Starter V. Reliever - Historical Look at Rookie Pitchers
by jtts on Jul 16, 2009 8:27 PM CDT
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PrintIs it better for a pitcher to start in the bullpen or should we throw him to the wolves and let him figure things out in the rotation?
I examined the 20 pitchers that have received at least 1 first place vote for Cy Young since 1990. I wanted to know whether or not highly successful pitchers broke into the majors as starters or were eased in via the bullpen.
14 pitchers made at least 20 starts their rookie year and later received first place votes for Cy Young
Query1
| nameFirst | nameLast | GS | G | Relief Appearances | Rookie Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim | Lincecum | 24 | 24 | 0 | 2007 |
| Dontrelle | Willis | 27 | 27 | 0 | 2003 |
| Brandon | Webb | 28 | 29 | 1 | 2003 |
| C.C. | Sabathia | 33 | 33 | 0 | 2001 |
| Roy | Oswalt | 20 | 28 | 8 | 2001 |
| Mark | Mulder | 27 | 27 | 0 | 2000 |
| Freddy | Garcia | 33 | 33 | 0 | 1999 |
| Andy | Pettitte | 26 | 31 | 5 | 1995 |
| Esteban | Loaiza | 31 | 32 | 1 | 1995 |
| Darryl | Kile | 22 | 37 | 15 | 1991 |
| Doug | Drabek | 21 | 27 | 6 | 1986 |
| Bill | Swift | 21 | 23 | 2 | 1985 |
| Roger | Clemens | 20 | 21 | 1 | 1984 |
| Dennis | Eckersley | 24 | 34 | 10 | 1975 |
However, only 6 pitchers were broken in via the bullpen for a large part of the season (20 relief appearances).
Query1
| nameFirst | nameLast | GS | G | Relief Appearances | Rookie Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johan | Santana | 5 | 30 | 25 | 2000 |
| Trevor | Hoffman* | 0 | 39 | 39 | 1993 |
| Trevor | Hoffman* | 0 | 28 | 28 | 1993 |
| Bobby | Thigpen | 0 | 20 | 20 | 1986 |
| Jose | Rijo | 5 | 24 | 19 | 1984 |
| Jimmy | Key | 0 | 63 | 63 | 1984 |
| Bob | Welch | 13 | 23 | 10 | 1978 |
Hoffman appeared on the list twice because he pitched for San Diego and Florida his rookie year.
There were quite a few more pitchers that didn't fit either criteria (less than 20 games pitched their rookie year). In fact, 20 pitchers made less than 10 appearances. Of those, almost all of them were starting as soon as they came in. Jason Schmidt and Robb Nen were the only ones to break in via the bullpen in a partial first season.
Query1
| nameFirst | nameLast | GS | G | Relief Appearances | Rookie Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh | Beckett | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2001 |
| Eric | Gagne | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1999 |
| Roy | Halladay | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1998 |
| Jason | Schmidt | 2 | 9 | 7 | 1995 |
| Robb | Nen | 3 | 9 | 6 | 1993 |
| Pedro | Martinez | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1992 |
| Pat | Hentgen | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1991 |
| Kevin | Tapani* | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1989 |
| Kevin | Tapani* | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1989 |
| Kevin | Appier | 5 | 6 | 1 | 1989 |
| Randy | Johnson | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1988 |
| Ramon | Martinez | 6 | 9 | 3 | 1988 |
| Curt | Schilling | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1988 |
| Jose | Mesa | 5 | 6 | 1 | 1987 |
| Tom | Glavine | 9 | 9 | 0 | 1987 |
| Jack | McDowell | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1987 |
| Greg | Maddux | 5 | 6 | 1 | 1986 |
| Kevin | Brown | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1986 |
| Randy | Myers | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1985 |
| Dave | Stewart | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1978 |
| Jack | Morris | 6 | 7 | 1 | 1977 |
*Tapani pitched for the Mets and Twins his rookie year.
What does all this mean? I dunno. It sure looks like the very best of the best pitchers didn't need to be eased into the majors via the bullpen. What other generalizations do you see?
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Comments
Isn't the whole bullpen thing
Kind of an old school thing some old school manager used to do it like the cardinals or somebody
maybe u should have went back more than 20 years
Nobody punished like Earl and No one was nastier than Ryan
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