streaks without a win: 15 in 2004-05 and 10 in 2005-06)
Mark Buehrle (2 streaks without a loss: 11 in 2004 and 14 in 2005, 12  without a win in 2003)
Mike Hampton (2 streaks without a loss: 10 in 2003 and 10 in 2004-05, 10 without a win in 2003-04)
Mike Maroth (10 without a loss in 2006-07, 10 without a win in 2003)
Paul Wilson (17 without a loss in 2003-04, 10 without a win in 2004)

Most of us will remember Bonderman and Maroth's streaks in 2003, when both were moving towards 20 losses. Jamie Moyer had 2 streaks that both came completely in 2004. Check out his game logs from that year. His loss-less streak came early in the season but included a bunch of no-decisions, after which he was 6-2 with a 3.64 ERA. He then lost 10 games over his next 17 starts, after which he was 6-12 with a 4.98 ERA.

By the way, I found these streaks using the PI Pitching Streak Finder and setting Win = 0 (for loss streaks) and Loss = 0 (for win streaks.)

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 5th, 2007 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Streak Finders. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.