Every season, there are pitchers who seem to be unable to buy a win. No matter how well they pitch, they seem to end up on the short end of a game more often than not. Other pitchers pitch exceptionally well and still end up with a mediocre winning percentage. Occasionally the are pitchers that have historically frustrating seasons, in which their record belies their quality pitching. Nolan Ryan's 1987 season (8-16 2.76) is a famous example. One easy way that I have found to find such seasons is to compare a pitcher's winning percentage with his ERA+. A low ratio of WL%:ERA+ indicates that a pitcher has suffered through the agony of losing a lot more than we would have expected.

Here are the leaders among ERA qualifiers for 2009:

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The top two pitchers on the list were clearly in different categories, but both were robbed of wins. Aaron Harang had a decent season and typically an ERA+ of 102 would produce a winning percentage in the .520s. Harang however, was not nearly that lucky, posting W-L record of 6-14. Zack Greinke produced a stellar season in 2009 and, as the Cy Young voters understood, his 16-8 record clearly did not represent the quality of his performance. A .750 winning percentage would have been more typical.

While he was tops in '09, Harang was no where near the all time leaders.

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The 1916 Phillidelphia A's were historically bad with a terrible offense, and so it is no surprise that the two pitchers who top the list were both from that team. Jack Nabors and Tom Sheehan combined to go 2-36 for that dreadful bunch.

The list above seems to favor pitchers who had subpar seasons with historically bad W-L records. It might be more interesting to look at the pitchers with the lowest ratios that had ERA+ of 125 or higher. Here are the leaders:

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There is Ryan '87. Certainly a travesty of a season, but not the biggest. In fact, in 1904 Ned Garvin had a better ERA+ than Ryan and a much worse record.

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On the flip side of this are pitchers whose record was much better than their ERA + would suggest. You can read about them here.

In 2009 Bradon Looper went 14-7 despite posting an ERA+ of only 77. Looper's success, which can be attributed to a combination of extreme inconsistancy, run support and luck, was certainly unusual, but not unprecedented.

Yesterday we took a look at a group of pitchers who won a lot despite posting a less than stellar ERA+ . After I posted the list I began to wonder if we could do better. The list from yesterday lumps all the sub 100 ERA+ seasons together and doesn't differentiate between them. Jim Coates's 13-3 season is lumped together with Hooks Wiltse's 13-3 season, despite Wiltses's 96-83 advantage in ERA+. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to look at the players with the best ratio of WL%:ERA+. I realize that there is a certain logical flaw in such a comparison, but I think the list is enlightening none-the -less. (To be included all pitchers must have pitched enough to qualify for the ERA title.)

I have added the ratios to the original list, which is sorted by year. If you click on "ratio", it will sort the list in order.

The top two pitchers on the list were teammates for the World Champion 1913 A's. The best ratio since 1901 belongs to Byron Houck who went 14-6, despite posting an ERA+ of 66. Houck's teammate Joe Bush who went 15-6 with an ERA+ of 72 is second all-time. Both pitchers certainly benefited from their team's tremendous offense, which averaged 5.19 R/G, more than a full run more than any other team in the league.

Looper is 5th all-time, so he is obviously the leader in 2009.

The career leader in this category (min. 100 decisions) is Ferdie Schupp, who went 61-39 in his career despite an ERA+ of  88.

On the flip side of "Unexpected Winners" are "Unexpected Losers". You can read more about them here.

Reader Ollie1000 writes,

one oddity about Gooden's career I noticed besides the fact he was a superhuman monster on the mound as a 19 and 20 year old is that in 1990 he was 19 and 7 but had an era+ of 98, does that also seem odd to you all? I wonder what the best all time record was for an era+ in double digits?

Let's take a look. Using the Pitching Season Finder, limiting our search to pitchers who qualified for the W-L % title, filtering by ERA+<=99 and sorting by W-L% yields the following results:

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Gooden is tied for 31st. If you limit the list to players who started at least 60% of their games, Gooden jumps to #20.

Via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Game Finder - "teenage" (meaning age 19 or younger) starters - since 1954 - to have a start in the big leagues where they fashioned a Game Score of 70 or better:

Dwight Gooden, Gary Nolan, Larry Dierker and Wally Bunker had some amazing games as youngsters, huh? What a thrill those games must have been for them. I mean...imagine yourself when you were 19 (or slightly younger). And, now, put yourself on a mound in a major league ballpark throwing a great game against big league hitters. Man, it had to surreal for these four...and the others on this list, when they had it all working for them those days, no?

Here's a quick list in which the leader is no surprise, but many of the runner-ups are.

Since 1954, 20 players have hit 35 or more home runs in their first 162 career games. (You can find them by using "Player Batting" Game Finder,  selecting "Find Players with Most Matching Games in Multiple Years",  setting the criteria at HR>=1 and limiting to player's first 162 games. Complete the search and sort by HR.) Here are the leaders.

...promise? A fun list via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Season Finder - players with at least one season, before the age of 25, where they had at least 50 extra base hits AND at least 30 steals:

We have some Hall-of-Famers here - and some who will be there someday. But, also, some players who didn't carry that promise forward to the point where they became legendary players. Guess this means that showing speed and extra base power, alone, at a young age is not the key to certain future stardom...

One the new things that can be done with the new PI Arithmetic filter is to search for players who only played 1 season in the major leagues. This can be done by setting Year of Debut = 1 * Final Year.

Here are the pitchers whose only major league season featured an ERA+ of at least 100 in 50 or more innings. (2009 is not included).

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We can also do the same thing for hitters. Here are the batters since 1901who played only 1 year  and had an OPS+ of at least 100 in 200 or more PA (2009 is not included).

More correctly....who are we?

All regarding career totals:

Player #1: I have the fewest RBI per HR among players with at least 300 HR.

Player #2: I have the most RBI per HR among players with at least 300 HR.

Player #3: I have the fewest runs scored per HR among players with at least 300 HR.

Player #4: I have the most runs scored per HR among players with at least 300 HR.

(Hint: these are all fairly easy to figure out using the arithmetic function on the Batting Season Finder)

It has been floating around the blogosphere and twitter, but I got the official word last night. I've been invited to join the Baseball Writers Association of America. I am honored by the invitation and look forward to being part of a group whose primary goal is to distribute baseball information and and a group which I hold in high esteem.

Some people are confused about me being a member since I am decidedly not a baseball writer. The BBWAA has a membership category for Statisticians. From their bylaws and qualifications for membership:

Statisticians who supply baseball records to daily newspapers, baseball public relations personnel and other specialists who may be deemed eligible by the Board of Directors of the National Association.

Thank you to all of those who offered congratulations and best wishes. See you at the ballpark!

Link to Baseball-Reference Player Pages - Baseball-Reference.com

I added a tool for matching names to minor leaguers on B-R, so you can auto-create links to minor leaguers from an article, etc.