The Most Bad Luck Pitching Seasons In Baseball History

[G1911]

In 1910, Ed Walsh led the American League in losses, posting a record of 18-20 (in an era where wins and losses were a meaningful stat as he completed 33 of his 36 starts). With a losing record, Walsh also led the league in WHIP and ERA, posting a minuscule 1.27. Even in the dead ball era, that 1.27 ERA was an amazing 87% better than the league average. His team sucked, going 68-85, but the #2 pitcher on the staff that year posted a winning record, with an ERA more than double Walsh's at 2.66, 11% below the league average.

In 1987, Nolan went 8-16 with a league leading 2.76 ERA, his second and final ERA crown. Houston was a loser of a team, going 76-86, which was still better than they did with Ryan on the mound, winning more with inferior pitchers hurling.

The most hard luck season I can find though was in 1900. Rube Waddell also led the league in ERA with a 2.37. He posted a record of 8-13 while completing 16 of his 22 starts. Unlike Walsh and Ryan, Waddell pitched on a fine club though. The Pirates were 2nd in the National League that season, going 79-60. And yet with the most effective pitcher in baseball on the mound, they lost more than they won. .568 as a team, .381 when the best pitcher in the league got the decision.

Is there a more bad luck season than Waddell's 1900 campaign?

[cgjackson222]

Those are some tough seasons.

One that comes to mind is Walter Johnson's 1909 season, where his ERA and Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) were just 2.22 and 2.16 respectively, but he ended up with a record of 13 wins and a whopping 25 losses. That year, the Washington Nationals won just 42 games, and finished dead last, 56 out of 1st place, and 20 games back of the next to last team. They averaged only 2.4 runs a game, while the 1st place Tigers averaged over 4.

During 20 of the 36 games he started, Washington scored 1 run or less.
Walter had 27 complete games and 4 shutouts. All of his shutouts were 1-0 victories except one, which was 2-0.

For comparison, George Mullin, a starting pitcher for Detroit, had the same 2.22 ERA a worse FIP than WaJo at 2.29, but still went 29-8.

By the way, I went the Nats/Mets game on Tuesday at Nats Park and went to Walter's, a sports bar named in honor of Walter Johnson located across the street from the stadium. They have a framed print of his T206 portrait hanging on the wall, among other large pictures of him. The men's bathroom has baseball card themed wallpaper with his T205, T206 and T207 cards.

[rats60]

In 1988, Joe Magrane led the NL with a 2.18 ERA but went 5-9. In his 9 loses the Cardinals scored a total of 13 runs. In 4 of his losses, the Cardinals were shutout. Magrane allowed a total of 6 runs in those games.

In his 5 wins, Magrane shutout his opponents 3 times and allowed 1 & 2 runs in the other two games. Overall, Magrane gave up 2 or fewer earned runs in 20 of 24 starts.

[Beercan collector]

Nolan Ryan had Five seasons where he had EXACTLY 16 losses With and earned run average below three .
1972 - 2.28
1973 - 2.87
1974 - 2.89
1977 - 2.77
1987 - 2.76

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Beercan collector

Nolan Ryan had Five seasons where he had EXACTLY 16 losses With and earned run average below three .
1972 - 2.28
1973 - 2.87
1974 - 2.89
1977 - 2.77
1987 - 2.76

Pitchers used to complete a lot more games back then so high loss totals were not uncommon even for better pitchers. In the 4 seasons listed in the 70s, he had a winning record and also did not lead the league in ERA.

[John1941]

These guys didn't just have bad luck seasons: they had bad luck careers.

In a seven-year-career between 1896 and 1904, Ned Garvine had a 124 ERA+ but a win-loss of 58-97. Highlights were 1900 (10-18, 2.41 ERA, 149 ERA+ for the Cubs), 1901 (8-20, 3.39 ERA, 103 ERA+ for the Milwaukee Brewers), and 1904 (5-16, 1.72 ERA, 159 ERA+ for the Dodgers and Highlanders.)

Eddie Smith, who pitched for the White Sox, Phillies, and Red Sox between 1936 and 1947, had only one winning record in his 10 years in the majors and finished with a career win-loss of 73-113 despite a career ERA+ was 108.

Scott Perry, who pitched for the Athletics in their 1920-era doldrums, was 4-17 with a 95 ERA+ in 1919 and and 11-25 with a 111 ERA+ in 1920. He jumped the Athletics in mid-1921 to pitch semi-pro ball, and who can blame him?

Ned Garver was of course the top pitcher on some bad Browns teams in the early 50s; in 1950 he was 13-18 but led the league with an ERA+ of 146. For his career he had a 129-157 record but a 113 ERA+.

For his career Jose DeLeon had an approximately average 102 ERA+ but a record of 86-119.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Beercan collector

Nolan Ryan had Five seasons where he had EXACTLY 16 losses With and earned run average below three .
1972 - 2.28
1973 - 2.87
1974 - 2.89
1977 - 2.77
1987 - 2.76

Even more amazing, IMO, is that he had two seasons where he walked over 200 batters and his ERA was STILL under 3!!


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[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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