Quiz – Paying Off (solved) |

These are the only pitchers since 1920 with an unusual season pitching accomplishment. What is it?

Rk ▴	Name
1	Curt Schilling
2	Gaylord Perry
3	Jack Morris
4	Jerry Koosman
5	Tommy John
6	Stan Coveleski
7	Virgil Trucks

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/15/2014.

Congratulations to donburgh and BryanM! They teamed up to identify the quiz players as the only pitchers since 1920 with a 20 win season aged 35 or older in the first year with a new team (or teams). Thus, they paid off on the gamble that was made in acquiring a proven but aging veteran. More after the jump.

Here are those seasons.

Rk	Name	W	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	GS	CG	SHO	L	W-L%	IP	BB	SO	ERA	FIP	ERA+
1	Virgil Trucks	20	1953	36	TOT	AL	40	33	17	5	10	.667	264.1	99	149	2.93	3.55	139
2	Curt Schilling	21	2004	37	BOS	AL	32	32	3	0	6	.778	226.2	35	203	3.26	3.11	148
3	Gaylord Perry	21	1978	39	SDP	NL	37	37	5	2	6	.778	260.2	66	154	2.73	2.63	121
4	Jack Morris	21	1992	37	TOR	AL	34	34	6	1	6	.778	240.2	80	132	4.04	3.78	101
5	Jerry Koosman	20	1979	36	MIN	AL	37	36	10	2	13	.606	263.2	83	157	3.38	3.46	130
6	Tommy John	21	1979	36	NYY	AL	37	36	17	3	9	.700	276.1	65	111	2.96	3.10	137
7	Stan Coveleski	20	1925	35	WSH	AL	32	32	15	3	5	.800	241.0	73	58	2.84	3.94	149

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/16/2014.

With one exception (sorry Jack), these seasons were not only impressive in wins, but also in ERA.

Tommy John followed up this 20 win season with another for the Yankees.
Jerry Koosman’s campaign may be the most surprising, coming off 8-20 and 3-15 marks (99 ERA+) in his last two seasons as a Met.
Virgil Trucks likely owes his 20 win season to a mid-season trade from the Browns to the White Sox; Trucks had essentially the same ERA+ for both of those clubs, but a very different W-L%, going from 5-4 to 15-6.
Stan Coveleski’s 20-5 record for the AL champions was easily the best W-L% of his career, as he recorded at least 11 losses in every other season of 30+ starts

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donburgh

10 years ago

All these pitchers won at least 20 games in their first year after switching teams. Not sure if that’s the right/complete answer as it seems to be that more should have done it.

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Doug

Reply to donburgh

That’s really close.

But, there’s one more wrinkle.

Reply to Doug

I’m glad I got that close. These quizzes are usually too hard for me to wrap my head around.

When I saw Tommy John on the list along with the post’s title, I immediately thought of the successful seasons John after leaving the Dodgers for the Yankees.

BryanM

Well.. Roger Clemens was 34 when he did it for the 1997 Blue Jays, whereas each of these guys was 35 or older

Reply to BryanM

That’s it.

All of these pitchers made the risky proposition of acquiring an aging pitcher pay off for their new teams.

“teamed up” is quite a compliment donburgh got 95% of it