Quiz – Roy Halladay

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Despite a frustrating, injury-plagued season in 2012, Roy Halladay still managed to add some luster to his distinguished career. Last season, Halladay joined this elite group of pitchers who are the only hurlers in the live-ball era with a particular career accomplishment. What is that accomplishment?

Congratulations to Brooklyn Mick! With the help of other posters (particularly Josh, JA and Ed), Brooklyn identified that Roy Halladay made his 10th opening day start in 2012 to join an elite group of pitchers. For Halladay, it was his 10th straight opening day start, with his teams going 7-3 (including 7-1 for the last 8 years). Watch for both CC Sabathia and Mark Buehrle to join this group in 2013. Opening Day (or Opening Night, rather) is just 101 days away – countdown starts tomorrow.

And, sorry for not having the full list of names to start the quiz.

Player
Tom Seaver
Jack Morris
Randy Johnson
Steve Carlton
Robin Roberts
Roger Clemens
Bert Blyleven
Dennis Martinez
Fergie Jenkins
Warren Spahn
Juan Marichal
Roy Halladay
Bob Gibson

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/20/2012.

Hint: this is a single career milestone achievement, not some combination of various counting or rate stats.

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Josh

12 years ago

Is it having a .550 W-L% with more than one team (with at least 2 seasons on each team)?

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Josh

Pretty complicated, Josh.

Nothing like that.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

All debuted post-expansion, so I thought it might be getting at least one win against N different teams. But Morris sinks that notion — alone of the group, Morris pitched only in the AL, plus he didn’t last to interleague play.

12 years ago

This is a tough one Doug! Your hint makes it seem like this is fairly straightforward. But I keep looking at Halladay and trying to figure out what career milestone he might have reached that someone like Nolan Ryan, for example, hasn’t. And I come up empty.

Robbie

12 years ago

12 seasons over .500?

Mike L

12 years ago

I’ve trying to figure out what made Halladay’s last year (which was fairly poor) break the tape. At first I thought it might have something to do with WAR on multiple teams, but then I realized Jack Morris didn’t have any WAR. Then I thought it might be a WAR decrease of more than 7 year over year, but…

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Another hint.

Halladay reached this milestone early last season, before he was injured.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Some career milestones Halladay reached in 2012:

– 2000 strikeouts
– 400 games
– 100 losses
– 11,000 batters faced
– 2,500 hits allowed

I cannot for the life of me figure out what unites him with those other 7 listed pitchers, while excluding so many other good-to-great pitchers since 1920.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Of the milestones I just listed, the only one Halladay reached before going on the DL (as Doug noted @7) was 2,500 hits allowed.

I still have no clue.

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I’m equally stumped John. In terms of innings pitched, Halladay isn’t even in the top 100 in the post dead ball era. So there are a lot of pitchers with longer careers who haven’r reached this particular milestone. But what could it be?

Josh

12 years ago

Could it be a consecutive games streak? Halladay, in his last start before he was DL’ed, had 0 Ks. If I calculated correctly, he went about 93 games without a 0 K game.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Josh

Nothing like that.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Here’s another clue.

Both CC Sabathia and Mark Buehrle could reach this milestone in 2013.

Or, even Livan Hernandez (but, that would be a long shot).

Josh

12 years ago

I am now leaning toward it having something to do with opening day starts since the patron saint of opening day starts, Jack Morris is on the list. And also doing it for multiple teams.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Josh

You’re getting warm.

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Well Halladay gave up 0 runs in 8 innings on opening day ’12. So maybe something like that – opening day starts with multiple teams, giving up 0 runs?

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Josh

Steve Carlton’s not on the list, so it’s not about O.D. starts.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Me and my big mouth! It must be the multiple-teams angle.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Sorry guys. I blew it.

All of the names listed do apply. And, Halladay did pass this milestone in 2012. But, I did not have all of the pitchers listed. Must have had something spurious checked off n the P-I search page that limited the query results.

Anyway, I have corrected it.

Should be pretty easy to get now.

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

They are the only pitchers with 10 or more opening day starts.

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

16 Tom Seaver Mets, Reds, White Sox
14 Jack Morris Tigers, Twins, Blue Jays
14 Steve Carlton Phillies
13 Roger Clemens Red Sox, Blue Jays, Yankees
13 Robin Roberts Phillies
12 Randy Johnson Mariners, Diamondbacks
12 Bert Blyleven Twins, Rangers, Pirates, Indians, Angels
11 Dennis Martinez Expos, Orioles, Indians
11 Fergie Jenkins Cubs, Rangers, Red Sox
10 Warren Spahn Braves
10 Bob Gibson Cardinals
10 Juan Marichal Giants
10 Roy Halladay Blue Jays, Phillies

Josh

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Someone found the sporcle quiz that I found.

I still am not sure how Livan Hernandez could accomplish this next year though.

Josh

12 years ago

Reply to Josh

Actually, it might be sporcle that is wrong. Still trying to figure that out.

Josh

12 years ago

Reply to Josh

If so, my apologies. What an interesting career he has had.

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

Reply to Josh

According to MLB.com Hernandez made his 4th opening day start against the Braves in 2011.

http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110329&content_id=17186914&vkey=news_was&c_id=was

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

Reply to Josh

And apparently there is some confusion, because another MLB.com article states that Hernandez made his 8th OD start for the Twins in 2008, which would mean that his 2011 OD start with the Nationals was his 9th.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Josh

First, Livan will have to find someone interested in his services. But, he is sitting on 9 OD starts, for 4 franchises (and 5 teams if you want to count Montreal and Washington separately).

Jason Z

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Assuming Jack Morris gets in this year and knowing that Roy Halladay should make it someday, Dennis Martinez will be the only one on this list not to be in the HOF. Of course, my assumption with Morris could be wrong. If he does make it though, the case for Martinez to someday make it with the veterans committee is boosted. According to The Hall of Nearly Great.. W L ERA IP Hits BB K ERA+ WAR Martinez 245-193 3.70 3,999 3,897 1,165 2,149 106 46.9 Morris 245-186 3.90 3,824 3,567 1,390 2,478 105 39.3 I used to support Jack… Read more »

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Well done, BM.

Kind of laying back in the weeds and pouncing at the end.

Brooklyn Mick

12 years ago

Reply to Brooklyn Mick

Doug, the clues fell like rain beginning with @14Josh’s comment.

Josh, your are correct. I found the Sporcle quiz. Good stuff.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

FWIW … Based on the original list of 8 pitchers and the Josh/Doug exchange @14/15, I had concluded that the answer was “10+ Opening Day starts with at least 2 for 2 different franchises.” There are 13 pitchers with 10+ O.D. starts since 1920, but the second criterion would knock off Steve Carlton, Robin Roberts, Warren Spahn, Juan Marichal and Bob Gibson, leaving the original list of 8. (The five I just listed made all their O.D. starts for one team except Roberts, who had one for Houston.) (But now I see this answer would not satisfy Doug’s hint that… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Meanwhile, on a tangent — I was looking at Opening Day starts for Pedro Martinez, which were every year from 1998-2005. Pedro did not get that nod for Montreal in 1997, the year of his first CYA. Now, that’s no big surprise — Pedro wasn’t a big star yet — but when I looked to see who *did* get that nod, my head exploded: Jim Bullinger?!? The same Jim Bullinger who the year before had gone 6-10, 6.54 for the Cubbies, then signed with the ‘Spos for like fifty bucks and carfare. And he did a fine job, holding the… Read more »

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

The Expos game 2 starter was Jeff Juden who came in with only 18 career starts, none the year before (he had pitched in 58 games out of the bullpen). Game 3 starter was Carlos Perez who has missed the entire ’96 season with an injury. Game 4 starter was Marc Valdes who came in with only one career victory in 11 career starts. Game 5 starter was Rheal Cormier. Cormier had pitched decently the year before so I’m not sure why he was slotted 5th in such a lousy rotation. Anyway, Cormier pitched 1.1 innings, got hurt, missed the… Read more »

Editor

birtelcom

12 years ago

Keep in mind that the list is for Play Index era pitchers. Although it won’t show up on the PI, because some of his starts pre-date the PI game data, Walter Johnson I believe started 14 Opening Day games. Now that the PI game data goes back to 1916, the Big Train has 9 Play Index era OD starts.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

Johnson’s 9 searchable O.D. starts include the two longest O.D. CG shutouts in the searchable era: 13 IP in 1919, and 15 IP in 1926. Next-longest is 11 IP by Johnny Vander Meer in 1943.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to John Autin

It was a little difficult to interpret but the Charlton Chronology reports that on 4-15-1909 Kaiser Wilhelm of the Dodgers pitched an OD shutout of 13 innings against the Giants, 3-0.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

And here are non-live ball era pitchers with 10 or more OD starts.
Walter Johnson…14
Pete Alexander…12
George Mullin….10
Cy Young………14

Editor

Bryan O'Connor

12 years ago

Didn’t Buehrle just get traded to a team whose rotation will include Josh Johnson, RA Dickey, and Brandon Morrow? I could see him leading the team in innings and/or wins at year-end, but I think he might have to wait a few days for his first start.

MikeD

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

I was thinking same. While Sabathia will almost certainly be the OD starter for the Yankees in 2013 and probably seasons to come health willing, I think the odds are against Mark Buehrle when last year’s NL Cy Young Award winner is now on Toronto. Buehrle, Johnson and of course Dickey are all new comers to the Blue Jays, so it’s not as if one might get consideration for team seniority.

Doug

12 years ago

Thanks guys for the nuggets. I’m planning an O.D.post tomorrow, 100 days until opening day.

Bullinger, BTW, has, I think, the lowest career WAR for anyone with multiple OD starts. -3 point something.