The Most Bad Luck Pitching Seasons In Baseball History

[clydepepper]

Kind of the same:

Great performances with really bad teams. Carlton's 1972 season springs to mind, but consider this one too:

Arizona was 51-111 in 2004; Randy Johnson was 16-14 with a 2.60 ERA and 290 Strikeouts with only 44 walks!

He led the league in Starts-35; ERA+ -176; FIP- 2.30; Whip- 0.900; H/9- 6.5 and the punch-outs of course.

as far as Run Support was concerned, in 17 of his 35 starts, he was given 2 runs of less to support his efforts.

He was 3-12 in those games with a 2.35 ERS and a 0.84 WHIP.

What would 16-14 have translated to on a better team?


I'm not saying this was as good as season as Carlton's, I'm just saying it was Carlton-ish.

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[steve B]

For the great pitchers with bad luck seasons, it might be worth looking at who they pitched against. I don't know exactly how it worked back then, but at one point somewhat recently schedules and starts would get moved so the teams number 1 pitcher went against another teams number 1.

That was also likely back then to increase attendance for a poor team.

[Theodderthebetter]

I am sure this will stir up some people but I am going to make the case for Bob Gibson in 1968. He gave up 38 earned runs in 34 statrs and managed to lose 9 games and was on a great team. That has to be bad luck!

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Theodderthebetter

I am sure this will stir up some people but I am going to make the case for Bob Gibson in 1968. He gave up 38 earned runs in 34 statrs and managed to lose 9 games and was on a great team. That has to be bad luck!

Below are the 9 losses for Gibson. 3 were shutout losses and 4 had enough unearned runs without which games would have been tied or the Cardinals ahead so with a little more luck, he could have had only 2 losses.

April 20 - 5-1 loss to Cubs, Gibson pitched complete game and gave up 5 runs, 3 earned

May 12 - 3-2 loss to Astros, Gibson pitched 8 innings and gave up 3 runs, 2 earned

May 17 - 1-0 loss to Phillies in 10 innings, Gibson pitched complete game and gave up 1 earned run

May 22 - 2-0 loss to Dodgers, Gibson pitched 8 innings and gave up 1 earned run

May 28 - 3-1 loss to Giants, Gibson pitched complete game and gave up 3 earned runs

Aug 24 - 6-4 loss to Pirates, Gibson pitched complete game and gave up 6 runs, 3 earned

Sept 1 - 3-2 loss to Giants, Gibson pitched 8 innings and gave up 3 runs, 2 earned

Sept 17 - 1-0 loss to Giants, Gibson pitched complete game and gave up 1 earned run, a first inning home run to Ron Hunt

Sept 22 - 3-2 loss to Dodgers, Gibson pitched complete game and gave up 3 runs, 2 earned

[dgo71]

Bert Blyleven for essentially the first decade of his career.