Sunday, March 8, 2015

Strike Out pitchers during the Babe Ruth era, 1915-1934.

This is a follow up to the previous post.  Babe Ruth's first and last years are omitted.

Would Aroldis Chapman make Babe Ruth faint?  Sunday, March 8, 2015

The fastest pitch recorded by the system is 105.1 miles per hour. It was thrown by Cincinnati Reds reliever Aroldis Chapman on Sept. 24, 2010 ...

 In 2014 Aroldis Chapman had 17.4 SO9: 106 in 54 innings.  There were few relief aces back in Ruth's time, certainly no one who would blow away batters...

 Dazzy Vance ... led the old National League in SO 1922-1928.  In 1924 Vance had more SO than the next two pitchers combined ...
NL SO leaders in 1924 other than Vance were averaging fewer than 4 SO9.  Chapman was over 17 SO9 in 2014.
____________________________________________

1915 to 1934, (requiring SOp9>=6 and At least 50 Innings Pitched), sorted by greatest Strikeouts per 9 IP

Rk Player SO9 IP Year Age Tm Lg G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV H R ER BB SO ERA FIP ERA+ HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS PO BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str
1 Dazzy Vance 7.65 308.1 1924 33 BRO NL 35 34 30 3 1 28 6 .824 0 238 89 74 77 262 2.16 2.64 174 11 1221 9 0 4
2 Dazzy Vance 7.50 265.1 1925 34 BRO NL 31 31 26 4 0 22 9 .710 0 247 115 104 66 221 3.53 2.70 118 8 1089 10 0 3
3 Dazzy Vance 7.46 169.0 1926 35 BRO NL 24 22 12 0 2 9 10 .474 1 172 80 73 58 140 3.89 2.84 98 7 713 1 1 1
4 Whit Wyatt 7.14 85.2 1930 22 DET AL 21 7 2 0 12 4 5 .444 2 76 41 34 35 68 3.57 4.15 135 6 363 3 0 2
5 Johnny Allen 6.78 71.2 1934 29 NYY AL 13 10 4 0 2 5 2 .714 0 62 30 23 32 54 2.89 3.58 142 3 309 2 0 5
6 Lefty Grove 6.77 258.0 1926 26 PHA AL 45 33 20 1 9 13 13 .500 6 227 97 72 101 194 2.51 2.96 165 6 1072 6 0 5
7 Bill Hallahan 6.71 237.1 1930 27 STL NL 35 32 13 2 3 15 9 .625 2 233 135 123 126 177 4.66 4.42 109 15 1045 0 0 11
8 Jumbo Brown 6.69 74.0 1933 26 NYY AL 21 8 1 0 8 7 5 .583 0 78 48 43 52 55 5.23 3.95 75 3 349 0 0 2
9 George Earnshaw 6.65 158.1 1928 28 PHA AL 26 22 7 3 4 7 7 .500 1 143 81 67 100 117 3.81 3.92 105 7 713 1 0 7
10 Red Ruffing 6.60 259.0 1932 27 NYY AL 35 29 22 3 6 18 7 .720 2 219 102 89 115 190 3.09 3.72 132 16 1098 3 0 5
11 Lefty Grove 6.46 291.0 1930 30 PHA AL 50 32 22 2 17 28 5 .848 9 273 101 82 60 209 2.54 3.09 185 8 1191 5 0 2
12 Dazzy Vance 6.42 280.1 1928 37 BRO NL 38 32 24 4 5 22 10 .688 2 226 79 65 72 200 2.09 2.83 190 11 1126 7 0 1
13 Dazzy Vance 6.32 280.1 1923 32 BRO NL 37 35 21 3 2 18 15 .545 0 263 127 109 100 197 3.50 3.18 111 10 1187 11 0 5
14 Lefty Grove 6.29 261.2 1928 28 PHA AL 39 31 24 4 6 24 8 .750 3 228 93 75 64 183 2.58 2.75 155 10 1064 1 0 4
15 Lefty Gomez 6.25 234.2 1933 24 NYY AL 35 30 14 4 3 16 10 .615 2 218 108 83 106 163 3.18 3.65 123 16 1027 0 0 6
16 Bump Hadley 6.21 179.2 1931 26 WSH AL 55 11 2 1 28 11 10 .524 7 145 81 61 92 124 3.06 3.57 141 4 768 1 0 4
17 Dazzy Vance 6.17 218.2 1931 40 BRO NL 30 29 12 2 1 11 13 .458 0 221 99 82 53 150 3.38 3.18 114 12 918 0 0 1
18 Walter Beall 6.17 81.2 1926 26 NYY AL 20 9 1 0 6 2 4 .333 1 71 46 32 68 56 3.53 4.58 110 2 384 6 3 7
19 Dizzy Dean 6.11 293.0 1933 23 STL NL 48 34 26 3 12 20 18 .526 5 279 113 99 64 199 3.04 2.63 114 11 1202 5 0 2
20 Dazzy Vance 6.09 99.0 1933 42 STL NL 28 11 2 0 7 6 2 .750 3 105 42 39 28 67 3.55 2.72 98 3 427 1 0 3
21 Dazzy Vance 6.06 273.1 1927 36 BRO NL 34 32 25 2 2 16 15 .516 1 242 98 82 69 184 2.70 3.07 147 12 1123 6 0 2
22 Dazzy Vance 6.02 258.2 1930 39 BRO NL 35 31 20 4 3 17 15 .531 1 241 97 75 55 173 2.61 3.61 189 15 1061 5 1 4
23 Dizzy Dean 6.01 286.0 1932 22 STL NL 46 33 16 4 10 18 15 .545 2 280 122 105 102 191 3.30 3.44 120 14 1203 5 2 2
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/8/2015.

23 seasons starting the year after Babe Ruth's rookie season in the American League, 1914, which had a disproportionate number of occurrences

Dazzy Vance dominates with 9 of the 23 seasons, not to be confused with Dizzy Dean who had 2 of the 23.  Whit Wyatt had the fewest starts: 7 in 1930  in 85 innings.  Jumbo Brown had the fewest innings: 74 in 1933.  In only two other seasons did one of these seasons have fewer than 100 innings, including Vance with 99 innings in 1933 at age 42.

In 14 of 23 the pitcher led his league in SO.  Dizzy Dean is the only one to lead his league in innings: 286 in 1932.  Bump Hadley appeared in the most games of the 23 seasons: 55 (11 starts) in 1931, 179 innings.



Dazzy Vance 1922 via Wikimedia Commons
Posted by at
Labels:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is very good information. It is clear that Dazzy Vance has been underrated as a dominating power pitcher. He should be regarded in the same vein as Dizzy Dean. Truthfully, he should be considered above Dizzy Dean. Had he been a great self-promoter like Dean he probably would be.
It is certainly true that there weren't nearly as many power pitchers, percentage wise, in that era. I do believe, however, that the SO/9 numbers are lower as well due to the lack of sluggers who swung for the fences in that era. There were many more contact or singles hitters in that era versus the eras that have followed, so it is hard to compare the SO/9 numbers of the pitchers to now. Those numbers do work well in identifying the pitcher who truly dominated in that time frame. I believe this makes an excellent case that Dazzy Vance needs more recognition. I do know that he is in the Hall of Fame and I am glad to see that he was inducted while he was still living.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at 8:20:00 AM EDT

Post a Comment