It’s been like forever since I made a Quiz post. So, here’s one to sharpen your sleuthing skills as we head into a new season. I’ve characterized the pitchers in this quiz as journeymen in the best sense of the term – those who recorded solid workloads near league average performance for extended periods. But, these players are also the only pitchers to play their entire careers since 1946 and record a certain career accomplishment. What is it?

Hint: there were 77 pitchers who accomplished this feat while playing all or part of their careers from 1901 to 1945.

Seems I’ve managed to stump our esteemed panel. The solution is after the jump.

The players in the quiz are the only starting pitchers (60% of games started) to play their entire careers (min. 2000 IP) since 1946 and record shutouts in less than 15% of their complete games. A ninth pitcher (Johnny Sain), whose career spanned the 1946 cutoff, meets this criteria and recorded all of his complete games since 1946.

The lowest shutout percentage of these post-war pitchers is Dick Ellsworth at 10.3% of complete games. Prior to 1946, the pitchers below had the lowest rates, all below 8%, with Vern Kennedy and Jimmy Ring the lowest of the group, both below 6%.

With modern pitcher usage, complete games have become almost as unusual as shutouts. Thus, recording a complete game without recording a shutout usually means allowing one or two early runs and then shutting a team down. Doing those things in reverse will most times result in a reliever being summoned. The lowest shutout rate among starting pitchers with 2000 IP over the past 25 years (since 1990) belongs to Andy Pettitte at 15.4%, with only these players below 25%.

Another indicator of modern pitcher usage is the start not completed despite allowing zero runs. Those games were once almost non-existent but now have become much more common than shutouts. Among pitchers with 15 career shutouts since 1914, there are 51 who recorded a shutout in every 7-inning start allowing zero runs, the most recent being Bob Gibson who did so 56 times. Conversely, Roy Halladay, the most prolific complete game pitcher of the recent past, did so less than half the time, recording 20 shutouts and 23 other 7-inning starts allowing zero runs. The lowest rate of the 15 shutout group belongs to probably the most celebrated recent pitcher, Pedro Martinez, who posted 17 shutouts but 40 other 7-inning starts allowing zero runs.