Pitchers with great starts who I bet you don’t remember |

Before John Farrell was the Blue Jays' manager, he had a very promising start as a major league pitcher, but that didn't pan out.Icon SMI

Following are some pitchers from 1980 on who had great starts to their careers but you probably don’t remember them.

Here is a subset (chosen by me) of the guys who, since 1980, had a bunch of starts within the first 10 of their careers with at least 7 innings pitched and no more than 2 earned runs allowed:

Player	#Matching
Jay Tibbs	7	Ind. Games
Jim Neidlinger	6	Ind. Games
Mike Grace	6	Ind. Games
Marty Bystrom	6	Ind. Games
Brian Tollberg	5	Ind. Games
Bob Stoddard	5	Ind. Games
Ryan Rupe	5	Ind. Games
Jose Rosado	5	Ind. Games
Andy Rincon	5	Ind. Games
Randy O’Neal	5	Ind. Games
Phil Leftwich	5	Ind. Games
John Farrell	5	Ind. Games
Mike Dunne	5	Ind. Games
Chris Codiroli	5	Ind. Games

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/8/2012.

OK, I’m sure you’ve heard of some of these guys, but I bet at least a few of the names are new.

Check out the career stats for this group:

Rk	Player	IP	From	To	Age	G	GS	ERA	ERA+	Tm
1	Jay Tibbs	862.2	1984	1990	22-28	158	133	4.20	91	CIN-MON-BAL-TOT
2	Jose Rosado	720.1	1996	2000	21-25	125	112	4.27	114	KCR
3	John Farrell	698.2	1987	1996	24-33	116	109	4.56	92	CAL-CLE-DET
4	Chris Codiroli	670.1	1982	1990	24-32	144	108	4.87	79	OAK-CLE-KCR
5	Ryan Rupe	476.2	1999	2003	24-28	89	84	5.85	81	TBD-BOS
6	Mike Dunne	474.1	1987	1992	24-29	85	76	4.08	93	PIT-TOT-SDP-CHW
7	Randy O’Neal	440.2	1984	1990	23-29	142	46	4.35	92	DET-TOT-STL-PHI-SFG
8	Marty Bystrom	435.0	1980	1985	21-26	84	79	4.26	87	PHI-TOT-NYY
9	Bob Stoddard	433.1	1981	1987	24-30	119	45	4.03	104	SEA-DET-SDP-KCR
10	Brian Tollberg	307.1	2000	2003	27-30	53	52	4.48	91	SDP
11	Mike Grace	275.2	1995	1999	25-29	68	40	4.96	89	PHI
12	Phil Leftwich	202.0	1993	1996	24-27	34	34	4.99	95	CAL
13	Andy Rincon	106.2	1980	1982	21-23	20	15	3.12	118	STL
14	Jim Neidlinger	74.0	1990	1990	25-25	12	12	3.28	113	LAD

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/8/2012.

Some of these guys stuck around for quite a few years and some had some decent careers.

But then there’s a guy like Jim Neidlinger–he pitched just that one season for the Dodgers, and pitched well. He went back to AAA for 1991 and after a few more years ended up retiring without making it back to the majors.

All of the guys at the bottom of the list–Tollberg, Grace, Leftwich, Rincon, and Neidlinger–had careers with one team in the majors but didn’t get much more than the equivalent of one full season.

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kds

12 years ago

I would expect more pitchers to start off hot and then cool off than batters. Form a pitchers perspective he wants to throw a certain pitch to a certain spot. Scouting can help him choose what pitch to what spot, but actually seeing the batter is not important. For the batter the scouting info can be useful, but actually seeing the pitcher is absolutely required, unless his stuff is so transparent that you can tell immediately the fastball over the plate from the slider low and away, etc. And a pitcher who cannot prevent identification of his pitches probably doesn’t… Read more »

Hartvig

I know I had Rosado on my Fantasy team at least 1 season back in the day…

Mike L

I remember Jose Rosado-he wasn’t a fluke at all, but the Royals burned his arm out. He made the All Star team in 1999 with an ERA+ of 130, but was really abused with high pitch counts. We was finished the following year. Hard to imagine that would happen these days, with cheap pre-free agent contracts being so highly values.

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John Autin

Reply to Mike L

So I’m looking into this notion that high pitch counts burned out Rosado’s arm, and I find that yes, in 1999 he had 9 games of 120+ pitches, with a high of 134. But then I look at what others were doing in 1999, and I find this: — 9 other pitchers had more than 9 games of 120+ pitches, and 2 more had exactly 9. — Those 12 pitchers (including Rosado) averaged 1,228 more IP after 1999, and only Rosado saw his career end the following season. Ten of the 12 pitched at least 800 more innings after 1999,… Read more »

Reply to John Autin

John A, I yield to what Bill Nye likes to say, “science rules”
Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be for Rosado. Just curious, thoght. Wouldn’t that group tend to be self-selecting? The only way you have high pitch counts is because you are good enough to stay in games?

“Wouldn’t that group tend to be self-selecting? The only way you have high pitch counts is because you are good enough to stay in games?” Mike, it’s a reasonable question. But there’s far more “self-selecting” done by those who cry “abuse!” every time a young pitcher gets hurt. I don’t mean to aim that charge at you, by the way. But if you want to say that Rosado was abused with high pitch counts — and obviously his career did end abruptly the year after he had several high-pitch games — I don’t know what other group to compare him… Read more »

John A, I have no idea whether he was actually abused. I did a ten minute google search after I read your response, and it seems a lot of people thought he was abused. Maybe they were all unfair accusations or urban legend.

I am interested in players who flame out because of injuries. Whether that’s due to overwork, or whether it just would have happened needs to be proven by more than circumstance, so I will agree with you.

Some of these guys have interesting stories: Rosado won the 1997 all-star game and also gave up Paul Molitor’s 3,000th hit. His career was off to a great start but was ended by a torn rotator cuff. Rincon pitched quite well as a 21 year old in 1980. He made the team out of spring training in 1981 and was off to a great start but his season was ended on May 9th by a line drive off the bat of Phil Garner which broke his arm. (why he was still pitching in the 8th inning of a 13-0 game… Read more »

James Smyth

Another interesting note involving Molitor and a pitcher on this list. John Farrell, in his second start, helped end Molitor’s 39-game hitting streak.

Farrell and Teddy Higuera matched zeroes for nine innings of three-hit ball and after Teddy worked a scoreless tenth, Farrell was removed for Doug Jones.

The Brewers rallied in the bottom of the inning, with Rick Manning knocking home the winning run…with an 0-for-4 Molitor in the on-deck circle.

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Andy

Reply to James Smyth

That may be the most meaningful Farrell ever did as a player.

nightfly

Reply to Andy

Rick Manning tried to kneel at first base, but wound up falling backwards and sitting on it.

CursedClevelander

Reply to nightfly

How many guys besides Rick Manning can say that they were booed by their own fans for getting a game-winning hit?

Lawrence Azrin

It’s out of the time frame, but – KARL SPOONER with the 1954 Dodgers, first two MLB games:
two games started; two shutout wins, 7 hits total, 27/6 K/BB ratio – WOW, is this the best pitching debut ever?

rest of his MLB career:
1955/ 8W-6L, 98 IP, 3.65 ERA (112 ERA+), 2 WS games, one start (loss)

B-R Bullpen says he had arm troubles in 1955, which seem to have carried over till 1956 (he only pitched in four games in the minors). He did pitch in the minors till 1958.

Richard Chester

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

In July 1953 Al Worthington of the Giants pitched shut-outs in his first two ML appearances, giving up 6 hits. He then did an about face and his next 16 appearances were all in losing games (he did not lose them all).
He finished with a career record of 75-82.

Reply to Richard Chester

Wow — shutting out the 1953 Dodgers is quite a feat! That was the only shutout they suffered all year. And in cozy Ebbets Field, no less, where they averaged 6.6 R/G!

And their lineup was at full strength — Reese, Snider, Campanella, Hodges, Furillo, Jackie….

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BRO/1953-schedule-scores.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO195307110.shtml

Dave Ferriss and Johnny Marcum also started their careers with 2 shut-outs. Ferriss began his career with 22 consecutive innings, a record.

Make that 22 consecutive scoreless innings.

Jeff Allen

Mike Dunne, Topps All-Star Rookie in 1988. I basically remember everyone who played in 1987 by their 1988 Topps card. Except for Codiroli and Stoddard, who both had no 1988 card. The only Stoddard I remember is Tim. I do remember Codiroli from an earlier card, which I believe was his 1987 Fleer.

Reply to Jeff Allen

I tweeted a photo of that 1988 Topps card earlier today–if you hit the “twitter feed” page, it’s about the 6th tweet down now. (but if you’re reading this comment well after I wrote it, that no longer holds…)

DaveR

I remember that 1980 World Series. There was something significant about having two rookies, Bystrom and Bob Walk, starting games in that series, but I can’t recall exactly what it was.

Kahuna Tuna

Reply to DaveR

It set the stage perfectly for two rookies to start World Series games the following year: Fernando Valenzuela and Dave Righetti.