Comments on: Doctor? More like surgeon.

By: Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive » Card of the Week: 2002 Flair #89 Curt Schilling

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:08:26 +0000

[...] Wells, Paul Byrd, Greg Maddux, Brad Radke, and Schilling. This list is a follow-on to an earlier post I made about Roy Halladay where I noted his high strike percentage but some readers pointed out that this doesn't necessarily [...]

By: DoubleDiamond

DoubleDiamond — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:44:44 +0000

Roy Oswalt, who is on the list multiple times, was the other Roy's opposing starter yesterday. I wonder if any of the other starters on this list were opposing starters for any of the other games.

By: bdunc8

bdunc8 — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:39:39 +0000

That Schilling start is insane. He faced 37 batters and only 2 of them got to a 2 ball count. 2! It obviously didn't do him any good, but he sure filled up the strike zone that day.

By: eorns

eorns — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:29:05 +0000

Gotcha. Sorry I didn't pick on where your tongue was :).

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:23:24 +0000

The first commenter clearly didn't read the post carefully (or perhaps at all.) And I fully agree with your comments, eorns. I wrote the word "dominant" with my tongue firmly in my cheek there. One of the things that has become apparent to me as I've gotten more into this blog is that I can't write things just for the statheads like you and me--nevertheless I completely agree with your analysis.

By: eorns

eorns — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:19:27 +0000

This list are interesting, but as a comparison for Halliday, it's a little misleading. Just check out the reference from the first comment: "Only 30 starts since 1962 was quite like the dominant one Roy Halladay had." This isn't exactly true for two reasons. First, the criteria are arbitrary. For instance, if you threw 112 pitches with 100 for strikes, it wouldn't show up here. I believe we've had the discussion here before about this kind of thing. Second, strike percentage is only partially indicative of "dominance". Only around half of these games might credibly be categorized as "great", and includes some bad ones. If you bump up the pitch count a touch you get Curt Schilling's 2002 start in which he threw 94 of 114 pitches for strikes while compiling a horrendous GameScore of 18*. Sometimes it's just an indicator of batters putting the ball in play. *Schilling is actually the posterboy for these kinds of starts, compiling games of (Pit-Str-GScr): 114-94-18, 120-84-31, 116-86-33, and 117-84-33!

By: Kahuna Tuna

Kahuna Tuna — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:03:02 +0000

Talk about your hard-luck losses — Podres' gem in 1962, which he lost 1-0 on an eighth-inning homer to Gene Oliver, took place on the last day of the regular season. The Giants won that day, 2-1, on an eighth-inning homer by Willie Mays, to set up the three-game playoff.

By: Around The Majors- News & Notes 4/12 « SprungOnSports

Around The Majors- News & Notes 4/12 « SprungOnSports — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:53:25 +0000

[...] Brian Roberts on the disabled list. -Only 30 starts in since 1962 was quite like the dominant one Roy Halladay had for the Phillies against the Astros on Sunday. -Who can’t get enough Stephen Strasburg [...]