As we await this month’s HoF balloting, here’s a little diversion in a bit different format from most of my quizzes. Here are the clues:
- I pitched primarily in relief in a career of more than both 10 seasons and 500 innings
- I never pitched in the post-season, but was twice traded in mid-season from teams that made the playoffs
- I pitched in both leagues, but played in the AL only for expansion teams
Congratulations to Jim! He knew that our mystery player was none other than Frank DiPino, (mostly) an NL reliever from the 1980s and early 1990s. More on DiPino after the jump.
4. My career is fairly evenly split between my twenties and thirties, with my IP and ERA results varying by less than 10% for the portions of my career through age 29 and aged 30 and older
5. But, more than 75% of my career losses came before my age 30 season
That should be enough to identify our mystery man (but I have more clues, if needed). So, who am I ?
Here is DiPino’s career.
| Year | Age | Tm | Lg | W | L | G | GS | GF | SV | IP | Awards | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 24 | MIL | AL | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2.1 | 3.89 | 1.286 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11.6 | 11.6 | 1.00 | |||
| 1982 | 25 | HOU | NL | 2 | 2 | .500 | 6.04 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 28.1 | 56 | 2.58 | 1.518 | 10.2 | 0.3 | 3.5 | 7.9 | 2.27 | |
| 1983 | 26 | HOU | NL | 3 | 4 | .429 | 2.65 | 53 | 0 | 32 | 20 | 71.1 | 128 | 2.12 | 1.009 | 6.6 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 8.5 | 3.35 | RoY-6 |
| 1984 | 27 | HOU | NL | 4 | 9 | .308 | 3.35 | 57 | 0 | 44 | 14 | 75.1 | 99 | 3.03 | 1.460 | 8.8 | 0.4 | 4.3 | 7.8 | 1.81 | |
| 1985 | 28 | HOU | NL | 3 | 7 | .300 | 4.03 | 54 | 0 | 29 | 6 | 76.0 | 86 | 4.37 | 1.474 | 8.2 | 0.8 | 5.1 | 5.8 | 1.14 | |
| 1986 | 29 | TOT | NL | 3 | 7 | .300 | 4.37 | 61 | 0 | 26 | 3 | 80.1 | 88 | 4.00 | 1.295 | 8.3 | 1.2 | 3.4 | 7.8 | 2.33 | |
| 1986 | 29 | HOU | NL | 1 | 3 | .250 | 3.57 | 31 | 0 | 14 | 3 | 40.1 | 101 | 4.38 | 1.066 | 6.0 | 1.1 | 3.6 | 6.0 | 1.69 | |
| 1986 | 29 | CHC | NL | 2 | 4 | .333 | 5.18 | 30 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 40.0 | 78 | 3.62 | 1.525 | 10.6 | 1.4 | 3.2 | 9.7 | 3.07 | |
| 1987 | 30 | CHC | NL | 3 | 3 | .500 | 3.15 | 69 | 0 | 20 | 4 | 80.0 | 136 | 3.80 | 1.363 | 8.4 | 0.8 | 3.8 | 6.9 | 1.79 | |
| 1988 | 31 | CHC | NL | 2 | 3 | .400 | 4.98 | 63 | 0 | 23 | 6 | 90.1 | 73 | 3.17 | 1.483 | 10.2 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 6.9 | 2.16 | |
| 1989 | 32 | STL | NL | 9 | 0 | 1.000 | 2.45 | 67 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 88.1 | 148 | 3.33 | 1.053 | 7.4 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 4.5 | 2.20 | |
| 1990 | 33 | STL | NL | 5 | 2 | .714 | 4.56 | 62 | 0 | 24 | 3 | 81.0 | 84 | 4.07 | 1.519 | 10.2 | 0.9 | 3.4 | 5.4 | 1.58 | |
| 1992 | 35 | STL | NL | 0 | 0 | 1.64 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 11.0 | 216 | 2.15 | 1.091 | 7.4 | 0.0 | 2.5 | 6.5 | 2.67 | ||
| 1993 | 36 | KCR | AL | 1 | 1 | .500 | 6.89 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 15.2 | 68 | 5.54 | 1.723 | 12.1 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 0.83 | |
| 12 Yrs | 35 | 38 | .479 | 3.83 | 514 | 6 | 216 | 56 | 700.0 | 96 | 3.48 | 1.346 | 8.7 | 0.7 | 3.5 | 6.6 | 1.91 | ||||
| 162 Game Avg. | 5 | 5 | .479 | 3.83 | 67 | 1 | 28 | 7 | 92 | 96 | 3.48 | 1.346 | 8.7 | 0.7 | 3.5 | 6.6 | 1.91 | ||||
| HOU (5 yrs) | 13 | 25 | .342 | 3.65 | 201 | 6 | 119 | 43 | 291.1 | 94 | 3.30 | 1.304 | 7.8 | 0.6 | 3.9 | 7.2 | 1.85 | ||||
| STL (3 yrs) | 14 | 2 | .875 | 3.34 | 138 | 0 | 35 | 3 | 180.1 | 111 | 3.59 | 1.264 | 8.7 | 0.7 | 2.7 | 5.0 | 1.87 | ||||
| CHC (3 yrs) | 7 | 10 | .412 | 4.32 | 162 | 0 | 55 | 10 | 210.1 | 92 | 3.49 | 1.445 | 9.6 | 0.8 | 3.4 | 7.4 | 2.16 | ||||
| KCR (1 yr) | 1 | 1 | .500 | 6.89 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 15.2 | 68 | 5.54 | 1.723 | 12.1 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 0.83 | ||||
| MIL (1 yr) | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2.1 | 3.89 | 1.286 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11.6 | 11.6 | 1.00 | ||||||
| NL (10 yrs) | 34 | 37 | .479 | 3.77 | 501 | 6 | 209 | 56 | 682.0 | 97 | 3.44 | 1.337 | 8.6 | 0.7 | 3.4 | 6.7 | 1.95 | ||||
| AL (2 yrs) | 1 | 1 | .500 | 6.00 | 13 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 18.0 | 77 | 5.33 | 1.667 | 10.5 | 1.0 | 4.5 | 4.0 | 0.89 | ||||
The two times DiPino was traded from a playoff bound club were: in 1982 when he was one of three young players named later by the Brewers when Milwaukee acquired veteran Don Sutton from the Astros; and in 1986 when the Astros shipped him to Chicago for another aging vet in 41 year-old (and former Sutton teammate) Davey Lopes.
Houston briefly tried out DiPino as a starter in 1982. His unlikely combination of a 6.04 ERA and 2.58 FIP that year is one of only 14 live ball era seasons of 5+ starts having more than a 2:1 ratio between those metrics (though, curiously, three of those campaigns occurred in that same 1982 season).
DiPino’s 14-2 record with the Cardinals stands in stark contrast to his 21-36 mark everywhere else, with his Redbird success the principal reason he enjoys the largest improvement in W-L% among pitchers with 300 IP both before and after their age 30 seasons. Here is how those halves of his career look.
| Year | Age | Tm | Lg | W | L | G | GS | GF | SV | IP | Awards | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981-1986 | 24-29 | MIL, HOU, CHC | AL,NL | 15 | 29 | .341 | 3.80 | 233 | 6 | 133 | 43 | 333.2 | 92 | 3.34 | 1.331 | 8.1 | 0.6 | 3.9 | 7.5 | 1.95 | |
| 1987-1993 | 30-36 | CHC, STL, KCR | NL,AL | 20 | 9 | .690 | 3.86 | 281 | 0 | 83 | 13 | 366.1 | 100 | 3.61 | 1.359 | 9.1 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 5.8 | 1.87 |
DiPino’s success in St. Louis included a record 12 game win streak to start his tenure in the Gateway City, the longest for any Cardinal pitcher. Only Brooks Lawrence with 13 straight wins for the 1957 Redlegs has a longer such streak for any franchise.
Doug: I thought I came up with a surefire method of identifying the pitcher via the PI and Excel spreadsheets but, alas, it was not to be. I am going on vacation for a couple of weeks so I may not have time to do further work on it.
Have a nice holiday, Richard.
Frank DiPino?
Nice work, Jim.
Piece of DiPino trivia is that he holds the Cardinals franchise record of 12 consecutive wins to start his tenure as a Redbird. That result helped him to have the largest differential in winning percentage between his under 30 seasons and those that followed among pitchers with 300 IP in both of those parts of their careers.
DiPino’s most notable post-30 win was winning the first ever night game at Wrigley Field:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN198808090.shtml
Speaking of mystery players, I noted that Putsy Caballero died last month. With his passing, there are now just 17 men living who played in the majors before the 1945 season, the youngest being Tommy Brown at age 89 and the oldest Eddie Carnett at 100. Among this group, Bobby Doerr played in over 1000 games before 1945 with Luis Olmo second at 191 games.
Caballero was one of 8 players since 1901 to make his major league debut before his age 17 season (all eight also debuted before their 17th birthdays). Two of them (Caballero and Rogers McKee) appeared for the Phillies when they were skunked 15-0 by the Cubbies on Sep 26, 1944; their combined age at the time was less than 35 years.
Completely unrelated but is Robinson Cano the first player with 33+ doubles in each of his first 12 seasons? I did a quick look though the career doubles leaders and didn’t see anyone else who has done that.
Absolutely correct. Pujols is the only other player to do it in his first 10 seasons. Todd Helton also did in his first 10 full seasons (he had an extended cup of coffee of 35 games in his debut season).
Speaker also had 12 consecutive seasons (1916-27) aged 28-39. Bobby Abreu is the only other player with 10 consecutive seasons (1999-2008) aged 25-34.
… and yet, Cano isn’t the 33-year-old with the most doubles, as that honor belongs to Miguel Cabrera (523 to Cano’s 479). Neither one is going to be in Tris Speaker territory, but they should both get well into the 600s, I would think.