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Useless Tom Glavine information
Tom Glavine may not be a Brave anymore. But he sure did leave behind a lot of notes they can remember him by. Here are some of our favorites:
Glavine and John Smoltz had been teammates for 14 years -- longer than any two players in the big leagues. So now which two teammates have been together the longest?
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| Biggio |
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| Bagwell |
It's two guys who have spent way too much time losing to Glavine, Smoltz and the Braves in October -- Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, who just finished their 12th season together in Houston.
If Greg Maddux winds up returning to the Braves, he and Smoltz would be the only other teammates in either league who have been together continuously for 10 full seasons. Edgar Martinez and Dan Wilson would also make this list if Wilson hadn't taken a two-month detour back to the minor leagues in 1993.
The five players who have been with their current team the longest, now that Glavine has been lopped off the list:
Barry Larkin, Reds -- 16 years, 54 days
Biggio, Astros -- 14 years, 90 days
Smoltz, Braves -- 14 years 72 days
Martinez, Mariners -- 14 years, 43 days
John Franco, Mets -- 13 years (counting last year, when he was out for the season)
Then there's the end of the Glavine-Greg Maddux tag team. We're not sure if we'll ever see their likes again. In their time together, Glavine and Maddux won 347 regular-season games -- the second-highest 10-year total of any two teammates in the live-ball era. Here's the top five, according to the Elias Sports Bureau:
372 Warren Spahn-Lew Burdette (1953-62)
347 Glavine-Maddux (1993-2002)
336 Juan Marichal-Gaylord Perry (1962-70)*
333 Don Drysdale-Sandy Koufax (1957-66)
325 Carl Hubbell-Freddie Fitzsimmons (1928-36)*
(* -- only nine years as teammates)
Maybe it's only when you compare Glavine and Maddux to modern teammates that you really get awestruck over those 347 wins. If you subtract all Braves combinations, that's 200 more wins than any other two teammates won for any other team over the last decade.
Here are the runners-up, counting assorted Braves combos (with only years spent pitching together qualifying):
284 Maddux-Smoltz
275 Glavine-Smoltz
183 Maddux-Kevin Millwood
178 Glavine-Millwood
147 Shane Reynolds-Mike Hampton (Astros, 1994-99)
146 Andy Pettitte-David Cone (Yankees, 1995-2000)
146 Pedro Martinez-Tim Wakefield (Red Sox, 1998-2002)
Over these last 10 years, Maddux and Glavine rank first and third respectively in wins, first (Glavine) and second (Maddux) in games started, first (Maddux) and second (Glavine) in innings pitched, third (Maddux) and fourth (Glavine) in winning percentage and second (Maddux) and seventh (Glavine) in shutouts.
Take a look at how they stack up versus the best pitchers of the last decade:
(Ranked by wins)
|
Pitcher
|
W
|
L
|
Pct.
|
GS
|
SHO
|
IP
|
|
G. Maddux
|
178
|
77
|
.698
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327
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60
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2,308
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R. Johnson
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175
|
58
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.751
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297
|
71
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2,190
|
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T. Glavine
|
169
|
83
|
.671
|
333
|
28
|
2,227
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M.Mussina
|
160
|
92
|
.635
|
311
|
41
|
2,125
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P. Martinez
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152
|
62
|
.710
|
258
|
38
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1,884
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R.Clemens
|
141
|
79
|
.641
|
301
|
27
|
2,035.2
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D. Wells
|
138
|
84
|
.622
|
287
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46
|
1,926
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C. Schilling
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137
|
86
|
.614
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283
|
66
|
2,046.1
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J. Moyer
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130
|
71
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.647
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276
|
18
|
1,822.2
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A. Pettitte
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128
|
70
|
.646
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243
|
22
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1,584
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Glavine had five 20-win seasons as a Brave. That's the most by any left-handed pitcher for one team since Steve Carlton also had five as a Phillie in the 1970s and '80s.
But this is a more exclusive club than that factoid might make it sound. Only one other left-handed pitcher in the last half-century has had five or more 20-win seasons for the same team. That would be another former Brave you may have heard of -- Warren Spahn, who won 20 for the Braves 13 times altogether (nine of them from 1952 on). For those wondering, Sandy Koufax won 20 just three times.
And with Glavine out of this club, only three active pitchers even have more than one 20-win season with their current team -- Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez, with two each.
More useless info
Jim Thome is the latest modern player to hear about how tough it's going to be to switch leagues. But how hard is it, really, for a guy who has been through two World Series, four All-Star Games and six years of interleague play -- compared to someone who had to do it in, say, 1968?
We checked Thome's numbers against NL East starters. And of the 16 or so you could pencil in right now (tentatively including Greg Maddux in Atlanta), Thome has faced eight of them -- not even counting at-bats against Bartolo Colon in Winter Haven intrasquad games.
He has 17 at-bats against Al Leiter (counting the 1997 World Series), seven versus Maddux (counting World Series and All-Star Games), six versus Tom Glavine (ditto), four against Tomo Ohka, three each against Javier Vazquez and John Thomson, and two apiece against A.J. Burnett and Tony Armas.
Thome has driven in 100 runs four years in a row. No Phillie -- not Scott Rolen, not Mike Schmidt, not Greg Luzinski, nobody -- has done that in nearly 50 years.
In fact, only two Phillies since 1900 have ever had streaks that long -- Del Ennis (1952-55) and Chuck Klein (1929-33, which is five years). Schmidt's longest 100-RBI streak was two -- but he did knock in 100 four times in five years from 1983-87.
Thome has hit 40 homers or more in three different seasons. If you toss out Schmidt, all the Phillies hitters of the last eight decades have combined to hit 40 homers or more in three seasons -- Klein in 1929 (43), Klein in 1930 (40) and Dick Allen in 1966 (40).
And Thome is working on seven consecutive 30-homer seasons. That's two more 30-homer seasons than the Phillies' entire roster has combined for since Schmidt retired 13 years ago. Here are the only five Phillies to hit 30 in the post-Schmidtian era:
Pat Burrell, 2002 -- 37
Bobby Abreu, 2001 -- 31
Mike Lieberthal, 1999 -- 31
Scott Rolen, 1998 -- 31
Benito Santiago, 1996 -- 30
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| 2002 SEASON STATISTICS |
| GM |
AB |
R |
BB |
SB |
AVG |
| 150 |
564 |
114 |
73 |
26 |
.289 |
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Then there's Ray Durham, who just signed with the Giants and instantly becomes arguably the top leadoff hitter in the National League. Durham is one of only four players who have scored 100 runs or more in six straight seasons. The others are Derek Jeter (seven straight), Bernie Williams (also seven) and A-Rod (also seven).
But none of those guys are full-time leadoff men. The only other leadoff hitters currently working on streaks of four 100-run seasons or more are Johnny Damon (five) and Shannon Stewart (four). No current National League leadoff hitter even owns a streak longer than one year.
Now that the Marlins have traded for Juan Pierre, they have as good a chance of winning the Millrose Games as the NL East. Pierre, the NL stolen-base co-champ in 2001 (with Jimmy Rollins), joins Luis Castillo, who led the league in steals this year, to form one of baseball's most unique 1-2 sprint-champ combos.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau's Randy Robles, the 2003 Marlins will be just the fourth team in the last 50 years to feature the stolen-base champions from its league in the previous two seasons. The others:
1979 Pirates: Omar Moreno (1978) and Frank Taveras (1977)
1975 Athletics: Billy North (1974) and Tommy Harper (1973)
1957 White Sox: Luis Aparicio (1956) and Jim Rivera (1955)
Then there were the 1978 Dodgers, who don't qualify for this list but did employ the 1976 stolen-base champ from each league: Davey Lopes and Billy North.
All this assumes, of course, that the Marlins won't trade Castillo before qualifying as an official trivia answer.
For all his troubles, you might be surprised to learn that since Junior Griffey became a Red, he has outhomered all of these people: J.D. Drew, Mike Cameron, Trot Nixon, Reggie Sanders, Juan Gonzalez, Torii Hunter, Brian Jordan and John Olerud. (Griffey has hit 70 these last three years.)
On the other hand, Griffey has fewer homers than 58 different players -- including all of these guys: Carlos Lee, Pudge Rodriguez, Robin Ventura, Derrek Lee, Preston Wilson, Jose Valentin, Tony Batista and his don't-trade-me-there partner, Phil Nevin.
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| 2002 SEASON STATISTICS |
| GM |
IP |
W-L |
HLD |
SV |
ERA |
| 56 |
27 |
1-2 |
17 |
1 |
3.00 |
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Jesse Orosco goes on and on. He actually got a guaranteed contract from the Padres and a spot on the 40-man roster. And if he throws a pitch next year after his 46th birthday (on April 21), he'll become only the fourth non-knuckleballer to keep on twirling at that age since World War II.
The others: Nolan Ryan, Tommy John and Satchel Paige.
Orosco appeared in 56 games this season. Which brings us to this Record Alert: The record for most appearances in a season at age 46 or older is 57 games, by Paige in 1953 -- a season in which he turned 47 on July 7.
The only other pitcher to appear in 50 or more games at that age is knuckleball legend Hoyt Wilhelm, who relieved 53 times in 1970, the year he also turned 47 in July.
Orosco, meanwhile, is running away with the all-time lead in one of our favorite relief-pitcher categories -- Games Not Finished. He needs five more of those to become the first pitcher in history to make 700 appearances in literally middle relief.
Here's the top six in that category. You'll note that five of the six were free agents this winter:
|
Pitcher
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Relief appearances
|
Games not finished
|
|
Orosco
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1,183
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695
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Paul Assenmacher
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883
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608
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Dan Plesac
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992
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579
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Mike Stanton
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834
|
559
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Mike Jackson
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953
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543
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|
Mark Guthrie
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657
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499
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Eddie Oropesa, released last month by the Diamondbacks, set a record this year that probably wasn't on his mind when he defected from the Cuban national team. According to loyal reader Lee Sinins -- creator of the must-have Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia cd-rom -- Oropesa this year compiled the highest ERA in history by a pitcher who appeared in at least 30 games.
The new top five in this sensational category:
|
Pitcher
|
Year
|
ERA
|
Games
|
|
Oropesa
|
2002
|
10.30
|
32
|
|
Todd Van Poppel
|
1996
|
9.06
|
37
|
|
Vic Darensbourg
|
1999
|
8.83
|
56
|
|
Mike Perez
|
1994
|
8.71
|
36
|
|
Ron Davis
|
1986
|
8.59
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53
|
You could probably win a beverage or two if you posed this question in a tavern in Detroit this winter: What do Al Kaline and Randall Simon have in common?
Our buddy, Danny Knobler -- Tigers beat man for Booth Newspapers -- reports that Simon and Kaline are the only two players who ever won the Tiger of the Year award and then weren't back the following season. Kaline retired. Simon just got traded to the Pirates for prospects.
Oh. And what does it say about the Tigers that this also marks the second straight year that the Tigers' RBI leader changed teams without the Tigers getting a major-league player in return? They lost Tony Clark on waivers to the Red Sox last winter.
How about this classic stat from the Oakland Tribune's Monty Poole, as a way of explaining why the A's might have traded Billy Koch:
Walks by Koch in 2002 -- 46 (in 93 2/3 innings)
Walks by Dennis Eckersley in Oakland's four first-place seasons (1988-89-90-92) combined -- 29 (in 283 2/3 innings).
You might be wondering (though we doubt it) how many men have ever managed both the Cubs and Giants. Well, if you were, you're in luck. And if you weren't, too bad -- because, according to devoted reader David Hallstrom, Dusty Baker is the seventh in history.
Here's the rest of this eclectic group, which has absolutely nothing in common with Dusty or each other:
Joe Altobelli, Cap Anson, Leo Durocher, Charlie Fox, Heman Franks and Rogers Hornsby.
Finally, in our last edition of Useless Info, we asked if anyone could remember a player like Darin Erstad who was a starter for a World Series champ and an NCAA football team that finished atop the polls. Still looking on that front, but loyal reader Mike McCombs, of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, reports there were two men who won a baseball MVP Award after being college football All-Americans. And the answer is ...
Jackie Jensen (1958 AL MVP) and Kirk Gibson (1988 NL MVP).
Know of any others? Send them along to the following e-mail address: matt.szefc@espn3.com.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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