1971 Baseball – The Pitchers

When Durability was Common

By Glenn Guzzo

In The Good Old Days, we are told, starting pitchers took the ball every fourth day, finished what they started and pitched 300 innings year after year with no arm trouble. They weren’t coddled like today’s “Million-Dollar Babies.”

Since the end of the Dead Ball era, this is mostly fiction. Since 1920, when livelier and brighter balls, followed by lighted diamonds, encouraged batters to swing away rather than bunt, scores and pitch counts have steadily gone up while innings pitched and complete games have steadily gone down. A mere double handful of teams have maintained a four-man rotation all season long.

But if you let those elders get a look at Strat-O-Matic’s recently released 1971 baseball ratings, you will be hearing about The Good Old Days again.

This is the year that Baltimore, with its four 20-game winners, pretty much did have a four-man rotation and the White Sox and Dodgers came very close. This is the year four pitchers eclipsed 300 innings, including a Hall of Famer, a rookie, each league’s top winner and the AL’s top two ERA leaders.

And if your elder grabs the 2006-season cards to prove his point, you have no defense. In 2006, Bronson Arroyo led the 30-team Major Leagues with 241 IP. In 24-team 1971, some 41 pitchers threw that many innings. Fourteen teams had two or three pitchers each who threw more than that.

In 2006, no pitcher won 20 games. No NL pitcher won more than 16. In 1971, fourteen pitchers won 20 or more. In the 12-team NL alone, a dozen won at least 17 (with a dozen more in the 1971 AL).

THE IRON MEN

Detroit left-hander Mickey Lolich started 45 times, completing 29. His career-high 376 IP started a run of four straight seasons with more than 300 IP. He won 25 with a 2.92 ERA and struck out 308.

Knuckle-baller Wilbur Wood started 42 times and completed 22, good for 334 innings. He won 22 for the sub-.500 White Sox and had a sparkling 1.91 ERA.

Ferguson Jenkins started 39 times, completed 30 and won 24 games with a 2.77 ERA in 325 IP. He struck out 263 while walking only 37.

Best of all, 21-year-old rookie left-hander Vida Blue won the AL MVP, Cy Young and rookie-of-the-year awards by going 24-8 with the AL-best 1.82 ERA and 301 strikeouts in 312 innings. He completed 24 of 39 starts and had a Major-League-best 8 shutouts. Blue fell just one win and seven strikeouts short of Lolich’s marks, or would have won the American League’s unofficial and seldom-achieved Triple Crown of pitching.

WHEN 20 WINS WAS ROUTINE

The parade of 20-game winners is a who’s who of great pitchers from the era, both Hall of Famers and others who once looked like they might have that honor:

n Baltimore won its third straight pennant with its third straight sweep of the AL championship series thanks to its splendid quartet of 20-game winners. HOFer Jim Palmer and Pat Dobson each started 37 times, threw 282 innings and won 20. Crafty screw-baller Mike Cuellar started 38, threw 292 IP and won 20. All three have endurance ratings of 9. Injury limited Dave McNally to 30 starts, but he went 21-5 in 224 IP. Only Cuellar’s ERA (3.08) topped 3.00.

n Blue and Hall of Famer Jim “Catfish” Hunter (21-11, 2.96 in 37 starts and 274 IP) lifted Oakland to its first AL West division flag, unseating Minnesota and preparing to end Baltimore’s pennant-winning dynasty by starting its own in 1972. Chuck Dobson helped, too, going 15-5.

n Detroit finished 10 games behind Baltimore despite Lolich’s heroics and those of teammate Joe Coleman, the 24-year-old right-hander who was 20-9 in 38 starts and 286 IP. Starting in 1971, Coleman won 62 games in three seasons for Detroit.

n Wood dazzled for a staff that relied on him, Tom Bradley (39 starts) and Tommy John (35 starts) for 71 percent of the White Sox’ starts and 59 percent of its innings pitched.

n Andy Messermith, one of the best pitchers of the early 1970s, had his finest season for the Angels by going 20-13, 2.99 in 38 starts and 277 IP. But he was just one of four California pitchers with 200-plus IP (Clyde Wright, Rudy May and Tom Murphy were the others).

n Steve Carlton won 20 for St. Louis two seasons before he was traded to Philadelphia. His 36 starts and 273 IP topped Bob Gibson, Jerry Reuss and Reggie Cleveland, who all topped 200 IP.

n Jenkins and the Mets’ Tom Seaver were the other Hall of Famers to win at least 20 in 1971. Seaver (20-10, 1.76 in 286 IP) had the best ERA in the Majors and led the NL with 289 strikeouts.

n The Dodgers received 200-plus innings from four starters, all of whom won 20 or more once each as Dodgers. This time it was lefty Al Downing (20-8, 2.68 in 262 IP). Claude Osteen’s 38 starts led the staff. Don Sutton started 37 times and was tops with 265 IP and a 2.55 ERA with a 17-12 record. Downing tied for the NL lead with 5 shutouts. And Bill Singer also topped 200 IP in a down year for him.

Many other notable pitchers did well in 1971. NL West champ San Francisco had Juan Marichal (18-11, 2.94) and Gaylord Perry (16-12, 2.76). NL East champ Pittsburgh had Doc Ellis (19-9, 3.05) and a Steve Blass with impeccable control (15-8, 2.85 with just 68 walks in 240 IP). Twenty-year-old Don Gullet was 16-6, 2.64 for a sub-.500 Cincinnati team and 23-year-old Clay Kirby was 15-13, 2.83 with 231 strikeouts for a terrible San Diego team that won only 61. Hard-throwing Don Wilson was 16-10, 2.45 for a sub-.500 Houston outfit. Veterans Rick Wise, Milt Pappas and Steve Stoneman (who had 251 strikeouts) won 17 each. Gibson was 16-13, 3.04.

In the American League, Bert Blyleven won 16, had a 2.82 ERA and struck out 224 in 278 IP for Minnesota. Reliable ace Mel Stottlemyre was 16-12, 2.87 for the mediocre Yankees. Dick Drago was 17-11, 2.99 for up-and-coming Kansas City. Sonny Siebert, no longer a hard thrower and no longer in Cleveland, was 16-10, 2.91 for Boston.

LOOK AT ALL THOSE LEFTIES

Noteworthy among the 20-game winners: Half of them are left-handers. Three of the four 300-IP men are left-handers. They have something in common, of course – their effectiveness against right-handed hitters.

Blue, Downing and Cuellar are dominant against righty hitters, even better than they are against lefties. None more dramatically than Cuellar – we can see his dependency on his screwball by looking at his strength vs. righties and those 8 ballpark diamonds on the left side of his card. The diamonds won’t hurt him much in Baltimore, where lefty batters have only a 1-3 homer chance. But on the road, only Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minnesota and Washington will be safe for Cuellar.

Wood and Lolich are just very good against everybody. McNally is nearly as effective vs. right-handed batters as left-handers. Carlton, whose 3.56 ERA is the highest among all the 20-game winners, gives us too many key hits to righties, but helps himself in many other ways (9 endurance, -2 hold, e0, bk-0, A bunter).

Oddities:

n Pittsburgh reliever Bob Veale had a 6-0 record despite a 7.00 ERA. Alas, his card looks more like the 59 hits and 24 walks he allowed in 46 IP to earn the 7.00.

n The young Milwaukee Brewers franchise finished last in the AL West with just 69 wins, yet led the Majors with 23 shutouts and had Ken Sanders, who led the Majors with 31 saves.

n Cleveland has the rare 1-20 homerun ballpark effects for all hitters. Too bad: Every Tribe pitcher has diamonds on his card. Twelve of 16 Indians batters lack diamonds on at least one side of their cards.

n Philadelphia is 1-20 for right-handed homeruns, only 1-10 for lefties. Good news for the Phillies: 100 of their starts are by pitchers who have most of their diamonds vs. lefties. Bad news: Phillies pitchers who threw 608 IP have diamonds only on the right side of their cards.

CORRECTIONS

As of Feb. 6, these are confirmed errors for 1971 pitchers, according to Strat-O-Matic’s Steve Barkan:

n California’s Andy Messersmith and Rudy May should be * starters.

n Minnesota’s Pete Hamm, a starter-relief pitcher, should show 8 starts, not 0.

n Milwaukee’s Jim Hannan, a pure reliever on his card, shows 5 starts in his carded stats. He started once.