Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Useless info on 100-win teams without 20-win pitchers
Posted by Chris JaffeHere's some random trivia I learned when figuring yesterday's useless THT Live post.
Of the 95 different 20-win teams in history, exactly 20 lacked a 20-game winner. Half of them have been since the '94 strike. The first handful were the 1915 Red Sox, 1931 Cardinals, 1941 Yankees, 1942 Dodgers, and 1967 Cardinals. That was it until the Big Red Machine. 1941 Yankees get extra credit for being the first 100-win team without a 19, 18, 17, or 16 game winners.
The 2004 Yanks are the only one without a 15-game winner. They peaked with a pair of 14-game winners.
Most wins by a team without a 20-game winner is a tie at 108, by the 1986 Mets and 1975 Reds. Neither had a 19-game winner either. The Reds topped out at 15 wins per pitcher. Proving it was no fluke the 1976 Reds also peaked with 15 wins per pitcher, despite winning 102 games.
Long as I'm here, I'll give the complete list of 20 teams, from most to fewest team wins. I'll include both team wins and most wins by an individual pitcher in parathesis:
1975 Reds (108, 15)
1986 Mets (108, 18)
2004 Cards (105, 16)
1942 Dodgers (104, 19)
1984 Tigers (104, 19)
2002 Yankees (103, 19)
1999 Braves (103, 19)
1976 Reds (102, 15)
1998 Astros (102, 19)
2004 Yankees (101, 14)
1941 Yankees (101, 15)
1967 Cardinals (101, 16)
2002 Braves (101, 18)
1931 Cardsinals (101, 19)
1915 Red Sox (101, 19)
1977 Yankees (100, 16)
1995 Indians (100, 16)
2003 Giants (100, 17)
2008 Angels (100, 17)
1999 D-backs (100, 17)
History instructor by day, statnerd by night, Chris Jaffe leads one of the most exciting double lives imaginable; with the exception of every other double life possible to imagine. Despite his lack of comic-book-hero-worthiness, Chris enjoys farting around with this stuff. His new book, Evaluating Baseball's Managers is available for order. Chris welcomes responses to his articles via e-mail. Oh, and now he's on twitter.
Interesting stuff, but I think there have been more than 95 TWENTY-win teams. (;
The factoid from the 2004 Yanks is kind of weird, though. Just 14 wins. Odd.