I went to Baseball Reference and just started looking up every ERA title winner for the AL and NL since 1901. Wilcy Moore on the 1927 Yankees had a league-leading 2.28 ERA in 213 IP, but his entry at BR Bullpen says he was not recognized as eligible for the title at the time as he had only 6 complete games (he was used mostly as a reliever).
Another disputed case that turned up in my googling is that of Ferdie Schupp, another starter/reliever swingman who posted an NL-leading 0.90 ERA for the Giants in 1916. His SABR biography reports that he was recognized as 1916’s ERA title holder at the time and in record books all the way into the 1940s, but records since then have given the title to Grover Alexander instead.
Some more googling indicates that the requirement of 10 complete games was done away with before the 1951 season. The second year the new rule was in place, full-time reliever Hoyt Wilhelm posted an NL-best 2.43 ERA and he has always been recognized as the league’s undisputed ERA leader for 1952.
Yeah, it’s been fun. They have 7 games left against the Rangers. I’ll be happy if they win 4 of those. I’m not holding by breath, but they do look good. Or good enough anyway.
I assume they then switched to the standard of 1 IP for every game played by the team? That would make Wilhelm a squeaker with 159 1/3 innings in a 154 game season. I’m surprised the innings qualifier was so low in that era. In the same season, Robin Roberts tossed 330 innings for the Phillies and finished with an ERA of 2.59.
Just for fun: In the seven seasons from 1950 to 1956, Roberts threw 2,235 innings, including 183 complete games. Yikes!
I have never seen a team fall apart due to coaching more than the Toronto Blue Jays.
Note I didn’t say managing. Coaching. The hitting coaching has been a catastrophe; every young player the team has, has regressed proportional to the length of their exposure to the hitting coaches (they have two.) Their hitting approaches are horrific, and the team is historically bad at hitting with RISP, a trait at least 200-250 games long now and so not a fluke.
The manager tactically manages games basically the same way all managers do, but I get the sense from his recent public statements that he has lost the clubhouse and isn’t the leader they need.
Sounds like the Royals under pitching coach Cal Eldred last year. Tons of highly touted pitching prospects thrived in the minors, got called up, and promptly lost every ounce of talent they ever showed.
If you’re looking for teams that have fallen apart, try the St. Louis Cardinals. Pitching, hitting, baserunning, and defense have all collapsed this season and dropped last year’s division winner to 19 games under .500 and falling.
How about them damn Yankees? Last year they won 99 games. Since June 1st they’ve scored fewer runs than any team in MLB. That’s three full months of suckitude. Total shitshow.
Like someone said earlier in the thread, it would be nice to have a Baltimore vs Seattle ALCS. And maybe a Milwaukee vs Arizona NLCS.
I read one article that said Milwaukee vs. Seattle would be an interesting matchup in the World Series. The Brewers began their existence as the Seattle Pilots, and neither team has won the Series before.
… They placed starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, relievers Matt Moore and Reynaldo López and outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers Tuesday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. The Angels acquired Giolito, López and Grichuk at the trade deadline in an effort to make a playoff push and retain Shohei Ohtani in the offseason…
It’s logical. They’re dead meat; releasing some replacement level players to save money makes sense. You cannot suspend the GM for doing things perfectly within the rules to help his franchise.
They screwed the pooch when they decided to try to keep Ohtani. Should have traded him when they had the chance, before he got injured. Now they get nothing and Ohtani’s price just dropped like a paralyzed peregrine.
In other news, KC and Oakland have been eliminated from the playoffs while it is still August. That’s Cleveland Spiders level bad.
Yanks release Donaldson and Bader. I can see Donaldson, he hasn’t contributed for quite some time. I’m ambivalent about Bader, great fielder but injury prone and not productive enough offensively. Time to let the young prospects take over.