Pitching 2800 Innings for 1 Team
Posted by Raphy on June 8, 2010
In the comments section of another post, reader rico petrocelli mentioned that Tim Wakefield has now passed Roger Clemens as the all-time innings leader in Red Sox history. Here were the leaders before Wakefield's 7.1 innings tonight.
| Rk | Player | IP | From | To | Age | G | GS | CG | SHO | GF | W | L | SV | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | IBB | HBP | BK | WP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger Clemens | 2776.0 | 1984 | 1996 | 21-33 | 383 | 382 | 100 | 38 | 0 | 192 | 111 | .634 | 0 | 2359 | 1045 | 943 | 856 | 2590 | 3.06 | 145 | 194 | 11384 | 43 | 86 | 18 | 72 |
| 2 | Tim Wakefield | 2769.2 | 1995 | 2010 | 28-43 | 537 | 396 | 25 | 3 | 63 | 176 | 154 | .533 | 22 | 2683 | 1520 | 1348 | 1026 | 1898 | 4.38 | 108 | 366 | 11940 | 28 | 164 | 6 | 106 |
| 3 | Cy Young | 2728.1 | 1901 | 1908 | 34-41 | 327 | 297 | 275 | 38 | 27 | 192 | 112 | .632 | 9 | 2347 | 872 | 606 | 299 | 1341 | 2.00 | 147 | 34 | 10434 | 57 | 1 | 35 | |
| 4 | Luis Tiant | 1774.2 | 1971 | 1978 | 30-37 | 274 | 238 | 113 | 26 | 17 | 122 | 81 | .601 | 3 | 1630 | 709 | 663 | 501 | 1075 | 3.36 | 119 | 170 | 7289 | 21 | 26 | 2 | 10 |
| 5 | Mel Parnell | 1752.2 | 1947 | 1956 | 25-34 | 289 | 232 | 113 | 20 | 36 | 123 | 75 | .621 | 10 | 1715 | 797 | 682 | 758 | 732 | 3.50 | 125 | 104 | 7548 | 3 | 28 | 3 | 41 |
| 6 | Bob Stanley | 1707.0 | 1977 | 1989 | 22-34 | 637 | 85 | 21 | 7 | 376 | 115 | 97 | .542 | 132 | 1858 | 797 | 690 | 471 | 693 | 3.64 | 119 | 113 | 7238 | 87 | 41 | 2 | 22 |
| 7 | Bill Monbouquette | 1622.0 | 1958 | 1965 | 21-28 | 254 | 228 | 72 | 16 | 8 | 96 | 91 | .513 | 1 | 1649 | 755 | 665 | 408 | 969 | 3.69 | 107 | 180 | 6810 | 31 | 10 | 5 | 16 |
| 8 | George Winter | 1599.2 | 1901 | 1908 | 23-30 | 213 | 176 | 141 | 9 | 35 | 82 | 97 | .458 | 3 | 1503 | 741 | 518 | 370 | 543 | 2.91 | 100 | 32 | 6424 | 41 | 1 | 16 | |
| 9 | Joe Dobson | 1544.0 | 1941 | 1954 | 24-37 | 259 | 202 | 90 | 17 | 39 | 106 | 72 | .596 | 9 | 1464 | 685 | 612 | 604 | 690 | 3.57 | 115 | 88 | 6526 | 9 | 9 | 37 | |
| 10 | Lefty Grove | 1539.2 | 1934 | 1941 | 34-41 | 214 | 190 | 119 | 15 | 17 | 105 | 62 | .629 | 4 | 1587 | 665 | 571 | 447 | 743 | 3.34 | 143 | 78 | 6573 | 14 | 0 | 15 |
That Wakefield has pitched more for the Red Sox than Clemens surprised me a bit. That no player has ever pitched 2800 innings for the Red Sox surprised me a lot. Here are the number of players that have pitched at least 2800 innings for every team since 1901.
| Rk | Lg | Tm | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Detroit Tigers | 6 | Tommy Bridges / Hooks Dauss / Mickey Lolich / Jack Morris / George Mullin / Hal Newhouser | |
| 2 | Atlanta Braves | 4 | Tom Glavine / Phil Niekro / John Smoltz / Warren Spahn | |
| 3 | Chicago White Sox | 4 | Red Faber / Ted Lyons / Billy Pierce / Ed Walsh | |
| 4 | Cleveland Indians | 3 | Bob Feller / Mel Harder / Bob Lemon | |
| 5 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 3 | Babe Adams / Wilbur Cooper / Bob Friend | |
| 6 | San Francisco Giants | 3 | Carl Hubbell / Juan Marichal / Christy Mathewson | |
| 7 | Los Angeles Dodgers | 2 | Don Drysdale / Don Sutton | |
| 8 | Minnesota Twins | 2 | Walter Johnson / Jim Kaat | |
| 9 | New York Yankees | 2 | Whitey Ford / Red Ruffing | |
| 10 | Philadelphia Phillies | 2 | Steve Carlton / Robin Roberts | |
| 11 | St. Louis Cardinals | 2 | Bob Gibson / Jesse Haines | |
| 12 | Baltimore Orioles | 1 | Jim Palmer | |
| 13 | Chicago Cubs | 1 | Charlie Root | |
| 14 | Cincinnati Reds | 1 | Eppa Rixey | |
| 15 | New York Mets | 1 | Tom Seaver | |
| 16 | Oakland Athletics | 1 | Eddie Plank | |
| 17 | Toronto Blue Jays | 1 | Dave Stieb | |
| 18 | Washington Nationals | 1 | Steve Rogers | |
| 19 | Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | 0 | ||
| 20 | Arizona Diamondbacks | 0 | ||
| 21 | Buffalo Bisons | 0 | ||
| 22 | Baltimore Terrapins | 0 | ||
| 23 | Boston Red Sox | 0 | ||
| 24 | Brooklyn Tip-Tops | 0 | ||
| 25 | Chicago Whales | 0 | ||
| Rk | Lg | Tm | #Matching | |
| 26 | Colorado Rockies | 0 | ||
| 27 | Florida Marlins | 0 | ||
| 28 | Houston Astros | 0 | ||
| 29 | Kansas City Packers | 0 | ||
| 30 | Kansas City Royals | 0 | ||
| 31 | Milwaukee Brewers | 0 | ||
| 32 | Newark Pepper | 0 | ||
| 33 | Pittsburgh Rebels | 0 | ||
| 34 | San Diego Padres | 0 | ||
| 35 | Seattle Mariners | 0 | ||
| 36 | St. Louis Terriers | 0 | ||
| 37 | Tampa Bay Rays | 0 | ||
| 38 | Texas Rangers | 0 |
Unless I'm overlooking something, the Red Sox are the only currently existing team to have been around before 1961 and not have a 2800+ inning pitcher.
June 8th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
The Buffalo Bisons didn't even play 2800 innings!!!!!!!!
Well, maybe... 308 games times 9 innings brings you to 2772... so I guess with quite a few extra inning games they could have...
June 8th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Wow. I knew Roger and Cy had the same number of wins with the Sox, but look at how many stats are nearly identical: W, L, SHO, IP and H.
June 8th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Except Clemens took 13 years while Young took 8. Kinda defines the differences in eras.
June 8th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Heh...when I saw "Buffalo Bisons" I immediately assumed that was the 19th century team. I clicked on it, and noticed that while the franchise is listed as "Bisons", the two years are listed as Buffeds and Blues. What's the story behind that?
June 8th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
I like how Wake, Clemens, and Cy are bunched up at 1-3 and Tiant, Mel, and Steamer are bunched up 4-6.
Good for Wake, my favorite big leaguer!
June 8th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
The Bisons were the 19th Century Buffalo team. "Blues" and "Buffeds" were probably both nicknames for the Federal League {1914-1914} Buffalo entries.
June 8th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Correction -- the Feds ran through 1915
June 8th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
@Frank: Yes, that's what I figured. I was just wondering how the Federal League team got "Bisons" as their franchise name here on bb-ref.
June 8th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
By those terms, none of the Federalk League teams {or for that matter, the Union Association or Players League franchaises} could be considered.
June 8th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
if wakefield can squeeze out 16 wins he'll be the all-time wins leader too. should pull down 10 this year
who are the winningest knuckleballers of all time???
June 8th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
A couple of surprises on this list. First, that the Dodgers and Cards have only two pitchers each on the list: I generally think of these teams as having great pitching. (LA: Koufax, Dazzy Vance, Valenzuela, etc. StL: Forsch, Doak, Dizzy Dean, etc.) Secondly, I'm a little surprised to see two of my all-time favorites - Seaver (NYM) and Carlton (PHI) - on this list as each spent significant time with another franchise (Seaver with CIN then CWS and Carlton with STL early on). For a similar reason, I was surprised when I learned that Clemens was Boston's all-time IP leader. With his years in TOR, NY, and HOU, I would not have thonght he'd logged enough years in Boston to surpass Cy Young.
June 8th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Rico, my bet on that one would be Phil Niekro, followed not too far by brother Joe; and then probably Wilbur Wood.
June 9th, 2010 at 12:14 am
@Frank: UA and PL aren't eligible anyway, as it's specified to be only from 1901 on (otherwise the Dodgers would have a 3rd rep in Brickyard Kennedy, and other teams would have more as well). Raphy apparently just didn't clear out the FL teams (all eight are here), which makes the list a bit longer than necessary.
June 9th, 2010 at 12:17 am
Re: knuckleballers, Wood had just 163 wins, which puts him behind Wake as well as Charlie Hough and Ed Cicotte, at least.
June 9th, 2010 at 12:18 am
Oops...164 wins for Wood.
June 9th, 2010 at 2:17 am
I imagine Hoyt Wilhelm had the most saves by a knuckleballer. As I cant think of another one other than him and briefly Tim WAkefield, and Wilbur Wood being used in the pen.
In any case, Wood is probably the winningest lefthanded knuckleballer. ANd off the top of my head I cant think of any 300 winning knucklers other than P. Niekro.
June 9th, 2010 at 8:25 am
I believe General Crowder is considered the first knuckleballer, if memory serves. If so, he had 167 wins.
June 9th, 2010 at 8:42 am
Ted Lyons was a knuckleballer. he won 260 games and was the first knuckleballer elected to the Hall of Fame
June 9th, 2010 at 9:25 am
Steven Strasburg once threw a knuckleball. It went 91 mph and struck out the side.
June 9th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Early Wynn used to throw a knuckleball especially towards the end of his career
June 9th, 2010 at 11:03 am
There's a surprising surprising lack of pitchers with long-term careers for the Red Sox; as the chart at the top indicates, only Young/Clemens/Wakefield had long careers with the bulk of playing time spent with the Sox. There have been other great Red Sox pithers such as Pedro Martinez, Lefty Grove, and Luis Tiant, but their careers were spread more evenly with other teams. Contrast this with the position players who had long careers with the Red Sox:
-Harry Hooper
-Bobby Doerr
-Ted Williams
-Frank Malzone
-Yaz
-Rico Petrocelli
-Dwight Evans
-Jim Rice
-Jason Veritek
For such a (frequently) successful and storied franchise, it seems a little odd not to have more great pitchers on the Red Sox for most of their career. The Yankees have this situation too, as Whitey Ford and Mariano Rivera are the only "all-time greats" to spend most/all of their careers with the Yankees.
June 9th, 2010 at 11:53 am
@ Lawrence...Your observation just shows the exemplary talents of the Red Sox brass {Harry Frazee excepted, of course}. Maybe I'm prejudging here, but I have always been impressed at how Boston managed a major overhaul between '67 and '75. I may be wrong, but I believe that within those eight years, the only real impact players to remain on the team were Yaz and Petrocelli.
June 9th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Nightfly wins BRC today!
June 9th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
IP leaders for the clubs who have not had a 2800-IP man:
Red Sox: Tim Wakefield, 2777.0 IP
Royals: Paul Splittorff, 2554.2 IP
Rangers: Charlie Hough, 2308.0 IP
Astros: Larry Dierker, 2294.1 IP
Mariners: Jamie Moyer, 2093.0 IP
Brewers: Jim Slaton, 2025.1 IP
Padres: Randy Jones, 1766.0 IP
Diamondbacks: Randy Johnson, 1630.1 IP
Rockies: Aaron Cook, 1150.2 IP
Marlins: Dontrelle Willis, 1022.2 IP
Rays: James Shields, 856.0 IP
IP leaders for the Federal League teams (names only):
Buffalo Bisons: Fred Anderson (second place belongs to the wonderfully named Eugene Hamlet Krapp). Baltimore Terrapins: Jack Quinn. Chicago Whales: Claude Hendrix. Brooklyn Tip-Tops: Tom Seaton. Kansas City Packers: Nick Cullop. Newark Pepper: Earl Moseley. Pittsburgh Rebels: Elmer Knetzer. St. Louis Terriers: Dave Davenport.
June 9th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
One thing about Eugene Hamlet Krapp -- I bet no one ever tried to give him a nickname.
June 9th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
One thing about Eugene Hamlet Krapp -- I bet no one ever tried to give him a nickname.
Ol' Rubber Arm and I will take your bet, Frank. (-;þ