rest in peace Bob, I certainly will always remember you...SammyGot to thinking about Welch and his 27-6 record in 1990. That win total has been matched twice and beaten only once since 1960. Denny McLain's 31-6 record in 1968 is the highest win mark since Lefty Grove won 31 in 1931. Dizzy dean won 30 in 1934, the most recent 30 game winner until McLain. It looks like McLain's record will stand for a LONG time. Along with McLain's 31 and Welch's 27, the other big winners are Sandy Koufax with a 27-9 record in 1966 and Steve Carlton's 27-10 record in 1972. That's it since 1960. With today's 5 man rotation and 6-7 inning pitchers, I don't see how anyone will even get to 27 again, much less 30. Today, the most a starter can hope for is 32-33 starts and with the death of the complete game, even a 20 win season has become a reach that requires a lot of good fortune. Using the arbitrary 1960 as a dividing line (because I didn't really see any baseball before then), I think I would have to say the best pitching record for a season that I ever saw was Carlton's 1972 season. I know that decent arguments for McLain, Koufax, and Welch can be made, as well as for the incredible 1968 season of Bob Gibson, but I still think Carlton beats them all. Mainly this opinion has to do with the teams each performed for. All of them played on World Series teams for the year in question, except Carlton. In point of fact, Carlton's 1972 Phillies only won 59 games all year, of which Carlton won 27. I still can't wrap my head around that fact. Carlton worked 346.1 innings that year, to a 1.97 ERA. Just as a matter of interest, Carlton was also the last man to pitch 300 innings in a season, 304 in 1980. Carlton fanned 310 men in '72 and, incredibly, only allowed 17 hr's in his 346.1 innings. That's about 1 every 20 innings. Add in a modern stat, the WAR, and Carlton looks even better. His 1972 WAR was 12.2, the highest ever since 1960. I know there have been other unbelievable years by the likes of Seaver, Maddux, Clemens, Martinez, etc., but none of them equal Carlton's remarkable 1972 achievement of winning close to half his teams total wins. On a team as bad as the 1972 Phillies, (59-97), there was no one even in the same hemisphere with Carlton. His fellow starters posted records of 2-15, 4-14, 4-10, 5-9. The second best record on the team was relief pitcher Bucky Brandon's 7-7. Carlton had 30 of the teams 43 complete games and 8 of the teams 13 shutouts. The second most IP on the team was 154.1, almost 200 behind Carlton. Without Carllton's 1.97 ERA, the Phillies team ERA would have been about 4.22, with his ERA, the team ERA comes down to 3.66. Carlton won the Cy Young that year, (his first of 4 Cy Youngs), but how he only finished 5th in the MVP voting is beyond me. IMO, it is far and away the best pitching year I have seen by an individual. -- AlBob Welch was a indeed a great player, but during my hey day of buying baseball cards as a young kid in the late 70's it seemed every pack of Topps cards I opened had a Bob Welch in it!!!! if not Welch, Horner for the Braves, Schmidt from the Phillies, all 3 must have owned stock in Topps!!! remembering oh so well, "not another Welch!!"
Now, that is funny. -- Al
It really is incredible, isn't it. It is also very indicative of the difference between the game today and the game back then. Today, a pitcher that lasts 6-7 innings is seen as doing the job his club wants. 8 innings is front page news and 9 innings gets a seat on Mt. Olympus.:rolleyes2: Truth is, as impressive as Gibson's record is, it wasn't the only amazing record during 1968. My favorite pitcher of all time, SF's own Juan Marichal, lead the NL in victories with 26, complete games, 30, and IP with 325.2, but this was all lost beneath Gibson's and McLain's huge years. From May 24 through August 13, 1968, Marichal started and completed 19 straight games, going 15-3. Not too shabby, either.:wink2: As a pitching freak, I LOVED 1968. -- Al
Finally just saw this throw on ESPN. Not much to say but "WOW!". -- Al
Jason, the Nats are finally playing the kind of ball the fans had hoped to see from the beginning. We still have injury problems with Harper and Ramos (again) on the DL, plus our lefty starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez is on it, as well. The turn around came with the return of Ryan Zimmerman 9 games ago. He has been, and remains, the heart of the team and it's most popular player. He has come back as an outfielder (was an all-star 3rd baseman) because of an arthritic throwing shoulder. With him in the line-up, the Nats have gotten a bounce and are 8-1. All seems to be coming together as the hitting has picked up and the erstwhile sloppy fielding has sharpened, as well. The real plus has been the starting pitching which has been unbeatable since Ryan's return. The starters are 8-0 (would be 9-0, except for the blown save and resultant OT loss). In their 9 starts, they have gone 64 innings (a 7 inning avg.), have allowed 45 hits, and 10 runs. They have also fanned 58 batters and only walked 2 men in those 64 innings. A 29 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio ain't bad. It may all be just temporary and end at any time, but at least this short ride has been fun, as it is what was expected from Day One. Matt Williams is doing a good job keeping the team going with all the injuries we had and now it's starting to pay off. -- Al
