Doubled Up

Looking through the baseball-reference.com Play Indexes, which have this data back to 1948, yields some interesting nuggets.
Highest opposing BABIP, 100 or more innings: Glendon Rusch in 2003 (.381). You can beat the balls in play if you’re good enough: BABIP vs Pedro Martinez in 1999: .325.
Most 2B allowed in a season since 1948: 68 by Rick Helling in 2001. Tied for second: 66 by Helling in 2000.
Most 3B allowed in a season since 1948 is a 4-way tie at 17, but Larry Christenson managed it in 1976 in just 168.2 IP. That 1976 Phillies team frequently had Greg Luzinski in LF, Ollie Brown or Jay Johnstone in RF, Garry Maddox in CF.
Most steals allowed in a season: 60 by Dwight Gooden in 1990. Tied for second: Gooden with 56 in 1988. Fewest: 200 innings in a season without allowing a steal has been done 10 times, four of them by Whitey Ford; Kenny Rogers in 2002 is the only one since 1968. Most career steals allowed: 757 off Nolan Ryan, and it’s not even close, Greg Maddux is second at 547. Gooden allowed 452 steals in just 2800.2 innings.
Then there’s the things besides steals that get buried in a pitcher’s line, even looking at BABIP numbers, most of all double plays, doubles and triples. Tommy John induced 605 double plays in his career. Since 1948, Jim Kaat is second with 462, a huge gap. For the 61 pitchers to throw 3000 or more innings over that period – admittedly an elite group – I broke out their GIDP, steals, doubles, triples, and total bases allowed on doubles and triples (23B/9, counting triples twice) per 9 innings. The results are obviously heavily influenced by era and park and teammates, but interesting nonetheless – Tommy John and Dennis Eckersley are as dominant in the most- and least-DP business as Ryan and Whitey Ford are in allowing the most and least steals. I sorted the table by GIDP/9, so for the others:
SB/9: Most – Ryan, Tim Wakefield, Joe Niekro, Eckersley; Fewest – Ford, Billy Pierce, Warren Spahn, Rogers.
3B/9: Most – Robin Roberts, Bob Friend, Curt Simmons (Roberts’ longtime teammate). Fewest – Chuck Finley, Randy Johnson, Jamie Moyer (Johnson’s Seattle teammate).
23B/9 (largely the same list as 2B/9): Most – Rogers, David Wells, Livan Hernandez, Wakefield. Fewest – Juan Marichal, Ryan, Bob Gibson, Ford.
All of which went a long way to explaining to me why Whitey Ford was so successful in an era when the truly fielding-independent paths to success (K, BB, HR) were limited – few pitchers in the 50s had especially low BB/9, high K/9 or huge variances in HR/9. Not to say there was no variations, but not nearly enough for a pitcher to really distinguish himself (it’s a study for another day to ask whether BABIP was as pitcher-independent in that era as today). But what’s clear is that, with the help of a superior defense and possibly park effects (see here and here), Ford cut off the running game, induced a lot of double plays, and rarely allowed doubles or triples, which in addition to a fairly low HR rate explains how a guy with a 1.37 K/BB ratio from 1950-60 could be such a dominating pitcher year in and year out.
The table is below the fold.

Player IP GDP GDP/9 SB SB/9 2B 2B/9 3B 3B/9 23B/9
Tommy John 4710.3 605 1.16 240 0.46 699 1.34 117 0.22 1.78
Claude Osteen 3460.7 394 1.02 76 0.20 497 1.29 79 0.21 1.70
Whitey Ford 3170.3 354 1.00 29 0.08 376 1.07 84 0.24 1.54
Andy Pettitte 3055.3 339 1.00 176 0.52 605 1.78 57 0.17 2.12
Mike Torrez 3043.7 324 0.96 238 0.70 502 1.48 73 0.22 1.92
Kenny Rogers 3302.7 350 0.95 63 0.17 719 1.96 69 0.19 2.34
Lew Burdette 3067.3 325 0.95 67 0.20 449 1.32 93 0.27 1.86
Jerry Reuss 3669.7 375 0.92 189 0.46 560 1.37 73 0.18 1.73
Jim Kaat 4530.3 462 0.92 168 0.33 706 1.40 132 0.26 1.93
Kevin Brown 3256.3 330 0.91 180 0.50 493 1.36 53 0.15 1.66
Orel Hershiser 3130.3 314 0.90 181 0.52 525 1.51 65 0.19 1.88
Bob Friend 3611.0 345 0.86 142 0.35 472 1.18 120 0.30 1.77
Chuck Finley 3197.3 305 0.86 269 0.76 577 1.62 40 0.11 1.85
Tom Glavine 4413.3 420 0.86 226 0.46 786 1.60 76 0.15 1.91
Larry Jackson 3262.7 308 0.85 89 0.25 470 1.30 94 0.26 1.82
Livan Hernandez 3139.3 291 0.83 159 0.46 631 1.81 82 0.24 2.28
Rick Reuschel 3548.3 320 0.81 204 0.52 599 1.52 102 0.26 2.04
Milt Pappas 3186.0 279 0.79 161 0.45 473 1.34 71 0.20 1.74
Gaylord Perry 5350.0 451 0.76 236 0.40 708 1.19 142 0.24 1.67
Greg Maddux 5008.3 422 0.76 547 0.98 817 1.47 84 0.15 1.77
Jerry Koosman 3839.3 319 0.75 190 0.45 597 1.40 94 0.22 1.84
Dennis Martinez 3999.7 332 0.75 422 0.95 651 1.46 107 0.24 1.95
Mike Mussina 3562.7 293 0.74 182 0.46 719 1.82 53 0.13 2.08
Warren Spahn 4812.7 391 0.73 77 0.14 596 1.11 120 0.22 1.56
Jamie Moyer 4049.0 328 0.73 314 0.70 812 1.80 59 0.13 2.07
Rick Wise 3127.3 251 0.72 252 0.73 525 1.51 89 0.26 2.02
Phil Niekro 5404.0 431 0.72 446 0.74 734 1.22 124 0.21 1.64
Joe Niekro 3584.3 282 0.71 415 1.04 508 1.28 88 0.22 1.72
Don Drysdale 3432.0 270 0.71 95 0.25 471 1.24 74 0.19 1.62
Bert Blyleven 4970.0 389 0.70 424 0.77 712 1.29 116 0.21 1.71
Jack Morris 3824.0 299 0.70 373 0.88 572 1.35 91 0.21 1.77
Vida Blue 3343.3 261 0.70 197 0.53 458 1.23 88 0.24 1.71
Steve Carlton 5217.7 405 0.70 314 0.54 807 1.39 137 0.24 1.86
David Wells 3439.0 266 0.70 268 0.70 741 1.94 65 0.17 2.28
Curt Simmons 3339.3 255 0.69 112 0.30 512 1.38 104 0.28 1.94
Doyle Alexander 3367.7 256 0.68 234 0.63 587 1.57 95 0.25 2.08
Bob Gibson 3884.3 292 0.68 196 0.45 457 1.06 83 0.19 1.44
Jim Perry 3285.7 245 0.67 80 0.22 416 1.14 77 0.21 1.56
Frank Tanana 4188.3 309 0.66 305 0.66 694 1.49 91 0.20 1.88
Tim Wakefield 3226.3 232 0.65 448 1.25 672 1.87 54 0.15 2.18
Billy Pierce 3296.7 232 0.63 50 0.14 413 1.13 94 0.26 1.64
John Smoltz 3473.0 244 0.63 182 0.47 605 1.57 67 0.17 1.92
Mickey Lolich 3638.3 255 0.63 161 0.40 564 1.40 74 0.18 1.76
Jim Palmer 3948.0 273 0.62 265 0.60 512 1.17 88 0.20 1.57
Early Wynn 3495.3 240 0.62 116 0.30 488 1.26 86 0.22 1.70
Charlie Hough 3801.3 260 0.62 398 0.94 563 1.33 83 0.20 1.73
Bob Welch 3092.0 209 0.61 213 0.62 482 1.40 72 0.21 1.82
Roger Clemens 4916.7 330 0.60 446 0.82 796 1.46 84 0.15 1.76
Tom Seaver 4783.0 315 0.59 409 0.77 675 1.27 120 0.23 1.72
Danny Darwin 3016.7 195 0.58 262 0.78 544 1.62 72 0.21 2.05
Robin Roberts 4688.7 295 0.57 182 0.35 794 1.52 168 0.32 2.17
Randy Johnson 4135.3 252 0.55 456 0.99 660 1.44 58 0.13 1.69
Fergie Jenkins 4500.7 274 0.55 284 0.57 732 1.46 99 0.20 1.86
Curt Schilling 3261.0 193 0.53 105 0.29 612 1.69 60 0.17 2.02
Juan Marichal 3507.0 207 0.53 176 0.45 396 1.02 70 0.18 1.38
Nolan Ryan 5386.0 314 0.52 757 1.26 649 1.08 106 0.18 1.44
Luis Tiant 3486.3 203 0.52 182 0.47 524 1.35 100 0.26 1.87
Jim Bunning 3760.3 210 0.50 208 0.50 556 1.33 95 0.23 1.79
Don Sutton 5282.3 292 0.50 432 0.74 728 1.24 107 0.18 1.60
Catfish Hunter 3449.3 183 0.48 202 0.53 525 1.37 70 0.18 1.74
Dennis Eckersley 3285.7 146 0.40 380 1.04 571 1.56 71 0.19 1.95

5 thoughts on “Doubled Up”

  3. I remember as a little kid seeing an article that quoted Whitey Frod heavily, about the importance of a pitcher learning to keep the baserunner close. Whitey said it could be the difference of five wins a season for a pitcher; which sounds highly unlikely today, but one can see why he might believe if.

  4. The AL was a station-to-station league in Ford’s day. The only team known for running was the White Sox – the “Go-Go Sox” – and their only big base stealer was Luis Aparicio.

  5. I remember Bill James’ laconic explanation of how Maury Wills was able to steal NL catchers blind in 1962: “Catchers [of that era] couldn’t throw.” Meaning that since virtually no one was stealing bases, catchers were generally chosen for other qualities, with teams knowing that there weren’t enough base stealers out there to make it a problem most of the time.
    Greg Maddux was high on that SB/9 list, to the surprise of virtually no one–it was probably the only significant weakness in his game. Fortunately for him–and Mike Piazza–the high octane offense of the era they played in made base stealing relatively rare compared to what it had been in the seventies and eighties, and what might have been a more significant flaw in their games became relatively trivial.

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