Complete Game Victories — For Non-Pitchers |

According to results generated using Baseball-Reference’s Play Index, Josh Donaldson of the A’s led the majors with 90 games in which he played the entire game and his team won. The leaders in that category in 2013:

Josh Donaldson, 90 complete game wins
Ben Zobrist, 88 complete game wins
John Jay, 87 complete game wins
Andrelton Simmons, Andrew McCutchen and Matt Carpenter, 86 complete game wins

More on this odd statistic after the jump.

Dustin Pedroia is somewhat further down this list, having played 83 complete games in 2013 that his team won. Pedroia led the majors in 2013 in starts that his team won, with 95 such starts, ahead of Donaldson’s 93. But Pedroia was replaced late in games much more often than Donaldson, so Josh emerges ahead of Dustin and everyone else in complete games won in 2013.

Here are the year-by-year leaders in complete games won for each season since 2000:
2013 Josh Donaldson, 90
2012 Adam Jones, Jason Heyward, J.J. Hardy, Danny Espinosa and Robinson Cano, 90
2011 Ryan Howard, 90
2010 Robinson Cano 91
2009 Robinson Cano 98
2008 Ryan Howard and Chase Utley 89
2007 Robinson Cano 92
2006 Justin Morneau and Brandon Inge 91
2005 Chone Figgins and David Eckstein 90
2004 Hideki Matsui 96
2003 Hideki Matsui 95
2002 Alfonso Soriano 98
2001 Bret Boone 110
2000 Andruw Jones 95

Bret Boone’s total of 110 complete game wins in 2001 is the largest season total that the Play Index (which goes back to 1916) produces, one more than Lou Gehrig’s 109 in 1927. The Yankees won 110 games in the AL in 1927, but on September 29, with just a couple of games left in the season and the first place Yankees 18 games ahead of the second place Athletics, and with the Yankees leading the Senators 15-4 going into the 9th inning, Miller Huggins put Cedric Durst in at first base in place of Gehrig. That ninth inning was one of only two innings Gehrig sat that season: Durst also replaced him at the end of a 14-4 loss to the Tigers in the second game of a July doubleheader. Looking back at the September 29 win, Huggins’ decision to give Lou a well-earned, late season break that that day turns out to have allowed Bret Boone to break, 74 years later, Gehrig’s record (presumably heretofore unknown) for most complete game wins in a season.

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AlbaNate

11 years ago

How did you find this? I can’t seem to replicate it. I’d like to find who’s got the most complete game losses. I see that Frank Thomas (the elder) appeared in 117 losses for the Mets in ’62, but I can’t figure out how to find his complete games.

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birtelcom

Reply to AlbaNate

In the Play Index, in the Batting Game Finder, look down the column that starts with the Batter’s Defensive Position box. Scroll down that column and you’ll see a button option for Starter or Reserve, I chose starter. Then scroll down to the next option, where there is now a Finished Game option, where I clicked Yes. I assume the Finished Game option is new here — or at least I hadn’t noticed it before.

Reply to birtelcom

Thanks birtelcom. I see now that Amos Strunk has the record for the most complete game losses for a position player in a season since 1916 with 114, which he did in 1916 for the Philadelphia Athletics, one of the worst teams of all time, finishing 36-117. Strunk had a good year though, finishing with a 151 OPS+ and 5.5 bWAR. He was a fine player There’s a lot of good and great players on the list: Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray, Wally Berger, Stuffy Macinnis, Billy Williams, Rusty Staub, Dale Murphy, and so on. Frank Thomas, who appeared in the… Read more »

Many of Strunk’s key numbers look a lot like those of the 1960s Phillies outfielder, Tony Gonzalez:

Strunk: 27.7 WAR/112 OPS+/5,815 PA/696 R/.284 BA/.359 OBP
Tony G.:27.1 WAR/114 OPS+/5,795 PA/690 R/.286 BA/.350 OBP

Strunk played 970 games in center (according to Retrosheet), out of 1511 total games played.

Gonzalez played 934 games in center out of 1,559 total games played.

Richard Chester

The 1939 Yankees had 4 such players with 100+ wins: Dahlgren, Rolfe, Gordon and Crosetti. That’s the most by one team.

David Horwich

Reply to Richard Chester

The 1906 Cubs had at least 4 such players: Evers, Steinfeldt, Tinker, Sheckard. Schulte most likely makes it 5, and Chance might be a 6th.

Reply to David Horwich

I should have added “in the game-searchable era” to my post #5.

If there’s anyone who surpasses Boone’s 110, it’d be someone from the 1906 Cubs. Johnny Evers played 153 games at 2B that season, other players accounted for only 6 games at 2B, so Evers played *at least* 147 complete games at 2B that year. The Cubs went 116-36, with 3 ties, so Evers played in *at least* 108 complete game victories that year. Similarly, Harry Steinfeldt played 150 games at 3B, other players accounted for 6 GP, so Steinfeldt played in at least 105 complete game victories. Also, Chief Wilson of the 1909 Pirates may have tied Boone. Wilson played… Read more »

Doug

All these marks are for most seasons since 2000 150+ complete games. 6 – Nick Markakis 5 – Hunter Pence, Ichiro Suzuki, Juan Pierre, Prince Fielder, Robinson Cano 4 – Dan Uggla, Jimmy Rollins, Jose Reyes, Miguel Tejada, Shawn Green 50+ games started, but not finished 4 – Pat Burrell 3 – Adam Dunn, Craig Biggio, Jason Giambi 50+ games finished, but not started 3 – Charles Gipson, Kerry Robinson, So Taguchi, Wes Helms 2 – Aaron Rowand, Don Kelly, Endy Chavez, Eric Bruntlett, Jason Ellison, Jolbert Cabrera, Trent Hubbard, Glen Barker 50+ games, neither started nor finished 5 –… Read more »

Reply to Doug

It’s funny that Reyes, who has a reputation for being injury prone, makes your list for most seasons with 150+ complete games since 2000. It reminds me of a post that Steve Lombardi made on the old bbref blog pointing out that the 2008 Mets tied the record for the most players (four–Reyes, Wright, Beltran, and Delgado) to appear in 159 games or more in one season.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/807

Artie Z.

Leaders from 1969-1999 (hopefully this formats nicely). Of note, Chipper Jones had 100 CG “victories” in 1998 but was topped by Andruw and Brosius. The most amazing leader (to me) is Johnny Bench in 1970 with 94 – a catcher who was left in to play all of those games. 1969 98 Paul Blair Orioles 1970 94 Brooks Robinson Orioles Johnny Bench Reds 1971 93 Brooks Robinson Orioles 1972 92 Pete Rose Reds 1973 95 Bill Russell Dodgers 1974 97 Steve Garvey Dodgers 1975 90 Rick Burleson Red Sox 1976 96 Graig Nettles Yankees 1977 95 Butch Hobson Red Sox… Read more »

Reply to Artie Z.

It’s no surprise to see that many of these guys were pretty good fielders. Is there a way to quickly see who had the worst dWAR?

Worst dWAR?

Butch Hobson had -0.8 in 1978.
Steve Garvey was -1.0 in 1974.

Strawberry had -1.5 in 1988.
Foster had -0.9 in 1981 (in 2/3 of a season).

In 1970 10 of Bench’s games were totally as an OF and /or 1B.

Assuming the PI search is doing what I think it is doing … it looks like Bench played 74 CG victories as a catcher in 1970. That 74 puts Bench in a tie for 74th best in a single season. It looks like the most is by Yogi in 1954 – 92 CG victories. Berra holds 4 of the top 10 single season totals (all between 1950-1954): 1954 – 92 (1) 1950 – 88 (t4) 1955 – 88 (t4) 1951 – 86 (t8) And then he has 4 more in the top 150, completing coverage for his 1950-1957 years: 1952… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar

I was surprised to see nobody from the ’86 Mets…
But, they had nobody even play 150 games.

TheGoof

Interesting that there are three guys listed for 1989, none of whom played for teams that won the division.

Leaders by decade (with the 1910s running from 1916-1919 because of incomplete data and the 2010s running from 2010-2013 – also because of incomplete data). Also included is the player’s total WAR over the decade: 1910s 323 18.5 George Burns 1920s 792 7 Charlie Grimm 1930s 843 73.1 Lou Gehrig 1940s 774 30.8 Marty Marion 1950s 852 41.8 Gil Hodges 1960s 868 53.8 Brooks Robinson 1970s 787 54.3 Graig Nettles 1980s 736 45.8 Eddie Murray 1990s 733 49.6 Rafael Palmeiro 2000s 793 44 Derek Jeter 2010s 346 29.8 Robinson Cano Gehrig led in the 1930s despite not really playing in… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

Just for fun, the season leaders in “CG victories” in which they neither reached base (even by error) nor drove in a run: 27 — Eddie Miller (1944) 26 — Marty Marion (1946) 25 — Mike Bordick (1997) and Billy Jurges (1935) 24 — Roger Metzger (1976), Hal Lanier (1968), Rabbit Maranville (1933) and Everett Scott (1917) Not surprising: — all eight were shortstops; and — all but one of the teams had winning records (Metzger’s ’76 Astros went 80-82). I was a little surprised by this combination: — none of the teams won more than 100 games; and —… Read more »