Quiz – The Untouchables (stumped) |

Yankee rookie Dellin Betances is having a season so far that puts him in the company of some of baseball’s all-time great relievers. What seasonal pitching feat has been achieved only by these players?

Rk	Player
1	Eric Gagne
2	Dellin Betances
3	Rafael Betancourt
4	Bruce Sutter
5	Mariano Rivera
6	Rollie Fingers
7	Tim Burke
8	Ted Abernathy
9	John Wetteland

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/30/2014.

Hint: Betances will need to continue his strong performance the rest of the season to remain with this group.

Looks like I’ve stumped the panel on this one. The answer is that these are the only right-handed pitchers since 1901 to have a season with 80% of appearances in relief, 75+ IP and a ratio of ERA+ to WHIP exceeding 300. Betances’s ratio is currently at 347 times WHIP, so he has a good chance to still be on this list at season’s end. If he does, he will likely have the highest IP total for such a season (lefty or righty) since Bruce Sutter in 1977. More after the jump.

Here are those seasons, plus the others (lefty relievers plus starters/swingmen) to have done so. It’s a pretty short list.

Rk	Player	IP	BB9	SO9	H9	ERA+	WHIP	Year	Age	Tm	G	GS	CG	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	ERA	FIP
1	Walter Johnson	346.0	0.99	6.32	6.03	259	0.780	1913	25	WSH	48	36	29	11	10	36	7	.837	2	1.14	1.90
2	Bob Gibson	304.2	1.83	7.92	5.85	258	0.853	1968	32	STL	34	34	28	13	0	22	9	.710	0	1.12	1.77
3	Dutch Leonard	224.2	2.40	7.05	5.57	282	0.886	1914	22	BOS	36	25	17	7	8	19	5	.792	3	0.96	1.95
4	Pedro Martinez	217.0	1.33	11.78	5.31	291	0.737	2000	28	BOS	29	29	7	4	0	18	6	.750	0	1.74	2.17
5	Greg Maddux	209.2	0.99	7.77	6.31	260	0.811	1995	29	ATL	28	28	10	3	0	19	2	.905	0	1.63	2.26
6	Greg Maddux	202.0	1.38	6.95	6.68	271	0.896	1994	28	ATL	25	25	10	3	0	16	6	.727	0	1.56	2.39
7	Ferdie Schupp	140.1	2.37	5.52	5.07	272	0.827	1916	25	NYG	30	11	8	4	17	9	3	.750	1	0.90	2.08
8	Bruce Sutter	107.1	1.93	10.82	5.79	328	0.857	1977	24	CHC	62	0	0	0	48	7	3	.700	31	1.34	1.61
9	Ted Abernathy	106.1	3.47	7.45	5.33	299	0.978	1967	34	CIN	70	0	0	0	61	6	3	.667	28	1.27	2.30
10	Tim Burke	91.0	1.68	5.74	6.33	356	0.890	1987	28	MON	55	0	0	0	30	7	0	1.000	18	1.19	2.59
11	John Wetteland	85.1	2.95	11.92	6.12	305	1.008	1993	26	MON	70	0	0	0	58	9	3	.750	43	1.37	1.85
12	Eric Gagne	82.1	2.19	14.98	4.04	337	0.692	2003	27	LAD	77	0	0	0	67	2	3	.400	55	1.20	0.86
13	Dellin Betances	80.0	2.36	13.50	4.50	265	0.763	2014	26	NYY	60	0	0	0	8	5	0	1.000	1	1.46	1.71
14	Rafael Betancourt	79.1	1.02	9.08	5.79	307	0.756	2007	32	CLE	68	0	0	0	15	5	1	.833	3	1.47	2.22
15	Mariano Rivera	78.1	2.07	9.19	5.74	308	0.868	2005	35	NYY	71	0	0	0	67	7	4	.636	43	1.38	2.15
16	Jim Brewer	78.1	2.87	7.93	4.71	267	0.843	1972	34	LAD	51	0	0	0	41	8	7	.533	17	1.26	2.67
17	Rollie Fingers	78.0	1.50	7.04	6.35	333	0.872	1981	34	MIL	47	0	0	0	41	6	3	.667	28	1.04	2.07
18	Billy Wagner	77.2	2.32	10.08	5.21	293	0.837	2005	33	PHI	75	0	0	0	70	4	3	.571	38	1.51	2.67
19	Chris Hammond	76.0	3.67	7.46	6.28	441	1.105	2002	36	ATL	63	0	0	0	6	7	2	.778	0	0.95	2.74

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/1/2014.

As might be expected, ERA+ and WHIP scores tend to move in opposite directions, with one falling while the other rises. The pattern is fairly consistent, as evidenced by this plot of this year’s relief pitchers.

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Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

They all had an era of 1.50 or less, and at least 78 IP.

More to it than than, of course…

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

I mean, Ed Walsh accomplished that feat 6 times over in 1908 !

Richard Chester

I ran the PI for RH relief pitchers with at least 78 IP, WHIP less than 1.1, ERA+ greater than 250 and more SO than walks. I got a list of 15 names which included the 9 from the list above. The list above is in order of increasing WHIP. I haven’t figured out how to eliminate the extra 6 pitchers.

Author

Doug

Reply to Richard Chester

Good start.

Answer doesn’t involve strikeouts or walks.

Daniel Longmire

The only common thread I can find between them is at least one season with 60+ IP and a H/9 rate at or below 6.3

Reply to Daniel Longmire

Answer doesn’t involve H/9.

HowardR

Did any of these guys (Mariano) have more than one such season?

Reply to HowardR

None of these pitchers did this more than once.

All had seasons of 78 IP, an extremely low ERA and an ERA+ of 250 or better. Wilhelm’s 1967 season of 1.31 ERA/230 ERA+ isn’t on the list and neither Billy Wagner or Trevor Hoffman reached 78 IP in any of the seasons they topped 250 ERA+

A high ERA+ is part of the answer.

Editor

John Autin

78 IP and at least 265 ERA+ gives eight from this list as the top eight. Betances is #14. In between are:
— Damaso Marte, 2003
— Jeff Montgomery, 1989
— John Hiller, 1973
— Jim Brewer, 1972
— Robb Nen, 1998

But with strikeouts and walks off the table, I can’t find the other criteria to knock out those five guys. A max .270 OBP knocks out Marte, and highly targeted numbers in SLG or OPS would knock out Hiller. BA and OPS+ won’t do, because Fingers is last (or tied for last) of those remaining.

But Doug, you said walks were not a part of the answer, WHIP incorporates walks.
For those of you who read This Date in History it is reported today that Curt Simmons was the last pitcher to steal home, on 9-1-63. Not true, it has been done at least 3 other times since then, by Pascual Perez on 9-7-84, by Rick Sutcliffe on 7-29-88 and by Darren Dreifort on 6-12-2001.

Richard, my meaning was that the Walk statistic was not part of the answer.

Maybe “This Date in History” meant that Simmons was the last pitcher to steal home on Sep 1st.

Yeah, but Dreifort was just trying to inflate his oWar.

bstar

Speaking of insane ERA+ and WHIP numbers, Wade Davis has a 542 ERA+ and a 0.829 WHIP in 60.1 IP this year for KC. After allowing 4 runs in the first three weeks of the season, Davis has surrendered only one run since. That’s a 0.18 ERA over his last 50.1 IP.

Also, his RA9 of 0.75 would set the record for 60+ IP, eclipsing 2012 Kimbrel’s 1.01 mark. Davis is also tied with Betances for the MLB lead in reliever WAR at 3.3.

DavidJ

Reply to bstar

Speaking of Wade Davis, he has a chance this year to become just the second pitcher ever to have a season with 10 wins, 100 strikeouts, and an ERA under 1.00. Dutch Leonard in 1914 is the only pitcher so far to accomplish the feat. With four weeks to go in the season, Davis has 8 wins, 90 strikeouts, and a 0.75 ERA.

An interesting dot on that graph is Sergio Romo, the only reliever this year with both a sub 1.000 WHIP and a sub 100 ERA+.

Reply to RJ

Wow.

That has never been done before with 50+ IP.

Though, amazingly, another Giant is right there:

Yusmiero Petit

.996 WHIP
100 era+

mosc

Sadly, there are already calls to shut Betances down for the rest of the year now that the yankees are diving towards 500 this late in the season. His place in the all time list of relief seasons may never get made 🙁

Yes, and there have also been calls to place
McCann, Teixeira, Alex Rod, and Beltran on waivers,
utilizing a rarely used jedi mind trick to get the Dodgers, Orioles, Rangers, and Mariners to bite, thus freeing up 80 million dollars a year to invest in commemorative Derek Jeter merchandise.

That was a response to #19.

On the serious side the Yankees, if it’s any consolation, can look forward to Jeter setting a record for most hits by a 40+ year old SS. Jeter has 130 hits, the record is 155 by Honus Wagner

They are also chasing the Rangers’ brand new records for both players and pitchers used in a season.

Arlington is at
60/37

Antoan Richardson will soon improve on the (not)Bombers’:
55/33