Livan To Fight Another Day |

Livan Hernandez was cut by the Astros, but then immeidately signed by the Braves, a result that seems to represent progress for any player looking for a greater chance of being on a successful team in 2012. Livan has had an interesting enough career that it is quite easy to find statistical oddities about him. A few of those after the jump.

107 major league pitchers have accumulated at least 3,000 innings pitched since 1901. Of those 107 guys, Livan has the very worst ERA+.

Worst career ERA+ since 1901 (min. 3,000 IP)
Livan Hernandez 96
Mike Torrez 98
Joe Niekro 98
Lew Burdette 99
Jerry Reuss, Bullet Joe Bush and Earl Whitehill 100

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If Livan does indeed pitch for the Braves this season, he will have played for four of the five current NL East franchises. The only other guys to have done that:

Jorge Sosa (Mets, Braves, Nats/Expos and Marlins)
Todd Zeile (Nats/Expos, Marlins, Phils, Mets)
Bruce Chen and Willie Montanez (Braves, Phils, Mets, Nats/Expos)

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Livan has pitched in 16 MLB seasons to date. In 14 of those season he has accumulated between 8 and 15 Wins. He can tie the MLB record for most seasons in that range if he does it one more time.

Most MLB Seasons in the 8 through 15 Wins Range
15 Danny Darwin and Tommy John
14 Livan Hernandez, Jamie Moyer, Don Sutton, Ted Lyons and Sad Sam Jones

All the guys on the list above, other than Livan, have had careers of at least 21 seasons in the majors.

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John Williams

12 years ago

Is his goal to pitch for every major league club? 7 down and 21 to go… Has the type of arm that could pitch into his mid 40’s, if his age of 37 is correct. maybe his runs down some of Jamie Moyer’s records in the year 2022 or so.

Jason Z

Reply to John Williams

Since 1998 he had made at least 30 starts every year,
until last year when he made 29 starts.

He could easily pitch many more years.

kds

Reply to Jason Z

And only because the Nats wanted to give some young guys a chance to pitch in September.

Hartvig

On the Elo rater he ranks right behind Whitehill, which is sort of appropriate. And of the 7 pitchers on the list above Hernandez is not only the only one with a losing record only 1 of the other 6 failed to win at least 20 more games than he lost.

bstar

I’ve read a lot about the deal. It’s only 750K and a possible 750K more if he reaches certain incentives. The Braves swear he is not going to be the fifth starter, but instead will be used as a long reliever/spot sparter/emergency 5th starter due to injuries on the staff. If Livan can be “not terrible” at this role, he could help the Braves. It pushes Cristhian Martinez, who was in that role last year and produced a 3.36 ERA in 77 innnings, into higher leverage situations and cements Kris Medlen as a right-handed bridge to Venters and Kimbrel at… Read more »

Reply to bstar

It is a little amazing that even though every team carries at least 11 pitchers, most have 12 and some even 13 that very few have someone you could classify as a swingman/mop up type pitcher like you described. With the proliferation of all these specialists I would imagine that if a circumstance did arise where a some of these guys did have to pitch more than an inning there’s a chance they may well just expire right on the mound.

I’m channelling my “grumpy old fart” today.

Reply to Hartvig

Agreed. I also lament the phasing out of the long reliever in baseball, or at the least seeing some closers go 2-3 innings to finish games off. Hopefully it’s just a trend, but I have my doubts.

If scoring keeps dropping there should be a larger number of extra inning games, and more very long ones. (15 innings+.) Teams may see more wisdom in keeping a long reliever in that case.

Lawrence Azrin

Reply to kds

If scoring keeps dropping – there will be (on average) less pitching changes per games, and less reason to have 12 pitchers on a team.

I think the marginal benefit of a pinch hitter/ pinch runner/ defensive replacement, is greater than having a 12th pitcher. Benches are being stretched way too thin, limiting options with position players..

bluejaysstatsgeek

Then if Moyer gets his 15 wins (hat-tip to Hartvig’s comment in the Moyer thread) then both move up the 8-15 win list.

Max

When referring to the erstwhile Montreal team with current Washington-ness, couldn’t we just say Natspos?

Reply to Max

Only if you want to get in a fight in both cities.

Livan is also the active leader in sacrifice hits for a pitcher at 123, and eighth all-time. The Braves 90’s trio dominate the all-time list: 1. Glavine-216, 2. Maddux-180, 3. Joe Niekro-147, 4. Smoltz/Don Sutton 136

nightfly

I don’t know whether to be surprised or relieved that this article wasn’t titled “Livan Let Die.”

Author

birtelcom

Reply to nightfly

I thought about a reference to La Vida Loca, but figured that was a little obvious, a little too un-hip (even for me!), and “fight another day” seemed more appropos to a guy cut and immediately re-signed by a better team.

Doug

Livan may be able to extend his active streak of batting games without a strikeout, currently the longest in the major leagues at 22 games.

Reply to Doug

To clarify, that is 22 games with an AB. Including all games since he last struck out, Livan is currently at 26 games, all with at least one PA.