Following are some pitchers from 1980 on who had great starts to their careers but you probably don’t remember them.
Here is a subset (chosen by me) of the guys who, since 1980, had a bunch of starts within the first 10 of their careers with at least 7 innings pitched and no more than 2 earned runs allowed:
OK, I’m sure you’ve heard of some of these guys, but I bet at least a few of the names are new.
Check out the career stats for this group:
Rk | Player | IP | From | To | Age | G | GS | Tm | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jay Tibbs | 862.2 | 1984 | 1990 | 22-28 | 158 | 133 | 4.20 | 91 | CIN-MON-BAL-TOT |
2 | Jose Rosado | 720.1 | 1996 | 2000 | 21-25 | 125 | 112 | 4.27 | 114 | KCR |
3 | John Farrell | 698.2 | 1987 | 1996 | 24-33 | 116 | 109 | 4.56 | 92 | CAL-CLE-DET |
4 | Chris Codiroli | 670.1 | 1982 | 1990 | 24-32 | 144 | 108 | 4.87 | 79 | OAK-CLE-KCR |
5 | Ryan Rupe | 476.2 | 1999 | 2003 | 24-28 | 89 | 84 | 5.85 | 81 | TBD-BOS |
6 | Mike Dunne | 474.1 | 1987 | 1992 | 24-29 | 85 | 76 | 4.08 | 93 | PIT-TOT-SDP-CHW |
7 | Randy O’Neal | 440.2 | 1984 | 1990 | 23-29 | 142 | 46 | 4.35 | 92 | DET-TOT-STL-PHI-SFG |
8 | Marty Bystrom | 435.0 | 1980 | 1985 | 21-26 | 84 | 79 | 4.26 | 87 | PHI-TOT-NYY |
9 | Bob Stoddard | 433.1 | 1981 | 1987 | 24-30 | 119 | 45 | 4.03 | 104 | SEA-DET-SDP-KCR |
10 | Brian Tollberg | 307.1 | 2000 | 2003 | 27-30 | 53 | 52 | 4.48 | 91 | SDP |
11 | Mike Grace | 275.2 | 1995 | 1999 | 25-29 | 68 | 40 | 4.96 | 89 | PHI |
12 | Phil Leftwich | 202.0 | 1993 | 1996 | 24-27 | 34 | 34 | 4.99 | 95 | CAL |
13 | Andy Rincon | 106.2 | 1980 | 1982 | 21-23 | 20 | 15 | 3.12 | 118 | STL |
14 | Jim Neidlinger | 74.0 | 1990 | 1990 | 25-25 | 12 | 12 | 3.28 | 113 | LAD |
Some of these guys stuck around for quite a few years and some had some decent careers.
But then there’s a guy like Jim Neidlinger–he pitched just that one season for the Dodgers, and pitched well. He went back to AAA for 1991 and after a few more years ended up retiring without making it back to the majors.
All of the guys at the bottom of the list–Tollberg, Grace, Leftwich, Rincon, and Neidlinger–had careers with one team in the majors but didn’t get much more than the equivalent of one full season.