Baseball question: I’m sure some of you folks with that baseball database can probably figure out an appropriate query.
What pitcher with, say, 500 or more career innings pitched, let his infielders and outfielders get away with the least work? I’m thinking this would be the ratio of strikeouts + walks + hit batsmen to batters faced (IP * 3 + hits + walks + hit batsmen).
(I know the above is not 100% accurate. You’d have to add those who reached base by catcher’s interference to both numbers, and adjust the “batters faced” calculation by errors, double plays and triple plays. But I’m not aware of those numbers being kept with relation to pitchers.)
How would walking guys decrease work on the infielders? Now they have to hold guys on. If you really want to rest your fielders, you strike guys out, no?
I’m afraid I don’t have an answer, but I have to throw in the obligitory slightly-related-anecdotal story.
This question reminds me of the time that Grover Cleveland Alexander was pitching in an exhibition game. An infielder behind him made an error on a tough play. Alexander was so furious, that he had all seven fielders (other than the catcher) sit in foul territory while he proceeded to strike out the side.
At least for modern pitchers, you should be able to get the number of ground ball DPs induced. Triple plays are rare enough that you don’t need to worry about them.
If it’s just a 500 inning minimum, it could be a reliever.
Here’s your answer for 2002–with the Excel spreadsheet available upon request. I limited the answers to only those who pitched in at least 25 games last year. Columns are:
Name/Games Played/02 Team/(SO+BB+HB)/(3IP+H+W+HB)/ratio
Brian Fuentes 31 COL N 54 119.6 0.45
David Riske 51 CLE A 104 241.3 0.43
Rudy Seanez 33 TEX A 64 151 0.42
Jeff Nelson 41 SEA A 85 201.6 0.42
Eric Gagne 77 LA N 132 319.3 0.41
Armando Almanza 51 FLA N 80 194.6 0.41
Johan Santana 27 MIN A 187 458.3 0.41
Troy Percival 58 ANA A 93 231.3 0.40
Alan Embree 68 BOS A 102 254 0.40
Scott Williamson 63 CIN N 122 306 0.40
Randy Johnson 35 ARI N 418 1061 0.39
Octavio Dotel 83 HOU N 149 380.3 0.39
Travis Phelps 26 TB A 68 173.6 0.39
Armando Benitez 62 NY N 107 275.3 0.39
Luis Pineda 26 CIN N 57 147.3 0.39
Kazuhiro Sasaki 61 SEA A 95 246.6 0.39
Dan Plesac 60 PHI N 59 153.3 0.38
Hector Mercado 31 PHI N 68 177 0.38
Damaso Marte 68 CHI A 94 246.3 0.38
John Rocker 30 TEX A 43 114.3 0.38
Kelvim Escobar 76 TOR A 134 358 0.37
Brendan Donnelly 46 ANA A 75 200.6 0.37
Billy Wagner 70 HOU N 112 300 0.37
Ugueth Urbina 61 BOS A 91 244 0.37
Britt Reames 42 MON N 117 315 0.37
Scott Sauerbeck 79 PIT N 98 264.6 0.37
Doug Creek 52 SEA A 98 264.6 0.37
Pedro Martinez 30 BOS A 294 796.3 0.37
Mike Fetters 65 ARI N 93 258 0.36
B.J. Ryan 67 BAL A 93 259.6 0.36
Kerry Wood 33 CHI N 330 921.6 0.36
Kazuhisa Ishii 28 LA N 253 709 0.36
Byung-Hyun Kim 72 ARI N 124 348 0.36
Todd Van Poppel 50 TEX A 117 328.6 0.36
Billy Koch 84 OAK A 143 402.6 0.36
Trevor Hoffman 61 SD N 88 248.3 0.35
Arthur Rhodes 66 SEA A 94 265.6 0.35
Matt Clement 32 CHI N 306 868 0.35
Tom Gordon 34 HOU N 65 185.6 0.35
A.J. Burnett 31 FLA N 302 864.3 0.35
Mike Remlinger 73 ATL N 98 281 0.35
Jason Schmidt 29 SF N 271 778.3 0.35
Scott Strickland 69 NY N 104 300.6 0.35
Bruce Chen 55 CIN N 125 361.6 0.35
Jayson Durocher 39 MIL N 67 194 0.35
Mark Corey 27 COL N 40 117 0.34
Curt Schilling 36 ARI N 352 1031.3 0.34
Scott Stewart 67 MON N 90 264 0.34
David Coggin 38 PHI N 119 351 0.34
Luis Vizcaino 76 MIL N 112 331.3 0.34
SHouldn’t we factor in “assists”? For example, on a strikeout, the pitcher (and catcher) do all the work. But ground ball putouts usually require the efforts of 2 infielders, while an outfield fly out needs only 1 outfielder. A double play requires defensive ball handling by numerous infielders, both on the occasion of the original hit, and the DP.
cmkeller, I just emailed you a spreadsheet with all pitchers since the beginning of time and their calculated ratio. A couple of caveats:
I adhered to the formula you put forth in the OP. Any other ideas (such as assists, double plays, etc) were not included.
The database that provided the data was the Lahman DB, updated through 2002.
Unless I am completely overlooking it, it does not appear to track number of batters hit by an individual pitcher (I suspect because that is a tough stat to retroactively determine for a lot of pitchers in the past). That number is likely small enough to not have a huge effect on the overall standings.
The pitchers with the worst ratio should be looked at with a grain of salt. The vast majority are from the 1800’s and the BB and K numbers seem to have been tracked pretty poorly. I could have excluded a certain time frame, but I wanted to show all data for the purposes of your question.
Rather than counting all the ways a pitcher doesn’t make his infielders work, it seems like it would be easier to find the other ratio - number of batted balls per inning pitched. That would automatically take care of things like double plays and all the weird ways guys can get on base.
Find the guy who had the fewest batted balls per inning.
